ThinkGeek.com is an awesome site that is filled with all kinds of wonderful geek toys, accessories, clothing, and much more. Every day they seem to add some awesome new Doctor Who gadget or have an incredible new Star Trek shirt to purchase. ThinkGeek.com makes many geeks lose all of their hard-earned cash quickly. How do they do this? Is it because they sell awesomely geeky items or is it because their content strategy is as awesome of Boba Fett’s silent stare?
Let’s take a moment to look at a few of ThinkGeek’s finer content moments and see how this can inspire your content strategies.
Step 1: Write For Your Clients. ThinkGeek takes writing for their clients very seriously. They know that if they don’t write in a laid back and fun way they will lose a significant part of their audience. Their product descriptions are deliciously geeky and are absolutely perfect for geeks looking to score a Han Solo Carbonite rug. They stay relevant with their writing and content strategy, which makes every geek within reaching distance of wireless or 4G and their iPhones, ready to purchase “all the things!” They employ many masters of sassiness, which works incredibly well for their brand and client base.
Here is an example of the Han Solo Carbonite rug product description:
Step 2: It’s All Fun and Games! One of ThinkGeek’s most popular attributes is their April Fools extravaganza where they create hilarious products that sound almost too good to be true. They can convince even their most staunch supporters with products that aren’t real, making us all desperately wish they were. In fact, they poll their shoppers about these items for future product creations. Sharing content that your clients like and keeping it fun are great ways to make your content go viral, as well as keep a dedicated fan base. We aren’t saying to go all out on April Fool’s Day like ThinkGeek, but you can sure implement fun strategies into your content!
Step 3: Connect with Buyers. One big thing that ThinkGeek does regularly is engaging with their customer base. They will re-tweet items when customers mention them or will respond if someone asks a question. This has been an incredible way to have wonderful customer service. They have become experts at using social media as a way to touch base with customers, making all shoppers feel appreciated. They even follow HootSuite’s tips on engaging customers and will take random polls throughout the week. They do all of that while also responding to clients and promoting items for sale in the shop.
Let’s Split from this Landing Party Like A Red Shirt!
It’s time to take the lessons you have learned from ThinkGeek and begin considering ways to craft content to engage your customer base. Other great places to garner different types of inspiration are Apple and Scholastic Books. For a more professional place to gain inspiration, you can look to big corporations like Accenture (they have some really nifty, interactive ads in several airports). Find something that inspires you; take a look at your favorite film publishing company or your favorite food chain. You will find inspiration somewhere and everywhere, all you have to do is open your eyes.
The sky is the limit when it comes to analyzing all the new tools and channels that are launched on the market on a regular basis to make things a whole lot easier for today’s marketers. Google+ has recently given us a new reason to get excited. Earlier this month, Google+ has announced that its innovative +Post Ads will become available to big brands counting on Google+ pages with more than 1 million followers. Should this new opportunity be received with great enthusiasm by marketers and deep-pocketed clients or is it just a new method to throw some solid cash down the drain? Let’s find out.
What Are These New +Post Ads and Why Do They Matter?
Google+ is currently listed as one of the 5th largest, most influential social media platforms of this moment. Apparently, for Google this is not good enough. However, on ever-changing online markets there is always room for improvements and Google is fully aware of this fact. Its new +Post Ads is an extremely valuable tool for big brands that want to improve their online presence, broaden their horizons, expand their reach or simply consolidate their position in their niche. Basically, +Post Ads gives you the chance to promote any kind of post that you could publish on your Google+ brand page in front of a larger audience, by relying on third-party websites that broadcast your marketing message.
Google+ Takes the Art of Content Sharing to a Whole New Level
Of course, these partnerships work to your best advantage and boost your online visibility. By promoting your content on premium sources of information, you instantly draw attention to your brand and the announcement that you plan to make public. Whether you are bragging about your new line of products, a brand-new service or a hot discount campaign designed to improve customer loyalty, +Post Ads will enable you to amplify your most engaging content that a larger audience may be interested in. The best part is that this program gives you the chance to decide where you actually want to distribute your messages. According to Forbes, marketers who will use the +Post Ads program to display their ad will be able to control the places where their posts will be shown.
…Can It Get Better?
How much better can it get? Actually, things get a little more interesting. You should also know that all the shared posts are 100% interactive. This means that visitors who land on the third-party website that is showing your ad can actually post a common right on the article hosted by your collaborator. If and when readers like your post and resonate with it, they can share it via their very own Google+ accounts. Some of the biggest brands that we all know and love, like Toyota for instance, have already tested +Post Ads and seem to be pleased with the end results.
Could Post Ads Make You Throw Money Out the Window?
All in all, one question still remains unanswered: could +Post Ads be your best friend or your most feared foe? Truth be told, this new program could burn holes in your pockets, if you don’t know how to use it wisely. Content is king, and proper distribution is its powerful queen. But it goes without saying that poor content won’t get you very far. It may land in all the right places, but if it doesn’t make your clients laugh, giggle, sigh, rub their hands together in anticipation and swipe their credit cards, your content is a mere waste of money and no distribution strategies could change this fact.
If you want to explore the full potential of some of the most influential social media platforms, you cannot afford to ignore G+ (Google Plus), with its ever-growing popularity or its plentitude of amazing marketing opportunities. Facebook and Twitter may be trending these days, but keep in mind that they aren’t the only channels that you should focus on when it comes to creating and applying a successful set of off-page SEO strategies.
Why Use G+?
As a matter of fact, according to a Moz blog on how to use Google+ for SEO, Facebook and Twitter actually stop Google from accessing and utilizing a great percentage of their data. On the other hand, G+ doesn’t keep any secrets. This is only one good reason why you should work around the clock to boost your Google Plus optimization efforts as soon as possible.
How to Make the Most of Google Plus in Less than 10 Minutes
Obviously, workingaround the clock is a metaphor. According to the SEO experts from Moz, you don’t need to invest more than 10 minutes in your Google Plus optimization strategies on a daily basis. The key is to create healthy, productive habits that could soon become a part of your daily routine. In a matter of a few minutes you can:
a) add a +1 button to your website, to encourage your visitors to recommend your posts on Google Search, while also distributing it on Google Plus. The good news is that the +1 button is 100% customizable, so you can change the load technique and the size of the button and make it meet your actual needs. b) comment, re-share and engage c) circle amazing people who share similar interest d) make it easier for influential individuals to circle you e) start a hangout or create an event
Creating a Winning Strategy for Google Plus in 5 Easy Steps
1)Optimize Your Profile and Profit from Limitless Editing Power. Start by optimizing your Google Plus profile. This means that you have to complete all fields (profile image, website URL, business details and so on). All in all, your profile should be a mirror of your interests, capabilities, goals, vision, mission and purpose in business. Getting your Google Plus page verified by the mighty Google also helps, since it allows you to build credibility and trust. You should know that Google Plus allows you to erase and rewind. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, this platform offers you the chance to profit from limitless editing power. Therefore, you can go back to your old posts and fully edit them, anytime, anywhere.
2)Make Sure Your G Plus Title Tags Are Optimized. The very first sentence of your G plus posts becomes a part of your title tag; therefore it can impact your rankings and maximize your click-through rates. Opt for the most relevant keywords and note that the title is the first thing that people analyze before reading your post. Your title tags should be short (around 65-75 characters), compelling and concise.
3)Get in Touch with Influencers. Be sociable and always give people something to talk about. Make new connections. Add new people to your circle; ask other users to add you to their circle, share a post with a few influencers, tag them in a photo, mention them in posts, start meaningful conversations, invite them to an event and so on; just make sure you don’t cross the line. Strangers who are a tad too friendly on Google Plus are often cataloged as spammers and get banned till the end of times.
4)Count on a Killer Author Pic. Cyrus Shepard from Moz has conducted an experiment with his Google Plus profile pic. The results were amazing and predictable to some extent: in a world in which looks are extremely important, your profile pic says a lot about you and your competencies. A perfect (real), professional-looking picture of yourself taken in a very flattering light can boost your website traffic.
5)Stay Active. Whatever you do, do something. Inactivity is one of the capital sins when it comes to social media marketing strategies. You don’t want to be one of the many inactive users that have a Google Plus account, but refuse to put it to good use for one reason or another. Give your readers at least one good reason to use the 1 button. According to Business2Community, you can accomplish this goal by simply:
Posting quality content on a regular basis
Creating and updating content based on the needs, interests and expectations of your audience
Connecting Google Plus to your website and all your social extensions
Last, but definitely not least, don’t forget to connect your web content to your Google Plus profile via Google Authorship. This is the simplest method to reaffirm your authority, increase your influence and enable readers to identify your content in no time.
The World’s Largest Webinar happened last Wednesday (#WLW14). Hosted by Hubspot, it featured three awesome leaders from today’s most powerful online platforms: Hubspot, Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter. We at Express Writers were a part of the lucky 34,000 who attended. Our exclusive recap blog features our notes from the webinar.
During the webinar, Russ, Twitter’s speaker, spoke about some ingenious ways to get more mileage out of your web content. He basically described content as if you have “fundamental” pieces like blogs, ebooks, etc. These can be cut up and delivered in bite size pieces to your social media audience and go a LONG way.
How Do You Repurpose Web Content?
It’s pretty simple, really. It may seem a little daunting at first, but you will find yourself getting more bite size pieces of content quicker than ever before. In the following section, we will talk about the different ways in which you can repurpose your content and get more mileage out of one simple post! How nifty is that?
1. Use Your Email Campaigns. This is often a lost gold mine of information. Russ, Twitter speaker at #WLW14, shared some awesome tips regarding using email campaigns for Twitter. You might not realize it, but those emails can produce some amazing Twitter content! Here are a few ways you can use your email content in this fashion:
Cut Up That Newsletter. Instead of telling people to click the link and read a longer blog, give them small pieces of information from your newsletter. You can fashion this by saying, “did you know?” or giving other information that your client base will appreciate.
Send Out Tips All Day. An important aspect with Twitter is consistent interaction. Once a tweet has been made, it will be seen for a few minutes before being lost in the myriad of other tweets. Tweet out tips from your long newsletter or blog post. Those bullet points you love so dearly will help a lot when doing this!
Always remember TL;DR (Too long; didn’t read) when it comes to content and Twitter. The Twitter universe relies on short tidbits of info, not long drawn out opinions or news.
2. Cut Up E-Books Into Blogs. Give your blog copywriters your ebook — they can easily use that as fodder for more than 5-15 blogs, depending on the length and the topic areas covered in your company ebooks. The sub-sections of an ebook will make excellent blog postings and each post can end by encouraging people to pick up your ebook to learn more.
3. Re-share Older Blogs. SocialMediaToday often retweets blogs published on their site over a week ago. They re-purpose the blog by tweeting it many days after it was published. Consider doing this for your “older” blogs. In Internet-land, a few days old is very old and a week old blog is ancient. If you want to make sure your readers read a specific blog or blogs, retweet, retweet, retweet!
4. For Your Social Media, Get Someone Who Can Speak Social. It’s not easy to write those one-liners that go viral on Twitter – being concise, short and still impactful can be more difficult for some brains. A social media manager is a great investment. That is, someone who knows how to copy write for your social media. For example, a person can take your old blogs and give them a fresh new one-liner for a short Twitter message. These one-liners are what will bring in the Millennials and the Millennials are who will bring in the business for many companies.
5. Create a SlideShare. Many people love slideshows. It gives them the ability to learn bits of information at their speed and is always divided up nicely. This is a great way to highlight the most important parts of your content. This ensures that your readers will read what you want them to. Just make sure you don’t over share on a slide show. Professors did this to us in university and we all hated it, so don’t make their mistake.
6. Make a Whitepaper Post Out of Your Content. Do you want higher-ups to take notice of a content piece your company has published? Craft a Whitepaper. This may be a chance for you to hire a professional, but creating a Whitepaper for your business is a great way to publish content in a more professional setting. It will get you noticed from professional entities and they are more apt to take your company seriously if the content isn’t in blog format.
7. Turn that Long-winded Post Into A Handy Infographic. The Internet really has a hard time sticking with long posts, as we stated above. Millennials use that annoying semi-colon phrase (TL;DR) but it holds a lot of weight when it comes to constructing great online content. Infographics are very popular with many in the web community and are great if you are aiming to get your content viral, according to Quicksprout.com. Don’t worry, you can still write up that long-winded post! Infographics serve as a chance for you to highlight key points that readers might miss if they are reading the long version. These are easier to read for many people and you’ll find those people want more, in-depth information after reading one. (This is where that long-winded post comes in handy.)
8. Lights, Camera, Action: Make A Blog Post A Video Post! Video blogs and posts are all the rage right now. This is a chance to put a face and voice to the business. Videos make readers feel like they are getting a different, more personal experience when they see someone from your company sharing information via video blog (also known as a vlog). You can write up a script from your blog or select a specific aspect of your blog to define. A great example of this is Mashable’s blog series on the Heartbleed bug that affected a huge portion of the Internet. They wrote various articles on different aspects of the bug and attached a video at the bottom discussing what the bug was. This helped readers learn what the bug was without having to search through hundreds of articles. It is important to have someone who is comfortable being in front of the camera and speaking without notes. It needs to come across as natural. If you are afraid of the camera, don’t put yourself in front of it. Ask other employees or hire someone – an awkward presentation will chase viewers away pretty quickly.
9. Podcasts Are The Future. These handy audio tools are great for commuters or those who work data entry jobs. Many listen to a wide selection of podcasts and always look for new ones to learn about different topics. Some non-science folks find themselves listening to science podcasts while non-literature folks find themselves listening to literature podcasts. Podcasts vary in length and are generally broken up into a multi-week series. This will work perfectly to repurpose your blog post or article. Talk about one point in one podcast and unpack it with further detail than made available in your blog. For example, if we were to do a podcast on this topic, we would do one session focusing on the first, and possibly, second points and expound on them and then the following week we would do points three and four and so on. This will engage your reader base and provide some excellent, sharable resources. The same rule from point eight applies to this point, as well. Get someone who is comfortable talking into a microphone and being recorded. The less awkward the person sounds, the better.
10. Share Your Knowledge: Provide A Webinar. Webinars are excellent ways to repurpose your content and teach information to others. These are done in a class format and are easily viewed at any time. You can break your content down and share it in teachable moments. Use this as a way to share information with others in your field and help their knowledge base grow. This works particularly well for librarians or those who can’t travel to conferences. They are able to learn about one specific topic and focus on implementing that into their daily work. Webinars can also be done in a live format where you can have viewers ask questions and can interact with your client base. It is recommended that you field questions instead of letting them appear live without being checked. You never know when someone is going to play a little prank!
11. Don’t Leave the Leftovers To Rot. Don’t throw out those clips and snippets you took out of your video for the sake of length. Don’t let them gather dust and grow moldy. Utilize those leftovers. C.S. Lewis said that you could always tell the quality of a writer’s content by how full the wastebasket is; what he didn’t say is that “waste” can actually be put to good use. If you are unsure of how to use the leftovers, call a professional in and have them create different content from them. Put it in an infographic, in a slideshow; use it in a Whitepaper post, or as a point in your next blog post. The only time you need to leave content in the wastebasket is if it is really stinky, but you can usually find someone who can freshen it up.
12. Repurpose Your Content While You Are Still Writing It. While you are writing up your long content, how about Tweeting out a few tidbits or trying out smaller bits to see how well they work. This will help you see if the content you are crafting will work and if it doesn’t, you can change before making the huge commitment of writing it all and then publishing. This can save you a lot of time if you find you have to change your approach to your content strategy.
13. Take That Blog Post and Format It Every Which Way. Seriously, don’t ignore any format – you’ve got to catch them all! Every format will bring in a different type of reader and viewer. If you focus on one form of content only, you will only bring in a select few – you don’t want this. You want a diverse reader and client base because diversity will grow your business. Hubspot discusses the importance of using multiple formats for your content and points out that you will generate more leads for your company, therefore, increasing sales. If you find yourself struggling to adapt your content into multiple formats, ask others in your company if they are skilled with a particular format. You can also hire professionals to do things such as videos or making infographics. The money you put into multiple formats will be worth it. People love variety; the more you mix it up the better.
14. Stop Yakking About Yourself, Write About Others. Repurposing your own content might get a bit droll; consider having guest bloggers on your site and repurposing their material. You can utilize their writings for your site in other formats and can generate new leads if the person redirects their readers to your site. You can also gain inspiration from your competitors and repurpose lessons you’ve learned from them. However, we will say that if you repurpose something a competitor has done, it is important that you do so without plagiarizing. Plagiarism is awful, often illegal, always unethical, and you need to avoid it. If you find yourself plagiarizing your competition too much, scrap it.
15. Make It Pin-able. Pinterest is a social network that seems to be on the sideline of all the social network excitement, but it is becoming quite the contender in the social media marketing world. This is a great opportunity for you to not only reach out to a new demographic but to begin a marketing strategy many of your competitors aren’t thinking about yet. Craft your content into a pin-able format such as an infographic or photograph with a quote from your blog. By doing this, you can link the pin to your website so that pinners are able to follow the link to the source material. You can also set up your content in a format that allows people to do crafts, do a DIY project with your product or that promotes your product, and also gives them life hacks for basic every day projects. Pinterest is an easy way to share all of these on “boards” and doesn’t take up a whole Facebook feed. Go take a look at Pinterest and the way some companies are using it to see how your company can benefit from this social media format.
16. Cheesy Photo – Simple One-liner. We’ve all seen those cheesy stock photos with a quote over them and while we all joke about them, we like them. We also know that others like them and will share them. This is a great opportunity for you to highlight poignant quotes from your blog and create a shareable format this is easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. This is a great way to cover your content on multiple sites and repurpose it for those multiple sites. If you don’t want to keep using stock photos, hire a photographer or take your own photos. Just make sure they are eye-catching; this is the only way these photos and quotes stand out on Facebook.
How Does Repurposing Content Benefit You?
The simple answer is that repurposing content saves you time spent on crafting content. Yes, you want to stay fresh but staying fresh does not mean publishing consistently new content. You can stay fresh with your content by reusing it in different formats and those “old” blogs can still be relevant in the “future.”
Here are a few ways repurposing your content will benefit your company:
1. It is Excellent For Your SEO Strategy. This is a simple concept to grasp. You utilized certain SEO practices with your original content and repurposing it gives you a chance to utilize those practices again. Repurposing will improve Google’s view of you and will bump your rankings right on up.
2. You Reach A Wider Audience. As we’ve said, repurposing brings in a lot of different clientele for your business, which is important to business growth. All of these different formats are difficult to maintain but repurposing your original content into the different formats will save you time and bring in a diverse reader base.
3. Repurposing Will Retain Clients and Generate New Leads. By repurposing your content, you are able to publish great content while also spending time by building relationships with your customers. Customers that have a relationship with a company will stay with that company for a long time. In addition, the consistent updates of repurposed content will generate buzz and bring in new readers and clients.
Did you hear that the world’s first online platform designed to fight Internet fraud will soon be implemented in China? The new project marks the collaboration between the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and Quihoo 360, a well-known provider of Internet security solutions and anti-virus software. This is a unique attempt to reduce the number of people who become the victims of skilled scammers who rely on viruses to conduct fraudulent activities. According to the Economist, China’s reputation has constantly been affected by major online fraud scandals; therefore its intention to put an end to Internet-based illicit activities is justifiable.
How Does the New Scammer Trap Work?
Fanzhapian.360.cn is the anti-fraud platform that will be accessed by users who will want to report a fraud. Net users are asked to file a complaint as soon as they stumble across a dubious situation that could expose them to a fraudulent action. Every single complaint will be verified by representatives from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. If the accusations are true, officials employed by this institution will take matters into their own hands by alerting all Net users and signaling the danger. The end goal is to identify and discourage scamming groups, by forcing them to invest much more money in viruses that would have to be updated regularly.
All in all, this seems to be a good plan, created to target websites sending fake advertisements and spreading viruses to deceive users and make them fall into their traps. Moreover, China seems determined to reinforce Internet supervision. At this point, this nation plans to go against websites displaying sexual advertisements via pop-up windows. The circular released by National Office against Pornographic and Illegal Publications reveals that all forms of pornographic web content, including photos, text and videos will be removed in the near future.
Why Is China So Determined to Improve Internet Supervision?
In this context, one question seems to be on everybody’s lips: is this radical decision good or bad? In other words, how does this measure impact everyday people who are surfing the Internet to stay informed, make purchases, and get in touch with different categories of other users?
Government + Internet = Good?
The government staying NEUTRAL was a great thing for Europe. Net Neutrality ensures unlimited, indiscriminative access to online info for all categories of users and stops media moguls and institutions from imposing their dictatorship. When government regulates something – like this fraud regulator, governed by the police, one question comes to mind: why does it actually get involved? Does it take action because it wants to protect the users’ best interest of does it follow its own secret agenda? We are not big fans of conspiracy theories, but we can’t help but wonder: why has the Chinese government taken such a sudden interest in digital frauds and why does it feel the need to be the first to launch an online platform designed to fight Internet fraud?
Is the Chinese government stepping behind the Internet good in any way? Only time will tell. In our last blog about Internet regulations, we saw that neutrality for the Internet on the part of the government was an excellent thing for our Internet freedoms. Clearly, Internet freedom should be listed as one of our basic rights, especially since the Internet belongs to no one and everyone at the same time.
