Image via Jeff Cain of http://shedresearch.net/.

“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” That’s the age-old adage, and in a perfect world where you had an infinite amount of time and energy, that would be your ideal option in all matters. Whether it’s in matters of health, environment, law, politics, technology, business, or entertainment, you didn’t spend a lifetime cultivating your expertise so that someone who mastered SEO, got an early scoop, or attached their name to a major news outlet could influence the opinions of your target audience. But the amount of time and money it would take to simply do all that communication yourself makes that an untenable and unsustainable solution for the long-term.

And to be honest, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not a good expenditure of your energy. With hundreds of thousands of sources on the internet generating new, original content every day, how can you stand out? How can you avoid being just another voice lost among the chorus?

The key might not be in shouting louder, but in blazing the best trail.

Rather than just seeing, sharing and commenting on the same couple of articles that everyone else is reading, what if you could carve your own path?

All that expertise you have means that you know what the important aspects of the current newsworthy topics are, how they fit in to the greater scheme of your field, and what impacts they bring about. Remember that it’s a social world out there, and you do yourself a service every time you embrace the legitimate and positive contributions of others in your niche area of expertise. Instead of firing off an article of your own creation every time an new topic arises, what if you could choose from a selection of nuanced articles to share? You’d choose not necessarily the most popular or common, but those that were the highest quality, the most relevant, and — most of all — the most valuable to your audience.

Expertise isn’t only about being informed and intelligent in your communication, it’s also a developed, discerning eye that can spot the diamonds-in-the-rough, enabling you to elevate the stories that deserve the most attention. You’re working hard to inform your target audience, build trust, and establish yourself as a thought leader, but are you getting a maximal return on your investments of time-and-effort? Don’t try to fight the ever-growing fields of content, but recognize that the cream-of-the-crop is there, just waiting for you to pick it. So embrace your expertise, and deliver your audience only the best of what’s out there.

-Ethan

You may remember the legend of John Henry – the post-Civil War railroad worker who put his muscle and sinew-powered hammer against that new-fangled technology: the steam hammer. Or maybe “The Matrix,” where the world as we know it was turned into something looking like Detroit – victim of “the Robot War.”

And then there’s “Rocky IV,” which though never nominated for an Academy Award, but did have some pretty cool scenes of Rocky working out like John Henry in the snow, while the evil Ivan Drago pumped iron and chemicals in a laboratory with more wires and electronics than a bad Frankenstein movie.

In each of these stories – and there are hundreds more – the theme is the same: when will these pathetic lumps of flesh and bone – i.e., humans – be replaced by the superior strength, speed, and intelligence that can be delivered by the technology of machines?

In the early years of the 21st Century, US intelligence agencies spent years crawling through billions of bits of data in what would be the forensics of 9/11. Their conclusion: had this data been processed – and patterns recognized – in seconds, not years, 9/11 theoretically could have been prevented.

There’s not much debate that when it comes to crunching massive amounts of data, a computer will clean a human’s clock -all day long. And when it comes to drinking oceans of data, consider this: it is estimated that 90% of all the world’s content has been created in the past two years. From Fred Flintstone painting on cave walls to Plato and Shakespeare and Tolstoy and Emily Dickenson and George Lucas, all of these brilliant folks and thousands more in between account for only about 10% of the world’s content. Now, that is a statement of volume.

Machines have the ability to sift through massive amounts of data at light speed, recognizing patterns and ultimately delivering to you the content you want, so trying to use a human in the process is as outdated as asking old John Henry and his hammer to knock down Yosemite’s Half Dome, right? Well, maybe, but not so fast. Apart from the still nascent science of neural computing, machines today are binary. They are great at breaking information into elemental bits – ones and zeros – and crunching through streams of these bits really quickly, making comparisons, recognizing patterns which can eventually lead to recommendations. But despite the science fiction of “Terminator” and Schwarzenegger and Skynet, computers can’t think – at least not yet. Consider the battles between spammers and anti-spam filters, or the whole concept behind “Search Engine Optimization” – SEO – that really isn’t about optimizing your search at all, but rather about fooling machines into delivering you content that somebody else wants you to see. Machines can be fooled by rather simple structural elements of the non-digital language – for example, it would be easy to envision a story about a bird watchers club in Maryland getting delivered to a fan of The Baltimore Orioles – a mistake a human would not likely make.

Point is, while maybe Schwarzenegger may come back from the future some day as a killer android, that’s not today. Machines are awesome – manhas created remarkable technology that has improved our standards of living, dramatically increased leisure time, and enabled the Kardashians to become international icons. But, science fiction notwithstanding, machines are the tools of mankind – not the other way around. At Trapit, we love technology, we live on the Internet, and we’ve built our business around “Artificial Intelligence” and “Machine Learning.” In fact, remember that 9/11 project a couple of paragraphs ago? Well, from that, Trapit was derived! And so was Apple’s Siri! But we understand enough about machines to know that they are not ready – yet – to fully take on the task of curating content – of storytelling. For while machines do a wonderful job of quickly crunching billions and billions of bits of data, they don’t really understand nuance yet, or fully appreciate context, and semantics, even though great strides are being made in these areas.

