by Marianna Muscat | Sep 27, 2016 | Content Marketing
Medium, the popular blogging platform founded in 2012, is kind of like Twitter for long-form content, but it has the advantage of telling you stories you are interested in. Even if you already have a massive following on social media, sometimes your content doesn’t get the mileage you think it deserves. Publishing your content on Medium has the distinct advantage of reaching a new, much larger audience. If you’re still unconvinced, here are eight reasons why you should be:
- It has a useful import tool.
If you have blog content anywhere on the web, Medium can import it. Once you’ve imported it, you can edit it, change the images or formatting, then publish it. It even adds a line at the bottom of your article, stating where it was first published and provides a link to the original post.
- You can connect with your social media audience.
Another great feature of Medium is that you bring your existing social media following with you, by linking your Medium profile with your Facebook and Twitter IDs. Medium will identify which users are on Medium and connect you with those people automatically.
- It shows you engagement metrics.
Medium will tell you how many people viewed your stories, including how far they read and the average reading time. Engagement on Medium is higher than that on Twitter, so your content could make more of an impact than on other social media platforms.
- You can reach a bigger more diverse audience.
If people like your content on Medium, they give it a heart – the more hearts, the more recommendations it gets. If your piece gets 200 hearts in 24 hours, it will most likely end up being one of the top stories of the day, which in turn, helps you reach an audience not available to you before.
- There is no API.
APIs can sometimes ruin social networks, with a large percentage of spam being due to aggressive API usage. Medium’s lack of noise means more legitimate followers.
- You could be ‘discovered’.
Publishers are constantly scouting platforms like Medium for new talent, so you might be found as the next best writer. Ensuring your content is creative and of high quality, ups your chances of being asked to become a regular contributor to top news sites.
- You will generate new social media followers.
Although you initially use your Facebook and Twitter connections to create your Medium audience, Medium will end up helping you generate more followers. Linking your social profiles as well as your company website address at the bottom of your article ensures people can find you – and a good piece of content on Medium can easily increase your following across all your social platforms.
- It’s really easy!
Considering you don’t even have to create new content to publish on Medium, it really is easy to use. You can gain considerable traction with your content by using Medium, with its user-friendly system and astounding statistics.
For more on optimising your content and content marketing strategy, contact us.
by Francois Muscat | Aug 24, 2016 | Blogging, Content Marketing
Establishing trust with your customers or potential customers is not instantaneous – it takes hard work and continued service and support to win them over. What many businesses don’t realise though, is that your website plays a big part – if visitors to your site have any doubts about your business or its integrity, they’ll bounce right out and never come back. Your content may be engaging and the CTAs compelling, but trust is earned over time and not something you want to forget about.
There are ways to maximise the impression of trustworthiness on your website, starting with the images. Authentic images, rather than stock photos, give your website visitors a closer look at you and your business. Using a professional photographer to take photos of your team, your office and your products is worth the cost (and probably cheaper than using stock photos).
Another way is to ask your customers for feedback that you can use on your website – preferably with their photo, to help drive home the authenticity. Then, look at your content. Visitors to your site probably won’t buy straight away, so try to create content that shows the benefits of your product, rather than a loud sales pitch. Use your blog to answer questions that your customers have and share case studies or feedback that demonstrates how your product helped your other customers.
Use media logos on your site to show where your company has been featured – newspapers, industry journals and radio stations, they all give credibility to your business. If you have collaborated with other companies or have partner agreements, use their logos on your site too – even unknown brands can make an impression.
Another reason visitors to your site may feel nervous, is ambiguity – use microcopy on your site’s various tabs, CTAs and links to make it very clear what’s going to happen when they click on the tab. Knowledge is power and people want to know what they’re getting into when they sign up to your email list, or make a purchase. Keeping the customer informed at every step of the visiting and converting phases of a website visit goes a long way.
If your website lacks the ‘trust’ factor, or if you’re looking to redesign or revamp it, contact us. Our team of designers can help craft a website that reflects you, your brand and what it is you do, in a way that speaks volumes to your visitors.
by Marianna Muscat | Aug 23, 2016 | Content Marketing, Social Media Optimization
It’s not a new term, but one which some people may have missed – the Rule of Thirds. What this refers to is dividing your social media content into thirds and using it in different ways, to increase and maintain an engaged audience. These are:
- 1/3 of your social content promotes your business, converts readers and generates profit.
- 1/3 of your social content should surface and share ideas and stories from industry thought leaders or like-minded businesses.
- 1/3 of your social content should build your personal brand and be based on your personal interactions.
While sharing your own branded content to promote your business is easy enough, the other two thirds may be a bit harder. Sharing another business’ content is equally important to your own, showing your audience you’re aware of the competition, you know your industry inside out and you’re willing to collaborate. Sharing another business’ content also shows that you are confident in your own brand and it helps to broaden your exposure to the online community.
To find shareable content from other businesses, you need to identify industry influencers and your competition. You can follow industry hashtags and keywords, which has the added bonus of giving your more material for your own content. Set up streams for easy listening and retweet relevant material to make your Twitter feed look more dynamic. Without this important element of sharing in your social media, your business will look like the person who only wants to speak about himself.
Building your personal brand can be done in two ways – you can use your own channels, like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, to share engaging content; and your business’ social media channels to show a more personable side of the business – you could share customer’s stories, like their comments and share a bit about your team in a social setting. You should empower and encourage your team to contribute to blogs, comment on customer feedback. If you receive a particularly good piece of feedback from a customer or supplier, invite them to guest blog.
