Author: bgenest

Hi, my name is Barbara Genest and I have been working from home for over ten years. When my children were young I was always working putting in 45-60 hours a week. Our oldest daughter had many health issues and when I needed to be present at appointments I needed to ask the boss for the time off. I drove 40 miles one way to work and always dreamed of working from home having a flexible scheduled that allowed me to be at all of my daughters' appointments. I was very blessed to have family and friends who pitched in for many of the necessary appointments required but always felt bad that I was not able to be at all her appointments. After my two girls were grown I finally found a way to work from home family My Two Girls I now have 3 grandchildren and love having the flexibility to spend time with them and take an active part in their lives. Family time Enjoying Nature I have many interests including Real Estate, Network Marketing and sharing my knowledge with other entrepreneurs. I have recently found a group of like-minded coaches and trainers who have opened my eyes to a new world filled with many cutting edge technologies and inspirational thought processes. Through my continued involvement with coaches and entrepreneurs, I am working with I hope to bring value to the people in my life and other like minded friends I have yet to meet. My next big dream is to retire my husband from his job and to have him enjoy staying at home and growing our business. Connect with me: FaceBook: BarbaraGenest email: [email protected]
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Five Tips to Creating Your First Google Web Story

Before you publish your first Google web story, it is essential you understand the basics first. Google requires certain information and criteria to produce quality content worth sharing with its audience on its Discovery page or the Google search engine results page.

 

Google web stories offer your blog or website a new way to generate more traffic and revenue through a creative, powerful, and immersive storytelling format. They are much different from regular social media stories. You are the owner of all the content and the host – giving you more control, ownership, customization, and ways to increase your revenue than other platforms with the story feature.

 

Here are five tips to keep in mind when creating your first Google web story:

 

Think 10 to 15 Second Hooks

 

Each Web story slide lasts about ten to fifteen seconds, depending on how you set it. Meaning that the information you share in each frame, even if you create a full thirty pages, should be easily and quickly digested. It is unlikely many will go back too many times to re-read stories as it can be tedious. Of course, that should never be your goal when creating stories in the first place. The point of stories is to make it even easier for your target audience to take in your information.

 

Animate and Choose a Theme

 

Stories are more entertaining and easier to digest when they have a consistent theme and proper animations. Animations keep your viewers interested, and themes keep your brand image clear and focused.

 

Keep Titles and Story Lengths Short

 

Google stories that are between five and thirty frames perform the best. However, it highly depends on your niche and the type of content you create. Title lengths should be around ten characters long but no more than forty.

 

Include an Attractive and Compelling Cover Image

 

Before creating a valid google web story, you must add in your cover image and publisher logo. Be sure your cover image is highly attractive and makes your viewers want to click. Your cover image is no different than the image that appears before your blog post link or YouTube thumbnail. However, the more compelling it is, the more likely someone will click on it. Use images with a good resolution of 900 pixels by 1200 pixels.

Include Relevant Links

 

Always include a relevant link to your story. In fact, this needs to be done in order to create a valid web story. Again, the main function of Google web stories is to increase your website traffic. If there is no link, it’ll be hard for your viewers to reach you. They will be more likely to click off.

 

To maximize your reach and potential with Google web stories, following these tips is a must. These tips, along with the checklist the plugin provides, are required to properly communicate and build an effective story that converts to more revenue or increased traffic.

 

 

 

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How to Use Google Web Stories for Business

To reach a wider audience and market to nearly half of the internet population who uses their phone to shop online, Google web stories are a must-have business tool. It allows you to create a story through different visuals, text, and audio features that are highly engaging and shareable. Thus, making your other content more interesting to new readers or potential buyers. Not only that, but Google web stories can also add a new dynamic, creativity, and impact to your content altogether.

 

Here are the five steps to creating and setting up your first Google web story using the Google Web Stories plugin for WordPress:

 

Step One: Create a WordPress Blog

 

In order to use the Google Web Stories plugin, you need to have a WordPress blog. WordPress blogs offer more freedom and customized options, making them a great platform to create your website. It is also highly friendly to search engine optimization too.

