How Does the Instagram Algorithm Work?

To understand how Instagram’s algorithm works, it’s important to consider the purpose behind it: the algorithm aims to delight you. If it doesn’t show you interesting and engaging content, you’ll exit the app.

The algorithm needs to keep you scrolling.

How does the Instagram Algorithm work?

When deciding how high your post should show up in someone else’s feed, the Instagram algorithm measures how quickly your post attracts engagement, and evaluates the relationship between your account and your audience’s accounts. Engagement on prior posts, direct shares, and even Instagram Stories can also affect where your post shows up in a feed.

Prior to 2016, Instagram’s algorithm was pretty straightforward: posts were ordered chronologically, regardless of engagement. If I posted a picture of a vanilla latte 10 minutes after my friend posted a picture of her engagement ring, my picture showed up first.

But in March 2016, Instagram implemented a major change to the algorithm, pivoting away from the chronological feed and moving towards an experience based more on user engagement They explained, “People miss, on average, 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it has become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most.”

The chronological algorithm couldn’t ensure you’d be continuously delighted. To keep you engaged, the algorithm started to take into account factors like which accounts you like best, which posts you engage with the most, and which posts were attracting the most likes and comments from your friends.

To help you better understand how Instagram’s current algorithm selects posts to display at the top of your feed, let's take a look at the specific factors taken into account. Hopefully, this information will equip you to deliver higher-quality, more visible Instagram posts.

It’s All About Engagement

First off, let’s take a look at what happens the moment you post a picture on Instagram. Why do some of your posts stay at the top of your audience’s feeds for hours, while others, seemingly identical in quality, disappear from everyone’s feeds within minutes?

The answer is engagement.

How Instagram’s Algorithm Uses Engagement to Evaluate How Many People See Your Post:

1. When you first post a picture, it’s shown to a small percentage of your audience.
2. Instagram measures how quickly that photo is engaged with, commented on, and liked.
3. Instagram will compare the engagement your picture is getting to other posts you’ve shared at similar times and days. For example, is this Monday 10 a.m. post getting more or less traffic than last Monday’s 10 a.m. post? It would be unfair of Instagram to assume your post is less popular if it compared your post to another one you posted at a more popular time of day, so it compares similar times to ensure accuracy when it’s evaluating the quality of your post’s engagement.
4. If your photo is attracting a lot of engagement, Instagram will show it to a higher percentage of your audience, and maybe even surface it on the Explorer Pages.
5. If your post continues to attract a lot of engagement, your photo will stay at the top of your audience’s news feeds and reach more people.
6. If your photo doesn’t attract a lot of engagement initially, it will get pushed further down the page, and less of your audience will see it.

Relationships Play a Big Role

Now that we’ve explored how Instagram’s algorithm uses engagement to determine what percentage of your overall audience sees a post, let’s examine the factors that influence the order in which posts appear on a user's feed.

Not only is this good to know from a business’s perspective, but it’s also interesting to know as a user. If you think you’re suddenly seeing too much of one person or one company on your feed, here’s why:

The Five Factors Instagram’s Algorithm Evaluates When Deciding How High Your Post Will be on Someone’s Feed:

1. Your relationship with the person. If you regularly comment and like a person’s posts, Instagram will understand you have a stronger relationship with this person, and will make sure you keep seeing this person’s posts.
2. Timing. Although your feed isn’t quite chronological, for reasons like “relationships,” it still wants to show you new and relevant posts; it won’t just keep showing you your best friend’s posts from three weeks ago.
3. Likes and comments. Although Instagram does not want the algorithm to become a popularity contest, it will consider how many likes and comments a picture has when deciding what to show you.
4. Direct shares. If you’re sending posts to your friend, it’s a sign you really like those posts, so Instagram will show you more in the future.
5. Profile searches. If you search for someone’s profile, Instagram has a clue that you want to see this person’s posts.

How to Get Your Posts Shown Higher on Your Audience’s Instagram Feeds

We’ve covered how Instagram’s algorithm works and which factors Instagram considers when deciding which posts to show you. Finally, let’s take this information and explore how you can use it to get your posts higher on your audience’s Instagram feed.

Tips for Getting Your Posts Shown Higher on Instagram:

1. Post your pictures when you know your audience is on Instagram (try using Squarelovin to figure out when your audience is most active).
2. If you have a business account on Instagram, check out your Instagram Insights page to see which of your posts are most popular. This is a good indicator of which types of posts you should replicate, and even which time of day attracts most engagement.
3. Create “human” posts your audience will enjoy and get value from. Instead of creating an advertisment for your business, consider what your audience will engage with.
4. Make Instagram Stories. Instagram takes note of this engagment, too (for example, if someone replays your story, comments or shares it, or votes on a poll, your business could show up in his feed next time).

There you have it! A full rundown of how Instagram’s algorithm works, which factors Instagram considers most important, and how to take all that information and use it to promote your brand in a stronger, better, more engaging way.

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How to Know if You've Been Hit With a Google Penalty (And How to Fix It)

Every marketer has a story about getting penalized by Google.

