A decade ago, I was asked to co-host a weekly podcast about fatherhood. For five years, I co-hosted a 30-minute podcast called DadsUnplugged. Unfortunately, the company that powered our podcast retooled and the show was cancelled. Regardless, I learned a great deal from the experience and even picked up a client based in Singapore, thanks to our global reach. Since then, podcasting has seen a dramatic resurgence and has become a focal-point for a variety of brands looking to differentiate. In this article, I outline compelling reasons why your brand should consider podcasting, how to get started and how to market effectively.

What is Podcasting and Why Should I Care?

While podcasting was invented in 2004, it wasn’t made popular until Adam Curry of MTV fame brought it to the mainstream over a decade ago. Since then, the audio platform has grown in popularity, both in terms of listeners and resulting advertising dollars. Here are just a few compelling statistics regarding the revitalization of podcasting as an effective marketing platform:

• 44 percent of Americans have listened to a podcast (124 million people)
• 26 percent of Americans listen to podcasts monthly (up 24 percent from 2017)
• 32 percent of Americans ages 25-54 listen to podcasts monthly
• 48 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly (up 6 million from 2017)
• Podcast listeners consume an average of 7 different podcasts weekly
• 80 percent of podcast listeners consume “all” or “most” of each episode
• There are currently 550,000 podcasts available today

While mobile devices constitute a large percent of regular consumption, smart speaker sales are also a major contributor to the tremendous growth of podcast consumption the last year or so. There are four primary reasons why people listen to podcasts, all of which brands can leverage: authenticity, convenience, simplicity and nostalgia. Even if you’re a startup with limited marketing budget and time, podcasting can provide a foundational element to your go-to-market strategy.

The Benefits of Podcasting

There are a variety of reasons for brands to podcast regularly. The most common motivations are generating brand awareness, engagement and thought leadership. There are more altruistic reasons as well, which may include sharing information/insights or creating an online community. Less altruistic reasons commonly include driving site traffic or revenue streams or to hone speaking and interviewing skills (on a personal level). Regardless of your motivations or objectives, podcasting can provide reliable results.

If you’re still unsure whether podcasting is right for your brand, answer the following questions:

• Are you looking to build a relationship between your brand and your audience?
• Do you have valuable information to share?
• Are you able and willing to talk about your products, services, and/or industry on a regular basis?
• Do you want your brand to have a voice?
• Does your audience listen to podcasts?

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, then podcasting may be right for you (and you don’t have to ask your doctor first).

How to Get Started with Podcasting

As with any marketing efforts, a podcasting program should start with foundational alignment to marketing or business objectives. The most common objectives are increasing brand awareness, brand engagement, site/blog traffic, thought-leadership or revenue generation. Once objectives are identified and prioritized as appropriate, your podcasting plan should outline strategies and tactics, which should include format, frequency, duration, host/s, POV, guests, research, syndication and marketing efforts.

Costs Associated with Podcasting

The hardware and software required for podcasting is typically much more affordable than video. While it’s technically possible to start podcasting with a smart phone for free, investing in the proper hardware and software is highly recommended. If you want decent sound quality, you will need to invest in a microphone, mic stand, headphones, mixer, editing software and acoustics. A bare-bones DIY setup including an affordable mic, stand, mixer, headphones and acoustic panels for a sound box will start at $75. A mid-range setup, including condenser mic, stand, upgraded mixer, acoustic panels (for a makeshift recording room) and Adobe Audition CC software will run $150 and up. For a professional-grade setup, including a dedicated studio, will run $750 (not including talent, rent or acoustic panels).

Podcast Hosting: Host Site vs. Podcatcher

For listeners to find and listen to your podcast, you need to find a host. Hosting fees range from free to $99/mo, but the most common starting point will run $20/mo for reasonably robust management and reporting features (we often recommend Libsyn to our clients). Most hosting sites charge based on monthly usage, but some are based on lifetime data allowances. Podcast hosting sites allow you to upload podcasts directly, including descriptions and thumbnails. From there, podcatchers (think podcast directories) pick up and syndicate your podcasts for free via RSS feeds. Popular podcatchers include, but are not limited to: iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Google Play Music, Podcast Addict, CastBox, Pocket Casts, DoggCatcher Podcast Player, Podcast Go and TuneIn Radio.

How to Finance a Podcast

Corporate marketers should be able to pull from existing budget to cover startup hard costs ranging from $150-1,500 relatively easily. That number may not be as trivial for an individual looking to build a personal brand. There are a few options, depending on objectives, audience, competition, format and talent. Most individuals fund out of savings, but there are alternatives. Whether you’re an individual or employee within a corporation, advertising and sponsorship revenue can cover costs, if not create a livable wage.

It can be challenging to sell sponsors or advertisers on a show that doesn’t exist or yet have a following, so I recommend investing in the startup costs and hosting half a dozen foundational shows before reaching out for investment. Sponsorships are typically customized and based on personal relationships, so they’re easier to secure earlier in the development of a show. Advertising is typically managed or hosted by a network, which means you will need to have listener data (sometimes 10,000 listeners minimum) to get picked up by a network. Give yourself a season (6 to 24 shows, depending on frequency) to build a foundation for meaningful advertising and sponsorship revenue opportunities.

Alternatives to Hosting a Podcast

If researching, producing and hosting a regular podcast sounds daunting, consider alternatives. For starters, consider forming a strategic partnership with another entity (like I did for DadsUnplugged) to share the responsibility and play off each other’s strengths. If you have the industry knowledge but lack podcast prowess, consider a partner that knows podcasting better than your industry, but would benefit from the exposure and your credibility.

Another viable and common alternative to hosting a podcast, is to sponsor a podcast. Invest the money into visibility and save your time for other higher-value activities. If you don’t find an existing podcast that is an ideal fit for your brand, consider pitching one to existing podcasters, industry influencers or media companies looking to expand their reach and leverage their infrastructure. You can also pitch yourself as a guest on existing podcasts (public relations) or buy your way in via advertising networks. Currently, a 15-second Pre-Roll commands $18-35 per 1,000 cost-per-thousand impressions (CPMs), AKA “listens,” and a 60-second Mid-Roll commands $25-50 per 1,000 CPMs.