10 Simple Steps to Building a Blog on Word Press.

Step Two: Find and Download the Web Stories Plugin for WordPress

 

Once you have established your blog, you will need to download the plugin and fill in the settings page. First, select “Plugins” from the WordPress menu to the left. Then select “Add New” next to “Plugin” when the new window appears. From there, you can search for “Web Stories” in the search bar that appears to the right. Next, select “Install Now” next to the right plugin. After it downloads, select “active.” You will then be instructed to fill in the settings page to connect your Google AdSense account and add your logo.

 

Step Three: Create a New Story or Explore Templates

 

Now you are ready to get creative and develop your first story. From the WordPress menu, look to the left of your dashboard, find “Stories.” Then select “Add New” or “Explore Templates.” If you select “Explore Templates,” this will lead you to a list of free templates you can use to create a more consistent story. Otherwise, you will be sent directly to the Web Stories builder.

 

Step Four: Fill in Required Information and Customize Your Story

 

When you get to the Stories builder, be sure to add your cover image and publisher logo in the Document panel to the right to create a valid web story first. This is where you will also develop a story description, set your page’s advance length, and add music. Then you will need to add a title no longer than forty characters long in the section labeled “title” above your story content. Once you have these set, you can add in your frames and customize them to your liking. Note that filling in the “link” section of your design after adding an image is also important.

 

Step Five: Preview, Publish and Test

 

As you customize, your frames use the preview option located at the top right of your builder next to “publish.” This way, you can get a clear view of your story as you are creating it. You even get to choose what device you want to view it from. Next, view the checklist provided in the bottom left to follow along with the suggestions provided by the application. Once happy with the results, publish the story and then test it using the Google Web Stories Test Tool to ensure you filled in all the important information required for a valid story to publish.

 

Overall, getting your first Google web story going is easy with the Web Stories plugin for WordPress. As you go along, be sure to read each tip and follow through the checklist it provides to create compelling, attractive, and quality content for Google to share.

 

 

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Important Instagram and Facebook Story Differences to Know

While Instagram and Facebook offer similar features, it is important to highlight the differences to pick the right one or use them efficiently to market to your target audience. Choosing the perfect platform is only as successful as your knowledge and understanding of using it or creating highly engaging story content. The story features offered on each platform are slightly different and can provide many different outcomes depending on your niche and goal as a business.

 

Here are the important differences to know between Instagram and Facebook stories:

 

Slightly Different Interface and Feature Options

 

Instagram is often slightly easier to use, but there are not many differences beyond the layout and art style. The main difference includes the amount of picture and video filters Instagram offers compared to Facebook. Instagram also allows you to go live, and it still appears within your stories section, unlike Facebook, where it will appear in the newsfeed. However, the benefit to Facebook posting the live to the newsfeed means it will last forever, but at that point, it is no longer a story, and you would need to create a new story to promote the video.

 

Age and Amount of Active Users

 

Instagram is for a younger audience, while Facebook is slightly older. The age range for Instagram includes those between eighteen and thirty-four, and Facebook consists of those between twenty-five and forty-four. Facebook’s audience is larger and more diverse because they created the option to make a business page and many different groups related to your niche or industry. Unlike Instagram, you only have one profile and a highlights section that heavily relies on hashtags to gain more views and exposure.

 

Group and Community Building Priorities

 

Facebook is better at this, and using stories allows you to beat the timeline algorithm by keeping you near the top of your follower’s news feed. In addition, Facebook group stories inspire user-generated content and get your target audience more involved and engaged.

 

Return on Investment

 

Facebook has the best return on investment for any social media platform due to its ads and the high number of users. While Instagram has the same ads, they don’t have the same daily active users or diversity.

 

Don’t waste time any longer struggling to pick between Instagram and Facebook. As you can see, each of them provides its own benefits. If you have the time, using both is a great strategy; however, adopting either will still bring you success as long you use them correctly. Take the time to test both and be sure you know where your target audience lives the most to make the best and most optimal decision.

 

What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories Highlights

 

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Eight Facebook Story Ideas for Increased Engagement

Creating Facebook stories is a fun and creative way to engage and interact with your target audience. However, suppose you want to stay ahead of your competition and get the most out of what Facebook can bring to your business. In that case, you need to take the time to craft compelling, interactive, and highly valuable stories.

