Je Suis Paris

{ November 14, 2015 } - Trish Forant

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Paris, France.

DayngrZone Media Expands to Work with Bloggers and Brands

{ September 14, 2015 } - Trish Forant

I’m so excited to finally share our big news with you! Did you know North Carolina has its own Blogger Network? Founded in the summer 2014, the NC Blogger Network {NCBN} was created as a way to unite North Carolina based bloggers and help them build a better blogging community.

I’m proud to announce that I’ve taken ownership of NC Blogger Network and look forward to helping the community grow. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about blogging or join the thriving and active community, check out NC Blogger Network. NCBN provides education, sponsored campaigns, networking events, and conferences for members.

Expanding our Agency – The Big Benefit For You

If you’re already working with DayngrZone Media, our network just grew that much larger. If you’ve been looking to promote your business, product or brand throughout North Carolina, NCBN provides the perfect opportunity to do so. NCBN offers a variety of sponsorship and advertising opportunities.

NCBN’s bloggers are seasoned bloggers covering lifestyle topics such as the fashion, beauty, parenting, health, wellness, food, travel and tourism niches – and their audience is far-reaching.

If you’re a blogger, {or know one} or you’re interested in getting started blogging, you can join through the end of September using our discount code, and receive a 10% discount off membership. Just contact us and we’ll send you the code.

The East Coast NC Lifestyle Brand

Another exciting addition to our portfolio is the East Coast NC {ECNC} lifestyle brand. Through it we have a variety of sponsorship and advertising opportunities available as well. When you team up with DayngrZone Media, you also have the power of these two brands to choose from.

I’m thrilled to head up the NCBN team as well as the team at ECNC, and I look forward to all the big changes ahead and ways to better serve you!

Interested in Working with Us?

If you’re interested in having us find the right blogger for your brand, we’d love to help! If you’re more interested in digital marketing, advertising, design or social media for your business, contact us and let’s get started. We’d love to discuss what we have to offer and how we can help you.

Free Marketing Resources

Whether you’re ready to work with us or not, we’ve got plenty of FREE marketing resources here on our website, and on our Twitter account and Facebook page. Pick your favorite place to follow along and enjoy!

Thank You

Thanks so much for being a part of our network. I look forward to working with you and hearing from you soon!

Trish

5 Tips for Etiquette Across Social Networks

{ August 31, 2015 } - Trish Forant

Etiquette across social networks, like social networking itself, is not much different online than it is off. Good common sense can take you far. But social media etiquette is a bit subjective. Each of us has our own way of doing things and what feels like second nature to one person may feel incredibly awkward to someone else on the same social network. The beauty of this is that it is alright. We’re human and we aren’t always going to agree on every nuance when it comes to etiquette across our social networks.

However, there are some social media etiquette basics everyone should know (LIKE KEEP THE CAPS LOCK OFF).

Regardless of whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or a Blog, always use your common sense. If it isn’t something you would say to someone face to face, it is safe to say you should not be saying it from behind the computer screen. Be respectful of others and conduct yourself appropriately.

Bring value. Make sure you’re taking the time to share the things you find interesting. You don’t need to play to an audience, that isn’t natural. That new social sharing site, adorable photo, clever video and that article you loved – share the tidbits you come across with your friends and followers and you’ll probably attract like-minded individuals.

Create conversations, ask questions and dive in. It shouldn’t be all about self-promotion all the time. Use your status updates to invite conversation. Get to know the people in your stream or news feed. Find out what projects they’re working on and if you’re interested, how you might be able to participate. Take the time to promote others more than you promote yourself. That’s always good etiquette! One example of someone doing this right is Becky McCray. She does a Brag Basket on her blog “Small Business Survival” and it is a big hit.

Keep automation to a minimum. As a general rule, Auto DMs are frowned upon. Can you get away with them? You might be able to, but there’s a fine line. A good rule here is if you’re going to use them, they’d better be about the person following you and not about promoting your stuff. Also, if you plan to use Auto DMs you should also use Auto Follow and a platform to help you control it all. Psst… It’s a dead giveaway when someone tries to respond to your Auto DM and they can’t because you’re not following them back.

