Potentially, your ‘About Me‘ page could be seen by a vast audience that includes potential and existing employees, other professionals in your field, as well as friends/relatives.

Your author bio is an excellent way to show your audience who you are and why they should trust you, and subscribe to your future posts. It also serves as a means to succinctly define your expertise on why they should follow you.

It’s your opportunity to tell the world who you are and what you do, so don’t squander it.

How to Write a Blog Bio

The first thing to know: There is no “right” way to author your ‘About Me’ bio. Some read like resumes, and others read like fun stories.

Writing a professional bio can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Crafting an effective bio requires conveying that you are credible and accomplished in a few sentences. It is important to identify the context of the professional bio before beginning the writing process.

Start by introducing yourself with your name and current job title or role. Then provide some background information about your education and work experience that is relevant to your current position. Also, include any awards or accomplishments that demonstrate your expertise in the field. And don’t forget to inject a dose of what makes you an interesting human.

Obviously, the tone of the bio depends on where it will appear.

• If you are writing a guest post targeting Mom’s in business, then you might mention kids or your experience with kids or being a Mom.
• On the other hand, if writing a bio for a trade journal or a speaking engagement, your focus might be on your years of experience, expertise, and education.

Here’s a snapshot of my 5-year-old “folksy” bio desperately needing a makeover:

No matter what the audience or the tone, there are a few things to remember that will make writing your bio easier.

Identify Your Audience!

The easiest way to do this is by having a good look at your current website or blog.

• What is its voice?
• Who is it targeting?
• What is the aim of the publication?

How to Write Your Blog Bio in 9 Easy Steps

Writing a blog bio is an important step in establishing your online presence. It helps readers get to know you and understand why they should trust your content. Crafting an effective “About Me” section can be tricky, but with the right approach, it can be done in 9 easy steps.

Step 1: Brainstorm

When crafting a blog bio, it’s important to put yourself in the reader’s shoes and write about what they would want to know. Focus on highlighting key questions they may have and how they can find answers on your blog. Remove any unnecessary information and keep the bio short, sweet, and to the point.

Step 2: Select Key Information to Include in Your Blog Bio

Writing a blog bio is an essential part of creating a successful website. It gives readers an impression of you and your content, and sets your blog apart from other options. Crafting a compelling blog bio is crucial to make a case for why people should stay on your website. To create an effective blog bio, it’s important to identify the purpose of writing it in the first place.

• When crafting your blog bio, don’t forget to utilize tips and tricks that will make it stand out from the rest. Use keywords that are relevant to your topic so that search engines can easily find your website.
• Include Highlight links to social media profiles or other websites where readers can learn more about you or connect with you directly. Finally, be sure to keep your credentials visible.

Step 3: Include Images and Your Contact Details

As the Head of Finance & Operations at dlvr.it, I have a wealth of experience in social media and digital marketing. My passion for helping businesses succeed has driven me to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and strategies. I’m always looking for ways to help companies maximize their online presence and reach their goals. This is the information I need to convey to the public in a compelling way.

The bio area of a blog is an important part of any website. It can be the deciding factor in whether or not they stay on your site. A well-crafted bio can help to keep readers engaged and on the site, as it gives them an impression of you and your content. It should be concise yet informative, giving readers a quick overview of who you are and why your website has the answers they’re seeking. Be brutal – just cherry-pick the most relevant, interesting stuff and ditch the rest, especially the fluff.

Your blog biography should be unique to you and your content. You have to make a case for what sets your blog apart from others in such a short space. This means that you need to include information about yourself, such as qualifications or experience, as well as details about what makes your blog special. Additionally, it’s important to include keywords related to the topics you write about so that search engines can easily find your website when people are looking for answers online.

Step 4: Highlight Unique Qualities

When writing a blog bio, it’s important to include keywords that will help search engines and potential readers find you. Take five minutes to make your blog better by updating the short bio in your site’s sidebar with relevant information about yourself and what you do. A strategically written bio should be concise yet descriptive, highlighting the unique qualities that make you stand out from the crowd.

Your bio should be tailored to your target audience so they can immediately recognize that they are in the right place when they land on your page. Even the most professional short bios should include something that shows you are a real person. 

Your industry recognition can help prove your expertise in your chosen field. Google’s E-A-T ranking score (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is especially important for health, fitness, and finance blogs. You can draw attention to these credentials without a long list by displaying logos or images related to them.

You should also share popular blogs you’ve been published on, books you’ve written, and certifications you have.  Showcasing the famous brands you’ve worked with and the big results you’ve got in the past will also help prove your authority.

However, listing awards, accomplishments, medals, blue ribbons, trophies, and honorary titles that make you look accomplished in your field can have an unwanted effect on your audience – they might not know what any of these awards actually mean. Can listing your accolades seem like “bragging”? Well, yes. The balance is finding the line between asserting your knowledge, while also writing in a language that they will understand.

Step 5: Give Yourself a Time Limit

Once your fingers hit the keyboard, and you start writing the bio, you should be able to write a short one within 30 minutes, and a longer one in an hour. A time limit will make you write from the heart, which is where the best bios live. Then put it aside for an hour or so before a final proofread and edit before sending. Don’t sit on it too long or it will never finish.

Step 6: Write in the First Person

There are two sides to this argument: When thinking about how to write a bio, should you write your bio in the first person or in the third person?

Unfortunately, there are downsides to both.

• If you write in the first person, you can’t really brag about yourself, because it can come across as conceited.

• If you write in the third person, that can get weird, too… especially if the rest of your blog or website is in the first person. Because then people know you’re bragging about yourself and that you just wanted to disguise the fact that you were doing it by pretending someone else wrote it.

So, what do you do? Ultimately, this comes down to personal preference and your audience. In my opinion, the first-person point of view is the most intimate way to write you bio.

Step 7: Include Contact Details

Well, duh, but in all the stress this is sometimes forgotten. And don’t forget any social media profiles.

Now for the unveiling. Here’s what I came up with by following these eight steps:

About Debra Garber

Head of Finance & Operations at dlvr.it. Slipped a writing sample under the CEO’s door and now, happily sharing my experiences traversing the wilds of social media. Backyard chicken farmer. Will trade social media tips for organic eggs.

Step 8: Get a Second Opinion.

Ask several people  – colleagues, co-workers, family members, and friends – to review your author bio and provide feedback. After you receive the feedback, edit your bio as needed. Why ask friends? Because they’ll be honest with you.

Thankfully for me, my daughter and son-in-law, both writers, arrived just in time to open a bottle of wine, ask some great questions and slash away at my blog bio.

Version 3. We’ll go with this one for now:

Take a deep breath.

Unfortunately, you are not done!

LAST STEP (this may be the most important one): Include an Amazing Photo

Yes, investing in a good headshot is worth every penny.

Think about all the times you’ve read a great blog author bio and then squinted at the blurry, green-toned, unflattering image of the person it described. Doesn’t it kind of dampen your enthusiasm and admiration for them? NOT because of the way they look, but because they clearly didn’t make the effort.

The Quality of the Image Does Matter!

And, whether you like or not, people’s first impressions can be significantly affected by the quality of your photo.

Here’s a must read:  The Anatomy of a Picture Perfect Profile Image on Social Media

After following this guide, I uploaded a much better image, and voila…

Summary – How To Write a Blog Bio to Look Smart

A blog bio is an essential part of any website or blog. It is the first thing readers will look at to decide if your content is right for them. Your blog bio should be short and concise, providing a jumping-off point for other social media platforms. It should give readers an idea of what your website has to offer and why they should stay on it. And, it needs to inform them why they should come back regularly to read from YOU.

Your blog bio is important because it tells readers why your website has the answers they’re seeking. It gives people an impression of you and your content and sets your blog apart from other options. Writing a compelling blog bio is crucial to make a case for why people should stay on your website and become subscribers, as well as clients or customers. A good blog bio will include information about yourself, what topics you cover, and how often you post new content. Additionally, it should provide links to other social media accounts so that readers can easily find more information about you and your work. And not only that, but make it fun, interesting, and engaging. That’s what will catch their eye, and keep them coming back.

The post How To Write a Blog Bio to Look Smart appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is about building relationships with your customers. CRM helps companies keep track of what happens to each individual customer throughout his or her interaction with the organization. This includes everything from collecting information about the customer to keeping up with the customer’s needs.

A strong customer relationship will help build trust and loyalty among customers. If you want to retain customers, it’s important to provide excellent customer service. You don’t just want to treat your customers well; you want to make sure they feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Your brand image depends on the overall experience your customers receive. When people think of your company, they often think of how good the customer service is. They might even think of your products or services as being high quality because of the way you handle yourself.

Good customer relationship management examples will improve sales and retention rates. Companies that invest in CRM software tend to see better conversion rates and increased revenue. In fact, some studies show that companies with CRM systems generate $1 million in annual revenue per employee.

Every Customer is Important

I’ve always been very grateful for the relationships I’ve cultivated throughout the years. If you are a small business you know, every customer helps. Successfully building a customer relationship results in a positive ROI and returning business. How do you create a winning customer relationship online strategy?

Successful social media marketers know that relationships are the fuel behind business success. To keep the pipeline full, you must build meaningful relationships with both customers and other business owners.

Steps to Build a Successful CRM Strategy

Goal: Compile a list of relationships that will allow you to connect with people vital to your success.

Step 1: Define Your Ideal Customer

Ask yourself: What do the top 10-20% of your customers have in common?

• Easy questions: What is his or her age, education, occupation or business? What is his or her income or financial situation? What is his or her situation today in life or work?
• More thought provoking questions: What problem do you solve for your ideal customer? Of all the benefits you offer, which are the most important to your ideal customer? What are the most pressing needs that your product or service satisfies? Why should your customer buy from you rather than from someone else?

Put Yourself in Your Customers Point of View:

• What does your product do for your ideal customer?
• What problems does your product solve for your customer?
• What needs of your customer does your product satisfy?
• How does your product improve your customer’s life or work?

Step 2: Make a list of your top 100 customers based on step 1.

Include:

• Prospects
• Potential referral sources
• Current customers

Step 3: Define How to Build the Relationship

How do you build genuine business relationships – the kind that will lead to long-term friendships, personal growth, and sales for your company? Look at your best customers – and look at a step-by-step process of how they attained that title.

Ways To Build Meaningful Business Relationships

• Notice what’s on the walls…”Until you’re dealing with people you know, you can’t tap the full power of your network.” – Mike Muhney, co-inventor of ACT!
• Make time for individual face-to-face conversations.
• Prioritize people over projects.
• Take the call.
• Return favors.

Note – Updating your Facebook status is not networking, and amassing connections with people you barely know on LinkedIn won’t get you anything.

Step 4 – Build the Relationship. Be a Giver.

Spend an hour each week reconnecting with them by liking, favoriting, retweeting, scheduling face-to-face meetings, sending a handwritten note – just stay in touch.

Make sure to offer:

• Your time
• Your resources
• Your knowledge
• Your encouragement
• Your support

Examples of Successful CRM Strategies

Innovative marketing and CRM go hand in hand. They are both essential tools for creating lasting customer loyalty and building brand awareness. In fact, many experts believe that without CRM, it becomes nearly impossible to effectively market products and services.

Here are eight examples of innovative marketing and CRM:

1. A local grocery store uses social media to engage shoppers.

2. An eCommerce site offers free shipping to encourage repeat purchases.

3. A restaurant provides discounts to loyal diners.

4. A hotel rewards guests with points for every dollar spent.

5. A car dealership gives away gift cards to entice potential buyers.

6. A clothing retailer sends emails to existing customers to remind them of special promotions.

7. A retail chain encourages customers to shop online by offering a discount code.

8. A bank allows customers to pay bills online.

Examples of CRM Efficiency

CRM systems are used by businesses to track and analyze interactions with customers. They allow companies to better understand how each interaction impacts revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and increase loyalty. Here are five examples of CRM efficiency.

1. A leading retailer uses CRM software to identify potential buyers based on their purchase history. This allows the company to send targeted emails about upcoming promotions and discounts.

2. An insurance provider tracks the status of claims submitted online and via mobile app. By analyzing data, the company can determine whether it needs to adjust rates or offer additional coverage.

3. A law firm uses CRM software to keep track of client information and communicate with clients. This ensures that lawyers don’t forget important deadlines and that they’re able to provide accurate billing statements.

4. A financial institution uses CRM software to streamline processes related to loan applications. For example, the system automatically generates letters and forms required by regulators.

5. A healthcare organization uses CRM software to track patient appointments and ensure that doctors see patients within the recommended timeframe.

What is Customer Relationship Management?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important parts of any company’s strategy because it allows you to keep track of every aspect of customer interaction. In fact, many businesses use CRM systems today to track customer information, such as contact history, sales leads, and even product preferences.

A CRM system helps companies maintain relationships with customers by providing tools to help employees better understand what makes each specific customer tick. This way, you can provide personalized experiences that are tailored specifically to each individual customer.

5. Coordinating Between Applications

Customer relationship management (CRM) is about managing customers throughout the entire buying cycle. This includes everything from identifying potential buyers, qualifying leads, nurturing prospects, closing sales, and following up with existing clients.

A customer relationship management system automates many of these processes, allowing you to focus on growing your business rather than wasting time on manual data entry.

Marketing automation helps businesses keep track and organize all of the information related to marketing campaigns. From email lists to social media accounts, it tracks all of the activities associated with each campaign.

Sales automation ensures that every interaction between a business and its customers goes smoothly, whether it’s via phone calls, emails, or text messages.

4. Tracking Customer Activity

The most successful businesses are those that track customer activity across multiple channels. This allows you to see what works best for each individual customer. For example, email campaigns might work well for some people while Facebook ads might work better for others. You can use analytics tools to help you figure out which channels work best for each customer.

A CRM helps companies better understand how customers interact with them. By tracking customer interactions, you can learn about their preferences and needs. This information can help you tailor future communications to meet specific customer requirements.

3. Managing Customer Feedback

Social media provides an easy way to communicate with customers. But it doesn’t always work out well for businesses. In fact, according to research conducted by the American Express OPEN Innovation Lab, nearly half of consumers surveyed say they are less likely to purchase from a brand because of negative social media posts about the product or service. And while many brands use social media to respond to complaints, others don’t know what to do once they receive a complaint.

A good CRM system helps businesses improve customer satisfaction and increase revenue. However, most small businesses lack the resources necessary to build and maintain one. Fortunately, there are some affordable options available today. Here are three ways you can start improving customer satisfaction today.

1. Use a CRM System

CRM systems help companies track interactions with customers and prospects across multiple channels. They provide detailed information about each interaction, including the date, time, location, type of device used, and whether the person contacted the company online, over the phone, or in person. This data allows companies to identify trends and patterns that can lead to improvements in marketing campaigns, pricing strategies, and overall customer experience.

2. Manage Customer Feedback

Once a customer contacts a company via social media, email, or phone, the next step is to respond appropriately. If a customer complains about poor customer service, the best response might be to apologize and offer a coupon code or discount. On the other hand, if a customer asks for a refund, the company needs to make sure it processes the request correctly.