In our Trapit business application, we offer the option of “assisted curation” to our customers – that is, allowing a human to intervene in the last mile, making the final decision on which of the stories recommended by Trapit will actually be posted. For any topic Trapit can provide an accurate pool of content to choose from, from millions of articles are selected dozens (try that on your own). But perhaps one article’s take is a little bit too bullish on a competitor. Or a blog post focuses on a region where you don’t do business. There could be hundreds of reasons that relevant content doesn’t quite fit. But Trapit can do the heavy lifting, saving time and money, while leaving subtleties of storytelling—selecting the best of the best content to capture your unique message—up to you.

So Skynet – what’s the beef, man? We come in peace – we’re not looking for a fight. Can’t we all just be friends?

Gary Griffiths
Trapit CEO and Co-founder

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We’ve talked about breaking through the white noise of content marketing, or the echo-chamber as we sometimes call it, before, and as Trapit President Pat Hume writes in her recent post over at Business 2 Community, it’s now more important than ever. Our most recent study indicated that most content marketers believe that they should be sharing 15 pieces of content with their audience every day. Do the math and that adds up to a whole lot of content being tossed around everywhere you might look. If it were all unique and interesting content, we’d be a lucky audience, but the chances are high that the same content is being repurposed and shared over and over again, which means it’s not going to make a huge impact. So what can you do to break apart from the pack?

Take time to find content – Finding unique content that will be interesting to your audience takes a little effort, but it’s well worth it in the end. Content discovery tools like Trapit will help surface lesser-known quality content quickly, but also having your own database of favorite sources that consistently offer great content (that isn’t being shared by everyone else) goes a long way in the daily content struggle.

Share discerningly – Pay attention to what others are sharing on social networks and choose your content accordingly. Make sure you’re not sharing the same content as everyone else, but also take note of what kind of content your target audience is responding to. Run with whatever topic that is, but contribute something new to the conversation for maximum impact. There’s no harm in sharing a great article from a popular site, but diversifying your content with new and lesser-known sources will help your social channels stand out.

Automate and engage – One of the most helpful aspects of A.I. content solutions and discovery tools is the ability to automate or schedule your social channels. Especially if you have a small or one-person social team, the ability to schedule the day’s social posts all at one time can be a huge help. Once you’ve discerningly selected and scheduled your social posts for the day, you’ll have a lot more time to actually engage with your audience on those social networks. Check out what your audience is talking about and become part of the conversation. Reach out to users who are sharing your content and give them a well-deserved thank you.

Putting these few ideas into practice for your company can help you break through the white noise that is bombarding your audience every day and show them that you know what kind of content they are really craving, and you are taking the time and effort to give it to them. Sharing enough content on social is important, but sharing unique content that your audience hasn’t seen 10 times over is even more crucial.

-Kelly

Just because we’re living in the Digital Age, don’t think ancient means of human communication are passé.

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Camelot – a magical mystical place. Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy commented that “Camelot, located no where in particular, can be anywhere.” The first reference to Camelot was in 1170 and, still today, continues to be an enchanting story that delights and engages audiences of all ages. It is quite likely that the origins of this popular legend were most certainly born around Celtic campfires centuries before 1170. Out of Camelot comes our love for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, as well as our belief that Merlin and Arthur really understood the significance of freeing Excaliber – proof of Arthur’s lineage and right to the throne. It is here that Galahad conquers the Siege Perilous, and where knights see a vision of the Holy Grail and swear to find it. And we cannot forget the romantic love between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. A timeless story has a little bit of something for everyone.

Why is this story something so many of us remember, and believe will likely still be retold a century from now? Perhaps because it is a story we fantasize as a metaphor for our own daily struggles – one which we can engage and believe? And through the magic of language, the story triggers our imagination, helping us relate to the characters, their values, and their hopes that are mostly closely aligned to our own.

Camelot is a good example of the power of a story; an illustration of what we can learn and relate through allegory and metaphor. What we can take from Camelot we can apply to our ability to write stories that are enduring and engaging to our audience. When I am telling stories, whether for pleasure or business, these are some of the things I consider:

1. Trigger the reader’s imagination: Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. Certainly, the image of a young Britton exacting a sword from a rock captures the imagination. People buy with their imagination, features and benefits to justify their thoughts.

2. Ignite an emotional response: People remember things they feel. Lancelot’s love for Guinevere, at conflict with his love for Arthur, is rife with emotion. Emotional memories are strong and tend to last because we relate to them differently than something that had no impact on our feelings.

3. Be human: As human’s we relate to others. Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere – all tragic and believable human figures. Our audience is affirmed as human beings through the stories we tell. It is a way of building a community – humanity is affirmed in storytelling. The only common denominator of our audience is that they are all human.

