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IN THIS ISSUE

Letter from the editor

How to Use Social Media For Business: A Creator’s Guide to Engagement

The Creator’s Guide to Instagram for Business

The Facebook Marketing Strategies Every Creator Needs

How to Get Noticed on Twitter: A Creator’s Guide

Optimize Your Pinterest SEO Practices to Increase Your ROI

Increase Your Leads with the Benefits of LinkedIn

Can the Benefits of Snapchat Help You Grow Your Business?

How to Use Slack to Get Your Community Talking

A Creator’s Guide to How to Use Reddit for Business

Is Online Forum Marketing Worth a Creator’s Time?

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Letter from the editor

Hey, Friend!

Let’s talk social media.

You either love it or you hate it, right?

Or maybe... you love to hate it?

No matter where you stand in your relationship with tweets and likes, as a creator, social media is probably an important part of your marketing strategy. And if it’s not, maybe it’s time to give it another try.

Social media is a low-barrier way to pop into your customer’s day. Afterall, they’re already there whether that means searching Pinterest for a new print to hang in their office or chatting in a forum about their favorite online course.

You just can’t deny the reach and power of social proof, peer love, and built-in marketing that can happen by responding to a customer’s comment or even showing a little behind-the-scenes peek into your work day.

Dani Stewart

But it’s not enough to know you need social media. You’ve got to know how to use social media. And that’s what this issue of Tradecraft is all about. We’ve taken an indepth look into nine of most used social media platforms to figure out how you can best use each one as a chance to promote and grow your business– and the community around that business.

And community is key.

There’s really no need to reinvent the wheel here. Your audience is already out there waiting to hear from you!

So make it what you want. Keep it low key for sparking conversations with your audience or go all out with strategically planned campaigns.

Find the right platform, learn how to use it well, and start connecting.

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I t’s hard to find a business that doesn’t utilize at least one social media platform to market

their business.

Since we don’t have to convince you why it’s important to use social media as an creator (because you already know), we can spend our time explaining how to use social media to get the most out of every platform.

How to use social media for business

Anyone from a top CEO to a recent college graduate can use social media to freely share their ideas and give an inside look into what they’re working on. It’s also a place to engage in conversations that are relevant to your interests or industry.

Bloggers use social media to increase their blog traffic, connect with readers, share valuable content, and build diversified streams of income.

Business owners and larger organizations use social media to connect the people behind their logo with their customer base. They also use it for completing customer service requests while ensuring every follower has a positive experience with the brand.

How to Use Social Media For Business: A Creator’s Guide to Engagement

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Since small businesses and Fortune 500 companies can be found on social media, it begs the question why many of us don’t have a marketing strategy in place for each platform. Some of us don’t even know why we’re interacting on the platforms we’re on.

Instead of feeling like you put a lot of time and effort into platforms that you aren’t seeing a return on, we want to help you define a specific purpose for each platform and determine if it’s the right fit for your blog or business.

In order to do that, we have to start by understanding what your main goals are.

Goal: Increase your engagement

You’ve probably heard the word “engagement” tossed around, but what does it actually mean? Engagement refers to a user’s interaction with your content. The more engaging and memorable your content is, the more people will interact with it.

Engagement is more important than what we call “vanity metrics” like follower count and overall reach. While it’s nice to see your visibility increase, engagement shows the number of people who are interested enough in what you have to say to spend time with your content and share their thoughts.

With each new algorithm update, it seems as though it is harder to get engagement. This is because social media platforms prioritize content that the user interacts most with as well as advertised content you pay for. This is why it’s more important than ever to encourage your followers to interact with your content. Only then can you continue to pop up and be seen in their news feed.

Increasing your engagement could look like getting more replies on Instagram or more video shares on Facebook. You’ll want to choose which metrics are most important to your business depending on your engagement goals.

Goal: Increase your traffic

Whenever we talk about increasing your blog or website traffic, our users perk up. Many of us depend on traffic to drive leads or sales. Because of this, increasing your traffic can also be an important social media goal.

Social media can be a main traffic source for many ConvertKit users. Pinterest has been known to drive significant blog traffic since their platform acts more like a search engine than a traditional social media tool. Facebook ads can also drive high quality traffic since you are able to create hyper-targeted advertising campaigns for virtually any goal.

While increasing your traffic is great, it’s usually just the start of reaching your overall business goals. Websites that generate advertising revenue may focus solely on traffic but most entrepreneurs know that it’s only one part of a bigger marketing equation.

It’s not enough just to increase the number of people who are visiting your website. You want your content to be seen by the right people because only the most interested users will convert, which brings us to our next big social media goal.

Goal: Increase your sales

If you treat your blog like a business or run a small business of your own, increasing your sales will most likely be one of your top goals. How many sales can you directly earn from social media, and how do you attract potential buyers from each platform? These are questions that help us understand how to increase our conversions through social media.

Using social media to drive sales can feel a little like taking the training wheels off your bike when you start using social media to drive sales, but the more you share your offers, the more you’ll see what resonates with your audience. We recommend tracking your performance and keeping an eye on your analytics to see what works best.

Increasing your sales won’t happen overnight. You have to play the long game. If you go from all value-based content to a never-ending stream of advertisements, you’ll turn your audience off. Instead, start by introducing conversion-based content every few posts and look at your engagement to see if (or how) it’s affected.

Goal: Share valuable content

In the debate between quality vs. quantity of content, it will always be more important to produce quality content.

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Social media is already a noisy place so focusing on creating quality text posts, images, and videos will help you stand out.

If you’re not sure what is deemed “valuable” in the eyes of your audience, take some extra time to survey your audience before you dive into crafting your content strategy.

Does your audience like pinning well-designed infographics to their Pinterest board to refer back to at a later date, or would they rather consume a video tutorial in one sitting? Do they like reading case studies of work you’ve created with your clients, or would your audience members rather watch a video testimonial?

You may be surprised at what your online community finds valuable. You never know until you ask! Once you receive their answers, you can use them to influence what social media platforms you’ll focus on.

Goal: Complete customer service requests

Relationships are a two way street and it’s no different in social media. It’s not enough to just post relevant content for your brand. You must also take the time to thoughtfully engage with your prospective and current customers.

Engaging with your followers becomes even more important when they have a customer service question or complaint. Research has found that 55% of customers have used social media as a tool to complain about brands. If you don’t have an active presence on social media, you might miss their complaints completely and lose out on a loyal customer.

More companies are using social media as a way to address customer questions and concerns directly. Platforms like Facebook have made answering customer questions easier than ever with their private Messenger platform among other features. Other social media platforms will follow suit.

I have my social media marketing goal… now what?

After choosing your goal, you can begin to assess which social media platforms are the best fit for your online business. The first step is to understand where your audience already hangs out. It’s much easier to capture their attention on a platform they are already using rather than trying to convince them to use a new tool.

Once you understand where your ideal clients or customers like to spend their time, you can determine what content types fit well with your brand. If your audience loves live video, Facebook and Snapchat could be a great fit. If your audience would rather read blog posts in their own time, Pinterest might be a better option.

We want to help you get a headstart, so we created in-depth guides to each social media platform so you can decide where to put your energy.

• Instagram: What started as a simple photo sharing platform has grown into a full-blown visual marketing platform with Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, and more capabilities.

• Facebook: With almost 2 billion users, this social media giant gives businesses the opportunity to reach a large percentage of their customer base through advanced advertising options.

• Twitter: Make an impact in 280 characters or less with Twitter, a fast-paced social media environment that connects 330 million users in real time.

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• Pinterest: Acting more like a search engine than a social media platform, Pinterest can help business owners and bloggers massively grow their blog traffic.

• LinkedIn: Built by professionals and used by professionals, this unique social media platform connects its users with networking and job opportunities.

• Snapchat: Catering to the young crowd, Snapchat has put itself on the map with its 10 second video sharing and wealth of advertising opportunities.

• Slack: Combining convenience and ease of use, Slack has reimagined chat rooms for its professional audience. It helps teams of all sizes stay in communication with one another without clogging your email inbox.

• Reddit: With Reddit being the eighth most visited website in the world, their forum-based discussions may be worth diving into.

• Forums: Before there was social media, forums reigned the internet. They are still popular today and can be worth your time if you find the right one in your industry.

Kayla Hollatz

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I nstagram was created for those that love to create. The type of content that

is expected and celebrated on Instagram is ideal for humanizing your brand, establishing credibility, building your authority and influence, and taking your tribe along on your journey.

I sell Instagram marketing courses and services, and I can’t even begin to count how many people have told me that they purchased my program over countless others because they have been following me for a long time on social media and chose to buy my course because they identified closely with who I was.

As a creator, this is your super power too. You may not be for everyone, but you are definitely the perfect coach, teacher, trainer or cheerleader for someone!

The Creator’s Guide to Instagram for Business

Well-produced Instagram content is the perfect way to differentiate yourself and showcase your most important asset… you! Let’s look at how you can leverage this to actually grow your business.

Grow your community

One of the most important aspects of being a blogger and creator is to always grow our audience. Instagram is a great place to attract more people to your tribe, and there are many ways to do this.

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Use hashtags to find your tribe

Communities have a wonderful way of organically springing up on Instagram. With the proper hashtags, you can find groups of like-minded people for any niche.

Start by identifying the thought leaders and influencers in your niche and check their posts to see what hashtags they are using. Search Instagram on some of those hashtags and see what results you get to find even more hashtags.

Often the top nine results for a given hashtag will reveal popular accounts in that niche. Use these hashtags to connect with others, and use them on your own posts to be found by like-minded folks. You can also use these hashtags to go out and engage with others that have similar passions to yours.

Hashtag basics

Once you have started to identify hashtags that allow you take part in conversations around your niche, you can get more strategic with how you use them on your own account.

There are a few key things to know about hashtags:

• You can use up to 30 per post. The more hashtags you use, the more opportunities you have to get found!

You can put your hashtag groups at the end of your captions or you can paste them into a comment after your caption. They will work in either place, as long as you place them immediately after posting if putting them in a comment.

