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7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
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The Missing Link
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Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
hosted by Darrell Vesterfelt and Tim Stoddart

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

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Previous Episode:Strategies for B2B Podcasting, with Clark Buckner More Episodes Next Episode:Behind the Scenes at the Rainmaker Digital Company Meeting!

All Episodes:

March 30, 2020

The Advantage of Email Marketing, Featuring Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

March 15, 2020

How to Write Content That Resonates

March 9, 2020

How to Conquer Your Fear of Selling, with Leah Neaderthal

March 2, 2020

How to Build Remarkable Products to Grow Your Business, with Ramit Sethi

February 17, 2020

What You Should Talk about on Your Podcast, with Tara McMullin

February 9, 2020

How to Win at Search in 2020

February 3, 2020

How to Turn Pro as a Freelance Writer

January 27, 2020

Marketing Segmentation and Personalization with Brennan Dunn of RightMessage

January 20, 2020

Podcasting Still Matters, with Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

January 13, 2020

The New Look Copyblogger in 2020

January 8, 2020

New Year, New Copyblogger

October 23, 2019

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur with John Jantsch

October 2, 2019

Consistency Will Take You Further

September 25, 2019

The Past, Present, and Future of Online Learning

September 16, 2019

How to Get More of the Right Things Done

September 9, 2019

Why the Future Is Still Email

September 3, 2019

What’s Next for
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August 26, 2019

How Smart, Nimble Companies Are Using Webinars Today

August 19, 2019

The Clarity Method: A Conversation with Tim Brownson

August 12, 2019

Digital Business Trends and the Latest on the Rainmaker Platform

August 5, 2019

4 ‘Naive’ Business Principles for Enduring Success

July 8, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 3: Polishing and Promotion

July 1, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 2: Getting It Written

June 24, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 1: Thinking and Research

June 17, 2019

3 Almost Magical Headline Ingredients for More Traffic, Engagement, and Shares

June 10, 2019

Lessons Any Business Can Learn from an Impressive Influencer Marketing Fail

June 3, 2019

13 Ways of Looking at a Headline

May 27, 2019

The 7 ‘Bad’ Habits of Incredibly Successful People

May 20, 2019

Writers: How to Move from Making a Living to Driving Revenue

May 13, 2019

Choose the Right Frame to Boost the Power of Your Content

May 6, 2019

How Copywriting Teacher Belinda Weaver Reenergized Her Email List for Massive Engagement

April 29, 2019

3 Reasons Why Really Good Writers Sometimes Can’t Find Great Clients

April 22, 2019

3 Slightly Embarrassing Emotions that Drive Effective Copywriting

April 15, 2019

Get 10 Content Marketing Boosters in 20 Minutes

April 8, 2019

Becoming the ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ of Your Copy and Content

April 1, 2019

One of the Most Important Marketing Decisions You’ll Ever Make

March 18, 2019

What Nobody Wants to Hear about Content Marketing

March 11, 2019

Getting Your Big, Scary Projects Finished: A Conversation about Growing Gills

March 4, 2019

When Is It Time to Bring in a Professional Copywriter?

February 25, 2019

Using Content to Systematically Move Prospects Toward a Purchase

February 18, 2019

Understanding the Lifecycles of Your Website, with Pamela Wilson

February 11, 2019

5 Ways to Manage a Stress-Induced Creative Slump

February 4, 2019

3 Ways Strategic Content Can Drive Measurable Business Outcomes

January 28, 2019

The Social Media Platform Every Content Creator Should Be Using in 2019 (Nope, It’s Not Facebook)

January 21, 2019

Real Talk about Generating High-Quality Content

January 14, 2019

A Conversation with Paul Jarvis about Staying a ‘Company of One’

October 29, 2018

The 3 Plus 1 Foundational Elements of Effective Persuasion

October 22, 2018

5 Essential Copywriting Techniques from Copyblogger

October 15, 2018

5 Ways to Recover Your Professional and Creative Confidence

October 8, 2018

5 Stinky Sardine Secrets to Make Your Content More Fascinating

September 24, 2018

The Mindset ‘Hack’ that Frees Your Creativity and Makes You Happier

September 18, 2018

How to Kill Your Sales and Mess up Your Business: Lessons from a Used Car Salesman

September 4, 2018

The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a (Good) Living

August 27, 2018

Are You Making These Social Media Marketing Mistakes?

