Dauber Website Design
What does the Snapchat update mean for your business?
If you haven’t already heard, last week Snapchat rolled out it’s newest redesign! Snapchat split the app into two sections, consolidating friend content (stories and direct snaps) on the left side, media content (sponsored content and featured celebrity stories) on the right, among other design changes.
With all the drama that came with the update, are you sitting wondering what this means for your business who actively uses Snapchat? Well don’t you worry, sometimes people don’t take change easily but, the fire eventually goes out and social media life goes back to normal. It takes people getting use to the new before it becomes the norm.
Along with the new design, Snapchat has added new text features that lets you change the font of your text, more moving filters and lenses, brought “Bestfriends” back and, a HUGE sneak peek of their analytics feature. YAY!
According to Yahoo! Finance Snapchat has also given thousands of creators are part of the Official Stories creator community the ability to start seeing “view count” and demographic analytics on their Snapchat profile.
“These new analytics include:
- Total Story Views in the past week, month and year to date.
- Time Spent Viewing Stories in minutes in the past week, month, and year to date.
- Daily unique story viewers, average time unique viewers spent watching, and completion rates
- Audience demographics like gender breakdown, top age bracket, and top geographic regions
- Audience interests like which lifestyle categories like film and TV, food, fashion , and sports their audiences care about”
Although this feature is only granted for Official Story content creators, it is very exciting news for businesses/brands because it means hopefully you’ll be able to see analytics linked to your Snapchat – and we know it’s all about the data!
Don’t have a Snapchat for your business or need some help with your social media efforts? Let’s chat!
XO, Josie
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN?
How to Create “Pause-ability”
When it comes down to it, what makes a good social media post?
Is it tons of bells and whistles and flashing lights? Transformative, life-changing copy? Thought-provoking imagery?
It’s the fundamental question separating great content from mediocre – brands who succeed on social and brands who inflict more damage than good to their reputation and bottom line.
In a series of blogs, I’m going to breakdown the key traits all top social media posts share, regardless of platform. Today’s trait – “Pause-ability.”
Weird term, right? “Pause-ability” is my word for how capable posts are at forcing social audiences to “pause” what they’re doing and consume content. A post’s ability to tap the brakes on social users’ million-per-mile scrolls down their newsfeed and command attention.
A number of factors play into generating pause-ability – by far the #1 is eye-grabbing imagery. What exactly does great imagery constitute?
Lots of things. It could mean great design (a Tribu speciality), excellent photography, videos, local recognition (think seeing The Alamo if you’re a San Antonio resident), colorful user generated content, emotion-evoking subject matters (think seeing Martin Luther King giving the “I Have a Dream” speech), interesting/curiosity inducing focuses (a majestic old house), pictures that tell a story of the human condition (happiness, sadness, pain, rejection, etc), or incredible beauty (Big Bend National Park) – it’s all about eye-catching imagery that’s presented well – (eg – cropped correctly, no unnecessary space, fits, etc).
What makes pause-ability so important is its role in not only organic (non-paid posts), but also social ads. Whereas the importance of other post factors (like copy) can vary depending on circumstance, pause-ability is always important.
Here’s a few examples of Tribu-client posts with great pause-ability. Note – these posts have all sorts of different imagery types – professional, raw, graphic-based, curiosity-inducing, etc. The key thing to remember – great pause-ability imagery comes in all shapes and forms.
I hope this piece helps guide you in your efforts to generate quality “pause-ability” content. At Tribu, we pride ourselves in generating tons and tons of it each and everyday.
NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN?
Later 2017, queue the violins.
To say moments of 2017 were rough, is an understatement. Violence, division, intolerance and countless other haunting ghosts from Christmas past, took center stage this year. But hey, kudos to us,— we made it. Despite the less than outstanding political climate in the United States, some cool stuff did happen in 2017. Chance the Rapper got nominated for three Grammys (You go boy!) American actress Meghan Markle got engaged to Prince Henry of Wales. Yes, his actual name is Henry. Who knew? We had an eclipse. And, can we take a minute to talk about Unicorn food (cc Starbucks).
Have you ever noticed in a movie or on television, every time something really profound happens there is always an amazing song playing in the background? As a tribe of creative minded people, music is intrinsic to us at Tribu. We can’t help but notice these details and in turn mix the soundtrack to our own lives. So for one of the last blog postings for 2017, the tribe has compiled a list of its favorite songs from this year. A musical year in review, courtesy of Tribu. It’s diverse, fun, thoughtful, and maybe even a little weird. We’re Millennials, we wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re welcome in advance.
