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    Moz Local Dashboard Updates

    Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

    Posted by NoamC

    Today, we’re excited to announce some new features and changes to the Moz Local dashboard. We’ve updated your dashboard to make it easier to manage and gauge the performance of your local search listings.

    New and improved dashboard

    55656dd0e6cf54.57413440.jpg

    We spent a lot of time listening to customer feedback and finding areas where we weren’t being as clear as we ought to. We’ve made great strides in improving Moz Local’s dashboard (details below) to give you a lot more information at a glance.

    Geo Reporting

    55656e552f9c50.19543051.jpg

    Our newest reporting view, geo reporting, shows you the relative strength of locations based on geography. The deeper the blue, the stronger the listings in that region. You can look at your scores broken down by state, or zoom in to see the score breakdown by county. Move your mouse over a region to see your average score there.

    Scores on the dashboard

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    We’re more clearly surfacing the scores for each of your locations right in our dashboard. Now you can see each location’s individual score immediately.

    Exporting reports

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    Use the new drop-down at the upper-right corner to download Moz Local reports in CSV format, so that you can access your historical listing data offline and use it to generate your own reports and visualizations.

    Search cheat sheet

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    If you want to take your search game to the next level, why not start with your Moz Local dashboard? A handy link next to the search bar shows you all the ways you can find what you’re looking for.

    We’re still actively addressing feedback and making improvements to Moz Local over time, and you can let us know what we’re missing in the comments below.

    We hope that our latest updates will make your Moz Local experience better. But you don’t have to take my word for it; head on over to Moz Local to see our new and improved dashboard and reporting experience today!

    Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

    The 6 Easiest Video-Editing Tools for Small Business Marketers

    Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

    The surge of videos on social media and content marketing channels has come quickly. In the past year alone, Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views each day.

    Video has become go-to visual content for a huge number businesses and brands.

    And I’d love to share how you can do video, too, no matter your resources or skills. 

    I researched all the best and easiest video editing tools that are ideal for novice video producers with limited budgets and busy schedulesI tried each one out and am happy to share here how things went and what I ended up creating. I’d love if it inspires any thoughts or creations from you!

    video editing tools

    The 6 Easiest Video-Editing Tools for Small Business Marketers

    To help you create compelling videos, I tested 5 of the best video production apps available for amateur video producers, as well as 1 beginner-friendly video editor for Macs.

    1. Nutshell
    2. Magisto
    3. Animoto
    4. Videoshop
    5. iMovie App
    6. iMovie for Macs

    Let’s get started and check out these 6 video editing tools!

    1. Nutshell

    NUTSHELL APP REVIEW

    Quick Introduction

    Snap 3 pictures. Add captions. Choose graphics. 

    Nutshell creates fun mini-movies for you in seconds using just these few elements.

    For your mini-movie, Nutshell will even create an audio track for you using the sounds that were captured when the three photos were snapped.

    • Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch: iOS 8.0+
    • Pricing: free (with Nutshell branding added to the video)
    • Additional paid features: None

    How To Use Nutshell To Create Videos

    1. Snap 3 photos.

    When prompted, capture photos from within the Nutshell app.

    2. Add captions.

    Select from the animated text options, and insert a message into each text graphic you select.

    3. Add graphics.

    Choose animated graphics to embellish each of your 3 photos.

    4. Preview your video.

    Nutshell creates a mini-movie for you in a few seconds using your 3 photos plus the graphics and text you inserted.

    5. Be friendly.

    Send your Nutshell video to your friends. They can respond to your Nutshell movie with Nutshell cartoons.

    6. Save and share.

    Share you video via social media, email, or the Prezi website.

    A Nutshell Sample Video

    2. Magisto

    magisto app summary

    Quick Introduction

    Fully automated video editing app

    Magisto makes it easy to transform photos and videos into edited movies, complete with music and effects, in minutes.

    • Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+), Android (compatibility varies by device), Windows (versions 7+), and an online version available here
    • Pricing: Free to try, downloads cost 99 cents
    • Additional paid features: Unlimited cloud storage, longer movies, upload 30 or more clips/photos into a video,

    How To Use Magisto To Create Videos

    1. Add photos and videos.

    To get started with Magisto, you can shoot video clips from within in the app or select photos and videos from your camera roll.

    2. Select editing style.

    Choose a visual style for your video by perusing the themes provided in the app.

