Marketing Monday Archives - dlvr.it | blog

What do Chocolate, Cheese Fondue & Social Media Have in Common?

Debra Garber — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 15:57:30 +0000

Take your pick, according to Days of the Year, April 11 is:

Barbershop Quartet Day
Cheese Fondue Day
National Experience Week
Pet Day

Need a trusted resource for your small business to keep you up to date on other important content marketing news? We’ve got you covered. Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, tips and questions.

This week featuring:

Social Media Growth Hacks:

1 – How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2016

2 – Brand Content Marketing Growth Requirement Just Doubled

3 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Twitter to Market Your Business in 2016

Productivity Tip:

Lessons in efficiency: How smart people ignore distractions – MUST READ

Just For Fun:

New Study Shows Chocolate Improves Brain Function

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Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2016

So, you want to start a blog huh? Great idea!

Why you should create a blog and join the blogging community

I’m going to outline exactly what you need to do to get started and set up your personal blog. Before we dive in, I want to talk about WHY you should build a blog.

Note: If you already have a solid idea of the whys, then skip this and go right ahead with the guide.

Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand out and get noticed!).
It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.
You become a better person and a better writer.
The best reason? You can make money doing it!

2 – Brand Content Marketing Growth Requirement Just Doubled

Imagine if your business had competitors that doubled every two years. Not the size of your existing industry competition, but the total number of competitors within your space. Could you imagine the impact that would have on your brand, your marketing and the sheer volume of activity required to sustain your brands market position, let alone make real sales and revenue gains. This is a real metaphor for content marketing growth and the daunting requirements of content production facing brands today.

3 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Twitter to Market Your Business in 2016

If you AREN’T a huge fan of Twitter, if you just don’t get it, or you just aren’t using it, I’m going to give you five reasons I think you should be using Twitter to market your business in 2016.

1. Because Periscope is a big deal.

2. Because it’s a great traffic driver.

3. Because you can remarket to Twitter audiences just like you can Facebook audiences.

4. Because it’s the most widely used social network for customer service.

5. Because it’s an amazing research tool.

Productivity Tip

Lessons in efficiency: How smart people ignore distractions

What sets intelligent people apart? Is it that they just know a lot more stuff? Have they done more reading? Studied harder?

Just For Fun

New Study Shows Chocolate Improves Brain Function

Thank you, science~!

It may only be Monday, but the good news is already rolling in — at least for chocolate lovers. According to data gathered from the sixth part of the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study, consumption of chocolate is positively associated with cognitive brain function.

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Run across any fascinating infographics?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post What do Chocolate, Cheese Fondue & Social Media Have in Common? appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Selfies and Social Media: Best Trends, Facts and Productivity Tips (March 13)

Debra Garber — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 15:34:25 +0000

Wow. It’s been a busy week. Need a trusted resource to keep you up to date on important content marketing news? We’ve got you covered. Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, tips and questions.

This week:

Featuring: What Sex, Food, And Selfies Have To Do With Effective Social Marketing

Social Media Growth Hacks:

1 – No Excuse For Poor Corporate Reputation And Customer Experience

2 – Brands are Finally Using Images to Reflect Women as They Truly Are

3 – 6 Ways to Attract Return Visitors to Your Blog

BONUS: Why Facebook Just Bought A Silly Selfie App

Just for Fun: 10 Hilariously Over-the-Top Startup Offices

Productivity Tip: A Quick Guide to Surviving ‘Year 1’ as an Entrepreneur

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Featuring

From Fast Company: What Sex, Food, And Selfies Have To Do With Effective Social Marketing

Social media has some serious marketing potential. Here’s what biologically and socially drives your customers to share content.

Typically, as marketers, we want to know what content will engage the right audiences. But we don’t often ask, what is the experience of someone who consumes and shares our brand’s content? What is Joe going through? We can begin to answer this question by diving into the neuroscience, social theories, and evolution biology behind social decision making.

Social Media Growth Hackers

1 – From Augie Ray: No Excuse For Poor Corporate Reputation And Customer Experience

The Harris Poll released its latest Reputation Quotient® Report, and while it contains the expected data about the importance and business benefits of good reputation, I was struck by the diversity of the top ten companies in the study. The list includes several of my favorite companies–both personally as a consumer and professionally as a customer experience analyst–but when I cite these examples, people can be quick to provide reasons why these firms are unlike their own businesses and “have it easy.”

This year’s list demonstrates why that dismissal is an excuse.

2 – From The Guardian: Brands are finally using images to reflect women as they truly are

When it comes to presenting a realistic depiction of women, imagery in advertising has a paramount role to play

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO and founder of LeanIn.org famously said. A sentiment reflected by Cindy Gallop, founder of creative agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, who claimed: “One of the quickest ways to make people think differently about something is to change the visuals around it.”

Their argument is that imagery works on an unconscious level to reinforce our conceptions around identity. When it comes to presenting a realistic depiction of women – their lives, experiences, and ambitions – visuals have a paramount role to play.

3 – From Convince & Convert: 6 Ways to Attract Return Visitors to Your Blog

You’ve been creating consistent blog posts for a while, but you aren’t getting as much traffic as you’d like. It’s time to get to the root of the problem.

If you want to guarantee that your potential leads are going to click and browse around your site more than once, put these optimization tips into action.

1. Construct an Attractive, Clean Design for Desktop and Mobile

2. Generate Unique Content

3. Provide a Compelling Offer

4. Improve Speed and Usability

5. Encourage Email Subscriptions

6. Tell Interesting, Longform Stories

4 – From the MoBlog: Why Facebook Just Bought A Silly Selfie App

Of course, Facebook just bought Masquerade.

As Snapchat continues to capture the time and imaginations of young users, Facebook had to do something to compete.

Like Snapchat, Masquerade is a simple mobile app that allows for playful augmentations to selfies and video content. Some of its more popular tricks include mashing selfies with those of various celebrities and face-swapping — which is when one face is swapped for another.

Productivity Tip

From Sujan Patel: A Quick Guide to Surviving ‘Year 1’ as an Entrepreneur

In the first two years of business, three out of every 10 startups expire. At the five-year mark, half of those startups are gone, according to the Small Business Administration. There are a lot of reasons for this, but most failures are due to inexperience and poor planning. You can greatly improve your odds of success by following these strategies and committing yourself to success.

1. Set short-term goals.

2. Cut the negative people from your life.

3. Surround yourself with cheerleaders, to avoid burnout.

4. Be as organized as possible.

Just For Fun

From Inc.com: 10 Hilariously Over-the-Top Startup Offices

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Run across any fascinating infographics?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post Selfies and Social Media: Best Trends, Facts and Productivity Tips (March 13) appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

5 of the Best Content Marketing Articles You May Have Missed [Week of March 13 , 2016]

Debra Garber — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 15:08:28 +0000

Looking for a resource, you can trust to keep you up to date on important content marketing news? We’ve got you covered. Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, tips and questions.

This week:

Featuring: Facebook Is Eating The World

Social Media Growth Hacks:

1 – 5 Websites That Offer GIFs to Enhance Your Social Media Marketing

2 – How Adidas is using newsrooms to create five great pieces of content a week, not just five great ads a year

3 – Is Your Social Media Content as Popular as You Think?

Just for Fun: Fill Our Stapler Day – March 14

Productivity Tip: Actually, You Should Check Email First Thing in the Morning

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Featuring

Taken from a lightly edited speech Emily Bell gave at Cambridge last week titled “The End of the News as We Know It: How Facebook Swallowed Journalism”:

Facebook is Eating the World

SOMETHING REALLY DRAMATIC is happening to our media landscape, the public sphere, and our journalism industry, almost without us noticing and certainly without the level of public examination and debate it deserves.

Social media hasn’t just swallowed journalism, it has swallowed everything. It has swallowed political campaigns, banking systems, personal histories, the leisure industry, retail, even government and security. The phone in our pocket is our portal to the world.

Let’s recap:

People are increasingly using their smartphones for everything.
They do it mostly through apps, and in particular, social and messaging apps, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Twitter.
The competition to become such an app is intense. Competitive advantage for platforms relies on being able to keep your users within an app. The more your users are within your app, the more you know about them, the more that information can then be used to sell advertising, the higher your revenues.

Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 5 Websites That Offer GIFs to Enhance Your Social Media Marketing

GIF, noun. Alternate: “Graphics Interchange Format” — picture format

1. a set of standards and file format for storage of digital color images and short animations

GIFs are increasingly popular on social media. Not only are they fun, but they allow users to complement their messages with animated images. Last year, on Twitter alone, users shared more than 100 million GIFs, prompting the social network to allow users to search for GIFs directly from the platform.

To help you quickly find the right GIF, here is a list of five websites that have every type of GIF under the sun.

1 – Reaction GIFs allows users to search for GIFs by popular tags and specific feelings.

2 – GIFs From Last Night is a great source for funny GIFs related to TV, movies, news and pop culture.

3 – GIPHY originally started out as a search engine for GIFs, later evolving into the top go-to source for GIF needs.

4 – GIF Bin is a great resource to uncover GIFs that aren’t as mainstream.

5 – Reddit has multiple subreddits dedicated to GIFs, most notably: /r/gifs/ and /r/reactiongifs

2 – How Adidas is using newsrooms to create five GREAT pieces of content a week, not just five great ads a year

Understanding the need to produce weekly content rather than just a few ad campaigns a year, ‘tactical content innovation’ is becoming Adidas’ marketing super power as it moves to measure the impact of its ‘newsrooms’ around the globe.

3 – Just published: Is Your Social Media Content as Popular as You Think?

Numbers don’t lie; they just don’t tell the truth

Marketers use a variety of metrics to collate, crunch and calculate how their content performs in social media. Metrics such as shares, retweets, and views are often the easiest and most obvious to gather, but they may be the most deceptive and unreliable when evaluating whether your content is genuinely making a difference.

Engagement metrics don’t prove a business outcome
“Likes” don’t necessarily correlate to a sale
Thousands of views don’t automatically equal a positive ROI

But these metrics still provide valuable feedback about our content, helping us improve and optimize … right?

Well, only if those numbers can be trusted.

Just For Fun

Monday, 14th March, 2016 will be…Fill Our Staplers Day

Is there anything more annoying in this world than going to use a stapler, only to find it has run out of staples?

Created by the Dull Men’s Club (where dull men – and women who appreciate dull men – share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things), Fill Our Staplers Day attempts to solve this super-serious problem. Occurring twice a year, on the day after the Sunday when the clocks change, the day encourages people, especially office workers, to refill their stapler, to (or “intending to”) minimizing the chances of a workplace crisis.

So, for the good of all humanity, fill that stapler today!

Productivity Tip

Actually, You Should Check Email First Thing in the Morning

Despite studies showing that the average worker checks email 74 times a day — and, in many cases, is lightning-fast at processing it (another study showed that 70% of work-related email is handled within six seconds) — many of us still feel we can’t keep up. Partly, that’s simple math: we’re emailing more than ever.

By 2018, the average employee will send and receive 140 messages per day.

Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Run across any fascinating infographics?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post 5 of the Best Content Marketing Articles You May Have Missed [Week of March 13 , 2016] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

10 Articles and Videos You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of January 17, 2016]

Debra Garber — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 15:51:29 +0000

Don’t have time to keep up with the pace of social media? No worries. Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, tips and questions.

This week featuring:

Top Tweet of the Week: The Big Agenda: What Ad Industry Needs to Know About 2016

(2) Social Media Growth Hacks: How to Get 1,000 Visitors to Your Next Blog Post Using an Influencer Group Pos

Productivity Tip: Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

Bonus App: Stuck in an unproductive meeting — again?

Bonus Video: EVERY MEETING YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO (IN TWO MINUTES)

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Top Tweet

3.7K Shares: The Big Agenda: What Ad Industry Needs to Know About 2016

Unilever spends $7.7 billion on global advertising, and $15 million protecting that investment.

That’s how much the consumer packaged goods giant has committed so far to its Foundry program, which has vetted 4,000 marketing-tech startups and done pilots with 80 to date. The program is among the most ambitious and highly organized forms of “future hunting” that goes on in most marketing departments today. And it points to what’s on the agenda as the industry comes to grips with perhaps the most pressing issue of 2016:

How to achieve marketing efficiency when consumers are going out of their way to avoid ads, and the bottom is falling out of the middle class, making mass marketing even less relevant.

Social Media Growth Hacks

First the video:

1 – 2.7 Shares: Why Certain Things Go Viral

2 – 3.7K Shares: How to Get 1,000 Visitors to Your Next Blog Post Using an Influencer Group Post

Creating valuable content on your website through a blog post that demonstrates your expertise will help you to build your brand, drive traffic and create leads. But entrepreneurs often struggle to get enough visitors to validate the time they spend creating and promoting their content. In this article, we outline what you need to do to create your Influencer Group post.

Here’s a sneak peek at the five steps:

1. Find a list of influencers in your industry.

2. Get started on content.

3. Create the content.

4. Reach out to the influencers.

5. Start your social-media promotion.

Productivity Tip

21.4K Shares: Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

NORMALLY, I would have finished this column weeks ago. But I kept putting it off because my New Year’s resolution is to procrastinate more. I guess I owe you an explanation. Sooner or later.

We think of procrastination as a curse. Over 80 percent of college students are plagued by procrastination, requiring epic all-nighters to finish papers and prepare for tests. Roughly 20 percent of adults report being chronic procrastinators. We can only guess how much higher the estimate would be if more of them got around to filling out the survey.

But while procrastination is a vice for productivity, I’ve learned — against my natural inclinations — that it’s a virtue for creativity.

Or, alternatively read: The Psychology of a Procrastinator: 15 Ways to Overcome and Get Things Done

Bonus App

8.5K Shares: Estimate the Cost of a Meeting with This Calculator

Stuck in an unproductive meeting — again? Everyone agrees that meetings can be a waste of time, but they’re actually a waste of money, too. How much? In a study of time budgeting at large corporations, Bain & Company found that a single weekly meeting of midlevel managers cost one organization $15M a year!

Bonus Video

4.2K Shares: EVERY MEETING YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO (IN TWO MINUTES)

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post 10 Articles and Videos You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of January 17, 2016] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup: Best Trends and Productivity Tips (January 10)

Debra Garber — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:15:55 +0000

This week featuring:

Top Tweet of the Week: Who Controls Your Facebook Feed?

Social Media Growth Hack: How to Consistently Create Remarkable Content

Most Viewed: 2016’s Biggest Social Media Trends to Watch Out For

Productivity Tip: Calming Powers of the To-Do List

Popular on Facebook: The Most Overlooked Factor Of Content Marketing? Scannable Content

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Top Tweet

14.8K Views: Who Controls Your Facebook Feed

Quick answer: A small team of engineers in Menlo Park. A panel of anonymous power users around the world. And, increasingly, you.

Every time you open Facebook, one of the world’s most influential, controversial, and misunderstood algorithms springs into action. It scans and collects everything posted in the past week by each of your friends, everyone you follow, each group you belong to, and every Facebook page you’ve liked.

No one outside Facebook knows for sure how it does this, and no one inside the company will tell you. And yet the results of this automated ranking process shape the social lives and reading habits of more than 1 billion daily active users—one-fifth of the world’s adult population.

Social Media Growth Hack

1.7K Shares: How to Consistently Create Remarkable Content

Innovation mantra: Fail often to succeed sooner.

No one (in their right mind) says content marketing is easy, but having a solid starting place is a huge step ahead of the competition.

Here’s a sneak peek at IDEO’s method in 5 simple steps:

Understand the market, the client, the technology, and any constraints that are perceived for the problem at hand.
Observe real people — in real-life situations, using real language — to find out what makes them tick.
Visualize groundbreaking concepts and the customers who’ll use them.
Evaluate and refine to create quick, iterative prototypes that build on each other incrementally with the understanding that “no idea is so good it can’t be improved.”
Implement the new concept for commercialization and business.

Productivity Tip

7.3K Shares: A Neuroscientist on the Calming Powers of the To-Do List

There are two kinds of people in the world:

1. Those who make lists.
2. Those who don’t.

And, as one scientist recently argued, those who fall into the former group might hold the secret to being more productive individuals.

