editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

The 5 Best Sites and Methods to Get Content Ideas

June 30, 2021 No Comments

If you struggle to come up with new content ideas to create and publish, here are some sites and methods that can help!

Content creators need a constant flow of fresh, clickable ideas. Finding these ideas can be difficult, especially when you’re just starting out. While staying on top of trends, you still want to offer an original perspective.

It is also important to ensure that non-trending topics get views! Check out these websites and methods to get inspired!

Knowing the trending topics is key to getting high-performance ideas. Having a lot of detail about these trends will help you identify unexplored angles.

You can also use it to understand why people are interested, so you can address their needs. Here are some resources to find keyword trends.

Treendly

Treendly shows you the top trending keywords across the internet. You can also enter a specific keyword to see trends related to that topic. If you click a result, you get even more detail.

It sorts the results by website, showing how popular the term is on Google, YouTube, and Amazon. It also pulls up recent forum discussions that mentioned your keyword. These conversations can show lots of detail about what people want to know.

You can also see how the keywords performed over time, and whether they’ll be slowing down soon.

Ubersuggest

Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest is another great way to get inspired by high-performance keywords. This site identifies keyword trends, but the real lifesaver is its Content Ideas feature.

With this feature, you can enter a keyword and view top-performing content that uses it. Ubersuggest will analyse how well the content is performing on Facebook and Pinterest, based on the total visits and backlinks. Lastly, it provides a link so you can take a closer look at the content.

Getting to see the specifics of how the content is performing, rather than only how popular the keyword is, can give you useful guidance. It shows you which trends are worth jumping on, and which you should let pass.

Keywords Everywhere

Okay, this one is technically a browser extension, but it’s too useful to leave out! Keywords Everywhere is available for Google Chrome and Firefox. It analyses the content in your browser for trending keywords. It also links up with Trending Topics so you can get even richer data.

You can zoom in on specific pieces of content and analyse how well they perform. Since it’s an extension, it travels with you as you browse the internet and lets you know if you’re looking at an explosive content idea!

2. Try a Prompt From a Random Generator

Responding to a random prompt can be a great way to brainstorm. When you are randomly confronted with experiences, it can push your mind in directions you would not otherwise go!

This can lead to really unique concepts that break the mould and help you stand out. Additionally, it can inspire your creative side after a period of stagnation.

These websites take your keywords and use them to generate titles, concepts, and even first lines to get you thinking!

Hubspot Blog Topic Generator

Hubspot results for a search relating to yoga, beginner, dance, and wellness.

Enter up to five nouns related to your topic, and Hubspot will give you a week of blog topics. Try entering some of the top-performing keywords from Treendly!

At the free level, it provides you inspiring titles. The titles are randomly generated, but not so random that they don’t make sense. The more specific you are with your starting words, the better your results will be!

If you buy a premium membership, you can unlock hundreds of more ideas, plus tips on SEO-optimizing your content.

Use Topic Idea Generator

Use Topic offers an Idea Generator that will take your topic and get a blog post started for it. That’s right, it not only comes up with a title but also drafts the first paragraph of your post! The takes range from product endorsements to listicles and op-eds, so it truly works for all blog styles.

Best of all, Use Topic’s results encourage you to focus on creating good content. After all, trending keywords won’t help in the long run, if your content isn’t useful.

3. Use Your Own Experience

Person stopping to think as they write — Karolina Grabowska/Pixabay

The longer you’ve been working on your topic, the more your own experience can serve as inspiration. Problems you’ve overcome, and skills you’ve gained can both be sources for content.

If you’ve recently solved a problem, you could share that solution with your followers. You can also explain how to avoid the problem in the first place. This works even for new creators. You can share what you learned from your getting-started process.

Similarly, you could teach yourself something new and share what you learned. What is something within your topic that you always wanted to know? Or maybe a skill that you want to get better at. Once you have found your answer or mastered your skill, make some content to share what you learned!

Reflecting on past experiences can also inspire content. For instance, what do you wish you knew when you first started in your field? There are likely some newcomers among your readers who could use that wisdom now! The words of experience are always valuable.

4. Get Inspired by the Competition

Make sure you are consuming content from other creators in your category. Follow their social media accounts, too! You need to know what the competition is doing so that you can differentiate. It also helps you stay on top of trends.

You can address a detail that others glossed over, or provide an alternative point of view. In other words, try to notice what others aren’t saying—it might be a content gap that you can fill!

Read critically, take notes, and use SEO and Keyword research to analyse which bandwagons are worth jumping on.

It’s also a good idea to follow topic-specific news blogs, trade journals, and magazines. These can give you specific insights on topics and techniques. A simple way to do this is to follow relevant categories and hashtags on your favourite news-reading app.

Of course, there are also web resources that can help you stay up-to-date.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a great way to see all the content trending in your category. When you select a topic, Buzzsumo will show you all the related content. It prioritizes content that’s been performing well in searches and engagement.

By focusing on high-performance articles, you avoid over-focusing on specific publications. It’s also easier to notice gaps in content that you could fill and repetitive takes that you should differentiate from. With Buzzsumo, you’ll also be able to note what type of content is doing well: video, text blog, etc.

5. Ask Your Audience

An audience voting with raised hands — THINK Global School/Flickr

As content creators, we must focus on producing high-quality content. This means providing content that our audience would find useful. And no one knows those needs better than the audience itself. Find out what your followers want to see by polling them. You might be surprised!

Creating a poll on your social media or sending out an email survey are good ways of measuring interests. You should also pay attention to social media mentions.

You can also get hints from your own content. Do you have a high-performance piece that you could expand on or update? Looking at previous successes is a good way to get ideas.

Maintain a Fresh Content Strategy

All you need is the right resources to help you maintain a stream of fresh ideas. Inspiration can come from keyword trends, competitive content, experience, or even your own audience!

However, it’s not enough to paste in a few trending keywords. Creativity is the key to keeping your ideas fresh. Keep your mind open to new ideas with creative exercises and prompts.

By Natalie Stewart

Sourced from MUO

In News

Google is Releasing The Page Experience Update and it’s Happening Now

June 30, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from sritutorials

This week: the page experience update is here, a new privacy-first search engine is here, and a new Search Console feature is here.

