Make It With Michael

By Lucas Miller Working remotely can be liberating. It’s also something a lot more entrepreneurs are doing. Pete Rojwongsuriya, founder of Travelistly and Bucketlistly , recently told Forbes : “What [people] do not know is that the global workforce is moving toward this direction, and the types of skills required to work remotely have expanded in recent years. I have a few friends who are considering making their work remote. In fact, my friend’s mother is trying to automate her business selling chemical compounds so that she can ride around Germany with her bike. It is truly inspiring to see people adapting their work so that they can pursue their life goals in a way that couldn’t have been possible before.” Not being tied down to an office and traveling the world while working for clients or building your startup is exciting, but it also comes with many obstacles, including pressure to close deals, creative frustration in areas that aren’t your specialty, and distractions that...

By Sarah Dawley “We have too many followers on social media,” isn’t the easiest sentence to sympathize with. For many people, it’s like hearing someone complain that they’re too cool and beautiful. But the truth is that the more followers you have, the harder it becomes to engage with them. Simply put, it’s hard to be social at scale. As Clive Thompson put it in Wired , “once a group reaches a certain size, each participant starts to feel anonymous again, and the person they’re following—who once seemed proximal, like a friend—now seems larger than life and remote.” At this point, Thompson says, “social media stops being social” and instead, becomes “old-fashioned broadcasting.” This is how a brand with hundreds of thousands of followers ends up getting an average of two likes per post—and that’s not a good look for you or your business. It’s hard being popular, but here are three tips for getting past the pain and reigniting engagement. 3 tips for engaging a large following on ...

By Christina Newberry More than half of the 324.5 million people in the United States use Facebook— eMarketer estimates that 171.4 million Americans will use the social network at least monthly in 2017. And if that number sounds big, keep in mind that about 85 percent of Facebook users actually live outside of the United States and Canada; the social network has a total of 1.86 billion monthly active users worldwide. With that kind of reach, it’s no surprise that 4 million businesses now advertise on Facebook , and there are Facebook ad formats for every business goal. Today, we’ll focus on Facebook lead ads, and explore how companies are using this mobile-friendly type of advertising to their advantage. Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite. What are Facebook lead ads? So, what are lead ads? They’re an ad format that allows potential customers to take the first step to connect with your bu...

By Crowdfire If you’re a blogger like me, then you’ll know the pain of writing something brilliant and never having enough people read it. Continue reading on Crowdfire Blog »

By Mo Harake Sometimes, a pivot is all you need. In business, the stubborn among us wither and die, while those willing to adapt and change see the greatest success. Ecommerce is no different. In fact, the pivot – changing your approach or perspective – is even more crucial because of the changing nature of the medium itself. It’s no secret that ecommerce is big, big business, and only showing signs of getting larger. How big? Industry watchdogs predict that worldwide B2C ecommerce sales will hit just over $1.92 trillion in 2016 . It seems the sky’s the limit. But that’s in a perfect world. Sometimes, you need to think bigger. Sometimes, you need to change it up a little… or a lot. Sometimes, you need to pivot to succeed. Check out these five brands that have pivoted their way to major profits. 1. Brandy Melville Despite sounding like the most American of American monikers, clothing retailer Brandy Melville was actually started over twenty years ago in Italy by Silvio Marsan...

By Kaylynn Chong So much content is shared on Instagram that it’s estimated people miss 70 percent of their feeds , on average. But the creators of the platform are committed to ensuring that you see the photos and videos you care about most. So, instead of the good ol’ reverse chronological order, Instagram has implemented a “best-first” algorithm-based approach. We’re here to give you the low-down on the Instagram algorithm—what fuels it and how to master it when it comes to social media marketing for your business. Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear. Plus we’ll show you how you can use Hootsuite to grow your own following on Instagram and other platforms. What we know about the Instagram algorithm In their own words, Instagram displays posts “based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the pers...

By Jeff Bullas The social web has amplified many truths about humanity. Some of us will do anything to get noticed and build a brand. This even includes some new dubious tactics such as fake news and alternate truth. They have been used to both divert and attract scrutiny. The reality is that most people love a bit of attention. It is how we are wired. Attention seeking can come in many forms and constant posting on Facebook and other social networks has now become part of that routine and habit. Too much sharing can see us being accused of being a narcissist. The question that it raises….. where does narcissism and a healthy self worth start and stop? It is a question that I wrote about in the New York Times titled “ On the Social Web, Everyone has a Voice, Everyone is Judged ” And your answer maybe different to mine. 5 reasons we share I have always been intrigued by the power of social media and why we share so much. It was one of the first things I noticed about people’s o...

By Will Blunt A lot of sweat and tears can go into a great article. But even if you spend hours creating a masterpiece, its fate still depends on one thing: the headline . If a headline doesn’t attract interest, people won’t click. And if people don’t click, no one will read your great article. So if you want your hard work to pay off, you need to become an expert headline writer. That said, spending hours on a headline after you have just spent hours writing a post is not ideal. Luckily, there’s a structure you can follow to make your headline hunt a whole lot easier. Steve Rayson from BuzzSumo did a meta analysis of what headline elements are most common in viral posts. These are the five things that showed up the most: Emotion Content Topic Format Promise Successful headlines don’t have to have every single element, but the best ones have at least three, according to the research. Here’s an example of a BuzzFeed headline with all five elements in action: Using thes...

By Dara Fontein Having certain boundaries in place is a good idea for any organization, especially when it comes to social media. A social media policy can help empower your employees with information and keep your brand safe. This living document, created by a company and for employees, includes best practices, guidelines, and procedures on training and enforcement. Why does my business need a social media policy? Protect your company’s reputation A social media policy lowers your risk of legal issues and helps protect your brand by outlining potential risks and the steps to take in the event of a misstep or account hack. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to protecting your brand. Set standards for employee use A social media policy gives you the opportunity to establish clear guidelines and expectations for employees. With a policy in place, employees can feel empowered to exercise creativity and show their personalities without having to worry that what th...

By Kendall Walters Instagram is introducing the ability to add up to 10 photos and videos to a single post , album-style. Users can swipe through to see each individual piece of content in the post, similar to Snapchat’s slideshow storytelling format. Image via Instagram Blog . Some publications are already decrying the death of Instagram’s culture of careful curation, but this change actually offers a lot of opportunity—especially for businesses. Listen up: this change means you can essentially create carousel ads —a highly engaging and interactive format that performs 10 times better than regular ads—for free. Like carousel ads, Instagram’s newest feature will allow you to combine photos and video to tell stories and convey information in the best way possible. 5 ways businesses can use Instagram’s new album feature Because albums are an easy way to create an interactive post, they’re also a low-barrier way for brands to share rich media and foster more engagement with foll...

By Ajit Singh Sending a bulk email is an irreversible process. You cannot undo it, edit it, or pull it back from the subscriber’s inbox. It’s done, and you can do nothing even if you immediately realize that you have committed a blunder just like the New York Times employee who sent an email to its list of 8 million+ people, which was only supposed to be sent to just 300 people. Twitter Erupts Over New York Times Email Blunder- The Daily Beast Since there is no second chance, the wisdom is in ensuring that you send the right email the first time. Period. Mailchimp outrightly suggests to “recruit someone to proof the campaign for you.” However, making mistakes is like a fart. Despite your resistance, you can’t stop it from coming wherever and whenever. So, in this post, we have identified some of the common, yet not so obvious mistakes, which email marketers make while setting up an email marketing campaign. Let’s take a look… 1. Ambiguous subject line The subject line is critic...