Saturday, 30 August 2014

How to Promote Your Blog Post | Small Business Tips - Big Ideas Blog

<b>How to Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> Post | Small Business Tips - Big Ideas <b>Blog</b>


<b>How to Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> Post | Small Business Tips - Big Ideas <b>Blog</b>

Posted: 21 Jul 2014 08:11 AM PDT

how to promote your blog post

We live in a world that is inundated with content — it's everywhere! If you're going to invest, time, effort and resources into producing, you must also understand how to promote your blog posts.

Content marketing is no longer about creating great content, publishing it and moving on to writing the next great piece of content; that is just content publishing. Today, in order for our content to be seen and drive the results we want, we all need to market and promote the content we invest time in creating.

Blog-Posts-Per-Day-on-WordPressDid you know that over 1.4 million new blog posts are published each day, just on WordPress? WordPress powers about 18% of all websites, so if you take into consideration other blogging platforms like Medium, Tumblr, Blogger and many others, it's closer to 7.3 million posts published every day. That's a lot of noise that is produced on a daily basis.

In order to cut through all the clutter and gain exposure to your great blog content, time and/or resources must be invested into content amplification.

What is Content Amplification?

Content amplification is the act of proactively promoting content to a targeted audience through various organic and paid marketing channels.

It's essentially the 'marketing' half of 'content marketing.'

Before You Promote Your Blog Post

Before you begin amplifying and promoting your content, it's important to make sure the blog post you promote is optimized. The last thing you want to do is to waste time and money sending traffic to a blog post that isn't optimized to move you closer to your goals.  Additionally, be sure to double check basic social media, content marketing, and SEO tactics to ensure you get the maximum results.

5 Essential things to double check before promoting your blog post:

Relevant Content
Before you start promoting your content, be sure that your content is relevant to the audience you are planning on promoting your post to, otherwise you will waste a lot of time and money amplifying content that won't generate the results you want.

Correct Formatting
Make sure your content is formatted in a way that is easy to read. Do this by inserting headlines to break up different parts of your blog post. Also, double check of all of your external links and make sure they are set up to open in a new browser tab. You don't want to generate traffic to your blog post and send visitors directly to someone else's website. Both of these tactics should drastically increase the time people spend on your site and decrease your bounce rate.

Optimized for Searchhow-to-promote-your-blog-post-circle
It's important to make sure that you have proper meta titles and descriptions associated with each blog post. Make sure the title of your blog post is captivating and also contains a keyword phrase that you are optimizing for. (Easier said than done)

Optimized for Social Sharing
If your content is quality and relevant to the audience you are targeting, readers will share your post to their social networks. It's important that your blog has an image and link description that is designed with social sharing in mind. Optimizing the copy and image for social sharing will help to maximize the exposure from people who share your content. To learn more about how and why optimizing your posts for social sharing is essential, click here.

Effective Call-to-Action
At the end of the blog post that you are promoting, you should have a strong call-to-action that is aligned with the content of your post. If your blog post is about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), an effective call-to-action would be a free video training that dives deeper into the tactics outlined in the blog post.

At the very least, include a call-to-action to subscribe so that people who like your content can opt-in to get more content from your in the future. This gives you the ability to educate your contacts over time and nurture prospects into customers.

The rest of this blog post is jam-packed with various tips, strategies and tools that will help you understand how to promote your blog post for maximum impact.

How To Promote Your Blog Posts

How to promote your blog post

1. Social Media

Organic Social Media

Organic social media consists of posting to your personal networks, posting in groups and posting on your business pages. One mistake many small business owners make is trying to automate posting of their blog content, e.g., when a blog post is published, it automatically posts to your social pages. This is not a good practice. Social media is all about authentic conversations and co-creating value.

Here are some tips on how you can promote your blog post on social to get better results.

Choosing The Right Social Platforms
Are you spending your time and resources on the right platform? New social media sites are popping up overnight, and just because "X-book-gram-chat" just came out, doesn't mean your business needs to be on that site.Think about who your target customer is; what social media platforms do they use most?

Does your small business sell and market products for women? If so, Pinterest could be a great social media platform for you to focus on. Here is some demographic research on Pinterest users.

Are you a B2B business? If so, LinkedIn is most likely the best social media platform in which to invest the majority of your time.

Click here and here for some more demographic information on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Once you determine which platforms your target audience are using, start building your social media presence on one or two of them to start. Research the best practices of that social platform and learn how it works to best interact with your target audience in that environment. For example, use hashtags strategically on Twitter, but don't use hashtags on LinkedIn. Once you master those two main platforms, expand from there.

Get More Traffic with Images
Take 5-7 sound bites, quotes and tips from your content and create image quotes with that content. Write a sentence or two that relates to the quote and include a link to your blog post in the text portion of each post. Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule (not automate) these 5-7 images to post at specific dates and times in the future.This tactic allows you to promote your blog post 5-7 times over the course of a couple weeks, as opposed to just posting it once.

Embed a couple of your image quotes in the copy of your blog post and make sure the images are easily shareable on Pinterest. Even if your company doesn't have a Pinterest account, it's still a good idea to make your images easily shareable on Pinterest. If you are using WordPress, you are in luck! Check out this Pinterest plugin for WordPress.

Join Groups Strategically
Find groups on Facebook and LinkedIn that are relevant to your industry, your product or your target market. Join these groups but do not start posting links to your blog right away. Join the conversation, comment on other people's posts, ask questions and after a couple weeks, start to post a link to one blog post per week. Become a part of the community and add value to the community first — you will get much better results.

Paid Social Media

Paid amplification of content is a relatively new concept. Most marketers only use paid advertising to drive traffic to a landing page or sales page to generate a direct ROI.

Leveraging social advertising platforms like Facebook and Twitter ads can help you gain exposure with a hyper-targeted audience.

Facebook Ads
Most people talk about using Facebook Ads to drive traffic to an opt-in page or to a sales page, but you can also use Facebook Ads to strategically get your content in front of a very specific audience. You can amplify or promote your content to targeted audiences based on their interests, location, workplace, and much more. Need to get in front of the media? Set your Facebook Ads up to target people who work at the media agency you are looking to leverage for exposure.Facebook has a really awesome feature called 'Custom Audiences,' which allows you to upload your email database into Facebook's Ad platform, and Facebook will match the emails in your database to emails associated with Facebook user accounts. You can then run targeted ads to only that specific segment of users.

Think about how you can write different pieces of content for different segments of your email database, then amplify your content to that audience. My good friend Alex Houg has a great blog full of resources and information on how to use Facebook Ads to amplify content.

Twitter Ads
Twitter's ad platform is relatively new, but it's not to be completely left out. Twitter Ads tend be more expensive and less-targeted than Facebook ads, but you can still generate results with the platform.

Twitter has a feature called Tailored Audiences that allows you to get content in front of a highly targeted audience. Click here and here to learn more about Twitter's Tailored Audiences.

If you have a very tight marketing budget, less than $1,000/month, it may be best to stick with Facebook Ads. You will get more bang for your buck.

How-to-promote-your-blog-post-md

2. Email

Email is a great way to get a new blog post out to the world quickly. There are two primary ways to promote your blog post through email.

Manual Outreach

Did you quote someone in your blog post? Did you link to someone's website? Be sure to reach out to them and let them know. Chances are they will share your post with their audience and you will generate more traffic.

Leverage Your Email List

Make sure you have more than one opportunity for visitors to subscribe for email updates. If you aren't currently building a list of emails, you are missing a big opportunity to collect information and stay in touch with prospects and customers.

Here are a few ways you can use your email list to get more exposure to your blog post.

Broadcast
Send your best content out to your subscribers in an email broadcast. Write a short teaser paragraph and include a link to the content that's live on your blog.

The two most important components of sending content via email are 1) relevance and 2) frequency. Segmenting your email list is essential to keeping your communication relevant and ensuring you are promoting your blog posts to the most targeted audience possible. If you can send a highly-relevant, high-value piece of content 3 times per week, every week, do it. If you have a small team and can only maintain a frequency of once per week or once every other week, then do that. Make sure you can consistently maintain the email broadcasting schedule you set.

Newsletter
Curate your best content and include links to 3-5 of your highest performing blog posts in your monthly newsletter. If you don't have a newsletter, think about other types of communication that you are sending out and get creative on how you can include links to content in that communication.

3. Diversify Delivery of Content & Link Back

This is a very simple way to maximize the exposure and consumption of your content. Different people prefer consuming content in different ways. Some people are more visual or more auditory than others and they prefer to listen to a podcast or a video blog.

This is also a great way to differentiate yourself from your competition and gain access untapped audiences while linking back to your resources.

SlideShare

Turn your "7 Steps to Getting More 'X', Faster!" post into a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation and upload it to SlideShare. Start with a cover slide, one slide for each of the 7 steps, a page with a call to action and a link back to your blog post, and an "about" page for your company, product or service with a link to more information.

