October, 2020 | InoSocial

How to become a successful content marketer?

If you want to become a successful content marketer you must have some basic knowledge and strategies to get started. You need to be the informational expert the company you work for, or the business you are offering.

Content marketing has changed a lot as the years passed by. The ways to advertise a product or business have improved for the better and even the media we now use for marketing has had a huge revolution.

In this modern era of daily changes and improvements in technology, none of the ways we once used for marketing might have a good result. By this, I am referring to traditional forms of marketing which would somehow bore people these days. So to be a successful content marketer, we need to consider modern techniques for marketing our businesses or products. One of the most effective advertising techniques these days is content marketing.

What is content marketing?

In simple words, content marketing is a form of marketing a business, product or brand with which you have to create, publish and distribute useful and relevant content about whatever your subject is, to answer people’s questions on the content and give them more detailed and relatable information regarding the specific content, to turn them from a simple audience to future customers for that business.

By now, you surely are wondering why content marketing is considered a beneficial strategy. In order to market our content, nowadays, we need to consider different methods as we once did in the past, because a lot of things have changed and there are more ways for marketing our content and capture more attention to our business or brand now.

Content marketing needs to be kept consistent so that you provide the audiences with up-to-date, valuable content about a certain business, and you are actually making them trust you and know you as an expert in that specific field.

What is a content marketer, and what does he do?

A content marketer is a person who is responsible for creating worthy content, planning them, and applying strategies to make customers out of the target audience.

Despite what most of you might be thinking by now, all a content marketer does is not marketing for a certain business or product, and blogging is not their main job. It is something much more than what you think it is.

There are a lot of tasks than just making a great blog with a catchy title for a content marketer. He is responsible for creating a valuable content marketing plan, an editorial calendar that can include case studies, research, tweets, blogs, videos, white papers, checklists, infographics, emails, letters, webinars, presentation, web copy, and plenty of other creative forms of communication.

Also, a content marketer needs to have a lot of detailed information on the content he is going to market, and he must have complete knowledge of their prospects. For example, their needs, when they mostly search, what makes them click on a web page, how to attract their attention and what they need, and more. So a very deep recognition of the mighty customers is needed so that content marketers can make them their upcoming customers and consistent buyers.

I found a very useful YouTube video on what content marketers really do, which I think would be great to share it here so you can watch it for more tangible information on this.

How to become a successful content marketer? (Make People Read and Love Your Content)

As a content marketer, you are the source of any information on the content creation and marketing plans of the company you work for. You need to have a few traits in order to be good at creating and marketing any kind of content. Some of the characteristics of a successful content marketer are as below:

Desire for responsibilities

The number one characteristic of a content marketer who is good at his job is to have a desire. You should not just look at your content marketing plans as a force task that you need to finish and give up as soon as possible, and You need to have a desire for what you do and the content you are creating. This desire would later lead to a very impressive piece of content that would fascinate anybody reading it.

Faith in the result

Another trait you need to have as a marketer of certain content is to have faith in what you do. Believe that the content marketing strategies you are creating are going to rock and are going to take your associated company or brand steps higher.

Great sense of imagination

It is a must to have an imagination as someone who is going to create and market content for a brand or company. Later, turn the imagination into words, and that’s all you need to be different and effective. You need creative and fresh ideas in order to compose good content marketing plans, whether it is a simple blog, infographic, book, or any other form of content. Ideas are the products of imagination. So try to make the best out of what you have in mind as the imagination of that specific subject.

A good amount of Knowledge

It is so obvious that a content marketer should have a basic knowledge of what he/she is going to create content for because he is responsible for introducing a brand or product to new people and convince them in becoming a customer. To be able to market your content, you need to either know the subject or research to get this information and begin rocking it and taking the whole business to the next stage.

Persistence and hard work

The world of content marketing is so huge and competitive, and you need to know if you want to chicken out in the midway, you are just wasting time and energy. There are lots of companies that begin with a simple content marketing plan and start a series of blogs, videos, books, etc. but they do not keep the required consistency and would be disappointed. Keep in mind that you are not going to be seen this easy, and this is why content marketing needs a lot of persistence.

How to make people read your content and love it?

You now know a bit more about the definition of content marketing, what a content marketer does, and what traits you need to have as basics of the journey to become a content marketer. Now the time has come to know the strategies you need to know and apply so that the content gets read and noticed by others because that’s all you need. You need to capture the attention of the prospects of your relevant business so that you’ll have the chance to make customers out of them. Below, are the tips to make people read and love your content:

Make your own content (be unique)

The first step towards a great content marketing strategy is to create unique content that differs from similar subjects around. Whether it is writing a blog, a book, or a simple article, learn how to keep the originality. It is not a bad thing to get inspiration from other similar contents all over the web, but try to write them in your own way. To me, it is the most important factor, and that difference is what drives people’s attention to what you have created.

