Roz Chast’s “Story Template” offers a good structure for corporate storytellers to follow:

• Problem (“Suddenly”)
• Introduction (“Once upon a time”)
• Solution (“Luckily”)
• Results (“Happily ever after”)

Here’s how it works, courtesy of a patient case study from a Silver Anvil Award-winning campaign by Zimmer Inc. and Public Communications Inc.

When Zimmer introduced the first replacement knee for women, the company promoted it with, among other things, a series of patient stories like “After 10 Years of Pain, She’s ‘Living Life Like a 50-Year-Old.’”

Start with the problem.

Note how much of the real estate in this release is dedicated to the problem. That’s because the worse the problem is, the more dramatic the solution appears.

So pile on the tangible details — “knees of a 70-year-old,” “It was agony to … cook elaborate Sunday family meals,” “My daughter began doing my clothes shopping” — to show, instead of tell, how bad it was.

Sandwich the introduction.

The “introduction” is essentially the background section. It includes the five W’s of the story, like: What age was the patient? Where did she live? What did she do for a living?

That’s not — I hope! — the most scintillating part of your story. And that’s why you want to lead with the problem.

You can either move the introduction below the lead into a background section to create a classic feature-style story. Or you can break it into parenthetical phrases interspersed throughout the piece, like, “said Louise, 50, who lives in Eastern Pennsylvania.”

Describe the solution.

The solution is probably going to be your organization’s product, service, program or plan. Remember: The real story here is how your stuff solved the problem. So focus on that, not on every detail of the product itself. Instead, keep this section short and to the point.

Louise had heard reports of an orthopaedic surgeon in her area who was using a special knee made for women. He agreed that, not only would she benefit greatly from having both knees replaced, she was an excellent candidate for the Zimmer® Gender Solutions Knee, the first and only knee replacement shaped to fit women. Louise also benefited from advancements in knee replacement that had occurred in the years since her pain began, such as less-invasive surgery and Zimmer’s high-flex implants including the Gender Solutions Knee.

Louise had surgery several months after her 50th birthday, and although recovery from having both knees replaced at the same time was hard work…

Close with the results.

Here’s where you pile on tangible details about how your product or service changed someone’s life (or a company’s bottom line, or … you get it). Quantify and specify. Name names and number numbers.

And get the results in the customer’s or client’s own words. That makes for a better testimonial.

Try the story template.

How can you use this story template to make your next case study, testimonial or narrative more dramatic and powerful?

The post How to write a case study [example] appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Have you seen the piece about the orphan baby kangaroo and wombat who become BFFs? They also have a baby wallaby friend. Because of course they do.

Awwwww.

It’s obvious why these bundles of joey are making the rounds on Facebook. But how can you use the same approaches to make your content marketing messages travel the world, while others just languish on the couch?

Write a blog post that’s positive and emotional, suggest Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, two professors at the University of Pennsylvania.

Make messages positive, emotional.

Together, Berger and Milkman reviewed some 7,000 articles that appeared in The New York Times to determine what distinguished pieces that made the most-mailed list.

After controlling for placement, timing, author popularity and gender, and story length and complexity, they found that two features determined an article’s success:

• How positive its message was. Positive messages are more viral than negative ones.
• How much emotion it incites. The more extreme the emotion, the more likely it is to move people to act. Messages that make people angry, for instance, are more likely to be shared than those that make people sad.

Articles that evoked emotion — “Baby Polar Bear’s Feeder Dies” — got shared much more on social media than those that did not, such as “Teams Prepare for the Courtship of LeBron James.”

And happy emotions (“Wide-Eyed New Arrivals Falling in Love with the City”) outperformed sad ones (“Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again.”)

Spread the word

What characteristics make online messages go viral?

Characteristics that go viral

Increase your chances of going viral by increasing these characteristics of your blog post:

Anger

This emotion is 34% more likely to go viral. That’s equivalent to spending an additional 2.9 hours as the lead story on NYTimes.com. And that’s nearly four times the average number of hours articles spend in that position.

Sample headline:

What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses

That makes anger the No. 1 technique for getting your target audience to read your blog posts and pass them on. Show how your organization solves the problems that make readers angry with these techniques:

• Don’t be afraid of fear appeals.
• Make ’em sick, make ’em well.

Awe

This emotion is 30% more likely to go viral:

Rare Treatment Is Reported to Cure AIDS Patient

The Promise and Power of RNA

That makes awe the No. 2 emotion we can tap to make messages go viral (after only anger) is awe. Call it The Awwwww Factor.