When is it OK to use automation? It’s OK to schedule posts some of the time but don’t make that the rule, keep it as the exception. For example, if you’re in the Atlantic time zone and you’ve already said good morning, it’s acceptable to schedule a few good morning tweets to catch people coming on and starting their day in other time zones. The key is to be ready to engage and follow-up once those automated posts go out and people begin to reply. No point in scheduling a discussion point to post at 3 AM if you aren’t going to be around to discuss it.

Review before you retweet. Heck, review before you tweet. This doesn’t just apply to twitter, this goes for all sharing. Make sure what you’re sharing is actually something you want to share. Take the time to click through and visit the link or read the article, etc. to determine if it is something you really want to share with your community.

Also, double check your status update before you hit send or share. Can it be taken out of context? If you aren’t sure, have someone else review it and give you their opinion. When it doubt, don’t send it out.

Keep a cool head. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve been guilty of breaking this etiquette tip when it comes to customer service. If you have an issue with a company, rather than attack them, reach out to them for resolution. Remember, there’s a person behind that logo. Nothing is going to get resolved if all you’re doing is venting. If you’re truly looking for resolution, take the time to reach out and explain the issue you are having. Then, be ready to take it to private messages or offline altogether if necessary. The same can and should be applied for discrepancies with individuals!

What do you think? Do you agree with these social media etiquette tips or do you take a different approach? What would you add to this article?

{My article originally appeared on the Radian6 / Salesforce Marketing website.}

Step 4: Build Community Relationships Through Content

{ July 21, 2015 } - Trish Forant

In this final part of our four part series, we’re discussing how to build and maintain community relationships using your content. One of the best parts of creating and sharing great content is connecting with your community. You can learn a lot from your community if you take the time to listen. Though the members of your community can give you a good indication of whether or not they find your content valuable, through various social options, (sharing your posts, comments, tweets and quoting your content) it is always a good idea to get direct feedback.

Get Feedback from Your Community

You can collect feedback from your community in a number of ways. Consider periodic online surveys, feedback forms, attendee surveys at your next webinar or conference, or even building a questionnaire into your next email newsletter. If you plan on measuring and analyzing this information (and why wouldn’t you?) just be sure you are consistent and ask the same questions across your selected time period so you can measure any changes in awareness, sentiment, etc.

Categorizing your content to provide relevance to your community can be very helpful. For example, if you’ve categorized all of your content about your corporate events as “Events”, someone visiting your website or this information would only have to select that category to see all the content you’ve shared on the subject.

You can also help build a strong relationship with your community by providing them with informational and educational content. In other words, content that will help them be more successful, do their jobs better or make them that much wiser in their field.

How will you know what type of content your community will find valuable or educational? It all goes back to asking the right questions. Take the responses you have received from your feedback forms, surveys, etc. and spend some time evaluating them to see if there are areas for improvement. Are you covering the topics your community is looking to learn more about? Are they asking for information you can provide? If so, and you plan to put their suggestions to good use, be sure to let your community know that you will be incorporating their suggestions. One way to acknowledge your community’s contributions would be to thank them publicly on your site. Give them all the credit they deserve for helping you to continue to grow and improve. Keep an open line of communication between you and your community members. Let them know they are one of the most important, if not the most important, driving force behind your brand.

Both your content and relationships are blooming. It’s an exciting time and more opportunities await. We may be winding down, but we’re not done yet! Our last chapter wraps it up and throws in a few more nuggets.

Putting it all Together

There are always ways to enhance your content. So before we wrap up, let’s stretch this content-aboutcontent eBook a bit further with some final food for thought.

Put content at the center of your marketing strategy – The content you create will be a traffic-driver, conversation starter, information-enricher and an awareness-builder. It can even be a conversion-leader. What marketer wouldn’t want that as part of their approach? Marketing can even allocate dollars to your content and help promote your eBooks and webinars.

To make that happen, ensure the entire team is on-board with your content strategy and make sure it aligns with marketing’s goals as well. Communication and dialogue are key and it can only lead to great things for your brand.

Be in the know – We all know the social web is constantly changing and that means new ways to promote content and new content formats. Keep up on the latest news and information in this space to ensure you remain relevant. Attend conferences, follow content and social media experts on Twitter and read blog posts. You can even share your knowledge and be seen as an expert yourself!

