Wanderlust

My favorites!

Fotmasken är helt fantastisk och den tar verkligen bort gammal hud, förhårdnader etc. jag älskar den!!

Kattmasken är superkul men även helt okej vad gäller att få fräsch hy i ansiktet!

Perfekt för en förälder eller något som vill ha spa tid för huden, men vill ha kul med barnen samtidigt. Tänk dig att inkludera barnen i vilken ansiktsmask du ska använda!?
De finns katter, pandor, alpackor, leoparder allt!
Alla är för ”all skin types” så du kan använda dem oavsett om du är oljig, torr eller blandhy. Jag har blandhy och den funkade bra på mig.

Har du testat dessa produkter? Vad tyckte du?

Looking for simple ways to strengthen your Pinterest presence?

Wondering how to enhance your Pinterest content?

A few easy-to-implement changes can greatly increase the visibility, engagement, and sales generated by your pins.

In this post, you’ll discover three ways to improve your Pinterest boards and pins.

On a web page, have you ever noticed text appearing in place of an image? This text appears when your cursor hovers over the image, too. The technical name is image alternative text (or alt text). Many website images don’t include alt text or don’t optimize this text, even though doing so can benefit your social marketing on Pinterest.

When someone pins an image from your website, the alt text becomes the pin description. By adding alt text to images, you ensure the image automatically has a good description that will help drive engagement and click

Alt text can also help your image rank well in Pinterest search results. On Pinterest, people do 2 billion searches every month. The pins that appear in the top results will reap the benefits through repins and clicks. Pins that do well in search results have two things in common: keywords and repins.

Say you do a Pinterest search for bedroom design. In the search results, the top images have received lots of pins and the pin descriptions include the keywords “bedroom design,” “bedroom,” or “design.” Some results also have keywords in places like the comments, the rich pin headline, and so on.

The upshot is that when you add alt text to images, keywords for the pin description improve your images’ search performance. So if your image appears on a blog post about bedroom design, add this keyword to the image’s alternative text. If someone pins the image and it receives a lot of repins, the image will likely turn up in search results.

Write Image Alt Text

For the feature images for your blog, write alt text that piques curiosity. Your alt text might read like a headline.

You also want to include relevant search keywords and hashtags. Make sure the keywords you pick are relevant to the image and the page they lead to because you don’t want to confuse your audience. For help determining what keywords to use, check the search suggestions that appear on a Pinterest search results page.

As you keep clicking these suggestions, different search results will appear. These suggestions may help you think of other keywords to use as image alt text on your blog posts and web pages. You might use one keyword for some images and another keyword for other images.

Add Alt Text to Website Images

In any website’s HTML, an image’s alt text appears in the image tag’s “alt=” attribute. If you’re comfortable writing in an HTML editor, you can modify the alt text on any imageby changing the words that appear after the attribute.

If your blog or website runs on WordPress, you can click the Edit option and type the text into the Alternative Text box.

On Pinterest, people can follow either your whole feed or selected boards. Your Pinterest page likely has one or two boards with more followers than your other boards. By making your most popular board (or boards) the focal point of your Pinterest page, you can increase traffic and engagement.

Clearly, the most followed board is the one most people like, so it’s easier to get people to follow it. You can then interest the main board’s followers in your other boards, too.

When you place your most popular board in the top row of your Pinterest page, visitors will see that board first and be more likely to follow you. To make this board stand out in the top row, give it the most attractive cover image. Everyday Health placed its popular Healthy Living board in the first row so it gets a lot of attention. In fact, it’s the first board on the page.

Alternately, with Pinterest’s Showcase feature, you can highlight pins from a single board at the top of your Pinterest page. When visitors land on your Pinterest page, the showcase is one of the first things they see.

You can also try pinning more images to your top board. More people will see these pins, check out the board, and hopefully follow it. This technique can also help boost repins and traffic to your site. To increase the number of pins, make the board into a group board and invite contributors.

How Pinterest Followers Are Counted

The follower count displayed on your Pinterest page isn’t the total number of complete followers. That count is actually the total number of unique followers of all of the boards and entire page combined.

For example, Nordstrom’s Pinterest page shows 4.5 million followers, but most of its boards have around 600,000 followers. Our Favorite Things is the only board that comes close to 4.5 million, with 4.3 million followers. In other words, the followers aren’t following every board.

Crowdsourcing is a great way to drive up engagement. You get free content to share and a potential increase in sales.

For example, the luxury brand Coach asked customers on Instagram and Twitter to share a selfie taken while wearing their shoes, using the hashtag #coachfromabove. Everyone who submitted a photo had a chance to be featured in a gallery on the Coach website.

The campaign resulted in 629 users using the hashtag #coachfromabove on Instagram alone in 8 weeks. Conversions increased by 5% to 7% and the average order value increased by 2%. The campaign worked because it showed that Coach shoes look good on normal people, not just on models and in professionally edited photos.

Many brands other than Coach are taking advantage of user-generated content. For the Burberry Art of the Trench campaign, people share pictures of themselves in trenchcoats. Lululemon fans share content with the #thesweatlife hashtag.

Your business can take advantage of crowdsourcing by combining Instagram and Pinterest. People like sharing pictures of themselves on Instagram, but Pinterest drives more traffic and sales.

With this tactic, you crowdsource images from Instagram and then share them on Pinterest as product pins and buyable pins. However, before you share a user’s image, make sure you get permission from the person who owns the photo.

A great tool for executing a crowdsourcing campaign is Yotpo. Through your dashboard, you can find images on Instagram. Look for tall, portrait-oriented images because they get the highest engagement.

Pinterest recommends you use images with an aspect ratio of 2:3 with dimensions of 600 x 900 pixels. If you aren’t able to find a tall image that’s close to these ratios, you can send a photo request directly to your customers with Yotpo.

After you find an image, Yotpo helps you ask for permission to feature it on Pinterest or anywhere else. Then you can share the image on your Pinterest page and make sure it links back to a landing page where users can purchase the product.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to increase traffic or drive more sales organically, Pinterest is probably the best social network to focus on. It drives a healthy bit of social media traffic, and does this with only 150 million users, compared to Facebook’s 1.8 billion. Using the three tactics above can help you drive more traffic, sales, and engagement on Pinterest.

