9 AI Tools to Streamline Your Social Media Strategy

Did you know that more than 42% of the world population is on social media?

With a growing number of people connecting to social networks, having a social media strategy is vital to your digital marketing success in 2019.

You probably already know that a lot of time and effort comes with successful social media management. It's not uncommon for digital marketers to spend hours a week just on drafting content; monitoring, analyzing, creating reports; and managing paid social ads.

As you focus on some of the more mundane tasks related to social media, you might find that you're losing valuable time that you could use to plan out enticing multimedia campaigns or work on bigger, more productive marketing projects.

But, what if a machine could take over some of your tasks and free you up to dive deeper into the more creative areas of social media strategy?

In 2019, there are a number of artificial intelligence-driven programs that can vastly improve how we use social media for marketing. And, they're actually somewhat affordable to implement.

As the Director of Marketing AI Institute and a senior consultant at PR 20/20, I've frequently written and spoken about AI implementation. I've also worked with marketers to understand, adapt, and pilot artificial intelligence to increase revenue and reduce costs.

Throughout my career, I've learned a great deal of where marketing and AI can intersect. I've found that social media is one area where this technology can be implemented in many marketing strategies.

First of all, most of the social media platforms we know and love already use AI to improve our experiences as users. For example, Facebook uses machine learning to recognize your face in photos, Snapchat hosts AR filters, and LinkedIn uses AI to parse mountains of data and recommend jobs you might be interested in.

But you don't have to be the CEO of a major social platform to implement AI. As marketers, we too can use AI software to dramatically speed up and streamline our social media strategies. There are also three prominent use cases where AI is especially valuable: Creating basic content, data analysis, and ad management.

In this post, I'll walk through each use case and the tools that can help you with each.

3 Ways to Implement AI in Your Social Media Strategy

1. Use AI software to create basic post content.

Struggling to make time to film viral videos or create detailed Instagram Stories because you're using all of your brainpower to write basic filler posts that stay under a certain word count?

While robots can't write a full blog post just yet, artificial intelligence can still help social media marketers create the content they share online.

So how can AI craft and suggest a tweet for you? One subset of AI is called natural language generation (NLG). It can be trained to create written narratives out of data, like simple reports or fact sheets.

So let’s say your department produced a huge, data-driven report and you want to create a few high-impact social shares from it. Here's an AI-driven program that can help you do that.

Lately

Some AI tools can also recognize context from a larger piece of content and create social media posts to help promote it. Lately is a tool that does just that and also offers a dashboard of other social tools related to scheduling and social media project management. It also analyzes the historical metrics of your social pages to recommend the best posting times for maximum impact.

Within the Lately dashboard, you can use a simple form to generate a number of tweets at once related to a URL, document, or information posted in the form's text box. When you fill out this form, you can also include campaign information and hashtags that you'd like to work into your social posts. When you click "Generate Content" the tool will search through the URL, document or text and create tweets related to it. From there, you can schedule the tweets or tweak them in case they need additional information.

While Lately pricing may vary, the company says that it starts at $129 per dashboard per month when billed annually.

Sprout Social

If you use your social platforms to execute on community management, Sprout Social's automated technology can also help you generate tweets that can be used to reply to fans, customers, or followers.

From the Sprout Social dashboard, you can see and respond to tweets directed at your company. Some Sprout admins also have the power to manage direct messages through the platform. In both the dashboard and direct message view, Sprout will be able to analyze the wording and sentiment of a tweet or message and suggest an auto-response that you can use or tweak. Although AI is not having a full conversation with all of your followers, this automation still may quicken up the process related to sending quick messages or tweets to respond to people.

Here's a GIF where Sprout Social demonstrates how this works in Twitter's messenger.

Source: Sprout Social

Sprout Social's pricing starts at $99 per month for its Standard plan. However, companies can get expanded features in its $149 Professional plan.

HubSpot

I can’t ignore HubSpot, either: HubSpot’s social media software automatically creates social posts based on the metadata of the link you copy and paste, saving you a ton of time.

Anyone subscribed to HubSpot's Marketing Hub or higher can use the tool, which can be found in the platform's Social section.

Click "Create Post" and choose a social channel. Once the text box opens, attach a URL from your own site or another location.

Once you insert post attachments, like the URL, you'll either see a short headline or a meta description of the page along with its link and a photo.

After the post copy is pulled and generated into the text box, you can tweak the copy to fit your social voice or to add more depth or comprehensiveness to the overall post.

HubSpot's pricing varies depending on how many users you'll have and whether you want to purchase just the Marketing Hub or other Hubs within the HubSpot suite. However, HubSpot's Starter pack begins at $50 and includes Marketing Hub functions plus the free features of HubSpot's CRM.

2. Monitor and analyze your social media channels with AI.

Writing content and responses is only half the battle of social media management. A huge portion of social media marketing is managing and monitoring social channels. Luckily, I've found that AI can shoulder a good portion of that work and help you make better marketing decisions in the process. That’s because AI is capable of collecting data from millions of posts, at scale, and using that data to make predictions and decisions.

“Managing” a channel is a pretty loaded term, but a few of those tasks, like discovering high-impact influencers and completing audience analysis, can be handled by tools like Socialbakers.

Socialbakers

Socialbakers is an AI-driven social media management platform that provides advanced audience insights, an influencer marketing discovery and tracking dashboard, a unified content feed that allows you to see posts on all of your platforms, an analytics dashboard, and smart scheduling tools that can suggest optimal post times.

If you've found that it takes too much time and resources to find, vet, track, and keep up relationships with influencers, Socialbakers' AI-driven influencer dashboard might streamline some of your processes.