Creating a Podcasting Brand

As with any good marketing, a podcast should follow branding best practices. The podcast creative and voice should be authentic and consistent with your brand to maximize trust. Your podcast content and format should be unique to be memorable. Show descriptions should be intuitive, but also keyword-loaded for maximum visibility. Consistency is also important to maximize credibility. Commit to a season at a time, not one show at a time. Lastly, design is important. Create a compelling show logo and episode thumbnail design format that results in consistent show titles, yet each is unique and relevant to the topic. Thumbnail images or logo should be 14000x1400 pixels for iTunes and Podcatchers.

Selecting Talent to Host Your Podcast

For maximum reach out-of-the-gate, it is always desirable to have a podcast show host that is high-profile within your industry. Short of that, it’s good to hire professional voice talent that has a soothing yet modulating tone. Most commonly, however, show hosts are most passionate or knowledgeable about a given topic and thus work for free or low-cost as a hobby. This can still be true in a company, particularly with experienced or enthusiastic staff. While previous experience is helpful, it is not required, if practice is substituted. To balance “on-air” experience with industry knowledge, consider co-hosts. For DadsUnplugged, I was the ‘foil’ to my co-host, who drove a Prius, meditated and tried every modern parenting tactic available. I once put soap in my son’s mouth after he swore. Our personalities balanced each other well.

Planning Podcast Show Content

Content, is of course, king of the podcasting world. Based upon your overall objective, host talent and resources, you’ll need to finalize show frequency, duration and format. The most common podcast format is weekly, but some shows are daily while others are monthly. The most common duration ranges from 10-22 minutes, but daily podcasts may run 1-5 minutes while monthly shows may run 60-90 minutes. In terms of format, consider segmenting, especially if longer than 10 minutes. Standard late-night TV talk show format can be a guide: introduction/monologue, feature segment, guest interview. Pick what works best for you, however. That may include guests, panels or a live studio audience. When in doubt, test! Try out a few different formats in the first season (6-12 shows) and refine based on fit and feedback.

Podcast Production Best Practices

With an overall format and frequency refined, the next step is producing a single show. For best results, consider starting with a storyboard or outline. This provides an opportunity to talk through the most important elements of the show, including segment timing and transitions. Consider mapping out the show with minute marks, like the professionals. If needed, create a script for your hosts and questions for your guests (ideally provided in advance). Prepare a strong open and close that includes calls-to-action like subscribing, sharing a link to your website, thanking sponsors or sharing advertising options.

While there is always a chance your podcast doesn’t make it to a second season, it’s always prudent to plan for the long-term. Consider archiving your podcasts for free via YouTube. Beyond saving monthly hosting fees for old podcast episodes, YouTube offers an opportunity to reach a global audience (and is the second largest search engine by volume). It is important to include a compelling thumbnail as the visual element to support your podcast audio on YouTube. As a bonus tip, consider recording your podcasts with a digital camera (DSLR) or camcorder from day one, so you’ll have native video and images ready for YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest and other social platforms.

Fundamental Elements of a Podcast to be Optimized

Each key element of a podcast can and should be optimized for reach and engagement. It all starts with the show title, which should be unique, memorable, relevant and of course, keyword optimized. Next up is the show description: which should be descriptive, yet intriguing and keyword-infused. One element podcasters typically don’t spend as much time thinking about is the show category. It’s an important decision and should be researched before finalizing. The trick is balancing topical accuracy with the desire to maximize visibility with potential audiences. Most podcasts pick a category and stick with it, but flexible show formats may consider unique categories for each podcast. Don’t forget the small elements that provide polish, like introduction or transition music (check out Serial for inspiration).

From a bigger picture perspective, podcasting provides an opportunity to repurpose content, whether it starts with video or audio, it can be leveraged into images, text and other form factors. Even unused content can be repurposed for promotions or future episodes. Creating bonus materials can also help maximize reach and engagement. Consider developing additional video, checklists, worksheets and resource lists for your website or blog to keep listeners engaged outside of the podcast. Bonus content has the added benefit of measurability, especially if it lives online, outside of the podcast.

Marketing Your Podcast

Beyond optimizing podcast episode title and description, consider creating a show summary on a blog or website and embedding the audio file within the page. Google appreciates the added context and will rank websites and blogs that incorporate multimedia higher than those that don’t. Transcribe episodes for the blog or to create additional content to promote the episode on social media or your website. Syndicate the blog or episode summary page via social media in addition to syndicating a link to a podcatcher or host site. When syndicating each episode on social media, leverage hashtags, especially for Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Beyond industry-specific language, consider podcast-specific terms like #podcast, #podcasting, #podcastguest or #instapodcast.

For visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, utilize behind-the-scenes images or video as teasers for upcoming (and archived) episodes. Don’t forget to syndicate to Google+, as the platform is utilized by Google to inform organic search results. For YouTube, leverage playlists to combine relevant episodes. If your podcast is business-related consider posting teasers and episodes to LinkedIn, as well as support via targeted advertising to maximize listenership.

To maximize reach and rankings, boost posts on platforms like Facebook and consider testing a targeted ad campaign to grow your subscriber-base. The added benefit of advertising is that you can grow your listenership quickly, and influence visibility on podcatchers. Generating significant listens in the first 24-48 hours can help earn a spot on iTune’s New & Noteworthy section, for example. Speaking of rankings, the best way to maximize visibility on podcatchers is to maximize downloads, subscribes, ratings and reviews, so remind listeners to support you with calls-to-action. For podcasters looking to grow a large following and revenue, explore a pay-per-conversion affiliate program for referring site traffic resulting in listeners. Also consider expanding advertising to Google (text and display ads).

Don’t forget marketing fundamentals when promoting your podcast. Incorporate a link to your latest podcast or episode page in your email signature file. Promote episodes in your newsletter and on your home page. Provide pre-made promos to guests and partners to maximize reach. A more advanced strategy is to identify and engage superlisteners (evangelists). Bonus marketing ideas include leveraging timely news and media outlets and exploring cross-promotional opportunities with other podcasters/shows.