• Get specific. The most important thing to consider when choosing what hashtags to use on each post is relevance. Hashtags that contain 2-3 words are often more targeted than single-word hashtags. Think about the difference between something like #clothes and #womensdresses. Everyone wears clothes, but the hashtag #womensdresses will yield visitors that are specifically looking for what you have to offer.

The Explore tab

When you are on Instagram’s Explore tab, you are shown a collection of things Instagram believes you will be interested in. What you see here is determined by algorithm, but Instagram often shows you accounts that are similar to other accounts you follow, accounts that are followed by several of your friends, or have photos that you typically like or comment on.

So, while you can’t control whose Explore feed you show up on, we can take some lessons from what we see. It’s important to engage with the right people on Instagram!

People often ask me why they should engage with others in their niche or their perceived “competitors,” and this is why. Besides finding new friends and niche buddies to support you, it can also help you get found by people that are interested in what you offer.

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Thinking outside of Instagram

While this article is focused on how to grow your business with Instagram, it would be a mistake not to think about ways outside of the app to leverage your audience as well. Here are two quick ways to do this:

Use the website traffic you are already getting to increase your Instagram followers. Many of the popular website content management systems like Wordpress, Shopify and Squarespace offer simple plug-ins, blocks, or modules that make it easy to connect your Instagram account with your website. You can integrate the two together either by displaying your Instagram feed prominently on your website or by actually making your Instagram feed shoppable with product tags.

Check your other channels. Use your other social media channels, your email list, your product packaging, business cards, and whatever else you can think of to promote your account.

Creating written Instagram content

While Instagram is a visual platform, your words are just as important! Below you’ll find some guidance on what to show, what to say, and how to say it!

Tell your story

Use the 5 W’s to come up with content ideas: who, what, when, where, and why? This might sound like an Intro to Journalism or creative writing class, but honestly, these questions can help you create great story arcs about yourself and your brand. For example: • Who: Who has been your biggest supporter in your

business? Who inspires you? Who do you work with? Who do you serve?

• What: What have been some obstacles that you have overcome? What are you reading or listening to? What are your recent wins?

• When: When do you do your best work? When do you celebrate? When do you relax?

• Where: Where do you work, dream, think, or recharge? Where do you get inspiration from?

• Why: Why did you start your business? Why do you do things a certain way?

These are just scratching the surface of all the “W” questions you could answer for your audience. Remember that Instagram content is all about taking your tribe with you on your journey, and these questions can help you do just that.

To do: What “W” can you answer right now? Pick one that feels relevant to you today and take 5 minutes right now to create a post.

Repetition is your friend

There is no shame in having a repeat game! Having some kind of weekly feature that you can do each week on the same day is a great way to take the pressure off always having to come up with new ideas.

My friend, Suzi (@gurlgonegreen) has a #TuesdayTuneup feature where she shares some kind of quote, sentiment, or humorous relatable moment. Her tuneups are so relatable because they often provide some insight into her sense of humor or where she is at emotionally in life. Her audience loves these and has come to expect them.

Every Tuesday in my Stories I have “Instagram Tip Tuesday,” where I share 4-6 video segments explaining an Instagram tip or strategy. While I often share Instagram tips on my main feed as well, my audience loves that I can explain things “face to face” in my Stories. Sometimes it is more effective to verbally explain something instead of tediously describing the steps with the written word.

To do: Come up with a couple ideas of consistent, weekly content you can create for your audience. Is it quick recipes, inspiring workspaces, or coffee shop thoughts? Just think about something your audience will love checking in on every week and start posting.

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Planning your grid

For some, creating beautiful visuals that work and flow together seamlessly comes easily. But for the less visually-inclined, it can be a non-starter.

While Instagram is a visual platform, you can release the pressure to be perfect. Having a limited color scheme or an easily repeatable pattern is the simplest way to get started with a visually cohesive Instagram theme.

Remember my friend Suzi (@gurlgonegreen)? She has just a few background options that she takes the majority of her photos on, which creates a cohesive, themed look.

Another example is Kat Walters (@katwalters_) who again has a simple handful of elements that she repeats on her account. She uses a limited color palette of pinks, white, light blues and black, and cycles through floral elements, pictures of herself, and quotes.

To do: Make a short list of colors or elements that you want to include in your feed, and stick with them. It doesn’t have to be complicated!

Using Instagram content to grow your business

Once you have established your content flow and rhythm, you are ready to take things to the next level and accelerate your growth. The best way to grow your business with Instagram content is to invest in things like Instagram ads, paid placements and sponsorships, and working with influencers or brand reps.

Instagram ads

I have had great success with Instagram advertising. You can choose to place images in the main feed with an image or video, or you can advertise in Stories.

When selecting images for the main feed, think of things that your target customer would love to see in their stream. When advertising on other social media platforms, the common advice is to choose an image or graphic that is jarring and attention-getting, but this doesn’t have the same effect on Instagram.

People are selectively curating their Instagram experience based on what is visually appealing to them, so your images should fit in, and also be scroll-stopping.

When advertising in Stories, I’ve had great success with either pretty images and a very simple text overlay, or with unpolished videos of myself (or clients) giving a 15-second explanation of what is being advertised.

Utilize feature accounts

There are many accounts on Instagram that exist for promoting other accounts to a niche audience. One way to get in front of your ideal audience is to appear on one of these feature accounts, also sometimes called “Shoutout Pages.”

Some feature accounts sell placement for a small fee, and some like to carefully curate who they share by searching a hashtag they ask you to use. For example, this is particularly popular in the handmade space where accounts like Craftsposure and Handmade Curator ask people to use their hashtags in exchange for an opportunity to get featured.

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Working with brand reps and influencers

Another idea for growing your brand and finding new customers is to work with brand reps and/or influencers.

The title “Influencer” is somewhat broad and generic, but anyone with a sizeable, engaged audience can be considered an influencer. While these influencers must disclose a paid relationship with you, they have the attention and trust of their followers, so their reviews and recommendations hold great weight.

Depending on your niche and audience, you may be able to identify one or a few “super fans” that can work as brand reps for you. Brand reps usually promote a brand in exchange for discounts or free product, and include responsibilities like being required to mention and promote your brand a certain number of times over a defined time period.

Which of these strategies will you implement to begin growing your business with Instagram?

If you’re interested in building your business with Instagram, these steps and tips are just what you need to get up and running. You don’t need to do them all at once. Start with what you feel most comfortable with and then add on as you gain more and more confidence.

And don’t forget the most important aspect of using Instagram content for your business– authenticity. That’s what users of this platform are looking for, so stay true to yourself and your brand and you’ll win them over.

Molly Marshall

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I t’s hard to find a blogger or business owner who doesn’t use Facebook in some capacity.

Whether they only have a personal account or are trying to grow a dedicated Facebook Business account, most of us are aware of the basics behind the platform.

Facebook is an attractive choice simply because it has the most daily active users of any social media platform in existence. Not only that, but most users check their Facebook feeds 14 times a day on average.

With so many people and businesses already on Facebook, is it too saturated of platform? There are still plenty of opportunities to make an impact and build your influence, but it may take a more advanced Facebook marketing strategy.

The Facebook Marketing Strategies Every Creator Needs

Before we dig into that, let’s talk about why a Facebook might be worth using beyond keeping up with your friends and family.

Why use Facebook for your online business

Since Facebook has the largest user base of any social media platform, many businesses flock to Facebook and put a heavy emphasis on this platform when making a social media strategic plan. Chances are your audience can be found on Facebook, but is it the right fit for your business goals? Let’s find out.

Facebook demographics

Unlike social media platforms like Snapchat that skew toward a younger demographic, Facebook has an almost even split between users that are 18-29 years old (82% of

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internet users) and 30-49 years old (79% of internet users in this age bracket).

Twelve percent of Facebook users are from the United States, closely followed by India and Brazil. Surprisingly, the percentage of users coming from rural and urban areas is equal with 81% of its internet users being on Facebook.

Facebook has 1.65 billion users accessing Facebook every month, making it the most popular social media platform by far. Facebook users are highly active since 1.09 billion people use the platform daily. It has more users than most of the social media platforms combined. So what makes Facebook so unique and attractive to various age groups?

Key benefits of Facebook for business

With so much of the general population being on Facebook, it often makes it a no brainer for businesses who are interested in interacting with their audience. Instead of spending your energy trying to convince your audience to use a new platform, you can go to the place where they already hang out.

Since there are so many users on Facebook already, the platform allows you to target users with specific interests and characteristics so your posts are being seen by the right people. This makes the big crowd on Facebook feel more intimate, which helps you create more successful Facebook ad strategies.

If you love creating video content for your audience, you’ll especially love Facebook since videos perform the best on their platform. Videos continually get the most engagement and are prioritized in their home feed algorithm.

We can’t share the benefits without sharing a few of the downsides, too. Facebook algorithms have changed greatly over the years. With organic post engagement at an all-time low, you’ll need to use Facebook ads or boost your posts in order for them to reach your audience.

In the last few years, Facebook has shifted their attention to creating better Facebook Group and Facebook Live functionalities. All of these new features have helped Facebook evolve since its inception in 2004 in order to stay relevant.

Facebook marketing strategies for your business

After you create a Facebook Business page, you may be wondering what else you can do within the platform to boost your engagement rates. Only 2-6% of people who like your Business page will see your native content, so it’s more important than ever to make sure you are utilizing all of Facebook’s built-in features to reach more of your audience.

Start a Facebook group

If you want to use Facebook as a place for community, starting a Facebook group may be a great place to start. Instead of having your Facebook posts feel like a monologue on your Business page, you can create a dialogue within the Facebook group.

Virtually every niche is represented through Facebook groups. Before you feel like there is too much saturation in your field already, think about what Facebook groups already exist in your industry and what’s missing from them. After you find your differentiator, you’ll have an easier time creating interest in your group and attracting members.

Here are a few Facebook groups to join for inspiration:

• The Smart Passive Income Community: for bloggers and entrepreneurs interested in building their own products, using affiliate marketing, etc.