Maybe your PowerPoint or design skills aren't the best. This is something that you can easily outsource to a professional graphic designer on sites like ODesk, Fiverr or Freelancer.com without breaking the bank.

Video

Turn your blog post into a video blog post. Shoot a high-value video and upload it to YouTube and be sure to optimize your video with SEO keywords to generate maximum organic traffic. Place a link to the written blog post in the description of the video to make it easy for people to find. Once your video is uploaded, you can embed it within your original blog post and share it on your social channels.

Direct Mail

Do you have a high-performing blog post? Have you ever thought about printing it out and mailing it to prospects or a specific segment of your customer base?

Although it's old-school, it's still a very effective way to get a message in front of people. Some of the most famous internet marketers in the world also use direct mail campaigns to drive traffic to their website. Mail out a piece of content and provide a compelling reason for the reader to take the extra step to visit your website.

Dan Kennedy is one of the legends of direct response marketing. Check out Dan's blog here. His YouTube Channel has some good information, too.

4. Join a Blogger Community like Triberr

Triberr is an incredible resource and community that was designed specifically to amplify content to targeted groups of people, called 'tribes.' Register for an account, add your blog, find a tribe and begin sharing your blog posts.

As you can tell, there are a lot of different ways that you can promote your blog posts to generate traffic and more results.

At the end of the day, content promotion is all about taking content that was written for a specific audience and getting that content in front of that audience. Without proper promotion, even the most valuable, high-quality pieces of content you are producing won't be seen.

Have you had success with other creative ways of promoting your blog posts?
If so, please leave a comment in the comments section below.

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Friday, 29 August 2014

How to promote your (first) gig - DIY Musician Blog - CD Baby

<b>How to promote</b> your (first) gig - DIY Musician <b>Blog</b> - CD Baby


<b>How to promote</b> your (first) gig - DIY Musician <b>Blog</b> - CD Baby

Posted: 05 Aug 2014 06:17 AM PDT

Screen shot 2014 08 05 at 6.09.01 AM 1 300x300 How to promote your (first) gigYou've booked a gig. Congrats. Now it's time to make sure your audience will consist of more than just the bartender.

Here's a checklist of simple things you can do to get the most people possible out to your show:

1. Ask the venue what they'll be doing to promote — You don't want to double your efforts. Sometimes venues will take out adds in the local weeklies, advertise on the radio, and even make posters for you. If so, great! If not, at least you know where you stand.

2. Get a media list from the venue — If you're just getting started performing live, you probably don't have an extensive list of contacts in the local press. The venue booker will often have a list ready to send to bands who are touring from out of town, but they can just as easily send that list to you too. It normally contains email and/or phone numbers for local music journalists, editors, bloggers, podcasters, radio show hosts, and more.

3. Contact the press — You want to make sure that your gig is listed in all the local concert calendars, but you also want to see if you can get other kinds of coverage: show previews in the newspaper, interviews on blogs, a spotlight on a locally focused radio show, etc. If you contact them 2-3 months in advance of your show, you'll greatly increase your chances of getting some media attention. You'll also have an easier time getting big exposure in the press by following this simple advice about quality press shots.

For a list of local media people that'd be interested in covering your music, and some tips on how to get in touch with them, check out "How to get the media's attention."

4. Create a concert poster — Yes, concert posters still matter, even in the Internet age. In fact, the Internet has given a second life to the art form. Here's an article about why you should create concert posters, how to create them, and what to do with them once they're made.

Send the poster to the other bands on the bill and to the venue (in case they want to use it in their online of offline promotion). If the file is large, upload it to a cloud-storage site like DropBox and share it from there. Otherwise, just send as an email attachment.

5. Put up posters around town — To be honest, blanketing the neighborhood in posters won't guarantee a big audience for your show. But it does do two things: gives you a start on visual branding, which will help with name recognition later on; and reinforces in the minds of people who've already considered going to your show that this is an event they won't want to miss. Just be sure to follow any local laws regarding hanging posters/fliers in public places. If you can't put them on telephone polls, ask the staff about bulletin board or window space in coffee shops, music stores, etc.

6. Use your poster online — It's time to put that poster on your website, in a blog post about your upcoming show, in a photo gallery for show posters, and on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or whatever other social media platforms you use.

7. Create a Facebook event — Despite the declining popularity of Facebook amongst musicians, Facebook Events are still one of your best promotion tools. Create an event and use elements of your show poster for the header image; then invite all your Facebook friends that live within an hour or two of the concert venue. Be sure to share admin privileges with the other bands on the bill. Also, a single Facebook Event for the night is always preferable to each band creating their own separate Facebook events; it keeps things simple and helps you build momentum and buzz by cross-promoting to one another's fans.

For more information on how to set up an effective Facebook Event, check out "Use Facebook Events to get more people to your next show."

8. Send out an email — If you're a brand new band, you might not've built your email list yet, but go ahead and have your band members compile a list of all the email contacts for people they know that might want to come to the show. Start there! Send those folks an announcement about the show, tell them how psyched you are, and that you really hope they'll attend.

9. Tell all your family and friends — Despite your best efforts, the majority of your audience for your first show will probably be folks you already know. Instead of getting discouraged, use this to your advantage; get as many people out as you can. Tell them that it's really important to have a good crowd for your first show in order to prove to the other bands and the venue that you're worth working with again in the future.

Start with your close family and friends; but don't forget to talk your show up to co-workers, players on your softball team, church members, etc.

10. Give away a few spots on your guest list — People love contests and prizes. In the weeks leading up to your show, do a handful of social media or email giveaways for free entrance to your show. The winners will be thrilled, and you'll have multiple chances to remind your online network about the show in an exciting way.

What else are you going to do to promote and get people out to your next show? Let us know in the comments below.

Get Your Music Featured in the Press

Thursday, 28 August 2014

How To Promote Your Blog Using Facebook? - GetAFollower

<b>How To Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> Using Facebook? - GetAFollower


<b>How To Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> Using Facebook? - GetAFollower

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 05:18 AM PDT

The World Welcomes You: About 500 million active members throughout the world, lot of applications related to blogging, link with other social media and micro blogging sites.sounds like the world welcoming you? You heard it right. The world of Facebook welcomes every eligible blogger to fame and popularity. Here's is how to make use of it for promoting your blog.

Ways To Promote Your Blog Using Facebook

Promote Your Blog Using Facebook How To Promote Your Blog Using Facebook?

1. Sharing a Blog Never So Easy

Whatever the subject of your blog is, there are readers throughout the world. Let the like minded read it. After Facebook started to integrate with other social media and micro blogging sites sharing a blog has become very easy.

2. Join The World

Open a Facebook account. Create your own fan page and buy Targeted Facebook likes from us. Select the website option while opening the fan page and customize. Invite friends and form a group. Search for long lost friends. Welcome known people.

Tap the unknown. Have a profile picture of your own. If you really don't want to put your picture on the profile, select a picture that can reflect your personality. You can also select a picture from your blog.

3. C'mon, open up

If you are already on Facebook and are confined to private, it's time you unmark it and go public and let the world know you. Get listed on search engines. This will fetch you new readers and acquaintances. Invite your fellow bloggers to Facebook. This way you get noticed by their friends and followers, too.

4. Give Link to Your Blog

Provide RSS feed subscription for your blog through Facebook at the side bar. Add a tag to it using nice words along with the word blog so that everybody understands it's your blog.

5. Give Links to Your Blog Posts

Paste links of your latest blog posts on your Facebook wall. It's better to do this only periodically, say, once a week, even if you post everyday. Some people may silently switch off the RSS feed annoyed of everyday links. It's always advisable to let your fans and friends wait for and choose your posts.

6. Be Interactive

Hold discussions on Facebook periodically. Know others' ideas, be open minded to criticism. Take advice. Enquire about others' work and interests. Fix up time to link posts on the wall and to hold discussions. Stick to the timings.

7. Choose from Applications

There are many applications on the Facebook related to blogging. Choose a few of them.

8. Advertisements

If you want to and can spend money, make use of Facebook ads. Ads can rush into the traffic and tell people about you.

9. Your Own Sweet Languages

As the internet today reaches the remote parts of the world, more and more people are joining Facebook. With this the usage of vernacular languages has also picked up fast. Write on your Facebook wall in the languages you know.

10. Acknowledge

If your Facebook campaign has brought in fame and recognition, acknowledge. Let the people who supported you feel great about it along with you.

Using Facebook to promote your blog is an easy way while compared to the tedious search engine optimization tasks to get ranked on Google. So try it today!

(Visited 5 times, 5 visits today)

Johny Walker is a Social Media Expert and Web Traffic Consultant for over 6 years. Recently he launched GetAFollower, an Instagram Marketing company for helping businesses to get brand awareness and social authority on Instagram!

