Friday, March 31, 2017
How Do Consumers Really Feel About 2017's Digital Trends? [Infographic]
As we approach the year's second quarter, Google is already returning over 46,600 results for “digital trends 2017.” And if you’re in the digital marketing space, there seems to be an unspoken rule that you must always have an opinion on what the key trends will be for the year ahead.
But could it be that we’re all stuck in an industry echo chamber? As it turns out, some new research from Code Computerlove might burst that bubble.
Code Computerlove surveyed 1,000 U.K. adults to find out what they really think about these trend predictions -- things like voice search, virtual reality, and chat-bots. That data was then compared to what’s actually making the most noise online. Some key findings included:
- Mobile payments are the most sought-after technology in 2017.
- 9 out of 10 consumers claim to have no interest in using augmented reality in the near future.
- 1 in 5 people surveyed aim to spend less time in front of screens this year.
With that many people aiming to spend less time in front of screens this year, brands have to make their digital interactions count -- a poor initial digital experience can carry a long-term impact. Curious to know what else your brand needs to know about these trends? Check out the infographic below.
March Social Media News: Facebook vs. Snapchat, WhatsApp for Business & More
March is known for a few major holidays and events. St. Patrick's Day, U.S. college basketball tournaments, and the start of spring, to name a few.
After this year, in the marketing world, March 2017 will also be known as the month when Facebook officially took on Snapchat.
The world's biggest social network launched ephemeral sharing apps on Messenger and Facebook itself to compete with Snapchat's key feature. Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Instagram have also recently launched disappearing sharing features on Status and Stories, respectively.
But Facebook isn't the only story in social media this month. We'll discuss new features on Instagram, a new social video app by YouTube, and of course, Facebook. The list isn’t exhaustive, but you can expect to learn the major highlights in the social media space this month -- what was launched, what changed, and what these stories could mean for marketers.
Check out our discussion in the video below, and read on for more in-depth explanations of each story.
13 of the Biggest Social Media News Stories This Month
1) Facebook launches Messenger Day
Source: Facebook
Facebook launched Messenger Day, its answer to the popularity of Snapchat Stories. Facebook previously launched ephemeral, or disappearing, messaging features on Instagram and WhatsApp, and this installment is the latest attempt to dominate Snapchat in the photo and video-sharing space.
Facebook is likely banking on Messenger's huge user base -- 1 billion people worldwide -- to propel Messenger Day to popularity. It's also positioning Messenger Day differently: Instead of sharing what they've been doing, Facebook wants users to share what they're going to do later so they can make plans with friends.
2) Facebook starts experimenting with Stories
Source: Business Insider
Soon after the unveiling of Messenger Day, Facebook unveiled Facebook Stories -- located at the top of the News Feed. Facebook confirmed to Business Insider that Stories would function identically to Instagram Stories -- users could post them to Facebook, where they would disappear after being available for viewing for 24 hours. At this point, Facebook Stories are being rolled out to only a few countries, but we'll report more when we can.
TL;DR: Facebook is coming for Snapchat. Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, cited the rise of Instagram Stories as a major hindrance to its user growth in its S-1 filing for its massive initial public offering (IPO) earlier in March. We'll keep you posted if these innovations by Facebook are on the way to taking down Snapchat, or if Snapchat's popularity among millennials and user engagement will keep it afloat.
3) Research demonstrates native Facebook videos are shared 1000% more than other formats
Source: quintly
Quintly analyzed over 6 million Facebook posts to gain insights on how many videos, and of which type, were shared on the platform. It found that 90% of Facebook profiles and Pages analyzed shared Facebook native videos, or videos created and uploaded on Facebook, and not hosted on another platform that the user links to on Facebook. On the other hand, only 30% of the analyzed profiles and Pages had shared a YouTube video on Facebook during the months the study was conducted. Furthermore, quintly found that native Facebook videos were shared 1055% more than other videos and achieved an 186% higher interaction rate overall.
The lesson here for marketers? Take the extra step to upload videos into Facebook to earn higher engagement rates. We recommend a distributed content strategy to earn new followers from different audiences, so you could even promote video content on Facebook and other hosting sites and analyze the results.
4) Facebook introduces a 360 app for Samsung Gear VR
Source: Facebook
Another Facebook launch this month comes from its video team, which created a Facebook 360 app for Samsung's Oculus Gear VR (virtual reality) device. The app creates a more immersive 360-degree viewing experience for Facebook users, who can comment, interact with, and share posts they like within the app while wearing the device. In the announcement blog post, Facebook also notes that users have shared 26 million 360-degree photos and videos to date. These VR devices are fairly affordable at $79.99, so we're curious to see if this app makes 360 sharing, or Gear VR use, increase.
5) Facebook allows more ads on Instant Articles
Source: Facebook
Facebook announced it would give advertisers more freedom to monetize Instant Articles -- by letting them place ads every 250 words instead of every 350 words, as were the previous rules. Facebook Instant Articles let publishers create and republish content within Facebook to get more readers without asking them to leave the social network.
This news isn't the best for anyone who enjoys reading online content uninterrupted -- but it also reflects Facebook's growing interest in collaborating with journalists and news publications. Earlier this year, Facebook launched the Facebook Journalism Project to address fake news, but also to collaborate with the people making the news. A huge percentage of Americans get news primarily from social media -- especially Facebook -- and this move notes another attempt to make it more appealing for publishers to work directly within Facebook so Facebook can grow and strengthen its user base.