Prepare to create the content

Before starting to create the content, you are asked for, ask yourself some questions and decide how the content is going to be created regarding the answers to those questions. Questions such as: who the target audiences are? What do they search more when it comes to similar content like yours? Where are the target audiences? What would audiences be interested in this sort of content? And more questions like this.

The answers to the questions above would help you decide on the content marketing strategy, which is most appropriate with your associated company, business o brand.

Be active on social media

Nobody can deny the power of social media these days and the effect it would have on the growth and recognition of all kinds of businesses. You need to consider social media as the place to share your content and be sure that helps, especially when you include popular social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook which have the most daily active users.

So be sure to share your content (whatever it is) on social media so that they’ll be seen, and you’ll get clicks and visits to your website and the source.

Actually, the primary platforms for a modern content marketer to focus on for sharing content are the popular social media apps.

Use the best social media analytics and monitoring tools

As I mentioned above, you cannot overlook the power of social media in your own content marketing strategy. That requires you, as the content marketer, to be active on the most popular social media platforms and be active on some of them at the same time.

It is not easy to manage several social media accounts at the same time since it takes lots of effort and time, but you cannot just ignore them, as well. I have a wonderful solution for such issues.

I, as a professional digital marketer, have always used social media analytics and monitoring tools to make my job easier, and that’s my recommendation for people like me. Inosocial has tons of services for all social media. Monitoring and analytics are one of the main services of Inosocial.

Social media analytics

Every business needs to analyze how their content marketing strategies are working and how are their audiences reacting to them. These are all possible through the Analytics service of Inosocial, which gives you complete information and data on all your social media account. Some of the main options of the Inosoial analytics tool are:

– To find the best time to post

– To track Engagement growth

– To track Audience growth

– To find Top post

– To find Top users

Social media monitoring

Businesses trying to market their brand or products on social media platforms should not just sit and expect their accounts to grow and get the best results out of social media. They should monitor their performance and keep track of what other relevant businesses are doing. The main options of the Inosocial monitoring tool are:

Hashtag generator: Use hashtag generator for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get more impressions and reach for social network’s posts and content.

Influencers finder: By giving the words to the system, you can switch between the related content or influential people of that area of interest.

Competitor finder: Track hashtags or keywords to find who is talking about those topics. Stay at the top and always rank higher on the market by finding competitors on social media using social media listening tools.

Instant notification of mentions: Monitor who is talking about your business by using social media listening tools.

Reply to mentions: Respond quickly to the clients using instant notifications services within management tools.

Try guest posting

Another effective way of gaining organic traffic is to post as a guest of different popular websites or forums. You need to be a little more creative in content marketing here because you need to advertise indirectly so that the host website would not collapse your post. Good guest posts would have a wonderful effect on any content to be seen more.

Create relevant content

To become a successful content marketer, first, focus on more relevant and similar things. Just imagine you are creating content and marketing a small newly made business on a local neighbor, which offers the same services as a huge similar company does. You cannot target that huge company at the very beginning, and you need to focus on smaller businesses the same as yours first, and then step by step as you grow, consider that well-known company a competitor and create relevant content competing with them in the future.

Be disciplined in sharing content

Discipline is a must in every task you want to be successful at, so have a scheduled content marketing plan on when to share content on both the source website and social media. Successful content marketers should have weekly and monthly content schedules.

Below is an example of a great marking plan calendar from Rebecca Vandenberg, which can help you a lot, and you can choose this as an inspiration to yours.

https://www.rebeccavandenberg.com/2016-marketing-planning-calendar/

Do not only focus on desktop traffic

It is useless if you are only thinking of the desktop version of the website and keeping marketing limited to that. Most of the people all over the world only use their phones to connect to the world and search for what they need from their smartphones. So remember to optimize your content for mobile as well, so that you can get attention from smartphone users as well as desktop users.

Do not be afraid to take risks

If you want to be different in content marketing, and capture more attention than your counterparts, then be fearless because being different requires creativity and new experiences. So do not be afraid to try new tactics and turn your imagination into reality.

Respond to feedbacks

It might be hard and more challenging to cope with the negative comments on your content and the company you are associated with, as the content marketer of that company, you need to be responsive to such behaviors because that’s what changes people’s minds towards your content.