Although many websites have evidently been punished (not just by big algorithmic updates, but also by one of the 400,000 tiny manual actions Google takes), the average marketer or webmaster hasn’t noticed when they have. According to Kissmetrics, only 5% of penalized websites are submitting a reconsideration request every month to recover their rankings.

What Is a Google Penalty?

A Google penalty is a punishment against a website whose content conflicts with the marketing practices enforced by Google. This penalty can come as a result of an update to Google's ranking algorithm, or a manual review that suggests a web page used "black hat" SEO tactics.

Since we're all reliant on search engines for traffic, we have to stay informed of the latest algorithm updates -- and make changes if we're subject to a Google penalty. Not only is it good practice to keep abreast of the latest patches, but it gives you a competitive advantage if you can optimize your content faster than other web domains.

Thankfully, there are plenty of tools and insights out there to help even the busiest marketer watch out for these silent traffic killers. Keep reading to learn about the latest Google search criteria, a handy Google penalty checker, and how to know if you have a Google penalty against your website.

Step 1: Review These Recent Google Algorithmic Updates

Google has a 15-year history of updating its algorithm, not just to reward the internet's best content, but to deliver the most appropriate content for a given search query. For a glimpse of this intruiguing timeline, check out this infographic that breaks down the history of algorithm updates.

Below are some of the most recent and significant updates to keep in mind if you think your content is getting hit with a Google penalty:

Panda (2011)

There were updates before Panda, but this was the first massive pain in the neck for websites. Its purpose: to crack down on websites containing poor/error-laden content, excessive ads, and possibly primitive design.

This was rolled out in stages, and released its last patch in July 2015.

Secure Update: (2014)

As website hacking becomes more sophisticated and people are more aware of the risks, it is important to assuage those doubts by motivating webmasters to invest in SSL security, which affords domains the "HTTPS" at the beginning of the URL (as opposed to "HTTP"). This is critical if you require personal and financial details from your online visitors.

If not, Google may intercept a user with an "are you sure?" page if he or she clicks on an unsecured search result.

Mobilegeddon (2015)

Preference is given to websites that are "responsive" in design -- or scalable to mobile devices. Unsurprisingly, having a website that is readable and navigable on a handheld device as well as desktop is preferred by visitors.

This update sounds more aggressive than Pengiun and Panda, but it's super helpful to publishers who put mobile first.

Penguin 4.0 (2016)

Penguin first launched in 2012 as a way to combat genuine spam rather than sites that are legitimate but poorly made. Penalties focused on keyword stuffing, cloaking, link building ... basically, any method you’ve heard of referred to as "black hat."

As of 2016, its fourth version punishes bad links instead of the entire site -- helping rehabilitate web domains that might still have good intentions behind them.

Intrusive Interstitial Penalty (2017)

Google opened 2017 by doubling down on its commitment to mobile. This update punishes websites with interstitial ads and other pop-out content that can hinder a page's functionality on a mobile device.

Not every ad-heavy website will suffer, but those that severely affect the user experience can be the next to lose their rank.

These updates are not one-offs. They are reinforced every year to keep up with copyright violations, unwanted content campaigns, and similar black-hat techniques -- and to make sure their searchers are increasingly satisfied with their results.

Step 2: Audit Your Website for These Black Hat SEO Failures

I know you don't have time to examine every manual action Google has ever performed. I also know if you're reading this, you probably want your users to have a good user experience.

With that in mind, here's a brief list of things that might cause low website traffic due to a manual action Google took to further enforce its search criteria. Any one of these could help you determine if you have a Google penalty against your website:

• The majority of your content contains pop-out ads.
• Your content is keyword-stuffed.
• You have short-form content, often unedited for quality and errors.
• You haven't localized site content that caters to global visitors.
• You've engaged in bad link-building practices to increase page authority:
  • "Cloaking" keywords across your page so users can't see them.
  • Buying excessive backlinks to your website.
• Your content has inherited backlinks from adult, gambling, or otherwise low-quality pages.
• Your website doesn't have a legitimate security certificate (HTTPS).
• You've republished content from other websites without permission.
• Your website has a high load time or poor appearance on mobile devices.

Step 3: Find Out If You Have a Ranking Problem

First of all, diagnosing the issue is key. Without knowing what Google penalty you've been hit with, you can’t optimize against it. Back in October 2014, for example, most people thought they were dealing with a Penguin update, but it was in fact an extended Panda update.

Here are a few tips to help you properly diagnose the issue:

Use a penalty indicator tool to find out what's happened to your website in the past, and if you have yet to recover from it.

A fast and simple tool to drop this knowledge bomb on you is this succinctly titled Website Penalty Indicator.

This Google penalty checker from FEInternational can show you which of the major Google penalties hit you and at what point they reached your website. (Of course, to be cheeky, I tried out "www.google.com" to see what would happen.)

However, you’ll notice that this tool focuses on the most significant algorithm changes, and not all of the little manual ones in between. To examine those updates, you’ll need to follow the next step.

Use tools like SEMrush to find out if you’ve been penalized by one of Google’s updates.