6) Instagram rolls out “Suggestions for You”
I noticed this change while scrolling through my Instagram notifications. Instagram now suggests users to follow based on your Instagram friends, Facebook friends, and other posts you've liked. Instagram is honing its algorithm and making it easier for users to discover other profiles they might be interested in. This is great news for marketers publishing content on the platform -- keep it up, because now, you might be found even more easily by new potential customers.
7) Geostickers now available in Instagram Stories
In another step toward total Facebook domination of disappearing messages, Instagram started offering Geostickers for Instagram Stories. One of the only remaining differentiators between Snapchat Stories and its imitator on Instagram, these Geostickers are more customizable than those on Snapchat, which might make them more appealing to Snapchat users considering a switch.
Stars are already starting to move from Snapchat to Instagram for sharing ephemeral content, where their content can be more easily searched for and discovered. Snapchat cited Instagram Stories as an obstacle in its quest for user growth, and it will be fascinating to see how new, seemingly copycat features, impact that trajectory.
8) WhatsApp to allow businesses to chat with users
Source: Reuters
Reuters reported that WhatsApp has started testing letting some businesses communicate directly with WhatsApp users as a potential future revenue model. WhatsApp is testing this feature with businesses that are a part of Y Combinator, a competitive startup incubator that fostered Airbnb and Dropbox in previous years. WhatsApp is also surveying users to ask them about spam messages they've received on the platform.
We've started to see other businesses using messaging apps -- such as Facebook Messenger -- to communicate with customers. These experiments likely signal WhatsApp's first foray into that space, so if you're a user, keep an eye out. And if you're a marketer with a global audience, WhatsApp could be a path to communicate with customers -- WhatsApp has over 1 billion users worldwide.
9) Pinterest acquires search engine Jelly
Source: Biz Stone
AskJelly.com is a human-powered search engine (think Quora or the now-defunct ChaCha) where users can submit questions and answer them for other users. Co-founded by Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter and Medium, Jelly was recently acquired by Pinterest.
Pinterest launched Lens last month, a new in-app camera that lets users shoot an object and get suggested pins based on what they photographed. This acquisition of a search engine could be Pinterest's effort to improve the app's search capabilities. Alternatively, The Verge suspects it was a talent acquisition to bring new developers, and Stone himself, on board.
10) Many Twitter accounts are actually bots
Source: Twitter
A study released by the University of Southern California revealed that 9-15% of Twitter users are actually bots, capable of liking, retweeting, and replying like a human Twitter user. If the high end of this estimate is true, that means roughly 48 million of Twitter's 313 million active users aren't real people -- which spells trouble for the microblogging site.
Twitter's user growth is on the decline, along with its share of global social media users overall. It's launched live video streaming within the app and forged partnerships with major news and sports networks to increase user engagement and attract new people to the site -- especially those millennials who aren't using cable TV packages.
11) YouTube launches social video app, Uptime
Source: The Verge
Google's new startup incubator, Area 120, was created so employees could spend time creating their own business ideas. This month, Area 120 announced the launch of Uptime, a social video app wherein users can watch YouTube videos in group messages with their friends. Like other live-streaming apps and features, such as Periscope and Facebook Live, users can comment, like, and interact with videos they're watching in real-time with friends. At this point, it's only available for iOS devices with an invitation, but we'll keep you posted on new developments with Uptime.
12) YouTube will end unskippable 30-second ads next year
Source: YouTube
Do you ever find a YouTube video you really want to watch -- only to realize you have to sit through a 30-second ad that you can't skip after five seconds?
The good news: Those are on the way out. The bad news: You still have to wait a while longer.
A Google spokesperson told BBC YouTube will no longer support 30-second unskippable ads in 2018 and will shift focus to ads that bring revenue for advertisers without creating a bad experience for the viewer.
YouTube will still offer some unskippable ads -- in 5 and 15-second increments -- as well as ads between 30 and 60 seconds that can be skipped, but this is great news for everyone. By focusing on shorter and more engaging formats, YouTube will create a better experience for viewers, and potentially better results for its advertisers.
13) Heinz Ketchup adopts social media and ad campaign from Mad Men 50 years later
50 years later, and we still don't believe you should settle for fries without Heinz. #passtheheinz https://t.co/OpJNjMLwGM pic.twitter.com/FjfLS70xUZ
— Heinz Ketchup (@HeinzKetchup_US) March 14, 2017
Any Mad Men fans reading this post? Heinz Ketchup has decided on a new advertising campaign -- the one fictional creative director Don Draper pitched on Mad Men nearly 50 years ago.
If you remember the episode, Draper didn't win the account with Heinz, so it's neat to see his pitch coming to life in the modern era. Heinz is putting up bold billboards featuring the "Pass the Heinz" tagline in New York City, as well as running the campaign on social media channels. Keep an eye out for promoted tweets and Facebook ads featuring this neat union of popular culture, great copywriting, and creative advertising.
Did we miss any big social media stories? Share with us in the comments below.
Introducing: HubSpot Guerrilla Marketing
At HubSpot, we’re big believers in the power of inbound. Time and again, the inbound approach proves its effectiveness in helping businesses grow while providing real value to customers.
We also believe in delighting our customers and giving them the tools they need to stand out in a crowd. Literally.