Here’s what happened this week in digital marketing.

Google Page Experience Now Rolling Out

Here we go!

We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Some of us have been dreading this day.

And now it’s here.

Google started rolling out the page experience update this week.

But it’s happening slowly. You might not notice how it impacts your site until August.

It’s not likely that the change will impact your site much, if at all, though. Google previously claimed that the new signals have a minor effect on where sites land in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here’s how it’s all going down:

Google started using page experience metrics to determine eligibility for top stories.
Soon, you’ll see the AMP badge go away.
Google continues to test the page experience badge but offers no report on when it will formally roll out.

Also: keep in mind that a core update recently rolled out. So if your keywords are already doing the Google Dance, that could be the reason. It might have nothing to do with the page experience update.

Meet Brave: A New Privacy-First Search Engine

Looking for a search engine that respects your privacy? Check out Brave.

Brave isn’t just the name of the search engine. It’s also the name of the company that makes that search engine.

And it’s the name of the browser, too.

As it stands now, Brave doesn’t show ads. The company says it might run ads one day in the future, but not in a way that violates users’ privacy.

“Brave Search does not track you, your searches, or your clicks; it’s impossible for Brave to disclose any information about you to anyone,” the company said in a statement. “Any future ads we may support will be anonymized (like all other Brave ads), and will not influence ranking. In the future, we will also offer paid ad-free search.”

Another Brave feature that publishers will love: the founders promise not to use content from the web without sending traffic to the website hosting the content.

As you may know, Google screen-scrapes content from websites and posts it on google.com. That gives people the ability to get their questions answered without even visiting the site with the answers.

Brave says it won’t do that.

The new software is still in preview mode.

Now All Google Merchants Can Accept Payment With Shopify

Good news if you’re a Google Merchant user: you can now accept payments via Shopify.

Even if you’re not a Shopify user.

More good news: you can use Shopify for checkout if you’re a Facebook or Instagram merchant as well.

The new solution is called Shop Pay. It’s a one-click checkout process offered by Shopify.

Here’s the announcement from the company: ”Each day, more than 1.8 billion people log on to Facebook and a billion shopping sessions take place across Google. By bringing Shop Pay to all merchants regardless of the commerce platform they use, we’re making an industry-leading checkout more accessible to independent brands at a time when finding and converting customers has never been more important.”

According to reports, check out with Shop Pay is 70% faster than an average online checkout. It’s also got a 1.72x higher conversion rate.

The new tool also offers order tracking for consumers.

Shop Pay has already facilitated more than $20 billion in online payments.

Google Rolls out Search Console Insights

Want to know more about what kind of content resonates with your core audience? If so, then check out Google Search Console Insights.

As the name implies, it’s part of Google Search Console. If you head over to Search Console right now, you’ll likely see a banner at the top advertising the new Insights feature.

Click on the link in that banner and Search Console will take you to a new screen where you’ll see site activity for the past 28 days.

For starters, the tool will show you how many clicks you got from Google Search. It will also show you how much that number increased or decreased from the previous month.

Below that, you’ll see your most searched queries that brought people to your site. You’ll also see where those keywords land in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and how many clicks landed visitors to that page during the time period.

You also have the option to view most trending queries. That will show you queries “on the rise” on your website.

Google Updating Top Stories Carousel

It seems like the Top Stories carousel is in the news a lot lately. And here it is again.

This time, it’s because Google announced that it’s changing the carousel.

Here are the changes you can expect to see:

AMP no longer required for inclusion in Top Stories
AMP icon will go away
Google will eliminate swiping on the carousel

It’s not much of a carousel without swiping, but Google says it needs to eliminate that ability.

Why? Because Google can’t guarantee instant loading of pages since AMP is no longer required.

You can expect to see the changes roll out around the same time as the page experience update rolls out.

That is: now.

Google Explains the Difference Between Audience Expansion and Optimized Targeting

Google recently sent out an email to Google Ads users stating that some campaigns using audience expansion would get migrated to optimized targeting.

It left many strategists scratching their heads and wondering: “What’s the difference?”

Google is here to answer that question.

According to a spokesperson, audience expansion “limited campaigns from benefiting from Google’s auto-targeting systems by expanding only on the user-selected audiences.”

On the other hand: “Optimized targeting is a new paradigm for auto-targeting that can move beyond any selected criteria to optimize into the best performing audiences for a given ad group while meeting the campaign’s objective.”

Bottom line: you’re in better hands with optimized targeting.

Facebook Gets Into Podcast Integration

This past week, Facebook announced that you can connect your podcast’s RSS feed to a Facebook Page. Then, users can enjoy your podcasts without ever leaving the Facebook platform.

Further, all your new podcasts going forward will automagically get integrated into the Facebook feed.

Facebook says that users can listen to podcasts even when the app is running in the background. So they can do other things at the same time.

Additionally, Facebook will enable users to create and share short clips from podcasts on its platform. That’s a great way to give your podcasts more publicity.

Facebook is contacting some Page owners about the new feature right now. No word yet on when it fully rolls out.

Twitter Getting Closer to Emoji Reactions to Tweets

It looks like you’ll soon be able to respond to a tweet with an emoji.

All we know right now about the feature is brought to us by reverse-engineer extraordinaire Jane Manchun Wong.

And from what we can see, it looks like Twitter is implementing something similar to what’s on Facebook. Users will have a limited set of emojis they can use to give their reactions to tweets.

Current emoji reactions include: “Like,” “Cheer,” “Hmm,” “Sad,” and “Haha.”

Homework

Before you enjoy the start of summer, consider handling these to-do’s:

Windows 10
Support
Apply
Backgrounds
Android
Samsung Flight
Owner
News Articles
Accept Payments

If you’re a podcaster, think about how you can use the upcoming Facebook integration to promote your podcast.
Take a look at Search Console Insights. See what you can learn about the type of content that best works with your audience. Then, double-down on those subjects and keywords.
If you’re in the e-commerce space, think about how you can use Shop Pay to streamline the checkout process for your customers.
Take a look at Brave, the new search engine. It might one day become yet another option for online advertising.
Keep an eye on your keywords over the next couple of months. See where you’re losing ground and where you’re improving. Look for the common traits that seem to help your keywords move up in the SERPs and apply those principles to all your content.

