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Influencer Marketing for Solopreneurs by @DONNAAMOS

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by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Word of mouth marketing is still a powerful method for a single reason: it works. Consumers trust the word of other authentic consumers about what they have bought and used or services they have enjoyed. Influencer marketing is based on this fact. And because the average online user suffers through approximately 3,000 brand messages each day, people don’t trust brands. They know brands are out to sell them something.

Influencers are not just celebrities, whom people are trusting less and less. They can be anyone who has earned a certain authority in some area. They are open to trying new things relating to their area of expertise, they share an honest appraisal, and they are motivated to serve the public. Because of this, they have earned the right to be heard and believed.

Why Influencer Marketing?

I remember my father driving into town and doing business on a handshake with people he knew. Because they had an established relationship, he knew he could trust them. He also told me of the businesses in town that could not be trusted, and why. I grew up learning an important lesson: only do business with people you can trust.

Trust is still an important factor in marketing and sales, even more now in the realm of digital marketing. I cannot see and shake hands with the person I’m doing business with; I have to take the word of what is printed on his or her website. So, I really don’t know who I’m doing business with; I and most people don’t like that.

But grasp this important statistic: 70% of millennial consumers are influenced to purchase by recommendations of their peers. Enter Influencer Marketing. An influencer is a person who has worked to gain the trust of a large audience. They are viewed by their followers as a trusted peer, and they have tremendous persuasive power. Their word can be trusted.

Is influencer marketing really a thing? Can this method of marketing really work? Absolutely. Imforza reports that “86% of the most-watched videos on YouTube about beauty were made by influencers, compared to a mere 14% from brands.” This is just in a single industry. Where brands focus on promoting why you need their stuff, even if you don’t, a trusted influencer will allegedly tell you the truth about a product or service and leave the decision-making up to you.

The Best Influencers for Solopreneurs

Now as a solopreneur, it is not likely that you can convince a celebrity influencer or popular author to review and recommend your business; nor could you probably afford their fees. Solopreneurs can still benefit from influencer marketing. But we must choose a level of influencer that will reach our target audience and fit our marketing budget.

For example, you may benefit from a local influencer if your business is primarily targeting a local audience. This could even be a popular TV personality, radio personality, or some such person whom the public trusts. Sometimes, the influencer may have a local TV or radio program of their own where your business could be featured if you meet their standards and criteria.

Some authority figures are on a level where they could reach your target audience, but not be so influential as to demand a national audience and a corresponding astronomical fee. Some authors fit this bill, as would hometown sports heroes or favorite sons. These will also usually have a strong social media following, which is an added benefit if your audience is not limited to a certain locale.

Micro-influencers have a social media following around 10,000, which is large enough to have influence, but small enough to be within a solopreneur’s reach. You can do some research on Instagram and/or YouTube for influencers in your particular niche and quickly locate some on this level.

How to Select and Engage the Right Influencer for Your Solopreneur Business

As you research micro-influencers or local influencers, try to determine if they have supported solopreneurs in the past. Some may have a proclivity for solopreneur businesses and this can help you make a connection. Also, some may be against solopreneurs, and so knowing this and steering clear of them will save you time.

Ask yourself some questions when choosing the right influencer to approach:

  • Are their followers the right audience for my business?
  • Is there high engagement between the influencer and their followers?
  • Does the influencer have enough followers to be worth my efforts (minimum 5,000 and maximum 10,000)?
  • What are some other businesses they have endorsed? Do I approve or disapprove?
  • Do I find them honorable, trustworthy, and yet informative and entertaining?
  • Can I trust them to give an honest appraisal and represent my business well?

Here are some suggested actions to engage with influencers:

  1. Start by interacting on social media so they can get to know about you. If they are not responsive to comments on their posts, find another influencer who engages better with his or her audience.
  2. Be genuine with your engagement. Follow them on social media channels, like their posts, and offer intelligent comments. Share their posts, videos, and other content. Look for common ground in their content that you can talk about in your responses.
  3. Give before you take. Share a popular piece of their content on your own media channels or in an article. Drop them a personal email to let them know and express appreciation for the information in their material. Share genuine appreciation for their work and influence. Good influencers that you want to work with will have worked hard to earn their reputation, and they will appreciate you recognizing that fact.
  4. After establishing a relationship of mutual respect in this manner, formally approach them and ask about their influencer relationships and how you might apply. Be sure to express respect for their opinion and efforts.

Solopreneurs can profit from a relationship with the right influencer, or influencers. Just be sure to take the appropriate amount of time establishing a relationship of mutual respect before making an offer or request. A minimum of six months of researching and cultivating an influencer should give you an idea if the time is right.

Are you a solopreneur who already benefits from influencer marketing? How did you get started? How did you choose the right influencer for your business? Share your counsel and suggestions in the comments below!

 

5 Productivity Tips for Busy Solopreneurs by @DONNAAMOS

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by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

First of all, let me correct the title of this article. “Busy solopreneurs” is completely redundant. If you’re a solopreneur who is not busy, the word to better describe you is BANKRUPT. The very word solopreneur means“entrepreneur who does it all.” But we all know that solopreneurs can use help with increasing productivity and efficiency.

The fact is, no one can do it all. Even solopreneurs need help. You may be the solitary person responsible for everything in your business, but that does not mean that must perform every task. In fact, that is a sure prescription for burnout and failure.

So, in your few free moments to read and invest in YOU, here are five tips to help you be more productive without robbing you of even more time for personal needs.