That’s why we’re thrilled to officially announce a program that’s been in development for some time, the HubSpot Guerrilla Marketing program.
Guerrilla marketing is a creative and cost-effective approach to reaching your audience. On-location activations help brands grow brand awareness through shareable moments and word of mouth -- by making a bold, clever statement.
Our new program will offer end-to-end guerrilla marketing services, including:
- Market Research and Brand Analysis
- Creative Services
- Site Production
- Street Team Management
- Measurement and Reporting
Be sure to tune in to HubSpot’s Facebook Live at 11:30 am EST, where we’ll be showcasing some of our beta customer guerrilla marketing campaigns, discussing the program rollout and meeting the members of our new team.
The HubSpot Guerrilla Marketing program will be led by HubSpot newcomer, Lisa Rajako, a creative agency veteran often recognized for her previous Cannes Lions award-winning work on for a global CPG brand across Europe. And her work with industrial-grade, exploding ketchup packets for the release of horror film, Saw XXVI? The stuff of marketing legend.
Minimum Viable SEO: If You Only Have a Few Minutes Each Week... Do This! - Whiteboard Friday
Posted by randfish
Even if you know — deep down in your heart of hearts — how important SEO is, it's hard to prioritize when you have less than 3 hours a month to devote to it. But there's still a way to include the bare minimum, even if you run on a tight schedule. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers a minimum viable SEO strategy to give those with limited time a plan going forward.
Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!
Video Transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week, Minimum Viable SEO. So if you only have a few minutes in a month, in a week to do some SEO, and I know many of you are professional SEOs, but you work with lots of folks, like content creators, clients, web developers, who have very, very limited time, what I want to try and do is provide a path for you of "do this if you have no other time in the week to do your SEO."
So let's say here's my calendar. It's February, so 28 days. Start of the month, you have an hour to give me, sometime in the first week of the month. It doesn't have to be, but that's a great way to go. At the start of each week, I'm going to ask for 10 minutes just to do a little bit of planning, and then each time you publish content, a very, very small amount of time, just 3 minutes.
I know it sounds hard to believe, but you can get a fair amount of solid SEO work. Especially if you're in an industry that is not hyper-competitive or if you're going after the right kinds of keywords, that aren't super competitive, you can really make a difference. If you're building up a lot of content over months and years, just following this simple protocol can really take your SEO to the next level.
Start of the month: 1 hour
So, all right, let's say we're at the start of our month. We have our hour. I want you to do one of two things, and this is going to be based on if you're technical SEO, meaning if your website is using WordPress and it's pretty much nicely crawlable, maybe you've signed up for Google Search Console, you don't see a lot of errors, there's not a lot of issues, you haven't created a bunch of technical data on your website in the past, great, fine, then you're going to be focused on keywords and content. A keyword to content map, which is something we've discussed here on Whiteboard Friday — I'd urge you to check that video out if you haven't yet — but I'm going to make an MVP version, a very, very small version that can help a little bit.
Keyword → content map MVP
Create a spreadsheet with valuable keywords...
That spreadsheet, I just want a spreadsheet with a few things in it, three things really. The most valuable keywords, so just the most valuable keywords that you know you're targeting or that you care about right now for your business. You think that people are searching for these keywords. Maybe you've done a little bit of keyword research. It could be for free, through Google's AdWords tool, or you could pay for something like Keyword Explorer for Moz, but, really, just 50 to 100 keywords in there.
...current rank and SERP features...
I want the current rank and whatever SERP features appear. You could even trim this down to just your current ranking and the top search SERP feature, so if it has a featured snippet, or if it has videos, or if it shows maps or news, whatever that is, tweets.
...and the URL targeting it (or a note to create content).
Then I want the URL that's targeting it. Or if you have no URL targeting it yet, you haven't yet created a piece of content that targets this keyword, put a little, "Okay, that's a 'needs to be created.' I need this before I can start targeting this keyword and trying to rank for it."
You're going to update this weekly. You can do that totally manually. Fifty keywords, you can look them up in an hour. You can check the rankings. You can see where you're going. That's fine. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt, but it can totally be done. Or you could use a tool, Moz Pro, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Searchmetrics. There are all sorts of tools out there that'll track rankings and show you which features appear and whether your URLs are in there or not.
Okay, this is our keyword to content map. If you have that hour, but you know you have technical issues on the site, I'm going to urge you, before you focus on keywords and content, to make sure your technical SEO, your crawl is set. That means, step one, just a basic, simple crawl analysis. So for free, you can use Google Search Console. It will show you, most of the time with relative accuracy, big important errors like 404s and 500s and things that Google thought we're duplicate content and that kind of stuff.
If you want to pay, you can get a little bit more advanced features and some better filters and sorting and more frequency and those kinds of things. Moz Pro is fine for that. Screaming Frog is good, OnPage.org. All of these are popular in the SEO field.
Crawl/technical SEO review
Step two, you don't need to worry about every single crawl issue. I just want you to worry about the most severe, most important ones with your one hour. Those are things like 404s and 500s, which can really cause a lot of problems, duplicate content, where you potentially need to use a rel=canonical or a 301 redirect, broken links, where you just go in and fix the broken link to something that's not broken, missing or bad titles, title elements that are particularly long or include misspellings or that just don't exist, bad, very bad to have a page on the web with no title, and thin content or no crawlable content. Those are really the worst of the bunch. There's a number more that you could take care of. But if you only have that limited time, take care of this. If you've already done this, then we can move on here.
