All posts by Roman Sozonov

ILink Review

ILink Review

iLink, iLink tutorial

Have you ever wondered that how good could it be to have a source page that includes all of your social links?

For example on Instagram, you can only add one website links to your bio. Or it’s not so professional to write a lot of links on your business cards. So it would be an excellent opportunity to gather all of your essential links (emails, blogs, social accounts, etc.) in only one link. We provide a great tool that helps a lot with this situation.

iLink lets you create a source page where you can store your multiple links via one link and just use that link anywhere you want to introduce yourself.

What are the advantages of using iLink?

1- You will be able to direct your customers from anywhere to your:

  • blog pages
  • websites
  • youtube
  • social media accounts
  • New product introductions

2- You can customize your profile that shows people your email, phone number, mobile number, and your current location.

3- You can add a description about yourself and your business so that people will know you better.

4- You can upload a profile photo for your iLink page.

5- It’s easy to set up

6- It has beautiful free themes

7- It provides you stats include numbers of clicks on every link.

8- You can use it for your affiliate business and easily count the clicks.

9- You can add your social accounts to your page via default, and it will show your visitors little clickable icons of every social media, so they will be able to see your account just by clicking on the icons.

10- It has no limits; you can add as much link as you want.

11- It’s free!

How to use iLink?

You can create your own link by signing up to the site

  • Go to il.ink
  • Tap on the more tab on the upper right side.
  • Tap on register
  • Fill up your information there.

How to personalize your iLink?

After signing up, you can change and customize your iLink account:

  • You can change your link by clicking at the link tap; this is the link that you will use for your landing page on iLink.

As you can see, taps are showing total links and total hits, that will show you how many links you have attached to your account and how many people have been seen your iLink till now.

  • You can add your new blog links or whatever link you want via +NEWLINK tab.
  • You can preview your page with the preview tab.
  • If you want to edit your page, tap on Edit my page tab.

There are three taps here:

1- Account setting:

You can change your iLink setting like:

  • Your name: you can change your name, this is the name that appears on your iLink profile. You can use your full name or the name of your brand there.
  • Username: you can change your username here, this is the username of your iLink which you log in with.
  • Profile image: you can upload a profile which will appear on your profile page.

Note! It must be with JPG, JPEG or PNG formats.

  • You can change your email address too.
  • Submit: After changing what you need, you must click on the submit tab to save the changes.
  • Delete account: you can delete your iLink account by tapping on delete, but remember the action is irreversible.

2- More info:

You can add more info to your account by clicking on more info tab. This includes:

  • Description: you can add whatever description about yourself or your business on this part. Basically it is like bio tabs that will show your audience more information about you.
  • Contact info: You should add your contact info here to let your audience stay in touch with you. These will be shown on your profile:

Email address

Phone number ( home or work)

Mobile number

Address

Note! These will appear to your page as a direct link, so, for example, they can contact you just by clicking on your phone number.

  • Social:
  • You can add the links of every social media account you have, so people will be able to contact to your social accounts only by clicking on their little icon appearing under your iLink profile page

List of available social media:

  • Facebook
  • G+
  • Linkedin
  • Whatsapp
  • Reddit
  • Blogger
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Telegram
  • Tumblr
  • Viber
  • Vk
  • Your brand ( whatever extra link you want to add)

After adding the information, tap on the submit and it will be all done.

  • Page Theme:

You can change the theme of your iLink page via this tool.

Main themes are an Instagram theme, side info theme, and default theme.

Background color: you can change your background color to every color/colors you want.

Button shadow: you can add a shadow to the button of your link to make it bold.

Text color: you can change the color of the text on your page.

After changing these, you should tap on the submit button to save the changes.

After doing the following steps, your main page will look like this.

How to add new links to your iLink page:

To add the new link, you should:

  1.  go to your dashboard panel
  2. Type the title you want to give to your link that will appear to your audience via the link.
  3. You should copy paste or just manually type your link with https://, etc.
  4. You can choose the color of your link from the color pallet.

Note! It will be soon an update for iLink that will allow you to add photo tumblers to your link too.

  • Then press the insert link button

Done! You have added a new link to your profile.

How to edit your added links?

After adding your links, you can edit them on your dashboard by clicking on the little pen icon on the right side of its bar, or you can delete it if you want. There is a total hits icon there too that you can see the viewer numbers of each link.

You can see the stats of the links by clicking on the bars icon on the right side.

How to see the final appearance of my iLink page?

  1. Click on the username setting tap on the top right of your page.
  2. Click on my profile.
  3. This preview will appear for you:

That would be all.

Thanks for reading this review. For more information and any advice to improve our site, please contact us.

Everything about Twitter Limits

Information, social media, Twitter

Twitter has set different limits on user activities to decrease the load on their services, as well as reduce the possibility of spammy behavior.

These limits are based on a combination of factors like how old your account is, the speed at which you follow/unfollow, the third-party applications you use for your Twitter account and also if you are using the native Twitter app less frequently.

Some notable updates:

  • January 6, 2012: Added lists and unfollow limits.
  • January 6, 2013: Added biography character limit & Picture sizes.
  • May 31, 2013: Twitter updates the number of Twitter lists you can have and the number of users you can follow in each list.
  • August 12, 2015: Twitter now lets you send direct messages with up to 10,000 characters. The threshold used to be 140 (similar to standard tweets).
  • October 28, 2015: Twitter has raised their follow limit from 2,000 to 5,000.
  • October 2016: links, Media attachments, and screen names in replies no longer count in the 140character limit.
  • May 2017: Updated number of daily direct messages from 250 to 1,000
  • November 2017: The number of characters in a Tweet has been raised from 140 to 280.

The Follow limit on Twitter

You may be new to Twitter, or you may have been using the platform for a long time and hit the “2000” limit, which Twitter increased to 5,000. Most social media platforms have limits in place for the number of users you can “follow” or “friend.” For instance, Google+ currently has a limit of 5,000 users you can have in your circles, and you have a limit of 5,000 “friends” on Facebook. This is to stop individuals, brands or automated applications from abusing the system.