What do you think? Have you used any of these Pinterest marketing tactics? Which one has led to the best results? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Twitter is a powerful tool for businesses when used correctly. It can help you generate leads, solidify your branding, and build connections with your prospects. The trouble is, if you have no followers, you can’t experience all these benefits.

Having an active following on Twitter isn’t just about prestige, and followers aren’t just numbers. Twitter followers hold real value for businesses; in fact, 36% of marketers say they have gained a customer by using Twitter.

This article will examine at 50 ways you can increase your Twitter followers, and take advantage of the many benefits of Twitter. The strategies below all fit into one of the following 4 categories:

• Tweeting content that’s so enticing and/or informative that it’s likely to be retweeted
• Following others so they’ll follow you back
• Tweeting content in a way that it actually gets seen
• Promoting your Twitter account effectively

Twitter has a great paid ads option which is very effective for acquiring followers, but in this article we’ll only consider free options (since the paid one is pretty obvious). Don’t forget to add your best Twitter tips in the comments at the end of this post!

1. Follow more people. Research shows a correlation between the number of people followed and the number of followers.

2. Use a tool like Hootsuite or SproutSocial to schedule your tweets. Posting regularly will increase your engagement and visibility, thereby increasing your follower count.

3. Use Twiends to find new Twitter users you can connect with. Once you’re listed on the platform, other users with similar interests will also be able to find and follow you.

4. Optimize your Twitter bio. Users who want to find out more about you will inevitably visit your Twitter bio. Make sure it’s professional, complete and that it does a great job of representing you and your business.

5. Use links in your tweets. Tweets with links get more retweets than those without.

6. Use relevant keywords in your bio so you rank in Twitter search. Don’t forget to include your city or region name to attract local users.

7. Use relevant hashtags in your posts. Tweets with hashtags get at least 2x more engagement, and will help you attract new followers who are searching for those keywords.

8. Ask for retweets. Tweets that include “Please retweet” in their text get 4x more retweets.

9. Find people you know by uploading your email contacts to Twitter. They are likely to follow you back, especially since they know you in real life.

10. Include images with your tweets. Research suggests that tweets with images receive 18% more engagement than those without.

11. Promote your Twitter account on all your marketing materials. This includes your business cards, brochures, signs and of course, your website.

12. Use a headshot in your profile picture, not your logo. Nobody wants to follow a faceless brand. Show there’s a real person behind your brand by using a personal photo.

13. Use the Tweet This WordPress plugin to embed content boxes on your website or blog. These are great for getting your site visitors to tweet your content, expanding your reach and attracting new followers.

14. Promote your Twitter account on your other social media accounts. For best results, entice people by mentioning interesting discussions you’re engaged with on Twitter.

15. Tweet on the weekends. Dan Zarrella’s research indicates brands get 17% more engagement on the weekends than during the week.

16. Reference users in your tweets. When replying to or mentioning other users, be sure @mention them. People are much more likely to engage with your tweets when they’re mentioned by name.

17. Use a follow button on your website or blog. Why not make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to find you?

18. Tweet motivational or inspirational quotes. These are great for getting retweets.

19. Respond publically when your response would be useful to others. Instead of direct messaging responses to public questions, share your knowledge publically, @mentioning the person who asked.

20. Include a link to your @username in the author bio of your guest posts.

21. Listen in on relevant conversations: Using a tool like Social Mention, find out what other Twitter users are saying about your brand, products or industry. Respond or answer questions where appropriate.

22. @mention influential users when relevant. This may help catch their attention, leading them to follow you or even retweet your content. Here are some other strategies for getting influencers to follow you on Twitter.

23. Embed tweets in your website content. Display particularly interesting or popular tweets in a blog post to entice your website visitors to follow you on Twitter.

24. Participate in Twitter chats. Chats are a great way to engage with your customers and prospects on a deeper level. Follow those you meet in the chat, and they’re likely to follow you back.

25. Pin an eye-catching tweet to the top of your stream. When people check out your profile, show them the best-of-the-best to entice them to follow you.

26. Find new followers using Ignitwit. Choose the topics you’re interested in and receive a list of users you should follow. They will even tell you who has chosen not to follow you back…giving you the ability to unfollow uninterested parties.

27. Ask your email subscribers to follow you on Twitter. Let them know about interesting discussions, chats or topics they can expect to find if they follow you.

28. Help others rather than just pushing your own stuff. Twitter is about helping, making connections and providing great content, not about selling your stuff. Become known as someone who puts the needs of others first, and your follower count will grow organically.

29. Use Twitter search to find users who share your interests. Follow them, engage with their content and wait for them to follow you back!

30. Participate in Follow Friday (#FF). Regularly add new followers and suggest users others should follow. Getting connected and being a connector are both key to increasing your follower count.

31. Retweet influencers and give valuable feedback. Check out this post for details on how to use this technique to get influencers to notice and follow you!

32. Tweet the same content multiple times. Moz estimates the lifespan of a tweet at around 18 minutes. How many of your followers are actually on Twitter in those 18 minutes? Tweet out your links multiple times over the course of a day or two to give your tweets as much visibility as possible.

33. @mention users in your tweets, asking them for input. It’s hard to resist responding to a question when you’re asked by name!

34. Link to your Twitter profile on your other social media profiles.

35. Always reply to questions. Not only is this just good etiquette, but it sends the signal that you actually notice and care about your followers, and that you’re worth following.

36. Post engaging, informative content. This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Posting what you had for lunch, or your opinions about world politics, or random thoughts about life are fine, but without a solid base of valuable, relevant content, your follower count will never increase.

37. Utilize social proof by embedding a follow button with a counter on your website or blog.

38. Tweet often, but not in bursts. A Korean research study showed that a common reason why people unfollow is due to too many tweets in a short period of time.

39. Try tweeting between 1pm and 3pm when Twitter traffic is at its peak.

40. Be a generous retweeter. People like to know you’re not only listening, but that you’re willing to spread the Twitter love. The more you retweet, the more likely you are to be retweeted, and the more followers you’re likely to attract.

