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The Media is Now the Least-Trusted Institution Globally

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So, which citizens trust their media the most? And the least?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Let’s start with the USA. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust in the U.S. has suffered the largest-ever-recorded drop in the survey’s history among the general population. Trust among the general population fell nine points to 43, placing it in the lower quarter of the 28-country Trust Index. It is now the lowest of the 28 countries surveyed, below Russia and South Africa.

The collapse of trust in the U.S. is driven by a staggering lack of faith in government, which fell 14 points to 33 percent among the general population, and 30 points to 33 percent among the informed public. The remaining institutions of business, media and NGOs also experienced declines of 10 to 20 points. These decreases have all but eliminated last year’s 21-point trust gap between the general population and informed public in the U.S.

“The United States is enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman. “This is the first time that a massive drop in trust has not been linked to a pressing economic issue or catastrophe like the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In fact, it’s the ultimate irony that it’s happening at a time of prosperity, with the stock market and employment rates in the U.S. at record highs. The root cause of this fall is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse.”

Conversely, China finds itself atop the Trust Index for both the general population (74) and the informed public (83). Institutions within China saw significant increases in trust led by government, which jumped eight points to 84 percent among the general population, and three points to 89 percent within the informed public. Joining China at the top of the Trust Index are India, Indonesia, UAE and Singapore.

For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally. In 22 of the 28 countries surveyed it is now distrusted. The demise of confidence in the Fourth Estate is driven primarily by a significant drop in trust in platforms, notably search engines and social media. Sixty-three percent of respondents say they do not know how to tell good journalism from rumour or falsehoods or if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organisation. The lack of faith in media has also led to an inability to identify the truth (59 percent), trust government leaders (56 percent) and trust business (42 percent).

This year saw a revival of faith in experts and decline in peers. Technical (63 percent) and academic (61 percent) experts distanced themselves as the most credible spokesperson from “a person like yourself,” which dropped six points to an all-time low of 54 percent.

“In a world where facts are under siege, credentialed sources are proving more important than ever,” said Stephen Kehoe, Global chair, Reputation. “There are credibility problems for both platforms and sources. People’s trust in them is collapsing, leaving a vacuum and an opportunity for bona fide experts to fill.”

Business is now expected to be an agent of change. The employer is the new safe house in global governance, with 72 percent of respondents saying that they trust their own company. And 64 percent believe a company can take actions that both increase profits and improve economic and social conditions in the community where it operates.

This past year saw CEO credibility rise sharply by seven points to 44 percent after a number of high-profile business leaders voiced their positions on the issues of the day. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say they want CEOs to take the lead on policy change instead of waiting for government, which now ranks significantly below business in trust in 20 markets. This show of faith comes with new expectations; building trust (69 percent) is now the No. 1 job for CEOs, surpassing producing high-quality products and services (68 percent).

“Silence is a tax on the truth,” said Edelman. “Trust is only going to be regained when the truth moves back to centre stage. Institutions must answer the public’s call for providing factually accurate, timely information and joining the public debate. Media cannot do it alone because of political and financial constraints. Every institution must contribute to the education of the populace.”

Other key findings from the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer include:

  • Technology (75 percent) remains the most trusted industry sector followed by Education (70 percent), professional services (68 percent) and transportation (67 percent). Financial services (54 percent) was once again the least trusted sector along with consumer packaged goods (60 percent) and automotive (62 percent).
  • Companies headquartered in Canada (68 percent), Switzerland (66 percent), Sweden (65 percent) and Australia (63 percent) are most trusted. The least trusted country brands are Mexico (32 percent), India (32 percent), Brazil (34 percent) and China (36 percent). Trust in brand U.S. (50 percent) dropped five points, the biggest decline of the countries surveyed.
  • Nearly seven in 10 respondents worry about fake news and false information being used as a weapon.
  • Exactly half of those surveyed indicate that they interact with mainstream media less than once a week, while 25 percent said they read no media at all because it is too upsetting. And the majority of respondents believe that news organizations are overly focused on attracting large audiences (66 percent), breaking news (65 percent) and politics (59 percent).

It’s a brave new world, and we as marketers must realise that placing any marketing cash with distrusted media outlets could mean a very big waste of our advertising spending power.

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Influencers are Losing Interest in Snapchat, and Are Using Other Ways to Reach Their Fans

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Snapchat seems to be sliding down the list of prefered ways for influencers to reach their fans. A new report had shown that not one influencer surveyed chose snapchat as their favourite platform.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

New research released today by Carusele and TapInfluence uncovered some surprising results about how influencers feel about various platforms heading into 2018.

Of the 790 influencers surveyed, none answered Snapchat to the question, “What is your favourite channel to use for branded content?”