August 20, 2018

Fix These 7 About Page Mistakes for More Traffic and (Possibly) Better SEO

August 13, 2018

7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

August 6, 2018

A 10-Step ‘Checklist’ for Your Content Marketing Site

July 30, 2018

The 3 Keys to Publishing Strong Content … Even If You Aren’t a ‘Great’ Writer (Yet)

July 23, 2018

Fix These 3 Points of Failure to Get Better Results for Your Content

July 16, 2018

Big Changes at ConvertKit: A Discussion with Founder Nathan Barry

July 9, 2018

3 Skills to Master to Become a Marketing Badass this Year

June 18, 2018

The Quiet Power of Conversational Copy

June 11, 2018

5 Rules of Thumb to Relieve SEO-Induced Stress

June 4, 2018

How to Use the GDPR to Make Your Business Stronger than Ever

May 14, 2018

‘Good Karma’ Selling that Works: A Conversation with Tim Paige

April 30, 2018

How to Get More Comfortable (and Effective) at Selling

April 23, 2018

Privacy and Permission in the Wake of Cambridge Analytica

April 16, 2018

Seth Godin and How to Create Change

April 9, 2018

Email? Chatbots? Social? How Are We Supposed to Reach People?

March 26, 2018

The Double-Edged Sword that Can Make (or Break) Your Content

March 19, 2018

Make More Progress by Getting (Gently) Out of Your Comfort Zone

March 12, 2018

Are You Doing Content Marketing Wrong?

March 5, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 2 of 2)

February 26, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 1 of 2)

February 19, 2018

10 Quality Factors Search Engines Need to See on Your Site

February 12, 2018

A Simple Content Strategy to Make Your Site Massively More Useful

February 5, 2018

How to Avoid a Heartbreaking Business Failure

January 29, 2018

Hey Writers: Let’s Get You Paid What You’re Worth

January 15, 2018

5 Keys to Making Your Content More Shareable

December 18, 2017

3 Observations on Trends (but not Predictions) for 2018

December 11, 2017

3 Tips Now to Build a Strong Foundation in 2018

December 4, 2017

The 3 Success Factors that Help Writers Earn a Great Living

November 27, 2017

How to Recognize a Great Content Idea

November 20, 2017

How to Cultivate a More Meaningful Gratitude Practice

November 13, 2017

Advice for Poets, Advice for Killers

October 30, 2017

Face Your Business Fears on Halloween Week

October 23, 2017

How to Make Smarter Decisions about Your Website

October 2, 2017

A Series of Unfortunate Content Events

September 18, 2017

The Evolution of a Successful Copywriter

August 28, 2017

7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing by Harnessing the Power of Evil

August 14, 2017

Smart Questions from our Brilliant Audience

August 7, 2017

Does the Web Have Enough Patience for Your In-Depth Content?

July 31, 2017

How to Write (Much Better) Blog Comments

July 17, 2017

Which Works Better: Positive or Negative Content?