41. Add questions in your retweets (if possible) to increase engagement and visibility.

42. Share news that’s relevant to your audience. News is one of the most retweeted types of content.

43. Regularly offer your followers exclusive coupons. 94% of Twitter users follow brands for the discounts and promos.

44. Don’t buy fake followers! While it may be tempting to boost your numbers by paying for fake followers, these followers will never add any value to your business. Not only that, but engaging in this process may lead to your account being suspended.

45. Use Followerwonk to find new people to connect with, and to find out which activities typically drive the most new followers to your account.

46. Find and follower your LinkedIn connections on Twitter. Here’s how to do it.

47. Make sure you have a tweet button next to each and every post on your blog.

48. Don’t focus on yourself. Tweets that contain a self-reference get retweeted less often than those that don’t.

49. Use Twitter cards to increase visibility and engagement. Add some simple code to your site, and anytime someone tweets your content, the rich media you’ve included (images, videos, etc.) will show alongside their tweet.

50. Use words like ‘you’, ‘twitter’, ‘please’ and ‘retweet’, that are more likely to get retweeted. Some words to avoid in your tweets? ‘Game’, ‘going’, ‘haha’ and ‘lol’.

If you’re serious about increasing your Twitter followers, the #1 piece of advice I can give you is this: Regularly tweet a variety of helpful and relevant content. Following this simple maxim will be your best bet to getting the most clicks, retweets and followers. It’s not rocket science, and even small businesses with non-existent budgets can thrive by following this one rule.

#1: Commit to Posting to YouTube Multiple Times Per Week

Recent reports have shown that YouTube channels that post more than once a week are performing much better and getting more recommended views. If possible, post a video to YouTube three or more times per week, especially if you’re just starting out and trying to build an audience. Keeping a regular schedule with multiple posts per week can quickly raise your channel in the algorithm.

Creating a ton of content in the beginning on similar topics will help your channel perform well in the algorithm, and also create a library of content that will usher viewers from one video to another, boosting your watch time and giving them a reason to subscribe.

You might be making Oscar-worthy short films and videos, but if each video takes 6 months to produce, your videos aren’t going to grow your YouTube channel. Regular video uploads at familiar times are what bring people back for more.

Whatever kind of videos you want to make, choose content that you can develop and create on a regular basis and find ways to streamline your production workflow, whether it’s setting up a studio, creating an editing template, or hiring assistants or a production team. Keep refining your topics and production workflow until your process is a well-oiled machine.

Tip: One of the best things you can do is set up a small video studio so when it’s time to shoot, you can simply turn on the lights and get started.

How you hook viewers depends on you and your content. If a video features a project of any kind, show the end result first. A stunning result makes people more interested to see how you achieved it. This approach is great for DIY and makeover videos. For instance, Cute Girls Hairstyles always begins by showing the end result before explaining how to create a hairstyle.

Stories are another way to pique viewers’ interest. People are hardwired for stories. When you start your video with a story, people will naturally want to stick around to see what happens. Plus, personal stories endear the presenter to the viewer and can often provide a helpful segue to more complicated ideas.

To demonstrate, Michael from VSauce is a master at starting his videos with an intriguing story or idea that leads into the subject matter.

However you hook viewers, make sure your opener relates directly to the subject matter. Viewers clicked because they were interested, so quickly get into the subject they wanted to hear about in the first place.

You may have seen YouTubers create intrigue by starting with a story or fact that seems completely off-topic and then connecting it to the topic. This tactic works best when you already have a large audience that trusts you.

Attention spans are short. A long title or credit sequence at the beginning of a video can cause people to lose interest. Also, a long opener discourages binge watching because people don’t want to watch the same long sequence over and over.

Instead, make your opening title and credits short and punchy. Make the whole opener no longer than 5 seconds. As a great example, Crystal Joy’s title sequence is short, sweet, and delightfully quirky.

End screens are interactive graphics that link to another video, playlist, channel, or web page, or prompt someone to subscribe to your channel. As the feature name suggests, you can add end screens only in the last 20 seconds of your video, so you have to plan where the end screens will appear.

One option is to frame the subject of your video in such a way that you have room for end screens. Talking over the end screen will continue to engage the viewer.

Or you can add a slate with an image or logo where you can place the end screens. This option is useful if you don’t want the end screen to interfere with your content.

End screens tend to work best if the on-screen presenter is still talking and giving information to the viewer. If you just cut to a screen with a color or design and no new information, viewers are likely to click off of the page. YouTube viewers are somewhat conditioned to do that now. If you continue to provide information, it will give viewers a reason to stick around.

Extend Session Length With a Video or Playlist End Screen

Because YouTube wants to keep people on the platform, session length is important to the algorithm. Session length is the amount of time a viewer spends watching videos. If you add to session length by sending viewers to another YouTube video or playlist (even if it’s not one of yours), your video will be boosted in the algorithm.

Put some thought into where viewers will go after watching your video and send them there via end screens (and links in the video description).

To add an end screen in Creator Studio, open Video Manager, click the drop-down arrow next to the video to which you want to add the end screen, and select End Screen & Annotations.

Another way to get to the Info & Settings screen is to click any of your videos in Creator Studio and select End Screen & Annotations at the top of the page.

On the End Screen & Annotations page, the timeline will automatically snap to 20 seconds before the end of the video. To add an end screen that will extend session time, click Add Element and then click the Create button next to Video or Playlist.

Next, choose from one of three options for adding your playlist:

• Most Recent Upload will link to your most recent video.
• Best for Viewer will let Google select the best video based on the viewer’s past viewing habits.
• Choose a Video or Playlist lets you choose the video or playlist where you want to send the viewer.

Research has shown that Best for Viewer works really well. That’s not surprising because this option is based on the person’s individual viewing habits. But if the video is part of a series, make sure you point viewers to the next video in that series or to a playlist so they can watch the entire series in sequence.

Promote Your Channel or Website With Subscription, Channel, or Linked End Screens

If you add a video or playlist end screen, you’re also able to add other types of end screens. As shown above, you can add a subscribe, channel, or linked end screen. (Note that if you want to show only a subscribe link or a link to your website on the end screen, you’re out of luck. You must include a link to a video or playlist.)

A subscribe end screen will insert a link for people to subscribe to your channel. This end screen is round and by default shows your profile picture. There’s really no reason not to include a subscription button.