Personal blogs were the favourite of 36% of respondents, followed closely by Instagram at 35% and Facebook at 12%. Twitter (9%), Pinterest (6%) and YouTube (1%) also received votes.

Even when asked to name their second favourite choice, Snapchat collected fewer than 1% of the responses, while Facebook ranked first at 26% and Instagram second at 25%.

“Two things are clear from this part of our survey,” said Jim Tobin, president of Carusele. “The first is that blogs aren’t going anywhere, which I think is a good thing for both brands and influencers. And second, Instagram’s moves over the last year or two have really outmanoeuvred Snapchat, which had been a hot platform for creators two years ago.”

Influencers also plan to be in the space for the long haul, with 97% of influencers surveyed planning to continue their work “as long as I’m able.” This despite fewer than half surveyed reporting working full time in the vocation (46%) while 24% work full time elsewhere and 13% part time elsewhere. The balance report being full time parents or caregivers.

“Our earlier research legitimised influencer marketing as a sales driver. This new research supports the fact that it remains a viable career option for content creators,” said Promise Phelon, CEO of TapInfluence.

Carusele won the 2017 Small Agency of the Year Award at the Shorty Awards. It utilises a hand-crafted network of content producers to produce premium influencer campaigns for leading brands and retailers.  TapInfluence is an influencer marketplace connecting brands with social media influencers. And if they say that Snapchat is no longer cool, then it probably isn’t.

 

 

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Post Ideas for People New to Business Blogging

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We recently shared quick ways to refresh your business website without a blog. For those of you who do maintain a blog for your business or brand, don’t worry — we have tips for you, too! Here are a few ideas you can use and reshape to fit your needs.

Use prompts liberally

WordPress.com Go has more resources. Here are more ideas on what to write about.

You don’t need to generate your own blog post ideas — that’s what prompts are for! Scour the internet for inspiration, like this list of 50 ideas at Entrepreneur and this list of 56 ideas at LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to tweak a post idea so it makes sense for you and your business.

Take your cue from events and holidays

Learn more about editorial calendars.

Pay attention to upcoming events, holidays, and seasonal activities so you can publish timely posts. It might be helpful to draft a yearlong editorial calendar pre-filled with post ideas, so you’re ready for occasions like Valentine’s Day and Halloween.

But don’t limit yourself to traditional events and holidays. To celebrate the total solar eclipse on August 21, for example, wool product maker Pendleton published a post on their collection of child-size blankets to help “celebrate a baby born during the eclipse year.”

Experiment with short formats

If you’re short on time, aim for posts that are informative and succinct. Consider quotes, for example. Are you a yoga instructor? Share an inspirational saying from a recent article you read and briefly explain why it resonates with you. Are you a financial advisor? Share a piece of tax advice from an expert in your field that you think your clients will find useful.

Similar to sharing quotes, curating links is a way to generate relevant content. If you run a small farm and read a lot about organic gardening, solar solutions, and other agriculture news, publish “Top Five Reads of the Week” or “Trends We’re Following Now” posts where you compile interesting reads about your industry.

To create quotes and lists, use the blockquote and list tools in your Visual editor.

Creating a list with a specific number of points is another way to format a post. Write a “Today’s Top Three” post highlighting your three top-selling products. Or share a “Five Gifts for Your Family” feature in time for the holidays. Use bullet points or a numbered list, which make ideas easier to compile. See examples of listicles on the blog of Squirrels & Bears, a small business consulting firm.

Start a weekly post series

How often should you post? Find your rhythm.

If you’d like to maintain a regular posting schedule but don’t want to keep whipping up new ideas, establish an ongoing series. “Ongoing” doesn’t have to mean “often” — instead, aim for a frequency that makes sense to you and stick to that schedule.

In “Customer of the Month,” for example, ask a long-time customer to answer a few questions: What do they like about the store? What’s their favorite product? Or in a “Meet the Staff” series, profile your employees. You can also flip this around — in “Ask Me Anything” posts, let employees take turns interviewing you, and publish a deep-dive series on the business — how it came to be, what it’s like to work there from day to day, and how you envision it will grow.

You could also highlight your inventory with a “Product Spotlight” series. Each week, take a photo of the most popular item of the moment and tell readers more about it. Or consider a “Behind the Scenes” series, in which you try one of these techniques to invite people in for a closer look into a certain aspect of the business.

Learn how to add categories and display them in a menu.

Whatever you decide, create categories to keep your posts organized and easy to find in a menu, as shown on the blog of The Bicycle Escape, a family-owned bike shop in Maryland.

