Take a look at these stats:

• 31% of advertisers report gains from emotional campaigns
• 16% report gains from campaigns that appeal to people’s rational side
• 26% report the same with a combination of emotion and rationality

Question:

When two groups of people receive two different donation-seeking-letters, one with stats, and the other with an emotional story, which one receives the greater amount of donations?

(A) Letter with stats

(B) Letter with an emotional story

Answer: The emotional letter received an average donation over two times HIGHER than the statistics-laden letter!

When it comes to making decisions about what to buy, people tend to go with their hearts (emotional side) more often than their heads (logical side).

In advertising your business through the holidays and the rest of the year, appealing to the logical mind is an important aspect of communication… but don’t forget about the emotional side too.

How Personal Emotions Fuel B2B Purchases

Emotion also plays a surprisingly significant role in B2B purchases.

Per SocialMediaToday, a recent study performed by the CEB found that 71% of buyers who see a personal value in a B2B purchase will end up buying the product or service. In fact, personal value resulted in twice as many sales as business impact.

Here are two disparate stats to consider:

• 31% of customers find personal value in B2B brands
• 68% would pay more for something in which they found personal value

The data in this study shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, but it should serve as an important reminder that the reasons that people buy usually track much closer to their emotional center than their rational thinking.

How Emotional Triggers Get People to Buy

The folks at BLUE developed an infographic displaying how to incorporate emotions in marketing communications. Learn the key emotions to tap into, why it’s effective across many platforms and types of audiences, and tips to craft your own emotional copy with the most powerful words and phrases.

10 Key Emotions to Invoke to Get People to Buy:

• FEAR – “Don’t get left behind”

• GUILT – “Your contribution can make the difference between these children eating dinner and going to bed hungry.”

• TRUST – “No gimmicks or hidden costs.”

• VALUE – “You won’t find a better deal anywhere else.”

• BELONGING – “Join today and see what everyone’s talking about.”

• COMPETITION – “Be the envy of your neighbors.”

• INSTANT GRATIFICATION – “Talk to one of our representatives so you can stop worrying today.”

• LEADERSHIP – “Be the first of your friends to take advantage of this offer.”

• TRENDSETTING – “Be like your favorite celebs.”

• TIME – “Clean your house in half the time.”

5 Most Persuasive Words in the English Language

Some words are much more powerful than others. 

Qualification: The infographic attached below from Blue lists ten of the most powerful words in the English language (you, results, health, guarantee, discover, love, proven, safety, save and new). In researching the source of these “powerful words”, quite a few a posts refer to a 1970’s Yale study. However, the study likely never happened.

Despite that fact (yes, I make it a habit of searching for the source when citing facts), Copyblogger discusses certain power words that hold more sway over our decision-making process than others. You might be surprised to find that these “power words” don’t seem, well, all that powerful.

Here are five of the most persuasive words in the English language:

1. You

According to recent research examining brain activation, few things light us up quite like seeing our own names in print or on the screen. Our names are intrinsically tied to our self-perception and make up a massive part of our identity. No surprise then, that we become more engaged and even more trusting of a message in which our name appears.

2. Free

Everybody loves free!

People love free stuff so much they’ll actually make different choices, even when the respective value of the item or service remains the same.

3. Because

Although “because” may appear to have some sort of brainwashing effect on people at Xerox machines, it’s only really a matter of reasoning: even giving weak reasons has been shown to be more persuasive than giving no reason at all.

Only trumpet features and product traits you are proud of when they help make your point. Use them to create an incentive for customers to take action. And use “because” when pointing out these compelling reasons, but don’t rely on it as a crutch.

4. Instantly

We want things yesterday!

Words like “instant”, “immediately”, or, even,”fast” are triggers for flipping the switch on that mid-brain activity.

5. New

This one almost seems paradoxical.

“Newness” is important to products, especially because research has shown that they age far more quickly than “experiential” purchases. (In other words, you’ll hate your new headphones in 2 years, but that concert you went to 5 years ago probably aged in your mind like a fine wine.)

The Full Infographic

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What powerful words do you use in your social media marketing?

We’d love to hear from you.

Please comment and feel free to share!

The post How Emotional Triggers Get People to Buy [Infographics] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

While walking past Macy’s in downtown Portland last week, five days pre-Halloween, I stopped to snap a picture of the huge holiday bulbs and wreath, being hung around the store awnings.

Is it just me, or is holiday marketing kicking off earlier and earlier each year? 

Image of Macy’s storefront in downtown Portland, Oregon five days before Halloween.

5 Surprising Holiday Shopping Trends

According to SocialMediaToday, Google did a heap of research into holiday shopping trends seen during the 2014 holiday season and found that 48% of holiday shoppers did the majority of their shopping on or before Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) – a quarter of shoppers even had some of their shopping done before Halloween.

