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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 4, 2016 11:10 AM
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If you’re looking to make use of video to market your brand (and there’s literally no reason why you shouldn’t), it might seem a little daunting at first: Most videos online have increasingly decent production value. A low quality video can damage your brand’s image and reputation. What’s more, there’s the big issue of time: making quality content requires a lot of man hours, so throwing a video together quickly may feel like a bad idea. The good news is, video content is nowhere near as complicated as you might think. With technology that’s readily available and a small budget, you can create fantastic video content in a couple of hours. Let’s go through the tips and tricks you’ll need to create killer video content with a high production value that does a great job of selling your brand....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 4, 2016 10:43 AM
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To solve the issue, Instagram recently announced that they’ll use an algorithm to show users the posts that interest them. They’ll also use your “relationship with the person and the timeliness of the post” for filling your feed.Deja vu? Yep, Instagram is following Facebook’s suitre. This means that you can’t simply rely on real-time industry updates or increase your posting frequency to get real estate in more of your follower feeds. You’ve got to focus more on your audience preferences and use innovative techniques to engage with them. I’ve put together 5 tips to help you amplify your Instagram following, increase your engagement rate with your target audience and drive sales....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 3, 2016 8:33 PM
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Color blocking is nothing new. It’s long been designers’ go-to trick for chopping up large pieces of content, crafting call-outs and adding visual interest to an otherwise plain page. But in today’s design world, color blocking has evolved into a stunning minimalist trend that’s a perfect fit for spring.
Gone are the convoluted colors and clunky squares that too often transform quality design into an eyesore. Now it’s all about airy white space, pastel hues and clean lines. The results are beautiful and soft, confident and more modern – ideal for boutiques, chic websites and stylish brochures.
Curious how to put this update into action? We’ve gathered 18 inspiring designs from 99designs and beyond that prove how compelling this contemporary style can be....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 11:55 PM
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Do you know what the average attention span of a reader is today? It’s 8.2 seconds. You read that right. The average attention span of someone visiting your page is less than it takes you to drink a glass of water. You have less than 10 seconds to convince your readers that your content is more than good; you have to convince them that it’s remarkable.
Luckily, you can make your headlines way better if you pay attention to a couple of simple rules....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 6:05 PM
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Are you looking for free, high-quality social media icons to bring your website, content or maybe even business cards to life?
Every individual and business has their own style and finding the perfect icon set to match can be tough – not to mention, very time-consuming.
In this post, we’ve collected 50+ social media icons sets to help save you some time and find the perfect set of icons – no matter what your style!...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 11:57 AM
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Not only were these April Fool’s pranks funny, they were smart. These five well-known brands played off their marketing strengths, trends, consumer desires and technology to pull one over on the internet-trusting public on April 1st. Best April Fools Pranks of 2016 From faux fashion collections to made-up mobile phone apps brands H&M, OpenTable, Krispy Creme, Samsung and CarGurus proved they have a sense of humor in addition to their marketing savvy. Appearing on April 1st, aka April Fool’s Day, were real-looking websites, mock-technology videos and phony products launched by these brands which either led you to the real sites or reminded you of how much you like them. Win-Win.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 10:20 AM
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Social media has completely changed the way businesses communicate with customers. Instead of the same dry, text-filled marketing messages, businesses are finding new and interesting ways to get their messages across. One such technique is the use of Twitter emojis. In fact, Twitter recently released some ideas for ways brands can work emojis into their Tweets. Here are some ways you can use emojis to enhance your Twitter marketing....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 2:58 AM