Trending on Facebook

11.1K Shares/44K Views: The Most Overlooked Factor Of Content Marketing? Scannable Content

Scannable Web content makes it easy for potential customers to engage with your business, but the practice is often overlooked.

I hate to have to break it to you, but very few people can read the content on your website. It’s not your fault. Blame the screen.

To offset the challenges created by screens and layouts, few people actually READ online content:

79% of them SCAN and pick out individual words and phrases
Only 16 percent read word-for-word

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post Social Media Roundup: Best Trends and Productivity Tips (January 10) appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [January 3]

Debra Garber — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:58:00 +0000

Happy New Year! While you were winding down 2015, spending time with the family or maybe catching a few Bowl games, lots of things were popping on social media. We put the best of the best together for you.

Wondering what trends will dominate 2016? Don’t have time to keep up with the pace of social media? No worries. Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, tips and questions.

This week featuring:

Top Tweet of the Week: What you measure is what you’re able to improve.

Productivity Tip: Want to upgrade your communication skills for the New Year? Then stop using these sloppy, dull, or simply played-out words and phrases.

Read on LinkedIn: What’s important to your #employees? #work #benefits #bonus

Trending Question: 2016 Social Media Marketing Predictions From the Experts

Seen on Twitter: The journey of a simple Tweet

Heard on Podcast: Is Blogging Dead?

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Top Tweet

4.5K Shares: How to Build the Right Traffic Metrics Dashboard for 2016

What you measure is what you’re able to improve. While there’s no one magic solution that works for everyone, setting yourself up for success involves measuring your traffic metrics the right way, so you can identify areas to work on and implement the right actions.

Productivity Tip

4K Shares: 8 Phrases You Really Need to Stop Saying in 2016

Right around now, many people aim to improve their health or their career in the coming year, but if you’re looking for a more unusual (and possibly more achievable) New Year’s resolution, how about this: Tune up your speaking and writing in 2016.

Over on the blog The Freelancer, Nicholas Pell has some great suggestions for played-out or straight-up annoying words and phrases that you should jettison in 2016. Here are a few of the 15 he mentions:

It’s [the current year]
Amazing
Literally
Little did I know
Leverage
For all intents and purposes
Rockstar, guru, ninja, and Jedi
Next level

Seen on LinkedIn

1K Shares: 5 Bonuses Employees Love No Matter What the Time of Year

Summary of key findings from 2015 MassMutual Generations@WorkStudy about the employee benefits America’s workers value the most.

It’s the end of the year, which for many employees means holiday bonus season. Originally, monetary holiday bonuses were intended as appreciation for employees — and help with the extra expenses they incur this time of year.

But is a bigger paycheck once a year still the best way to engage employees and acknowledge their hard work?

Here is a sneak peek at five unique bonuses employees will appreciate more than extra cash:

1. More flexible schedules

2. Personal concierge services

3. Gym memberships

4. Help with health insurance

5. The ability to pick and choose benefits

Found on Twitter

1K Shares: The Powerful 17 Step Journey of a Simple Tweet

My first tweet was underwhelming.

It had no link, was short and sweet and included just three words. “Watching the Cricket“. Now for some of you, that will seem strange. Why was Jeff watching an insect? For those of you who live in London, India or New Zealand and other countries, they will know that “Cricket” is also something else!

Below are 17 possible steps, actions, and engagements that start with that first tweet. It is not a linear journey. Your potential prospects and customers will bounce in and out at different points. Your challenge is to turn that first tweet into sales.

From the Social Media Marketing Podcast

2.8K Shares: Is Blogging Dead? Building Your Content Home on Rented Land

Wondering what the future is for blogs?

Is blogging dead?

Listen now.

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [January 3] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [December 20]

Debra Garber — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 15:58:01 +0000

This week featuring:

Top Tweet of the Week

2016 Trends: Contenting Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Media

2016 Productivity Tips: Bad Habits to Break in 2016 and How to Reclaim Your Time

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Top Tweet

190K Shares: Why You Should Always Buy the Men’s Version of Almost Anything

Radio Flyer sells a red scooter for boys and a pink scooter for girls. Both feature plastic handlebars, three wheels, and a foot brake. Both weigh about five pounds.

The only significant difference is the price, a new report reveals. Target listed one for $24.99 and the other for $49.99.

This price gap isn’t an anomaly.

2016 Trends

1 – 15.2K Views: Content Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

An amazing year comes to an end, complete with videos going viral, algorithms throwing us curve balls and news-feeds getting chaotic. If content marketing is your game, 2016 would be the year it gets crazy competitive, and a lot more exciting!

Here is a sneak peek at a few of the content marketing trends and focus areas for 2016:

#1: Videos will continue to dominate

#2: User attention span will continue to fall

Human attention span is at the all time lowest of 8 seconds, gold fish is 9 seconds.

#3: Quality will beat quantity, hands down

#4: Rise of Instagram + WhatsApp for content distribution

#5: Rise of branded content

Read more.

2 – 26.1K Views: 7 PR Trends You Need To Know In 2016

Just as communication evolves and the needs and preferences of our audience shifts, so should our practice of public relations. Publications and media outlets are navigating changing revenue models, new communication channels are opening, and more business leaders are establishing their voices in the industry.

Staying on top of your game — and ahead of competitors — means you have to keep up with the practices shaping your industry.

Sneak peek at the public relation trends to watch out for in 2016:

#1: The traditional press release is no more.

#2: Thought leadership will become a growing PR budget priority.

#3: Content amplification will become (even more) critical.

#4: Negative brand advocates will be prevented through content.

#5: Online reputation management will be necessary.

#6: True influence will win over the # of followers.

#7: Use of paid promotion and social ads will continue to rise.

3 – 3.8K Shares: Five Social Trends Marketers Won’t Be Able to Ignore in 2016

Marketers Must Adapt or Die As Social Continues to Evolve

With the year coming to an end, headlines like “The War on Advertising” and “The Perfect Storm” are becoming more common as marketers are getting the year-end jitters, asking “What’s next?” and “Where is there space for my brand in 2016?” While the speed of social has always been dizzying — new platforms, behaviors, memes and audiences are born and die every minute – the year ahead promises to be especially frenetic.

When it comes to social and digital marketing, 2016 is going to be an adapt-or-die year.

#1: Messaging platforms will trump broadcast social networks.

#2: Marketers will realize that Snapchat isn’t social — it’s TV.

#3: Ad blocking turns all eyes to social.

#4: The Hotel California effect will change the game.

Social networks are becoming Hotel Californias — closed systems where you can check out, but you can never leave.

Snapchat doesn’t lead outside the network.

Instagram barely does.

Facebook is making every effort to keep users from heading outside of its walled garden.

More alarmingly, Twitter users are increasingly hesitant to click on links — the behavior is mirroring the platform shifts.

The implications for marketers are enormous: Brands will need to optimize for on-platform success and conversation, and minimize CTAs and clickthroughs.

#5: Social video will get more crowded and complicated.

2016 Productivity Tips

1 – 910.5K Views: 13 bad habits you should break in 2016 to be more productive

Being more productive is about working smarter, not harder, and making the most of each day.

While this is no easy feat, getting more done in less time is a much more attainable goal if you’re not sabotaging yourself with bad habits.

Here are 3 of the 13 things you should stop doing right now to become more productive:

Bad Habit #1: Impulsive web browsing

Bad Habit #2: Multi-tasking

Bad Habit #3: Checking email throughout the day

2 – 5.8K Shares: Commit to Under-Scheduling in 2016

“So often we’re missing what’s truly important because we’re on the quest for what is extraordinary.”

Sometimes, tiny shifts in how you use your time can make the difference between feeling focused and productive at work, with energy left over for home, and feeling like you’re pulling yourself through the day in a fog of exhaustion only to collapse on the couch at night.

For example, make it a rule to have at least 15 minutes between meetings to wrap up your notes, get a drink of water, and have a moment to breathe. Even those few minutes can help you feel good about what you accomplished and leave the office satisfied — instead of feeling overwhelmed by loose ends and.

