Small Business News

Author: moz.com

The gentleman sitting across the table from me at a crowded lunch spot has what he sees as a workable business idea for a local business, a sound plan to get it off the ground, enough funds to weather the ups and downs of the current business climate in his area, and the determination to stick around long enough to be successful.

However, what he doesn’t have are the answers to three questions pertaining to content marketing for his small business:

“How do I [rank higher in local SERPs?]”

“Do I need to use social media? Will it help my brand?”

My heart breaks a little as he looks down to pick at his salad. Not because I don’t like questions, or because the questions are difficult to answer. They aren’t.

In fact, the answer I gave comes from a slogan i learned of in college and have used repeatedly when attempting to get small brands to see the shortest path to success: “Think globally, act locally.”

Every brand wants to be No. 1 in the SERPs, or so they think.

What they really want, however, is to be the No. 1 most-chosen brand.

 

Read More at moz.com

Author: Ginna Hall

While there were many great stories from amazing thought leaders circulating around the Content Marketing Conference 2016, the “Unicorn Rocket Technology” outlined by Larry Kim, Founder of WordStream, was one of the more memorable tales. Part movie stills from “The Martian,” part hilarious memes and all solid social media marketing tips, his presentation took listeners on a business-boosting journey that was, quite literally, out of this world.

Here are Larry’s 10 secret tips for building a high-powered “Unicorn Rocket” of your very own, all from the comfort of your earthbound office.

#10 – Find your unicorn(s). The Unicorn in this equation refers to your best-producing content, as it stands right now. Larry enthused on the power of the top 1% to 2% of your existing content – by scale and interest, not a specific numeric metric – in his session. These, he explained, would be what actually comprised your successful social media marketing – your “rocket” – that would interest and engaged customers for a minimum spend and an excellent ROI. He cautioned against trying to “respark” losing and low-interest content, calling these donkeys in contrast to unicorns; money doesn’t have to be divided evenly among marketing attempts, and can and should be proportioned according to content’s past performance, not hopeful future performance. Larry admonished that chasing after – and trying to prop up – past content that failed in comparison to your unicorns will quickly send you in a “donkey spiral” of throwing good effort after bad, marketing-wise.

 

Read More at contentmarketingconference.com

Author: Lisa Arledge Powell

This article first appeared on PR Daily in June, 2015.

A report from Cisco offers a glimpse into the future of content marketing and video.

The research says it would take one person more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2019. That statistic alone should make you start thinking about how to make your brand’s video content stand out.

Consider these techniques:

1. Start with strategy. As with any communications initiative, always begin with a plan. Before hitting the record button on your camera, be clear about your company’s goals, target audience and message.

2. Keep it short and compelling. Many of today’s most popular YouTube videos run less than a minute. However, the length of your video should be determined by your goals and the type of information you’re trying to communicate. It’s difficult to keep an online viewer engaged for more than two or three minutes. If you have a lot of content on one topic, edit it into several shorter videos. Regardless of the length, begin your segment strong. Open your piece with compelling visuals and information.

 

Read More at prdaily.com

Author: massplanner.com

The social media marketing industry is so full of different voices spewing often-conflicting and often-rehashed opinions. Trying to figure out which ones to listen to and which to ignore can be tough. In this article, we give you a master list of the current social media marketing elite – in our opinion, the only voices you should be listening to. Follow these social sales gurus on Twitter to get regular, free advice on the latest social media marketing trends, tips, and traps.

These are the top 10 social media marketers to follow on Twitter right now.

Gary Vaynerchuk is the consummate Internet and social media whiz kid. While working in his father’s liquor store in New Jersey, Vaynerchuk realized the importance of e-commerce. He then created WineLibrary.com and Wine Library TV, both of which garnered millions of fans. In 2009, he co-founded VaynerMedia, a marketing agency that works with Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo, GE, and the NY Jets.

Follow Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter (@garyvee) – to get tips on social media marketing and insights into the inner workings of the online marketing world. He tells you what has worked for him and his businesses, what he has seen work for others, and how you can make social media work for you. You can also subscribe to his email newsletter and read his most recent book JabJabJab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World.

 

Read More at massplanner.com

Author: Natasha Lomas

There is great writing. And there is content. And at this juncture in the internet’s evolution it seems very plain, Dear Online Reader, that you are mostly being served a tsunami of content — accelerated into your attention trough by click-dependent digital business models that require a steady stream of word fodder to engage eyeballs long enough to ambush them with ads.

You can weep for the state of the written word — and let’s face it, a whole lot of content isn’t even written these days; I mean, why expend energy composing actual sentences when you can just live stream a melon being slow-ploded by rubber bands, or you can build technology to automate the writing process to churn out even more #content?

The second option is what Israeli startup Articoolo has been busy doing. It’s built an algorithm that can generate an article on a topic of your choice — so long as it can be described in between two and five words. Just sum up your subject concisely, tell the machine how many words (max 500) to scribe on your behalf and select whether you prefer “better readability” or “enhanced uniqueness.” Then hit the create button and sit back and wait for your article to be baked by its AI.

 

Read More at techcrunch.com