 

Here are eight Facebook story ideas to try to increase your audience engagement and business success on this platform:

 

  • Ask a Thought-Provoking Question – One way to really boost engagement and action from your audience is to make them think. So ask a question without giving your answer, giving them time to respond. Then you can give them your solution that feels more conversational while also learning more about your audience gleaning information that can be used in the future for more content.

 

  • Share Something Behind-The-Scenes – Your true fans love finding out more about you. They like feeling like they’re VIPs getting a stage pass by getting a sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes goings-on. Show them how you set up for a shoot, or how you make your product, or whatever you want that you think they want to know. If you aren’t sure, ask them.

 

  • Use A Trendy Topic for Inspiration – While you do need to keep going with a thought-out content plan that is based on the future offerings, you also want to pay close attention to trending topics that you can create off the cuff by sharing your thoughts or otherwise engaging with your audience around that trend.

 

  • Share a Meme or Infographic – If you have no other ideas about what to share, look at your current offerings and grab a meme or develop an infographic from them to showcase parts of your message.

 

  • Tell a Real Story – Do you have a story to share relevant to your audience that they can learn from or even be entertained by engaging with it? Tell a real story about yourself or your business, or even a customer.

 

  • Showcase Popular Products – If you sell products, showcase them on your stories as if you’re doing a review for them. You can also do reviews for others if you’re an affiliate right on your stories.

 

  • Highlight Your Email Newsletter or Opt-In – Create a story all about your email newsletter or opt-in that you’ve created.

 

  • Have Fun with Staff or Influencer Takeovers – A really fun thing to do is let someone else take over your page, or you take over someone else’s page who markets to your audience a complementary product or service.

 

Test these Facebook story ideas to see what personal benefits they can provide to your business. Each idea may suit certain business goals or niches better, so it is important to get to know your target audience and take risks to understand them better. Just because one post doesn’t deliver the results you want or need doesn’t mean the next idea won’t, nor does it mean you have failed. A proper social media content plan includes being aware of where you need to improve and doing the work to get there.

 

How to Easily Crank out Content Daily

 

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The Facebook Story Strategies to Follow for Business

Facebook stories are short clips, pictures, videos, audio clippings, or other animations shared at the top of followers’ Facebook or Messenger app and to the top right above the newsfeed of the desktop version. All a follower needs to do is tap on the profile picture of the story content they want to watch to view the content.

 

A blue ring will appear around the profile picture of Facebook users who have new stories for you to watch. These stories give businesses a more fun and attractive way to market to their target audience, increasing their success on the platform and as a sustainable and functioning business.

 

Here are five Facebook story strategies to follow to further grow and market your business on this platform:

 

Completely Fill in Your Facebook Page

 

Don’t leave any information out that Facebook asks for when you create your new page for your business. The most active pages have the most information for their audience. You’ll want to link them to your website, your other relevant content on the net and provide any answers they need to make a buying choice.

 

Enhance Your Facebook Stories with Creative Tools and Music

 

The tools Facebook offers to upgrade your stories are filters, graphics, words, and also music. You can replace any background sounds on videos captured for Facebook Stories using your Smartphone simply by using Facebook’s own editor in your phone. It’s not hard to do at all. Click around and give it a try so you can learn your systems and tools.

 

Keep Track and Up to Date with Facebook Stories Analytics

 

Use your analytics to do better. Don’t trust your own opinions about how your stories or posts are doing. Trust the metrics captured instead. This way, you can improve with each content update by doing what your audience wants most instead of what you happen to like.

 

Link Your Account with Instagram

 

The same company owns Facebook and Instagram, so you must go ahead and connect your Facebook account with Instagram to make use of both and double your views.

 

Use Facebook Story Highlights

 

The stories you create are automatically saved in your private story archives, which you can make live again whenever you want to. In addition, you can use these stories that were captured and shared to build a highlights reel so that your audience can learn more about you easily.

 

If you want to gain the most reward out of your Facebook story content, you must implement these strategies for your business. These tips ensure you use the platform and its features correctly and wisely to gain your audience’s attention and keep them interested and active with your brand. The more interested and engaged they are with the value you provide, the more likely they will purchase your products or services.

 

Struggling With Social Media? A Calendar And System Can Help

 

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Five Ways to Customize Your Facebook Stories

It is said that Facebook reaches more than half of the world’s social networking population. It is also the second most downloaded smartphone application in the world. Two facts that should show you why Facebook is still an important tool to utilize and understand fully.

