Guest post by Kapil Jekishan from Latestcrunchs

Targeting your audience on Facebook is not only painful, but confusing – especially if you want to go down the ‘organic’ path.

Hey, I can’t blame them, as any business with interested parties and dollar driven investors want return on their profits. So whilst I don’t agree, I can understand why Facebook has made it difficult for business owners to connect with their followers unless you show them the money.

Understandably, several individuals are unhappy with this new paid approach, including Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, who was extremely vocal when presented with a price tag of $3,500 in order to promote a message from the Dallas Mavericks Facebook Page to their followers.

FB is blowing it ? This is the first step.. The Mavs are considering moving to Tumblr or to new Myspace as primary site twitter.com/mcuban/status/…

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) October 27, 2012

But with over 1 billion users, Facebook’s juggernaut position (which is essentially a monopoly) allows them to impose these monetary protocols, so for now, we’re stuck with playing by their rules.

So there are two key methods of advertising your business on Facebook: the standard Facebook ads and the more recent introduction of Promoted Posts. So let’s observe the two options and determine which will suit your business.

Facebook Advertising

This is easily the number one method Facebook relies on to generate the bulk of its revenue. They allow you to place paid ads which are then displayed to your targeted audiences.

When you establish an advert, you can narrow down your audience by using demographic factors such as age, sex, location etc. But that’s not all, you can even go down to specific interests such as whether you want them to like ‘cooking’ ‘gardening’ which Facebook then uses to estimate the size of your target audience.  The number of individuals to whom the ad is actually served depends on your budget and there is no guarantee that anyone will click on your ads.

Like Google, Facebook allows you to set a budget so you don’t blow a couple of hundred or thousand within the first few days. Your budget can be as low or high as you want and Facebook also commits to helping you achieve your advertising goals by displaying your ads to the most relevant audience.

So let’s summarise the Pros and Cons of advertising:

As you can tell, the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages, however, you should still be mindful of a couple of factors. Given the cost effectiveness of establishing Facebook ads, the platform is infiltrated with a number of ads and as a result – some come across as spam. Secondly, ads are a distraction and some of the savvy web users have discovered a few methods to block these ads.

Despite these minor issues so to speak, Facebook ads are definitely an effective medium for advertising especially since the cost per click is significantly lower than what you would pay with Google Adwords, plus it’s a great way to generate ‘likes for your business.

What if you already have enough likes? Well, let’s turn our attention to Promoted Posts then…

Promoted Posts

Think of Promoted Posts as something which is in between a standard post and an advertisement. The concept is straight forward, you select the post you want to promote, and just click on the ‘promote’ button next to the ‘comment’ and ‘share’ buttons. Prior to September 2012, Facebook users had this free method of posting a story or message and this would be visible across all followers.  Naturally, many businesses are upset that if you want your message to be soon by your followers, you have to pay for it.

Unlike Ads, there is only a lifetime budget but this can be as little as $5, however, a lower budget means less people are likely to see it. Once you promote a post, the post will be labelled as a sponsored post and your audience will be limited to people who like your page and their friends. You have the option of including or excluding the friends.

Facebook is redesigning its news feeds to give more visibility to Promoted Posts and thus make them more popular with advertisers. The new design allows for larger news feeds with larger pictures and more text. Unlike Facebook ads which can be easily missed, the promoted posts will occupy up to a third of the news feed making them very visible. Take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of Promoted Posts:

As you can see the advantages overshadow the disadvantages making this a good method for getting your message out there. The lone caveat I will add is that you require a following / likes to see any real benefit from this method.

Comparison between Facebook ads and Promoted Posts

So now that we’ve analysed the two methods of advertising, which one is better for your business? Well, that will depend on the situation. So here is the overall summary between the two:

Although both options have their advantages and work equally well, it all comes down to the environment and what you’re trying to do. If you have minimal likes, start off with Facebook ads to develop likes and get targeted followers. Once you’ve got a fan base going, start to use your Promoted Posts to show off your events, promotional offers, news and given you have targeted followers, these readers will be inclined to read the post and even share it across their network.

