by Fronetics | Jan 3, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
The most popular content from LinkedIn in 2016 offers some headline inspiration for businesses hoping to improve reach and impact in 2017.
Buzzsumo’s Steve Rayson wrote an article the other day that really struck a chord with what we do here at Fronetics: He used data to analyze patterns in successful content. More specifically, Rayson examined the most popular content posted on LinkedIn in 2016 and identified headlines and topics that were most successful last year.
The results are really interesting and say a lot about what content resonates with the general LinkedIn community. I’ve summarized his findings below.
Most popular headline phrases
Rayson examined the 10,000 most-shared posts on LinkedIn in 2016 and identified the most common two- and three-word phrases from their headlines. Some of the most frequent included:
- How to
- You need to
- Why you should
- Can learn from
- The future of
Rayson then pulled all the headlines from 300,000 posts using these phrases. He found that not only did more headlines include these phrases, but also that posts with headlines using these phrases received more shares than average.
For context, the average number of shares for all LinkedIn posts in November 2016 was 230. Here are Rayon’s findings.
Most impactful headline words and topics
Rayson conducted the same exercise for single words or topics in headlines. His table below shows some of the best-performing words and their social reach.
How can I write better headlines?
Rayson concludes from his analysis that LinkedIn’s top-performing content — in terms of shares — usually involves instruction on how to be successful in one way or another. This is probably no surprise, given the network’s career-oriented nature. But it can be useful to marketers who are looking to create and distribute content through this platform in the coming year.
Rayson’s takeaways offer some useful suggestions for framing LinkedIn content to improve reach and impact.
- Write about success: We all aspire to do better as professionals. LinkedIn is a place we come to find advice. The core topics that do well are personal success (tips, career advice, personal skills, leadership) and business success (team management, sales, including staying ahead on top of industry trends and case studies).
- Share advice and make it personal: Does your content provide practical advice to someone personally? It can range from boosting sales to managing a difficult employee or boss. Can you appeal to users on a very personal basis, e.g. you need to or you should.
- Focus on work: Will your insights make someone more successful at work? Can you distil this down into habits or tips or mistakes to avoid.
- Talk trends and the future: Can you provide insights into industry trends and help people gain a better perspective on the future?
- Stick with what works: If you find a format that works, do not be afraid to reuse it.
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by Fronetics | Oct 19, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Native advertising is the non-ad-like way to promote your business’ content to users who might be interested in it.
Is your business using native advertising to promote your content with a targeted audience? If not, you’re missing out on one of the biggest upcoming trends in content marketing.
So how can your business use this technique to promote your content and, ultimately, your products and services? Let’s take a look at the basics of native advertising.
What is native advertising?
Native advertising blurs the line between advertising and editorial content. It allows publishers (of content) to get their message to a targeted audience in a format the audience is already using. Think of sponsored updates on LinkedIn, which look just like regular posts, or when a radio DJ promotes a product within the regular broadcast.
Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi defines native advertising with the following three qualities:
- “A Directly Paid Opportunity. I hate to bring out the obvious, but native advertising is ‘pay to play.’ If a brand or individual did not pay for the spot, it’s not native advertising.
- “Usually Content Based. The information is useful, interesting and highly targeted to the specific readership. So, in all likelihood, it’s not an advertisement promoting the company’s product or service directly.
- “Delivered In-Stream. To truly be a native ad, the user experience is not disrupted. The advertising is delivered in a way that does not impede the normal behavior of the user in that particular channel.”
Native advertising is not content marketing…
… But it can be an effective way to promote your content.
Remember, content may be king, but distribution is queen, and she wears the pants. That is to say: Publishing valuable and relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner will create demand for your products and services. But content doesn’t go far — actually it goes nowhere — without distribution.
Native advertising is a paid opportunity to distribute your content to more people. It can be more effective than non-native advertising, like banner ads or commercials, because it does not interrupt the user experience but rather complements it. It doesn’t feel like an ad, even though someone paid to have it appear on your screen.