Every time you publish a piece of content: 3 minutes
Finally, last thing, but not the least, every time you publish a piece of content, I'm going to ask for just three minutes of your time, and that is going to be around this minimum viable pre-publish checklist.
The minimum viable pre-publish checklist
So does the content have a keyword target? Yes, no, maybe? If it doesn't, you're going to need to go and refer over to your keyword content list and make sure that it does. So if you're publishing something, I'm assuming you're not publishing a tremendous amount of content, but a little bit. Make sure everyone has a keyword target. Make sure, if you can, that it's targeting two to three additional keywords, related keywords. So let's say I'm going after something like Faberge eggs. I probably also want to target Carl Faberge, or I want to target Faberge eggs museums, or I want to target Faberge eggs replicas, so these other terms and phrases that people are likely searching for that could have the same or similar keyword intent, that could live on the same page, that kind of thing.
Is that keyword in the title, the main one you're targeting? Do you have a compelling meta description? Is your content doing a good job of truly answering the searchers' queries? So if they've searched for this thing, are you serving up the content they need?
Then, have you used related topics? You can get those from places like the MozBar or MarketMuse or SEO Zone or Moz Pro. Related topics are essentially the words and phrases that you should also be using in addition to your keyword to indicate to the search engines, "Hey, this is really about this topic." We've seen some nice bumps from that.
You're doing this every time you publish content. It only takes three minutes.
Start of the week: 10 minutes
And the last thing, at the start of the week, I'm also asking you for these 10 minutes to do one or two actions. I just want you to plan one or two actions at the start of the week to bump your SEO. It could include some publication stuff. But let's assume you're just doing these three minutes every time you do that.
Take a few actions to boost your SEO
Link outreach and targeting keywords with content
At the start of the week, the last thing you're doing is just choosing one of these, maybe two. I don't need more. I want you to do something like link outreach. Reach out to a couple of high-potential targets. Maybe you use like a LinkedIn or SecTool to figure out people who are linking to two of your competitors. Or reach out to partners, to friends, do some content contributions, just a little thing to get one or two links. Or maybe create some content that's targeting a missed keyword. When you do that, of course, you go through your pre-publish checklist.
Upgrade ranking content
Maybe you are upgrading some content that's already ranking, like number 5 through 20. That's where there's a lot of opportunity for a high-value keyword to get bumped up. You could just do little things, like make sure that it's serving all of these items, try and get it a featured snippet, identify content that might be old, that needs a refresh, that's not serving the searcher intent as well because the information in there is old.
Contribute off-site content
Or you could try contributing some offsite content. That could be to places like YouTube, maybe you've seen videos show up for something, guest posts, a forum where you contribute, answers some questions on Quora, contribute something to LinkedIn or Medium, just something to get your brand, your content, and hopefully a link out there to a different audience than what's already coming to your site.
You do these things, right, you start the month with an hour. Every time you publish content, you put in 3 minutes, and at the start of the week, you put in 10 minutes to do a couple pieces of planning, this will take you a long way. Look, SEO professionals are going to do a lot more than this, for sure. But this can be a great start, a great way to get that SEO kicked off, to have a minimum viable SEO plan.
I look forward to your thoughts. And we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
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Thursday, March 30, 2017
The Ultimate Cheat Sheet of Social Media Photo & Image Sizes [Infographic]
When you're selecting cover photos, shared images, and other social media assets, knowing the basic image dimensions might not cut it. What if you want to make sure a certain part of your cover photo isn't obstructed by your profile photo? And what's the difference between shared link thumbnails, or in-stream photos -- are the dimensions different for those?
As it turns out, sizing images correctly for social media is no simple task. Even just among your Facebook marketing, photo dimensions vary according to where and how it's shared -- from cover photos, to timeline images, to profile pictures.
But if you're looking for a detailed guide on social media image sizes, you're in luck -- this infographic from Spredfast has you covered. It's a valuable resource to keep on-hand for the next time you're designing or selecting visual content for your social channels. And for quicker reference, scroll down to seea written list of essential social media image dimensions.
So, without further ado -- let's get visual.
Quick References
All dimensions below are in pixels, width x height.
- Cover image: 828 x 315
- Profile image: ≥180 x 180
- Shared image: 1200 x 900
- Shared link preview image: 1200 x 628
- Header image: 1500 x 500
- Profile image: 400 x 400
- Timeline image: 506 x 253
Google+
- Profile image: 250 x 250
- Cover image: 1080 x 608
- Shared image: 506 pixels wide
- Shared video: ≥506 x 284
- Shared link image thumbnail: 150 x 150
- Profile image: 110 x 110
- Image thumbnail: 161 x 161
- Shared images: 1080 x 1080
- Shared videos: 1080 pixels wide
Pinterest Image Sizes
- Profile image: 180 x 180
- Board cover image: 214 x 100
- Pin preview: 238 pixels wide
- Banner image: 1850 x 200
- Profile image: 400 x 400
- Cover image: 1536 x 768
- Shared image: 350 pixels wide
- Shared link preview: 180 x 110
- Logo image: 400 x 400
YouTube
- Channel cover images: Varies by viewing platform
- Channel icon: 800 x 800
- Video thumbnail: 1280 x 720
Tumblr
- Profile image: 128 x 128
- Image post: 500 x 750 | 1280 x 1920 maximum
Snapchat
- Geofilter: 1080 x 1920
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
How Twitter Is Fighting Harassment & Cyberbullying
I’ll say it: I love Twitter.
