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Exposing that you’re not in control of your messaging is mortifying. It’s the equivalent of having one of those dreams where you go to school with no clothes on, except it’s not a dream. As a marketer, you have a target audience who you engage with regularly and your tweets may not hit the mark all the time. It happens. Imagine if you had millions of Twitter followers like many big celebrities do. That means that your mistakes are amplified even more and everyone is just waiting for you to slip up. Here are 3 celebrities who are incredibly talented, but made at least one big mistake on Twitter and what you can learn from it as a marketer:  1. Sarah Silverman In Sarah Silverman’s latest comedy special, “A Speck Of Dust,” she recaps a mistake she made in 2011 when Twitter broke the news that Osama Bin Laden had been captured. She scheduled the following tweet to come out 5 minutes after the news broke — “Why do my dog’s doodies come out cold?” Timing is everything. This mistake made for some great material for the stage, but in the moment, it was a pretty serious facepalm moment for her. Marketing lesson — Be socially present for tweets that you schedule as much as possible. 2. MadonnaFollowing the Orlando tragedy in 2016, Madonna sent a tweet out saying “Gay or straight - no hate.” The words were acceptable enough, but the photo attached to it showed Madonna and Britney Spears kissing during a VMA performance. To many, this came off as insincere, and rightfully so. Marketing lesson — You can tweet to show your support in the wake of tragedy, but don’t make your sentiments too self promotional.  3. 50 CentBack in 2010, 50 Cent sent a tweet complaining about taking out the garbage for his grandmothers. Well, that’s rude. Marketing lesson — In general, no one wants to hear you complain on social media, especially if you’re a successful celebrity or brand.  via howtostartablogonline.net Whether you have 500 or 5 million followers, Twitter is visible and it moves fast. Always have one eye open for the worst case scenario!
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made on Twitter? Leave a comment below.
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As someone who spent 5 years in phone sales followed by creating a digital marketing startup, I've been rejected A LOT. However, what I have learned time and time again is that if you hear back from people, you're on the right track. No one likes to be rejected, especially if it comes in the form of an email, but what's worse than that? Not getting a reply at all. If you're not hearing anything back from anyone, you have nowhere to go. You feel invisible. It's tough stuff. Sure, it might be the shirt you're wearing, or that you have no value as a human in general, but what's more likely is that you just have to make a few small changes. Here are 4 tips on how to increase the chances that someone will respond to your emails -- 1. Say Thank You! According to a recent study by Boomerang (a stellar email scheduler that you should definitely check out if you’re not already familiar with it), emails that end with some form of “Thanks” had a response rate of 63%! One word makes all the difference. By saying “Thanks” or “Thank you” when you sign off, you’re showing the person reading that you already value them. In addition, you’re making your interaction more conversational inviting the person to interact with you in a more friendly manner. Saying things like “Sincerely” or “Regards” puts up walls and simply dropping your initials down like you’re too important to stop and be polite is even worse. 2. Use Verdana Font Chances are, you’ve gotten in the habit of using Arial font. It’s a bit of a standard and it certainly isn’t unprofessional to use it, but it’s not the best choice. The nature of the Verdana font is more open, so when people are viewing it, they’re more likely to be more open to respond to you. It’s also just easier for all of us to read in general. Here’s what’s cool — you’ll stand out among the crowd because despite the cries of many people in the know, many people do not follow this best practice. It’s like dressing up your email with an ironed button up in a sea of old wrinkled college t-shirts. 3. Keep It ShortIn the age of oversharing, it’s easy to go on a long tangent and frontload information in the spirit of saving time. However, in the long run, by being long winded, you’re overwhelming people and you’re losing them. You’re also probably drowning the information they’re looking for from you with a bunch of information that they don’t want. The goal of sending any email is to build rapport, so craft your email with that in mind above all else. You want people to engage with you long term, so don’t assume you have to cram everything in that one email. You’re just getting trying to get some initial attention, not sign a million dollar contract based off of one message you send out. The word count, in theory, may depend on what you’re looking to accomplish, but the rule of thumb for a sales email is around 50-125 words. That’s it. Go check your inbox and see how many words you used in your last email. It was probably more. It’s ok. We’ve all done it. Again, it’s not so much about hitting a specific word count as much as retraining yourself to keep your emails shorter. It starts to come naturally after a while. 4. Tell Them They’re PrettyDon’t get creepy about it, but you should always include a compliment when you’re reaching out to anyone, especially if it’s your first time contacting them. Everyone likes to hear something nice about themselves! The key is to be sincere and specific.  Here Are A Few Ways To Do It --
Think about it. Are you more likely to respond faster to your nice aunt who invites you to their beach house every year or your grouchy aunt who passive aggressively slides in that they never see you every time they reach out?
