Tag Archives: social media optimization

5 ways to make your content social media friendly

Why it is important for your content to get social media visibility?

Take for example Facebook. There are more than 2.45 billion monthly active users over there. On daily basis, 1.62 million people use Facebook actively. 7 in 10 US adults use Facebook (source). 89% marketers use Facebook for brand marketing (source).

LinkedIn has more than 575 million users and 260 million monthly active users (source).

On an average, people spend 3 hours on social media and social networking websites. 54% consumers use social media to research products before buying (source).

Many social networking companies, including Facebook, are taking measures that when people switch on their phones, they log into Facebook in the beginning itself so that whatever activities they carry out, they do them within the Facebook ecosystem.

I’m not saying I endorse such developments, but it shows that an increasing number of people might be doing most of their activities, including communication, newsgathering, product evaluation and buying and selling, within social networking ecosystems.

Advertising and PPC campaigns are always an option, but you can increase your reach by writing and publishing social media friendly content on a regular basis. Interactive posting of content, especially created by brands and businesses themselves, get more attention from social media users compared to advertisements.

For a very long time I have been thinking of dabbling with infographics.

I recently tried to work with a neighborhood graphic designer but although she is good at using image manipulation tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, she was terribly lacking on the creative side.

We were working on a project and I had to tell her practically everything.

The only blessing was that whatever I told her she was able to accomplish it.

Anyway, this is the infographic that I have created titled 5 ways to make your content social media friendly. It isn’t much but it’s definitely a beginning.

The five ways are:

Create compelling headlines: Your headlines are, as far as optimizing your content for social media goes, the most important aspects of your content.Compelling in this context means they should invoke strong feelings, so strong that people should be driven to share your content on their timelines.
Publish irresistible content: In my daughter’s social sciences book there is a headline that goes something like this, “one man’s garbage is another’s treasure”.It is about the garbage collectors who make money off the garbage we throw away so thoughtlessly.
So what is irresistible and what is not, depends on individual need, but catering to your niche, create content that is highly useful and valuable.

It should solve some purpose and this is why people will share your content.

When sharing your content people must feel that they are doing a service to their friends and followers.

Always think: why would people share what you’re writing?
Use social buttons: It’s easier to share content when you just have to click a button.I like the way you can share certain portions of blog posts and articles published on Medium.
The relevant, share-worthy portions have a Twitter icon nearby. You just need to click the icon to broadcast that particular sentence.
Use social optimization tags: These tags normally reside in the header area of your web page.In a typical web page there are already title, description and keywords tags.
You can also have dedicated tags for Facebook and Twitter to instruct various social media and social networking channels to automatically pick up customized headings and descriptions rather than using the default ones.

If you are using WordPress to manage your website or blog, you can easily get plug-ins to achieve this.
Choose publishing time carefully: You will need some time to figure out during what time of the day your target audience is most active on social media and social networking websites.Publish your content when there is greatest chance of it being noticed and shared.
Publish different content for different social media platforms: Content consumption on different platforms have different patterns.Content that is suitable for LinkedIn may not be suitable for Facebook and content that is suitable for Facebook may not be suitable for Twitter. Repeated testing will tell you which type of content in your industry performs better on which social media platform.

20 Evergreen Characteristics of Quality Content

What are the main characteristics of quality content?

Quality content should be able to achieve the following for you:

Improve your search engine rankings for the correct search intent.
Help your prospective customers and clients make the right decision.
Encourage people to visit your website more than once.
Give people enough reason to stay on your website.
Help people find the right information that can solve their problem.

In this blog post I will cover

What are the chief characteristics of quality content?
How do you define quality when writing content?
What makes your quality content Evergreen?

I personally believe that when a client pays me to write content for him or her, he or she assumes (or at least I assume that he or she assumes) that I’m going to give my best shot.

What is this the best shot?

When my client publishes the content written by me on his or her website, it must achieve the following:

Improve conversion rate.
Give appropriate information to the visitors.
Increase engagement levels.
People stay on the website longer.
Improve search engine rankings.

These are given. The client doesn’t even have to tell me that the above-mentioned need to be achieved.

I don’t need to remind myself that the above-mentioned need to be achieved.

There are no ifs and buts.