3. Improve Customer Satisfaction

If your company has a positive reputation on social media, then you should encourage customers to share their experiences. A simple thank-you note can go a long way toward building trust and loyalty. Once you have established a relationship with a customer, you can also ask for feedback. Customers will appreciate knowing that their opinions matter.

Utilize Business Analytics

Data is a hot commodity, especially among large organizations. But it’s not just about collecting data; you must know how to analyze it.

CRM platforms help businesses spot patterns that can present opportunities or issues that could lead to an escalated problem. Companies are able to identify potential problems before they become a bigger issue.

In addition, CRM software helps streamline processes and make sure employees are following best practices. This allows companies to improve customer satisfaction while reducing costs.

Automating Consistent Responses

Automated messages are great because they allow you to quickly respond to customer inquiries without having to manually enter response into your CRM system every single time. But what makes an effective automated message? Here are some tips to help you craft a consistent experience across channels.

Branding and Customers

Branding is about building a positive perception of your product among consumers. This involves creating a consistent identity across multiple channels, including social media, print ads, packaging, etc. In addition, it helps you develop a strong relationship with your target audience. If your brand is well known, people are likely to trust what you say and do. They might even buy your products just because they like you.

A strong brand image will increase consumer satisfaction and help in customer loyalty. Your customers want to know that they can count on you to deliver quality products and services.

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective ways to establish a strong brand image. When someone recommends your product or service to others, it makes them look good. People love talking about great brands, especially those that offer high-quality products and services.

Solve Customer Problems

Customer satisfaction is directly linked to whether or not you solve problems for customers. If you don’t know where to start, ask yourself questions like “What do I want my customers to say about me?” and “How am I doing now?” You’ll find that most people aren’t satisfied with their current situation. They’re looking for ways to make things better.

Customers expect companies to go above what is required to satisfy customers. This expectation stems from the fact that customers often feel entitled to certain levels of service. When a company does something extra, it makes customers feel valued.

Companies who seek out customer feedback can improve their services and increase revenues. By asking customers what they think about your product, you can learn what features they’d like to see added, what they dislike about your product, and what changes could help them use your product more effectively.

Improve Conversion Rates

The most important thing you can do to improve your sales funnel is to increase conversions. You don’t necessarily need to spend money to make money, but you do need to focus on increasing conversions. If you’re spending money on ads, you’ll probably see some improvement, but it won’t be enough to really move the needle.

In fact, there are many ways to improve conversions without spending money. Here are six things you can do today to start improving your conversion rates:

1. Make sure your landing page is optimized for conversions.

2. Use clear calls to action.

3. Include a video.

4. Provide free samples.

5. Offer a discount.

6. Give away a bonus.

Use Social Media for Customer Service

Social media is a great way for businesses to connect with customers and build stronger relationships. However, it’s important to remember that social media isn’t just about posting pictures of yourself and your products. You must respond to negative reviews and comments, and make sure you provide helpful information to people who ask questions.

Respond quickly to social media reviews. If someone leaves a review on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, respond within 24 hours. This gives you a chance to address the issue directly and resolve the problem. Also, don’t forget to thank the person for taking the time to write a review.

Make sure your responses are personalized and relevant. When responding to a comment or question, try to answer it specifically. For example, if someone asks whether your product works well with children, say something like, “Yes, our kids love playing with it.” Don’t simply post a generic response such as, “Thanks for letting us know. We appreciate hearing feedback from our customers.”

Continuous Marketing Engagement

Customer retention is key to building strong long term relationships. Engagement is the foundation for any successful customer relationship. Continuous marketing engagement is necessary for building trust between businesses and customers, and it helps build loyalty among customers.

Loyalty programs are very popular today. These programs give you an opportunity for continuous marketing engagement with your customers. Customers who receive rewards tend spend more money.

Automate Customer Support

Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular because they offer a cost-effective solution for customer support. In fact, according to Forrester Research, 60% of companies plan to use chatbots within the next three years.

A chatbot is a program designed to simulate conversation with humans via text messages. These programs can handle simple inquiries such as flight information, hotel reservations, restaurant recommendations, and even book appointments.

The most common type of bot is called a “conversational agent.” This type of bot uses natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and speech recognition technology to understand what people say and respond appropriately.

Live Chat and Chatbots

Live chat platforms allow you to engage with customers in real time. Chatbots are artificial intelligence programs designed to simulate human conversation. They use natural language processing to understand what people say and respond appropriately.

A good customer relationship management strategy includes both online and offline channels, such as email, phone calls, text messages, social media posts, physical mail, etc. Online marketing tools like Facebook ads, Twitter campaigns, and LinkedIn groups can be used to promote products and services. Offline marketing strategies include events, trade shows, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Customer relations are important for any type of business. They can range anywhere from simple things like answering product questions to complex ones like developing strong relationships with customers over time. In this article we’ll take a look at how you can use customer relations to help grow your business.

Advantages of Chatbots

Why do customers like talking to chatbots? Because it saves them time and money. When someone types a question into a chatbot, the bot responds immediately. If the person needs additional information, he/she can ask follow up questions. And if there is no response, the customer can send another inquiry.

In addition to saving time and money, chatbots are preferred over traditional methods of communication. People prefer chatting with a bot rather than calling a human being. A survey conducted by IBM found that 75% of respondents said they would prefer to talk to a robot over a live person.

Another benefit of chatbots is that they can provide real-time assistance to customers. Instead of waiting days or weeks for a reply, a customer can receive immediate responses from a chatbot.

Finally, a chatbot can improve customer satisfaction. By providing quick answers to frequently asked questions, a chatbot helps increase customer loyalty.

Have an Omnichannel Presence

Omni channel marketing is about creating a single view of your brand across multiple channels. This includes having a strong digital footprint, physical storefronts, mobile apps, email campaigns, and even brick-and-mortar locations. An omni channel strategy helps you reach customers where they are most likely to spend their time online and offline.

For instance, let’s say you sell shoes. You want to make sure that people see your products on social media, read reviews, and find out information about your product. But you don’t just want to put up a shoe store on Facebook. You want to offer a variety of ways for potential customers to buy your shoes. For example, you could add a section on your site dedicated to selling shoes. Then, you could use Facebook ads to promote your shoe store. Or, you could include a link to your shoe store in your blog posts. And finally, you could send emails to your list asking them to check out your shoe store.

The key here is consistency. If someone sees your shoe store on Facebook, it needs to look the same as it does on your website. Otherwise, your customers won’t know whether they’re buying shoes from your main website or from Facebook.

Reduce Customer Effort and Boost Customer Satisfaction

Live chat and cobrowing solutions save agents’ time and energy. They can focus on providing excellent customer service while still having time left over to do other things.

For example, one agent at CBK used to spend up to four hours each day looking for information about products and services. Now she spends 30 seconds per call finding out what her customers want. She saves time and energy, and her customers appreciate it.of CRM Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a powerful tool used to help businesses grow. Companies use it to nurture leads, convert prospects into buyers, and improve customer retention. Here are some examples of how marketers use marketing automation.

1. Email campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of digital marketing today because it allows you to communicate directly with your audience. You can send out automated messages to people based on their interests, behavior, location, and other factors. This type of email campaign can be very useful for generating leads and improving customer relationships.

2. Social media management

Social media management tools allow you to schedule posts across multiple social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. These platforms make it easy to manage your brand’s presence online. Some even include analytics features to measure performance and track conversions.

3. Customer Relationship Management

CRMs are software programs designed to keep track of interactions with clients and customers. They allow you to organize contacts, notes, tasks, documents, and other information about each person. Many CRMs offer marketing automation capabilities such as emailing customers, scheduling follow up calls, and automating repetitive tasks.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is important for all businesses, regardless of size. CRM software helps companies manage interactions with customers and prospects across multiple channels. CRM systems help companies track leads, nurture them, qualify them, convert them into sales, and close deals.

Reactive vs. Proactive Customer Relations

There are two main types of customer relations: reactive customer relations and proactive customer relations. Reactive customer relations are those that occur when something goes wrong. For example, if someone calls into your store complaining about a problem with one of your products, you could react by offering to replace it free of charge. This is reactive customer relations because you’re reacting to a negative experience.

Proactive customer relations are those where you actively try to make sure that people have a great experience. These are usually done by providing incentives for repeat purchases. If you sell shoes online, you might reward customers who buy multiple pairs by giving them a discount on future purchases. You’d be doing proactive customer relations because you’re trying to encourage people to do what you want them to do.

A good way to improve customer relationships is to offer rewards for repeated purchases.

Just How Important are Customer Relations?

Customer relations are an essential part in every business. They help companies build relationships with their clients and maintain those relationships over time. In fact, according to research conducted by the American Express OPEN Innovation Center, 63% of consumers say that great customer service makes them feel valued and appreciated. Would you do business with a company that treated you poorly – if there were alternatives?

A good customer relations strategy will help businesses retain existing customers and attract new ones. If you want to make sure that your customers are satisfied, it helps to know what they like and dislike about your products and services. You can use this information to improve your offerings and provide better customer experiences.

Here are some ways that you can start building strong customer relations today:

1. Be Transparent

Your customers want to trust you. Showing them that you care about them and their needs will earn their loyalty. Make sure that you communicate clearly and honestly with your customers. This includes responding quickly to questions and concerns.

2. Listen Carefully

You don’t always have to speak up. Sometimes, listening is just as effective as talking. When you listen closely to your customers’ problems, you’ll learn how to solve them. And you might even find out something useful that you didn’t realize you needed to know.

Recap: Exactly What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a way of managing relationships with customers. In short, it’s a method of understanding what your customers want and how best to provide it to them.

A customer relationship management model helps companies understand what their clients want, and what they expect from them. This process involves gathering data, analyzing it, and deciding whether to make changes based on the analysis. Once you have identified your target audience, you should develop an appropriate strategy to reach out to those people.

Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. It provides everything needed to effectively manage every aspect of the relationship between a company and its customers.

The post Customer Relationship Management for Online Success appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Facebook’s “About” section (also referred to as a “bio” in this post) is one of the first things visitors see when landing on your Facebook page. Keeping this section up-to-date in a creative and succinct manner is crucial for the overall appearance, quality and understanding of your page and what you do.

If you think about it, social media bios are the elevator pitch of the digital age. You have ten to thirty seconds – and 160 characters – to convince someone to engage with you.

Here are some quick and easy steps for making your Facebook bio powerful and engaging.

Personal or Professional Facebook Bio?

Many of us have trouble writing our bios. We don’t sure where to begin, but we want to make it intriguing enough to draw someone in. Or perhaps we simply don’t feel the need to compose one. However, the following advice will help you write a fantastic bio that will make you stand out from the throng.

1. Keep Your Bio Brief and Simple

More than 150 words should not be used for your bio. You don’t want to overwhelm people with information. Keep it brief if you do decide to write more than 150 words. Nobody wants to read a novel about you, so refrain from waxing lyrical about oneself. They merely wish to learn more about you.

2. Be Yourself

Make no attempt to sound like someone else. Identify a quality about yourself that sets you apart from other people. For instance, I write. I therefore mention my writing abilities in my bio. By doing this, I can let people know how enthusiastically I support their online success.

3. Demonstrate Your Unique Qualities

Anything that makes you stand out from the competitors should be included. Perhaps you’ve put a lot of effort into developing your brand over the years. Include that in your biography. Perhaps you have a unique skill set that you employ to support business expansion. Describe that in your summary.

The Personal Facebook profile

You should put information about yourself that accurately represents who you are in your personal Facebook profile. It ought to include things like your passions, accomplishments, and motivational quotes. It makes you more comprehensible to readers by providing these components.

Write a compelling profile to start:

Your social network bio should start out with an attention-grabbing headline that draws the reader in.

In the opening paragraph, communicate why you are unique and hiring you would be a good idea.

Your bio should contain keywords that define what you do. This aids Google in comprehending your mission.

1. Write About Yourself and Use Your Name

Visitors will read this first while learning about you. Make sure to give your full legal name, including middle names and maiden names, as well as your  name. The basis of your identity is your name, so pick something memorable and distinctive. If you have several names, you might want to list them all separately.

What Do You Do First?

There are numerous approaches you can take when writing about oneself online. You might either write a lengthy or brief bio. You can include each job you’ve ever held, or you can only mention your most recent full-time position. Or perhaps you’d like to concentrate on your present professional path. Whatever strategy you choose, make sure it’s understandable. Make it simple for readers to understand what you write if you want to promote yourself as a writer.

Consider including some of your prior positions in addition to your current one if you want to highlight your professional experience. In this manner, prospective employers are fully aware of your qualifications. You might even discover common ground with someone in your field if you worked in other fields. For instance, if you worked in web design, you may mention how you contributed to the creation of a website like Amazon.com. If you handled residential or commercial properties, you may narrate tales about your management style.

Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t use both strategies simultaneously. You might state, “I’m a freelance writer with a focus on travel pieces.” Then, you may include samples of your work that are more particular, such as “My most recent post explored the greatest locations to enjoy fall foliage in New England.”

Here, simplicity is the key to success. Avoid using excessive jargon or trying to explain things in a way that is difficult for others to understand. Stick to the fundamentals instead.

Make sure that your profile is simple to read and comprehend.

2. List Your Interests

You ponder this question every day: “What is my daily schedule?” You may be considering which hobbies to list in your Facebook page. Following are some suggestions if you’re not sure where to begin:

Activities you enjoy doing outside of work are called hobbies. They might be doing anything, including playing sports or reading literature.
Make careful to list interests that are compatible with your career objectives. For instance, be careful to highlight that you have led teams in your community if you hope to become a manager someday.

Remember to keep your interests in mind. Some individuals might believe that hobbies are only activities you engage in when you’re bored. But there are numerous varieties of hobbies. Spend some time considering what you want to do. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to give it a try. Or perhaps you have never tried it before. In either case, be sure to add it to your profile.
Avoid making up fictitious hobbies, too.

Things like “I enjoy watching movies” fall under this category. Be sincere and precise.

Keep in mind that your activities reveal who you are. So be sure to showcase who you really are.

3. Remember to Include Your Pets!

The largest social network in the world, Facebook has over 2 billion users who are active every month. As a result, it is among the most widely used platforms for companies looking to connect with potential clients. When writing about your brand on the website, there are numerous things to take into account. Your pets should always be brought up since they are excellent conversation starters.

Recent studies have shown that pets are playing a bigger role in our lives. According to a Harris Poll report from 2018, nearly half of Americans say owning a dog or cat keeps them happy and healthy. In fact, in recent years there has been 20% increase in the percentage of homes with pets.

According to a recent study, social media posts on pets receive more likes, comments, and shares than those about politics or famous people. A post about a family member’s birthday party, for instance, drew three times as many replies as one concerning President Trump. Additionally, a post about a dog getting adopted received almost twice as many comments as one about a famous person.

Why then do we fail to incorporate our cherished pet pals into our online marketing initiatives? It seems that posting pictures of our pets to Facebook actually boosts engagement. According to research in the Journal of Consumer Research, posting pictures of dogs and cats on Facebook results in an increase in likes, comments, shares, and even visits to the profile owner’s website.

The manner in that people interact with animals may be the cause of this occurrence. Depending on how much we care about someone, we prefer to like and trust them. People are inclined to show their affection for us by taking images of our pets. Therefore, the next time you want to advertise your brand, be sure to include a few pictures of your preferred canine companion. You never know, it might become popular.