I use Twitter to follow breaking news stories, to promote my work and the work of colleagues and peers I admire, and to consume and laugh at jokes and memes. I like spending time on the platform to stay informed and connect with people.
But it goes without saying that I would like Twitter a lot less if I were being bullied and harassed every day.
Harassment has been a growing problem on Twitter over the past few years. Incidents like Gamergate, actor Robin Williams’ death, and the backlash over actress Leslie Jones’ casting in an all-female remake of Ghostbusters shed light on the ugly side of Twitter -- the side where individuals hide behind egg profile photos and false names and use hateful, discriminatory language. In this post, we’ll dive into the history of the issue on Twitter and what the site recently announced it’s doing to fight it.
Twitter Fights Harassment: A Long Time Coming
There have been reports of Twitter harassment for almost as long as the site has existed. Blogger Ariel Waldman was one of the first users to chronicle just how difficult -- and sometimes, impossible -- it was to get Twitter to intervene in cases of repeated, pervasive harassment back in 2008. A stalker published her personal and contact information on the platform, which prompted a string of threats, stalking, and abusive tweets. Waldman started reaching out to Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey for help -- only to find out that its terms of service were "up to interpretation," and that the company wouldn't intervene on her behalf.
Since then, prominent Twitter users have demanded Twitter take a harder line and shut down accounts that only exist to spew hate. Celebrities and public figures on Twitter have been able to get Twitter to suspend bullies’ accounts, but users demanded a better system for reporting, censoring, and silencing abusive language on the platform.
To make sure we’re all on the same page, Twitter Rules specifically prohibit the kind of abuse we’re talking about here -- threats, hate speech, impersonation, and harassment on the basis of users’ race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, ability, disease, or nationality. However, until changes as recent as March 1, 2017, there haven’t been a lot of options for users who are being targeted to report and stop the abuse.
In December 2016, Dorsey asked for general user feedback -- where else, but on Twitter:
Following in the footsteps of Brian Chesky: what's the most important thing you want to see Twitter improve or create in 2017? #Twitter2017
— jack (@jack) December 29, 2016
A lot of people asked for the ability to edit tweets (I want that capability myself), but a huge portion of responses centered around harassment: providing more and better capabilities for users to stop and report it, more transparency into how abuse is handled by Twitter, and more swift punishment and suspension of repeat offenders.
Twitter started rolling out its responses to user demands in early 2017. Most of these features are operational, but some haven't been fully implemented, so keep an eye out for these new measures if you ever have to report a tweet.
7 Ways Twitter Is Fighting Cyberbullying and Harassment
1) Expanded notification filtering
Source: Twitter
Twitter users can use this tool to filter which types of accounts they receive notifications from. For example, if you don't want to receive notifications from a user without a profile photo, you could specify that. This tool is meant to filter out abuse from unverified accounts or specific people users have identified as unwanted.
2) More ways to mute content
Source: Twitter
Twitter expanded on the mute button's capabilities so users can mute keywords or entire phrases from their notifications sections. Users can also decide how long they want to mute those words -- whether it be for a day, a month, or indefinitely. In this way, you can customize which content you see in your notifications and when you see it.
3) Greater transparency around reporting
Source: Twitter
Whereas previously, users had a hard time understanding when or if their reports of abuse were even being processed, Twitter is now providing transparency. Users will receive notifications when and if Twitter decides to take action so they can keep track of previous reporting.
4) Twitter "time-out"
Source: BuzzFeed
In a recent article, (warning: explicit/offensive language) BuzzFeed reported that some Twitter users were seeing another new feature, similar to the time-out we all experienced as children (unless you were better behaved than I was). If users' tweets are flagged as abusive or otherwise in violation of Twitter Rules, their tweets are temporarily limited from view by users who don't follow them. Hopefully neither you nor your brand's Twitter will see this notification, but the company is hoping it will send a message to abusers to stop what they're tweeting or risk further punishment.
5) Safer search results
Machine-learning algorithms will filter search results so users aren't served content from accounts that have been reported, muted, or otherwise marked as abusive. The content will still be on Twitter if users are really looking for it, but if it could potentially be abusive, it won't be served up as a primary search result.
6) Collapsing abusive tweets
Source: Twitter
Twitter will start identifying and hiding tweets that are deemed "low quality" or from potentially abusive accounts so users see the most relevant conversations first. Like the safe search feature, those tweets will still be on Twitter -- but users have to search for them specifically.
7) Stopping creation of new abusive accounts
Using another algorithm, Twitter will prevent abusive and flagged users from creating multiple new accounts they can use to spam and harass other users. The algorithm will scan for multiple accounts from the same email addresses and phone numbers, for example, as a way to spot potential bullies.
Machine Learning to Prevent Cyberbullying
If your personal Twitter or your brand's Twitter are targeted by abuse and harassment on the platform, you have a host of new tools available at your disposal to make sure it stops and that your reputation isn't affected.
I'm curious to learn more about the new algorithms' efficacy to block one-off and repeated offenses, and it's gratifying to see how seriously Twitter is taking this problem. Similar to Facebook's prompt response after learning about the impact of pervasive fake news stories on the platform, it's heartening to see social media platforms listening to what users ask for -- and working to make social networks a safe place to be.