Tribu 2017 Jams!
Tribu Holiday
https://open.spotify.com/user/patrisabelle/playlist/5b3oJQXVTtskq1VTbzAY3K
How Dating Rules Apply to Email Marketing
You read that right. Email marketing can (unintentionally) teach you some good dating rules! Here’s how.
Most marketers will tell you that you shouldn’t send more than one email per week, max. That’s because you don’t want to flood people’s inbox with your content, unless you’re just that cool and you can get away with it or you’re sending to a highly-engaged crowd (we’ll get into that later).
That same rule can be applied to dating (with some time adjustments). You don’t overdo (or underdo) your communications with your partner. Overdoing texts and flooding your partners’ messages is a good way to get yourself blocked or ignored.
Send emails or updates every day will get you marked as spam or even worse, have your sending email address blacklisted. Being blacklisted will get you blocked from your email marketing platform because when you have a bad email sending score, you’re affecting your marketing platform as well.
Finding the happy medium where in email marketing (and dating) is the best way to stay engaged with your readers and maintain a healthy relationship.
That “Happy” Medium
Somewhere between too little and too much is that happy medium where your subscribers welcome your emails to their inbox and regularly engage with your content.
This is referred to as the happy medium (our unofficial name) for email marketers. Getting here isn’t easy. It requires you to analyze data and experiment with different send times on different days of the week before you start to see a pattern with your subscribers.
When you first start dating, you’re also searching for a happy medium between you and your partner. You don’t want to message or call them too much and annoy them, but you also don’t want to do it too little and send the wrong impression or be forgotten.
Similar to analyzing data and email marketing results, you study your partner’s actions to make sure that you’re not bugging them when you message or call them in between dates.
Think of every email send as a date. Is your content keeping readers engaged or interested? Or are they unsubscribing as soon as they open your emails? If it’s the ladder, this is a classic case of “it’s not you, it’s me” or “they’re just not that into you.” That’s okay, not everyone is going to be engaged with your brand and some will leave your subscriber base once they collect their reward.
These are some of the ways that email marketing and dating are similar. They’re both hard to navigate (at first) and require the right amount of attention before you have an established relationship.
Are your subscribers ghosting you? We can help! Contact our Tribe today and see how our structured & strategic approach to email marketing will have customers swiping right into your business.
Instagram Shopping with BaubleBar
Window shopping has been taken to a whole other level on Instagram. Now scrolling through your feed you’ll discover products you can easily purchase. It’s a blessing and a curse all at the same time!
Shopping is as simple as scrolling through your feed. When your eyes get caught on the thing you HAVE to have – all you have to do is tap, shop, and checkout!
With shoppable posts, Instagramers have an even greater opportunity to connect with the brands they love by being able to quickly see information — like product descriptions and pricing. It just takes a single click and shoppers never have to leave the Instagram app.
According to BigCommerce, more than 800,000 shoppers use Instagram every month. Brands everywhere are using this visual platform to share their stories and products with consumers in a highly engaging and personal way.
Below is an example of how Instagram shopping works from a brand that is doing a great job of posting shoppable posts, keeping followers engaged and staying personal. Meet BaubleBar.
Want to shop a post? Just look for the shopping bag icon on the photo.
(OMG that caption is perfect! ^)
Once you open the post, tap on the product you want to buy.
Here you’ll see the name and price of the product.
Like what you see? Tap on the product info icon for more information and get directed to a shop now button.
Ta-da! Here you’ll see more info about the product and you are only a few clicks away from calling this baby yours.
Tap the shop now button and it will direct you to the brands ecommerce site where you can shop ‘til you drop!
Add the product to your shopping bag, check out, and your shopping is done! Simple, right?
For a business that sell consumer products, it is a no brainer to have Instagram shopping on your page. This gives your followers another outlet where they can easily shop your hottest items.
If you want your followers to be able to shop your products on your Instagram page or need some help with social media, let’s chat. xo.
What Blogging Does For SEO
Blogging is a really popular buzz word in the marketing world right now, and when it comes to SEO [or Search Engine Optimization], it’s super hot. Blogging is a great tool to enhance your SEO efforts which in turn strengthens your SERP [or Search Engine Results Page] position. But why is this important and how does it work?