Quick Tips for Writing the Ideal Facebook Bio For Your Business

Facebook has made adjustments to the way that bios are shown in search results. While some individuals are happy with the change, others think it can be detrimental to businesses because it makes it more difficult to rank well in searches. In fact, according to one study, a post with a bio had an average CTR of just 0.25%.

The good news is that you can take steps to ensure your biography is optimized for social media sites like Facebook. The following five suggestions will assist you in creating the ideal Facebook bio for your company:

Put in a “Call to Action”

Every area of your Facebook bio should have a call to action if you want to increase conversions. Say, for instance, that your business sells widgets. Consider writing “Shop our selection of widgets” or something similar. Visitors will always know where to go next in this manner.

Mention Your Company’s Mission and Values

Keep it brief—no more than 200 words—and stick to the essentials, including your company’s objective. If you’re tempted to include more details, think about removing any extraneous filler. Instead, concentrate on giving your viewers something useful.

Several of the Most Popular Facebook “bio” Errors:

Your Facebook biography should explain your significance to readers. You shouldn’t just say, “I’m a writer,” in your bio. Say something more precise, such as “I am a food writer because I feel that memories of food from our childhood towns connect us to one another and to our world,” instead. A link to your website should also be included so that visitors can learn more about you elsewhere.

Don’t forget to link to your website from your social media profiles. One of the finest strategies to get more people to your website is by doing this. People will undoubtedly click the link if they want to learn more about you.

Make sure your summary doesn’t go on for too long. There is a limit to how long profiles can be, so don’t go over it. A reasonable guideline is to keep it at 300 words or less.

Excellent Facebook Bio Concepts and Examples

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, and it’s simple to understand why. There are many methods to connect with friends and family, and the UI is easy enough for anyone to use. Although many companies have Facebook profiles set up, few actually know how to use them. Even fewer people actually see the value of having a strong Facebook profile or bio.

A Facebook bio serves as your account’s equivalent of a resume or CV. It provides a brief overview of who you are and what you do for potential consumers. Someone will probably look at your profile if they want to know more about you. A professionally written bio will increase your credibility and make you seem more reliable, which will increase your chances of landing a job.

A strong profile or bio can not only make you stand out from the competitors but also increase traffic. Links to your website, blog, and other online resources are acceptable. People will find you more quickly and readily as a result, which will make it simpler for them to become fans of your page. – and of course, be sure to include your contact details.

1: Mari Smith

Mari Smith is the founder of Mariposa Media Group, a San Francisco-based digital marketing firm. She recently discussed how she connects with potential clients via Facebook and other social media platforms. Mari says, “I utilize LinkedIn to locate people I want to work with. I research the companies where I want to work and post messages on social media asking if anyone knows someone there.

Facebook is one of Mari’s most effective tools since it enables her to connect with experts in her industry. Mari, however, advises against viewing social media as a purely networking tool. She clarifies, “You don’t want to just hop on LinkedIn and start sending out inquiries. Instead, pay attention to developing relationships with people you already know and make sure those ties are valuable.

2: New York Times

One of the most reputable news sources in the world is The New York Times. It publishes some of the most significant articles ever written and has some of the top correspondents in the industry. The paper has been published online since 1996, though, didn’t you know? And that a free daily email newsletter is now available? or that in 2013 it started a podcast? In fact, the Times has taken practically every step imaginable to make readers aware of its existence.

Today, we’ll look at illustrations as a different method the newspaper has used to grab readers’ attention. A simplified method using illustrations makes it simpler to learn, much simpler to remember, and much less scary than reading text.

3. Three Fat Guys

The brief description is used to explain a person’s line of work. The extended version provides extra details about the subject. In this illustration, three overweight guys wine is being discussed. “Tony works in marketing,” we may say. Alternately, “Tony writes.” But it doesn’t actually provide much context. So let’s provide some background.

A boutique vineyard called Three Fat Guys Wine is situated in California’s Napa Valley. Making excellent wines at fair pricing is our aim. We think that tasty food and beverages go together. We like to bring bottles of wine home from our favorite restaurants to savor later. We hope you’ll share our enthusiasm for good wine with us.

That’s much more intriguing now. You’ve provided some background information and some insight into your process. The time is right at this point to use keywords. You might use the following language to target the keyword term “three overweight guys”:

“We enjoy dining and drinking together. Additionally, we enjoy bringing bottles of wine home from our favorite places to drink later. We’d like to occasionally share those experiences with you. Come and share our enthusiasm with us.

You can see how simple it is to add keywords to the summary.

 4. Chasing Grace

Jewelry crafted by hand is available here. Their product images are stunning and do a fantastic job of showcasing each item. They make it simple to find what you’re looking for by using a distinctive color scheme and adding some entertaining typography. Customers can freely browse the website because there are no prices posted anywhere on it. Even additional discounts are available to those who register for emails.

The website does an excellent job of showing their work, demonstrating that they provide high-quality items. Additionally, since they don’t specify prices, clients are free to browse and see what appeals to them. They can buy something right away if they think it looks excellent.

6: Nowness

When I was employed by a digital marketing company, one of our clients wanted to introduce a new product. They enquired as to what would be required to ensure that people were aware of it. We created a collection of items, such as blog entries, press releases, and social media posts. There was a video missing, though. So that’s what we did.

We produced a 30-second video describing why this product was great and how it might be used to address various issues. Then, we distributed it widely. Our YouTube channel received over 20,000 views in only 24 hours. And we had more than 50,000 in just two weeks.

It is easy to learn from this. Start talking about yourself if you want to expand your audience. People enjoy hearing other people’s stories. They care about you, thus they want to know more about you. People will react when you put yourself out there.

7. Snipz

One of my favorite tools is Snipz since it makes creating an about page better. Snipz is a tool that enables you to quickly add a call-to-action button to your About Page if you haven’t heard of it.

Recap: How to Stand Out on Facebook Using Your Bio

One of the most crucial places for businesses to establish their brand identity is in their Facebook profiles. They must be well-written and interesting because they frequently provide people their first impression of your company. But how can you distinguish yours from the competition in a way that makes it stand out? What we suggest is as follows:

1. Create a Succinct Bio for Yourself

A Facebook bio serves as a short resume. It shouldn’t be too long because that makes it hard to read. Around 200 words is a good length, while some individuals prefer shorter ones.

2. Add Essential Phrases

In order to find goods or services online, consumers enter keywords into a search bar. In your Facebook bio, you must use pertinent keywords if you want to appear higher in search results. Use your keywords wisely throughout your writing rather than cramming your bio with them. If you sell shoes, for instance, include keywords related to shoes in your description.

3. Maintain Consistency

It’s likely that you won’t need to edit an excellent bio once you’ve written it. You will, however, lose credibility if you consistently start writing something altogether different. Over time, keep your bio up to date with your newest accomplishments.

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The post Facebook Bio Examples – Ideas to Create a Great Bio appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

This post is the fourth in our series on how to write impressive bios for social media. To catch up, here are our first three:

✓Blog: 9 Steps to Write a Killer ‘About Me’ Blog Author Bio that Doesn’t Suck

✓Facebook: Facebook Bio Examples – Ideas to Create a Cool Bio

✓Instagram: How to Create Good Instagram Bios: The Ultimate Checklist

Twitter bios are one of the most important parts of your social media presence. They serve as your online identity and provide a window into your personality. If done well, they can make or break how people perceive you.

In this article, we’ll cover some tips and ideas about your perfect Twitter bio ideas. We’ll also include examples of Twitter bios written by real brands.

Whether you’re treating it earnestly, opportunistically, or as a complete joke, your Twitter bio is your elevator pitch for who you are. – Lara Cohen, Twitter’s head of entertainment talent and lifestyle partnerships.

What is a Powerful Twitter Bio?

A good Twitter bio should tell someone who you are, and what your job is, and give them some relevant content to read. You don’t need to say everything about yourself, just enough to make people interested in knowing more.

Don’t forget to include an avatar picture if you want to stand apart from the crowd. An image helps people remember you better and makes them feel like they know you already.

Use emojis to express how you’re feeling. These little icons help convey emotion and show others what you mean without having to type long sentences.

Avoid using common words in your Twitter bios. Instead, use short phrases and simple language.

Consider using a Twitter Bio generator to find some inspiration. There are tons of tools online that will generate random Twitter bios for you based on the keywords you enter. Some even allow you to add images to your profile.

A good Twitter biography should tell people who you are without being too wordy. You only get a limited character amount to describe yourself, so make sure you’re concise and clear. Try not to include any unnecessary information such as links to your website or social media profiles.

Some business owners want their bios to be personal and to describe themselves and what they do. Some people prefer it when it’s funny and quirky. Whatever your ideal bio might look like, you need to think carefully about writing it down.

Avoid Obvious and Overused Buzzwords

Buzzword usage is ubiquitous. You’ll find them in advertisements, tweets, blogs, and even some news stories. Some people utilize buzzword usage because it makes them sound more intelligent and are very current with business trends. Other people utilize them because they realize that’s what everybody else does. And yet others simply enjoy throwing around meaningless jargon because they believe it makes them sound cooler and more professional and “hip”.

Using terms like “Lean Startup” or “Agile Marketing” doesn’t make you sound smarter than someone who calls themselves a “marketing expert.” It’s just a meaningless label. If you want to sound unique, write something like “I am an expert at B2B Software Technology Market­ing”.

If you tell someone that you’re a “growth hacker” they probably won’t understand exactly what you’re talking about unless they are a marketer like you, and they are not to be considered potential clients or prospective followers. Someone might even assume you mean computer hacking – someone who breaks into company networks to steal information. Let your potential clients or customers know what you can do for them.

Powerful Twitter Bio Ideas

Compelling Twitter bios have made online conversations between people feel like real life conversations with thousands of active participants.

To write a good tweet, you need to put the right words in the correct order. To write a good Twitter post, you must arrange the words correctly. You only have so many characters available. Writing a compelling Twitter bio will increase your chances of attracting new followers. It’s harder when you have just a 160 character limit to display your entire brand identity to your Twitter audience.

Amazing Twitter Bio Examples:

1 – The Fuzzy Family Bio

Used by: Politicians, Public Figures, VIP’s

What it means: You’re a VIP and have no need to introduce yourself. Putting family first “is a way of politicians and public figures humanizing themselves,” says Cohen. “It makes these massively public, superhuman figures seem approachable, which is what Twitter does for public figures.”

For example, on Twitter, President Obama puts family first: “Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States.”

2 – The Résumé

Used by: Writers/Content Creators, Professionals, and those using Twitter as a venue for self-promotion

What it means: You’re hustling—and, according to Cohen, there’s no shame in that. “For the real people among us, especially someone like you who is a writer and is putting your work out there, people use Twitter and, by extension, their Twitter bio to announce who they are in this very public universe.”

3 – The Autobiography

Used by: CEO’s, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs

What it means: You hardly ever sleep. This Twitter bio art form, tweeters tell their life story in the space of 160 characters.

4 – The Minimalist

Used by: Celebrities, Comedians, some of Twitter’s most popular kids

What it means: You’re “untouchably” cool, and everyone wants to be you. Bonus points when your minimal bio also happens to be funny. According to Cohen: “Announcing that you have a sense of humor about yourself as a celebrity is a good look.”

5 – The Disclaimer

Used by: Considerate tweeters who have a way of warning about their tendencies, like a political reporter warning about her numerous Red Sox tweets. Bio disclaimers can also come from a place of self-preservation: Shonda Rhimes tells her 1.2 million followers: “I make stuff up for a living. It’s not real, okay? Don’t tweet me your craziness.”

What it means: You have a considerable following and impeccable online etiquette, and you’d rather not weather the backlash when you tweet obsessively about something.

First Step: Figure Out How You are Going to Stand Out.

A good bio has a mix of a profession as well as personal. Share something that will connect you with your audience.

Mix parts of #1 – You as a real person (use your true identity/profession): Chef, Journalist, CEO, Student, Artist, Lifestyle Coach

Mix parts of #2 – Your personality: Coffee snob, surfer, yoga lover, fitness guru, backyard chicken farmer, chief cook and bottle washer, Dad, Minecraft geek.

The key is to find the right balance between personal and professional. The professional side gives your credentials while the personality side shows an insight into who you are as a human being. It gives potential followers something they can latch on to talk to you about.- – they are both relevant pieces of content.

Introduce Yourself

Your bio is one of the most important parts of your online presence. It tells potential customers what you do, how long you’ve been doing it, and why they should care.

In fact, according to HubSpot research, a well-written bio is one of the best ways to convert visitors into leads.

Introduce yourself to potential followers by explaining what you do. You may want to include a short paragraph describing your business, share some key qualities about your company, or let people know what to look forward to if they follow you.

Here are Some Tips to Make Sure Yours Stands Out:

1. Keep it brief. You’re trying to convey information quickly, so keep it to three paragraphs max. If you go over four, consider breaking it up into multiple sections.

2. Make it personal. People want to know who you are and why you’re worth reading. Don’t just list off your job title. Instead, tell stories about how you got where you are today, and what you see as your mission in life. Include examples of projects you worked on and awards you won. This helps humanize you and makes readers feel like you’re talking directly to them.

3. Focus on skills and accomplishments. When writing your bio, focus on what you offer and what sets you apart from others. For example, if you’re a web developer, talk about your work experience and mention the specific technologies you use. Or if you’re a writer, highlight your published works.

4. Be honest. If you don’t believe something you wrote is true, change it. There’s no reason to lie about your background or qualifications. Readers can see right through it. They want your real life.

Include Your Website Link

Include your website link in your bio. This helps people find you online. You can include it in your profile picture too. If you want to make sure your website gets found, use hashtags. Hashtags are keywords that help people find things on social media like Twitter. For example, #webdesign might show up in someone’s feed if they follow web design blogs.

Don’t Forget to Add Hashtags

Hashtags are very useful for finding information online. You see them everywhere, even on social media posts. But how do you know what hashtags work best for your brand? And why does adding one make such a big difference?

The most important thing to remember is that there are no hard rules for creating a successful hashtag campaign. If you use too many hashtags, you risk looking like a spammer. On the flip side, if you don’t include enough hashtags, you’re missing out on potential traffic and exposure. So where do you start? Here are four tips to keep in mind when planning your next hashtag campaign.

1. Start small

If you’ve never done a hashtag campaign before, begin with just a few hashtags. This way, you won’t run into problems down the road. Once you feel comfortable with the process, you can expand to multiple tags.

2. Use popular ones

There are thousands of hashtags out there, and some of them are much better suited for specific types of campaigns. For example, #lunchbox might be perfect for lunch recipes while #dinnerparty obviously would be used for dinner parties. Make sure you choose hashtags that fit your business and target audience.

Use Keywords

Twitter is one of the most effective ways to promote your brand online. This social media platform allows you to reach out to potential customers and build relationships with hundreds of thousands of people across different industries. But there are some things you must know about Twitter marketing before you start tweeting away. Here are three important tips to help you improve your Twitter presence.

#1 – Use Keywords

Keyword research is essential to finding the best keywords for your business. You want to use words that are popular among consumers, but that aren’t too competitive. If your product or service isn’t unique, it might be tough to rank high in search engines.