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

How To Promote Your Blog | Successful Blogging

<b>How To Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> | Successful <b>Blogging</b>


<b>How To Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> | Successful <b>Blogging</b>

Posted: 24 Aug 2014 02:22 AM PDT

 how-to-promote-your-blogWhat are the best ways to promote your blog? Well, I asked some top bloggers for their best blog promotion tips and want to share them with you here.

 

Leverage the influencers of others in your niche: there are bloggers in your niche that have direct influence over your target audience. You can leverage that influence to grow your own blog but the great thing is that this all starts with helping.

Focus on developing relationships with key bloggers; engage with them via social media, promote their content, write an awesome guest post for them, link out to it and most importantly – let them know about it.

When you publish a blog post that says awesome stuff about someone, they will be more inclined to share it because it's a validation of their authority.

how-to-promote-your-blogYour primary goal should be to build an audience – a readership.

If you have an audience, you can monetize it – period.

Repeat visitors (a readership) are most valuable, so focus on list building and social media – and making strong connections through conversations and responses!

 

BAdrienne Smithlog commenting is what put me on the map and the best way to get in front of your audience.

By leaving genuine comments on blogs within your niche you can easily grab the attention of their readers.

People will naturally become curious when they start seeing you everywhere they turn and eventually want to visit your blog.

The number one tip I offer is to be yourself. If you try to be someone you are not, your audience will see it immediately.

Share some personal stuff once in a while—people connect with people. Be human!

If you have a distinct personality and voice in your writing, people will keep coming back for more, because you will build a relationship with them from the other side of the computer.

Pick a social network and master it. When you try to master multiple at once, you spread yourself too thin, see little results and get burnt out.

Personally, I chose Twitter because it allows for high-frequency posting & I can increase the amount of followers I have by connecting with more people every day.

Using this method, I've amassed roughly 36,000 followers in the last month–making Twitter my largest social avenue for traffic. (Now, on to Instagram!)

My favorite blog promotion tip is to interview other successful people in your niche.

This can be done with a blog post, but my favorite at the moment is by doing podcast interviews.

On the day your interview goes live, the person you've interviewed will share your blog with their audience.

 Good old ethical networking on social media sites, active niche related forums, popular groups and communities.

 

 

 

What's your favorite way to promote your blog? We all want to know!

Sue Anne About Sue Anne
Sue Anne Dunlevie is a Professional Blogger and Blogging Coach. She works one on one with clients to take their blogs to the next level. You can find Sue on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

<b>How to Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> Post | Internet Billboards

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 06:00 AM PDT

6 Flares Facebook 0 Twitter 5 LinkedIn 1 Email -- Google+ 0 Pin It Share 0 StumbleUpon 0 6 Flares ×

"I'm publishing great content on my blog just like they told me to … but my traffic is abysmal. How can I get my audience to read my posts?"

Much like the tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it — you know, the one How to Promote Your Blog Postwith the lousy publicist? — blog posts need a little help to reach the eager eyes of your audience.

Sure the Field of Dreams axiom "If you build it, they will come" made for good cinema, but it has no place in today's crowded, noisy blogosphere. If you want people to read your stuff, you just have to hustle. No two ways about it.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. Each time you publish a blog post:

  • As soon as you publish a post, post a link to it on each of your social networks (including Pinterest if it includes a strong, unique visual).
  • Submit each blog post URL to social bookmarking sites (StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.).
  • Submit each post to your content curation sites on Internet Billboards, ShareBloc, BizSugar, etc.
  • Post the link to your Facebook and LinkedIn Groups as applicable to the Group's purpose.
  • Invite the people in your tribe to subscribe to your RSS feed so that each post will be delivered to their email inbox or feed reader. (Learn more about RSS and feed readers)
  • Include a link to your most recent blog post in your next e-newsletter.
  • Email the link to clients who may find the content particularly useful. ("Hey Paul, I seem to recall you asking me about [topic] last time we met — thought you'd find this latest blog post of ours helpful …")
  • Bonus Tip I Learned From Guy Kawasaki: When you link to your post on Twitter, schedule four posts, eight hours apart, to make sure you hit all time zones.

How about you? How do you tell the world about your latest blog posts? Tell us in the Comments — we'd love to hear from you!

Content Curator Rachel Parker

Rachel Parker, Founder and CEO of Resonance Content Marketing, brings a track record of success in brand messaging to her work with forward-thinking businesses of all sizes.

Sunday, 24 August 2014

How to Promote Yourself on Social Media: | Imagine Media Blog

<b>How to Promote</b> Yourself on Social Media: | Imagine Media <b>Blog</b>


<b>How to Promote</b> Yourself on Social Media: | Imagine Media <b>Blog</b>

Posted: 15 Aug 2014 03:46 AM PDT

How to Promote Yourself on Social Media

Branding yourself can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to the different forms of social media. You can connect with your community and friends while building a great reputation through online tools. Here are some ways to do so:

LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is a great way to show your work in a professional manner. In case you haven't heard of it or just aren't very familiar with it, LinkedIn is more of a professional, work-oriented networking site. You can connect with others on a professional level, post your resume, share related content and much more. You can also use LinkedIn to search for jobs and post examples of your work.

Blogging:
Start a blog! This is an easy way to show your creative skills. You can write about anything that you have a passion for. Recently, lifestyle blogs have become extremely popular. In these posts, bloggers will share their style, recipes, DIYs, ideas and experiences. Many bloggers will even interact with each other. Here is an example of one of my favorite blogs: www.pinkpeonies.com

Twitter:
Twitter is a great tool for connecting with others. You can share relevant articles and short thoughts very easily. Even better: you can find opportunities through Twitter.

Other tips:
-Be yourself: be authentic in your work. Engage with others and create interesting information that others might enjoy
-Add multimedia: This can be as simple as a picture or video link. People tend to be very visually oriented, and a picture can add that pizazz that you need.
-Appropriateness: That means no harsh language, inappropriate pictures, and definitely no online fighting!
-Keep your information current: Add in any updates or promotions as they come.

Remember, social media can be used for more than just celebrity gossip and fun Instagrams. Promoting yourself through these mediums ultimately benefits you!

Post by: Jamie Garvin

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Saturday, 23 August 2014

How to promote your blog posts without taking any risks

<b>How to promote</b> your <b>blog</b> posts without taking any risks


<b>How to promote</b> your <b>blog</b> posts without taking any risks

Posted: 19 Mar 2013 12:01 AM PDT

How to promote your blog posts without taking any risks

It is important to have a blog post promotion strategy simply because without one your hardly produced content will not reach its full potential.

Promoting your new blog posts in any valid way you can is not something optional but is necessary for your web site's success. Every time you publish new content, it's a great opportunity to reach out and inform your existing audience but also gain new readers, followers or customers.

facebook-likesA mistake that many people make is that they publish new content and expect that it will be magically promoted on facebook or twitter and gain attraction or thousands of visitors on its own. This may be true for established web sites with a huge readership but for smaller web sites or blogs it's your duty to go out and spread the word about your new blog post.

What you will read below is complementary to my existing post how to increase web site traffic – where I explained the most important web site promotion strategies you need to use. In this post I outline the 11 most popular ways to promote new content but I also emphasise how not to promote your posts if you want to stay out of trouble and minimize your risks of getting penalties from Google, Facebook or other search engines.

10+1 ways to promote your new blog posts

  1. Add your new post on your web site's Facebook page. This will get the message out to your fans. In order for this method to have a return i.e. traffic from facebook or likes to your new blog post you need to have A LOT of facebook fans (likes) on your business page. (I will be discussing this in a new post and once published I will update this part as well)
  2. Share with your facebook friends (using your personal facebook account) the facebook post you have already posted above. In other words go to your personal timeline and like and share the post directly from your business page.
  3. Repeat the same process with your Google+ business page and Google+ personal page i.e. Share the new post on your google+ business page and then share that post with your personal google+ circles.
  4. Tweet about your new post. You can do different tests to find out which is the best time to tweet in order to have the best possible return. Actually you need to do the same with facebook and google+ and find out the particular timeframe that you have most of your fans/followers online. The easiest ways to do this is post or tweet in the morning, afternoon or night for a week and identify which time period gives you more likes, tweets, +1 etc.
  5. Try to avoid automated posts on facebook or twitter. Instead of posting automatically on facebook or twitter do the postings manually and follow up any comments.
  6. Use a catchy description with your social media postings. Sometimes the title is not enough to get readers attention so try to be creative but to the point (avoid long sentences or paragraphs).
  7. Pin to your pinterest boards. Assuming that you always have an image associated with your posts (if you don't it's time to start using images for your most important posts – at least), pin that to your pinterest board.
  8. Add to stumbleupon. Stumbleupon was online before facebook, google+ and twitter and it's a great way to get traffic to your web site and spread the word about your new content. I like stumbleupon because it's very easy to use; it works and gives you the opportunity to discover really cool web sites and blogs on the web you otherwise wouldn't know about.
  9.  Email newsletter. Many web sites allow users to register to their newsletters but they never actually send a newsletter out. If you have an email newsletter configured make sure that your new posts are emailed to your subscribers.
  10. RSS feed. RSS is still one of the most effective ways to promote your web site and content. People who subscribe to your feed do it for one particular reason i.e. to get your updates so they are more likely to interact (share on their social media channels) with your posts as well.
  11. Notification from your mobile native apps. This is one of my favourite methods. If you have a native mobile app (android, iPhone, Windows phone etc) for your web site, every time you publish a new post your users will be notified in their mobiles. It is a great way to promote your new post and get direct visits to your web site. Read my previous post mobile web site vs native app for more information (including a real case study with numbers).

LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit and other bookmarking sites

If you have read other articles on how to promote your blog posts you will see mentions to linkedin, digg, reddit and other bookmarking sites.  I don't use these anymore (I did in the past) so I can't say if they provide any traffic or not but you can try them out if you have some spare time.

How NOT to promote your blog posts

The 11 methods explained above are in my opinion the best ways to promote your blog posts without losing too much time. While doing my research to write this article I came across a number of other suggestions that should be avoided if you want to minimize the risks of getting a penalty by Google or Facebook.

  1. Adding your blog post link in the comments section of other blogs: I personally don't approve comments that have links because in the majority of cases their purpose is not to provide a useful comment but to get a link from my web site. As I matter of fact I consider such technique spamming and I doubt if it worth's your time.
  2. Re-write the same post and submit as a guest post: This was a trick of the past. Re-writing the same post and publishing it on some other site for the sole purpose of getting a link back is a very bad idea. Guest posting is a valid way to build links if you do it the right way.
  3. Join a blogging community and inform each other for new posts: Very bad idea as well. You should stay away from methods that involve exchanging links with other bloggers.
  4. Adding your posts link as comments in facebook pages: Again, I consider this as spamming and if you do it consistently you will get banned or punished by facebook.
  5. Syndicating your content: There some web sites like alltop.com, selfgrowth.com that group related RSS feeds from several web sites creating information portals. While this is a good way to get traffic to your site because these sites have many visitors it is not the best way to promote your new blog posts. The reason is that these sites have high Google trust and Google will index your blog post on those sites faster than on your site. As a result when you search for a title or a phrase from your post (using " ") you will find out that Google will index the page on those sites and not yours. This is not always the case, there are exceptions to this rule but better avoid publishing your new blog posts, instead you can syndicate your older posts (that are already indexed on your site).

Certainly the above list is not 100% complete but is more than enough if you want to make efficient use of your time. Blog post promotion can be a time consuming process and you have to balance the effort vs return before deciding which methods to use.

How to promote your blog posts without taking any risks by

How to Use Facebook for Targeted Content <b>Promotion</b> - Moz

Posted: 17 Aug 2014 05:16 PM PDT

The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

As much as content and advertising agencies would like you to believe it, content produced by a business doesn't just go viral on it's own. There is often something that pushes it really, really hard when it first goes live which gains momentum, and eventually the content is spread far and wide enough that it doesn't need you to push it anymore. Those of you who have read Good to Great may be making associations with the flywheel principle, but that's a post for another day!

In this post I want to talk about one of the ways you can give your content a nudge in the right direction and get more people looking at it: Facebook advertising.

I won't go into too much detail on the basics of Facebook advertising; there are lots of resources and posts out there which do this. Instead, I want to dive straight into the methods you can use to promote your content to an audience on Facebook.

One of the advantages of using Facebook is the fine level of detail you can go to in terms of targeting an audience. In my opinion, this is one of the areas where Facebook is actually better than Google when it comes to advertising. They have so many options when it comes to targeting your audience:

moz-2.png

You can go much deeper

What isn't as well known, however, is that you can define your own audiences on Facebook and advertise to them directly. There are two core ways that you can do this which I'll explain in this post:

  • Custom audiences
  • Lookalike audiences

These methods allow you to push your content to a wider audience, but in a very targeted way. Yes, you are paying to advertise your content, which may feel a bit strange. However, it can be a great way of supporting your outreach and PR efforts.

Let's explore each one.

Custom audiences

You can use a feature called custom audiences to define exactly who it is that you'd like to advertising your content to.

Why this is useful for content promotion

When it comes to promoting your content, getting a lot of traffic to the content is good, but ideally you don't just want random visitors, you want targeted visitors. Whilst it is unlikely that you'll generate loads of direct conversions from a piece of content, you still want to attract visitors who you stand a chance of converting to customers at some point in the future.

As you can see above, you can get very granular with standard Facebook targeting. Custom audiences allow you to do even more and mix in data from your existing, non-Facebook customer lists too. This means that you can promote your content to an audience that is already somewhat engaged with your brand and is a little bit more likely to be interested in it. This is far better than a scatter-gun approach where you just try and get as many eyes on a piece of content as possible - regardless of how targeted they are.

Facebook gives you a number of ways to define your custom audience:

Let's go through each of these in turn and look at what they can do.

Data file custom audience

This option allows you to upload a CSV file which Facebook will then process to try and find matches with people who are already on Facebook. There are a few options in terms of what data you can upload and use to match people against:

  • Email address
  • Facebook User ID
  • Phone number
  • Mobile advertiser ID (such as Android or Apple user ID)

Once you've uploaded the file, it shouldn't take Facebook more than an hour or so to process the file and find matches from its users. Note that you need to upload a decent number of records in order to target them, Facebook recommends at least 100 people. Otherwise, the audience is likely to be too small to have any kind of impact or reach.

After processing, you'll see that the audience you've just created will be available to advertise to when you create a new ad:

From here, you can just create an ad as normal but it will be targeted just at this list of people.

MailChimp custom audience

I love MailChimp, we use it all the time at Distilled. Facebook makes it super easy to connect to your MailChimp account and target your email list.

If you have a list of customers or newsletter subscribers, then they are already familiar with your brand. So targeting them and showing off your awesome content could help bring them back to your website in a way that isn't directly sales / conversion focused. This can also work well to try and drive more traffic to your Facebook page or to generate likes, etc.

Custom audience from your mobile app

I haven't had the opportunity to try this one yet, but it's clear that it could be pretty powerful if you have a mobile app and are able to integrate the Facebook SDK for iOS or Android.

Basically, you can record user interactions with your app and choose to bucket people who take certain actions into a custom audience.

Custom audience from your website

This feature allows you to track visitors to your website using a Facebook remarketing pixel. Once you've installed the pixel, Facebook will begin building a list of visitors to your page who are also logged into Facebook and push these people into a custom audience. There are loads of ways to use this, but I'll come onto a very specific way you can use this shortly.

Lookalike audiences

There is a lot of power in the lookalike audiences feature on Facebook, I'll talk through a few examples, but first, let me briefly explain what lookalike audiences are in case you're not familiar.

Facebook allows you to say, "hey, here is a list of my existing customers, go find me people on Facebook who are similar to them and put those people into a new list."

I don't know the secret sauce or methodology that Facebook uses here, but I'd imagine it's a case of mashing together things like:

  • Demographic data
  • Interests
  • What someone has liked
  • Location

Once they've discovered the trends in this data, they find other people on Facebook who share these trends and put them into a new list. You can then push adverts for your content towards this list of people. 

Why this is useful for content promotion

The beauty of this method is that you're reaching a brand new audience in a very, very targeted way. Again, it's not a scatter-gun approach of just trying to target as many people as possible. Instead, you're targeting people who look very similar to your existing audience.

How to create a lookalike audience

Facebook makes it really easy, you go to Facebook Ads and click on the following:

Then click on:

You will then see something like this:

You can choose the source of your lookalike audience which, as you can see, can be either:

  • An existing custom audience
  • A conversion tracking pixel
  • A Facebook page

I'll go into detail on these shortly and give some examples of what you can do here.

Next, you need to choose a country for your audience. Currently, Facebook only allows you to select one country at a time. So if you wanted to create lookalike audiences across lots of countries, you'll need to create a lookalike list for each country.

The final option is to tell Facebook what balance you want between a new audience that is similar to your existing audience vs. the reach of the new audience. If you're starting off with a pretty small audience, then you may have to move the needle more towards reach, but I'd generally try and keep things as closely related to your existing audience as possible. Otherwise you're losing the benefits that a lookalike audience gives you.

Once you've created your audience, it will be available to you in the dropdown menu when you create a new ad:

Next, let's get into some examples of how you can use lookalike audiences to get more relevant eyes on your content.