• Boho Berry Tribe: for creatives who are interested in bullet journaling and planning their days with intention

• Humans of Online Business: for bloggers and entrepreneurs who want to create a meaningful business through infopreneurship

• The Rising Tide Society: for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses who are in service-based industries

• Money & Happy: for creatives and bloggers who are interested in making their money work for them

In addition to free Facebook groups, you can also create private groups that are dedicated to building a community for your online course, an upcoming book launch, or an

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in-person event. You can add incredible value to your next offering through an invite-only Facebook group.

Record a Facebook Live video

Another great way to deeply connect with your audience is to record yourself through a Facebook Live video. This feature was launched publicly in 2016 after being tested by some celebrities with high follower counts in 2015. Since then, everyone from stay-at-home mom bloggers to top CEOs can jump on live video and share their advice or surroundings from anywhere in the world.

You can record a Facebook Live video from your phone or desktop, and it can be accessed through your Business page or in your Facebook Group. Live videos are especially attractive to marketers because they are viewed three times as long as normal video posts. Now one in every five videos posted on Facebook is a live video.

What should you use the Facebook Live video feature for? We have a few ideas to help you with brainstorming your next live video topic:

• Give a behind-the-scenes look at a typical day in your life

• Show off your creative environment or what your studio/home office looks like

• Share a lesson you learned from a podcast episode, book, or recent blog post you read

• Pull back the curtain and share what you are currently working on

Run a Facebook ad campaign

All of the features we’ve highlighted on Facebook so far have been free to use with your Business page account, but if you want to increase your post reach, you’ll want to start using Facebook ads.

Even if you are a small company or a solo entrepreneur, you can run a Facebook ad campaign with virtually any budget. You can also set a max budget for your ads so you never exceed that amount.

Simply decide who you want to target with the ad, and select the specific action you want users to take. It helps to understand the metrics behind each ad:

• Engagement: This refers to any like, comment, or share from your audience.

• Reach: Reach is how many people have seen any content from your Business page show up in their feed or on their screen.

• Impressions: This is how many times your content has been viewed (which means that one person can count for multiple times when looking at impressions).

• Conversions: When someone converts, it means they take the intended action (which could be signing up for an email list, buying a product directly from Facebook, or simply clicking a link).

Some online businesses rely heavily on Facebook ads because of how effective the ad marketing platform is. This is because business owners can target potential customers who have already visited their site through what’s called the Facebook Pixel, or target people who are interested in their competitors or a similar interest group.

We recommend creating a low-cost Facebook ad campaign around your next product launch rather than simply boosting posts so they get more views. Visibility and impressions are important, but it’s even better to see how your Facebook ads can lead to real sales. Continue experimenting until you find the right targeting characteristics. To learn more about how to create a Facebook ad campaign, take a look into their How Facebook Ads Work landing page.

Utilize Facebook Messenger

You may already be using Facebook Messenger through your personal account to interact with your family and friends, but you also will have the opportunity to connect

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with customers or audience members through Facebook Messenger within your Business page.

Facebook Messenger for Business was created to help customer service teams better serve their buyer’s needs. With over 2 billion messages sent between customers and businesses every day, Facebook Messenger has been adopted into the social media strategy of businesses all around the world.

Messenger also gives you the opportunity to take conversations with customers off of your Business page so you can keep the conversation private. That way it doesn’t clog up the feeds of other customers who have liked your Business page. If there is a negative comment on a Facebook post, you can also shift the conversation with the commenter to Messenger so you can solve the problem promptly and privately.

If you want to get started with Messenger, you don’t have to worry about installing a new app extension because it can already be accessed within your Business page. Before you use Messenger, we recommend sitting down with your team to create a customer service workflow and strategy behind each conversation type.

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Facebook marketing strategy best practices

With so many different opportunities to connect with your audience, you might be chomping at the bit to start posting content on Facebook. We love your energy! Before you create a full-blown Facebook marketing strategy and implement each of your content ideas, we want to close by sharing a few best practices to keep in mind when using Facebook for your blog and business.

Post frequently

With so many users on Facebook, your content will get lost in the crowd if you aren’t posting regular updates on your Business page and within your Facebook Group. It’s recommended to post at least once a day around 1-4 p.m., so right after your lunch break but before most people are wrapping up their work projects for the day. This will ensure that you can get in front of your most engaged customers a few times a month, even with their algorithm.

Use imagery

Facebook posts with images get 39% more engagement than text posts, making good photography and high-quality video content more important than ever. This is not surprising since our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. The next time you come up with a really insightful text post, think about what kind of image could be included with it.

Keep it short

Facebook posts below 250 characters are said to raise your engagement by a whopping 60%. People have short attention spans, so keeping your content concise yet educational is ideal.

The ability to write short-form copy has never been more important. Rather than creating a long, detailed text post, break it up into a few posts and use it to create a series on Facebook. You’ll have more content created from the same amount of work. It’s a win-win!

Engage with your audience

Your customers and audience members want to connect with a real person, not a logo. As you scale your company, it’s important to make room in your social media marketing plan to engage with your audience. They want to feel like you know them on a first-name basis rather than viewing them as a number. You can engage with them through Facebook Groups, Facebook Live, and privately through Facebook Messenger.

Interact in other Facebook groups

Instead of only running your own Facebook group, why not participate in other Facebook groups? This will not only give you inspiration for your own group but will introduce you to people who may be interested in what you have to offer. You’ll start to build a small, tight-knit community, which will help you greatly as you start to grow your own group and audience on Facebook.

Keep up with metrics

You won’t know how well your Facebook posts are performing if you don’t keep an eye on your analytics. When you create a Facebook Business page, you’ll have access to all kinds of statistics to help you understand what’s working well and what needs improvement. You can learn more about their analytics platform here.

Leverage Facebook ads

One of the most powerful features on Facebook is their ad platform. It may feel a little nerve-wracking at first to put money toward Facebook advertising, but you’ll quickly be able to track how well your ads are performing and what tweaks you need to make by experimenting.

If you want to learn more about Facebook ad strategy before you start your first campaign, here are a few blogs that provide great educational information on the subject. • The Ad Strategist

• Screw the Nine to Five

• Laura Ball

• Lisa Stoops

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What Facebook marketing strategy will you be testing this month?

I challenge you to either join a Facebook group that already exists, start a group of your own, or record a Facebook Live video. Which challenge will you take on?

Kayla Hollatz

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T o the uninitiated, Twitter can seem like a noisy, confusing platform. Depending on

who you follow you might see it as a constant stream of status updates, a way to keep a pulse on the news, or perhaps even just an RSS-feed full of links. Twitter is all of those things and more: it’s on ongoing conversation.

That’s why it can seem noisy; it’s full of people talking!

I’ve been an enthusiastic Twitter user for a decade now. I’ve seen the platform grow and change over the years, but it’s still my favorite way to connect with like-minded individuals online. And as a YouTube creator, it’s an essential tool for

How to Get Noticed on Twitter: A Creator’s Guide

building a deeper connection with my audience and driving traffic to my content.

As with many things in life, Twitter is what you make it! So I’m sharing with you my best tips for how to get noticed on Twitter and show you how you can use it to grow a community and increase the views on your blog.

Twitter is a conversation you need to be a part of

While it’s true that Twitter isn’t as widely popular a social network as Facebook or Instagram (Just 24% of US adults use Twitter, compared to 68% who are on Facebook and 25% on Instagram), it does have over 330 million monthly active users. And those users tweet a LOT. More than 500 million tweets per day in fact!

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Twitter has a very global user base, with around 80% of its users coming from outside the US, so it’s a great way to connect with the world.

Unlike other social networks that were originally designed to connect you with people you already know, from the very start Twitter was intended to be used as a one-to-many communication. This makes it the perfect place to establish and build connections– especially in the creator community.

Where connecting on LinkedIn requires both parties to add each other by accepting a request, you can follow any public account on Twitter and respond to their tweets. It’s just like striking up a conversation with someone new at a networking event. That’s why it’s my favorite way to network in the digital space.

It’s also a great tool to use for getting inspiration. You can follow all of your favorite creators and the people who inspire you so that every time you check your Twitter feed it’s full of people sharing their process and advice.

How to get noticed on Twitter

So how can you dive in and start to get noticed on Twitter? Let me share some of my tops Twitter tips.

What to tweet about

Whenever I meet someone who doesn’t use Twitter, the most common response when I ask them why not is, “I just don’t know what I’d tweet about”. Well, you can think of Twitter as microblogging; each tweet can capture your

thoughts on a topic, share a little piece of wisdom, or even just an insight into your life.

Tweets are a max of 280 characters long so if you have something you want to share but it doesn’t quite warrant a full blog post or video, go ahead and tweet it instead!

I like to share what I’m thinking on Twitter as a sort of sounding board for my ideas. If I tweet something and it gets a good response, that tells me my audience is interested in that topic and I should pursue it further.

For many users, their Twitter feed is like an RSS feed; it’s where they’ll go to find links to interesting articles and videos from creators they’re interested in. So as well as sharing your thoughts, you should absolutely be sharing links to your recent content, projects, and products too. And while you shouldn’t go overboard with this, because a Twitter feed moves quite quickly (there are 500 million tweets per day remember!), you can feel free to post a few times a day to hit different time zones.

Be professional...

Just as you would curate your content on your blog or Instagram, you should be mindful about what you post to Twitter. If someone visits your profile and the first tweet they see from you is a complaint to a brand about your order not showing up on time, that’s not a great first impression.

Your Twitter feed is a reflection of who you are as a creator so make sure everything you post there is something you can stand behind and feel confident it represents you.

...but don’t be afraid to show your personality!

That said, you’re not a robot; you’re a human!

Twitter can be a great way to showcase a side of your personality that your audience may not see in your longer-form content.

For example, I make videos about design and I stick pretty closely to that niche to build my YouTube following. But on Twitter you’ll find me talking about other things I love too: music, food, skateboarding, travel. I’ll tweet outfit photos,

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share my thoughts on a movie I just saw, links to content by people I admire... lots of things that I wouldn’t make a video about but that, by sharing, helps my audience gets to know me better. So open up and show your followers who you are as a person.

Become part of the community

The best way to make the most of Twitter is to take part in the conversation: you don’t want to be the person who walks into a room, loudly announces their latest project, then leaves do you? That’s what it can feel like if all you do is post links to your work and talk about yourself.