By using tools like SEMrush, you can perform a complete site audit and check how your position has changed in SERPs, check your backlinks, and analyze your content.

Step 4: Identify the Google Penalties to Optimize Against

This section was contributed by Elena Terenteva, Content Strategist at SEMrush.

The best thing you can do for your website is to avoid penalties in the first place. Website owners who break SEO rules risk manual penalties or being seriously harmed by algorithm updates. When a website is hit with a penalty, it’s more than likely due to one of the following reasons:

• A lack of knowledge on behalf of the SEO specialist
• A purposeful violation of basic SEO principles
• The use of various black-hat techniques

But if you have been hit by a penalty, how you'll figure out the root cause will depend on what kind of penalty it is.

If a website gets a manual penalty, the owner will be notified through Google Webmaster Tools and receive a letter explaining the reasons for its failure. This means the website owner will at least have an idea of how to recover and can begin working on the suggested changes.

If your website is hit by an algorithm change, the situation becomes slightly more difficult. You need to find a correlation between Google’s last actions and your website’s losses.

Don’t forget that website position and traffic losses can be caused by general problems and may have nothing to do with algorithmic changes. If you do find that you were harmed by a specific algorithm change, get all the information you can about that update so you can start to resolve the issue.

Of course, all of us want to avoid being hit by a penalty in the first place. If you want to be prepared, I recommend consistently running SEO audits. Here are a few things you can do:

• Remove or disavow unnatural or spammy links manually.
• Be sure that your anchor text is diversified.
• Get rid of all duplicate content.
• Create non-keyword-stuffed, quality content.
• Keep an eye on UX.

You can also see some of these tips for avoiding a penalty visualized in this infographic.

Remember that the best strategy is to avoid penalties before Google even crawls your content. SEO isn't just about trying something new. It’s about constantly monitoring the success of your historical efforts.

Although avoiding penalties may seem like building a house of cards that may collapse at any minute ... well, that’s kinda the way it is! That’s why it’s important to ensure that your website is up-to-date, helpful, and trustworthy.

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4 Signs You've Found an Informed Candidate

In the search for top talent, every recruiter prefers an informed candidate. Why? Informed candidates make the hiring process easier by asking smarter questions, doing the necessary research on the company, and tailoring their expectations to the role they're applying for.

So how can these job-seeking unicorns be spotted? Here are a number of indicators that will show you that you have an informed candidate in your application pipeline -- for more, download the Ultimate Screening Checklist.

1. They Came as a Referral

Every year, employee referrals top the list as a source of new talent for employers -- in 2016, 30 percent of all hires were a result of employee referrals, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

This is no accident: employee referrals are one of the most reliable sources for informed candidates. One reason for this is that your employees share your goal in wanting to recommend a good candidate -- it makes them look good, brings in their friend or acquaintance to the company and sometimes even gives them a bonus for a successful referral.

In addition, referred candidates are often better informed because they have a friend who can fill them in on the ins and outs of the company, both before the interview and during the onboarding process. Referred candidates also save hiring time in the long run: multiple studies have shown that referred candidates have a higher retention rate -- a 2015 study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics showed that in high-tech jobs, referred candidates are 26 percent less likely to quit.

2. Their Resume Is Tailored to the Job Description

In today’s digitized job application process, candidates can send out a flurry of job applications with just a few clicks of a button. High-quality candidates, however, will spend time tailoring their resume to fit the company and the specific job description. One place to look for this is in the candidate’s statement or objective section.

Statements that are bland and can apply to any job show a lack of thoughtfulness, while a statement that clearly is aligned with the goals of the company and the role that is being asked for is a clear sign you have an informed candidate on your hands. In addition, the presence of relevant industry keywords shows that they are familiar with the industry and know how to use the terminology.

3. They Understand the Role

Having an understanding of the role that they’ve applied to saves time for both the candidate and the employer. The applicant’s resume and cover letter, as well as the questions they ask during the interview, are the best places to see that they have thought about how their experience qualifies them for each specific aspect of the role. At the same time, it is your duty as an employer to follow best practices for writing a job description, and make the duties and expectations for the role as clear as possible.

4. They Ask Intelligent Questions

Before coming in for an interview, any competent candidate should have done their research on the company -- if they have, it will likely show in the questions they ask you. Asking informed questions shows that they have both invested time in bulking up their knowledge of the company and getting to know the company on a deeper level. Bonus points if they bring up recent company news or product developments!

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Unriddled: The Tech News You Need, Explained

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Wednesday.

Allow us to introduce "Unriddled" -- the HubSpot Marketing Blog's mid-week digest of the tech news you need to know.

This week, we've got stories from Google, Amazon, Instagram, and more. So when the volume of stories of these has you asking, "Hold up. What just happened?" we're here to break it down.

It's tech news: explained.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. Finally: An iMessage Extension for the Google iOS App

Google announced this week that the iOS Google app will now support an iMessage extension: the horizontal list of icons that allows users to integrate app functionalities with messages sent from iOS devices.

The integration, which is currently only available in the U.S., allows users to share locations, general search results, GIF images, videos, and local business listings in messages -- even to those who don't use iOS devices.