July 10, 2017

How to Attract the Exact Customers You Want

July 3, 2017

How to Create Stability and Success as an Artist

June 19, 2017

Two Powerful Resources for Life-Changing Growth

June 12, 2017

How to Turn All that Marketing Advice into Action

June 5, 2017

How to Develop a Compelling Marketing Idea in 4 Steps

May 30, 2017

Getting Over the Fear of Selling

May 22, 2017

Talking Community and Digital Business with Tara Gentile

May 15, 2017

Plagiarism, Self-Deception, Bad Sandwiches, and Other Interesting Disasters

May 1, 2017

Professional Writers: Find Out How to Get Certified by Copyblogger

April 17, 2017

The Painful Core Lesson Taught by 3 Astonishing Big-Brand Fails

April 3, 2017

5 Mindset Habits that Actually Work

March 27, 2017

On Grammar, Usage, and Not Being a Great Big Jerk

March 20, 2017

Creative Strategies for Content Writers

March 13, 2017

A New Ultra-Easy Resource for Creating Excellent WordPress Sites

February 20, 2017

Thriving Freelancers and Clients from Hell

February 13, 2017

Politics, Content Marketing, and the 2017 Super Bowl Ads

February 6, 2017

Copyblogger Book Club: Winning the Story Wars

January 23, 2017

3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)

January 9, 2017

The 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: Your January Assignments

December 19, 2016

Bad Writing Advice: The ‘Post Truth’ Episode

December 12, 2016

Get Ready Now for a Creative and Productive 2017

December 5, 2016

The 4 Pillars Every Online Business Is Built On

November 28, 2016

Orbit Media’s Latest Survey of 1000 Bloggers

November 14, 2016

Have You Already Missed the Podcasting Gold Rush?

November 7, 2016

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October 31, 2016

5 Quick Wins for Content Marketers

October 24, 2016

Announcing: An Intriguing New Tool for Collaborative Content

October 17, 2016

A New Book to Make Content Marketing Easier

October 10, 2016

Behind the Scenes at Copyblogger: Our New Email Approach

October 3, 2016

The ‘Obligatory’ Structure of Effective Content

September 26, 2016

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

September 15, 2016

How to Handle Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation (without Looking Like an Idiot)

September 8, 2016

Ethics, Professionalism, and Good Manners for Content Marketers

September 1, 2016

3 Questions that Can Haunt Creative Professionals

August 25, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part Two

August 18, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part One

August 11, 2016

Are You Leaving Money on the Table with Weak Headlines?

August 4, 2016

Content Marketing for Nonprofits

July 28, 2016

The One-Two Punch that Creates the Most Successful Copywriters

July 21, 2016

Pokémon Go: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2016

5 Suggestions When You’re Writing About Controversy

July 7, 2016

Announcing: A Breakthrough Educational Collaboration between Copyblogger and U.C. Davis

June 30, 2016

How to Break Past the #1 Conversion Killer

June 23, 2016

The New Age of Marketing Automation: Powerful, Simple, Cost-Effective

June 16, 2016

How to Make a (Really Good) Living as a Freelance Writer

June 9, 2016

Self-Publishing, Side Hustles, and Doing It All: A Conversation with Linda Formichelli

June 2, 2016

A Process for Content Marketing Success

May 26, 2016

Content Marketing Best Practices: Getting Email Opt-Ins

May 19, 2016

Behind the Scenes: Adventures in Advertising

May 12, 2016

Trump, Apple, and Facebook Advertising: Content Marketing News for May, 2016

May 5, 2016

Sally Hogshead and the Art of Fascination

April 28, 2016

Behind the Scenes at the Rainmaker Digital Company Meeting!

April 14, 2016

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

April 7, 2016

Strategies for B2B Podcasting, with Clark Buckner

March 31, 2016

Content Marketing Success Stories: Fitness Powerhouse Examine.com

March 24, 2016

Behind the Scenes: An Inside Look at the Rainmaker FM Redesign

March 17, 2016

Our Latest Advice and Resources for Digital Business Owners

March 10, 2016

Should Content Publishers Adopt Google’s New AMP?