Remember, Twitter is a conversation. And conversations can’t be one-sided.

Take part by replying to interesting tweets from people you follow and responding to people when they tweet you. Ask questions in your tweets so they’re less of an announcement and more of a conversation starter. You’ll benefit from this not just because you’ll be seen as an interesting person to follow, but because you’ll enjoy the experience of using Twitter more too.

The most common mistake I see creators making is treating Twitter as a dumping ground for links to their latest work, or scheduling a bunch of tweets to go out automatically in a ‘set and forget’ way. If you want people to engage with your tweets, you’ve got to engage with them too. I promise you it will be worth your time!

I’ve met so many amazing creators through Twitter, and those are connections I would never have made if I wasn’t an active user of the platform.

A great way to make connections in the community is through Twitter chats. These are moderated conversations on a certain topic that take place on Twitter at a set time. The chat leader will tweet the questions, and you’ll respond with your answer using the hashtag for that particular chat (#lbloggers for example is a twice-weekly chat for lifestyle bloggers). Other users taking part will see your answer when they’re searching the hashtag, and you can look through theirs too to find new people to follow and chat with.

There are Twitter chats taking place for lots of different niches, so do a search for something that relates to you and join in on the conversation.

Twitter features 101

Now that you know what you should be doing on Twitter, here’s the lowdown on some of the features you can take advantage of to improve engagement and build your audience.

Hashtags

Unlike on Instagram, it’s bad form to add a bunch of generic hashtags (like #travel #food #vacation) to the end of every tweet. Not only is it a waste of characters, but it makes your tweets harder to read.

On Twitter, hashtags are usually more specific, and they’re useful for participating in discussions like #InternationalWomensDay or for events like #CraftCommerce (ConvertKit’s annual conference for creators). You could even start a hashtag yourself to get your audience talking about a certain topic!

Images

Tweets with images receive 18% more click throughs, 89% more likes, and 150% more retweets than tweets without. So when you’re sharing a link to your latest blog post, be sure to post an image that relates to it too and you’ll get more people clicking through.

You can also upload a video straight to Twitter. This is a great way to get people to watch video content because they don’t have to leave their Twitter feed to see what you have to say.

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Ads

You can use ads to promote your tweets to reach a wider audience. Promoted tweets can show up in the timeline of users who don’t follow you and get their eyes on your project or product, while also encouraging them to hit the follow button.

Pinned tweet

You’ve got the option of pinning a tweet to the top of your profile so that when someone visits, they’ll see that pinned tweet first in your feed. You should definitely make use of this option!

First impressions count and pinning a tweet that represents what you’re about will help people decide if they should follow you. Personally, I like to pin a tweet about my most recent video and change it out each week.

Polls

A fun way to get your audience to engage with your tweets is to post a poll. Creators often use polls to let their audience to decide what piece of content they should make next, or to gauge interest in a certain topic. It’s easy for your audience to vote in a poll, and it’s a fun way to help them feel more involved in your content creation process.

Threads

Sometimes you’ve got something to say that takes a little more than 280 characters, or perhaps you want to follow up on something you tweeted previously; thats where threads come in!

You make a thread by replying to your own tweet, and when the new tweet appears in someone’s timeline they’ll know it is part of a thread. They can click on it to read the whole thread and get more context. Perfect for grouping thoughts or expanding on a topic.

Moments

While you can use threads to group your own tweets, Twitter Moments are a curated collection of tweets from any user that you can create. If you launch a new product for example and receive tweets from happy customers showcasing your product in their home, you could create a Moment to gather all these tweets together for others to look through.

Start connecting with your audience on Twitter today

Twitter is a valuable platform for you to be on as a creator, but don’t just take my word for it. I tweeted out asking my audience what value they get from being on Twitter, and here’s what a few of them had to say:

Not only does Twitter enable me to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the design industry it also allows me to see inside the process and minds of other designers I look up to. Whether direct or indirect, there is constant encouragement and support.

@Iamdavidhill

I’ve been able to build my business from twitter - making connections with colleagues, get over bumps and hurdles I’ve encountered, education around my space, most of all, built friendships — I would say that without Twitter, not entirely sure I’d be doing what I’m doing today.

@rezzz

I stopped using twitter for a while because I didn’t really know how to use it well. But now I’m back on here to share works in progress, creative work

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by other people that inspires me, and to have more conversations about topics I care about.

Efdotstudio

I love the interaction with other people. You can reach and have conversations with so many people, whether that’s people who do similar things to you or not it’s such an interesting space.

OhHayStudio

If you follow the right accounts you’ll be inspired by checking your feed, and be able to build good connections with people you admire by replying to their tweets.

Content you post on Twitter can be a little more free-form and less polished than in a blog post or a video you post to YouTube which enables your audience to get to know you better. You’ll get out of it what you put in, so make a conscious efforts on how to get noticed on Twitter this week and make the most of it.

Charli Prangley

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I magine your business being able to showcase potential customers how

your products and services can help them accomplish their ideas. This is exactly what Pinterest can do for your business.

Pinterest is a visual search engine with a social media component. Users utilize the platform to look for inspiration, whether it’s their wedding planning, new recipe, or home decor as well as to brainstorm ideas for new products to buy.

In fact, nearly 93% of pinners said they use the platform to plan their purchases (now that is almost all of them!), and another 67% of pinners say they discovered a new brand

Optimize Your Pinterest SEO Practices to Increase Your ROI

or product on Pinterest. So if you’re not using Pinterest for marketing your products and services then you are missing out!

To be in the mix of those discovered products, you need to make sure your Pinterest SEO is on point.

Why you need to start using Pinterest for your business

Pinterest is full of highly engaged users. Millennials report using the platform as much as Instagram, with the median age being 40, although the majority of active pinners are below the age of 40. And although the majority of the platform’s users are female (81%), male signups are growing in numbers, with 41% of new sign up being men. And all those users have created over 50 billion pins!

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Utilizing Pinterest strategically for your business leads to:

• Increased brand awareness

• Additional blog traffic

• New leads

• Increased sales

And here’s why...

Pinterest users are ready to buy

Pinterest users are already in the right mindset– the mindset that is likely going to lead to them making a purchase.

Because Pinterest reduces the steps from discovery to conversion for the potential buyer, Pinterest is a top resource for shoppers looking for that gift, product, or outfit.

Pinterest is a great market research tool

Pinterest is a great platform for you to discover what your audience loves and what is trending. Using it as a search tool helps you find out what is hot and trending currently and how your business, blog, services, or product fits into that! This then will definitely inform how you then position your business.

Pinterest is a huge traffic driver

Pinterest is a major traffic driver. In fact it is one of the most successful social media platforms that help drive traffic back to your website. As indicated in a recent Hootsuite Study, Pinterest is responsible for 5% of all referral traffic! And when looking at just shopping websites, Pinterest drives 33 percent more referral traffic than Facebook!

Free marketing

Pinterest is a platform where user engagement is super high. The intention of most users on Pinterest is to simply find and share things with small groups of people.

This is good for your business, why? It means your pins are more likely to be seen and even go viral! Therefore Pinterest in a way is free marketing for your business, and why wouldn’t you want that?

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Not only are you sharing your content on Pinterest, but you have others sharing your content for free on Pinterest when they pin and repin your content themselves!

Now that we have established why it is important for your business to be on Pinterest, let’s discuss how to use the platform to drive business results– aka let’s make Pinterest work for your business!

Pinterest for business

The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a Pinterest business account. You can easily create one by going here: or you can convert your current account.

There are tons of benefits with a Pinterest business account, including:

• Access to rich pins

• Extensive Pinterest analytics

• Promoted pins

If you are a business trying to use the online world to drive traffic and sales to your online shop, or even a blogger or influencer, you need to have access to analytics otherwise you are essentially shooting in the dark.

You need to know how your target audience behaves online, what time they log on, what they like to repin etc. But Pinterest for Business also lets you set up rich pins and promote pins too.

What are rich pins?

Rich pins are only available to you through the Pinterest business account. They add extra information to your pins directly from your blog or site. And they don’t just stop there. If you update that information on your blog, it will automatically update on Pinterest.

Rich pins also improve your ranking. This has an impact on your pin impressions and clicks, and since they stick out from regular pins, they help drive traffic.

All of this on top of being able to establish yourself as an expert as a business account is automatically more professional than a personal account. It’s free to set up and

all you have to do is go to the Pinterest Business page and click “Convert Now.”

*note: after you have created your business account, it is an additional step to enable rich pins

How to optimize Pinterest SEO for you business profile

Next up you need to make some tweaks to your Pinterest profile. These will have an impact on your entire Pinterest strategy.

• First up, we always recommend including the name of your business in your profile name and in the username.

• Don’t forget to claim your website, this will also contribute to your profile appearing higher in profile search results.

• Include a link to your site and a friendly professional photo of yourself as the profile photo

• Add a call to action in the description!

Speaking of description, this is prime real estate. Take time to fill it in by telling your audience what your business is and what problem you solve/or need you fulfill, basically what your business can do for them! Here’s what our profile looks like:

Here are a few more ways to optimize your Pinterest business profile:

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Install the save button (formerly called “pin it” button)

This is one of the best and easiest ways for your business to get content, such as your products or blog posts onto Pinterest.

The save button allows visitors to save content they like from your site in their Pinterest boards with just one click! This way, not only are you promoting your business on Pinterest by pinning your content, but so are others!

This then helps even more pinners discover your business, and brings me to another important point– make sure you spend time filling in the descriptions of the images on your blog or site.

Pro tip: Most pinners tend to keep the same description that comes with the pin with they click Save. So go into the “Alt text” of your images and fill in with what you would like that description to be!

Strategic descriptions with keywords

Something you need to keep reminding yourself of is that Pinterest is a search engine and therefore keywords matter! Spending time writing compelling, targeted descriptions with a good selection of keywords can have a big impact on your pins showing up in the search results.

When brainstorming keywords you need to get in the head of what pinners might be searching for in the search bar. Here’s two tricks for finding the right keywords:

• Use the suggested terms that show up under the search bar once you hit enter.