Try to Respond to the negative feedback you get in a very convincing and logical manner.

Keep it easy to read (Use shorter sentences, words, and paragraphs)

This tip is one of the most important ones, and even Moz.com really emphasizes on considering this tip. If you open about five similar blogs, which one are you doing to decide to read? The one which has long paragraphs without breaks and enough spaces and long philosophic words, or the one which has smaller paraphrases which are easier to read? Of course, you’d go with the one which has smaller paragraphs and also easier words.

So try to write as easily as possible so that the ones who do not know great English can easily understand what you mean overall. Use shorter words instead of longer words, as their synonyms, to create better content marketing plans.

Conclusion

All over the world, different businesses and brands all have the same goal, which is to create content that would boost their business, and their customers find them useful. In this era, one of the best ways to get people’s attention is content marketing which would help your content to be seen, and you’ll get business growth as well as a customer base that trusts you and finds you informative.

Best iOS Editing App (Lightroom Vs. Darkroom)

The best iOS editing app is Darkroom. I used it for several weeks and here are 5 reasons it beats the beasts like Lightroom.

In this post, I’ll let you know what the best iOS editing app is and why I believe it can beat Adobe Lightroom by all means. But before that, here’s the story that got me to write this article.

I used to like my friends’ photos on Instagram, thinking about why they look so cool. It was a terrible feeling of envy that made me post less often.

I knew it’s about the filters and edit. But just how? Is someone helping them? Are they using a premium version of apps that I’m not aware of?

I even asked a couple of friends to recommend me online editing courses. But all I got was weird eye-rolls and people saying, “that’s too much for an Instagram photo, dude.”

However, I kept looking for a way to make my IG feed look better. And I finally came across a list of the best photo editing apps for iPhone!

Next thing I know, I am trying all of them (those with free trial of course) to see which one is going to save my butt. And I found it—Darkroom it is.

Why Do I Love Darkroom Over Adobe Lightroom?

If you didn’t read the above story, let me catch you up. I searched for the best photo editor app on iOS, and I came across Darkroom. After using it for several weeks and comparing it to other well-known applications such as Lightroom, I can say that it’s the best.

Here’s why.

#1: It’s Cheaper

I wasn’t looking for a monthly or yearly subscription plan that charges me a couple of bucks. That’s because I’m not a professional photographer.

All I wanted was an easy-to-use, sufficient, and cool app to make my images look awesome. So, when I heard about the life-time purchase, I was excited.

Don’t get me wrong, it costs $49.99 on one-time buying and it’s not cheap. But compared to an app like Lightroom which has no lifetime subscription, it’s a great deal.

Fun-fact, $49.99 is what you pay for Lightroom’s Yearly 100GB plan! So, I knew I’m getting a good deal with Darkroom.

However, Darkroom is quite cheaper in monthly plans as well. While adobe charges you at least $9.99, the prices for monthly subscriptions start at $3.99 on Darkroom. (That’s a huge difference).

#2: It’s Not Complicated

Let me be clear, the best iOS editing app must not be complicated to use. That’s what I love the most about Darkroom’s interface. It is clear, guided, and free of unnecessary options.

That’s not what you usually get in Adobe products. The first time I used Lightroom, I felt like it’s best to look for an online course on ‘how to edit your photos’ as soon as possible.

Since you can use Darkroom horizontally, the wider screen allows you to see all the options and try them out quickly. That’s what I did for the first few days. Just changed stuff to figure out what it is and then undo the changes easily.

So, if you’re not a pro editor, it’s the best bet. Unlike Lightroom and other similar apps, you don’t need to know the jargon or worry about the histogram. It’s more like using IG’s editing options but with a better interface and tons of extra features.

#3: You Can Do More Than Photo Editing

Okay, I was going to pay $50 for an application. So, I wanted it to be the best editing app on iOS, but I also wanted it to be more. (Sounds greedy, right?).

When I found out that you can edit videos with Darkroom as well as raw images, I said, “this is it.” Who doesn’t like the idea of buy-one-get-two? Not me.

If you’re looking for the best iOS app to edit videos, Darkroom might be the one. Of course, don’t expect it to be as good as Premiere Rush or inShot, because it’s mainly designed for photo editing.

But it offers all the necessary tools one might need to create a cool Instagram video or make a slideshow of the September’s trip to Ohio.