Make sure you point viewers to the subscription button in some way, because nothing on it tells the viewer what it is. You can explain what the subscription end screen is by talking on-screen or including a graphic that explains the end screen’s purpose.

A channel end screen lets you promote another channel, which is especially useful in collaborations. If the video is a collaboration with another creator, you can link viewers to their channel as well as your own, as shown in the example below. If you just want to point people to a channel you admire, you can do that, too.

A linked end screen allows you to add a link to an associated website, including merchandising sites, crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter or Patreon, or your own website.

An associated website needs to be one you own, and YouTube has a process for setting up an associated site. After you set up your website with YouTube, you can send viewers literally anywhere via redirects. Plugins for WordPress make creating the redirects easy.

As a general marketing rule, the more calls to action (CTAs) you provide, the less likely people are to choose any of them. Thus, it’s a good idea to add no more than three linksto your end screen.

Tip: As you think about what end screens to use, focus on your goal for the video. Do you want to get more subscribers? Boost your channel in the algorithm? Sell something? Having a goal in mind from the beginning is a good habit to develop. That way you can craft your video and optimization around that goal.

Import an End Screen Template From a Previous Video

After you refine your end screen strategy, you can save time by importing a template from a previous video. All you have to do is click Import From Video and select the videofrom which you want to import end screens. This feature makes applying end screens fast and easy, especially if you have an end screen template that performs well.

To monitor the success of your end screen elements and refine your strategy based on your data, open Analytics in Creator Studio and select End Screens to see which perform best. Then, obviously, do more of what works.

Adding End Screens Versus Annotations or Cards

Until very recently, the effect you created with end screens was built through annotations. Because annotations are burned into the video, you can’t edit them later. Also, annotations don’t work on mobile. However, end screens are mobile-friendly and YouTube will likely phase out annotations altogether in the coming years.

YouTube cards are different from end screens in that you can use them to link to something in the middle of the video. Indeed, YouTube says cards are suppressedwhile an end screen appears.

Long pauses, meandering talking, bouncing from one subject to another, or just being boring can make people start looking at the recommended videos for something more interesting. Keep tangents to a minimum, and if you do veer from the topic, make sure it’s engaging either visually or with a story. Don’t give viewers a reason to click away.

To simultaneously avoid distractions and keep your videos fast-paced and engaging, you can quickly cut from one shot to another like Devinsupertramp. To create cuts, you don’t necessarily need to film with multiple cameras. You can also use text or transitions that come with basic video editors.

Thumbnails, more than any other factor, can make or break your success on YouTube. Why? Suggested videos.

Suggested videos are the leading source of organic traffic on YouTube. As someone is watching a video on YouTube, your video thumbnail needs to stand out when it’s a suggested video in the right sidebar. When your video appears as a suggested video, YouTube is basically endorsing it by saying that someone watching some other video might enjoy your video as well.

Moreover, if your video attracts clicks as a suggested video, its clickability is likely to register with the YouTube algorithm. Remember that more than anything else in the world, YouTube wants viewers to click another video. So they’re going to recommend videos that are most likely to get that click.

Deliver on the Thumbnail’s Promise

First and foremost, make the thumbnail relevant to the video’s title and content. Nothing makes people click away faster than a video that has nothing to do with the thumbnail. Viewers feel tricked. You’ll not only alienate your audience, but you’ll also have low watch time, which the YouTube algorithm values most of all.

Make Viewers Wonder What’s Next

Try to tell a story with your thumbnails. Show an image that sets up or teases a situation. Make the viewer wonder what happens next, or what happened before. This Amy Schmittauer thumbnail with the words “I Quit” tells a story that complements the video title. If you can feature an image that contains some action or movement of some kind, even better.

Keep in mind that thumbnails are only half of the story. The other half is the title. A clever juxtaposition of title and thumbnail can go a long way toward increasing viewer interest.

Design Small

Many people create 1280 x 720 pixel video thumbnails as YouTube recommends. The images look great, but nobody ever sees a thumbnail at that size on YouTube. Although you want the pixel size to follow YouTube’s recommendation, you still have to design the imagery for a smaller viewing size.

To check how your thumbnail will really look on YouTube, always zoom out so you view the image on-screen at the size that it will appear on YouTube. You want to make sure the thumbnail image still makes sense and stands out when it’s the size of a postage stamp.

If not, a few simple image edits might help. Try cropping the image to a smaller area or making the colors super-saturated, as in the example here. Also, the Sharpen tool can define the edges of your image. At a large size, these edits might look bad, but at the size viewers will see, your image will stand out.

Create a Consistent Look and Feel

When all of your thumbnails have a consistent look, people can recognize your videos at a glance. This consistency might include a similar text font, a logo, familiar colors, a shape or design element, or the same person’s face. Whatever you choose, find something consistent and stick with the style on all of your thumbnails.

Consistency is powerful because it teaches people to look for that familiar element in your thumbnails, and if they like your content, they’ll be more likely to check it out. By adding a logo in a specific place, HP’s video thumbnails stand out at a glance:

Be Emotional

Excitement is the emotion that people respond to most. When we see someone showing enthusiasm, it makes us want to know why they’re excited and maybe join in so we’ll feel excited, too.

Nothing sells enjoyment more than the eyes, so show an excited face and focus on the eyes. Your video will get a much better response.

Ultimately, you won’t know if a thumbnail will work unless you test it. Create several options to test your thumbnails with Google AdWords.

Then spend $10 per day for about a week to see which thumbnail gets the highest view-through rate (VTR). This tactic is especially worthwhile if you’re running a campaign or taking advantage of a tentpole event.

In YouTube Analytics, the Suggested Video views can help you check on the success or progress of your thumbnails. To group the videos you want to test, open Creator Studio and go to Analytics > Overview. In the top right, click Groups and select Create Video Group from the drop-down menu

From there, you can create a group of similar videos.

Next, select Traffic Sources in the Analytics area and then Suggested Videos to see which video in your group performed best. Find similarities between the top-performing videos, build those elements into future thumbnails, and see how they work. You can learn a lot through this process.