• Use the autofill feature to gain knowledge of what people are searching for on Pinterest.

When you are writing those pin description remember to incorporate keywords. But that is only half the battle. You also want to work on describing the pin, the value it provides, and how to entice the pinner enough to click through on it!

Pro tip: Stay away from generic keywords or over stuffing your pin description with too many keywords. The Pinterest algorithm notices this and doesn’t like it!

Create Pinterest boards strategically

To increase the likelihood of your Pinterest boards showing up in the results you need to be very intentional when creating and naming your boards. To do this, we suggest using intentional keywords that pinners are likely search for.

Keep the names of your boards to the point. That means staying away from anything too fancy. So instead of “my lovely abode” try “home”.

Also, have a mix of generic and more niche boards and names. And always remember you want to write board descriptions full of keywords making your boards easily discoverable.

Create pinnable graphics that entice to click through

There are certain types of graphics that work better than others. For example, longer graphics grab attention better and DIY/step-by-step tutorial graphics also grab more repins. Putting catchy and enticing to the point text overlays on your graphics also piques people’s interest.

And adding a pop of colour in either your text or you image and decluttering your image composition is a good starting point.

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Pro tip: A key component to your graphics is the copy. You want users to not only save your pins but also click through them. So take time brainstorming enticing copy that will prompt the pinner to click through.

Pin frequently and consistently!

You want to keep the activity on your Pinterest fresh. The Pinterest algorithm rewards this. Having said this, you also need to make sure you are consistent.

Pinning 50 pins one day and then not pinning for a week is something the smart feed doesn’t like, so make sure to pin every day and throughout the day. We suggest starting with 10-15 pins and then gradually increasing to at least 20-30 pins a day.

Pro tip: Now this all will depend on the amount of content you have, and we know that many of you don’t have time to pin throughout the day. If this is you, we suggest scheduling your pins with a Pinterest scheduler. Tailwind is a scheduler that is an official partner of Pinterest and a great tool to try.

Pin and repin relevant content

Remember to pin other creator’s content along with yours!

Try the 80/20 rule– 80% other creator’s pins and 20% your own content. This is not a must, and there is flexibility in the portions, but in general don’t forget this step.

We suggest pinning and repinning content that is relevant to your target audience. This will attract the right people to your Pinterest. Find relevant content to repin by following accounts with a big following that are in the same niche as you and have a similar target audience.

Pro tip: Go ahead and give some of their followers a follow, chances are if they are following the account with a big following they are interested in your content as well! This way you are also growing your Pinterest following!

Group boards

Join group boards!

Group boards are boards with many collaborators. Look for group boards where your peers are and also where your target audience hangs out in.

Group boards increase the potential of your pin being discovered by a whole new audience! And note the number of followers the group board has, the more followers the better!

Use hashtags

Hashtags on Pinterest now give you a different way to search on the platform. Usually when someone performs a search on Pinterest, the search results are populated by the complicated, no-one-really-understands Pinterest algorithm. This means there is a chance your pins might appear in the search results.

But now with the hashtag search on Pinterest, when someone does a search on Pinterest using a hashtag or clicks on a hashtag in a pin description, Pinterest will showcase the latest pins that have utilized that particular hashtag!

This doesn’t mean you overstuff your pin description with hashtags. Instead write a compelling pin description, rich in keywords, and add some hashtags.

Pro tip: Make sure these hashtags are specific and descriptive hashtags. Only use hashtags in the pin description– they will not function anywhere else!

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How to optimize Pinterest SEO for search

Don’t forget that Pinterest is a search engine and therefore keywords are very important! Your pins will never be repinned if they are never found, and they will never be found if you don’t associate all the right words with them.

Pinterest analytics

With your business account you will have an analytics section. Along with keeping an eye on saves, you’ll also want to pay attention to the Clicks column. Along with this Pinterest Analytics will also showcase all the pinning activity right from your domain.

Take note of referral traffic from Pinterest on your Google analytics to get a good idea of the impact Pinterest is having on your business.

Link quality

Make sure your pins are linking back to relevant and high quality content. Consistently check on your pins to get rid of any broken links. Pins that are associated with spammy and irrelevant links are noticed by the Pinterest algorithm.

Brand it

You want to tell a story and sell a lifestyle on Pinterest that complements your brand and product. To do this, remember to have a good understanding of your brand beyond just the colours and fonts, and a clearly defined target audience. This will not only help you in catering your content to a specific audience it will also inform your entire strategy.

Have call to actions everywhere

Have them on your pin graphics, in your bio description, and use the Pinterest widget function to prompt visitors to follow you by embedding boards and follow buttons on your site.

Mobile

When thinking of Pinterest for your business, remember that 80% of Pinterest users use the platform through a mobile device. This again informs many things such as your pin design and the mobile friendliness of your website along with other aspects.

Embrace the new changes!

Pinterest is always updating their platforms, so be sure to constantly check in on the changes. Some recent changes include:

• Repins are no longer being displayed

• The “following” tab on Pinterest now allows you to see a feed which is populated entirely by accounts and boards you follow, and they are displayed in reverse chronological order

• The featured board and header functions on your profile to strengthen your pinterest strategy further

Have fun pinning!

Remember it takes time for your Pinterest SEO efforts to pick up traction, so be patient and fun!

Buzzing Creatives

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W hen I took the leap from my day job into full-time entrepreneurship, one of the

first things I did was change my LinkedIn title.

I remember the day perfectly. Right after I handed in my two weeks notice, I changed my title from “Account Executive” to “Freelance Copywriter” during my lunch break. Updating the rest of my profile to reflect the new change felt just as good a few weeks later.

After my first month of full-time entrepreneurship, I noticed my LinkedIn activity had dropped significantly. I was hardly even logging into my account after I quit my job. The benefits of LinkedIn were great when I was in a traditional job position, but could it actually be helpful as a small business owner and freelancer?

Increase Your Leads with the Benefits of LinkedIn

The answer was yes, but it took me almost two years to start using LinkedIn more regularly. I thought it was only good to use during a job search, but I was missing out on real work opportunities by not cultivating a community there.

In the past year and a half, I’ve met with 20+ LinkedIn connections over coffee, mentored fellow bloggers, spoken on local business panels in the Twin Cities, and connected multiple college graduates with their first post-grad job opportunity all because of LinkedIn.

If you are asking yourself if LinkedIn is even relevant for your business, you may want to experiment more with the social media platform to discover your answer. Once you have a specific purpose for using the platform, you’ll start to create a community of people who are using the platform in a similar way.

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Why build your online presence on LinkedIn?

While LinkedIn may seem like it was made with traditional career paths in mind, it can be a great place to connect with other professionals and increase your blog traffic.

LinkedIn demographics

Every month, over 106 million professionals log onto LinkedIn to connect with other professionals in related industries. Fourty-four percent of their total users are female while 56% are male, creating a fairly even split between both genders.

When it comes to age groups, 61% of LinkedIn users are above 30 years old, but the amount of college and post-grad users using the platform continues to climb each month.

Seventy percent of users are located outside of the U.S., so if you are interested in building a remote team for your business, LinkedIn could be a great resource for finding the best candidates. We might be biased, but we think remote teams rock.

Key benefits of LinkedIn

When we talk about the key benefits of LinkedIn, it’s important to start by defining what the platform is usually used for.

While everyone has a different goal in using this social media platform, these are the most common people it attracts:

• Users in search of a new job opportunity or wanting to make a career transition

• Users looking to engage with professional networking groups

• Users wanting to stay updated with industry news

• Users tasked with building brand loyalty through public brand advocacy

From the reasonings above, it’s not hard to see that LinkedIn’s sole focus is connecting professionals with one another.

LinkedIn is often referred to as the “more professional” Facebook, meaning that the social media platform was built to help professionals facilitate conversations that are frequently found in the workplace. On LinkedIn, you can contribute to roundtable discussions on all kinds of topics from client management to team building to career development.

The platform is known as a central hub for employment opportunities, but what you might not know is how many freelance and short-term contract opportunities can also be found within this platform. If you are a service-based entrepreneur, this is great news!

Another benefit of LinkedIn is that it allows anyone from college graduates to CEOs to interact with one another in a professional setting. While it might feel odd to ask a CEO for an informational interview or coffee meeting on Facebook, the request will be answered more receptively on LinkedIn. It’s a great place for finding mentorship opportunities as well.

Driving business results with LinkedIn

We know that LinkedIn is great for finding employment opportunities and networking with industry professionals, but how do you go about using it to generate positive business results?

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A social media platform isn’t worth your time if you aren’t seeing a positive return from the time you put into it. The same goes for any kind of marketing strategies you implement. How can you make sure it’s the right move for you?

First, make sure that the demographics, benefits, and key purpose of LinkedIn aligns with what your business does. If it does, you can focus on creating a strategy around how you will utilize the key features of the social media platform.

Company page

After you’ve created a personal account and listed your own work experience, educational background, and unique skills, you’re ready to shift your attention to creating a Company Page.

To start building a Company page, simply locate the “Work” tab in the top right navigation and scroll to the bottom until you see “+ Create a Company Page”. Fill in your Company Name, which can be your business or blog name, and customize your LinkedIn page URL. For more information on how to create and optimize your Company page, visit this LinkedIn help page.

Here are some Company Page examples that we love:

• Career Contessa - an online career resource and blog for women professionals

• Construction2Style - husband and wife blogging team of home designers

• Buffer - social media scheduling SaaS company with a remote team

• ConvertKit (if you want to take a peek at our own!)

LinkedIn ads

Are you interested in generating more traffic to a specific page on your website or looking for the best candidates for a job? If so, LinkedIn ads platform may be a social media advertising option worth looking into.

LinkedIn is known for being the top lead generating social media platform on the market. With over 546 million users registered on LinkedIn, its advertising tools give you the opportunity to target and reach your ideal audience based on demographics, interests, and keywords.

The main type of social media advertising options within LinkedIn are:

• Sponsored Content: If you want to drive traffic to a specific blog post or website page, you’ll want to create a Sponsored Content ad that will appear in the user’s home feed.

• Sponsored InMail: Sponsored InMail is great for businesses who want to target specific users for job opportunities since these messages are sent directly to their inbox within the LinkedIn platform.

