Advertising options vary by platform. Before you start a campaign, learn about ad options, costs, and effectiveness for the five biggest players in social media.

1. Facebook

Since Facebook changed its algorithm to prioritize interactions between family and friends, businesses are turning to ads more than ever.

Facebook has a monthly reach of two billion users and collects extensive data on demographics, interests, and behaviors. It’s an excellent platform to begin a social media advertising campaign.

Ad Options

It’s no surprise that the social media giant offers extensive ad options.

Ads by Format

Photo and video ads appear in users’ feeds and are the most well-known. Within these ads, you can choose to add variety with Collection, Carousel, or Slideshow formats.

Collection posts function like a shopping catalog. They showcase a set of products in one advertisement.

Carousel posts contain up to 10 images or video clips. Get creative with an interactive series of images or a how-to guide.

Slideshow posts allow you to create a video without the time required for filming. These ads load quickly, making them accessible even to viewers on a slow Internet connection.

Ads by Purpose

Instead of choosing a format, you can also create ads based on goals. Facebook offers lead generation ads, offers (or discounts), and post engagement campaigns. Ad goals can be specific to Facebook activity too,  such as increasing page likes or event responses.

Cost

Facebook social media advertising uses an auction system, where businesses bid to receive ad space. The cost depends on your campaign’s daily budget and the amount of competition for your audience.

Most ad campaigns are measured by CPC or CPM. CPC or cost per click only charges your account when a visitor clicks on your ad.

CPM stands for cost per 1000 impressions, with “M” representing the Roman numeral for 1000. Impressions are the number of times your ad is displayed. An impression doesn’t mean a user has engaged with your content, only that they had the opportunity to see it.

According to AdEspresso, CPC (cost per click) on Facebook is around $0.27 while CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) is $7.19 on average.

You can also consider alternative ways to buy ads on Facebook. “Reach and frequency” ads are a new feature not yet available to all users. These ads will consider how many people you want to reach and how frequently you want an individual to see your ad.

If you’ve ever purchased TV ad space, you might prefer purchasing Facebook ads as Target Rating Points (TRP). Under TRP, you are charged after your ad reaches your target demographic audience.

Audience Targeting

As you will see, Facebook may have more audience targeting options than any other platform. Targeting capabilities fall into three categories:

• Core (i.e. demographics, interests, behaviors)
• Custom (from your lists)
• Lookalike (similar to your existing audience)

Core options range from geographic location to favorite movies. Custom targeting allows you to upload a contact list or CRM (customer relationship management) data to find your leads on Facebook. Lookalike automatically matches your business with users similar to your existing followers.

Effectiveness

Facebook advertising offers high value given the site’s massive reach. Facebook remains the social media network and one of the most visited websites in the world, just behind Google and YouTube.

With recent changes, brand engagement on Facebook has decreased. Using ads can keep your business in front of a Facebook audience even as the platform continues to change and grow.

2. Instagram

This highly visual platform is all about images. Social media advertising on Instagram should focus on imagery and storytelling.

Ad Options

Instagram is owned by Facebook and uses the same ad management system. You can choose between ad formats for Feeds and Stories.

Feed Ads

These ads appear in a user’s feed and are nearly identical to native posts. Choose from image, video, or carousel formats.

Image ads

• Most simple
• Promote existing posts
• Caption up to 2200 characters

Image ads are the easiest to use. Promote an existing post that has already performed well organically and you’ll have the advantage of knowing that the content resonates with your intended audience.

Video ads

• Up to 60 seconds
• Landscape or square format
• Up to 4GB

Video remains popular and continues to grow on Instagram. With IGTV and a newly revamped Discovery tab, Instagram’s video options continue to expand. Businesses can expect more video ad options in the future.

Carousel ads

• Swipe to view multiple images
• Between 2 to 10 cards
• Cards can be image or video

Carousel ads keep visitors engaged with your content longer than a single photo or video. Feel free to get creative and tell a story with your carousel content.

Stories Ads

• Use image or video
• Carousel option available
• Vertical or landscape format
• 15 sec max for video
• 5 sec for images

According to Instagram, 400 million accounts use Stories daily. This full-screen content mimics Snapchat and only stays online for 24 hours.