On Twitter, it was possible to bulk follow thousands and thousands of users in the hope that they would follow you back. This caused many accounts to abuse this and follow a lot of people while not generating engaging content and not having many users to follow them back.

Not good!

Twitter launched back in March 2006. But it wasn’t until August 2008 that it began imposing limits on the number of users you could follow. Twitter was facing big problems with spam (as Twitter co-founder blogged at the time). There was a lot of backlash at the time, and a lot of confusion. It’s generally assumed that Twitter introduced a 2,000 following limit, which means you could only follow up to 2,000 users. But, this isn’t strictly true.

The Following Ratio

According to researches, the magic number is 1,819! This means if you have 1,819 followers you may break through the 2,000 limits. Below 1,819 you are capped at following 2,000 users.

I haven’t examined this, but I’m not sure that the same policy will be used for this new limit. To break through the limit, you’ll have to get more than 4545 users following you before you can go through the 5,000 limits. Let me know what you think!

Unfollow limits on Twitter

So, how many users can you unfollow? This is a difficult question since Twitter doesn’t say.

It’s possible to bulk unfollow using automation tools, but you have to click on each user manually, and then click unfollow.

Yes, various javascript hacks are using Google Chrome, but to be honest, you should stay away from this because it’s likely to get you banned.

So, use your common sense. I’ve unfollowed over 600 people in one day, but that was a one-off- I wanted to unclutter my feed, but if I unfollowed 600 people each day I’d get banned.

So, there you go. Remember, Twitter is a social network platform- these limits are for our protection. Do you think these limits are suitable, or do you think they should be changed? Let me know in the comments below.

How to Change your Page’s Category on Facebook?

Facebook, Information, social media,

Years ago, the page category of Facebook was chosen when you created it. You’d have to decide whether you wanted a page dedicated to local services, books, and magazines, to sports, or whatever. Once you picked a category, you would get locked in, or at least almost locked in; there was some compliance within your general category, but if you needed to change the overarching super-category, you had to jump through a bunch of hoops.

These days, setting a category for your Facebook page is much more flexible. You are not limited to one type, either; since Facebook lets you fit multiple categories into your page, you can choose up to three. For instance, a local newspaper could choose a magazine category, a local services category, and a website category, and all of them would be legitimate.

Facebook page categories

Facebook has turned the page category box into a pretty free-form and open selection. There are a lot of different categories to choose; so many I cannot possibly list them here. Every keyword seems to have a dozen various categories attached to it. For instance, if I type in these keywords, here are suggestions Facebook gives:

  • Local: Farmer’s Market, Government Building, Government Official, Local Travel.
  • Boat: Boat Rental, Boat Tours, Boat Service, Marina, Sailing Instructor, Boat Dealership.
  • Music: Artist, Song, Music Award, Music Video, Music Venue, Music store, Musician/band, Arts and Entertainment.

The list goes on and on and on. Facebook also lets you put in three different but specific categories. As they claim, they only hold the three most particular categories. So, for instance, if you added “music” and “song,” it’s possible that they would only keep “song.”

This means it’s important to dig down to three relevant and specific categories to fit your brand. A general contractor for different home repairs might plug in electrician, plumber, and carpenter, though this might leave out some of their essential services. Alternatively, they could put in house renovation, overall contractor, and landscaper.

It’s a good idea to think about three different phases of your Brand and find categories that include as many of the fields as possible to get a general overview of your page type. Remember, though, that different categories can implement various features.

The features of Page Categories on Facebook

Facebook’s limitations on what pages can do is a little of an old system, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they remove or revamp it in the next year or two. I’ll sum up how it works now, but don’t be worried if it changes; just let me know in the comments and I will look over what they have changed. For now, you can use their table as a reference here.

Right now, ten features of a page are “variable” depending on your page category. But actually, only 4 of them are changeable. According to Facebook, every page has:

  • The ability to compose a short description of the Brand or entity that it represents.
  • The ability to link to a particular website for the Brand or entity the page represents.
  • The ability to list special services that the brand or entity provides.
  • The ability to turn on review system and ratings (previously attached to being a local business) so that fans and followers can review and give star ratings to the brand or entity.
  • The ability to add an email for people that use it as a method of contacting representatives of the brand or entity.
  • The ability to enter a phone number, again for people to use to contact the brand or entity the page represents.

Also, some categories have access to extra features, such as:

  • The ability to include an address is only available to Facebook pages in categories that intimate a related business address, such as brands and organizations, companies, people or sports entities, and local services.
  • The ability to display a location map with a mapping system powered by Facebook, beneficial for people to locate a company branch near their location; available to the same categories as above.
  • The ability to list particular business hours of operation, where hours of service can mean the distinction between a customer making a drive or being disappointed when they arrive.

There is some adaptability in what is and isn’t allowed, and I think that Facebook defaults to “allowed” whenever possible. For instance, a page that represents a book would not be allowed to include business hours, but if they are also registered as a local service, they should be allowed.

How to change your page category on Facebook?

While creating a new page, or editing your existing page, you can choose or change your categories at any time. To edit your page’s category, you should follow these steps:

  • Click “about” on the left side of your Facebook page.
  • Click “Edit” right next to the “Category.”
  • Enter up to 3 categories and choose what you want from the dropdown list that appears.
  • Click “Save.” And voila!

You can change your page’s category as many times as you like, there are no limitations for that. If you can’t find a category that describes your Page, try to choose the closest available option.

If you have any other questions about Facebook categories, you know you can always ask us in the comments below.

Best Social Media Challenges of All Time

Fun, social media

Every year social media sees a new trend come to life that brings people together to take part in the awesome “challenges.” Over the years we have seen trends that include staying still, crazy dances, laying down, and pouring freezing cold water over yourself that have swept the social media. We’ve gathered a list of the top challenges ever to hit the internet and included some of our favorites.