There is no substitute for nose-to-the-grindstone research. Take a deep dive into your analytics to find out which videos get the most subscriber conversions per view. Look for patterns among them, such as subject, delivery, or editing style. Then make more videos like that.

To find your highest-converting videos in Creator Studio, go to Analytics, click Subscribers, and then click YouTube Watch Page.

If you want to get more detailed, you can get a subscriber ratio by dividing the number of subscribers by total number of views for each video. Be aware that the number will be really low because most people subscribe on the channel page.

Although you want to keep your credits short, make your actual video content as long as makes sense for your topic. Making long videos seems counterintuitive, given the famously short attention spans online. Indeed, shorter videos were considered better. But today, longer videos equate to more watch time, which boosts your content in the algorithm.

Ultimately, the right length for a video is just long enough to get all of the information across without padding your video. Don’t make a video longer just for the sake of making it longer because you’ll lose viewers. But you do want to develop your video content with longer videos in mind. In general, videos from 7-15 minutes tend to perform best.

PBS Space Time is a popular channel with many videos that fall into the general range of 7-15 minutes, but also has longer videos that go almost 20 minutes. You even find channels that regularly post 30-minute videos.

Understanding Watch Time

Watch time basically means the amount of time people spend watching your videos. The YouTube algorithm values watch time because YouTube believes that people will watch a video longer if it’s high-quality. If the video is low-quality or misleading, viewers will quickly click away.

When you audit your channel, the Audience Retention metric tells you the watch time for individual videos. Videos that have high audience retention will be promoted in the algorithm, and channels with high watch time (meaning their videos consistently get higher retention) will see their videos given more prominence on the platform.

Live-streaming is a great way to pump out content without spending a ton of time on it. Although live-streaming has a definite learning curve, after you’ve mastered the format, live video is the easiest way to create video content.

Live-streaming is heavily supported on all social media platforms. (On YouTube, the live video feature is YouTube Live.) This video format provides excellent engagement opportunities because you can communicate directly with your audience. Live video also has long watch times.

To start sharing live video, you can use your smartphone or webcam for live broadcasts. Even relatively inexpensive webcams can still provide high-quality video.

With the “Hub, Hero, Help” strategy, you post videos that have one of three goals: serving the community around the channel, being shareable, or performing in search. You add these videos to your content calendar at various intervals: post hub videos monthly, hero videos quarterly, and help videos weekly.

Hub videos are community-focused and designed to create a strong bond among your viewers and you, and your viewers and each other. In hub videos, you might respond to comments, answer questions, interact via live video, initiate projects that require viewer participation, or share personal stories that give fans a behind-the-scenes peek at your channel.

Hero videos are tentpole videos that are designed to be very successful. These videos often focus on topical subject matter like holidays and news events. Put extra effort into a hero video to increase the likelihood that people will share it on social media and/or blogs, and that other media pick it up.

Help videos are designed to have highly searchable content that provides actionable value. For example, create DIY, how-to, advice, and troubleshooting videos. For these, focus on search intent for discoverability.

For help choosing topics for both hero and help videos, Google Trends is an excellent resource for trending topics and highly searched content.

Nothing increases watch time like binge watching. Ultimately, you want to create a “lean back” experience for your viewers to go seamlessly from one of your videos to the next. Series playlists are one of the best ways to do this, and yet are an underutilized tool on YouTube. To use them, however, you need a series.

You can develop a series based on content that has performed well. Indeed, many successful YouTube channels have more than one series, each with a special topic focus and even different thumbnail image style. To illustrate, Roberto Blake uses one thumbnail style for unboxing and tech reviews, and another for tutorials:

As you post videos in your series, you can add them to a series playlist. When you use a series playlist, YouTube will automatically add the next video in the playlist to the Up Next section at the top of the recommendations. And if a viewer has autoplay turned on, the videos in your series playlist will play one after another.

To change a playlist into a series playlist in Creator Studio, open Video Manager and click Playlists.

One note about series playlists: Although a video can be in as many playlists as you want (and adding each video to at least three playlists is recommended), a video can be in only one series playlist. So make sure your series playlists are high-level categories and get more specific on your regular playlists.

Collaborations are videos that are shared among multiple content creators and are one of the most effective ways to expand your audience on YouTube. Whether you’re a brand or a YouTuber (or both!), working with another content creator will expose your channel to people who likely would never have heard of you.

Social proof has a strong influence on people. When a content creator collaborates with another creator, it’s an endorsement to their audience. It can be just enough for a viewer to check out your channel, and if they like your content, you’ve got a new subscriber.

People often forget that YouTube is first and foremost a social network. And some of the largest creators got popular by cross-promoting and working together. So while it may be easy to let your competitive side take over when you see a channel getting more attention or growing faster than yours, try to see their growth as an opportunity for you to grow along with them.

But you can’t collaborate with just anyone. You need to consider some finer points of collaborations when looking into this tactic to grow your channel.

Find Channels With Similar Audiences But Different Content

You want collaborators who have similar audiences but different content. Ask your viewers who else they enjoy watching and look for names and shared videos in the comments.

Also, tools like Social Blade can help you identify a channel’s size and demographicsand find who’s serving the same audience as you. The metrics you want to look for include age, gender, interests, location, and engagement.

The most successful YouTube collaborations are with channels that have a similar audience but cover entirely different content from yours, because the audience won’t get a repeat of your subject matter on their channel. The fact is that all of us have multiple interests, including your audience. So anywhere you can find overlap is a great opportunity for growth.

For instance, a science education channel might share an audience with a sci-fi movie channel. A gaming channel might share an audience with a tech review channel. A family channel might share an audience with a toy review channel, and so on.

Look for Channels That Are the Right Size

Generally, you want to find channels that are slightly larger than yours, but not too big. Super-large channels are asked to do collaborations all the time and usually work only with people they know (so get to know them if you can!).

Working with a smaller channel can be great if they’re a good fit and especially if they’re growing fast, because today’s tiny YouTuber could be tomorrow’s big breakout star.

Team Up With Multiple Creators

Collaborations don’t have to just be two-person deals. Multiple creators can come together for videos and gain exposure to multiple audiences. Tyler Oakley often collaborates with other creators of various genres and has grown his audience exponentially while developing relationships in the process.