#2 – Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags are another great way to make connections with others on Twitter. They’re easy to add to your tweet and allow you to find conversations related to certain topics. To learn how to use them effectively, check out our guide here.

#3 – Be Consistent

Consistency is key. Tweets are often read within 1limited characters, so don’t try to cram too much information into each post. Instead, write concise messages that are informative and helpful.

If you follow these simple rules, you’ll see success on Twitter!

Highlight Your Achievements

The best way to show off your achievements is to give them a humble brag. Whether it’s a promotion you received, a project you worked on, or something else entirely, make sure to highlight it (and use it in a hashtag) on your social media profiles. You don’t want people to think you’re bragging just because you’ve accomplished something great. Instead, let everyone know what you did and why it matters.

Show Your Personality

Your brand identity is important. You want people to know why you and your business are unique.

Show what makes you unique. But how do you convey that without being too personal? How do you show off your personality while still keeping it professional? We’ve got tips on how to make your bio reflect your brand.

Include Calls To Action In All Marketing Materials

Your call to action should include directions about how your customers can act. This includes instructions about where to go, what to do, and even how much it costs. For example, you might say “click here to download our free white paper,” or “visit us online.”

Make Sure Your Call To Action Is Clear And Concise

A call to action needs to be clear and concise. If your call to action doesn’t clearly state what the customer should do next, there could be confusion. You want people to know exactly what they’re supposed to do.

For example, if you sell products, your call to action might look like this: “Click here to purchase our product.” Or, if you offer webinars, your call to action could read something like this: “Sign up now!”

Need some extra help? Check out the following Twitter bio generator.

Easy Route: Twitter Bio Generator

1 – The Bio Generator

Just click “Generate Bio,” and voila—out comes your canned description. Here’s what I got:

I wouldn’t put much stock in the outcome (it always changes) but it’s fun to try and may get your creative juices flowing.

Here’s another fun one:

2 – This one from College Humor is similar to the word game Mad Libs: The Ultimate Bio Generator

Do you have trouble coming up with an informative yet whimsical Twitter bio? Just use this handy three-step guide and you’ll be a Twitter Pro in no time!

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Save hours each week with dlvr.it’s powerful Twitter Automation

The post How to Craft an Awesome Twitter Bio appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Before you can manage your Google business profile, you’ll need to first claim and verify your Google My Business listing.

In this post, we’ll provide some background on Google My Business listings along with instructions on how to claim and verify your business on Google.

What are Google Business Listings?

When you search on Google or Google Maps, you’ll regularly see business listings as part of the search results.
These are the search results that display vital information about relevant businesses in your local area. You can quickly view the business name, photos, description, ratings, address, phone number and hours of operation.

Google generates these business listings from publicly available information. So if you’re a business owner, your business may be listed here – even if you’ve never added your business details to Google.

What many business owners don't know is that you can update your business details, respond to reviews, and interact with potential customers via your Google My Business listing.
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First, you’ll need to claim and verify your business listing. Once you complete this simple process, you can update your business hours, add photos to your listing, respond to reviews, and answer customer questions.

You can also post your most recent offers, updates, and events to your Google business listing. This means prospective customers will see your latest promotions in the search results when they search for your business on Google search and Google Maps.

 You can use dlvr.it to schedule and auto post your promos and updates to your Google business listing. Check out our Google My Business scheduler and auto poster. 

Why are Google My Business Listings So Important?

Your Google My Business listing is often the first thing prospective customers see when they search for your business.
In many cases, prospective customers will make the decision to visit your business (or not) after viewing your listing, without ever clicking through to your website.

To give you a sense of how important Google Business Listings are for local businesses, consider the following. The vast majority of smartphone owners regularly use maps and navigation apps. Google Maps is by far the most widely used navigation app. Google Maps is used by close to 70% of smartphone users – nearly 6x over the number 2 app (Waze at 12%).

To make a powerful first impression on these customers, a strong and accurate Google My Business listing is critical.

For instance, if your listing doesn’t contain an accurate description of your business or lacks attractive photos, you may be losing customers at the very start of the search process.

If your listing includes the wrong hours, you might be losing customers who think you are closed when you are actually open for business.

What’s included in a Google My Business Listing?

Google Business listings display vital business information to prospective customers including your business name, ratings, hours of operation, and a brief description of your business. Google business listings also include vital contact information including your physical address, phone number, and a link to your website.

When searching from Google Maps on mobile devices, users can easily click the business listing to call the business or get directions. Users can also send a text message to the business if the business has activated text messaging.

You can also post your latest promotions, events, and updates on your business listing. Prospective customers will see these updates when your listing displays on Google Search or Maps.

Additionally, Google displays users generated details about the business, including photos, reviews, and questions asked by prospective customers.

Google Business Listings appear in Google Search and Maps results across desktop, mobile and voice search.

If you have used Google, you are familiar with business listings. You’ve very likely used Google business listing to get directions or check a store’s hours.

Why should I claim and verify my Google Business Listing?

Google Business Listings are now a critical component of local SEO. Your Google Business listing is the first thing many prospective customers will see when they search for your business.

The single most important marketing step many local businesses make is making sure your Google listing is accurate, attractive, and up-to-date.

Simply adding an attractive photo, adding your phone number, and updating your hours can make a huge impact on the number of customers find and visiting your business.

Once you complete the verification process, you’ll be able to manage your business listing and interact with prospective customers.

• Update description of your business
• Edit days and hours of operation
• Update phone number
• Edit website link
• Add photos
• Post your latest promotions and updates
• Responding to and managing reviews
• Answer questions
• Your customers can also follow you and get notified when you post promotions, offers, or updates to your listing.
• You can even receive text messages from prospective customers
• View key search analytics for mobile and desktop searches

If all this weren’t enough to convince you of the importance of managing your Google business listing, consider the following.

Many businesses report that updating their Google business listing has a huge positive impact on search engine optimization. In other words, updating your Google business listing may get your business higher up in search results.

How do I claim and verify my Google My Business listing?

1. Log into your Google account and head to Google’s Business Manager

If you have multiple Google accounts, be sure to use your business login. The Google account you start the verification process with will be the manager / owner of your business listing.

Additionally, the verification process (see below) may be faster if you are logged into a Google account associated with your business and with an email address at your business’ domain.

2. Enter the name of your business and select your business location from the list

If you have multiple business locations, you’ll need to claim and verify each one individually. Just start with the first one you want to claim, and then do the process again for the others.

If you do not see your business listed, that means Google does not yet have a listing for your business. Instead of claiming your existing business listing, you’ll simply follow the steps to create a new business listing.

3. Confirm your business details

You’ll be prompted to confirm your business’ name, address, phone, and website.

You’ll also be prompted to select your Business Category.

If your not exactly sure which category best fits your business, go ahead and pick one that is a good fit. Once you verify your business you can update your Business category and you’ll also be able to set more than one category.

4. Start the verification process

Google requires you to verify that you are authorized to manage the business listing.  Once you’ve completed the verification process, you’ll be able to update and manage your business listing.

The most common verification is via old fashioned Postal Mail.  Verification via postal mail is available to all businesses.

Google will send a verification code to your business address via postal mail. It can take 5 or more days for your 5 digit verification code to arrive.

For select business, Google offers faster verification methods, including verification via phone call, email and even instant verification for some Google Search console users.

5. Check your postal mail

You’ll receive a Google envelope at business location address. This typically arrives within 5-7 days once you initiate the verification process.

Inside the envelope is your verification code.

Be on the lookout for something that looks like this:

Open it up to find your verification code:

6. Log back into your Google Account to complete the verification

Head over to Google’s Business Manager.

Select the ‘verify’ option for the location you are verifying and enter your code.

Boom, your business is verified! You can now manage your business listing, add photos, manage reviews and more!

Once you’ve verified, your listing may enter a pending state. During this pending period, your listing may be reviewed for quality and can take up to 3 days to be published.

The post How to Claim and Verify Your Google My Business Listing appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

One of the biggest challenges with Instagram is determining how to maximize your content outside the Instagram app.

We’ve outlined the steps below in the hope that you can easily extend the reach of your images and video outside Instagram.

Instagram now offers a way to make your Instagram feed available anywhere else on the web. You can even use it on sites like Tumblr, WordPress, and Medium without having to go through the hassle of manually uploading each photo. All you have to do is install the InstaRSS app on your computer, sign into your account, and start posting photos. After that, you’ll see a button in the upper left corner that says “Post to RSS.” Click that, enter the URL of any site where you’d like to post your Instagram feed, and you’re good to go.

You can find instructions for installing InstaRSS here. If you don’t know how to add an RSS feed to your site, check out our guide to setting one up.

How to Create Instagram to RSS

We partnered with Instagram to make creating RSS feeds and linking Instagram to Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest a breeze. Not only will this make social media sharing a cinch, but it will also generate new followers. In a few clicks, easily create an Instagram RSS feed with dlvr.it’s FREE tool.

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing apps. But what about those times when you want to share photos with friends on Twitter, Facebook, and even Pinterest? If you don’t use a third-party app, you’re stuck manually copying and pasting each image into the text editor. Not anymore. With InstaRSS, you can easily share pictures directly from Instagram to Twitter, Facebook, and more.

If you already have an account on Instagram, just follow the steps below.

• Open the Instagram mobile app.
• Tap the three dots icon in the upper right corner.
• Select “Share.”
• Click the “+” button next to “Add URL,” select “Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest,” and paste your Instagram URL.
• You’ll see a preview of how the post will look on the respective network. When you’re happy with the appearance, tap “Post.”

Your Smart Instagram RSS Feed and Instagram Stories

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms out there, especially among millennials. But it isn’t always easy to get the best quality pictures from the app. If you’re looking to improve your Instagram feeds, we’ve got some tips that’ll help you do just that.

First things first: You need to know what type of account you want to use. Are you posting for personal reasons? Or are you trying to grow your brand with business account posts? Either way, you’ll want to make sure that you’re taking advantage of the full potential of the Instagram feed plugin (RSS feed automation tool).

Next up, you’ll want to set up your profile. This includes adding a username, choosing a bio, uploading a cover photo, and selecting your location. Once you’re done setting up your profile, you’ll want to start building your feed. To do this, you’ll want to go to the Explore tab and select “Explore.” From here, you can see trending topics, browse hashtags, and even view the feed content of people you follow.

Once you’re ready to build your feed, you’ll want to choose an image input source. There are three options:

• Uploading Images from Your Computer
• Adding Images Directly Into Posts/Stories
• Using Hashtags to Find Relevant Photos

From Your dlvr.it dashboard, Click ‘Add a Feed’

Click the Instagram Icon

If logged into your Instagram account, click ‘Authorize’. If not logged in, you will be prompted to log in and Authorize

Dlvr.it = Intelligent Reporting

Measure audience engagement across social networks and track the performance of each item you share.

Followers: The change in your total number of followers/friends across all your social networks for the last 24 hours. dlvr.it also shows you how that compares to the maximum/minimum daily follower changes over the last 30 days.

Clicks: The total number of clicks across all your Routes for the last 24 hours. dlvr.it shows you how that compares to the most active and least active days over the last 30 days.

Posts: The total number of individual posts made across all your Routes for the last 24 hours. dlvr.it shows you how that compares to the maximum and minimum daily post days over the last 30 days.

Audience: The total number of active users followers/friends (and reach, when enabled) across all your social networks for the last 24 hours. dlvr.it details the changes for each of your social networks during the last 24 hours.

Popular Posts: The most popular posts made in the previous 7 days, including the number of clicks.

Geo: A global map of your click activity over the last 7 days.

Customize Content with Filters

With the amount of information coming through Instagram at any given time, filtering and customization are becoming more important every day. dlvr.it provides a slew of filtering options to help you battle the elements and publish to your heart’s content. You can easily set up filters with your dlvr.it account to tailor your Instagram RSS feed.

• Want to post items that mention iPhone? How about articles that mention iPhone or iPad? How about items that mention iPhone or iPad, but not if the item mentions Facebook? No problem.

• Want to apply filters only to your headlines? To your headlines and bodies? Only to your categories? To headlines, and categories, but not the body? No problem.

Schedule at Just the Right Time

Instagram recently rolled out an update that lets publishers schedule fresh content posts ahead of time. This feature allows brands to set up multiple custom feeds based on different events like holidays, birthdays, etc. If you don’t know how to use the tool, here are some tips.

• Set Up Your Feed

The first step is to create a profile and select “Schedule.” You’ll see the option to add a custom URL, which you can use to link to your site.

• Add Events

Once you’ve added a custom URL, you’re ready to start scheduling posts. To do this, tap on the “+” icon in the upper left corner. From there, choose what type of event you’d like to schedule.

Link to Other Social Networks

The Facebook link tool allows you to quickly and easily post your real-time updates directly to your Facebook Timeline. This way, people can see what you are up to without having to go to your profile. You can even choose to make it public or just visible to friends.

To use the feature, follow these steps:

• Go to the Facebook link tool.
• Click the “Add a link” button.
• Select the type of link you want to include (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
• Choose where you want the link to take visitors.
• Add the URL of the site you want to share from.

Get FREE Instagram followers with Any Instagram RSS Feed

Instagram is a Powerful Marketing Platform

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing apps out there. Millions of people use it every day to capture life’s moments and share them with friends and family. But did you know that Instagram is actually a great way to promote your brand and build up your audience? If you want to start growing your Instagram account, here are 3 ways to do just that.

• Use the Free Instagram Followers Hack

This method is probably the easiest one out of the three. All you need to do is enter your username into the URL bar, hit Enter, and voila! You’ll instantly receive some free followers. There are no strings attached.

• Post Content Regularly

The second method involves posting regularly. When you post consistently, you give your audience a chance to follow you. And once they do, they’ll see your posts everywhere. So make sure you post at least 2 times per week.

• Create Engaging Videos

Videos are the best way to connect with your audience. They allow you to express yourself better than text alone. Plus, videos are easier to share across different platforms. For example, you could upload your video to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter.

• Link Instagram to other Social Media Accounts

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing apps out there. If you want to increase your reach, it might be worth linking up your accounts. Here are three ways to do it.

1. Link Instagram to Tumblr

Tumblr allows you to post images directly onto your site. You can use the same account on both Tumblr and Instagram. Simply go to your profile settings and select “Linked Accounts.” Then follow the instructions.

2. Link Instagram to Pinterest

Pinterest is another great place to promote your Instagram posts. You can link your Instagram feed to your Pinterest account in several different ways. Go to your profile settings and choose “Add Account,” then scroll down to “Other Social Media Links.” Follow the steps.

3. Link Instagram to Facebook

Facebook is still the biggest social network around. It’s also a good place to promote your work. To link Instagram to Facebook, go to your profile settings, then select “Connections.” Choose “Add Connection” and enter your username and password.

Instagram now allows users to easily save their Instagram posts as an RSS feed. This feature is similar to how Twitter works. You can use it to create a feed of your favorite pictures without having to manually post each image. Now, whenever someone visits your profile, they will see your latest images.

You can also find new accounts to follow by searching for hashtags on Instagram. Simply type # into the search bar and hit enter. Instagram will show you a list of people who have used that hashtag. You can choose to follow those accounts directly from there.