It’s okay to reach out – Remember when you had to sell cookies in school and you asked your Mom to buy some? If you’re just starting out with your content, feel free to talk to close friends, colleagues, brand advocates (and why not Mom, especially if she’s in your industry!) about your new venture. Share it with them, get their feedback and ask if they know anyone who would also enjoy it. We all have networks and it’s a great way to get your feet off the ground.

In this 4 part series, we explored ways for your content to spread throughout social media, enabling you to build and enhance relationships and empower your community. We did this through the development of a successful content strategy, looking at the different types of content, how to share this great content with your community and how to build relationships as a result. We hope you will be able to take this information and begin to develop or refine your content strategy.

Are you feeling empowered to start your content strategy? Or if you have one in place, do you feel there are some updates that can be made to make it even stronger? Consider your community along with your brand goals and your content will go further than ever before.

Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community – Step 3: Organizing and Sharing Content

{ July 14, 2015 } - James Bartels

In the third part of our series “Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community,” we’ll be discussing the best ways to organize and share your content with your digital community. See, it’s not that difficult! You’re already halfway finished! Here are 5 of the best ways for organizing and sharing your content with your digital community. [Missed part one? check it out here: Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community – Step 1: Building Your Content Strategy]

Choose Your Topics

Now that you’ve determined the big idea, you’re going to have to decide how you’ll share all that content monthly. Ask yourself the following basic questions:

Is the topic relevant right now?
Is it timely?
Is it popular right now?
What is your competition doing?
Will you have enough content for the month?

These may seem redundant, but it’s important you consider them. It’s doubtful you’ll post something irrelevant. However, finding a topic that you like, that’s relevant, and not widely covered is a great option.

Create an Editorial Calendar for your Topics and Content

As a busy company, you probably already have a million things to keep track of. Creating an editorial calendar will keep you on schedule for consistency, relevancy and ensure everyone is on the same page.

To create topics and calendar contemplate two things:

Master Calendar – This outlines the major types of content you’re creating for the month (blog posts, webinars, eBooks, white papers, etc.). How it helps:
- You can see all your content in a quick overview
- Add in key holidays, events, campaigns, business dates
- Create a unified flow of information and topics
Detailed Calendar – Unlike the master calendar, the detailed calendar is an in-depth look at your content on a daily and/or weekly basis. Of course, this depends on how often you publish content. If you have a Virgo on staff, enlist them to help! You know how they love details, lists, and planning. How it helps:
- It’s all the cogs in your content writing powerhouse that make it function smoothly
- It will include helpful notes and information like authors, keywords, plans of attack, status quo
- It’s a catalyst for new ideas! It will create a snowball effect for new ideas that will build off existing content.

Now that you know what you’re writing about and when, you need to make sure that when you’re publishing your content, people can find it. One of the best ways to do this is to share your content across your social networks.

Make the Most of What You Already Have

Are you mildly panicking because you’re already wondering how you’re going to find the time to create this magical content, of which we speak? Take a deep breath and relax. You probably already have content you can use, but haven’t considered!

You know, those sales and marketing documents designed to entice and draw in new customers? That’s a great start. Now you just need to maximize it for your networks!

For example, if you have a brochure featuring your products and have already posted it to your website. Here are a few other options to get the most out of what you’ve already got:

Transform that brochure into three blog posts
Turn your content into a presentation and publish it to SlideShare (remember to tag keywords)
Interview your content writers and post it on your YouTube account
Take the audio from the interview and turn it into a podcast
Create an infographic with the key data discussed
Share each piece of new content across your social networks (Think: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, etc)

You can do it! It’s easy once you start digging in. You’re bound to find something you already have and build on it.

Sharing Your Content

Now that you’ve navigated these new and unfamiliar waters, and put in the hard work, you’re ready to share! As Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home.” Home, in this case, is your website.

Today, there are so many social networks and we’ve just scratched the surface. Let’s just focus on the four main and most popular social networks to help you take off and fly!

Twitter is one of the biggest and important social networks today. It’s an awesome place to generate and engage in conversation. Tweet your links in a conversational way. Ask questions and solicit opinions on the links you’ve share. More importantly, be engaging!