You’ll find the larger your channel grows and the more relationships you form, the more opportunities for multiple-creator collaborations you’ll have. Many of the largest YouTube channels do these all the time, simply because these other creators become their friends and they hang out together in real life. A rising tide truly lifts all boats.

Connections with other creators make YouTube the social media site it is, and through multiple-creator collaborations, you can form tight bonds and teams that work togetherto go much further.

Partner With People From Other Social Media Platforms

You can collaborate with people outside of YouTube, too. Instagram stars, for instance, have huge followings and can direct their followers to your YouTube channel.

Good ways to reach outside of YouTube are to look for bloggers, people with large Twitter followings, and Facebook pages. Anybody with a large or engaged following is a good candidate for collaboration.

You want your collaborator’s viewers to find your channel through them. So feature the collaborator’s name and face prominently in the thumbnail of the video. Add their name to the title, tags, and description. Also, make sure that your collaborators do the same for you in their videos.

The power of a collaboration is in the promotion, so don’t bury the lede. Highlight your collaboration partner front and center.

Also, at the bottom of your video’s Info and Settings page, you can add the other creator’s channel in the credits. This connects your channel to theirs in the algorithm and can boost your number of recommended views via their channel’s videos.

To find the credits field, scroll to the bottom of the Info & Settings page on your video, below the keywords field.

Conclusion

To grow a YouTube channel, you need to develop YouTube content with your viewers and the algorithm in mind. For viewers, make sure your thumbnails grab their attention and deliver what you’ve promised. Start your videos with a strong hook and edit the content to keep it interesting. Overall, you want to create an experience that keeps viewers watching.

Fortunately, attracting clicks and keeping viewers interested also raises the visibility of your videos and thus your channel via the YouTube algorithm. Interesting content that people click, and that leads to a good watch time and session duration, can boost your videos’ visibility throughout YouTube. Playlists, collaborations, series, and end screens also improve your odds.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these tips or tactics in your YouTube videos? What did your results look like? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

If you use Instagram for marketing, there’s a good chance that you’ve noticed a recent decrease in Instagram engagement. If you’re not getting as many likes, comments, or new followers as you used to, don’t worry: it’s not just you. Accounts of all sizes are seeing less Instagram engagement on posts than they did in the past, which is troubling news for businesses that rely on Instagram for reaching their customers.

To help you combat the downturn in engagement, we rounded up 7 strategies that work to actually increase Instagram engagement. But the #1 tip? Nothing beats creating great content, growing a true community, and actively engaging with your customers/followers on a daily basis.

Instagram is a competitive place. In order to get on the Explore page or the Top Posts of a hashtag, you need to generate a ton engagement (likes and comments) as quickly as possible. However, because Instagram engagement is decreasing this is getting more difficult than ever. As a result, some users have turned to Instagram bots to artificially inflate the engagement on their posts.

The thinking is, if you can’t get 2000 likes in an hour organically, why don’t you just buy 2000 likes from a bot service?

Listen, we totally get the appeal. Instagram bots can seem like a really useful engagement tool—the perfect solution for a busy entrepreneur who has little to no time to spend building their following on Instagram. But the fact is that Instagram bots can pose a serious risk to your account. Here’s why:

Instagram recently updated it’s algorithm to be tougher on bots, as well as accounts that use bots. In fact, starting a few weeks ago, a ton of Instagram users who use bots (including bots that auto-like, auto-comment, and bots that grow your followers) started noticing that their posts weren’t showing up on the hashtags they use. And while there are multiple reason why this could happen to your account, the main one is from using bots that violate Instagram’s terms of use.

The point is: if you use any kind of automation or bot-like software on your account, there’s a good chance that a) Instagram knows, and b) you’re going to be shadowbanned or even banned outright. So don’t!

Instagram is penalizing accounts for certain “non-spammy” hashtag behavior, like using the same hashtags over and over and using banned hashtags.

It’s unclear if this is part of the Instagram shadowban or simply a bug in the platform as Instagram announced in February. But in any case, a lot of users have noticed that even if they use just a single banned hashtag, their post won’t show up on any of the hashtags they use.

Until this issue is cleared up, we recommend doing an inventory of your hashtag sets (i.e. the community-oriented hashtags that you use frequently) to make sure that none of them are currently banned by Instagram. To do this, simply search for the hashtag on Instagram. If the top posts section appears but nothing else, it’s likely that the hashtag was banned.

If any of the hashtags you use were banned, make sure to stop using them right away! They could be preventing your posts from appearing on any of the hashtags you use.

Now for the good news: despite the recent issues, Instagram hashtags are still one of the best tools for driving engagement on your posts—especially if you can get into the “Top Posts” of a hashtag.

If you’ve ever searched for a hashtag on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed the grid of nine Top Posts that appear at the top of the results page. According to Instagram, Top Posts appear on trending hashtags “to show you some of the most popular posts that were tagged with that hashtag.” Underneath the Top Posts, posts are arranged chronologically and are constantly being updated, so getting into the Top Posts can mean huge exposure for your brand!

The algorithm behind Instagram’s Top Posts takes a few things into consideration, including: how much engagement your post receives (likes and comments), the popularity of the hashtag, and how quickly your post receives its engagement. If you want to get into the Top Posts of a hashtag, you need to optimize each of these factors.

One of the best ways to generate a ton of engagement is to schedule your Instagram posts for when your audience is most active on Instagram. The reason for this is that the Instagram algorithm gives priority to posts with higher engagement, meaning that the more likes and comments your post receives, the more people will see your post.

If you post when your audience is most active on Instagram, you’re more likely to drive engagement on that post. That engagement will translate into Instagram bumping your post higher up on users’ feeds, which, in turn, will result in even more engagement on your post. It’s a cyclical process: higher engagement leads to more visibility, which leads to higher engagement, which leads to more visibility… and it all starts with when you post on Instagram.

That’s why scheduling Instagram posts is so important to your overall Instagram strategy. If you want to boost your chances of generating a ton of quick engagement on your posts, find out what your best times to post are, and then use a free tool like Later to schedule your Instagram posts in advance!