4. Use imagery: The use of imagery triggers the reader’s senses. Can you not vividly recall the surreal image of The Lady of the Lake’s haunting arm rising through the misty waters with Excalibur? Through this technique you increase the engagement of the audience. They can experience the story through enacting the sense – touch, smell, sound, sight and taste, and therefore the ability to recall will be enhanced.

5. Portray values: Jonah Sachs, author of “Winning the Story Wars,” says “…your role as an organization is to “connect your audience to their deeper values.” Your story isn’t about you it’s about motivating and empowering your audience.” Consider the values forged by brave ancient knights, hands clasped around a table without head or foot. So by creating that motivation, you are also creating emotion, imagination, and a human image associated to whatever story you are writing.

And as a general rule of thumb, keep your stories simple. There is no need to over complicate what you write. Avoid using “big” words and complicated details. Simple is better. The simpler a story, the more likely it will stick. Leo Widrich in his blog titled, “What listening to a story does to our Brains” tells us that “using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way truly relate to the happenings of a story.

The success of your story will be measured in your audiences’ engagement. Direct involvement from your audience means valuable actions such as sharing with their friends or remembering the brand’s message just a little more clearly.

If you are using social media as a channel for your story, you need to watch the actions taken across those channels. Or, if you are using a story as part of a campaign – your engagement and success is measured in the leads that are generated. When the audience is engaged in your story and converses about your brand, the brand then becomes content. Content that people are sharing. That is the desired effect.

And back to Camelot – our imaginations are engulfed in imagery of Britain in the times of King Arthur whose values and human characteristics create impact and most certainly trigger an emotional and memorable response. When writing your story – remember the one that has had the most impact in your life.

– Pat

Image via.

If someone’s following you in real life, you’re likely to get scared and run. But if they’re following you on Twitter, you’re likely to be excited for all the right reasons. On social media, having a large reach is the first step to success, but even a tremendous reach, on its own, won’t win the hearts and minds that you’re after. Businesses are well aware of the potential here: 75% of businesses have a Twitter presence, and a full 33% of the more than half-a-billion Twitter users follow at least one brand. But how can you turn that following into successful customer action?

One key is engagement. When asked, a full 61% of brand followers stated that they wanted to offer ideas and feedback, demonstrating just how important it is to not just mass tweet to all of your followers, but to really make an effort to specifically respond to them. Furthermore, offering a special promotional offer over Twitter increases the likelihood of a conversion by a whopping 349%.

Brands that have mastered this — enticing their customers with special offers and responding to individual tweets — really stand out from the rest. One sterling example is Coca-Cola, whose tweet history is full of unique offers, clever, timely content and most importantly, attentive, personalized responses to their audience. You can see a similar theme if you look at Dominos or Starbucks, but you don’t have to be a food-and-drink company to offer something valuable on Twitter.

For example, in the banking industry, Barclays has set up a separate account for online customer engagement, and yet another for wealth and investment management, both of which have been tremendously successful for customer engagement, retention and happiness. Don’t forget, individuals who follow you on Twitter are 30% more likely to recommend you and 72% more likely to buy from you, and keeping them happy really takes very little active time and energy.

If you’re using Twitter effectively, you can transform your brand into an emotional feeling: one of trust, quality, loyalty, value, and — ultimately — evangelism. Keep everything honest, positive and keep your messaging consistent, because the world is watching. But if you follow the right path, including sharing the right content, engaging your most fervent followers, and making the right offers or call-to-actions, you could be tweeting your way to social media stardom.

-Ethan

Our beta users are an invaluable source of feedback, constructive criticism, and even sometimes praise (oh how it feels good to be wanted!). In this new blog installment I’ll be showcasing how some of our early beta users are using Trapit in their day-to-day lives.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing beta user Julianne Bond on a rainy in PDX morning. After assuring her I was indeed jealous of the hot weather in NYC we got down to brass tacks and talked about some of the traps she’s been making.

Julianne is a real estate broker for Corcoran and lives and works in New York. She has been using Trapit professionally to find information relevant to her career and of potential interest to her clients. She has found Trapit so useful in this regard that she recently recommended it as a resource to her clients.

Julianne is also a writer of short fiction and routinely seeks out historical and literary information to inform her writing. She’s an avid user of archives and libraries and bemoaned that Google searches into her topics of interest generally returned lots of duplicate results and weren’t always as helpful as she would like.

One of the first traps Julianne started for her writing was a trap on James Joyce. Her Joyce trap led her to discover a podcast from a man examining Ulysses one line at a time. She was hooked.

“Anyone can really turn [Trapit] into something incredible for themselves,” says Julianne. “There is just so much out there. I feel like this whole concept is such a gift for anyone who is looking for information. It’s made a huge difference in the quality of research I’ve been doing.”

Julianne has also made traps on Homer’s Odyssey, Archeology, Gettysburg, and even a dreams trap.

When pressed if there was anything she felt would make Trapit better (I do so love constructive criticism) she suggested that some sort of notification when new content is added to her traps would make her happy (we hear you Julianne and be on the lookout for the addition of that feature in the very, very near future).

