What Is Content Curation And Why Should Brands Start Doing It?

Have you ever reposted a quote you saw on your feed? Or used a line from a recent read to represent your mood for the day? What about quoting from a movie you watched recently? We’re all guilty of sharing someone else’s lines or a portion of some post when updating our own social media status at least once. Heck, it’s pretty much the essence of social media!

This is a habit practiced by many to express their thoughts, to say what’s on their mind but couldn’t put into words, or to simply stay relevant in social media. This act is so commonly done not everyone realizes its true impact. Why so? Because experts call this practice content curation.

What Is Content Curation?

While content marketing is about getting material out to strengthen your brand, curation is about finding something that stands out online instead of creating something new. This strategy could help you lessen the amount of time you spend creating posts from scratch. Constantly coming up with new things to write about, while still keeping up with the demands of a business, takes a lot of creative juice… and sometimes one might not have enough time to do so.

But Why Do Brands Need To Start Curating?

• It lessens the work. When you’re too occupied with SEO marketing strategies for your business, you might not have the time to make enough fresh content to do the subject justice.
• It adds fresh variation. When you talk about a subject, that’s one thing. But to quote from someone else… then yet some other person… now you have a very valid point substantiated by others. Now you really look like an expert!
• It shows that you’re involved. If you post the latest trends in the industry from time to time, it could show your engagement is at a deeper level. It gives you and your business a sense of relevancy to the latest news within the industry.
• It paves way to better connections. Curating the content of bigger names could help you connect with the leaders in your industry, which means bigger opportunity for more connections. It could also trigger conversation with your social media audience in general.

How To Effectively Curate

First, you’ll need to figure out the topics you want to search for, and once you find the right material, decide what you want to share. Start asking questions like: Is it relevant to my brand? Is the source trustworthy? Will it offer fresh and unique ideas to the readers? Is it entertaining or engaging?

Keep these question in mind when finding the right content to share in your social account or blog post. Also, think about the so-called ‘Social Media Rule of Thirds’ – One third of what you share should be brand promotion, one third should be curated content, and the remaining one third should be about the conversations that are happening on social.

What Is Content Curation And Why Brands Should Start Doing It

Consider These Best Practices and Start Curating Like a Pro

• Read. Watch. Listen. Out of the many things you can find online, make sure to check and validate them before sharing.
• Relevancy. Even if it’s most talked about on social, if it’s irrelevant to your brand, skip it. Look through the next material.
• Trustworthiness. Only use materials that are from trusted sources. There’s no way around it.
• Personalize. Though the content isn’t yours, add a personal touch to it. Tell the audience how it might interest them.
• Prioritize. The most important of all, ensure that the material is either interesting, entertaining, or useful to your audience. It won’t work if it doesn’t catch your audiences’ attention.
• Credit. Put credit to where credit is due. Don’t forget to mention the source and tag them in the post whenever possible.

Check out this list of tools before you curate you next post.

Curating content is a fresh way to bring in ideas similar to your brand’s philosophy. It might seem like taking the time to go find curatable content wouldn’t be worth the effort, but as you can see, the amount of benefits both you and your audience receives clearly makes it worth it.

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10 Awesome Free Stock Photo Sites Worth Checking Out

Going online is the probably the easiest way to look for visual content you need to post on your website. With just a few clicks, in a short time span you can find the just the right stock pictures for your post. Choose from thousands of pictures readily downloadable from iStock Photo and other major photo sites as beautiful as all of them are, not all of them however, are free.

But did you know that there are two major types of stock photographs you can find online? Let’s go get to know them, shall we?

Rights Managed (RM) Stock Photography. Though we’re talking about stock photographs, there will be a lot of factors going into the price of this type of image. The final price will depend on factors like usage, duration of the campaign, media, location, print run, size, exclusivity, and industry type. For this reason, RM photos cost more, but are often of higher quality.

Royalty-Free (RF) Stock Photography. Royalty-free doesn’t mean completely cost-free. It simply means the pictures don’t have ongoing royalty fees and can be purchased for a one-time, fixed price. These can be used multiple times, however, there are usually limits to the number of times these image can be reproduced.

Sites That Offer Free Stock Photos

Fortunately, there are several noteworthy sites out there where you can find high-quality images that are free to use when creating your next post or improving your SEO marketing campaign. These sites offer an array of different images that could be perfect for your next post.

1. Gratisography

Photographer Ryan McGuire has a quirky style when taking shots. His images are high-resolution and ready for use anytime. The site is well-organized in a number of categories such as nature, objects, people, urban, animals, etc.