Invite readers and fans to participate

Another approach is to accept submissions from the community. If you manage a small online shop for your art or jewelry, think of the types of quick posts that your readers and fans can contribute from afar, like “What I Bought” or “My Favorite Find.”

Get more blogging ideas from Ruffwear’s company blog.

One way to collect this feedback is through a page on your website with a contact form, from which you can accept submissions. Check out the “Share Your Story” page on the Ruffwear blog to see a contact form in action. Include introductory text and submission instructions at the top of the page so readers know exactly what you’re looking for.

Share a photo of the day

Download the WordPress app so you can share photos on your blog from your iOS or Android device.

If you don’t have time to sit down and write a post, sharing an image can be a quicker alternative. If you’re on the sales floor of your store amid lots of customers browsing the racks, or just finished updating the store window with new outfits for fall, snap a picture on your phone, then post it to your blog with a caption.

Use Instagram often? You can also embed your latest Instagram photos in blog posts. With this method, you can repurpose existing Instagram shots on your blog whenever you’d like — and promote your Instagram account to your readers at the same time. Your embedded photo will look something like this:

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Sourced from WordPress.com

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Content Marketing, Blogging, And SEO

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By Bill Wagner

My own little small-sample case study.

Blogging is big business, and Google thinks so, too. Rand Fishkin of Moz has a series of YouTube video I highly recommend to anyone interested in deep dive into the deeper recesses of SEO. Check out his Whiteboard Friday series HERE.

Ranking high on search results is vital for smaller business in need of exposure. Blogging is the best organic method of achieving those results if done correctly. Throwing words on a page isn’t the answer. Quality is, and that means writing good stuff that gets shared over and over again.

A good social media automation tool boosts this process nicely. I use eClincher. You should, too.

I don’t have an AdWords account or fancy metric aggregators, nor do I need them. Social media is a storytelling platform that takes time. I believe in the process and sticking to the grind. In the end, quality wins the right people and the right eyeballs. This proves my point if only to myself.

The Test And Results

Using a long-tail keyword, I found my grind quite fruitful. I searched “Bill Wagner Content Marketing” and found my blog posts ranking on page 1 of results.

I was beyond happy. I actually clapped and giggled like a little kid at my desk. Then, of course, the skeptic in me raised his hand with a valid question: Were these results simply a by-product of searching on my own Google account?

That’s a good point. Let’s test that.

The benefits of social media paid off once more as I reached out to my LinkedIn network and Facebook friends for help. I asked for screen shots of their front page with the same long-tail keyword. Below is a sample of results. You can see more of them on my LinkedIn profile.

My social network is awesome!

Mobile searches yielded a few more paid results before my organic work showed up, but the data was clear. My blogging and automated sharing has paid off. A simple long-tail keyword is mine, all mine! (Cue the Dr. Evil laugh!)

Conclusions About The Process

Blogging works and this is proof. The secret sauce, the one thing you must do right now, the simple hack to make it all work? Time. That’s it. It takes time.

These posts were all written in June and July 2017. I shared them repeatedly over the last several weeks. The question you may be asking is how many clicks and reads does it take? Here are my Medium stats:

A big part of social media sharing is using the right platforms at the right times. LinkedIn and Google + are big parts of my strategy. Google + is very important for search because Google’s search algorithm prioritizes placement there.

The numbers speak for themselves. Obviously some of the stuff I wrote didn’t do as well as the rest. My personal favorite is Connecting With People Who Hate Your Shirt. Yet, my most popular post is about marketing buzzwords. There’s another one of those coming soon. Believe that.

My Beliefs Confirmed

I embrace the grind at my content marketing business Safe Strategies. Social media, blogging, graphics, videos, and all online content comes together to tell a multi-layered story that is your business.

This is just a tiny sample of how well-crafted content builds a great online presence. Let’s connect and chat about what you want out of social media and how Safe Strategies creates it. Increased engagement, better leads, and quality customer interactions are all things that happen when you invest time online.

Let’s chat. Connect with me on Twitter @LearningBill, on LinkedIn, or Facebook.

By Bill Wagner

Umpire and referee turned writer and coder. I delete more than I publish. I laugh at my own jokes, too. Follow my company on Twitter @SafeStrategies

Sourced from Medium.com

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5 Ways to Build an Audience for Your Blog and 10 Ways to Make Money Once You Have

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To succeed as a blogger you must be diligent, methodical and have something to say people are interested in hearing.

If you’re looking to start a blog, or you’re already knee-deep in blogging, you’ve likely scoured the ends of the earth searching for ways you can make money blogging. While there are plenty of options, to really make money blogging, you have to ensure that you hold steadfast and true to a certain set of criteria. If you can do that, then you’ll likely succeed in the long term. Fail to do that and you’ll see your efforts fall flat at best.