When you click into the influencer dashboard tool, you can toggle between different social media platforms and categories, like "Food" or "Health" and be shown influencers that match the most with your audience, which Socialbakers continuously analyzes. This might take time out of your discovery phase and in determining whether the person you're hiring is a good match for the audience you're targeting.

Source: Socialbakers

Those who are interested in the tool can try it for free before purchasing the software. Socialbakers' Essential package costs $200 per month with a 10 profile limit. If you'd like to run 20 platforms, you can subscribe to Essential's second tier for $400 a month. The Complete Socialbakers Solution, which includes influencer tools, does not have transparent online pricing. However, you can request a demo here.

Cortex

When it comes to sharing content, you can use a tool like Cortex to receive recommendations on when and how often to post based on all of your historical metrics. Cortex can also generate detailed analyses of your competitors.

Cortex has a dashboard with a similar interface to other social media management platforms which shows off your posts and your social schedule. When you go to create a post, Cortext will use historical post data to suggest when you should post. If you upload one or more photos, the software will also note colors that are most engaging to your audience to help you pick the correct image for the post.

Source: Cortex

Pricing for this service is not transparent on its website, but you can request more information on Cortex's homepage.

Linkfluence Radarly

You can also use something like Linkfluence's Radarly software to assess the mountains of data that social media audiences are producing every day. That means measuring your brand impact, detecting trends online, and pulling specific insights on your most important target audience.

With Radarly, you are able to log on and see a dashboard that connects data from all of your accounts. In the first column, you can see a live feed of posts and tweets that acknowledge your brand name or handle in some way. Then in the next columns, you can see scoring that explains how negatively and positively people are talking about you on social, which platforms people are discussing you most on, and data about your audiences such as interests, languages or hashtags they're using.

Here's a quick demo that gives you a full look at the dashboard:

Pricing for this software is done by a quote process, but some websites suggest the starter pack is roughly 500 euros or $554 per month.

3. Create, optimize, and manage paid social media advertising.

As I mentioned above, AI is capable of developing social media posts—the same can be said for ad copy that resonates with different audiences. It’s optimized for the highest possible clicks and conversions using AI’s predictive technology.

Phrasee

Phrasee has developed technology that does this for short-form ad copy across Facebook and Instagram. Phrasee pulls data from past marketing assets including emails, social media copy, and other online posts to determine which is most and least effective. From there, Phrasee can show you what copy-related aspects of past ads were weak or strong. You can then draft prospective ad copy and test its effectiveness with the software or use ad copy that the software suggests to you.

Here's a quick video that explains Phrasee's process and how it might lead to more ad conversions.

Phrasee does not include pricing information on its site, but its product page does note that major companies like Virgin and Domino's have benefited from its services.

Pattern89

Once your stellar ad is written, AI can tackle some of the nitty-gritty ad management tasks, like optimizing bids, divvying up a budget, and recommending channels most likely to help your ad perform. Pattern89 is an AI marketing tool that provides recommendations on almost every aspect of your ads, including recommendations for adjusting your spend and audience targeting to massively increase performance.

When you log into the tool, you can see a screen filled with alerts and suggestions related to how you can improve the effectiveness of your ad. If you'd like to follow the platform's suggestions, you can click "Show me how." to learn how to make ad adjustments. It the platform shows you a "Do this automatically" button next to a suggestion, you can click that to have the platform make the adjustment.

Here's a look at what the dashboard looks like:

Source: Pattern89

Aside from allowing you to monitor live and completed ads, the tool also offers a Creative Ads Manager. This allows you to search and analyze past ads with filters including ad set, campaign objective, audience, and other ad targets. Here's a quick walkthrough of this process in Pattern89:

https://youtu.be/TBqaRnjPG60

Pattern89 doesn't provide pricing, but you can contact the company for a demo.

WordStream Advisor

WordStream also enhances ad performance by using machine learning to assess PPC ads across Facebook and Instagram, then offering data-driven recommendations. The company offers software catered to agencies, advertisers, and online sellers to help them learn more about the effectiveness of their PPC ads and help them make better decisions which might return a solid ROI.

WordStream advisor specifically allows small to medium-sized business marketers to track ads on major platforms including Facebook and Instagram. The program configures all of your ad data into one simple dashboard and offers a 20-Minute Work Week feature which allows you to streamline your ad decisions.

As part of the 20-Minute Work Week feature, WordStream will send you advertising updates as well as suggestions to make your ad more effective. Instead of analyzing your own ads and determining adjustments yourself, you can simply read and follow WordStream's suggestions.

Source: WordStream

WordStream Advisor's 12-month membership starts at $264 per month, or $2,928 if prepaid all at once.

AI is for Every Social Media Marketer

If artificial intelligence still seems like an overwhelming topic, you’re not the only one who might be intimidated by it. After all, we’re marketers, not data scientists.

Good news: You don’t need to be a data scientist to understand, start using, and make a massive impact with the help of AI. You just need to start learning about tools that could help you.

If you've developed a great AI strategy related to social media, you might also want to look at your overall strategy to make sure you're making the most of automation. This post will walk you through the more strategic elements of automating your strategy, including knowing when to schedule, when to diversify content based on social platforms, and how to better interact with your community with the help of automation.

You can also learn more about where social media and AI intersect in the HubSpot Academy course, “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Marketing: Live from MAICON.” It’s an introduction to AI and machine learning that offers how-tos for applying it in marketing through a holistic framework and piloting AI in your company. It was filmed live at the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON).

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Ecommerce Conversion Rates Across Industries (And How to Raise Yours)

Ecommerce is the ultimate optimization puzzle -- from individual product pages to filtering mechanisms to your checkout sequence, every choice you make has the potential to have a massive impact on the sale of a given product.