So how can you make your messages as awe-inspiring as little orphan animal stories?

• Write about animals. Do you have a Ben the Bear story in your organization?
• Write about people. Try human-interest stories.
• Tell stories. Storytelling is the most effective way to add positive emotion to your content.

Practical value

This emotion is 30% more likely to go viral:

Voter Resources

It Comes in Beige or Black, but You Make It Green

Write how-to stories, tipsheets and news readers can use to live their lives better.

Interest

This emotion is 25% more likely to go viral:

Love, Sex and the Changing Landscape of Infidelity

Anxiety

This emotion is 21% more likely to go viral:

For Stocks, Worst Single-Day Drop in Two Decades

Emotionality

This characteristic is 18% more likely to go viral:

Redefining Depression as Mere Sadness

When All Else Fails, Blaming the Patient Often Comes Next

Surprise

This characteristic is 14% more likely to go viral:

Passion for Food Adjusts to Fit Passion for Running

Pecking, but No Order, on Streets of East Harlem

Positivity

This characteristic is 13% more likely to go viral:

Wide-Eyed New Arrivals Falling in Love with the City

Tony Award for Philanthropy

HubSpot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella found similar results from his research.

Zarrella used TweetPsych to analyze more than 100,000 accounts. He found that negative remarks — references to sadness and aggression, negative emotions and feelings, and morbid comments — correlate with fewer followers. (What a shock!)

“As it turns out, nobody likes to follow a Debbie Downer,” Zarrella writes. “Accounts with lots of followers don’t tend to make many negative remarks. If you want more followers, cheer up!”

Sadness

This characteristic is 16% less likely to go viral:

Web Rumors Tied to Korean Actress’s Suicide

Germany: Baby Polar Bear’s Feeder Dies

Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again

___

Source: Jonah Berger and Katherine l. Milkman, “What Makes Online Content Viral?” (PDF) Journal of Marketing Research, April 2012, pp. 192-205

The post How to write positive, emotional content marketing pieces appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

How can you write social media messages that are relevant, valuable and interesting to friends, fans and followers?

Pass educational consultant Angela Maiers’ 70-20-10 test. That is:

1. Share 70% of the time.

Give readers information they can use to live their lives better by linking to valuable information — new research, tipsheets and tools

That’s what Guy Kawasaki does. Kawasaki makes himself a go-to guy with interesting, valuable tweets like these:

• Forget the press release http://sbne.ws/r/qvP
• Top Twriters: 25 writers to follow on Twitter. http://adjix.com/n83r
• Research on the cause of the gender earnings gap http://sbne.ws/r/qkG
• Social media’s 10 commandments http://is.gd/vmcKjd
• 5 tips for power tweeting http://is.gd/FoA5J2

Tweets like these have earned Kawasaki a spot on Hubspot’s Twitter Elite — tweeters who have the highest power and reach in the Twitter community.

2. Engage 20%.

Put the social in social media: Connect, converse, ask questions, answer them, respond to people who mention you and generally help out your online connections.

You’ll find this approach on Southwest Airlines’ Twitter feed. Sample tweets:

• Hey everyone, if you have a good winglet pic or airplane window photos ‪@cnnireport wants them! Info here: http://on.cnn.com/PlFJzx
• ‪@BlessNDress I’m sorry to hear you are having trouble. Please follow & DM your info. & additional feedback. I’ll see if we can help.
• Alright, NYC locals … tourist attractions are great, but what are your favorite hidden gems? What would you do in one day in New York City?

This engaging Twitter style landed Southwest’s Twitter feed on Time magazine’s list of Top 10 corporate tweeters.

3. Chirp 10%.

In one in 10 tweets, Maiers suggests, go ahead and chit-chat about yourself.

Because the bulk of his tweets inform instead of meforming, the late Zappos CEO Tony Hsei can get away with the occasional chirp like this:

“Swam in Silverton mermaid aquarium on my birthday! Wore costume b/c they don’t allow birthday suits. http://twitpic.com/3fpe9r”

Hsei is another honoree on Time magazine’s list of of Top 10 corporate tweeters.

But beware: A little chirping goes a long way. Too much can veer into corporate narcissism.

The post How to engage via social media appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

They had me at “You’ll save 80 hours a year.”

Envoy, a grocery delivery company, does a great job of focusing on the benefits of its service:

But why “You’ll save 80 hours a year”? Why not just “Save 80 hours a year”?

That’s the imperative voice. And it’s a power tool of benefits writing.

Why choose the imperative voice?

We learned in third grade to call the imperative voice the command voice. And it can be a command: Do the dishes. Make your bed. Clean your room.