Overall, there are 10 primary ways you can profit from your blog. But before you get there, you have to build a great blog with useful content. Now, that could take a long time, or it could be done in a shorter time span. Gerard Adams built Elite Daily and sold it within three years for $50 million to the Daily Mail.

Of course, that might be an rare example, but there are plenty of blogs out there that are churning six and seven-figures per year like clockwork. It isn’t easy, but it is possible. Just like Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, it’s much easier to achieve a goal after you’ve witnessed someone else do it.

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Sourced from Entrepreneur

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Small Businesses Say Getting Fans and Followers on Social Media is a Struggle

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By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Canadian company Little Dragon Media recently surveyed 500 small business owners and asked: “What part of your company’s digital marketing do you struggle with the most?” The survey discovered that “Getting fans and followers on social media” was the most popular response, overthrowing SEO.

Female business owners struggle with social media, while their male counterparts struggle with SEO more.

“The results were a bit surprising to me,” states Amine Rahal, CEO of Little Dragon Media. “When we launched the survey, I assumed that most businesses would choose SEO as being the hardest, since it can take years to rank high organically on search engines, especially in competitive niches.”

“Ranking high on search engines” was the second most popular option, measuring at 26.2%. Blogging came in third at 19.4%.

Reputation management swept in fourth swallowing up 13.4% of the survey pie, and “Finding a trustworthy agency to help us” came in last place measuring at 11%, suggesting that this was a non-issue for many businesses.

Social media marketing’s lead over SEO signals that small business owners today highly value social media community development. They also show signs of struggle in efforts to figure out how to get the best results when compared to SEO, an established digital marketing service which is now also influenced by social media community development.

According to Rahal, survey results show how social media has swept into the forefront of the overall digital marketing landscape.

Says survey moderator Monica Guan, “In the current digital era, having a strong social media presence and ranking on Google are the best and low-cost ways to reach your local audience. Just by the fact that business owners are struggling with these aspects show that they do realise the importance of these factors to their business, but may not have the know-how to succeed in these areas.”

55.7% female small business owners report social media community development being the most difficult struggle when compared to their male counterparts who reported at 44.3%.

Guan says, “Female business owners may care more for the social media of their business and sees it as a priority that needs to be improved on. This shows that not only do many business owners require more education about how to use their social media and gain more fans and followers, but more education to male business owners on the importance of social media to their business.”

The full survey is here.

 

 

 

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Travel, the New Currency of Influencer Marketing

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Partnering with influencers is turning out to be a better pay-off than other traditional forms of advertising because of how emotionally invested the community of followers are.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers.

Oh the places you’ll go, and the things you’ll see. Never have Dr. Seuss’ rhymes made more sense to adults today than when you start to examine how influencer marketing has turned the travel industry upside down.

Travel writing was relegated to stuffy travel guides written by yesterday’s travel wordsmiths. Now, influencers …social media stars on all manner of platforms are striking deals with destinations, and with brands, and bringing the places they go and things they see to their dream-filled followers.

Chanel brought Stephanie Liu of Honey & Silk to Grasse, France to experience and share the making of their iconic No. 5 fragrance.

Take Tommy Lei, the Hong Kong born / LA raised photographer behind MYBELONGING for example. In the last six months, Tommy has already travelled to Iceland, Punta Cana, Mexico City, New York, London, and Morocco.

Tommy Lei, cashing in on his trip to Morocco.

Tommy partnered with sandal brand Teva on his last trip through Marrakech to the Sahara, where the goal was a ground-swell of destination specific content – Morocco is an Instagram-worthy destination right now. The program was a smashing success, whereby his branded content generated over 40% engagement from his fans, and he was able to use his talent in photography to deliver a robust package of digital content to the brand. These kinds of collaborations are becoming the new win-win for influence deals, and they will only increase in velocity.

Brands who work with influencers get to be part of aspirational journeys across the globe, capturing audiences in a very visual way. Partnering with influencers is turning out to be a better pay-off than other traditional forms of advertising because of how emotionally invested the community of followers are.

Influencers are using wanderlust apps like Sherpa to share guides with their fans, bringing their trips full circle by establishing themselves as travel experts and brand ambassadors – all rolled into one incredible package.

On the other side of the spectrum, destinations themselves are turning into the clients that want to partner and bring groups of influencers to build the buzz. As David Hoffmann, host for popular YouTube travel channel David’s Been Here, noted, “Influencer marketing has branched out beyond fashion into the travel sphere, giving audiences a taste of what it’s like to quit their jobs, travel the world and create a personal brand doing something that was once considered a far-fetched luxury. Now that millennial influencers have taken Instagram by storm, places like the Maldives and Bali have become some of the hottest destinations, triggering flight deals and affordable hotel packages like never before.”