Here are some other cool stuff you can do with it:

Adjust focus on background and foreground
Create your filters
Apply one edit to several photos at once

#4: Darkroom is Designed for iOS

It’s responsive both on iPhone and iPad. Moreover, it supports side-by-side view to edit two photos at once on two different windows.

When you turn your phone aside, a horizontal mode allows you to use two hands to manage the progress—which a savior. Plus, you get hundreds of handy shortcuts for most repetitive actions.

I remember using some free app on my iPhone X back in 2019 and it forced me to use every single feature in vertical mode. (and it sucked).

But I had no trouble turning my phone aside and continue working on details in horizontal mode on Darkroom. That helped me to see more details on my photos and spot more issues to fix as well.

#5: It’s the Best Photo Album App as Well

Let’s be honest, iPhones don’t offer the best photo albums by default. I’ve always had this problem that I couldn’t sort my images properly. But not anymore…

Darkroom has a minimalistic feature to help you categorize your image files and rename the folders so that you have a professionally sorted album.

While it’s a basic feature for an app that costs $50, it’s still fun to use and worthy of mention.

iOS editing apps pricing

If you’re not going to edit every photo you take, it’s not worth it to buy Darkroom. There are some other practical free alternatives such as Snapseed that will fulfill your needs.

However, if editing photos is a thing to you, and having the best iOS editing app would make you feel the power, go for it. It’s better than other expensive ones (aka Adobe products).

Can I Use it for YouTube Video Editing?

The video editing tool in Darkroom is not sufficient for heavy projects. So, you’re better off not using it for YouTube videos or other comparable clips that will be streamed on professional platforms.

Adobe Premiere Rush is a way better choice in that sense. That’s because you get to shift the projects on different platforms and devices whenever you want to.

Conclusion

VSCO is good (sure), but the best free photo editing app on the iPhone is Snapseed. It’s not going to charge you for membership and its interface makes adjustments as easy as possible. Plus, it’s made by Google! So, it’s a trustworthy application, too.

Facebook is testing shopping from Reels

It’s not long since Instagram launched its TikTok competitor, Reels, in August this year, and it is looking for ways to make it better and much more fun day by day.

For that purpose, Facebook is looking to add some shopping features on both IGTV and Reels as soon as possible. The first cool upcoming feature would be shopping within Reels later this year and will also start making shoppable IGTV videos global starting today. Eventually, these IGTV videos will also be available through Instagram Shop.

The Instagram Reels is still not a big deal, and TikTok is not yet even threatened by Reels, and so many Influencers say that they will not choose Reels over TikTok. That’s the reason why Instagram is trying its best to add beneficial options to the feature to make more users start using it and even prefer it over TikTok.

It’s unsurprising to see Instagram try to make shopping a thing on Reels, although the rollout timeline seems fast. Still, Facebook has prioritized commerce over the past few years, which could lead to it taking a bigger role in online transactions. The company would normally take a cut from these purchases, but it’s holding off on charging these fees through the end of 2020. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in 2019 that he expected commerce and payments to be the future of the company, and given the quick rollout of back-to-back shopping updates, he seems to be making good on that promise.

the Instagram “Shop” Tab

Earlier this year, Instagram announced it is releasing its shopping tab, and these new shoppable features I mentioned above are other steps towards making Instagram a better and more efficient platform for shopping.

The new Instagram “Shop” tab will allow Instagram users to shop from top brands and creators via a new tab in the app’s navigation bar with just one tap.

Since the option is not yet completed and fully rolled out, it does not function at its best now, but you can test it a bit by tapping on the Shops tab.

As mentioned a bit earlier, the new Instagram “Shop” tab will be added to one of the icons at the bottom of your Instagram app.

The Shop icon will replace the current ‘Activity’ tab for the ones which got the beta mode, with users still able to access their activity feed either via an additional icon in the top right (beside the ‘Direct’ paper plane) or from their profile.

After you click the Shop Tab, it will take you to the existing shopping experience in the app, with a listing of posts that have Shopping Tags added via approved merchants. But soon, the tab will highlight even more purchase options, as parent company Facebook expands its new on-platform selling options to more businesses.

Also Read: “How to Make a Reel on Facebook?”

YouTube Highlighted Comment

YouTube highlighted comment is not a thing. It doesn’t mean anything special and only YOU can see it. So, don’t get too excited…

My first memory of YouTube highlighted comment is a text I got from my 14 years old niece, Julia. It was something like, “I guess MrBeast highlighted my comment. Isn’t that cool?!”

However, I still feel sorry to let her know that Jimmy Donaldson never saw her mention. And I wish I could explain to her what UI means and why did YouTube single out her comment.