When communicators use it, though, think of it as the invitation voice: Save money, save time, avoid effort.

Why imperative?

1. Imperative voice gets shared.. Imperative words like see, make and look can help blog headlines go viral, according to a Rippen analysis of 3,016 headlines from Buzzfeed, ViralNova, Upworthy and Wimp.

2. Imperative voice boosts email click, open and read rates. Benefits verbs like add, open and try increase email reading, according to a study by Return Path, a global data and marketing firm. Return Path looked at more than 2 million email subscribers from 3,000 retail senders over a month last year.

Benefits verbs in subject lines increase email reading, says Return Path:

• Register: Average read rate is 24.19% (+6.70%)
• Open: Average read is 16.48% (+1.73%)
• Add: Average read rate is 16.56% (+1.13%)
• Add: Average read rate is 16.56% (+1.13%)
• Download: Average read rate is 25.03% (+0.3%)
• Try: Average read rate is 13.71% (+0.28%)
• Click: Average read rate is 12.27% (+0.20%)

A Phrasee study adds weight to this evidence: Experiential words like celebrate performed best in Phrasee’s analysis of more than 40 billion successful (and not so successful) emails to identify what works and what does not in subject lines.

Imperative voice works, according to Phrasee:

• Celebrate: Has a Phrasee score of 64 (open rate: 6.3%, click rate: -18.1%, CTO rate: -22.9%)
• Buy: Has a Phrasee score of 61 (open rate: 18.0%, click rate: -16.0%, CTO rate: -28.8%)
• Get your: Has a Phrasee score of 54 (open rate: 10.7%, click rate: 43.4%, CTO rate: 29.6%)

Adestra obtained similar results: Verbs like buy and save outperformed adjectives, including free, according to the U.K.-based email service provider’s analysis of more than 3 billion emails to learn which words work — and which don’t — in subject lines.*The Phrasee score is a normalized, weighted score that aggregates the overall effect a phrase has on response. The higher the Phrasee score, the more reliably positive the results are.

So the research is in: The imperative voice improves communication. So, what are best practices for the imperative voice?

1. Show them what they can do.

Instead of writing about us and our stuff, focus on what people can do with your stuff.

Need some inspiration?

Think imperative voice for email subject lines. Check out Unfunnel’s list of favorite benefits headlines, including:

• “Borrow” all my checklists …
• Check out new “man cave” [PICS]
• Discover The [desired result] Secret
• [Verb] Your Way To A [desired result]
• Stop [undesired result]
• Get [desired result] Without [undesired result]
• Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All
• Improve/Increase Your [desired result] In [time period]

Think imperative voice for headlines. One issue of New York magazine included all of these imperative headlines:

• Have a drink: 53 best bars to loosen up in this spring
• Own this city (department heading for a column about things to do this weekend)
• Eat Out (department heading for restaurant reviews)
• Drink up (department heading for bar reviews)
• Hire this … (department heading for profile of a job seeker)
• Score some swag (email contest promo)
• Get this (online promo)

Think imperative voice for news release leads. Steal a trick from this release lead from a Silver Anvil Award-winning PR campaign by Natural Resources Conservation Service:

Grab a spade … prepare your senses … dig a little … learn a lot. #LoveIt!

I also love this tagline from Truman State University:

Don’t follow. Pursue.

Think imperative voice for content promotion. “If a guy is walking into the street, you’re not going to shout out to him, ‘Hey, How Not to Get Hit by a Car.’ You’re going to say, ‘Hey, Look Out!’” David Zinczenko, editor of Men’s Health, told The New York Times. “The same thing applies to cover lines.”

Are you involving readers — or just preaching to them? Try inviting them into your content with the imperative voice.

2. Make lists parallel.

Back to Envoy for a minute. Here’s the list of benefits it shares on a web page:

• Your favorite stores
• A shopper you trust
• Live life to the fullest
• Always the best prices
• Eat healthier, for less
• Support local

So what’s wrong with this list?

Three of these things are not like the others. “Live life to the fullest,” “Eat healthier, for less” and “Support local” all use the imperative voice. The rest of the items on this list are not imperative. And that means this list is not parallel.

To fix that problem:

• Choose verbs. When you set up a benefits list, imagine a line that says, “That means you will …” You don’t need to write that line; just know that it’s there. That line will force you to use verbs, not nouns, for your list. That means you will … live life to its fullest; eat healthier, for less; support local.
• Make lists parallel. Now note which of these items doesn’t follow that line. That means you will … your favorite stores. That means you will … a shopper you can trust. That means you will … always the best prices.
• Fix your list. Now you can see what to do. Rewrite every “benefit” that’s really a feature (or a noun). Instead of “That means you will … always the best prices,” you’ll wind up with “That means you will … save with the best prices.”