So, what’s your favourite method of advertising on Facebook – Ads or Promoted Posts? Have you tried either of these methods? I’m keen to hear your success stories or feedback on how one method works better than the other.

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that photos dominate Facebook’s News Feed.

When we talk about content marketing on Facebook, there are different media types: Status, Link, Video and Images. But images, as in many other online platforms and networks, have become the most consumed content format and today, they take about 50% of the News Feed.

What’s shocking on the other hand, is that only 1 out of 500 stories posted on Facebook actually make it to the News Feed. PostRocket made the funniest reference and I thought it would make a cool tweet…

“It’s almost 30 times easier to get into Harvard than it is to get into the Facebook News Feed” – Tweet this

So yeah, who are we kidding, Facebook marketing has gone from hard to almost impossible in the last year. And this is why every single post should be carefully optimized to increase its chances.

Image optimization starts by using the appropriate dimensions.

This Infographic outlines the 4 different types of images (photo posts, cover photos, profile pictures and link preview images) you should consider optimizing for use on Facebook and provides the exact dimensions in order to get best quality possible.

Inforgraphic courtesy of PostRocket.

As some of you know, Influence (or I should say the attempt of measuring influence online), continues to make waves in controversial waters.

The latest: a list of “top 50 influencers” in social media published by Forbes (no link love). The problem: a score by Peek Analytics is used to measure influence triggering an obvious and, in my opinion, well deserved negative reaction. Check out my favorite responses from Mark Schaefer and Jure Klepic.

Influence is a big part of the social media conversation and will continue to be as it, hopefully, shapes into something we can all live with. I mean, we’ve been talking about influence for a while now…

But how about “Influence Marketing”?

It’s important that we make the distinction between Influence Marketing and Influence scoring.

Influence Marketing has always been part of our lives, whether we recognize the term or not. Everyday, brands put their products in the hands of targeted individuals that have a clear impact in an specific niche.

I think this quote from the upcoming book Influence Marketing, by Danny Brown and Sam Fiorella, not only provides a clear definition of what the goal of marketing is but it also makes it pretty obvious that influence is a natural aspect of marketing.

The end result of any good marketing effort is to identify, engage, and nurture the most qualified prospects, ensuring the leads generated drive the highest customer acquisition rate

Is “Influence Scoring” a good idea?

Let’s start by saying that measuring influence might not be such an innovation as you think. When big brands want celebrities to endorse their products, they carefully study options, their current popularity, size of audience, body of work, credibility, etc., before determining who is the best fit for the brand.

The idea of brands and small businesses having a system to identify these individuals is not crazy. Even the idea of companies being able to better understand where a possible candidate for a position stands in a particular segment makes some sense, wouldn’t you prefer to hire a person that already carries a level of authority and respect in your market?

It’s clear that we seek social proof, on and offline, as an important factor for building trust.

Where is the epic fail then? Is it that we find it “unhuman” to carry a flashy score over our avatars online? or that the proposed systems and algorithms are broken?

What’s in the future of Influence?

One thing is clear, brands understand that with social media, they have lost part of the control to its consumers, they also understand the importance of channeling their message through individuals that can influence highly targeted communities.

These individuals exist, now, how are brands identifying them?

ArCompany and Sensei Marketing conducted a study that addresses some of the questions involved in how marketers approach influence, how they use it and whether or not the existing scoring options are really useful or not. Let’s take a look at some of the key findings.

Are marketers currently conducting social influence campaigns?

While 36.5% responded that they have occasionally used social influence, 28% say it is a key element in the majority of their campaigns.

Are marketers planning to invest in social influence campaigns?

I guess the future looks very bright, 14% say they plan to allocate 50% or more of their annual marketing budget to social influence campaigns and 53.9% plan on dropping 20% to 50%.

Are marketers using a influence scoring system?

And here is the big disconnection. 64.1% say they do not use a scoring platform but have a manual process to identify influencers instead, and only 4.9% say scores are a key element in their online marketing.

Do you trust social influence scoring platforms?

A massive 68.7% think influence scoring platforms can help as a starting point to filter potential options but they don’t consider them a standalone measurement. 25.2% say they don’t trust a system that has proven to be easily gamed.