Here’s how:

Define what success feels like for you.
Be honest about “must do” activities.
Under-schedule your calendar.
Decline activities and tasks that aren’t aligned.
Savor the beauty of the everyday.

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Have any social media trends, tips or tricks to share?

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

We’d love to hear from you!

Please share!

The post Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [December 20] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup: Top Posts Week of December 20

Debra Garber — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 15:53:25 +0000

This week featuring:

Top Tweet of the Week

Two Social Media Growth Hacks

Two Productivity Tips

Bonus Infographic (from Facebook): Millennials, Moms and Multicultural Shoppers Drive Majority of Mobile Transactions

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Top Tweet

30K Views: The Most Overlooked Factor Of Content Marketing: Scannable Content

Scannable Web content makes it easy for potential customers to engage with your business, but the practice is often overlooked. Pick up a few tips on how to write, lay out and test content that makes people want to read, follow and purchase from you online.

I hate to have to break it to you, but very few people can read the content on your website. It’s not your fault. Blame the screen. Reading online is significantly more difficult than reading from print. In fact, it’s 25 percent slower. Why?

Two Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 3.4K Shares: 7 Essentials for Making Your Content-Marketing Business Thrive

Despite the widespread use of content marketing, the majority of companies struggle with the effectiveness of their content strategy. According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 38 percent of B2C marketers say their content marketing is effective. In B2B circles, this percentage is even lower — 30 percent.

While this is an unfortunate statistic, it’s also a fantastic opportunity for anyone considering starting a content marketing business. This post will walk you through seven strategies for running a successful content marketing agency – helping businesses with their content strategy, creation, and promotion across all their digital marketing channels.

2 – 2.9K Shares: Why Content Strategy Isn’t Enough

In the good old days when I was using Aqua Net, the average time for a Fortune 500 company to reach $1billion in market value was 20 years.

Google did it in 8.
Facebook in 5.
Uber and Whatsapp in 2.
Snapchat: just 22 months.

To expect growth at this speed is unrealistic for most companies, yet that’s the new role model.

…As marketers, we’re forgetting that it’s not just about the content we produce, it’s about the experience people have with the brand and the company we’re working so hard to build. Ensure people, not technology, are driving marketing efforts.

Two Productivity Tips

1 – 20.7K Shares: 11 Tweaks To Your Morning Routine Will Make Your Entire Day More Productive

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain

I don’t know anyone who couldn’t use a little boost in their energy, productivity, and self-control.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham recently published findings from their exploration of 83 separate studies on energy and self-control. What they found will change the way you start your day.

Sneak peek at Tweak #2:

…But drink some lemon water first

Drinking lemon water as soon as you wake up spikes your energy levels physically and mentally. Lemon water gives you steady, natural energy that lasts the length of the day by improving nutrient absorption in your stomach. You need to drink it first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach) to ensure full absorption. You should also wait 15-30 minutes after drinking it before eating (perfect time to squeeze in some exercise). Lemons are packed with nutrients; they’re chock full of potassium, vitamin C, and antioxidants. If you’re under 150 pounds, drink the juice of half a lemon (a full lemon if you’re over 150 pounds). Don’t drink the juice without water because it’s hard on your teeth.

2 – 7K Shares: 8 Signs You Have A Strong Personality That Might Scare Some People

When people encounter someone with a strong personality, they don’t understand the kind of person they are dealing with.

Some people think you dominate. Some just think you are rude. But none of these are the truth. These words do not reflect your personality at all. In fact, strong people are often kittens on the inside. It’s just that people with domineering personalities just give you a bad rep.

Does any of these sound like you?

You Don’t Put Up With Excuses
You Are Careful About Who You Let Into Your Life
You Hate Small Talk
You Can’t Stand Insensitivity, Idiocy or Ignorance
You Know How to Listen
You Do Not Need Attention
You Are Fearless
You Take Insecurity As An Opportunity

Bonus Infographic

Millennials, Moms and Multicultural Shoppers Drive Majority of Mobile Transactions [Infographic]

According to Facebook, Millennials, Moms and Multicultural shoppers are “driving the future of mobile in the US”. As we head into the final stretch before Christmas, Facebook’s released a new infographic summarizing their latest research into mobile shopping trends, including the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the users most likely to make purchases via mobile.

Read more and check out the full infographic below:

___

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Social Media Roundup: Top Posts Week of December 20 appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

10 Articles You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of December 13]

Debra Garber — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 18:06:50 +0000

This week featuring:

1 – Question of the week: 50 People, One Question

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips
___

One Question

If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?

50 KIDS AND ADULTS WERE ASKED 1 QUESTION; THE DIFFERENCE IN THEIR RESPONSES WILL STUN YOU

Two Top Tweets

1 – 42.9K Shares!: The Tail End

Before we discuss things further, let’s look at how a typical American spends their weeks:

2 – 10.6K Shares: Wikipedia-Mining Algorithm Reveals World’s Most Influential Universities

Where are the world’s most influential universities? That’s a question that increasingly dominates the way the public, governments, and funding agencies think about research and higher education. The problem, of course, is that it’s hard to produce an objective ranking of almost anything, let alone universities. Cultural, historical, and geographical factors can all influence these rankings in ways that are hard to quantify.

Biases can crop up remarkably easily…

And, there are other factors unique to university rankings…

Here’s a peek at the top 20 most influential universities:

1. University of Cambridge U.K.
2. University of Oxford U.K.
3. Harvard University U.S.
4. Columbia University U.S.
5. Princeton University U.S.
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S.
7. University of Chicago U.S.
8. Stanford University U.S.
9. Yale University U.S.
10 University of California, Berkeley U.S.
11. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
12. Cornell University U.S.
13. University of Pennsylvania U.S.
14. University of London U.K.
15. Uppsala University Sweden
16. University of Edinburgh U.K.
17. Heidelberg University Germany
18. University of California, Los Angeles U.S.
19. New York University U.S.
20. University of Michigan U.S.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 6.6K Shares: 5 Trends that will Change How Companies Use Social Media in 2016

There are now more than 2 billion active social media users worldwide, and that sum is growing at a brisk clip of 25% each year. Businesses haven’t failed to notice the runaway expansion of social media. Nine out of 10 U.S. companies are now active on social networks. The same overwhelming percentage of those are reporting seeing increase in exposure, as a result, and more than half say their social media efforts are boosting sales.

So what’s in store for 2016? Here’s a look at five trends that appear set to change how businesses use social media in the year ahead.

THE TOP FIVE APPS IN THE WORLD IN TERMS OF FREQUENCY OF USE ARE ALL MESSAGING APPS.

From our friend Mari Smith:

2 – 5.5 Shares: 14 Video Tools for Social Media Marketers

Do you want to add video to your social media marketing?

Are you looking for tools to simplify your video production?

Today’s tools make it easy to record and edit videos for social media marketing and ad campaigns.

In this article, I’ll share 14 tools marketers can use to create screencasts, montages, and slideshows.

3 – 3.4K shares: Social Customer Service: How to Care for Customers With Social Media

Does your business have a social customer service plan?

Want to step up your customer service on social media?

In this episode, I interview Dan Gingiss, former head of digital customer experience forDiscover Card, co-host of the Focus on Customer Service podcast and head of digital marketing for Humana. Dan will explore how to better serve your customers with social media.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 85K Views: The Perfect Amount of Time to Work Each Day

The 8-hour workday is an outdated and ineffective approach to work. If you want to be as productive as possible, you need to let go of this relic and find a new approach.

Your Brain Wants an Hour On, 15 Minutes Off

People who have discovered this magic productivity ratio crush their competition because they tap into a fundamental need of the human mind: the brain naturally functions in spurts of high energy (roughly an hour) followed by spurts of low energy (15–20 minutes).

2 – 420K Views: Five (F)laws Pitching Your Business

I’ve always enjoyed the interesting and enlightening conversations that often happen in the back of an Uber. I’ve talked about almost everything from the situation in Syria right through to how to poach the perfect egg. But one thing I never expected to be educated on is the very thing that I spend most of my days training.