1- Planking

The Planking Challenge is the best of them all. Planking started it all when it filled Facebook feeds everywhere from 2010-2011. The term planking began in 2008 in Australia when Sam Weckert and friends decided to create a Facebook page to share pictures of the best planking pictures. Since then, Planking has generated multiple different variations, including Gallon Smashing, Owling, and the best of the best, Tebowing.

2- Tebowing

Tebowing is the act of bending on one knee and putting your elbow on your knee and your fist on your forehead. After the Denver Broncos defeated the Miami Dolphins during the 2011 NFL season, quarterback Tim Tebow got down to one knee and performed the pose. Jared Klienstein posted a picture later that night doing the pose and then created a blog on Tumblr dedicated to sharing photos of people Tebow-ing. Tebow also has a Twitter record for most tweets associated to a sports event – with 9,420 tweets per second – when Tebow and the Broncos defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL Playoffs on a game-winning touchdown pass in overtime to Demaryius Thomas.

3- The Harlem Shake

The Harlem Shake isn’t the dance from the 1980s; it is a 30-second video that starts with one person in a helmet or mask on, dancing to the opening of “Harlem Shake” by Baauer surrounded by people who are not paying attention. At 15 seconds, the song got a bass drop, and that’s when the video involves a jump cut to the entire group dancing wildly usually using costumes and props. The Harlem Shake trend was generated by Youtube user “DizastaMusic.” Youtube users started replicating the original video and uploading their own.

https://youtu.be/YUAVW1ny-4o

4- Ice bucket challenge

What began as a fundraising campaign, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge immediately transformed into one of the most significant viral challenges ever, drawing in celebrities, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah, and Bill Gates to do the challenge. The challenge started in 2014 when golfer Chris Kennedy was nominated by a friend to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge, not correlated with ALS at the time. He was to pick a charity to donate to and then pass it on. He selected ALS and passed it on due to relative suffering from the illness. The challenge spread from New York to Boston to Florida; soon after, it got through all of the United States.

5- cinnamon challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge is a trendy food challenge that requires people recording themselves, eating a spoonful of cinnamon in under 60 seconds without drinking anything. The challenge, comparable to the Kylie Jenner ‘Lip Challenge,’ was met with an inspection due to health risks of the mouth and throat from swallowing cinnamon and was mainly posted through Facebook and YouTube.

6- in my feelings challenge

This popular dance craze has been mopping the social media, with thousands of users (even celebrities!) sharing videos doing the same moves to the tune of Drake’s hit Scorpion song “In My Feelings.”

How to Use Storytelling as your Social Media “Secret Ingredient”?

social media

We have all been there, right? Around a dinner table, around a campfire, held captivated and speechless while listening to a great story. Why? Because we all love stories. So if you could use storytelling on social media, then why wouldn’t you be doing so? You can get the advantage of the most basic part of human nature! So, let’s look at some ways to use storytelling on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Let’s break down storytelling in each social media. You can perform different methods in every social media platform to make the most of your storytelling.

Storytelling on each social media platform

Facebook

  • Write your entire story in a post
  • Create a photo album on Facebook
  • Create a long Facebook video
  • Go live on Facebook
  • Sequence your Facebook ads
  • Create an infographic

Instagram

  • Create a narrative with your Instagram captions
  • Tell a visual story with your Instagram profile
  • Share user-generated content (UGC)
  • Create a boomerang or short video on Instagram
  • Use a series of Instagram stories

Twitter

  • Tweet a storm
  • Create a twitter moment
  • Attach multiple pictures to a tweet
  • Create GIFs to share on Twitter
  • Spread your branded hashtag
  • Go through a Trending hashtag

Snapchat

  • Create a relevant snapchat Geo-filter

YouTube

  • Create a playlist or YouTube channel

How to use storytelling on your social media?

Here are tips on using digital storytelling on your social media accounts today:

1- Show your company’s Human side

People connect with other people, not brands. So to connect your audience, you should show your brand’s human side. The goal is to form a personal brand that resonates with your customer and to do that; it’s essential that your brand tells a story.

Share:

  • What you are learning
  • What you are doing
  • A look behind the scenes

And at the same time, do not share too much personal information. You should always remember that social media is not your diary. Whatever you choose to share with your audience, just make sure you are comfortable with the whole world knowing about it.

2- Share your brand’s story

Customers don’t buy into brands; they buy into the story behind the brands. Just as you use your blog and website to tell your brand’s story, so the same thing with your social media. Improve your brand’s message and share the ideas you stand for. For example, if you run an organic store, known for the focus on overall health and natural products, then you should use social media to share information that is related to that message. Everything you post is a way to reinforce the story you are communicating. This can build credibility for your brand and makes your content relevant.

3- Be narrative in your updates

 One of the best ways to tell a story on social media is to do exactly that, tell a story. You can do it on Facebook by turning your status updates into minimal blog posts. But it’s not just Facebook that is open to digital storytelling. Even twitter with its 140 character limits, can be a great tool for digital storytelling. Actually, working within a character limit can encourage creativity in you. Do you really think it isn’t possible to tell a story in 140 characters? Consider these examples which prove that writing stories can still be short:

Even the photo-sharing platform, Instagram, can be used for storytelling. Just as you post your photo, write a caption that tells a good brief narrative. While a high-quality picture is necessary for an Instagram post, a good caption can help you complete the story by sharing a narrative. For your next Instagram post, you can share a brief story about the picture within more than three sentences. Instagram captions are limited to 2200 characters, and after three lines, the caption becomes shortened with an ellipsis.

4- Share Consecutive Posts to Tell a Broader Story

Another good way to share a story on social media is by using continuous updates to tell the story, like a story series, from the beginning to end. For example, on twitter you can first tweet:

“Came home to a house so quiet I could hear a pin drop.”

Followed by:

“But then we walked into the bedroom, where a big surprise was waiting.”

Followed by:

“Both kids had constructed a giant fort & fallen asleep in the middle of furniture & blankets.”