• Text Ads: This refers to the sidebar ads that are shown on the right side of a user’s homepage screen.

Showcase pages

Now that you have a Company Page, you can decide if you’d like to build separate Showcase pages. The purpose of creating a Showcase page is to highlight a specific initiative inside your company or a separate department within your larger organization.

Showcase pages are meant to put a spotlight on brands within your company or blog, so as you continue to scale, you may want to keep Showcase pages in mind.

LinkedIn Pulse publishing

One of the best features of LinkedIn is that it allows you to publish articles directly in its LinkedIn Pulse app. You can either repurpose archived blog content or republish articles as is. Many LinkedIn users utilize this feature as a way to build their email list and drive traffic to their blog.

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LinkedIn Pulse can help you build brand awareness, give you a platform for brand advocacy, and help you increase thought leadership within your industry. Instead of only posting updates with links to your newest blog articles, you can paste them into LinkedIn Pulse to take advantage of the

audience already browsing on that platform.

Turning LinkedIn connections into real leads

LinkedIn is a great place for lead generation, so it’s smart to regularly check in with your LinkedIn connections to stay on top of what they are working on. The best way to generate leads is to start a conversation that isn’t focused on what you are selling but rather what they are creating.

The more you talk about their projects, the more opportunity you have to stay top-of-mind when they are looking for a freelancer or blogger to help them with a new initiative. This kind of networking takes time, but it’s the best way to generate quality leads in a feel-good way.

Best practices when utilizing LinkedIn for business

Before you start creating a full marketing strategy for LinkedIn, let’s review some of the basics behind interacting with connections through the platform.

Set a professional tone

Since LinkedIn was built to be a social media platform for professionals, it’s important to keep a professional tone.

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You can still showcase your personality, but try to refrain from sharing private details about your life. Save family updates for Facebook and keep your LinkedIn page focused on your professional life.

Optimize your profile’s SEO

When you create a blog post or new page on your website, you are probably already thinking about keywords and how you can rank better in search engines. You want to do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile.

This is especially important when you choose a Title on your profile page. If you are a self-employed brand designer, you might want to use the title of Freelance Graphic Designer because it’s a highly searched keyword.

In the same vein, if you are a blogger who specializes in recipes and travel posts, you might want to use a title like Food and Travel Blogger at WebsiteHere.com in order to increase your brand visibility while helping your ability to rank in LinkedIn’s search.

Regularly share interesting and engaging content

Most people recommend publishing at least two posts a week on LinkedIn, but one LinkedIn post a day should be your absolute max.

Try to stay away from using LinkedIn in the same way you would use Twitter. While you can easily publish six to eight tweets without it feeling overwhelming to your Twitter followers, you will turn off a lot of your contacts if you try to post the same number of times each day on LinkedIn.

It’s usually smart to post around 10-11 a.m. because it’s right before lunch time. Posting after 5 p.m. isn’t a smart move because most professionals have left their jobs already and are looking forward to spending time with their friends and family.

Consider LinkedIn Premium

The more you dive into LinkedIn, the more opportunity you’ll find within the platform. If you find that you are getting a positive return from the time you are spending on LinkedIn, it might be time to consider if LinkedIn Premium will be a fit for you.

Some of the best features of being a LinkedIn Premium member are:

• being able to see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile

• accessing Premium Insights for better data to support your business

• putting your job opportunities in front of the best candidates

• having additional Sponsored InMail opportunities as a Premium user

LinkedIn Premium is usually the best fit for companies who are looking to hire for new positions as they quickly scale or for professionals who are looking for more freelance or contract work. You can decide if it’s worth the investment for a Career account, which is $29.99/month after the free month trial, or for a Business account, which is $47.99/month after the trial period.

Utilizing the benefits of LinkedIn for your blog and business

After reading through this guide, you might be more interested in incorporating the benefits of LinkedIn to your overall business marketing strategy than ever before. It may feel overwhelming in trying to figure out where to start, so we have a challenge for you!

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By the end of the week, we challenge you to do ONE of the following:

• create a Company page for your website or blog

• write an article in your area of expertise for LinkedIn Pulse

• publish three posts in your update feed, two original posts and one reshared post

• join a LinkedIn group in an interest area

• send a message to one of your LinkedIn connections

Kayla Hollatz

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I f you told me a year after Snapchat released that it would become a big player in the field

of digital marketing, I would have laughed. Most people would have done the same.

When Snapchat was in its infancy, it got a bad wrap for being known as a place where any user could share risque photos because of the platform’s disappearing videos. It was an uphill battle for Snapchat to climb, but it strategically rolled out new features that redeemed the platform years ago.

After it launched Snapchat Stories, updated its photo filters, and adding a Discover page, the new benefits of Snapchat completely revolutionized its platform. These changes made its early adopters love using Snapchat even more and started

Can the Benefits of Snapchat Help You Grow Your Business?

to attract the attention of some of the largest companies around the world.

Snapchat has continued to evolve its platform to fit the needs of its users and advertising clients. It’s known for serving a very specific purpose, so does that mean that Snapchat will be worth the time and effort for your blog and business? That’s what we want to cover today.

What are the benefits of Snapchat for creators?

After Instagram rolled out their own Stories feature with photo filters and live video, you might be wondering where Snapchat fits into your social media strategy, or if it even fits at all. Before you dismiss the platform, let’s talk about the benefits of Snapchat and the demographics of its users.

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Snapchat demographics

Not surprisingly, Snapchat is heavily focused on serving the young crowd. Sixty percent of its users are under 25 years old. Although 23% of users haven’t graduated high school yet, the largest subgroup of Snapchat’s audience is 18-24 year olds, which makes up 37% of its users.

After Vine, a six second video recording app that was popular with Millennials and Gen Z, was suddenly closed down, many of its users flocked to Snapchat. Platforms like Vine and Snapchat have been built for the younger generations, which means the videos are often centered around humor and entertainment.

If you are building a brand with lots of personality, regularly use slang and emojis, and are known for your wit and charm, Snapchat could be a great fit. Users are looking for funny content they can consume in 10 seconds or less. It doesn’t take long to make a lasting impression.

Key benefits of Snapchat

Snapchat has more than 173 million daily active users who watch about 10 billion videos every single day. If video content is your thing, Snapchat is a no brainer. Brands who are looking to interact with customers or audience members and build brand loyalty at an early age can find a lot of potential with Snapchat.

Another key benefit of using Snapchat for your business is that you are able to tell how engaged someone is with your video content based on how long they view your video. You can access business analytics that will show you if users quickly tap through your videos to refresh their feed, or if they are interacting with it by holding the screen with their finger.

Snapchat can offer some of the best engagement-based statistics because of this reason. Not only that, but Snapchat ads are twice as effective at driving customer interest through video content than Facebook.

The benefits of Snapchat that drive business results

Snapchat boasts that its users open the app 25 times each day on average. Since Snapchat has built its platform to keep users coming back for more content throughout the day, advertisers see the potential in using Snapchat to drive traffic and increase their brand awareness. Here are a few ways Snapchat does this.

Sponsored geofilters

Geofilters are based on your location, so it can be perfect for events (like weddings and sports games) and local stores. McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts have both created fun Geofilters that gained a lot of attraction. If you are looking to run a brick-and-mortar business, run an event, or rent studio space, you can think about utilizing this engaging feature.

Snap ads

Snap ads allow you to capture the attention of your targeted users by using a full-screen video ad as the user flips through other Discover or Story videos. All videos must be vertical and under 10 seconds. The Snap ads platform will give you robust analytics on snap open rate, response rate, engagement, video views, overall impressions, and more.

Sponsored lenses

In this case, Snapchat Lenses are just another word for the photo filters that Snapchat allows people to use in their own videos or photos. Lenses are the perfect way to build brand awareness around an event and allow Snapchat users to engage with your brand.

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As a fun example, Pepsi put unique snapcodes on Pepsi bottles so when a Snapchat user bought a bottle, they’d snap the code and get access to an exclusive Lens. This resulted in 8 million shares, one of Snapchat’s best performing ad campaigns yet.

Best practices for promoting your business on Snapchat

If your target audience is somewhere between 18-25 years old, you’ve hit the jackpot with Snapchat. As users interact with their friends and view the well-stocked Discover page, they also will be looking to bloggers and business owners for highly valuable and easily consumable content. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Give a behind-the-scenes look

People are following you on Snapchat because they want to see what your day-to-day life looks like. By recording short videos on Snapchat, you’re able to share a sneak peek into the activities of your day. It doesn’t matter if you are working in an office or enjoying a day at the beach; everything can be shared through Snapchat.

Keep videos short

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Attention spans are growing shorter, and there are video length limits on Snapchat for a reason. With only 10 seconds to make an impact, you’ll want to tailor your message so it can be easily consumed in a more concise timeframe. Bite-sized content is best!

Post frequently and consistently

Since you don’t have to worry about the length of your videos getting too long or having a high production value cost associated with Snapchat, you can focus your attention on capturing more content. Since Snapchat is built for in-the-moment content, it’s important to show up every day.

Be a storyteller

While it’s great to see what you are eating for lunch, it’s even better to know what you are thinking about or creating. Snapchat users love learning quick tips from other users or hearing what they are processing through.

Before you post a video on Snapchat, think about its purpose. Is it to get followers to comment and interact with you in your private messages? Is it to have them screenshot your video and reshare on their own Story? No matter what the action is, think about the objective and what story you are telling before you publish it.

When I think about the Snapchatters that do this well, portrait photographer Asia Croson and artist Paige Poppe instantly come to mind. They are two creative entrepreneurs I connected with in the early days of Snapchat. For a few months, I would watch their Snapchat Stories nearly every day because they were so good at telling the full story of their day.

Use photo filters

One of the main things that attracts Snapchat users is the capability of using filters on their photos and videos. Even as a brand, you don’t have to worry about seeming unprofessional if you use a filter. Have some fun with it!

Create urgency

Since Snapchat videos are only available to view for 24 hours, you can create a sense of urgency with a special giveaway or another limited time bonus. This is a great way

to engage with your audience during a product or service launch.

