Tag: Freedom lifestyle

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Six Tips to Improving your Social Media Story Content

Just because most social media stories only last for twenty-four hours doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the time to create a detailed content plan. Your social media story content relies on it to keep your brand image, message, and value consistent and audience engaged. Avoid confusing and boring your audience with lackluster or a hard sales-like approach on your social media stories.

 

Here are six tips to help improve your social media story content to increase your engagement and other important business conversions:

 

Be Personable and Less Formal

 

A mix of informal and formal content is the best approach when it comes to stories. However, lean more on the less formal side and use your website, YouTube channel, and other platforms or platform features for more professional content. Viewers want to get to know you and what you really stand for. They want to know you are real and honest. Due to the short time limit and engaging features social media stories have to offer. This is a great tool to do that.

 

Avoid Generic or Reposted Content

 

Don’t use your stories to simply repost content without making it more unique or different in some way. There is nothing wrong with repurposing, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change it up somehow. This also includes using generic templates or limiting the variety of content you share with your viewers.

 

Get Your Audience Involved

 

Always have your audience at the top of your priority list when making stories and other social media content. While increasing your income is highly crucial to your business, you can’t get that without your target audience or a product that actually benefits them. So the more you keep them at the center of your focus, the better your content will be, and the more your products or services will improve.

 

Less is More

 

Don’t over-explain, use too much text or overcrowd your image or video with too many emojis. This can easily confuse your viewers, make them leave, or repeat the slide too many times, which can become a hassle.

 

Use Both Images and Video

 

Again, adding variety to your content with different images, videos, and templates or formats is important. This is how you keep your audience interested during the full length of the story and after.

 

Incorporate Audio and Captions

 

Audio and captions are a simple way to change your content while sharing key information with your audience. For example, many of those on Instagram don’t view stories with sound on, meaning if you talk, they will miss out. Captions are your way to capitalize fully on your target audience.

 

Keep these six social media improvement tips in mind when creating your next social media story content plan to ensure it achieves the business goals and objectives you need to succeed. Don’t post lackluster or invaluable content only because you believe the tool is useful and need to keep a consistent schedule. In order to gain the benefits, the content needs to be valuable to your audience too.

Six Instagram Influencer Marketing Tips

 

 

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Common Social Media Story Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The best way to know how to use a certain feature correctly is to learn what not to do first. This is done by understanding some of the most common mistakes many do when first using social media stories to market and advertise their business. While social media stories and the other features it provides can offer your business many benefits, learn how it works so your efforts will not be wasted.

 

Here are four of the most common social media story mistakes and what to do to avoid them:

 

Inconsistent Schedule and Posting Time

 

Social media is attractive due to the high amounts of communication and its movement and speed at which that communication can be found and digested. However, it is constant and never-ending — making it almost addicting as humans love to socialize. This means you need to find a schedule that keeps you consistent and always engaged. Of course, this will be different depending on the platform you use, but most stories only last for around twenty-four hours, which means at least once a day is vital at minimum.

 

Ignoring Audience Interaction and Engagement

 

Stories are about engagement and audience interaction. Don’t use this feature to post the same content you do everywhere else and ignore your audience. Get them involved, ask them questions, get their feedback, and always provide maximum value in exchange for their time.

 

Cross Promoting or Over Prompting

 

Repurposing is a great idea, but not for your stories. You always want to be more creative and transform the idea into something better and different to keep your audience attached or interested. Posting the same boring content on all platforms will likely disinterest them, making them head over to your competition as you no longer provide any value.

 

Poor Branding and Overall Message

 

Always plan your content to ensure your goals and company values are clear and obvious. If you don’t take the time to plan, you may inadvertently send the wrong message. Take advantage of the features, such as changing your font and colors to match your branding and using the Highlights section offered by Facebook and Instagram. A consistent message and branding statistically translate into more revenue for businesses. This is because your communication is clear, making it easier for you to create products or content your target audience needs and enjoys.

 

Don’t be caught making these same social media story mistakes. Start your social media story content plan off right by avoiding these common mistakes and taking advantage of the tips provided above. Being aware of these common mistakes gives you the tools you need to be one step ahead of your competition and offer better value and high-quality content to your target audience.

 

 

 

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Why You Should Be Using Google Web Stories Right Now

Did you know there is a relatively new way to increase traffic to your WordPress blog? Through Google Web Stories, you now have another way to make it to the top of the Google search results page. They even appear on the Google Discover page, the home page of Google’s smartphone application that shares personalized content based on your search results or other habits on your phone.

 

Web stories are bite-size pieces of information of current blog posts, new announcements, or other important information you want to share from your blog or website. When viewers watch, they can then be sent to your blog with a link displayed at the bottom—giving you another way to engage new potential customers and increase your exposure and awareness on the internet.

 

Here are four more important reasons why your business should be taking advantage of Google Web stories right now:

 

To Boost Your SEO

 

By far, the most important benefit to creating Web Stories includes ranking higher on Google’s search result page. This is how you get more traffic, fast. In fact, it is said that most people don’t even make it past the first page or the tenth listing. Meaning you really want to make it to the top of the page when your target audience searches an important keyword.