In addition to those capabilities, the new integration with iOS also allows users to drag-and-drop text, images, and links between the Google app and others, like iMessage or Notes.

For example, according to the official announcement, to share something like an article you're reading on the Google app, all you have to do is tap and hold the link to drag it into iMessage -- though our team had trouble getting that function to work properly.

It's a move among what some might describe as a contentious relationship between Google and Apple, with the two often appearing to one-up each other with product releases and announcements. The integration is a welcome feature for iOS users, and for those who are watching the competition between Google and Amazon play out in a less-than-user friendly way -- more on that in a bit.

2. Google Has Sold Zagat

Google's 2011 purchase of Zagat, the legacy restaurant review guide, was one of the search engine giant's first forays into the realm of local businesses and the ratings of them.

Yesterday, it was announced that Google would be selling Zagat to The Infatuation, an online restaurant review site that, in a sense of irony, has claimed that it will bring back the print editions of Zagat guides -- which were discontinued last year.

It's a move that practically indicates that Google has grown out of a need for a separately-branded restaurant review system, as its own version seems to have taken shape on Google Maps and Google for Business listings.

When users tap on a restaurant listing on Google Maps, for example, they can read reviews left by other Google users, and see third-party reviews and list rankings that were pulled into the business listing.

Google originally purchased Zagat for $151 million. The purchase price for The Infatuation has not been disclosed.

3. Instagram Could Soon Be Unveiling Its Own Portrait Mode

For those who did not care to spend upwards of $800 for a mobile device with built-in "portrait mode," take heart: Instagram may soon be unveiling its own feature with the same capabilities.

As first reported by TechCrunch, Instagram could be launching an in-app Portrait Mode imminently -- which means that even if you didn't opt for the phone that's equipped with Portrait Mode for selfies, Instagram can provide similar technology for you.

But it's not exactly new. According to these reports, the setting has actually existed within Instagram's code for some time, and was discovered when a member of the TechCrunch team was picking apart the app's APK (which stands for Android Application Package: essentially an .exe file, but for Android devices).

Source: TechCrunch

What's not clear is how users can execute this feature now, before (and if) it's officially released. But it's a nod to a trend on behalf of many social media networks that emphasize a native content experience -- one that allows users to capture, share, and engage with content without leaving that particular channel.

This move could be headed in that direction -- allowing users to capture portrait-quality photos and selfies within Instagram, and without having to re-upload them to the app after taking them on their respective device cameras.

4.Reddit Admits It Was Used to Spread Election-Related Propaganda

In a public letter penned by CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit admitted to learning that Russian propaganda was shared by "thousands" of users on its network during the 2016 U.S. presidential election -- most of them unknowingly.

While Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have continued to face scrutiny for the weaponization of their own networks to spread misinformation, Huffman wrote that Reddit's involvement wasn't so much about ads. Rather, it was about (largely American) users sharing this type of content -- "content from accounts we suspect are of Russian origin or content linking directly to known propaganda domains" -- without realizing where it originated. That's also the case when Reddit users share content of the same nature that was originally posted on Twitter -- the kind of issue that Huffman described as "indirect propaganda ... the most complex."

Using the example of Twitter account @TEN_GOP, which is now known to be of Russian origin, he explained that tweets from that account "were amplified by thousands of Reddit users."

Huffman concluded the letter by noting that Reddit would be "cooperating with congressional inquiries," though the nature of those inquiries is not immediately clear.

As of writing this post, Reddit has not been publicly asked to testify before any congressional committees, or submit any materials and evidence.

The full text of Huffman's letter follows.

In response to recent reports about the integrity of Reddit, I’d like to share our thinking. from r/announcements

5. Amazon Isn't Going to Sell Nest Products Anymore

Last week, when Amazon announced its acquisition of Ring -- which manufactures things like connected doorbells and in-home cameras -- many felt a storm coming. Amazon would be entering the smart home realm, and other players in the market would likely experience a ripple effect.

Among them would be Google, the parent company of Nest: a smart home company that produces, among other things, connected doorbells, in-home cameras, thermostats, outdoor cameras, and smoke detectors. Not long after the Ring acquisition was announced, Amazon claimed it would no longer carry or sell Nest products.

It's a power play by Amazon that has been described as "dumb" and "anti-consumer," and has some wondering if it violates antitrust laws, though that seems unlikely to most an anti-regulation administration.

But attempts to edge out competition is not exactly a new move for Amazon, as it continues to foray (often by way of acquisition) into a growing number of new sectors, like grocery, healthcare, and now smart home. But it's not the first, either, as Google has previously taken similar actions, like disallowing YouTube videos from playing on certain Amazon devices.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out search-wise, given Google's origins as a search engine. Currently, Google includes listings from Amazon in its shopping results on the SERP -- but considering recent events, it won't come as a particularly big surprise if that changes.