Is your list parallel, benefits-focused and verb-based? Then press Send.

3. Write an invitation instead of a command.

Remember that Phrasee study that showed that experiential words like celebrate and love get top results in subject lines?

Guess what didn’t work? Command words, like spend, perform less effectively in subject lines. (Because who wants to spend?)

So make sure you’re writing an invitation instead of a command: Learn how to get twice the work done in half the time, not Register for our webinar.

Is your message a benefit? Or a command?

The post How to engage your social media audience appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Love them or hate them, hashtags may help you increase retweets.

Or so says Dan Zarrella, HubSpot’s viral marketing scientist. Zarrella analyzed his dataset of more than 1.2 million tweets to find out whether hashtags made these news items move further and faster.

The results? Tweets that contained one or more hashtags were 55% more likely to be retweeted than tweets that did not.

Still … don’t overuse hashtags. Need a hilarious reminder? Check out this Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon video.

And keep in mind this quote, by The New York Times social media staff editor Victor: “The noble hashtag is cursed by a problem Yogi Berra could appreciate: Too many people use it, so no one goes there.”

• Use hashtags, according to research by Buffer Media. Tweets with hashtags get twice the engagement of tweets without them.
• But don’t overuse them. Tweets with one or two hashtags get 21% higher engagement than those without, Buffer found. But engagement drops when you add more.
• Make them short. Keep them to 6 characters or less, recommends Vanessa Doctor from Hashtags.org.

The post Do hashtags #help? appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Want to expand your reach and influence on Twitter? Share links.

Why links?

Research shows that:

1. Links increase followers.

The more links you share, the more followers you’ll get, according to research by viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella.

For his study, Zarrella analyzed a random selection of more than 130,000 Twitter users. He found that the more links tweeters share the more followers they get.

Twitter accounts with more than 1,000 followers tend to tweet many more links than those with fewer than 1,000 followers.

Starbucks is a master of this approach. The coffee merchant’s tweeters tweet links to recipes, photos and all things coffee. Sample tweets:

“Mmmm, coffee cupcakes!”

“What’s the secret ingredient in our Chocolate Cinnamon Bread? A pinch of #nomnom”

“Cheers! Coffee Ice Cream Martinis #starbucksicecream”

“Tiramisu Ice Cream Parfaits anyone?”

Sharing valuable resources via links helped land Starbucks on Time magazine’s list of best corporate Twitter feeds.

People want to know what you know. Link to your research and resources.

2. Links go viral.

The more links you share, the more retweets you’ll get, according to Zarrella’s research. For this study, Zarrella looked at nearly 10 million random tweets and 10 million retweets.

He found that nearly 60% of retweets include links; fewer than 20% of non-retweeted tweets do.

In another study, this one by SalesForce, tweets with links generated 86% more retweets than those without.

See how it’s done on JetBlue’s Twitter feed. The discount airline’s tweeters tweet links to travel tips and cheap seats. Sample tweets:

“Thunderstorms in the Northeast are causing delays and possible cancellations. Fee waivers in effect, check details at http://bit.ly/jbalert”

“To celebrate our newest destination Grand Cayman, we’re offering fares from JFK at $139 & Boston at $159 terms apply. http://cot.ag/OfgTBa”

“Getaways Cheeps! $299 pp/dbl occ limited avail 2nt pkgs to Nassau, Bahamas w/air from JFK or HPN. Terms apply. http://cot.ag/J8yBkB”

JetBlue also made Time magazine’s list of top corporate tweeters.

Want people to spread the word? Provide links to resources, tips and tools.

Best practices for linking

OK, so you’re in for more links. To make the most of your links, use these linking best practices:

1. Link 60% to 80% of the time.

Share links in 60 to 80% of your tweets, Zarrella counsels.

One great model of this approach is Southwest Airline’s Twitter feed. The discount airline’s tweeters tweet links to travel tips and cheap seats. Sample tweets:

“Hey DENVER! @byallmeansband will provide the summer sounds @downtowndenver tonight w/ a free concert!  Details here: http://cot.ag/OM6drM”

“Does your travel to-do list include attending a concert at the famed @RedRocksCO? We’re here to help.”

“We’ve lowered fares for fall travel with prices starting at $69 one-way to select destinations! (restrictions apply) http://cot.ag/MXOcd1”

Southwest also made Time magazine’s list of best corporate tweeters.

