Category: Sales & Marketing

Tips for Getting More Engagement and Shares

Justin Hall, a student at Swathmore college, created the first blog in 1994. In the 21 years since then, blogging has grown in popularity and is now a staple of modern life – and content marketing.

A great blog goes a long way toward creating the modern success story. But how do you know what makes a great blog post? TrackMaven wondered the same thing and recently researched 4,618 blogs to find the answers. So what did they find in the 1,167,426 posts and 1,915,428,305 social shares which those blogs represent?

Here are the five essentials content marketers need to know:

1. Time is of the essence.

One of the first things the study looked at is when blogs were posted and when posts were receiving the most shares. Surprisingly, the timing didn’t line-up. While the most shares took place during the evening hours or early morning peaking between 10:00-1:00PM, the most posts were being put-up during the workday, peaking between noon and 1 o’clock.

So what does this mean for content marketers? The report suggests remember that people tend to do their reading, even their business reading, in their leisure hours. If you want to engage with your customers, doing it outside the 9-5 window is essential to getting them to click.

2. Don’t forget the day.

Much like bloggers tend to be posting during the middle of the day, the study found that they are also overwhelmingly posting during the middle of the week, with Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays getting the bulk of posts. Despite this, the study found that the bulk of shares were still taking place on the weekends. The content marketers’ data spoke for itself.

According to the study, “while only 6.3% of posts were published on Saturdays, they received 18% of the total social shares”, meaning; if you want to engage with your customers, Saturday is clearly your best day for posting to your blog.

3. Shorter is better.

If you find yourself being excessively verbose when creating titles you might suppose you shall also lose customer interest. When it comes to creating titles, the study found what most of us instinctively know: on the internet, shorter is better. The average blog title, the study found, is about 40 characters long. These content marketers’ posts did well for reader engagement but the best titles for social shares came in at around 60 characters.

Anything longer than that length significantly decreased the likelihood of a post getting social shares. The key to titling, it seems, is the same as most writing: write long enough that people understand you, but not any longer. People come to blogs to be entertained and a long title risks losing their attention before you ever get them to click.

4. DON’T SHOUT AT YOUR AUDIENCE!

As it turns out, the study found that people aren’t really interested in deviation from standard English punctuation or capitalization with one exception—blog posts with 4 exclamation points saw a significantly greater number of shares. Be wary of adopting this as a gimmick, though, unless you have the blog posts to back-up your exciting headline. Otherwise, the study found exclamation points are generally to be avoided.

In the words of an old English professor, “you only get four exclamation points in your lifetime, use them well.” As for all caps or lower caps? The study found that we are better off sticking with the rules we were taught in grade-school for capitalization did the best for engaging readers.

5. Are you talking to me?

While shouting at your readers might not be the best approach, asking a question can net content marketers double the shares of a blog post without a question in the title. The study suggests this is because a question in the title engages with a reader immediately, peaking their curiosity, encouraging them to not only click but share the post.

Further, titles with the words “Your” and “You” the study found did exceptionally well on social shares. In other words, titles that directed their content straight to the individual was most likely to be received and shared.

Your Goal

As a content marketer, your goal in creating a blog is to get people to engage in the content your posting. If you apply the findings of TrackMaven’s study to your own blog, you should see your own social media shares increase, provided, you have content worth sharing.

The Conclusion

The ultimate conclusion of the study, though the numbers were useful, is that you have to create the kind of content which individuals crave and look for in a blog. Content that is impactful, relatable, and shareable. Content which teaches you something and shares your values.

If you are able to meet your audience where they are by abiding by the five rules of this study as well as provide meaningful content, then you should have no problem finding new customers or readers in the future.

Thanks to TrackMaven’s ©Content Marketing Report for much of this information.

If you finished reading this post and you think it’s valuable, others will too.

So please take 5 seconds (!) to share on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social scoop. Thanks!

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.

.. _____ ..