Other News You May Have Missed

What You Missed Last Month in Google. Being that it's a shorter month, February seems to have flown by. A lot happened in the world of tech, much of the news coming from Google. We’ve put together another list of the major highlights. Read More »

You Can Apply for Jobs on Facebook Now. Facebook announced a new feature that will allow Facebook business Pages to post jobs and manage applications on its platform. In more than 40 countries, administrators will be able to create job listings directly from their Pages, where they'll appear throughout Facebook like any other post or ad would: the Page itself, followers' News Feeds, and Marketplace -- as well as Facebook's new "Jobs" dashboard. Read More »

Facebook Ended Its Explore Feed Experiment. Back in October, Facebook introduced a new initiative to put Page content in a separate feed from content within a user's personal network. It was one of the first efforts from Facebook to shift its emphasis from advertisers to users -- and it would live under what the social media channel called the Explore Feed. Facebook ended that initiative -- which Head of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, called "a trial response to consistent feedback" in the official announcement. Read More »

A Disaster Waiting to Happen? Businesses Could Send You Ads on Messenger. In November 2017, Facebook began internally testing Messenger Broadcast: a service for businesses that allows them to send marketing content to users, without building a bot. Last week, the social media platform announced that Messenger Broadcast would be available for testing to select Page administrators in the U.S., Mexico, and Thailand. Read More »

If You Think Twitter Is Unhealthy, You Can Now Apply to Study It. In a series of tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the social network would be enlisting the help of outside experts to determine the relative health of Twitter. This likely comes as a result of users who increasingly engage in negative, often hateful conversation on the platform. Read More »

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask me your tech news questions, or to let me know what kind of news you'd like us to cover.

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How to Create Facebook Videos That Foster Meaningful Engagement

Worried that Facebook’s latest news feed changes will impact your video reach? Looking for tips to create videos that generate meaningful comments? In this article, you’ll discover how to create Facebook videos that generate the mindful interactions your posts need to stay visible in the news feed. How News Feed Changes Affect Video Visibility For [...]

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5 Tips for Giving Constructive Feedback to a Writer

“I’m not comfortable putting my name on this.”

I received this comment once from a colleague at a previous employer, responding to an article I wrote for him under his byline. But when I dug in, I found that his issue with the piece were a few small errors that were easy to fix. Sweeping remarks like “I don’t like it” were common at that job, and they often arrived with little direction by the author for how to revise.

This criticism was so disheartening, there came a point where I’d actively avoid writing for certain people because of how they expressed their feedback.

The reason my colleague’s comment struck a nerve with me isn’t because I’m a delicate flower who can’t take being told my work is insufficient. It’s because it wasn’t constructive. Feedback to a writer needs to -- among other things -- highlight the first draft’s specific flaws, its strengths (however few there might be) and the goals of the assignment. Otherwise, the writer has no incentive or means to improve.

This was a guidepost for me when I worked as a content editor, and being on the other side of the writer-editor relationship showed me just how valuable good feedback can be to a writer’s motivation and final product. The problem is, even if your intentions are good, feedback can still come across as aggressive or confusing to a writer if it’s not delivered, packaged, or expressed correctly.

Whether you’re reviewing the work of a ghostwriter, freelance writer, or even a direct coworker, here are five tips I’ve picked up as both a writer and editor on giving constructive feedback to the people who create content for you.

1. Comment on the Good Qualities First

I can attest to how tempting it is to end a business relationship with those who only mention what you did wrong. Harvard Business School found a similar trend: In a study of 300 U.S.-based employees, a person was 44% more likely to disassociate from a colleague who gave them feedback that was more negative than the recipient’s self-evaluation.

So, how do you call out the bad parts of someone’s work without sounding like a jerk? Start with the good parts. Introducing feedback on a piece of content with what it does well accomplishes three things for the writer:

1. It fuels their motivation to approach revisions and new assignments.
2. It gives them a vantage point for where their work fell short.
3. It tells them what’s working and what they should keep doing.

If you struggle to find strengths in a writer’s first draft, don’t be afraid to broaden the subject of your praise. For example, if an article on search engine optimization (SEO) is full of advice based on an outdated version of Google’s algorithm, clarify that the writer was right to include such a thorough variety of SEO tactics, as this will make the final article that much more valuable.

2. Call Out a Recurring Mistake Right Away

As a copy editor, I had a bad habit of waiting 10 articles before telling a writer about a mistake they kept making. It was just easier fixing it myself instead of sending it back to them -- so easy that I eventually forgot I’d already fixed these things in previous content. Unfortunately, this became exhausting, and when I finally informed a writer of an error, it didn’t go over well.

Don’t follow younger Braden’s example.

No matter how easy it is in the short term for you to correct chronic flaws in a writer’s work, you’ll eventually want them to learn the right way of doing it in the first place. But when you wait multiple occurrences before flagging the issue, you can cause a lot of confusion. “Why now?” The writer might ask you. “Do you have a new style guide that enforces this?” An awkward “er … not exactly” is sure to follow.

In addition, failing to call out issues in their work right away compromises their trust in your feedback. If you want a writer to listen to your feedback, you need to be honest about their mistakes, 100% of the time.