March 3, 2016

7 Ways to Get Smarter with Social Media Listening

February 25, 2016

Content Marketing Shout-Out: Orbit Media and Andy Crestodina

February 18, 2016

The Tactic You Should Steal from Copyblogger

February 11, 2016

Content Marketing News for February, 2016

February 4, 2016

Email Marketing: The Misunderstood Powerhouse

January 28, 2016

The Secret Weapon Behind Great Websites: The Role of the Content Editor

January 21, 2016

Behind the Scenes: The Relaunch and Re-Imagining of Copyblogger.com

January 14, 2016

Trends and Predictions for Digital Commerce: A Conversation with Brian Clark

January 7, 2016

2016 Content Marketing Resolutions

December 28, 2015

The End of The Lede, The Beginning of Copyblogger FM

November 10, 2015

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November 3, 2015

Long or Short? The Content Length Question Answered, Once and For All

October 27, 2015

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October 20, 2015

The Surprising Truth about Earning a Profit from Your Content

October 13, 2015

How to Move Your Audience From Infatuation to Love

October 6, 2015

3 Things Your Audience Wants You to Know about Useful Content

September 29, 2015

Revisiting Authenticity: What It Is, What It’s Not, and Why It Matters

September 22, 2015

Publishing Lessons from Dave Pell, the Most Fascinating Email Newsletter Writer in the Business

September 15, 2015

Why Content Creators Should Kiss Their Programmers

September 8, 2015

Finally — A Podcast about the Superiority of Written Content

September 1, 2015

Hot Seat: Grilling Jerod on Using Audio Content to Seed a Content Arsenal

August 25, 2015

How to Optimize Your Headlines for Content Discovery with Vinegar (Before You Die of Cholera)

August 18, 2015

5 Stories That Explain Jerod Morris (Plus One Massive Marketing Lesson)

August 11, 2015

Lede Potpourri: A Big Idea, Talking About Demian Behind His Back, and Lessons from #PM15

August 4, 2015

How to Attend an Industry Conference Like a Boss

July 28, 2015

Getting the Most Out of a Conference When You’re There to Promote, Part 1

July 21, 2015

How Much Does the Modern Content Marketer Need to Know About SEO?

July 14, 2015

Are Podcasters Digitally Sharecropping Without Realizing It?

July 7, 2015

Celebrating Our 101st Episode (with a Special Guest Interviewer)

June 30, 2015

Why The Phrase ‘Leaders Are Readers’ Should Die

June 23, 2015

Why You Should Think Outside the Box About Online Courses

June 16, 2015

The Proper (and Safe) Way to Republish Old Articles

June 9, 2015

How to Grow an Audience on LinkedIn by Repurposing Content

June 2, 2015

Key Takeaways from Three-and-a-Half Hours with Henry Rollins

May 27, 2015

Rapid-Fire Takeaways from Authority Rainmaker

May 19, 2015

The Proper Way to Grow an Audience on Medium

May 12, 2015

The Introvert’s Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast

May 5, 2015

The One Quality All Popular Podcasts Share

April 28, 2015

Proof That Grit Is the Only Way to Reach Your Potential

April 21, 2015

Do We Celebrate Failure Too Much?

April 14, 2015

Choose Yourself Part 2: James Altucher Fights Back

April 7, 2015

Should We Fear Content Shock? (Or Could It Actually Be a Good Thing?)

March 31, 2015

Should You Really ‘Walk in the Direction of Your Fear’?

March 24, 2015

Is ‘Choose Yourself’ Good Advice … or New-Age Phooey?

March 17, 2015

Is Authority Earned or Bestowed?

March 3, 2015

Dan Pink on How to Succeed in the New Era of Selling

February 24, 2015

Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

February 17, 2015

Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

February 10, 2015

How to Learn from Your Successes

January 27, 2015

How to Learn From Your Mistakes

January 13, 2015

Lessons Learned from Conducting Two Monster Audience Surveys

December 16, 2014

Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

December 2, 2014

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

November 18, 2014

How We Built Our Careers Online (And What You Can Learn From It)

November 4, 2014

Interview with Brian Clark: How Customer Experience Maps Help You Develop a Smarter Content Strategy

October 21, 2014

How Empathy Maps Help You Speak Directly to the Hearts of Your Audience

October 7, 2014

How to Ignite a Feeling in Your Audience

September 23, 2014

Are You Overlooking This Cornerstone of a Smart Content Strategy?