This is a massive shift in marketing dollars for destinations, and brands are seeing the returns in the form of booked hotels, booked flights and exploding local business. Influencers make travel, that often seems like a far off luxury, real and accessible.

The shift is also changing how other related trades are checking off their own bucket lists. Photographer Champagne Victoria has gone from shooting fashion editorials around Los Angeles to spending a better part of her year across Europe and island chains, because of the global impact of influencer marketing. By bundling trips with several brands projects, Champagne has been able to fully fund these trips, allowing her creativity to expand through different settings, and giving brands – many of which don’t have the big budgets of major labels – the opportunity to be shot in desirable destinations like the islands of Greece, Iceland, St. Lucia and so on.

If you imagine yourself waking up in the south of France, exploring the flower fields of CHANEL No. 5 – well, follow Stephanie of Honey & Silk, and see the dream become a reality. If you wanted to take the best Americana road-trip of your life, say from New Orleans to Boston and back, follow Courtney of Pretty Little Fawn. Influencers + travel are creating an exciting new wave of exploration – and thankfully with so many fashion influencers involved, you’ll finally know what to really wear.

For further reading, you can dig around the content of digital influencer management firm, God & Beauty. They discuss how travel is the new currency of influence and branded content.

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6 Ways Blogging Is Good For SEO

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By Kimi Miller.

There are a ton of buzz-worthy terms in digital marketing, but none are as important to your digital (and overall) marketing strategy as blogging. Blogging is a cornerstone of the foundation for content marketing, social media, earned media, and search optimization. If your company can pull off a great, keyword-rich blog, it’ll provide a long-term and sustainable ROAS.

People are searching the Internet in new ways, and anyone can throw some money at targeted ad buys, but agencies with data and content-driven marketing strategies are the ones poised to win.

It all starts with earning organic traffic.

1. Increase Site Relevancy

One of the most important search criteria for gaining Google’s trust is your domain’s relevancy. The more inbound links you have from reputable domains, the higher you’re likely to rank in Google’s SERPs because you’ll be seen as a relevant resource. However, gaining these backlinks can prove difficult, especially for ecommerce or branded sites that don’t have a blog.

A consistently updated blog (even if it’s only one or two posts a month while ramping up) is your opportunity to fill pages within your domain with insightful and useful information that may eventually gain backlinks. This is typically a long-term play, but there is a way to improve your chances.

Use a mix of evergreen and topical content that’s likely to be relevant in your industry. For example: if you run an air conditioning repair company, evergreen content like infographics of statistics for electricity, sustainability, and appliances, along with topical content about new product releases and industry trends, go a long way in building your domain’s reputation. This is true with both Google and Internet researchers combing for statistics for their own blogs.

2. Build Reputable Backlinks

Using your blog as a portfolio, your next step is to guest post as a thought leader across blogs, websites, and media sites to gain backlinks through earned media. Gaining a guest post or even a column in mainstream media outlets like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, and the Wall Street Journal can really boost your site’s SEO rankings.

However, this can be difficult if you don’t know where to start. So a shortcut is to register for HelpaReporter.com as a source. This service signs you up for an email list of topics currently being researched by journalists around the globe. If you participate as a source for these articles, you’ll gain a mention in the article, often with a link back to your website. Both will ultimately help your SEO efforts, although a backlink is especially helpful in raising your domain authority.

Having your name and company endorsed by the editors of a prestigious publication gives your words more value, exposes you to more platforms, and draws in more qualified leads over the long term. Keep reaching out to any sites with authority in your industry to gain a reputation that extends beyond search engines (although it helps there too).

3. Raise Long-Tail Keyword Ranking

To build a great blog, you’ll need to divide everything into categories and tags. Categories should be broad and related to your industry. An eBay marketing platform would want blogs related to eBay’s sales categories, sellers tips, etc., whereas a commercial construction company would want categories for each industry it serves.

Within these categories, you’ll need to research long-tail keywords. This will help you to figure out what information users are searching for in regards to your target categories. These long-tail keywords will become the basis of each blog article posted in each category.

Start with the highest value search terms using Google AdWords Keyword Finder and SEMRush, and brainstorm 10-20 topics to figure out what articles to write. Search the selected topics/terms (e.g. typing them into the Google search bar) to see what’s already ranking on page one. This will ultimately help you create better content and give you insight into what your competition is posting.

4. Add User-Generated Content

By writing insightful, meaningful, and useful blog content, you’ll naturally build organic traffic to your domain. Readers will eventually start commenting, and as more traffic flows, a handful of your blog articles may become discussion pages for specific topics. This process is much easier when you have useful information on niche topics that don’t already have a million discussions happening all over the Internet.