About the Author:

Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals, both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:

• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble

How to save money and get great results using Fiverr.com

My wonderful friend and PR Professional Aileen Katcher wrote a controversial blog post about Fiverr.com on June 17, 2014. It caught my eye because we see the issue differently – way differently!

Although it’s admittedly out of context, I quote what I see as the controversial parts of her post:

“A friend with a successful marketing firm recently ventilated to me about an experience she had with a client that was driving her to drink. It seems he bought a logo on the website Fiverr.com for $5 and then didn’t like it … I think I’ll stick to my original model. After all, you get what you pay for.”

Note: To read the post in its entirety, see the above link: “blog post about Fiverr.com”.

My Excellent Experiences with Fiverr.com

I certainly understand her point of view regarding this man who spent $5 for his logo on Fiverr.com, and then wasn’t satisfied with the result. Like many consumers of services, he had a bad experience. So in response, I’d love to share a different perspective – my excellent experiences with Fiverr and how our readers can have them, too!

Manage Fiverr Like any Outsourced Vendor

Fiverr.com offers a number of ways for the “Buyer” to screen “Sellers” and have a high degree of confidence that their experience and outcome will be great. That’s their business mission – great experiences!

Point #1: It appears that the man in your example did not choose a Seller” who offered unlimited revisions until the Buyer is satisfied.

Point #2: Each Seller has a section at the bottom of their page where you can read customer reviews. Read ALL of them. How were they rated? Any problems and how were they resolved?

Point #3: How many customers has this Seller serviced? Their page also shows total # of customers. Choose a seller with a LOT of satisfied customers.

Point #4: The Seller page offers actual examples of the Seller’s work. Don’t expect a logo designer who shows samples of cartoon-ish, caricature-ish logos to produce something sleek and minimalistic. Not in their DNA.

Point #5: Do they speak and understand English well? You may laugh, but I have had this experience. The Seller may be talented, but if he/she doesn’t understand nuances enough to satisfy your needs, you may not be satisfied.Read what they’ve written on their page with this in mind. Send them a message before you engage them and test their communication skills.

Point #6: YOU need to send the Seller as much detailed info as possible in order to get as close to your desired outcome as possible. Just like ANY offline seller.

My Actual Savings by Using Fiverr

So that’s the process I’ve used – and I’ve saved at least $1,500 in the last year by using Fiverr Sellers for a number of marketing and graphic design services. My logo was a Fiverr design: www.lisachapman.com (it’s what I wanted) and the banners on my social media profiles were also Fiverr products (I got FOUR banners for $5!).

How can Fiverr Sellers Charge so Little?

BTW, the Sellers on Fiverr can charge this little primarily for two reasons: 1.) Many work in countries where $5 goes a lot farther than in the U.S. and 2.) they are very specific about what you get for $5, with more extensive add-ons costing “extra gigs”. Example: Many logo designers will deliver jpg and png files for $5, but if you want a full suite of editable file formats, they cost additional gigs – anywhere from $5 – $40. Just read their gig description.

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Fiverr.com and with savings of $1500 (or more), it’s worth it to me to spend a little extra time to screen the Sellers as described above! Hope this helps someone else! Lisa

If you finished reading this post, others will too, so please take 5 seconds (!) to share on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social scoop. Thanks!

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals – both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their brand, attract their Target Audience, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert them into Buyers. You can reach her via email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:

• com: http://bit.ly/AmazonTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur

Are You Unwittingly Jeopardizing your Licensure with Patient Privacy Issues Online?

The objective of this article is to explore the issues involved in using online marketing of the licensed mental health professionals’ social media – especially Facebook – and remain compliant with the practitioners’ professional codes of ethics.

‘Content Strategy’ versus ‘Engagement Strategy’?