Conclusion

• Influence is at the core of marketing today more than ever, specially online
• There is a clear need for marketers to implement systems to identify opportunities and individuals with clear influence that can carry and inject their messages into smaller and targeted communities
• Marketers need to understand how data obtained from scoring platforms can be used and how they need to use other criteria to overcome their limitations
• The main focus should always be prospect, not the influencer

The Forbes list?

A lot has been said already but I think the main lesson is that scoring algorithms alone are far from being a measure of true influence and, just as we suggest brands should conduct research to identify the right prospect for an influence campaign, a manual process with actual human criteria should have been in place. Simply relying 100% on an algorithm seems like a lazy and irresponsible approach.

Resources

If you are interested in learning more about this study and Influence Marketing in general, here are a few useful links:

• You can download the full study here
• You can pre-order the book “Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing” by Danny Brown and Sam Fiorella here (not an affiliate link), which hits the stores on May 13
• And you can visit the official site for the book here

Your Thoughts

Where do you stand in this controversial topic? Has your company considered targeting influencers for your next campaign? What do you think of social influence scoring platforms?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

As you know, Facebook contest have become a huge part of social media in the last year or so, specially as a vehicle for brands trying to increase their digital footprint and implement loyalty programs.

Here is the problem, a huge percentage of these contests fall short in one way or another, from failing to follow Facebook guidelines to ineffective calls to action, not following with a good promotion, or even not having clear instructions on how to participate.

This Infographic by Shortstack outlines all the elements you should consider when planning your next contest, designing the Facebook App for it, and a few tips on how to promote it.

Infographic courtesy of Shortstack

This is a guest post by Shanna Mallon from StraightNorth.

When it comes to business, few things are more powerful than a good name.

With a strong reputation, you attract new clients, keep the ones you have, and grow. And while in the old days, managing a company reputation meant managing public perception across geography, today the Internet adds another important layer.

Is your brand being talked about on blogs and social media? Do you know what people are saying about you online? You should.

Here’s a look at five of the top tools for managing your online reputation:

1. Google Alerts

Every business should set up Google Alerts for its brand name, if only because the process is so easy and convenient. Simply go to google.com/alerts and fill out your search query (company name) and how you want results delivered. You can filter results to include only certain forms of media (such as blogs or news or video), and you can have results sent to your email address or a feed reader. The results update you every time your brand is mentioned.

2. TweetBeep

What Google Alerts is to the Internet, TweetBeep is to Twitter. Sign up for the free version of this service, and get updated hourly every time you’re mentioned on Twitter. TweetBeep searches for Tweets linking to your website or blog (even within shortened URLs), replies and mentions, brand mentions, etc. It also comes in a premium version for $20/month that provides 200 alerts, a 15-minute-update option, and no ads.

3. Social Mention

SocialMention gathers an enormous amount of data regarding how and where your brand is mentioned online. You give the tool a keyword (your brand name) and it reveals a host of mentions, ranking each one as either positive, negative, or neutral. The only problem is that because the data pull from such a wide breadth of sources, irrelevant results do appear. Therefore, Social Mention is most useful if you’re a huge, recognized brand or have a particularly unique name.

4. Kurrently

Think of Kurrently as a search engine to check from time to time for brand mentions. As simple and user-friendly as Google, this tool provides real-time results for the keyword you give it (your brand name). Kurrently won’t email updates the way Google Alerts does, but its results are immediately updated and relevant, making it worth a visit.

5. MonitorThis

MonitorThis is a particularly interesting tool that tracks the mention of your brand name on over 20 different search engines. Simply enter your name in the search box and click the “make monitor.opml” button; the tool then generates a file to import into your feed reader. From that point forward, all mentions of your brand that come up in search results go straight to your feed.

Your Thoughts

Have you tried any of these free monitoring tools? What have you found? What other tools do you use to track your online reputation?

Photo credit: Constantineau

PostRocket revisits the Facebook Algorithm to understand why we are predetermined to see some posts on the News Feed and, more importantly, who is more likely to see yours.