FLAW #1: Not Being Succinct – If you can’t say what you do in one succinct sentence that an average person would understand then chances are the average angel investor won’t understand either.

Tick off these three elements:

Position where your company plays,

State what product or service your company sells,

Clearly identify your target market

e.g. We are a software business, that offers a cloud based accounting service to small business owners.

3 – 2.6K Shares: These Are Apple’s Top 25 Favorite iOS Apps Of The Year

It’s December, and that means a few things:

– We’re all going to be pretty tired of Christmas music pretty soon
– We’ve yet again managed to complete a trip around the sun without crashing into it. Go team!
– It’s time for a massive rush of end-of-year favorite lists.

Speaking of which…

As they do each year, Apple has just dropped its hand-picked list of its favorite iOS apps. Many of them are things you’ve probably seen before — but many of them are pretty unheard of.

4 – 3.2K Shares: 57 Easy Ways to Be Happier and More Successful

I’ve already posted most of the advice below but scattered among five or six posts. I thought it would be useful to collect all of my happiness and success rules in a single place. Enjoy!

Sneak peak at #1:

#1 Assume people have good intentions.

Since you can’t read minds, you don’t really know the “why” behind the “what” that people do. Imputing evil motives to other people’s weird behaviors adds extra misery to life while assuming good intentions leaves you open to reconciliation.

___

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post 10 Articles You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of December 13] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

10 Articles You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of December 6]

Debra Garber — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 17:18:04 +0000

Time does not stop. Since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, and tips.

This week featuring:

1 – Emoji of the week: The Finnish emoji “Stuck”

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips
___

One Emoji

With New Nordic Emojis, Give Your Texts That Finnishing Touch

There are emojis to represent virtually every state of being — including, now, the state of being Finnish. To celebrate the run-up to Christmas, the government of Finland has come up with its own set of emoji that capture the particular nuances of Finnish culture. That means, among other things, headbanging, knitting socks, cordially maintaining your personal space — and, yes, occasionally getting your tongue stuck to a frozen pole.

Two Top Tweets of the Week

This one is short and simple but important to remember from Seth’s Blog:

1 – 2.5 Shares: Running out of room (length vs. density)

Long isn’t the problem. Boring is.

If someone cares, they’ll stick around. If they don’t care, they don’t matter to you anyway.

2 – Top Star Wars Tweets for 2015

No matter how old Star Wars gets it always seems to be trending. With the newest edition of the saga coming to theaters in two short weeks, Twitter is buzzing with all things Star Wars. It seems Star Wars fans can’t get enough of the teasers, pictures, trailers, insights, history, toys, and so much more. According to the data I gathered on hashtags.org, #starwars is being tweeted approximately 1500 times per hour. Read more.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 23K Views: How To Create An Easy Content Marketing Strategy You’ll Actually Use

There’s no magic to creating a usable content marketing strategy. It’s kind of like building a habit. Actually, you are building a habit – a content marketing habit. Like all habits, this one is easier to keep if it’s simple, effective and easy.

Step 1. The first question: What’s your objective? What do you want out of this? Don’t just say “more business.” Be specific and measurable.

2- 4.4K Shares: 5 Visual Content Tools to Boost Engagement

Do want to create stronger visual content for your social channels? Looking for tools to help? A number of budget-friendly tools make it easy to create visual content that invites your social media audience to engage with it.

Sneak peak at tool #1: Quiz Your Followers

Apester is a digital storytelling platform that allows you to create and embed surveys, personality tests, video quizzes and polls into your social posts. The polls and quizzes alone can engage your community even if they’re not shared.

3 – 2K Shares: 8 Creative Ways To Add Christmas Spirit To Your Social Media

Holiday shopping is no longer a marathon – it’s something that happens in moments.

Instead of visiting different shopping malls and looking for the best offers, shoppers are turning to their mobile phones in hundreds of micro-moments that are happening every day during the holiday season. In case you haven’t prepared your social media to capture the attention of your customers and trigger Christmas shopping, it’s time to use these 8 tips that will make your social media festive and merry for the holidays.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 2.8K Shares: Study Seinfeld to Learn Everything You Need About Productivity

In 1998, Jerry Seinfeld made $267 million from the ninth and final season of his hit show Seinfeld. But let’s take it back. Back, before he was a borderline billionaire comedian. Back before he was even a household name. How does one amass the talent, skill and productivity to write joke after joke, show after show, year after year at such a high level?

Doing something every day makes it a default behavior.

Default behaviors repeated daily become habits.

2 – 23.1K Shares: Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive

Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success.

But a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.

Qualities of a positive workplace culture boils down to six essential characteristics:

Caring for, being interested in, and maintaining responsibility for colleagues as friends.
Providing support for one another, including offering kindness and compassion when others are struggling.
Avoiding blame and forgive mistakes.
Inspiring one another at work.
Emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work.
Treating one another with respect, gratitude, trust, and integrity.

3 – 3.7K Shares: How To Manage Your Time: 5 Secrets Backed By Research

It’s the problem we all face at the office: how to manage your time. You’re so overwhelmed with meetings and email that you always wonder if you’re really getting anything done. And often, you’re not.

Why You’re So Busy But Get Nothing Done?

The one line answer: you’re prioritizing “shallow work.” You’re making your attendance at meetings, the speed of your email replies and looking busy a proxy for real productivity. It’s ineffective, and it’s making you miserable.

4 – 3.1K Shares: 12 Things Enormously Successful People Refuse to Do

I bet you’re already familiar with the colloquial saying: “It’s harder to break a habit than it is to form one.” I was reminded of this last week when an enormously successful businesswoman, whom I greatly admire, told me she was putting a particular habit on her “to-don’t” list. It got me thinking… What bad habits have people like her eliminated from their lives that helped them get to where they are today?

1. They refuse to let unsupportive people drag them down.

2. They refuse to let others determine their path.

3. They refuse to be limited by faulty goal setting.

4. They refuse to turn their past troubles into present excuses.

5. They refuse to stop dreaming and achieving, even in the face of failure.

6. They refuse to let scarcity driven fears hold them back.

7. They refuse to think small.

8. They refuse to chase people/customers (they attract them instead.)

9. They refuse to run a project (or a business) without a proven system.

10. They refuse to sweat the small stuff.

11. They refuse to make uneducated guesses.

12. They refuse to stop learning.

___

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post 10 Articles You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of December 6] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup [Week of November 29, 2015]

Debra Garber — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 19:43:15 +0000

Post Thanksgiving and time is flying! Since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, and tips.

This week featuring:

1 – Trending hashtag: #CyberMonday

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips
___

Thanksgiving Weekend Results: How many people shopped online?

More than 121 million (49.5%) shoppers plan to shop online on Cyber Monday
NRF’s Thanksgiving weekend results showed that 103 million people shopped online over the weekend

Two Top Tweets of the Week

For our tech team in Portland:

1 – 109K Shares: A programmer wrote scripts to secretly automate a lot of his job — and email his wife and make a latte

There’s a hilarious project that’s popular on GitHub, the website that hosts all kinds of software that programmers want to share with each other.

The project was shared by a programmer named Nihad Abbasov, known as “Narkoz” on GitHub. It consists of a bunch of software scripts with some funny but NSFW names.

Here’s one from a programmer who automatically fired off an email excuse like “not feeling well, working from home” if he wasn’t at work and logged into the servers by 8:45 a.m. He called that script “hangover.”

The “Hangover” Script

2 – 5.7K Shares: Two Things to Do After Every Meeting

Steve Jobs insisted that every item on a meeting agenda have a designated person responsible for that task and any follow-up work that happened. He called that person the DRI—the Directly Responsible Individual. He knew the public accountability would ensure that a project or task would actually get done, and he wanted to set clear, organized instructions for his team to follow.

It sounds simple enough, and yet the majority of managers and leaders completely fail to do this.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – Oops! How to Deal With Common Email Marketing Mistakes

As an email marketer, you’re probably aware of the myriad of mistakes you can make any time you create and send your campaign. From spelling mistakes to broken links, or inaccurate segments, things can go wrong for even the savviest of marketers. This is probably why many marketers experience that all too familiar, knee knocking fear before pushing “send” on a campaign.

