Make It With Michael

By Jo Robinson Question: What’s worse than spending your valuable time creating stacks of content for your blog, social media accounts and website? Answer: The only thing that’s worse than that is wasting your valuable time creating stacks of content for your blog, social media accounts and website that doesn’t get views or drive results. A lack of interest in promotional content is a very big problem for a lot of businesses in today’s world. Even though the whole world is at your fingertips via your digital device, non-engaging content can make like an unanswered high-five. The good news is that every time you upload a blog, information page or social media post, there is literally nothing standing in the way of it going viral. Well… maybe there are a few things. Carelessness in putting it together, a lack of a proper social media strategy , not paying attention to the optimal posting times – the list goes on. Here are eight ways that, whatever your digital marketing platform...

http://ift.tt/2ye5904 By Jo Robinson Question: What’s worse than spending your valuable time creating stacks of content for your blog, social media accounts and website? Answer: The only thing that’s worse than that is wasting your valuable time creating stacks of content for your blog, social media accounts and website that doesn’t get views or drive results. A lack of interest in promotional content is a very big problem for a lot of businesses in today’s world. Even though the whole world is at your fingertips via your digital device, non-engaging content can make like an unanswered high-five. The good news is that every time you upload a blog, information page or social media post, there is literally nothing standing in the way of it going viral. Well… maybe there are a few things. Carelessness in putting it together, a lack of a proper social media strategy , not paying attention to the optimal posting times – the list goes on. Here are eight ways that, whatever your digi...

http://ift.tt/2yTTNeG By Nancy Christinovich Succeeding in social media sometimes feels like taking a wild stab in the dark. Though you’re working with data, numbers and words on a screen, it’s people you’re ultimately trying to win over. And people are unpredictable – just because you ‘build it’, doesn’t mean they’ll come. I mean, who really knows why audiences respond to some posts while completely ignoring others that, to all intents and purposes, seem to be identical? The good news is that you can step up your social media game with a few lessons from psychologists. In his classic book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , psychologist Dr. Robert B. Cialdini shares several valuable principles that we can apply to our social media marketing. Let’s look at the top six psychological principles that can help inspire social media success. Principle #1: Reciprocation According to Cialdini, people generally feel compelled to pay back a favor. This is known as reciprocation: a...

By Nancy Christinovich Succeeding in social media sometimes feels like taking a wild stab in the dark. Though you’re working with data, numbers and words on a screen, it’s people you’re ultimately trying to win over. And people are unpredictable – just because you ‘build it’, doesn’t mean they’ll come. I mean, who really knows why audiences respond to some posts while completely ignoring others that, to all intents and purposes, seem to be identical? The good news is that you can step up your social media game with a few lessons from psychologists. In his classic book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , psychologist Dr. Robert B. Cialdini shares several valuable principles that we can apply to our social media marketing. Let’s look at the top six psychological principles that can help inspire social media success. Principle #1: Reciprocation According to Cialdini, people generally feel compelled to pay back a favor. This is known as reciprocation: an overpowering sense o...

http://ift.tt/2wt0aVz By David Harris As a professional blogger, you undoubtedly know the importance of hard work to make your blog posts compelling and informative for your readers. Perhaps, you have already taken all the primary steps for promoting it, from publishing updates, to sharing on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. If you are still facing a lack of audience engagement as compared to your competitors, then it’s time to reassess the tactics for promoting content you are using. Effective content marketing is a bit like event planning. How can you expect guests to come to your event if you don’t promote it effectively? If you spend all your time planning and designing an event, but forget to send out invitations, then what was the point? Conversely, if you consistently promote your event throughout the planning process, you will successfully build the desired level of excitement among individuals, which will then encourage them to attend the event. For p...

By David Harris As a professional blogger, you undoubtedly know the importance of hard work to make your blog posts compelling and informative for your readers. Perhaps, you have already taken all the primary steps for promoting it, from publishing updates, to sharing on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. If you are still facing a lack of audience engagement as compared to your competitors, then it’s time to reassess the tactics for promoting content you are using. Effective content marketing is a bit like event planning. How can you expect guests to come to your event if you don’t promote it effectively? If you spend all your time planning and designing an event, but forget to send out invitations, then what was the point? Conversely, if you consistently promote your event throughout the planning process, you will successfully build the desired level of excitement among individuals, which will then encourage them to attend the event. For proper content promotio...

http://ift.tt/2ftbqup By Judy Alex It’s a brave new world out there. Live chat software solutions are an essential part of successfully running a business these days. They allow companies to communicate with their website visitors and customers in real time using chat windows. You probably already know that they can skyrocket conversion rates when used correctly. This isn’t surprising news. After all, live chat software allows live chat agents and customer service representatives to quickly and efficiently assist customers in acquiring the information or answers they have come for. However, there are a lot of live chat software solutions to choose from, and it seems like every second minute another platform releases another product onto the market with different fancy-looking features. So, let’s separate the wheat from the chaff today, and explore the top live chat software solutions on the market at the present time. Obviously every software has its pros and cons, both for oper...

http://ift.tt/2hyo8bI By Senko Duras Surviving in the world of online content is no easy feat. Thriving in this world is a Herculean task, and each success has the rest of us wondering how and why . It seems impossible, yet it happens. When it comes to going viral , the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 Rule) is an extremely helpful reference point. It states that: 80% of output is produced by 20% of input 80% of outcomes are from 20% of causes 80% of contribution comes from 20% of the potential contribution available In other words, if 20% of your time is spent on content creation, 80% should be spent on content distribution/promotion. This may not always be feasible as some content types will always take longer to produce than others, but as a general rule of thumb, it’s a good way to distribute time across your content tasks. The reason why? Because often 1% of your content gets 99% of the attention. Viral content defies all odds. It’s an Oscar winner; a slam du...

By Senko Duras Surviving in the world of online content is no easy feat. Thriving in this world is a Herculean task, and each success has the rest of us wondering how and why . It seems impossible, yet it happens. When it comes to going viral , the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 Rule) is an extremely helpful reference point. It states that: 80% of output is produced by 20% of input 80% of outcomes are from 20% of causes 80% of contribution comes from 20% of the potential contribution available In other words, if 20% of your time is spent on content creation, 80% should be spent on content distribution/promotion. This may not always be feasible as some content types will always take longer to produce than others, but as a general rule of thumb, it’s a good way to distribute time across your content tasks. The reason why? Because often 1% of your content gets 99% of the attention. Viral content defies all odds. It’s an Oscar winner; a slam dunk; a home run. This ...

By Ian Naylor It’s a modern-day truth that getting to grips with local marketing is essential, particularly for new businesses. While the internet has successfully made the world a lot smaller, it’s also brought along its own set of problems like language barriers and prohibitively expensive international shipping. Building a name for your business locally, whether by word-of-mouth, paid advertisements or organic social media (more on those later!), is particularly beneficial when you have a physical presence like a bricks and mortar store. However, it can also be a big boon for online businesses as well. Here are my top five local marketing methods for local marketing newbies as well as a few tips on how to get started with each one. 1. Local SEO SEO is awesome for a number of reasons: the number one reason being that it enables even the smallest companies with small or non-existent budgets to generate business without spending a dime. However, when it comes to local marketin...