6 Steps to Transform Your Agency Leaders Into Consistent Content Creators
If you’re fortunate enough to work at an agency full of brilliant individuals, you’ve probably experienced the following:
You’re in a leadership meeting debating different approaches to solving a problem, and a lot of ideas are on the table. Suddenly, someone’s voice cuts through the noise, and what she shares is so inspirational and well thought out that you find yourself scrambling for a pen and paper to write it all down.
She’s one of your agency’s subject matter experts.
She understands the industry, your clients, and your company so well that ideas and solutions come to her like in a dream. You know your audience would benefit from her knowledge, and you know she should be creating content.
But how does your team turn that realization into reality? Here’s what you need to do to transform your internal expert into a consistent content creator.
First things first: Put yourself in her shoes. If you’re active in your industry, involved in your company, and leading your team forward in such a way that you’re a great candidate for thought leadership, do you think you’ll have extra time to get into the weeds with any one area of your agency -- especially inbound marketing? It’s just not realistic.
You can’t go up to this leader and say, “Hey, all those amazing things you said in our meeting? I’d love for you to write 800 words about it, follow these publication guidelines, and fit the documented content strategy that Marketing put together. Thanks!”
She’s going to need a team to help her. Whether you budget for an in-house content marketing team or decide to outsource, you’ll need at least a project manager, a content strategist, a writer, an editor, and a distribution specialist.
Next, you need to think about tools. You’re probably already using a number of different tools to support your marketing and advertising efforts today -- about 12 of them, on average. Take stock of what you’re working with already, and compare their functions to what you need to make content creation easy for internal experts. Different teams may want different platforms to help with their specific functions, but there are three types of tools every team can benefit from:
- A knowledge bank: This customizable tool stores and organizes all those amazing ideas your thought leader has.
- An editorial calendar: Built with your agency’s goals and capacity in mind, this calendar keeps your team and your content on track.
- Social distribution tools: Content isn’t finished once it’s live; it’s up to your team to distribute it to your audience.
Finally, consider the process. The process your team puts in place to work with your thought leader can make or break the experience -- and the success of your agency’s efforts. Some experts are natural writers and may want a larger role in the process; others enjoy the act of storytelling but prefer to leave the details to their teams.
Each agency’s process is unique. Based on my personal experiences and what I’ve learned from five years of leading a company that helps thought leaders create content, the best processes include these six steps:
1) Discover the thought leader’s passions and expertise.
To keep your thought leader engaged, tackle topics and projects that truly interest her. In those first meetings, encourage your team to uncover what she’s passionate about and where her strongest expertise lies. What they learn in this step will guide their content strategy.
2) Determine the best strategy to communicate that passion and expertise.
Next, your team will need to document the strategy that will help your thought leader communicate her passion and expertise. It can be as robust or as simple as your team likes -- as long as it includes a description of your agency’s goals for thought leadership, which publications you’re targeting, who your audience is, and how you’ll bring those elements together. Documenting this strategy will remind your expert of the rhyme and reason behind the content your team creates, and it will align your various marketing efforts.
3) Set up a process for knowledge extraction that plays to the thought leader’s strengths.
Knowledge extraction is your team’s way of drawing expertise, examples, and personal stories from your thought leader to fuel the content. Rather than ask for a write-up from your expert, your team can ask her specific questions to gain the raw material needed to craft an article. That material can be stored in your knowledge bank and even used to write future pieces of content.
A Q&A process works well here, and depending on your expert’s strengths, your team can aim for a written Q&A or an interview in person or over the phone. Tailor the approach to how your thought leader best communicates and what saves everyone the most time.
4) Create awesome content she’ll love.
This is your thought leader’s chance for a break. With the answers collected in the knowledge extraction phase, your team’s writers and editors can get to work crafting the content. By removing the thought leader from the heavy lifting of actual writing, your team utilizes her time intelligently -- and all that extra time means she’ll have the chance to review the finished work and ensure it’s written in her voice.
5) Coordinate publishing.
Unless your thought leader’s expertise somehow happens to be in online publications (and she has the time to manage those editorial relationships), your content team should take the reins here, too. Enlist your distribution specialist to pitch content to your target publication, work with the editors there to make any necessary changes, and publish your thought leadership content.
6) Coach her on promoting the published content.
Take advantage of the time between content acceptance and publication to prepare materials to help your thought leader promote her published content. Encourage your team to write social media posts, and suggest online communities for your thought leader to participate in. Draft emails to share content with your partners and clients. Prep your sales team on ways to leverage this content in sales conversations. The better her content performs, the better your shot will be at contributing to that publication again.
Remember, your subject matter experts probably won’t have the time or know-how to run a full content team, become a published thought leader, and maintain consistency all on their own. Pair your internal experts with a fantastic content team, the right tools, and a solid process, and you can create engaging, authentic content that drives results for your agency.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Feast Your Eyes on the MozCon 2017 Initial Agenda
Posted by ronell-smith
According to our calculations, MozCon 2017 is a mere 158,000 minutes away. (But who’s counting, right?) As you might have guessed, we’re quite excited about our latest event, in large part because we have some new tricks up our sleeves. (More on that at a later date. We promise.)
