Category: Social Brew

Roundup: Top Social Media Marketing Links
Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

Link Inspiration:
- BUZZWORTHY: This week the big buzz has been about two new, easy to use, live streaming apps: Meerkat and Periscope. Both apps are still in their infancy, but Meerkat had a big boost at launch thanks to buzz at SXSW.
- SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS: Instagram ads are now clickable. This is BIG news for marketers who use Instagram to reach fans.
- CASE STUDY: Weird Al Yankovich has been creating crazy, strange, and just-plain-wonderful content for over four decades, and his content marketing genius is still going strong. In fact, his latest album Mandatory Fun debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200! Many attribute the album’s success to a very clever pre-launch video marketing campaign. You can read more about his #8videos8days campaign over at Marketingland.com.
- STRICTLY BUSINESS: Greg Ciotti over at Convince and Convert tried his hand at LinkedIn Publishing for 30 days, and walked away with some pretty interesting insights. Read his full report on LinkedIn Publishing. Bonus stat: 28% of top posts on LinkedIn contain the 6 basic questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How.
- NEW TOOL: Ever wonder how to get more than one image into a single Instagram post? Instagram finally announced a solution.
- CLICKABLE: My most popular post this week was about Flock to Unlock campaigns which boost awareness, engagement, and help make room for new inventory. Check it out.
Lastly, anybody else just feel like dancin’?

– Shelli

P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!
Roundup: Marketing with Video
Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

Across the board my clients have been noticing impressive organic reach when it comes to posting video to Facebook. In some cases, video posts have had 4-5 times the organic reach of their picture and link counterparts– amazing!

If you haven’t considered it already, I highly recommend you start creating more videos for your marketing efforts. In fact, email me if you’re interested in creating a video campaign for your organization.

Also, don’t forget you can now create and share video playlists on Facebook.

This Week’s Link Inspiration:
- Check out this brilliant Geico YouTube campaign that actually prevents fans from clicking away after the first 5 seconds. My favorite is the elevator one. So perfect.
- Don’t operate under dated assumptions about Facebook Video! Read about 6 Facebook video falsehoods and their corresponding best practices on Social Media Today.
- You can now embed Twitter hosted video onto your blog or website. This is a great option for those trying to get more twitter followers and engagement.
- Speaking of cool new things, Buffer just came out with a new image creation tool called ‘Pablo’. Check it out. With Pablo and Canva in your back pocket, it is now easier than ever to make your posts look more interesting.
- Which is the better choice for marketers looking to incorporate video into their efforts: Instagram or Vine? Social Times shares some thoughts.
- Check out this cool case study from Adidas and Think With Google. It’s a behind-the-scenes perspective on Adidas’ winning content strategy before, during, and after the 2014 World Cup.
- AdWeek reports that a JC Penney video campaign got startlingly good results on Twitter. Sean Ryan, director of social media at JCPenney, wrote, “the native placement was much more effective in cost per view … marketers now need to think across the board when it comes to promoting video.”
- It’s not video, but I’d feel remiss if I didn’t mention this really cool, curated showcase of Really Good Email designs from MailChimp. Lots of inspiration to be had!
Lastly, speaking of awesome video, have you seen This is Water?. If not, give it a watch!

– Shelli

P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!
Learn Something New: Content Marketing Roundup
Social Brew is monthly curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. It contains the goods I find on social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool. This week the theme is “learn something new.”

I was inspired by The One You Feed podcast, specifically this week’s episode featuring Tony Stubblebine, creator of Coach.me (formerly Lift). If you’re sincerely interested in behavior design, learning something new, or putting a new habit into place, I highly recommend you check out this week’s episode.

This Week’s Inspiration:

Learn Something New This Week:
- Start a content marketing campaign with advice from 8 experts on how to start and set yourself up for long term success.
- Find your perfect content marketing partners, by following these 5 steps.
- Learn how to kick your content marketing into overdrive with this gigantic list of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) techniques.
- Write like a boss by following these simple tips from @itsjessicann.
- Create a call to action button on Facebook.
- Be a better writer in 15 minutes with these 4 lessons on grammar and word choice.
- Learn why working remotely is better for business.
- Take better pictures, by reading how Paul Moore creates incredible iPhone photos (hint: he uses apps!).
- Be a more productive human by following four simple steps: Dream. Dump. Map. Chunk.
Lastly, while it’s ALWAYS a great idea to better yourself by learning something new, let this serve as a reminder: You are not an imposter.