But when you're making changes all over your site, how can you know that, overall, those changes are adding up to customer and revenue growth?

Ecommerce conversion rate is the ultimate top-line metric for online store owners looking to understand if the changes they're making to their site are positively or negatively impacting the number of visitors who eventually become customers.

Here, let's explore what ecommerce conversion rates are, why they matter, and how to raise yours.

For example, if you had 1,000 visitors to your online shop yesterday and 30 of them made purchases, you'd calculate your ecommerce CVR by taking the total number of people who completed checkout (30) and divide that by the total number of site visitors in the same time frame (1,000). In this case, your ecommerce CVR would be 30/1000 = 0.03 = 3%.

One complicating factor is the fact that many ecommerce retailers today are selling across multiple platforms. Even if you aren't using a tool that aggregates your product page or site visits and conversions in one place, you can leverage a tracking spreadsheet to keep a pulse on your ecommerce across platforms over time.

We've put together a free ecommerce conversion rate tracker that you can download here along with an ecommerce marketing and sales plan template in our Ecommerce Planning Kit.

Featured Resource: Ecommerce Conversion Rate Tracker

Why is your ecommerce conversion rate important?

Your ecommerce conversion rate is crucial to the success of your online shop. You could bring in 50,000 views per month to your website through ads, but if the user experience on your website is poor, your ads are misleading, or your product descriptions aren't effectively communicating the value of your products, you might only end up with a small percentage of that traffic converting into customers.

Since an ecommerce site can be expensive to maintain and complicated to organize, you need to check routinely that your online presence is driving a significant amount of customers and sales for your business.

Ecommerce CVR is also a useful metric to track over time to see how the improvements that you're making to your website, product categorizations, product descriptions, checkout process, or any number of other aspects of your online store are actually impacting your business's bottom line.

What's a good ecommerce conversion rate? 

It's not worthwhile to compare your ecommerce CVR to an overall benchmark that aggregates CVRs across industries. Frankly, CVRs vary wildly across ecommerce, and if you're going to compare your own site's conversion rate to anyone else's, you should try to find common conversion rates for your category.

If you've done a cost-benefit analysis and proven that you make more money than you spend by selling your products online, you're at a good starting point. From there, we advise focusing your time on optimizing your site beyond where it currently stands.

If you have one category of items with an excellent conversion rate, you can also aim to bring all categories up to that standard. With that approach, you can at least count on the fact that the CVR benchmark is reflective of your specific target persona, not anyone else's.

If you're starting from scratch, here are industry-specific benchmarks backed by recent research that we've compiled from a variety of sources.

Ecommerce Conversion Rate Benchmarks By Industry

The numbers below come from IRP Commerce, which constantly collects data from across many industries, and ShippyPro. The numbers have been most recently updated in September 2019.

Agriculture: 0.62% - 1.41%

Arts and Crafts: 3.84% - 4.01%

Baby and Child: 0.71% - 0.87%

Cars and Motorcycling: 1.35% - 1.36%

Electrical and Commercial Equipment: 2.49% - 2.70%

Fashion, Clothing, and Accessories: 1.01% - 1.41%

Food and Drink: 0.90% - 1.00%

Health and Wellbeing: 1.87% - 2.02%

Home Accessories and Giftware: 1.46% - 1.55%

Kitchen and Home Appliances: 1.61% - 1.72%

Pet Care: 2.51% - 2.53%

Sports and Recreation: 1.18%

1. Put explainer videos on your product pages.

You might try adding videos that show your product from a variety of angles and allow people to see them in action. It can be difficult to get a sense of sizing, fit, and material quality from photos, and video tends to demonstrate more detail. You also want to solve for the increasing number of people who prefer to consume video rather than text.

2. Give your visitors a clearer set of product images.

There's nothing more frustrating than wanting to look at the small details of the item you're considering buying online … only to find out that you can't zoom in. Let your prospective buyers zoom in on the images of your products. This ensures they have a truer sense of your product before purchase. Use higher resolution photos and provide photos from more angles, too.

3. Tighten your copy.

Ensure that product descriptions are grammatically correct, intuitively structured, and prominently accessible. When it comes to getting creative with your descriptions, know your buyer persona.

In some cases, retailers might have 10 essentially identical products that are differentiated only by their size, for example. While the product specifications should reflect the different product dimensions, it's most likely okay to leave the copy describing the product's use case as is.

On the other hand, if you're selling something like body care products, you might write a completely new set of copy to describe who each product is right for, the different sensory elements of the product, and the look and feel of the product.

At a baseline, always include product measurements, material specifications, warranty information, and any other information that would be crucial for making a buying decision about your product to avoid losing prospective customers who are wondering about a key detail.

4. Add chat to your website to allow customers to ask product questions while they're interested in your product.

You simply can't answer every question that anyone has ever had in your product description. Since you want to do everything you can to convince someone to buy your product while they're already on your site, consider chat as another avenue.

Chat can be a powerful tool for bridging the gap between your product descriptions and specifications and the information that an individual needs in order to buy. It also enables people to ask questions about your brand, shipping and return policies, and anything else non-product-specific without leaving the web page of the product they're close to buying.

5. Test different call-to-action (CTA) placements, options, and wording.

Altering your CTAs is a classic website conversion rate optimization strategy, and the results can sometimes be small. However, switching up the copy within your CTAs, the options that people have for the next place they can go, or the prominence of those CTAs can be low-effort, high-impact ways to encourage people to click to buy.

Studies have found that while the majority of CTA tests don't produce statistically significant results, the ones that do create enormous impact, with on-page conversion lifts averaging 49%. You won't know what conversion rates you might be able to see until you start experimenting with each little aspect of your site.