5- Contain elements of your story into posts

The concept of “story” is so simple; it can feel hard to understand and break down. So, if writing stories feel complicated, try to focus on the basic elements of story and try to contain them in your content. Elements such as:

  • Relatable characters:

The reason you like to share the human side of your brand is that it makes you more relatable. Each good story has relatable characters with interests and personalities. You can make your business that sort of character by letting your followers in. Furthermore, creating figures in your narratives is an excellent way to develop people your audience finds engaging.

  • Conflicts:

People like drama! So stories are more compelling when they include resolution and conflict. So whatever you are sharing, contain details about the conflict associated with your work will drive more readers in.

  • Structure:

The most basic building blocks of a proper story are pacing. First, this happens, then this, then this. The beginning, middle, end. Use this kind of narrative arc any way you can. Any story which tries to drive action should have an introduction, a body and a CTA at the end.

  • Backed by purpose:

A story with no purpose is just claptrap. It would be easy to get lost in the background noise and lose track of why you are telling it. Why are you telling a story? What is the critical takeaway you aim for the reader?

  • Simplicity

Try to keep it simple. Cut out all the unnecessary parts. It doesn’t matter how good you think a sentence, photo or video is. If it doesn’t add any value to your story, ditch it.

  • Authenticity

First, you should decide if the story is true to you. Don’t try to embellish it or draw out a facade to cover the truth behind the story. People will be able to tell if you are lying and it will fail.

  • The environment for telling a story

If you’re telling a story to your friends during a lunch break, you’re going to be telling it differently than in front of a full auditory at the Olympia London’s Conference Centre. The structure of a story depends on the environment you are in. When you’re storytelling on social media platforms, the user’s screen is your room for the context. So you should create something good enough for them to stop scrolling and pay attention.

6- A mix of practicality and passion

Create, try, test, do! You can always create as much content as possible and see which works best. It needs a lot of work and a flaming passion. But it isn’t practical. Passionate people are so focused on spreading their message that they burn out their budget, resources, and eventually their own passion. And with such a crowd of content shared on social media, it’s effortless to get lost in mixed signals and disorganized data.

You need to understand your audience and scale their engagement. Map out significant performance indicators to recognize the success of the stories you’re telling. Storytelling on social media won’t get you immediate response. It’s not like hanging around a campfire telling a story and observing people’s reactions. You’re restrained by things like numbers of likes, shares, comments with which you are trying to “measure” the user’s retention, engagement rate, and the chance of conversion.

7- Teamwork

Working with a team will help reduce the workload; still, the production and approval processes can get very complicated.  For example:

  • You have a story outline planned.
  • You seek out an audience to target and test it.
  • You collect feedback, mostly unstructured.
  • You gather information into a structure and make proper adjustments (to the story, audience or both)
  • You publish the story and analyze results and engagement.

Although a mere framework, each step holds a lot of synchronization, approvals, resources, time and effort. With a loyal team, you are decreasing the logistic needs, but it gets confusing to onboard new members.

Final thoughts

The world today is driven by social media, we’re all in the “always online” state of mind. No matter how liberated we are as people, in the end, we are all driven by emotions. Self-actualization and validation are our primary motivator for sharing a story. Do not mix digital storytelling with content marketing; it shouldn’t be marketing itself. Just try to connect with your audience and have fun!

What do you think?

What is your social media secret ingredient?Tell us your story of social storytelling in the comments below.

5 Pinterest Tips to Grow your Blog Traffic

Landing page, more, social media, Tips,

Pinterest is my BFF! It has been my BFF for a long time, and I have found out that it has huge potential for business if you know how to use it. According to the recent researches, Pinterest is driving more online traffic referrals than Reddit, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google and the average pin results in .78 sales. That’s something, isn’t it? Ok, now that I have tweaked your interest, do you want to know how to use Pinterest for your business? You have come to the right place, in this article I am going to share 10 Pinterest tips and tricks for you, business users.

Pinterest has taken the same concept as the other social platforms and created a social networking site that lets you create picture collections online – like an online scrapbook. It is fundamentally a photo sharing platform where the users are allowed to create albums on a theme or pattern.

Pinterest is an excellent opportunity for businesses because it can be a gateway for their services, products, and even their content. It is a good way to lead with content and allow the social interaction to take a secondary role. Brands will be able to see what their audience care about instead of who they care about. The market research on its own is priceless from a branding perspective! Are you there yet? If not, this is how you can get started:

Create quality content related to your niche

You should create content-rich boards and share your content just as you would on any other social media platform. Pin your content and product to themed boards on Pinterest followed by shortened links that let you track your Pinterest traffic. Make sure that you are representing your service, product, and content in a visually appealing way, because it will draw people’s attention. They won’t read the subtext in other words. Stand out, try to be creative and most important; be unique.

I recommend a minimum of 10 boards with at least five pins in each, because that’s where people check when they come to your site. Whatever you do, just do not leave your boards empty. You should give your visitors a good first impression. They should know that you are engaging, active and have great content.

Make yourself a brand

Remember to feature your business name on your Pinterest profile. If you are trying to brand your business name, you should have your business name as your Pinterest username. In the “about” section, write a short description about who you are, what you do and what are you passionate about. This section is similar to the bio area on Twitter and should be as brief as possible but provide a proper description of your work and how you solve a pain point for your target audience.

Connect your Pinterest account with your Twitter and Facebook accounts. And of course, remember to include a link to your website as it’s displayed as a clickable link under your bio! You can use URL Shorteners like iLink if you can’t decide which link to put on your Pinterest bio.

Interact with other users

If you come across a pin that you like but are not necessarily beneficial to your audience or be something that you would pin to one of your boards, you should consider liking them rather than repining them. Anytime you like someone’s pin; they will get notified. So, it may grab their attention and get them to follow you on Pinterest.

Include keywords to show up on search results

Hashtags are no longer useful on Pinterest as the platform looks for keywords in pin descriptions. While writing your pin description, make sure you use the relevant keywords., keywords most users would use to find your content. This makes it easier for you to be exposed and will gain more followers for you as well. And as you may know, more followers = more exposure.