 

To Have Full Ownership and Control of Content

 

After SEO, the next most important benefit to Google web stories includes your ownership and control of the content yourself. When you use platforms such as Instagram and Facebook stories, you don’t completely own the content, even if you are the original owner. Meaning, with Google web stories, you have more control, freedom, and less potential to lose your content.

 

To Create More Unique and Highly Shareable Content

 

Google Web stories are attractive, engaging, and fully customizable content — giving you yet another avenue to create content that your audience appreciates and wants to share with their friends or family and further increasing your exposure and audience.

 

To Add an Additional Revenue Stream

 

With the Web Stories for WordPress plugin, it is easy to monetize them with native ads that Google AdSense runs. Adding links directly to a landing or sales landing page is also easy to do with their editing tools.

 

As you can see, Google Web Stories is a feature you will want to take advantage of if you run a blog or website. It allows you to create immersive and engaging content that you have full ownership and control over while increasing your traffic, revenue, and exposure as a brand or business.

 

 

 

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How to Monetize Your Google Web Stories

By far, one of the main benefits of using Google web stories is the ability to monetize it through your own content, branded content directly, and now native ads with Google AdSense. Meaning you now have another way to repurpose your content, increase your blog or website traffic while increasing your revenue in many different ways.

 

The following are the different ways you can monetize your Google web stories and tips on how to optimize them:

 

Native Ads

 

These are full-screen and immersive ads that play before, during, or after your stories. They are easy to turn on and connect with your Google AdSense account. Follow these steps to get your stories to monetize through Google using the Web Stories for WordPress plugin:

 

  • Step One: Select “Settings” from The Plugins Page After Downloading Plugin
  • Step Two: Locate “Monetization”
  • Step Three: Follow Steps to Connect Site Kit and Activate Google AdSense
  • Step Four: Select “Google AdSense” or “Google Ad Manage” from Drop Down Menu and continue following the Instructions.

 

Video and Click or View More Ads

 

You don’t need to monetize your stories with Google AdSense to make money. You can use stories and make your own promotional videos or even sponsor a story. The option to add a link should be included in all your stories and their frames to increase your potential sales as well.

 

In other words, any story you create can be turned into a well-designed advertisement from you or an approved brand rather than Google – giving you more control over what you share as well as more potential for revenue as you can charge more for your work. Google AdSense is generated automatically and set by them per their terms. However, both of them together can create a powerful monetization tool for your website. Unless you want complete control, there is no reason not to do both.

 

Be sure to follow these monetization tips to fully take advantage of the benefits Google Web Stories can bring to your blog or website. Not only can you monetize through your own links or sponsored post, but you can also include fully immersive ads generated and paid out by Google itself — increasing your revenue and overall success as an online business owner or influencer. Overall, these monetization tips should encourage you to add Google Web Stories to your online content marketing strategy today.

 

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Four Tips to Optimizing your Google Web Stories

To increase your blog traffic or beat out your competition, you need to add Google web stories to your content marketing plan. These stories are the new way to attract mobile users on the Google Discovery page or utilize the Google search engine.

 

When you search a keyword through Google’s search engine, a carousel appears below the search with stories from different blogs or websites. To view, simply click and tap to view each page of the story. As you can clearly see, these stories give you another opportunity to make it to the top of the Google search results page.

 

4 tips to optimize your Google Web stories for max conversions:

 

Include High-Quality Videos and Images

 

Keep your video size under 4MB, no larger than 720 pixels, and ten seconds in length. Images used should be 900 pixels by 1200 pixels. Fill in the alt text of your images, and don’t use GIFs.

 

Create a Solid Narrative, Theme, and Fill in SEO

 

Never cut off the viewer or expect them to finish the content on another page. Create a full story that educates and inspires them to continue instead. Be sure to keep the length of each of your stories between five and thirty pages. Add a title to your story but limit the text to forty characters. Each page you make should have a max of two hundred characters or less but keep in mind that they only last fifteen seconds. The more text you have in one frame, the more distracting it can be.

 

Test Your Stories Using the Google Web Stories Test Tool

 

By adding your story’s link to this tool, you can be sure you filled in all the required information to create a valid web story. Missing information such as your cover image and publisher logo will prevent your story from being recommended or shared by Google. Using this quick and easy tool ensures the work you put into creating Web Stories is worth it.

 

Don’t Share Content That Isn’t Yours

 

A final tip to note is only to post content you created to your stories. Google will not share content that is not by the publisher; you, which means if you want to share other people’s content, use Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat instead or ask your audience to submit new content directly to you. This way, you can have full ownership of the content you share on your blog and with Google Web Stories.

Optimizing your Google web stories is vital if you want to get the most benefits out of this new feature. These stories provide a more attractive, creative, and immersive way to market and advertise your products, services, or content to your target audience while increasing your traffic and potential revenue.

 

 

 

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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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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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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.