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[ANSWERED] Help! My Facebook Page Is Losing Fans And Engagement Is Dropping. What Do I Do?
If likes, shares, and comments on your Facebook page are plummeting, it's time to create a plan to fix your falling Facebook fan engagement.
The post [ANSWERED] Help! My Facebook Page Is Losing Fans And Engagement Is Dropping. What Do I Do? appeared first on SocMedSean - Social Media Sean.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social Media Sean https://bit.ly/2Hq4FuT
Steps To Take When Your Twitter Engagement Is Dropping?
Watching your Twitter engagement drop can be a painful thing. Don't just accept it, though, learn how to evaluate your content and find ways to engage your Twitter followers.
The post Steps To Take When Your Twitter Engagement Is Dropping? appeared first on SocMedSean - Social Media Sean.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social Media Sean https://bit.ly/3ngKXlr
How Can I Use Hashtags On Twitter To Grow And Engage My Followers?
Hashtags can be a great tool to help your tweets gain exposure for either your personal or business tweets. Here are some tips on how to use them effectively.
The post How Can I Use Hashtags On Twitter To Grow And Engage My Followers? appeared first on SocMedSean - Social Media Sean.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social Media Sean https://bit.ly/320EuRT
[ANSWERED] How Do I Contact Pinterest Support When I Need Help?
Do you need to get in contact with Pinterest customer support to address an issue with your account? Here are some ways to contact the Pinteres support team.
The post [ANSWERED] How Do I Contact Pinterest Support When I Need Help? appeared first on SocMedSean - Social Media Sean.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social Media Sean https://bit.ly/32rpWwg
Site Speed Steps – A Detailed Guide To Taking Your WordPress Site From Slow To Go
If you are a WordPress blogger and need help improving your Google Page Speed Insights and GTmetrix scores, here is your detailed, step-by-step guide.
The post Site Speed Steps – A Detailed Guide To Taking Your WordPress Site From Slow To Go appeared first on SocMedSean - Social Media Sean.
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[Step-By-Step Guide] Updating And Optimizing Old Blog Posts For Increased Traffic
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [Step-By-Step Guide] Updating And Optimizing Old Blog Posts For Increased Traffic
One of the best ways to increase traffic is to update older blog posts that are already ranking, but not performing as you'd like. Here is my step-by-step process to update posts for better results.
[Step-By-Step Guide] Updating And Optimizing Old Blog Posts For Increased Traffic Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean https://bit.ly/2zBHMRl
[Answered] Your Guide To Effectively Using Instagram Hashtags
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [Answered] Your Guide To Effectively Using Instagram Hashtags
Did you know that effectively using hashtags on Instagram can help you grow your audience, generate more audience engagement, and even drive traffic to your blog? Here's how!
[Answered] Your Guide To Effectively Using Instagram Hashtags Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean https://bit.ly/2LMHJ7F
[UPDATED 2020] Moving And Organizing Photos Within Facebook Group Photo Albums
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [UPDATED 2020] Moving And Organizing Photos Within Facebook Group Photo Albums
Ever wondered how to move Facebook photos from your Facebook group from one album to another? Frustrated because you can't re-order the photos within your Facebook group albums? Here are some tips.
[UPDATED 2020] Moving And Organizing Photos Within Facebook Group Photo Albums Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean https://bit.ly/2Kn1MJ9
Seven Ways To Use Facebook To Stay Connected During Times Of Crisis
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean Seven Ways To Use Facebook To Stay Connected During Times Of Crisis
Have you lost control of your Facebook account and need to contact their customer support? Here are tips on getting Facebook support to pay attention to your request.
Seven Ways To Use Facebook To Stay Connected During Times Of Crisis Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean https://bit.ly/2JQ7x1H
[ANSWERED] How Do I Contact Facebook Support When I Need Help?
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [ANSWERED] How Do I Contact Facebook Support When I Need Help?
Have you lost control of your Facebook account and need to contact their customer support? Here are tips on getting Facebook support to pay attention to your request.
[ANSWERED] How Do I Contact Facebook Support When I Need Help? Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean https://bit.ly/3agOmdb
50+ Free Social Media Comics And Cartoons For Use In Your Blog Posts Or Presentations
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean 50+ Free Social Media Comics And Cartoons For Use In Your Blog Posts Or Presentations
Looking for humorous comics or graphics that you can use in your social media presentations? Check out this post with more than 50 different comics and cartoons.
50+ Free Social Media Comics And Cartoons For Use In Your Blog Posts Or Presentations Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/38TmOd5
[SOLVED] How Do I Reduce My iNode Usage On SiteGround, HostGator, Or Other Hosts?
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [SOLVED] How Do I Reduce My iNode Usage On SiteGround, HostGator, Or Other Hosts?
If you are hosting your blog or website with Siteground, HostGator, or any other cPanel-based host and you have received a notification that your account is in jeopardy of exceeding your allocated inode usage, then this post is for you. Often, when you receive the notification that your account is going to exceed your inode […]
[SOLVED] How Do I Reduce My iNode Usage On SiteGround, HostGator, Or Other Hosts? Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/2sIWjY6
Tips For Increasing Blog Traffic Without Writing A Single Word
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean Tips For Increasing Blog Traffic Without Writing A Single Word
If you're tired of writing and need to take a break, there are plenty of things you can do to enhance and improve your blog! Here are ten tips for keeping your blog moving forward, without publishing new content.