Story ads include a non-intrusive CTA (call-to-action) that asks users to swipe up if interested in seeing more. Supported CTAs for story or feed ads include:

• Apply Now
• Book Now
• Contact Us
• Get Directions
• Learn More

Cost

Advertising costs on Instagram are slightly higher than Facebook and depend on the type of ad and audience targeted. More detailed targeting raises costs. Estimates place the starting rates for an Instagram ad around $5 to $6.70 CPM.

AdEspresso finds that the average CPC for an Instagram feed ad in 2017 was $1.15, while Facebook newsfeed ads were $0.50.

Audience Targeting

Instagram provides the same extensive targeting options as Facebook, including:

• Location
• Demographics (age, gender, language)
• Interests (including apps used and users followed)
• Behaviors
• Custom audiences (your contacts)
• Lookalike audiences (similar to existing customers)

Effectiveness

Although Instagram advertising is pricier than most platforms, they produce results. Users are more willing to engage with brands on Instagram than other forms of social media, with 80 percent of users following at least one brand. Ads have 2.5 times the click-through rate as other platforms.

If you're looking to capture a younger demographic, Instagram might be the best place to start.
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3. Twitter

If your audience is on Twitter, ads are an effective way to both reach new users and meet specific goals.

Ad Options

Twitter ads are focused on goals. Businesses choose a campaign based on desired results, such as:

• Website clicks
• New followers
• App installs
• Reach
• Engagements

Website clicks, new followers, and app installs function like CPC ads. Your account is only charged when a user clicks to your website, hits the follow button on your page, or installs your app.

Ads for reach are measured by CPM. Engagement ads include likes, replies, and retweets of your content.

There are three formats to choose from on Twitter:

• Promoted Tweets: Ordinary tweet shown in users’ timelines
• Promoted Accounts: Your account presented in a timeline, Who to Follow suggestions, or search results
• Promoted Trends: Your hashtag in the trending topics section

Less traditional formats include promoted videos, in-stream video ads, branded emojis, and promoted Moments or a slideshow of related tweets.

Cost

Like Facebook, Twitter uses an auction system where you bid against other advertisers competing for the same audience. You can choose bids manually or set a budget for automatic bidding.

Twitter won’t charge you until a user completes a billable action. Billable actions are based on your goal. If your goal is video views, you won’t be charged until someone watches your video. If your goal is website clicks, a click is your billable action.

There is no minimum cost to advertise on Twitter, but the platform recommends starting at $30 a day to see results.

Audience Targeting

Targeting options on Twitter are extensive, including:

• Geographic location
• Language
• Age
• Gender
• Username/Follower
• Interests
• Behaviors
• Tailored audiences
• Keyword
• TV targeting
• Event targeting
• Device
• Carrier

Twitter lets businesses target audiences based on usernames followed. If you know which Twitter accounts are popular with your audience, username targeting can be highly effective.
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Tailored or custom audiences let you create lists based on website visitors or CRM data, saving you the trial and error it takes to find your audience with social media advertising.

Effectiveness

With a strong focus on outcomes, Twitter ads offer predictable results and allow you to customize your campaign for specific needs. Twitter may not have the reach of Facebook or Instagram, but advertising to small, focused audiences can be an effective strategy.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the must-have platform for B2B businesses. Part-job board, part-resume, and part-virtual networking platform, LinkedIn currently has 562 million users spanning over 200 countries.

Ad Options

LinkedIn advertising options include sponsored content, sponsored InMail, and text ads. These three options are entirely self-managed through the Campaign Manager interface.

A fourth option, dynamic ads, is available for managed accounts and involves working with a dedicated LinkedIn team to optimize your ads.

Sponsored Content

These ads show up in user newsfeeds. They are automatically mobile responsive, so users can view your ads on desktop, mobile devices, or the LinkedIn app.

Sponsored InMail

InMail allows you to connect with users one-on-one through LinkedIn’s built-in messenger. This function lets you reach out to potential clients with a personalized approach.

Text Ads

Text ads are small, non-intrusive blocks placed in the right sidebar of a page. Headlines are limited to 25 characters and descriptions to 75 characters. Only users accessing the site on desktop see text ads.

Cost

LinkedIn costs vary based on your budget. You can bid by CPC or CPM and have three budget options: total budget, daily budget, and individual bid limits.