I guess that answers my question. If shoppers are shopping, as a small business, you better be prepared. If you haven’t already started thinking about your 2015 holiday marketing strategy, think with google, put together a list of trends from 2014 that you need to consider:

Trend #1: 2014 was the most connected holiday shopping season – EVER.

• 40% of all holiday shopping occurred online
• 78% of shoppers used the internet for holiday research

→Is your website up to date?

→Are you posting your product offers and specials on social media?

→What are your customers saying about you on social media?

→When was the last time you engaged with your customers on social media?

Trend #2: Big money was spent through small screens

• $1 TRILLION – 28% of all retail sales were influenced by shopping-related mobile searches.

$1,000,000,000

• 53% of those who shopped online used smartphones or tablets

→Is your website mobile friendly?

→Is your blog mobile friendly?

Trend #3: The eraly holiday shopping trend began LONG before Black Friday

• 48% of holiday shoppers said they did the majority of their shopping on or before Cyber Monday
• 1/4 said they had done shopping before Halloween.

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to start shopping pre-Halloween.

Trend #4: Brand loyalties were up for grabs

• Over 1/2 of respondents were open to buying from a new retailer
• 41% actually purchased from a new retailer

→Is it time for a re-boot on your blog?

→Does your website need to be refreshed?

Trend #5: Holiday shoppers turned to YouTube videos

• 80% of holiday shoppers watched product reviews and ratings
• 68% preferred product videos from “people like me”
• 45% preferred videos from experts

YouTube is not just for the teens and millennials.

→What’s your video strategy?

Now, that you’re thinking about what you need to do, did you notice at the top of this post the number of days remaining before Black Friday? Here’s a calendar of upcoming “holiday related” key marketing dates for the remainder of 2015. Happy holiday marketing!

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Which statistic surprises you the most? How about holiday shopping trends – any surprises from Google’s data?

We’d love to hear from you.

The post 5 Holiday Marketing Trends Primed to Take Off [Research from Google] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

In recent posts, we’ve drilled down into why sitting all day at work is considered the new smoking and even gone so far as showcasing some awesome standing desk ideas.

Bad Posture Negatively Affects Success

But in addition to the health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle, did you know that having bad posture can affect your health, mood, productivity, and even success?

According to data from the makers of the Lumo Lift (a lightweight wearable solution for your posture), the majority of American workers spend an average of only 36% of their workday in good posture.

Workers are spending as much as 38 minutes per hour slouching, says Monisha Perkash, CEO of Lumo Bodytech. Women’s postures are 20% worse than men.

Sitting or standing with your head up and shoulders back, in what is often called a “powerful pose,” can:

• Help prevent back pain
• Improve your physical well-being
• Make you better at your job (think social media blogging)
• Reduce stress
• Increase chances for success

What are Power Poses

Amy Cuddy, a researcher at Harvard University, who studies body language and the impact it has on your hormones classified different body positions as “high power” or “low power” poses. In general, the high power poses are open and relaxed while the low power poses are closed and guarded.

Below is an image showing the different types of power poses.

Striking a powerful, expansive pose changes a person’s hormones and behavior, just as if he or she had real power.

From Fast Company, here are three surprising ways your posture impacts your success:

1 – Good posture improves productivity

The bad news:

• Poor posture is one of the leading causes of back pain, which is the second reason for visits to the doctor, outnumbered only by the common cold, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
• Poor posture-related back pain costs American employers over $7 billion a year and is the leading cause of disability for employees under the age of 45.

The good news:

Proper posture contributes to productivity by keeping workers at the office and away from filing disability claims, but is also associated with other health benefits, including:

• Higher levels of energy
• Reduced incidences of migraine headaches
• Lower stress
• Greater concentration

2 – Good posture improves confidence

The “powerful pose” releases chemicals in the body that can make you more confident.

When you open your chest (push your shoulders back and lift your head), two things happen:

1 – Testosterone, a hormone associated with greater confidence and power, is released.

2 – Cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, is lowered.

One Ohio State University study showed maintaining poor posture for 30 minutes significantly increases stress levels, depression, and fear while holding yourself in an upright posture results in greater confidence and lower stress levels.

3 – Good posture improves communication

“Having poor posture detracts from your leadership.”

Social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, discussed how ‘power poses’ can make you feel more confident in her 2012 TED Talk on posture.

In the animal kingdom, power and dominance is about expanding; making yourself look bigger. When animals feel powerless, they crunch up, making themselves appear small.

When in control:

• Cuddy says we mimic this behavior, standing tall with our hands on our hips when we’re feeling in control and when we want to exude dominance over someone else.

When in self-doubt:

• We slouch, sometimes even wrapping our arms around our bodies.