    3. Select soundtrack.

    For your soundtrack, add music from Magisto’s library of licensed songs or choose a song you have saved on your device.

    If you choose to use a track from one of your personal playlists, be careful to not misuse copyrighted material.

    4.  Put the finishing touches on your video.

    Select the length of your video.

    With a free Basic account, users can create movies up to one minute and fifteen seconds in length by uploading a total of 10 photo and/or video files. Users with premium accounts can upload more files and create longer movies.

    Also, give your video a title that will appear at the beginning of your video.

    You cannot add text to your video except for the title at the beginning.

    5. Magisto edits your video with automated editing.  

    Magisto handles all of the remaining details of the video production for you.

    For example, you won’t need to worry about picking the perfect filters or transitions for your clips because Magisto makes those decisions for you based on the style theme you selected.

    Once Magisto creates your video, you can make minor changes to your movie by adding or removing photo and videos clips as well as changing your chosen style theme and selected audio track.

    6. Save and share.

    Share your video with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and email. Or, pay to download and save your video.

    Magisto Sample Video

    Bonus: Magisto Shot for Messenger

    Magisto recently released another video app worth mentioning: Magisto Shot, which turns a photo and text into a micro-movie.

    It’s free to download and available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (iOS 7.0+) and also available for Android (4.0+).

    3. Animoto

    animoto video app

    Quick Introduction

    Automated video editing app

    Animoto simplifies video editing by limiting the number of customization options and making most of the editing decisions for you.

    Animoto is my favorite of the automated video editing apps on this list as a result of the easy process and the impressive results.

    • Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+), Android (version 2.2+), and an  online version available here. Animoto also offers a plug-in for Lightroom so you can export your photos directly into Animoto.
    • Pricing: Free to try, with plans starting at $9.99/month
    • Additional paid features: HD videos, longer videos, video downloads, cloud storage, more photos and videos to upload

    How To Use Animoto To Create Videos

    1. Add photos and videos.

    Similar to Magisto, with just a few taps of your finger you can insert your preferred photos and videos from your camera roll.

    Unlinke Magisto, you cannot capture photos or videos from within the app.

    2. Select editing style.

    Add filters and embellishments to your video by choosing a style theme from the list of provided options.

    The theme you select will determine how your clips are processed.

    3. Select soundtrack.

    Animoto provides song options for your video.

    As mentioned earlier, if you choose to not use a track provided by the app and instead opt for a song you purchased for your personal use, ensure that you are following all copyright laws when you upload your video for the public to view.

    4. Add captions and titles.

    Animoto prompts you to include copy for intro and outro titles.

    You can also add text to your photo and video clips by writing captions for your visuals.

    In addition you can insert title screens with custom messages throughout your video.

    5. Animoto generates a preview with automated editing. 

    Once Animoto generates your video, you can make minor changes to your design.

    6. Save and share.

    Share your video via Messages, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

    If you upgrade to a paid version, you can save your video on your device.

    Animoto Sample Video

    4. Videoshop

    VIDEOSHOP DEMO REVIEW

    Quick Introduction

    A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor

    Videoshop lets you create movies inside a relatively user-friendly interface without restricting you to a template format.

    Compared to Magisto, Nutshell, and Animoto, the creative control can be inspiring or intimidating – depending on the user.

    • Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+)
    • Pricing: $1.99 download
    • Additional paid features: None

    How To Use Videoshop To Create Videos

    1. Add photos and videos.

    Videoshop offers slow motion, time-lapse, and stop motion as options when capturing video from within the app

    2. Add audio tracks.

    Add sound effects or a song from the included collection of tracks or pick a song from your personal collection of music.

    3. Organize clips.

    Arrange your clips in your preferred order.

    Also trim you clips to the optimal length.

    4. Edit video.

    With some advanced editing options, but not too many, Videoshop could be considered the best of both worlds. For example, you can select from a variety of transitions to adjust how each clip flows into the next clip, but you can only make a limited number of minor adjustments to your audio track.

    However this gain of extra editing flexibility comes at a price. Since the app is not transforming your clips into a movie for you, producing a mesmerizing video will likely take more time and effort on your part.

    5. Add filters and a title. 

    You can select one of the provided filters to alter your video, or you can leave you footage as-is.

    Also, you can create a title using one of the provided templates or opt to create your own title some basic text options.

    6. Save and share.

    Save your video to your device or share on social media.