2. Pixabay

There are over 490,000 images and videos for both personal and commercial use available in Pixabay. Every picture is royalty-free and is covered under Creative Commons, which means they can be modified and commercially used either in print or online.

3. IM Free

IM Free is a very interesting stored images website. The visuals are a curated collection of different categories from Flickr, all for commercial use. The pictures which are royalty-free organized by themes such as technology, education, and nature. The site also provides templates, button makers, icons, and so much more.

4. Unsplash

Via an email subscription and on their website, Unsplash offers 10 new photos every 10 days. All photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means the copying, modification, distribution, and use of the photos are totally free.

5. Picjumbo

Picjumbo is a popular resource for social media images with over 5,427,891 downloads since it launched in 2013. It offers over 600 high resolution photos or a downloadable pack that includes all images as well as three Photoshop mockups in exchange for a donation of $10.

6. Stockvault

There are over 35,000 royalty-free images, graphics, and designs from photographers, designers, and students around the world hosted in this website. In the Free Stock Photos tab, anyone has access to a huge library of photos to use on social media.

7. Morguefile

Created in 1996, Morguefile offers photographs to be used in creative projects. The website isn’t strict on giving credit to the photographers or artists when their images are being used. It’s a great resource for all types of online posts.

8. Fancycrave

Fancycrave aims to provide emotionally driven images that tell a story. Two new images from professional photographers are loaded in the website everyday. It’s easy to navigate and they are known for stocking colorful and vibrant nature images.

9. RawPixel

RawPixel is known for having the most diverse collection of pictures around the web. They are trying to change the face of stock photography by starting the world face project that aims to photograph people from every nation in the world.

10. New Old Stock

Ever need a vintage photo and just struggle looking for them online? This is a great site that has curated hundreds of public domain vintage photographs that, to their knowledge, is free of royalties or copyrights.

9 Awesome Free Stock Photo Sites Worth Checking Out

You may also check these other free stock photography sites:

• StockSnap
• Startup Stock Photos
• Splitshire
• Life of Pix
• Pexels
• Jay Mantri
• ISO Republic

You can also check this page for more tips on finding the right image for your content.

So as you can see, running into any mental blocks when trying to come up with the perfect photo for your post or newsletter won’t be a problem any more! Bookmark this page so you always have it as a resource to thousands of free-to-use images online!

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5 Great Reasons Why Images Can Boost Your Posts

In an age where snapping captivating photos can happen in a millisecond, images now hold the ace card in terms of engaging viewers. People are drawn to look at images of other people online as much as they love taking photos of themselves. Stilled moments caught on a digital camera and displayed online are seen by SEO marketers as one of the most powerful tools to engage target audiences.

Based on the latest statistic, “Top brands on Instagram are seeing a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter.”

Another statistic post shows us that:

• 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%).
• 37% of marketers said visual marketing was the most important form of content for their business, second only to blogging (38%).
• When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.

These numbers are proof that visually captivating images can boost your posts. But what makes them so effective?

Why Are Images So Effective in Marketing?

#1 They Create Brighter, More Appealing Posts

A picture compels viewers to read and creates a positive first impression about the post. When your page is just a block of boring text, it appears dull and lifeless, and visitors will mostly likely just leave the website without reading a word. Visually attractive posts give a sense of connection with the readers. And that connection is what you need to engage your audience, either through liking or sharing the post, or by following your site.

#2 They Create Better Page Structure

It’s easier to divide a whole block of text into several sections with the use of pictures. Divided texts with visually stunning pictures are far more inviting and relaxing to read versus a plain looking blog. Too much text to read scares people away. It gives a sense of intense reading which is less interesting (or uninteresting at all) to visitors.

#3 They Give a Sense of Having Longer Posts

There are some posts that do not need a lot of writing, and some are far more informative with the use of images. This is especially true for social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest. If a post is titled “15 Kitchen Designs For Your New Home”, wouldn’t it make more sense if you show a gallery of unique kitchen designs than paint the pictures with words then expect the readers to have a creative mind? It’s just too much work for you and especially for most readers.

For more tips on effective Instagram marketing, check out this page.

#4 They Simplify Complex Information

If your topics are mostly technical with heavy use of jargon, bare words are usually not enough, especially for non-tech-savvy users. Or if you love writing about rare animals or plants, adding photos of these rare species help readers understand the complexity of the information you’re throwing at them. As much as possible, simplify the information through informative visuals.

#5 They Give Better Social Media Exposure

When users scroll through their mobile phones, only a few of them will pay attention to posts without images. Images also win more space for your post in a long list of content feed, thus your post don’t get lost so easily. Also, there are users who are fond of sharing a page when they feel a special connection to it, even without actually reading what it’s about. To this day, social media is just dull without interesting visuals so make sure yours stand out!