Social media platforms are offering more and more opportunities for businesses to advertise this way through sponsored posts and updates. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest — you may have noticed that more and more posts from companies you don’t follow appear in your newsfeeds now. These platforms use proprietary algorithms to help businesses target users might be interested in the content they are promoting.
Here’s what a sponsored post on LinkedIn looks like, for example:
The sponsored post from SendGrid looks just like the other posts in my feed. Another important thing: It’s totally relevant for the kind of content I consume. I might even ignore the comma splice and click on it to get the information about email marketing because that’s what I like to read about on LinkedIn.
Some native advertising facts
The use of native advertising is growing among businesses because it is proving to be so effective. Here are some facts that might interest you.
Doing it right
Because native advertising blurs the line between editorial and advertising, some advertisers have gotten in trouble for violating rules of compliance. In response, the FTC has come out with some official guidelines for native ads in order to prevent confusion and to protect consumers. If your business is launching a native advertising campaign, make sure that you are familiar with these rules and best practices.
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by Fronetics | Oct 10, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
If you’re not distributing content created by others, these six facts will convince you that content curation is an essential part of any content marketing strategy.
Content will help you grow your business. By creating and distributing valuable and relevant content in a strategic and consistent manner, you can drive profitable customer action.
But, it’s not all about you. And it’s not all about the content you and/or your business creates. In fact, content curation is an essential component of a successful content marketing strategy.
What is content curation?
Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast sea of content that is the internet and sharing only that content which is most relevant to your customers.
Being able to identify, make sense of, and distribute such information makes you valuable to your customers. Over time, readers will come to know you as a trusted, reliable source of knowledge — someone who is not always trying to sell them something. You are an expert in your area of business, and you save your customers and prospects lots of time and effort distributing relevant information so they don’t have to go searching for it from independent sources.
How are other businesses handling curation?
Companies that curate content report positive effects on their business. Here are six convincing statistics about content creation for B2B marketers.
The vast majority of businesses curate content.
- 82% of marketers curate content. (IMN Inc.)
- 83.3% of marketers curate/share content from third party sources (e.g., blogs, social media, industry publications or news sites) with their customers and/or prospects. (Curata)
How often do companies curate content?
- 16% of marketers are curating for their audience every day.
- 48% are curating from third-party sources at least once a week. (Curata)
How has curating content impacted business?
- Over 50% of marketers that curate content indicate that it has increased their brand visibility, thought leadership, SEO, web traffic and buyer engagement. (Curata)
- 41% of marketers that curate content indicate it has increased the number and/or quality of their sales-ready leads. (Curata)
Does your business curate content? How do you find content to curate?
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by Fronetics | Jul 25, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Get your news in front of the one billion iOS users with this step-by-step guide to publishing on Apple News.
Do you use Apple News? If you have an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch) and have upgraded to iOS 9 or beyond, the app is preinstalled.
Users love the easy-to-read interface and the fact that they don’t have to download a number of different third-party news apps. That’s because Apple News aggregates content from various media outlets, from the New York Times to local blogs, based on user preferences. You can refine what news you see by choosing your preferred publications and topics, which are as general as politics or as specific as the Chinese economy.
There are a number of topics and channels relevant to the supply chain. From supply chain management and automotive logistics to packaging news and sustainable brands, Apple News is an excellent source of content for companies in the industry.
Here’s more good news: Anyone can publish on Apple News. That means your business can distribute your content through this platform with the chance to reach the more-than-one-billion iOS users around the globe.
Signing up as a publisher is simple. Here are four easy steps to get started.
1) Sign into iCloud.
Go to https://www.icloud.com/#newspublisher and enter your iCloud login details. You can quickly create a free account if you don’t have one already. Click “Continue.” Note that you’ll need to agree to the End User License Agreement.
2) Set up your channel.
Complete details about your publisher name, contact info, and channel name. As a publisher, you can have multiple channels, each representing a different publication (such as a blog and a newsletter). After set up is complete, you can add a new channel by clicking “Create New Channel” and entering publisher and channel info.
Channel content is divided into sections. Your default section will contain the main content of your channel, but you can have up to 25 other sections to organize your content by topic or type. Apple suggests that 6 to 8 sections is optimal.