According to Cuddy, changing your body language and engaging in the power pose makes you feel more powerful and confident, allowing you to be a better leader.

Stand Like This for 2 Minutes Per Day

From James Clear’s post on How to Be Confident and Reduce Stress in 2 Minutes Per Day.

The most well–known and versatile high power pose is nicknamed “The Wonder Woman” pose. You just stand tall with your chest out and your hands on your hips. The images above show powerful women like Christine Lagarde and Beyonce in classic “Wonder Woman” pose.

***Just to be clear: despite the nickname and the photos, the impact of these poses is just as relevant to men as it is to women.

Making This Work in Real Life

If you’re aware of it, body language is easy to adjust throughout your day.

But if you’re like most of us, you get busy with other tasks and completely forget to check your body language. Because of this, get into the habit of starting your day in a power pose for 2 or 3 minutes.

Start your day in a Power Pose:

1. Wake up and stand in a high power pose for two minutes.

2. Close your eyes, breathe in deeply for a count of 3, hold for 1, and then breathe out fully for a count of 5.

3. Start your day – relaxed and confident!

If you are unsure how to stand, try these two alternative’s to get into good posture:

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Are you standing in a posture of confidence (head up, shoulders back)? Continue to use your power pose and you’ll be well on your way to improving your health, reducing stress and impacting your chances for success.

Did you find this post helpful? Please share pictures of your power pose and comment below!

The post How Good Posture Boosts Confidence, Wealth and Focus appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

She’s always the first one in line and does well at these auctions—the early bird catches the worm!

This proverbial saying, first recorded in English in 1605, is so familiar that it is often shortened to early bird, a term also used in the sense of “early riser”.

Can you force yourself to become an early bird – a morning person?

Yes! With just a few tweaks to your daily routine, you can turn yourself into that shiny, happy morning glory you always wanted to be.

Let’s start with the bad news:

• Only about 1 in 10 people is a real morning person, according to The Body Clock Guide to Better Health.

The good news is:

• Only 2 in 10 fall into the category of night owls while the rest fall somewhere in between.

Better still: Even if you operate best in the wee hours of the night, you can still train yourself to be an early riser. Here’s how.

From The Change Blog, DailyBurn, and Entrepreneur:

Waking well-rested starts with getting enough sleep.

Hitting the snooze button a couple times before getting up is a clear sign of sleep deprivation, says Nathaniel Watson, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. If you are getting enough sleep, you should be able to wake up on time without a morning alarm.

Plan Ahead

1 – Practice good sleep hygiene. “Keeping a consistent sleep schedule is one of the best ways to ensure you’re getting quality, restful sleep,” says Dr. Watson. If you need to shift your schedule earlier, start moving your bedtime forward by just 15 minutes at a time. Adjustments more drastic than that will keep you rebounding between early and late nights rather than creating lasting change.

2 – Take your time. Balancing your well-being against other personal and professional responsibilities is tough. Often, finding the right work-life equilibrium starts with saying “No,” and so does getting enough sleep. Pare down your evening commitments so that you’ve got an hour completely blocked off to wind down before bed.

Read: Tips to Successfully Work From Home and Ignore the Pile of Laundry

3 – Implement a routine. Establishing a schedule can help clue our bodies into what’s to come. Maintaining a regular evening routine will help chill you out and let your mind know that it’s nearly time to fall asleep. For example, that could mean drinking a cup of (decaffeinated) tea and reading for 20 minutes each evening before bed.

4 – Nap cautiously. If you have a sleep debt to repay, it’s better to nap during the day than to mess up your nightly sleep schedule. That said, you don’t want a daytime snooze to keep you up at night.

Read: 5 Perks of Sleeping on the Job

The Evening Before

5 – Eat (and drink) smart. Some experts caution against going to bed too full or too hungry, as the discomfort may keep you awake. Avoid caffeine/ alcohol/ sugar. All these things can potentially affect your quality of sleep and make it incredibly hard to wake when your alarm goes off. When it comes to something like sugar, for example, indulge your sweet tooth during the day and put down your glass of wine during dinner. Sipping too much before bed can cause mid-slumber trips to the bathroom, and caffeine and alcohol, in particular, have been shown to disrupt sleep.

Read: The Best Time to Drink Coffee to Boost Productivity

6 – Power down. Any light can shift circadian rhythms, making it harder to sleep at night. And if you’re always plugged in, you’re even less likely to hit the hay right away.

Research has shown that the blue light emitted by electronics like laptops and cell phones disturbs sleep even more than natural light. Turn off those electronic screens at least an hour before bed to make dozing easier.