June 26, 2014

How to Curate Knowledge, Turn it Into Wisdom, and Build Your Audience

June 19, 2014

How Successful Writers Curate Ideas

June 13, 2014

The 5 W’s of Link Curation

June 6, 2014

Why You Should Curate Content (And How to Do It Right)

May 30, 2014

How Freaks and Misfits Can Succeed in Business: A Conversation with Chris Brogan

May 23, 2014

The 2 Reasons People Don’t Click on Your Buttons … And How to Overcome Them

May 16, 2014

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May 9, 2014

How to Be Authentic

May 2, 2014

How to Close With Style

April 25, 2014

The Best of Seth Godin on Copyblogger

April 17, 2014

How to Choose Arresting Images for Your Blog Posts (And Why You Should)

April 11, 2014

Removing Blog Comments: The View So Far

April 4, 2014

How to Use Internal Cliffhangers

March 28, 2014

Hangout Hot Seat with Brian Clark

March 21, 2014

How to Tell a Seductive Story

March 14, 2014

How to Create Exquisite Subheads

March 7, 2014

How to Write Killer Bullet Points

February 28, 2014

How to Write Damn Good Sentences

February 21, 2014

How to Use Persuasive Words

February 14, 2014

Michael Stelzner on Capturing Emails and Committing to Quality

February 7, 2014

How to Nail Your Opening

January 24, 2014

How to Write a Magnetic Headline (in Under 15 Minutes)

May 18, 2012

Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

May 11, 2012

How to Attract an Audience by Integrating Content, Social, and Search

March 30, 2012

Why You Should Build an Audience Before You Build a Business

March 16, 2012

How Chris Brogan Built His Content Platform

March 9, 2012

Jay Baer on How to Turn Interested Prospects into Lifelong Customers

March 2, 2012

A 30-Minute Copywriting Course from a Master of the Craft

February 24, 2012

The Path to a Legendary Copywriting Career

February 17, 2012

5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

February 10, 2012

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

February 3, 2012

Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules

January 27, 2012

Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get

January 20, 2012

How to Newsjack Your Way to Free Media Exposure with David Meerman Scott

January 13, 2012

Steven Pressfield and the War of Work

November 18, 2011

The Strategy Behind the Copyblogger Redesign

November 11, 2011

7 Ways to Create an Email Marketing "Snowball Effect"

November 4, 2011

Warning: If You're Not a Privacy Nut, You're Losing Sales

October 28, 2011

The 3 Kinds of Writing That Builds a Business

October 21, 2011

The Art of Seductive Writing: A Conversation with Robert Greene

October 7, 2011

Why Content Marketing Doesn't Suck

September 30, 2011

Are You Weird Enough to Succeed at Content Marketing?

September 23, 2011

What Works With SEO Right Now and Why No One Does What You Want

September 16, 2011

Are You Flushing Your Marketing Down the Social Media Toilet?

September 11, 2011

Seth Godin on Blogging, Business Books, and Creating Content that Matters

September 2, 2011

The Return of Copyblogger Radio …

June 10, 2011

Answered: Your Most Burning Content Marketing Questions

June 3, 2011

How to Get All the Clients and Customers You Can Handle

May 20, 2011

Is Content Marketing Worth the Work?

May 13, 2011

How to Write Nearly Undeletable Emails

May 6, 2011

Is the Online Gold Rush Over?

April 22, 2011

The Art of Enchanting Online Marketing with Guy Kawasaki

April 15, 2011

The Market for Something to Believe in is Infinite: An Interview with Hugh MacLeod

April 8, 2011

How to Constantly Create Compelling Content

March 25, 2011

The Content Marketing Question You Need to Answer … Now

March 18, 2011

Good SEO is Simple. Really.