6. Add social proof with stellar customer reviews.

It's becoming increasingly easy for companies with cheap, low-quality products to deliver comparable on-site experiences and images -- thus convincing buyers that their products are the same as the others in the market, just less expensive.

The one element of an ecommerce site that's hard to fake, however, is customer reviews. Allow your customers to leave reviews of your products to prove that they're truly high-quality. If you've got great reviews, consider moving them higher on the product pages to see if the social proof impacts prospective customers' buying decisions.

If you don't have a solution that allows customers to leave reviews automatically, collect quotes from people who've bought from you before and add several to each of your product descriptions. A/B test a set of product pages, including testimonials on the variant only.

7. Offer free shipping.

We'll admit this one isn't the cheapest option to implement, but the ROI can be enormous. Many people choose to go to a local store that could fulfill the same need rather than shopping online because it would be significantly cheaper to drive 15 minutes to the store than pay $5-10 for shipping.

Free shipping reduces the perceived barriers to ordering something online. That means that you'll likely end up with a greater number of people making purchases, and the revenue from those additional customers may compensate for the losses incurred by paying for their shipping.

8. Tweak your checkout process.

There are dozens of small changes you can make to the user experience of your checkout process. Two of our favorites are eliminating any unnecessary fields, and adding a progress bar.

While it's tempting to collect additional information about your buyers during the checkout process, additional questions lengthen the amount of time it takes to buy -- and everyone is short on time.

Progress bars can have two advantages. First, they can reduce buyers' concern that they don't have the time to complete the checkout process at the moment. Second, they give people a sense of accomplishment after each step they've completed, building positive momentum toward completing their purchase.

9. Allow guest checkout.

Allowing people to create an account and save their information for future purchases makes a lot of sense for repeat buyers. But if you require people to make an account in order to make their first purchase, you may lose potential customers because they don't yet trust your brand. Additionally, some people are averse to saving personal information online.

In fact, Trustpilot reports that requiring account creation at checkout is the second-biggest reason why people abandon carts, coming in just below having to pay for shipping.

Those who become repeat buyers will create an account eventually if they feel comfortable saving their information. In the meantime, don't add extra steps to the checkout process for people who are ready to buy.

10. Add additional payment options.

Finally, consider running a survey to better understand your customers' preferred payment methods and add the one that's most convenient for them. A study from the Merchant Payments Ecosystem revealed that 50% of consumers will end a transaction if their preferred payment method isn't available.

By meeting your customers where they are, you're potentially removing a nuisance (i.e. walking to another room to get a different credit card) or a complete blocker (i.e. not having access to any of the available payment methods). It will create an easier user experience and, if you select a payment method that your customers truly prefer, you'll increase your conversion rates.

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How to Use Facebook Ads to Promote Limited-Time Offers

Do you want to promote limited-time offers this holiday season? Wondering how to create an automated Facebook ad sequence to deliver daily specials? In this article, you’ll learn how to set up a multi-day Facebook ad campaign to automatically deliver time-sensitive offers. Prepare Your Holiday Campaign Assets in Advance The holiday shopping season in the […]

The post How to Use Facebook Ads to Promote Limited-Time Offers appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

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What Is Content Seeding & How Does It Work? [Examples]

Every summer, I start a vegetable garden. I purchase seeds, plant them in various places in my backyard, tend to them, and with the help of the right weather conditions, help them grow. Why am I talking about gardening on a marketing blog?

Content seeding. But instead of planting zucchini seeds, marketers plant content to grow brand awareness and leads.

Let's get into the specifics of what content seeding is and how it works.

Content seeding allows brands to highlight their content in places target audiences will see and engage with it. Influencers are a prime choice for content seeding because they usually have large audiences. These audiences have been proven to trust influencers more than their friends.

For instance, lifestyle subscription box FabFitFun has a target audience of women "ages 18-34, who love a good deal [and] want to hear about the latest and greatest trends in beauty, fitness, nutrition, and style." When they work with influencers on content seeding, they choose platforms their target audience is interested in, like my favorite podcast, True Crime Obsessed (TCO).

When I heard ads for FabFitFun on TCO, I was immediately interested in the brand and what it offers, so I followed the link in the podcast subscription. The added bonus of hearing high praises from hosts I've come to connect with and trust solidified my interest and ultimately drove me to subscribe. That's content seeding in motion.

Part of the reason content seeding is so successful is that the content shared by influencers or partners is relevant to the target audience. Market research shows brands, like FabFitFun, where their audience is and gives them clues as to where to seed content.

Having industry leaders promote a brand through their social platforms or other networks increases the reach of the business, because they've built trust with their own audiences.

However, influencers aren't the only way to facilitate content seeding. You can also contact an agency that specializes in seeding, or reach out to thought leaders for a partnership on a blog post or email newsletter.

If you're starting to think of ways you can get into content seeding, which platforms to use, and what content to share — don't worry, we're going to look at more great examples of content seeding next.

Content Seeding Examples

1. Claire Saffitz x Coveteur

Cooking magazine Bon Appetit has a wildly popular YouTube channel (4.7 million subscribers strong) due to their charismatic test kitchen chefs who produce recipe videos. Claire Saffitz, host of series "Gourmet Makes," has become a food influencer because of how much she connects with fans of the channel. Recently, Saffitz collaborated with magazine Coveteur on her Instagram.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I learned how to repost! Sharing this fun video from @coveteur that we shot in my kitchen. 💖 #repost

A post shared by Claire Saffitz (@csaffitz) on Aug 12, 2019 at 5:45pm PDT

This is a great example of content seeding because Coveteur's partnership with Saffitz brought recognition to their magazine. Her Q/A with the lifestyle magazine could closely appeal to Saffitz's fans: people who are interested in cooking and health. The closely running avenues of the publisher’s audiences mean a potential 400,000 new readers from Saffitz's Instagram.