Facebook differs from twitter in the fact that it is an incredibly visual social medium. This is a great place to post many photographs. Facebook allows its users to create photo albums and create captions or descriptions to go along with them. That being said think of the stories you want to tell! Remember that if you’re at an event to take photos and use them as content to share on Facebook and all your other social networks!

There are five different types of content you can post to Facebook. However, Facebook values each of them differently and changes their order of importance regularly:

Videos
Photos
Links
Open graph stories
Updates from applications

Facebook is fun! Like I said it’s and incredible visual platform that allows you to get creative in the content you share. Unlike Twitter, users can have lengthy discussions longer than 140 characters. Therefore, it’s great for having conversations!

Google+ is another great place to share your content with your community. If you don’t know Google+ well, check out Google+50, a great resource to help you get started. Google+ has 20,000,000 visitors world wide so you may want to check it out.

LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 364 million members in over 200 countries and territories. If your content can be useful in aiding professionals or businesses it’s a great place to share it. Another great facet of LinkedIn, it’s global. More than half its users are outside of the United States! It’s an awesome place to reach people in other countries who may be interested in connecting with you and your business!

Similar to Facebook, it’s a great place to discuss and share ideas, especially when it pertains to your area of expertise. You can post status updates, share links, and it even includes applications to showcase your content.

Again, these are just a few ways you can share content. Feel free to go beyond these suggestions! Always look for opportunities and new ways to share your content. See where your audience is sharing your content and go from there. Also, get stealthy, go covert ops. Do some reconnaissance on the competition to gather intelligence and use that information appropriately.

Search Engine Optimization

I know, it sounds ridiculously technical and possibly complicated. When in reality, search engine optimization just means the importance of tagging keywords in your content. Why would you want to do this? Well, because consumers need to be able to find your product or services quickly and easily. By tagging your keywords and phrases you’ll be more searchable and available in search engine databases. Thus, being more visible to customers!

SEO is important don’t underestimate the power of keywords. It will help get more visitors to your site quickly and then the word gets out! Check out google keyword tool to help you. For example, if you own a coffee shop, you’ll want to use keywords that fit in the coffee category.

Be strategic in how you utilize keywords. Have a balance between your content and writing for a search engine. There are some good approaches to build a strong SEO.

Begin with the headline. Be sure the headlines for your blog posts, videos, white papers and any other forms of content include your keywords
Include the keywords in your introductory or descriptive paragraph. Make sure they are there. It’ll further reinforce searchability and relevance to your content.
Customize your URL (website address). If you get the chance to change your URL, and include keywords it will further make it easier for people to find you!
Sort and tag it. Sort your blog posts into categories. Create broad categories with keywords. This the place for more broad coffee related keywords. Such as “coffee beans”. Then use tags to be specific, such as “Arabica Beans”. You can also add tags on sites like YouTube. Look for tags when adding to sites that aren’t yours.

Searching isn’t the only way people will find your content. You’re in control, remember? You have the power to spread it. Fortunately, the social web is a great way to share it. The more you share content, engage in discussions, you’ll begin to create relationships and get your name out there. Just remember to stay consistent, relevant and interesting and what you put out, will come back to you.

How are you currently organizing and sharing your content? Are you using a content calendar? Would you be interested in one if provided it as an option? We’d love to hear from you? Why not kick off the conversation in the comments below!

If You’re Not Including Visual Content, You’re Missing Out

{ June 23, 2015 } - James Bartels

Jason Miller nailed it at SocialFresh 2014, he gave a great presentation discussing the importance of including SlideShare and Infographics as a part of your content. To put it simply, make your content more visually appealing.

“People want a thrill, people want a spectacle, and people love to be entertained” – KISS

Visual is the New Headline

“As content marketers our job is to inspire, educate inform and also entertain.” – Jason Miller

Why are SlideShare and Infographics so successful? They’re visual and, visuals are a staple, a must, in your marketing strategy. You only have seconds to grab someone’s attention. Grab it with a compelling image!