Content quality for SEO is as important as content quality for conversion rate.

For me, these traits, or these achievements, define quality content writing.

So, if you ask me, what are the characteristics of quality content or quality content writing, I’m going to point you to the above achievements.

Is there a quality content definition?

The definition may differ from person to person or content writer to content writer.

For some, the only thing that matters is the search engine rankings.

Some want to be famous on social media websites.

Some hard-core salespeople want to write a tightly-knit sales copy.

Quality content contains all of these characteristics.

A business needs all these things to use content as a highly productive business tool.

One of the main characteristics of quality content is also that it is evergreen.

Yes, technicalities may change but the fundamentals remain the same.

For example, for better search engine rankings, you must keep the needs of your visitors first.

This is the fundamental characteristic: people have a problem, and you present a solution to them.

No matter what algorithmic changes Google makes, the ultimate aim is to find the right information according to search intent.

As long as your content helps Google achieve that, you are publishing quality content that is timeless.

Evergreen characteristics of quality content never go out of fashion

Why I call these characteristics evergreen is because they never change, because inherent qualities in people, in behavior, even the nature of sub-atomic entities, remain the same throughout the ages.

There is a reason why philosophers like Aristotle, Socrates and Panini are still read and admired.

Philosophers like Panini created Evergreen quality content that is ageless.

Their teachings never go out of fashion.

The same is true for the chief characteristics of quality content.

These are the fundamentals.

These fundamentals are not just applicable to writing content, they are applicable to every aspect of your life.

These are like the gospel truths.

The 20 of these characteristics of quality content are listed below.

1. Quality content is relevant to the target audience

Content written for a particular audience always performs better than content written for pretty much everybody.

Write targeted content for a single person or persona.

For example, if on my website I write about all sorts of writing including poetry, fiction, sci-fi, eroticism, horror, and whatever, it will become a portal of sorts.

There will be no target audience.

For a business it doesn’t work that way.

Your content needs to be relevant to a specified audience and only then it can make an impact.

Hence, although I talk about writing on this blog, I’m primarily talking about content writing, especially writing quality content for those who have business websites.

Why quality content is important for a business website?

According to the characteristics mentioned above, quality content must improve your search engine rankings.

It must engage your audience in a manner that people want to do business with you.

2. The writing must be professional

Now what does professional mean?

The language should be decent
There should be no spelling mistakes
There should be no grammar mistakes
Industry-specific language must be used
A consistent style guide must be followed
The text must be arranged under appropriate headlines and sub-headlines
Shorter facts must be arranged in bullets

3. Focus on a single topic

One of the most important evergreen characteristics of quality content is its level of focus.

Are you writing about a single topic or are you trying to handle multiple topics in a single article or blog post?

Try to keep your content as focused as possible.

4. It should be written in scannable format

Scannable format means your content should be readable without having to read the entire body text.

Even if someone quickly goes through the headlines, sub-headlines and bulleted points, he or she should be able to get the gist of what you’re trying to say.

This is not to discourage detailed writing, it just makes sense to make it convenient for those who don’t have enough time to go through the entire thing.

5. Highlight the benefits of the product or service being promoted

Quality content writing highlights the benefits.

What are benefits people going to derive from your product or service?

If you want to hire my content writing services, how am I going to benefit you?

Very few people hire me for my writing style.

As mentioned above, the chief characteristics of quality content are:

It should inform your visitors.
It should reduce your bounce rate.
It should improve your search engine rankings.

These are the benefits. How I achieve these, I can explain in various blog posts and webpages.

But these are the main characteristics when I say I provide quality content writing services.

Ultimately, your business must grow due to my content writing services.

A cool writing style is of no help if I’m not able to grow your business.

People are interested in knowing what they are going to get rather than how great your business offering is.

6. Encourage the desired action among your visitors

What should people do once they are on your website?

Should they fill up your query form?

Should they subscribe to your newsletter?

Should they download your e-book or catalog?

Should they buy one of the products listed in your online catalog?

Whatever you want them to do on your website, you should write your content accordingly.

7. Include valid data and statistics

Use data and statistics to make your content writing authoritative.

People always find numbers reassuring.

How many people in the previous month have used your product or service?

What are the worldwide trends?

How are your competitors doing?