Aside from a few tweaks here and there, though, the next MozCon won’t be much different from those in years past.
That is, it'll be unique and awesome in equal amounts.
MozCon 2017: July 17–19 in Seattle
You can still expect world-class speakers sharing original information in a one-of-a-kind, charged atmosphere. Plus great food, plenty of snacks, and conversations that’ll have your mind humming for days.
And for you last-minuters who haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, now’s the time to... um... grab that ticket you’ll be crying over if you wait too long:
We've kept you waiting long enough, so take a look at some of what's in store for you at MozCon 2017.
Emcee
Last year, we tried a format that included three emcees — Rob Ousbey, Zeph Snapp, and Ronell Smith.
The test was a success, with each doing an amazing job.
However, this year we’re returning to a single-emcee format, with Ronell Smith, a Moz Associate, taking the reins.
Ronell Smith
Strategist at RS Consulting
@ronellsmith
Ronell Smith is a content nerd who loves nothing more than seeing brands help themselves by recognizing content as more than mere words on a page.
The MozCon 2017 Agenda (Sneak Peek Edition)
With more than three months to go until the event, many of the details are still being finalized. Therefore, you should see this agenda as an appetizer for, say, a five-course meal. There’s plenty more where this came from.
For example, several speaking spots are yet to be finalized, and we’ve yet to send out the call for community speakers.
We’ll share those details in later posts.
However, we'd like to showcase our awesome lineup of speakers, many of whom will be familiar to you for the great work they do and share with the Moz community.
TBD
Dawn Anderson
Move It Marketing/Manchester Metropolitan University
Dawn Anderson is an International and Technical SEO Consultant, Director of Move It Marketing, and a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Up and to the Right: Growing Traffic, Conversions, & Revenue
Matthew Barby
HubSpot
So many of the case studies that document how a company has grown from 0 to X forget to mention that solutions that they found are applicable to their specific scenario and won't work for everyone. This falls into the dangerous category of bad advice for generic problems. Instead of building up a list of other companies' tactics, marketers need to understand how to diagnose and solve problems across their entire funnel. Illustrated with real-world examples, I'll be talking you through the process that I take to come up with ideas that none of my competitors are thinking of.
Matt, who heads up user acquisition at HubSpot, is an award-winning blogger, startup advisor, and a lecturer.
Reverse-Engineering Google's Research Into What People Want
Rob Bucci
STAT Search Analytics
The SERP is the front-end to Google's multi-billion dollar consumer research machine. They know what searchers want. In this data-heavy talk, Rob will teach you how to uncover what Google already knows about what searchers are looking for. Using this knowledge, you can deliver the right content to the right searchers at the right time, every time.
Rob loves the challenge of staying ahead of the changes Google makes to their SERPs. When not working, you can usually find him hiking up a mountain, falling down a ski slope, or splashing around in the ocean.
TBD
Stephanie Chang
Etsy
Stephanie currently leads the Global Acquisition & Retention Marketing teams at Etsy. Previously, she was a Senior Consultant at Distilled.
Inside the Googling Mind: An SEO's Guide to Winning Clicks, Hearts, & Rankings in the Years Ahead
Rand Fishkin
Founder of Moz, doer of SEO, feminist.
Searcher behavior, intent, and satisfaction are on the verge of overtaking classic SEO inputs (keywords, links, on-page, etc). In this presentation, Rand will examine the shift that behavioral signals have caused, and list the step-by-step process to build a strategy that can thrive long-term in Google's new reality.
Rand Fishkin is the founder and former CEO of Moz, co-author of a pair of books on SEO, and co-founder of Inbound.org. Rand's an un-save-able addict of all things content, search, and social on the web.
Data-Driven Design
Oli Gardner
Unbounce
Data-Driven Design (3D) is an actionable, evidence-based framework for creating websites & landing pages that will increase your leads, sales, and customers. In this session you’ll learn how to use the latest industry conversion data to inform copywriting and design decisions that impact conversions. Additionally, I’ll share a new methodology for prioritizing your marketing optimization that will show you which pages are awesome (leave them alone), which pages aren’t (massive ROI potential here), and help you develop a common language that your teams of marketers, designers, and copywriters can use to work better together to collectively increase your conversion rates.
Unbounce co-founder Oli Gardner is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike
The Tie That Binds: Why Email is Key to Maximizing Marketing ROI
Justine Jordan
Litmus
If nailing the "omnichannel" experience (whatever that means!) is key to getting more traffic and converting more leads, what happens if we have our channel priorities out of order? Justine will show you how email — far from being an old-school afterthought — is core to hitting marketing goals, building lifetime value, and making customers happy.
Justine is obsessed with helping marketers create, test, and send better email. Named 2015 Email Marketer Thought Leader of the Year, she is strangely passionate about email marketing, hates being called a spammer, and still gets nervous when pressing send.
The Truth About Mobile-First Indexing
Cindy Krum
CEO and Founder at MobileMoxie, LLC
Mobile-first design has been a best practice for a while, and Google is finally about to support it with mobile-first indexing. But mobile-first design and mobile-first indexing are not the same thing. Mobile-first indexing is about cross-device accessibility of information, to help integrate digital assistants and web-enabled devices that don’t even have browsers, to achieve Google’s larger goals. Learn how mobile-first indexing will give digital marketers their first real swing at influencing Google’s new AI (Artificial Intelligence) landscape! Marketers who embrace an accurate understanding of mobile-first indexing could see a huge first-mover advantage, similar to the early days of the web, and we all need to be prepared.
