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Online Boost Groups - Expand Your Community For Free

11/22/2017

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Author Almu Corazon
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Social media platforms keep changing without previous notice and many who depend on these online communities for business are caught off guard. The fact that algorithms, web interface, designs and user experience of social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram keep changing generates uncomfortable set-backs to digital business users. 

Algorithm changes are driven mostly to generate advertising revenue and for a better “user experience,” forcing us to update our online strategy to become relevant on searches and more visible to our target audience. For example Instagram’s latest algorithm updates are a lot like its parent company (Facebook) of 2 years ago. 
  • Now you have personal and business profiles, both with different capabilities. Posts no longer show chronologically on individual users’ feeds; and, product’s prices can be disclosed on the picture. 
  • Before, accounts had FREE access to incredible ROI per post. Pre-algorithm changes, the only investment one needed to make on Instagram was the time and nominal fee to create memorable visuals and copy for a caption. 

So how do you feel about having to pay sponsored ads to increase your visibility on Instagram?

Well my dear reader, if you prefer investing your money wisely, where there is a will, there is a way. Have you heard about “Boost Groups” or “comment pods”? They have become very famous on Instagram as a community effort to increase posts’ visibility and brand awareness without having to invest on ads. There are many other names used by online users, but I am sticking to Boost Groups as it is easier for my clients to identify its real goal – which is to boost our online efforts helped by a supportive community.

Here’s how it works:


  1. Identify 5–10 people within your community, niche, network or tribe. Are you a small business owner, a lifestyle photographer, a jewelry maker, a Fashion blogger? Whatever you do for fun or for living you most likely have a group of business BFFs who already support you. Maybe they’re other solopreneurs aligned with your values or they complement your aesthetic who normally visit your profiles. Identify them and approach them to create a support group to assist each other on a daily basis to increase likes, shares and comments. This will boost your organic SEO and overall brand visibility.
  2. Direct Message them through the social media platform you choose them to work with you. Express your interest to form a Boost Group to organically help each other increase SEO and engagement on social media platforms. Sample message: “Hi there! I am creating a Boost Group with people in my network/tribe/community/niche to help each other organically increase our brand visibility, SEO and engagement. It consist on posting on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat/(pick one) on a daily/weekly basis, then go to my profile and like, share and leave a comment of at least three words. To keep track of our actions, come back to our group message and post a heart or happy face– which means your task is completed in your profile and in all the group members’ posts. It’s simple, it’s just a matter of having integrity and continuity; and, the benefits are incredible!” Another way to approach this could be in Instagram creating a group sending the following “Hey, y’all! This here is a boost group. Any time you post and need a like + comment, click the little heart in the lower right corner. No need to type a message or anything. That’s our boost signal for us to go to your page and give a little love. Do you want to join the group effort! It will help us all increase visibility and engagement without having to invest on ads! Who is in?!”
  3. Be polite. Check in with whoever you approach to join your Boost Group and see who’s interested in working together to beat the algorithm change before including them to your Boost Group. It’s not for everyone. If you agree to join or create a boost group, lead by example and follow your own suggestions with integrity. Post, like and comment periodically, so others will feel motivated and active. Don’t just power like. That’s ~fine~ but to truly boost a post, a comment and share are necessary.
  4. Tap the heart and watch the love roll in and give yourself the equivalent of a hug or high-five. You’ve just built a self-sustaining community!!
  5. Add people as you see fit. Encourage others to do the same. Consider making a second, more specific group. You can have as many Boost Groups as you want; and, in as many social media platforms as your brands are. Want a virtual TIP? participants with a higher amount of followers give you better ROI, because their likes, comments and shares will be visible to a broader audience, increasing your post’s SEO significantly more than users with low follow base. 

I used to have multiple Boost Groups in Twitter and Instagram when I was regularly active. I even had boost buddies I’ve never met in person from all around the world. It was super fun! I am now about to start two in Facebook and Instagram among friends and business owners. If you want to belong to a Boost Group, let’s create one together or contact me to join mine!

Boost Groups won’t help in the long run if you’re not sharing quality content that’s always in alignment with your values or complementing your brand aesthetic. When used in conjunction with other best practices, Boost Groups are a lifesaver. Check out my Instagram accounts (@AlmuCorazon and @CurvySocial) and Facebook pages (Simple&Social and Spanish Flavor) to get an idea of who I am. Follow/Like me and subscribe to my SimpleandSocial membership to learn additional business tips. I host workshops for small business owners to learn how to harness the power of digital media to increase results while minimizing costs. 

Bonus: Collaborations may result.