You can encourage blog commenting by commenting on other blogs with links to your blog articles. But be aware that depending on how much time you want to put into it, this is a task that can take an entire marketing team to accomplish. Keeping up on current discussions related to your blog topics provides contextual backlinks pointing to interior pages on your domain and raises your search ranking.

Over time, user-generated comments can exponentially increase a page’s content as well as the amount of time users spend on page during each session.

5. Age Matters

Once you have a blog going, the trick is to keep it going. Many websites are taken down or archive content. After a decade of hard work, you may find only a small percentage of your actual links are still around. Auditing for dead links is important to keep your blog active and at the top of SERPs.

Google and other search engines reward longevity, so the longer you can keep your blog (and the reference links to it) alive, the more fruitful the results will be. With a blog, you’re not just building SEO links – you’re actively engaging with the media industry and contributing to the knowledge pool of the world at large. This is how you build a sustainable shelf life for your brand.

A stagnant blog may end up doing more harm than good to your brand, so it’s important to keep publishing great content. A professional content team can make this happen, and it’s often a good idea to hire outside help to ensure content doesn’t become overly promotional.

6. Gain Social Media Content

Blogs are also great because they help build social content. When optimized correctly, blog articles come with an image and snippet that can be promoted across multiple social media platforms. This provides a great opportunity to share links across social sites without coming off as overly promotional.

While there’s debate about the effectiveness of social media on SEO, there’s no doubt social links such as LinkedIn and Facebook do show up in search results in various ways. A marketing agency with specialized blogging and social media teams can go a long way in building your site’s long-term search rankings.

If you’re still not convinced that a blog can increase your search rankings and revenues, give us a call, and we’ll be happy to walk you through case studies and analytics from our clients. Blogging is a serious business, and we only allow the best content to pass through our hands.

By Kimi Miller

Sourced from VolumeNine

 

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How to Keep SEO in Mind When You’re Blogging (Without It Being Super Annoying)

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Sourced from MeetEdgar

You’ve got the writing chops. Just this morning you caught yourself aggressively nodding in self-admiration at your latest blog post. Forwarding a particularly witty piece to your mom for praise is not beyond you.

It feels good.

But as a writer in the digital age, you’re also responsible for producing content that potential customers or subject-matter enthusiasts can actually discover – and the key is to write blogs with SEO in mind.

What the heck is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.”

(You might know that already, but bear with us here.)

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing try their darndest to retrieve the most relevant results for whatever someone types into that magic search box. Smart SEO strategies help bump your web page toward the top of the “natural” or “unpaid” search results, making your post more visible.

Think of it like this…

Google built a magical robot that scans content on the World Wide Web and files it in a super-duper powerful card catalog (the fancy kind). SEO makes it easier for this robot to turn up the best results by telling him what your content is all about.

Okay, so how do you keep the magical robot happy so that readers can find your insanely valuable content?

1. Win with quality

Provide your target audience with quality content on a subject you both care about. Useful, unique, and authoritative information results in people sharing, commenting, and linking to your posts, which earns you brownie points with Google.

In fact, Google confirmed in 2016 that quality content and links to your site are the top two factors in determining search engine rank. These factors go hand in hand – the latter won’t happen if your content’s no good!

When brainstorming your next juicy blog topic, ask yourself these questions:

  • What information gaps exist?
  • How can I fill them?
  • Will this be valuable to my target audience?
  • Am I deceiving my audience?
  • Is this credible and engaging?

If you’re going to start anywhere, it’s quality – otherwise, you might not get much more than a participation trophy.

2. Research keywords, but don’t stop there

Drink some caffeine, grab your favorite pen (or pencil, or eagle feather quill), and do a good old-fashioned brainstorm. What words or phrases best describe your blog’s topic? Narrow your list down to one or two keywords or keyword phrases with relevance and strong search volume.

This’ll give your post and optimization efforts focus. Consider long-tail keywords, too – these hyper-targeted phrases of three or more words will drive less traffic overall, but more qualified visitors.

How do you research keywords, exactly?

Use Google’s free keyword planning tool to spark keyword ideas and gauge the ferocity of search volume and competition. Google Trends is also helpful to get a quick look at the popularity of terms and related queries by category, location, and time. (There are loads of other tools out there, but we give these a double thumbs-up if you’re just getting your feet wet.)

This is only part of the equation, though. It’s not just about getting keyword variations lined up.

You need to understand your target audience – their goals, motivations, and needs – and target keyword phrases that align with user intent. In other words, figure out what your readers will query. Google isn’t going to return the same result for the search, “where to buy a spaceship” versus “how to build a spaceship.” (We checked – and we still haven’t found a reliable spaceship for sale!)

