The 4 Pillars of SEO

The 4 Pillars of SEO

Most brands and businesses today embark on search engine optimization (SEO). It is because statistics have proven that SEO is the magic of digital marketing. According to social media agency Hong Kong, the number one spot on Google garnered the highest CTR at 32%. Today, 76% of modern consumers will be looking for business using search engines.

SEO is no longer applicable to articles and website pages only. Even videos need to use SEO strategies as a video marketing agency Hong Kong noted. Video titles and meta descriptions play a significant role in gaining video views. As such, it is important for brands and businesses to have a basic knowledge about the 4 pillars of SEO.

A GLIMPSE OF SEO

A brand or business literally does not exist if people do not know about them, their products, and services. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong defines SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as the process of improving your site to increase its visibility on Google, Bing, and other search engines. It makes people discover brands and businesses. 

The better visibility a brand or business has, the better it gets traffic into their websites, and the more chances they have to influence people in buying their products and services. Search engines work like an index to all pages on the Internet. They use crawlers to categorize each page and rank them according to the experience and values they give among searchers. This is where SEO evolves. Brands and businesses try to rank on their own niche and provide solutions to the pain points and problems of their target customers.

WHY DOES SEO MATTER?

SEO matters because it makes sure that your target audience discovers your business. They drive traffic to your social media pages and websites. As they drive traffic, brands and businesses get a better chance of a conversion. They can influence people to follow social media channels and subscribe to newsletters. They can boost sales through limited offers and one-time promo codes. 

Digital marketing today is not just a one-time process. Rather it aims to sustain brands and businesses. With SEO, you get to consistently connect with your customers and prospects. As better buying and customer experience matter in SEO, brands and businesses can build a loyal following that can help them last longer. Brands and businesses that are commonly ranking on Google have a better brand reputation and more followers.

THE 4 PILLARS OF SEO

The 4 pillars of SEO are content, off-site, on-site, and technical elements of a website. 

Content

Content is king for every website. It tells prospects what a brand or business does. It shows how, when, and where they do it. Much more, it relays the message of why does it influence prospects to patronize a brand or business.

SEO dictates that you need to create content that educates and gives value to the audience. To make your brand or business stand out, focus on creating these three types of content:

  • Credibility Content to give prospects a reason to engage in a brand or business.
  • Marketing Content to position a brand or business as an industry expert.
  • Service Content to appeal to the emotion of prospects and customers by showing what you do.

Off-site SEO

Off-site SEO includes external backlinks that can help build the domain authority of a brand or business website. Through content, you can create backlinks from other websites where you have obtained data from research. Below are 4 types of content that can boost off-site SEO:

  • Comprehensive Guides about a certain topic.
  • List Posts on myths, reasons, techniques, tips, or just about anything.
  • Original Research statistics, studies, and surveys. 
  • Visual assets such as diagrams, graphs, images, infographics, etc.

On-site SEO 

On-site SEO means establishing the keywords where a brand or business wants to rank. This is extremely important to build the industry or niche where a brand or business belongs. A website should be optimized according to individual pages and as a whole. To enhance on-site SEO, it is best to focus on the following areas:

  • Craft meta descriptions as if they were ad copies. 
  • Tap into the latest features of SERP to improve CTR.
  • Understand the language of your target audience through keyword research. 
  • Use descriptive and simple URLs.
  • Use keywords naturally within the page title and copy.
  • Use strong CTAs to make it easy for users on what to do next.

Technical SEO 

Technical SEO simply means making a website a joy to navigate among online searchers. It is essential for a brand or business website to crawl and rank on Google and other search engines. To do so:

  • Index pages for a better content hierarchy and search engine return.
  • Optimize your website for mobile use.
  • Speed up page loading.
  • Use CMS and other technology that are search-engine friendly.

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/11/18/seo-4-pillars-2022/

Common SEO Mistakes That Weaken Google Ranking

Common SEO Mistakes That Weaken Google Ranking

Google is the largest global search engine. It accounts for 70% of desktop traffic. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong highlights the importance of SEO among brands and businesses. With 360 billion searches on Google every year, SEO results to 67.60% of all the clicks. As such, SEO is more effective than PPC. 

There are millions of websites competing to rank on Google. If you are one of them, have you ever wondered why you don’t rank on the first page? Below are some common SEO mistakes that weaken Google’s ranking.

Domain Does Not Include Keywords

Including target keywords in the website domain of a brand or business gives an edge on Google’s ranking. They act as a match and relevancy signal for Google’s patent. The easiest way to optimize your website using target keywords is by adding them as meta tags on HTML pages. Don’t include irrelevant keywords, as Google may penalize you for doing so. It is also important not to do too much keyword repetition as it will result in keyword stuffing. 

Duplicated Content 

social media agency Hong Kong notes that duplicate content can significantly weaken Google ranking. It is a big red flag to the search engine. All your website content should be accurate and first-hand. Brands and businesses can achieve this by doing thorough research and supporting their content with reputable references. They also need to check the content using plagiarism tools before uploading the content.