Switch up your environment

One of the most fascinating things about Snapchat is the ability to see where people are in the world. It can be an especially great platform for travel bloggers or business owners who frequently travel and want to share what their day looks like.

If you aren’t going on a vacation any time soon, don’t worry! You can still switch up your environment by shooting a short video at a nearby coffee shop, going for a bike ride, or visiting a co-working space. Changing up the background will help to create more visual appeal for your followers.

Will you use Snapchat for your business?

Maybe you are convinced that the benefits of Snapchat are worth testing out as a part of your social media strategy. If so, we recommend starting by creating a few 10 second videos each day for your public Story and interacting with your followers’ Stories for a few minutes every day. You’ll find the perfect rhythm with practice.

Kayla Hollatz

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I magine inviting 20, 500, or 10,000 of your closest friends to a party and then forgetting

to give them the address. You’ve got them super excited about your event, but now they can only reply to your emails to find out more. Yikes.

If you’re building your community with just email marketing, you’re doing just that. Isn’t it time you start to have actual conversations with your email subscribers?

One way to scale your business, improve support times, and have a pulse on your customer’s needs is to give them the opportunity to join the discussion, share their voices, andspark new and engaging dialogue.

In other words, don’t just give them a sense of community, help them build a community. Today I’m going to share how to use Slack to build that community.

How to Use Slack to Get Your Community Talking

3 reasons why Slack is great for your business

Most online courses or trainings include a free Facebook group, but these groups have become crowded and overdone. Slack is a private, less distracting alternative with several benefits.

So what is Slack?

It’s a messaging app for teams. But there are tons of those, right? So here are a few reasons why Slack might be the right choice for you.

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Focused attention

In Slack, you have more control over your notifications. You decide what is important to you and what’s not. There’s even two features that allow you to cut through the notification clutter and reduce the noise.

• /leave will protect your time and leave a channel.

• /mute will silence a distracting channel without leaving.

High engagement

Everyone has a voice on Slack because there’s less competition to be heard. And you can keep up through notifications whenever someone responds to what you want to hear– ie posts, reacts, or replies to a thread. The default notification settings also allow you to receive notifications from everyone in all channels.

It’s FREE!

Slack has a free and a paid option. It’s free option offers unlimited users and no trial period. As long as you don’t need additional apps or integrations, you can have a free account forever.

Starting a group on Slack is similar to training for a marathon– you’ve got to be committed, and you can’t just rush in.

While community building is essential for any business looking to connect with its customers and scale, there’s a right and wrong way to do it. Don’t create a Slack channel until you’re ready to commit to marketing and moderating it.

Because Slack teams don’t have the built-in advertising of other social media groups, it’s important to create a marketing strategy so you can keep a steady stream of new users coming in the virtual doors. This is critical if you have high engagement.

How to use Slack to grow your online business

Now that you know why Slack is a great choice to engage with your community, you need to make it worth your time. The easiest way to make your Slack channel drive business results is to tie your group back to the heart of your business: your customers and your mission. Here are three ways to make sure your group drives business results.

Keep them talking

Engage with your customers daily to keep your business top of mind.

One great way to do this is by using polls to take the pulse of the community. How do they feel about a new offering? Is the Slack group helpful? Slack integrates with several tools, like Simple Poll, that allow you to get the answers to your questions in mere minutes. This will help you create new products and offerings that align with your customers’ needs.

Promote your business (with moderation)

Use a Slack app, like Marker, to share screenshots of a new feature. You can do this in a public channel or a customers only channel to add value. This allows you to promote your

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product through trainings and/or demonstrations versus constantly asking for the sale.

Curate relevant content from the web

When you curate content for your customers, you’re saving them time and adding value to their overall experience.

For instance, if you’re a lifestyle blogger who posts content about motherhood, you could create a subgroup on minimalist fashion. Then, you could use Diggbot to find and share posts on ‘creating your ideal capsule wardrobe.’

Tracking Slack metrics

There are two types of metrics that you want to track: those that impact customers vs. those that benefit the business.

Metrics to track for your community engagement.

Do you want to know how many people are active or when are they posting?

Slack has simple analytics that any user can access and understand to access the health of the group.

Metrics important to business results

Slack lets you create a free listening tool which can give you incredible feedback from a product development and support perspective. It will also help you measure the effectiveness and visibility of your promo posts.

You can use a tool like Google’s URL Shortener or Bit.ly to track both clicks and conversions.

How ConvertKit uses Slack

While we love being a remote company, there are a some disadvantages that come with our kind of free working environment– mainly that we don’t get to see each other every day. And when you work with amazing people like we do, you have to figure out a way to make everyone feel as close as possible, even if they’re on the other side of the world. To do that, we use Slack.

For our own internal community, we use Slack as our own watercooler (we may or may not have a channel completely dedicated to Game of Thrones and another one for our pictures of our puppies), a place to hash out details of a project, and a quick way to contact each other.

We also use it for our own customer support channel in Slack. It’s a place where our customers can chat with and give each other advice about ConvertKit specifics.

So when it came time to create a group for our Product Creation Masterclass (PCM) students, Slack again was an obvious choice.

We used Slack because we wanted our PCM students to connect with each other easily in a less distracting environment. We also wanted to improve their chances of success by tapping into the innate benefits of a community: accountability, friendly competition, and motivation.

Our decision to use Slack was a great move and offered several benefits to both the ConvertKit team and our students. It allowed our team to:

• Reduce tickets to our support email

• Decrease response times

• Curate testimonials in real-time

• Support our students in a new way

It also helped our students feel seen and supported, which motivated them to complete the course. Slack also allowed students to raise their concerns and tag specific team members. Their suggestions were used to help us improve the content and develop relevant webinar material.

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How to use Slack for your community

The possibilities are endless when it comes to Slack, but there are some best practices I think you should know. You can’t just start a group and expect it to win everyone over. Here’s how to put in the right work to build an engaged community.

Start with a small group

We wanted our Slack community small to be exclusive, so we limited it to PCM students and didn’t open it up to everyone. The ConvertKit team could have pushed PCM students to our existing Facebook group, but that wouldn’t have been in the students’ best interest, and their posts would get buried by other non-PCM related posts.

Appoint monitors

We ensured that everyone felt heard by creating a posting and moderating schedule for our team. With this schedule, we knew who was helping our students and when they’d be in the group.

Create niched down channels

Niching down your channels allows you to increase engagement and activates your super users as everyday heroes. They’re able to jump in and answer questions quickly and easily.

We do this for our ConvertKit community for customers on Slack. This helps us filter out the types of questions that come up.

Introductions channel

This channel is an alternative to the never-ending intro posts found in Facebook and LinkedIn groups. New users don’t have to worry about getting lost in long threads.

Stay engaged

Our team members have a schedule to make sure someone is available to answer questions and engage with our users. Our ConvertKit Experts are also in our community for customers to answer questions and post helpful resources.

But, the work doesn’t stop there. Now that you’ve created your Slack channel and got it running, you need to promote it. Here are a few suggestions to help you share your new group.

Email your list

Don’t assume your subscribers know about your group. Invite them early and often to join your Slack community.

Add your Slack channel to your bios on social media

Use a simple opt-in page to share your free community. (example: https://iosstack-friends.signup.team/)

Use social media

Schedule tweets, photos, videos, and posts to share on your social media profiles.

Activate your community

Create a simple “share this” community page and invite your subscribers and followers to share the page.

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Start your Slack community today!

Now it’s your turn. Want to create an exclusive online group, but you’re over Facebook Groups? Slack could be the tool for you.

Semmona McNeil

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E veryone talks about how great Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have been for their

blog growth, but how many people say the same about Reddit?

While business-related Reddit testimonials may seem few and far between, many creators miss out on a chance to connect with highly engaged users who are already starting industry-leading conversations.

It doesn’t hurt that Reddit is one of the top 10 most visited website in the world.

Yeah, you read that right.

When you visit Reddit for the first time, you might be surprised to hear it’s as popular as it is. Reddit’s user interface may not be as pretty as Facebook or Instagram, but its 250 million users love interacting on Reddit threads regardless of the design.

A Creator’s Guide to How to Use Reddit for Business

At first glance, Reddit seems noisy and easy to get lost in if you don’t know what you’re looking for. However, if you know the basics of how to use Reddit for your business, you can dig for some serious treasure.

Why use Reddit for your online business or blog

Reddit was built to be a discussion-based platform, making user engagement its number one priority. After you sign up for an account, all you have to do is create a text, video, or image post and pick a subcategory, which is called a “subreddit”.

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After choosing a subreddit, you’ll publish the post and wait for the upvotes to come in. Other social media platforms have “likes”, but Reddit is based on a voting system. The more upvotes a post gets, the higher it jumps on the subreddit page. The highest upvoted posts are seen on the Reddit homepage, which is the ultimate goal of any user.

You can find discussions on anything from politics, to gaming, to cute and cuddly photos of animals. For more business focused topics, there are subreddits about business news, entrepreneurship, and blogging.

But it’s not enough just to post on Reddit. You’ll also want to make ample time to interact with other users on the platform. It’s a very active and social platform, making it a great place to share new blog posts and build a community around your blog. Now that you are warming up to the idea of using Reddit to market yourself, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Reddit demographics

Sixty-nine percent of Reddit users are male, making it a favorable platform for people who want to connect with a male user base. Fifty-eight percent of users are between the ages of 18 to 29, so topics generally focus on things that affect Millennials. It’s not surprising then that 40% of users access Reddit on a mobile device.

Key benefits of Reddit

There are two kinds of post types on Reddit: links that direct traffic to a separate third-party website and text posts that stay within the Reddit platform. It’s great to build to your Reddit social media marketing strategy to include both because links help you increase your blog traffic while text posts allow you to share helpful advice to build your credibility.

Since Reddit is built on the voting system, you can directly see how well your content is performing with Reddit’s audience based on the number of comments and upvotes you get. The potential to go viral on Reddit is high, especially with it being the eighth most visited website on the web.

With so many subreddit categories to choose from, you can easily find conversations that are relevant to you and your business. It’s even better if you interact as a personal brand

on behalf of your company because Reddit users want to connect with other real people.