    Videoshop Sample Video

    Check out this sample video created using Videoshop:

    5. iMovie app

    imovie app review

    Quick Introduction

    A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor

    The iMovie app makes it easy for you to produce videos to fit your needs exactly – without the limitations of a required template.

    The iMovie app is similar to Videoshop in that it lets you make a variety of creative decisions during the editing process. I personally think iMovie is easier to use than Videoshop, however the two apps are relatively comparable in regards to the features offered.

    • Compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch (iOS 8.3+)
    • Pricing: Download for $4.99
    • Additional paid features: None

    How To Use The iMovie App To Create Videos

    1. Select a format for your video. 

    Choose from 2 format options:

    1. Movie: You can create video that is truly unique.
    2. Hollywood-Style Trailer: You can create a video that looks and feels like an authentic trailer for a Hollywood film.

    2. Select a theme.

    For movies:

    • Choose from 8 style themes.
    • You will have the option to use titles, transitions, and music that fit your selected theme.
    • However you can bypass these suggested theme options if you prefer to use titles, transitions and music from outside of the theme.

    For trailers:

    • Choose from 14 trailer templates.
    • Templates include titles, transitions, and music that fit your selected theme.
    • Customize the trailer storyboard with your own video clips and photos, as well as a movie title, studio logo, and character names.

    3. Add photos and videos.

    Capture new photos and videos from within the iMovie app or upload visual assets from your device.

    iMovie automatically adds movement to your images, however you can adjust the movement on your photos to fit your personal preference. The added movement will make your images more interesting and more appropriate for video.

    With iMovie version 2.1 and iOS 8, you can use an extension to enhance video clips right in your photos app

    4. Add audio files. 

    Create a soundtrack using the included music and sound effect collections or  songs from your music library.

    You can also record your own narration from within the iMovie app.

    5. Edit your video.

    Bring your video to life with the many editing options available in the iMovie app.

    iMovie lets you pick clip transitions, edit the length and speed of your visual assets, add filters to your clips, and make other edits restricted in some of the previously listed editing tools.

    6. Save your video or share it via email or social media.

    iMovie Sample Video

    6. iMovie for Mac

    Quick Introduction

    A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor for Mac

    If you want an easy video editing option that also gives you control over almost all aspects of your creation, iMovie is a great option for you to consider.

    The Mac version is more robust than the iMovie app, thus both iMovie versions should be listed as unique options for video producers.

    Even though the other video editing options featured on this list are all apps, I chose to include iMovie for Macs because it is easy for beginners to use.

    In addition, since I used iMovie to edit the demo videos included above, I wanted to be transparent and give an inside look into the creation of those videos.

    • Compatible with Mac computers (OS X 10.10.2 or later)
    • Pricing: $14.99 from the Mac App Store
    • Additional paid features: None

    The Best Introduction To iMovie Is A Demo Video

    Because the list of iMovie features is extensive, iMovie for Mac gives you the freedom to get wildly innovative with your videos.

    You can create videos following a variety of workflows, utilizing a multitude of features.

    To see how the iMovie app demo video (featured above) was created, watch this demo:

     

    3 Additional Resources For Videos

    While creating the demo videos included above, I discovered some great resources that you might also find useful when producing your own videos. Below are 3 additional resources for you to use while creating your videos.

    1. YouTube Audio Library

    youtube audio library download audio

    If you need audio files to create soundtracks for your videos, download songs from the YouTube Audio Library. All audio files in this library can be used for any videos, personal or commercial.

    2. Distill

    wedistill.io

    Offering free HD videos for personal and commercial use, WeDistill.io is a unique resource for video producers. If you need some stunning HD footage for your videos, visit WeDistill.io and peruse their video library for clips to download.

    3. Pexels Videos

    pexels

    Similar to WeDistill.io, Pexels Videos offers free downloads of video footage for use in any type of project. Compared to WeDistill.io, Pexels currently has more clips in their video library.

    Conclusion

    While this list is only the tip of the iceberg for video production resources, the 6 video editors and 3 additional tools featured on this list are a great place for you to start if you are eager to create your own videos for your social media and content marketing posts.

    What type of video content do you plan to produce for your social media and content marketing posts? What video production tools have you tried? Have you tested any of the tools or resources listed above?

    I’d love to hear your feedback and experiences!