Cindy Krum, the CEO and Founder of MobileMoxie, LLC, is the author of Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are. She brings fresh and creative ideas to her clients, and regularly speaks at US and international digital marketing events.
TBD
Joanna Lord
ClassPass
Joanna Lord is the CMO of ClassPass, the world's leading fitness membership. Prior to that she was VP of Marketing at Porch and CMO of BigDoor. She is a global keynote and digital evangelist. Joanna is a recognized thought leader in digital marketing and a startup mentor.
TBD
Ian Lurie
Portent, Inc.
Ian Lurie is founder, CEO, and nerdiest marketing nerd at Portent, a digital marketing agency he started in the Cretaceous era, aka 1995. Ian's meandering career includes marketing copywriting, expert dungeon master, bike messenger-ing, and office temp worker.
Facing the Future: 5 Simple Tactics for 5 Scary Changes
Dr. Pete Meyers
Moz
We've seen big changes to SEO recently, from an explosion in SERP features to RankBrain to voice search. These fundamental changes to organic search marketing can be daunting, and it's hard to know where to get started. Dr. Pete will walk you through five big changes and five tactics for coping with those changes today.
Dr. Peter J. Meyers (aka "Dr. Pete") is Marketing Scientist for Seattle-based Moz, where he works with the marketing and data science teams on product research and data-driven content.
TBD
Britney Muller
Moz
Britney is a MN native who moved to Colorado to fulfill a dream of being a snowboard bum! After 50+ days on the mountain her first season, she got stir-crazy and taught herself how to program, then found her way into SEO while writing for a local realtor.
How to Get Big Links
Lisa Myers
Verve Search
Everyone wants links and coverage from sites such as New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC, but very few achieve it. This is how we cracked it. Over and over.
Lisa is the founder and CEO of award-winning SEO agency Verve Search and founder of Womeninsearch.net. Feminist, mother of two, and modern-day shield maiden.
How to Be a Happy Marketer: Survive the Content Crisis and Drive Results by Mastering Your Customer’s Transformational Journey
Tara-Nicholle Nelson
Transformational Consumer Insights
Branded content is way up, but customer engagement with that content is plummeting. This whole scene makes it hard to get up in the morning, as a marketer. But there's a new path beyond the epidemic of disengagement and, at the end of it, your brand and your content become regular stops along your customer's everyday journey.
Tara-Nicholle Nelson is the CEO of Transformational Consumer Insights, the former VP of Marketing for MyFitnessPal, and author of the Transformational Consumer.
Thinking Smaller: Optimizing for the New Wave of Social Video Platforms
Phil Nottingham
Wistia
SnapChat, Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Periscope... the list goes on. All social networks are now video platforms, but it's hard to know where to invest. In this session, Phil will be giving you all the tips and tricks for what to make, how to get your content in front of the right audiences, and how get the most value from the investment you're making in social video.
Phil Nottingham is a strategist who believes in the power of creative video content to improve the way companies speak to their customers, and regularly speaks around the world about video strategy, SEO, and technical marketing.
Powerful Brands Have Communities
Tara Reed
Apps Without Code
You are laser focused on user growth. Meanwhile, you're neglecting a gold mine of existing customers who desperately want to be part of your brand's community. Tara Reed shares how to use communities, gamification, and membership content to grow your revenue.
Tara Reed is a tech entrepreneur & marketer. After running marketing initiatives at Google, Foursquare, & Microsoft, Tara branched out to launch her own apps & startups. Today, Tara helps businesses implement cutting-edge marketing into their businesses.
I'd Rather Be Thanked Than Ranked
Wil Reynolds
Seer Interactive
Ego and assumptions led me to chose the wrong keywords for my own site — yeah, me, Wil Reynolds, Mr. RCS. How did I spend three years optimizing my site and building links to finally crack the top three for six critical keywords, only to find out that I wasted all that time? However, in spite of targeting the wrong words, Seer grew the business. In this presentation, I'll show you the mistakes I made and share with you to approaches that can help you to build content that gets you thanked.
A former teacher with a knack for advising, he’s been helping Fortune 500 companies develop SEO strategies since 1999. Today, Seer is home to over 100 employees across Philadelphia and San Diego.
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Marketing in a Conversational World: How to Get Discovered, Delight Your Customers, and Earn the Conversion
Purna Virji
Microsoft
Capturing and keeping attention is one of the hardest parts of our job today. Fact: It's just going to get harder with the advent of new technology and conversational interfaces. In the brave new world we're stepping into, the key questions are: How do we get discovered? How can we delight our audiences? And how can we grow revenue for our clients? Come to this session to learn how to make your marketing and advertising efforts something people are going to want to consume.
Named by PPC Hero as the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world, Purna specializes in SEM, SEO, and future search trends. She is a popular global keynote speaker and columnist, an avid traveler, aspiring top chef, and amateur knitter.
Stay tuned
Again, consider this morsel of information as simply the first of many courses to follow. In upcoming posts we'll share details regarding after-hours activities, including MozCrawl.
Also, you didn't hear this from us, but there may even be a few exciting, totally new changes for 2017. Mum's the word.
We'll be back soon.
Tell us — who are you most excited to see and hear speak this year?
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