Question: Should licensed practitioners use a (presumably safer) ‘Content Strategy’ – versus implementing an ‘Engagement Strategy’, which is possibly more powerful? Note: an Engagement Strategy is generally accepted in the online marketing industry as highly effective step in helping to build relationship, and build that relationship to eventually turn online visitors into customers/clients.

Engagement on Social Media platforms certainly strengthens relationships and increases conversion into paying customers/clients. For general businesses of any size, Engagement is considered a vitally important social media marketing strategy. However, for professional psychologists and all licensed mental health practitioners, the

Engagement Strategy for Mental Health Practitioners

Engagement Strategy is questionable because all online activity must be compliant with the licensed professional’s code of ethics, especially patient confidentiality. Could it be a high risk move?

Engagement could/would successfully convert visitors into clients, but in the psychotherapy/mental health practitioner niche, the risk of harming client relationships is widely thought to outweigh the potential benefits. Additionally, clients’ posts/comments online are usually permanent, so if posts/comments are viewed as potentially harmful, this is a risk that could jeopardize the mental health professional’s reputation, and perhaps even their licensure.

Content Strategy & the Practitioners’ Codes of Ethics

Providing valuable, engaging, sharable consumer education is a critical component of a mental health practitioner’s marketing strategy – online and offline. This is the basis of a solid Content Strategy.

As a consultant, I recommend that Social Media activities be clearly designed to keep the mental health practitioner in compliance with their professional Code of Ethics, AND to avoid some of the risks to relationships described in professional articles now available online as guides.

In Support of the Content Strategy for Licensed Practitioners

So here is a summary of some of the key resources for supporting a Content Strategy versus an Engagement Strategy, as well as additional guidelines for successful implementation of Social Media marketing for mental health practitioners:

1. I recommend using the guiding principles of Dr Keely Kolmes, (www.drkkolmes.com) a private practitioner who is widely recognized as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) & Influencer in ‘psychotherapy and social media’.
2. Among other direct experience, Dr. Kolmes has held the job of ‘Digital Director’ for the American Psychological Association (APA) www.APA.org , as you can see in her CV.
3. Here is a quote about Dr. Kolmes that I take at face value as to her credibility on social media marketing issues:

“I have had the pleasure of interviewing and creating an online course with Dr. Keely Kolmes on the topic of social media and digital ethics. Keely is internationally known for her social media policy, which is used in many countries, including Australia. … There’s no doubt she is a leader in the field of mental health and on the cutting edge of developments in the realm of digital and social media ethics.”

-Clinton Power, Sydney Australia, Relationship Counsellor

4. Her article, “Managing Facebook as a Mental Health Professional” (information about privacy, shared friend networks, and some distinctions between profiles and pages) is a bit old – 2009 – and Dr. Kolmes updated it for Facebook’s Privacy update in 2010.

5. Dr. Kolmes’ “More privacy issues on Facebook” – April, 2010 – provides “a walk-through of adding a bit more security to your profile, although it is becoming harder to really completely secure any information on Facebook.” These articles remain on her website, and she continues to promote their ethical guidelines (as well as practical recommendations) in speeches, interviews and PR – globally.

Dr. Keely Kolmes’ Quotes

I’ve selected a few key ‘take-aways’ that apply to FACEBOOK – quotes from Dr. Kolmes’ articles:

1. 1. Visibility, Exposure, and Self-Disclosure: “Inviting clients to your personal (social media/networking) profile can also be perceived as inviting them into your personal life (a code violation) … This can send mixed messages to clients, especially if they are unclear about therapeutic boundaries to begin with.
   2. “Imagine how you may feel discovering that you and your clients have mutual friends. While it may not impair your objectivity as a clinician, it may subtly influence how you regard your patient in a multitude of ways, and it may also have an impact on how your patient views you and your relationship.
   3. “The APA Ethics Code (APA, 2002), Standard 3.05, Multiple Relationships, states that psychologists should avoid multiple relationships that could impair their effectiveness or cause harm. Let’s say you decide you would like to be friends with some of your clients on Facebook. Do you want to get updates on your clients’ lives out of session, knowing before their scheduled session with you what kind of day they’ve had or that their relationship status has changed or that they were out heavily drinking at a party last night? What if a client expresses self-harm desires on her Facebook Wall? If you fail to act on cries for help on a Facebook page and your client harms herself or someone else, could you be professionally liable for failing to prevent harm? These are questions that therapists will have to consider when they establish online connections with patients.
   4. “Deleting a client as a friend can be experienced as especially rejecting and complex—more so than declining the initial friend request in the first place. These are certainly thorny ethical and clinical dilemmas which require consultation and care.”