 

Set Priorities

It’s important to take time each day to prioritize tasks. Rate each task by its due date and level of importance. Then, arrange them in descending order of importance for each day. Now you can focus on completing each task one at a time. There is a distinct pleasure in checking completed tasks off your list.

Studies reveal that multitasking reduces your productivity. Besides, multitasking really just means switching your attention between tasks, which increases the risk of making errors and slows you down as you realign your thinking to each task.

Determine when you are the most productive, and schedule important tasks for those blocks of time. During each block, focus on one very specific task and ignore everything else. For example, if you’re most productive in the mornings, use that time for creative work and save responding to emails for the afternoon.

 

Schedule Tasks

Following a schedule makes efficient use of your time. Schedule business hours and work diligently during those hours. Schedule everything, including working times and breaks. Appoint mundane tasks to be completed at the same time each day, and save your best hours for creative client work.

This is different from simply blocking out hours of the day for certain types of work, discussed above. This is setting your regular working schedule for every week. Of course, sometimes projects demand overtime or weekends; that is inevitable. But with a regular schedule in place, if something demands overtime, you can more easily charge overtime costs for the extra time you work outside your normal working schedule.

 

Use Tools

There are tools and apps for everything, and a wise solopreneur will make full use of them. Consider utilizing efficiency and budgeting software to cut down on end-of-the-month tasks. Download a scheduling app to use with your working schedule. Join it to an organization tool and input your daily task list to stay on track throughout the day. Apps like this cut out paper lists that can be lost, and will even provide timers and reminders.

Your particular industry will determine what tools and apps will best help you with productivity. Keep that in mind. Just because everyone loves a certain tool doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Software and apps that help you write better are popular, but if you don’t create copy in your business, why do you need it?

 

Delegate Tasks

As a solopreneur, you’re likely accustomed to doing everything. But there are probably some tasks that you don’t enjoy, perhaps even absolutely loathe. Like bookkeeping, or transcribing interviews, or writing sales emails. Don’t be afraid to delegate those tasks to someone else, even another solopreneur with skills in those areas.

You can increase productivity by focusing on your strengths and delegating other tasks to people who possess strengths in those areas. This doesn’t have to be a paid gig. Sometimes, family or others around you would be happy to help out just to learn about your business or help you out. Besides, you can always review the work (and you should) to ensure it meets your quality and accuracy requirements. There are also options for finding a marketing apprenticeship like GenMwhere you can pay $150 for three months and get help for up to 10 hours per week.

 

Schedule Time for You

Solopreneurs can easily work themselves into the ground. And no one is around to warn them about hitting the brakes. So, this is your warning. Just like you schedule time for working hours and completing certain tasks, schedule time for you. If you don’t schedule it like a business appointment or task, you will allow something else (like a business appointment or task) to bump it from your schedule.

Eat healthy foods and incorporate exercise into your daily activities. Make sure you get adequate sleep. Take the time out to rest and rejuvenate. Schedule exercise, meal, and vision breaks into your daily routine. Scheduling time for yourself (and taking it) is the best way to honor your business and your clients. If you do, you’ll be able to give the business your all and even more when it demands it.

Schedule and invest in a vacation away from work demands, if possible. Pay into a vacation fund as if it were an actual monthly expense. Get away from where you normally work and relax, eat out, have fun, and celebrate your solopreneur freedom and accomplishments. If you plan ahead for a vacation, budgeting finances and time for it in advance, you can do it.

If for some reason you cannot get away from work, at least travel to a relaxing destination and work from there. In your off hours, you can still eat great food, visit beautiful places, and engage in relaxing or fun activities. Even working from an exotic or fun location can be invigorating and refreshing, just the thing a busy solopreneur needs.

What are the best productivity hacks that work for you? Share them with our readers in the comments below!

Top 10 Apps Solopreneurs Need by @DONNAAMOS

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Top 10 Apps Solopreneurs Need

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Solopreneurs enjoy countless benefits, but one of their struggles is handling every aspect of their business themselves. managing appointments, paying bills, creating proposals, sorting out taxes, following up with leads, and managing stress. Thankfully, there are numerous business apps available, many of them with free versions, to help busy solopreneurs. Here’s a list of 10 that we recommend.

Assistant.to

Just because you are a solopreneur doesn’t mean you want to do every single task for yourself. You may have to, but you sometimes don’t want it that way. Assistant.to is like a personal secretary that sets up your appointments by working with your email recipient, automatically adjusting time zones and even rescheduling meetings if something comes up.

Calm

Calm is the #1 app for meditation and mindfulness. Enjoy 100+ guided meditations to help you manage anxiety, lower stress and sleep better. Have trouble sleeping the try their Sleep Stories. What Solopreneur does not need to learn how to relieve their stress?

G-Suite (Google)

Half of G-Suite revolves around communication—we are talking Gmail, Google Hangouts and Google Calendar. The other half is a set of apps that will help you create and collaborate. This includes Docs (documents. Think: Word), Sheets (Spreadsheets. Think: Excel), Slide (Presentation. Think: PowerPoint), and Forms (surveying tool). All of the tools are stored together on a cloud called Google Drive.

Evernote

Evernote is the ultimate note-taking and archiving tool for collecting information, keeping it organized, and collaborating with others. Evernote is a cloud-based software service designed for creating, organizing and storing various text and media files. Whether a text document, a photo, a video, an audio file or even a web page, Evernote stores everything so you can access it on any device when needed.

Grammarly

Solopreneurs often do everything themselves, including writing their own copy for practically everything. Make sure that your text is free from typos and that you are using commas correctly usually with this handy desktop app. As you type, Grammarly checks your text for hundreds of common and advanced writing issues.

Mailchimp

Bring your audience data, marketing channels, and insights together so you can reach your goals faster. With Mailchimp, you can promote your business across email, social, landing pages, postcards, and more — all from a single platform. Populate different audiences for various uses and message them all from one platform for any reason. A free version is great for solopreneurs just getting started, with paid versions scaling up offerings.

Shake

Shake is a web and mobile app that creates legally binding agreements in seconds, which is an ideal way to create quick contracts for freelance jobs. You can also create loans, leases, sales and non-disclosure agreements, saving you time as you take on new projects.

Sighted

Sighted is an online invoicing app perfect for freelancers and solopreneurs. The free plan is perfect for a small business, offering 20 invoices per month in multiple currencies, for up to 10 clients. As the business scales, paid plans allow for unlimited invoices, expenses and 100 or more clients. All plans feature the ability to accept online payments and include a profit and loss report to make tax chores much less of a hassle.

Square

Square gives you the ability to take secure payments anywhere you are and has zero fees to get set up. The company will send interested individuals the hardware that attaches to a smart device for free and then keeps 2.75 percent of any transaction that is completed. This gives solopreneurs the ability to accept debit and credit cards from wherever they have the opportunity to make a sale.

Trello

Trello is one of the best project management tools. It works with boards and lists, and helps individuals and teams stay on top of a project from start to finish. No matter where you are, Trello stays in sync across all of your devices. Collaborate with your team anywhere, from sitting on the bus to sitting on the beach.

What are your favorite apps to simplify solopreneur tasks? Share your recommendations with our readers in the comments below.

 

Best Apps for Video Editing by @DONNAAMOS

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best videoo apps for editing

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Video is THE number one component in marketing that catches and keeps users’ attention, whether it be on your website or social media posts. And video editing apps are getting better all the time, with new releases coming all the time. Here are some suggested video editing apps for your Apple or Android smartphone for video marketing on the go!

Explore the options with each of these video editing apps, and find a link to YouTube video tutorials to show you the basics at the end of each section. Enjoy!

Enlight Videoleap – Mobile Video Editing App

http://videoleapapp.com/

Create & edit video clips on your iPhone with Enlight Videoleap! This was the App Store’s 2017 App of the Year. Discover how easy it is to get creative with video! Whether you want to make artistic Hollywood-level films or simply share memories and moments with friends, Videoleap video editor is the breakthrough video editing app just for you.

Pros will take advantage of powerful high-end editing features, while amateurs will have fun cutting and combining video clips simply, intuitively – from whenever, wherever! Users can utilize creative compositing, mix videos and images together to create double exposures and artistic looks, and choose layer-based editing – adding videos, effects, text and images. You can also customize video layers with transformation, masking, and blending modes.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabPQVdtZiE&feature=youtu.be

PhotoFox

http://www.photofoxapp.com/

The PhotoFox video editing app was awarded the prestigious Apple Design Award at the 2017 WWDC and Apple’s App of the Year for 2015 in numerous countries. Photofox introduces a new layers system that pushes the boundaries of artistic photo manipulation and redefines expectations from mobile creativity tools. Photofox brings new tools and enhances previously loved features with a layer-centric flow that gives immense power to aspiring creatives on the go.

The latest app from Lightricks strikes a balance between powerful functionality and streamlined design, creating a seamless user experience within the world’s most advanced mobile creativity software. The new application has been tailored to captivate today’s growing mobile creative community, empowering them with the tools to generate amazing visual art.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA9qmfOg5eg&feature=youtu.be

Snapseed App

https://snapseed.online/

Snapseed is a free photo editing app. It’s more powerful than Instagram, and if you have room on your smartphone or tablet, you should download Snapseed right now, even if you are a professional photographer. Snapseed is a free app available for both Android and iOS mobile devices. Take pictures on your mobile device, apply Snapseed’s filters, and share them on social media platforms.

Snapseed is a Google acquisition acquired to beef up Google’s photo capabilities. Now it’s a Google app with powerful photo-editing filters you can use on your smartphone or tablet. Some see Snapseed as a response to Instagram, but it is intended to be part of a continuing effort by Google to improve its photo-editing and to share software in general. Snapseed isn’t a desktop version of Photoshop.

Snapseed is an artist’s tool with advanced features and recommended for serious photographers, but its easy-to-use controls make it suitable for everyone who likes to play around with their images. For the pros, it’s the app you use when you want to take a while to make an advanced image.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEdQmqAG24Q&feature=youtu.be

Swish Social Video App

https://www.swishvideoapp.com/

Swish is a video maker app that gives you the ability to create and customize your own video ads in under 3 minutes. Endless combinations of specially crafted templates, stock options, color schemes and music yield high-quality results that are polished and professional. Now you can get noticed online without that expensive price tag.

Easy-to-Use Templates

Customize the template to make it your own: change the text and write your own message, pick a font and a color palette that matches your brand best, add your logo, and choose appropriate music from our extensive music library.

Quick Video Editor

Whether you choose your own clip or find a perfect match from our stock, select your favorite part of the clip and fit it to the frame within Swish – no other video editing app required!

DIY Social Media Marketing

Learn which templates work best for you, and customize them: with plenty of templates, professional color schemes and fonts to choose from, you’ll never run out of ways to make great clips. Video ads are the future – don’t get left behind.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3WJi_9HHow&feature=youtu.be

Stop Motion Studio App

https://www.cateater.com/

Stop Motion Studio. Let’s Make a Movie.

Want to create movies like Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? Stop Motion Studio helps you to create terrific stop action movies with a whole host of unique features. Like the frame-by-frame editor, the never get lost timeline and the sound editor.

Capture the perfect picture.

Capturing images has never been easier before. No matter if you choose automatic or full manual control of camera settings such as focus, exposure, ISO and white balance. Capture images in 4K or use a live green screen effect. You can also use a second device as remote camera to get a new perspective.

Use your digital camera.

Stop Motion Studio supports digital cameras from all the most popular camera makers, including Canon, Nikon and Sony. Use live view to easily control objects and movements. Control shutter speed, ISO and aperture directly from the app and take advantage of the full-size camera quality.

Desktop-class movie editing.

The unique frame-by-frame view shows you all the images you took in chronological order, much like the single frames of a movie. Cut, copy, paste, delete and insert frames at any position. Zoom in and out on the timeline view so you never get lost, even if you have hundreds of frames. Add audio clips, title, credits and filter effects. Create the movie the way you want it.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jLkl8AQIhA&feature=youtu.be

Enlight Pixaloop

https://www.pixaloopapp.com/

Your photos will never be the same! Join the living photo revolution & animate your images into mesmerizing masterpieces in seconds with Enlight Pixaloop! Enlight Pixaloop living photo creator is FREE to download, with the option to go Pro to unlock additional photo editing tools and creative features.

Enlight Pixaloop empowers you to get your photos moving for a new and mesmerizing kind of photo art! Choose any component of your photo that YOU want to come alive and capture a forever moment! Make interiors dance, be back at the beach with the sea breezes in your hair, or tease nature — reversing the direction of water to defy gravity. Pick from a lush menu of cool overlays like flames, light effects & raindrops to add mood — all in a few taps.

It creates animated photos that can bring your art to life. Any photo element: strands of hair, waves, clouds, or clothing can be animated. Pixaloop tools give you precise animation control so you can perfect your idea. Choose the speed of movement you want to create moving masterpieces: from the subtle flicker of a candle flame to Marilyn’s iconic billowing white dress to cascading waterfalls to two-way escalators.

YouTube Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0oYWuFcZCE&feature=youtu.be

Which of these video editing apps do you like the best? Do you have any tips for using them? Share your ideas and comments with our readers in the comment section below.

 

Social Selling: How to Generate Leads and Sales by @DONNAAMOS

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social selling

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Leads are life to your business. Leads are potential customers who have expressed some interest in your product or company and have provided contact information you can use to follow up with more information.

When thinking about how to generate leads on social media, consider that 76% of buyers are ready to have a conversation on social media.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of lead generation using social media specifically is the ability to focus on highly qualified leads through advanced targeting. Targeted leads are much more likely to respond to your sales pitch because the are already qualified and interested. That’s what I like to call “low hanging fruit.”

Useful Tactics for Generating Leads Through Social Media

So how do you go about using social media for lead generation? Here are some of the best ways to start filling your sales funnel with qualified leads.

Offer Links to Gated Content

Gated content is content hidden behind a virtual gate. If the content is valuable enough, interested readers will be willing to provide some basic contact information in exchange for access.

When using social media for lead generation, you can promote gated content by sharing a link to a landing page where potential readers provide their information before gaining access to the content.

Some people who click through to the landing page will click away without accessing your content—maybe they were mildly interested in the information but not so interested that they feel it’s worth sharing their contact details.

But those who are truly interested and understand that they will gain significant value are willing to overcome this minor hurdle, qualifying themselves as more than casual readers in the process. These are great qualified leads.

Run Contests

With contests, the prize has to fulfill two important criteria. First, it has to be valuable enough that people will actually be interested in entering the contest. But second, it has to be valuable specifically to the people who have the highest potential to become your customers, and not much value to anyone else.

If the prize is not valuable enough, no one will enter your contest. But if it’s so generically valuable that everyone who sees the contest will want to enter, you’ll gather loads of contact information but no qualified leads.

So, what should you offer as your contest prize? An extended trial of your product could be a good option, or an upgrade to a higher tier of your service. After all, those prizes only have value to people who are genuinely interested in using your product. If you sell physical products, you could give away some of the products themselves.

Pay-to-Play Social Media Advertising

While organic social media posts can be targeted to some extent, social media advertising takes targeting—and therefore the ability to collect leads from laser-focused groups of potential customers—to a whole new level.

Using highly specific target audiences to promote gated content is a great way to keep advertising costs low while ensuring the leads you collect meet certain desirable criteria.

Here are a few good places to begin:

Facebook lead ads

This specialized ad format offers a low-commitment, low-barrier way for potential customers to connect with your business without leaving Facebook. As with a gated content offer, the potential customer provides information in exchange for something of value. That something of value can be either digital—like a newsletter, white paper, or coupon—or something that’s delivered in real life—like a product demonstration at a brick and mortar store or a test drive.

One great advantage of Facebook lead ads over a regular gated content offer is that Facebook automatically populates the lead form with the user’s contact information, so it can take as few as two clicks or taps for a potential customer to connect. You choose how much information you need, so you can get enough information for the lead to be useful, but not ask for so much that it scares the user away.

Instagram lead ads

Since Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook lead ads can also appear on Instagram, as long as the ads meet Instagram’s design requirements. However, lead ads behave a little differently on Instagram.

Instagram can only pre-populate the lead form with email, full name, phone number, and gender. If you want to collect additional information, the user will have to type it in.

Since Instagram lead ads only appear on mobile, and it takes 40 percent longer to fill out a form on a mobile device than on a desktop, you should only request additional information if it is critical for your initial sales efforts.

LinkedIn lead gen forms

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms also make it very easy for potential customers to share their information, since they are pre-populated with details from the user’s LinkedIn profile.

Since LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking site, the pre-populated information can include work details like job title, company, and seniority, as well as education details, giving you an extremely rich set of data about each lead.

Like Facebook lead ads, LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms require no typing at all to complete, making them easy to complete even on mobile devices.

Host a Virtual Hangout, Webinar, or Live Video

There are two approaches to generating leads with live video, hangouts, and webinars. The first option is to present the video as gated content, requiring interested viewers to register in advance by providing their contact information.

The second approach is to open the video up to a wide audience and generate leads from that audience in one of two ways:

  • During the video, direct viewers to offers, contests, or other social media lead generation tools on another platform, such as a landing page on your website or a custom tab on your Facebook page.
  • Encourage live interaction by offering a reward for participation, then be sure to follow up with those who leave comments. The follow up could be as simple as directing people to resources related to their comments (including gated content), or you could encourage them to reach out to your team on social media with any further questions.

Keep in mind that the more specialized or niche your video, the fewer leads you will likely generate, but the more targeted the leads.

Better Leads Mean More Sales

Of course, the more top-quality leads you can acquire, the better your chances of making more sales. The world is on social media. If your business plans to market itself to the world, and especially to target a select audience in that world, social media is a great place to start.

How are your results with social selling? Do you depend on totally organic results or do you spend dollars on social media ads? Share your experiences with us in the comments below.

 

Marketing in 2019 and Beyond by @donnaamos

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Marketing in 2019 and Beyond

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

What does the future of marketing hold for this year and beyond? Are new trends worth following or are they simply passing fads? Marketers don’t need to pull the trigger on a trend just because it’s shiny and new. We need to make sure it’s actually the correct move for our marketing and brand. The majority of trends do fade away after a short period of time. However, when a new trend does come along, and it’s clear it’s here to stay, that is when we need to sit up and take notice.

Here are three vital aspects of marketing that businesses need to focus on in 2019 and beyond. I don’t see these as fads, but as the coming wave of marketing that marketers and companies should adopt as major parts of their marketing strategies.

Video Marketing

Ever since video marketing made its way onto the scene, its popularity continues to grow and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Marketers and consumers alike are hooked on video. Take a look at some of these video stats:

  • 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand’s video.
  • 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate.
  • 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions.
  • 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video.

The following trends in video marketing are growing, and smart marketers will get on board.

Video is Going Live

Live streaming services are growing in popularity on Facebook, Instagram, and other popular social media channels. Research indicates live streaming encourages more audience engagement and retains viewers longer than prerecorded video.

Video is Going 1:1

Given the ease of shooting videos with smartphones, marketers are discovering the value of lead nurturing and customer communications by sending personalized video messages instead of calling or sending email. Using a personalized 1:1 video is great for following-up on an inquiry, offering content, delivering support, simply saying thanks, or practically any application.

Video is Getting Search-Friendly

Artificial Intelligence and the use of closed captions are making video content more searchable. AI can transcribe the audio on tracks of video with voice recognition to make video searchable. Google even announced the addition of video previews to the video carousel that appears in search results.

Smart Audio Marketing

From a purely data-driven standpoint, we know that smart speaker shipments are up 137%. In fact, 100 million smart speakers will be sold next year. Gartner predicts that 30% of searches will be done without a screen in the next two years. In addition, 28% of smart speaker owners buy things with them.

Whether it’s Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, or Bixby, voice assistant technology powered by smartphones and/or smart speakers removes the necessity of typing, navigation, and more. It’s an incredibly natural and intuitive way to interact, connect, and work with technology. Smart audio is the technology that all brands must focus on right now.

How should marketers and businesses prepare for using smart audio in their marketing strategies? Think through the following questions as you work out how you will prepare your content and marketing methods to take advantage of smart audio technology.

  1. What will the voice of your company be like?
  2. How can you advertise so that your company is the top (or only) result when a consumer uses voice search to locate your products or services?
  3. How can you augment existing content with relevant audio?
  4. How will smart audio move beyond home assistant devices and smartphones to automobiles and even public spaces? How can you be prepared?

Social Media Marketing Focused on the Social

All too often, the social media experience has been relegated to the advertising column of most businesses. ‘Social’ is now just ‘media.’

  • Conversations gave way to broadcasting only “content.”
  • Social media became an IT function and was automated to the point of being soulless.
  • Humans with personalities and names were replaced by corporate personas and branded voices.
  • Success was measured in clicks and likes rather than relationships and loyalty.

In 2019, businesses will need to take social media marketing back from the IT department and drive a truly human-centered approach to customer relations. Social media can be a vital and effective channel, but only if it is used as it was intended:

  • Provide relevant human connections
  • Form reliable and trustworthy communication channels
  • Express shared values
  • Display human emotions like compassion, understanding, and empathy
  • Create unique and entertaining experiences
  • Demonstrate active involvement in local issues
  • Offer a dependable way to respond in a moment of customer need

It may require companies hiring a person who becomes their sole voice on social media in order to provide the truly social connection that consumers seek with the brands they choose to follow. Engagement, relationships, and quality customer service are what is needed. And the companies that return to that dynamic over social media will see success.

What do you see in the future of marketing? Share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comments below!

Social Media Trends to Watch For in 2019 by @donnaamos

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Social Media Trends

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Social media is here to stay in a big way. One of the best ways for businesses to connect with a target audience is to maintain an active presence on social media channels. The era of, “My business is open, come and see me” is long over. Now, savvy business owners know they must go where consumers are and establish a relationship. Social media is THE place to do that, easily and relatively cheaply.

Therefore, as you embark on planning your social media marketing strategy for 2019, get on board with these important trends. They either gained popularity or became firmly established during 2018, and will play a vital role in how you connect with your audience in the coming year.

A “Pay to Play” Strategy

In the early days, companies could fully expect that 16% of their followerswould see their Facebook updates. By the end of 2018, that reach had plummeted to about 6% or less. Other social media platforms have followed suit. The day or organic reach has ended. Social media platforms will not give away what they can reap a huge benefit from – your followers. Now, you must pay to play.

Now, in order to reach your target audience on any social media channel, you must invest in sponsored posts, boosted posts, and social media ads. Fortunately, social media advertising is one of the most affordable means of marketing available. If you handle your own keyword research and audience targeting, Social media marketing is much more affordable than pay-per-click advertising.

Video is the Preferred Media of Most Users

Now is the time to get on board with video marketing, if you haven’t already. According to research by Wyzowl, “97% of marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, and 76% indicated that it has helped increase web traffic and sales.”

That is easy to accept when we also realize that 95% of Internet users have watched explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, and 81% have bought a product or service as a result of watching a company’s advertising video. No other form of media can boast these high use and conversion percentages.

Video is the absolute best way for a company to put a face to their business. It enables prospects and customers to get to know who leads and works in a business. Video gives businesses an opportunity to show not only what they do but also “who” they are. In our current climate where users seek a personal connection, this is a critical factor.

The Rise of ‘Live’ Video

Live-streaming will continue to emerge as a powerful way to engage people on social media. According to statistics compiled by Go-Globe, two-thirds of all internet traffic in 2017 was streaming video. By 2020, 82% of internet traffic is expected to be video content. And most of that will be live streaming. The interactivity of live video makes it a powerful tool for marketers to engage with their audience and strengthen the relationship between a brand and its followers.

The authenticity of ‘going live’ is a key factor that audiences want, as it helps build trust and loyalty with your company. Even if problems arise when you are ‘live,’ followers are likely to understand that and it may even further strengthen their trust in your company, as only authentic content leaves room for genuine mistakes.

Quality Long-Form Content

Word count isn’t everything when it comes to ranking high on search engines like Google, but SEO experts agree that long-form content can give you an edge. Users and search engines alike want to see high-quality content of more than 1,000 words, and we see that such content consistently outranks articles with 500 words.

Therefore, more publishers are requiring writers to submit articles over 1,000 or 1,200 words, and more company blogs are beginning to embrace similar long-form content. These comprehensive articles that are rich with information and insight, will go far to both attract readers and give Google and other search engines a reason to rank them more favorably.

Building Community

Building a community in social can help you to build trust with your followers. Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook are being encouraged on both platforms. And once you begin building that following you have to immerse yourself and be engaged.

Using hashtags in Twitter and Instagram can help you to find conversations that your community are having and allow you to join in.

Communities can also help to segment your audiences and customize your messaging. By the way, building community is the perfect way to build your personal brand and can be the beginning of influencer marketing!

Personal Branding

Particularly for small businesses, putting a real, human face to a brand name helps to build loyalty. A brand that’s more relatable, and has the human element, naturally garners more trust, and trust is essential for building relationships. Many companies have used the tactic of promoting their brand by promoting the business owner.

His or her face essentially becomes the brand, closely associated with the company logo. He or she personifies all that the company is about, or at least what they wish to portray. By enabling your audiences to get to know the character and expertise of company leadership, your business can strengthen its brand reputation.

What other important social media trends do you see emerging for 2019? Share your thoughts and insights with our readers in the comments below.

How the LinkedIn Algorithm Works by @donnaamos

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linkedin algorithm

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

When you visit LinkedIn or the LinkedIn app, you see your homepage feed. This page acts very much like the Facebook feed, where you see updates from your friends or Pages you follow. However, your LinkedIn feed does not show every post from your entire network. It only shows content that LinkedIn judges to be relevant to you. You can, of course, use the setting at the top right of the page to see posts based on recent activity instead of relevance. 

That’s because LinkedIn has implemented a process for content distribution across its network that utilizes four filters, in order to reduce spam and/or inappropriate content. If you include LinkedIn in your content marketing strategy, you need to understand how the LinkedIn algorithm filters your posts and chooses whether to show them or not. 

Filter #1 Quality Level

Every time you post any type of content, the LinkedIn algorithm judges it to be spam, low quality, or quality. In a blog post describing the strategies used to keep the newsfeed relevant, Director of Engineering, Rushi Bhatt explained: “Our online and nearline classifiers label every image, text, or long form post as “spam,” “low-quality,” or “clear” in near real time.

Filter #2: Level of Engagement 

If your content passed the initial round, it appears in the LinkedIn feed temporarily. This is when the LinkedIn algorithm watches and measures the amount and types of audience engagement your post earns. If your post is gaining likes, comments, and shares, you will likely pass this stage. However, there is no definitive number of likes, shares, or comments that determine a pass or fail. 

Filter #3: Your (and your Content’s) Credibility 

At this third filter, the LinkedIn algorithm will look beyond the content of your post and more at who you are to determine if your post should keep showing up in user feeds. According to Hootsuite, “This stage is also when the algorithm decides whether to ‘demote’ your content, sending it backwards in the queue for another chance at winning credibility. 

If your post looks ‘suspicious,’ but the algorithm doesn’t want to make a definitive call on it (giving you the benefit of the doubt), it will remain in the feed but not show very highly or very frequently.” Basically, LinkedIn looks at you and your network to determine whether or not this is a spam post and whether your network will find it valuable. 

Filter #4: Human Editors

It is at this point that human LinkedIn editors take a first look at your content. Up until now, only a small batch of people have been allowed to see and interact with your post. Most of the other determinations are made by LinkedIn algorithm bots that are preprogrammed to search for unpublicized factors. 

At this point, editors review your post to determine whether it should keep showing, if it should be included in a particular channel, or whether they can derive any takeaways from it for future algorithm tweaks and product development. As long as it keeps getting engagement, your post stays in the mix, continuing its algorithmic journey through the feed.

Here is a great infographic that details how the LinkedIn algorithm works. 

How to Optimize Your Posts for LinkedIn 

Follow these three tips to optimize your posts around the LinkedIn algorithm. 

  1. Create Great Content– Vary between text, images, videos, tips, opinions, quotes, and simple sharing links to other great content. Be sure all your content is optimized for mobile users, since about 60% of LinkedIn users access the platform on their phones.  
  2. Leverage the LinkedIn Bias– Since LinkedIn is a more professional-leaning social network, you should focus your posts around topics that LinkedIn admits a bias toward: 
    1. Career Helps
    1. Industry Relevance 
    1. Credible and Trustworthy Sources 
  3. Grow Your Network– A large network of followers spells credibility on LinkedIn, so use these tips to expand your network in 2019: 
  4. Ask all your employees to follow your company and set it as their workplace on their profiles.
  5. Follow influential people in your industry who are prominent on LinkedIn.
  6. Join and participate in relevant groups, sharing your content when appropriate.
  7. Comment on content relevant to your industry.
  8. Set up links to your LinkedIn page on your company website and careers page to encourage more relevant follows.
  9. Mention people when you post something and they’ll like or share if you’ve named them in your post. 

What are some other suggestions you have for optimizing your content to take full advantage of the LinkedIn algorithm and get your posts viewed? We’d love to hear your suggestions or ideas in the comments below. 

Tools to Help You Find Content That Will Engage Your Readers by @donnaamos

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Content that engages

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Successful content marketing involves producing quality content that your readers want to read. If the most well-written piece you could possibly produce doesn’t resonate with your audience, it’s useless. While simply writing on topics relevant to your business niche seems adequate, it is really like shooting in the dark. You need to be writing on topics that relate to your business, but they must also be topics that your audience currently finds interesting.

To discover this, you must listen to your audience and see what interests them at the present time. What current topic is all the rage? What current event relating to your business or industry is causing a stir? Sometimes called news hijacking, this practice of following trending news is a great way to cash in on trending topics to attract readers and connections.

What I am NOT advocating is simply writing what everyone else is writing. Your content must still be fresh, original, and useful to your readers. That doesn’t come from parroting the same lines as everyone else. But you can discover trending or popular topics and write about them from your viewpoint, or demonstrate how your business or product can impact the conversation.

There are some great tools available that can make harvesting topics much easier for you. I’ll briefly highlight each one and provide some simple suggestions for how to use them effectively.

Solopreneur Connect

Solopreneur Connect is a great social media listening tool. It can help you listen to conversations that relate to your business or industry niche. You can read conversations on what your target audience needs and their problems. Solopreneur Connect can show you what interests your audience by allowing you to search for relevant keywords in conversations on different social media platforms.

To set up Hootsuite for listening to conversations:

  • Sign in to your Solopreneur Connect account.
  • Click on ‘search.’ You will see an option to setup –  keyword search.
  • Click on ‘Keywords’ and type as many keywords as you want to use. Type in one at a time and click on add after each.
  • You can then add a location if you want to do so.

Solopreneur Connect’s comprehensive social listening tools empower marketers to execute brand monitoring and analyze social data for marketing insights. Gather introspective, contextual insights to topics, hashtags and influencers relative to your mentions to find new and incremental marketing opportunities.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is another tool that allows you to know what your audience is currently sharing. For example, I typed “writing” into the tool. The free version only allows users to see what is most popular by shares over the past year. The result was a piece about whether or not to use only one space after sentences from the Washington Post. Since May 2018 it has had 349.9k shares across all platforms. Pretty popular.

The paid membership allows for much more versatility, including what is currently being shared about your chosen keywords, even on each social media platform. It would be worth the cost, considering the other features included, to use this one tool to analyze what is currently being discussed in your industry niche.

Google Alerts

Another tool you can use is the Google alert tool. It is very useful. You can set alerts for your keywords and when such keywords come up, you will receive notifications in your email inbox.

For example, if you are in the writing niche and you want to know what is trending, you can create an alert for it using Google alert like this:

  • Type http://www.google.com/alerts into your browser
  • Log in with your Google account
  • Enter the keywords you want to monitor separated by commas
  • Click on options
  • Select how often you want to receive the alert. (choosing “as it happens” keeps you constantly updated)
  • Select the sources i.e. news, video, blog, etc. (selecting automatic covers all the sources)
  • Select the language, choose the region, and choose the number of results
  • Select the email where your alerts will be delivered
  • Click on create

Pretty soon, you will start receiving alerts in your inbox.

Answer the Public

With Answer the Public you enter the keyword you are interested in and it will return the phrases that actual users are typing into Google and Bing. The how, what, where, when, can, are, etc. If you know exactly what is being searched for you can provide the solutions that are being searched for. It’s perhaps one of the best but most underutilized sources of research for content ideas. Until now…

Now that you have some great tools to help, you can harvest topics and set priorities for writing content that resonates with your audience. This content will drive users to your site, and to your business.

What other audience listening tools do you like to use? Share them in the comments below.

Why Write a Book for Your Business? by @donnaamos

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write a book

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Everyone seems to be writing a book these days. Moreover, every business consultant seems to be advising business owners of every type and industry to write a book. Is there really a need for more books about your industry expertise? Maybe not, but there is a need for YOUR book.

Books are no longer about information. Books are the new business card, an effective marketing tool, and your ticket into the higher leagues of credibility. Heck, books can even boost your website SEO. Books have become a valuable tool to grow your business prospects, value, and revenue.

Why write a book for your business? A book gains you the kind of attention that takes your business and personal credibility to new levels. Here’s how that works.

A Book Gives You Authority and Credibility

Writing a book on any subject establishes you as an authority on that subject. This gives you credibility in the eyes of the unpublished world. Only expert-level practitioners have the knowledge, experience, and savior faire to author their own book showcasing their expertise. In many ways, being the author of a book says more about you than a college degree. How many idiots skimp by at the bottom and graduate with a degree? If you write a book, you’d better know what you’re talking about.

Your book demonstrates that you have what it takes to complete the project. You can commit to something and follow through. You get things done. Hard things that are truly worthwhile and helpful to many people. Not only do you possess knowledge and expertise, you have risen from ordinary worker to a teacher of others. Your accomplishments are worth passing on to others, so they, in turn, can learn to become a success.

A Book Raises Your Visibility

Who are you? And how would I know anything about you? Unless I have availed myself of your products or services, I wouldn’t. You may have a name among your local clients or fellow businesses, but probably little beyond. Until you author a book that provides lasting value to readers concerning your chosen topic.

Then, you become that expert _________________ who wrote a great book on the subject. Now, people everywhere are aware of who you are and what you have accomplished. And this visibility creates even more visibility. When a media outlet wants a comment on something, who do they go to? The expert, right? And how do they know someone is an expert? Because they wrote a helpful book on the subject that people are finding useful.

Media interviews and articles, talk shows, podcasts, lecture halls, boardrooms, special events, and the list goes on. Popular media hosts never say, “My next guest just posted a cat video.” But how often do you hear, “My next guest has just published a new book that readers are finding supremely helpful when it comes to…” A book is the key that unlocks access to a wider audience.

A Book Helps People Find You

Everyone knows the largest search engine on the planet is Google. Most people know the second largest is YouTube. But do you know the third largest search engine? Amazon. As a matter of fact, Amazon is the number one search engine when shopping for products and services. Approximately 44 percent of all searches for consumer goods begin on the Amazon website.

When consumers want the best, they search for who “wrote the book” on the topic. Or at least who wrote a book. Who knows more about a topic than someone who authored a popular book on the subject? A book is a great marketing tool to build your brand and attract new clients.

Your Amazon book page also provides quality backlinks to your website. Your book has its own page on Amazon, which should definitely be linked to your company website. This tells Google algorithms that your site has a bit more authority than others, boosting your SEO.

A Book Creates New Revenue Streams

In business, they key to continued viability is creating multiple streams of revenue. Or as my grandfather used to say, never put all your eggs in one basket. What happens when one of your products or services becomes outdated or surpassed by newer, better techniques? Does your business take a hit financially? Yes; but if there are multiple sources of revenue, the hit can be more easily absorbed. That one product was not your solitary source of income.

A book can do this in several ways. You can, of course, make money from the sale of your books. How much and how often depends on many different factors. Nevertheless, selling a book that provides helpful information in your industry niche can earn you some money. Obviously, the more well-known you are as an expert in your field, the more books you are likely to sell. For most business owners writing a book for their business, don’t count on making large returns from selling your book.

What a book can open up is the opportunity for a new revenue stream. A book can lead to a podcast, which can be leveraged into a monetized communication forum for your industry. Your book led you to begin a podcast, and you grew that into a money-making venture in addition to your book and business. It happens more often than you may realize.

The book gains you recognition and authority in your field, and that can lead to speaking engagements, seminars, and even your own line of training courses, live or online. The book has opened the door, giving you access to more opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in different settings to people who are glad to pay for what you know.

The Sky is the Limit

Men and women everywhere are writing books for their business and using them to open up new opportunities for growth. Even if you are not an author, there are legitimate avenues you can pursue to help you produce a book with your name on the cover. Resources abound for learning how to write, or for getting your knowledge and ideas into print.

Why not take advantage of this powerful medium and boost your credibility, authority, visibility, and profitability? What was that? Your new book is coming out when?