Tips For Increasing Blog Traffic Without Writing A Single Word Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/2ZbZDH2
[Updated 2019] Facebook Tip: Organizing, Moving and Editing Your Photos And Albums
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [Updated 2019] Facebook Tip: Organizing, Moving and Editing Your Photos And Albums
NOTE: This post has been fully updated in Fall 2019. There were a lot of changes to the way Facebook allows for the moving of photos, so I updated all the steps and the screen captures. I hope they help! If you run into any issues or have tips, PLEASE leave them as comments as they help others who are struggling to reorganize their Facebook photos.
Cheers!
–Sean
We all love to post photos on Facebook, right? The challenge is that while positing photos is easy to do from your phone or tablet, organizing them into albums within Facebook can be a real pain-in-the-you-know-what.
It seems that the Facebook User Experience Engineers have designed an organization system that seems logical to them, but in real life isn’t really intuitive to most of us.
A while back, I wrote a post about uploading and organizing your photos on Facebook. As Facebook made changes, I tried to keep it updated with the slight UI changes to the albums and photo organizers.
As I went to update for the umpteenth time…I realized that it would probably be better to just start a new post and give the most recent instructions without all the history.
Likely, I’ll have to update this one 15 times, too…but that’s the world of Facebook, right?
So if you’re just looking for tips on how to organize your photos, here are the most recent instructions.
Quick Note Before We Start: If you are trying to figure out how to move and organize photos in a Facebook GROUP, read this post instead.
Creating a Facebook Album (also known as uploading a photo)
The first step in getting organized is making sure you have the right albums. Facebook doesn’t let you create albums on-the-fly while you’re organizing them, so the best thing to do is go through all your current folders and see if there are some logical groups.
Make a list. Yes…with a pencil and paper.
For me, the groups are basically family photos, pictures of good things to eat, critters who have visited my house, cute pet photos and cupcakes. Yes…I’m a bit of a cupcake fanatic so they get their own albums.
To create a new album just go into the Photos section of your Facebook profile and then click “Create Album”.
Create a new photo album in Facebook by going to your Photos sectiona and clicking Create Album
Facebook doesn’t provide an intuitive way to create an empty album (there is a way, but it ‘s strange), so it’s best to upload a photo into the new album. Don’t worry…you can delete it later if you don’t want to keep the photo in the album.
Add a new photo to your album.
Facebook does allow you to re-organize your photos and albums, it just takes some know-how. Click To Tweet
Once the photo is selected, give your album a new name and describe the types of photos that people can expect to see in the album when they browse it. If the album contains photos that were all taken in the same location (e.g. Hawaii or New York City) you can also add a location.
Add a new name and description to your new Facebook album and add any captions to your photos, if you’d like.
Just before you click the “Post Photos” button in the lower-right corner, be sure to set your privacy settings by clicking the gear icon and choose who can see the photos in the album. Remember, this privacy setting will be set for all the photos you are uploading.
Set the appropriate level of permissions on your album. REMEMBER that these permissions will be applied to all photos in the album.
Once you click the “Post Photos” button, the new folder will be created and you’ll be able to move other photos into this album.
Moving Photos Between Albums
Fairly recently, Facebook made a big improvement to their albums in the fact that they added the ability to move photos between albums. Previously, when you clicked on the edit pencil for the photo, the menu item did not include the ability to move a photo to another album, as shown in the image below.
Previously, Facebook did not give users the ability to move a photo from one album to another.
Luckily, we now have an option to move photos!!!
As shown in the new image below, Facebook has added a menu item to “Move To Other Album”.
Facebook finally gave us an intuitive way to move a photo from one album to another.
To move a photo from one album to another, just click the “Move To Other Album” link in the dropdown menu. In the popup that opens, select the other album where you want the photo to be moved to.
In the image below, my photo would be moved to the “Camelback Mountain” album. Once moved to that album, all the permissions for that album would be applied to the photo.
Select the album where you want to move your Facebook photo to.
Once you move the photo, you will notice that it disappears from your new album, because Facebook moved it into the album that you selected.
The new album is empty because I moved the photo from the new album to the target destination.
Yeah…but do I have to create a new album every time??
Absolutely not. If you already have a photo in an album that you want to move into another album, just do this:
1) First, decide on which album you want to move the existing photo from. You can see the full listing of your current albums by choosing the “Albums” section at the top of your photo gallery.
The albums section of you phot gallery will help you choose the album where the photo you want to move currently resides.
2) Next, click the album where the image currently resides. In my case, I am moving an image out of the “Camelback Mountain” album and back into the Iceland 2019 album.
3) Find the photo you want to move and locate the small drop-down image in the upper-right corner. Click that and choose “Move To Another Album”
Just edit the photo and choose to move it to another album.
4) Select the new album and then click “Move Photo” and you should be all set!
Deleting Photos From An Album
But what if a photo is just too embarrassing or isn’t something you want posted on Facebook anymore? You can delete a photo by locating the photo, clicking the dropdown menu on the upper-right corner and selecting “Delete This Photo”.
Facebook will ask you to confirm, and then once you delete it…it’s gone from your albums. Keep in mind, however, that it may not be gone from Facebook forever, though.
Buckle up…here comes some legal-speak. But it’s important that you understand whether your Facebook photos are REALLY deleted from Facebook.
According to their terms of use the types of information Facebook collects from/about you is not limited to just your status updates, but also includes the photos you upload:
Information we receive about you
We receive a number of different types of information about you, including:
Your information Your information is the information that’s required when you sign up for the site, as well as the information you choose to share.
Registration information: When you sign up for Facebook, you are required to provide information such as your name, email address, birthday, and gender. In some cases, you may be able to register using other information, like your telephone number.
Information you choose to share: Your information also includes the information you choose to share on Facebook, such as when you post a status update, upload a photo, or comment on a friend’s story.