2. Mandy McEwen x LinkedIn Marketing

Founder of marketing company Mod Girl Marketing, Many McEwen, recently partnered with LinkedIn Marketing's Thought Leadership campaign. This partnership aligns with McEwen's following — professionals who are interested in working with thought leaders — and LinkedIn's audience — professionals looking for workplace connections and advancements.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted @withrepost • @linkedinmktg Experimenting and taking risks are key to Mandy McEwen's #MyMarketingStory: "I started my agency by offering free #SEO services to local businesses after I failed miserably at becoming a full-time affiliate marketer. After I got businesses ranked on the first page of Google they would pay me $500. That's how Mod Girl was born. I really took advantage of building relationships in-person with businesses owners when I first started Mod Girl. Even with the "free SEO" clients, I would meet them in person FIRST. Then, I would perform the work for free, get them on the first page of Google, and when that happened they would write me a check. Not once did a client never pay and I think that's because I built a relationship with them first and met them in person. I like to think I am a good judge of character and can tell when someone isn't genuine. Luckily, my first few clients were very nice, genuine business owners who were happy to pay me. And, after I got them on page one, they ended up hiring me for other monthly services, which was the start of my first "retainer" marketing clients." - @mandymodgirl, Founder of Mod Girl Marketing Stay tuned for more from Mandy over the next few weeks. #entrepreneurship #marketing #marketingtips #thoughtleader

A post shared by Mandy McEwen (@mandymodgirl) on Apr 30, 2019 at 3:50pm PDT

McEwen also gains new engagement from the partnership, while building her credibility as a marketer. This is a great example of how content seeding can work both ways to build brand awareness.

3. Lin-Manuel Miranda x Reddit

Social platform Reddit recently had actor Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights) run an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on the site. The thing about AMAs is that you must have an account to participate. Fans had to sign up for an account to ask Miranda a question, then notice social communities for Miranda's line of work, like Broadway and television.

Reddit, I'm coming over to your / of the woods tomorrow... https://t.co/JmSiBs7RmJ

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) November 18, 2019

Having Miranda post this on Twitter to three million followers is great exposure for Reddit. If the platform wanted to grow its theatre-based threads and community, this AMA was a perfect seed to plant.

4. Louis Tomlinson x Twitter

Musician Louis Tomlinson recently collaborated with Twitter to run a Q&A on YouTube. Tomlinson and Twitter each have incredibly large audiences, but most probably had no idea Twitter had a YouTube channel (myself included). However, with Tomlinson's 33 million followers, Twitter saw a way to grow their presence on the video platform.

Twitter partnering with Tomlinson to promote another channel of theirs is a smart way to attract potential subscribers. If fans find that more of their favorite artists have similar videos on Twitter's YouTube channel, they might tune in and share their finds to their own Twitter audience.

5. Sara Blakely x Masterclass

Founder and CEO of Spanx, Sara Blakely, worked with MasterClass on an entrepreneurship course. MasterClass is an online education platform offering courses in various industries. Learn tennis from 23-time title holder Serena Williams or get a crash course in fashion from Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour.

 

 

 

 

 

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I’ve been asked a ton of questions since I started @Spanx, but by far the most common one is… “so, how did you DO it?” Well guess what!? For the first time in 20 years, I’m sharing with YOU (in detail!) how I took $5,000 in personal savings and built a global brand. Welcome to my @MasterClass!!! MasterClass.com is a global platform that gives you a chance to take an online course directly from a “Master” in their respective field. Their teachers include Serena Williams (Tennis), Anna Wintour (Creativity and Leadership in Fashion), Ron Howard (Directing), Annie Leibovitz (Photography), Gordon Ramsay (Cooking), Shonda Rhimes (Writing for Television), Steve Martin (Comedy), Simone Biles (Gymnastics) and their newest teacher… me! I'm the first to teach entrepreneurship for MasterClass and I'm so honored. In my class I share things like how to find and connect with your purpose, how to develop and test the marketability of an idea, sales strategies and techniques to get your foot in the door, my personal checklist for innovation, and so much more! So, if you’re someone out there with a great idea but unsure how to pursue it, this class is for you! Or maybe you’re a small-business owner but want to take it to the next level… the class is also for you! Or maybe you’re just looking for some inspiration and motivation… this class is for you too. I had so much fun reflecting on my journey and I hope it will encourage you to make your dreams happen... no matter what they are! Here’s how it works. My course is 14 videos, all roughly 20 minutes long. An individual course is $90 and access to all the courses for 1 year is $180. It’s a cool opportunity to invest in yourself, and it also makes a cool gift to give away. Check out the link in my bio for more! See you in class! 👍#Entrepreneur #SelfMade #Spanx #Business #SelfEducation #MasterClass @serenawilliams @realronhoward @annieleibovitz @gordongram @shondarhimes @simonebiles

A post shared by Sara Blakely (@sarablakely) on Nov 7, 2019 at 5:30am PST

Blakely's partnership with MasterClass is an invitation for fans of the entrepreneur to get a look into how she built her empire. If 300,000 of Blakely's followers are interested in her story, the website could benefit greatly from dropping their branded content on her Instagram.

My vegetable garden thrives every year because of a combination of work from my end, the right soil, and favorable weather conditions. The same is true for content seeding. A perfect content seeding strategy is built from a combination of brands finding the right partners, a great platform, and a favorable product or service to promote.