 

Each day nearly three hundred million people and businesses, just like you, post to their Facebook stories. While still not as popular as Instagram stories, it is still a beneficial tool to understand as Facebook continues to be a leading social media platform worldwide.

 

The following are five ways to customize your Facebook stories to increase your brand awareness:

 

Use Text Creatively

 

Adjust the size and use more than one font style. Fix the position, add captions, add a background color. Consider learning more about graphic design so that your thumbnails look captivating or use templates you can find on Canva and other websites.

 

Add Motion

 

With your camera, text, or other stickers and graphics, guide your viewers’ eye to the parts of the content you want them to view and act on the most. For example, if you want them to take action, visual motion cues to guide them toward the right buttons will help.

Four Benefits to Using Snapchat Stories to Market your Business

Have Fun with Filters and other Effects

 

People are sometimes critical of filters and effects when you’re trying to make someone look different than they really look, but the truth is, these filters and effects are fun and grab attention. So use them as much as you want or as little as you want but have fun.

 

Selfie Filters and Picture Filters

 

Try out the various selfie and picture filters that you can use to make your stories stand out. Facebook offers multiple filters. Currently, it’s the magic wand on the bottom left when you’re in the app. The filters show up at the bottom of the screen. Try out some fun filters on holidays or other special days to make your content stand out.

 

Try Out Boomerang

 

This app gives a looping effect to your stories and images. It blurs the background and brings faces into focus with an extra glow. They’re kind of like animated GIFS but play your video forward and backward. It can grab attention for different stories that you share.

 

Ask Your Audience to Join In

 

User-generated content, questions, and polls, anything that gets your audience involved is highly powerful content. But, if you want engagement or action from your audience, remember that you have to tell them what to do, tell them what’s in it for them, and then tell them what to do again.

 

Be sure to follow these tips when creating your Facebook stories if you want to keep your audience engaged and fully interested in your business or services. Creating consistent, engaging, and valuable Facebook stories is vital if you’re keeping your audience interested and active on the platform, growing your authority and brand awareness within the industry, and generating more sustainable leads.

 

 

 

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Five Tips for Using YouTube and YouTube Stories for Business

To squeeze more benefits out of your YouTube channel and stories, you need to plan and make quality content for your target audience. YouTube is only as beneficial as the content you bring to your viewers.

 

Thankfully, you can follow many tried and true methods or tips to ensure you get the most out of this platform. In addition, once you reach the required number of subscribers, you can also unlock their story features, giving you yet another valuable tool to creating better and more engaging content.

 

The following are five tips on using YouTube and YouTube stories to market your business effectively:

 

Create Content That Provides Value or Solves a Problem

 

While you also need to post highly valuable long-form content, stories should be no exception. However, make it more interactive and always think about how you can get the viewers involved. Think of the content you create as a conversation between a family member or another loved one.

 

Build Community

 

Use the reply to comment in the story feature to build a strong bond and community with your viewers and audience. Don’t ignore their comments or responses. This tool allows you to do it more directly and personally. Further increasing your credibility and trust as a business and a YouTuber. Adding a “Mention.”

 

Share Announcements or Updates

Use YouTube stories to update your audience with brand new information or product announcements and releases. Add an option for them to reply to get their direct feedback, and be sure to find a certain amount of time to respond to as many as you can.

 

Tease Your Next Long-Form Video

 

YouTube must have regular video content in order to take advantage of its stories features. The main purpose of the YouTube stories feature is to keep your audience subscribed and involved with your brand or niche. In other words, it further installs the value you bring to them with your long-form videos. So never miss a moment to share your new videos. YouTube stories provide a feature called the “Video” sticker to do this very thing – making it a super simple and easy process to get started.

 

Think Mobile

How to Repurpose Your Influencer Marketing Content

Finally, but certainly not least, YouTube stories can only be viewed on mobile – giving you another way to create different and new content.

 

Be sure you take advantage of the benefits YouTube provides by following each of these tips. The more you put into your YouTube channel, the more benefits your business will receive. Quality and engaging content allow you to build the community you need to market your business better and achieve your goals.