Sourced from sritutorials

In News

Google is totally changing how ads track people around the Internet. Here’s what you need to know.

June 29, 2021 No Comments

By Gerrit De Vynck

It’s a common sight: Ads from that time you Googled flights to Cancún, or visited Nike to look for new running shoes, following you around the Internet.

Much of that tracking is made possible by cookies — little bits of code that jump off websites and lodge themselves in your browser, allowing new sites you visit to see where you’ve been before. Facebook and Google, the two most profitable advertising companies in history, use cookies to show ads across the Web based on info gathered on their own sites and social media networks.

But that’s all changing. Google has vowed to block cookies completely on its Chrome browser, which is used by around 70 percent of the world’s desktop computer owners, by the beginning of 2022. The decision, announced last year, sent shock waves through the advertising world, which has maintained revenue from tracking is necessary to fund a largely free Web.

Google says it has solutions to allow advertisers to keep showing relevant ads, but in privacy-protecting ways. Taken together, the company’s proposals are meant to let Web publishers, e-commerce companies and advertising agencies continue using targeted ads to make money, while assuring regular Internet users their data isn’t being stockpiled by an ever-growing list of companies and websites.

But privacy activists have already started poking holes in Google’s ideas.

And it may not matter. Advertising technology companies such as the Trade Desk have already taken the matter into their own hands, banding together to create new tracking tools that use email addresses. Other major companies have shown signs of pushing back against Google’s proposals, such as Amazon, which is currently blocking Chrome from collecting data on which users go to its websites. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Meanwhile, politicians and antitrust investigators in multiple countries have raised alarms that Google’s move could hurt competitors and further cement its power. And for regular Internet users, this largely behind-the-scenes change could have major implications for how private companies hoover up our data and make decisions about what we see online.

Here’s what you need to know.

How did we get here?

Cookies were written into early browsers to cut down on some of the inconveniences of surfing the Web. They allowed passwords to auto-fill, or websites to remember payment information so users didn’t have to type theirs in every time they came back. They also created a trail of breadcrumbs that the burgeoning online ad industry eagerly ate up, helping free websites make money.

But as the technology advanced, social media took off and consumers’ lives were lived increasingly online, it got creepy. Privacy advocates have always criticized the model, and more and more regular people have become aware of the issue, some expressing their displeasure by downloading ad blockers.

Google isn’t the first to make this change. Apple in 2017 started limiting and eventually blocking third-party cookies completely from its Safari browser. Mozilla’s Firefox followed soon after. But those two browsers make up less than 20 percent of the market, according to research firm eMarketer.

Despite Google’s own reliance on advertising and tracking for roughly $180 billion a year in revenue, chief executive Sundar Pichai admitted during a 2019 congressional hearing that people don’t like to feel they’re being tracked around the Internet. And in January 2020, Google said it too would block third-party cookies on Chrome within the next two years.

The changes come as politicians in the United States and elsewhere step up their attempts to regulate privacy. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has forced companies to ask permission before tracking people online since 2018. In 2020, America’s most populous state instituted the California Consumer Privacy Act, which gives California residents the right to ask companies to delete whatever data has been gathered on them. As is the case with other consumer-focused regulation, the California law has essentially become the default nationwide.

Google was facing pressure from its competitors, too. Apple has been marketing its own privacy features aggressively, trying to paint itself as a privacy champion that doesn’t need to gather data to feed an advertising business like Google. It even threw up a giant billboard that loomed over Google’s exhibit at the 2019 CES tech conference in Las Vegas. Apple does gather some of its users data and uses it to sell targeted ads in its app store, though its ad business is much smaller than Google’s.

Some of Google’s advertising technology competitors say the move isn’t about privacy at all, but a way to hurt its rivals and push advertisers toward Google’s YouTube and search ads, which don’t need cookies to effectively target people.

“You can fix your public perception while at the same time cementing your own dominance and growing your own market share,” said Ratko Vidakovic, founder of AdProfs, an independent advertising technology consulting firm. “It seems like a no-brainer.”

A Google spokeswoman pointed to a company blog from March, where Marshall Vale, a product manager, said the company’s goal with FLOC and its other projects is to make cookies obsolete while also helping web publishers grow their businesses. Finding that balance is “critical to keep the web open, accessible and thriving for everyone,” Vale said.

How exactly does Google’s solution for the post-cookie world work?

Google can block cookies in Chrome relatively easily because it designs and controls the browser’s underlying code. Once it decides to make the change, it can update the browser and poof — no more cookies. To replace that functionality, Google’s engineers have marched out a menagerie of bird-themed acronyms like FLOC, FLEDGE and TURTLEDOVE to describe their proposals for advertising without cookies.

The ideas are working their way through the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, an international group of tech companies that debates and sets rules for how the Web works. However, Google doesn’t actually need to get approval from the rest of the W3C’s membership. Since its browser is the biggest in the world, it can simply make new rules and Web developers will have to follow them or risk seeing their websites stop working on Chrome.

“Google using the W3C letterhead to do this stuff makes it seem less like a Google power play,” said Peter Snyder, senior privacy researcher at Brave, a browser that competes with Google’s Chrome.

The most fleshed-out idea so far is FLOC, which stands for Federated Learning of Cohorts. Under FLOC, instead of letting websites drop cookies into an individual’s browser, the browser itself watches what they do online. It then uses artificial intelligence to assign them to a cohort of several thousand people that the AI determines are interested in the same kinds of products. Then, instead of buying access to individual people, advertisers pay for ads to show up for users in a specific cohort.

For example, if you spent the past few days reading articles on ESPN, browsing New York Knicks jerseys and Googling NBA stats, you might be lumped into a package of several thousand basketball fans who would see similar ads. Cohort IDs refresh every week, so they’re based on the most recent browsing behaviour.

In the old world, websites would constantly be pulling up information about you based on the cookies trailing behind you. Now, the only identifying information your browser would present is which cohort you’re in. Google says this system is 95 percent as effective at getting clicks as old-school cookie ads are for advertisers.