Be aware that even if you remove a photo from Facebook, they might still have the right to use it. Click To Tweet
This might seem silly to mention, but you’ll understand where I’m going with this when you read what you agree to allow Facebook to do with that information once you upload it to the site. In the “How we use the information we receive:” section of their Terms of Use, Facebook states:
Granting us this permission not only allows us to provide Facebook as it exists today, but it also allows us to provide you with innovative features and services we develop in the future that use the information we receive about you in new ways.
While you are allowing us to use the information we receive about you, you always own all of your information. Your trust is important to us, which is why we don’t share information we receive about you with others unless we have:
received your permission;
given you notice, such as by telling you about it in this policy; or
removed your name or any other personally identifying information from it.
So, while this sounds all well and good, what Facebook is saying is that once you upload a photo to Facebook, it is theirs to use as they please.
Why? Because they have already given you notice that they can use your photo because they have included notice about it in their terms of use. Circular and tricky, right? Right.
My point in telling you this is to remind you that just because you delete something from Facebook, doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. Who knows, that embarrassing photo of you at the office party might actually show up in Facebook’s marketing materials because you uploaded the photo and Facebook chose to include it under their “innovative features and services we develop in the future…” clause.
Just to set the expectation, understand that something uploaded to and then deleted from Facebook isn’t necessarily deleted forever.
Hopefully, that helps clear up the process of adding/editing/moving/deleting photos within your Facebook albums. If you see something that isn’t clear or have an additional tip to help others out, be sure to leave a comment!
Cheers!
–Sean
Side Note: Solutions To Other Frustrating Facebook Problems
Quite a few people have emailed me or reached out to me via comments/social about other frustrating issues with Facebook. If you’re experience any of the issues below, here are the links to the articles to help solve them:
Getting Rid of The Messenger Popup Notifications On Facebook Desktop/Browser version
Organizing Facebook Photos Located In a GROUP Photo Album
Downloading And Reviewing Your Facebook Personal Data
Figure Out Who Is Following You On Facebook And Considering Why It Matters
Adding Symbols or Emojis To Your Facebook Posts
Sharing A Facebook Post On Twitter
Posting A Tweet To Facebook
Switching Your Facebook Feed To Show Most Recent Chronological Posts, Instead Of Top Stories
Searching Your Facebook Feed For A Specific Post
Viewing Facebook Messenger Without Installing The App
Clearing the annoying Facebook Messenger app icon
Changing Your Facebook View From Mobile To Desktop On A Tablet
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[Updated 2019] Facebook Tip: Organizing, Moving and Editing Your Photos And Albums Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/2m85qhB
What Steps Should I Take When My Instagram Engagement Is Dropping?
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean What Steps Should I Take When My Instagram Engagement Is Dropping?
Sometimes, Instagram can really set you in a foul mood….
If you depend on social media platforms like Instagram as your marketing platform of choice, then you know how critical dropping engagement numbers can be for your brand. It can be frustrating and confusing because you’ve resisted the temptation of shortcuts and spam but still end up on the losing end.
If you have been there and seen the daily drop in the numbers, then you know the feeling. It’s like anger, mixed with panic, sprinkled with frustration. Many of us head for Google for answers and start typing things like:
Why is my Instagram engagement dropping off?
How do I get my Instagram engagement back?
What can I do to keep my Instagram followers engaged?
How do I know if Instagram has shadow-banned me?
Why aren’t my Instagram followers engaging?
Unfortunately, there are a lot of articles, but not a lot of answers. Instagram is a notoriously fickle social network and they make changes and even ban accounts without any real rhyme or reason. And it’s not like you can just pick up the phone and get answers from Instagram support.
Unfortunately, if you are seeing drops in engagement, it’s going to take hard work, time, and patience to get things going again.
So…roll up your sleeves and let’s get cracking!
If you want to get your Instagram engagement back to healthy levels, the tips below will help you get to the root of the problem and then work on what you need to do in order to improve your Insta engagement numbers, as well as preventing the same debacle from happening again.
Engage your squad to get your Instagram account going again
Something to note is the fact that according to a recently published study, everyone who’s on Instagram has been having problems with low engagement numbers since May 2019. Engagement numbers have been down by as much as 44% during June. The study only measured the values for posts appearing on feeds but not Instagram Stories.
So if your brand has been experiencing unusually low numbers during this period…well, it’s not just you. Maybe you just need to get your crew together and have an engagement party to get those likes, shares, and comments going again.
Let’s look at a few aspects you need to pay attention to when your Instagram engagement numbers are declining.
Steps To Follow When Your Instagram Engagement Is Down
It’s not the end of the world if you find that your engagement numbers are slipping. Also, it does not necessarily mean that you’ve done anything wrong.
However, having said that, there might be room to improve a few aspects of your Instagram campaign. Below are several things you can do to alleviate the engagement drought.
Step 1 – Post relevant and quality content
Quality of content is critical to any social media platform and more so with Instagram. As more and more users adopt Instagram as their photo-sharing channel of choice, you have to up your game and ensure that your photos are worthy of attention.
Make sure your Instagram posts are in alignment with your audience expectations.
Now is a good time to audit the posts on your feed and make sure that they align with your brand and have high-quality imagery. It’s a good idea to make sure that future posts are thoroughly analyzed before being updated on your feed.
Don’t just post anything. Have a strategy, understand your audience, and give them photos that resonate with them. For instance, my wife and I recently started a new travel blog and we created an Instagram that goes with it.
On that account, we share our trip photos, recommendations of places to stay, and ideas for things to do while visiting a destination. We work hard to stay on topic, because that is what our audience expects.