March 4, 2011

Did Social Media Kill the Marketing Star?

February 25, 2011

How to Write (and Execute) a Simple but Powerful Business Plan

February 17, 2011

How to Kick Groupon to the Curb and Become a Local Hero

February 3, 2011

Convert … Or Die

January 27, 2011

Attention: Is Your Headline Getting Any?

January 20, 2011

How to Craft Landing Pages that Work

January 13, 2011

Why Every Smart Business is in the Media Business

January 5, 2011

2011 Content Marketing Predictions

December 15, 2010

Tim Ferriss on How to Reinvent Yourself with Blog Marketing

December 8, 2010

The 6 Elements of an Influential Web Experience

December 1, 2010

Your Staggeringly Unfair Marketing Advantage

November 17, 2010

How to Get Some Action

November 10, 2010

The Foundation of All Marketing that Works

November 3, 2010

Introducing Copyblogger Radio

April 14, 2016

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

The social media platforms are changing constantly. Can we develop an approach that lets us stay current … without driving ourselves to distraction?

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These days we often hear that “the only constant is change” — and that’s doubly true for social media. But the nature of the human mind doesn’t change nearly as quickly. We’ve found that the key to staying on top of social media without driving yourself crazy is to look for the underlying patterns.

Today’s question for you: Would you like an episode on how to construct great “lead magnets” (sometimes called opt-in bonuses or ethical bribes)? Let me know in the comments below!

In this 25-minute episode, I talk about:

  • What you must manage if you want to “try all the platforms” (and why you don’t necessarily need to)
  • Reaching a younger audience on platforms like Snapchat (… or LinkedIn?)
  • Twitter’s new Customer Feedback tool (in beta now)
  • Social media world building and “building paths” through the networks
  • Instagram, entitlement, and social media strategy

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

Social Media News, Social Media ConstantsSonia Simone
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The Show Notes

  • Our Digital Commerce Institute session on Snapchat for Digital Marketers (members-only content)
  • My Copyblogger article: Is Social Media Making Us Dumb? about managing distractions and other topics
  • Digiday’s article with details on the Snapchat ad updates
  • Adweek with more on Snapchat, including demographics
  • Entrepreneur.com article on Twitter’s upcoming Customer Feedback tool (still in beta)
  • RainmakerFM’s LinkedIn podcast (The Missing Link)
  • Ian Lurie’s SlideShare on Storytelling vs. world-building
  • Kathleen Shannon’s article on Instagram Notifications, with lots of wisdom about how to think about social media
  • Twitter’s sweet video on their 10 Year Anniversary
  • Ask me a question or follow me on Twitter @soniasimone!

The Transcript

Sonia Simone: So glad to see you again, and welcome back to CopybloggerFM, the content marketing podcast.

CopybloggerFM is about emerging content marketing trends, interesting disasters, and enduring best practices, along with the occasional rant. My name is Sonia Simone, I’m the chief content officer for Rainmaker Digital, and I hang out with the folks doing the real work over on the Copyblogger blog.

So, today I want to talk about some news on the various social media platforms — but as you might have observed, when we talk about news on Copyblogger, we try to look for what’s constant about this. Otherwise you will make yourself bananas trying to keep up with the latest hack, the latest trick.

It’s often said in this new century, and of course especially in the online universe, that the only constant is change.

But the nature of the human mind doesn’t change a lot. It changes somewhat, in response to distractions and devices — even reading rewired the human brain when it became widely adopted. But the impulses and general patterns tend to stay consistent.

Snapchat

Do me a favor, swing over to Copyblogger.fm and let me know if you use Snapchat!

I do not use Snapchat. A) because I am old, but more specifically B) because I’ve been online for 30 years now and I don’t chase platforms any more. It’s not that they’re not valuable, it’s just that my time is valuable and my attention is highly breakable, so I pick a few spots to hang out in.