Overall she’s excited to see where Trapit goes from here and will continue to create traps to enrich her personal and professional life. If you want to check out her Joyce trap (I know I did) you can find it here.

-Laura

The Bowl Championship Series is a lost cause. It is an inequitable system incapable of serving justice in the fiercely competitive landscape of college football. Reform will never ensue until the current BCS structure self-implodes, leaving no doubt the system is broken beyond repair. The NCAA must realize that if the right teams continue to win, a nightmare will be waiting on the horizon, a perfect storm capable of destroying all BCS credibility for good.

2011 has been the year of reform in college football. Conferences are rapidly realigning, the monetary value of athletic scholarships are being reconsidered, and the crooks with their dirty hands on college sports are being exposed and weeded out. There has never been a more approachable time for NCAA leadership to round up its brightest minds and call for an all-out blitz on the BCS, aiming to gang tackle the most prevalent issue threatening the sport’s cultural enrichment today. It is a problem so significant that even members of Congress and our President have been outspoken on the subject, insisting the BCS should be obligated to weigh its postseason options:

Unfortunately for President Obama, until a full blown BCS catastrophe occurs, there will be no preventative rush to the drawing board. BCS brass will continue to waffle with their it’s good enough attitude, insisting that no machine should be forced to be fixed if it has yet to be proven broken…

It was week-seven of the college football season, and I could see the beautifully dark BCS storm clouds taking shape on the horizon. I began drafting a scenario on paper that would show how the BCS would reach its breaking point. Great teams would have to continue prospering, and although the scenario was far out on a limb, I had to ponder if the BCS coalition members were starting to feel a little nervous.

The complex scenario took root during the season-opening showdown with my beloved Oregon Ducks taking on the LSU Tigers. It was the first time since 1984 that two top-five ranked teams came storming out of the gate to square off. Win or lose, nobody was ruling out a possibility for a rematch in the national championship if both teams continued to win out. Just nine months prior to the kickoff, the Ducks’ head coach Chip Kelly was sitting at a table with empty eyes at January’s national championship press conference promising his team “we’ll be back” next year.

Four quarters later, that promise was broken, marred by turnover jitters and failed execution against LSU. As a Ducks fan, it felt unfair that a system would discourage us for scheduling “the best of the best” early in the season, unaware how stifling a single loss could be. Having started the season already in the top-five, the Ducks would’ve been better off scheduling a home game versus Portland State. Instead, it challenged one of the nation’s best teams, and as a result was immediately ousted from top-ten consideration. Economically, if this type of fear spreads, it will be extremely damaging for the business of college football’s regular season. If the BCS discourages highly ranked teams from taking early season risks, how often will we see these marquee matchups–that draw in substantial national interest–if there is too much to lose and not enough to gain? For Oregon, many teams would have to lose in order for us to begin climbing again. That’s the system, there are no other options.

We had already reached the half-way point in the season, and it made me realize how steep that political climb was going to be. The top ten looked as stout as it has ever been in recent memory and conference schedules were set up for a potential BCS horror story in which at least one team per major conference would keep on winning. On a positive note, I was ready for my Ducks to sacrifice its season if it meant that the BCS would be forced into a playoff discussion. While the BCS was rooting for two teams to stand alone, I began rooting for a handful of teams to stand together.

Try and balance yourself out on a limb for a second, and just imagine:

What if Kirk Cousins’ hail mary was knocked down and undefeated Wisconsin prevailed in overtime over Michigan State? Wisconsin has now lost two heartbreaking games in a row on dramatic final second touchdowns. I could just picture the BCS coalition slapping high-fives, knowing that antagonists now had one less argument to use against them. Yes, I’m talking about the same BCS commissioners that take home million dollar salaries. With their mountainous pay scales on the line, of course we know who they are rooting for and against.

For the sake of my scenario, let’s just pretend Wisconsin was on the lucky side of those wild finishes and remained unbeaten. Secondly, what if Oklahoma recovered that late onside kick versus Texas Tech, capping off its dramatic comeback for a 40th consecutive home victory? So close to victory, what if Oklahoma’s dream season was still alive?

A similar fate struck Clemson this Saturday, after its undefeated season was halted by an unranked Georgia Tech team. You have to wonder if Clemson had not uncharacteristically turned the ball over four times that they could have continued their unbeaten streak and marched their way to a perfect season as well.