– Shelli

P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future Content & Social Media Marketing Roundup. Have a happy week!
Buy Experiences, Not Things
This Week’s Inspiration:

Last week, in casual conversation, I heard no less than three separate parents lament that their kids have TOO MUCH STUFF.

“WAY. TOO. MUCH…!”

Their words echoed in my brain as I slowly went over my dwindling gift-giving options for their kids. I was reminded of the common-sense notion that we should buy experiences, not things (which was recently confirmed in newly published research). I was inspired to get the kids things they could DO versus things they could have.

As the holidays draw near, I hope you can do the same and simplify your life during the holidays. It feels great to plan and discover ways you can anticipate, gather stories, & and collect memories instead of spending money on stuff.

Last Week’s Link Love:
- If you’re looking to enhance and grow your email marketing, but are tired of the same old pop-up suggestion lists, check out this post from Zapier with 10 Email Marketing tricks you’ve probably never tried.
- Brands can tell rich and engaging stories. This Patagonia video is worth watching as a fascinating example of branding AND storytelling — it’s actually entertaining and very inspiring (especially for outdoorsy types)!
- Upworthy has the goods when it comes to viral social media success and averages an incredible 60k+ shares per article (roughly 5x Buzzfeed’s rate). Heidi Cohen (don’t you just love her posts?) shares how you can recreate that success.
- This post by Samuel King is packed full of information & how-to guides on Content Curation – it’s very comprehensive and an excellent primer to help get you started.
- Is the future of Social Media Marketing pay to play? The signs point to YES.
News You Might Have Missed (Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work):
- It’s year in review time! Check out these reviews from YouTube & Facebook.
- Speaking of Facebook, soon you’ll be able to follow “hot trends” from your phone.
Lastly, don’t let the holidays get you down. Make the season what you want it to be! If Joel, the Lump of Coal, can make it happy, so can you.

– Shelli

P.S. Social Brew is a regular newsletter full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. I share links about social media, content marketing, writing, and other interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool stuff.

Subscribe now and never miss a post!
The Right Words Are Simple
Welcome to Social Brew a regular, curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. Social Brew is mainly links about social media, content marketing, writing, and other stuff that is interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

Subscribe now and never miss a future issue.

This Week’s Inspiration:

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” – Jack Kerouac

Links I Loved Last Week:
- This list of IFTTT Recipes for Marketers from Seer Interactive is one of the best I’ve seen yet.
- 26 great tips from Social Media Examiner on improving your marketing. Some are classics, while others offer fresh ideas.
- ‘Hack’ is the buzz word du jour, but don’t let that steer you away from Adweek’s 5 Social Media Marketing hacks you should know (this includes how to sell on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and making ‘shoppable’ Instagram posts).
- As a freelancer, sometimes it’s hard to turn down, or say no to, work. That’s why I loved reading Joseph Walla’s story of a start-up CEO who owned his price & said ‘no’ the right way (the way that draws in business).
- Jason Keath’s idea for generating lots of blog post content is so brilliant I wish I’d thought of it.
News You Might Have Missed (because you were too busy doing real work):
- The New York Times pulled off a state-by-state Facebook posting campaign for Thanksgiving. It’s a really fun idea – check it out.
- Twitter’s photo filters are getting fancier by the minute!
- Google Plus now lets you pin posts to keep them front and center – woot (are you as pumped as I am?!).
- At the close of Q3, Facebook was driving 22% of all traffic, over 3 times that of all other social networks combined.
Lastly, please enjoy these Louis C.K. motivational posters (they may just get you through the week). 😉

– Shelli
The Perfect Headline Is Six Words Long
Welcome to Social Brew a somewhat regular, curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. I’ll share links about social media, content marketing, writing, and other posts that are interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

Subscribe now and never miss a future issue.

This Week’s Inspiration:

Say ‘yes’ to what matters and let the rest go (inspired by this post from Zen Habits).