If you don’t like the idea of sharing your Instagram feed publicly, you can still make it visible to friends and followers only. Then scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap “See what others see”.

It’s East to Include an RSS Feed on your Instagram Site

Instagram recently added support for embedding apps directly into your profile. Now, you can add an RSS feed app to your Instagram account and display it wherever you like. You can even choose where to place the feed within your profile.

The feature allows you to include social feeds from your favorite websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Blogger, WordPress, YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Flickr, Foursquare, Spotify, Dailymotion, and many others.

You can also use the same technique to add a podcast feed to your Instagram profile. Just make sure you’re logged into your podcast provider’s website and select “Add Podcast.”

The post How to Make an Instagram RSS Feed for FREE appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Generating enough content for your social media posting queue is a challenge. While content quality is important, maintaining an active presence is what gets your posts in front of an audience. Social media algorithms reward consistency.

Yet according to the Content Marketing Institute, B2C content marketers struggle to create consistent,  high-quality posts. The top five challenges included lack of time, producing engaging content, and producing enough content.

img source: Content Marketing Institute

These pain points probably come as no surprise. Producing enough content that engages your audience is every content marketer’s main task.

But those inexperienced with social media forget one thing: not all content must be original.

Post Third-Party Content to Social Media

It’s not too difficult to accept that reposting your own content boosts your business. But what about third-party content? Reposting third-party content is just as beneficial because it:

• Saves time (no content creation needed)
• Builds connections within your industry
• Builds connections with your audience
• Establishes you as an industry expert
• Balances promotional content
• Encourages link building
• Can lead to greater SEO

Businesses are expected to produce a high volume of content just to stay active on social media. This is where third-party content can be a life-saver. For example, Twitter experts have recommended posting anywhere from 15 to 51 times a day. But who wants to spend time creating 15 original tweets every day?

Reposting third-party content can also build relationships. It’s easy to forget that behind every shared Tweet or post, there’s another person.

Sharing posts from other businesses in your industry can establish you as a thought leader who keeps up with the newest trends. On the other hand, reposting content from your audience communicates a willingness to engage and be social on social media.

Reposting third-party content takes away the pressure to churn out high-quality content at a breakneck pace. But finding content for your social media queue is still a lot of work. Fortunately, social media posting tools make the process of discovering and scheduling third party content much easier.

8 Methods to Find Content for Your Social Media Posting Queue

Here are eight ways to find third-party content for your queue without spending all your time on social media.

1. Manual Discovery and Posting

Most people share content by manual discovery. While browsing, they may come across a helpful article, copy the link, and paste it into social media with a quick caption. This method is simple but incredibly slow.

A variation on manual discovery is sharing others’ social media posts. Sharing an existing post excuses you from formatting work or hashtag research. However, finding high-quality posts while you scroll through feeds leaves a lot up to chance. There’s no telling how long you’ll need to scroll before finding content for your queue.

2. Browser Extensions

Browser extensions let you share and schedule content you find from your web browser. Instead of copying a link, opening a social media site, and manually creating a post, you can share the content you’re viewing with just a couple clicks.

Services that include a browser extension include Hootsuite, Buffer, and dlvr.it. While options differ from one service to another, most extensions include options for instant posting, scheduled posts, images, and other formatting.

Browser extensions save time by allowing you to post to social media as you browse. Only using a browser extension still requires you to manually find content. But pair an extension with RSS feeds and social media automation, and you have a recipe for seamless post scheduling.

3. RSS Feed Readers

Many people use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to keep up with news and their favorite websites. If you’re not an RSS user, following an RSS feed could free up some of your time.

With so much content online, it’s difficult to keep up with every website or blog that you admire. People check their favorite blogs regularly or receive notifications through social media or email. But what about the sites that you find useful, but aren’t at the top of your list? These often fall by the wayside.

RSS solves this by combining just headlines – the “simple” part of the acronym – into an easy-to-scan feed. These feeds are useful for keeping up with news, industry changes, and of course, following websites you enjoy.

RSS feed readers take that convenience one step further by integrating multiple RSS feeds into one location. The largest RSS reader is Feedly.

After Google Reader was discontinued in 2013, Feedly quickly filled the gap and has remained the dominant RSS reader, improving upon features that Google Reader lacked. Other RSS readers include Inoreader, NewsBlur, and FeedBin.

Instead of searching for content manually online or scrolling through endless social media posts in an app, RSS readers keep you up-to-date by providing everything in one place. You can follow along with the latest news, blogs, and industry experts without visiting each individual website to look for updates or clogging up your email inbox with RSS updates.

4. Curation Tools

Your content curation strategy may range from RSS feeds to highly sophisticated software customized for your business. Referencing a list of curated content, you can choose the best material for your social media posting queue.

For free, general topic curation tools, start with public user-generated content like Twitter lists and Pinterest boards. These sources reveal the types of content your audience is actually consuming.

You can also explore curated content on open access websites or subscribe to curated newsletters. Examples include:

• AllTop – Top articles from a variety of industries
• The Tweeted Times – Best tweets curated for your specific niche
• Quartz Daily Brief – Global news briefs with a mix of summary and curated articles
• Redef – Email newsletter with options to follow media, fashion, sports, music, & technology
• Internet Brunch – Light-hearted updates on Internet trends, gif, and pop culture

You can also find enterprise-level content curation services for your business. These curation tools have varying levels of customization. Leading services include Curata, PublishThis, and Scribble Live’s Trapit.

5. Bulk Content Search and Importer Tools

As the name implies, these tools search content in bulk to find relevant media. Then, you can import the best content and schedule in bulk to your social media posting queue.

Use bulk content search and import services to share third-party content or recycle original posts. Create a queue of your best blog and social media posts with platforms like dlvr.it and SmarterQueue.

Or use bulk search for content curation. Search tools grant access to thousands of articles based on your filters and keywords.

dlvr.it – Import & Discover Tool

Importing capabilities allow you to choose from the best content for social media posting. Import from websites, blogs, and even directly from social media sites.

6. RSS Automation

Many curation or post scheduling tools also include RSS automation. Combine the convenience of RSS with social media automation and you have a powerful tool.

An RSS automation service like dlvr.it automatically posts content from your RSS feeds to social media platforms. You set the filters to determine which post topics or sources are most relevant for your audience and let this service do the work for you. Share relevant news, industry updates, blog posts, images and even videos instantly or as scheduled posts.

This type of “set it and forget it” tool is perfect for marketers who are too busy to commit significant time to social media but know how important it is to modern businesses.

You can also set up auto-recycling for your own social media posts. Dlvr.it offers this with EverQueue, which reposts your top performing posts automatically.

7. Outsource Content Sourcing or Posting to a Third-Party Service

We get it. Some people would rather not deal with social media at all. If that’s you, then outsourcing the work could be a good option. Several agencies and contractors offer content sourcing and social media management services, so finding an expert won’t be hard.

Use caution when making the decision to outsource. While not having to do the work sounds tempting, letting a third party take over your social media has drawbacks too.

The largest benefit of going with a third-party service is expertise. You may not know the best strategies for posting on social media, but this work is your agency’s bread and butter.

An agency will optimize your posts by weekday, time of day, and posting frequency. They’ll also be experienced in post formatting, choosing the best hashtags, and encouraging audience engagement.

Connections are the second major benefit. An experienced agency will already have connections on your social media platforms and may be able to connect your business with relevant influencers.

Yet many business owners are hesitant about using a third party service and for good reason. Key concerns revolve around authenticity, consistency with company culture, and over-reliance.

When someone outside of your company posts for you, there will always be concerns about whether the content is genuine. It’s vital to sit down with your agency and communicate your brand vision and values. Mistakes are almost inevitable, but when you see a post that seems “off-brand,” you should be able to get in touch with your agency and clarify your needs.

You’ll need to keep in mind that a third-party won’t be aware of changes happening within your company, so you need to do the extra legwork to keep them up-to-date.

Finally, stick with a third party service for too long and Social Media Examiner warns that you may find yourself too reliant on outsourcing. The longer you remain with a social media agency, the more difficult it becomes to do the work yourself, especially if no one on your in-house team is familiar with the work.

8. Repost Your Own Content

It’s perfectly acceptable to repost third-party content and recycle your own content. In fact, here’s why you should be doing both. Reposting your own content:

• Generates more web traffic
• Keeps old posts from decaying
• Promotes old content with little effort
• Reaches more of your audience

Not every follower sees your content the first time you post it. Businesses worry that consumers view reposted content as repetitive and annoying. That’s almost never the case. Sharing a post multiple times can actually double your traffic.

If you’re still worried about repetition, consider this:

Any content you repost should provide value to your audience. Even if a consumer doesn’t choose to click through to your site, seeing the headline will remind them that your resource is available.

Any content you repost should provide value to your audience. Even if a consumer doesn't choose to click through to your site, seeing the headline will remind them that your resource is available.
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It’s easy for a follower to ignore a post they’ve already seen. But the chances of them remembering that specific piece of content and going to your website to find it? Not likely.

Start Filling Your Social Media Queues

Posting consistently on social media shouldn’t be a stressful task. But don’t try to implement all 8 methods at once. Instead, start with two to three tools and figure out what works best for you.

Better yet, use a single service like dlvr.it, that supports a variety of social media queueing options.

The post How to Fill Your Social Media Posting Queue – 8 Proven Methods appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

There are quite a few things that you can do with your Pinterest to make it more relevant, and some of these things can be done in only an hour!
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Why do I need Pinterest for my business?

Pinterest is a fast growing platform that year-over-year expands its user base among both men and women. Pinterest is stereotypically associated with women, which is understandable since that is the primary user base. However, 40% of new user signups are men. This indicates that this form of social media is on the rise. Yes, photo-based social media is not just for Instagram anymore. There are quite a few things that you can do with your Pinterest to make it more relevant, and some of these things can be done in only an hour!

Pinterest is also one of the fastest revenue-generating platforms out there. Shopify partnered with Pinterest to gather data about product purchase habits of Pinterest users. They found that 96% of Pinterest users rely on Pinterest to gather product information, 93% plan purchases using Pinterest, and each of these purchases averages $50. All of this revenue could be slipping through your fingers if you choose not to use Pinterest.

1. Add your logo to your business Pinterest account

2 minutes
Setting up your business Pinterest account is the first step in this process. If you become a verified business through Pinterest, this can add a lot of goodwill and trust in the community. Not only can this add goodwill and trust, but it can offer opportunities that aren’t available in personal Pinterest accounts. The most important of these opportunities is Rich Pins. These Pins can provide information about your product right in the Pin.

Adding a logo as a picture in your profile can also add an air of legitimacy to your Pinterest posts. If you need a logo, there are many tools that can help you build a logo. I’ve always personally been partial to Canva due to their library of templates to get you started. However, there are other tools that can help in this arena. Once you have your logo created, you can use the steps that Pinterest has provided to get this added to your profile.

2. Make sure all your Pins are active and functional

5 minutes
This is probably the most important check to perform of all. After all, your Pinterest account will probably not be super helpful if it doesn’t direct back to functional content. Shockingly, VentureBeat reports that 50% of top Pins on Pinterest link back to outdated links that no longer function!

There are a number of tools out there that can help to perform this check. You can start with Boardbooster’s Pin Doctor. They require a monthly plan and they will also ask that you pay per Pin that you check, however, this is the fastest option to keep your business Pinterest as functional as it can be. Pin4Ever also provides an excellent suite of tools that not only backs up your Pinterest, but also checks the functionality of your Pins.

If you prefer to avoid paying for these checks, you can perform more manual processes that will help you check out these links. The ScreamingFrog SEO Spider tool will help you check your links manually. You can also use a broken link checker to make sure that your links are functional.

3. Add a Pinterest follow button to your website

5 minutes
A great method to link your business Pinterest account front and center is to create a follow button or widget to your website. These buttons can link directly back into your Pinterest profile and help your users follow the content that pertains exactly to what they’re reading. If they see these links on your website, you are setting a direct pipeline to your users that can provide them with everything that they need to know about your business.

Also, if you have an RSS Feed that is generated with your website, you can link this directly to your dlvr.it account so that your content is automatically published to your Pinterest account. This option will help you optimize your Pinterest publishing for the best dates and times.

img source: Pinterest

4. Add your keywords to your Pinterest username

5 minutes
This suggestion really has to do with SEO. Your search engine optimization depends on your ability to make your desired keywords front and center in your content. To become the Google authority on a subject, placing this keyword front and center in your title is key in making sure that Google picks this up. It’s much easier for Google to find a subject if it is placed within the headers in a website, and placing those keywords in your title is doing just that.

5. Promote your Pinterest boards on Facebook, Twitter and all your social media pages

10 minutes
Why would I want to use my other social media content? In order to promote all of your social media accounts, you must consider that all of them can be linked together. Your other social media accounts can benefit from your SEO that is implemented from your Pins. All of your business Pinterest content can lead back to your other content on your social media accounts. That being the case, linking your social media accounts to each other can only benefit you.

But posting each of your pins to your other social media pages and profiles can be a pain, particularly if you’re limited on time.

If you are looking to save time, try dlvr.it’s social media automation service to effortlessly share your pins to your Facebook pages, Twitter profile and more. Just connect Pinterest board to dlvr.it and add your social media pages and profiles. dlvr.it automatically posts your new pins across your social media pages.

How do I connect Pinterest to my other social media accounts?

dlvr.it provides many options to link your content directly to your Pinterest account along with many other Socials. Pinterest only states that you can directly link your Facebook and Twitter, while dlvr.it offers the options to send content simultaneously to Tumblr, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Company pages, and more.

Another great reason to use a service like dlvr.it to link your content to your Social Media accounts is that the content will appear more Curated. This means that if you have an RSS Feed that is more suited for Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, but your other Feeds may only be suited for Pinterest and Facebook, you will be publishing your content to the appropriate Social Media channels.

If, however, you would like to do this through Pinterest, Pinterest has created a tutorial to help you add your business Pinterest account to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

If you find some extra time after sifting through your Evergreen content, take some time to comment on the Pins of others that tie into your content. It will help to direct potential followers back to your content.

To automate the cross-posting of latest blog posts to Pinterest, try dlvr.it’s social media automation service.

6. Re-pin some of your Evergreen Content

10 minutes
Pinterest has recently been publishing a string of what they consider important to consider when using their platform. One of the most important aspects of their anticipation of success is publishing Evergreen content. Unlike other platforms, Evergreen content is vital to Pinterest success.

The reasons for Evergreen content to be at the forefront of your strategy lies in the content itself. By nature, Pinterest content is around forever, and because of this, your content should be relevant to all audiences for a long period of time. Things like tutorials, infographics, and and recipes last forever and Pinterest will make sure that they are found.

dlvr.it’s EverQueue service helps you re-pin the Evergreen content that you find the most appealing. All you have to do is import the content that you want to republish automatically, set your Pinterest account to re-pin, and then let dlvr.it do the rest! This service cuts down on the time that you spend re-pinning even further.

How should I choose my Evergreen content?