2. Where to place links.

Turns out there’s a place for everything on Twitter, too.

Followers are more likely to click on links placed 25% into your tweet than at the beginning or end, according to Zarrella’s research.

For his study, he used bit.ly API to analyze 200,000 random Tweets containing bit.ly links. Then he correlated the relationship of the link’s position in the tweet with its click-through rate. Those located 25% of the way in got the most click-throughs.

Want to increase click-throughs? It may be a matter of nudging your link a little to the left.

Link up.

Want your social media status updates to move further and faster? Share more links.

The post How to engage audiences on social media: Share links appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

In a recent “Dilbert” cartoon, Dilbert and Wally beg their pointy-haired boss to keep them constantly updated on all his daily activities via Twitter.

“We find you fascinating,” Wally says. “Oh, yes. Every little thing you do is interesting.”

Fast forward to the last frame, where Wally and Dilbert are sitting with their feet up in the conference room, drinking coffee and checking Twitter on their mobile phones.

“Where’s idiot boy now?” Wally asks.

“In the parking lot,” Dilbert answers. “No need to look busy yet.”

Are you meforming?

Do you really think your social media users find every little thing you do fascinating?

Four out of five Twitter users seem to, according to a study by Rutgers University professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase.

The professors dissected more than 3,000 tweets from more than 350 Twitter users and concluded that 80% of tweeters are “meformers”— those who write mostly “me now” status updates. “Me now” updates cover everyday activities, like going to yoga or heading to happy hour.

The organizational version of meforming includes, “XYZ Company …”:

• President of XYZ company to present conference speech.
• XYZ Company moves to new office space.
• XYZ Company launches new product.
• XYZ Company hires new VP.
• XYZ Company wins award.
• XYZ Company signs client.

“There’s a lot of me in social media,” says thought leader Brian Solis. He refers to social media as the “egosystem.” And he points out the great big I in the middle of Twitter.

There’s a lot of me in social media.

— Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group

This study comes on the heels of research showing that 40% of all tweets are pointless babble, along the lines of “Eating a sandwich now,” according to a random sample of 2,000 messages by Pear Analytics.

No wonder 57% of Generation Y members believe social media is for narcissists, according to a new study by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge.

So how do we avoid organizational narcissism? Whether you’re developing blog post content or social media posts, polishing your social media presence, creating your content calendar or just staying active in front of your social networks, these seven content marketing strategies should keep you relevant to your prospective customers:

1. Write to and about the reader.

It’s the most retweeted word in the English language, according to viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella: You.

And no wonder. Regardless of the type of content you’re creating, starting with you pushes the benefits to the front of the sentence and focuses your message on your target audience’s favorite subject.

Second-person pronouns — like you — increase readability. First-person pronouns, like we, reduced it.

— Ralph Tyler and Edgar Dale pronoun research

In fact, we’ve known that you was a writing power tool since 1934. That’s the year Ralph Tyler and Edgar Dale had adults read passages about personal health taken from newspapers, magazines, textbooks and children’s health books. Then they gave the readers multiple-choice tests about what they’d read.

The researchers found that the more second-person pronouns — you’s— existed in the passages, the higher readability soared. First-person pronouns (I, me, we, us) and third-person pronouns (she, her, he, him, it, they, them), on the other hand, reduced readability.

“It’s not ‘who, what, when, where, why and how,’ it’s ‘YOU, what, when, where, why and how.’”

— Anita Allen, communicator at Sabre Travel Solutions

Folks, that’s 80 years of research telling us to write about the reader and the reader’s needs. That’s not exactly breaking news. And still, day after day, year after year, we show up at work, open our laptops and write — once again — about us and our stuff.

“People spend 99% of the time thinking about themselves,” says Liam Scott, a Toronto-based speechwriter. “Actually, that’s probably a little low.”

Digital marketers: The results are in, and you won. Want to reach the reader? Write to and about the reader.

2. Put the reader first.

Here’s a simple step: Start your next sentence with you.

• Instead of We’re introducing a new disability insurance, try You’ll get back to work faster, thanks to our new Ability Assurance.
• Instead of com helps you improve productivity, try Get all your work done in half the time, be the office hero and go home early with Trainingnet.com’s new webinar.
• Instead of XYZ company offers SuperPlantGro, try You’ll grow bigger, lusher plants — and never have to water again — with XYZ’s SuperPlantGro

To focus your message on your readers’ interests, put the reader first. Start your sentence — start all of your social media marketing, for that matter — with you.