Mention other Pinterest users

You can mention people in your Pinterest comments or pin descriptions to catch their attention or to recognize someone special. A ‘mention’ on Pinterest is much like Facebook and Twitter. Just type the @ symbol before the person’s name. A drop-down box will appear, and you can select from the users appearing in the search result. But remember you can only mention people who are following you on at least one board.

That’s all guys; you can use these tips to grow your business on Pinterest. Also if you have any other questions about social media marketing, you can ask us in the comments below.

How to Get Verified on Twitter and Get the Blue Badge?

Information, social media, Twitter,

One of the most significant forms of social media currency is a verification badge on top platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Though both are administered by different social media entities, the similarities as far as successfully being verified are very related. For those who don’t know, a blue verified logo on Twitter shows that an account is authentic. A Twitter badge is always placed next to the username and can only be applied by Twitter.

Usually, verified Twitter accounts are celebrities or brands in the fields of fashion, music, acting, politics, government, religion, journalism, sports, media, business, and other key interest areas. If your brand can make use of the blue check mark, here’s a step by step guide on how to get verified on Twitter:

Step 1: Fill out the Verification Request Form on Twitter

First, you should fill the twitter’s verification request form to start the process of getting verified on twitter. Remember that you have to be logged into your target twitter account to fill the form.

For your Twitter account to be considered for verification, you should have the following elements presented on your profile:

  • Verified phone number: This will help you confirm your identity and connect your target audience to your office entity.
  • Confirmed email address: if your twitter account belongs to your business or organization, the email address associated with your account should be an organization or company email address (i.e., info@yourwebsite.com).
  • Profile picture: if you already have a strong presence on another social media platform (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) make sure they all have the same profile picture. In platforms like Instagram, they grab relevant information from other social media platforms to make a verification decision.
  • Header picture: When it comes to brand verification, Twitter accepts those who complete their profile in the highest level. An incomplete profile will decrease your chances of getting the badge on twitter, even if you fit all other verification inquiries.
  • Your birthdate: This only includes individual accounts. You can choose whether to display this information on your profile or not. Similar to your phone number, this just helps you confirm your identity.
  • Your website: if you are a brand or a public figure, you really need to have a site. Twitter won’t think of you as a professional if you don’t have one.
  • Public twitter account: You can’t be considered as a public figure if your tweets are private!

Once you make sure that your profile is fully set up with all required information, you will be asked to enter your username. Also, if you are trying to have your business account verified, remember to check the box at the bottom left of your screen to indicate this.

Step 2: Fill in The Missing Requirements

If you still haven’t filled out the information required (as I mentioned above), you’ll be prompted to do so. You will know right away if this is the case with your profile information, as Twitter will display a message that says “Account Not Eligible for Review” if you lack anything important mentioned above. You will have the opportunity to fill the missing parts to submit yourself for Twitter verification.

How to increase your chances of getting verified on twitter?

Here are a few additional tips that will help you get verified on Twitter:

  1. If you’re trying to get your personal account verified, your account name should reflect your real or stage name. Similarly, if your account is about your brand, it should indicate the actual name of your brand.
  2. Your profile and header picture should reflect you or your company’s branding. If you’re trying to verify your personal account, make sure to use a profile picture that matches other social media profiles. If you’re trying to verify your business account, you should use your logo, and include other elements of branding (like color theme) into your cover picture.
  3. Your bio should define your skills or your brand mission. If you’re just starting out, use these tips to optimize your Twitter bio.
  4. Make sure that you are active on Twitter. The platform rolled out the verification feature to help people find authentic, high-quality accounts to follow. If you aren’t tweeting on a regular basis, you won’t let twitter reach this goal, and they won’t recommend you for verification.
  5. Use professional pictures. Having a consistent brand photo will make your account more recognizable, and will help twitter confirm your identity.
  6. Try to be precise with your location, especially if you own a local business. This is how Twitter connects you to people nearby.

Step 3: Enter Websites as References

The next step for getting verified on twitter is entering up to five websites that can be used to identify you and associate you with your Twitter account. As you have listed your site in your profile, you don’t have to enter that again.

It would be a better use of space to enter additional websites that are considered proof of your public influence. Such as high-traffic websites or instances of appearances in the news sites.

Step 4: Explain why you should be Verified

At this point in the platform, Twitter will provide a section where you should make a case for why you should be verified on Twitter. If you are applying as an individual, explain your impact. Display your public reach, as well as examples about where you have made waves in your community. For brands and companies, you should highlight your mission and what you have been trying to achieve.

You only have 500 characters to use, so don’t overthink and just write something down. In general, just focus on mentioning the ways that you or your company adds value to the twitter community.

Step 5: Submit your verification request

Once you have confirmed the validity of your information, all you should do is wait. Twitter will email you as soon as they make the decision. Also, you will know that you have been verified once the @verified Twitter account follows you.

If your request is declined the first time around, don’t worry, you can apply again after a month. And if you get verified, remember that verified accounts which do not follow the Twitter terms and conditions can have their verified badge revoked.

Conclusion

Before this, the twitter verification process was complicated. Now, the platform lets you request verification, all you need to do is to make sure that you have prepared all the requirements before applying. A strong online presence can be helpful, even if you don’t have many followers on twitter just yet.

So what do you think?

Why do you want to get the blue badge on your twitter account?

Comment us below and let us know what do you think about verification on social media platforms.

Best Way to Use Social Media for Multiple Affiliate Marketing Programs

Marketing, social media, Tips

Using social media for affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and quickest ways to start making money online. Affiliate marketing is a partnership between a brand and an external website, where the external party helps promoting a product or service, and the brand pays them a commission for each click that drives into an actual sale.

While using social media for affiliate marketing can be the most efficient method, you have to make sure your social media posts not only spread your affiliate and website links but include actual value as well.

Posts without value are the ones that will cause your followers to lose interest in you. And without your audience, you can’ be successful in affiliate marketing. For example, on my social accounts, I like to have 75% of my posts as education or entertainment purposes only, and only 25% of my posts are promotional.