You don't have to invest huge amounts of money into content seeding. Choosing micro-influencers or guest bloggers and podcast interviews are more cost-effective ways of content seeding as well.

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Facebook Lets Advertisers Control Where Ads Appear

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore Facebook’s new brand safety controls and transparency tools for advertisers, upcoming Facebook ad updates, and more with […]

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The Ultimate Guide to Google Docs

Everything Google touches seems to turn to gold.

Not only has the brand helped online businesses generate billions of dollars through its search engine, but it's also — and continues to — branch out and create other products.

One of these products is Google Docs, a free word-processor and alternative to Microsoft Word that allows anyone to easily create and edit their own shareable document.

Google Docs is a behemoth. The tool is so multi-faceted and multi-functional; it's easy to get overwhelmed when learning your way around. That's why we wrote this guide — to teach you about how to use Google Docs to create awesome content and collaborate with your team. We'll also tap into some tips and tricks that will make this process even easier.

What is Google Docs?

No software downloads. No payments. No specific browser or computer necessary. Is there really any product out there these days that is this simple to obtain and use?

The answer is yes.

Google Docs is a completely free, cross-platform (syncs documents across phones, tablets, and desktops) word processor that works both online and offline. All you need is a Google account, the same free account that you use for your G Suite or Gmail.

The cloud-based tool includes a clean layout and unique features for users, such as the ability to work, share, and collaborate from anywhere. The platform even automatically syncs and saves all of your work, so you don’t even have to worry about pressing Save.

With these features, it's clear why millions of users prefer Google Docs over other word processors.

Google Docs vs. Microsoft Word

Let's not forget about Microsoft Word, however. Microsoft Word been around longer than Google Docs and remains exceptionally popular today. Millions of individual users and companies still pay big money to use Word. So, how do Google Docs and Word compare?

For one, Google Docs is free with a Google account. Microsoft Word must be purchased as part of a Microsoft Office package, which includes other Microsoft products such as PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.

The Home and Business packages run from $69.99 (for an individual user at home) up to $150 (for an individual user at work) for an annual membership. Google Docs, on the other hand, allows you to collaborate with any number of people, anywhere in the world, for free.

Another differentiating factor is that, with Google Docs, all of your work is saved to the Cloud. That means you won't lose your 20-page report … even if your laptop croaks. (Whew!) With Microsoft Word, your documents live on your computer; your coworkers can't check them out unless you save and share them via email or the like.

Whether you choose Google Docs or Microsoft Word, it's not difficult to sync the two. You can create a new Google Doc by simply uploading an existing Word file. Here's how.

Open your Google Drive and click New.

Tap File upload to access the files saved on your computer.

Choose your Word file from your computer and click Open. This will upload your file to your Google Drive. Once uploaded, double-click it to open. Once open, click Google Docs from the drop-down menu at the top.

Voila! That's how you convert a Word doc to a Google Docs file. Now, let's dig a bit deeper on how to use Google Docs.

Collaborating in Google Docs

There are a plethora of tips and tricks that users can take advantage of while using Google Docs — whether working as an individual or with a team.

Google Docs allows multiple people to work, collaborate, and edit within a single document in real-time through any web browser. Here's how.

Sharing Your Google Doc

Individuals can share their document with as many people as they want, as well as edit their permissions to limit what they can do.

To get started sharing, click File > Share.

There are four sharing options — the one you pick is totally your choice.

1. Create a shareable link.

The simplest way to share a Google Docs page is to generate a shareable link. This allows anyone to click a unique URL and view your document.

After clicking Share, tap the Get Shareable Link button in the top right corner.

Select a sharing permission for your document.

After defining permissions, press Copy link.

The URL will then be copied to your clipboard for you to send to anyone who wishes to view the document.

2. Share via email address.

You also have the option to share your document with an email address. This will send an invite to that person’s inbox, and add the document to their Google account.

To do this, head back to the sharing box.

Enter the email address of the person you’d like to share your document with and select an option from the drop-down to edit their permissions.

If you add a note to this invite, it will be displayed in the email invitation.

3. Choose the advanced sharing options.

Head back to your sharing box and hit Advanced.

Here, you can see all sharing settings — including who has access to your document, their permission settings, and the option to invite more people or remove others.

4. Make your document editable by anyone.

Want to grant anyone permission to edit the contents of your document? Hit File > Share to get your shareable link.

In the drop-down menu displayed, click More...

After that, choose On — Anyone with the link and set the permissions in the bottom drop-down menu.

As this option clearly states, anyone with your unique URL will be able to make changes, edit, and even delete your document ... so be careful about who you’re sharing it with.

Using Google Docs Shortcut Keys

There are a number of shortcut keys to help increase your productivity while working in Google Docs. Review the following chart to learn some of the most popular shortcuts.

actions	mac shortcuts	pc shortcuts
Copy	⌘ + c	Ctrl + c
Paste	⌘ + v	Ctrl + v
Cut	⌘ + x	Ctrl + x
Paste without formatting	⌘ + Shift + v	Ctrl + Shift + v
Undo	⌘ + z	Ctrl + z
Redo	⌘ + Shift + z	Ctrl + Shift + z
Insert/edit link	⌘ + k	Ctrl + k
Open link	Option + Enter	Alt + Enter
Show common keyboard shortcuts	⌘ + /	Ctrl + /
Save (Google Drive automatically saves to Drive)	⌘ + s	Ctrl + s
Print	⌘ + p	Ctrl + p
Open	⌘ + o	Ctrl + o
Find	⌘ + f	Ctrl + f
Insert page break	⌘ + Enter	Ctrl + Enter
Hide menus (compact mode)	Ctrl + Shift + f	Ctrl + Shift + f

For a complete list of Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, and iPad shortcut keys, check out this page.