Creating a podcast doesn’t have to be daunting, but it does require a reasonable investment of time and money to do it right. The investment is typically much less than video and other form factors and has the added benefit of expanding into a relatively under-appreciated but fast-growing format: audio branding. Take advantage of the current excitement and growing consumption of podcasts to build your brand.

To learn more about topics discussed in this post including branding, content marketing and social media platforms, check out our classes on the following topics:

Mobile: Brand

Content Marketing Strategy

The Primary Social Media Platforms

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post How to Extend Your Brand by Building a Podcast Strategy appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

Establishing a brand as a blogger (or an aspiring blogger) is an essential factor in ensuring you gain a wide readership base as well as in establishing authority in your content matter. You will always wish that your blog or website becomes the go-to site and definitive authority. But for this to happen, you must explore various digital marketing strategies (which are the actions that propel you toward the realization of your goal using online media) to ensure that you reach a wide range of readers.

Some of strategies for promoting your blog include social media marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), along with an arsenal of other weapons in your fight towards the top of SERPs. But as a blogger building your personal brand, guest posting may be the foremost strategy for ensuring your readership base increased over time, and that your name is established in the blogosphere.

Although it’s often dismissed as “over” or simply overlooked by some bloggers, guest posting remains a key digital marketing strategy in building your online influence. Here are 6 reasons why you should embrace it.

6 Reasons Why You Should Be Guest Posting

1. Demonstrate Authority

Guest posting gives you the opportunity to showcase expertise in your area of specialization. When you write informative articles on someone else’s blog or website, you increase their readership base. However, this also works on your side by exposing your content to readers who will engage with your content and regard you as a go-to person for information they need.

In addition to your “personal” authority, the search engines (Google, in particular) look at the authority of your website or blog. They measure this authority, in part, by the number of backlinks from other authoritative websites. These backlinks weigh into your calculated domain authority score. One catch. They must be related to your industry.  So, when you’re looking into guest blogs, partner with websites that are similar in topic to yours.

2. Build Relationships

When you write articles that convert readers, chances are high that your fellow bloggers (on whose blogs or websites you write on) will enjoy your content; and considering the great influence that bloggers exhibit on social media platforms, this means you gain more influence. The result? You get to establish a good relationship with your fellow bloggers. When they need more content, they will consider reaching out to you again.

This will help you to get your portfolio and credibility established by the mere fact that these bloggers entrusted you enough to publish your quality content on their own sites. More importantly, the relationship you build with other bloggers can pay off sometime in the future if you continue the professional relationship that you’ve now started.  Keep in mind, blogging is a very social business.

3. Blog/Website Traffic

Guest posting is a great way of growing your site’s traffic. Why? In most cases, when you guest post, you will be permitted to include a link to your website—which serves well by bringing more visitors to your site. When people read your blog post on other websites (and of course, love it), they’ll tend to want to know more about your services, and this is through visiting your website. Traffic can explode from a good solid guest blog.

Once your guest post is published, you will begin to see traffic referred from the host’s site. But don’t leave that to chance. Use the content to propel you forward by using this opportunity to create engaging social media content.

4. Engaging Social Media Content

After the guest blog is published, you should use it to create social media content to share across your social channels. When a host site publishes your article, it’s a professional courtesy to thank them—and tag them—on social media. It shows to your social followers how you’ve expanded your horizons while inviting them to read the new content. Plus, because you’ve tagged your host, you may pique the curiosity of their social followers with your engaging content. Thus, you could be earning yourself some new subscribers.  

5. Create New Leads

When readers discover the magic that you work through your host sites, they’ll always find a way to reach your website for more of your ideas, services, or goods. This can be easy when you have direct links to your website included on your guest post.

Check with your host site to find out their backlink policy before you commit to writing a guest blog. If they disallow backlinks and you want purely the brand name exposure or to build your portfolio, go for it. If you’re using guest posting to build backlinks, however, it’s best to know up front so that you can decide if the effort is worth your time. That’s for you to decide.

6. Improve Your Writing

When you write on other’s blogs (especially authoritative blogs), you give them the chance to rate your writing skills; which may range from the way you organize your thoughts to the grammar you write. They will give you honest feedback to improve the post prior to publications. This feedback always enables you to know areas that need improvement thus providing you with better ways to relay your pack of information to the intended readers. It’s a win any time you can sharpen your writing skills.

Conclusion

Ready to build your brand or gain more exposure? Guest posting does it all. Just identify a related website (in a related niche) and email the blogger to request a chance to contribute a blog post. If the request is approved, you will submit the post - but always remember to request at least one direct link to your blog or website, as this is your major incentive for posting in the first place.

For whatever reason you consider it for, guest posting remains the most effective digital marketing strategy to build your online influence as a blogger. It’s a win-win all the way around!
To learn more about writing content for high rankings and establishing authority as a blogger, check out our posts on the following topics:

Content Marketing for Search Rankings

Content Marketing for Social Media

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The post Guest Posting: Still An Important Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

Influencer marketing has come of age to become the next big thing in digital marketing. The growing influence of this form of marketing has turned heads in businesses that want to attract the attention of leads and increase their brand outreach.

Today, businesses are allocating a sizable budget on influencer marketing to focus on an idea that goes with the spirit of their brand. This shift in digital marketing approach has led businesses to increase their budget on influencer marketing.

In this graph by Statista, you can see that 39% of marketing professionals in American intend to increase their budget on influencer marketing, followed by 21% who believed that their budget will stay the same. For the 21% who still aren't convinced, this article will prove that influencers are worth the price.

What Digital Marketers Are Thinking About Influencer Marketing?

For the digital marketer, influencer marketing is a new beginning to a new form of marketing. According to Statista, 25% of brand strategists and social media marketers think that influencer marketing is pivotal for speeding up digital transformation in the next three years.

While digital marketers consider many goals for the success of influencer marketing, many consider reputation management as the foremost benefit.

On the other hand, marketers consider influencer content a more effective form of content when it comes to promoting a brand on channels other than social media. But when social media comes into play, Instagram is the best bet for marketers.