Search engines work hard to satisfy user intent, so you should, too. Your keyword and content strategies should take your audience personas and their intent into account.

3. Use keywords naturally

Sprinkle in keywords, phrases, and related word variations, but keep the language organic. Google is smart – it’ll understand context and takeaways without being bashed over the head by keywords! It’ll actually penalize you if you stuff your post with the same keywords, too.

(Plus, you’ll sound pretty darn silly.)

For starters, try popping keywords into these places:

  • Title (aka headline): Google only displays the first 65 characters or so of your title on the search engine results pages (SERPs), so keyword inclusion at the beginning of your headline is crucial to establishing relevancy – especially for readers! Even so, don’t forego catchy titles – you still want to attract and motivate peeps to read.
  • In-Article: Incorporate keywords throughout headers and body text. If you focus on addressing your reader’s needs, keywords have a way of naturally landing where they need to be. Funny how these work out when you put quality first, right?
  • Post URL: Give each post a unique URL that contains relevant keywords. Separate words with hyphens and remove unimportant articles like “a” and “the.” (Tip: your blogging platform might do this for you already!)
  • Internal and External Links: Search engines give extra consideration to linked text, so it’s beneficial to include keywords as part of or next to hyperlinks.
  • Image File Name: You know that old idiom, “a picture is worth a thousand words?” Well, that’s only true on the web if you tell the search engine what to “see” with keyword rich text. When you upload your images, resist the temptation to keep default names like “IMG0005.jpg.” Instead, make names descriptive, like “Octopus-wearing-cowboy-hat.jpg.”

Remember, whatever you do, keep it au naturel. Write for humans, and the robots will understand!

4. Write scannable text

Nobody reads.

Sorry to break it to you, but that perfect verb you agonized over may go unnoticed – skimming is all the rage online, and has been for decades.

Experiment with ways to make your post easy for humans and robots to scan.

  • Highlight keywords
  • Organize with headings and subheadings
  • Bullet and number lists
  • Break up text with images and GIFs
  • Box out quotes or tweetable tidbits
  • Use white space
  • Focus on one idea per paragraph
  • Keep it conversational

In the age of information overload, you’re competing for attention. Be succinct, engaging, and most importantly, ORIGINAL. If you drop some enlightening info on readers, they’ll not only read your post – they’ll want to share it!

5. Length matters (sort of)

Pay attention to post length, as Google values in-depth and informational (aka quality) content. As a general guideline, 300 words is widely considered the minimum, whereas posts in the 700-2500 word range signal more subject-matter depth and can get a little more search engine love.

Don’t feel like word count is your first priority, though! Write as many words as needed – no more, no less – to clearly communicate information to your intended audience.

A good blog post is like a good piece of string – it’s exactly as long as it needs to be. Click to Tweet

If your audience is typically time-strapped, a series of shorter, focused posts are the way to go. If your audience requires in-depth perspective, opt for a longer format. Again, know your audience and customize your content to accommodate their lifestyle.

5. Market it

Yes, high-quality content, when optimized properly, should drive traffic to your blog. However, it’s not a “set it and forget it” kind of business. Give your posts a little rocket fuel with proper distribution and publicity.

That means getting your social hustle on.

Don’t assume that because you launched a post into social cyberspace that everyone caught it (or cared). Distribute your posts across your social channels!

Figure out creative ways to repackage and distribute your content to existing and new readers.

  • Experiment with post times, lead-in text, images, and social channels to understand what is most effective for you.
  • Instead of publishing your social media updates just once, use an automation tool to cycle distribution (ahem, we know a eight-armed cephalopod that’s good for that!).
  • Consider putting a few bucks towards paid promotions. For a small budget, you can boost your Facebook posts and target niche audiences.
  • If Instagram jives with your audience, take advantage of the visual platform by building out a killer, on-brand feed. Include your blog link in your bio and post descriptions. If followers love your ‘Gram content, their loyalty will carry through to your other platforms.

Case in point: We triple-heart blogger Sam Ushiro. Her beautiful pastel feed lured us right in. Now we read her blog on the regular (Psst…her unicorn frosted animal cookies are to die for).

Let your authority be known on social in more ways than one.

Make sure to backlink and refer to other awesome content you’ve produced. You’re the expert, right? Keep ‘em hooked and navigating deeper and deeper into your library. Right when they are about to say, “Tell me more,” provide another resource for them to peruse!

Position yourself as a subject-matter authority by contributing knowledge bombs to other websites and blogs, too. Use this opportunity to backlink to valuable content on your blog and to reach a new and qualified audience. (Make sure to include a byline or short bio, so you get credit for your brainy guest post.)