If your account is a travel account, it’s likely that photos of your pets at home aren’t going to perform as well. If you usually post about food and recipes, then posts about your kids might not strike a chord with your followers.
It’s not that you can’t post off-topic photos, just be prepared that they might not get high engagement numbers.
Step 2 – Don’t forget to add an actionable bio
Perhaps the only place you can add a link on Instagram right from the start is your bio, so don’t let it go to waste.
If you haven’t done it already, make sure that you add a link to your brand home page, your most helpful blog post, or any other resource that your audience might find of value.
The Flatlanders In Instagram account makes it clear that the profile is about travel and has a website link.
Of course, there are options to add URLs to stories once your Instagram business account has more than 10k followers. But, the bio is something that is accessible to everyone, and it makes sense to optimize your URL and add CTAs to draw in further engagement.
If your account does have the ability to add URLs to stories, then most certainly take full advantage of it.
Step 3 – Avoid weak captions
Captions are an important cog in the Instagram content machinery. Many brands think that just vivid imagery will get the job done, but captions are equally essential to get maximum engagement.
Make sure that your caption is strong and aligns with the photo.
This is also where you can be creative and add more personality to your brand image. Think through your caption.
Does it compliment the photo? Does it add a humorous note that your audience might enjoy? Does it align with the overall communication tone and voice that you use on other channels?
Photos don’t have to be long and windy (although it does appear that Instagram likes long captions). Try differing caption lengths and styles and find the ones that work for your audience.
Be deliberate in your captions and they will help your photos get noticed in search, while potentially sparking engagement with your current audience.
Step 4 – Resist The Temptation To Artificially Inflate Your Numbers
Sites like Fiverr are tempting when your engagement numbers are down, because they advertise the ability to quickly buy likes, comments, and follows. DON’T do that.
All you are going to do is pollute your hard work of building an organic audience and fill your follower list with a bunch of bot accounts. Trust me, Instagram knows when your engagement or following suddenly spikes and they can be brutal in their locking of Instagram accounts.
Just be patient and take the time to organically increase your followers and comment/like their posts.
The more followers you have engaging with your posts by liking them, the more you’ll attract users who’ll do the same. However, it’s crucial to do this in moderation as the aim is to get other people to also engage with your posts because they find it credible enough.
Step 5 – Use Calls-to-Action In Your Posts
Calls to action can be used to direct people to something specific you want them to do, like clicking a link or tagging a friend. When done right, CTAs can effectively redirect a lot of traffic to where you want.
The downside with CTAs is that if you are not going to be creative with it, you might just appear pushy and not a lot of people are going to appreciate that. The key is to offer them value for interacting with your content.
Spend time writing good captions that really inspire your audience to engage with your post through a like or a comment.
Step 6 – Stick to optimal Posting Times
Posting times are critical on Instagram to draw optimal engagement numbers, and they vary across niches and geotags. This means that there is no “right time” to post that works for all brands.
You can find optimal times to post for your niche online with a little research. Sprout Social has come up with a comprehensive guide on Instagram posting schedules that can help you.
Step 7 – Don’t repost old content
Unless it’s part of an occasional #throwback or other themes, reposting old content does not do your brand (or your engagement rate) any favors. The best method to keep followers happy would be to come up with fresh, high-quality content that aligns with your brand that you know people are going to enjoy.
Don’t make your Instagram followers yawn by re-posting old photos.
Throwback Thursday posts are fine occasionally, but don’t just keep re-hashing the same old content over and over. It’s a path that will lead people to unfollow your account.
Step 8 – Post stories and videos
If there is one type of content that can increase engagement and significantly help marketing efforts, it has to be video. Owing to the availability of faster internet, video has become the prime choice for engagement as far as marketers are concerned.
Video generates more comments and views than images for a brand. Stories, which are videos that have a short lifespan, have also been a revelation as far as engagement numbers are concerned at bringing in high numbers on the platform.
Take the time to create fun Instagram stories that catch your audience’s attention. Ask them questions and post polls. Add interactive elements to your Instagram stories and your audience will engage.
Step 9 – Avoid Too Many Sponsored and Product Posts
While putting up an occasional sponsored post is good for engagement, too many would erode credibility and result in your audience losing interest with your feed. The same goes for product posts as well.
People are looking at brands on Instagram to provide a more personal experience regarding their own business rather than just pushing their products.
Step 10 – Interact with your Followers
One reason why people follow brands on social media is because they get to communicate with them as well as address issues they have quickly and promptly. It is vital that you find the time to respond to a few of your followers on your feed if not all of them.
Be sure to engage with your Instagram audience. When they ask questions, answer them.
This shows your followers and the people reading that you care about what people think of your brand which can improve your brand’s reputation.
Understanding The Strategic Use of Hashtags
Hashtags are of paramount importance when it comes to expanding your Instagram reach. Improper use of hashtags can also be a reason why your account seems to have declining numbers when it comes to engagement. There are a few instances when hashtags can go wrong.
Banned or restricted hashtags
Some hashtags are overused to the extent that posts using them can actually be shadow-banned. Needless to say, you shouldn’t use them on your post even if they seem relevant.
A few of them are #adulting, #dogsofinstagram, #parties, and #valentinesday.
Avoid repeated hashtags
Another aspect you need to look out for is repeating hashtags on every post. Most marketers simply copy-paste their tags on every post they upload. This can definitely lead to shadow-bans as of the last few updates.
Repeating the same hashtags, even if they are legitimate, on several posts can be bad for your Instagram account.