2 – 8.3K Shares: Use Storytelling to Explain Your Company’s Purpose

The idea of “purpose” has swept the corporate world. Encouraged by evangelists like Simon Sinek, myriad firms like Nike, Adidas, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola are devoting real time and attention to explaining why they do.

Storytelling is a skill that leaders can — and should — hone.

3 – 3.1K Shares: 2016: Manual Link Building & SEO

Can link building truly be replaced by content marketing and “link earning”? Columnist Andrew Dennis doesn’t think so. Here’s why.

Recently, hoopla around manual link building arose when a 2016-focused post predicted its demise. My fellow columnist Eric Ward shared his thoughts on why manual link building will never be obsolete. I suggest you read his post — he’s experienced, insightful and basically the godfather of link building. If you’re interested in SEO and links, you should be aware of what Ward has to say on the matter.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 1.8K Shares: How to Take Good Pictures With Your Phone: 17 Tips & Tricks to Try

To take a great photo, you used to have to buy a fancy camera and editing software for your desktop computer. Then, you had to invest some serious time and energy into learning how to use them.

But taking a great photo on your smartphone is not as simple as pointing and shooting. There are plenty of bad smartphone photos out there — I’m sure you’ve seen one or two of them.

Tip #1: Turn ‘on’ gridlines to line up your shot.

2 – 2.3K Shares: 12 Tips for Writing With Unforgettable Personality

The best writers aren’t necessarily the smartest, the smoothest, or those with the biggest vocabulary. The best writers are those that possess an unforgettable personality.

Want to let yourself shine through in your writing? Check out these 12 methods for writing with unforgettable personality.

Here’s a peak at tip #3:

Break grammar rules.

What kind of grammar rules should you break? It depends. Here are some common ones:

Sentence fragments: “Seriously. I mean, people, really.”
Punctuation: “I. Just. Can’t. Even.”
Starting sentences with conjunctions: “But I’m okay with that.”
Using “like”: “It’s not like you’ve sinned.”
Using a preposition at the end of a sentence: “You’ve got to get your traffic up!”

3 – 29.6K Shares: Addicted to Distraction

ONE evening early this summer, I opened a book and found myself reading the same paragraph over and over, a half-dozen times before concluding that it was hopeless to continue. I simply couldn’t marshal the necessary focus.

4 – 2.8K Shares: What to Do If You’re a Chronic Procrastinator

Procrastination can be hardwired into your brain. But you can kick the ‘I’ll do it later’ habit. Here’s how.

You know the feeling. You have 20 unread emails; the reports are piling up, and you could really use a lunch break. Two hours ago you said you’d take care of it in five minutes.

If this sounds like you, you are far from alone. In fact, you’re simply suffering from one of life’s most ubiquitous woes: procrastination. We’ve all been guilty of it at some point, but some of us struggle with it daily.

___

Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Social Media Roundup [Week of November 29, 2015] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup [Week of November 22, 2015]

Debra Garber — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 17:56:43 +0000

Time flies! Since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts, trends, and tips.

This week featuring:

1 – What’s Oxford Dictionaries word of the year? Close your eyes. Think deep. Don’t scroll down. Take a guess.

↓

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips
___

First: 2015 Word of the Year

So long language! An emoji is named ‘Word of the Year’

Oxford Dictionaries has named its pick for Word of the Year — and it’s less a pick than a pic. That’s right: out of all the newly popular “words” to capture the “ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015,” the winning choice is , a.k.a. the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji.

Sign of the changing times, or a desperate attempt for Oxford Dictionaries to stay relevant? You decide. Read more.

Two Top Tweets

1 – 42.2K Shares: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Bold Plan for the Future of Facebook

Mark is fixing stuff.

I’m killing time in the Frank Gehry–designed Building 20, whose signature feature is its soaring 434,000 square feet of open space, the latest addition to Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, California. A PR handler is explaining why CEO Mark Zuckerberg is running slightly behind schedule for our chat. I express surprise. Mark still fixes stuff?

“To say he’s actively involved,” she confides, “is an understatement. He notices things that are broken before anybody.” Read more.

2 – 5.2K Shares: Behind The +1: Meet The New Google+(Plus)

Google+ has always been a project for Google, regardless of what you’ve read in the media. With projects, come changes…and there have been quite a few for Google+ this year.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 9.6K Shares: Conducting a Social Media Audit

Whether marketers like it or not, consumers are now generating over 25% of content that appears in web searches for specific brand names, and consumers often trust those social media messages more than advertising or news articles about the brand.

Research has shown that this “electronic word-of-mouth” is seen as reliable by consumers and significantly affects a firm’s perceived value. I developed a social media audit template for the book Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution from the principle of the Five Ws that is taught to journalists: who, where, what, when, and why.

2 – 2.1K Shares: How to Make Every Piece of Content SEO-Friendly

SEO used to be the realm of experts who worked their dark arts and somehow boosted rankings. Today, there aren’t as many secrets to SEO. And those “dark arts”? They’ll get your site penalized or delisted.

Even though the basics of SEO are common knowledge, some misunderstandings still exist as to how it’s all applied, including these questions:

What does “SEO friendly” mean?
What about keywords?
How many keywords should I use?
How many times should I use the keyword in the content?
How do I achieve semantic relevance?

3 – 2K Shares: 50 Content Marketing Tips to Maximize Traffic, Leads, and Sales

Most businesses are now using content marketing in some shape or form. However, many business owners still don’t fully understand how to use content to help them achieve specific goals; namely, increased traffic, leads, and sales.

Here are 50 tips to help you get ROI from your content marketing campaign.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 5.8K Shares: 6 Remarkable Productivity Tips Musicians Can Teach You

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.

B.B. King was known as “King of the Blues.” He said he attained his throne following two simple rules: “I never play out of my range, and I let my manager handle the business side of things so I can keep playing the music without distractions.”

Another way to say this is: Concentrate on what you’re best at and let someone else (paid, volunteer, app, or partner) take care of everything else.

2 – 2.8K Shares: The 31 Best Tools for Improving Your Writing Skills

Words are hard.

Whether you’re a published author or just getting started with blogging, it’s not always easy to string words together in a way that makes sense, sounds good and makes the reader feel something.

Luckily, there are a slew of great tools you can use to help improve your writing.

3 – 15.6K Shares: How To Actually Be More Productive, By The Guy Who Designed Facebook’s Productivity Tool

I’m a software developer, designer, and entrepreneur. I’m the co-founder of Asana, team productivity software that many great companies (e.g. Uber, Pinterest, Dropbox) use to run their companies. Back when I was an engineering manager at Facebook, I designed the internal team productivity tool that the company still relies on.

Suffice it to say, I’ve been obsessed with productivity for a long time.

4 – 12.7K Shares: 5 Tips to Read 100 Books a Year

To be a successful entrepreneur, you must increase the quantity and quality of the books you read.

The Cliff Notes:

Learn How to Speed Read
Don’t Read Cover-to-Cover
Set Time Limits
Read the Easy Books First
Only Read the Best Books

___

Read any good books lately?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Social Media Roundup [Week of November 22, 2015] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Time Flies: 10 Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [November 15, 2015]

Debra Garber — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 16:59:13 +0000

This week featuring:

1 – Question of the week: What words in 2015 look very different from 1995?

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips
___

One Question

Take a look at these 15 words that still mean what they meant 20 years ago – but what else do they mean today?

Cloud
Profile
Swipe
Bump
Core
Text
Friend
Tweet
Goldilocks
Timeline
Viral
Ping
Unplug
Sandbox
Footprint

2.8K Shares: The Words Of 2015 Look Very Different From 1995

Now, we have technology – literally – everywhere we look, and the words to go with it. But instead of necessarily inventing new phrases to help us navigate these digital waters, people have often instead opted to usurp previously mundane terms — like say taking “tweet” right out of the mouths of birds and into our fingertips. Read more.

Two Top Tweets

1 – 1.2M Views: Here’s Why You Should Make Your Bed Every Single Day

If you want to change the world, start by making your bed!

2 – 3.3K Shares: 6 Ways to Write Irresistibly Effective Emails

Emails. We all write them.