Facebook for affiliate marketing

Many influencers are focusing on Instagram, but we should have Facebook in our minds too. The average user spends 35 minutes per day on Facebook, compare that number to 15 minutes per day on Instagram. Additionally, based on my personal experience of running multiple affiliate programs, Facebook produces higher conversions for affiliate marketing campaigns.

Multiple affiliate marketing programs

Organizing and maintaining affiliate links on a single website can be a task one person can manage. If you own multiple affiliate programs, though, managing links without an effective strategy can waste so much of your time that leaves little to no time for creating new content and building relationships with your audience. To manage our affiliate links efficiently across different websites, you can use the platforms which can help you convert your multiple links into one short link.

  • Create a fan page: yes, fan pages can be challenging when it comes to audience reach. However, only fan-pages can boost a post on Facebook, so your affiliate blog should be seen on your fan page at first.
  • Boost your post: A Facebook boost is required if you want To catch some fresh eyes on your post,  The first type of boost I suggest is to your existing followers. Because they have already Liked your page. It is the most modest and top converting boost.
  1. To get started, just click on the Boost Post button.
  2. Once you click, select users Who Like Your Page, Your Total Budget and Duration.

 I recommend beginning with a small budget and duration until you have endorsed your return on investment. If you got your Likes authentically and chose a product your audience responds to, your ROI will be high. If you do not have a substantial ROI, test different titles and content.

  • Share on personal pages: Don’t forget to share your Page post to your personal Profile too. Facebook’s algorithms do not affect personal Profiles. Personal profiles are an excellent way to reach out to family and friends who want to support your business.

YouTube for affiliate marketing

Videos are a fantastic way to engage your audience on a personal and relatable level. Every top converting affiliate creates both a regular blog post as well as a video review.

  • Keep your YouTube videos under 5 minutes if possible. The shorter, the better.
  • Begin the video with your key selling points.
  • Ask your subscribers to click on the affiliate links for more information and to purchase.
  • Include multiple calls to action throughout the post.
  • Titles are the first impression. Your video title should include keywords and be engaging.
  • Include your script in the Closed Caption for optimization goals.

Instagram for affiliate marketing

Instagram is an excellent tool for affiliate marketing. The challenge with Instagram is persuading your followers to click on a link. Instagram has only one place for clickable links, and that is just in the bio. Remember; it is absolutely okay to change your bio link frequently.

  • Use a URL shortening platform for your affiliate links like iLink.
  • Use a unique and personal photo whenever possible.
  • Direct followers to your blog where you have included your affiliate link.
  • Use Instagram to drive traffic to your website and develop your email list.
  • Do not purchase followers. Organic engagement equals conversions. Don’t be seduced by offers of cheap followers or fake likes and comments through “comment pod” groups.
  • Use related hashtags and be consistent with them.
  • Reach for influencers in your niche and take notes.

Multiple affiliate marketing on one social media account

As you may know, every social media platform has its own flows. For Example, Instagram doesn’t let you use more than one link on your profile bio. Or in some social networks, links you share would not be clickable. So as for Instagram, you should consistently change the link on your bio to be able to affiliate for different brands.

But don’t worry.

I have the best solution to this problem. Just keep reading.

Have as many affiliate links as you want

You can be an affiliate to different brands by using short link generators or creating a landing page for your affiliate links. This way you don’t have to spend your precious time on replacing links all the time. Instead, you can focus on creating engaging content to attract new followers from your target audience, therefore make more money, right?

Best platform for URL shortening

iLink

iLink is a full-service URL shortener that helps you convert multiple links into one short link. Part of the appeal is that iLink is simple and easy to use. It has a comprehensive dashboard where you can track and analyze the statistics about your links like click-through numbers and rates. Tools for trailing campaigns are easy to use as well.

  • You can also set beautiful themes for your iLink page
  • You can add your contact information to your iLink bio
  • You can also add your social media accounts to your home page so that people can reach you online.
  • iLink is entirely free! So you can enjoy using it without paying anything.

That’s it

Have you tried link shorteners before? What do you think about affiliate marketing on social media?

10 Awesome Instagram Christmas Campaign Ideas to Boost your Engagement

Fun, Instagram, social media, Tips,

Here comes the Christmas and there is magic in the air! One may think that it’s the season to be jolly, but brands are probably thinking it’s time to begin engaging people by spreading some Xmas cheer. One of the best ways of doing so is by launching interesting contests relevant to the upcoming holidays.

Many brands have performed this in the past and are proceeding with it. Organizing interesting and interactive contests and campaigns is an excellent way to get people’s attention. If you are a new startup, you should consider making the most out of the holiday season by investing in contests, games, and promotional competitions.

If you are wondering how to perform that, I have got a few ideas to help you use the holiday spirit to engage the audience and gain their loyalty.

Run a holiday-themed campaign

By this time of the year, you can run a campaign to use the holiday spirit for promoting your brand on Instagram. Consider adding elements from the holidays into your campaign and marketing strategy. Tie up with charities and offer to donate a part of your holiday sales to their cause. This is really useful in bringing about a sense of harmony, unity and good cheer. Also, this sort of contest is excellent because they target families and not just a restricted section of your audience.

Run a Christmas quiz

Enter social media to create and run an interactive quiz. This way, you can find out what your audience is looking forward to during the Christmas and employ this information to your own advantage. Ask different questions to let them select the answer they feel most related to. Make sure to use simple participation rules to encourage maximum engagement. Ask questions in a way that enables you to get insights into customer’s preferences.

Make a wish come true

The holiday season is the time when we all like to send gifts to the ones we love. Use this information to your advantage by running a campaign around this idea to show off your good intentions. Ask your followers to reveal their holiday wishes to their loved ones in comments. Announce that for every wish sent, your brand will donate a specific amount of money to a good cause.

For example, UPS produces millions of gift packages, which start with a wish. In keeping with this, UPS began the “your wishes delivered” campaign, through which they inspire their followers to share their Christmas wishes. For every wish shared on their website with the hashtag #wishesdelivered, UPS donates $1 to charitable organizations.