But she refused to talk to me after the incident and chose to believe MrBeast did it anyway. So, here are 3 simple facts that will set you apart from Julia and bring you back to reality.

By the way, if you are running a YouTube channel, you will need this guide:”Top 3 strategies to optimize your YouTube video for search in 2021″ to do better on your channel and videos and make them blow.

What is a highlighted comment on YouTube?

YouTube highlighted comments are flagged YouTube comments. A highlighted comment appears on YouTube to flag your attention so that you can interact with the comment more easily. Neither users nor creators choose to highlight comments, and it is not good or bad when this happens – the feature is just meant to help you navigate comments that might be of interest to you (businessinder.com).

#1: It’s Not Even a Thing

When a comment gets highlighted under a video on YouTube, it doesn’t mean anything special. That’s because the only person who can see the added label is you.

There is no algorithm to identify highlighted-worthy remarks. It’s only a part of the YT User Interface to let the user know which mention got likes and replies.

This is how it works: You get a notification saying “someone liked your comment.” You click on that notification and it redirects you to the actual post/video that you wrote your thoughts under.

But to distinguish your remark and make it stand out, YouTube adds a small textbox with the text “highlighted comment” on top—near your username. This tag is only visible to you and has no specific functionality. Basically, it helps you find your comment easier.

#2: You Can Get a Highlighted Comment Anytime

If you click on a comment-related notification, YouTube will send you to the exact post and add a “highlighted comment” badge on top of your statement. You can do it anytime, and it works every time.

However, note that no one else sees the badge and it only appears on your screen.

Plus, it doesn’t work when you find the comment manually. So, if you look up your statement under a specific video, you’ll see that there’s no tag or label beside it. You have to use the notification tab to see it.

#3: You Can’t Remove It – Or Can You?

Since it’s just a temporary tag, you can’t (and don’t need to) remove it. But if you want to hide it, just exit the page and return. The next time you enter the YouTube channel or visit the comments section, it will be gone.

Just make sure that you don’t click on the notification for that particular statement. That’s because every time you do so, the badge will reappear to help you locate your remark.

FAQs About Highlighted Comments on YouTube

Someone Liked my comment and it got highlighted, what does it mean?

It doesn’t have any meaning. You see the “highlighted” label because you clicked on a specific notification. If you check out the statement using your search bar or other sections of the app/website, you’ll not see the tag anymore.

Did the creator highlight my comment?

No. creators cannot highlight your comments.

Does it mean the creator saw my comment?

No. The label is not visible to others and doesn’t indicate any special message such as “your comment has been seen by the creator.”

Is It a members-only feature?

No. It’s a part of YouTube UI to show comments that you clicked on through the notification tab.

What About YouTube Replies?

Highlighted replies on YouTube are similar to comments. The creator doesn’t select them and they are not different from other comments. The tag that says “highlighted reply” near your profile picture helps you find it among others.

It allows users to discover their previous statements and manage them. For instance, if your reply is getting dislikes, you can click on a related notification, find it, and edit or delete it.

Top Comment Differs from Highlighted One

When a statement gets the most likes, it usually appears on top of the others. This is more important in 2020 because YT changed its comment section interface. Now, other users will see only one comment below the video – which by default is the top or most-liked one.

But a highlighted remark has no value and it’s not ranked higher. It only contains a temporary label (visible to the commenter).

[FUNFACT]: did you know that the most liked YT comment (aka the top YouTube comment) contains only 4 words: “I’m the bald guy.” This statement got over a million and a half likes and made the YT team to send a customized award to the owner of the statement.

Highlighted VS. Pinned Comment on YouTube

A pinned comment is the one that the creator decides to be on top of the comments section. Most creators ask a question or give a list of the video’s topics and pin it.

Everyone can see a pinned comment on top of the section
No one can pin a statement – but the creator
The highlighted label is only visible to one user
It doesn’t add any value to the remark

Does Facebook Have a Similar Feature?

No. Facebook doesn’t offer any feature to highlight comments. There is only one function that lets users highlight their posts. The highlighted stories, however, is a hand-picked selection of stories you might like or may have missed.

Comparing YouTube Highlighted Comments with Instagram

If you click on a comment-related notification on Instagram, it shows the post and redirects you to that particular remark/reply. But it also shows a blue background around it that slowly fades off. So, if you look closely, there is a blue hue that remains on the comment for a second or two before it goes away.

That’s similar to what YouTube does. The highlighted comment badge has the same functionality and lets you see the statement you’re looking for right after clicking on its notification.