As content creators, we must learn to adapt. Here are five compelling reasons why visuals are a necessity:

Almost everyone is a visual thinker
Visual language aids in making decisions
Visuals makes a better impression than plain text
Visuals are more persuasive
Visuals help people connect emotionally

When you begin to include visual content, take a look at the following visual social content platforms: Instagram, Pintrest and Flickr. Though you may find that you like one better than the others, it’s important to figure out where your community is and focus on those platforms. You don’t have to be everywhere, and you don’t want to be. You just want to be where your community (or target demographic) is.

Let’s Talk SlideShare

What is SlideShare? SlideShare is a website where users can upload their presentations and content to the web. Think of it as web based PowerPoint. If you’re giving a presentation, consider using SlideShare to create it and then later upload it as content to your site. It’ll help your community get more information about you!

Why should you consider adding SlideShare to your blog?

It Automatically adds inter-connectivity
People don’t have to do a click to go anywhere, they can stay on your content
It has a built in lead form, which means your community can contact you and you can track it with a built in meter

There are a few hacks to using this platform. According to SlideShare, the optimal presentation has three features and hints to make it successful:

Keep the number of slides short and sweet (the avg. number of slides is 19 per presentation)
Be visual with your presentation, include pictures (the avg. number of pictures per presentation is 19)
Get to the point (the avg. number of words on a slide is 24)

You’re probably wondering why these three things? It’s interesting to note, there was no magic algorithm that determined this. People want simplicity, they want something helpful. If you’re presentation is simple and helpful it will be successful. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. For adding visual content check out Canva and also look at these 10 Canva tips to help you become a visual content master!

There’s a few advantages to creating your own content using SlideShare and Infographics. The most important is that you can tell your story, but how? Here are three ways you can you do this effectively.

Have a great content strategy
Make your own advertising
Create a targeted marketing strategy to drive awareness to your brand

Another advantage you have by creating your own content is that it’s no longer a numbers game. Today, big search engines have killed “content farms”. That means, you don’t need a team of 500 people creating content for you, and you don’t need more content – just relevant content.

Long Live Infographics

What is an Infographic? Basically, they’re graphic visual representations of data or knowledge to show information quickly and in a creative way. Think of it as a graph that incorporates a picture or graphic. Essentially, a dressed up pie chart!

Here are a few reasons to include infographics and their benefits as:

Infographics provide a snapshot for a bigger story, thus intriguing the community to consume your content
They break down complicated ideas and information
Easily shareable
Fuel for social and demand generation
Great SEO (search engine optimization) linkbacks
Enhances press releases
They are entertaining and fun

To wrap things up, it’s all about being visual today! Including visual content for your community, will help engage and retain their attention for your brand. Visual content is easily understood and shareable. It goes beyond plain text and makes your content interesting and engaging. People love to share great visuals and that means additional ways your content will be promoted. You own your media so write your own story!

Are you currently using photos and videos as a part of you content strategy? Let us know in the comments below.

Empower Your Community to Promote Your Business

{ June 17, 2015 } - James Bartels

One of the great things about social media is that it can be used to promote your business, not just by your company, but by your fans, too! What if I told you that you could promote your business using social media without working hard at it? Yes, your customers and fans can promote your business for you! In this article, we’ll explain a few ways in which your community can help promote your business and how you can help make it happen. Large corporations harness the power of their communities, and so can you. Being present on social media, and creating helpful content will help your community do this.

Let’s Talk About #Hashtags

Primarily used on Twitter, Instagram and Google+, but gaining popularity on Facebook, the hashtag is a powerful tool you can use to your advantage. Hashtags allow people using social media to create an automatic link to that specific hashtag. How? Hashtags assign topics to your posts, status updates and articles. Using the pound sign # {or hash} on a social network turns any word or group of words that directly follow it, into a searchable link, allowing you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. That means, if you wanted to post about your visit to NYC, you would include #NYC in your status update to join the conversation. Click on any hashtag to see all the posts that mention that topic/subject in real time.

For example, let’s say you have a small coffee shop named “Coffee Club”, you can have a “#CoffeeClubRocks” sign in your shop encouraging customers to tweet, take photos, and post on Facebook using your creative hashtag, #CoffeeClubRocks. As customers discuss your brand and business across their social media platforms using the hashtag #CoffeeClubRocks, it will link all the conversations around your brand together, promoting your business and your content. Thus, providing publicity to your business with minimal effort on your part!