Seeing these title contenders fall in the past two weeks is part of what personifies the beauty of college football. It proves that anything can happen on a weekly basis, and how incredibly difficult it can be to finish the regular season undefeated. However, I question if it is really that farfetched to outline a scenario in which five teams stave off elimination, and finish the regular season unbeaten? Both the 2009 and 2010 seasons saw at least three teams finish untouched, so could five ever happen? This is a scenario that the NCAA seriously must chew on:

THE FLAWLESS FIVE, THE UNDEFEATED

• LSU Tigers: Since the BCS has been in place since 1998, seven of the thirteen champions have come out of the Southeastern Conference. LSU is going to the Natty, but against whom? The BCS will be rooting for Bama in this one, because LSU staying undefeated only bolsters Oregon’s campaign as the top one-loss team deserving some sort of a shot at redemption.
• Oklahoma Sooners: If only they didn’t revert back to their nickname “Choke-lahoma.” The Sooners would’ve had three wins vs. top-ten teams and would be sitting pretty as the top candidate to be selected to play LSU in the title game.
• Wisconsin Badgers: Other than the scares at Michigan State and Ohio State, they managed to remain unscathed in conference play, running the table in a Big Ten that has felt a little down ever since the sweater vest got the heave-ho out of town.
• Boise State Broncos: They’re back! To topple the BCS, you must root for #18 Georgia. The Broncos went into a rowdy atmosphere to start the season and won fairly convincingly against a Bulldog team that seemed bound to finish in the middle of the pack in the SEC. Yet, suddenly Georgia is looking like the favorite to win the SEC East with South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore done for the season.
• Clemson Tigers: The surprise. Had they not shot themselves in the foot against Georgia Tech, they would be the BCS’ ultimate nightmare, finishing the year undefeated and under-appreciated. Keep in mind, they would serve as yet again another AQ (automatic qualifying) team unfairly left out of the championship picture. They are the Auburn Tigers of 2004 and the Utah Utes of 2008 (see below)

THE UNBELIEVABLY GOOD ONE-LOSS SQUADS

• Oregon Ducks: They finish the year with a single blemish, at the hands of the best team in college football, LSU.
• Stanford Cardinal: The epic showdown versus the Ducks in Palo Alto will likely be decided on the offense with the final possession of the football. Unfortunately for Luck, he’ll be required to throw the ball nearly 50 times, and the Ducks haven’t lost in almost four years when forcing a QB to throw 40+ times.
• Alabama Crimson Tide: Between the three one-loss teams so far, how can you choose the best one? It’s merely politics from here, but in all likelihood, Bama surges ahead of both Stanford and Oregon in the rankings after losing in the unofficial college “Superbowl” against LSU this coming Saturday.
• Oklahoma State Cowboys: It continues. If they manage to keep running the table, their only loss would come in the final game of the season, versus none other than their in-state rivals, the Sooners. This game would propel Oklahoma into the title game, while the Cowboys would drop out of the top-five into a realm of irrelevance.
• Cincinatti Bearcats: This is where the BCS system is majorly flawed. The Bearcats won’t likely have to beat a team ranked in the top-20 all season, yet since they won their conference, they will be automatically selected to play in a BCS game to take on one of the far superior opponents that I have listed above.

The BCS coalition should be sweating bullets. In this worst case scenario, there are now nine teams that arguably deserve a shot at entering some sort of a playoff structure. All four one-loss teams were knocked out by ranked opponents sitting in the top-seven or better. The BCS could rest its case on the fact that, hey, there are ten teams on this list, and there are five BCS games. All the schools could collect a pretty penny from their lucrative bowl games, our grudgeful memories would eventually let go of it, and we’d move on. But what if there was one more ripple to throw into this cluster of controversy?

The “independent” Irish.

Yes, what if Notre Dame–the BCS’ best buddy–broke out of its state of amnesia and remembered how to win games again? What if the Irish finished as the best two-loss team in the country? Ever heard of the infamous BCS “Notre Dame Rule?” How convenient, eh? It helps when you are an “independent” team without a true conference, yet still have a prominent role in the BCS coalition.

The Notre Dame Rule declares that if the Irish finish ranked within the top-14 they are automatically eligible to be selected to a BCS game, with the decision falling into the hands of the bowl game profiteers. We are talking about the same group of high rollers that were recently caught exploiting bowl game revenue to splurge on lavish parties after last season’s BCS Fiesta Bowl. Yeah, these guys. Can we honestly trust them to do what’s right for college football?

In reality, the greedy BCS beast would breathe all over the small market in Boise. If Notre Dame ended up BCS eligible, a team like Boise State would likely be left out of the picture. It would be an absolute travesty making the term may the best team win feel as if it no longer carried any merit in college football. Boise State would be hurdled by an Irish team that has played 24 games at home in the last three years and only 12 on the road. Coincidentally, Notre Dame began playing this unbalanced schedule just one year after signing a major contract extension with NBC in 2008 (a contract that televises all Notre Dame games regardless of their win-loss record). The Kellen Moore legacy would come to an unfashionable close, and our dreams of another heroic Chris Petersen Statue of Liberty play would vanish.

Other than LSU and (likely) Oklahoma, there would be a handful of teams demanding to know why there still hasn’t been a playoff discussion brought to the table by the NCAA. Even the players on the field are calling for a playoff, so why haven’t the right voices been heard yet? The BCS would have no argument to defend itself from a barrage of these furious demands all surrounding one circumstantial season when all the right pieces fell into place. This perfect storm scenario would finally prove that the BCS is nothing more than a lucrative dam slowly leaking out many cracks. It is a vehicle in the fast lane with no emergency brake. It is a brittle city built upon a bedrock of uncertainty, too stubborn to prepare for the big quake…coming…someday.