Now let’s check out the companies that are using the power of influencer marketing to create more authentic voices around their brand.

1. Fiji Water

Water is essential for life. We all know that. But Fiji Water used the face of Danielle Bernstein to add more weight in this message. The celebrity who runs a blog “We Wore What” and is known as “weworewhat” on Instagram joined hands with Fiji Water to spread the role of water in human health.

The company spearheaded the campaign “#bodyworewhat” and featured Danielle Bernstein with her trainer in some short videos to promote the significance of water for staying healthy and fit. Her followers were quick to respond to her campaign and it turned out to be a huge success.

Takeaway: The key takeaway in Fiji Water campaign was its alignment of brand with the right personality. They chose Danielle Bernstein because she was an apt person to endorse their product and it also benefited her own personal brand which focused on maintaining a desirable physique.

2. Leesa

Leesa is an online store that sells mattresses and bedding accessories. The brand was struggling to gain sales since it has no brick & mortar store. So it turned to influencers to spread word of mouth in the market and did achieve its goal.

The brand contacted bloggers who were drawing good traffic writing articles on home décor, interior design, DIY, and furnishing. Then, it simply asked them to write unbiased reviews of its products. The move proved successful for the brand and it saw an uptick in sales.

Takeaway: Leesa owes its success to the trustworthy bloggers it associated with. Their unbiased reviews got the attention of the readers and created the hype that lifted the image of the brand and contributed to its sales.

3. Adidas

Adidas is an upmarket brand for sportswear and accessories that is known for its versatile range of clothing which fits every audience from highbrow oldies to sporting teens. In 2015, the company shifted its focus to influencer marketing in order to supersede its competitors.

To start the campaign, it partnered with American celebrity Selena Gomez who is the most followed celebrity on Instagram. The campaign was named #MyNeoShoot and got phenomenal success due to the strong star power of Selena Gomez.

In addition, the brand invited the other popular Instagram influencers to create the hype of the brand and it also motivated their fans to share their posts with the hashtag “#MyNeoShoot and become the model of the brand. The outcome of the campaign was 24.2% more sales during a period of twelve months and a downtick of 9.1% in sales of Nike.

Takeaway: The secret to the success of #MyNeoShoot is the role of celebrities, influencers, and Instagrammers in promoting the brand. The combined synergy of these people increased the number of people who were mentioning Adidas. The campaign resulted in 71,000 mentions of Adidas and generated 41,000 more followers of the brand.

4. Microsoft

On the occasion of Women’s Day 2017, Microsoft came up with the idea of encouraging women to join S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) industry. To realize the idea, it partnered with National Geographic and roped in some photographers associated with the wildlife channel.

Together they started “#MakeWhatsNext” campaign and posted 30 pictures on 5 different Instagram channels. The pictures showed stories of different women doing the different things. The campaign was a huge success and got 3.5 million likes in a day.

Takeaway: National Geographic was the driving force behind the phenomenal success of “#MakeWhatsNext”. Since the wildlife channel has a huge following on Instagram, it made it easier for Microsoft to pull in a large audience.

5. Sprint

The telecom company collaborated with big names in business and entertainment industry to promote its brand. With its campaign hashtag “#LiveUnlimited?” it partnered with celebrities like Gerard Adams, Lele Pons, and Rachel Cook to drum up its business.

To kick-start the campaign, it made an ad video that showed the celebrities promoting the idea of #LiveUnlimited. The campaign zeroed in on the youth audience and encouraged them to explore better opportunities of life.

Takeaway: The key point in the Sprint story is that the company did not use the celebrities to blow the trumpet of its brand and instead let them be who they are. The message struck a chord with the audience and gave a boost to Sprint.

6. Coca-Cola

One of the biggest brands in the world, Coca-Cola is an official sponsor of Olympic since 1928. So when the event was all set for the year 2016 in Brazil, the brand did not want to waste any time. It started its campaign 18 months before the event so that it could attract more teens to the brand.

The goal of this campaign was to capture the memorable moments of Olympics 2016 right from the torch-bearing to the closing ceremony of the event.

In the first stage, the campaign was centered on the hashtag “#ThatsGold” which is a 2-minute video and showed the mascot interacting with the influencers during its “road to Rio” trip.

In the second stage, the campaign was to feature the “Torch Tour” in real-time. It lasted for 95 days. The third and last stage began at the start of the Olympian Games and featured 105 people on the Coca-Cola’s station. The venue also became the hotspot for the athletes and their fans. The campaign was run on all major social media marketing platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Takeaway: The biggest audience behind the success of the Coca-Cola campaign is the teenagers who actively followed every event of Olympic 2016. Coca-Cola was perceptive in attracting that audience and angled it content to capture the teenage group.

To learn more about the methods behind content marketing, and for a simple introduction to digital marketing in general, check out our classes on the following topics:

Guiding Principles of Digital Marketing

Things You Should Know About Advertising on Snapchat and Instagram

The Primary Social Media Platforms

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post 6 Influencer Marketing Case Studies With Phenomenal Success appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

The internet is littered with reputation management tools, but social media tops the list when it comes to quick wins. When properly optimized, your social profiles are ranking powerhouses within search engines. Therefore, establishing and maintaining these accounts can protect your brand’s online reputation from negative press, and helps you put your best foot forward with customers.

Don’t limit yourself to the top five social networks either. Although maintaining a presence on Facebook and Twitter should be your top priority, lesser-known sites within your industry can also rank favorably in Google. You’d be surprised by how many different networks there are to leverage. Here’s a list of over 60, and finding others is easy. Simply Google ‘social networking websites’. If you add a keyword, such as “food” or “pets,” you can narrow down the results even more.

Company websites are usually optimized for traffic and conversions, so social profiles may provide a better opportunity to develop your brand’s online narrative. Also, publishing positive news about your brand is a snap because you manage these platforms yourself.

How to Use Social Media to Manage your Reputation

Social media is powerful, but it isn’t a magic bullet. In other words, you can’t simply register several profiles and expect them to immediately begin ranking on the first page of Google. To maximize the reputation-boosting benefits of social media, you’ll need to do some work to set up your accounts and keep them active.

