There have been a lot of platform updates of late especially from Facebook and Twitter. These updates will need to be factored into the content creation and content marketing process as we look to increase website traffic and leads.
Video content seems to be a great way to leverage these updates. Also Ann Handley, Brian Downard, Kenny Novak, Tracey Lewis and Tom Ewer amongst others provide insights into how to leverage content to increase your website traffic
Content Marketing & Media
The”Unique Connection” is the ad that tops the viral charts this week ahead of mother’s day. This piece was created by Pandora and features an experiment on women’s uniqueness and their unique bond with their kids.
With over 14 million views this video certainly seems to be pulling at the heart strings and is in contrast to another video from Cheerios that was tagged as among the best videos of 2015.
It features a fast paced monolog of the meaning of Dadhood. It has about 1.6 million views on YouTube.
Such videos seem to remind me of our insatiable hunger for stories and content. Content that doesn’t have to compete with recent blockbusters but just simple stories that have an impact and pull the heartstrings and bring in traffic.
Facebook’s Donate button raise $10 million for Nepal in 2 days
More than $10 million was contributed via Facebook’s donate button since it was placed temporarily atop users’ News Feed. Facebook has said it will donate $2 million of its own money with all donations going to the International Medical Corps mobile first aid units.
Mark Zuckerberg posted this on his timeline:
Facebook updates that will affect your website traffic
Facebook has featured in the news of late with updates to its algorithm. According to the company, its newsfeed will prioritize updates from friends. This could negatively impact brand pages in that their reach could be greatly reduced if there isn’t enough interaction. Also the update will reduce notifications on friends that have liked or commented on a post. Facebook’s solution for brands is to refer to their best practices for page posts.
Facebook is testing Hello, a messenger feature that lets caller ID style information display for incoming calls and blocks unwanted calls. You will only see information that people have already shared with you on Facebook, no one else’s information will be available.
The company is also retiring the old Like box plugin on June 23rd , 2015 with a newer plugin that is meant to be better looking and pulls Facebook content feeds from your Facebook page if you want it.
Twitter updates to increase your website traffic
Add comments to your RT’s
Twitter’s new feature of being able to add a comment to your RT which means your retweets now stand a much better chance of standing out in the stream of the person you are retweeting. It also means that tweets shared this way will be embedded and displayed as a twitter card style image.
Say more with revamped quote Tweet! Rolling out on iPhone and web, coming soon to Android. https://t.co/Bcl3E859ne pic.twitter.com/fioAPPi0nW
— Twitter (@twitter) April 6, 2015
Twitter introduces Highlights
Highlights are essentially a summary of the best Tweets from the accounts and conversations that are popular amongst those your follow, delivered via rich push notification. You can get notifications on your phone up to twice daily.
Introducing Highlights. Get the best of Twitter every day, sent to your Android device: https://t.co/9ZUWgX9lcC pic.twitter.com/sYuu7YUO4D
— Twitter (@twitter) April 23, 2015
Instagram steadily embraces e-commerce
Instagram has been taking steps to embrace e-commerce with campaigns that transform viewers into shoppers with a single click. Retailers like Banana Republic can link to product pages from their Instagram ads. The social media platform has already rolled out marketing campaigns with L’Oréal Paris and Samsung, incorporating the recently launched ‘carousel ads’ in an attempt to attract more buyers.
Ikea gets into the wedding business
Ikea certainly knows how to generate the right kind of buzz from replacing seats in cinemas with bedroom furniture or organising a giant game of hide and seek at one of its stores. The company is now making your wedding dreams come true with the click of a mouse. Called Wedding Online the service helps couples get married online so you can G chat with your friends and family. Can weddings really be as simple as putting together a Billy bookcase?
Content Marketing Know How: How to Skyrocket Website Traffic
How to Skyrocket Website Traffic in 3 simple steps
Eliv8 have put together a SlideShare that goes through Brian Dean’s method for increasing website traffic. It’s well put together and you can go through it below.
The step by step guide to creating your next piece of content
Content marketing expert Ann Handley provides a 12 step road map of useful tips to guide you through the process of creating great content. A process is crucial when it comes to writing content as you need a road map to get you to where you need to be.
101 simple tips to increase website traffic
Tom Ewer provides 101 ways in which to increase your web traffic which in essence boils down to hard work, consistency and an understanding of basic marketing fundamentals.
How news publishers increased web traffic
Livefyre a provider of real time conversation and social curation platforms conducted a brand engagement study across 16 different industries from 2011 – 2013. They found that 95% of news publisher were able to increase web traffic in 2012. The takeaway from the phase one of their study is that consumer behaviour evolves faster than it has ever before and so brands need to evolve their communication strategies just as quickly and adopt technology to facilitate this transformation. The full study can be read here.
How to use memes to increase your website traffic
Kenny Novak gives us insights into content that people love – memes. Web themes however tend to follow a strict formula and if you violate them to lose the potency of the meme. So to grow your website traffic you need to use them properly and make sure they are right for your audience. He goes through a four step process to create and leverage memes for your industry.
What’s the future of storytelling?
Technological advances of late especially in the area of wearable technologies and virtual reality have provided new storytelling mediums which can potentially increase your website traffic. It has provided 3 new forms of storytelling – tangible, augmented and wearable. Tracey Lewis provides more details on these developments in this post.
Cool Tools & Resources I Discovered
The Facebook Advertising System – A free comprehensive course being offered by LeadPages
Manifestly – An online tool to help turn your processes into checklists