7 – Prep before bed. Wondering what to do with that electronic-free hour? Use the time to get together anything you’ll need in the a.m. — like a healthy lunch, make-ahead breakfast, or a gym bag. Shortening your morning to-do list just might make it easier to roll out of bed.

8 – Wind-down. Take a warm shower. Read a novel or nonfiction book to help tire out your eyes. Or, write out stressful thoughts in a journal.

9 – Visualize. Just before falling asleep, imagine yourself waking up at a particular time. It’s amazing how effectively this works.

Sleep

• Get enough sleep. Different people need different amounts of sleep. So the key is to experiment and be aware what number of hours works best for you.

• Get better quality sleep. Make sure you’re sleeping on a comfortable mattress. Wear a sleep mask to make things completely dark.

Wake Up

• Don’t hit the snooze button. Research shows that pressing “snooze” even once before peeling off the sheets makes the get-out-of-bed battle even harder. Falling back to sleep on and off over and overthrows your body’s natural sleep rhythm out of whack. Bottom line: When you press snooze, you lose.

• Reward yourself: Give yourself something to look forward to when you wake up. Sometimes just knowing your alarm clock will awaken you with your favorite song is enough to help you start your day with a smile.

• Wake up at the same time every day. Yes, even on weekends. Go to bed at the same time every night, too. Doing so makes the wake-up process far less painful.

• Resist the temptation to lounge. Instead of lazing about under the covers half-asleep, get up and jolt your body and mind into alert mode by exercising for a few minutes first thing in the morning. Even a few jumping jacks will do the trick.

• Eat a better breakfast: A healthy breakfast gives you energy for the entire morning. No more mid-morning slumps for you.

Sounds easier said than done?

For more tips and tricks to help you morph into a morning person, check out the fact-filled infographic below compiled by the perky people over at Greatist, citing data from the National Institutes of Health.

Are you a morning bird or a night owl? Waking earlier may not be for everyone, but it can be a life-changing habit for some. What are your thoughts?

The post Yes, You Can Force Yourself to Become a Morning Person. Here’s How. [Infographic] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Step 1: First, you will need to create a Zapier account.

Once done, follow the steps below to create a Facebook RSS feed.

This recipe will make it incredibly easy to supercharge your social media and dlvr.it accounts.

Get Started with Your Facebook RSS Feed

1. Click ‘Make a Zap!’. You will land on an editing page where you can tell Zapier what data to pull and where you want to put it. You can name your Zap in the top left corner of that page.

Choose a Facebook Page

Next, you need to tell Zapier, which Facebook Pages account to grab data from.

1. In Step 1 (the Trigger step) of the Zap, type ‘Facebook Pages’ in the ‘Choose a Trigger App’ search bar.
2. Select ‘New Page Stream Post’ and then click ‘Save + Continue’.
3. Select ‘Connect a New Account’ and enter your Facebook email address and password in the pop-up box. Then click ‘Save + Continue’.
4. From the drop-down box, choose a Facebook page. Click ‘Continue’.
5. Make sure you have one recent page stream posted to the Facebook page you selected. Then click ‘Fetch + Continue’.
6. Once you see the ‘Test Successful’ message, click ‘Continue’.

Configure the RSS Feed

1. In Step 2 (the Action step) of the Zap, type ‘RSS by Zapier’ in the ‘Choose an Action App’ search bar.
2. Select ‘Create Item in Feed’ and then click ‘Save + Continue’.
3. Now you can fill in the fields so that the Zap is customized to your data. You can play around with the settings to format your RSS feed.
4. Click the drop-down arrows on the right side of each field to show the fields that are available to add in each section. You can copy the settings we selected below. Click to see how the RSS feed formatted with these settings.
5. Name your RSS feed and click ‘Copy to clipboard’.
6. Add a Title. We chose the ‘Message’ field.
7. The Source URL is where the feed item should link. Choose ‘First Action Link’.
8. Next, add the body content of the feed item. With the limited options available, we opted to show the ‘Message’ field which means the title and the body content will be the same in the feed.
9. The Author name, Author link, and other fields are optional.

10. Click ‘Continue’.
11. Click ‘Create + Continue’ then wait for the ‘Test Successful’ message and click ‘Finish’.

Save the RSS Feed

1. Choose a folder to store your Zap in (optional).
2. Toggle the Zap to ‘On’ and wait for the green checkmark to appear.

Share your Facebook Page Updates

Add the new Facebook RSS feed URL to dlvr.it. Route the updates to Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and more. When you click on the links inside the content, readers will be redirected back to Facebook to consume the entire update. Here you will also be able to customize the RSS feed a bit further by automatically adding hashtags, prefixes, and optimized schedules.

================ ORIGINAL POST ================

By now you have likely noticed that your Facebook posts don’t reach your entire fan base. Recent research indicates that any given post only reaches 6% of your fans, and that number continues to decline!