1. Choose your name carefully

Experts recommend being as consistent as possible when it comes to branding your social properties, but this doesn’t mean that each of your accounts should look like carbon copies. In fact, the opposite is true. Sprinkle some diversity across your profiles to reflect the user base of each platform while keeping your brand’s voice, name and logos consistent. This will help your customers—and Google—identify your social media accounts.

An excellent way to build customer trust is using similar handles across your profiles. However, this may not be possible due to character limitations and username availability. Before deciding on your official handle, make sure you can use it on several social platforms. If someone else already owns the name you want you could make them an offer to buy it or choose something similar.

2. Populate your profile

Your social profile is more than simply a photo and a username. Take full advantage of all fields, including description, location, and contact information. Leveraging these features will boost your legitimacy with users and help Google understand the connection to your brand.

3. Verify your accounts

It’s definitely worth taking time to verify branded accounts if the option is available. Verification informs potential followers that an account is authentic, and it prevents confusion if the owners of similar handles post abusive or negative content. Unfortunately, not all social platforms offer this feature and some only offer verification under certain conditions.

4. Post regularly

As previously mentioned, simply establishing social profiles won’t improve your search landscape. You’ll need to post regularly to show Google that your profile is active and relevant to your brand. Ideally, you should post different content across your profiles, but this isn’t always possible. If you don’t have the resources, or aren’t sure what to post, you can set up automations that share your blog content across all social channels.

5. Train Your Team

It’s often overlooked, but ongoing training is essential to the success of social media reputation management. Complaints often languish in a brand’s feed rather than being addressed. Social media engagement training can prevent this common mistake and even help your team convert angry customers into loyal brand advocates.

A thorough training strategy should also include a plan for handling crises. You’ll need to potentially be prepared for thousands of comments and direct messages across your social accounts during an emergency. It’s wise to train more individuals than you think you’ll need so you can activate them during an emergency. Crisis management training for your entire social team can prevent mistakes that worsen your online reputation and prolong crisis recovery.

6. Monitor activity

The vast majority (96%) of unhappy customers don’t complain directly to brands, but they tell their friends about problems. These “dark complaints” occur when someone posts a negative experience on social media without tagging your brand. If you aren’t actively listening for these mentions, you may be missing out on critical brand sentiment information.

Social listening isn’t something you can do in a few minutes. It requires a dedicated employee or team, depending on the size of your brand and social presence. Fortunately, there are numerous free options to get you started and countless managed services if you have the budget.

7. Respond Professionally

The downside to brand monitoring is finding negative comments about your business. While your gut reaction may be to defend your company, this could actually be a mistake. Properly handling customer complaints takes empathy and understanding.

Never, EVER delete customer posts. It may be unpleasant to leave negative comments on your social feed, but deleting them can turn a few complaints into an angry mob. Silencing users may also cause them to take their stories to the media, which can throw fuel on the social fire already burning.

When responding to criticism, the best approach is to show your followers that you’re listening and you care. Most people who complain aren’t looking for compensation; they simply want to inform others of the bad experience. By training your team to respond in a professional manner, you’ll avoid making situations worse.

8. Tell Your Story

Your social profiles give you an opportunity to share your brand’s positive narrative, so don’t just use them to sell your products and services. Instead, use social platforms to talk about the good things your company is doing.

Here are a few corporate social responsibility examples worth sharing on social media. Others include hiring veterans or providing college reimbursement for employees. Customers love brands that give back, but few companies take the time to promote their philanthropic efforts.

Using social media to monitor brand sentiment, engage with your followers, and promote your company’s social good takes time and resources. However, your investment will result in a shining reputation that boosts sales and shields your brand from future negative press.

To learn more about using social media for reputation management and building brand publicity, check out our classes on the following topics:

Social Media Brand

Content Marketing for Search Rankings

Creating an Influential LinkedIn Profile

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post 9 Tips to Manage Your Business Reputation With Social Media appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

Whether you’re running your own business or helping clients to reach the right audience, you must know how to drive the right traffic when it's needed. One of many benefits to running a local business is the clear sense of a community that your marketing can leverage. And while many local business owners don’t see the value of SEO on a local scale, Local SEO can significantly boost your exposure.

Think how much time people use their phones and computers on a daily basis. When the average user makes several searches per day, shouldn’t your business appear at the top of search results?

In this guide, we will compile some of the best SEO tools for tracking local Google rankings. There’s a lot to juggle with SEO today: it’s not just about keywords. You have to worry about building links, creating an optimized website, using the right images, and even tracking your competition. These 6 tools can help you to find your way around.

1. WhiteSpark

WhiteSpark is likely the best-known SEO tracker for local businesses. This tool does it all: from tracking Google and Bing listings to monitoring local maps, it will also keep you ahead of your competition by showing you what other businesses are doing in the same area.

Whitespark also helps you to learn what customers are searching for when they find your business, and helps users to include city and location names in their local keywords. Basically, WhiteSpark does the heavy lifting for you so you can focus on the parts of your business that matter most.

2. Rank Tracker by SERPS.com

For keyword tracking, Rank Tracker by SERPS.com is a big asset. This tool helps you easily discover your rankings for any keyword phrase in your local or even national market. A free version allows you to explore the software before deciding whether to pay for the full version, which has added benefits.

Full Rank Tracker allows the user to compare the same keyword across multiple locations, and view extended analytics. As icing on the cake, it will even help optimize blog posts for the best local keywords. This makes Rank Tracker a great supplement to any local content marketing initiatives.

3. BrightLocal

Another popular SEO tool is BrightLocal. This is known for its wide range of useful features that are perfect not only for business owners but also for SEO specialists. Using the software, you can track your search rankings, examine their status over time, review your citations and links, audit Google My business, build citations, and even monitor online reviews.

In short, BrightLocal gives you all you could possibly need to start growing your local business online in one simple platform. As the vendor creatively suggests, using it is akin to having a full-time SEO expert without the salary.