Holiday selfie contest

Who doesn’t like taking selfies? You can turn this fun activity into a contest, right? You can ask your followers to get into the holiday spirit and take selfies with their Christmas tree, snowman or a Santa Claus while showing off your product. Ask them to share their selfies to your Instagram page with your branded-hashtags and win prizes.

A Christmas gift with a message

You can use the holiday season to spread the message of preserving the environment. This is an excellent time to get your works to protect our planet noticed. This will not only bring you enormous customer goodwill and trust but also improves your brand credibility. You can do this by a simple, direct message campaign.

Name your favorite Christmas movie campaign

We all have at least one specific Christmas movie that we like so much. This is the movie we watch every year on holidays. Your followers will definitely love to talk about their favorite Christmas movie. All they should do is tell you the name of the movie with the reason to be able to sin some great prizes from you.

Caption contest

A good caption can promote your campaign as nothing else can. Are you having trouble coming up with a good one? Get your followers to create one for you, as you keep them engaged with your brand at the same time. Just post an engaging photo on your Instagram account and ask your followers for an exciting caption, which will qualify them for winning a good prize.

Video sharing contest

The holiday time is when most people fill their Instagram accounts with holiday videos about the celebrations at their office and home. Focus on this and ask your followers to share a video of their Christmas decorations to win prizes.

Christmas game campaign

An excellent way to use Instagram to keep followers engaged during the holiday season is by getting them to participate in holiday-themed online games that are related to your brand.Ted baker’s Instagram game for the Christmas has been a great hit. It features Santa’s seven elves, who have gone missing. They were last seen in an #elfie taken by Santa.

Users can find the elves by visiting @tedsElfie on Instagram and participating in the game therein. The three-week campaign offers many chances to win prizes.

Vote contest

You can set up a new vote contest every day and ask your audience to choose between two products and mention the reason for their choice in the comment section. The product can be related to the Christmas, such as eggnog vs. hot chocolate, stocking vs. Santa hats, or candy cane vs. gingerbread man.

Conclusion

Running a good Instagram campaign can help brands and audiences connect better. Holiday campaigns can be beneficial in not only keeping followers’ engaged but also in sneaking to their emotional side and capturing their heart. Christmas serves as the perfect chance to get in touch with your existing followers and gain new ones.

Twitter Bio Ideas to Get more Followers

iLink, social media, Tips, Twitter, ,

Twitter Bio Ideas to Get more FollowersAfter wondering a lot between a lot of twitter bio ideas, I found one that actually worked for me. Or at least, my followers loved it when I changed my twitter bio.In this article, I will show you how to nail you twitter bio to get some eyes on you and make yourself unforgettable.

1-   Use keywords

The best twitter bios contain industry targeted keywords. Identify your top keywords and use them organically. You should think about what your audience is going to search and then include those words as keywords in your bio to be more transparent.

Instead of using general hashtags like #blogging and #social media in your bio, just tell them about what you do. Don’t make them figure it out by themselves.

Keywords are useful for people who are trying to build a twitter following.

2-   Embrace the space

A good bio is a combination of professional and personal information. Share something that will connect you to your follower.

The hardest thing about writing a good Twitter bio is fitting all your information into 164 characters. But you should remember that you will rarely write the perfect Twitter bio the first time. So keep trying. For instance, my current bio has gone through at least 15 re-writes.

3-   Mention what you do or believe in

Use your twitter bio to inform people of what you do or what you believe in and are passionate about!Instead of telling us about your work, tell us about what you do. You can save some time for people by writing your skills as brief as possible. This will make you different from others in your industry. Richard Branson has nailed it in this case.

4-   Include the name of your employer

If your Twitter bio has your employer’s twitter handle, you will appear in the search results when people search for the brand or business on the twitter.This way people can send you a personal note just in case, they need some help or have a particular question about your work.

5-   Avoid meaningless buzzwords

Every professional uses buzzwords these days, but your customers don’t. You can never stand out by using the same old ways.

  • Marketing expert (guru)
  • Growth hacker
  • Networking Ninja!
  • Entrepreneur
  • Hustler or something like that!

Let me tell you something; these buzzwords are cute. But they are too old to use, get rid of them. Because everyone is using them these days, you should be unique, not another one of those. I am sure that you can come up with something much more better!

6-   Use humor

A little humor is always helpful if you want to be remembered by other people. Yes, people will never forget the funny ones, ain’t true? So don’t waste the opportunity to let your personality shine, on Twitter at least! Humor shows that you have take some time to write a good bio, do it like a pro, just like tom hanks here!

7-   Add social proof

What are your greatest achievement and accomplishments?

Mention some of your significant awards and recognition in your Twitter bio. This social proof can be great start for your conversion. You can write about your successes, your awards, books you have written, lists you have been in, etc.

Wrapping up

Although you can utilize the best Twitter bot to get people’s attention, your bio is your best opportunity to catch some eyes and get new followers on twitter, don’t waste it. It is the first thing people see when they are deciding whether to follow you or not.

So have in mind that you only have 160 characters to get their attention.

Try to be creative and leave us a comment that no one has ever did!

What Should your Social Media Intern Do?

Information, social media

Perfect Tasks for Your New Social Media Intern

Many companies like to have a few extra hands on building their social presence.As a former social media intern myself, I can relate to the lack of transparency within companies about what a social media intern should actually do.

Hiring a social media intern without a project for them to do doesn’t work for everyone. To prevent you from going through this with your interns, here are a few things that you can do which will help your brand and provide your intern for some actual hands-on experience!

Costumer or product research

The best thing about working for a social media analytics company that helps social media marketers is that when they hire a social marketing intern, they are a perfect opportunity for testing and receiving feedback on their re products.

You can ask your new intern to dive into the measured apps to observe use cases, as well as receiving any other qualitative feedback they might have.

The cooperation of intern and target audience might not be a good idea for you, but you can have your intern conduct customer and product research in different ways.

For instance, ask your intern to do a competitive audit. Go through the social strategies of your competitors, learning takeaways and new ways that you can use to improve your social media strategies.

Create content or schedule calendars

Another thing you can ask your social media intern to do is social media content calendars.