Finding your most popular content is a great start to locating your best Evergreen content. Once you’ve located the most popular content, you can determine the most relevant content. Start with the content that is most currently relevant. Since it’s your content, you probably know it best. Find those pieces of content that will be the most timeless. “How-tos” and tutorials are the most Pinterest-friendly content.

When you create a new blog post, share your featured image and link to your Pinterest page. Take advantage of Pinterest’s vast audience to promote your blog. It’s easy to pin your new blog post page to your Pinterest board – be sure to use an attractive and compelling featured image with your post to grab the attention of your Pinterest audience.

7. Turn off your search engine privacy

2 minutes
Why would I want to turn off my search engine privacy? In short, this privacy setting has the potential to be a game changer in your Pinterest traffic. The search engine privacy setting functions to protect people from finding your content on Google. Pinterest is a unique social media platform in that it allows your Pins to be Google search results. Because this is the case, if this privacy setting is activated, you’re throwing away the traffic that could come from Google.

In essence, the traffic that comes in from Google is the most important traffic that has the potential to be retrieved. Because Google uses Pinterest to populate a lot of search results, you can steal this traffic right out from under your competitors.

How do I turn off search engine privacy in Pinterest?

Turning off this setting couldn’t be easier. Pinterest has made a tutorial that will help you instantly launch yourself into Google’s search engine.

If you find yourself with a little bit of extra time during the week, you can hone your search engine craft. The best way to do this is to use a search engine optimization tool. Using these tools can help you select the most important keywords for your company’s interests. This can help to skyrocket your Pins to the top of Google’s results. Check out our blog post that will help you find the best search engine optimization tools.

8. Make sure you finish your profile

10 minutes
Why would I want to finish my profile? Isn’t a picture enough? In many ways, no. Not finishing your profile makes you seem lazy and uninterested in optimization. Not only is this another opportunity to make an impression, but it is another opportunity for SEO. You must think about Pinterest as an SEO machine to generate money for your endeavors. The platform will only work for you if you put your effort into it.

When you remember that Pinterest is a direct venue to Google, you understand that every word that you put into Pinterest is important. All things Pinterest feed into your SEO directly, and therefore, your profile is extremely important to making that impression that you need on your business Pinterest account.

9 Rename your boards to be more bold and innovative

5 minutes
Renaming your boards can help to improve your SEO immensely. There is a school of thought that discourages renaming Pinterest boards, however, if you are having trouble with your Google results, the only direction that you can go is up. As long as you’re remaining on topic with one focused category, your SEO will only improve. You can’t afford not to change these titles if you’re not optimized for search engine results.

How do I rename my boards?

This is another quick and easy edit to your Pinterest boards. It’s simply a matter of accessing the edit panel and changing the name of the board.

10. Use a popular Pin as your Cover Photo

5 minutes
Why is using a popular Pin important for your board’s cover? This cover photo is the first impression that you can make with your users. It is an 800 x 800 pixel space to convey exactly what your users can expect in your boards. This gives you the opportunity to place your branding front and center in every board and make an impression with all that you have available in your boards.

The best reason to use this is that it is dramatically underutilized. The cover photo being the impression that your users see is also a first impression. This first impression can lead to additional followers of your Pinterest boards, and thus, convert a lot of traffic into money for your products and services.

img source: smitten kitchen Pinterest

How do I change the Pin for my cover photo?

This is also a quick and easy process. Business Pinterest users spend most of their time finding the most important Pin to use, but I recommend using the most popular Pin in that board. User feedback in the form of Pins and views are the most valuable information that you can use to determine the content that you want as a lasting impression.

Pinterest is a tool that can provide so much insight into your business, and convert a lot of cash for you.
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Bringing it all together

Pinterest is a tool that can provide so much insight into your business, and convert a lot of cash for you. It is a direct marketing platform that has proven to be extremely valuable. By putting just a little bit of time and effort into your business Pinterest account, you can turn your followers into customers. This tool is too valuable to ignore, and it’s not just for crafters anymore.

The post How to Use Pinterest for Business – Boost Your Pinterest Marketing in Under an Hour appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Much of the trusted blogging advice emphasizes long-term strategies – like building great content and nurturing an email list. This is clearly solid, reliable advice.

But we were left wondering – What can we do to promote our blog right now?

We have over 500 blog posts – some of which already drive a decent amount of traffic. We were looking for concrete steps we could take in just a few minutes to help drive traffic to our blog immediately.

We also wanted to make sure we have a sturdy blog promotion foundation in place so that we are in the best position to get the most traffic and attention from each new post we create.

Here’s some of the best ideas we found that can help you promote your blog and get traffic with just a few minutes of your time.

1. Share Your Blog Posts Widely on Social Media

People are spending time across an increasing number of social media platforms and on multiple devices. It’s easy (and cheap) to promote your blog posts across your social media profiles and pages.

If you don’t yet have pages set up for all these platforms, do so. It’s easy and free to get started. The most popular platforms and their monthly user numbers as of April 2018:

• Facebook – 2.234B
• Instagram – 813M
• Tumblr – 794M
• Twitter – 330M
• Pinterest – 200M
• LinkedIn – 260M
• Google+ – 34M

Usage stats from Statista, Pinterest and Raka Creative.

2. Promote Your Blog Posts on All Your Social Profiles & Pages Instantly

Then when you create a new blog post, share a link, a photo and a short introduction or pitch to all your social media profiles and pages.

This ensures your latest content is instantly shared with all your followers. The faster your post receives likes, retweets and shares, the more credibility it has – and the higher the likelihood it will be shared and viewed by others.

To make this even easier, set up a social media auto-poster, like dlvr.it, to automatically post your latest blog posts across all your social networks as soon as they go live on your blog.

3. Share your blog posts again and again

The sheer volume and speed of social media content makes it easy for even the best posts to be missed. The lifespan of social media post is incredibly short:

• Twitter: Half life of a Tweet is 24 minutes
• Facebook: Posts garner 75% of impressions within 2.5 hours

To increase the chances of breaking through and getting the attention of your readers at the right moment, it’s best to share your new posts more than once.

When you launch a new blog post, share it with your social pages instantly, then schedule posts to your social media pages for a few hours and a few days later.

Sharing your posts multiple times can double (or more)  your traffic.

If you are in a pinch for time, try dlvr.it’s Echo tool to automatically post your original content instantly, then post two additional variations of your post hours or days later.

4. Reshare and Promote Your Evergreen Content

We’ve discovered that our most successful blog posts — the ones that drive the most traffic — are Evergreen. In other words, these posts are interesting and valuable to people months or even years after they were originally created.

In our case, most traffic flows to these pages via Google search. People search for the same keywords years after the post was written, and click through to our blog because these posts still answer questions or address issues we wrote about years ago.

What makes these posts interesting to people searching Google, likely makes these posts interesting to people on Facebook, Twitter and beyond.

Identify your evergreen content and reshare it across your social media profiles.

Check your blog stats for the last few months and determine which older posts are still attracting visitors. Then share these posts again to your followers and subscribers.

To make it even easier to share your evergreen content, try dlvr.it’s EverQueue. You can quickly fill your social media sharing queue with your evergreen content, then once it is posted, dlvr.it will automatically recycle it back into your queue and share it again and again in the future.

5. Promote Your Blog in Your Email Signature

Think of your email signature as free advertising space. Why not promote your blog every time your send an email?

Include a link to a recent blog post or one of your blog’s all time favorites. Or…include a link to both.

It’s free and easy to create and update your email signature with fresh blog links on a regular basis.

Or you can use a services like WiseStamp or  Email Signature Rescue.

  
img source: Wise Stamp

6. Promote Your Blog With Social Media Pins

As noted above, the half-life of a social media post is measured in mere minutes. Think about that. The typical social media post gets half of the attention it will ever get within a few moments of going live.

Maybe that’s acceptable for quick posts that require little thought or time. But after investing a significant chunk of time to create and tune a blog post, you want to get as much out of it as possible.

Instead of sharing your blog post on social media and watching the social media riptide instantly carry it away, pin your post to the top of your profiles. When you pin a post, it remains at the top of your profile. So when users view your profile page, your pinned post is the first post visible. This is great option when you share high investment content, like blog posts.

It’s quick, easy and free to pin a tweet, pin a facebook post, linkedin post  and more. 

7. Mention and Link to Others in Your Post

There is one (nearly) universal law of online marketing: Everyone loves to get links.

It’s free and easy to link to other people’s posts. And linking to valuable content is an easy way to make your blog highly useful to your readers.

Generally speaking a lot of good things can happen (and more) when you mention someone in a positive light and link to them. They might link back to you. Perhaps they’ll follow you on social media. Next time you update your blog, they might share your post with their followers. And you might even make a new friend and business contact.

Next time you write a blog post, make a point of mentioning a related post or article and linking to it from your blog post. Maybe even target an influencer who has written a relevant article and call them out with a link in your post.

Most professional writers and bloggers track backlinks and are notified when their pages are linked to. More on backlink monitoring tools below.

To increase your chance to be noticed, include multiple outbound links in your posts to related pages from multiple authors.

To make an impact right now, update one of your existing blog posts to include a mention and a link.

8. Promote Your Blog Post with Tags and Mentions

When you mention someone in your post, tag them the next time you promote that blog post on Twitter. It’s easy and let’s them know via Twitter that you’ve referenced them in your blog post.

For example:

In most cases, it’s easy to track down the writer’s social media pages and determine if the author is active on Twitter.

This approach to alerting the people to whom you’ve linked requires very little effort to initiate or respond. Contrast Twitter tagging with notifying someone via email – which can require time consuming email communication and may involve the touchy subject of sending unsolicited email.

Make sure you understand the difference between a reply and a mention.

Here are some additional details on using twitter mentions.

9. Monitor Links to Your Blog & Say thanks!

If someone mentions you and links to your blog, reach out and say “thanks”.

Posting a tweet that says thank you, links to the post, and tags the author is a quick and easy way to show your appreciation. Here’s an example:

Thanks for the mention. We love hearing from happy https://t.co/0FieQ63JQe. users! Let us know how we can make https://t.co/0FieQ63JQe. even better. Cheers!

— dlvr.it (@dlvrit) March 17, 2018

Saying thanks to a writer who has written about you builds goodwill and lays the foundation for future links and mentions. Next time you write about a related topic, let the writer know – you might get another link.

Sending a thank you email is a more formal and a bit more time consuming. This approach may work better than a tweet if the author is someone you want to connect with and perhaps have a discussion longer than 140 characters at a time.

It’s easy to monitor backlinks.

If you are using wordpress, you may already be receiving a pingback notifications when another WordPress blog links to you.

Here’s info on some of the leading backlink tracking tools. https://mention.com/blog/tools-to-monitor-backlinks/

10. Monitor Social Mentions and Shares – and Say Thank You!

In addition to linking to you from a blog post, people will also mention you and link to you from social media. There are many tools to monitor social mentions of you and your site.

Check your monitoring feed on a regular basis and respond with quick hello and thanks when someone shares your posts.

Popular tools for monitoring social mentions include Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

11. Make Your Posts Shine with Eye Catching Graphics and Visuals

As part of writing each of our new posts, we review dozens of related articles and blog posts. We discovered when reading posts, within a few seconds  we judge the quality of the blog based on the layout and look and feel of the page.

Based on this judgment, we determine how seriously we should take the post and if we are going to invest the time into reading the post.

So what do we judge in a split second?

We re subconsciously evaluating the visual presentation of the post.

In short, if the post contains quality graphics and images that break up the text, we are more likely to take the article seriously and invest the time to read on. Posts with lots of words crammed into big paragraphs, small text, and limited or no graphics can feel ‘homemade’. We are likely to ignore the posts that lacked professional polish and focus our attention on more visually appealing blogs.

Adding a little visual sizzle to your posts is easy and doesn’t require a dedicated graphic designer.

Photo libraries like UnSplash make it easy to find high quality, royalty free images.

And easy-to-use graphic design tools like Canva and DesignBold allow even the graphic design novice to create eye-catching graphics to include in your blog posts and share on social media.

12. Use Hashtags to Reach a Larger Audience

Add one to two hashtags per tweet and Instagram post and boost your visibility and traffic. Hashtags are a quick and easy way to help new people discover your posts.

There are many tools to help you identify hashtags to include in your posts:

1. Hashtagify
2. TrendsMap
3. RiteTag

13. Promote Existing Blog Posts with Internal Links

When creating new blog posts, you should include links to your other relevant posts and pages on your blog. This introduces visitors to your related posts and encourages them to stay on your site longer.

Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, internal links are good for SEO. The links around your blog tell Google what pages are valuable and useful on your site. Using focused anchor text provide Google with additional guidance on the keywords for pages.

While you can’t control the backlinks other site give to you, you 100% control the internal links on your site. You can build internal links right now.

Ideally, you should link to posts that are related or have a natural connection to the current post. As you create more content for your blog you’ll have a larger pool of content to link to.

It is common practice for leading marketing blogs to include up to 10 internal links. So link away.

For WordPress users, Yoast is a popular tool to help you identify related posts and streamline the internal link building process.

14. Promote your new post with internal links from older blog posts

You can also use the power of internal links to promote your newest article.

Spend 10 minutes reviewing your older blog posts looking for opportunities to link back to your newest post.

Adding internal links from a few related posts back to your latest effort can help boost traffic and boost SEO right out of the gate.

img source: Yoast

15. Clean up your Open Graph tags

OpenGraph  tags are small code snippets on your pages that tell Facebook and other social platforms exactly how do display your page details when your readers share your page with their friends. Setting up your Open Graph tags correctly is key to making your posts look professional and driving more shares on social media. 

For instance, Open Graph tags specify the Title, Summary and Image that should be displayed by Facebook when your page is shared.

For instance:

— vs —

If your pages do not explicitly call out Open Graph tags, you might be surprised by how your pages appears when shared on Facebook. The most common issues are the wrong image (or no image) displaying and a qmissing page summary.

Use the Facebook debugger to see your pages as Facebook sees them. This tool will let you know if you are missing OG tags or if there are other errors that could impact the display of your pages on Facebook.

WordPress users can set and control their Open Graph tags with Yoast or other Open Graph plugins.

16. Add Twitter Cards to Your Pages

Twitter Cards allow you to attach rich photos, videos and media experiences to Tweets, helping to drive traffic to your website.

Much like OpenGraph tags, Twitter Cards are small snippets of code on your pages that tell Twitter how to display your pages when someone shares your link.

Here’s an example of how Twitter displays a link when the target page does not include Twitter Card details:

10 Productivity Tools For Small Business That Totally Work – Fitness: A daunting yet rewarding task is to… https://t.co/kLwSaJoc6Y #smallbiz

— dlvr.it (@dlvrit) April 25, 2016

And here’s a much richer display when the page contains Twitter card tags:

Did you know https://t.co/0FieQ6lkHM can now import and schedule your top WordPress blog posts for sharing and resharing across social media? https://t.co/t93tMHWnaB

— dlvr.it (@dlvrit) February 14, 2018

Tweets with images enjoy a 18% higher engagement rate. Twitter Card tags include Title, Summary and Media fields.

There are many WordPress plugins that allow you to easily add and manage Twitter cards on your posts, including our tool of choice Yoast (https://yoast.com/).