4. UpCity

UpCity has a lot of great features that make it a solid choice for many business owners. Not only does it let you define your own key metrics, but it allows you to review and monitor competitor information in addition to local search terms. UpCity also stresses the importance of website health, and it will crawl every page of your site for problems like broken links and duplicate content.

While UpCity is perfect for entrepreneurs, it’s also great for SEO specialists helping clients in the early stages of their web platforms. Because the tool enables you to customize your reports, it’s easy to configure regular updates on SEO progress over time and get recommended improvements.

5. FanDigital AdWords Grading Tools

A lot of local businesses rely on Google AdWords to create traffic for their websites and pages. AdWords grading tools sometimes try to scare people, which can lead to a lot of confusion if you aren’t careful. While AdWords can be an effective way to increase traffic, it can result in lost funds if you don’t have the right strategy.

FangDigital AdWords Grading Tool differentiates itself as a simpler way to see how effectively your AdWords budget is being used without inducing paranoia through a complex interface. The money you pour into AdWords is one of the most important parts of a Local SEO strategy, making this an excellent addition to the local marketer's toolkit.

6. Google Analytics

Last but definitely not least is Google Analytics. Google Analytics might not seem like the most obvious choice for Local SEO assessment, but it’s actually such a powerful tool it deserves a place on this list. By providing key information like real-time traffic data, demographic insights and long-term metrics, Google Analytics enables you to generate extremely comprehensive reports custom-tailored to your individual needs. In the majority of cases, Analytics is also completely free, making it a robust choice if you’re willing to learn the ins and outs.

The Importance of Local SEO

Local SEO is about more than just knowing what keywords your users are searching for or watching your competition. It’s about effectively spending money and effort. If you’re spending money or energy on content marketing, Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, or anything else but you don’t have a way to effectively measure those streams of traffic, you should take a step back. Without a solid tracking plan, you won’t know what works and what is a waste of money.

The guide above highlights just a few of the best ways to stay on top of your SEO efforts. Tracking might just be the most important part of an local business marketing strategy. With the right strategy, you’ll not only learn more about your customers, but you’ll learn more about your own business. SEO in 2018 is about more than adding a few different keywords to your homepage. It’s a constant process that isn’t completed in just a few clicks. With hard work and a constant eye for development, your efforts can go a much longer way.

To learn more about using Local SEO tools and boosting the search rankings for your local business, check out our classes on the following topics:

Local SEO

Campaign Tracking in Google Analytics

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

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Things are changing in the manufacturing industry - following market trends, more and more manufacturers are beginning to alot a larger portion of their budget to digital marketing. They're also seeing good results.

Marketing is not historically a high priority for the manufacturing industry. According to recent studies, the average manufacturer spends 8% of their annual budget on advertisement, generating leads, and making business deals. However, that 8% can also go a longer way than it has in the past, as many companies are beginning to discover.

Benefits of Digital

Reports show that 94% of customers in the B2B market research online before they ever buy a product. If yours isn't there, those are potential clients and partners that you're missing out on. Accordingly, 82% of manufacturing companies who invested in digital marketing have reported increased success within the last year.

Digital isn't all about generating new leads, however. Across industries, digital marketing can increase sales from existing customers by up to 15%. This is great news for manufacturers looking to boost customer retention, and earn repeat business from the same clients.

The Need for Training

Thankfully, analytics solutions make progress measurable by defining specific goals, tracking progress towards those goals, and relevant variables that can help a company to perfect and refine the strategies they settle on.

However, Manufacturing firms who are new to digital marketing or just getting started face new trends in web design, popular content platforms, and changes in the way prospects consume information.

The solution to this problem is clear and simple: marketing personnel should be trained for the new age where digital reigns supreme. To help you get started, we've prepared a simple infographic which outlines a digital path for the manufacturing industry and all the relevant statistics cited above.

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post Infographic: Digital Marketing for The Manufacturing Industry appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

What does this mean for marketers? That's easy: SEO can’t be solely text-focused anymore. Any marketing team hoping to own the SERPs will need to incorporate voice search experience optimization. This method centers on increasing site or app visits by ensuring that the site or app in question is both highly visible and suggested often by voice search tools.

Similar to traditional SEO, sites that are recommended most frequently tend to be ranked higher and receive a correspondingly high number of visits. Pages accessed via voice search tend to load faster — 52 percent faster than average, according to a study from Backlinko. And with Google’s recent algorithm update, dubbed "Speed Update," performance enhancements focusing on the user experience via page speed will become one of its more powerful SEO ranking factors.

‘Alexa, How Do I Optimize for Voice Search?’

When people search aloud, their phrasing is conversational — people don’t speak in a way that can be accounted for with traditional keyword tools. Search experience optimization for these kinds of queries means understanding what an individual searcher will be thinking. What will she say to pull out the results she’s looking for? And how long should those results be? Most of the time, these search results are 29 words or fewer.

Users interact with voice-enabled devices in three main ways: by using the mic button to convert voice-to-text while searching on Google; by using a voice assistant like Alexa, Siri, OK Google, Cortana, Apple HomePod, etc. They might also use a voice app like Alexa Skill or Google Action.

Users who go for the first option will most likely get the same results as if they had queried Google search, even though Google knows the difference. Over time, search results will likely adapt to these queries to maintain an experience that is better suited for voice, but the industry hasn’t quite reached that point.

The second option is where things get different: if you ask a voice assistant a question, it will seek out an answer and speak it back to you rather than send you to a page with numerous site suggestions to peruse. Essentially, your page has one shot to appear as the top recommendation.

Choosing the third option requires users to install a particular voice app to use for searches. For example, my team has an Alexa Skill called Internet Marketing News, which helps users avoid making an accidental search or visiting a separate news site.

Regardless of which option a user selects, all voice experiences share certain attributes. Voice search experience doesn’t usually involve a visual aspect: screens aren’t always necessary. While the first option is likely to involve a phone screen, the second and third options will rely solely on sound to deliver results. Amazon does provide Echo devices with screens, such as the Echo Show and Echo Spot, but screen integration is left to the skill developer to incorporate.