Here’s the simple math: Out of every 100 of your page fans, less than 6 of them (on average) will see a post from your page.

Want to expose more people to your Facebook page content? We’ll show you how in just 3-easy steps.

Step 1. Start with the Facebook RSS feed root URL format

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=

[UPDATE: Facebook has decided to stop supporting RSS feeds of page content. The above URL will no longer return data. When a fix is in place, we will update the post.]

Step 2. Add your Facebook ID number

Enter your personal Facebook profile URL at http://findmyfacebookid.com. Your profile URL is what is visible to the public. For example, dlvr.it’s is: https://www.facebook.com/dlvritinfo

Step 3. Add the Facebook ID number to the end of the RSS feed root URL from Step 1 

dlvr.it’s Facebook ID number is: 147987526391. When added to the root URL, it looks like this:

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=147987526391

Step 4. (Optional) Share your Facebook page updates on other social media sites

Add the new Facebook RSS feed URL to dlvr.it. Route the updates to Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and more. When you click the links in the content, readers will be redirected back to Facebook to consume the entire update.

You can create an RSS feed of any Facebook page. It makes it easy to see all the updates.

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Pro Tip: use dlvr.it as your Facebook auto poster

The post How to Create a Facebook RSS Feed and Add More Fans (NEW HACK) appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Step 1. Turn on Broadcast to Twitter

When you are starting your Periscope broadcast, click the Twitter bird on the screen (image #1 on left). This will tweet your live stream link (image #2 on right).

Step 2. Filter for the hashtag #periscope

Next, you need to create a filter for the hashtag Periscope. This recipe will only share Tweets to your destinations (see Step 3) when #periscope is present.

• You will need to create a dlvr.it route with your Twitter feed as the source input in the route.
• In the source settings: (A) click ‘Filters’, (B) add the hashtag #periscope to ‘Post item must contain all the terms’ and (C) click ‘save source’

Step 3. Choose the RSS Icon

In your dlvr.it route destination settings, choose the RSS icon. As soon as your live stream is Tweeted, an update will be sent to the RSS feed in your route. Now you can use this newly created feed to share your Periscope videos anywhere.

For more RSS ideas, read our Ultimate Guide to RSS to Social Media (Always Up-To-Date).

The post How to Automatically Create an RSS Feed of Periscope Live Streams appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

…When we practiced this reflection with Buffer’s Suggestions feature recently, we decided that they’ve reached the end of their journey. Beginning August 1, we’ll start turning off Suggestions in phases, the final phase to be turned off somewhere around the end of August.

We’ve had many people reach out to us and ask questions about a new dlvr.it service focused on content suggestion and curation called Concierge.

“Is Concierge a Buffer Suggestions replacement?”
“Can I use Concierge as a replacement for Swayy?“

Alternative to Buffer App

The short answer is YES. Concierge is a replacement for Buffer’s Suggestion feature. The slight difference is we depend upon the human touch to help surface relevant content and make it more ‘social’. Behind the scenes, we have editors reviewing content before it makes it into your social stream. You tell us what you need and we go to work. It is pretty much smartly automated from your point of view. We recognize each customer is slightly different and so is the content we place in your social media feeds. We call this smart auto–curation with the human element.

This is just the beginning for us. We have new features launching very soon and we are always interested in your feedback. For more information on content sharing features of Concierge, click the banner below.

[amads id=”10636″ size=”728×90″ title=”760×200 Bakery”]

The post Dlvr.it, a Buffer App Alternative for Awesome Social Sharing appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

We will be shutting down the Swayy app on July 24th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and soon we will be sending a note with more details about this transition.

If you are in the market for a Swayy replacement, please accept this as your personal invitation to check out Concierge by dlvr.it. We would love to have you.

What is Concierge by dlvr.it?

Concierge handpicks content to share with your social media audience. Concierge was created to remove the burden of trying to implement a successful social media strategy when you have limited time and resources.

As “concierge” implies, we do the work for you. We fill your social media void with:

• Handpicked content by real humans targeted to your readers
• Optimized articles to boost clicks, engagement and reach
• Time-tested social media tactics that turn fans into customers

Why Concierge?

When you sign-up for our monthly subscription, feel comfort in knowing you are leveraging our experience monitoring over 600,000 social media-minded businesses that share over 2 Million stories a day to over 1 Billion fans and followers.

Looking for more time to focus on your customers? Let Concierge by dlvr.it handle your social media.

The post Swayy.co Alternative for Content Curation appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Yahoo Travel put together a list of the ten top small-town 4th of July celebrations that are worth the journey. My hometown of Sonoma, California ranked #3. I mention Sonoma from time to time in my posts, but this honor gives me greater “bragging rights” (at least with my Mom). Local businesses, non-profits, clubs, schools, sports teams and community members all jump into the fun to make it a real hometown celebration using various 4th of July social media tactics.