Among all your customers last month, how many of them saw a marked improvement in the concerned aspect of their lives (in whichever manner your product or service is meant to affect them)?

When you mention exact facts, people feel more reassured.

8. Whenever possible, write in the first person

You strike a personal chord when you write in the first person.

This is an evergreen characteristic of quality writing writers have been following through ages.

Personal accounts are always fascinating.

“I had this problem and this is how I solved it” always sounds better than “Peter had this problem and this is how he solved it”.

Also use “This is the problem that you have and this is how you’re going to solve it” rather than “This is the problem Peter has and this is how he is going to solve it.”

9. Quality content is available in preferred format

Although I’m a content writer and my sole focus is on writing, not everybody is crazy about the written word.

These days I post lots of small videos on Twitter and LinkedIn explaining various aspects of content writing and SEO copywriting.

My engagement levels have increased ever since I have started posting small videos accompanying my blog updates.

Maybe your target audience prefers videos?

Pinterest has proved that there is a great demand for images.

Some prefer slideshows and some prefer animations.

You should know which format of content your audience prefers and then create your content accordingly.

10. Quality content changes perceptions

When you convince people into believing in what you believe in, you are changing perceptions.

People come to your website with a certain set of ideas.

But when they access your content, when they read it, you change their way of thinking or at least you influence their way of thinking.

This is what quality content must achieve.

If it is not changing perceptions, people are not going to come to your website and buy your stuff.

11. Encourages people to engage with you and vice-versa

Engaging people in a constructive dialogue is the best way to make an imprint in their minds.

People will remember you more if you engage them, if you ask them questions, if you provide them answers and even when you seek answers from them.

The ability to engage people gives your content an evergreen characteristic of quality.

How is your content considered engaging?

It encourages people to stay on your website or blog longer.
People feel like reaching out to you.
They are prompted to explore other parts of your website or blog.
They share your content through their social media profiles and mobile apps.
They leave comments.
They “like” your social media updates.

12. It’s okay to have a mix of original, curated and aggregated content

Good characteristics of quality content don’t just involve original content.

Don’t have enough time to write?

You can always curate content.

You can routinely aggregate high-quality content from other websites or blogs.

But don’t simply copy/paste that content.

Even if it is just one paragraph, add your own take on it.

In fact there is no use regurgitating quality content that already exists on other websites and blogs.

13. Quality content involves a consistent publishing schedule

Although, frankly, this has less to do with writing and more to do with content marketing, still, the evergreen aspect of your content is more sustainable if you follow a consistent publishing schedule.

If for the next five months you are going to publish a blog post every day, then do so.

If you feel that on certain days you’re going to be busier compared to the other days, you can schedule publishing in advance, but make sure you publish every day.

Similarly, if you want to publish every Wednesday, then make sure that your blog post or article appears on Wednesday.

This is because after a while people begin to expect hearing from you, even unconsciously.

14. Write content around a persona

It is very important to know for whom you are writing.

It gives you a clear idea of what problems to solve in the present piece of content.

Once you know the persona of your reader, you will be able to decide whether

You want to use formal or informal language
You want to follow a personal or a professional approach
You should use industry-specific terms or not
You should focus on facts or rhetoric

For example, if you are writing content for a product that caters to teachers and academicians your writing must be flawless, appropriate and must adhere to the proper usage of words and expressions.

On the other hand, if you are writing for a product that caters to youngsters you can use the hip-hop expressions used by them, worrying less about the accuracy of language.

15. Storytelling is one of the most prevalent evergreen characteristics of quality writing

Improve the quality of your writing through storytelling.

Storytelling creates a context.

It dramatizes that context so that you can visually imagine it and if possible, apply it to your own circumstances.

A story lays bare the problems, tribulations and challenges faced by a person and then how either he or she solves those problems or the problems are solved by your product or service.

Through storytelling, instead of directly telling people to buy your product or service, you present them with a reason.

16. Keep your content constantly refreshed

Keep your content fresh through regular writing.

Outdated, stale content fails to attract people.

Just as it is important to constantly create new content, you also need to keep your existing content fresh.

Quality writing also involves rewriting your existing content to bring it at par with contemporary trends and developments.

17. Quality content is search engine optimized

Quality content writing improves your search engine rankings.