3. Try the imperative voice.

Also known as the command voice, the imperative voice can be commanding: Go to your room! Do the dishes! Take out the trash!

Think of it instead as the invitation voice: Make money … Save money … Save time … Avoid effort.

When sharing content, write directly to your readers about how they can benefit from your products, services, programs and ideas.

4. Use a placeholder for you.

When you doesn’t work, try a placeholder for you. That’s what the writers of these headlines from PRSA Silver Anvil Award-winning campaigns did:

• Blood Cancer Patients and Advocates Visit Capitol Hill to Inspire Continued Support for Be the Match: July 18 Legislative Day event aimed at delivering more cures to patients in need (Be the Match)
• Teens Get Opportunity to Celebrate With an Idol: State Farm and Grammy Award Winner Kelly Clarkson team up for teen driver safety (State Farm)
• Parents and teen drivers dangerously disconnected: New State Farm survey reveals an alarming gap between parents’ and teens views on driver safety licensing laws (State Farm)

5. Count me out.

The more you talk about yourself on Twitter, the fewer followers you’re likely to have.

Or so says Zarrella. Using TweetPsyche data on more than 60,000 Twitter users, he looked at self-reference on Twitter. He found that Twitter users who don’t talk about themselves much tend to have more users.

“Want more followers?” Zarrella asks. “Stop talking about yourself.”

6. Spread yourself thin.

The more you tweet about yourself, the fewer retweets you’ll get.

Zarrella compared tweets that had been retweeted with those that had not. Non-retweets had nearly twice the number of self-references as tweets that went viral.

“I’m not on Twitter to hear about you and your life,” Zarrella writes. “I mean, unless we’re friends in real life, of course. I’m on Twitter to get information that will either benefit me, or help others (and by extension, benefit me). … So stop talking about yourself, and make content that others can relate to and get value from!”

7. Make it all about me on Facebook.

On the other hand, talking about yourself on Facebook actually increases engagement.

Zarrella learned that status updates with personal references (I, me) tend to get more likes than those without.

That’s in contrast with … well, every channel everywhere in the history of mankind. Usually, focusing on you, or writing to and about the reader, works better than self-reference.

Stop meforming.

One more finding from Zarrella: While you is the most retweeted word in the English language, me-focused words reduce retweets.

Among the least retweeted words in the English language: Answers to the original Twitter question, “Whatcha doing,” including “-ing” words, like “going,” “watching,” “listening.”

As in “I am.”

As in “me now.”

Sorry, “meformers”: We’re just not that into you.

On Twitter, as in so much more in life, better “you” than me.

The post How to be relevant on social media appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

“How do you find time to tweet?” my speakers’ network e-zine asked subscribers.

“I don’t have time to not use social media,” I wrote back.

That’s because the people I follow on social media (heart emojis to @ShelHoltz, @BillSpaniel, @mar_de_palabras and others who surprise and delight me every day) serve as sort of a virtual research team. They scour the Web, finding valuable information — new studies, quotes, resources and insights — so I don’t have to.

“Our readers don’t want to just read stories. What they really want is a big button they can push that says, ‘Solve my problem.’ It’s up to us to be the button.”

— Brian J. O’Connor, editor at Bankrate.com

That is, they’re “informers” — the 20% of Twitter users who tweet information, ideas and insights — not “meformers.”

Not surprisingly, informers have nearly three times as many followers as meformers, according to a study by Rutgers University professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase.

Just two-thirds (66%) of content marketing programs prioritize their audience’s informational needs over their organization’s sales/promotional message, according to the 2020 B2B Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America (PDF), a new study by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. Yet, 88% of the top performers do.

Here are 9 ways to increase engagement on social media by being an informer, not a meformer:

1. Share helpful information.

Why do people share on email, Twitter and Facebook and other social networks? According to a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey:

• Because I find it interesting/entertaining: 72%
• Because I think it will be helpful to recipients: 58%
• To get a laugh: 58%

Want your status updates to travel the world instead of staying home on the couch? Get people to share your content by making your social media posts helpful to your audience.

2. Write service stories.

What kind of information do people retweet? News and how-tos (PDF), according to research by Dan Zarrella, viral marketing scientist for HubSpot.

Here’s how often six kinds of information get shared on Twitter:

• News: 78%
• How-to information: 58%
• Entertainment: 53%
• Opinion: 50%
• Products: 45%
• Small talk: 12%

Please note: News is what CNN and the BBC report. It’s not your urgent updates about your Widget 2.6.3.1.