Delta Airlines recently blew up on social media when it ordered hundreds of pizzas for frustrated, delayed passengers. People whipped out their phones, took photos, and used the hashtag #DeltaPizzaParty. Within minutes, the photos and positive public relations (PR) were everywhere. The pizza party gained so much attention that it was covered by local and national media. Hello! #FreePublicity! Delta didn’t even have to announce they did something nice for their customers, their customers took care of that!

“We don’t own our Social Media Channels, The fans do”- Dunkin’ Donuts Marketing”

Jessica Gioglio, head of Dunkin’ Donuts social media department said, “Instagram is one of [our] fastest growing channels with our community, especially with hashtag use around #DunkinDonuts” and “#MyDunkin”. The community’s social media use of Dunkin’ Donuts brand has allowed the company to expand their marketing and content creation.

Four Ways to Empower Your Community to Promote Your Business:

Celebrate Your Fans

People enjoy sharing photos, not just text. Therefore, share photos of your community enjoying your product or services! Consider creating a “fan of the week” post to encourage people to continue to share stories about your brand.

Loved talking to @joelmchale and he made some promises !!! #VisaCheckout #DunkinDonuts pic.twitter.com/5gEshtMQH0
— Jenny Hutt (@jennyhutt) June 17, 2015

Embrace Fans as Storytellers to Help Promote Your Business

Listen to how your fans are sharing your product or services. Did it impact them visually or intellectually? If so, listen to them! Consider sharing how they were impacted positively by you on social media. Rally your community in positivity! Your community can create content for you.

#Transformers need #Energon. #NewEnglanders need #DunkinDonuts. Fueling up for @afterbuzztv #TransformersRID! pic.twitter.com/j3qp9SMtO3
— Emma Fyffe (@EmmaFyffe) June 14, 2015

Seek Inspiration from Fans

Seek inspiration from fans for contests and promotions. Consider doing a small contest that you can share on your social media. It will generate content for you. Not everyone might want to participate and that’s ok, but people will enjoy seeing those who did participate.

Have Good Conversation Skills

Good conversation skills = good social media. What I mean is, listen, engage, don’t monopolize the conversation, be authentic, encourage other voices to be heard, have something to say, be funny and entertaining, but never inappropriate.

In conclusion, if you support your community, they’ll support you. They’ll help you get your brand out there and market and advertise for you. Just remember to celebrate and embrace your fans, put them in the spotlight, and encourage conversation. These factors will allow you to create a positive social media presence, while allowing your community to work for you and with you!

We’d love to hear how your using social media to help promote your business? Are you currently empowering the members of your community, and if so, what results have you seen?

What the Heck Are Hashtags and How Do I Use Them?

{ June 15, 2015 } - Trish Forant

If you’re new to social media, you’re probably wondering what the heck hashtags are and how you can use them effectively. You may have asked yourself “What the Heck Are Hashtags and How Do I Use Them?” In this article, we’re going to cover those questions and so much more!

What The Heck Are Hashtags?

Hashtags assign topics to your posts, status updates and articles. Using the pound sign # {or hash} on a social network {think Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and even Facebook}, turns any word or group of words that directly follow it, into a searchable link, allowing you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. That means, if you wanted to post about your visit to NYC, like I did above, you would include #NYC in your status update to join the conversation. Click on any hashtag to see all the posts that mention that topic/subject in real time.

How to Format Your Hashtags

The first thing you should know is that you don’t want to use spaces – even if your hashtag contains multiple words. But you do want to differentiate those words by using upper and lower case. For example, Pen Island would look better, and make much more sense, as #PenIsland than as #penisland, don’t you agree? Uppercase letters won’t alter your search results so people searching for #abc will get the same results as people searching for #ABC.

Numbers are supported, so #EasyAs123 works. Sadly, punctuation marks are not supported. So commas, periods, exclamation points, question marks and apostrophes are out. While you’re at it, skip asterisks, ampersands and any other special characters.

There Are No Presets

There isn’t a master list of hashtags, but you can search your social networks {and search engines} to see if there’s a hashtag already in use for a particular subject or topic. You can even check services like HashAtIt, Hashtagify, and Hashtags.org. Remember, every time you add a hashtag in front of a word or phrase, you’re creating a hashtag. Try it out!