Check out my Instagram account and peep that engagement. At a mere 1,052 followers, I’m nowhere near influencer status in Instagram. Though one of my latest posts received 164 likes, which is close to 16% of my total follower amount. In social media land, that’s a heckuva lot. In any general marketing formula, that conversion rate is huge!

This article is written with the intention to help those of us who utilize Instagram for B2C or B2B goals. The latest algorithm updates are a boon that ensures the regular Instagram user sees posts that are likely of interest to you based on your mobile searches, as opposed to any shared post from the people you follow in your community. 

What do you think about algorithm updates and about this article? Share your questions or comments about Boost Groups and I’ll be sure to respond. Thanks for reading!

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5 Simple Solutions to Get Your Blog Ready For The Holiday Season

11/18/2016

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Author @AlmuCorazon
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Is your blog ready for the holidays? If you lost track of your online performance and you want to revamp Q4, you are in the right place. In this article I am sharing a simple 5-step action plan to get your blog and your content marketing in shape for the holidays. Remember, "out of sight, out of mind." Which means, if we are not feeding our online audience with content related to our products and services, our audience will forget about us and move on to our competitors and those with an active online presence. 

If blogging is important to you and SEO is a priority, also check the following articles I wrote on how to position your brand to increase sales, how to expand your e-newsletter’s ROI, how to write content marketing to increase results, and the psychology of color to improve your website and blog.  

If you follow other planning processes and strategies to get your blog ready for the holiday season different from the below, I invite you to share it in this article’s comment section, so others can benefit from a collective free advice.

Let’s jump-start our blogging game together! 

Step 1- Answer the Following Questions: The information collected by answering these questions will be used to create content marketing. The more we blog and the longer the articles are, the better organic SEO we get. This happens because we are providing more information -- more keywords, links, and content -- for crawls to scan and track in connection to our brand. So when people search on Google for topics related to our expertise, products and services, our probabilities of appearing are higher. 
  1. Do we have holiday tips, know-hows, DIY or any ideas to share with our target audience? 
  2. Do we have products or services that our clients can benefit from during the holidays?
  3. Can we create a "Holiday Bargain Roundups”? — in other words, can we agree with our affiliate providers to create a shopping list of related bargains to add value to our customers?
  4. Are we doing anything special during the holidays we could share with our audience, such as unique family holiday recipes, games, celebrations with our company members or DIY and crafts? or want to share tips for snapping the perfect family picture or video?
  5. Do we have old posts we could use this year?
  6. Can we offer any discounts?
  7. How could we incentivize loyal customers?
  8. How often can I blog? If I am too busy, can I at least blog once a month?

Step 2 - Plan an Agenda to Build an Editorial Calendar: Planning out our content is very important, not only during the holidays, but also yearly — ideally it is best to blog on a monthly basis, or at least quarterly. Mapping out content in alignment to holidays, social interests, market trends and audience preferences makes our information relevant to our readers. I find inspiration searching on Pinterest or Instagram and through brainstorming with my staff, my clients and online friends.  

1.- create a business calendar/agenda. This way the content we build is organized based on our business objectives. 

2.- on a piece of paper create a list to highlight the below. Once this list is done, mark the dates and content ideas on the business calendar: 
  • business milestones and deadlines, 
  • content marketing options, 
  • client needs, 
  • products/services benefits, 
3.- write down if during the holidays we plan on…
  • sharing the information collected on the first step described above
  • taking some days off. It is important to highlight this information because we want to make sure to schedule content around our days off that doesn’t require us to get back to our audience. Such as quotes, pictures of our team members, sharing a milestone, etc.
  • conducting promotions or special campaigns
  • decreasing the number of postings due to high season needs. This is a good eye opener — relying on our staff and gradually train them to help us manage our online properties is the way to go. For solo entrepreneurs, scheduling content in advance is the best practice!
4.- repurpose content from previous years. Select posts that generated high level of interaction, traffic and leads. Enhance them to add value to our loyal reader by…
  • editing content where needed to avoid publishing outdated information
  • adding more backlinks and images -- including pinnable images and sharing capabilities
  • fixing any links that might be broken (links to other websites, affiliate links, or links to your own content)
  • including call-to-action (CTA) – such as inviting readers to subscribe to the newsletter, "follow us on Facebook, Periscope, Twitter," visit our store or buying a product we promote 