Priming Your Content for Voice Search Results

Hoping to adapt your SEO content techniques to voice search? No matter which option your users rely upon, you’ve got a learning curve ahead of you. These four tips can get you started:

1. Organize your data the way people speak.

Schema markup and structured data can help you organize data in a way that matches voice query fulfillment. These tools act like a table of contents or an outline, sitting in your source code, organizing your data for search engines. This will ensure voice-enabled devices do a better job interpreting the information on your page and relaying it to users through voice interactions.

While these tools might not directly impact a page’s voice search rankings, they do enable search engines to understand the context of the information you’re presenting more accurately. Despite Schema.org markup helping search engines better interpret your content, just 36.4 percent of voice search results come from pages that use Schema, according to the Backlinko study.

2. Ensure your page speed is up to par.

Page speed can have a big impact on your site’s search rankings, especially when it comes to voice searches. Test your page speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. Both tools will audit and score your speed; they will also provide you with ways to improve your page’s performance. Use the results these tools give you as benchmarks.

Once you know your baseline page speed, focus on compressing images, minifying your code, finding and fixing all broken links and problematic redirects. Organize and maintain your tag management using a tool like Google Tag Manager. Use the recommendations from your page speed testing tools to lower your load time — many of these will be easy fixes like CSS and JavaScript optimizations.

Above all, make sure you’re using a fast, reliable hosting provider that uses a content delivery network (CDN). Your host determines how fast your site speed can be, so upgrading to a more expensive plan might be worth it. After taking all of these measures, do a final test to score your site performance using a tool like Pingdom to identify any lingering problems.

3. Use an FAQ format to give concise answers.

Voice recognition software and natural language processing capabilities are continuously improving, making it more important than ever for your pages and apps to be optimized to the way people phrase their voice requests. According to the 2017 Internet Trends Report, nearly 70 percent of voice requests made to Google’s assistant are positioned in a conversational or natural style. Amazon’s voice assistant, Echo, started as a tool to facilitate shopping or media requests, but now it gives its users recommendations and even has video capabilities.

Putting content into an FAQ format ensures your content is structured appropriately for conversational questions. Think about how you or your friends interact with these devices. "Echo?" "OK, Google?" Your content should be well-positioned to answer the type of free-flowing questions people are using. FAQ-formatted pages are optimized for a conversational voice search experience.

4. Craft in-depth pages of 2,000-plus words.

The content you want to optimize for traditional search engines via SEO practices should also be optimized for voice search optimization methods. Search engines tend to favor pages with high-quality, in-depth, comprehensive content. Voice search results tend to follow the same pattern.

Most voice search platforms are more likely to recommend a page that has already proven authoritative in traditional SEO. Backlinko’s study found that of Google Home search results, 74.9 percent come from the top three ranked pages for a given keyword. Ensure that the new VSO strategies you’re implementing are complementing your traditional SEO efforts, not replacing them.

With more AI assistants on the market and NLP capabilities improving faster than ever, voice search isn’t going anywhere. By implementing voice search experience optimization tactics right away, savvy marketers can help their pages come out on top, no matter the search method.

To learn more about using SEO effectively in the age of voice search, check out our classes on the following topics:

Owning the SERP

Content Marketing Search & Optimization

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post 4 Tips to Optimize Your SEO For Voice Search appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

This is the second in a two-part series on the emerging relationship between job recruiting and digital reskilling / upskilling. For Part I, "Why Talent Managers Are Investing Big in Digital Skills," click here.

In the first part of this series, we discussed why a Fortune 500 recruiting company like Adecco is investing big money in a digital reskilling and upskilling company like General Assembly.

Before jumping into how exactly talent managers everywhere can help their talent master digital skills—an answer which essentially amounts to "follow the Adecco-GA model"—it's necessary to bring up the two key points from Part I, which lay our groundwork for Part II.

Why Talent Managers Need to Get Invested in Digital Skills Training

Two big reasons:

1. The Adecco-GA merger is a Facebook-Instagram moment for the recruiting, training, and talent management industry.

In the Facebook-Instagram merger, both companies shared the common goal of strengthening the social media industry by helping users connect across multiple platforms. In the Adecco-General Assembly merger, we have a similar situation, with the older, more well-established talent management company taking the younger, smaller talent acquisition company under its wing to strengthen the talent management pipeline and better serve people's need for reskilling, upskilling, and corporate training opportunities in a digital world of work.

2. We can expect education, recruiting, and training to integrate within the job placement pipeline as the need for reskilling and upskilling for digital skills becomes greater in an age of automation and fast-paced change.

While Adecco and General Assembly may have less name recognition than Facebook and Instagram, their merger signals big growth for the people they help land jobs. It also spells a definite direction for the future of work and talent management as a whole—a direction the industry recognizes is bound up with near-future job losses among practitioners of non-digital labor (e.g., job types like office support).

Unless talent managers can find a sustainable way to face an age of automation by showing they can help people master digital skills, they will watch from the sidelines as their clients and companies are displaced by digital technologies beyond their control.So how can talent managers help their clients and candidates master digital skills instead of become mastered by them?

Glad you asked.

How Talent Managers Can Help Talent Master Digital Skills

Train for Digital Marketing First

So much of learning digital skills depends on digital marketing.

From knowing how to send a persuasive email, to creating a social media account and a Google ad campaign, using the internet today naturally demands certain skills in digital marketing.

Part of the reason why is because marketing was one of the first industries to enter and develop (if not drive and demand) a digital world of work. And it's still going strong today.

According to a report based on survey data from over 2,500 CIOs and released by Robert Half Technology at the end of last year, "In the latter half of 2017, digital marketing, cloud or big data, and mobile projects were the top digital initiatives driving technology hiring in most U.S. businesses."

In fact, if one counts web and user experience as an essential marketing role, they could argue persuasively that digital marketing skills comprise over half of the technical skills cited by nearly 500 technology professionals with hiring authority as the most lacking on their teams.

So how can talent managers take advantage of this lack of digital marketing skills?

Encourage clients and candidates to reskill for digital marketing first. Many digital marketing skills can be fast and easy to get a handle on, particularly email marketing and automation.

Doing so will help both clients and candidates gain control and confidence over their digital world of work. It will also help them fill the skills gap that is widening fast between those who have digital skills and those who don't.