High Bounce Rate 

Google’s primary goal is to provide the best results among searchers’ queries. If your website’s bounce rate is too high, it may weaken your Google ranking. It is because Google views your page as not valuable to most users. A video marketing agency Hong Kong sites an example that if an audience clicks a video and leaves it after 1 to 2 seconds, it affects the video ranking. So, the key is to catch the audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds of a digital copy.

Keyword Stuffing

Keywords are vital for Google to know that your content is relevant to a web search. Brands and businesses should include as many relevant keywords to boost ranking. But keyword stuffing weakens Google’s ranking. It means including too many irrelevant keywords to trick the site. The best practice to use keywords and boost ranking is to start with your headline tag and then on the first 100 words of the page.

Non-Optimized Page Image 

Visuals make a page stand out. They can also boost SEO if optimized for a better user experience. As much as possible, brands and businesses should keep images properly sized and simple. A heavy photo with a large file size tends to load slow. It may also result in audiences not grasping the message of the image as well.

Page Loads Too Slow

One factor that prompts users to abandon a site is if the page load too slow. It weakens Google’s ranking as it does not provide a better user experience. Brands and businesses should aim for an average load speed for pages of 3 seconds or less. It is even if the suggested average load speed should be 8.66 seconds. It is because modern consumers have a much shorter attention span. A great way to speed up loading speed is to avoid too many plugins.

Poor Quality Content

Content is king. That is true even on Google ranking. Quality content gives the best solution for the audiences’ pain points and problems. It provides accurate information and valuable insights that can keep online users coming back to your site. Modern consumers are very smart. Within a glance at the content, they will leave the page if it has poor quality. It makes the page invaluable to Google users.

Unsecured Website 

Google always reminds brands and businesses that it favors HTTPS over HTTP. HTTPS websites are HTTP with encryption. Such a site is safer and more secure against hackers. It is because they have an SSL firewall that protects data while in transit. HTTP is a request and response protocol. Although it is most commonly used in data transfer, it does not provide any security features online.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Ranking on Google starts with doing the right thing. Tag your website based on your niche keyword. Publish well-organized and researched content. Make sure that they are valuable to your target audience. It is also important to keep your content, images, and page simple. This is to have a faster loading speed. If you do all of these, you’ll pretty rank on the first page of the largest global search engine – Google!

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/11/04/2022-seo-mistakes/

A Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy

A Data-Driven Digital Marketing Strategy

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have supplied marketers with a lot of valuable insights. There’s no doubt marketers have more data about their target audiences at their fingertips. Using these insights can help them make better advertising approaches and marketing decisions. The challenge is knowing how to formulate a data-driven marketing strategy. We’ve got you covered!

MIND-BLOWING STATISTICS ABOUT DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING 

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong highlights that data-driven marketing is the only way forward as modern consumers demand a personalized experience.  To boost the overall competitive advantage of a brand or a business, data helps them better understand their customers and the market. Here are some mind-blowing statistics on how data impacts the success of digital marketing. 

Brands and businesses reported harvesting 8 pieces of customer data on average. The most common types are email addresses (89%), names (84%), telephone numbers (75%), and physical addresses (68%). Yet, data harvesting is not limited to transactional details. Brands and businesses also record behavioral insights and trends based on the online activities of their customers and followers. 

Companies that adopt a data-driven digital marketing strategy are six times more profitable year-over-year than competitors who never utilize data. Forbes mentioned that it only shows the advantage of these valuable insights on competition and profitability. 

According to CMO, a global network of executives, speed is the primary benefit of data-driven marketing. 67% of marketers believe that they can execute their campaigns quickly through the use of analytics. 

WHAT IS DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING?

Data-driven marketing means using customer information to deliver personalized messaging to get the highest return on investment (ROI). It is one of the biggest transformational changes in digital marketing. 

To better understand data-driven marketing, brands and businesses need to distinguish what 1st party, 2nd party, and 3rd party data cover. 1st party data are information that you collect directly from your customers. 2nd party data are information collected by another entity and are sold to you from one source. While 3rd party data are the information you buy from people who aggregate data from different platforms and websites. These aggregators do not collect the information. Instead, they act as a 3rd party to collate them. 

A social media agency Hong Kong highlights that Apple’s IDFA, enhanced tracking protection, GDPR, and other data privacy standards have cut down the ability to capture 3rd party data. As such, marketers are now turning to 1st party data in order to continue with data-driven campaigns.

DESIGNING A DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

Here are 3 basic steps to design a data-driven digital marketing strategy.