And we all wish we wrote better ones: emails that convince, persuade, inspire, and sometimes even sell. Read more.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 4.3K Shares: 4 Tools to Build a Social Media Content Calendar

Do you struggle to keep track of your social media content? Are you looking for tools to help?

Creating a social media content calendar doesn’t need to be complicated or require a whole new platform.

In this article, you’ll find four ways to build a social media content calendar with tools you may already use. Read more or just skip to the tools:

#1: List It in Google Drive

#2: Map It in Google Calendar

#3: Visualize It in Trello

#4: Streamline It in Project Management Software – Basecamp or Asana

2 – Popular on dlvr.it’s Twitter feed: 5 Christmas Email Marketing Ideas For eCommerce Stores

With only 7 weeks left to go, the Christmas season is just starting to ramp up, so now is the time to plan your email marketing.

Remember that email click through rates are substantially higher than any other forms of advertising

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for keeping your brand top of mind and driving sales, so use our ideas below to form the basis of your seasonal email marketing campaign. Read more.

3 – Popular on LinkedIn: 5 Reasons Why Instagram is Important for Marketers in 2016 #smlondon

Instagram recently turned 5 and is getting more and more popular as time goes on. It’s introduced advertising options, upgraded its video and has a user base that all marketers want to make the most of.

MDG Advertising outlined 5 reasons why 2016 will be the year that Instagram becomes a forerunner for each marketer to use. Read more.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 3.7M Views: 26 time-management tricks I wish I’d known at 20

Most people learn time management the hard way: by trial and error.

Étienne Garbugli, a Montreal-based product and marketing consultant and the author of “Lean B2B: Build Products Businesses Want,” distilled the lessons he wishes he’d known when he was 20. Read more.

2 – #SideHustle

A side hustle is a way to make some extra cash that allows you the flexibility to pursue what you’re most interested in. It can also be your true passion – a chance to delve into fashion, travel or whatever it is you care about the most without quitting your day job.

(a) Best Side Hustles that Don’t Require a Car or Living Space to Make Extra Money

In the last few years, many people have turned to the sharing economy to help them make that extra money. However, the sharing economy requires that you have an asset like a car or a home to share, and not everyone has those things.

In lieu of that fact, here are 4 side hustles that don’t require a car or living space to make extra money. Read more.

(b) 100+ Risk-Free Side Business Ideas – Start Building Your Dream Today!

The answer is yes.

Yes – you can be a business owner. And you don’t have to quit your current job or risk your life savings to start. It doesn’t matter why you want to start a side hustle. Maybe you want more money or freedom. Maybe you just hate your current job with a fiery passion. Read more.

3 – 4.9K Shares: The Psychology of Logo Color in How Consumers View Your Brand (Infographic)

Your logo says a lot about your brand. Are you sending the right message?

Across the U.S. and around the world, billions are spent each year by companies trying to build a brand people can’t resist.

One critical element in brand building (not the only one, of course, but one of the most important) is design. Read more.

4 – Popular on the dlvr.it blog: 9 Ways To Make Money In The On-Demand Economy

Recently, Uber and other companies that provide on-demand services have been under the regulatory microscope. Despite these setbacks, it’s still a great industry to get into, full of potential advantages for a would-be entrepreneur.

That said, there are a few best practices that you should follow so that the problems Uber and Handy are facing don’t become your problems, too. To set you down the right path, I asked nine founders from YEC what entrepreneurs should consider before starting up in this space. Read more.

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Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Time Flies: 10 Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [November 15, 2015] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup [Week of November 8, 2015]

Debra Garber — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 15:01:16 +0000

Time flies and since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting facts and trends.

This week featuring:

1 – A surprising fact: 1 in 3 parents don’t have a clue what their children do for a living. Do your parents?

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Social Media Growth Hacks

4 – Four Productivity Tips

Surprise of the Week

The top misunderstood jobs revealed by LinkedIn (measured by the percentage of UK parents who weren’t confident about correctly describing them) are:

UI Designer (86%)
Data scientist (76%)
Social media manager (71%)
Actuary (68%)
Sub-editor (66%)
Sociologist (62%)
Radio producer (58%)
PR manager (57%)
Investment banker (55%)
Fashion designer (51%)

To help improve parents’ knowledge of what their child does and give a better insight into their world, companies around the world including Doro, Samsung, Mars and Philips have opened their doors for this year’s LinkedIn Bring in Your Parents Day (#BIYP).

Yes, #BIYP is real! Unfortunately, we missed it this year, but there is always next year!

Two Top Tweets

This first top tweet has been around for 27 days. It’s fascinating. Remember when we used our cell phones to just call people?

1 – 254K Shares: Removed: Photographer Removes Phones From His Photos To Show How Terribly Addicted We’ve Become

American photographer Eric Pickersgill removed the smartphones and digital devices from his portraits of everyday life. The project “Removed” aims to show our addiction to technology and hyper-connectivity, and Pickersgill knows that he’s also amongst the addicted. See more.

2 – Popular on dlvr.it’s Twitter page: Does Your Email Marketing Need CPR?

Do your email sales results need a first aid intervention? It may be time to perform CPR. Columnist Daniel Faggella breaks down the steps you need to resuscitate your email marketing strategy. Read more.

Three Social Media Growth Hacks

Note: In my opinion, the first social media growth hack listed below may be lengthy but it’s a very insightful post! Definitely worth bookmarking:

1 – 1.6K Shares: How To Suck At Social Media: An Indispensable Guide For Businesses

Facebook, at last count, has 1.5 billion monthly active users. YouTube has 1.2 billion users (watching 6 billion hours of videos!). Instagram has an estimated 400 million users.

Those are some gigantic big numbers!

I believe that every human with time to spare, and a connection to the web, should be on social media. The benefits are numerous.

But, what about businesses? Companies small and big? In India or Japan or the United States? Read more.

2 – 2.5K Shares: Create Your Own Celebrity Status Using Social Media

The bigger the name, the more they get paid. Richard Branson receives $200,000 and a private jet supplied by a client as a minimum for any speaking engagement. Without using an agent or high-priced public relations firm, you can create your own celebrity status as an authority in your business niche to help you dominate your market. Read more.

3 – 1.1K Shares: Trick or Treat: 11 Social Media Tricks You May Not Know

Many of your favorite social media networks have fun “hacks” that have flown under the radar of the average user. With Halloween approaching, we figured we’d treat you to eleven of our favorite social media tricks. Read more.

Four Productivity Tips

1 – 1.5K Views: For Brands And PR: When Is The Best Time To Post On Social Media?

I had a visit this past week with Nora Flint, PR Manager of TruConversion. Her company is developing an app to help businesses optimize and track their social media results. With her editorial team, she provided me the answers to some of the world’s burning questions about social media posting in a new infographic, which I’ve made available here.

For entrepreneurs using social media for marketing, here’s the lowdown on what’s working best. Read more.

2 – 1K Shares: Top 10 Tips for Productivity & Peace of Mind

Do you know anybody who’s not busy? Most of us wake up each morning facing crammed calendars and mile-long to-do lists. As a lawyer/wife/mom/writer, I know I certainly do. Out of nerdy fascination and sheer survival instinct, I’ve made a lifelong study of productivity and time management. Here are the top ten tips that help me get done the things that I must or want to do without losing my mind. Read more.

3 – 4.4K Shares: The Most Useful Tips How Keeping Things Simple Could Make You More Productive And Your Life Easier Like Never Before

Hey my friends i’m pretty sure that you are like me and your days are not well organized and your daily struggles are getting very bored sometimes. If you don’t have a plan to be productive and keep focused, the details that you are responsible for can quickly overwhelm you. For these reason the daily planning is very important thing of your life. Read more.

4 – From the dlvr.it blog: 7 Awesome Standing Desks that Will Change Your Life

With headlines like Sitting is the New Smoking: 4 Simple Tips to Avoid the Negative Side Effects, it’s not new news that sitting all day at work (or home) is killing us. Typing at your computer, mouse scrolling, and emptying your inbox aren’t burning up nearly enough calories. Read more.

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Read any interesting social media facts recently?