Some people — GaryVee is known for it, so is Chris Brogan — make a point of trying the new stuff a few times and seeing what might be of value, and I think that’s excellent if you have good habits around your social media time. This is where things like a Self Control app can come in handy — put boundaries around it. Schedule the goof-off time (see my Internet Making Us Stupid post).

Social media can spark ideas, it can get you into valuable conversations, it can expand your network, but it isn’t work. It doesn’t produce the thing you need to produce, unless you’re something like a social media manager. So make sure you’re enforcing some balance.

So: Snapchat. At the end of March, they added personalized ads to the platform, meaning you can use the user data to deliver targeted messages. This is what makes social media advertising work so well — you can get a relevant message to a person, instead of just putting up what are essentially billboards.

Digiday did a good job of getting into the details.

AdWeek tells us that Snapchat is the “fastest growing social network in the history of social networks,” and as I think we know, the user base skews young. 63 percent of its users are between 13 and 34, which has to be one of the least useful statistics ever for a marketer. It reminds me a weather forecast we had last year for snow, between “a trace and two feet.”

The key to Snapchat, and I think just about anyone listening to this is going to say, “Duh,” is that you can’t just run your “social media B-roll” on Snapchat and expect anyone to pay attention to you. You really have to think about the immediacy of that platform, the intimacy, the fact that the user is almost certainly on a mobile device. You have to understand what the “room” looks like, in a metaphoric sense.

This is the bit that changes across the platforms. Every social platform gives a different context. And the same user will respond to very different approaches in different ways across the platforms. Don’t use your Facebook strategy for LinkedIn or for Periscope. Some platforms have a natural affinity, like Twitter and Vine, but you really have to know the context of the platform before you can use it well.

Over at Digital Commerce Institute, which is our premium resource for digital business owners, we spent an hour talking with Ryan Hanley about Snapchat for digital marketers. Ryan has been around for a long time in internet years, he’s been talking about content since 2009, and he also hosts the Content Warfare podcast.

I’ll give you a link in the show notes, or just boogie over to DigitalCommerce.com and look in the Cutting Edge webinar series. It’s an interesting session that includes the basics on getting started, but also talks about how to approach it intelligently if you want to play around with it.

If you don’t know Digital Commerce Institute, it’s a premium resource, which means you pay for it, and it’s a spot to get more truly focused, targeted education on digital business than you’re going to glean from podcasts or blog posts. It’s very much focused on the needs of the digital business owner.

Twitter

Twitter just turned 10, they did a nice little video on it, although ironically it’s a bit long for fractured attention spans. I’ll give you a link in the show notes.

More “newsy” is that they’re going to be rolling out a new tool for Customer Feedback, that will give some more refined functionality to the usual “this company sucks I hate you” conversations that often take place.

It’s being tested with a big brands now, as it’s still in beta, but if you want more details, you have a link in the show notes.

Good quote from that article, which is on Entrepreneur.com (see show notes for link):

According to Twitter, four out of five people make customer service reports through the company’s service; so, whether brands prefer to interact with people through social media or not is irrelevant. They must reply in a timely manner or risk alienating those customers.

LinkedIn

Sean Jackson, who’s our CFO here at Copyblogger and also a passionate dude about LinkedIn, pointed me to this:

Comscore reports that LinkedIn has seen significant growth in usage with millennials. In other words, millennials have acquired their first job, gotten sick of it, and are now looking for another one.

This is why I roll my eyes at statements like “Generation Z doesn’t use email.” GenerationZ don’t have jobs beyond “Do you want fries with that.” Those young people, including teenagers, who *are* going things like building websites for people use email. So you have to use some sense.

You can catch Rainmaker.FM’s LinkedIn podcast, The Missing Link, here. There are tons and tons of useful and entertaining episodes there featuring Sean’s passion and his deep nerdery on all things LinkedIn.