If you notice a recurring error in a writer’s work, address it on-sight. This solves the problem before it becomes a habit and makes the writer more attentive to the guidelines of their assignment.

3. Provide a Style Guide or Cheat Sheet

Speaking of guidelines, give your writer some. Even if the only editorial parameters you have in place are the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style, make sure this material is in your writer’s hands.

Stylebooks enable your writer to refer to this material instead of reaching out to you every time they’re unsure of something. It also allows you to back up any constructive feedback they might be skeptical of directly via official directions they already have in their possession.

Does your writer’s assignment call for project guidelines that are more complex or specific than AP or Chicago style? Package these heavier guidelines into a PDF ebook that you can distribute to new content creators as they join your ranks (get some ebook design templates here). Here’s one idea:

Use these templates as way to organize the company-specific editorial issues and questions you know will come up frequently.

      

Here are a few ideas of what you might include in such a guide:

• Target audience. Who’s your intended readership? Outline your target buyer persona here so your writers can make sure everything they create benefits this person.
• Product info. How should writers refer to your products or services? Details could range from spelling, to capitalization, to which writing topics are associated with which products -- ensuring any calls to action are directed toward the right conversion paths.
• Competition. Who are your competitors? List each one, and detail how you prefer they be referred to (or not).
• Tone. What tone should your writers take in their writing? Company blogs need to distinguish themselves by talking in a way that resonates with their audience. You might compare your tone to a real-life figure and their style of speech to make a tone guideline more concrete. Perhaps they’re especially formal -- or somewhat snarky.

In addition, take this opportunity to include company exceptions to either the AP or Chicago style guides. Professional writers tend to base their writing style on one of these stylebooks, so use this as a benchmark for your writers as they create content, but don’t hesitate to include exceptions as you see fit.

For example, AP’s stylebook forbids use of the oxford comma (the last comma in a list of three or more items), but you might decide you prefer having it throughout your website. Note exceptions like these in your cheat sheet.

4. Include Edits With Your Revision Requests

Which YouTube video would you rather watch: Someone describing how to play guitar, or someone holding a guitar and demonstrating each chord? The latter, right?

The same goes for feedback on writing. When pointing out a weakness in the text, offer a sample fix.

For example: Let’s say you’re reviewing a post that links out to various sources, but none of those hyperlinks use the name of the source as their anchor text -- a policy of yours in this hypothetical situation. Don’t just describe the issue the way I just did; call out the problem and then fix it for them in a comment once or twice so they know what you mean.

According to Moz, “anchor text” is the clickable word or phrase attached to a hyperlink (see what I did there?).

Going out of way your way to suggest a fix not only gives the writer context for the errors you’ve identified and help correcting them, but it also shows you’re genuinely interested in seeing a successful final draft -- to the point where you’ll put in some sweat and effort of your own.

5. Supplement Written Feedback With a Verbal Introduction

When I was a freelance writer for an SEO agency, I had minimal contact with the editor, and that made it difficult for me to find encouragement in the tone of their written comments. By contrast, I regularly met my editor in person while writing for an environmental company and I was always motivated to execute on each request for revision.

Calling or video-chatting a new freelancer -- or even an in-house hire you won’t meet with regularly -- is more important to a working relationship that you might think. Doing so for a new writer establishes a rapport and shorthand that can go a long way toward the writer’s cooperation and understanding as you begin to assign more work to them.

It also makes them more comfortable calling or approaching you if they’re unsure about a piece they’re working on. This can prevent long periods of email tag and ensure both parties stay on task.

After receiving a first submission from a new freelancer, for example, try this:

1. Put aside time to talk it over with them in person or on a video-conferencing platform that allows you to share your computer screen.
   • If you have a Gmail account, Google makes it easy to share your screen on a Google Hangout video chat. See the screenshot below; the red square to the left shows the "share your screen" option -- then you select the screen you'd like to share with the writer to the right.
2. Chat for a few minutes about work history and other personal topics.
3. Then, share your screen with them so they can see your markup of their submission.
4. Casually chat through your feedback on the document line by line, regularly pausing for questions or checks in understanding.

Setting the table like this can present you with opportunities to bring your writer’s professional background into your feedback so they better understand your criticisms. Are they also a photographer? Consider how you might translate editorial issues related to clarity and subtext -- things that are relevant to photographs as well -- for someone who you learn works in more than one medium. It pays serious dividends throughout your business relationship, I promise.

Writers can be quite attached to their words, which means it’s critical that you pick yours carefully. At the same time, even great feedback can lack a few critical ingredients for it to truly benefit a writer. What did you think of this article? Tell me on Twitter (I can take it).

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Why the 'Pivot to Video' Is Dangerous for Publishers

When I read that the average American spends five-and-a-half hours per day watching video content, I scoffed. Between video explainers on Facebook, Game of Thrones, and Netflix, that average is closer to my daily minimum time spent watching videos.

After all, 2017 is “the year of video” -- why shouldn’t people consume more videos, and why shouldn’t creators make more?

As it turns out, there is such a thing as too much video. Publishers like MTV News, which laid off most of its editorial crew last year to focus on video; and Vox Media, which scaled back its video team this year, have seen how hazardous a "pivot to video" can be.