If that’s true, consumers would see pretty much the same kind of ads they do now and will probably still have the feeling of being followed around the Web by ads for sites they recently visited.

This is good for privacy, though. … Isn’t it?

Generally, yes, but that doesn’t mean privacy advocates are celebrating the change. For one, Google’s Chrome browser is still monitoring every website you visit and feeding that into its algorithm. The information stays on your device, but it’s still being gathered. For those who want less surveillance from tech companies, it might feel like a step in the wrong direction.

“The technology will avoid the privacy risks of third-party cookies, but it will create new ones in the process,” Bennett Cyphers, a researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in a March report on Google’s cookie replacements. “It hasn’t learned the right lessons from the ongoing backlash to the surveillance business model.”

It also isn’t clear yet which websites will have access to a person’s cohort ID. If it’s freely available, sites you visit repeatedly could collect them as they change week to week, tie it to other pieces of information about you such as your email or IP address, and build a dossier on your interests, circumventing the stated purpose of FLOC, Cyphers argues. Google acknowledges this issue and says it is one of the long-term problems it is working on. The system also raises the possibility of profiling based on race, allowing advertisers to discriminate against some people. Advertising jobs or housing selectively by race is illegal in the United States.

Still, compared to other proposals from the rest of the ad-tech industry, Google’s is arguably the best one for privacy, Vidakovic said.

“They’re trying to balance commercial needs with user privacy needs at the same time,” he said. “Despite their flaws, I think the concept behind FLOC and anonymous cohorts are a good balance.”

What does Google’s move mean for competition?

Unlike FLOC, cookies aren’t owned and controlled by a specific company. They are a generic technology that any Web publisher or ad-tech seller can use to track people and show them ads. The world of cookie advertising resembles a capitalist Wild West, where anyone can hang a shingle and try building a fortune in Web ads.

Google’s new FLOC system is more controlled, laying out strict rules for how exactly advertisers can interact with the people who use Chrome.

Cookies have also been used extensively to check how effective digital ads are. With FLOC, advertisers would have to trust Google that the ads they’re paying for are being shown to the right people.

Competitors to Google argue the company is pulling the ladder up behind it. Google used cookies to help it build a massive advertising business, but because YouTube and Google Search — which don’t need cookies — are its biggest moneymakers, it can afford to live in a cookie-free Web. Advertisers who can’t use cookies to find people on the open ocean of the Web will give more of their money to Google and Facebook who can pinpoint the right targets on their own sites, which industry insiders call “walled gardens.”

In January, the UK’s competition authority said it would investigate FLOC and Google’s other ideas to “assess whether the proposals could cause advertising spend to become even more concentrated on Google’s ecosystem at the expense of its competitors.”

On the flip side, if Google were to simply shut down third-party cookies without building an alternative like FLOC, small companies, and the consumers who look to them for innovative new products, could pay the price. Big brands who already have contact information for their customers can use email marketing to reach them, while start-up retailers use targeted ads to find new people. Without targeted ads, companies such as glasses seller Warby Parker or makeup start-up Glossier might never have survived long enough to compete and bring down the prices that older companies were charging consumers.

The same dynamic applies to publishing. Big news organizations who have paying subscribers don’t rely as much on targeted ads as small, local news providers. If those small news providers have even fewer ways to make money, the communities they serve will suffer. (The Washington Post is working with the Trade Desk and other companies to use an email-based identifier for targeted ads).

Google argues that, unlike Apple and Mozilla, it actually had small publishers, advertisers and the consumers they serve in mind when it said it would build FLOC to account for the loss of targeting ability when cookies go away.

Either way, Google is set up for success. If FLOC does work effectively, it gains more control over the advertising ecosystem and can tell its users it has scored a win for their privacy. If it fails, advertisers will likely invest even more in the “walled gardens” — which conveniently include Google’s search ads and YouTube.

So what does this all mean for me?

The debate over cookies is a major reminder of just how much our online behavior is being tracked and recorded by dozens of private companies. It also shows how many companies have a stake in that reality.

Targeted advertising has grown up alongside the Internet, and helped create giants such as Facebook and Google, but also fostered an ecosystem of thousands of companies employing hundreds of thousands of people. When companies such as Google make changes to how products used by billions of people work, there are consequences. Getting rid of cookies completely could hurt news publishers and e-commerce start-ups, decreasing the number of voices online and pushing up prices for consumer products. It could also increase privacy and move the Internet in the direction of less surveillance overall.

None of this has been fully decided, and keeping track of the big changes made by companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple over the next several years will be key to understanding how our online lives are recorded, packaged and sold.

Feature Image Credit: (Washington Post illustration; iStock)

By Gerrit De Vynck

Sourced from The Washington Post

In News

How to “Go Viral” on Social Media

June 29, 2021 No Comments

By Jean Ginzburg

Make your copy more authentic, relevant, and “shareable” to reach a bigger audience.

Entrepreneurs and content creators wait for that single moment when their videos go viral. But going viral isn’t just a stroke of luck. It requires persistence and a few other key points that will give you that extra boost to get the virality you want. To boost your chances of going viral, keep these tips in mind.

Post across platforms

Try your luck on every social media platform you can think of. Post your video on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. Different content goes viral on different platforms, so you never know when and how it will take off. Make sure your content is easily shareable.

Make your content relatable and relevant

Your video should be relatable. Speak like you mean it, but don’t sound scripted. You’ll get views if people find your content relatable, and what makes it relatable is your authenticity. Most people don’t believe overproduced content.

Don’t overthink content choices. Discover your audience’s pain points. Share your experiences and tell your story.

Be more authentic

We always hear people should strive to be themselves, whether they are in social media or not. Show the world what you’re doing and experiencing. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Try to:

Elicit emotions. Videos go viral when they elicit emotions. Your story, facial expressions, body language, and gestures build the mood and stir up a wide range of emotions. Make sure you stay connected to the story as you tell it to your audience and engage your whole self in the storytelling.
Challenge yourself as a storyteller. To tell better stories, try telling them in a way you haven’t before. Push yourself in a way that you haven’t.
Talk to people. Discuss ideas so you can gather more relatable experiences.
Tell stories. Share stories about your brand, your products. Captivate your audience. To do that, you need to set your target audience.