Audience Targeting

LinkedIn focuses on meeting business needs efficiently, so targeting includes industry, company size, role or job title, and location. The site also offers three options for retargeting existing audiences.

1. Website retargeting

Find your website visitors on LinkedIn and segment based on the pages they’ve visited. First, you’ll need to add the LinkedIn Insight tag to your website. LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager will keep track of visitors, who you can divide into segments. Each segment must have at least 300 members to start advertising.

2. Contact retargeting

Directly upload your contacts list to reach known leads and customers. LinkedIn recommends creating a list of at least 10,000 email contacts before starting an ad campaign.

3. Account retargeting

Targeting by account lets you reach users from specific companies. Upload a list of company names and websites and LinkedIn will find matches within 48 hours.

Effectiveness

LinkedIn grants access to decision makers with higher spending power than the average online audience. According to LinkedIn, four out of five users make or influence business decisions at their company. These users also have twice the buying power of general web users.

For B2B companies, advertising on LinkedIn could be a perfect fit.
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5. Snapchat

The youngest social media platform on this list is Snapchat. Despite rising competition, Snapchat retains a consistent user base.

A key benefit of using Snapchat is its targeted audience. If your business needs to reach younger millennials (18 to 24) or Gen Z (13 to 18), Snapchat is a unique place to do so. While the base audience may not be as large as other social media platforms, its active monthly user base of over 300 million is still substantial.

Ad Options

As os 2022, Snapchat offers three main options but continues to expand. Snap ads, filters, and lenses are the most common and well-known Snapchat ads.

Snap Ads

Snap ads function like user stories. They’re full-screen video ads that play for up to 10 seconds and include audio. You can achieve some of the highest click and engagement rates with snap ads.

Filters

Sponsored filters are designs and frames that users can add to their own images. Snapchat filters are not the same as photo filters, which change how the subject of the photo appears. Filters can include your brand imagery but should also provide a fun element. Snapchat recommends designing a filter that takes up less than 25 percent of a screen.

A subset of sponsored filters are geofilters, which make your filter available to users in a set radius. You can set up a geofilter around your physical store, for one city block, or across the entire nation. Small-scale, limited-time ads are called on-demand geofilters. National geofilters have a significant reach but are only cost-effective for large-scale brands.

Lenses

Snapchat lenses are one of the app’s most popular features. Using lenses, you can add effects to your selfie like cat ears, giant alien eyes, or even turn your entire head into a basketball. Sponsored lenses encourage engagement in a light-hearted way.

Cost

The cost of a Snapchat ad campaign varies by campaign type, but many options start high. Simple story ads run at a minimum of $3000 per month, while filters and lenses can reach six figures.

If your target area is small, a sponsored geofilter can be an affordable option. Snapchat charges $5 an hour for 20,000 square feet.

But watch out for special events in your area. Running geofilters for or nearby a film festival or popular concert can hike advertising rates up to $20,000.

Audience Targeting

Snapchat allows targeting by:

• Location/country
• Age
• Gender
• Language
• Advanced demographics (not available in all countries)
• User behavior categories
• Mobile device type
• Internet connection

Besides the typical demographic targeting features, Snapchat categories user behavior into four broad categories: Lifestyles, Shoppers, Viewers, and Visitors.

The Lifestyle category includes options like travel enthusiasts and gamers. “Shoppers” range from restaurant goers to pet owners. “Viewers” addresses media consumption, breaking down TV and movie viewers by genre, time, and network. Finally, “Visitors” covers users who visit entertainment venues, banks, or auto dealers.

Effectiveness

The nature of Snapchat requires users to engage as they use the app. This engagement applies to not only native content but advertisements. One company testing Snapchat ads received a 10 percent increase in conversion rates and a 15 percent increase in ROI (return on investment) compared to Facebook ads.

The obvious conclusion? Snapchat ads work and can be highly effective for reaching young audiences.

Takeaways

Social media advertising can feel convoluted. It’s difficult to find out which platform will produce the best results for your brand, but here are a few takeaways to get started:

If you’re new to social media advertising, Facebook is a great place to start. A wide audience, extensive audience targeting options, and an easily scalable budget makes Facebook a great starter platform.

For Facebook ads, start here.