Be the nice aunt and people will be more likely to open up. No matter how frustrated you are, sandwich in a few nice things with all the bad things. It works. I may not be the aunt with the beach house, but let me say in advance that you’re pretty and I wouldn’t mind speaking with you more about your professional goals. Email me and I promise to email you back. Thank you for reading this post! We have all gone to the dark side to get leads and make a few bucks, especially those of us in the freelance realm. Dark social is sexy. Facebook knows we’re doing it too. Imagine if you met someone on Tinder and never met up with them. Ok, many of you probably have, but you know you’re not going to ever actually have a date or anything more than a few messages back and forth if you don’t make a move. This move could be a phone call, an invitation for coffee, or showing up at their workplace and stalking them. (OK. PLEASE DO NOT ACTUALLY DO THAT). It’s less about where you go as much as it is making a gesture of interest. Without the gesture, you’re just going back and forth with no real momentum. It’s a waste of time. I’m a big fan of actually speaking with people on the phone or in person to ensure the most focused interaction possible in the most time effective manner possible for both parties. It’s very difficult to detect someone’s emotions in a Facebook message, and if we’re emoticoning all over the place, as fun as it may be, it’s not super productive for professional purposes. More importantly, it opens up the floodgates for digital miscommunication big time. Don’t have time to talk on the phone? Ok, I get it. I have a suggestion — email! Here are 10 reasons that you should stop using Facebook Messenger for business and start emailing: 1. SearchabilityYes, you can search for keywords and names within Facebook messenger, but it’s tedious and time consuming, and figuring out which words will get you answers to what your next steps are and when the money is going to hit your PayPal account, you are going to drive yourself nuts. It’s inevitable. Why put yourself through the scavenger hunt?! 2. Subject linesThese matter, especially when you’re working with multiple clients and freelancers you may be hiring. Even in a group chat, it’s a lot to manage the conversation. It feels live because it is. If someone doesn’t respond to an email of yours within 30 seconds, you’re not gonna sweat it, but if someone takes 2 days to respond to a Facebook chat, you’ve already forgotten about them.  3. You can become easily disruptedYour aunt just messaged you about no-bake cookie recipes and you’re simultaneously trying to discuss what exactly your friend wants the content calendar you’ve been asked to create for her to entail. It’s all too much. Get off of Facebook and email your friend about content calendar ideas or set up a time to Gchat with them or *gasp* give them a call! Or, you can continue to chat with your aunt about cookies and tell the potential or existing client that you’ll email them later. Those are your options people. Don’t overbook yourself by talking about cookies and content calendars at the same time, unless, of course the content calendar is about cookies or you’re going to be making cookies for the potential client. 4. Skype and Gchat Are More ProfessionalIf you really want a real time chat with someone about business, there are plenty of other options other than Facebook messenger. I’m a huge fan of Gchat because it’s searchable for reference. 5. Facebook chat is distractingWhen you have Outlook or Gmail up, you most likely have other apps running or other tabs going, but if you’re anything like me, when you’re actually working on an email, you make sure that you look it over before sending. If you’re using the messenger app on Facebook you’re basically sending a text and you’re probably not being as intentional with your interactions. When someone is reading an email from you, there’s no real way to verify that they have no other distractions going on, but it’s a lot more likely that they are paying attention to what you’ve lined up versus sending them a string of rambles (I am THE WORST with that). You may even be distracting them from something else they’re working on too. 6. It Blurs The Professional/Personal Lines TogetherLet’s say you love grabbing margaritas and complaining about dating with your friend Johnny but he was a nightmare to work with on a recent website project, the friendship MAY be over, but it doesn’t have to be. If you communicated about the nightmare project on your email versus Facebook messenger, you’re both far more likely to at least stay friends once the project goes sour. That’s been my experience anyway!  7. It encourages hasty decisionsIn a lively Facebook messenger conversation about an exciting new project, you’re more likely to make a few promises that you may not be able to keep and have extra explaining to do later in order to back out of something. “Sure I’ll come up with a few ideas for you by tomorrow!” can easily turn into “Oh no, I forgot I have a huge project due” a day later. You may even forget to touch base with that person entirely. When you ask someone to email you or tell them that you’ll email them, you’re a little more likely to check your calendar and make an outline of your thoughts and let them know a more realistic deadline and plan. 8. Calendar integrationI use Gmail and Google Calendar and in my years of freelance writing and marketing, I’ve tried many other tools and these are my go-tos. When I see an email with a deadline, I’m going to click on the icon in the top right corner, click on my Google Calendar and stick it in there. It shows up on my phone and gives me an alert and everything. If it’s collaborative, I’m inviting everyone else to the party too. Can’t do that with Facebook Messenger yet! 9. There Is No Undo ButtonIf you use Gmail like I do, there’s a magical setting that will allow you to unsend an email that you’ve hit send on before you send it. Yes, there ARE takebacksies with Gmail, not so much with Facebook Messenger. Kind of a big deal. All you have to do is click on the gear, click on the settings, and scroll down and check the box in the General tab! Personally, I like to go for the full 30 seconds.  10. CompartmentalizationIf you’re associating Facebook with work and family and friends, you can easily get overwhelmed. I certainly do. I don’t like to lose the human element of Facebook and as a marketer and writer who’s been in the game for quite some time, it happens to me and I hate when it does. I love engaging with everyone and seeing what everyone is up to. For me, switching over to my email for work instead of using Facebook chat allows me to compartmentalize and give everyone the attention they deserve! If you want to approach someone about their services and the only information you have about them is their Facebook profile. It’s ok to contact them on there, but send your salutations and ask them to email you!