It’s time for the NCAA to feel the ground shaking. It’s time for the NCAA to wake up and start fearing the worst.

-Geoff

So, you know how to craft the perfect tweet. But do you know how to write the perfect LinkedIn update?

As you continue to develop your social network fluency, check out these eight dos and don’ts of writing updates for LinkedIn.

Do: Share Content.

99% of the top global brands have employees sharing content to their social networks. But there are other reasons for sharing content – beyond “everyone’s doing it.”

Think of how many of your conversations start with questions like, “Have you seen such and such video?” Or, “Have you read such and such article?”

Content is a conversation starter in today’s world. If you’re not finding and sharing good content, you’re missing out on conversations with potential buyers and business partners.

Do: Include URLs in Your Updates.

On LinkedIn, you can click on an article’s title to be sent to the article. So, it seems redundant to include a URL in your update, as well.

However, according to LinkedIn’s research, including the link can drive 2x more engagement.

Think about it. In a sea of black text, the blue URL calls attention to itself, enticing people to click on it. So, why not try a couple update where you leave the URL in your update?

Do: Stay Positive.

LinkedIn is a professional network, and when people use professional networks, they have a certain mindset.

Source: HubSpot

They’re looking to achieve their goals. They want to be inspired. They want success. They don’t want to stomach snark and negativity.

Do: Tag Your Connections in Your Updates or Comments.

It’s tempting to post a link and walk away. But remember that LinkedIn is a social site. You should seek engagement from your followers.

One way to do that is to start a conversation by tagging a follower or a company. Perhaps your connection wrote the article, or perhaps you want your colleague to give her take, or perhaps you think that the article will be helpful for someone.

To tag someone, use the @ symbol, and start typing the person’s name. A pop-up box will appear, and you can select the appropriate name from the list.

Don’t: Share Too Frequently.

There aren’t as many updates on LinkedIn as there are on Twitter. As you can imagine, the slower pace of your LinkedIn timeline has some key implications:

1. Your LinkedIn timeline doesn’t turn over as quickly as Twitter does. Meaning that, if you post too frequently, you’ll annoy your followers.
2. To get noticed on LinkedIn, you don’t have to post as frequently as you would on Twitter. It’s usually best to write an update between once and twice every day.

Don’t: Use Hashtags.

Why? Because LinkedIn doesn’t support hashtags.

They work on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

But they don’t work on LinkedIn.

Don’t: Post Everything from Twitter to LinkedIn.

If you’re doing Twitter correctly, you’re using hashtags. Moreover, you’re probably posting several times every day on Twitter.

If you send all of your tweets to LinkedIn, you’ll annoy your followers. Their timelines will be full of your posts, with hashtags that don’t make sense on LinkedIn and with Twitter usernames that don’t exist on LinkedIn.

A good employee advocacy tool will help you avoid this problem because it will not allow you to share to multiple networks at once.

Don’t: Mistake a LinkedIn Update for Publishing a Post.

Think of a LinkedIn update (on the left) as a brief update. Perhaps you have a link you want to share or a photo, and you want to add some brief commentary.

A LinkedIn post (on the right), on the other hand, is much longer. Think of it like a blog with 300+ characters that gets added to the LinkedIn pulse network.

Give It a Try!

Go ahead, and write a status update now. As you do so, try to incorporate two of the suggestions above, and see what works for you.

If you have any good tips, leave a comment below. We’d love to hear them!

-Mark

Additional Posts about LinkedIn:

Have you tried to learn another language?

Building oral proficiency takes time and practice. You start by sputtering individual words. Then you learn how to build sentences.

Similarly, building your social media fluency takes time – largely because each social network has its own language. Unless you have someone point out each network’s nuances and rules, it can be difficult to identify how Twitter is different from, say, Facebook.

To help you with those differences, we’re developing a series of blog posts on social network fluency for you and your employees on social media.

Today’s post focuses on Twitter. Check out our seven tips for crafting the perfect tweet.

1. Limit Your Hashtags.

It’s #tempting to #write a #tweet that #looks like this. But who can #read that?

Salesforce’s research shows that…

• Tweets with one or two hashtags tend to have 21% more engagement than those with three or more.
• So, try to limit your hashtags to one or two.

As you carefully select the perfect hashtag, remember that different industries and different subjects have their own hashtags. For example, here are some common hashtags for…

Still not getting the picture of how hashtags work? Below you can find an example from the Trapit CEO, Henry Notthaft, Jr. #SocialMedia is a common hashtag for marketers, and #SocialSelling is a common hashtag for salespeople.

When someone searches for the hashtag #SocialMedia on Twitter in real time, tweets about #SocialMedia will appear. Likewise, when someone searches for #SocialSelling in real time, tweets about #SocialSelling will appear.