For proof of how fun Sonoma can be, the featured photo in this post was taken at the climax of Sonoma’s 4th of July parade last year where firefighters doused the (willing) crowd with water.

Five 4th of July Social Media Ideas

1. Partner with a charity

Take a look at your local community – is there a charity that makes sense for your business to support? My favorite charity is the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation! This year, the foundation will be marching in the 4th of July parade along with Sonoma Market, a favorite local business. Sonoma Market gives back to the community in numerous ways. Here’s a recent picture from inside the market where they “happily” sell raffle tickets for this cherry red scooter for the upcoming #redandwhiteballsonoma – one of the foundation’s biggest fundraisers.

This is a great way to market your business on a budget while helping a local organization.

2. Host a party for your customers and open it up to surrounding businesses

Host a red, white and blue party for your clients and surrounding businesses. It doesn’t even have to be on July 4th. Take over the parking lot. Encourage your guests to wear their most patriotic ensembles. Have guests vote for the best outfit and offer a prize. What a great way to showcase your business style and flare.

Be sure to take a lot of photos to share with your followers on social media. Not only does this represent your business as a fun place to work, but it also showcases the people who make up your company. Encourage your followers to share their photos with your social media community.

Or, send out a short Tweet or Facebook post reminding your customers that you are open for business.

Here are examples from two of my favorite local Sonoma businesses: Taste of the Himalayas and Sunflower Caffé:

3. Offer FREE admission

What a great way to showcase your business, give back to your community and gain some friends. Here’s an example of Sonoma’s local museum offering free admission on the 4th of July for its current Diebenkorn exhibit.

4. Have a spur of the moment sale or promotion

Give your social media follower’s notice of a spur of the moment sale. Create a brand-specific hashtag for the sale or item to maximize your reach and impact. Although Williams-Sonoma has a large international retail presence, it has humble roots starting back in my California wine country town of Sonoma in 1956. Secret code: JULY

And, here’s an example of an email campaign from a local auto care shop offering $20 off AC repair – just in time for the 4th of July.

5. Conduct a contest or tweet out Fourth of July Fun Facts

Here are a few:

• The 4th of July wasn’t referred to as Independence Day until 1791.
• In a bizarre, though perhaps, an apt twist of fate, both Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams died on July 4, 1826.
• The value of American flag imports in 2013 was $4 million. That’s right; we import our own flags.
• U.S. imported $203.6 million of its $213.8 million worth of fireworks from China in 2013.
• July 4th is the “biggest hot dog holiday of the year,” according to TIME magazine, with Americans reportedly consuming about 155 million of them on Independence Day alone.
• Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the national bird, but John Adams and Thomas Jefferson overruled him, they wanted the bald eagle.
• The number of Americans who will spend the holiday at other people’s homes is approximately 41 million.
• There are a total of 59 places in the U.S. containing the word “liberty” in the name. Many of these are the names of counties, cities, and towns.

Or, post crazy recipes to your Facebook page. Here’s one for Rocket Hot Dogs.

Remember to have a little fun celebrating the 4th of July. While engagement isn’t everything, it’s critical to give back to your customers sometimes (and not always make it about the sale). Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

Ready for more social media marketing inspiration? Here are a few more social media success stories to inspire you.

And, if you’re planning to go on vacation this 4th of July and want to keep your social media active while you are away – check out the best social media automation services.
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Would love to hear your 4th of July social media ideas. Share in the comments below.

The post 5 Easy To-Do 4th of July Social Media Ideas appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Yahoo is pulling the plug on Yahoo Pipes – the service that creates RSS feeds. Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. According to Yahoo’s announcement, Pipes will run in read-only mode until it is discontinued on September 30, 2015.

Yahoo Pipes Alternative

Dlvr.it has a number of the RSS feed capabilities that made Pipes so popular. We are not claiming we can completely replace Pipes but we can certainly take care of many of the tasks. Here is what dlvr.it can do:

1. Sort and filter RSS feeds for select content
2. Mash-up several RSS feeds into a new one
3. Append RSS feeds with new content and UTM codes
4. Aggregate content from around the web
5. Geo-code tweets
6. Create widgets for your website

We encourage you to explore what dlvr.it has to offer. Our user-friendly interface makes setting up RSS feed recipes a snap. Creating a dlvr.it account is quick and easy. We offer both FREE and paid plans.

dlvr.it goes beyond just a Yahoo Pipes altnerative. We offer social media management and analytics.