 

 

 

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Four Top Benefits to Using YouTube and YouTube Stories

Getting noticed against the massive online competition can make any small business feel overwhelmed and inadequate. However, a tool can make it easier to get noticed and be seen as an authority within your niche or industry. This can be done by creating and starting a well-run and quality YouTube channel. Eventually, once you gain ten thousand subscribers, you can unlock the story feature to better market to your target audience and reach even more followers or subscribers.

 

Here are more benefits to using YouTube and their stories feature for business:

 

To Get a Chance to Market to Nearly One Billion Monthly Users

 

Using YouTube gives you a low-cost and sometimes free way to reach a global audience depending on the tools or resources you need to create a high-quality and valuable video.

 

To Rank Higher on Googles Search Engine Results Page

 

The main power of YouTube relies on the fact that it is a search engine. The second-largest just behind Google. Even better is that Google owns YouTube, meaning your long-form content video will rank well when people search from Google. It is essentially the same engine. Did you know nearly ninety percent of clicks made after a Google search are from the first ten organic results? So reaching the first page and near the top is an important goal when creating your videos.

 

To Grow Your List and Traffic to Your Website

 

Stories are essential to YouTube as they help you further engage your audience and hopefully convert them to loyal and paying customers. To accomplish this, use the feature for advertising and growing your email list. In turn, this will also increase your website traffic and potentially increase your revenue.

 

To Increase Engagement and Make a More Obvious Impact

 

Furthermore, once you reach ten thousand subscribers, you will want to use the stories feature to enhance further your engagement and exposure against your current audience and subscribers. Just because they subscribed or followed your link to sign up for your newsletter or email campaign does not mean you should rely on it to keep their attention. Stories appear on YouTube’s platform, giving you another way to keep their attention and further away from your competition. The more valuable and useful you make the story, the more likely they are to share it to grow your subscribers list too.

 

Sixty-two percent of businesses took advantage of these benefits in 2019. The fact is, the more your YouTube channel grows, the more successful your business becomes. Add to the growth and success of your business by adding a YouTube channel to your business marketing plan today. The more value you show your target audience, the more chance you have at success.

 

 

 

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How to Use YouTube Stories for Business

Every single day nearly one billion hours of content is viewed on YouTube daily. With around thirty million visitors every day, there is no reason you shouldn’t be taking advantage of this platform if you run or want to own a business. YouTube and its story feature are powerful avenues to better market your products, services, values, and ideas to your target audience. It also provides you a chance to create powerful and beneficial content in order to build a community that benefits your brand. YouTube stories are short clips only viewable from a smartphone and available to your audience for seven days.

 

The following is how to use YouTube stories for your business:

 

First Understand the Requirements

 

You must have 10,000 subscribers first in order to unlock the story feature. While this can be a downside to many business owners, you need to remember that YouTube is a great marketing tool. Additionally, note that you will not have this feature if you set your audience to kids.

 

Find the Plus Icon on Your Smart Phone and Select “Add to your story.”

 

The plus icon is located near the bottom center of your screen when you open the YouTube smartphone application. After you select the plus sign, you then need to select “add to your story.” If you do not see this as an option, your channel has yet to reach the requirements or needs to wait seven more days for the feature to appear.

 

Record a Video or Snap a Photo and Enhance

 

Tap or hold down the red record button, then save, trim, add text, stickers, or polls that enhance your content and make it more engaging. There are three more important stickers to include: video stickers to help promote a video, mention stickers to mention other YouTubers, and location stickers to reach your audience in a certain location.

 

Share and Reply to Comments in a Story for Extra Engagement

 

Finally, you can share the post once you believe the quality is right for your audience. Be sure to stay engaged with your audience. Don’t just post a story and then forget about them. If they are interacting, reply or post new stories to keep it up. The more value and engagement you bring to YouTube, the more successful your business will be.

 

Be sure to reply to comments to increase your engagement. You can do this by going to your profile and selecting comments. Then below the comment, you would like to reply select “reply in story.” Finally, record or upload your reply and choose post to share.

How do YouTubers Make Money? 

Just like other platforms, the YouTube Story feature is straightforward and easy to use. Once you post your story, they are viewable from your channel for all your subscribers to see and last for a full seven days. The more you can connect to your target audience, the more you can grow and increase your success on the platform.