17. Freshen Up an Old Blog Post

Writing a new blog post from the ground up is time consuming and labor intensive. Only after investing many hours in research, writing and editing can you publish a post and start promoting it.

A faster way to give your blog a traffic boost is to freshen up an old post. In as quick as a few minutes you can make key updates and start promoting your freshly updated post on social media.

What posts are top candidates for freshening up? Scan through your blog and identify posts that have not been updated in a long time and that cover topics that are relevant today.

If a blog post is continuing to get traffic from google, that a sign people are still finding value in the post and it’s topic. We’ll have a lot more to say on this in a future post.

What to Update:

• Add any new insights, tips or examples you’ve gained
• Add your target keywords to headers and throughout the text
• Add internal links to newer articles with relevant information
• Improve readability by breaking up text and adding images, screenshots or other graphics.
• Fix Any Broken Links
  • It’s easy to check for broken links.
• Check whether the resources or tools you recommend are still the best
• Remove or replace any methods you no longer support

Then share it again across your social profiles.

18. Check Your Page Speed

If you pages load fast your visitors can view your page content quickly without waiting. Fast loading pages make for happy readers who are more likely to read your post and visit more pages on your site.

Additionally, Google rewards pages (https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2010/04/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html)  that load fast with higher placement in search results.

Google Page Insights and Pingdom offer simple free tools that analyze your page load speed and provide suggestions on how to improve your page load.

The suggestions can be a bit technical in nature. However, these tools will quickly let you know if your page speed is an issue that may be dragging down your traffic and wilting your search engine results. Learn more about Page Speed.

These tools helped us identify caching and image optimization as are problem areas. Based on this feedback painlessly cut our page load time in half and experienced a significant lift in our Google search placement.

BTW – we now use WP Rocket for caching and ShortPixel for optimizing our images.

19. Run a Quick SEO Check to Find Issues and Errors

If you’re like us, you regularly add plugins to your blog and update their settings. It’s no surprise when all these plugins don’t work well together and cause formatting issues that can negatively impact your your SEO.

You can quickly identify errors and issues on by using free SEO checkers such as SEO Analyzer and Site Checker Pro.

Using these tools we identified some critical issues with our header tags (these ones: <h1>…<h2> and <h3>). These issues were introduced when we made an update to our blog design and added a couple new plugins.

Based on the feedback from the SEO checkers, we cleaned up our headers and within 2 weeks the Google traffic to several key pages increased 20%+.

Pick a couple of these blog promotion tactics and try them over the next week. Let’s us know what works best for you.

And please let us know what we’ve missed from this list!

The post How to Promote Your Blog – 19 Easy Tactics To Get Traffic To Your Blog appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Find an appropriate platform for your social media calendar

Interestingly, there are many platforms that offer free calendar applications. Of course, the most popular is Google, which offers a free calendar application with its normal application suite. If you prefer going outside Google, there are many others that you can use, normally with any free or paid email platform. Microsoft outlook, for example, offers a free calendar application with its software. There is also a free calendar application with any of Microsoft’s email products.

If you are working with a team of individuals, the best calendars to use are shareable calendars. Google makes this quick and easy to share. Fortunately, it is also very easy to set up these calendars.

Make a list of posts that you would like to distribute

Once you have your application selected, make a list of stuff that you would like to distribute. These could be blog posts, carefully curated third party content, or news events. Anything you would like to post on your social media accounts should go into your social media calendar. I recommend planning as far in advance as possible, so that your calendar is set up far in advance and doesn’t require much work to implement.

This list is vital to the success of your planning process. When you’re making this list, I recommend organizing this list into categories. This will make your calendar planning easier when you’re trying to figure out what is posting and when.

Categorize your social media calendar

Your social media calendar should be organized by a few different factors.

1) Social Media Platform

First, you need to determine which social media platforms you wish to use. Do you want to use Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, etc? Once you have figured out which platforms you want to use, enter your social media platforms on your social media calendar. Use corresponding entries with which dates you are going to post. I also highly recommend color coding each social media platform. This will make reading your calendar much easier for your team.

2) Type of post

Once you have figured out which platforms you wish to post to and when, you will need to enter your posts into entries. You can use the general categories you worked out in your list. For example, if you are a realtor and want to post 3 times a day to Facebook, you can place 3 entries on your calendar for Facebook and enter the categories into these timeslots. You may want to post a listing twice a day, and post real estate news on one of these entries. Enter these categories onto your calendar.

3) Assign these to your team, or enter them into your toolbox

If you are working with a large team, you may be able to assign a team member to work with specific social media platforms. However, in many cases, this is a time wasting effort. There are many tools out there intended for this specific purpose. You are able to enter your posts into a calendar and simply monitor the tool for disconnects. Check out our list of top Social Media Automation tools for assistance in accomplishing this. Of course, dlvr.it is also a great tool to use to establish this calendar. The tool will allow you to schedule up to 150 posts at a time in a calendar for each of your social media accounts.

4) Establish analytics to check the progress of your social media strategy

The best method to determine if your strategy is working is to establish some variety of analytics. Analytics will report back how many unique visitors you’ve had to your site, and how they got there. Analytics also determine a larger variety of factors that you may need to know about. For example, general geographic data for your viewing audience. This may matter if you’re targeting a certain location. If your social media strategy is working during certain times, and not during others, you may want to re-evaluate when you’re posting.

There are many schools of thought as to when to post for most effective viewership, and our take on it is available to view our recommended social media posting times. Your viewership may also depend on the industry in which you market. Some audiences are more active than others during certain times. For instance, if you are marketing to new parents, you may want to post at times that a mom would have time to check her Facebook. Our article regarding best posting times talks about specific social media posting times and how they will impact your social media presence.

Make sure to monitor your engagement

Keep an eye on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other accounts. These accounts will tell you more than any other study. Your audience is either responding or not responding. Analytics will tell you how many clicks you have and how many people are accessing certain articles, but it will not tell you how well your audience is responding. Determining the engagement of your audience is key to making sure that your strategy is working, or if you need to adjust.

Check your comments, your likes, and your shares on these pages. The higher the numbers, the more you know your strategy is working. If these numbers are looking lower than you’d like, adjust! Take a look at your calendar and cross-reference this with your analytics. These numbers will tell you if you’re simply posting at the wrong times, or if there is something in your content that is not resonating with your viewing audience. In the end, the best method to reach your audience optimally is through trial and error. Test and re-test and test again. You will find the appropriate mix of what works for you and you’ll find your happy medium.

It is certainly best to test the tools in your toolkit. Make sure to take a look at the analytics in your toolkit as well and make sure that you’re benefiting from them. Take a lesson from others and study their behaviors. If you work in a similar industry, take a hint from those who may have made mistakes and learned from them.

And as always, happy posting!

The post The Best Way to Free Up your Time using a Social Media Calendar appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

How do I set up a feed in Cronycle?

To set up a feed using source feeds, just click on the Sources tab on the left side of your Cronycle account. This will bring up a page that will allow you to search for feeds. Once you have reached this page, you may enter your search keywords into the search box. Cronycle also allows you to enter a topic or a Twitter handle. You will then see a list of possible feeds related to your search terms. Select your feeds by clicking the plus sign next to the feed. Drag and drop your desired feeds into the Create Custom Feed box. Name your feed and continue.

Once you have named your feed, in the same area, you can add filters to your feeds. If you don’t wish to have too many items, you may filter them by keywords. You can choose to exclude items, or include items based on your keywords. Click the Create New Feed button. This will import the content that you have just set up into the Feeds tab.

From the Feeds tab, you are able to view the articles that are currently set up for your feed. You can also change the filters that are on your feed. This is also where you can modify the visibility of your feed from private to public. This can be done by clicking on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the page. Then click the dropdown menu to change the privacy setting from private to public. This will provide you with the URL to your feed so that you may add this to dlvr.it. Cronycle has also created a fantastic how to video to help you make the most of your dlvr.it and Cronycle integration.

How do I use this in dlvr.it?

To use this feed in dlvr.it, you will need to add the feed from Cronycle into your automate section in dlvr.it.

dlvr.it will allow you to add any public feed into your account.

To add a feed, click on the Automate tab, click on Add New Feed and then enter the feed URL from Chronycle. Once you have entered the URL, our systems will connect to your feed and then ask to connect to your Socials. Once you have connected your socials, your content will begin automatically sharing.

Why is this helpful?

This makes curation quick and easy. By employing Cronycle’s toolset to filter your content, you can easily curate content that pertains to certain subject matters. This is also a quick and easy way to consolidate content into one feed and remove articles that you don’t wish to publish. Cronycle’s tools are the best for filtering content and creating personalized feeds. While Cronycle will help you coordinate which content you would like to share, dlvr.it will take care of the heavy lifting and share the content for you. dlvr.it will automatically check your Cronycle feed and share any new content found, without you needing to lift a finger to do so. dlvr.it can also help you pick the right images for your feed and filter within dlvr.it so that you have an extra line of defense.

The post Supercharge Your Posting Power Using Cronycle and dlvr.it appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Why do headlines matter?

Headlines are your first impression upon your readers. Think about what you are likely to click or not to click. If you wouldn’t click it, your readers would probably skip it too. Having an eye-catching headline is what draws in readers so that you will see your SEO rankings jump. Maria Konnikova of the New Yorker published an article indicating why headlines matter. She says that not only does a headline draw in a click, but it also provides the reader with a frame of reference for the content that they’ll be reading.

1 – CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

The positive side of CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

On the positive side, CoSchedule’s tool is geared toward those that are frequently sharing original content on social media. Because CoSchedule has a lot of experience in the social media world, they have utilized their experience to create this tool and help you determine which headlines will work best with your content. Rather than looking for headlines that will work in native advertising, they will help you find an appropriate headline that will work with any source. CoSchedule also provides a history of how your headline has changed while you’ve been altering your headline. This is nice because some changes may not improve your score, but lower it. Since this is the case, CoSchedule has provided this history along with the dozens of the historical headlines.

The potentially confusing

CoSchedule has also implemented their own headline analyzer. CoSchedule’s headline analyzer works through a number of factors and utilizes a different type of algorithm than Sharethrough’s algorithm. CoSchedule, like Sharethrough, provides tips and tricks to improve your headlines. However, CoSchedule’s tool provides a little bit more vague guidance. Their headline analyzer starts with a rating of your current headline. It breaks down your headline by percentage of types of words. Rather than providing tips at the top of the page, you must scroll down to view more information.

CoSchedule does provide information about particular types of headlines and words that will improve your headlines. dlvr.it also has published a fantastic list of 1000 powerful words to help you post better headlines. They link to an article that will give you quite a few suggestions for new words to improve your headline.

Depending on what type of headline you determine to be appropriate, you may need to:

• Include more emotional words
• Include a headline type like ‘How To’

Some of the suggestions that CoSchedule’s tool provides are ambiguous as to how they are supposed to be implemented. For less ambiguity regarding how to create a better headline, we have created an article for you about how to phrase a more powerful headline.

2 – Sharethrough Headline Analyzer

Sharethrough is one of the best free headline analyzer tools that I have had the pleasure of working with. While some of their suggestions may not bear out for many businesses, they do create very valid suggestions for most headlines, assisting you in writing headlines that not only catch the eye but also have science backing them. Sharethrough employs algorithms that it creates based on research conducted within their own systems and also with neuroscientific backgrounds. We do have to consider Sharethrough’s experience when reviewing its headline analyzer tool, however.

Sharethrough is a software platform that assists in native advertising. Native advertising is a type of advertising that fits within whatever platform to which you are advertising. For example, if you are advertising on Facebook, it will recommend full articles for advertising, rather than ads that might be more brief or visual. Their tool provides a headline analyzer tool with these options in mind. This tool crafts headlines using the best combination of what they determined as the most powerful words to appeal to the human mind.

Sharethrough makes its headline creation process quick and easy by providing a rating for your headline. Once they have provided a headline, they offer suggestions in expandable menus to the right of the rating so that you can tweak your headline as necessary. The expandable menus offer cool tips about what would make your headline stronger. These tips are quick and easy to follow and will show immediate results when analyzing your improved headline.

3 – Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer

Unlike the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer tool, Advanced Marketing Institute’s analyzer does not provide much in the way of information to improve your headline. When I analyzed my headline, it simply tells me that my headline contained 11.11% Emotional Marketing Value words. It recommends between 30-40% EMV words. Rather than tell me how to do this, it indicates that my current words pertain to spiritual value. When I read more about what this means, this states that my headline would appeal to the clergy. Unfortunately, it does not give me many tricks or tips to make my headline more effective. This tool seems to be the barest of the tools that I have encountered. It refrains from providing more tools to make a better headline, even avoiding the specifics of what makes a great headline.

Should I use a title generator?

Utilizing the CoSchedule Headline Analyzer along with the common title generators provides some insight as to what a title generator actually does. Free title generators use an algorithm that will use your topic and generate a title that it would believe to be popular. For example, I entered my keyword “CoSchedule Headline Analyzer” into the seopressor.com Free Title Generator, and the below screenshot is what I received back.

The keywords from seopressor.com were the best of any free title generator that I tested (that is not saying much). These free title generators do not seem to have any technique for piecing together headlines, but rather have a template into which a keyword is simply stuffed. Utilizing one of these title generators is clearly absent of specific information related to your topic. You know better than anyone what you would like to write. This particular title generator can be useful for brainstorming reasons, but that is about it. If you already have a topic and copy written for a topic, you are better off using a tool like the CoSchedule headline analyzer to refine your headline.

Why should I even use a headline analyzer?

These types of tools can help you improve your traffic dramatically. The idea with headline analyzers is to improve your search engine optimization scores for your content. This helps you to market your product or service far more effectively.

• Free headline analyzer tools provide a useful analysis of your current title and will tell you how to make it better.

On the other hand:

• Free title generators will provide you with brainstorming ideas for articles, but will not provide you with any further information as to how to make this title appealing, or how to center your content around the suggested title.

It is important to note that using a free title generator is more likely to provide you with useless information, as it has no system to assign titles. Personally, I would use the free headline analyzer over the free title generator any day of the week.

The post Is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer the Best Tool for the Job? appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

We have compiled a list of nine super fun ways to bring summer fun to the office or outside with your team, whether large or small.

Summer Fun in the Office

1 – Office Luau

Office theme parties are a solid way to bring some fun into the office. Luaus, in particular, are an excellent way to both decorate your office and involve your team. Have your team wear their most Hawaiian attire to the office, have a potluck, or cater in lunch. Here in Portland, we have an awesome cultural scene that includes quite a few Hawaiian restaurant. Find your local Hawaiian restaurant, or distribute recipe ideas via email for your party. Have management bring in drinks and set up a cooler, or a kiddie pool filled with ice for a fun feel. Finish it off with tiki torches, grass skirts, and a flower lei. Check out this allyou.com article about how to make low-cost luau decor.

2 – Office Yoga Parties

Summer is a great time to get in shape, and what better way to get in shape than taking a break from your work? At my office, we are in a communal area with no walls and plenty of natural light. Even if you don’t have these conveniences, though, there are plenty of ways to make your office a comfortable place to relax. Take a few minutes every couple of hours and lay out a yoga mat. Do some gentle stretching to loosen up and get away from your computer screens. Try a guided meditation if you don’t have the ability to stretch out. Even try some office chair Yoga stretches. Check out Entrepreneur’s article about how to make Yoga into an office practice.