That leaves how-to information, or service stories, as our best bet for content, according to Twitter analytics.

Want your content marketing pieces to move more quickly through your social channels? Create content that’s packed with tips and techniques.

3. Cover solutions, not services.

How can business-to-business bloggers build brand awareness by engaging readers?

1. Focus on the customer, not on the company. Don’t let your posts sound like a series of press releases. Instead, ask, “What problems can I solve? What expertise can I share? What issues can I weigh in on?” Answering questions and providing good service are good social media marketing.
2. Think of your company as a publisher. “Blog like you’re the best trade magazine in your industry,” says Kipp Bodnar, inbound marketing manager at Hubspot.
3. Promote resources, not products and services. Share white papers, studies, webinars and conference speeches on your social media platforms.

“They don’t really care about your products,” says Rick Burnes, inbound marketing manager at HubSpot. “What they’re interested in is solutions to their problems.”

Offering tips and techniques that serve your customers also help you position your company as the expert in the field.

4. Tweet like H&R Block.

That’s what H&R Block does. The company’s Twitter feed offers tax tips and help on demand. Sample tweets:

“IRS urges you to perform a Paycheck Checkup today to make sure your tax withholding is right for you. [Link]”

“Have a question or problem while doing your taxes online? We have tax pros standing by to call or chat. If you’re really stuck, they can even share your screen to help you through it. Expert help, if and when you need it with H&R Block online. [Link]”

“More people file free with H&R Block Online. Find out if you’re one of them: [Link]”

This how-to approach earned H&R Block a place on Time magazine’s list of top 10 corporate Twitter feeds.

5. Share tips & techniques.

Take a tip from Whole Foods Market: Give your social media network news they can use. The all-organic market tweets recipes and how-to stories about cooking:

“Check out our foolproof three-step method to cutting a mango. Plus, get tropical ideas for ceviche, grilling and desserts. [Link]”

“We got an all-access pass to @Joan_Nathan’s kitchen while she helped us create our Passover dinner menu. Check it out: [Link]”

“This melon guide is big summer vibes. Check it out: [Link]”

“Our wine experts pair the top 12 wines with summer. Reds, whites and bubbles for all occasions. Read their suggestions now. [Link]”

Whole Foods’ recipes and service stories have made it one of the most followed brands on Twitter, with 1.9 million followers. No wonder Whole Foods landed on Time magazine’s list of top 10 corporate Twitter feeds.

What tips and techniques can you share on your Instagram account?

6. Quantify value with numerals in headlines.

Coverlines with numbers sell publications at the checkout counter. That’s because those numbers promise quantity and value. (Oddly, odd numbers sell better than even ones.)

The same thing’s true in social media. Add a numeral to your blog post headline, and it will make the rounds more widely on Facebook pages.

“In a wide range of marketing arenas, digits have been shown to perform very well,” Zarrella writes. “They tend to help conversion rates in the form of prices. And on social news sites like Digg, ‘Top 10’ style posts have always done well.”

In Zarrella’s research, blog post headlines:

• Including the numerals 1 through 9 got passed along more often than average on Facebook
• Without digits got shared less often than average on Facebook

7. Deliver more value through links.

The more links you share, the more followers you’ll get, according to research by viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella. For his study, Zarrella analyzed a random selection of more than 130,000 Twitter users.

He found that Twitter accounts with more than 1,000 followers tend to tweet many more links than those with fewer than 1,000 followers.

And the more links you share, the more retweets you’ll get, according to Zarrella. For this study, Zarrella looked at nearly 10 million random tweets and 10 million retweets.

He found that nearly 60% of retweets include links; fewer than 20% of non-retweeted tweets do.

8. Post novel ideas.

Stop posting the same old thing. Fresh ideas — even fresh words — move further and faster on social media.

For this study, Zarrella counted how many times each word appeared in his sample set of 10 million tweets:

• Each word in a regular tweet was found 89.19 other times in the sample.
• Each word in a retweet was found only 16.37 other times.

Want to get retweeted? Share something different. You might even coin your own word.

9. Transform news and events into insights.

Alan Weiss is the consultant’s consultant. His social media status updates rock.

Instead of blah-blahing about what he ate for dinner or bragging that he’s tweeting from the Imperial Suite at the Park Hyatt-Vendôme, he spins news items and everyday events into insights and ideas:

“If you want a referral, don’t ask someone to ‘represent’ you and never send materials. Here’s the line to request: ‘Joan, I’d like to introduce Tom who’s done outstanding work and I think the two of you would benefit significantly from knowing each other.’”