Creating and Writing in Google Docs

Which Google Docs features will help you and your team create powerful documents, no matter your location? Here are some options for you to try.

• Work Offline
• Voice Typing
• Google Docs App
• Explore

Work Offline

A bonus to using Google Docs is that you’re able to edit, save, and create documents through your web browser even when you’re not connected to the internet. This might come in handy if you need to get some work done while traveling. The changes you make are still saved and will sync when you go back online.

But, this isn’t an automatic feature. You’ll need to set-up offline connections in your account.

To do this, visit the Google Docs homepage and locate the menu button on the left-hand side.

Then press Settings.

A pop-up box will then be visible on your screen. To set up offline editing, toggle the Offline button to On. (This should turn the button blue, rather than gray.)

Your browser will then adjust to offline editing and you’ll see the following icon when editing your document without internet.

Voice Typing

Voice technology is a growing industry, and Google has been at the forefront of this trend. You can speed up your writing process by using voice typing in Google Docs.

To use the feature, begin by checking your device settings to confirm that your microphone works.

Then head to Tools > Voice Typing. You’ll see a microphone icon.

Click it and start speaking. Google will convert your spoken words into text, which you’ll see appear on the page.

Google Docs App

With the Google Docs app, users can continue to edit, share, collaborate in real-time, add images, and create content all while on-the-go.

The free app even works offline once you’ve turned on that setting — the same way you did on your laptop or desktop — and it automatically saves your work to the Cloud.

Explore

Have you ever been writing about a topic and stopped to think, "Wow, I could use a suggestion or two on how to improve my piece."

Google Docs has you covered.

The Explore feature — found by clicking Tools > Explore — Google Docs will scan the content you provide and suggest information that you could add to your piece.

These suggestions might include details you may have forgotten, images to enhance your piece, or possible research that you could include to back your points and claims.

Formatting Your Document in Google Docs

Google Docs empowers you to create a document that works for you and the content you’re creating. Whether it's the page orientation, images, or page numbers, these tips will help you format your document any way you want.

• Changing page margins
• Changing page orientation
• Adding a text box
• Adding page numbers
• Creating a hanging indent
• Inserting an image
• Creating a table of contents

Changing Page Margins

If you’re looking to make the most of the blank space in your document or format your document for printing, you might need to change the margins.

Before doing this, you'll need to make sure the ruler is visible above your document.

Simply head to View > Show Ruler.

You should see a ruler below the formatting bar in your document.

Then, to change the margins of your page, locate the small blue button on the left-hand side of the ruler and slide the button to alter your left margin.

To change your right margin in Google Docs, repeat this process using the blue button on the right side of your ruler.

If you need strict margins in your document, click File > Page Setup.

You’ll then see the following pop-up box where you can change the margins.

If you need the same margins in every document you create, save time and hit Set as Default. This will automatically copy your margin set-up to all new documents.

Changing Page Orientation to Landscape

Looking to change the orientation of your document? Head to File > Page Setup.

Then, select Landscape under Orientation.

If you want all of your documents to have the same orientation, press Set as Default.

Adding a Text Box

Text boxes are a great option if you’re looking to add an extra visual element to your document. They allow you to position additional text anywhere on your page without altering the format of your existing document.

In Google Docs, text boxes are classified as drawings. You can insert one by clicking Insert > Drawing.

This will open the Drawing feature. Next, press Text Box.

Drag your cursor into the drawing space to create a box that fits your requirements

Once your box has been created, it’s time to enter your text.

You can change the font, color, and alignment of the text in your box by using the navigation bar in the pop-up window.

Happy with your text box? Hit Save & Close to insert it into your document.

From here, treat your text box as an image. Select the image to change the alignment or move the box around your document for ideal placement.

Adding Page Numbers

Page numbers make your document easy to navigate and allow for better organization when printed — you'll avoid asking yourself, “Does this page go here … or there?”

Add page numbers to your document by clicking Insert > Header > Page Number. Then choose the option of your choice.

Creating a Hanging Indent

Hanging indents are indents that automatically change the margin of a paragraph without interrupting the format used elsewhere on your page.

Here’s an example:

To add a hanging indent in Google Docs, make sure your ruler is visible by pressing View > Show Ruler.

Then, head back to your main document and highlight the text you want to format.

Add a hanging indent by locating the ruler above your document and sliding the blue arrows to your specification.

Slide the arrow on the left side to alter the left indent, and the arrow on the right side to change the right indent.

Inserting an Image

To add an image to your document, simply put your cursor wherever you want to insert the image.

Scroll up to the top of the page and click Insert > Image.

Choose the image location — there are multiple options that include your computer, the web, Google Drive, or by URL.

Select your image, click Open, and voila! Your image should appear.

For more on this process, check out this page.

Creating a Table of Contents

If you’re writing a presentation or whitepaper, a table of contents is a great way to display each section you’re creating and the page number that it can be found on.

You can insert a table of contents in your Google Doc by ensuring all subheadings are formatted with a heading tag. To do this, highlight your subheading and press the appropriate tag in your formatting bar.

As a general rule of thumb, the Heading 1 tag should be your main title. Heading 2 tags should be subheadings, and Heading 3 tags should be sections below a subheading.

Now you're ready to create a table of contents. Hold your cursor where you’d like to insert it and click Insert > Table of contents to choose an option based on your preference.

Editing Your Document in Google Docs

Google Docs offers a variety of editing features to ensure your work reaches full potential.

• Tracking changes
• Adding comments
• Finding word count
• Running spell check
• Adding a strikethrough

Tracking Changes

If you’re working with another person on your document, you can ask them to track their changes and edits. This will show you who made the edits, when they made those edits, and what the text was prior to their edits.

