Tue, 18 October 2016
The days of slamming out content that looks, smells and feels like what everyone else is writing are over and done. I recently saw a video and blog post from a leader in our industry offering tips to come up with ideas for content blog writing. The worst part is that the only idea this person offered was to leverage content from other people. They instructed bloggers to "borrow" ideas and themes from other leading bloggers and influencers in your industry. They went so far as instructing them how to leverage RSS feeds, do social listening and more to get ideas for new blog content. While this strategy may work for some, it is going to be short lived. It's also not surprising this recommended strategy came from someone who has been known across the industry to borrow and even steal content from others. The truth is that there is not a shortage of good or even epic content on the web today. The goal is not to create masses of content that looks, reads and sounds like everyone else. The goal should not be to copy ideas and themes from others so that you have masses of quantity. What happened to providing value to your readers, listeners and views by...
For new businesses hopping onto the social and digital web, taking the advice of following status quo copycat content is going to do absolutely nothing to set you apart from your competition! So, how do you create content that...
Your goal is not to build a blog, website or business that is status quo, right? You want amazing customer experiences. You want customer relationships that are real, authentic, relevant and unique. You want a business that is built on what it is you have to offer that is unique. Your blog should be a living, breathing representation of who you are, and what you have to offer. Your blog should not be a copycat version of the rest of the blogosphere. When you write amazing and epic blog content, people will remember it. They will share it. They will write about it. They will link to it. When they share, click, like and link your friend Google will also fall in love with you and your blog. Traditional SEO is changing. What your customer thinks of your brand and content will show in the actions they take to share and engage with your content, or not. If you want to establish thought leadership, trust and authority in your industry and niche, then build the brand of you, not the copycat version of someone else! Take a listen to episode 225 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 10 tips to create epic blog posts that will keep your readers coming back for more. This episode is filled with strategies and tips you can implement immediately to start differentiating from your competition, increase brand awareness, generate more leads and even impact your bottom line! Take a listen to episode 225 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn the following:
Direct download: SZF_225_Blog_Post_Epic_Final_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:52am EDT |
Tue, 11 October 2016
Are you speaking to your audience in a way that they understand? When you tweet do people listen? Do they take action? Do your tweets help you increase brand equity, generate leads and sales? Are your tweets helping you grow community and nurture relationships? Are your tweets helping you increase the ROI of all of your content marketing, digital and brand marketing? If you answer no to any of these questions then you have incredible opportunity to fix the problem and turn every answer listed above into a yes. Could it be that you are over automating your tweets? Maybe you are speaking to your audience like a robot vs being a human. Maybe you are over selling? Or maybe your tweets are all about you and it's obvious you are only using social media and Twitter to blast noise about yourself. Newsflash: You can not fake relevancy or caring using social media. Your audience knows. The concept of people buying from people was not invented by Facebook or any other social network. People have been connecting with other people in human ways for centuries. We communicate, we share, we help one another. Social media is really no different if you think about it. It's just a medium for us to do the same. Social networks such as Twitter, simply enable us to more easily connect with other human beings. Social media empowers us as humans to inspire, connect and help our audience achieve success. Just because you can spam and automate every message on Twitter 24/7 doesn't mean that you should. Instead of logging on to Twitter each day and thinking... how can I get people to read my blog, watch my video or buy from me, we should be thinking how can I empower, inspire and help my audience be and do more. Would you like to...
If you answered yes to the above questions then you are going to love episode 224 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast! Take a listen to the 224th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 easy ways to humanize your tweets! Take a listen to episode 224 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn the following:
Be sure to subscribe to our entire digital and social media |
Thu, 6 October 2016
Thought leadership is important for any person and brand wanting to establish themselves as a leader in a particular industry, niche or related to a certain topic. Answer these questions...
If you answer yes to these questions, then you need to take the time to understand how you can establish thought leadership as a leader in your industry. Establishing thought leadership for your business and for your own personal brand can bring much benefit to you personally and professionally. This is important for both B2B and B2C businesses but incredibly important in B2B due to the longer and more complicated buying processes.