Create a lookalike audience based on your email list

Above, we talked about how you can create a custom audience by uploading a list of customer email addresses or syncing Facebook with your MailChimp account. This alone is pretty powerful, but you can also use your email list as a source of a lookalike audience. You'll need to create a custom audience first, but once you do, you can use this as a source and tell Facebook to find you a whole new audience who look like your existing email list.

This is really useful if you have:

  • A list of customer email addresses
  • A list of subscribers to your blog content
  • A list of newsletter subscribers

Create a lookalike audience based on visitors to your content

You can't really do this one in advance of launching your content, but I think it can be a very powerful method of extending the reach of your content in a very targeted way. What we're going to do is track all the people who view our content, then ask Facebook to find us a new audience who look like those people. Let me illustrate with an example using this piece of content we created at Distilled:

It stands to reason that people who click through to this piece of content are probably going to share a few things:

  • An interest in music
  • An interest in one or more of the singers mentioned in the list
  • Probably someone who attends live music from time to time

If we placed a Facebook conversion pixel on this page, Facebook will detect those people who view the content and are logged into Facebook at the same time. This means that when grouping all those people together, Facebook will probably find shared interests, demographics and likes which they can use to define a new lookalike audience. In this example, the new audience is likely to be interested in music and gigs. 

If we then advertise this content to this new audience, it's likely to get their attention because they will be similar to the existing audience who are already viewing the content. This is super, super targeted.

So how do you do this?

The first step is to place a Facebook conversion pixel on your piece of content. You can do this by following these steps.

Click on conversion tracking:

Click on create pixel:

Now you have some options to select:

Next, Facebook will give you some tracking code which you need to paste it into the <head> section of your page.

Once you've done this, Facebook will start tracking the pixel and you'll see a new row in your conversion tracking report:

It will take a bit of time for data to start coming in, but when it does and you've reach a good amount of views, you can create a lookalike audience by clicking on:

That's it! You can then select this new lookalike audience when you create an ad and push adverts for your content towards people who share the same attributes of people already viewing your content.

To wrap things up

Hopefully you can see the power of Facebook ads, in particular the custom and lookalike audience features to help you promote your content in a very, very targeted way. It may feel a bit unnatural to pay to promote content (and not your product) but this is a very cost-effective way of reaching a big audience and it can really help support your regular outreach efforts.

<b>How To Promote</b> Your <b>Blog</b> On Social Media The Easy Way

Posted: 18 Aug 2014 06:31 AM PDT

Your blog is up and running the right way and may even be getting found in search engines. But it's still not getting the hits you want and nobody is commenting on your posts.

What are you going to do?????

Social media to the rescue!

Among all the ways to promote your blog, social media is the number one method. It's free and immediate and has infinite interactive possibilities. Additionally, the shares and commenting contributed by social media actually increase your ranking with Google, making it an even more worthwhile endeavour.

But to promote your blog on social media takes time and energy, and having a plan is essential. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the beginning, and devote shorter, regular spurts along the way. Here's how to get started:

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: Build Better Products by Identifying and Validating Your Riskiest Assumptions

Create Accounts and Followings

Focus on the top social media outlets and open accounts with them.

Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr are the highest trafficked sites, though they are not the end-all.

Create accounts using your name, your companies name, or an intuitive nickname that people will remember. Complete your profile for each account using relevant keywords and a good headshot. Give them all they information you feel comfortable offering, but whenever asked, withhold your birth year for security reasons.

Next, allow the service to dig into your hard drive and find your friends who have accounts so that it can hook you up automatically. I know that sounds creepy at first, but once you surrender your contacts, your social life opens up exponentially

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image twitter followersGet followers by becoming a follower. Start with an influencer in your industry and follow them. Then, click on who they follow and follow those people. Then, dive in.

Be Social

Apart from when you promote your blog on social media – which I'll elaborate in the next part – start posting other things appropriate to each site.

Remember, social media is not all about your blog. In fact no more than 20% of your social posts should be about you. Among the stuff about you, less than half should be outright sales pitches. Your blog posts, however, are considered soft sell as long as they are informational.

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image google page

Sharing stuff allows your new followers to get to know you and possibly re-share your curated posts. If you use appropriate #hashtags that people are following, you can gain a wider reach and attract more followers.

If you're not sure what to post on each network, here's a cheatsheet:

  • Facebook – relevant content, pictures, quizzes, quotes
  • Linkedin – business related contact
  • Twitter – content links, breaking news, twit pics
  • Pinterest – tall images of food porn, recipes, fashion, DIY
  • Instagram – pictures of anything

What and when to post on social media is a whole science. To read more about it, see:

20 Social Media Tips To Rule In 2014

THE SOCIAL MEDIA FREQUENCY GUIDE: HOW OFTEN TO POST TO FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, AND MORE

Automate Social Media Posts

Yes, logging into each social media site and pasting links and clever text into each one is exhausting and time consuming. This was discovered almost as soon as social media became a thing. That's when the word "automate" became a call to action.

To be effective, you need to automate your social media, at least to some extent. That's why social media tools were invented. Here's what I use:

Buffer – the free version allows me to set up Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin accounts related to my Blogsite Studio business. When I find a story to post, I click the Buffer icon, pick the social service, comment, and schedule the post, and it gets posted when I want it to.

I spend an hour each morning setting up posts for the day. One each goes to Linkedin, Google+ and Facebook, and 8-10 go to Twitter.

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image tweetdeck page

Tweetdeck – I manage three Twitter accounts and the free version of Tweetdeck allows me to see all of their activity, plus a few hashtags I follow, across 16 columns.

I use Tweetdeck's easy scheduler to retweet other people tweets as well as scheduling tweets for the middle of the night. People in Europe and Asia retweet and follow while I'm sleeping.

But there are many more tools to promote your blog on social media. You'll find more among the Top 100+ Content Marketing Tools.

Automate Social Posts in WordPress

Once you've built a following using the above tools and methods, you are almost ready to promote your blog on social media.

I've tried a lot of plugins to automate my posts on social media, but the one that works easiest is JetPack Publicize, available when you are connected to JetPack with your WordPress.com account.

JetPack Publicize is actually two plugins in one: Publicize and Sharing.

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image publicize

Publicize for sending your posts to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Tumblr and Path (What's Path? ).

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image sharing buttonsSharing for allowing readers to share the posts on your site to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, and StumbleUpon as well as email, print and Pocket (What's Pocket?).

After connecting with your social accounts, Publicize places a module in the Publish section on the Edit Page.

How To Promote Your Blog On Social Media The Easy Way image publicize box

You can click on the Edit box to edit the social message. A link shortcode is pre-set.

So when your post is launched, all of the social sites you are connected to will post a link to your blog. Presto-Sharo!

Promote your Blog on Social Media

Consider this a brief introduction in how to promote your blog on social media. There are a million ways to finesse social media, and it just takes practice and testing to find what works best for your blog. The best thing you can do is get busy now.

Got a favourite tip for using social media? Please share it with us. Here, or on social media.

<b>How to Promote</b> Your Content Using Paid, Earned & Owned Media

Posted: 13 Aug 2014 09:00 AM PDT

content_promotionThis post originally appeared on the Insiders section of Inbound Hub. To read more content like this, subscribe to Insiders.

Some people think content promotion isn't complicated. It's just making sure content is optimized for the search engines, sent to an appropriate email list, and then broadcast it socially, right? If only it were that simple.

Search algorithms aren't as reliant on on-page factors for determining relevance anymore, organic social reach is declining, and not every brand has a huge opt-in email database at their disposal. As a result, brands that wish to rely on these tactics must have patience -- or double down on promotional efforts.

The amount of patience required is dependent on the level of inbound adoption within any given industry. For example, a bee keeper just getting started with inbound marketing might see results faster than a new marketing agency, since marketing as an industry is highly saturated with content. Unfortunately, most enterprises aren't patient enough to wait 6, 8, or 12 months for the return they need to justify their budgets -- they generally get one quarter to prove a program's worth. 

So if you're a late inbound adopter in a competitive industry and you want to grow fast, you need to get creative with how you promote your content. The graphic and explanations below detail some of the best paid and earned media tactics for promoting content. These tactics can empower newer inbound adopters to see results quicker, help agencies reduce churn by driving client results faster, and allow enterprise marketers to show a return within a quarter.

The Tactics of Content Promotion

dr1

Content Coverage

This is perhaps the most powerful of the three content promotion channels. Earning attention for a brand's content can drive brand awareness, traffic, and conversions. Here are a few ways you can get more content coverage.

Media Relations

This is a tried-and-true stalwart of public relations (PR), but it doesn't have to be all about pitching brand, product, and service stories to journalists and editors. Marketers and PR professionals alike can pitch a brand's ebook, guide, study, etc. if it's prudent to the audience of the publication. Below shows the growth in leads (in purple) from one link to an ebook featured in a story on Inc.com.

dr2

In total, this one link drove over 800 incremental leads in 30 days. The day after it was published, 20% of the total website visitors downloaded the ebook.

Influencer Outreach

Also known as influencer marketing or influencer advocacy, influencer outreach is quite similar to media relations, though, typically, the people targeted are influential in their industry and aren't necessarily journalists or editors. Influencers can be bloggers or people that amass large social followings around their industry expertise.

The result of outreach can lead to something as simple as a social share, a direct or indirect endorsement on a blog, or full-on collaboration with a project or campaign. The example below helped drive nearly 5,000 unique website visitors to the article and over 500 Google +1s in just two weeks.

dr3

Bylined Articles

These result when media outlets invite company executives with a very specific expertise to write for them. Some are one-and-done, and others are a series of articles or even a weekly column. Bylines cost nothing, but it takes time to research the media and pitch them why a brand's executive should write for them. Once a byline is earned, citing ebooks, guides, studies, and blog posts can drive copious amounts of traffic and conversions.

dr4

Syndication

This tactic was a cornerstone of the newspaper business for many years and turned some journalists into cult celebrities. While not a cornerstone of the internet, having content syndicated to other websites serves the same purpose -- getting content in front of many more eyeballs. Any calls to action or citations leading back to landing pages in the original content can drive massive amounts of conversions over time. Just be sure that you're covering all of your SEO-bases when having your content syndicated.

Below is an example of one of several syndication relationships Relevance.com has. Each one credits the original source of the content, as seen below. If you're ever getting your content syndicated, make sure that the syndicated post links back to the original.

dr5

Content Distribution

In Ryan Skinner's Forrester report, "Put Distribution at the Heart of Content Marketing," he talks about traditional online ad networks and the quickly growing ecosystem of paid content distribution channels. Native distribution is more conducive to content marketers than banner ads and lacks the pervasiveness of banner blindness. Below are a few ways you can use this type of promotion for your content.

Native Advertising (Content Discovery Networks)

Networks like Taboola, AdBlade, and Outbrain are quickly growing. With more than 90% of companies admitting to content marketing adoption, it's not surprising -- with so much content out there, people are looking for any edge to get noticed. Outbrain reports a 6% clickthrough rate across its network of 100,000 publishers.

These networks allow marketers to get their content in front of very large audiences while simultaneously helping traditional media outlets grow revenue -- something many of them haven't been able to do for more than a decade. You can see an example of what native advertising typically looks like below.

dr6

Advertorials (Sponsored Content)

This is another way for brands to tap into another website's audience. Brands using this tactic pay to publish articles on other websites or media outlets. The pieces usually look and feel much like the unsponsored content on the media site, but is denoted with a "sponsored" tag or sticker. Popularized by Forbes, online advertorials are beginning to crop up all over the Internet. However, media buying for sponsored content is still in its infancy. Pricing varies widely across the media -- from six figures to a couple hundred dollars.

Here is an example of how one website features advertorial content.:

dr7

Native Social

Advertising helped both Facebook and LinkedIn experience stock price spikes when these programs were announced. Both networks have successfully given brands the option to move advertisements from the doldrums of banner ad space into users' newsfeeds where these sponsored posts look very similar to typical updates.

Marketers who choose to use social networks for native advertising should experiment. Some are more conducive to blog content and visuals while others are best suited for landing pages. Cost per click can vary between $0.25 to over $20 on networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

dr8

Native Newsletters

These have been around for quite some time. Most marketers can likely find several examples in their inboxes now. Some companies that have amassed large email databases will allow marketers to pay to include their branded content or offers in their newsletter.

If you pay for native newsletter distribution, your rate can be a part of a broader sponsorship package, cost per click, cost per action, or cost per lead. Paying for placement in a newsletter is another way for marketers to distribute their content in a native manner.

dr9

Content Broadcasting

Unfortunately, broadcasting is exclusively what most marketers use for content promotion today. For some it can be highly effective, but for others it can feel like no one is listening. It's exceptionally difficult to get needle-moving results for companies just getting started with inbound marketing in an industry that's embraced it already. For content broadcasting to have a big impact, a brand needs an existing audience.

Social Media

This is a tried-and-true broadcasting channel for brands. Unfortunately, Facebook is slowly, but surely, limiting the organic reach of brands -- and it's possible that other social networks might follow suit. So if you're going to beef up your social media distribution, know that you're at the mercy of the social networks and that algorithm changes could affect your future successes. I'm not saying don't be on social media, just be aware that you have to play by the social networks' rules to be successful. 

Email

Email is highly effective channel for content distribution, too. Valuable content can be delivered to subscribers, leads, customers, and partners. Whether it's a one-off campaign, a regular subscription, triggered automation, or nurturing, email works. Unfortunately though, without a significant email database to tap into, brands don't have anyone to broadcast to. Over time, though, you can build this large, opt-in database and then regularly distribute your content to them.

As marketers, we're used to telling our customers to be patient with inbound marketing -- that it takes time. But it only takes time if broadcasting is the only content promotion channel used. By leveraging the content promotion landscape and the tools of the content promotion ecosystem, marketers can get faster and better results.

This post was a sneak peek at Chad Pollitt's INBOUND 2014 presentation entitled, "How Content Promotion Changed Our Inbound Marketing Forever." Don't forget to register and stop by his session on Wednesday, September 17th.

<b>How to Promote</b> Your App for Free - Codefuel

Posted: 17 Aug 2014 04:43 AM PDT

Trying to figure out how to promote your app for free? No problem. Got a zero dollar budget? No problem. Got a computer? Good, because that's all you'll need. Here are 13 quick and dirty tips, tricks, techniques, and recipes you can mix and match to promote your app for free. 

 

1. Microsites and Blogs

Starting a website is easy, and it can be free or almost free. Domains cost less than $30 per year, and a Google search will reveal plenty of free blogging platforms. 

You can create a blog centered around your app's niche, or simply create a one-page microsite that advertises your app's benefits and features. 

Have links to any social media accounts, a contact address, and consider allowing users to comment and post reviews on the site.

2. Socialize Online

Promote your app through any existing social media channels, and consider creating some where there are none. Join Google+ groups, forums, and follow people who have similar interests. 

Make friends with online celebrities and help non-competitors promote their products – they'll help you back. Word of mouth works both online and off.

3. Create Promo Videos

Throw together a thoughtful presentation that tackles the same problem your potential customers are facing. Do a how-to video, tutorials, or other informative videos and post them on YouTube. YouTube is still one of the best ways to increase exposure, improve SEO, and attract new followers. 

Make sure to post links to your social media accounts and your web pages.

4. Get Media

In other words, get the attention of the press. This means everything from local news press to relevant niche blogs. Pretty much any press exposure will help you out, even interviewing with individual bloggers. Links back to your website will increase traffic and boost SEO.

5. List Your Product

Software directories are your friend. Upload your app to all the major software directories and take advantage of the increased exposure. If you plan on charging for your product, then you can upload a free trial or freemium version of the product.

6. Create Email Lists

Email can keep you in contact with customers long after they've left your website. You can keep them informed of new products, updates, and news. Don't feel obligated to bother your customers on a weekly basis with a newsletter – chances are you won't need one if you're just releasing apps every so often. 

Just shoot them an email with important releases and product updates when necessary.

7. Good Old Networking

Networking has always been the foundation of good marketing, and it still is. Find your way to local Meetup groups, conferences, and events. Pass out business cards, add value, and tell people about your app. Marketing is a long-term effort, and long-term success is built upon long-term relationships.

8. Signatures Say it All

Your email signature should point to your website, promote your app, and tell people to follow you on social media. Forum signatures should do the same. Adding a company name after your name when you comment on blogs can help increase brand exposure. Likewise with social media messaging.

9. Incentivize with Promo Prices

Deals, limited time offers, and special pricing can incentivize customers who may not otherwise purchase your product. Create contests among your social followers: whoever shares the most gets a promo code for a free download.

10. Design for Sharing

Include like buttons and share buttons in your app, and, if relevant, include social functions such as messaging and chat. This can take some of the headache out of marketing, and lets users do a lot of the legwork for you. You can also take shares and likes in lieu of payment.

11. Join an Affiliate Network

If you charge for your product, then you can join an affiliate network or a pay-per-download site that has an affiliate program. Doing so will allow affiliates to promote your product in return for a commission on each sale. This lets them do the promotion work, so you can focus on developing your next app.

12. Find a Monetization and Distribution Platform

Total monetization solutions such as the Codefuel product line offer both monetization and marketing solutions. They give you access to a network of partners who will help promote your product to a worldwide user base, and you can monetize your own product using the platform's tools.

13. Free Isn't Free

Time is money and money is time. The best way to save both is to make sure that you're not spending too much of either promoting your product. When the cost of your time outweighs the cost of paying others to do your marketing, you may want to look into outsourcing some of these activities. 

Satisfied businessmen

<b>How To Promote</b> Your Murfie Shop | Murfie <b>Blog</b>

Posted: 20 Aug 2014 12:29 PM PDT

Putting your CD collection up for sale on Murfie is fun, but actually selling your collection is even more fun! And promoting your personal shop using Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist is a great way to do just that.

Facebook

If Facebook is your forte, all you have to do is locate your shop URL on your profile page and then include that URL in any statuses you post about your collection.

Twitter

If Twitter is more your cup of tea, again simply find your shop URL on your profile page and include it in any subsequent tweets you make about the albums you're selling.

Craigslist

Craigslist is another fantastic way to promote your personal shop, especially because posting an ad to Craigslist doesn't cost a cent.

To set up your shop, go to http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites. Then, select the city in which you want your ad to be posted. Keep in mind that you can only post in one city.

Next, you'll want to click "post to classifieds," which is in the upper left corner of Craigslist's homepage. You'll then want to choose the "for sale" option for your posting type, and the "cds/dvds/vhs" option for your posting category.

After you've completed the set up, fill out the posting form with a unique title and description. Be sure to include your shop's URL in the description, as well as what music you're selling.

Once you've submitted your post, you'll be sent an email with a link that allows you to make any last minute changes to your posting, if needed. Craigslist also allows you to repost your ad every 48 hours.

Selling CDs

With the right mix of promotion and quality albums for sale, you'll have a recipe for success, and some money in the bank!

Learn More

Inside AdWords: Using Google Search and YouTube to <b>Promote</b> <b>...</b>

Posted: 20 Aug 2014 08:58 AM PDT

Earlier this year, we announced our next generation of app promotion ads across Google Search, the Google Display Network and YouTube. The features on the Display Network launched in June as part of Google I/O. Today, I'm excited to announce the global availability of the search ads and YouTube offerings.

Google Search for App Install and Re-Engagement

There are over 100 billion searches per month on Google.com. People search here for places to visit, movies to watch or music to listen to. Sometimes this content lives on a website, sometimes it's in an app. Now with just 3 easy steps, you can get your app into an ad by using a new, simplified campaign set-up flow that promotes your app on Google.com. Search ads created with this new flow are only shown to people who don't already have your app -- so every click is from a potential new user, saving you time and money. 

Retale, an app for finding great deals in your city, is already seeing strong performance. Christoph Hoyer, Retale's head of mobile marketing shared that "The results have exceeded our expectations, Google search ads provide high-volume quality traffic for Retale's app with a cost per install around $2."

Click here to get started.

How do you select the best keywords so your ad shows to consumers most likely to download your app? Use the keyword suggestion tool for app ads on search. This tool suggests keywords to include in your campaign based on top queries used for finding your app on Google Play and Google Search. FarFaria, a leading children's e-book app, expanded their Google search ads keyword lists by using this tool and was able to unlock 30% more app downloads while maintaining a click through rate of 3% and a cost per install that was 50% below other mobile networks. 


Once you have a large base of users who've installed your app, how do you keep them engaged? Since 80% of downloaded apps are downloaded and used only once,1 it's more important than ever to help users remember your app when searching for relevant content that you can provide. Starting today, you can deep link users directly from Google Search into specific pages of apps they've already installed by signing up for the beta here. Customers like LINE, Zoopla and Booking.com are already testing deep-linking with their apps. Here's how it works: let's say someone has the Booking.com app installed on their phone and searches for "San Francisco Hotels" on Google.com; now they can go directly to the specific page in the Booking.com app that shows listings for hotels in San Francisco.
YouTube for App Promotion

The power of sight, sound and motion makes YouTube users more than 2X more likely to download apps.2 Starting today, you can showcase your app when people are watching their favorite videos using a new enhancement to TrueView ads.  With TrueView, advertisers can reach potential customers based on their interests, previously-watched videos and demographics. Deepak Gupta, chief revenue officer at MachineZone, a leading mobile game developer, noted that by "Using YouTube we didn't just find more customers, we found more of the 'right' customers. We know video platforms in general deliver valuable users, but we found that users who download our app from YouTube are 15% more valuable than those from any other video platform."

Start promoting your app on YouTube by simply linking your app's ID to your TrueView campaigns. Learn more

Better Measurement = Better Campaigns

To attract the right customers and keep them engaged, it's important to have robust insights into how people interact with your app and tools to fine-tune your bids for app ads. Check out these 3 new search ads offerings that help you do just that:

  • Measure app download conversions: App installs show up as conversions automatically in AdWords without any additional setup, for Android apps on Google Play.  Learn more
  • Integrate your analytics data: If you're using third party tracking systems, import information about your apps, directly into AdWords. Learn more
  • Automate your bids: Use Target CPA when creating your app campaign to automatically find the optimal bid for your ad each time its eligible for an auction, without waiting for conversion history to accumulate. This lets you immediately maximize the total number of installs at your target CPA.  Learn more
Over the coming weeks we'll dive into these new features with tips and best practices on the Inside AdWords blog and on our Google+ page. We also invite you to register for our "Promoting Your App on Search" Google Hangout On Air on 9/18. 

Posted by Jerry Dischler, VP of Product Management, AdWords


1Source: Digital Trends, 2013

2Source: YouTube Global Audience Study, IPSOS 2013 

<b>How To Promote</b> Your Business With A <b>Blog</b> - Business 2 Community

Posted: 18 Aug 2014 08:26 PM PDT

How To Promote Your Business With A Blog image Internet Ad Revenue Report

Internet advertising is growing leaps and bounds each year, as evidenced by the graph above, and if you aren't taking advantage of the medium to reach and interact with potential customers, your business is lagging behind the competition.

Fortunately, you don't have to use paid advertising from Google AdWords or Facebook to get visitors to your corporate website. Free organic traffic can be earned by starting a blog to promote your business. Starting a blog is cheap and easy. Businesses use blogs for content marketing by developing industry-relevant articles that resonate with readers and build authority and trust.

Now, you may already know the value of blogging and content marketing, but you're concerned about getting a return on investment. Maybe you've devoted the time and energy, but haven't grown a loyal following yet. There are millions of blogs out there, and you want to know how to promote yours effectively.

Here are some excellent ways to promote and grow your business blog. With some thought, planning and consistency, your efforts will pay off.

Related Resources from B2C
» Free Webcast: Build Better Products by Identifying and Validating Your Riskiest Assumptions

1. Branding

Even if you blog for personal reasons, you need to understand branding. All branding really means is knowing exactly what your blog represents. Good branding involves creating and sending clear and consistent messages in everything you do both on and off your blog, including your social media accounts, email responses, etc.

Core message. The first thing you did as a blogger was conceive the name of your blog or business. This is because naming is one of the most important ways to communicate your blog's core message: the message you want to broadcast to your readers (or customers) in every word you write. Your core message must always come through in every aspect of your blog: its name, design, posts, and visual content.

There are several questions you need to ask yourself as you ensure your message is clear and on point:

  • Who exactly is your target audience?
  • Why do you want to attract them?
  • How does your knowledge or product/service help address a problem or need?
  • What will your blog say to them and offer?

When you have answered all of these questions clearly, your core message should shine through. Repeat it creatively and often for your target audience, but always be consistent. Otherwise, you lose sight of your purpose.

Find fresh ways to communicate your core message and increase your brand's exposure. Leaving comments on related blogs that add value, especially blogs with good traffic, is a great strategy. Linking and guest posting on these blogs is also a good idea. Using social media effectively, which I discuss more below, is also a must.

And finally, make sure your core message is getting across in the best ways that it can. Keep your content current, relevant, and helpful. Make it visually appealing, and use images and videos whenever possible. Keep your points short and easy to understand; use bullets when you can. Link to authoritative resources.

Remember: the best blog in the world won't be read without effective branding.

2. Build Your Online Presence To Establish Trust and Authority

Producing high-quality, educational content is only half the battle. Making sure your work gets seen and read is even harder. If you want to build a successful blog, you will need to continuously, yet tastefully promote yourself and your blog.

Join online communities within your niche. If you're not relevant, no one cares. There's no sense posting or commenting in a community that isn't related to your work. Take the time to find groups that would take an interest in your knowledge. After all, what good is it to have 100,000 visits a month and no revenue?

When you do find ideal online communities and forums, don't be rude. Take the time to read what others are posting, and get a meaningful sense of what the community thinks. This is the only real way to add value. Link to yourself only when relevant.

Social media groups are also great communities for promotion of your work. They are home to many influencers. Again, make sure you are targeting only relevant groups and that you understand the culture and social norms before you participate. Good social media communities to know include Google+, Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups, SubReddits, and Twitter chats.

If your niche concerns business or marketing, take advantage of the active online communities that are dedicated to these topics. You can submit your work on anything from content marketing to SEO techniques, and then just like on Reddit, the community votes up the best pieces. Community algorithms determine front page news, and this means that competition is fierce and quality is high. But it also means that if your work gets upvotes initially, you have a great shot at some major exposure. Check out BizSugar, Growthhackers, and Inbound.org.

3. Network With Influencers

Sometimes all you need to do is ask someone for help. Reach out to influencers, but add value and engage with them before you ask for help. Interact with them via social media or directly on their blogs. Then send them a tailored email:

Dear [Name],

I noticed that you posted a link from [Name] about [issue]. I have a similar post called [Title] that deals with [issue]. Here's the link: [link]. I would appreciate your share very much!

Your Name

If you just can't do that, why not start a conversation? These are things you genuinely care about, remember? That's why you're doing this. Tell them that you mentioned, quoted, or linked to them in a post, or that you noticed something that they posted, shared, or linked to that was on a similar issue. Chances are great that you have a lot in common.

4. Market Your Content Effectively

Be an expert and a source of great content for others. Repost your work on Quora, Medium, and StumbleUpon. All these have massive audiences, a huge array of categories, and a vast numbers of opinions. Include your bio and a link to your blog on your profile.

Turn posts into podcasts that would-be readers can listen to while they're working, commuting, or doing chores at home. Create a transcript based on the post and either read it aloud or hire someone else to read it. Submit podcasts to Apple, Blog Talk Radio, Digital Podcast, Podbean, or Podomatic for circulation.

More visual versions of your written content are also excellent re-purposing goals. Slideshows also get many clicks. Use PowerPoint or Keynote to keep your project easy. When you're done, upload your slideshow to Scribd, Slideboom, Slideshare, or Slideworld. Video is just as simple, and you can combine a podcast and a slideshow to make a video. Submit videos to YouTube, Vimeo, or Yahoo.

If you're taking your content and turning it into a feast for the eyes, do not miss out on infographics. They are among the hottest and most powerful forms of content today because they generate tons of backlinks and social shares for your blog. Use tools like Piktochart to create infographics yourself, and then submit them to Cool Infographics, Daily Infographics, Flickr, Infographics Archive, Infographics Journal, Infographics Showcase, Visual.ly, or Visual Loop.

If you have enough content, turn your blog posts into a substantial eBook. This allows you to provide an in-depth look at your topic while your readers consume your work on their own schedule. You can upload an eBook as a PDF file on many sites, including Addicted to eBooks, Author Marketing Club, Books on The Knob, Digital Book Today, eBooks Habit, Free eBooks Daily, and MBG eBooks Gallery.

You can also turn your aggregated content, whether it's an eBook or a collection of blog posts, into an AutoResponder email course in exchange for email subscribers. You can make each chapter or content area into an email lesson and pace it in whatever way feels appropriate. This technique allows you to offer real value in the form of a course for free while collecting emails.

Finally, remember that there is no substitute for live engagement. Webinars, chats, live podcasts, and hangouts are high-quality ways to build an active audience. The most successful events feature other thought leaders from your niche because you can work together to drive traffic to both blogs.

Remember the reasons you started your blog - to grow your business. Take it seriously and promote it professionally, and you will realize results.

5 ways to successfully <b>promote</b> sustainable employee behavior <b>...</b>

Posted: 20 Aug 2014 03:00 AM PDT

Only 30% of employees are engaged, costing $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity. Yet research shows that companies with strong sustainability and social responsibility programs have much higher engagement rates.

Susan Hunt Stevens founded WeSpire in 2010 with the mission of enabling informed sustainable choices through the use of technology, social influence, and game mechanics. Influenced by the behavior design models of BJ Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and Dr. Robert Cialdini, today WeSpire is the platform of choice for businesses seeking an innovative approach to meet their corporate sustainability and responsibility goals. We spoke with Stevens about trends in employee engagement and sustainability and promoting behavior change beyond the office.

SB: Your recent report The State of Employee Engagement in Sustainability and CSR discloses a number of key findings. Which did you find most surprising? Are there any other trends you are noticing among your clients that you feel are not yet reflected in the survey?

SHS: There were two surprising key findings from our report. The first was that respondents overwhelmingly stated (89%) they would try a sustainability tactic at home that was introduced at work. The results emphasize how powerful the workplace can be in driving broader behavioral change and impact. That's extremely exciting for us, but I also think it's a huge opportunity for companies to positively impact society.

The second is that 65% of respondents want to learn more about what their co-workers and employer are doing around conservation. This was even more pronounced when we stratified the respondents by age group. For Millennials (those under 30), 75% would be interested to learn more about the conservation efforts of their co-workers and employer and that was notably different than older employees. To us, this definitely points to sustainability being fundamentally important to any company trying to attract and retain the workforce of the future.

Our research also showed that HR is getting more involved in sustainability as the connection between triple bottom line programs and overall employee engagement becomes more proven. However, I think there is a lot more work to do to understand the broader impact of sustainability programs on HR goals.

SB: How does WeSpire's ROI Calculator work and how does it help companies measure their social and environmental impact?

SHS: WeSpire's ROI Calculator helps our customers understand both the environmental and financial impact of the actions their employees are taking. For example, a CSO can see the dollar savings to-date, or for a specific time period, from a project their employees have joined around water conservation. They can also see how many gallons of water were saved and which actions in the project were most impactful. The ROI calculator puts hard numbers to employee engagement, something that has been historically very difficult to measure.

I can't provide specific customer results, but I can say that collectively our total savings in the past twelve months was nearly $250 per person. And we recently shared that our Droughtbusters project, which several companies in the Southwest are using, has saved nearly 7 million gallons of water.

Susan Hunt Stevens,CEO of WeSpire, will share more on the value of employee engagement, and interview select brands doing a great job of it, at New Metrics '14

SB: With so many opportunities to make a positive impact and the numerous environmental and social challenges our world is facing, how do you help companies prioritize which actions to encourage among their employees?

SHS: WeSpire's Customer Success team is dedicated to ensuring that each customer reaches their goals, whether it's a financial goal, an impact goal, or a "number of employees reached" goal. Once we understand the goal, the Customer Success team then works with clients to select or build creative, fun and innovative projects and actions that will have the desired impact. We also collaborate on marketing ideas for building awareness for the program with employees. As goals evolve and change, the content changes accordingly. We want to keep it fresh, exciting, smart and relevant. We often remind customers that many employees are still trying to understand the basics, and what's important is to get people taking actions to start with — no matter how small. As people gain more awareness and engagement, you can put higher impact projects and more challenging actions in front of them.

SB: How can a company encourage usage of WeSpire among employees who may be technology-averse or sustainability skeptics?

SHS: While some employees may be computer-averse, we find very few who are phone-averse. Our mobile application is a great way to encourage people to participate, especially if they don't have access to other technology in the workplace. We've seen clients recruit participants using tablets and kiosks. We also design the product to be incredibly simple and fast to use and remind people of other well-used platforms like Facebook.

Even skeptics join these programs when they get invited by a colleague to a project and then are pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of choices. Some projects are focused on sustainability, but our customers also offer other programs, like volunteering, workplace safety, security and well-being — whatever matters to them. Once engaged, employees start to realize that many actions are smart, common sense things to do — and doing them is good for business. It's a big motivator.

SB: WeSpire first started as a tool for consumers and repositioned in response to growing demand from companies. What are some of the differences between creating a platform for the general public and for a company's internal usage?

SHS: We actually still support programs that reach consumers; for example NBC Universal has a program called "One Small Act." There are differences in the content, as workplace programs often have very company specific work-related actions. But the other difference we've seen is in the willingness of people to invite others. When a program is framed as "good for people, planet, and profit," employees feel really safe inviting colleagues. In a consumer program, I think some people hold back — worried about the politics or that they are imposing their views.

SB: What are some key takeaways you have learned about how to successfully promote behavior change?

SHS: 1. Meet people where they are — many are just getting started. Keep it simple and make it practical and relevant to their work and their life.

2. Find someone's hook — maybe it's local food, volunteering, or the reuse/sharing economy. These actions can then "on ramp" people to energy and waste.

3. Identify and use your champions and the social network — peer-to-peer learning and social norming scales in a way that experts don't.

4. Keep programs fresh, relevant and fun — Provide lots of opportunities to 'try once' or 'try for a period of time' before pushing all-in habit change.

5. Think long term — it's a journey that will last a lifetime and will take many campaigns, lots of projects. But over time, you will get lots of impact.

This article originally appeared in Sustainable Brands and reprinted at 2degrees. Top image by lenetstan via Shutterstock.