If they really want you, they’ll reach out. It’s a matter of opening a new tab. Everyone has an email address. Make the move!  So, you’ve made it through the development process and you’re ready to submit your app to mobile app stores. You’ve created a website with killer SEO, a savvy social media plan of attack and you may even have a brilliant press release ready to distribute. I hate to break it to you, but you’re not done. App store optimization (ASO) is not just a best practice - it’s essential. In this article, I will give you a comprehensive guide to get you on your way to having the best app store rankings possible and convince you that ASO is absolutely worth your time.
How App Store Search Works If you’re a newb, here’s what you need to know - in a nutshell, app store optimization is the process of making your app as visible as possible in app stores. Apple and Google Play are the heavy hitters. Apple just had their biggest app download day ever on January 1st, generating $144 million in sales and Google Play had 100% more downloads than Apple in 2015. ASO Techniques and Tips Checklist The following are all important aspects of app store search optimization:
Why You Should Invest Your Time Yes, people still download apps because family members and friends suggest them, but by far, most are finding them by searching for them. 47% of iPhone users find apps by searching in the app store, which means it's extremely important to spend time making sure that your app store optimization strategy is the best it can be. You may be thinking you’ve got it covered because you’ve just spent countless hours developing and implementing an SEO strategy and possibly dropping a ton of money on it as well. I’m afraid I’m about to burst your bubble. Ranking Factors For App Store Optimization While it may seem crazy, the Apple Store doesn’t rank apps based on backlinks AT ALL. Why? I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s because Apple and Google are competitors. It also makes it a lot tougher to game the system. What does this mean for you? If you don’t utilize targeted keywords in your metadata when you submit your app to the iOS app store it may as well be buried under a rock. Targeted, well researched keywords are also very important when optimizing your app for Google Play, but instead of relying on metadata, it relies on the description you submit. Other factors that could make your app show up in a user’s search results include what type of device they’re using and if they already have a similar app downloaded through their mobile app store. ASO Techniques And Tips Here are some other factors that come into play for both Google and Apple:
When it comes to ASO, it’s just as important to avoid the wrong tools as it is to choose the right ones. Here are some tools that may be helpful for you to use. Many of them have free versions, so I encourage you to experiment with all of them:
App Store Optimization Success Stories If you have a great app and no one can find it, you might as well hand in the towel. The good news is that making even a small effort can make a big difference. Here are some great App Store Optimization Success Stories:
The Difference Between ASO and SEO SEO best practices work to ensure that your site is going to rank within the framework of the Google algorithm, focusing on metadata and backlinks. App store optimization best practices are a horse of a different color. Apple and Google Play each have their own algorithms so you can’t rely on tried and true SEO strategy to get your app ranked. You have to treat app store optimization as its own thing. In App Purchases App store optimization doesn’t end when you launch your app. In addition to making sure that you follow the above tips, it’s important to hold your users’ interest. Here are some incentives you can offer in order to increase your in app purchases:
How Long Will It Take To Get Approved? Google has an internal team of actual humans that assess your app with a fine-tooth comb to make sure it’s not violating their terms of service before it gets published. It can take anywhere from two days to several weeks so brace yourself. Apple takes an average of five days. Neither company proclaims that any particular factor plays into how long you’ll have to wait, but I would imagine making sure you fully optimize your submission and that you’re in line with their terms of service can’t hurt. You should always be 100% ready for launch before you submit your app to Google or Apple in case it gets approved quickly. What are some techniques that you’ve used to improve your app store optimization? Comment below with your success stories. |
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