Step 3 - Get Your Blog In Shape: Make the blog holiday friendly. There are several ways to do this, besides current holiday themed content. We can,
  • Add menu items for holiday themes, such as “Gift Recommendations,” “Holidays Go-To Solutions," or “Holiday Recipes” 
  • Create engaging linked images of relevant holiday posts on the sidebar
  • Offer a special "Holiday Gift Guide" by creating a list of the “Top 20 Year’s best Product Reviews" that relate. Be sure to create an image on our side bar announcing the guide and promote it across our social media profiles/pages
  • If applicable, add links to your online store, Facebook picture albums and videos, tagging brands and partners on social media or reaching out to brands that fit your niche

Also, we can’t forget about updating our blog’s SEO widgets, settings, tags, meta info and keywords to strategically address all the holidays. This update helps us increase our brand visibility organically. Because before paying for online ads on Google, Facebook, Yelp or in any other social platform, we need to optimize our organic efforts, otherwise we won’t get a good return on our investment. 

Step 4 - Schedule your Content in Advance: Consistency in sharing our voice online is one of the most important things when blogging and building a brand. There is too much content circulating digitally; so, our audience most likely is following us because of our unique essence. Below are two lists of content ideas you could schedule on future posts:

- 10 Tweetables — use hashtags and name-tags to increase your post’s visibility such as #thinklocal, #smallbiz and @AlmuCorazon — substitute “X” for your offer (brand, promotional campaign, product or service, special holidays such as Black Friday, New Years, etc) and, substitute “link” for a link to your website or other online properties:
  • Check out my top 10 list of allergen-free recipes for the #holidays “link”
  • Looking for “X”? Follow us on “X” to get special discounts #BlackFriday2016
  • Subscribe to our newsletter to receive special #coupons for “X” 
  • Get ready for the #holidays w/ our special "X" - “link” ( )
  • Not sure what 2gift this holiday season? Take a look at this list “link”
  • Increase #SALES this #holidays by following this 5 easy steps “link”
  • Stop by our store, take a picture and post it on @Instagram & @Facebook using "#X" to get 15%off this holidays!
  • What Every Foodie Wants for #Christmas “link”
  • Top 10 gifts to “X” fans -> “link"
  • We are inviting u2 our “X” #Holidayparty2016, enjoy free “x” from “@“ & enter to win a “X”! “link”
- 10 Holiday Season Prompts — add a picture, video, livestream, infographic or any other visual content to the posts I suggest below in order to boost their reach. Use hashtags when promoting them on social media — if you need more ideas or guidance give me a shoutout on Instagram or leave a comment on our Facebook page or below in the comment section: 
  • What holiday(s) do you celebrate? Why? Share one of your favorite holiday memories.
  • What are some of your childhood holiday traditions?
  • Are you traveling this holiday season? Where are you going?
  • What is your favorite Christmas/holiday tradition?
  • What is your favorite game to play during the holidays and why? Do you have any funny anecdote?
  • What is your favorite Christmas/holiday song (food/drink) and why? Mine are…”X”
  • Do you have a cleaning tip that saves your attire every year? Explain how to use it
  • What is the best gift you’ve ever given or received? What made it so special?
  • Share your favorite recipe, a family twist to a well-known recipe

Step 5 - Cross-promote Content with Influencers and Brand Advocates: Cross-promoting our content marketing and brand assets are a proven practice that can work across multiple digital platforms and social networks. As it increases our brand visibility and reinforces our connection with loyal customers. We can achieve this on scheduled posts as well, we just need to make sure to name-tag and hashtag the scheduled content. But, there are right and wrong ways to cross-promote. Be careful, we don’t want to become “spammy.” I invite you to give me shoutouts on social media @AlmuCorazon; and, if you would like to promote your products/services on my Facebook pages Simple&Social and Spanish Flavor, send me a note via email or a Facebook message in advance to discuss the opportunity and make sure your post is in alignment with our community sharing guidelines. 

Your Turn!

I hope these 5 steps and ideas will help you decide how you want to continue with your blogging program during the holidays; so that, you don’t wind up hunched over your computer screen while everyone else is passing the gravy boat.

As mentioned before, if you follow any other strategy to plan your blogging activity, please share it below to help other readers. 

Leave us a comment and share this blog post so others can benefit. Cheers!

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How To Unlock Hidden Reviews On Your Yelp Business Page

6/24/2016

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Author Almu Corazon
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Couple of months ago I was a speaker at a panel of experts to discuss Yelp and online reputation management do's and don'ts. There were a lot of small business owners in the audience complaining about hidden positive reviews. This is one of the biggest issues small companies face with their business pages; and, a common question I get from my clients “#Yelp positive reviews not showing up.” I bet you have experienced this or someone you know has amazing reviews but Yelp doesn't place them in the regular section, and instead places them in the "hidden" section. In that event there were few business owners who shared how much they dislike Yelp because the way they manage reviews. Like many others, some of them had old negative reviews visible and recent positive reviews hidden.
 