Google is the most popular search engine out there with 2.3 million Google searches every minute in 2016. This means businesses like yours have incredible potential to reach new audiences, but it also means there’s plenty of competition to be seen. Google is fiercely dedicated to providing the best experience for its searchers, so if you want Google to serve your content, it’s crucial that you play by the rules. Let’s break it down.
Back To Basics, What is SEO?
SEO is a combination of techniques that help increase your organic search visibility. In layman’s terms, SEO is how Google knows what results to show you when you enter a search.
For example, when I search, ‘Digital Marketing Agency San Antonio’, Tribu is listed as the fourth result behind two ‘Best of’ lists and a local competitor. We have a bit of work to do, but it’s a constant process that we’re happily [and transparently] tackling.
So how does blogging help you organically outrank your competitors?
Blogs Give Users What They’re Searching For
Regular blogging is a great way to ensure your visitors have a way to answer their questions. One of my favorite things about a blog is that it allows me to position a brand or company as a thought leader in that industry. The goal is to create fresh content that answers questions before the audience even knows they have them.
Opportunities to Build Backlinks
Backlinks are created when a site links to your site, much like I did with the Google fact in my second paragraph. Backlinks are crucial for SEO. Backlinks tell Google your site is a trusted source of popular information. Great blogs are full of useful information that others want to share with their audience, and when they do they create backlinks.
Fresh Content
It’s no secret that Google enjoys a fresh batch of content. While it’s difficult to constantly change the content on your website, fresh content is the norm with a blog. Posting once a week is a great place to start. After some time letting analytics gather around the blog’s activity, you can modify your posting schedule to best match what works for your audience.
Alt Text
Keywords are another hot subject in marketing right now. They help the Google ‘crawlers’ understand what is on your page and which user searches your content relates best to. Alt text is the text assigned to images in your blog. It provides another great opportunity to use a keyword or two to help Google understand what your content is about and choose to serve it over another source.
Builds a Larger Site [But Remember, It’s About Quality]
Before I dig into this point, it is important that I share with you that like most things in life, the value is in quality over quantity. Now with that being said, Google has proven to better rank a site that has more pages than one without. This has many factors to it: the site has be built smart, users must need and enjoy the content they interact with, it must be related to your purpose, I could go on. But what’s important here is that blogging gives you the opportunity to grow the depth of your site in an organized and strategic fashion.
Key Takeaways
What truly matters in the world of SEO is having fresh content that people engage with, trust and enjoy sharing. Blogs are a wonderful way to accomplish this. At Tribu, we know the power of a progressive blog schedule and offer it to our partners as a powerful tool for increasing SEO and ultimately reaching their goals.
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Confessions of a Content Writer
Well, I am four months deep in this “content writer / creator” gig and it’s about time I unleash a stream-of-conscious confessional onto the general public. Four months of writing blogs, website content, brochure content, flyer content and all types of miscellaneous business text and one could say I have earned the title of professional writer extraordinaire… or bad mama jama at least (courtesy of Carl Carlton via 1981).
According to Wikipedia, a content writer is defined as a person who specializes in providing relevant content for websites. A love of research, knowledge, communication and expression is essential for this position as well as an insatiable curiosity of all things.
“What writers have is a license and also the freedom to sit—to sit, clench their fists, and make themselves be excruciatingly aware of the stuff that we’re mostly aware of only on a certain level.” – David Foster Wallace
One of the largest behemoths on my daily to-do checklist is the writing, editing and posting of blogs. If you are vaguely familiar with this term but aren’t sure what value these ‘blogs’ actually hold, don’t fret. You have that in common with the general public.
Blog Breakdown
Clients often ask – why do blogs matter? What are blogs good for?
Blogs are actually valuable tools that provide a great deal to businesses, including but not limited to…
- SEO optimization, allowing you to rank for keywords –long tail as well as your most important keywords
- Helping to establish brand identity, whether that’s being more credible in your industry or communicating more of an inviting neighborly feel to convince people to come in
- Occasional news and event highlights, goings on in the company
“A blog is meant to generate awareness about you and your brand. It’s best used as a tool to establish authority and make people trust you.” – SERPs.com
Unsolicited Advice
Here are five Tribu approved tips for all of you struggling content writers out there – professional or otherwise. Curated straight from personal experiences with the help of good ol’ trial and error, these notes are straight from me to you in the hopes of making the world a contextually more interesting and grammatically correct place.
Keep a thesaurus tab open.
- Because there are only so many ways you can say “interior décor aesthetic.”