Have any social media tips or tricks to share?

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Social Media Roundup [Week of November 8, 2015] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Social Media Roundup [Week of November 1, 2015]

Debra Garber — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:00:00 +0000

Our weekly roundup is here to help you stay on top of all the latest in social media and other interesting trends.

This week featuring:

1 – Have you heard of the Starbucks effect?

2 – Two Top Tweets of the week

3 – Three Productivity Tips

4 – Four Growth Tips

→Including: Why Your 2005 Keyword Strategy Doesn’t Work in 2015

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Answer to One Question

8 Surprising Real-Estate Tips

Looking to buy a home? It’s better to:

Be on a “Way” than a “Street”
Pick a female real-estate agent
Try to be close to a Starbucks

Why?

Two Top Tweets

1 – 24K Shares: PepsiCo Exec Has Tough Words for Agencies

Ad agency models are breaking. Pre-roll ads are useless. Measurement models are outdated. The ad industry lacks diversity. And the phrase digital marketing should be dumped.

Those statements were among the declarations made Wednesday by PepsiCo exec Brad Jakeman in a fiery, truth-telling presentation at the Association of National Advertising’s annual “Masters of Marketing” conference in Orlando, Fla. Read more.

2 – 193K Views: Confessions of a Google Spammer

Before I became an inbound marketer, I once made $50,000 a month spamming Google. I worked a maximum of 10 hours a week. And I am telling you from the bottom of my heart: never, never ever follow in my footsteps.

This blog post will tell you exactly why… Read more.

Three Productivity Tips

There are 1,440 minutes in a day. Here’s how the most successful people on the planet make the most of them:

1 – 5.2K Shares: Time-Management Tips From 8 Self-Made Billionaires

When I first heard about Kevin Kruse’s new book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, I was intrigued. In it, he interviews seven billionaires, 13 Olympic athletes, and 239 entrepreneurs. The book was an easy read; it didn’t disappoint.

What stood out to me, in particular, were these time-management tips from some of the most successful people on the planet. Read more.

And, more from the experts:

2- 1.1K Shares: 30 Experts Share Their Best Productivity Tips

Want a boost for your day?

These productivity experts have each shared their best tip to give you a jumpstart. The time you invest in reading these will pay off in dividends as you apply the ideas to your daily routine. Read more.

After reading all these tips, I’m ready for a vacation:

3 – 5 Science-Backed Tips for Better Vacations

When it comes to planning your vacation, you probably consult friends and family for ideas, possibly read some online reviews, maybe flip through a travel magazine or two. But what’s one source you’re probably not looking to for advice? Scientists. Read more.

Four Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – Popular on dlvr.it’s Twitter feed: 11 Totally Awesome Websites To Source FREE Images

The more we consult with clients, the more frequently we are asked about imagery to be used in blogs and on websites. Do any of these questions sound familiar?

“Where do I find good images for my site?”

“How can I make sure I don’t get in trouble for the images I use?”

“How much do I have to pay for images? Wait…I can download images for free?! Where?”

2 – 2.2K Shares: How Your Keyword Strategy is Failing You (And How to Fix It)

One day very soon, we’re all going to stop worrying about “keywords”.

And then we can all rejoice.

But until that happens, whenever “SEO” comes up, the next phrase usually muttered involves “keywords” and “rankings”.

This unhealthy obsession with “keyword + rankings” (that was a search operator joke) has long been misleading. Read more.

3 – 3.5K Shares: How to Use 360-Degree Video in Your Social Media Marketing

Are you using video on your social channels?

Have you thought about 360-degree videos? 360 videos produce more engagement and message retention than normal videos. In this article, you’ll discover how to create a 360 video and use it for your business. Read more.

4 – 10 real estate marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2016

Just when you thought you were too close to a Starbucks…Nearly everywhere you turn, you hear news of the rebounding housing market. Not only is it bouncing back, but it’s also making a huge comeback with new owners and investors getting into the market. Here are the top 10 trends you can expect to see in 2016. Read more.

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What’s on your mind?

Read any GREAT articles lately?

Have and social media tips?

Share!

The post Social Media Roundup [Week of November 1, 2015] appeared first on dlvr.it | blog.

Marketing Monday Archives - dlvr.it | blog

What do Chocolate, Cheese Fondue & Social Media Have in Common?

Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide for 2016

Why you should create a blog and join the blogging community

2 – Brand Content Marketing Growth Requirement Just Doubled

3 – 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Twitter to Market Your Business in 2016

1. Because Periscope is a big deal.

2. Because it’s a great traffic driver.

3. Because you can remarket to Twitter audiences just like you can Facebook audiences.

4. Because it’s the most widely used social network for customer service.

5. Because it’s an amazing research tool.

Productivity Tip

Lessons in efficiency: How smart people ignore distractions

Just For Fun

New Study Shows Chocolate Improves Brain Function

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Selfies and Social Media: Best Trends, Facts and Productivity Tips (March 13)

Featuring

From Fast Company: What Sex, Food, And Selfies Have To Do With Effective Social Marketing

Social Media Growth Hackers

1 – From Augie Ray: No Excuse For Poor Corporate Reputation And Customer Experience

2 – From The Guardian: Brands are finally using images to reflect women as they truly are

3 – From Convince & Convert: 6 Ways to Attract Return Visitors to Your Blog

4 – From the MoBlog: Why Facebook Just Bought A Silly Selfie App

Productivity Tip

From Sujan Patel: A Quick Guide to Surviving ‘Year 1’ as an Entrepreneur

Just For Fun

From Inc.com: 10 Hilariously Over-the-Top Startup Offices

5 of the Best Content Marketing Articles You May Have Missed [Week of March 13 , 2016]

Featuring

Facebook is Eating the World

Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 5 Websites That Offer GIFs to Enhance Your Social Media Marketing

2 – How Adidas is using newsrooms to create five GREAT pieces of content a week, not just five great ads a year

3 – Just published: Is Your Social Media Content as Popular as You Think?

Numbers don’t lie; they just don’t tell the truth

Just For Fun

Monday, 14th March, 2016 will be…Fill Our Staplers Day

Productivity Tip

Actually, You Should Check Email First Thing in the Morning

10 Articles and Videos You May Have Missed in Social Media [Week of January 17, 2016]

Top Tweet

3.7K Shares: The Big Agenda: What Ad Industry Needs to Know About 2016

Social Media Growth Hacks

1 – 2.7 Shares: Why Certain Things Go Viral

2 – 3.7K Shares: How to Get 1,000 Visitors to Your Next Blog Post Using an Influencer Group Post

Productivity Tip

21.4K Shares: Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

Or, alternatively read: The Psychology of a Procrastinator: 15 Ways to Overcome and Get Things Done

Bonus App

8.5K Shares: Estimate the Cost of a Meeting with This Calculator

Bonus Video

4.2K Shares: EVERY MEETING YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO (IN TWO MINUTES)

Social Media Roundup: Best Trends and Productivity Tips (January 10)

Top Tweet

14.8K Views: Who Controls Your Facebook Feed

Social Media Growth Hack

1.7K Shares: How to Consistently Create Remarkable Content

Most Popular

15.5K Views: 2016’s Biggest Social Media Trends to Watch Out For

Productivity Tip

7.3K Shares: A Neuroscientist on the Calming Powers of the To-Do List

Trending on Facebook

11.1K Shares/44K Views: The Most Overlooked Factor Of Content Marketing? Scannable Content

Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [January 3]

Top Tweet

4.5K Shares: How to Build the Right Traffic Metrics Dashboard for 2016

Productivity Tip

4K Shares: 8 Phrases You Really Need to Stop Saying in 2016

Seen on LinkedIn

1K Shares: 5 Bonuses Employees Love No Matter What the Time of Year

Trending Question

5K Shares: 2016 Social Media Marketing Predictions From the Experts

Found on Twitter

1K Shares: The Powerful 17 Step Journey of a Simple Tweet

From the Social Media Marketing Podcast

2.8K Shares: Is Blogging Dead? Building Your Content Home on Rented Land

Time Flies: 10 ‘Best-of’ Posts You Missed in Social Media Last Week [December 20]

Top Tweet