When I was new to social media, one of my favorite tasks to do was planning out content. This is something your new social media intern can get busy doing. Just before telling them, make sure they get some information on the product, the company and the language of your brand.

Plan campaigns

Yep, that’s true.

You can even ask them to plan some campaigns for you. Whether you want them to map all of it or just give some input, there is no reason why your social media intern shouldn’t ask for help here.

You can always use fresh eyes for your campaign. Hopefully, your Social Media Intern shows an ability for creative social planning and marketing.

Community management

Another task your social media intern could do is to get on social every now and then. I know it can be scary, but you can allow them to collaborate on all things related to publishing. You can add a layer of permissions, requiring all posts to be approved by yourself.

Reporting

One of the good ways for a social media intern to learn about the company’s presence is to report on their performance. You can either ask them to come up with their own analysis or method or have them use yours.

This is really helpful for tracking your performance and measure their improvement at the same time.

Don’t leave your social media intern hanging. They have come to you to learn, not just to fill their resume. So give them something they can involve in.

What are the Skills that Every Social Media Manager must have?

Information, Tips

A few years ago the social media manager role was not even a career or a job; it simply didn’t exist!

here we are now after a decade, and every organization is trying to have a social media manager, whether part-time or full time. Social media managing requires some skillsets to be able to manage many parts at the same time. Analytical, Technical and creative with a bit of project management thrown in. So:

What does the life of a social media manager look like?

It’s almost a 24 hour job. It means managing, updating, monitoring and getting new ideas from customers and other resources.

Essential skills of a social media manager

They should always be online and keep tabs on their community which involves being artistically creative but also be like a data scientist. In the digital world, the geeks may take over the world.

So here are the top skills every social media manager should have to excel and succeed:

1- Strategy planning

You should try to see the bigger picture here. How content, search and social media all work together. You need to define goals, outline your target audience and find out which platform works better for your business. Social media marketing can be too complicated so, you will need the right tool to perform “social at scale” and automate.

2- Execution and tactics

Tactical accomplishment is paramount to the success of any social media manager’s day to day work. This means you should pay attention to the detail or understand whom you need to hire to maintain day to day proper execution of the expected tactics.

3- Community management

Social media is about observing, creating and responding to discussions within your brand community. Monitoring comments, responding to Instagram posts and engaging with your followers. It means understanding how to respond to trolls and negative feedback. It is part PR and part common sense.4- Social content marketing

Social media produces and expands content. The social media manager has to know what content works and what doesn’t on social networks. It also means understanding which media format such as articles, videos, images, and podcasts resonate with your niche. It would help if you learned how to make content progress and maybe even go viral across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the other social media platforms.

5- Creating and optimizing content

The social media is an ecosystem of search, content, and mobile. Making sure that you know how to drive a customer to a sales funnel from engagement, following and finally sales needs some particular skill sets.

  • Understanding the required for creating content for SEO so search engines will rank high for your phrases and keywords on Google
  • directing traffic to your landing pages, so followers register for webinars, download your ebooks and share your content on social media platforms.
6- Unique mindset

Social media marketing is not just about cold hard methods. It means flowing with the creative process that affords creative content that engages with your followers and impresses their hearts, not only their minds. Don’t underestimate the power of creative visual content and be willing to test and experiment. Artists are always pushing their limits further.

7- Writing skills

Pictures are essential on a visual social media platform, and images of cats, cute babies, and funny memes can be very attractive. But great writing is also crucial. Which includes:

  • The science and art of headline writing
  • Writing an excellent and engaging introduction
  • Structure of your writings, for easy reading online. People will be scanning and skimming, so that means bullet points, subtitles and numbering are a vital part of the skillset.
8- Communication skills

Try to keep the management informed, your team motivated and followers excited. Managed means to know the art of communication. This includes presentation skills both written and verbally. A social media manager should know how to manage things; this means they have to be a leader.

9- Analytical skills

You can use social media automation tools to monitor and schedule your social media activities. This way you can measure what works for you and what doesn’t in real time. These days you can even measure sentiment!

10- Be on the trend list

Social media is not just a singularity. The social media is made up of intersecting trends as it grows and evolves. These mean learning some of the following:

  • The rise and role of smartphones
  • The rise of visual marketing platforms as Instagram and Twitter
  • The growth of “pay to play” with facebook which is reducing its organic reach

Conclusion

These skills are the ones that will build the most effective social media manager. So, what are you waiting for? Comment us below and let us know about the skills you have as a social media manager.

The Potential of Social Media for B2B

Marketing, social media, Tips

Social media is the digital marketing tool with the potential to give you the most result for your business – and it doesn’t have to cost you a penny. What do you know about the benefits social media can provide to B2B brands?

B2B Benefits

Social media will help to generate leads for more than half of all B2B companies. However, that isn’t the only benefit to be had from a good social media strategy.

B2B marketers has reported these benefits for using social media:

  • 50% reduced their marketing expenses
  • 55% grew their business partnerships
  • 55% established thought leadership
  • 58% improved their search engine rankings
  • 69% developed loyal fans
  • 77% increased their traffic
  • 90% increased their exposure

Top social media sites for B2B

Facebook may be the best one with 1.59 billion users per month, but the best business platform of last year was Instagram, which increased its monthly active users to the tune of 400 million in 12 months– not even Facebook can grow that much. Other social media options include:

 

  • YouTube at 1.44 billion monthly users
  • Twitter at 320 million active users
  • Pinterest at 100 million active monthly users
  • LinkedIn has up to 400 million users, but only 25% use it monthly.

 

Challenges

  • 17% of B2B service businesses have not been able to determine the impact of social media on their business
  • Only 30% of B2B marketing projects use marketing analytics
  • 15% of B2B companies find it challenging to meet “the expectations of the always-connected ”

Tips and tricks

What should I do to get the most out of social media?

  • Include pictures in your posts
  • Start an employee promotion campaign
  • Invest in shareable content
  • Get into live streaming with Facebook Live
  • Try new platforms
  • experiment with 360-degree video