Now that we’ve talked about some benefits of Reddit, we can’t forget to talk about how to avoid getting banned on the platform. Reddit will quickly ban any account that looks like a spammer, so here is how to keep in Reddit’s good graces, as shared by Dream Grow:

• Never submit the same comment multiple times to different subreddits

• Don’t only submit links to your website

• Don’t ask for upvotes

• Steer clear of illegal content

• Don’t share anyone’s private information

• Don’t be overly promotional

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How to use Reddit for your business

Now that you know the benefits and demographics of Reddit, you can decide if interacting on their social platform is worth your effort. Before you dive right in, let’s talk about some unique ways you can drive traffic and increase brand awareness through Reddit.

Interact with threads that already exist

Instead of wondering what you should post, you can jump into a conversation that’s already happening on Reddit. In the blogging subreddit, we found a user asking about the best advice for new bloggers. This would be a perfect opportunity to contribute to the conversation and gain upvotes.

Pro tip: As you get used to posting on Reddit, we recommend replying to five different threads for every post you publish. This will help you get in the habit of using Reddit not only to market yourself but also interact with people through the comments.

Use Reddit ads

Even though Reddit’s website design isn’t inherently visual, it makes their ads really pop. Since Reddit users are so engaged with the platform, they are sometimes more receptive to ads than on other social media platforms.

Just like with Facebook or Instagram, Reddit allows you to target specific audience groups and track how well your ad is performing. All ads are centered around a central objective, whether that is visibility, engagement, or most often, conversion. To see Reddit ad case studies, look at Toyota and Coca-Cola for examples.

Use Reddit as a hub for customer service

When buyers are frustrated with a service or product, they don’t always take it directly to a review website or to the company. Sometimes they will post about it on social media

or forums like Reddit. Being active on Reddit will allow you to approach these types of comments that would have otherwise gone unaddressed.

Outside of negative commentary, you can also use Reddit as a place to provide answers to potential customer questions. Simply search for keywords that have to do with your product or service in the Reddit search bar and reply with your answer.

Find your next hire on Reddit

Many users flock to Reddit for career development advice as they enter into a new job search. Since the user intent for finding job opportunities is so high on forum sites like Reddit, it can be a great place to start making connections.

You can browse the user’s history to see if they interact with subreddits that are in your related industry and reach out to them if you’re interested in them applying for a new position. You can also post a job opportunity in the industry specific subreddit for more qualified candidates or the general jobs subreddit.

Do an AMA

AMAs, which is an abbreviation for “ask me anything”, give you the opportunity to answer live questions that come directly from other Reddit users. Celebrities and public figures like Bill Gates, Keanu Reeves, and even President Barack Obama have appeared on Reddit AMAs, but you don’t have to be well-known to host an educational and successful AMA. You can get started in the AMA subreddit.

Number one rule on Reddit: Put community first

The most successful creators that know how to use Reddit are those who view the website as a community, not merely a traffic driver. By seeing Reddit as a hub for highly engaged people interested in your industry or share your same skills, you can start using the platform for what it was intended to be used for: facilitating helpful conversations.

If all you do on Reddit is post your weekly blog post on various subreddits, you won’t see a ton of upvotes pour

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into your profile. Instead, try to give value before you make the ask. This is the best strategy for any kind of social media platform.

Kayla Hollatz

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I remember the first time I signed up for a forum account.

As I looked up at the clock on a Saturday afternoon, I realized I had just spent three hours reading through the forum on the first day. It felt like three minutes. I had been so lost in the threads that I barely remembered to eat.

Much like social media, forum marketing can be slightly addictive. It gives you instant access to some of the brightest minds in virtually any industry, but like me, you could find yourself wasting time on forums if you don’t have a strategy.

When I first started participating in forums, I was more of a lurker than anything. While it’s good to read other threads and get your feet wet, your business won’t market itself.

Once I began to participate in conversations, offered recommendations, and gave my two cents, I realized the true value of forums. With the right strategy, you could too.

Is Online Forum Marketing Worth a Creator’s Time?

Before you take a deep dive into forum marketing, it’s important to decide if you’ll be able to get a return on your time investment.

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Why spend time on online forum marketing?

Since each forum has a different demographic, it’s good to look into who the forum targets before deciding which forum is a good fit for your blog or business. You wouldn’t want to spend your time on a forum that doesn’t connect you with your ideal customers or readers.

If you are still trying to decide if forum marketing is worth your time and effort, we have a few key benefits to share that may sway you in one direction or another.

Key benefits of online forums

Think of forums as large online gathering spaces where industry-specific discussions are held. There are hundreds or sometimes thousands of topics that are being discussed 24/7. It doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a seasoned expert– everyone has an opportunity to ask questions and share their answers.

Forums give you a central place to build your expertise and authority in your field. The better quality your answers are, they more upvotes or likes they will receive. This will be displayed on your profile, showing anyone who interacts with you that you’re highly active and someone they can trust.

Forums are a great way to increase traffic to your website when you place a relevant link in your reply. To make sure it isn’t seen as spam, make sure it supports your answer and directs forum users to a quality post. If it’s seen as spam, you may find yourself banned from the platform.

Before promoting your link, it’s even better to ask the user you are replying to if they’d be interested in seeing an additional resource you’ve created on the subject and get their permission before sharing. This will show forum moderators that you are not just using forums for your own gain but rather to be helpful to their users. You’ll also have a chance to connect with people who look like your ideal customers and clients. If you see them all asking similar questions, you can use this as market research to create blog posts and other types of content that answer those questions.

How forums work

Your first step is to search and choose a forum that fits within your unique criteria. We have some forum suggestions listed toward the end of this article, but you can choose any forum that focuses on topics you’re interested in.

As you create your account on the forum, you’ll also want to look at the community guidelines to make sure you are posting within their rules and regulations. You can then complete your profile by adding a personable photo and unique username.

After the basics are set up, it’s time to introduce yourself on introduction threads. Nearly every forum has a thread that’s dedicated to helping newbies connect with others in the forum and learn more about what the forum has to offer.

You can lurk in the forum for a while, but then you’ll want to get in on the action. While it’s great to learn from other people in the threads, the only way you can market yourself is to actively participate. Try to add value to conversations that are already happening, share your insights, and even ask questions yourself.

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Using forum marketing for your business

You know that forums can be used for market research, but how can they actually improve your business? Since your time is money, we want to make sure you are spending it in the right places. Before you begin posting with fervor, let’s cover how to best use these forums for business growth.

Find your niche

Again, you don’t want to to spend your time in a place where conversations aren’t happening in the topics you’re interested in. You also don’t want to spend hours on a forum and then realize all the conversations have been with people who are not like-minded.

You’ve heard the advice to niche down your offerings from countless sources, and the same is true for your forum strategy. If you are a B2B marketer, a forum like Inbound could be a great fit. If you would rather focus on how to build wealth as an entrepreneur, maybe Fast Lane is more your style. With thousands of forums on the web, you are sure to find a good fit.

Earn trust through freely sharing knowledge

Once you find a forum that fits your niche and have located which threads are best to interact with, you can start posting answers that share your experiences and expertise.

By freely sharing your insights, you’re able to earn trust from other users. This is usually reflected in the amount of upvotes, likes, and comments you receive. You can use these findings to create an even better experience on your website for your readers and customers.

Promote your work

This not only refers to sharing links to your website, which you can do in your replies when it’s relevant and in your profile signature, but also in the offers you can extend through forums.

You may find yourself talking to a group of people who are really interested in advice you’ve shared and are looking

for additional information. This might create an opening for you to offer a few members beta access to your next product, discounts, or free product.

Before doing this, make sure you have read the community guidelines so you aren’t violating any rules that are in place. This is always a good practice to get into before you post a link to anything.

Avoid drama

Forums were built to help users facilitate healthy discussions, but there are times when a conversation will turn ugly. In these cases, try to stay away from the drama. Forums are full of users who just want to argue, so your energy is best spent having conversations with people who are there to learn and freely give knowledge.

10 online forums for professionals creators and marketers

With so many forums on the internet, it can be hard to figure out which ones are worth your time. You could easily spend hours scrolling through conversations on each forum, trying to determine if it’s the right fit or not.

Instead, we have a curated list to help you choose the right forums to pair you with what you’re looking for. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional blogger, freelance marketer, or a small business owner. There are forums for professionals in any industry. You just have to know where to look.

Warrior Forum: It is known as the original internet marketing forum since it’s been around since 1997 and has over 100,000 active users.

Reddit: Features “subreddit” categories in business, entrepreneurship, and blogging. To learn more about how

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to use Reddit to drive business results for your blog, read our Tradecraft article on Reddit.

Quora: Much like Reddit, Quora offers subcategories within business and blogging but also has a wide variety of other questions that are asked on its platform.

InBound: Perfect for freelance and in-house marketers who want to share digital marketing knowledge and connect with seasoned professionals in their respective industries.

SEOChat: An active gathering place for all professionals who want to discuss search engine optimization tactics, updates, strategies, and more.

Wicked Fire: Known as one of the best resources for any blogger or small business owners who is interested in learning about affiliate marketing.

Biz Warriors: Small business owners and entrepreneurs will love this forum and its extended conversations about starting, growing, and financing a business.

Startup Nation: This forum was built to be a one-stop shop for startups wanting to learn about how to market themselves in the noisy world of online marketing.

Digital Point: Any topic around search engines and online marketing can be found in this well-organized forum that also features a digital marketplace.

Traffic Planet: An easy-to-use forum for any marketers looking to learn about driving traffic to their website using SEO strategies.

How will you fit forum marketing in your business strategy?

The first step is to browse through conversations that are already happening and find what topics you can contribute to. Search for keywords in your industry and start reading. Not only will you get to interact with other professionals in your industry, but you’re also bound to learn something new.

Choose one of the online forums above and challenge yourself to contribute to at least 5 posts this week. Then you can increase that number as you dig more into your online forum of choice. Not every forum will be a perfect fit, so aim to choose one or two to be highly active on rather than passively participating in more.

Kayla Hollatz

TRADECRAFTby

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TRADECRAFTby

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