  1. Decide What Data to Track. Start by establishing your digital marketing goals. These may be gaining followers, getting subscriptions, increasing sales, or promoting brand loyalty. From these goals, decide which data you may want to track. Besides your personal information, you may need to know how often people abandon a cart, complete a purchase, search for a keyword, visit a site, etc. These behavioral insights can clearly help you define your target persona. 
  2. Use Google Analytics to Track Your Data. Google Analytics is the best tool for online data tracking. With Google being the largest search engine globally, it is filled with rich insights to dig into different facets of a customer journey. Most brands and businesses largely depend on Facebook’s Analytics. Little did they know that Google Analytics is an invaluable resource for advanced digital marketing. Google’s high-traffic and tracking software make it efficient in estimating data. That is despite the new privacy policies and data handling laws. Besides, it is free to use Google Analytics. It is also very easy to find answers and integrate everything on it. 
  3. Review Your Data Consistently. A data-driven digital marketing start, stop and scale data. Thus, it is vital to keep track of this information. With these insights, start knowing what works and what fails. From there, you can start deciding what strategy to stop and then to scale.

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-design-a-data-driven-marketing-strategy/

The Power of UGC

The Power of UGC in Digital Marketing

Throughout the years, user-generated content (UGC) has proven to be a powerful tool in the marketing arsenal. As social media goes mainstream, every people become a marketing advocate. From customers, employees, influencers, and partners, UGC has become more effective than ever. That is why it is vital to explore the power of UGC in digital marketing.

A social media agency Hong Kong highlights that UGC continuously engages modern consumers. They serve as the word of mouth in the digital world. Gone are the days of professional photographers and videographers. With pocket-sized smartphones equipped with high-quality cameras and innovative editing tools, anyone can take a snap on a brand, product, or service they want to explore.

WHAT IS UGC?

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong defines UGC as any form of content created by people and not brands. They are images, posts, reviews, testimonials, text, or videos published on a social media network or website. They have been around side by side with customer reviews and social networking. It was in 2005 when brands realized the potentials of visual UGC. They were then used as a brand’s earned content and social proof

Here is a great example of UGC from a video marketing agency Hong Kong. You and your family go on a weekend trip and stay at a nice hotel. Enjoying the comfort of the trip, you post multiple pictures and videos of this precious adventure. You tag your Facebook and Instagram friends to show how cool the hotel is. The hotel then finds your content on Facebook and reaches out to you. They ask your permission to share the photos and videos in their corporate channels. Once the hotel uses them for branding, it is called user-generated content.

SOME STATISTICS ABOUT HOW EFFECTIVE UGC IS IN MARKETING

At first, brands and businesses are very cautious in using UGC for digital marketing. It is because the impact of these unpolished content is hard to justify when compared to perfect-looking professional creatives. But as mobile devices evolve, phone cameras get better. These made UGC easily accessible among social media networks. 

Every single day, there are 350 million photos uploaded on Facebook, 95 million photos and videos shared on Instagram, and 500 million tweets posted on Twitter. With billions of posts shared on social media daily, marketers find UGCs as the most authentic and relevant form of content. They present an unprecedented opportunity to usher a new approach of marketing WITH people, instead of marketing TO people. As such consumers now become the world’s greatest content creators. Data shows that UGC is the most influential, memorable, and most trusted type of content. 

UGCs are seen as 3 times more authentic than branded content. Around 60 percent of modern consumers find UGCs authentic, and only 20% favored branded content. Modern consumers trust the recommendations of colleagues, family members, and friends. They trust the endorsement of a real person over what a brand tells about itself. As such, 56% of modern consumers wanted to see more UGCs. 

UGC promotes brand loyalty. When brands published UGCs, the person who created the content felt a sense of importance. Other customers and followers also connect to these types of content deeply. It is because they feel the same emotion as the author or creator of the UGC does. No wonder 92% of consumers trust this media content boosting loyalty among brands. Among millennials, UGC is 35% more memorable among other media types.

UGC also influences buying decisions and improves the conversion rate among brands and businesses. UGC as a social proof turns 79% of modern consumers to buyers of a brand, product, or service. It makes them 9.8 times more effective than influencer marketing. They are also more effective because they cut the campaign budget by 65%

WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR UGC STRATEGY

Consumers trust other consumers. This principle makes UGC more effective and influential. Here are ways to improve your UGC strategy.

Ask What You Need. The easiest way to get UGCs is to ask your online community about them. You can launch a contest featuring a unique hashtag for the campaign. You can ask questions relevant to your brand. Or you can entice your audience to share their content in exchange for a freebie or reward. These strategies can help stir your customers’ creativity to post UGCs.  

Be Strategic. There are 6 major social media networks where brands and businesses can post UGCs. But they have to be strategic in knowing what to post for each platform.

  • Curated UGC content and images are perfect Facebook posts.
  • High-resolution photos, quotes, and Stories can work well on Instagram. 
  • Job postings, news, and professional content can boost your LinkedIn presence.
  • Step-by-step guides can inspire Pinterest users.
  • UGCs about trends are good conversation starters on Twitter. 

Set Goals and Measure Results. The best way to improve your UGC strategy is to set goals and measure results. The most common goals UGCs typically achieve are awareness and conversions. Define your benchmarks when boosting engagement. Do you aim to increase the number of comments, followers, likes, and shares of the UGC post? Or would you like to boost sales upon using them? Analyze each result after every campaign. Then, learn the lessons to level up your UGC strategy!

Reference: https://stackla.com/resources/blog/what-is-user-generated-content-the-ultimate-guide-to-ugc-marketing/

How to Create WhatsApp Ads

How to Create WhatsApp Ads

What’s up with WhatsApp? The multi-messaging platform now has 2 billion monthly active users (MAU). Last year, it is the 2nd most downloaded app behind Facebook with 600 million downloads. Every day, there’s 100 million WhatsApp messages exchange. 

According to a social media agency Hong Kong, 180 countries are using WhatsApp. It supports 60 languages among Android users and 40 languages among iOS users. It means that WhatsApp can be a great marketing platform in more than half of the countries in the world. Being a part of the Facebook family of apps, there are lots of potentials to promote products and services on WhatsApp. Below is a guide on how to create WhatsApp Ads

A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHATSAPP

In 2009, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former Yahoo employees, founded WhatsApp. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong has noted that WhatsApp was initially built on the foundation of “No Ads, No Games, No Gimmicks.” Such a foundation made WhatsApp win over messaging giants like Facebook Messenger, Kakao-Talk, LINE, Snapchat, WeChat, etc. 

In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp. Five years after its acquisition, WhatsApp Ads were introduced in May 2019. During Facebook’s Marketing Summit in The Netherlands, the king of social media announced the upcoming features of WhatsApp Ads. These include a business manager API, product catalogs, richer messaging formats, and WhatsApp Stories ads.

HOW TO CREATE WHATSAPP ADS?

Step 1 – Set Up a WhatsApp Account for Business

The first step to create WhatsApp ads is to set up a WhatsApp account for Business. WhatsApp for Business can be downloaded free. It allows brands and businesses to connect to their customers, create product catalogs, and find helpful information about your customer base. If you still don’t have a WhatsApp account, here’s how to set up one.

  • Download WhatsApp on your smartphone. 
  • Enter your phone number. 
  • Enter the verification code sent to your phone number.
  • Once your WhatsApp account for Business is verified, you will need to add all the basic information about your business. These include your business name, description of what you offer, most relevant business category, and your business’ physical address. You will also need to upload your company logo for people to easily recognize your brand. 

WhatsApp recommends using a separate phone number for your business and personal account. In case you already have a WhatsApp personal account and you want to use the number for a business account, all you need to do is migrate your account to WhatsApp for Business.

  • Update your WhatsApp Messenger into WhatsApp for Business.
  • Agree with the terms of services of WhatsApp for Business.
  • The system will automatically identify your phone number. Proceed to the normal verification process of WhatsApp for Business.

Step 2 – Connect WhatsApp for Business to a Facebook Business Page

WhatsApp Ads can only be created through the Facebook Ads Manager. So, the next step to be able to create WhatsApp ads is to connect your WhatsApp account for Business to a Facebook business page. 

  • Go to Facebook Business Manager.
  • Login to your Facebook business page. 
  • After receiving an automatic prompt, confirm connecting your WhatsApp for business to your Facebook business page. 
  • Click the “Send Code” button.
  • Verify the integration using the code sent to your phone number.

You are now ready to create and run WhatsApp ads.

Step 3 – Setting Up WhatsApp Ads and Campaigns

There are two ways to create WhatsApp ads. These are through boosting or creating a Facebook Ad Campaign.

Here are the steps in setting up WhatsApp Ads to “Create a Facebook Ad Campaign.”

  • Go to Facebook Ads Manager and click the green “Create” button.
  • Choose from these three campaign objectives – “conversions”, “messages”, or “traffic. “
  • Set a daily or lifetime budget for your ad campaign. When setting up campaign budgets, it is important to know the basics of bid strategies. 
  • Select WhatsApp via the ad set level. It is the destination where you will send the traffic, receive messages, and track conversions. Do this when setting up WhatsApp ads with the “conversion” and “traffic” objectives. Under the “messages” objective, you can choose three destinations – WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct. But if you want to test the true power of WhatsApp ads, you can choose to leave out Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct.
  • Decide whether to place your WhatsApp ads on Facebook or Instagram. 

Here are the steps in setting up WhatsApp Ads to “Boost a Facebook Page Post.”

  • To boost a published Facebook post, go to Facebook Business Manager.
  • Scroll down to locate the post that you want to boost.
  • Click the blue “Boost Post” button.
  • Click the drop-down menu and choose “Send WhatsApp Message.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

Congratulations! You have now learned how to create WhatsApp Ads! Be sure to monitor your results and review your success. Go to Facebook Ads Manager to see insights after setting up WhatsApp Ads to “Create a Facebook Ad Campaign.” Go to Facebook Creator Studio after setting up WhatsApp Ads to “Boost a Facebook Page Post.”

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-create-a-facebook-ad-that-works-with-whatsapp-business/

Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools

List of Must-Have Digital Marketing Tools

The world of digital marketing is a lot different in the past than today. The very first marketing tool is word-of-mouth. A tradesman in history became known through referrals from their clients and the community. Today’s marketing is a blend of strategy and technology. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong notes that digital marketing has evolved from trade to tech. As such, brands and businesses should have a list of must-have digital marketing tools. 

IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS

The marketing strategy of brands and businesses today focuses on online visibility. According to a social media agency Hong Kong, the Internet has significantly changed consumer behaviors. Instead of hopping from one physical store to another, modern consumers would rather search for products and services online. It is the main reason why brands and businesses need digital marketing tools. They need to increase online visibility. They also need to effectively deliver their message to searchers online.

Digital marketing tools are important in promoting products and services among search engines, social media pages, and other online channels. They help connect brands to their target audiences to convert them into customers and loyal followers. They help businesses build a sustainable community of patrons who are continuously making a purchase.

Marketing tools are also important for brands and businesses to know their real-time inventories. As they sync product catalogs across multiple platforms, it will be easier for them to know which commodities are in demand or not. They provide insights on how ads and campaigns help in boosting conversion, especially sales.

Last, marketing tools can help brands and businesses provide continuous support to their existing customer base. Through artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, they make it possible to provide 24/7 support.

A LIST OF MUST-HAVE DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS

If you are looking to improve your online marketing strategy, here is a list of must-have digital marketing tools. 

  • Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. If you want to get more traffic from searches and improve your SEO performance, then Ahrefs Webmaster Tools can help. It is a free yet comprehensive SEO tool. Ahrefs can help you check how your competitors generate backlinks and high-traffic pages. As such you can replicate such a campaign to outcompete them. 
  • Awesome Screenshot and Screen Recorder. It is a free chrome extension used to save screen recordings and screenshots. Using unique shareable links via awesomescreenshot.com, brands and businesses can share images and videos instantly. 
  • Buzzstream. Buzzstream is designed to make email outreach easy.  If you engage in influencer marketing, this digital marketing tool can help you find the biggest influencers in your niche. It is also an effective tool to build communities by getting more coverage, links, and traffic.
  • BuzzSumo. It is a content research tool and, at the same time, an influencer identifier. With BuzzSumo, you can generate new content ideas and high-performing posts. When you are stuck with specific content creation, try its content analyzer and topic explorer to keep your thoughts moving creatively.
  • ConvertKit. When professional bloggers and content marketers create something, make it known with ConvertKit. Run ultra-targeted email campaigns using such a tool. Here, you can easily set up auto-responders and segment subscribers based on categories and interests.
  • CoSchedule. Every marketing team needs to collaborate. CoSchedule makes it easy to do so. This must-have digital marketing tool organizes all marketing activities in one platform. CoSchedule has a simple and uncluttered interface. It makes all your content marketing organized in one place. All team members can sync and view a content calendar to make everything perfect.
  • Feedly. Keep up with topics and trends you care about. Feedly is an app where you can check blogs, news, and trends. It allows feed personalization to keep up with what’s going on without being overwhelmed.
  • Google Analytics. If you need to analyze marketing data to make smarter decisions, Google Analytics can give you complete information. It analyzes and tracks web traffic. By analyzing the who, what, and where of data, it is the most comprehensive free analytics tool.
  • Google Trends. Explore what the world is searching for via Google Trends. It is a free trend search tool that ranks the popularity of terms according to traffic. This must-have digital marketing tool can help brands and businesses know what the online audiences are interested in.
  • HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. If you are challenged in coming up with new content ideas, HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator can think of ideas for you. All you need to do is plug in the keywords and the tool will list shiny content ideas and topics for a year’s worth.
  • KeySearch. KeySearch is keyword research made easy. It helps you find low competition relevant keywords for your blog, niche, or website. It also ranks them based on how many searches each keyword receives monthly.
  • MailChimp. Do you want to build a brand and sell online on one platform? MailChimp integrates marketing and eCommerce tools to help you run your business. It is an all-in-one email marketing platform. It allows brands and businesses to create email templates and manage email lists. With a free-forever option, you can automate your marketing campaign.
  • PiktoChart. Do you love to post social media visuals? With PiktoChart, you don’t need any graphic design skills to create and share engaging visuals for brands and businesses. You can turn any data or text into visual stories using the free library of designs, graphics, infographics, and other templates.
  • Pocket. Save articles, videos, and stories from any app, page, or publication instantly. Pocket is a content discovery tool that functions as a bookmark folder for ideas, inspirations, and reading lists. Save things for later by putting knowledge in your Pocket. 
  • Tailwind. Are you solely responsible for advertising and marketing? With Tailwind, you can instantly have a new team. It is a digital marketing toolkit for Instagram and Pinterest. This must-have digital marketing tool serves as a smart assistant to schedule IG posts and Pinterest pins. It publishes them during the time when it will most likely maximize engagement.
  • Wave Video. A video marketing agency Hong Kong uses Wave Video, the best video hosting, and video maker platform. It is an easy-to-use video creation, editing, and repurposing tool. With Wave’s stock of audio clips, captions, and images, brands and businesses can enhance their videos for promotional ads and social media posting.
  • Yoast SEO Plugin. If you are using WordPress to power your blog site, Yoast SEO Plugin can help you attract more website visitors and increase social media engagement. By entering keywords or key phrases, Yoast SEO Plugin can run a check if your content has enough keywords positioned in the right spots. 

Reference: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2021/08/04/must-have-marketing-tools/

Flow of Content Creation

The Flow of Content Creation

As they say, people visit social media platforms to find ideas and inspiration. Their main purpose is not to make a purchase or shop around. But with the power of blogging or content creation, brands and businesses were able to drive sales. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong says that content creation starts with giving the audience an idea of how they can solve their problems. As you bring them along in the journey, they realize that the best solution is your product or service. As such, these prospects were converted into buyers. As you nurture them with more information about your brand, they eventually become your loyal followers. If you are seeking ways on how to improve your business blogs, here is the flow of content creation that can lead you to success! 

Get Inspiration

Content inspiration comes from different directions. It can come from answers to a question, bike rides, conversations, trending topics, etc. The best topic for content answers what the customers are asking. They are original and unique in a way that they brought new learnings. They are also analytics-driven by reviewing what the audiences engage in. 

A social media agency Hong Kong believes in the power of repurposing evergreen content. As these pieces of content cover something in general, it may be smart to rewrite them and add a new piece of information. Older content has a strong URL that has already ranked on SEO. They may also have feedback from the audience that you can use to improve them. 

If you feel that a topic is likely to trigger conversation, it may be a good inspiration for content creation. To validate your claim, socialize the topic to your network by asking a question. Ask them what they think about the topic. 

Conduct a Thorough Research

The next flow of content creation is to conduct thorough research about the topic you have chosen. You should first consider your authority or expertise on the subject matter. This can be very helpful in giving value to the content. Alternatively, you can do an online search for data, explanations, statistics, steps, or stories about it. Producing new statistics performs well. 

If you want the content to rank among search engines, you may also need to conduct keywords or key phrases research. Focus on the demand for the keyword and its difficulty. The demand shows that the majority of your target audiences are looking for the topic. The difficulty signals your authority over the topic. There are keyword research tools that can help you like Ahrefs, Keyword Tool, KWFinder, Moz Keyword Explorer, and SEMrush.

The best content creation is a topic that most people are looking for. It also provides accurate and deep information about the subject. It also answers important questions that are related to the topic and includes the voices of relevant experts.  

Set the Content Structure

Setting a template for your content is better than starting with a blank document. With a template or structure, you will have an idea of how to organize your content. This can also help you plan the promotion of the content. The first part of your content structure should be an eye-catching headline. The title should entice users to view your content. Remember that the best article doesn’t get read if they have a boring title. The most compelling titles should have the following qualities:

  • Ask a Question 
  • Create Intrigue
  • Deliver a Promise
  • Include Keywords 
  • Tell the Reader What to Expect 
  • Unique

After creating a compelling headline, the next step is to write the outline of the content. Based on your research, build the formatting for the content to flow logically. Start with a quick overview of what the content is all about. Keep it in one concise paragraph as possible. Experts say that great content is not written. Instead, they are assembled. To create an engaging experience for your viewers, write using formatting. Use subheadings to categorize information. If you need to enumerate more than three items in a paragraph, break them down into bulleted or numbered lists. 

Liven Up Your Content

Content using pure text or words can be boring. They also result in eye strain and poor retention among readers. Adding visuals is even more important than formatting content. It is because they attract more people to read them and help them retain the information they consume longer. People’s faces are magnetic. They rank on top of the visual hierarchy that most audiences love. 

Another way to liven up your content is to add examples and stories. Most content fails because they are too common. The information they provide is redundant to what other pages offer. To differentiate your content from the rest, adding real-life experiences or relevant stories can make them more exciting. People love being involved with something emotionally. A little narrative with characters and conflict related to them can spice up their experience. 

Besides livening up content, adding links and quotes can build authority. Using powerful quotes from experts and legends breaks the boring part of a narrative. Links of pages that you use references on your content serve as a validation of your data. 

Polish Your Content and Promote

The flow of content creation does not stop in writing the content. After finishing the write-up, you will need to polish your content. Read it out loud several times. If you find it hard to pronounce certain words or phrases, re-structure them. Try to use simple and straightforward words that your audiences can relate to and understand. Once you are satisfied with the results, take one more final read to ensure that the content is well-polished.

The last flow of content creation is promoting your content. Like a piece of precious jewelry, your content will not shine if you do not flaunt it to the world. There are many ways to promote an article or blog. But the most effective ways are through affiliates, email, PR & outreach, and social media sharing. 

Reference: https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/content-creation-process/

Twitter Spaces

Getting Started with Twitter Spaces

In the fall of 2019, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth created “Talkshow.” It was an app designed for listening to podcasts. In February 2020, the app was rebranded as Clubhouse, a drop-in, and invite-only audio chat app. It was specifically redesigned for 2 types of people – talkers and listeners. When the COVID-19 pandemic heightened in March 2020, Clubhouse became a hit in the US. This prompted other social media networks to clone the app. 

As a Clubhouse clone, Twitter created Spaces. They are live audio rooms for the Twitter nation. The platform began testing these audio rooms way back in November 2020. The feature was globally launched last May. Since then, the platform continues to innovate to enhance Spaces and outcompete the Clubhouse app. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong is confident that Twitter Spaces will be the leader of audio marketing moving forward. With 199 million daily active users of Twitter, and the platform’s modern technology, Spaces will surely go a long, long way. 

WHAT ARE TWITTER SPACES?

Twitter Spaces are live audio rooms that can accommodate up to 11 participants, including the host. They are available both for Android and iOS users. There are two ways for Twitter users to host or start a Space or audio room. First, you can long-press the tweet composer on your home page and choose the Spaces icon. The icon shows multiple circles forming a diamond shape. Second, users can tap their profile image on Fleets and move far-right to tap Spaces.

A social media agency Hong Kong notes that Twitter Spaces are public. This means anyone who has a Twitter account can join. A Twitter Space host can invite users through a unique link that he or she could send as a direct message (DM), share via email, chat, or on other social media platforms. The Space host can also tweet a Space on his or her profile. The Space host can also customize the name of the Space or audio room. Once a Space room is in progress, a bubble on the Fleets of a Twitter profile will be visible for both the hosts and listeners.  

Twitter users can also schedule Spaces for later. After tapping the Spaces icon, just select “schedule for later.” A host can then set the date and time when he or she would like to go live. At the chosen date and time, just click the microphone button to start the Space audio room. The listeners’ microphones are automatically muted. Listeners who want to speak can send a request by tapping the “request” button under the microphone icon. The host can decline or grant access to such a request. The host is also capable of inviting listeners to speak as co-hosts.

WHY SHOULD MARKETERS CARE ABOUT TWITTER SPACES?

Modern consumers are also tapping into the power of audio listening like radios a few decades ago.  They listen to podcasts for inspiration and to learn new skills. For a more private connection, they tend to use audio rooms instead of video calls. 

Twitter Spaces are new ways for marketers to fill up their content marketing calendar. Twitter Spaces is a free tool that marketers can use to establish a dynamic presence with the Twitter nation. Using the power of the human voice, they can authentically connect to their target audience. 

Twitter brands hosting audio Spaces can educate their audiences to highlight the important features of their products and services. Spaces work both for Android and iOS users. As such, Spaces can boost both a brand’s reach and revenue.

Twitter Spaces can also boost engagement among brands. They use captions making them accessible to users. They also allow reactions for listeners to actively engage within the conversation.

KEY FEATURES OF TWITTER SPACES THAT ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN THE CLUBHOUSE APP

Emoji Reactions

Twitter Spaces allow emoji reactions while the conversation is ongoing. This is to make it easier for the listeners to actively engage in the conversation and express their emotions. They can react in real-time by highlighting an emoji. This emoji will come up on their profile photo within the Space audio room. The Clubhouse app also doesn’t have such graphics reactions within an audio room. To react within Clubhouse audio rooms, a listener needs to flash the microphone to request permission to speak. This is the only way that listeners can reply to what the speaker is saying.

Membership Option

Unlike Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces is not an invite-only membership. Any Twitter account with at least 600 followers can launch a Space audio room. If an account has less than 600 followers, you can send a request to the Twitter help center on how you can access Spaces. As such, Twitter Spaces is technically open to the 330 million members of the Twitter nation.

Pinned Tweets

While a Twitter Space audio room is in progress, hosts can pin content on top of the room. To pin a tweet, go to the tweet composer while hosting a live Space audio room and add content. Such pinned tweets are highlighted for other speakers and listeners to see. They can engage with, follow, or share these pinned tweets. Spaces hosts can also add multiple pinned tweets to serve as a presentation right inside Spaces. The Clubhouse app only focuses and doesn’t have such text or visual components. This is one advantage of Twitter Spaces over them.

Rename Audio Rooms

Twitter Spaces allow flexibility in changing the name of audio rooms and deleting pinned tweets as needed. This can let potential listeners know the topics of the conversations. Especially during long conversations when the Spaces topics change from time to time, hosts can change the Spaces’ name as needed. The Clubhouse app focuses on short audio discussions. As such, they don’t have a function of changing the audio room’s name as the conversation started. They can only put a name on the room before the audio discussion progresses. 

Twitter Spaces has been a major competitor of the Clubhouse app. It has even slowed down the popularity of the latter. With Twitter being an established social media network, it will surely find ways to make Spaces a great marketing option.

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-spaces-how-to-get-started/

Improve Instagram Reach

How to Improve Instagram Reach

Like a Silicon Valley fairy tale, the photo-sharing app, Instagram, rose with momentum in its first few months. It was launched in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom as an iOS mobile app. Immediately, it racked up 25,000 users a day. In less than 2 years, the king of social media, Facebook bought it for $1 billion cash and stocks. Yet, like old good tales, Instagram has witnessed many conflicts and synergies, failures and successes, twists and turns. Now, it has gone a long way and become the second best social media platform where you can market your business.

INSTAGRAM MARKETING

A social media agency Hong Kong defines Instagram marketing as the way brands connect to their target audience within the platform. It does not involve direct promotions of products and services. Instead, it focuses on publishing engaging photos and videos to inspire Instagrammers to make a purchase. With a number of original filters, marketers can create photo and video ads using their Instagram cameras. The very first Instagram ad was published in 2013 by Michael Kors. It’s a photo of a golden MK watch surrounded by some French macaroons and a white coffee cup. The ad never looks invasive even though it was pushed on the IG feeds of people who don’t follow the Michael Kors IG Page. 

Today, there are around 1.074 billion monthly active users (MAUs) on Instagram. It houses over 200 million business profiles globally. The average time an Instagrammer spends on the platform is 30 minutes per day. A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong has noted that 60% of Instagram users discover new products on the platform with 90% of the following at least one brand. With 130 million of them tapping shopping posts monthly, the revenue on Instagram ads is expected to reach $18.16 billion this year. With these powerful marketing statistics, it is, therefore, important for brands to know how to improve Instagram reach. We’ve got you covered here!

HOW TO IMPROVE INSTAGRAM REACH

Instagram has a complex algorithm in determining the best post to show its users. They are ranked based on the popularity of the content and what kind of post a user interacts with. The relationship between accounts is also a factor that affects the ranking of Instagram posts on a certain feed. This algorithm changes from time to time to provide a better user experience on Instagram. To improve Instagram’s reach, here are some tactics and tips.

Add Location Tags on Your Posts. Geotags or location tags on Instagram are latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates showing a physical location. These areas are identified by the GPS on a mobile device. They can be a geographical point like a city or town. They can also be a location category like a business or landmark. Adding location tags on your Instagram posts is a great wait to put your business location and physical stores on the map. People will see them as they search for local posts or accounts near them. It is the easiest way to expand your organic reach on Instagram.

Experiment with Different Posts and Formats on Instagram. People go to Instagram, not mainly to shop, but to look for ideas and inspirations. As such, it will be best to experiment with different posts and formats for brands to improve Instagram reach. More than 50 billion photos were already uploaded on Instagram since its inception. Instagram Stories are huge. There are 500 million Instagrammers who use Stories daily. A video marketing agency Hong Kong suggests that they are perfect to use for AR lenses, fundraising, links, polls, questions, and shopping. Reels are a new addition to Instagram. They are short video content that clones TikTok clips. IGTV is a great way to educate customers and showcase products and services. While Instagram Live is the perfect way to connect with your audiences in real-time. Around 80% of them prefer watching a live video over reading a brand’s blog. Using different posts and formats on Instagram can maximize your impact as they allow you to engage with the different preferences of your target audience. It also avoids making your Instagram business account boring to your followers.

Optimize the Accessibility of Your IG Posts. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are around 1 billion people with disabilities all over the world. These include people with hearing impairment, physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and visual problems. If a brand or business will not optimize the accessibility of their social media posts to this group of people, they will be missing out on 25% of their target audiences. To optimize the accessibility of IG content, here are automatic features you can use on Instagram.

  • Alt text to describe images and photos.
  • Auto captions for IGTV with instant subtitles in 16 different languages.
  • Manual captions on Stories and video posts.
  • Videos that can be lip-read and with minimum background noise.

Test Different Posting Frequencies and Time on Instagram. In general, it is recommended to post 1 to 3 times per day on Instagram. The best time to post is between 10 AM to 3 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays. Yet, testing different posting frequencies and times within the platform can help you know when most of your followers are online and receptive enough to engage in your content. Start by using Instagram Insights. It will give you an idea of when your followers are active. It also gives feedback on what post format excels best. It takes a couple of weeks to discover the right rhythm. But it will be worth it if you want to improve your Instagram reach.

Reference: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-instagram-reach-9-ways/