The 3 main areas of focus include:

• RSS to Social: We continuously monitor your news feeds and RSS enabled web sites and automatically share new content to your socials.
• Scheduling: Queue up content wherever you find it with our browser extension. We’ll share it to your socials on an optimized schedule.
• Promote: We boost your website traffic and leads by distributing your blog posts to search, social, mobile and local media.

Other Yahoo Pipe Alternatives

1. IFTT
2. Zapier
3. Also, reference the 13 Best Yahoo! Pipe alternatives

The post The Best Alternative for Yahoo Pipes appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

If you are new to the platform, we have a few easy-to-implement tips on how to quickly get you started sharing your content to a built-in audience.

How to Create a Medium RSS Feed

Creating an RSS feed from your Medium posts is pretty easy. The RSS feed structure is simple. Here’s what it looks like:

medium.com/feed/@your_author_name

Your author name is located in the URL. Using Evan Williams, the founder as an example, his RSS feed looks like this:

URL: medium.com/@ev/

Author name: @ev

RSS feed URL: medium.com/feed/@ev/

Automatically Share Posts on Social

Now that you’ve created your RSS feed, what do you do with it?

1. Head over to dlvr.it and start sharing your content across your social networks.
2. Be sure to add Google UTM parameters to track your performance.
3. Set-up an optimized posting schedule.

What is it?

If you are new to Medium, I bet you are asking yourself “what is it?”

It’s described as a blog-publishing platform, but really, it is a cross between a platform (like blogger.com) and a magazine (think Time.com), with a focus on good design. The content is written by authors like you and me and is organized into collections for readers to browse, similar to a magazine. Anyone can create a free account and start writing.

Here are three benefits for businesses to start using it from KISSmetrics:

1. Alleviates the pressure of setting up and maintaining your own blog.
2. Puts your content in front of the eyes of your target audience with a built in audience.
3. A hybrid platform and publisher (a place for people to publish their own content as well as a media site that produces and curates content). Medium gives brands a pretty good deal: free branded content.

And, a couple quick tips on how to use it:

• Dip your toes into the waters by simply reposting your blog content. It will expose your content to a new audience and it only takes seconds to implement.
• Add hyperlinks back to your main content. You never know, you could get new readers and a little SEO juice!

Still skeptical? Digital marketing agency Koozai, ran a test with the following results:

Within 6 hours my post on Medium had surpassed the average number of views a post on my site would get in its entire lifetime. Within 24 hours those numbers quadrupled.

For more detailed information, its uses and how to publish, read the The Marketer’s Guide to Medium.

The post How to Create a Medium RSS Feed to Promote on Social Media appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

1. Be a resource to our social media readers who might have the same questions as Quora users
2. Determine if sharing Quora content on social could boost our profile on Quora

Quora to RSS – Promote Your Answers

Quora to RSS Options: You can create RSS feeds for several Quora areas, including:

• Profile Pages
• Question Pages
• Answer Pages
• Topic Pages

The structure of each feed is as follows, where USERNAME is your Quora username:

User profile pages:

http://www.quora.com/USERNAME/rss

User question pages:

http://www.quora.com/USERNAME/questions/rss

User answer pages:

http://www.quora.com/USERNAME/answers/rss

Topic pages:

http://www.quora.com/TOPIC-NAME/rss

TIP: For more Quora to RSS ideas, simply append “/rss” to the URL of the page you want as an RSS feed.

Sharing Quora Feeds on Social Media

We noticed that Quora controls how many times you fetch an RSS feed for updates. If you fetch it too often, the feed will time out for approximately 24-hours. The optimal frequency we found was once per day. Anything more than that, Quora returned an error when looking for updates.

If you are adding the feed to a dlvr.it route, change the feed settings to look for updates once per day.

Based on Quora’s fetch restrictions, we decided to share two of our Quora answers one time per day. If you want to share multiple answers, consider adding the Quora RSS feed to a Q for scheduling at different time intervals.

Quora to RSS was just one of the ways we leveraged the Quora community. For a complete Quora social media strategy, read: How we grew our blog referrals from Quora by 3x.

Do you have a Quora to RSS tip we can test next? Leave a comment below.

The post How to Share Your Quora Answers Across Social Media [Quora to RSS] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

As of May 1, 2015, RSS Graffiti will no longer be available on either a free, or paid, basis to power Facebook automation for you.

But, here’s the good news:

Best RSS Graffiti Alternative

If you are in the market for a RSS Graffiti replacement, please accept this as your personal invitation to check out dlvr.it. We would love to have you.

We not only have smart automation to Facebook but also to Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more. We also have a smart auto-scheduling and buffering of posts.

We encourage you to explore what dlvr.it has to offer. Setting up a dlvr.it account is quick and easy. We offer both FREE and paid plans. We put together a list of questions we have been receiving from RSS Graffiti customers looking for alternatives.