No, not that kind of pivot. I'm talking about the "pivot to video."

What is pivoting to video? It's not changing seats on the couch to get a better view -- it's the latest example of marketers and content creators being so eager to adopt a new platform or medium that they ruin it.

What Is a Pivot to Video?

Pivot to video (verb): To decrease or entirely shutter written editorial operations to focus on creating more video content

Synonyms: restructuring, reorganizing, refocusing

If this sounds like a joke ... well, the dictionary definition is kind of a joke. But "pivoting to video" consists of publications deciding to focus so entirely on video that entire writing and editorial staff are laid off completely.

It started with MTV News.

You might not be surpised to hear this -- after all, the word "television" makes up two of the three letters in MTV. But after an organizational restructuring at MTV in 2015, long-form editorial and video content about politics, culture, and social issues helped improve the network's ratings and engagement on web properties. MTV News staffed its team with content creators who produced documentary-style videos and 4,000-6,000-word long-form written pieces -- most of whom were let go in June of this year, when MTV News "pivoted" to create more short-form music and entertainment video over long-form editorial pieces.

Twitter was flooded with tweets from former employees announcing their newfound employment status, friends calling for publishers to hire them, and content creators from all media decrying -- and defending -- the strategic pivot.

I've been laid off by @MTVNews. I'll miss seeing my brilliant, talented colleagues, and I look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 28, 2017

.@MTVNews I'm a fan of video. I work in video. But behind strong video, you also need strong storytellers. https://t.co/LBgJZpi9mw

— Traci Lee (@traciglee) June 28, 2017

I’ve been in digital media for 12 years. One thing I’ve learned is that nobody wants to read anything over 1,000 words. MTV is more proof.

— Andy Gray (@AndyGray35) June 28, 2017

But the pivot didn't stop there.

Over the past year thus far, several major publishers have pivoted, structured, reorganized, and refocused on creating video content -- at the cost of writers' and editors' jobs. Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, Vice, and HuffPost have all focused efforts on creating short-form video content -- and all have laid off writers and editors. One publication -- Vocativ -- laid off its entire editorial staff "to focus exclusively on video content."

In fact, "pivoting to video” has become such a ubiquitous term in the digital space that it’s become a joke in and of itself.

Quit doing this. No one wants video. We all read faster than people talk, it eats up data, and you can’t watch video on the toilet at work. https://t.co/cctmoHKiwz

— Peter Lynn (@Peter_Lynn) July 21, 2017

the WH communications department is pivoting to video

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) July 31, 2017

How’s that video push working out for everyone? - Vox Media Lays Off 50 Staffers, or 5% of Workforce https://t.co/wha3GyOVjo via @variety

— Merrill Barr (@MerrillBarr) February 21, 2018

Fast-forward to this year (no pun intended): Facebook announces it will reduce brand and publisher content on its users' news feeds, and Vox Media lays off 50 video producers across Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and other online properties in its portfolio.

With respect to social media, snarky tweets from within the industry aren't the only reason to take your foot off the video gas pedal. There are a few big reasons a complete pivot to video is ill-advised. Keep reading -- I'll explain.

The Reason People Pivot to Video

Let's call a spade a spade -- publishers are pivoting to video to make money.

In the age of pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, it's harder to ignore a video ad when it's the only thing standing between you and a video you want to watch. Ads are easier to ignore when they live in the side margins and on top of written long-form articles, so publishers might see a greater opportunity to make money from placing video ads over video content.

And the biggest piece of the digital advertising pie now goes not to advertisers or publishers -- but to Facebook and Google. So it's understandable that media companies and publications are doing whatever they can to drive ROI on the content they produce.

But the pivot to video isn't happening at random -- these strategic reorganizations are also a nod to the growing popularity of video content, which we can't deny -- nor would we want to.

We've blogged at length about video being engaging, in-demand, and a smart way for brands to diversify content and connect with audiences in new ways. And making videos is smart -- it just shouldn't be the only content your brand produces.

It's true that videos are growing in popularity -- your audience wants to see videos, videos drive results for your business, and videos are an extremely favorable medium across different social media platforms. It's also true that the human attention span is waning. But this doesn't mean you should send your editorial staff packing. You don't need to "pivot to video" to develop a smart video strategy as part of your content production engine -- and we'll show you how.

What to Keep in Mind When Pivoting to Video

1. People Like to Read

Setting aside for a moment the fact that the written word has been in existence for several thousand years (thank you, Flinstone family), the popularity of video content and written content aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, audiences want more written content and more videos -- so can't we all just get along?

In 2017, we learned that roughly half of consumers want to see more video content -- but almost the same amount also wanted to see more news articles.

But in a new HubSpot Research survey released in February 2018, we learned that the popularity of video content is increasing -- especially among people 18 to 24 years old. What's a marketer to do?

Content consumption preferences are always changing, and they vary across different age groups, content formats, and subject matter. There are some cases when the written word is a better way to share information than video content -- especially as people are still browsing a business's website (and the written content included on it) more than purely video.