Links I Loved:
- I try not to work from my phone, but realistically (and logistically) that’s a tough goal for full time community managers. That’s probably why this very handy list of the 44 best mobile apps and tools for Social Media Marketers was my most popular post last week.
- I also happen to be perfect, so all my headlines are naturally amazing (sarcasm!!). But, for the rest of you mere mortals, Neil Patel has researched and developed a formula for the perfect headline (hint: It’s just six words long).
- Interested in joining a regular Twitter chat, but can’t find a good one? This HUGE list has tons of options … oh, hey, here’s another giant list. Now you have no excuses (you’re welcome).
- Owned, Earned and Paid. You have the content, now use Kevan Lee’s list of 17 tools to get your content it’s largest audience.
- It’s winter. Prediction posts are coming. Here’s one that covers big changes amongst email providers and email marketing tools in 2015.
- Serial has the nation swept up in podcasts due, in large part, to Sarah Koenig’s amazing ability to tell a great story. Melissa Lafsky says Content Marketers can take away two lessons from Serial’s success:
  1. Big stakes bring big audiences
  2. Longform storytelling isnt dead
News You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work:
- Twitter now lets businesses stuff coupons in their tweets — sweeeet!
- New studies find that 80% of Twitter’s active users are on mobile, and 77% are outside of the U.S.
- Do you see the little pencil icon next to your LinkedIn status box? That means you can write long-form posts! Here are some best practices to help you get started.
- Shut up & take my money!! This alternative tea kettle is eco-friendly AND it boosts your hipster points by like a bazillian.
Also, I participated in NaNoWriMo last month and actually finished! Here are 7 surprising things I learned while participating in the madness.

Lastly, have you tried Google’s new inbox? What do you think? Is it just me or is it sort of hard to figure out?

– Shelli

P.S. Don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future issue. Have a happy week!
Social Brew: The Beginning
Welcome to Social Brew a somewhat regular, curated post full of links you can check out while having your morning coffee. I’ll share links about social media, content marketing, writing, and other posts that are interesting, relevant, newsworthy, helpful or just plain cool.

Subscribe now and never miss a future issue.

This Week’s Inspiration:

“Sign your work and own the results” – Seth Godin

Links I Loved Last Week:
- “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.” – Lao Tzu. I love this reminder from Matthew May on the power of subtraction and the “Art of Adding by Taking Away.”
- You may be launching a startup, or already have an established audience. Either way, these 15 Pre-launch Growth Hacking Ideas are worth a look.
- Where my ladies at?! Recently, while networking and interviewing for jobs around Seattle, it dawned on me that most of my meetings are with men. I’ve worked with many whip-smart and very talented female leaders, but we need to continue to support women in the tech industry. Some even go as far as to say that Our Future Depends On Women In Technology.
- This was my most clicked link last week. If you’ve found a product market fit and are ready to accelerate customer acquisition, you might want to check out this incredibly helpful guide to creating buyer personas by Jun Loayza.
- No tool beats good strategy, but Light Box Collaborative ‘s 2015 Editorial calendar has tons of free content ideas and hooks to get you thinking about your 2015 content marketing.
- I’m a literature nerd and poetry junkie at heart, so I loved this very poetic description of great brand stories by Bernadette Jiwa.
- …and then there is everything you ever wanted to know about Facebook Algorithm Factors by the good people at Buffer whom we all adore (p.s. watch this space because these might change any minute. I wish I were joking).
News You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work:
- Instagram is finally letting users edit their captions. Now you don’t have to stare your your typos and sob like I know you probably do.
- I find this ridiculously cool, so I’m calling it news. It’s a real world button you can use to control your favorite apps. Analog is back, baby! You heard it here first.
- Soon when your boss catches you on Facebook it might not be such a bad thing. To further their clearly evil plot to make us share everything we do, Facebook is making ‘Facebook at Work’ a thing in 2015.
Lastly, please tell me you’re listening to Serial too (I’m lookin’ at you, Karen). Tweet me what you think!

Also, don’t forget to Subscribe to Social Brew and never miss a future issue. Have a happy (shortened) week!

– Shelli

Category: Social Brew

Roundup: Top Social Media Marketing Links

Link Inspiration:

Roundup: Marketing with Video

This Week’s Link Inspiration:

Learn Something New: Content Marketing Roundup

Learn Something New This Week:

Buy Experiences, Not Things

This Week’s Inspiration:

Last Week’s Link Love:

News You Might Have Missed (Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work):

The Right Words Are Simple

This Week’s Inspiration:

Links I Loved Last Week:

News You Might Have Missed (because you were too busy doing real work):

The Perfect Headline Is Six Words Long

This Week’s Inspiration:

Links I Loved:

News You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work:

Social Brew: The Beginning

This Week’s Inspiration:

Links I Loved Last Week:

News You Might Have Missed Because You Were Too Busy Doing Real Work: