Tag Archives: audience

7 Takeaways from My Paper.li #Bizheroes Chat

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7 Takeaways from My #Bizheroes Chat

I recently lead a discussion on building and maintaining a LinkedIn audience on Paper.li’s #Bizheroes Chat.

Here are 7 Takeaways in case you missed the chat:

Q1. How do we start building an audience in LinkedIn? What are the first steps?

The first thing you can do to start building a LinkedIn audience is to have a complete LinkedIn profile. People need to trust you before they will listen. Connect with people and build up your network. As people are more likely to read an article from someone with connections as opposed to someone with zero.

Q2. What kind of content delights LinkedIn users? How is it different from a regular blog?

Content that delights LinkedIn users are How to articles, articles on News and Industry Trends.  It is important to have a great headline that will catch the reader’s attention along with content that supports it.

LinkedIn is different from a blog in terms of SEO because users can only use three tags where as a blog user can use an unlimited amounts of tags. Also, the user owns their blog in terms of branding and content where LinkedIn owns the content on their platform. However, LinkedIn has over 400 million users and is the largest business publishing platform.

Q3. Are there any rules we should follow when trying to attract an audience on LI?

When trying to attract an audience, it is important to write with your audience in mind.

Ask the following questions:

What is your objective for writing and publishing content?

Who is your target audience?

What types of content do they find valuable?

Also, curate content from people in your industry, influencers & non influencers. This will help to build a relationship where they will share your content if they think it is valuable.

LinkedIn provides suggestions when you share a post. It is a good idea to check the channels for your industry as LinkedIn has many specialized channels for content.

Q4. How do we make sure we’re attracting the right audience?

See who is sharing/engaging with your content. Is your target audience sharing it? Examine content that gets shared in your industry.

Q5. How can you use LinkedIn to market yourself or your business?

Users can create business pages, groups and most importantly keep creating and sharing content/relevant insights. Remember the audience determines what is relevant.

Q6 Is there a way to share your own work without being too self-promotional?

Use SlideShare for content repurposing as it is great to embed in posts, use videos along with text, pictures etc… This will allow you to put a different spin on your work; changing things up with your audience.

In my posts, I share links to relevant articles I wrote on the topic.

At the bottom of each post, I create an about the author section. This gives the reader a choice if they want to learn more and does not compromise the quality of my work.

Q7 How can we try and build relationships and then take them off of LinkedIn?

Users can use LinkedIn groups and messages to share relevant insights, conferences and networking events with connections.

How have you built and maintained an audience on LinkedIn?

Share and comment below.

Related Articles

How to Build an Audience on LinkedIn Pulse

How to Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for Storytelling

How to Build a Brand on LinkedIn

How to Integrate SlideShare into a Content Marketing Strategy

How to Integrate a Blog into an Inbound Marketing Strategy

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. He has worked on various marketing assignments that include a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to Teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Representative in the Dental industry. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows & in the field through lead generation of Digital Technology along with large Dental Equipment.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today.

Dan is seeking a full time marketing role in New York City. He is interested in roles in Direct, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

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WordPress & Tumblr 101: Writing & Publishing an Engaging Blog Article

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WordPress & Tumblr are great publishing platforms where users can create customized & branded content which includes domain names. For tips on setting up a blog click here.

Today I am going to focus on how to write & publish a killer blog article on these platforms.

image via singlehop.com

When writing a blog article, your goals are to:

1. Educate & inform readers about your products & expertise

2. Engage your readers & build an audience

Let’s examine the features of a WordPress & Tumblr blog.

The Structure of the Blog Article 

 Title

The platform provides a place for a title.

Tool Bar

Underneath the title, there is a tool bar similar to one you would see in Microsoft word that allows writers to use headings, Bold, Italics, underline, center, bullet pints and numerical lists. Users can also use the tool bar to insert links, images, and videos. (tumblr users need to click the button on the side of the blog platform for the tool bar to appear.)

Body

Next, is the body of the platform where users can write the body of their content and lastly there is the SEO tags.

Pictures/Images

Users can also upload an image at through out their article, Bloggers should  credit their image source whenever possible.

Writing on WordPress & tumblr

Now that we have described the inner workings of the the WordPress & tumblr blog, let’s describe how to write compelling posts.

Now you might be asking what topics should write about?

Popular topics are as follows:

1. Your insights on trends in your industry.

2. Case Studies

3. Topics in the News

4. How to articles that teach readers how to do something.

5. How you learned from failures and adversities.

6. Questions & Answers

The Body of your Post

Once you have chosen your topic you are ready to start writing. You must create a thesis which is the claims that you are making. This should be followed up with three to four paragraphs that prove your thesis, claim and assertion. Paragraphs should be 4 to 6 sentences when possible.

Within these paragraphs, you should use headings and  sub headings along with bullet points so your text is easy to read. The text should be visually appealing  to the reader.

In terms, of how long your post should be it is up to you. There is no set length, rather your post should be long enough to prove out your thesis, assertion and claim.

Title

Your title should reflect what the topic that you are writing about while being engaging to readers. Most people just skim the headlines as they are bombarded with content, in other words you have just seconds to catch their attention.

Popular titles include:

1. How to’s,

2. lists ex 7 ways to _______

3 A question.

4. Why ________

SEO tags Keywords

Make sure to pick keywords that reflect your topic and match the title and content

Images

Make sure when you upload images that reflect what your post is about.

Video’s/embeds

To enhance your text, you can embed videos and presentations from Slideshare & YouTube. This can be a strategy to re-purpose existing content.

Calls to action

Make sure that your posts have a call to action at the end. In other words, what action do you want your reader to take as a result of reading your post.

Sharing

You can share your post in the following ways:

1. On LinkedIn through a status update, your LinkedIn groups & messages.

2. Through the Social Sharing buttons that include LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ & Twitter.

3. Through links

4. Ask questions of the reader that encourage them to comment and start a discussion.

This is how to write a blog post on WordPress & tumblr that engages readers & builds an audience.

What strategies do you use to write a blog post?

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. He has worked on various marketing assignments that include a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to Teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Representative in the Dental industry. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows & in the field through lead generation of Digital Technology along with large Dental Equipment.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today.

Dan is seeking a full time marketing role in New York City. He is interested in roles in Direct, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

AAEAAQAAAAAAAATWAAAAJDg3MWM4YWM0LWMyMWYtNDQwOC04OGU0LTg0NDVhYWQ3MzE1Mw

Content Curation: 4 Ways to Improve your Content Marketing Results

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4 Ways Content Curation can improve your Content Marketing Results image via wonacotpr.com

Content creation is one of the best ways to engage an audience, making it essential to content marketing. However, we simply cannot cover every single topic in our industry. This is where content curation comes in handy, content curation is where you share the work of others in your industry. Content curation can enhance your content marketing efforts in the following ways: it offers users a fresh perspective on a topic, sharing others work can plug a hole because you can’t write about every single topic in your industry and you are engaging the person whose content you are sharing. Sharing the content of others is key if you hope to get your content shared.

Content curation takes many forms across social networks but it always comes back to sharing the work of others and celebrating them. By celebrating others, content curators get to build relationships with those in their industry allowing reciprocity. In other works, people will help each other get their message out because they are part of digital community.

Content can be shared in the following ways:

1. On blogs.

2. On social networks.

3 Through online publications.

4 Guest blogging/Content Syndication

1.Blogs WordPress/tumblr

Blogs are a great way to create content and share ideas. Blogging platforms such as WordPress & tumblr have a like button and a reblog function. The like button allows user to say they like a piece of content and a reblog button allows users to republish a blog they like on their own blog. When a user reblogs a piece of content from another blog, the original publisher is notified of the reblog or share. A reblog is much more powerful than a like although a publisher see both types of notifications.

Blogs also allow users to categorize topics with endless SEO tags. Users can also search out keywords or tags to find related content on a topic which they can reblog. In addition to reblogging, users can share blogs to other social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook & Google+ etc… by clicking share buttons embedded on the platforms.

LinkedIn Long form Posts

LinkedIn also has a blogging platform of it’s own called the long form post. Users can curate content in the following ways: clicking the like button, sharing the article which will appear as a status update, sharing the article in groups, using social share buttons to share content to Twitter & Facebook and of course LinkedIn. Each piece of content in LinkedIn is indexed with three SEO tags that categorize it by topic. Users can also embed content from Slideshare along with videos. This can be a great way to share your work and that of others in the form of a blog.

LinkedIn Slideshare

Slidseshare is a great tool for content curation. The site was acquired by LinkedIn. Slideshare allows users to upload documents,  presentations and videos. Users can create descriptions of the content, a category along with SEO tags to further categorize the information. Slideshare is a great way to repurpose content. Content on Slideshare can be shared to social networks via sharing buttons & embedded on other blogging platforms such as LinkedIn, WordPress & tumblr.  Slideshare is a platform in itself.

2. Social Networks

Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ offer users like and share buttons that allow users to curate content that they like. All three networks allow users to categorize & index content by topics using #hashtags.

Twitter

Twitter allows users to create lists based on topics they found interesting. Users can add other users to lists. This helps to build a digital community by uniting people around common interests. Tweets are also indexed in Google.

Facebook 

Facebook is similar to Twitter in the sense that it let’s users tag content based status updates; helping users to reach beyond friends and followers. Facebook also allows users to share content in groups as well. Facebook is partnered with Microsoft’s Bing Search engine.

Google+ 

Google+ is similar to Facebook in the sense that it allows users to join groups. It is also helpful for content curation because the results are indexed in it’s search engine. The like button is a plus one button and Google+  has  a sharing button. Users can also use hashtags and build a community based on topic as well.

3. Online Publications

Online newspapers and newsletters are another great way to curate content. Flipboard is a great site. I like Paper.li Users can sign up with Facebook or Twitter. Paper.li allows users to customize newspapers and is a great way to curate content. Users can pull content from multiple sources to create newspapers based on topics. These sources include RSS feeds social networks, lists, hashtags etc… These newspapers celebrate the work of others by mentioning them on social networks in the form of a status update. I have gained a lot of followers this way. There are countless sharing sites out there.

4. Guest Blogging/ Content Syndication

Writing on other blogs is a great way to get your message to a wider audience and it allows the blog owner to curate great content that happens to be yours. This can be a great way to build up a following. Another way to use curate content is to syndicate your content. Content syndication is when your share your blog’s RSS feed with other websites. When you share your RSS feed, your content can be shared to multiple websites simultaneously when you publish on your blog. tumblr offers a widget where you can share a blog on a stand alone website.

These are some content curation strategies you can use to improve your content marketing results. How do you curate content?

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. He has worked on various marketing assignments that include a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to Teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Representative in the Dental industry. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows & in the field through lead generation of Digital Technology along with large Dental Equipment.

He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing & Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today.

Dan is seeking a full time marketing role in New York City. He is interested in roles in Direct, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

How to Write & Publish Compelling Content on LinkedIn

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How to write a LinkedIn long post that Engages Readers & Builds an Audience

image  via https://i2.wp.com/animoto.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-

Writing on LinkedIn’s long form post is similar to writing blog posts. Your goal is to engage your readers & build an audience. Let’s explore the features of the LinkedIn publishing platform.

The Structure of the LinkedIn long form 

Title

The platform provides a place for a title.

Tool Bar

Underneath the title, there is a tool bar similar to one you would see in Microsoft word that allows writers to use headings, Bold, Italics, underline, center, bullet points and numerical lists. Users can also use the tool bar to insert links, images, and videos.

Body

Next, is the body of the platform where users can write the body of their content and lastly there is the SEO tags.

SEO Tags/Keywords

A key difference with these tags is that LinkedIn allows users up to three tags or keywords to index the content where traditional blogging platforms offer more. Update Since this writing, LinkedIn now allows users to use more tags similar to other platforms.

Pictures/Images

Users can also upload an image at the top of their post, LinkedIn recommends pictures 700 x 400 pixels look best. LinkedIn also allows users to credit their image source.

Writing on LinkedIn

Now that we have described the inner workings of the LinkedIn long form, let’s describe how to write compelling posts. Now you might be asking what topics should write about?

Popular topics are as follows:

1. Your insights on trends in your industry.

2. Case Studies

3. Topics in the News

4. How to articles that teach readers how to do something.

5. How you learned from failures and adversities.

If you are still unsure what to write about; LinkedIn now uses an algorithm that analyzes previous posts you have written; offering 3 to 4 ideas based on your industry.

The Body of your Post

Once you have chosen your topic you are ready to start writing. You must create a thesis which is the claims that you are making. This should be followed up with three to four paragraphs that prove your thesis, claim and assertion. Paragraphs should be 4 to 6 sentences when possible. Within these paragraphs, you should use headings and  sub headings along with bullet points so your text is easy to read. The text should be visually appealing  to the reader.

In terms, of how long your post should be it is up to you. There is no set length, rather your post should be long enough to prove out your thesis, assertion and claim.

Title

Your title should reflect what the topic that you are writing about while being engaging to readers. Most people just skim the headlines as they are bombarded with content, in other words you have just seconds to catch their attention.

Popular titles include:

1. How to’s,

2. lists ex 7 ways to _______

3 A question.

SEO tags Keywords

Make sure to pick keywords that reflect your topic as you only can use three.

Images

Make sure when you upload an image that it reflects what your post is about.

Video’s/embeds

To enhance your text, you can embed videos and presentations from Slideshare & YouTube. This can be a strategy to re-purpose existing content.  Update LinkedIn has moved the embed menu from the top to inside the body of the post.

Calls to action

Make sure that your posts have a call to action at the end. In other words, what action do you want your reader to take as a result of reading your post.

Sharing

You can share your post in the following ways:

1. On LinkedIn through a status update, your LinkedIn groups & messages.

2. Through the Social Sharing buttons that include LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter.

3. Through links on Google+, tumblr, WordPress etc…

Also, you want to ask  questions of the reader that encourage them to comment and start a discussion.

This is how to write a LinkedIn long post that engages readers & builds an audience.

What strategies do you use to write a LinkedIn long post that engages your readers & builds your audience?

About the Author

Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. He has worked on various marketing assignments that include a Start Up, Political Campaign & a Digital Marketing Conference.

Prior to Teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Representative in the Dental industry. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the  company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows & in the field through lead generation of Digital Technology along with large Dental Equipment.

Dan is seeking a full time marketing role in New York City. He is interested in roles in Direct, Digital, Content & Social Media Marketing. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.

The Power of The Screen Shot & The Hash Tag: How Marketers Can Connect with Customers & Amplify their Reach

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Screen-shots and hash-tags are an invaluable tool for marketers to reach and sell products to their audience. The old adage is that a picture is worth a 1000 words. As the fields of Marketing and Advertising shift to digital and mobile formats, the power of the image to tell stories and get your message across are the new tools of the 21st Century.

Hash-tags are also valuable tools because they allow marketers and everyday people to share their content with people who are out of their network. Hash-tags allow users on social networks to index their content. For example, if I share a blog post or an image with the tag #marketing, I can reach everyone who searches for that tag on a social network. My reach expands exponentially as a result. This is very powerful. Hash-tags started on Twitter then spread to other networks much like the like button on Facebook. Think of a hash-tag as a social network search engine like Google.

The screen shot is a great way for marketers to reach their audience and beyond. As the number of computers and mobile devices multiply worldwide, more people will capture everyday images of their lives and share them via Social Networks such as Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn etc…

Screen shots can be taken with both computers and mobile devices. This allows individuals, and small brands alike to market and reach potential customers via storytelling through screen shots. Fortune 500 brands have tapped into this marketing goldmine by soliciting everyday people to take pictures of themselves using the products that they love. Think of this as a picture version of a LinkedIn recommendation. It’s social proof.

Screen shots can also be used to share accomplishments and to advocate your love for your favorite brands. I have used screen shots in all of the ways that I have mentioned above. Recently, I was featured on Twitter’s Ads Blog for my endorsement of Verizon wireless.

When screen-shots are used with hash-tags, this is a marketing goldmine because marketers can share their story with billions of people worldwide and go beyond their regular followers. As a result, brands have potential to sell more and connect with people worldwide.

How have you used screen shots and hash-tags to sell and market your products?