Avoid the cornucopia of grandiloquence.
- “Incessant days of incandescent lighting…” It’s tempting, I know. That thesaurus will provide you with a whole bunch of big words to choose from, but let’s keep that speech conversational. Stick to words you have heard before. If your client is a law firm, for example, the tone should remain professional sans pretention. Say it with me, “APPROPRIATE DICTION FOR THE WIN.”
Keep your head in the game.
- I recently had a conversation with the editor of a local publication at a wedding reception. “They don’t understand that sometimes you are having spousal troubles or a bad day and your writing won’t be the best.”
- I know what you’re thinking, “But Melanie, your clients always need you to be on the ball.” And you are right, dearest reader. When you are writing, keep your phone out of reach, stay off social media and make some tea. Keep it soothing and peaceful so you can focus and write your heart out.
Keep that playlist on point.
- Boy is it easy to get distracted, especially if you are in an office setting. Writing requires constant attention; so whether you are working from home, a coffee shop or in a cubicle, get a good writing playlist together. I would say some tunes that encourage head bobbing without catchy lyrics are ideal. Classical is always good choice – Stravinsky is usually my go to.
Restlessness is common, so take a break every few hours.
- Take a walk to get away and refocus. Take a breather – poetry in motion and all that.
Real Thoughts That I Have Had This Week
A content writing position is an English major’s dream come true – meaning normal people may find it nightmarish. Just for some fun and to give you a glimpse into the mind of real life content writer, here are some of my actual thoughts from this week.
- “How many times can I use ‘fabulous’ in as a descriptive adjective without seeming redundant?”
- “I wonder how often I can passively mention Beyoncé in this blog. I mean why stop at three, am I right??”
- “Oxford commas are the literal worst.”
- “Coffee on my scarf: The new scent by Estee Lauder”
- “WHERE DID ALL THE WORDS GO” (Hands outstretched in the direction of the heavens) “Oh why can I not say the thing?
Content writing is more difficult than you thought, huh? If your business is growing, you should most definitely invest in a writer who can crank out some shareable and informative content.
For all of your text needs, Tribu has got you covered. Hit us up.
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Blogging Should be a Company-Wide Effort
Let me just start by saying this isn’t something I just feel passionately about as a blogger. I feel passionately about blogging as a marketer. I’ve only just began perfecting my blogging craft this past year to be quite honest and what a shame. Had I been blogging regularly for the last 2 to 3 years, you would have had no trouble finding me today.
– Not me.
I’m a content strategist here at Tribu Marketing & Advertising. I chose this career not because I wanted to become a great writer, but because I wanted to become a better marketer. And although I’m not a writer by trade, here I am writing a blog on company time. Why? It’s a passion of mine to write remarkable content. But, that’s not the only thing motivating me.
Writing For Results
The reason its not only a passion for me is because I don’t just write for my own entertainment, I write because I want to see results. According to multiple sources on the internet, (including Google’s algorithm keeper Matt Cutts) anyone can increase traffic to their website through blogging. A recent report from inbound marketing software giants at Hubspot.com says:
“Companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5X more traffic than companies that don’t blog at all.”
Thats 4 ish blogs per week. Imagine if your site cranked out 4 ish blogs per day? With every daily blog you publish, you’ve increased your chances of showing up in someones search results. Does this mean you have to blog multiple times per day in order to see results? No. But companies that do, get the most website traffic. More is always better, but you can start making an impact with twice per week. Write two remarkable blog articles per week, keyword optimize them, and share them across social media channels; see what happens.
Who Can Blog?
It doesn’t have to be Hemingway, or Fitzgerald worthy content in order for your website to get found. (Although that would be amazing) Your article shouldn’t sound like it was written by a robot either. Search engines can tell the difference. To a search engine, your article is either going to register as a useful article or a spam article. Your goal should be to help Google connect the right person with the right information. Start with something easy, and write about something you love. Help someone solve a problem on the internet. You can do that. In fact, anyone can. The best blogs that I’ve ever read have been comprised of subject matter from multiple authors. Fresh perspectives keep content coming, and most importantly, keep content fresh. Ask people in your organization to write 300 to 500 words on a subject of their choice (relevant to the company) and publish weekly. Do this, and your traffic, internet presence and sales will soar. Just for kicks, ill throw in another one:
“B2B companies that blog only 1-2X/month generate 70% more leads than those that don’t blog at all.” -Hubspot.com