Let’s start by stating the obvious, Facebook’s EdgeRank is complicated and it will be nearly impossible for any business to lay down an accurate projection of what is going to happen with each post published to the network.

While that could be a huge waste of time, having a basic understanding on how Facebook determines why some people sees your posts and others don’t is very important.

There are many factors playing a role in this mumbo jumbo that goes from previous affinity between the source and the recipient to the impact each piece of content generates and even negative feedback. All these items are directly affecting your Facebook Reach on a post-by-post basis.

The Infographic breaks down Facebook’s News Feed algorithm in 2 categories, which helps understand this better:

1. Personal Interaction, which includes affinity with the author and type of post
2. Network Reaction, which of course means engagement, positive or negative.

One last thing I’ll mention before leaving you is this, the News Feed is the single most important element of Facebook, you should understand how it works. In 2012, 40% of the time spent on the site goes to the News Feed, compared to 27% the previous year.

Infographic courtesy of PostRocket.

Guest post by Daniel Sharkov from Reviewz N Tips.

Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook are probably the top three social media sites that every blogger should be on right now.

And even though the first two have millions of users under their belt and are great lead generation tools, there really is no other network as powerful as Facebook.

Just try to think who of your friends doesn’t have a Facebook account!

That is the reason why every business and every blog should have a Facebook fan page. If you haven’t yet created one for your blog, you are missing out on a huge potential audience, high engagement levels and targeted traffic.

But even if you have one, there are no guarantees. The fact is most fan pages will remain unnoticed and won’t ever break the hundred likes barrier.

Getting people to click that elusive “Like” button isn’t as easy as it sounds. And even if you have the fans, generating likes, comments and ultimately Facebook traffic has its pitfalls.

The following post is all about those pitfalls.

In the below paragraphs you will find five of the biggest reasons why people might decide your Facebook page isn’t worth a visit and of course tips to help you fix the problem areas!

Let’s get started:

1. You Don’t Have the Likes

That’s undoubtedly the key ingredient that you need in order to convince people to like you.

Unfortunately it’s a paradox that doesn’t quite work in your favor:

In order to get more people liking you, you need to have likes in the first place. That is exactly the reason why building your fanbase from 0 to 100 likes is tougher than reaching say 500 fans once you’ve gotten those initial 100 likes.

So how do you get started? Well you spread the word!

Here are some simple steps to help you:

• Insert a fan page box UNDER your posts – It’s quite common to see those in the sidebars, but they are far more effective placed under the posts. That way they work as a call to action. You basically tell people “Did you enjoy my article? Then why not like me on Facebook to stay in touch!”
• Share your Facebook posts on Twitter – Whenever you publish something on your fan page, click on its date header to open it in its own URL and share your post using that link. Now people will first be directed to your fan page, giving you the chance to get some of your Twitter followers to click “Like”
• Tell Your Twitter followers – Don’t be scared to promote your fan page on Twitter once or twice per week. Unlike the previous approach, here you simply point people to your page with a message along the lines of “Enjoying my tweets? You might want to take a look at my Facebook page!”. You should create 3-4 different variations, so that you don’t post the same message over and over.
• Use the Facebook Page Promoter Lightbox – A very neat WordPress plugin, that works as a pop-over like box. As with all pop-over plugins, that is far more effective than its sidebar alternative. Thanks to the plugin, I’ve generated over 250 new likes in just three weeks.
• Write an article about Facebook – Why not let people know you’ve started working on getting Facebook traffic and promoting your fan page! In the post you can provide readers with tips or reasons why they should be on Facebook. That is a great opportunity to tell them about your own page and show them some of the techniques you are following.

2. People Aren’t Talking About It

Although getting likes does take time, it’s straightforward – you just need to start promoting your fan page.

There however is another metric, which might be a bit more difficult to understand. What I am referring to is the “Talking About This” number. That one is displayed just below the cover photo and the title of your page.

First, what does “Talking about this” describe?

Well it is basically the number of unique Facebook users, who have interacted in one way or another with your fan page in the last seven days.