Sourced from MeetEdgar

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The perfect blog post length—and how long it should take to write

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By Frank Strong.

If you’re looking for short, easy answers to some common blogging questions, here you go:

  • How long should a blog post be?

Answer: 1,000 words

  • How long should you take to write a blog post?

Answer: 3 hours and 16 minutes

  • How often should you publish blog posts?

Answer: Weekly

Short answers aren’t always the same as thorough answers, of course. Read on to understand why:

Two comprehensive studies about blogging

Bloggers are publishing longer posts these days-and spending more time writing them. Bloggers are also publishing less frequently and focusing more on distribution.

In other words, bloggers are devoting more time to promoting fewer, but more in-depth, content pieces. This is the top conclusion from Orbit Media Studios‘ 3rd Annual Survey of Bloggers. The survey’s data are consistent with another recent and fairly comprehensive survey by ConvertKit. Additionally, the data in both studies mirror my experience in B2B content marketing.

How long should a blog post be?

According to the Orbit study, the average length of a blog post is about 1,050 words. This is up 19 percent from the same study the previous year. Additionally, the study found that the percentage of blog posts with 2,000+ words has doubled.

Similarly, ConvertKit found that the most popular blog post length is between 500 and 1,000 words. However, when ConvertKit segmented its data between professional and amateur bloggers, it found that professional bloggers are about 70 percent “more likely to write posts of 1,000 words or more.”

Study after study has demonstrated the trend toward long-form content—and length is broadly characteristic of high-quality content. However, just because a post is long doesn’t mean it’s of better quality. Quality content often begins with research and analysis and careful vetting of sources and data.

When clients ask me how long a blog post should be, my answer is: As long as required to effectively communicate an idea.

[RELATED: Ragan creates custom content, from white papers to emails to intranets and more. Find out what our team can do for you.]

My posts (whether or not they are for a client) are usually around 1,000 words. I don’t set out to write 1,000 words, though; I aim to explore an interesting topic and write good content.

How long does it take to write a blog post?

The Orbit survey found that people take about three hours and sixteen minutes to write a blog post. That’s a 26 percent increase over the same survey last year. However, the study also found that “twice as many bloggers are now spending 6+ hours on their average post.”

There appears to be a correlation between the time invested in a blog post and its results. About one third of bloggers who spent six or more hours on a post reported “strong results,” whereas only a quarter of bloggers who spent less than six hours reported “strong results.”

The ConvertKit survey didn’t provide statistics for how much time bloggers take to write a post. My experience tells me it takes somewhere between four to eight hours to write a high-quality post. This includes preparing for and conducting interviews, researching a topic and closely vetting research sources.

However, many factors are involved, such as the topic’s complexity and the writer’s experience. There are also intangibles, such as the seemingly unexplained behavior of a digital community.

For example, I’ve seen posts that took only an hour to write go unexpectedly viral. I’ve also seen carefully constructed copy that the author has painstakingly rewritten over and over receive, at best, a muted response. I’ve also seen old posts spontaneously come back and sail around the web on a second wind.

There are best practices and techniques bloggers can implement to encourage shares, but sometimes you’ll write a post that simply strikes the right nerve.

How often should I publish blog posts?

The Orbit survey found that daily blog post publication is down 50 percent from last year. Interestingly, “weekly is now the most common answer to the question of frequency.” However, the survey also found that 38 percent of bloggers publish posts monthly.

The ConvertKit study also found that the “vast majority of people intend to publish weekly,” but that professional bloggers are far more likely to publish daily or even several times a day.

Blogging is central to content marketing, and consistency matters more than frequency. It’s important to have a cadence to publishing, or else deadlines will slide and the effort will never really get off the ground.

That said, two of most successful corporate blogs I’ve contributed to publish daily or twice a day. One had the staff for it, and the other didn’t. We simply made publishing a priority and put some processes in place to make it work.

Consistency fosters discipline to publish on deadline and, more importantly, cultivates audience expectations. Whether you publish once a month, once a week or once a day, make sure that your schedule is sustainable. It’s much more acceptable to ramp up production than slow it down.

Once you develop a content marketing process—brainstorming, writing, reviewing, approval, publication, promotion, analytics and content repurposing—then you can gradually increase frequency.

Blogging best practices

What works best will vary from organization to organization, because audiences are different. This is why the most successful content marketing initiatives focus on audience needs rather than a brand’s agenda.

Corporate blogging is a marathon, and you will make mistakes along the way. Learn from them, and keep moving forward.

A version of this article originally appeared on Sword and the Script.

(Image via)

By Frank Strong.

Sourced from PRDaily

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