3 – Cook-offs or Potluck Contests

Some of the best office parties that I’ve ever been a part of were parties where we cooked our own food and brought it to the office. I remember an office party where we decorated a large conference room with sombreros, giant paper flowers, and vibrant tablecloths and had a salsa contest and potluck. Another office party was one held with a simple electric grill, an assortment of cheeses, and a few crockpots of soup. Yet another still, we brought fixings for a nacho bar. If you opt for a contest, put out simple ballots, label dishes with a number, and have everyone taste and vote for their favorites. Check out Buzzfeed’s article for some yummy salsa recipes.

Short Excursions to Bring on the Summer Fun

4 – Take your team out to lunch

Pick a restaurant within walking distance and take a short walk with your team to get there. Your walk is a great opportunity for team building.

• Have a scavenger hunt on your way.
• Pick some topics to get to know each other.
• Mix up teams by sending different teams on different routes to your destination.

Our team likes to get together at a local brewery and spend some time just talking. We enjoy getting to know each other at a local brewery or restaurant. If you can’t take the team out to a restaurant, take your team out for a picnic lunch just outside the office at a local park or even on your office lawn. Check out some icebreakers that will make your picnic even more fun.

5 – Create a scavenger hunt (either inside or outside your office – preferably outside!)

I know we talked about scavenger hunts in the last item, but this is a dedicated scavenger hunt. The idea is that you will give your team competition that will involve traveling around the office, and hopefully, they will engage with one another in the spirit of playful competitive banter. Hide stations around the office that will have checkpoints or even other clues. Give them clue #1, then make them find the rest of the clues. If your team is anything like mine was when we did this, you will have a ball giving each other hints as to where to find other clues, talking about what stations you’ve found, or taking a break on the lawn. Take a look at teambonding.com’s list of tips to create your own office scavenger hunt.

6 – Mount a wellness challenge for your team

Summer is by far the best time to get in shape. Swimming, walking, biking, hiking, and even windsurfing are great activities that can be done in a ton of different locations. If you can afford it, give your team some flex time during the summer to provide them with the option to get outside and exercise. Better yet, offer them an incentive to do so. Find a cool prize that your team would enjoy. Maybe a gym membership for six months (for those horrific winter months), perhaps a fitness gift basket that includes a yoga mat, water bottle, hand weights, and resistance bands. Maybe you can even provide a leisure activity like movie tickets and dinner for the winner!

All you have to do is provide your team with a method to track their exercise. Have them email you a selfie after they’re done working out with the amount of time their workout lasted. Provide them with a log that they can fill out. You could even get your employees to show the world how they get out and exercise using social media – if you are so inclined. Use a hashtag and the person who posts the most exercise photos wins the challenge. Set a daily limit and let them go wild! Use Huffington Post’s list of 50 Summer Activities to Burn 50 Calories to put out some ideas for your employees.

Longer Excursions for Amped Up Summer Fun

7 – Take your team to camp

We live in a world of many activities, yes, intended for kids. But many of these places that have camps for kids also have activities for adults. Check your local area for a camp that has outdoor courses, zip lines, or lots of trails for biking and/or horseback riding. If you can afford it, a retreat for your employees can provide a much-needed recharge for your team members and can even stimulate brainstorming for new or improved ideas for your product. In the Portland area, it is but a short drive to any number of these locations, and they can be a simple day trip. Carpool in smaller numbers to increase team interaction.

If you don’t have a place like this nearby, you can even make your own. Create a capture the flag course, tug of war, obstacle course, and keep plenty of water on the sidelines for hydration. Your team will thank you for it. Take a look at Venture Team Building’s 60+ free team building activities for some ideas as to how to create your office field day.

8 – Find a boat

Here in the Willamette Valley, we are very fortunate to have many surrounding bodies of water and many options to find ourselves upon them. Summer fun in the Willamette Valley is, in large part, on the water. We have windsurfing, fishing, jet boating, and many other options. For bigger teams, find a tour company who will let you bring a large number of people aboard. If you’re in Seattle, consider a whale watching tour (I highly endorse these, as I had a blast on mine). If you’re in the Willamette Valley like me, consider a jet boat tour. For all, you New Yorkers, put your tourist cap on and take a sightseeing boat tour. The possibilities are endless on bodies of water. For a less expensive option, check out these water balloons for a cheap alternative to paintball.

9 – Pick a sport, any sport

Put up a volleyball net, put out a couple of cones for a makeshift soccer goal or football goalpost, go golfing! The world is your oyster in the summer. Our team loves to go golfing. Your team may prefer running around on a soccer field. Perhaps someone has a badminton set! All of these options are a great way to bring you together and to get exercise. And, bonus, you may end up teaching a team member a new sport! You could even get some Nerf guns and have an indoor Nerf gun battle. Any fun is good fun!

Wrapping it up

I know it seems like it may be a waste of time to do any of these activities. I promise, though, you will enjoy these activities with your team, and they will be euphoric afterward. Any time I spend outside, always makes me feel great and refreshed. Sure, they may be reluctant at first to participate, but these types of activities are infectious, and your team will thoroughly enjoy them. So get out there and enjoy your summer fun!

The post Summer Fun Ideas to Bring Joy to your Office appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Consider the words of Kevin Harrington: Likes are not profit.

The following five companies found ways to reach their customers on a very powerful level and managed to leverage their social media profiles into something that made a real difference to their customers.

Here are the 5 innovative case studies on how to leverage social media to enhance your brand:

Wendy’s 18 Million Retweet Campaign

This is perhaps the most recognizable retweet campaign in recent history.

Wendy’s received a Tweet from a young fan of their Chicken Nuggets. The fan wanted to know how many Retweets he would need to receive free nuggets for life. Many followers of social media and the news remember this very famous beginning.

The teen obtained Retweets from influencers all over the world. Many celebrities like Aaron Paul and Ellen Degeneres Retweeted, along with Microsoft, Google and Apple Music. All of these influencers got in on the action. But Wendy’s itself remained the focus, creating a new hashtag campaign, #nuggsforcarter.

Carter failed to meet the 18 million Retweet number, but successfully obtained his nuggets for life, as he broke Ellen Degeneres’s record for most Retweets. Wendy’s gave Carter free nuggets and a large donation to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, establishing their brand as one to give and receive. This publicity not only endorsed their product but also showed that they can be philanthropic while still providing positive feedback for their brand.

TrapKitchenLA Finds a Way to Leverage Social Media via Instagram

TrapKitchenLA is one of the most fascinating social media stories out there. A group of people get together as individuals and run a restaurant via Instagram. These people cook “homey” comfort food out of a small, makeshift commissary. Even via this little kitchen, they create beautiful dishes that entice their customers every day.

Their customers find photos like this on their Instagram account every day:

These cunning chefs have figured out a way to leverage social media channels to bring them more and more business.

• Every day, they post photos of their photogenic fares to entice new customers and loyal followers to come to their establishment.
• They tell their customers to put in their orders early, as they may sell out fast.

This sense of urgency leverages their social media accounts to obtain orders very quickly and to sell out of product before the end of every day.

Disney Shares for Make a Wish dollars

The idea that Disney doesn’t know how to leverage their brand is a little bit crazy.

We all know their characters, films, and theme parks. And yet, they waged war on social media to make sure that sick children got the experiences that we all knew that they deserved. All their followers had to do was to post a photo with them wearing their Mickey Mouse ears and hashtag #shareyourears, and Disney would donate $5 to the Make a Wish foundation.

Disney didn’t make their followers share only Mickey Mouse ears but also allowed their followers to post DIY versions of the famed ears. This gained a huge social media following that met the fundraising goal for the promotion almost immediately after the promotion launched. Disney used social media to reach its followers and engage them in a promotion that did nothing but benefit charity. In the end, Disney won, and the Make a Wish Foundation won.

Cards Against Humanity Black Friday 2015

We’ve talked about using social media to earn money for charity, enhance your brand image, even sell food, but what about selling nothing for something? Cards Against Humanity leveraged social media followers to create a buzz about a crazy idea: sell nothing for something.

Cards Against Humanity used their social media following to raise $71,145.00!

They posted an accounting of what they did with all of the money in a special post. CAG acknowledged that they thought that most fans would think that they used the money for charity, but instead, they decided to give back to the people who make all of that happen, their employees. The employees all had wish lists that were fulfilled by the company and by the donations of fans all over the place. A truly excellent example of what it means to leverage social media followers.

The 2014 Taco Bell Twitter Blackout

Taco Bell figured out a new way to get its app in the hands of as many fans as possible. Taco Bell blacked out its social media accounts. For the entire day, all it posted was a graphic telling people to go to the app. The app was the only place where info could be found.

The social media blackout was a huge success for Taco Bell. Not only did they direct people to their new app, but they also drove mobile sales. Taco Bell said that they had processed mobile orders for 75% of its stores the day after launch. Interestingly, social media shutdown worked for Taco Bell in a way that seems incredibly counter-intuitive.

What can we learn from all of these examples?

We have learned, in essence, that conventional, is boring.

People are attracted to the unusual and the unusual can help to drive your following.

We’ve also learned to continue to drive your brand with your social media campaigns.

• Disney drove their brand through ears.
• Wendy’s drove their brand through a hashtag.
• Taco Bell didn’t say anything at all, but let their app speak for them.

All of these methods continued to impress their followers and drove more and more readers into their circle.

The common thread: How to leverage social media

Even with all of the variety and diversity in all of these campaigns, we have found a common thread. The voice and the tone of these campaigns matched the audience that they targeted.

• Cards Against Humanity knew their readers and knew that they would be willing to provide funds without knowing where that money was going.
• Disney knew that its followers were creative enough and passionate enough to post their photos for charity.
• Wendy’s knew that their social media accounts would blow up at the suggestion that someone would receive a prize just for Retweets.

All of these companies knew their audience and knew where they would like to go.

As always, let’s talk tools

dlvr.it can help you schedule any campaign that you would like to run for your social media following. It is a tool that can schedule posts far in advance so that you don’t have to do the legwork of posting every single time that you need to update your followers. dlvr.it can also repeat any post that you deem necessary to send out more than once (another way to leverage social media). Check out dlvr.it’s support site for more information.

The post How to Leverage Social Media: 5 Super Successful Case Studies appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

This post discusses the seven important writing tips (along with some great tools) to keep your blog content relevant and engaging. Using these tips will help you to consistently bring traffic to your site. 

Tip #1: Determine the Goals for Your Blog Content

When you add new content, it’s easy to think that’s the end of it. However, this is only the beginning.

How is your content going to be seen by your customers?

What are your goals?

What is your content action plan?

Before your put pen to paper, take a couple minutes to think about your goals and strategies:

1 – Write a Strategy Plan

This doesn’t have to be “War and Peace”; it just needs to outline what you will do with your content. Something as simple as tweet four times and post to Facebook can be enough to ensure consistent marketing.

2 – Set Business Orientated Goals

Ask yourself why you are producing your content.

• Do you want conversions?
• New followers?
• Backlinks?

Whatever you are aiming to do, make sure you know what it is so you can concentrate your efforts on the end goal.

3 – Decide How You Will Measure Your Success

It doesn’t matter how good your plan is if you don’t measure its success. Determine which metrics you will track, and see how well your content is working for you. Google Analytics is a good way of tracking customer behavior on your site. 

4 – Understand your Audience

Your content will only work if it appeals to your traffic. For example, a cake decorating business wouldn’t expect to gain much by writing an article about fly fishing – no matter how great the article is, it doesn’t appeal to their core readership.

5 – Constantly Modify your Strategy

Using the information you gather in your brainstorming sessions and the metric tracking, you will see what works and what doesn’t. Concentrate on doing more of what works.

6 – Keep an Eye on Your ROI

You need to monitor your ROI – make sure the amount of money you are putting into producing good content is achieving the level of profit you would expect.

7 – Conference Regularly with your Marketing Team

Ensure the strategy is working by discussing your content’s performance, and social media engagement. Brainstorm any new ideas.

Tip #2: Produce Original Content

Copying other people’s content won’t win you any readers. Why not go a step further with your blog content?

•  Find The Hook: Instead of writing the same article as everyone else, granted in your own words, why not write the article that no one else has? Your readers will love your unique perspective. Ask yourself what is missing from the other articles you’ve read. Now research that area and write about that. That’s your hook.

• Market it to The Right People: Look on forums and across social media at the types of people who are reading about your chosen subject. Promote your posts to those people – they already have an interest in the topic, and you are providing a new perspective on it.

Tip #3: Edit and Proofread

It doesn’t matter how good your content is – if it’s littered with mistakes, readers will look elsewhere for well-written content. Consider employing an editor or proofreader. The downside is that this obviously costs money, but the positives can bring amazing results.

There are many sites such as upwork, toptal, freelancer, rated writing, peopleperhour that can be great places to look for a good editor.

A good editor will:

• Make your content read well
• Correct any errors
• Polish your content, giving it a wholly professional feel

Tip #4: Use Proven Marketing Tools to Help You

These tools can all help your blog content stand out:

BuzzSumo – Enter any topic and see what type of content is trending now. 

Hubspot Post Generator – Type in keywords you want to use and the site will give you post topic ideas.

Readability checker or Grammar Guide – Your blog may have this built in, but if not, a readability test tool and grammar guide can give you tips to make your content more reader-friendly and accurate

Hemingway Editor  – The app shows you how to improve on each sentence you write.

Piktochart – This is a great tool for building infographics, another way to present information and break your content up.

Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyser – This tool tells you likely your post title is to make a reader feel moved. Aim for over 50%. Use this alongside KingSumo Headlines to help chose a perfect title.

Tip #5: Use Outside Sources

Using outside sources can help keep your content fresh and relevant and can be used in many ways:

• Provide Accurate Information: Unless you are writing an opinion piece, use outside sources to check that what you are saying is true.

• Use Data and Examples: If you are saying something that is quantifiable, refer to the data and example points from the original source to show you are not just making it up as you go along!

• Use Quotes from Experts: Using experts’ quotes can really add validity to your posts and help to show readers that you are credible.

Tip #6: Focus on Your Words

• Try to focus on one key idea per article. Otherwise, it can come across as messy. Once you have chosen your key idea, expand on it and talk about various facets of it.
• Try to reduce jargon. People don’t want to look up definitions just to read your posts.
• Write in your own voice. Posts and articles with a bit of personality read much better than something that sounds like a robot put it together. Don’t be afraid to give a little bit of yourself to readers.
• Read the Ultimate List of 1000 Powerful Words That Will Make You A Social Media Rockstar

Tip #7: Work On Your Visuals

A long body of text can be off-putting to readers, so always mix up the content in a way that looks visually appealing.

• Use infographics, tables, and graphs, and photographs to break up your text.
•  Format your text using headings and subheadings, and try to keep paragraphs short.

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By following these simple steps, you are giving your blog content the very best chance of building up a regular readership. Your readership will be more likely to consist of engaged followers who will share your content with others. And as you become a respected authority in your field, people will be much more likely to purchase your products or services.

The post How to Actually Make Your Blog Content Better: 7 Important Writing Tips appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.