Dr. Kolmes’ Facebook Recommendations:

“In Patricia R. Recupero’s article, “Legal Concerns for Psychiatrists Who Maintain Websites,” she outlines how courts recognize three types of websites. (“Intermediate” sites may offer advice and may invite contact from site visitors.) … Be mindful that if you are creating a Facebook page or profile to promote your practice and you enable activity and interaction from clients on your Wall, you are turning your Facebook presence into an intermediate site. This can create potential legal dilemmas for mental health practitioners, as the interaction will need to be consistent with professional standards of care. It also means that you could be having public interactions on the site with people who later become clients which raises additional issues related to confidentiality and HIPAA related communication protocols.

1. 1. “… clients have no duty to be private or confidential about their relationship with us, and some of them may feel comfortable with a public link to our pages, or even saying in public that they are our clients. That is their prerogative. But it does not relieve us of our own duty to provide confidentiality to them
   2. “To read more and stay current with news about Facebook changes, an excellent resource is the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s blog. EFF is a non-profit organization which is devoted to protecting your digital rights. You can find links to many of their updates in the reference section.”

Keely Kolmes’ guiding articles can be found on her website. The entire list with links can be found at this page on her website “Articles for Clinicians Using Social Media” at this link: http://drkkolmes.com/clinician-articles/ .

I have searched around for other Psychotherapists’/mental health practitioners’ Social Media guidelines. Institutions such as hospitals and healthcare systems are different, and although they are very professional, with great content and excellent marketing techniques, their guidelines for Engagement on Social Media are different.

Try Pinterest

For another positive social media strategy, consider Pinterest. It’s easy and fun, and FULL of prospects in the practitioner’s target market. Members are very active on Pinterest, and a high % of them click through to websites. Take a look at this amazing Board – 75k+ pins on positivity and inspiration!!!! Great for tweeting and reposting – carefully selected to create good feelings and share-ability.

Summary Thoughts

So, in summary, licensed mental health practitioners’ social media strategies are safely content-driven, with the objective of building a strong hub-and-spoke system (website = hub) to increase SEO and getting found by prospective clients. When the posted content is more valuable, engaging and sharable than their competitors’, then it will be widely shared and thus it will increase awareness and client conversions.

BONUS TIPS:

1. Promote your psychotherapy private practice online:

If you want more guidance on integrating the digital world into your practice marketing, see this book:

The Psychotherapist’s Guide To Online Marketing for Private Practice

A simple do-it-yourself model

By Azzia Walker, B.A. & Ofer Zur, Ph.D (of The Zur Institute)

2. Free Online Resources, Brochures, Videos, Articles, Guidelines & PodCasts by Ofer Zur, Ph.D.:

For Psychotherapists, Counselors, Mental Health Professionals and Related Fields

The Zur Institute

If you finished reading this post and you think it’s valuable, others will too, so take 5 seconds (!) to share on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social scoop. Thanks!

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals – both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their brand, attract their Target Audience, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert them into Buyers. You can reach her via email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:

• com: http://bit.ly/AmazonTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur

Can You Actually Save Money and Get What You Want, Too?

Recently, my good friend and Public Relations pro Aileen Katcher posted a blog item on her website “Katcher In Their Eye” (get it?!) about a friend who had a bad experience with a Seller on Fiverr.com. Aileen’s conclusion was, essentially, “you get what you pay for”.