How You Can Use Hashtags

Hashtags are supported on Twitter {where they started}, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and even Facebook, now. There are so many different ways you can use hashtags, the possibilities are almost endless. However, I wanted to give you a few ways you can use them, along with a few tips.

Don’t forget, hashtags turn words into searchable links
Always start with a # and leave out spaces
Use upper and lowercase to differentiate words
Use them during conferences and events
Use them in conversations around specific topics
Use them for Twitter chats
Use them during television shows (#CNN, #GreysAnatomy, #JurassicWorld)
Hashtags can be used anywhere within your post or update
Use them to find like-minded individuals
Use them to find people discussing the topics you’re interested in
Use them to create a following for your brand
Use them to complement photos you share on Instagram (This helps you discover new accounts and pick up followers)
Use them to show off your personality, brand voice or tone
Use them for fun!

Again, these are just a few ways you can use hashtags while you’re using social media. What would you add to this article to help folks trying to understand hashtags? How are you using hashtags for your business or brand? Let us know in the comments below!

Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community – Step 2: Going Beyond Text

{ June 8, 2015 } - Trish Forant

In the second part of our series “Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community,” we’ll be discussing moving past plain, boring text based content, and walking you through the ways you can make your content more engaging. Let’s dive in! [Missed part one? check it out here: Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community – Step 1: Building Your Content Strategy]

Creating content for your digital community requires going beyond text. So, it makes sense that the second step in creating and developing engaging content is going beyond text and kicking your content up a notch by considering podcasts, photographs, videos, webinars and infographics. After all, content isn’t just straight up text on paper or on your computer screen.

Podcasts

Podcasts are digital audio, video files, or recordings, usually part of a themed series which can be downloaded from a website to a media player (like an iPod) or computer. Although video is important, with a podcast you must consider all the places the audience might be accessing the content. For example, the morning commute, work, while working out at the gym etc. Sometimes, video can’t be consumed as easily as audio. Having a podcast is like having your very own radio show. It’s a fantastic opportunity to share audio content with your community.

You may feel that video would be much more appealing. However, consider all the places your community might enjoying accessing your content, like at the office, during their morning commute or while working out at the gym. As wonderful as video content is, there are times that it may not be as easily consumed as audio. Including a podcast as a part of your content is like having your very own radio show. It is a fantastic opportunity to share audio content with your community.

The topics you cover in your podcasts can be as specific as you like or as wide ranging, and there are podcasts for just about every subject under the sun. Therefore, it is important to look for ways to make your podcast unique so it stands out from the rest.

For a few ideas on how wide ranging or niche podcasts can be, check out Chris Penn and John J. Wall’s podcast, “Marketing Over Coffee”, which covers both new and classic marketing, and National Public Radio (NPR) which hosts a variety of podcasts on topics from “Story of the Day” to “How to Do Everything.” There’s also The Moth podcast which features people telling true, engaging, funny, touching and eye-opening stories from their lives. Don’t forget business podcasts as well, such as the BMC podcasts.

Incorporate podcasts into your content by publishing them on your blog or website. You will want to check your blog publishing platform for specific details. You can also check out the Podcasting for Dummies podcast, book or a number of other resource to help get you up and running..

Finally, you can submit your podcasts to a number of podcast directories for wider consumption, but iTunes is the preferred choice for showcasing podcasts.

Photographs

Photos can be a nice addition and add a little variety and freshness to your content. One great reason to begin using photos as a part of your content is that sharing your photos can help personalize and humanize your business. Photos can help show your community that you are more than just a logo or a product. They can help you express your company’s tone and personality.

Photos with appropriate keywords in the filename (social-media-listening.jpg) can also help your content appear more prominently in search results. And the Facebook algorithm that determines what content shows to your company’s fans has been shown to be very friendly to photos.

If you’re looking for another reason to start adding photos as part of your content mix, consider this, research has found that business-oriented web pages with images performed 91% better than those pages without images.

Your photos don’t have to solely show your product line or be limited to a corporate photo of your team. You can take and share photos from life in the office, volunteer events, holidays, corporate events, trade shows and even the company canoe outing last summer.