1. What social networks does dlvr.it post to?
2. What are dlvr.it’s features?
3. How do I set-up Facebook?
4. How much does dlvr.it cost?
5. Can I add a Facebook profile and page?

dlvr.it 3 main areas of focus:

• RSS to Social: We continuously monitor your news feeds and RSS enabled web sites and automatically share new content to your socials.
• Scheduling: Queue up content wherever you find it with our browser extension. We’ll share it to your socials on an optimized schedule.
• Promote: We boost your website traffic and leads by distributing your blog posts to search, social, mobile and local media.

If you have additional questions, please visit our support forum or feel free to contact us. You may also enjoy our tips on optimizing Facebook posts.

Don’t take our word for it. We serve nearly 600,000 customers every day. Here is what a few of them have to say:

Favorite Tweets by @dlvrit

Other RSS Graffiti alternatives:

• Twitterfeed
• Post Planner
• Hootsuite

The post Looking for a RSS Graffiti Alternative for Posting to Facebook? appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

You’re first instinct is probably to run and hide behind your firewall, but ultimately; after going through the The 17 Stages Of Your Mom Joining Facebook, you have to accept her friend or follower request. Sorry, but you just have to! Now that your mom is on Facebook, it’s time to reminisce with her.

I’m the first to admit (even to my Mom), I like #throwbackthursdays or TBT for short on Facebook. My teenage daughter looks at me like I’m crazy when she asks me what that is. Does it stand for…To be told? Truth be told? Tell boy to? (hopefully, not the last one). Throwback Thursday means taking a walk down memory lane by posting old photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It is one of the most popular trends on social media today. Why? Simply because people love nostalgia! If you’re old enough, looking back at what you used to look like, whom you used to spend time with, and what you used to wear is a fun way for people to remember, and laugh at, old times. (Side note. Just learned another one from the teenager: SS = Selfie Sunday)

In honor of Mother’s Day, here are a few fun throwbacks found across the web:

1. The Good Wife’s Guide – Housekeeper Monthly, May 13, 1955.

Never, ever show this to my husband!

The following is from a 1950’s home economics textbook intended for high school girls, teaching them how to prepare for married life:

 2. If 70s Moms Had Blogs… 

This one is awesome. Taken from the blog Wide Lawns and narrow minds. Make sure to click through to the full article.

Read more.

3. Grandma’s City Chicken Recipe

As mentioned in an earlier post on old-school marketing, my Mom was raised above a butcher shop in Lorain, Ohio where she learned how to make City Chicken from her Mom. Care to guess what it is?

City Chicken was developed around the 1930s as a way to knock-off chicken without spending the money on chicken. The traditional City Chicken recipe uses cubes of pork, veal and beef. The cubes of meat are skewered, breaded, fried and baked. The thought is that the meat on the skewer resembles a chicken leg. Obviously these days it would be much more economical to just make some breaded chicken legs. However, City Chicken definitely stands on its own as a tasty, down-home comfort food. In fact, my Mom surprised us with the dish at Thanksgiving a couple years ago!

For a modern day take on the classic recipe, here’s Food.com’s 5-star recipe on City Chicken (But It’s Not Chicken!).

Happy #throwbackthursday and Happy Mother’s Day to all the great Mom’s out there (including mine).

The post A Mother’s Day Throwback Thank You! appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

With over 730 million unique users per month, it is worth the effort in growing. If you don’t know what Reddit is, review this beginner’s guide.

This easy to follow (and short) Reddit to RSS tutorial will show you how to extract an RSS feed for any Reddit category or subreddit and customize it for distribution across social media:

 1. Grab the URL of a Reddit category or subreddit

Examples

Category: http://www.reddit.com/r/food/

Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/

2. Create an RSS feed

This part is easy. Just append any category or subreddit URL with ‘.rss‘

Category: http://www.reddit.com/r/food/.rss

Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/.rss

3. Share the feed across social media

Add your newly created RSS feed to a route in dlvr.it. If you are concerned about the quality of the content, set-up a Q to review and schedule the content before it goes live. Also consider adding filters to delete certain posts.

Customize the updates on social media by adding hashtags, custom prefixes/suffixes to alter the posts, and photos to attract more attention.

Now anytime new content is added to the subreddit, your feed will update and create a new social media update. This activity will draw more attention to it and help attract more followers on Reddit.

How to Find Subreddits

There are a number of tools on the market to find subreddits in nearly every niche. They are a great way to find content for curation, place to converse and add add your expertise and even find new customers. Of course you find subreddits on Reddit but these tools make it a tiny bit more organize by category and popularity.

Tools to find subreddits:

1.) Redditlist

2.) Reddit (of course)

3.) Subreddits

4.) Metareddit

The post How to Create Massive Attention of a Subreddit On Social Media appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.