More Solutions
If you’ve already tried those to no avail, here are a few more tips that you can look into to solve the glut with engagement plaguing your Instagram account.
Keep calm for a few days. Take a break and relax.
One way to reset shadow-bans on your account that can work is stepping away from your account for a few days or sometimes weeks. This is not very easy to do, especially when you have a brand account, but sometimes when all else fails, this can work.
Post to your personal account
If you have a personal account that you can use instead of your business account, then you should use that instead for a bit. Let your brand or business account rest for a few days and just post some personal photos, instead.
Read and Understand Instagram’s Terms of Use
Instagram is pretty single-minded when it comes to their terms of service. Taking another look at it is a good idea to make sure that you haven’t done anything that isn’t in accordance with it.
Conclusion
Instagram engagement can sometimes be a fickle mistress – it’s not easy to get it right all the time. There are several reasons that your brand may not be doing well on Instagram, and sometimes, it might not even be something that you did or didn’t do.
These tips can help you out when it comes to getting better engagement, but you should remember that there are no quick fixes. It will take a few days for results to show. The key is not to be disheartened and keep at it even if the results don’t show up immediately.
Do let us know in the comments if they worked for you, and share strategies that you use to get your Instagram engagement back on track.
Cheers!
–Sean
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What Steps Should I Take When My Instagram Engagement Is Dropping? Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/30C75KF
Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC
No doubt about it…the growth of the digital space has fueled growth in online education.
With high-speed internet (HSI) become more commonplace in homes around the world, people are leveraging HSI to enroll in online bachelor’s degrees, online courses for professional development or in a massive open online course (MOOC) to expand their knowledge.
Online learning is definitely a hot topic and those willing to spend the time and energy to put together a well-developed, informative course offering can actually generate a lot of interest…and a lot of traffic.
But what if your course just isn’t performing? You feel as though it has great content. You put the time and energy into building a curriculum that should appeal to your audience. Still, no one is finding it…therefore no one is enrolling.
It’s tough, but there can be many reasons that your online course is playing dead right now.
No askers – Meaning no one is able to find your course at all.
No buyers – Even if they do find your course, you may not be enticing them to convert to enroll.
Not even for-free takers – In this case, your call-to-action or course description isn’t even good enough to entice enrollment for free.
In each of these situations, the issue points to one primary problem…content. Not necessarily with the content you have created for the course itself, but with the content that is designed to generate interest in the course.
You know…the marketing content.
NOTE: Before you roll your eyes and sigh that you “aren’t a marketer”, you need to understand that EVERYONE who is trying to attract and convert users needs to be a marketer. If you want your course to succeed, you need to learn about marketing, engagement, retention, and conversion. These fundamentals will help you better understand what is needed to attract, retain, and enroll your attendees.
Let’s assume that your eLearning course is as awesome as it can get and yet you are unable to reach the heart of your target audience and encourage them into choosing it. What’s the plan? How are you going to get your course in front of the right audience? How will you convince them to give it a try? That’s where your marketing skills need to kick in.
Taking Analytical Approach To Driving Traffic To Your eCourse
The first step is to take the emotion out of your plan. YOU know it’s a great course, but you need to convince others that it will be valuable to them and to do that you need to think like them. ‘
Using simple mathematics, it’s easy to break down the goals of your eCourse if you think through the student journey.
Step 1 In The Student Journey – Discovery – potential students learn about your course either through organic search or word-of-mouth positive experiences from previous students.
Step 2 In The Student Journey – Exploration – those potential students explore your course details and determine that the course would advance their understanding of the topic.
Step 3 In The Student Journey – Enrollment – the potential student enrolls and pays the enrollment fee.
Step 4 In The Student Journey – Attendance/Completion – the student downloads or participates in the online course and completes the requirements.
Step 5 In The Student Journey – Advocacy – course and tells others about the positive experience.
Sounds easy, right? It can be if you understand that good content that is optimized for the search engines can help prospective students find your course and it can also convince them to enroll.
Understanding The Essence Of SEO And How It Impacts Your ECourse
Search engine optimization is just that…optimizing your content so the Google search algorithm places your pages at the top of the search engine results (also known as SERPs). While you definitely want your content to be user-focused, if you don’t take time to also tune it for the search engines, it may not perform well in the SERPs, making your eCourse difficult to find.
SEO is an uneven blend of skills, science, and art which may seem shaky in the beginning but works its charm over time and in the best way possible. Think of SEO as the “gift that keeps on giving”. If you write well-structured content and it is listed, then the effort of writing it will be seen in a high number of prospective students.
The challenge for eCourse developers is that potential students are often overwhelmed with content coming in from all directions. They see ads for eCourses, hear about them from friends or family, see them in emails and maybe even on social media sites like Facebook or Pinterest.
What you need is to find a way to capture the student’s attention at that point when they are ready to cut through the noise and enroll. At that point, it’s highly likely that they are conducting a Google search using terms like:
What is the best eCourse for learning about marketing?
Good eCourse for building a web-based business
Best online course for using Pinterest
Review of online course to understand email marketing
At that point, they are searching for the answer and you want your content to be front and center. You want them to FIND you.
There are a couple of things you need to be aware of, however, when it comes to developing your content and optimizing it for SEO.
First, remember that you should write for your audience, first! That means the content should be written in plain language, at the appropriate reading level for visitors. Don’t try to stuff keywords into your content in order to make it more attractive to the search engines. Doing so might actually result in a search engine penalty, rather than traffic.
Do you research, write a helpful, well researched article and ensure that it includes the appropriate keywords and uses the best practices for search engine optimization.