3) Upload your logo.
Upload a PNG file (smaller than 2 MB) of your logo that will be used throughout News to identify your content.
4) Select a publishing format.
You must choose between RSS feed or Apple News Format, which optimizes your content for iOS devices. Other benefits of Apple News Format include the ability to create articles in Publisher, add team members, get analytics, and earn revenue through iAd.
Once you submit all of this information, Apple will review your information and get back to you before your channel launches officially.
Learn more about publishing on Apple News.
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by Fronetics | Mar 28, 2016 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
A recent collection of social media facts and stats offers an interesting look at B2B company and buyer behavior.
Last month, Webbiquity published a list of 49 social media facts and stats about user behavior on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google+. These figures, collected from various studies, offer insight into how people and businesses are using social networking in recent times.
B2B companies may find several of the stats particularly interesting, and it may influence the way they think about social media marketing. I have pulled out some of the most applicable and offered some thoughts below.
Social media facts and stats from Webbiquity
88% of B2B companies use Facebook for marketing (and 96% of all B2C companies )
If you are not using Facebook in your marketing efforts, you are in a quickly growing minority. With 968 million active daily users, the largest social networking site offers a huge opportunity — actually, the most expansive opportunity available — for your business to attract, court, and convert potential customers. Here are some of our top tips for using Facebook to market your business.
93% of small business owners and marketers use Facebook.
Small businesses don’t have the time or budget to compete with large brands when it comes to marketing — but social media can level the playing field. Social media, and Facebook especially, is an ideal marketing platform for small businesses because it can be relatively inexpensive but have a high impact on growth. Your company can cultivate your brand, engage with customers, and form business relationships. Learn how two small companies saw enormous growth thanks to social media.
21% of consumers say they unfollow brands that post repetitive or boring content. 19% say they would unfollow a brand on Facebook if the brand posted too often — more than six times a day.
We know that creating good, original content is key to a successful inbound marketing strategy. But knowing how often to post to the various social channels can be one of the more intimidating obstacles to overcome. How do you know what’s too much and what’s too little? Learn how often you should post on social media.
74% B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to help make purchasing decisions.
Don’t let anyone convince you that social media channels are for personal use only: customers are online, and if you aren’t, you’re at a disadvantage. And since nearly three-quarters use LinkedIn for purchasing decisions, it’s critical that your business is strategic about your presence on the network. Check out this guide for creating the perfect LinkedIn company page to get started.
88% of B2B marketers in North America use Twitter for content distribution.
Twitter is one of the more effective channels for gaining business, and the numbers prove it. A Market Probe International survey found that 72% of those who follow a business on Twitter are more likely to make a purchase from that business, and that 82% of followers are more likely to recommend a product or service to friends and family. Additionally, 85% of respondents reported feeling a closer connection to a small business if they follow them on Twitter. Learn more about Twitter for business.
Pinterest has 47 million active monthly users worldwide, 80% of whom are women.
While Pinterest use is rapidly growing among B2C marketers, the B2B world still hasn’t quite figured it out yet. I pulled out the two above stats to show the enormous potential this channel has, particularly for businesses whose customer base is primarily women. Fronetics’ social prospecting workbook has some ideas on how to get started using Pinterest.
32% of U.S. companies with 100+ employees used Instagram for marketing activities in 2015. eMarketer predicts that number will jump to 70.7% by 2017.
The importance of Instagram for B2B companies will continue to grow. Here’s why: 90% of Instagram users are under age 35. A recent Google study showed an increasing number of Millennials on the B2B purchasing path — up to 46% of potential buyers were of this generation in 2014. Their preferences and behaviors are having a noticeable impact on B2B buyer behavior as a whole. So if your business wants to capitalize on the nearly 300 million active monthly users, Instagram should be on your radar.
64% of North American B2B marketers use Google+ to distribute content, but just 17% use it for new product launches (vs. 81% who use LinkedIn).
Americans may use Google+ less frequently than some of the other networks, but don’t count it out entirely. More people check the site than people realize, including die-hard fans of Google products and the many businesses who use the Google suite professionally.
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