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Content is one of the most effective ways for a brand to market itself. It’s the mode through which you can convince your audience to take action and guide them towards a specific goal. However, content marketing can be a complicated and time-consuming process. There are a number of things that could go wrong. In this article, I’ll outline 21 content marketing mistakes and how you can avoid them.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 1:31 AM
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Featuring 100% real Donald Trump quotes.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 1, 2016 1:56 AM
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Reflecting content marketing’s coming of age, content curation requires a focus aligned with your content strategy and business goals. Ideally, these should be broader than making money. Like content marketing, content curation requires a documented strategy to reach its maximum potential. It must be integrated into your documented editorial mission. Further, content curation thrives on intelligent content. To effectively curate owned content, you must be able to identify related and relevant content....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 1, 2016 1:32 AM
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Defy Media found that youth preferred digital over cable "because it better suits their lifestyle and has more relatable content." The study also saw cable/satellite TV consumption decrease with age, noting a spike in free digital video consumption. Young people are turning to streaming services because they simply offer the freedom of choice — and more appealing content, the report said. "For TV, you have channels but you're limited to that. On YouTube I can just look up what I'm interested in," 16-year-old Leah said....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
March 31, 2016 1:11 AM
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One of the biggest reasons list building is so important is that you’re creating an ever-growing pool of views, comments, shares, and sales that can be tapped into at any time. If you write an epic post today that goes semi-viral and receives 50,000 views, that’s amazing, but what happens next week when you write your next post? If you have a solid email capture system in place, you now have 5-10% of those views returning to read, share, comment, purchase, etc. Plus, you have a valuable asset – a lead list you can pitch products and services too. If you know what you’re doing with email marketing, you can make a killing from an email list. And if you don’t, you can still do pretty well. Email subscribers convert like crazy....
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Rescooped by
Jeff Domansky
from Business Improvement
March 31, 2016 12:52 AM
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Looking to visually market your Facebook page? Want to promote your product or service? Here's how to make a Facebook cover that markets your business!
Via Daniel Watson
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 4, 2016 10:56 AM
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Six years ago, at a high school event in suburban New Jersey, Michael Shapiro was covering the story for a hyper-local news site he had founded two years earlier when he spotted a journalist from an established local print newspaper from the same town. “I extended my hand to shake hers,” he recalls, “and she turned around and walked away. People who saw it, their eyes opened wide. They couldn’t believe it.” Those were the early days of Shapiro’s foray into hyper-local news. He was a former lawyer who was building a network of websites covering towns in New Jersey, and some of the state’s old-guard journalists, didn’t like it. Getting the cold shoulder from them, he says, was not unusual. “They saw us as a threat,” says Shapiro. “It was also a matter of, ‘ Who are you to come into my town,’ as if it’s their town.” But things have changed considerably since then. Now, Shapiro presides over a rapidly expanding network of 51 hyper-local franchises dotted throughout New Jersey and, more recently, New York state. (Two more just signed on and will launch this spring. A brief expansion into Pennsylvania failed.)...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 4, 2016 1:22 AM
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Can you go 7 for 7? This is one tough quiz!
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 3, 2016 12:00 AM
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In addition to being a $9 billion business and the nation’s pastime, MLB is a powerhouse on social, earning millions of followers across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Recently, MLB extended its reach by forming a relationship with Snapchat in which MLB will curate and publish video content submitted by its fans. MLB’s popularity on social is especially impressive when you consider that every MLB social media account technically competes for attention with the popular accounts of 30 teams. The brand can teach many other businesses how to do social right. Here are some of those lessons...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 11:50 PM
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A content audit helps you assess your current content as well as shape your future content strategy.
In this post, I’m going to show you a 5-step content audit that you can follow (although there are many other effective content audit processes).