    The post The 6 Easiest Video-Editing Tools for Small Business Marketers appeared first on Social.

    Exposing The Generational Content Gap: Three Ways to Reach Multiple Generations

    Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

    Posted by AndreaLehr

    With more people of all ages online than ever before, marketers must create content that resonates with multiple generations. Successful marketers realize that each generation has unique expectations, values and experiences that influence consumer behaviors, and that offering your audience content that reflects their shared interests is a powerful way to connect with them and inspire them to take action.

    We’re in the midst of a generational shift, with
    Millennials expected to surpass Baby Boomers in 2015 as the largest living generation. In order to be competitive, marketers need to realize where key distinctions and similarities lie in terms of how these different generations consume content and share it with with others.

    To better understand the habits of each generation,
    BuzzStream and Fractl surveyed over 1,200 individuals and segmented their responses into three groups: Millennials (born between 1977–1995), Generation X (born between 1965–1976), and Baby Boomers (born between 1946–1964). [Eds note: The official breakdown for each group is as follows: Millennials (1981-1997), Generation X (1965-1980), and Boomers (1946-1964)]

    Our survey asked them to identify their preferences for over 15 different content types while also noting their opinions on long-form versus short-form content and different genres (e.g., politics, technology, and entertainment).

    We compared their responses and found similar habits and unique trends among all three generations.

    Here’s our breakdown of the three key takeaways you can use to elevate your future campaigns:

    1. Baby Boomers are consuming the most content

    However, they have a tendency to enjoy it earlier in the day than Gen Xers and Millennials.

    Although we found striking similarities between the younger generations, the oldest generation distinguished itself by consuming the most content. Over 25 percent of Baby Boomers consume 20 or more hours of content each week. Additional findings:

    • Baby Boomers also hold a strong lead in the 15–20 hours bracket at 17 percent, edging out Gen Xers and Millennials at 12 and 11 percent, respectively
    • A majority of Gen Xers and Millennials—just over 22 percent each—consume between 5 and 10 hours per week
    • Less than 10 percent of Gen Xers consume less than five hours of content a week—the lowest of all three groups

    How Much Time We Spend Consuming Content

    We also compared the times of day that each generation enjoys consuming content. The results show that most of our respondents—over 30 percent— consume content between 8 p.m. and midnight. However, there are similar trends that distinguish the oldest generation from the younger ones:

    • Baby Boomers consume a majority of their content in the morning. Nearly 40 percent of respondents are online between 5 a.m. and noon.
    • The least popular time for most respondents to engage with content online is late at night, between midnight and 5 a.m., earning less than 10 percent from each generation
    • Gen X is the only generation to dip below 10 percent in the three U.S. time zones: 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., 6 to 8 p.m., and midnight to 5 a.m.

    When Do We Consume Content

    When it comes to which device each generation uses to consume content, laptops are the most common, followed by desktops. The biggest distinction is in mobile usage: Over 50 percent of respondents who use their mobile as their primary device for content consumption are Millennials. Other results reveal:

    • Not only do Baby Boomers use laptops the most (43 percent), but they also use their tablets the most. (40 percent of all primary tablet users are Baby Boomers).
    • Over 25 percent of Millennials use a mobile device as their primary source for content
    • Gen Xers are the least active tablet users, with less than 8 percent of respondents using it as their primary device

    Device To Consume Content2. Preferred content types and lengths span all three generations

    One thing every generation agrees on is the type of content they enjoy seeing online. Our results reveal that the top four content types— blog articles, images, comments, and eBooks—are exactly the same for Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. Additional comparisons indicate:

    • The least preferred content types—flipbooks, SlideShares, webinars, and white papers—are the same across generations, too (although not in the exact same order)
    • Surprisingly, Gen Xers and Millennials list quizzes as one of their five least favorite content types

    Most Consumed Content Type

    All three generations also agree on ideal content length, around 300 words. Further analysis reveals:

    • Baby Boomers have the highest preference for articles under 200 words, at 18 percent
    • Gen Xers have a strong preference for articles over 500 words compared to other generations. Over 20 percent of respondents favor long-form articles, while only 15 percent of Baby Boomers and Millennials share the same sentiment.
    • Gen Xers also prefer short articles the least, with less than 10 percent preferring articles under 200 words

    Content Length PreferencesHowever, in regards to verticals or genres, where they consume their content, each generation has their own unique preference:

    • Baby Boomers have a comfortable lead in world news and politics, at 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively
    • Millennials hold a strong lead in technology, at 18 percent, while Baby Boomers come in at 10 percent in the same category
    • Gen Xers fall between Millennials and Baby Boomers in most verticals, although they have slight leads in personal finance, parenting, and healthy living
    • Although entertainment is the top genre for each generation, Millennials and Baby Boomers prefer it slightly more than than Gen Xers do

    Favorite Content Genres

    3. Facebook is the preferred content sharing platform across all three generations

    Facebook remains king in terms of content sharing, and is used by about 60 percent of respondents in each generation studied. Surprisingly, YouTube came in second, followed by Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, respectively. Additional findings:

    • Baby Boomers share on Facebook the most, edging out Millennials by only a fraction of a percent
    • Although Gen Xers use Facebook slightly less than other generations, they lead in both YouTube and Twitter, at 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively
    • Google+ is most popular with Baby Boomers, at 8 percent, nearly double that of both Gen Xers and Millennials

    Preferred Social PlatformAlthough a majority of each generation is sharing content on Facebook, the type of content they are sharing, especially visuals, varies by each age group. The oldest generation prefers more traditional content, such as images and videos. Millennials prefer newer content types, such as memes and GIFs, while Gen X predictably falls in between the two generations in all categories except SlideShares. Other findings:

    • The most popular content type for Baby Boomers is video, at 27 percent
    • Parallax is the least popular type for every generation, earning 1 percent or less in each age group
    • Millennials share memes the most, while less than 10 percent of Baby Boomers share similar content

    Most Shared Visual ContentMarketing to several generations can be challenging, given the different values and ideas that resonate with each group. With the number of online content consumers growing daily, it’s essential for marketers to understand the specific types of content that each of their audiences connect with, and align it with their content marketing strategy accordingly.

    Although there is no one-size-fits-all campaign, successful marketers can create content that multiple generations will want to share. If you feel you need more information getting started, you can review this deck of additional insights, which includes the preferred video length and weekend consuming habits of each generation discussed in this post.

    Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

    How to Learn Social Media Marketing in 2 Minutes a Day: A Free Social Media 101 Email Course

    Thursday, May 21st, 2015

    We’re quite keen to always be learning new things at Buffer—new social media strategies, new languages, new skills and experiments. And we love learning together—with each other and with you.

    One area that we’ve been fortunate to gain some knowledge and experience is with social media sharing, which can be a big one for those who are eager to get involved but not quite sure where to start.

    We’d love to help people get started with social media.

    We’d love to help with social media marketing, from square one.

    Our newest idea: A seven-day email course that you can subscribe to for a lesson each day—each one just two or three minutes to read—on the very basics of social media marketing.

    We’d love for you to join, try, and learn with us!

    Buffer email courses - Social Media 101

    Learn Social Media in 2 Minutes Per Day

    It’s been so fun sharing social media content with you all here at the Buffer blog and learning what might be most valuable for you.

    We’ve put together our best tips for getting started with social media.

    7 emails, 7 days, 7 short lessons about all the basics of social media marketing.

    Each email is a two- or three-minute read at most (with some easy options to dive deeper into full blog posts and resources).

    You can sign up for the Social Media 101 course for free and send the link along to friends, coworkers, or clients.

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    The email course is free for everyone. If you’re a current Buffer user (thanks!), you can go there to sign up now. If you’re not yet a Buffer user, we’d love to have you join us, too.

    Subscribe for free.

    Seven days of social media: What you’ll receive

    We’d love to give you a peek at what this course covers. Here’s an overview of the seven emails sent in seven days.

    1. How to choose a social network
    2. How to customize your social media profile
    3. Establishing a voice and tone for your social media posts
    4. The ideal time and frequency to post on social media
    5. Social media analytics
    6. How to schedule, engage, and listen on social media
    7. A free social media marketing kit

    A sample email: What to expect

    We count it as quite the privilege to be invited to your inbox, and we’d love to give you as much info as necessary to help you choose whether this email course is right for you. Sometimes, it’s quite nice to get a sample of what you might be subscribing for.

    Here’s a look at the email for Day Six of the Social Media 101 course.

    Email Courses example

    Full transcript: 

    Reading time: 2 minutes

    So many social media channels. So little time.

    This is one of the chief improvements we aim to tackle with the way we experiment with workflows and strategies.

    We’d love to get the most out of the time we spend on social media. Our best tip for doing so is to schedule your posts and to work in batches. 

    There are so many different social media platforms. You can and should post the same content on each platform, but it takes a long time! Plus, the content needs to be customized for each platform.

    You could go to each site, one-by-one and post each update, pulling away from what you may be currently doing in order to post at the best time — a double whammy on your time and productivity!

    Scheduling is the secret weapon for consistent, excellent sharing, day after day.

    Tools like Buffer allow you to create all the content and updates that you want to, all at once, and then place everything into a queue to be sent out according to whatever schedule you choose.

    One thing that goes hand-in-hand with scheduling is engagement – jumping into the social media channel directly to interact and share with the audience.

    Engagement is a great balance for automation.

    When people talk to you, talk back. Set aside time during your day to followup with conversations that are happening on social media. These are conversations with potential customers, references, friends, and colleagues. They’re too important to ignore.

    One way to stay up on all the conversations that are happening around you and your company is to create a system for listening. Tools likeMention will send you an alert every time you’re mentioned online, and you can rely on custom searches and email alerts for mentions on specific networks, too.

    Further reading: What’s the best way to spend 30 minutes of your time on social media?

    These are the next-level tips that the social media pros use! If you’ve made it this far, you’re rocking your social media strategy. :)


    Today’s action item: Sign up for a social media management tool. Create mention alerts via email or Mention.

    Tomorrow’s email: A free social media marketing kit!


    Grateful to be sharing with you!

    We’re excited to try out this new experiment with email courses and to provide as much value as possible to you and your team.

    button

    Is there anything we can do to make this course a  more worthwhile experience for you? 

    Add any thoughts to the comments here, or feel free to email me directly also. I’d love to hear your ideas. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to be sharing with you!

    Image sources: Pablo, IconFinder, UnSplash

    The post How to Learn Social Media Marketing in 2 Minutes a Day: A Free Social Media 101 Email Course appeared first on Social.

    Social Media Growth: The 5 Simple Strategies That Grew Our Social Traffic by 350%

    Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

    When I joined Hubstaff a few months ago to spearhead the growth of the company, I noticed we weren’t utilizing the full potential of Buffer.

    In order to increase our social media growth and take full advantage of this tool, we developed a few strategies that resulted in overwhelming success. The engagement teams at Hubstaff began to use Buffer to share engaging content at optimal times and frequencies based on real data.

    Our results? After implementing these strategies, we gained 350% more blog traffic, earned more brand awareness, received better customer interaction and ultimately got a massive increase in conversions.

    You can implement these same simple strategies in your business to boost your social media growth and gain more customers. Here are the 5 strategies that helped us with massive social media growth:

    How-we-used-buffer-to-boost-our-traffic2-1024x576

    Strategy 1: Create a long-tail strategy for your social posts

    This is one of the first and most important strategies I began with. If you only share your blog posts on social media once, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities.

    For example, if we shared our January blog posts when they were published and then forgot about them, we wouldn’t reach audience members who just started following our social media profiles in March. You’re also missing out on reaching the bulk of your existing followers.

    A long-tail strategy for social media is when you distribute your evergreen posts across a few months, sharing with different frequencies on different social networks.

    Pay special attention to the frequency of shares, since it will determine the impact of your blog post and there are different rules for different social media channels.

    For example, you could Tweet about the same blog article two to three times in the same week, then keep the same frequency for the next two months using different post titles. The same is not possible with LinkedIn or Facebook. With Facebook’s changing algorithm, we post a maximum of thrice a day—the same goes for LinkedIn.

    The Coschedule team has done a great job of creating a WordPress plug-in that helps you in creating a schedule for your social media posts. It also integrates with Buffer so you can schedule posts directly from there.

    To get an idea of what a good social sharing schedule is, take a look at this chart. It makes a great starting point if you’re just beginning to determine your optimal post frequency.

    social media posting schedule

    Strategy 2: Determine best times to post

    I cannot emphasize this step enough. After putting a long tail strategy into place, I analyzed which times of the day were best to share and optimized our posting schedule to correspond with the most engaging hours.

    I came across a Buffer feature called Optimal Timing Tool that helps you identify the best times to share your content on social media. Optimal Scheduling is easy and accurate. Just select your social media account and input the number of times you’d like to post.