If you are concerned about cost, keep in mind your photos do not always have to be professionally taken, which can be helpful in keeping costs down. You may also wish to consider taking photos of people in action, interacting with your brand. Another possibility is having the members of your community do the same by submitting photos with your product. Get creative!

Naturally, you can post your photos to your Facebook page and share them on Twitter – and you should. Attending an industry conference? Post and tag your photos to a photo sharing site like Flickr at the end of each day. But don’t stop there, use fun, photo sharing social networks like Instagram to share your photos as they happen.

Burberry did just that, in real time with the premiere of their Spring/Summer 2012 collection. Calling it “Tweetwalk”, Burberry partnered with Instagram, Twitter and British photographer Mike Kus to share his exclusive images live from the show space. (Additionally, they leveraged Facebook, Chinese social networks, Sina and Yoku, YouTube, and an on demand live stream to distribute their content across the web simultaneously.

Video

Why write a story, when you can show and tell a story? Because 71% of online Americans use video sharing sites (Source: Pew Internet) and according to a 2009 Forester report, your video content is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of search than text based content.

Focus on the stories you want to share with your community and your consumers and create your own videos. You can use video as a way to spotlight a product, or people in your organization. You can also use video as a way to be more in control of your brand. For example, rather than waiting for the media to interview your company spokesperson, why not create your own video interviews and upload them to video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo? In the process, you will have videos that you can embed in your blog posts, making them easier to share, and save visitors a trip away from your blog to view your content.

Chris Brogan suggests, “Shoot brief, shoot informative, shoot casual,” and offers Zappos as a great example of a company doing it right.

Don’t be limited to just spotlighting products or services, though. Use videos to inform and educate as well – perhaps a video tutorial series sharing your industry expertise with your community. Consider a video case study, or sharing a challenge your company faced, how you handled it and what the outcome was can be very powerful.

Webinars

Webinars are live, online educational presentations during which participating viewers/listeners, typically, can submit questions and comments. Think web-based seminars. Hosting your own is something you should consider as another layer of content. Webinars, unlike many conferences and events, can be both convenient and affordable.

They’re a great way to draw in and connect with your community. Webinars are interactive, unlike an eBook, white paper or even a video. Participants have the ability to ask specific questions, chat with the guests and moderator, and there are no geographical hindrances. There’s certainly no jet lag for traveling to and from a webinar, either. Plus, participants who might feel awkward in a face-to-face setting may feel more comfortable participating from their private location.

Webinars may even snag you some new clients as well. According to a 2009 study by Business.com, 67% of small business decision-makers who use social media for business information seek out relevant webinars or podcasts. With stats like that, why not give webinars a try?

Extending social media reach and thus potentially extending the conversation is a great reason to add them to your content. During a webinar, participants can discuss and share information on other social media platforms like Twitter, using hashtags. This can increase the conversation around your brand and spread key points or take-aways. Plus, after the webinar, upload the information to your SlideShare account, repurpose it as a podcast and write a blog post recap about it. They’re like a gift that keeps on giving.

Infographics

Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly. When you think infographics, think visual communication. Therefore, if you want to convey information that contains numbers dates, locations, measurements or comparisons, you could probably move away from putting it in writing and format it as an infographic instead.

While this form of visual communication existed before the Internet (when cave walls were the popular medium), they are back in popular demand due to the massive amounts of data circling the web and the shareable nature of social media.

The most successful infographics convey a story with a quick glance or read. Reagan’s PR Daily offers these five tips to help you when creating an infographic:

Find the most interesting data
Add scale to your data
Create Tweetable statements (Highlight this and see what we mean!)
Find a professional designer
Make it shareable

Now that we have all these great content options to try out, let’s organize our thoughts a bit. We need to look at what type of content to use and when, both from a high level view at 30,000 feet and a more granular look on the ground. In the next part of our “Four Steps to Creating Content for your Digital Community,” series, we’ll explore ways to create both your content topics, organize them, share them and get people reading and consuming them!

What type of content would you add this this article? Are you using any of these alternative types of content? If so, which ones? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for part three “Sharing Content With Your Digital Community.”