Note: According to some users, posting multiple times a day can actually cause your Instagram engagement to decrease! Since the introduction of the Instagram algorithm, posts have a longer half-life, meaning that more people see your post over a longer period of time. If you notice that your engagement is lower when you post 2+ times per day, try switching things up and posting just once. It might help with your overall engagement!

The simple act of requesting that your audience comment or inviting them to engage can go a very long way when it comes to boosting your Instagram engagement.

That’s why we can’t stress enough the importance of including a call-to-action in your Instagram captions. It’s great way to inspire your followers to engage with your account in the comments section and spend more time viewing your post—which could also be a factor that Instagram takes into consideration when selecting the top posts for a hashtag!

To create a call-to-action on Instagram, you just need to ask your followers to do something after reading your caption! You can ask them a question about what they’re up to this weekend, or what they think of a new product, and tell them to leave their answer in the comments.

Ever since Instagram switched from chronological posts to an algorithmic feed, users have been scrambling to find a way to “hack the algorithm.” And while some users have turned to Instagram bots and other blackhat methods, others have joined forces to create Instagram pods.

Instagram pods are private groups of 10-15 Instagrammers, bloggers, or businesses that share similar audiences and work together to increase their Instagram engagement. They communicate with each other via Instagram DMs, and every time someone in the pod publishes a new Instagram post, they share it with the group. The pod members will then click on the post, like it, and leave a genuine comment, which encourages other users to engage with the post as well.

In order to join an Instagram pod, you need to be added (or request to be added) to a closed Instagram group chat. Usually this happens through word-of-mouth, but you can also find success finding the right Instagram pod for you through various Instagram-themed Facebook Groups like Social media boost Once you’re in, each group has their own rules and stipulations to reaping the benefits, aka engagement.

Instagram pods might sound a bit fishy, but unlike bots or automation, Instagram pods aren’t specifically prohibited by Instagram, so you don’t have to worry about getting banned or shadowbanned. That being said, some users have taken issue with Instagram pods for promoting disingenuous engagement. At the end of the day, it really depends on the pod. If your pod is made up by Instagram users whose content you truly love and want to engage with, then we don’t see it as a problem!

Instagram Stories can be a ton of fun, but they’re also extremely useful for boosting your engagement. In fact, some users have said that they get more engagement on their posts when also post to Instagram Stories.

We can’t confirm that there’s a correlation between Instagram Stories and the engagement on your regular posts, but we have noticed that if a post isn’t performing that well, and you post to Instagram Stories, it can result in increased Instagram engagement. But even if posting a story doesn’t directly boost your post engagement, there are a ton of new features on Instagram Stories that can help increase awareness (and engagement) around your branded hashtags.

There’s another added benefit of using Instagram Stories: you can get featured on the Explore page. If you head to the Explore Page on Instagram, you’ll notice a row of Instagram Stories at the top of the page. The reason those Stories appear there is because Instagram selected them based on the accounts you follow and the posts you like. Instagram may also show you Stories that accounts you follow have liked, or were liked by a large number of people.

If you want to get on the Instagram Explore page, you need to create ultra-engaging, super-targeted content. The better your Stories are, and the more they speak to a specific audience, the higher the chance that Instagram will add your account to the recommended Stories at the top of the Explore tab!

Using hashtags strategically, joining an Instagram pod, and posting when your audience is most active are all great ways to boost your Instagram engagement. But if you’re looking to gain a lot of new Instagram followers in a short burst instead of a few every day, hands down the best way is to host an Instagram contest!

If you’re looking for a super effective Instagram contest idea, try partnering with another business or influencer. It’s a great way to promote your Instagram contest to both of your audiences, and also share each other’s followers. Start by looking for a cool business to partner with, and then organize a 3-5 day giveaway where Instagram users are rewarded with prizes for following both accounts, and tagging their friends in the comments.

A great example comes from Local Wanderer, which recently ran an Instagram contest with The Burrard, a hip, retro hotel in downtown Vancouver. The contest involved a giveaway in which Instagram users could win a 2-night stay at the hotel by following both Instagram accounts, and tagging three friends in a comment. By the end of the contest, The Burrard gained a whopping 500 new followers on Instagram!

By getting Instagram users to tag their friends (or three) in the comments, you can draw more attention to the contest, and drive even more engagement than you would otherwise!

Even though post engagement on Instagram is decreasing, it’s still possible to successfully grow your account! You may have to rethink your Instagram strategy slightly, but by following these tips and creating great content, you should be able to increase your engagement and get more likes and comments on your Instagram posts!

Hello!

Do you want more followers? More comments or just more activity on your blog from visitors? Here is som tips!

If you want to increase blog traffic, the best thing you can do is quite simply create better content. You’ve probably heard this before - the term “content is king” is thrown around more than a funnel at a frat party. But creating “better content” isn’t just about quality. It also means being more strategic with your content marketing efforts.

The most successful content is the kind that meets a specific need. Think about your audience and what they love. Content these days almost always falls into one of two categories: cool and funny or useful and educational. Choose either and you’re probably off to a good start.

If you need ideas, check out Quora and see what questions are being asked that relate to your industry subject. Also try using Buzzsumo to see what others have written about in your field, then make something even better. Or use one of these eight handy blog topic generators.

When it comes to content style, shoot for shocking statistics, beautiful infographics, and rich storytelling via video. Create stuff people want to link to and share.

Try to make sure that most of your content is evergreen. Evergreen content is the kind of content that can live forever on the web and that time won’t make irrelevant. For example, a post about this year’s Oscar nominations will become useless in a few months time. A post about the greatest movie classics will continue to be relevant over the years, making it evergreen.

As a blogger, you should always ensure that you’re creating irresistibly awesome headlines. Your headline is what gets visitors to your site and captures their interest.

Some even suggest that your headline is more important than your actual post! If you have a great content piece hiding behind a shabby headline, it’ll die a quick death. Appearances are everything, and just as you wouldn’t show up to a wedding wearing your stay-home-sick clothes, you can’t rely on lackluster headlines to promote your blog posts.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different headlines. Share your post multiple times with different headlines and see which style works best.

Promotion needs to be a big part of your content strategy, so that your hard earned blog posts drive that traffic you so desperately desire!