5 Valid Reasons Why Images Can Boost Your Posts

Additional Reasons To Add Pictures

If the first 5 reasons weren’t enough, images:

• Support your statements.
• Help create memorable stories.
• Increase your chances of better ranking in search engines.
• And images make your pages look more professional.

Today when we post, share, tweet things all day long, images do speak a thousand words, share a thousand feelings, evoke a thousand emotions. Make sure you help your audience connect with you by always including at least one image in every post you make.

 

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The Key Ingredients To A Powerful Social Video Content

Marketing videos were perceived to be the next big thing in social marketing, but that’s already a thing of the past. Social videos have now taken social media platforms into a different wavelength, reaching far more audiences than a regular block of informative content, and engaging more viewers to like, share or repost brand-initiated videos.

According to Wyzowl 2016 statistics:

• 88% of businesses say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy
• 76% of businesses that used videos believe that it provides a good ROI
• 93% of businesses who use videos believe that it has increased user understanding of their product or service.
• 72% of businesses who used video believe that it has improved the conversion rate of their website.
• 36% of businesses believe that they’ve received less support queries as a result.
• 62% of businesses believe that video has increased the amount of organic traffic they receive.

This trend has progressed rapidly and will reach higher lengths in the years to come. Undoubtedly, it is one of the newest additions to your promotion tool kit. But you might still have doubts regarding the effectiveness of this type of marketing. Is it really worth your time to promote your business through this means? Will it be as effective for you own business, as it did for competitors?

4 Of The Best Ingredients For A Content-Rich Video

Short 60 Seconds

Nearly two-thirds of consumers prefer to watch videos under 60 seconds. Attention spans are short and you want to keep viewers engaged, therefore keeping yours in between 30 and 90 seconds long is ideal. Here’s a few ways to ensure you hold the audience’s attention:

• Keep the word count to a minimum if your video includes text. Viewers should be watching what it’s about not reading through it.
• Use numbered lists or bullets to keep people engaged. This helps make the content easy to follow.
• Get the right pacing. Not too slow, not too fast.

Optimize Based On The Platform Needs

The goal is to deliver the best experience. Where will you post the video? Facebook? Instagram? Or YouTube? Will it be viewed in a laptop or on mobile phones? Here’s how you can nail it.

• Consider mobile views first. 65% of video views happen on mobile devices, so think mobile first.
• Assume people watch without sound. Make the content speak for itself without the need for sounds.
• Use the recommended aspect ratio or the square aspect ratio (1:1) since this size is compatible with most platform.

Descriptive Texts or Subtitles

Silent viewers make up most of the viewers, since most of these people are on the move, in public places, or in areas where loud sounds can be considered a nuisance. Here’s how you can make a silent 60-seconds short video:

• Subtitles matter. Without sounds, subtitles will help viewers follow your content without listening to it.
• Include description. Users must know the context of the video to give them more reason to watch it. Or if they need to watch it with the sound on.

Clear Call To Action Sets Things In Motion

Call To Action or CTA ensures that engagement doesn’t stop after the video is over. It guides viewers to the next step, whether to go to the homepage, the product landing page, or the Contact Us page. Here’s how to create an effective CTA:

• Use actionable terms. The audience should know what to do after taking in the content. Use terms like learn more, find out, or discover.
• Put out a clear value proposition. If you want viewers to take the bait, give them something to valuable.
• No business jargon. Keep it simple, straightforward, and actionable.

The Key Ingredients To A Powerful Social Video Content

Like most SEO marketing campaigns, combining all these effective ingredients and you’re on your way to brewing an engaging, actionable content.

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3 Signs That Tell You Need Multiple Social Marketing Accounts

Managing multiple social media accounts for marketing, lead generation, and traffic drive may be a strenuous job. Jumping from one account to another can be tiresome and there will come a time where an internet marketer gets tired of jumping between tools. In this post, we will discuss the Pros and Cons in managing multiple pages, and why having more might be necessary for your business.

The Pros and Cons Of Social Media Marketing

All internet marketing efforts do not necessarily lead to success, often times it is a trial and error method to test out which tactics work in generating leads from the targeted audience. Now, find out the advantages and disadvantages of having multiple accounts for your business campaigns.

Advantages

Grouped Audiences. By using different pages, you can talk to various types of audiences. There’s no need to limit your content to maintain a balance so you can reach out to everyone. This is especially helpful to businesses that service both the company and the customers.

Specific Topics. There are brands that tackle different topics. Take National Geographic as an example. Nat Geo is one account, and then it has sub pages like Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo People, which discusses different topics to different target audience. While all of the branch accounts feed into the parent account’s posts, audiences are still given the freedom to follow their preferred topic.