If you are an experienced social media marketer, consider expanding your strategy with special features on Twitter and LinkedIn. Twitter’s Promoted Trends make it easy to execute hashtag campaigns, while LinkedIn’s InMail ads allow you to take personalized social media advertising to the next level.

Begin tweeting with Twitter ads or visit LinkedIn for a business audience.

Finally, if your business relies on visuals and a younger audience, Instagram and Snapchat are strong contenders. Social media advertising on these platforms can be pricey, but they pay off with especially high rates of engagement.

Instagrammers, head this way. Or keep up with the kids on Snapchat.

Start a new campaign, step up your current strategies, or get experimental. Social media advertising has become one of the best ways to reach your audience. With options for every business, getting started is easier than ever.

The post Your Guide to the Top 5 Social Media Advertising Options 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.

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.

Instagram Marketing Facts

• 49% of the top brands use Instagram. This is projected to increase to over 70% by the end of 2017.
• 50% of Instagram users follow at least one business
• Nike is the most followed brand on Instagram with over 68 million followers

Instagram Demographics

• 55% of US 18-29-year-olds are Instagram users
• Instagram users are affluent – 56% of Instagram users earn over $50,000 per year
• Instagram has an extremely dedicated and active user base
• 80% of Instagram’s users are from outside of the United States

→A staggering 50% of Instagram’s 600 million users are active daily. That’s 300 million actively daily users!

What are the Best Times to Post on Instagram?

The best time to post to Instagram may surprise you – it’s not during regular business hours. Many of the top posting times are early morning and late at night.

• Sunday: 5 pm
• Monday: 7 pm & 10 pm
• Tuesday: 3 am & 10 pm
• Wednesday: 5 pm
• Thursday: 7 am & 11 pm
• Friday: 1 am & 8 pm
• Saturday: 12 am & 2 am

Read more on The Unscientific Guide to Determine Best Times to Post on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and More

Fun Instagram Facts

Over 95 million photos and videos are shared every day on Instagram

• 40 billion have been shared so far

Selena Gomez is the most followed celebrity on Instagram with 105 114 million followers (as of March 2017)

• If Gomez were a country and her followers were the population, it would be the 12th most populous country in the world.

FC Barcelona (Soccer) is the top professional sports team on Instagram with 42.5 47.8 million followers (as of March 2017)

• FC Barcelona’s has 7.7x the number of followers as the most followed US sports team – the Golden State Warriors (NBA), with 5.6 6.2 million followers (as of March 2017).

Still not sure you should be on Instagram?

Check out this very informative infographic from Website Builder to learn more about this exciting social platform!

139 Facts about Instagram You Should Be Aware of in 2017

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Are you ready to dive into an Instagram marketing plan? dlvr.it has partnered with Instagram to make creating RSS feeds and linking Instagram to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest a breeze. In a few clicks, easily create an Instagram RSS feed with dlvr.it’s FREE tool. Read more here and here.

The post 139 Unbelievable Instagram Marketing Facts That Will Blow Your Mind appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Tap into dlvr.it to effortlessly share videos with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Upload your videos to dlvr.it, and we’ll automatically share them on your posting schedule throughout the day.

Tap Into the Next Big Thing: Video Automation

Social video is exploding. Facebook alone reports an astonishing 8 Billion video views a day. Savvy businesses are aggressively positioning themselves at the explosive intersection of video and social media.

Just last week Facebook announced a series of social media video initiatives all designed to aggressively compete with YouTube across mobile and television screens.

“I see video as a mega trend, same order as mobile.” – Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Facebook is driving toward a future where social media and video converge. Businesses of all sizes are now looking at an incredible set of opportunities to connect with customers through video, social media and mobile.

Start Sharing Video Now!

What’s next?

• Log into dlvr.it and start sharing your videos across your social media profiles and pages.
• Read our tutorial on how to easily share video to your social media pages.

We’ve made it incredibly easy to share videos with your fans and followers. Get started today with dlvr.it!

The post Introducing Social Media Video Automation appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

The actionable social media marketing stats in this infographic will help you chart your social media marketing strategy for 2017. Here are some of the key insights:

Facebook is Dead. Long Live the King.

With the rise of new social networks like WhatsApp and Snapchat, many pundits have been predicting the demise of Facebook. This may be true, eventually. But as of 2017 Facebook remains the top social network in the world.