You can track changes in Google Docs by changing Editing to Suggesting in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Then, when someone edits your document, any changes will show up in a different color, with a box on the right-hand side to show their name, photo, and editing details.

You can then browse the tracked changes and accept or reject them as necessary.

Adding Comments

With Google Docs, you and your team can leave comments in any document for each other to view. These are often used as reminders to come back to a specific section, leave more detailed revision ideas, or add URLs to other sites and images for reference.

To do this highlight the word, sentence, or paragraph you want to comment on and click the Add Comment button (the text box with the plus sign inside).

You can then write a comment — or paste a URL — in the comment box. Click Comment when you are ready to post your box.

To edit the information in the box, click the three dots on the right and select Edit. You can also thread comments beneath the original comment by typing in the Reply box.

To get rid of a comment box you can either delete it or resolve the comment. Click the three dots on the right and select Delete to delete the box. Click Resolve in the top right of the box when the issue has been resolved and you no longer need the comment.

If you are looking for more in-depth information on adding and resolving comments in Google Docs, look at this page.

Finding Word Count

Have you ever struggled while writing a paper, report, or blog post because of a required word count that you were trying to reach?

Although reaching a required word count may not always be easy, Google Docs makes the count itself simple.

Once you’re in your document, click Tools > Word Count. (You can also use the shortcut ⌘ + Shift + c.)

Google will then display the total number of words (along with the total number of pages, characters, and characters excluding spaces).

To count the words within a specific sentence, paragraph, or page, highlight the text you want to include and follow the same steps above.

Running Spell Check

It’s not uncommon even for professional writers to make an occasional spelling mistake. Google Docs can help all writers with this dilemma.

Run a spell check to locate and correct any errors you may have missed. Think of it as your personal proofreader or editor.

To run a spell check in Google Docs, click Tools > Spelling > Spell check.

Google Docs will then scan your entire document for misspelled words and grammatical errors. You’ll be given the choice to accept or ignore Google’s suggestion.

If you find that you’re frequently using a word that Google doesn’t recognize, you can add it to your dictionary. This will prevent Google Docs from highlighting the word in future spell checks.

Adding a Strikethrough

In Google Docs you can add a strikethrough by highlighting the text you want to strike and clicking Format > Strikethrough.

Using Google Docs Add-Ons

You can add third-party tools, or add-ons, to your documents. These add-ons contain unique features to help you improve your work in various ways.

You can find these add-ons by clicking Add-ons > Get add-ons...

Here are a few popular add-ons you may find helpful.

Google Keep

Writing a document that needs supporting data? Install Google Keep to your browser to collect notes, case studies, and references you’re planning to cite. Then, use the add-on to pull them in as needed. You can also edit the notes you’ve saved with Google Keep.

Extensis Fonts

Consistent branding is important, but that can be tricky when you’re using unique fonts. The Extensis Fonts add-on imports thousands of fonts from the Google Fonts library into your document to enhance your piece’s overall aesthetic.

HelloSign

Writing a contract, agreement, or any other paperwork that requires a signature? The HelloSign add-on will help you collect electronic signatures in an easy and secure way.

Translate

Need a translator? Install the Translate add-on to easily translate your content into another language.

Lucidchart

The Lucidchart add-on allows you to add unique diagrams to your document that are easy to design and edit. It’s perfect for anyone working with data or looking for a fun way to display information.

Language Tool

Language Tool makes proofreading easy in over 20 languages. You won't have to wonder about your spelling or grammar anymore. This add-on catches errors and mistakes no matter the language.

EasyBib

EasyBib is an automatic bibliography generator with over 7,000+ style options, including MLA, APA, and, Harvard-style.

Using Google Sheets and Google Forms with Google Docs

With Google Docs, it's easy to integrate with other useful tools such as Google Sheets and Google Forms. If you create a spreadsheet or chart in Google Sheets, you can insert that information directly into Google Docs.

With Google Forms, you can create surveys that are automatically saved to your Google Drive for easy access and review from Google Docs.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a great option for anyone who needs to build any type of chart, list, plan, or spreadsheet. It is a spreadsheet generator — similar to Excel — and it's free.

Once you’ve opened Google Sheets and created your chart, you can easily insert it into your document.

Do this by heading up to the toolbar and clicking Insert > Chart > From Sheets. You should be able to view and select the chart you want to add to your document.

Google Forms

Google Forms is a great way to collect information and survey responses. Just go to the Google Forms site and begin creating your form or survey in a matter of seconds.

You and your team can collaborate and select a template from Google’s gallery — or create a unique template from scratch to style it to your taste.

Google Forms is also free to use and can integrate with software like Asana and HubSpot.

Additionally, all of your Google Forms documents and responses are automatically saved to your Google Drive so you can easily access them while in your Google Docs page.

To do this, click on the Apps icon when you open Google Docs. Scroll down to Forms to find the form or survey you want to open.

One last feature to note is that the people responding to your form or survey can do so on any type of device, making Google Forms a convenient option for everyone.

Get Started with Google Docs

Congratulations! You’re now a Google Docs pro. Whether you’re a marketer or CEO, these tips will allow you to take advantage of Google’s software and create incredible documents of any kind, no matter your professional background.

Google Docs gives you the ability to share your work with as many people as you want, whenever you want, making it a great tool for collaborative teams. It also keeps your life simple by automatically saving any changes to your document to the Cloud … meaning no more stress about losing your work. Lastly, you can work on your documents from anywhere — whether or not you have internet.

With all of these features, you can see why so many people have jumped on the Google Docs bandwagon. Plus, it’s free! Why not give it a try?

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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