Location-Specific Service. Multi-location companies which serve unique needs in their individual local store may find multiple social accounts easier to manage.

Disadvantages

Customer Confusion. There is a big risk of dividing your audiences instead of embracing a bulk number of potential leads. Multiple accounts may confuse visitors, specifically, which account should they follow? The main business page or the account they care about?

Additional Work. If you lack the resources to handle the extra work brought by different accounts, then this is definitely not suited for your marketing needs.

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Do You Really Need More Than One Social Media Account?

Whether you’re a one man team, a group of marketers, or an agency; consider these signs that might prompt you to create more accounts for the business.

#1 Customer Support Invades Your Feed

An online analysis shows that Millennials are most likely to voice out their concern on social platforms. Approximately 59% of Millennials say they’d use social to address an issue, and the remaining 51% say in-person interactions as their most likely choice. Moreover, a study shows that 42 percent of consumers complaining in online platforms expect 60 minute response time.

If your feed is mostly about customer support or if you find that addressing complaints and issues is taking up the majority of your account’s post, you may benefit from starting a separate support account.

#2 Essential Automated Posts

Automated posts, for followers and users, often equate to shadiness and unworthy of trust. This can be damaging to a brand’s image in so many different levels. But there are instances when automated posts can come helpful. This is generally true for topics like technical updates, weather alerts or content curation.

There are accounts solely intended for server updates and service statuses. What’s important is it will be made clear what the account is for and a link to the customer support, or the main account will be included in the bio. This will give users a clear idea which account to check for updates and where to go when in need of customer assistance.

#3 Multiple Departments or Locations

Brands, service businesses, and companies or institutions that have multiple departments, or operate in multiple locations, can benefit from having separate social accounts. The audience is given the liberty to follow the page that serves their interest and will have access to the right information. It’s also ideal for promoting better targeted ads.

A localized site is often perceived to generate more leads, drawing local customers in. This is why Google is adamant in localizing searches for the sole purpose of providing convenience and better search results to every user.

There are many reasons to consider when adding new social accounts into your list. In the end, you want to make sure you’re doing this for the right reason, and not because your competitor is doing it. Once you’ve made the decision, plan it out thoroughly and leave a little margin for error. For similar informative blogs, visit the Neovora homepage.

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5 Social Media Marketing Habits To Drop

Social media is a fast growing, fast moving platform. What’s hot on Monday morning could become old and irrelevant Thursday night. The attention given to a viral post today could be directed to another tomorrow.

The Time website listed viral videos with the most views in 2016. Number two on the list was Piko Taro’s Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen. Who didn’t feel the urge to dance along the upbeat instrumentals and repetitive lyrics? Who hasn’t watched the 12-year old Ukelele player, Grace VanderWaal, who got a golden buzzer on her America’s Got Talent audition? Or Adele’s Carpool Karaoke who showcased her legendary vocals while driving through the English streets?

The fame these videos gained lasted for several days, or up until the next viral video came out. Given how fleeting this kind of fame is, as a marketing strategist for your brand, how can you trigger a lasting interest in your target audience? Or rather, what you shouldn’t be doing on social media that could potentially scare away leads.

What You Might Be Doing Wrong

Let’s look at what you could avoid doing when you start the engine on your ultimate marketing strategy.

Avoid jumping on every trend.

Many brands often jump into trending topics and popular memes to stay relevant or force themselves into a conversation. Just because it’s popular and people are talking about it doesn’t always mean people will want to hear from you on the topic, especially if it isn’t relevant to your brand or service. It could turn people off and your marketing efforts will fall flat. Always ask yourself this: Is what I’m sharing really relevant to my brand?

Don’t ignore active and responsive audience.

Although social platforms are a great promotional tool, it isn’t just a place where you can promote the best qualities of your business. It’s a social networking platform that encourages a two-way conversation. Use it instead to interact with your followers while promoting your brand. Allocate time for audience engagement, encourage them to share a feedback, and initiate discussions about your business and their experience.

Social accounts shouldn’t be set to ‘private’.

There are still businesses these days who keep private social accounts to secure a brand handle. But people won’t be able to find you this way. Just because they aren’t following you online, it doesn’t mean they aren’t searching you up on Google to see what your social media activity is all about. Plus, private accounts may convey several things – lazy staff, shady transactions, or negative feedback?

Visit the Neovora page for more tips on social marketing.

Automated ‘thank you’ messages sound distant.