A whopping 79% of all US internet users are on Facebook. Looking more broadly, Facebook reaches 68% of all US adults (not just internet users). Despite the hype and excitement surrounding the new social media networks on the block, Facebook remains the undisputed leader.

Your social media marketing strategy for 2017 should include a big dose of Facebook.

Pinterest Drives Retail Shoppers

If you’re a retailer, Pinterest should be at the top of your social media marketing shopping list for 2017. The image-centric social network has become one of the largest drivers of retail referral traffic on the internet. Pinterest now drives 25% of all retail referral traffic. Moreover, 93% of Pinterest users are there to plan and make purchases.

Let’s go shopping!

Images and Videos Boost Engagement on Social Media

Sharing images and video on social media works. This should come as no surprise to savvy social media marketers. Here’s some hard evidence to back up what you’ve already known about social media and rich media posts.

• Twitter: Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks that tweets without images.
• LinkedIn: Posts with images result in more comments.
• Facebook: Over 100M hours of youtube video are watched on Facebook daily
• Snapchat: 400M Snaps shared per day, or 9,000 Snaps shared per second

Mobile Is Where Social Media Happens

The vast majority of time spend on social media happen on mobile devices.

• More than 80% of time spent on social media platforms happens on mobile devices
• More than 50% of all YouTube video plays are on mobile

Social Media Marketing Stats for 2017 Infographic

This smart infographic is from Red Website Design. The infographic visualizes data from The Wordstream Blog.

The post Top Social Media Marketing Stats for 2017 — INFOGRAPHIC appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Boost Social Media Impact & Save Time

dlvr.it Pro saves you hours each week with enhanced automation of key social media management tasks. Here are a few of the many ways dlvr.it Pro can save you time and improve your social media automation:

● Automatically post to 10 or more social pages

● Post from up to 50 RSS feeds

● Post fresh content right away with super-fast feed updates

● Share videos

● Automatically repeat popular posts

dlvr.it Pro – Smart Social Media Automation

Join the thousands of happy dlvr.it Pro users who boost their social media success while saving hours each week. Tap into all our premium social media automation features with a FREE 7 day Trial of dlvr.it Pro.

Start Your Trial - Free!

Let us know what you think!

The post Supercharge Your Social Media with dlvr.it Pro – Free 7 Day Trial appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

A growing number of dlvr.it users have asked us how to best use dlvr.it with Pinterest. One fast and easy way to get started using dlvr.it and Pinterest is to add your Pinterest RSS feeds to dlvr.it as a content source. Then let dlvr.it post your latest pins to your social networks.

Solution 1. Pinterest RSS to Social Media

You can easily connect your Pinterest account to dlvr.it. Once you set this up, dlvr.it will automatically share your Pins to your social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. We’ll post your pinned photos in a visually rich photo post style — not just text and a link to view the photo on Pinterest.

1. Sign into your dlvr.it account. Click ‘+’

2. Click the Pinterest icon

3. Enter ‘Pinterest User’ name

–> Optionally, you can specify a Pinterest Board name. dlvr.it cannot connect to secret Pinterest Boards

4. Click ‘save’

How to Find Your Pinterest Username?

To find your Pinterest username, log into Pinterest and go to https://www.pinterest.com/settings/. Scroll down to the Profile > Username section.

Your username will look something like this http://pinterest.com/username. Just enter your username in dlvr.it and not the entire URL. (Don’t include this part: http://pinterest.com/)

You’re all set! When you pin photos, dlvr.it will automatically post those new pins to your social networks. Here is how it looks:

Solution 2. Finding the RSS Feed of  Pinterest User / Board

Below are instructions for finding:

(a) Your Pinterest User RSS / Atom feed (all your public pins)

(b) Your individual board RSS / Atom feeds (feeds for each of your boards).

Pinterest User RSS Feed

You’ll find your User RSS feed by entering your Pinterest URL, and adding /feed.rss to the end of the URL. Examples:

The Pinterest URL for dlvr.it is: https://www.pinterest.com/dlvrit/

The Pinterest feed URL for dlvr.it is: https://www.pinterest.com/dlvrit/feed.rss

To get your Pinterest User feed, just replace dlvrit in the URL above with your Pinterest username.

PinBoard RSS Feeds

You’ll find your Board RSS feeds by entering your Pinterest Board URL and adding .rss to the end of the URL.