Unlocking hidden reviews on Yelp requires a basic understanding of Yelp's algorithm. Make sure your future reviewers are aware of this. Let’s spill the beans! Here are 5 points that Yelp’s algorithm considers as red flags, therefore labeling reviews as inadequate and sending them to the hidden section:
 
  1. The Yelper used inappropriate language.
  2. When found any connection between the commentator and the business owner other than being a client, such as a competitor, disgruntled employee, family member, friend, or has any other type of connection through social media. Remember your browser stores cookies and pieces of information of your navigation paths, habits, website visits and so on.
  3. The Yelper's profile is incomplete; e.g., missing a profile picture, bio, location or contact and verification information.
  4. The Yelper has very few or zero previous reviews, no pictures uploaded or no comments, likes or dislikes at all.
  5. The Yelper has a track record of engaging in negative conversations; e.g., leaving negative reviews, posting negative feedback to others’ reviews, disliking content on Yelp.
 
The two most common reasons Yelp’s algorithms consider a review to be inadequate are: 1) Yelpers have very few or zero previous reviews; 2) Yelpers don't have a complete profile; there is a lot of Yelpers missing a profile picture – to dig a bit deeper, if you click through to your hidden reviewers individual profile pages, I bet you can find few commonalities among your reviewers, such as they have very little information filled out and minimal engagement with others. It's almost as if they created a Yelp profile just to write a review for your business!
 
Hey, Yelp reviews are important. Regardless of the stigma that is associated with the platform, Yelp is a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. It is still the number one business directory worldwide. Though, if your customers are not active on Yelp, it will be better to get their review in some other way. Otherwise, in order for the wonderful reviews to get unstuck from the hidden area, you will need to reach out to your previous reviewers and let them know that they need to increase their engagement on the platform and fill out the rest of the profile information… I know; I can feel you going like “What! That’s too much work! Ridiculous!” I am with you!
 
Also, in order to gain control on your online reputation what works best is when you see a happy client, ask him to take a video sharing his great experience, ant the reason behind his happiness. Or just ask if you can take the video for him. You could ask your clients, what is it about your business/products/services that moves them to come back for more. Then, upload that video on your website, on YouTube, on your Facebook page and on G+ for others to see it.
 
Though, if you feel unstoppable and want to give it a try, you could contact those reviewers with hidden comments letting them know how much their thoughtful review means to you and to your business; and, that you would love for their feedback to appear in the regular section. But in order to achieve it, they will need to increase their engagement in Yelp and:
 
  1. Complete their profile 100%. A comprehensive Yelp profile including a clear profile picture, full bio with location, links to their social media profiles, business website, pictures, likes and dislikes.
  2. Make some friends on Yelp. Suggest them to sync their Facebook and Twitter profiles to identify any of their Facebook and Twitter friends that might also be on Yelp.
  3. Check-in to their favorite businesses. They will have to download the app in order to check-in. (It takes less than 5 seconds.)
  4. Bookmark places of interest. Saving those places is the best reminder to visit them on your free time!
  5. Upload a photo or two of their most recent dining experience. Suggest them to take a picture of the food they order or the exterior and interior of the business. This also creates a beautiful diary of images on their profile.
  6. Comment on other Yelper's reviews. If they see a place they like or a funny picture or an insightful or well-written review, suggest them to leave a comment to let the author know.
  7. Write some reviews. This is key to earn Yelp trust. Those Yelpers who write reviews become credible and unbiased sources for Yelp. Remember, Yelp is looking for engagement. The more they engage, the more visible they become.
 
I call the above "The 7 Wonders" - If you feel like asking your reviewers to do all the above is too much, I don’t blame you. Sometimes it is not realistic.
 
Now, who doesn’t want engagement! Imagine that you have a store or a restaurant, wouldn’t you want to have it filled with happy customers? Wouldn’t you want your business online profiles, pages and website filled with insightful and engaging content and audience interaction? Well, Yelp wants it too. Yelp wants to know that users didn't sign up just to write one glowing review or one very negative review. Yelp’s business is driven by user engagement. So, if your clients are not Yelpers pros, forget about it! Invite your clients to send you a short video and give them an appreciation gift, like a meaningful item associated with your brand, a discount, or a free product!

Additional effective outlets to where you can ask for online reviews and improve your SEO and overall online reputation are reviews on your Google business page and Facebook page.

What do you use to collect client reviews?
​

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