Finding the right balance can be hard, but it’s worth it. If you’d like assistance in achieving the Rule of Thirds in your social media strategy, contact us. Our social media marketers know all the secrets and can help you build and maintain an online community.
by Francois Muscat | Aug 17, 2016 | Content Marketing
Whether you are building your website for the first time, rebranding it or just revamping, it’s a good idea to spend significant time on your About Us page. This is one of the most frequently visited pages of a company website, where your visitors find out about you, your business and why they should engage with you. It’s often the first impression you leave on a potential customer or employee, so don’t miss the opportunity to make it a great one. Here are some guidelines when you’re thinking about this section, which will assist in designing an informative and engaging page.
Firstly, make sure you answer the Who, What, Why, Where and When questions. Who’s in charge, who founded the company, whose vision led to its inception? What kind of people form your team? What makes them special? What do you do? What are you passionate about? Why should I be giving you attention? Why do you deserve my patronage? Where are your offices/stores? When did you start this business? Using the five Ws can help you cover pretty much everything that’s needed – a bit of history, an insight into the kind of people behind the brand, what they believe in, etc. A growing trend is using a short video to convey the information – well scripted and filmed, it can resonate well with the “instant gratification” audience of today.
The form and function of your About Us page is another important factor. It needs to be attractive, with a good balance of images and content. Keep it in line with your brand and if there’s a lot of information to convey, consider using sub-pages, so your page isn’t too long. It’s worth using a professional photographer for shots of your team – pictures taken at different times with varying resolutions look cheap. If your brand is quirky, use the opportunity to create fun and amusing pictures, to reveal a different side of your business’ personality.
The most important aspect to remember is to keep it real. This is the page that shows the heart of your business. Prospective employees will be sure to give it close scrutiny, so it should be charming, but not fiction.
If your website needs a boost, or if you’re designing one for the first time, why not let us have a go? With many years of experience in creating websites that reflect the brand, we’re just the people to contact.
by Marianna Muscat | Aug 16, 2016 | Content Marketing
Hashtags are funny little things, previously the domain of Twitter, but now realised as an effective tool in content marketing. Largely used on social media, hashtags make it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. They are a great way to promote your brand, create conversations, generate feedback and follow trends. Here’s how you can use hashtags to increase your content marketing reach.
- Amplify your content
People use hashtags to search for information on social channels, so tagging your content appropriately will make it easier for an audience to find you. There is so much online content that the competition for anyone trying to grow an online audience has become very steep. Amplify your content to make sure it stands out by using hashtags.
- Pick the right hashtags
Hashtags are essentially a promise of more to come, so it’s vital to use relevant hashtags with your content, so you don’t run the risk of disappointing your audience. Using inappropriate hashtags can make your content look spammy, which could damage your content marketing strategy in the long run. There are free tools to help you find the right hashtags, like Hastagify.me, that show their popularity. Once you have identified some hashtags, think about how to use them – the ones with the highest popularity will mean there is a lot of competition for attention. It might be worth using a less popular hashtag with less crowding.
- Use trending hashtags
Identifying existing hashtags that relate to your content can help you piggy back on a trend. You can use these hashtags to join a conversation, to draw attention to your content. Look for hashtags that are trending or gaining popularity.
- Create hashtags carefully
When making your own hashtags, check your spelling, check slang dictionaries and check how it looks with different capitalisations. A quick search for hashtag fails will show you some funny and some very damaging results from inappropriate hashtag creation and usage.
- When and where to tag
Different social media platforms use hashtags in a variety of ways – Facebook posts with hashtags by publishers like CNN show more interaction than those without, but the general feeling is that Facebook is a more private network for friends and family, so using hashtags is unnecessary. Instagram, however, relies on hashtags to make their images more findable. Hashtags on Twitter do produce more interaction, but any more than two or three starts to look desperate.
Hashtags are a valuable tool in promoting your content and increasing its reach, but they should be used carefully to avoid embarrassing mistakes or backlash. For more on social media services and content marketing, contact us today.
by Francois Muscat | Aug 8, 2016 | Content Marketing
Google’s content algorithms are always evolving. If you have suddenly realised that your website traffic has dropped significantly, then it is possible that the content on your site has been penalised. Doing business online means that you have to proactively manage your website traffic and a part of this is staying updated with the algorithmic penalties that Google enforces. Here’s an overview of some of the most significant penalties:
Panda
The initial Panda algorithm was launched in 2011 and the goal of this algorithm is to penalise websites with poor content. The algorithm has been updated since the initial launch and Google continues to run it a few times each year, which means that even if your website is affected and you fix the issues on your site, you might have to wait a few months before your website traffic will be restored to normal.
According to the Panda algorithm, weak content can mean anything from content that is duplicated and redundant to sloppy, hastily produced content. This can seem a bit arbitrary, so you might have to do a stock take of all the pages and articles on your site to pinpoint poor content.
Penguin
The Penguin algorithm was released in 2012 and it was created to identify spammy links on websites. Around 3% of all websites on the internet were affected when it was launched and Google has continued to improvise this algorithm and make it more sophisticated. Unnatural link building practices include links that are sourced from low authority sites or links from only one or two sources.
Mobilegeddon
In 2015, Google announced that they would be penalising websites that aren’t mobile friendly. If your website isn’t adapted for cell phone screens and other mobile devices, then you are losing out on sales and
For more information and advice about content marketing from WSI OMS, please contact us today.