Storytelling vs. world building

Speaking of LinkedIn, I came across a SlideShare this week and found it interesting.

So of course, “story time” or “storytelling” isn’t over, that’s just a little bit of clickbaity headline stuff. But Ian Lurie, who created the slideshare, did a good job of describing something that isn’t new, really, but it continues to be more important:

The path your potential customer takes isn’t so simple any more. It’s not “do a Google search, find your page, buy something.”

All of these platforms are potential places along a very windy path to get to your business or service. When you’re thinking about how to use the social platforms to find more customers or build your audience, you need to remember that different people come to you using very different stepping stones.

Unless you have a Coca-Cola level budget, trying to address this by building a presence in All the Platforms will exhaust and bankrupt you. It’s just not an option.

But you can do things like think about your Calls to Action on each piece of content, whether it’s on your own site or someone else’s, so that people who want to know more can learn more. Lurie calls it “building the paths,” which is a good way to look at it.

It’s also a great idea to build something really inviting to your target audience on your own site. People won’t follow any path to you unless there’s something there that they want.

Do check out the SlideShare, it’s well done.

Instagram, entitlement, and social media strategy

My final thing today isn’t a piece of news but a smart reaction to a piece of news, because I think it’s a great example of how we want to think about and react to the constant environment of change on the social platforms.

Turn Off Notifications, Kathleen Shannon at beingboss.club, talking about all of the frantic rquests we saw a week or two ago to “turn on notifications” on Instagram, because they’ll be changing their algorithm to prioritize how things are shown on the platform.

This is an almost word-for-word replay to changes that happened on Facebook over the last couple of years, where as the platform owners try to shift the algorithm to display the most relevant content, users scramble so they can still get seen — and in particular, users who are using the platform to market.

I’m wrapping up with this one because I think it does a good job articulating some of the key themes of how we approach social as marketers, and not just as regular citizens.

We forget that these platforms we aren’t paying for don’t owe us anything. Even when we do pay, for example when we buy advertising, the platforms are so huge that they’re really not going to spend any time at all finding out how to make this work for you. Maybe that’s unfair when we’re talking about the paid side, but it’s reality.

The most important thing to avoid with social media marketing is the attitude that you are entitled to anything at all on that platform. If you put in thousands of hours and even thousands of dollars to build a profile on a platform and then they change the rules and all your work is wasted — that’s your fault. The earlier in the game you understand this, the less painful your life will be with social.

… sure, I use Instagram, Periscope, Facebook, a podcast, a blog, digital products, and webinars to share my point-of-view, but my business model isn’t entirely dependent on one single method of delivery.
-Kathleen Shannon, beingboss.club

Saving your asks

Here’s another quote that I think gets to something important:

You only get to ask your audience for so much. So if I’m going to ask my audience to do something it’s going to be something that I really really want—whether that’s listening to my podcast, subscribing to my newsletter, buying my product, or hiring me. I’m not going to waste my asks on getting my selfies liked.

The post is very good, and it wouldn’t be right for me to summarize the whole thing. It’s a fast read and a smart one, go check it out.

So that’s it for today, a bit of a mix of news and ranting. One “ask” from me — it really helps the show when you give it a review or a star rating on iTunes, so if you’re an iTunes listener and you feel moved to show us some love there, that really helps us. And a big thank you to everyone who has already left us reviews and ratings, it’s so appreciated.

See you next week!

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Comments

  1. Christine Laureano says

    May 11, 2016 at 10:00 AM

    Yes, would love to hear you talk about opt-ins, lead magnets, opt-in bonuses. There’s some good ones out there, and then there’s some icky ones!

    My target audience isn’t trendy, looking for the hack of the day. The appeal to more solid, ever-green advice they can use today…and 5 years from today.

    Thanks for your wisdom!

    Christine

    Reply
    • Sonia Simone says

      May 11, 2016 at 10:59 AM

      Thanks Christine, I think it would be a useful topic!

      Reply

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