The Pinterest board for our blog, the Social Media Minute: https://www.pinterest.com/dlvrit/social-media-minute/

The RSS feed for the board is: https://www.pinterest.com/dlvrit/social-media-minute.rss

Would love to hear how you are using your Pinterest RSS feed. Leave your ideas in the comments.

Happy Pinning!

The post How to Find Your Pinterest RSS Feeds appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

dlvr.it’s new automated photo posting makes it simple to share beautiful, visually rich posts with your friends and followers.

What Does Instant Image Sharing Look Like?

Here’s an item shared as a standard text post on Twitter:

Here’s the same item, shared as a photo post:

We think sharing photos is a pretty stunning improvement over standard text posting!

Needless to say, we’re pretty excited about our new features. Let us know what you think!

• Start posting photos from RSS

• Connect Instagram and dlvr.it

• Connect Pinterest and dlvr.it

The post How to Scale Image Sharing Across All Social Media appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

What are the other impressive numbers in this infographic?

Online in 60 seconds [infographic] is an infographic produced by Qmee.

The post How many Facebook posts are made each minute? [infographic] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Designed by: MyClever Agency

Via: Socialmedia Today

The post How to Perfect Your Posts for Social Media [Infographic] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

To tap into this discovery tool, businesses, publishers, and brands now need to include hashtags on Facebook posts. The addition of hashtags can amplify your content – making your posts more discoverable and visible across Facebook.

Why Hashtags on Facebook

Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your Timeline or Page. These links help people find posts about topics they’re interested in. To make a hashtag, write # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase and add it to your post.

For example: I just saw the cutest puppy! #dogs

When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that hashtag. You may also see some related hashtags at the top of the page.

According to Facebook, please keep in mind:

• You must write a hashtag as a single word, without any spaces.
• You can include numbers in a hashtag, but punctuation and special characters (like $ and %) won’t work.
• You can search for a hashtag using the search bar at the top of any page.
• You’ll only see posts that were shared with you.

How to Add Hashtags on Facebook Posts – Automatically

dlvr.it can automatically add relevant hashtags to your Facebook posts. We’ll find your feed item’s category tags, and based on your rules; we’ll automatically add hashtags to your Facebook posts.

For instance, if your feed item has the category tags iPhone, Kittens, and Videos, you can configure dlvr.it to add the hashtags #iPhone, #Kittens, and #Videos to your Facebook post – automatically.

One important note: Your feed items must include category tags for dlvr.it to add hashtags automatically to your Facebook posts.

Click here for more details on how to turn on dlvr.it’s automatic hashtags for your Facebook posts.

Here’s an example of a Facebook Post with hashtags added:

And here’s an example of what you see when you click on one of the #hashtags:

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To automatically add hashtags to Facebook, sign up for a free dlvr.it account now!

The post How to Automatically Add Hashtags on Facebook: Go Viral! appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

You can also manage the account access of these additional users.

The team members you invite will be able to do the following:

1. Post on your behalf.
2. Add / delete feeds and social profiles
3. Edit your settings
4. View stats
5. Set their own email delivery preferences

As account owner / administrator you will solely control:

1. Adding / deleting team members
2. All billing information and details

To add additional team members you will need to have an Ultimate or Enterprise dlvr.it plan. The Ultimate plan allow for one additional team member, while the Enterprise account allows for 10 additional team members.

Check out the details on how to add team members to your account.

The post Add team members to your dlvr.it account! appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Here Kitty, Kitty!

(click to view full sized graphic)

Thanks to Avalaunch Media

The post Social Media Explained. With Cats. appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

In addition to posting social content to Google+, dlvr.it users can also monitor and manage comments, track +1’s, and measure the interactions and growth trends of their Google+ audience.

Posting to Google+ has been one of the most popular requests from our 300,000+ users. And dlvr.it is thrilled to be among the early Google+ Page Management API partners.

We heard your urgent requests for Google+ support, and made this initial set of Google+ features available as quickly as possible. We look forward to your feedback.

Due to Google’s usage concerns, Google+ features are initially available to our Pro and Ultimate Users. Further, because of the fluid nature of the APIs, dlvr.it’s Google+ features are subject to change.

Start delivering your content to Google+ today!

The post dlvr.it now supports posting to Google+ Pages! appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.