One quick and easy way to start driving more traffic to your blog is to start collecting emails for a blog newsletter. Once you’ve captured those contacts, you can send them weekly or monthly emails featuring your best posts, bringing already familiar visitors right back to your website. Since these users are already comfortable with your blog, chances are they might explore a bit more on their next visit. Who knows what they’ll find?

If you really want to drive big time traffic to your blog, keywords and SEO have to be a part of your strategy. People get really nervous these days when you suggest doing something in the name of SEO, but remember, search engine optimization is fine when done right. More than fine - it’s wonderous! You get targeted traffic from Google, and users find the information and answers they’re searching the web for.

So go ahead, shout it from the rooftops, “I care about keywords!” Be loud and proud my friend.

They key thing to remember with SEO is all good things in moderation.

Use keywords in your context text? Yes!

Use keyword stuffing to saturate your content completely with search queries? No.

Link to other related blog posts you’ve written on a specific subject? Yes!

Include so many links that every other sentence is dotted with blue hyperlinks? No.

Let keywords influence your outline and help conceptualize your post? Yes!

Put keywords and search bots before user experience? No!

Google drives billions of searches a day. Trust me, you want to use keywords to get a piece of that pie.

With more sites and advertisers online than ever before, all competing for the most popular keywords, how do you stand a chance of competing? Long-tail keywords of course!

Long-tail keywords are search phrases composed of 3+ keywords. They’re easier to target long-tail keywords (and cheaper when it comes to PPC) because there is less competition for these phrases. Targeting long-tail keywords is really your only chance of getting a top SERP spot in Google.

For example, maybe you’d love to rank high in Google for “health food” because your business is a health food store. Well fat (or slim) chance of that happening – “health food” is a pretty competitive term. However, if you focus instead on “health food meal plans” or “health food on a budget,” your chance of ranking for those longer keyword phrases is tremendously higher.

How do you brainstorm these awesome long-tail keywords? Start with Google. Begin typing in a phrase and see what Google’s auto-complete suggestions are. Make note of the “eureka!” suggestions.

Next, put a few of those terms into Google and scratch down some Google’s related search suggestions (you’ll find them towards the bottom of the page).

Next, take all the long-tail phrases you’ve come up with and put them into the Google Keyword Planner.

See which phrases drive the most traffic (also take a look at other keyword phrases Google suggests) and siphon out the ones with high search volume and low competition. Those are your gold nugget long-tails! Try to create content targeted around those keywords.

There are some great wordpress plugins designed to help bloggers with SEO. They make it easy to set up your URL slugs correctly, help you craft perfect meta descriptions, setup sitemaps, and aid you in navigating other SEO technical bits that may not come naturally to bloggers.

Two favorites are:

• Wordpress SEO by Yoast
• All in One SEO Pack

When it comes to promoting your blog, it’s essential that you’re strategic about where you spend your time. While it’s nice to establish your presence across a range of social networks, you’ll quickly burn out trying to excel with every social site.

Dip your feet and see which social networks work best for you. Is your blog heavy on the visuals? You’ll probably want to set your sights on LinkedIn. Is your blog catered more towards nerd culture? Find the right subreddits and you could strike it big.

If you’re looking for seagulls, you go to the seashore. To drive blog traffic, you need to go to where your flock hangs out. Know where to find your bird of a feather. Understanding your audience is also key for building strong referral links from relevant websites.

Use Google Analytics to see which websites are driving the most referral traffic. Find the forums and sites your target audience visits, and get active. Engage in discussion and post links or blog comments when appropriate. This is big – you can’t come off as spammy. You need to be seen as a valuable member of the community who is sharing something of merit. If someone mentions needing advice about scheduling healthy meal plans for each week, go ahead and point them to your resource! If they’re discussing their struggles in mastering the fine art of clowning, you can probably move along.

Once you’ve discovered your key networks, make those your focal point. Neil Patelpoints out that Upworthy, in addition to utilizing curiosity-focused headlines and emotional content, also limits the number of social sharing buttons they haveon a given page.

The choice paradox shows that too many choices can overwhelm and stress users. While we may assume more choices are better, studies have shown that most individuals are happier with a few different options, rather than hundreds.

Upworthy only has two share buttons – Facebook and Twitter. Consider limiting your social sharing selection to the sites you get the most leverage out of.

Sometimes getting what you want can be a simple as asking for it. A study by Social Bakers found that users who asked their followers to “RT” their posts on Twitter received 73.48 average retweets per tweet. Those who didn’t ask for retweets received just 2.09 retweets.

If you want people to share your content, ask them to!

This goes for just about all call-to-actions. While your intentions may seem obvious to you, reiterating the course of action for visitors greatly increases the likelihood that they’ll follow through.

Your visitors aren’t going to wait around for your blog to load. If your page isn’t coming up fast enough, they’ll hit the back button and move on to the next Google listing (ie your competitor) before you can flip a flapjack.

Need to check your site speed? No problem! Google’s Page Speed Insights tool will give you your speed score, as well as tips on what you can do to give your site the kick in the pants it might need.

In the same vein, modern users spend nearly 3 hours a day on their tablets or mobile phones. Going mobile is a no-brainer for bloggers. If you don’t think your current blog is up to snuff, consider checking out one of these fine Wordpress plugins that help create a version of your blog that is optimized for mobile devices.

• WPtouch Mobile Plugin
• Jetpack by Wordpress (there’s a mobile theme option baked in)

Good manners go a long way online. If you’re looking to build blog traffic, you’ll want to establish good relationships with other bloggers in your niche. Sometimes you’ll even want to team up with your enemies, Game of Thrones style.

Comment on other blogs and be active in various communities. Consider interviewing major industry loggers or including other bloggers in a “best of” post (for example, Top 10 Blogs Rocking Pinterest). Once you have a blogger cited or featured in one of your posts, tag them in a tweet to let them know. Chances are that blogger will retweet and share a post mentioning them, getting more shares and more traffic as a result.

Linking to your own blog posts is great for SEO, but it’s important to link to outside sources as well. This signals to Google that you’re not a spammer and helps build positive relationship with the others blogs you’re linking to. Establishing good relations also makes pitching guest posts a ton easier.

Follow these five rules and you’ll see traffic skyrocketing to your blog in no time flat!