The second thing to keep in mind is that SEO requires a high level of patience, perseverance, and keyword research. Patience and perseverance are something you are going to have to develop on your own, but keyword guidance is something that I can help with.
Making The Right Keyword Choices To Attract Potential Students
The basic process of keyword research goes like:
Brainstorming possible ecourse or elearning keywords
Filtering out low performance keywords that don’t align directly with your specific course curriculum
Researching the most relevant keywords that also might be under-served (meaning a lot of content isn’t available already)
Checking the search volume for each of the remaining terms to narrow down the final keywords.
Carefully placing those keywords in your article in a way that you aren’t over-using (aka “stuffing”) them.
However, the heart of this entire process lies in the first step itself – Brainstorming.
The process of keyword research always sparks the old “chicken or egg” conundrum of SEO. Do you write your article first and then research the keywords that would help the article perform well? Or do you research the keywords first and then write the article with the keywords in mind?
In reality, it’s a bit of both.
I prefer to write a rough draft of the article first, see how it evolves during the drafting process, and then research keywords that would help elevate the content. It is difficult to imagine the best possible keywords without understanding the user’s search engine behavior and trends, so it’s helpful to have the beginnings of the article drafted and then image who would be reading the content and what search terms they might have used to locate it in the SERPs.
As you brainstorm the searches that the visitor might have used to find the content, consider that there are three fundamental categories of search engine queries that the users tend to search for:
Navigational queries: When the user wants to reach a particular web address, like social media channels.
This means typing in “Facebook” or “ESPN”. In these cases, the user knows exactly what they want and where they want to go.
Actionable queries: When the user has an actionable intent in mind, like booking a table in a restaurant.
These are queries like “what is the best Italian restaurant in Chicago” or “coffee shops near me”.
Informational queries: When the user is looking to learn about certain topics or categories, like how does the internet work?
These are the searches for content that will help the user solve a problem like “how do I report a fake Facebook friend request” or “are there eCourses that will help me learn to build a website?”
Researching keywords for eLearning
Researching the keywords related to your industry not only helps you to form a good search engine marketing strategy but also educates you about the trends among your target audience and your competitors rankings.
These keywords will help you in developing a more relevant course with the audience in mind as well as fuel potential targeting keywords for any paid media, PPC, or social media advertising campaigns.
While finalizing your keywords, you must keep the following points in mind:
The relevance of the selected keyword to your content – Whether you deal with simple educational courses or complex workplace safety training courses, the keywords must be relevant to your content and the reader.
A potential customer or client’s likelihood of searching for the specific keyword
Would the person searching for this keyword be able to find the answer to their query on your website?
Look To Your Competitors For Keyword Guidance
One of the best ways to find the most relevant keywords is by evaluating the ones your competitors are ranking on. And if you find paid advertisements with certain keywords, then those keywords are even more valuable and capable of converting sales.
If you are able to understand what content is allowing your competitor to rank, and then create better, more informative content that helps your target audience, then you may be able to outrank them and direct their traffic to your content.
For finding the best keywords, you can follow these steps:
Create a list of topics – Any number of categories that you believe are crucially related to your industry. It should be based on your reader’s preference or what you cater to.
Check out the “related searches” – Google’s suggested keyword searches based on your search query will also tell you the trending keywords.
heck competitors ranking – This might require the help of professional paid tools for better results but it is one of the most important steps in keyword research. It will also give you quicker and easier results. The aim of this exercise is to find the sweet spot of keywords – between the ones which are difficult to rank on due to competition and those which are fairly easy to rank on.
Filter the list: To make your life simpler, you can use tools like Google AdWords or AHrefs and shorten the gargantuan keyword list.
Understanding The Important Of Keyword Placement
Once you have your list of perfect keywords, it is time to deploy this army at the sweetest spots that will help you MOOC to attract attention and enroll students.
Your website’s name and address – URLs play a pretty significant role when it comes to making your eLearning website rank higher on SERPs. This is why the name of your website matters. For all the web pages that you want to rank on search engines, always keep in mind that an SEO-friendly URL will always rank better and allow the readers to know the nature of your eLearning course or MOOC in a much better way.
As custom elearning providers, for maximizing the reach of your course, you must consider including the page keywords in the URL of those pages as well. For instance, being a corporate sales training course provider, you can purchase a website URL, like http://bit.ly/33ScRdL or you can use it for landing pages, like http://bit.ly/2TWUIa9
The page titles – Title tags are the page titles that you see in your search results which you click on to land on any page. And these titles are important for search engines to decide the relevance of your website/page for a particular search result.
Simply put, these titles tell google about your work and then Google tells about it to other people. A good title can grab the user’s attention quickly and make them click on your page besides appearing (read-Ranking) in Search results. And the non-complicated and straightforward titles work the best.
Meta Descriptions – The two-sentences-long descriptions below the Title tags in a search result are 160 characters long meta descriptions that play an important role in making your course rank on top.
These descriptions offer a brief about your course and can be made stronger with keywords easily. And while Meta descriptions cannot contribute to the ranking of your pages directly, they can be crucial for your website’s CTR (click-through rate).
Within The Content – Apart from these rules, optimizing the images used in your course, their captions and the sub-headings (H1, H2, H3) of your on-page content can also play vital roles in making your MOOC reach a wider audience. The key to good SEO is not just focusing on increasing the reach radius but increasing the relevance of your reach as well.
In the end, the people who land on your online course must have something to gain from it and you must gain something from them.
A Few Final Thoughts
Creating online content like MOOCs is not an easy task, but for those who do it successfully, it can be an exciting, engaging activity. Creating the course curriculum and content, however, is only half the exercise.