In some cases, audiences don't want videos at all. For example, in the United States, NiemanLab found that video isn't growing as rapidly as one might think.

In fact, roughly half of those surveyed didn't watch any online news videos -- and more than two-thirds said they consumed most news in text format. Most video being consumed was short and sweet and entertaining -- leaving plenty of room at the table for written content consumption, too.

So, people are watching videos, but they're also consuming a lot of text content, too. How should publishers and content producers address the diversifying content preferences of audiences?

The Solution

Make great videos and write great articles. In fact, ideally, you should be writing articles and reports, and then incorporating videos and other multimedia elements into them. Give the people what they want -- which is written, visual, and audio content.

Think about how your audience wants to learn. According to the survey above, people are more interested in consuming in-depth news information by reading it, whereas they might be more interested in watching shorter, more consumable video content. While a video might be a good fit for briefly explaining a complicated topic, it might not be the best fit for a detailed breakdown of SEO best practices -- like in these examples.

If you don't know the answer to this question, ask your audience. If you're not sure about your industry or audience's preferences, ask them. Using an email newsletter or a Twitter poll, ask questions like, "What would you most like us to produce a video about?" or "Do you prefer written or visual explainers?" to figure out where to get started.

The answer to the question of what types of content your audience prefers is an evolving one -- and one that we constantly experiment with here at HubSpot. Read about how we're changing up our social media video strategy in this blog post.

2. Videos Are Hard to Make

Videos are hard to make -- and it shows.

The internet is populated with far too many slideshows and photos set to music that are masquerading as videos -- like this one:

Videos like these don't offer the viewer much more value than reading a story would, but publishers keep making them -- presumably because they get more clicks on social media than an article would.

I don't know about you, but I find these videos extremely annoying -- they either autoplay when I open an article, or I click them to learn more and get no additional information out of them.

Instead, publishers and brands should be striving to make great videos -- which are driven by great stories. You need good storytelling to create a compelling video, and -- guess what? That will require the writing of a script or outline beforehand, and writers and editors can be of tremendous value there.

Additionally, if you remember our finding above, audiences don't just want one thing -- they want it all. Consumers want multimedia articles, in-depth research reports, blog posts, and entertaining videos. There's plenty of room for cross-collaboration between writers, editors, and video producers to create excellent content that solves for constantly-changing consumer preferences.

The Solution

Before implementing a video strategy, invest in resources to do it well, and experiment with creating different videos for different segments of your audience.

This means taking the time (and resources) to invest in video equipment, filming, and editing software, and freelancers or new employees who can make videos -- more specifically, who can make videos well.

By investing in video content up front, you'll ensure that your entire content production team is firing on all cylinders and creating video content that can both eventually rank in search results, and generate millions of views organically -- not just as an ad.

3. Videos Are Tough to Distribute

With the exception of a few major publications -- with content production budgets in the millions -- it's hard to crack the code of not only how to make great videos, but how to monetize them and use them to drive leads, customers, and revenue.

That's partly because digital video is such a new content medium, and content creators are figuring out how to make great videos (see above). It's also because Google search ranking factors and social media algorithms change so frequently, it's hard to nail getting videos surfaced and seen by people on different platforms. Facebook's shift to a more friends- and family-oriented news feed this year is a testament to this, and outlets like Vox Media know it all too well.

Plus, now that more people are jumping on the video content creation bandwagon, search engines and social networks are getting saturated with more videos to compete against.

So you might think that video creation is the hard part, but that's just the beginning. It takes concerted effort for videos to rank in YouTube and Google search results, or to rack up thousands and millions of views on Instagram and Facebook. And even if you do everything right, there could be a reason your audience doesn't want to watch your videos: They might not want to turn up the volume, they might be running low on their monthly data plan, or hey -- they could even be sitting on the toilet.

People have their preferences, and our recent survey above, we know consumers want to see video content alongside in-depth news articles and research content -- and that they want to watch videos on social media. People stream millions of hours of video content across social platforms every day, but these popular social videos might not generate leads at the speed a growing business needs.

The Solution

We suggest creating multimedia content that serves a variety of purposes on a variety of different platforms. For example, keyword-specific blog posts and YouTube videos might quickly rank in Google and YouTube searches, to help drive visitors to landing pages and lead forms that help brands start selling. On the other hand, entertaining, short-form videos on Facebook and Instagram will help spread a brand's message and attract more people to a website down the line.

If you're just getting started with video marketing, consider the type of video you should make first. Use them to help guide visitors along your marketing funnel -- alongside written content and offers to capture lead information.

Make specific types of videos for specific platforms in the same way you would for different types of written content. That way, the videos you create will have specific goals in mind -- for example, video views, video view rate, or website clicks -- that you can measure and iterate on.

Videos achieve outcomes on social media that written content might not, and written content can achieve search engine rankings that videos might not. The best scenario is to create both types of content -- along with multimedia content -- to meet audiences' ever-changing preferences, and to attract visitors and leads throughout the marketing funnel.

Images: Tumblr, HubSpot Research, NiemanLab

 

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