2. Monitor the Length of Your Tweets.

The ideal length of a tweet is up for debate.

Salesforce’s study claims that tweets with fewer than 100 characters get more engagement than longer tweets.

Data scientist Dan Zarella, on the other hand, argues that tweets should be between 120 and 130 characters.

Social media managers may never agree on the optimal length. But there seems to be a general consensus: Don’t take up all 140 characters. Keep your posts shorter on Twitter.

3. Understand the Difference between .@ and @ at the Beginning of Tweets.

Did you know that you can have semi-private conversations on Twitter? To do so, start your tweet with @TwitterUsername. Here’s an example:

Most people won’t see the tweet above. Only people who follow both Henry and me would see this tweet in their Twitter timeline.

If I wanted all my followers to see my tweet to Henry, regardless of whether they are following both me and Henry, I’d start the post with .@henryhank.

The period before Henry’s Twitter handle makes the post public to all of my followers, and as a result, my tweet will appear in their timelines.

If Henry’s Twitter handle appears later in the post, everyone who follows me will see my tweet in their timeline.

There’s no need to include a period before Henry’s Twitter handle when it appears later in the post.

4. Add a Personal Touch.

If you’re in an employee advocacy program and you’re tweeting for the first time, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

You’re scared to do something wrong. You think that every post needs to be ultra-professional.

Relax. Think of Twitter as the virtual water cooler.

What do you talk about at work when you’re taking a break? Talk about those subjects on Twitter.

If you’re into sports, talk about sports. If you’re into fashion, talk about fashion. If you’re into photography, share some of your photos.

Sharing your hobbies makes you more approachable on Twitter. After all, that’s how most people use Twitter.

Source: AdWeek

5. Include Images with Your Tweets.

Your followers are far more likely to engage with your tweets when a photo is included. 5x more likely, to be precise.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise because people love visual content online. Why? Because your brain processes images 60,000x faster than text.

But be warned: Don’t include images just to include images.

Add visuals when they add something to your tweet, when they clarify or summarize a point, when they validate your opinion, when they add humor. Don’t simply post stock photo after stock photo after stock photo.

6. Include the Author’s Twitter Handle.

Twitter users share a lot of links to articles and blog posts on Twitter. Before you share your next link, take a few seconds to find the author of the article and include her Twitter handle in your post.

If the author’s Twitter handle isn’t included in the article, Googling the author’s name followed by the word “Twitter” often returns the result.

When you tag the author (i.e. include the author’s Twitter handle in your post), the author will often retweet you, which can expose you to new audiences.

Additionally, the author might respond to your tweet, which is an opportunity to strike up a conversation with an influencer in your field.

Look at how the CEO of Trapit composed his tweet, which prompted a response from Jill Rowley, a social selling expert:

7. Try Advanced Forms of Retweeting.

On Twitter, it’s easy to be a lazy retweeter. You just hit the retweet button in Twitter and voilà, you’ve shared someone else’s tweet.

When you take the lazy approach to retweeting, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to share your opinion and to jump into an existing conversation.

As you can see in the example above, Jill Rowley seized the opportunity to be personable and to give Henry an update on her life.

How did Jill do it? How did she add her own commentary while simultaneously making Henry’s tweet appear in a little box?

It’s actually pretty simple. When you click the retweet button on the web, Twitter gives you the option to add a comment.

Use the comment box. Tell people why you are retweeting something. Quote your favorite line. Use an emoji or emoticon to show how the article made you feel. And don’t forget relevant hashtags.

It’s Your Turn.

Take two of these tips and apply them to your tweets over the next two weeks. Give yourself ample amounts of time to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Remember that social media is about trial and error. So, keep trying.

As for the other major social networks, stay tuned. Today we looked at Twitter. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll look at some of the other social networks.

In the meantime, good luck crafting the perfect tweet!

-Mark

Social media managers: We were the children who gleefully yanked the wrapping paper off our presents in one fell swoop. We waited impatiently while our parents cut open the boxes for us with razor blades. As soon as the pieces were in our hands, we started to build our toys – without bothering with the directions.

(And if you were like me, you occasionally frequently ran crying to your parents when you couldn’t figure out how to assemble your toys.)

Social media platforms don’t come with directions, which means that we, social media users, figure things out as we go. While our intuition is a blessing, it is also a curse. We suss out how to use the social media sites – well enough. But we never really get to know the platform.

For many of us, our knowledge of a site remains superficial. Today, however, you and I will take a deep dive into Google+. We will look at 15 tricks, features, and tools that will take your Google+ experience to another level.

Read ahead and learn something new!

1. Determine if Google+ is right for your business.

The globalwebindex did a study of Google+ users in 2014, and they put together an infographic of the platform’s users:

Click here to enlarge the infographic

For instance, if you’re trying to target a large group of octogenarians, you might find some followers on Google’s social platforms, but chances are Google+ might not be the best platform for you.

That said, chances are good that you will find a sizable audience that knows what an “octogenarian” is, given the education levels of the Plus audience.