To be successful in the world of eLearning, you need to not only play the role of an educator, but also that of a marketer. Be willing to spend the time to understand your potential audience and then develop marketing content that will not only attract potential students, but also convince them to enroll.
Best of luck with your eLearning activities, I hope these tips helped!
Christopher Pappas is the Founder of eLearning Industry’s Network, which is the largest online community of professionals involved in the eLearning field. Christopher holds an MBA and an MEd (Learning Design) from BGSU.
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Using SEO To Grow Traffic And Increase Enrollment In Your Massive Open Online Course Or MOOC Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/33PLnpj
[ANSWERED] How Do I Save Groups Of Hashtags For Reuse On Instagram?
SocMedSean - Social.Media.Sean [ANSWERED] How Do I Save Groups Of Hashtags For Reuse On Instagram?
Hey Sean,
Do you have any clever tricks for saving hashtags so they can easily be re-used on Instagram? I want to make it easy to copy and paste hashtags that I reuse and I need to have access to it on my mobile device since Instagram is such a mobile-focused app.
Thanks in advance!
–Michael
Now THIS is a great question!
In fact, it was a very timely question for a couple of reasons:
My wife and I are in the process of starting a new travel blog (check it out at FlatlandersIn.com if you like travel tips and photos).
When I received the question, we were just getting ready to take our family on a trip to Iceland and we had planned on posting a bunch of the photos on the @FlatlandersIn Instagram account.
Since the goal of the trip was to share our adventure and grow the following of the account, hashtags were definitely part of the process.
As you can see, hashtags and hashtag groups are an important part of exposing our content to a larger audience beyond our current followers.
Why Are Hashtags So Important To Instagram Success?
Like it or not, if you want to grow an audience on Instagram the right way (meaning NO buying of followers or skeevey follow/unfollow schemes), then you need to understand the important role that hashtags play.
While many people like to simply view the photos/stories in their feed of the accounts they follow, others really like to follow topics. As an example, I like to follow photos of topics like:
#Nature – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/nature/
#Outdoors – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/outdoors/
#Hiking – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/hiking/
#Photography – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/photography/
#Travel – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/travel/
When I search for any of those terms in the Instagram app, I can also view the most popular photos that use the hashtag, as well as the most recent photos. Additionally, I can follow the entire hashtag, which means that those photos that include the hashtag in their caption will also get included in my feed.
By searching for the “Photography” hashtag on Instagram, you can click the “Follow” button and photos posted with this tag will appear in your feed.
Cool, right?
That means, if you post your amazing photo of a hike and also include the #hiking hashtag, then your photo has the chance of showing up in the feed of anyone who is following the #hiking hashtag.
That means more exposure for your photo beyond just your followers.
NOTE: If your Instagram account is private, then hashtags won’t really expand your reach at all. Since your account is private, the photos will only be shown to the people who you have allowed to follow you. If you want to expand your following and the reach of your photos, make your Instagram account public.
Going Beyond The Hashtag To Harness The Power Of The Hashtag Group
The idea of using groups of hashtags kicks the concept of hashtag reach into overdrive. Rather than using just one or two hashtags, you can use a group of up to 30 hashtags in a single post to reach a broad range of potential viewers and possibly attract them to like your content or follow your account.
By incorporating more than one hashtag into each of your posts, you exponentially increase your potential reach and engagement.
As an example, if you were hiking while on vacation in Iceland, you might want to also include hashtags like:
#Iceland – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/iceland/
#WhenInIceland – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/wheniniceland/
#DiscoverIceland – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/discovericeland/
#IcelandTravel – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/icelandtravel/
#ExploreIceland – https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/exploreiceland/
By adding these hashtags to your post, it’s possible that it will be displayed to those who follow the hashtags. By thinking ahead and identifying a collection of highly-followed hashtags, you can potentially expose your Instagram photos to a lot of people.
Cool, right?
Adding a group of hashtags to your photo caption can help expose your photo a larger group, beyond your followers.
Well, it sounds cool until you have to type in 30 different hashtags every time you want to create a post.
One of the best parts of Instagram is how quickly you can publish your photos. Snap a pic, frame it properly, add a filter, add a caption…Boom! Published.
Having to type in 30 different hashtags can take quite a while, and add a bunch of extra work.
…And That’s Why We Save Instagram Hashtag Groups
So, let’s make this easier. Imagine that this is our hashtag group about hiking in Iceland:
#nature #outdoors #hiking #photography #travel #iceland #wheniniceland #discovericeland #icelandtravel #exploreiceland #visiticeland #everydayiceland #unlimitediceland #icelandphoto #icelandphotography #icelandair #ig_iceland #guidetoiceland #igersiceland #traveliceland #instatravel #wanderlust #guidetoiceland #icelandtoday #icelandadvice #whyiceland #exploreiceland #wonderlusticeland #wheniniceland #goiceland
It would suck to have to type all 30 of those hashtags every time you posted a photo. Yuck!
It would be so much easier if you could just flip over to an app where you had saved the hashtags and that’s why we need a solution that allows us to type the hashtags once and then copy/paste them into an app for saving and re-use.
Here’s the cool thing…you probably already have the app on your phone!
The Simple And Free Way To Save Hashtag Groups On Your Mobile Device
As my wife and I were planning our recent trip to Iceland, I knew that we would be posting a lot of photos to the @FlatlandersIn Instagram account and since we’re in the growth phase of the blog and the corresponding social media accounts, hash-tagging would definitely help us attract visitors and potential followers.
In preparation for the trip, I researched quite a few popular hashtags and created a group that I could re-use and customize for each photo.