Although quality content is by default search engine optimized, in case the thought hasn’t crossed your mind, don’t ignore this aspect.

When you are publish quality content, why do you publish it?

It is because you want people to benefit from it.

How do people benefit from it?

They benefit from it by accessing it.

A search engine like Google is a great way to find good content.

Even if people don’t actively look for great content, chief characteristics of quality content ensure that Google Discover can find your content.

You may like to read How to optimize your content for Google Discover.

Make sure your content is searchable and written according to Google’s guidelines.

It will make it easier for people to make use of your content and you will also get new customers and clients.

18. Quality content is social media optimized

Millions of content updates are shared on social media and social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Do social media users find your content attractive enough to share?

Is it possible to share your content on social media and social and networking websites easily?

Content that is optimized for social media websites should ideally be topical because people normally share content around a current topic.

Take care of the following in order to make your content social media optimized

Keep shorter page or blog post titles so that they can be easily shared on Twitter that allows just 280 characters.
When you are writing blog posts, articles and webpages use quality images. Images often accompany your update, attracting more eyeballs.
Focus on different formats for different social media channels, for example, you can create attractive and interesting graphics for Pinterest, informative slides for Slideshare and captivating videos for YouTube.

19. Entertainment is an evergreen characteristic of quality content that never loses its value

Does your content entertain?

People love to be entertained.

But what is entertainment?

An avid reader may find reading Nabokov or Camus entertaining.

Some find popular soap operas on television entertaining.

Kids love to hear stories from their elders.

Not only funny articles and essays are entertaining.

Try to find out what would be entertaining to your audience and create your content accordingly.

You don’t always have to entertain, but whenever you can, do that.

20. Show your love and consideration for causes

Your business doesn’t exist in isolation.

It will always function within the circumstantial parameters of the world around you or even across the globe since we are all connected these days.

When you associate your content with a cause whether it is about saving the environment or the polar bears or fighting for the education and health of the underprivileged, people will appreciate it.

Get involved with the causes and then write about them. Or simply create content to raise awareness about your favorite causes.

Please keep in mind that what I have listed above are the “evergreen characteristics” of quality content, I haven’t written about creating evergreen quality content, that would be a totally different topic.

If someone wants to know what the characteristics of quality content are or what are the chief characteristics of quality content, this blog post will help.

How to optimize your content for Facebook’s Paper newsfeed app

Managing Your Social Network: Dos and Don’ts

9 Replies

This is a guest post from Carrie Oakley.

Social profiles are more the norm than the anomaly today; most people have more than one because they don’t want to miss out on anything happening in social media. However, not everyone who’s online knows how to maximize the use of their social profiles and minimize the damage that they can cause; they sign up and start doing what everyone else is doing without realizing that information that goes online stays online for eternity and renders your life an open book and your privacy a thing of the past. There are no written rules or laws to use social networks, except of course that you don’t abuse or spam other people (you risk getting your account blocked). However, in order to protect yourself and prevent strangers from gaining access to your information, here are a few dos and don’ts to manage your personal social networks.

Do’s

Protect your profile adequately; this means you need to separate your friends into groups – family, close friends, and just acquaintances. Allow each group different levels of access; for example, your close friends can see all of your profile; your family is allowed access to your photographs and personal contact information; your acquaintances can see only relevant updates and information; and those not on your list of friends cannot see anything beyond your name and sex. Facebook has many privacy settings that you can use to protect your data from being used against you, so utilize them effectively.
Keep monitoring updates from Facebook – there have been times when your privacy settings have reverted back to the “default” settings that Facebook deemed appropriate enough. Most options were opt-out instead of opt-in; so check your privacy settings every now and then to ensure that people can see only what you want them to see.
Delete friends who are abusive and intrusive – you don’t have to inform them, and they will not know until they explicitly try to write on your wall or see your profile.
Report as spam anyone who harasses you or forces you to friend them.