2. Use the built-in shortcuts.

If you hate using your mouse or track pad, Google has you covered. They have a list of shortcuts that you can use on Google+:

Whether you’re a company page manager or an individual user, these shortcuts will work for you. Personally, the “j” and “k” commands are my favorite for toggling between posts.

By the way, if you’re an avid Gmail user, there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts for you to use, as well!

3. Optimize your cover image.

Crop your images to fit Google+’s standard sizes. For your cover photo, you want a photo that is:

• Recommended: 1080 x 608 pixels
• Minimum: 480 x 270 pixels
• Maximum: 2,120 x 1,192 pixels

Note that the section on the left (behind your company’s URL, follower count, etc.) is a reflected portion of your cover image. In other words, if your cover image is sized correctly, you don’t have to worry about the platform lopping off part of your cover image and hiding it behind your company logo.

4. Optimize your profile image.

A square image is your best bet for your Google+ profile picture. Why? Because Google+ renders your image as a circle.

The ideal size is 250 x 250 pixels. The minimum size is 120 pixels by 120 pixels.

When uploading your profile picture, remember that the image will be cropped – no matter what. If you have a fancy border around your company logo, chances are people will not see all that prettiness when they go to your Google+ page.

Before you post, think about what portions of your profile image will be cropped.

5. Format your posts.

Google’s social platform allows you to format your text using a few simple commands. Here are your three options:

6. Control who sees your posts.

When you post to Google+, the default setting is “Public,” meaning that anyone can read your posts. Sometimes, you want to share posts with people in a specific circle or maybe with one specific person.

You can do so by changing the information in the “To” section of the post.

7. Tag someone in your posts.

Additionally, you can tag people and company pages in your posts by placing a plus sign (+) before the company’s or person’s name:

In other words, it works like Twitter’s @ sign. The tagging feature is useful for:

1. Sharing content that involves collaboration (e.g. a joint webinar)
2. Curating content from influential people in your field (You can say, “This is +Rand Fishkin’s best whiteboard Friday to date!”)
3. Sharing blog posts that quote influencers (You can say, “I really like +Ann Handley’s thoughts in this article.”)

8. Edit your mistakes.

Oops! Is that a typo in your post? Not a problem! You don’t have to delete the post and repost. In Google+, you can edit the post by clicking on the arrow in the upper right-hand corner:

As you can see, the right-hand corner enables you to do more than edit posts. You can access many more features there.

9. Use the lower thirds tool for Hangouts.

When you watch a television news broadcast, the anchor’s name will appear at the bottom of the screen (i.e. in the lower third of the screen). You can have the same feature during your Google hangouts:

For complete instructions on how to use the lower-thirds, click here.

10. Find and Curate Third-Party Content to Google+.

As Jill Rowley has said:

We here at Trapit help you find and share smart, third-party content that engages your audience. Click here to read more about how Trapit works.

11. Use hashtags in your posts.

To help you discover more great content, Google+ allows users to add hashtags. Try them out to attract more followers!

12. Learn the language.

However, before you start using your favorite hashtags from Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, look to see if people use those hashtags on Google+. It’s a different platform with its own language.

To check hashtag usage, go to: https://plus.google.com/explore

Then, type in the hashtags that you want to explore:

13. See what’s trending on Google+.

As I said above, Google+ is a different platform, which means that it cares about different things. Monitor the trending topics to get a feel for what Google+ discusses. If you can jump in and discuss any of those topics in real-time, do so!

To find the trending topics, go to: https://plus.google.com/explore There, you will find a list of hashtags that are trending:

14. Save Google+ postings to read later.

While you’re looking at hashtags, you might find some articles that you want to read at another time. That’s not a problem. You can save it for later on the platform.

To do so, you will want to create a circle for saved posts. First, make sure that you are using your personal Google+ account–not your company’s business page.

Then, navigate to the circles section of Google+ by clicking in the upper left-hand corner of the navigation bar. Pull down to “People.”

Next, create a new circle dedicated only to posts that you want to read later, and don’t put any Google+ users in it.

Finally, when you run across a post that you like, share it with that circle:

And that post will be added to that circle. When you go to your profile page (or “home” in Plus lingo), you will find the article – saved for only you to read.

15. Use the built-in analytics for your company page.

Like many of the social platforms, Google+ provides its own analytics. To find them, click on the squares in the upper right-hand corner, and pull down to “Insights.”

From there, you can look at:

1. Visibility – How many people have viewed your posts.
2. Engagement – How many people commented, shared, and +1ed your posts.
3. Audience – A breakdown of your audience by gender, age, and nationality.

To be sure, the analytics aren’t robust, but they can add some value. For instance, let’s say that you have a lot of followers in Australia, but you live in the United Kingdom. You may want to think about the timing of your posts.

What did I miss?

Do you have any Google+ tips or tricks that you’d like to share? Share them in the comments section below! I’d love to read them and improve my Google+ knowledge, as well!

Until next week,

–Mark

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