Direct download: SZF_223_Thought_Leadership_7_tips__Final_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:10pm EDT |
Mon, 3 October 2016
It is clear social media marketing is delivering real and measurable business value for companies large and small today. Marketers of all specialties from digital, content, strategy and even operations know they must not only learn, but also deeply embrace social media as a way to connect, inspire and serve their new online audiences as well as current, prospective and future customers. With this incredible opportunity created for businesses using social media there is obviously solid opportunity for smart and savvy marketers to specialize and build a career in social media marketing. However, as I discussed in detail in episode 218 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast, social marketers must also have a solid understanding of business and marketing. Smart social media marketers also know how to align social media to business goals. Building a career as a social marketer is not as easy as jumping on Twitter or Snapchat and firing off some 140 character tweets and selfie snaps. Being able to rock your personal brand as a new college graduate doesn't necessarily translate over to knowing how to use social media for business. Big difference. Unfortunately many new social media marketers jump into the fields of social networks, tweets, snaps, and Facebook live video to find themselves overwhelmed. They are often thrown to the wild pack of tweeting craziness as their management teams and leadership know less than they do in understanding how to drive business value using these new social tools and methodologies. Many new social marketers start out excited only to find their hopes of a career in social media completely deflated. Not only do they feel overwhelmed but they find it hard to show and prove their value. They lack the necessary training to understand data and measurement, conversion funnels, content marketing, foundational digital and visual marketing skills and the list goes on. It's even more challenging for recent graduates who lack solid business or marketing experience in the real world. These same new social marketers may be working 24/7 yet making little progress. They're tweeting through the hamster wheel and making little to any forward progress in learning. They often lack real mentorship, business experience and because of this they wind up stunted in their career. They think.... "nobody told me it would be this hard." I've had many new college graduates working in social media marketing come to me and proclaim they had no idea they would need to know so much about marketing or business to be successful running social media for a company. The truth is that social media is not a band-aid for a broken business. Hiring a cheap intern who knows how to tweet, snap and stream a live video is not going to fix your brand perception problems, inspire your customers to engage in a relationship with you. The intern or person new to social media is not going to help you solve the customer services problems you have by setting up some auto Twitter auto direct messages (DMs) to anyone who asks for help. Embracing social media for business is a journey, not a destination. We are all learning and the only guarantee we have is change. Take a listen to episode 222 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn 10 truths nobody ever told you about being a social media marketer. This podcast episode is helpful for the following people:
Be sure to subscribe to our entire digital and social media marketing series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud! In this 20 minute podcast you will learn:
Direct download: SZF_222_Social_Media_Career_you_didnt_know_Final_mixdown.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:54pm EDT |
Fri, 30 September 2016
We all have 24 hours in the day. It's how we spend each of those hours that determines the pulse, depth, happiness and quality of our life. Have you ever wondered why it seems that some people just simply have more free time? Yes, they may be busy, however, they seem to float through life a bit (or a lot) happier, while you feel as though you are stuck in a hamster wheel. Do you have a vision and mission for your life yet feel as though you are having a difficult time getting there? Do you wish you had more time to spend with the people that matter most to you in your life? Or maybe it just seems that there is simply not enough time in a day to do all that needs to get done? Take a listen to the 221st episode of the Social Zoom Factor for 10 Time Hacks to help you build the life and business of your dreams. In this 20 minute podcast you will learn: How to have a mindset of essentialism and focus on what will get you to the life you dream of Why you must focus on mind, body and spirit The importance of taking care of you so that you can take better care of everyone else How to start from the dream life you envision 10 or more years from now and work backwards to where you are today so you can make the right decisions to help you get there Why you must first value your time so that others will value it too The importance of being bold enough to break the rules in regard to what the rest of the world tells you that your working day should look like Importance of working with clients that bring you joy Avoiding time stealers in both life and business The power of the pivot and not being afraid to change the plan The importance of confidence Power of smart multi-tasking for increased productivity |