NOTE: It’s important that you don’t just copy/paste the same hashtags over and over, as the Instagram algorithm can view that as spamming. Instead, what you want to do is leverage your hashtag group and customize it slightly for each photo. More on that in a few, but wanted to give you a quick heads-up that it’s important!
Once I had the hashtag group identified, I simply typed them into an email called “Good Iceland Hashtags” and emailed it to myself. Then, throughout the trip, I simply switched over to Gmail, searched for the email, and copied/pasted the hashtags into my Instagram post.
Send your Instagram hashtag group to yourself as a Gmail message. That way, you can easily find it and copy/paste the hashtag group into your photo caption.
Super-simple, right?
Hey, sometimes we don’t need another app installed on our phone. We don’t need a complex solution. We just need something simple and the Gmail solution worked for me throughout my Iceland trip.
What makes it even better is I forwarded the email to my wife in case she wanted to use the hashtag group for her personal Instagram photos. So the solution is simple, functional, and shareable.
Not sure I could ask for anything better.
A Note On Customizing The Hashtag Group For Better Targeting
As I mentioned in the note above, you want to make sure you customize each hashtag group before you post a photo to Instagram. This ensures that the caption/tags are customized and Instagram doesn’t view you as hash-spamming (I don’t think that’s a real word…but you get what I mean).
Trust me, the last thing you want to do is get your account banned by Instagram. Trust me, getting in contact with Instagram is not easy and you don’t want to deal with unblocking your account in the middle of your vacation.
Trust me, I have been through the whole ordeal of having an Instagram account blocked. You don’t want any part of that, so customize your hashtags so you don’t appear to be spamming.
So, let’s go back to that amazing image of your hike. Let’s assume that your hike is in Iceland and you are using the hashtag group above. What if the hike was also to a secluded beach? What if that secluded beach also had a hidden cave and an overhead waterfall with an amazing pirate-like cove? Wouldn’t it be great to include hashtags that also featured those elements?
What you want to do is paste your hashtag group into your post and then customize it to include those elements. Maybe something that looks like this:
#hiking #outdoors #nature #photography #travel #ilovetravel #goexplore #wonderfulplaces #beach #cave #cove #waterfall #hiddenplaces
NOTE: Remember, you are limited to 30 hashtags in your post, so if your hashtag group already has 30 items, you’re going to have to delete a few in order to fit your new, tailored hashtags into the post.
So, with the custom hashtags, maybe your new hashtag group looks something like this:
#waterfall #cave #beach #privatecove #nature #outdoors #hiking #photography #travel #iceland #wheniniceland #discovericeland #icelandtravel #exploreiceland #visiticeland #everydayiceland #unlimitediceland #icelandphoto #icelandphotography #icelandair #ig_iceland #guidetoiceland #guidetoiceland #icelandtoday #icelandadvice #whyiceland #exploreiceland #wonderlusticeland #wheniniceland #goiceland
Still at 30 hashtags, and now I have some custom items that will keep Instagram happy.
One Important Note Before Pressing The “Post” Button In Instagram
One very important step to take before you press that “Post” button is to long-press your photo caption and click the “Select All” and then “Copy” link. This copies your entire photo caption and the hashtags to the memory of your phone.
Be sure to select and copy your entire Instagram description before you post it. This way, if something goes wrong you don’t have to do all the work again.
Once you have copied the caption, then click the “Post” button.
The reason for this is because if Instagram doesn’t like your caption, or you maybe miscounted and have 31 hashtags then Instagram will go ahead and post the photo without any description.
Yep…all that hard work to come up with a catchy caption and add your hashtags will go out the window.
Since you were smart and copied the caption to the clipboard on your phone, though, you can easily edit your photo and paste it back in and make any edits to get it back in-line with Instagram requirements.
Creating A Library Of Reusable Hashtag Groups For Future Use
The Gmail solution is a great one for most folks, but as I think about our upcoming trips, I wanted to create a library of hashtags that I could refer back to easily. When we return to Iceland in a couple of years, I want to be able to re-use that hashtag group without having to dig through Gmail.
Sure Gmail search is pretty amazing, but I want to create a place where I create a mini-library of these hashtag groups. The solutions that I’m going to try on our next trip are:
A folder on Dropbox that includes text files for each destination. So, I might create a folder called “Hashtag Groups” and then a sub-folder called “Iceland”. Inside the Iceland fold would be text files for any hashtag groups I’d like to use. This solution is appealing to me because I can share that Dropbox folder with my wife and she can access it on her mobile device, as well.
Using the Notes app on my Samsung Galaxy. It’s a nice app that allows me to create simple notes and would work well, but it wouldn’t be shareable like the Dropbox approach.
So, there you have it. I hope this article helped you understand a few things:
Why hashtags are so important to reach of your Instagram posts
How hashtag groups can amplify the reach of your Instagram photos
Why saving hashtag groups for re-use can make your life a lot easier when posting photos to Instagram
A surefire way to easily save, copy, and paste your hashtag groups to your Instagram photo captions
A couple of other options to consider trying if Gmail isn’t your thing.
Some tips for ensuring that your Instagram hashtags are posted properly (e.g. hashtag limits and copying the caption before posting).
If you have other ways of managing your hashtag groups for Instagram, feel free to share them in a comment. As always, feel free to ask questions via a comment or reach out via my contact form.
Cheers!
–Sean
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[ANSWERED] How Do I Save Groups Of Hashtags For Reuse On Instagram? Sean R. Nicholson.
This post originally posted at SocMedSean.com - SocMedSean – Social.Media.Sean http://bit.ly/31GSnD5