Automated messages are a thing of the past. It can come off as impersonal and distant, like getting a marketing email you don’t want in your inbox. And, no one wants to talk to a robot, it doesn’t feel real. People nowadays are always glued to their mobile phones, socializing with the world through the internet. It only takes a seconds to send a quick reply, react to a post or share a post. You can show the same courtesy by sending an actual ‘thank you’ message.

Too many hashtags is a crowd.

Because users can easily find your brand through hashtags, which is especially true in platforms like Instagram and Twitter, one might tend to overuse this marketing effort excessively. Excessive hashtags can give a spammy vibe or cause confusion if you’re using ones that are irrelevant to your post. This could potentially lead to an increase in the wrong kind of followers – mostly robots or people only interested in being followed back. A good move is to have your followers focus on what you’re saying instead of what you’re ‘hashtagging’.

5 Social Media Marketing Habits You Should Stop Doing

There really is no firm rule on the Dos and Don’ts of social media marketing. Although keeping in mind these five habits to drop when outlining your next content, chances of putting out a more effective post is higher, plus the potential for a better response from your audience is greater. Now, start improving those posts and become more effective!

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How To Create A Pinterest Infographic That Bring In Results

Infographics have become a highly effective tool for many brands to promote their business, product line, services, and other general information they want to throw out there for the public to read and take interest in. They are a great means to disseminate information simply because the important points are given emphasis through a compact and concise compilation of information.

For several years now, Infographics have been popular on Pinterest and they continue to drive massive shares and traffic back to websites and blogs.

If this is a social media marketing channel you want for your business, learn how to create effective Infographics that actually bring in results. Is there a specific formula to creating a visually stunning and equally effective informative visual graphics? What should be included in the post?

5 Effective Components That Actually Works

Sophia Bernazzani wrote: “According to BuzzSumo, articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares as articles with fewer images. More specifically, infographics are shared three times more than other types of content.”

Additionally, she said, “images are the second most popular type of content among viewers of all ages. Furthermore, research shows that website visitors pay attention to information-carrying images more than images that are simply page decoration.”

Now, here are the components for creating an effective infographic:

1. Choose a Popular Topic

The topic of your infographic matters. It really does! Travel and food images do extremely well on Pinterest, given the huge number of users interested in these industries. In Google, there are about 13 million searches on Pinterest for food and about 12 million for travel. And the number of searches in these industries grows each day. However, just because you picked a popular topic doesn’t mean your content will become popular instantly. It has to offer more than just a popular topic. It must have something (or several things) that someone would read and share.

2. Either Be Fun, Challenging, or Informative

An infographic has a clear angle: it’s either to make the audience laugh, answer their questions, help them achieve something, or perhaps, improve their habits. The most common reactions triggered by popular and frequently shared infographics are:

• Funny or Cute – the content made the reader laugh or giggle.
• Challenging – the data presented gave an “I need to do something” feel.
• Useful – it’s informative and useful.
• Motivational – it can motivate the reader to achieve something.
• Interesting – it offers new information and learning.
• Surprising – the content gives a pleasant surprise factor, or something totally unexpected.

3. Simple Informational Infographics Always Work

Aside from selecting a popular topic that will pull people in, your graphic should also make information easy to digest. Users don’t want to get lost into a complex presentation of graphs and charts. Here are a few ways to present simple but informative texts:

• Make a list. A List infographic uses bullet points or number to organize information. They are an easy read and quick to understand.
• Timeline. This is best when outlining events, showing a process, or telling a story.
• Step by step. Closely similar to a List but it’s more on outlining a process which is perfect for DIYs, workout steps, cookbooks, and how-to’s.
• Simple statistics. Although it may contain graphs or charts, it mainly focuses on the key numbers of the statistics with big visuals like icons or logos.

4. Appropriate Fonts Matter

One of the biggest mistakes in creating infographics is using the wrong font. This is especially true for mobile users. If the text font is too difficult to read, people will skip and scroll over the next post. These days, the serif fonts are widely used. Although, this choice is subjective and may not work for all types of information. Choose one that fits the theme of your infographic. Visit http://neovora.com for more marketing tips.

5. Stick To The Brighter Colors

Using the right color is a powerful design element because it helps you convey emotion, add contrast to the design, and create themes. But using the wrong ones can dilute the visuals of the idea you want to convey. For starters, yellow or red shades are a good way to go, but make sure that they’re applicable and sensible to the topic. Greens and oranges are healthy colors, and blues are great for building trust.

Leverage As Many Different Media As You Can To Capture Market Share

Presenting your brand as an authority is critical when building a loyal following. We do this by teaching through various means and channels, especially using vibrant, educational infographics. They aren’t so difficult to make if you follow some guidelines, and if you do them right, your market reach can expand further than you thought possible!

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