    Optimal-Scheduling

    Once you’ve done that, the tool will instantly create a chart that shows your optimal posting times.

    Optimal-Schedule-Post-Buffer

    As you can see in the chart above, the tool automatically calculated five optimal posting times based on the history of our tweets. At a glance, I can tell that our best tweets should be shared approximately at 9 p.m. daily, since that is when we have the most engagement. This is how we created our Twitter posting schedule with Buffer.

    Scheduling-Buffer

    The great thing about Buffer is you don’t have to stay connected all day to share posts at different times. It only takes 15 minutes to set up your entire social sharing schedule for a month. Hubstaff was so satisfied with Buffer that we upgraded our account to their Awesome plan. It only costs $10 a month and gives you more space to store posts.

    (Also cool: Buffer has an open revenue dashboard, which inspired us to release Hubstaff’s public revenue dashboard as well.)

    Strategy 3: Write titles and content your followers are interested in

    A free and effective tool that you can use to analyze tweets is Twitonomy. This tool identifies the tweets that got the most favorites and retweets. It also finds what time they were posted and what content was in them so you can get a general idea of when and what to post.

    Twitonomy-Most-Retweets-and-Favorites

    There are three key takeaways for the information we received from Twitonomy:

    1. As indicated by Buffer’s Optimal Scheduling Tool, Hubstaff’s followers are the most active and engaging from 7 to 10 p.m. EST. (The timestamps of the tweets above are in Indian Time—our whole team works remotely from across the world!)
    2. Our posts on startups and remote teams are getting more social following than other topics (maybe we should adjust our focus).
    3. Lists and guides are popular titles among our followers.

    These key points helped me modify our social sharing strategy and influenced a shift in content focus on our blog homepage.

    Hubstaff-Blog

    Strategy 4: Re-style your blog title content on social

    Once we began posting our blog posts multiple times, as part of our long-tail strategy, it was important to make each post uniquely engaging and exciting.

    Here are a few ideas on how you can restyle a social media post featuring the same blog article;

    1. “Did you read our recent post on <blog title>?”
    2. Quote an interesting or controversial line from the blog.
    3. “Our hottest read from last month; <blog title>”
    4. Show numbers and figures. Ex. “This strategy helped us gain X% growth” or “How we gained X customers.”
    5. State the facts. Ex. “Did you know that X% of teams across the United States don’t have…”

    The main focus is to put effort into each of your statuses, instead of just posting the blog title and a link. Spending just a little more time on your posts can go a long way for social media growth. The more people who like and share your posts, the larger your audience and the further your reach gets.

    CoSchedule has written a brilliant post on promoting your blog posts via social media and I’ve personally taken a few ideas from there to make our social sharing strategy work.

    Strategy 5: Reach out to the people mentioned in your articles

    An outreach strategy is extremely important and effective. It helps boost your posts’ reach and expand your audience. We experienced this recently when I shared one of our articles on our must-read time management blogs on Twitter.

    This was our reach when I didn’t tag any of the people featured in the article.

    twitter-AR-1

    I tweeted the same article later that day. This time I tagged one of the bloggers mentioned in the article. Her retweet helped us achieve a total reach of…

    twitter-AR-2

    A simple change made a huge difference, and helped multiply our reach by more than 10x.

    The results: More traffic, more shares, more conversions

    After implementing these strategies, we earned more traffic and brand awareness, received better customer interaction and ultimately got a massive increase in conversions.

    We did an analysis of the data a month after we started implementing the strategies. This is our blog traffic solely from our social media strategy:

    Google Analytics:

    GA-Final-Social

    You’ll notice that we had a 350% increase in our social media traffic from February 2015!

    Additionally, our articles are also being shared more and we are seeing much higher conversions. Here is a comparison of our results before and after implementing our strategies.

    social-compare-2-1024x537

    It has only been a few weeks since we started, yet we saw immediate results in our social media growth. I will be sharing more updates over the next few months on the Hubstaff blog.

    I hope these tips help make your business’ social media sharing strategy more effective—they worked for Hubstaff! Have you used any new strategies to increase your social reach? Let’s hear them in the comments!

    This article originally appeared on the Hubstaff blog. It is reprinted here with permission from Hubstaff because of the great value we think it brings to the Buffer community! 

    The post Social Media Growth: The 5 Simple Strategies That Grew Our Social Traffic by 350% appeared first on Social.