I certainly understand her point of view – regarding the gentleman who spent $5 for his logo on Fiverr.com, then wasn’t satisfied. He had a bad experience. In her PR business and throughout her distinguished PR career, Aileen Katcher has known an army of qualified designers who charge hundreds, even thousands of dollars for their time and considerable expertise. So, in her mind, how could anyone possibly deliver anything even near acceptable – for $5?

I’d love to share my excellent results with Fiverr.com designers and show how our readers can have good Fiverr experiences, too!

My Fiverr.com Experiences

I’ve saved at least $1,500 in the last year by using Fiverr Sellers for a number of marketing and graphic design services. The logo on my Business and Social Media Consulting website (and pictured above) was a Fiverr design. It’s exactly what I wanted. And the banners on my social media profiles were also Fiverr products – reconfigured from my logo. I got FOUR banners for $5!

Take a peak at my Fiverr custom social media banners:

Facebook

Google+

Twitter

LinkedIn

This look may not be what YOU want, but for me, I think they did a great job of delivering consistent branding, formatted for all my online platforms.

How to Screen Sellers on Fiverr.com

Here is the secret to getting what you want for $5. Fiverr.com offers a number of ways for the “Buyer” to screen “Sellers” and have a high degree of confidence that their experience and outcome will be great. That’s their business mission – great experiences!

Fiverr.com Tip #1: It appears that the man in Aileen’s blog post example did not choose a Fiverr Seller who offered unlimited revisions until the Buyer is satisfied. Don’t repeat this mistake, no matter how good they look. You might as well burn you $5 bill. Continue on …

Fiverr.com Tip #2: Each Fiverr Seller has a section at the bottom of their page where you can read customer reviews. Read ALL of them. How were they rated? Any problems and how were they resolved?

Fiverr.com Tip #3: How many customers has this Fiverr Seller serviced? Their page also shows total # of customers. Choose a seller with a LOT of satisfied customers.

Fiverr.com Tip #4: Each Seller’s page offers actual examples of the Seller’s work. Don’t expect a logo designer who shows samples of cartoon-ish, caricature-ish logos to produce something sleek and minimalistic. Not in their DNA.

Fiverr.com Tip #5: Does the Seller speak and understand English well? You may laugh, but I have had this experience. The Seller may be talented, but if he/she doesn’t understand nuances enough to satisfy your needs, you may not be satisfied. Read what they’ve written on their page with this in mind. Send them a message before you engage them and test their communication skills.

Fiverr.com Tip #6: YOU need to send the Seller as much detailed info as possible in order to get as close to your desired outcome as possible. Just like any OFFLINE seller.

How Can Fiverr Sellers Charge So Little?

The Sellers on Fiverr can charge this little primarily for two reasons: 1.) Many work in countries where $5 goes a lot farther than in the U.S. and 2.) the Sellers are very specific about what you get for $5, with more extensive add-ons costing “extra gigs”. Example: Many logo designers will deliver jpg and png files for $5, but if you want a full suite of editable file formats, they cost additional gigs – anywhere from $5 – $40. Just read their gig description carefully.

As you can tell, I’m a large fan of Fiverr.com and with savings of $1500 (or more) it’s worth it to me to spend a little extra time to screen the Sellers as I’ve described above. I hope this helps another entrepreneur to save their precious money!

If you finished reading this post, others will too, so take 5 seconds (!) to share on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social scoop. Thanks!

Another Article about Fiverr That May Interest You:

How to Create a New Logo For Your Small Business or Professional Service

For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.

.. _____ ..

ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:

Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals – both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with clients to establish and enhance their brand, attract their Target Audience, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert them into Buyers. You can reach her via email: Lisa (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:

• Amazon.com: http://bit.ly/AmazonTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur
• Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/BNTheWebPoweredEntrepreneur