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 2:27 PM
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In a sea of 6,000 tweets per second, how do you make yours stand out? Till now, Twitter has claimed to register over 1.3 billion users, out of which 100 million users are active on the micro-blogging website every day. Among those users are your brand’s target audience. If you play your cards right, you can reap all the benefits of this massive social media platform. But, Twitter can be tricky. You only get 140-characters and there is no edit button anywhere, which means your one mistake could reach millions in a second. That’s why it is important to play smart. One way to do that is to maximise the impact of your tweet with data-driven design hacks — which we’ve covered in this article. Another way is to post tactical content. To help increase your brand’s reach on Twitter, we have researched and curated some of the most successful Twitter case studies....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 10:42 AM
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The Challenge is Simple. Day One: 3,000 words. And then each day after that add 1,000 words to the amount needed. Seven days, if my math is right, I will have a 42,000 word novel. 3,000… 4,000… 5,000… 6,000… 7,000… 8,000… 9,000 words. 7 Days. Day Seven (9,000 word day) Got the book done!!!! The goal today was at 9,000 words and needed to be the focus of my day because I had no idea how many words I would actually need to end this book. I had 3,000 words in the bank, so that helped the worry some....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 10:07 AM
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Want to have more customers, opt-ins on your website and clicks on your “Buy Now” button? Do what Hollywood does -- use stories to sell your products and services. This makes sense: At some point, you've probably gone to a meeting featuring a PowerPoint presentation with charts and graphs . . . and wanted to poke your eyes out with a pencil. The reason: Stories, not data, are what inspire people. Stories, not bullet points, create customer loyalty, build social media platforms and increase sales. Stories create an emotional bond between your business and your customers. And today's technology helps us tell those stories in the many different ways it's given us to offer our message to millions of potential customers -- instantly. Yet, many businesses are losing customers because their methods of reaching them are outdated. Want to get people to buy your product? Then get them to listen. Here are three essential stories you need on your website to do just that:...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 2, 2016 1:53 AM
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As a writer, you want people to pay attention to what you have to say…But with people processing over 100,000 digital words every day, you’ve got your work cut out. With so much clutter and noise, how can you possibly stand out and get your words noticed? Perhaps storytelling is the answer. Stories light up our brain and fire neurons in the same way as an actual physical action would. They arouse our emotions, stimulate learning, command attention and persuade action. The makeup of a well-crafted story comes down to interesting characters, relatable plots, and most importantly, a feeling of vulnerability and connection....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 1, 2016 2:20 AM
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What if?.. Tomorrow is April Fools’, and tons of people around the world are wishing for one thing from the leading Republican presidential candidate....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
April 1, 2016 1:46 AM
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You were not given a content marketing budget in order to create content. You were given one to increase brand awareness and build your sales and marketing pipelines. Using the Content Marketing Pyramid helps you do just that. (For a deep dive, download Curata’s Content Marketing Pyramid eBook.) The Content Marketing Pyramid enables the development of content and related assets intended to reinforce common messages/themes through multiple content formats, distribution methods, and promotion channels across owned, earned, and paid media. The Pyramid assures optimal content consumption, reuse, reach and impact. It provides a common strategic process to align different parts of an organization around “content,” ensuring consistency across functional, geographic, and business unit boundaries....
PowerPoint 2013 has some amazing features that are no less than those offered by Photoshop and other image editing softwares. One such effect that I love the most personally is the ‘Merge Shapes’ feature that lets you create breathtaking effects. One such effect (we gave it away in the the banner image of this post) is the splitting of an image into multiple pieces that serves a very unique function- it interrupts your gaze at the picture at every intersection but still gives you a complete picture at a glance. This grabs the viewer’s attention and forces them to read into each element of the image. The image and the slide as a whole get imprinted on the audience’s mind which is everything a presenter can ask for. This article will guide you step-by-step how to create this split image effect. When you work with us side by side on PowerPoint 2013, you’ll end up with exactly this design:
Via Baiba Svenca
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Rescooped by
Jeff Domansky
from Business Improvement
March 31, 2016 12:58 AM
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Where your business is concerned, how do you use Twitter? Do you listen? Do you create connections? Do you sell? (I do none of those things. Mostly I just tweet links to new posts. I know, shame on me.) But someone that does know a lot about using Twitter for business is Mike Dane, the PR Manager for TruConversion, an analytics and feedback application that helps you improve revenue with tools like visitor session playbacks, heat maps, conversion funnels, form analytics, surveys.... Here's Mike: While there is no one right way to use the platform, success leaves us clues. That is why we've come up with twenty strategies to help you get the most out of your Twitter marketing efforts:
Via Daniel Watson
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Video is a hugely important marketing medium. Websites with videos keep site visitors for 88% longer than sites without video content.