“Use observed behavior and evidence, not ad hominem attack and assumption. ‘You’re late by 15 minutes each time we schedule critical calls on which you’re needed,’ is better than ‘You’re clearly not a team player.’”

“If you don’t know the size of your prospect’s business, or their major competition, or if they’re independent or a subsidiary, don’t show up. Or did you pass all your tests in school without studying? If so, I guess you’re just gifted….”

How can you take a tip from Weiss and transform news and everyday events into insights and ideas?

Learn more ways to engage your audience on social media.

Are you an informer? Or a meformer?

The post How to engage an audience on social media appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..

Which of these Facebook posts is most likely to increase engagement?

“We’re pleased to introduce our latest WhatzIts.”

“Try these three ways to build your business using WhatzIts.”

“How ’bout dem Bears?”

If you guessed the second one, you’re right, according to Facebook’s own research.

For the study, Facebook researchers looked at more than 1,200 posts from 23 brands. Then they ran the posts through a quantitative model that predicts which posts will generate more engagement — aka likes, comments and shares.

Brand-related posts perform best, the researchers found. But not all brand-related posts: Product and service promotions didn’t fare well in the study.

So:

Don’t go off brand.

Non-brand-related posts — “Hang in there everybody. Monday will be over before we know it!” — don’t engage fans very well, either.

“Data from Facebook itself tell us that what looks good on the social-media guru’s presentation deck isn’t the best approach for making Facebook work for the brand.”

— Matt Creamer, in AdAge

“Among the weirdness Facebook’s existence has loosed upon the world is the idea that it’s OK, and perhaps even good business, for brands to sidle up and give you verbal balm for your case of the Mondays, ask for predictions on the big game and offer random thoughts on things that have not a whit to do with their product or service,” writes Matt Creamer in AdAge.

“The touchy-feely strategy is meant to be conversational — human, even. But new data from Facebook itself tell us that what looks good on the social-media guru’s presentation deck isn’t the best approach for making Facebook work for the brand.”

2. Avoid small talk.

Small talk performs poorly on Twitter, too.

Small talk is the type of content least likely to be retweeted (PDF), according to research by viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella.

Here’s how often six key kinds of content get shared on Twitter:

1. News: 78% (FYI: This is for CNN and the BBC. They’re not looking for urgent updates about your Widget 6.3.7.)
2. How-to information: 58%
3. Entertainment: 53%
4. Opinion: 50%
5. Products: 45%
6. Small talk: 12%

Want more retweets? Pack blog posts and status updates with tips and techniques.

3. Avoid too much chatting.

Tweeters who send a lot of @ replies are less likely to get retweeted than those who chit-chat less, according to another study by Zarrella. For this study, he analyzed the percentage of “@” replies to find the effect of conversing on Twitter results.

How much conversation is enough? Aim for about 10% “@” replies among your tweets.

“It makes sense when you think about it,” Zarrella writes. “I’m much more likely to retweet an interesting piece of content that you’ve posted than a bit of Twitter chit-chat, especially when that chit-chat is part of an ongoing conversation of which I’m not a part.”

4. Don’t answer ‘What are you doing?’

What are you doing? That question has launched a gazillion tweets. Turns out your Twitter followers don’t really want to know.

In another study, Zarella analyzed his database of more than 30 million retweets, comparing them to a sample of more than 2 million random tweets.

The result: His list of the 20 least retweetable words:

1. Game
2. Going
3. Haha
4. Lol
5. But
6. Watching
7. Work
8. Home
9. Night
10. Bed
11. Well
12. Sleep
13. Gonna
14. Hey
15. Tired
16. Tomorrow
17. Some
18. Back
19. Bored
20. Listening

What do you notice about these words?

Hey! I’m watching the webinar while listening to the game. Haha!

I’m bored at work, so I’m going home. Lol. I’ll be back tomorrow.

I’m tired. Gonna go to bed and get some sleep. Night! Sleep well!

Nobody wants to know what you’re doing! So stop me-forming!

Instead of telling your followers what you’re eating for breakfast, recommend a great blog post or article.

___

Sources: Matt Creamer, “Facebook to Brands: You’re Posting Stuff Wrong,” AdAge, May 7, 2012

Dan Zarrella, “The Science of ReTweets,” HubSpot

Dan Zarrella, “What percentage of your tweets should be links or replies,” January 11, 2012

Dan Zarrella, “The 20 least retweetable words,” August 25, 2009

The post How to engage with your audience on social media: Avoid small talk appeared first on Wylie Communications, Inc..