Find the right audience

Think about the audience you’re targeting as you create your content. Who are your potential customers? To whom will you address your stories? Finding the right audience is crucial if you like your stories to be authentic and relatable to them.

Assess yourself

Evaluate yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are the skills you need to develop? Will you learn more if you do everything yourself? Or will you benefit from learning from someone who can help you achieve growth?

Take a step back to chill for a while. Think about what you want to do with your work life, and consider your life decisions. Do you want to be in a corporate world? Do you want a new environment?

Think about what you like to do. There’s nothing wrong with that! Rinse and repeat.

Follow influencers

Follow influencers of the specific niche you like. If you like startups, follow influencers who are big in those fields.

Follow entrepreneurs and look at what they’re doing. If you like fashion, look for people who are known in that industry. Read their stories. That’s how you learn what works in your niche.

Be an authentic storyteller

Dip your toe in the water. Just start telling your story, but don’t try to come across as someone you’re not.

Don’t aim to be the top creator. Learn from others first. Look for someone you like to get ideas or moves from. That could be someone who influences you in your field or industry. Imitate what they’re doing. Use their success stories and pain points as your inspiration.

But don’t steal their ideas-don’t copy everything they do. Understand why they do what they do. And that will make you successful in the long run.

Approach social like an extension of yourself

It’s fascinating to see where social media is going. Just think about LinkedIn these days. Everyone’s talking about it. TikTok also has taken the world by the storm. Gaming is ubiquitous. Esports is at its height, as well as Fortnite.

How you approach social media now should be an extension of yourself–an extension of who you are. Again: don’t try to be something or someone you’re not. Don’t try to hack the algorithm. Just show up as your true authentic self and watch what happens.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Jean Ginzburg

Sourced from Inc.

In News

My motivation in my business is decreasing: How do I gain it back?

June 29, 2021 No Comments

By Nate Torres,

Sometimes you might feel in a funk. It happens to the best of us.

We may love what we do for work and motivation is high, but sometimes we just lose that drive and we may start to question what we do for work. Not only is motivation important in life in general, but it’s important for business.

In this article, I’ll dive into some reasons why your motivation may be decreasing and some tips to reverse it.

Working full-time for a consulting company as well as a photographer, I’ve experienced dips in motivation and I want to share my experiences.

Let’s dive in.

What decreases motivation?

Let’s first touch on some things that can lead to a decrease in motivation to your business.

1. No goal

The first thing that can lead to a decrease in motivation is not having or knowing what you want your goal to be.

Oftentimes, it’s hard to know where we are going if we don’t even know where we want to end up. We might just be aimlessly taking gigs and working on our business without knowing our goals for the month, for the quarter, for the year or even five years down the road!

Now, I can’t tell you what your goal should be, because everyone has different goals. Some have personal goals, financial goals, social goals, etc. That’s up to you to reflect internally on what you want to do with your business.

The important part is that you know what that thing is so you can wake up everyday knowing where it is you want to end up.

2. Aiming low

On the note of not having a goal, the second thing that can lead to a decrease in motivation is not aiming high enough with your goals.

If you set a goal that is too low, you may not be excited for it. In the consulting world, we often tell our clients to set stretch goals and you will be surprised how many times this “stretch” goal often ends up being hit.

Once we set something in our head, we will take the necessary steps and actions to try and reach that goal. So why not set a high goal in the beginning?

3. Not trying new things for the business

The third thing that I have seen lead to a decrease in motivation for my business, is not trying new things.

When running your own business, you can have a lot of plates spinning because you are the sales person, the marketer, the finance person, the CEO, etc. You are all the departments and all the departments are you.

It’s important that when running your business, you try a lot of new things and stick with the things that work and discard the ones that don’t.

For example, you may have heard of SEO for photography or running Google ads but haven’t gotten around to it.

Well, by learning these new things and seeing if they work for your business, it brings an excitement to the table and will help keep things fresh.

For me personally, I’m exploring explainer videos for my business as a new video marketing tool channel, and I’m starting to use Pinterest for pinning photos that I’ve removed the background on.

4. Not being consistent

Motivation comes and goes. It’s a part of life.

Don’t wait for motivation because you might go weeks without motivation. What’s important to have is consistency. Because on the days you are really unmotivated, you will still want to be consistent.

What’s helped me is to plan out my weekly schedule on Sundays. This way when Monday hits, I hit the ground running.

Learn to be consistent and you can conquer anything.

Motivation comes and goes

In conclusion, these are the four biggest tips I have for you if you find yourself losing motivation in your business. Especially if you just find your self stuck at home like I still am for the most part.

Just remember, that motivation can come and go and that it’s a natural part of life. When you are feeling unmotivated, just know that you aren’t alone.

Stay consistent, stay grateful, and you will see great success. Good luck!

Feature Image Credit: Tegan Mierle on Unsplash

By Nate Torres

Nate Joaquin Torres is a portrait photographer based in Los Angeles, California. Outside of photography, Nate specializes in SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing. He has a passion for minimalist photography with a film feel. Nate is also the founder of Imaginated.com, DEEP IN THE MIX, and Blue Hour Candle. Feel free to connect with him on Instagram or subscribe to his email newsletter. www.imaginated.com/

Sourced from photofocus

In News

Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore

June 28, 2021 No Comments

By Tom Warren,

A surprise addition to Windows 11

Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11. The software giant revealed its surprise Windows 11 addition during its special Windows event today. Android apps will run natively on Windows 11 and will be downloadable from Amazon’s Appstore, via the new Windows store that’s included in the operating system.

Microsoft says it’s using Amazon’s Appstore to bring Android apps to Windows 11. Apps will be listed in the new Windows store, and can be pinned to the taskbar or snapped alongside traditional Windows apps. Microsoft is also partnering with Intel to use its Intel Bridge technology to make this a reality, although the Android apps will still work with both AMD and Arm-based systems.

Android apps on Windows 11 are an obvious answer to Apple’s progress with its M1 chips and running iOS apps on macOS. While there are many web equivalents to mobile apps, they’re often lacklustre, and certain apps like Snapchat, Ring, Venmo, Roomba, and the majority of home automation apps aren’t available on the web.

Microsoft demonstrated apps like TikTok running on Windows 11 today. The Windows store that Microsoft showed lists Ring, Yahoo, Uber, and others, so we’ll likely see full access to Amazon’s Appstore. It’s not immediately clear how well many existing devices will support Android apps with Windows 11, as Microsoft is pushing its support of Intel Bridge technology as the favoured way to run these apps.

This surprise announcement follows Microsoft’s original plans to let Windows developers rework their existing Android apps for Windows in 2015. Project Astoria, as Microsoft labeled it, was a method to try to convince developers to port apps and make it easier to do so. The plan eventually fell apart less than a year later, with Microsoft admitting that having “two bridge technologies to bring code from mobile operating systems to Windows was unnecessary.”

Microsoft has been toying with the idea of running Android apps on Windows natively for years, and the company had been experimenting with the idea of listing Android apps in the Windows store just ahead of the Windows 10 launch. Instead, Microsoft pushed ahead trying to convince developers to adopt its failed Universal Windows Platform.

Android app integration directly into Windows is a significant shift, especially as the company has been favoring Your Phone as the method to bridge the gap between Android and Windows. Microsoft has been embracing Android as the mobile version of Windows for years, and now those same mobile apps will run directly in Windows 11.

Update, 5:40pm: Added additional information on AMD and Arm support for Windows 11’s Android apps.

Feature Image Credit: TikTok running on Windows 11.Image: Microsoft

By Tom Warren

Sourced from THE VERGE

In News

How to use Instagram as a marketing tool for your business

June 28, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from The Taiwan Times

On the 6th October 2010, the world was introduced to Instagram and since then it has grown in popularity and it is not hard to understand why. The app allows you to share your life with friends and family, appreciate good quality content, be exposed to new cultures through hashtags and you can even shop on the popular platform. Besides all of that, social media can also be used as a marketing tool and this post will explore 5 ways that brands can use Instagram for their marketing campaigns. Brands can create contests asking users to submit photographs of themselves wearing specific clothing items or using certain products from a brand and even run promotional contests with prizes. The possibilities are endless. If you are a brand that is new to Instagram, here are a few ways to market on the app.

Use a business profile

It is important for any business or brand using Instagram to have a business profile. A business profile allows you to use your account for marketing by giving you the option to promote your content at a reasonable fee. It also provides insight data in the form of analytics. With a business account, you will be able to know how many interactions you receive, your reach, and your engagement. You will also have access to information about your followers such as their gender, age group, and location. Normal accounts don’t give you all of this extra information. Switching to a business profile is fairly easy, all you need to do is follow these simple steps:

Make sure your account is public.
On the Instagram app, go to your profile.
Tap on the right-hand corner.
Tap settings > account
Tap switch to a business account.
It will then give you the option between creator and business, click business, and next.
Review your business contact information and then click done.

The benefits of a business account on Instagram include having access to insights, being able to add links to your stories, having access to advertising options, setting up an Instagram shop, and many more.

Use influencers and services

Instagram has really given rise to the influencer and they are definitely something that should be a part of your strategy. There are approximately 500 000 influencers on Instagram so you are sure to find one in your niche. They have a large and loyal following so collaborating with them will expose your brand to their audience which will result in more brand awareness and potentially more followers for you. To choose one simply research the influencers in your niche and select one that aligns with the values of your brand or business. You can also use growth services, and many people have had a lot of success using Growthoid, which is a leading company that helps you grow your Instagram organically and they guarantee real followers and not bots.

Collect user-generated content

Another good idea is to take advantage of user-generated content. User-generated content is any form of content that has been posted by users onto their online platforms. There are so many benefits of user-generated content including:

You don’t have to create content yourself.
You can gain audience insight into what content does well and what doesn’t.
You get to find unique content.
Boosts social media reach and growth.

User-generated content is the perfect example of social proof which is a great psychological and social phenomenon and it ultimately means less work for you so don’t sleep on User-generated content.

Use hashtags

Lastly, we are going to discuss hashtags and their importance. Hashtags make your posts discoverable and expose your content to a wider audience. They bring in new followers so you should definitely be using them, as they are a quick way to grow followers. When using them the secret is to use relevant hashtags, never use a random hashtag on your post that does not make sense. The best thing you can do is create a branded hashtag which is a hashtag that is unique to your business. Using these will make it easier for people to search your brand on Instagram which is ideal.

Sourced from The Taiwan Times

In News

SEO Basics Every Entrepreneur Can Master

June 28, 2021 No Comments

By Sean Harper,

Every business needs a website, and search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential part of helping people find it online. Not only is SEO a low-cost and evergreen way to attract new customers and build brand awareness, but implementing a few basic strategies at the outset can have a major impact on your bottom line.

Here are some easy SEO practices that can help take your business’s site up a notch.

Build technical SEO strategies.

Technical SEO helps search engines read your website. If you improve the technical aspects of your site, you can usually improve both your rankings and your user experience. These basic technical SEO strategies are a great place to start:

• Boost your site speed: Think about your own browsing habits — when something takes forever to load, you aren’t as likely to stick around. Search engines see this as an indication that your site isn’t answering users’ questions and move you down in the rankings.

• Use internal links: By using internal links, you help search engines understand what content on your site is important and how it all relates to other pages. For example, a dog groomer’s website might link a blog post about trimming nails to a page listing its services.

• Avoid confusion: Search engines don’t like duplicate content or 404 errors popping up throughout a site. For that matter, neither do people. So if you move content, be sure to use a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one to let search engines know where it went.

• Secure your site: Getting an SSL certificate is easy to do and gives your domain the higher priority “https” prefix rather than just “http.” Websites with an SSL certificate almost always rank higher than those without one.

The takeaway: Take the time to build a website that is easily navigable, loads quickly and doesn’t have broken links or pages. When everything works, you’ll make most search engines happier.

Write content with SEO in mind.

Whatever type of content you create — blog posts, videos or something else entirely — you need it to fulfill two fundamental requirements:

• Provide information that is important to your target audience.

• Show up in search engines so your target audience can find it.

A good way to start is to develop content that answers the questions your customers most frequently ask about your industry. By answering common questions, you ensure that your content is relevant.

But users can’t appreciate good content without finding it first, so the next part of the equation is keyword research. Keyword tools like SEMRush, Wordstream or Wordtracker let you find keywords that have good search volume, are easy to rank for and relevant to your business.

The reality is that you may have to get pretty granular to capture the audience share you want. Let’s look at Kin as an example. “Insurance” is an incredibly broad and competitive keyword that doesn’t tell us much about what the user is looking for. Do they want business insurance? Life insurance? Are they ready to buy or just doing research? It’s hard to say, so we aim for keywords that are relevant to what we do: homeowners insurance. This, and related keywords, may have less search volume but they’re more targeted.

Once you know your keywords, get them in your content. Every page of content should be optimized for a primary and secondary keyword. Experts recommend using your primary keyword once or twice for every 100 words of content. Secondary keywords don’t get used as much but should be peppered throughout the content.

The takeaway: Keeping SEO in mind ensures that you write content that your target audience is looking for. The more you deliver on what readers want, the more likely you are to rank higher in search results.

Build backlinks from trusted sources.

Earning links to your site from other websites shows your content is relevant and trustworthy. In fact, someone found your information so useful that they wanted to link back to your page as the source. Search engines read backlinks as a strong indication that your content is valuable.

In recent years, search engines have prioritized websites in search results that have a degree of credibility for the topic. That’s why you often hear SEO experts now talk about a website’s E-A-T, or its Expertise, Authority and Trust. Search engines like Google reward quality backlinks that come from well-known and authoritative websites.

Some backlinks may show up on your site without you doing anything, but the majority of businesses that take SEO seriously work to get other quality sites to link to them. This usually involves reaching out to webmasters and content developers of websites that you want a link from. Yes, you are asking for a link, but doing so in a way that provides the business case that explains why your content is relevant to their audience.

The takeaway: The better your content is, the more likely you are to get organic backlinks. You may also want to employ a link-building strategy that helps you get the sites that you really want to link to your site.

Learn how to interpret analytics.

The best websites do a good job of turning web traffic into customers. Do the people who come to your site take action? Are they signing up for your newsletter or buying from your store? Is there a page that’s getting a lot of views that could end up improving sales?

Any entrepreneur can use data to answer these questions. Free tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics show you how much traffic you’re getting and where that traffic is going. Once you have baseline data, you can set realistic goals, whether that’s increasing traffic or keeping people on your site longer.

The takeaway: Data drives SEO campaigns. For entrepreneurs who are just getting started, there are plenty of free tools that can help you learn more about how users are engaging with your site.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Sean Harper

CEO and co-founder at Kin Insurance.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

How to Use TikTok for Marketing- An Ultimate Guide

June 28, 2021 No Comments

By Umesh Agarwal

Content is the reason search began in the first place.

Marketing on TikTok will definitely give you the brand recognition you’ve always wanted. With the perfect blend of planning, implementation, and evaluation, the skyrocket sales that any business owner or marketer dreams of will surely come true.

Did you know that you can learn how to increase TikTok followers even if you are a new marketer or business starter? The millions of users on TikTok can be quickly targeted once you own an account in this social media giant.

No need for a big marketing budget because TikTok marketing is either free or affordable, that is, if you will venture into paid ads. Buy TikTok likes and views services are the best forms of TikTok marketing. This is more affordable compared to conventional ads.

Evolve with your consumers

Gone are the days when television ads dominated the marketing industry. More consumers have their own mobile devices that they do most of their shopping online, especially if they live in busy cities. Recreation has now turned into a necessity simply because socializing on mobile devices has become a part of everyone’s daily routine.

Implement tactics well

After careful planning, stick to the tactics that were discussed. Hopefully, that includes actually socializing using your TikTok account. Don’t attempt to make everything sound like a sales pitch. If this is something you have in mind, you might as well blurt them out on your official website.

You are on a social media platform so use it well. Everyone who clicks their way to these platforms is after the experience of creating and nurturing their ties with friends and families. If you build a friendly relationship with your target followers, they will surely make time just to read every tweet you post.

Measure efforts

Go ahead and measure your efforts using analytical tools. These tools can be bought online, or you can hire experts who can do this for you. By measuring your efforts, you get a clear idea of where you stand and where to go. The data you’ve gathered can also be analyzed in various ways giving you bountiful ideas on how to make your tactics better.

Adjust

Have you seen the result of your efforts? If you’ve used analytical tools but not sure what to do with the data you have, ask the experts. Social media marketing is a new technique, so even if you’ve been doing it for a while, there are always tips you can get from the experts or your teammates.

Better if you can view the data from different perspectives that pretend to be the know-it-all type.

TikTok marketing is very beneficial for your business. Still, be careful with the tactics you implement and the posts you make because they can instantly do your business but also break it somehow.

Bad rumours quickly spread, so if you have issues or complaints to deal with, handle them with utmost care and urgency. Getting a bad comment can quickly ruin what you’ve built.

By Umesh Agarwal

Sourced from INFLUENCIVE

In News

13 Smart Ways For Marketers To Leverage TikTok

June 25, 2021 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

TikTok continues to surge in popularity. As of January of 2021, the platform had more than 680 million users worldwide. With so many users on the short-form video app, it’s quickly become a relevant channel for advertising. However, it can be a challenge for brands to create a short video ad without it coming across as run-of-the-mill, highly produced commercial.

If you’re considering using TikTok in your marketing efforts, it’s important to understand how to effectively reach your target audience on the platform. Below, 13 members of Forbes Agency Council detail the best ways to grab consumers’ attention and gain their trust by leveraging TikTok to market your business.

1. Entertain Before You Try To Sell

Leverage TikTok by making authentic content that aims to entertain first and sell second, if at all. As the adage goes, “If you’re going to crash a party, bring champagne.” To stretch that analogy a bit, modern audiences are smart enough to know if you’ve brought champagne or a cheap bottle of Cava from the shop down the road. – Dan Cullen-Shute, Creature

2. Leverage Influencers And Branded Hashtag Challenges

One way to engage audiences on TikTok in a contextually relevant manner is to work with TikTok influencers to promote your brand or product. The platform has a creator’s marketplace to help you search for influencers that best fit your brand, audience and desired outcome. Another option is the branded hashtag challenge ad format, which encourages user-generated content about your product or brand. – Greg Garunov, Sightly

3. Drive Emotion And Connection

TikTok is built off of driving emotion and connection with the viewer. Marketers can easily leverage authentic influencer content from this platform that could become explosive on other platforms at a lower cost, yet still has a higher impact than even a Super Bowl commercial, as we’ve seen with the viral TikTok leggings, for example. – Logan Rae, Argon Agency

4. Share Practical Advice

Short-form video has been around for decades in the form of video news releases or news segments, with little care paid to it. Instead of trying to sound smart, share practical advice that helps another person level up personally, professionally or emotionally. Raw, unedited advice will captivate an audience that’s willing to listen. – Brad Ginsburg, Global Communication Works (GCW)

5. Give Them A Reason To Watch

Authenticity is key for any platform. TikTok is still purely entertainment; the ad world hasn’t bombarded it—yet. That means two things: The ad value is under-priced, and the audience is growing rapidly. If your marketing doesn’t appear entertaining, they will flick right past you. Remember the give/get model here for a path to success: Give them a reason to watch, and you’ll get an impression or an action. – Rob Fallon, Bluewater

6. Follow The Trends

Part of the magic of TikTok is how the content is created. It’s meant to be fun, not perfect. Brands need to understand that a perfectly produced ad will most likely stand out on TikTok, and not in a good way. Brands need to create content that is native in format and follows the trends that other users are following. That will get you into a conversation, rather than ruining the conversation. – Brian Meert, AdvertiseMint

7. Be Timely And Relevant

TikTok trends live and die overnight; what’s popular today may not be tomorrow. The smartest brands on the platform have mastered creating timely and relevant content by jumping on trends within hours of them becoming popular. The great thing about TikTok is that content doesn’t have to be polished or professionally shot. Many brands create content on their mobile devices, with minimal editing. – Charlie Grinnell, RightMetric

8. Find Inspiration In User-Produced Content

It is crucial for brands to engage with the audience in a way that’s endemic to the platform and not like standard ads or social channels. Get inspired by user-produced content (i.e., paid talent), and don’t worry about trying to piggyback on the latest thing. Be creative and design your own tropes that are fun, engaging and relevant to the brand while encouraging the audience to do the same. – Jason Parkin, Compose[d]

9. Lean Into The Creator Community

TikTok can be a powerful channel for creative storytelling and marketing opportunities. Brands should lean into the creator community and co-create content that provides value in terms of entertainment and/or education. Each brand is unique; some brands might create behind-the-scenes content or a sneak peek at a new product, while others provide entertainment or education. – Paula Bruno, Intuition Media Group d/b/a Blissful Media Group

10. Tell A Story

Take your lead from viral TikTok creators and use the power of a story. By using text on top of a video, you won’t come across as overly polished, but you will catch their eye, even if the sound is off. Start with a short bit of text that establishes a problem plaguing your ideal customer, ideally a fear or concern. Then drop in text to help solve their problem step by step. – Samantha Reynolds, ECHO Storytelling Agency

11. Mirror Your Audience’s Interests

Don’t be something you are not, regardless of medium. Ask yourself, “Why is my audience on TikTok?” What are they looking for on the app? Create content to mirror their interests. If they are there to be entertained, post something entertaining. If they are there to learn, offer educational tips or tricks on how to use your product or service. A good rule of thumb is to make it 80% information and 20% ad. – Sara Steever, Paulsen

12. Try Using The Duet Function

TikTok has a more creator-driven aesthetic versus the “produced” approach we see on other channels. To be successful, brands have to adapt their content to trends and do creative, in-app editing instead of pushing out canned content. TikTok users can easily sniff out inauthenticity. Also, using the TikTok Duet function and filters provides a more genuine way to connect with the platform’s dialled-in audience. – Mike Popowski, Dagger

13. Get Your Team Involved

Stick to using in-app features, and commit your team to only filming with their mobile devices. Encourage your team to find content that they can do a TikTok Duet with, or trending content they can do their own versions of, such as challenges or dances. Even supplying your team with swag they can wear is enough to feature your brand without looking as if you’re trying too hard. – Bernard May, National Positions

Sourced from Forbes

editor

If you struggle to come up with new content ideas to create and publish, here are some sites and methods that can help!

1. Ensure Success With Trending Topics

Treendly

Ubersuggest

Keywords Everywhere

2. Try a Prompt From a Random Generator

Hubspot Blog Topic Generator

Use Topic Idea Generator

3. Use Your Own Experience

4. Get Inspired by the Competition

Buzzsumo

5. Ask Your Audience

Maintain a Fresh Content Strategy

Sourced from MUO

Google Page Experience Now Rolling Out

Meet Brave: A New Privacy-First Search Engine

Now All Google Merchants Can Accept Payment With Shopify

Google Rolls out Search Console Insights

Google Updating Top Stories Carousel

Google Explains the Difference Between Audience Expansion and Optimized Targeting

Facebook Gets Into Podcast Integration

Twitter Getting Closer to Emoji Reactions to Tweets

Sourced from sritutorials

How did we get here?

By Gerrit De Vynck

Sourced from The Washington Post

Make your copy more authentic, relevant, and “shareable” to reach a bigger audience.

By Jean Ginzburg

Sourced from Inc.

What decreases motivation?

1. No goal

2. Aiming low

3. Not trying new things for the business

4. Not being consistent

Motivation comes and goes

By Nate Torres

Sourced from photofocus

A surprise addition to Windows 11

By Tom Warren

Sourced from THE VERGE

Sourced from The Taiwan Times

By Sean Harper

Sourced from Forbes

Content is the reason search began in the first place.

By Umesh Agarwal

Sourced from INFLUENCIVE

Sourced from Forbes