Protip 1: There are thousands of classes and certifications for digital marketing skills. Make sure clients and candidates pick the most relevant and up-to-date classes that cover critical digital marketing topics like OMI.

Protip 2: Talent managers need to help reskill the candidates they are placing to help them stay valuable to clients, as well as upskill clients' internal teams to ensure they stay competitive and forward-thinking. Class databases like OMI's can help reskill those candidates, while certifications like OMI's can help with upskill those internal teams.

So get invested in digital skills training. Double down on digital development.

The future of work depends on it.

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

The post How Talent Managers Can Help Clients and Candidates Master Digital Skills appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

Editor's Note: Jamie Gutfreund is Global CMO at Wunderman, a vital and challenging role. This exclusive interview with Gutfreund was originally posted by MTS. It has been reproduced here with permission.

The post Jamie Gutfreund on Being Global CMO of Wunderman appeared first on Online Marketing Institute.

Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series on the emerging relationship between job recruiting and digital reskilling / upskilling. Click here for Part II.

Global talent management firm Adecco acquired General Assembly—the U.S.-based digital training academy—for $412.5 million this April in the first major bid to merge and re-shape job recruiting and training around the acquisition of digital skills.

For those who don't know, this is a Facebook-Instagram moment for the talent management industry in terms of potential cultural impact.

How is that? Facebook and Instagram were the most well-known, well-funded companies in the social media industry when Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom shook Mark Zuckerberg's hand for $1 billion. Adecco and General Assembly were (and still are) some of the best known companies in their respective industries—each continues to hold its own among the top five in recruiting and digital training respectively—when Adecco acquired General Assembly for under half a billion.

So What's The Big Deal?

To be fair, there are probably more significant differences than similarities between the Facebook-Instagram and Adecco-GA mergers. Those differences can be measured by very different stakes and scales of cultural capital, social capital, and real economic capital (i.e., what each company knows, who they're connected to, and how much equity they possess).

But just as the Facebook-Instagram merger signalled a pinnacle for new connections and potential directions in the world of social media, the Adecco-GA merger signals a pinnacle for new connections and potential directions for the world of talent management. We must recognize, however, that this pinnacle also rests at the top of a talent management industry iceberg—the precarious point at which companies, employees, and recruiters are currently recognizing the immanent need for digital upskilling and reskilling, especially if they're going to help address a huge set of incoming challenges to the human job market and avoid a collision course with technological automation.

Key Takeaways for Why Talent Managers are Investing in Digital Skills Training:

• There is a high potential for job losses among people who do not possess digital skills in the near future.
• There is a high potential for job gains among people who do possess digital skills in the near future.
• All of this potential for job losses and job gains is creating a demand for people to reskill or upskill for a digital world of work.

Why Now?

We have known about the demand for digital skills—as well as talent management's potential collision course with automation (more below)—for many years, so why is it only now that job recruiters and job trainers are officially getting on the same page?

The short answer:

Education, recruiting, and training have traditionally been regarded as distinct, distantly related parts of the job placement pipeline. But if companies like Adecco and General Assembly can work together to streamline these processes, they stand a better chance of helping meet demand for digital skills across a lot of job markets in the short term, as well as helping humans avoid a lot of job losses in the long term.

So although it's only one example in the whole wide industry of talent management, the potential synergy of the Adecco-GA merger signals that the industry is approaching being able to sustainably combine these pipelines. It also signals a different set of expectations and directions for the industry. One expectation is that talent management must rise to meet decreased demand for non-digital skills, and its corresponding direction is to face (and meet) increased demand for digital reskilling and upskilling.

What are reskilling and upskilling?

• Reskilling generally involves refining or adapting existing skills in a relatively familiar work environment. Training for a new job in the same industry often involves reskilling, such as learning how to use a new software or manage a new database that may be similar to, but also slightly different from, the software or database at the previous job.
• Upskilling generally involves adding whole new sets of skills to one's repertoire in a more unfamiliar work environment. Changing careers or earning a promotion often involve upskilling, such as learning a whole new workflow, communication style, or set of coding languages, as well as earning a new certificate, certification, or degree.

Both Adecco and General Assembly can satisfy demand for both digital reskilling and upskilling by combining their educational, recruiting, and training pipelines with their customer portfolios— not only so as to maintain their place as industry leaders, but to ensure their clients are the best qualified candidates to fill emerging jobs, and to accomplish that in both the short and long term.

This long term potential is what strikes at the heart of why the Adecco-GA merger is so novel and promising.

Speaking of the long term, there are a lot bigger reasons why top recruiters are investing so much in digital skills now. The biggest of these reasons include, but are not limited to, the following two macroeconomic factors:

Macroeconomic factors affecting the global workforce

1. A decrease in the growth potential of certain jobs, particularly jobs that can be in automated or absorbed by technological development. According to a study by McKinsey, office support jobs (e.g., IT Workers, information and record clerks, financial workers, and administrative assistants) are the most likely to experience negative growth worldwide over the next 15 years.The World Economic Forum backs this up, forecasting -4.91% growth for Office and Administrative Work in its Employment Trends Report for 2015-2020.
2. An increase in the number of of career transitioners. According to the same study by McKinsey, between 75 million and 375 million people will probably need to switch occupational categories and learn new skills between now and 2030. That's 14% of the current total global workforce.
   
   It is also estimated in the same study that by 2030, between 400-800 million individuals will be replaced by automation. This will translate into a large number of people who either are or will be changing occupations in the near future.

Long Story Short

The potential for job losses among people with fewer digital skills, along with the potential for job gains among people with greater digital skills, is driving the workforce to reskill and upskill for a digital world of work. Gaining and retaining digital skills can also mean gaining and maintaining job security in the midst of job absorption by automation.

In other words, the more digital skills you master, the less digital skills will master you.

In part two of this series, we discuss more of the microeconomic factors that are impacting the recruiting and training practices, as well as how talent managers can mitigate those factors with low-cost investments in reskilling and upskilling for digital marketing.

Visit the Online Marketing Institute to browse over 400 classes in the digital and social media marketing space.

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