Don’ts

Accept friend requests from people you don’t know – even if they’re friends of your friends, it’s not wise to put them on your list unless you know them personally.
Do not Put up photos that are not appropriate for public viewing; they could come back to bite your butt if potential employers use them to discriminate against you in a job interview.
Don’t say anything you don’t want the world to know – status updates and comments on your friends’ updates are public and could come back to haunt you if you’re not careful.
Send out friend requests to all and sundry; ask politely, and if people ignore your request, don’t keep asking again and again.
Intrude into the lives of people you hardly know; they may have accepted your friend request just to be polite, but if you see that they’ve blocked you from seeing their wall and photos, leave quietly instead of calling them out on it.
Waste time playing games and checking out new applications all day – social networks could get addictive, so restrict the time you spend on them to an hour or less every day.
Use social networks to spy on your spouse or significant other; in fact, it’s not wise to friend them in the first place – you may be married, but they deserve their space just as you do. If you get too snoopy and start questioning their every post or comment, your relationship could be in danger.

Social networks are supposed to make our relationships stronger and easier, not destroy them through nosiness and jealousy; bear this in mind when you sign on to use one.

The connection between content, strategy and social media

2 Replies

These days having targeted content alone doesn’t help you much. You have to approach it from different directions. There was a time when you could attract targeted traffic by simply having good content on your website or blog. Now you need a strategy and while formulating the strategy you have to keep in mind how you want yourself represented on social media and networking websites.

Combine content and strategy and they give you good search engine traffic and add social media and the combination gives you fruitful engagement with your prospective customers and clients. As mentioned in my earlier post the days of one-directional marketing are over. Now you have to engage people in conversations. It is no use having conversations just like any other person because then you become just like any other person. You need to become an authority figure. People should be able to trust you and trust your judgment. You become an authority figure by continuously sharing your knowledge and wisdom with your friends and followers and visitors. You can do this on your blog and through your social media and networking profiles/pages. When you give unconditionally people trust you. This trust is your capital.

So when you are creating your content strategy you also need to simultaneously create your social media strategy because they are interrelated. By the strength of your content you can build your social media presence and through a credible social media presence you can engage your prospective customers and clients and once you are able to engage them positively they do business with you more eagerly and they have no problem recommending your business to their friends, family and colleagues.

Developing a content strategy

In order to develop a content strategy you must realize what you want to achieve through your content. Identify your audience and identify what that audience is actually looking for. You don’t have to provide exactly that but initially you need the traction so be tactful. You have to be attractive enough to your core audience. As a ground work you must

Identify your core audience
Develop a dos and don’ts policy for publishing content
Create a list of your primary, secondary and ancillary keywords
Decide whether you want longer or shorter articles/blog posts/web pages
Decide whether you will be generating content in-house or by outsourcing
Develop metrics to continuously analyze the effectiveness of your content
Develop long-term evaluation policies

A well-defined content strategy helps you focus better and consolidate your content publishing effort. Since you will be investing money and effort into producing content you have to be particular about exactly what sort of content you want on your website or blog. A list of dos and don’ts helps you keep distractions at bay. Keywords will help you increase your search engine rankings, although you should put more stress on the relevancy of your content rather than the keywords but they definitely help you create more targeted content.

The choice of longer and shorter articles may also affect how well your content performs. You will need to decide whether your audience wants longer web pages or shorter. Here is a nice analysis of the benefits of long and short articles by usability expert Jakob Nielsen. It is an old article but it is still relevant.

Routine analysis keeps you on the right path. Before launching your content strategy you must clearly define where you currently are and where you want to go. Analysis helps you gauge whether you are moving towards your destination or not and you can then make changes accordingly.

Content strategy and social media

People are constantly curating content on social media and networking websites and then talking about that. They find an interesting link, post it on their profile and then their friends and followers comment on it. Their friends and followers may also share the posted content with their own friends and followers and this is how your content may go viral. The more relevant and useful your content is the better exposure it gets on social media and networking websites.

But it is more than that. It is not simply about posting your content. Your content gives you an authoritative presence but you have to strike up conversations with people. Seek feedback and provide answers. Express doubts and show disagreement wherever necessary. The underlying idea is keep the conversation going by seeding new thoughts. This is where your content helps. If you just seed thoughts without backing them with authoritative text people soon begin to lose interest. They need something to read and ponder upon.

Your content begins to make an impact when it encourages people to have conversations. When it stimulates it creates impressions. When they also begin to find your content on search engines the bonding strengthens.

Stay tuned, I will write more on this.