Likes, comments, mentions and shares all count as interaction. So with that in mind, we can easily assume that if a page has thousands of likes yet very few people talking about it, then something is wrong.

A possible reason for that might be that the page isn’t being updated. Another reason might be that the stories aren’t getting any engagement in the form of likes and comments.

So, how do you increase the “Talking About This” number? Here are some guidelines to help you:

• Ramp up the frequency – You can’t expect to get good results if you post a story once every two weeks. Try to share something with your fans at least four or five times per week!
• Share different types of content – You need to spice things up. One day you could post a funny picture, the other day you can ask a question, then you could post a quote or why not a did-you-know kind of post with no links in it.
• Craft a good call to action – The description you write holds a huge importance for whether or not people will click on your link, like your story or leave a comment. You can be as direct as saying “Like if you agree” when you post a quote for instance, or you could say something along the lines of “I would appreciate to hear your thoughts!”.

3. You Care About Getting Clicks Only

I really hate landing on a fan page, where the only thing I see are links to articles from the blog that the page belongs to. Not only that it feels rather spammy, but it’s also boring.

Even if we assume the content you share is actually worth reading, this still doesn’t mean you should use your Facebook page solely as a promotion platform.
Content might be useful, but the real problem is it is often “emotionless”. Sharing practical tips is great but it can’t produce an emotional attachment so to say.

Additionally people also need a couple of minutes – first to actually read the post and then to decide if it’s good.

That is why the stories that make an immediate connection with the viewer are in most cases images. You see them and you immediately act upon them, especially if they include a thought you can relate to or a funny story about the things you like or situations you’ve fallen into.

In the end your desire to get clicks will end up dragging your page’s popularity down and hence returning less traffic for you. Another problem is that you will be getting very few likes (images for instance tend to receive double the likes of a link to an article), which definitely won’t make your Facebook stream look trustworthy.

4. It Feels Like You Aren’t There

One great way to create a welcoming feeling among your new fans is by simply showing them “you are alive”. If you have a fan page about your blog, you should also emphasize on the blogger behind everything. The idea is to add a small pinch of your personality to the mix.

Sounds simple in theory, but how do you do it in practice?

• Not only ask, but reply – in a real world situation where you ask a question, it is quite obvious that you will also wait for an answer and then give your standpoint once again. It’s the same here. Whenever you ask your fans something, don’t forget to observe the answers and reply back (by mentioning the person by name, so that they get notified) with a thoughtful and constructive comment. Also take the time to like the comments that people are living as a way to say thank you.
• The descriptions, again – As I already said, descriptions are important because they can work as a call to action. However one other reason why you must include them is because there you can write your own summary and present your own perspective. For example if you’ve just shared a great post (not from your own blog) it will seem more genuine if you also say a few words about what the post talks about and why you actually liked it. Those simple things do make a difference.

5. You Overwhelm Your Fans

Even if you share interesting content, ask for opinions and don’t forget to add some humor along the way, you shouldn’t overdo. Sharing too much updates is as bad as being inconsistent.

Aside from the fact that seeing the same person (or page in our case) posting dozens of times throughout the day is plain irritating and it makes you want to slap them, if you post too much, people will simply stop noticing you.

That’s similar to the so called ad-blindness, when readers simply don’t notice advertisements placed in common positions and having similar layouts on thousands of websites.

So, how much is too much?

I’d say four or more posts per day.

I’m generally updating my fan page two times per day at most and the results are quite good. I tested bumping the number up to four and even five for a few days but that didn’t result in much of an improvement, so it’s not worth the time. I even got a comment from a guy who liked what I shared but said I should slow down a little.

Final Words

Those I believe are the main reasons why people might decide to steer away from you or unlike your fan page at some point. All in all I believe creating a successful fan page comes down to finding a balance between your own content and more interactive stories and also being consistent but not too overwhelming.

Now I’d like to hear your thoughts! Are there other factors that might scare you away from a fan page? Do you agree to the points I’ve shared? Let me know your two cents!

Many companies make the mistake to only focus on the obvious, is the phone ringing? are we closing sales?

But there are many other, less obvious (I don’t want to say “hidden”) aspects of business, that directly affect the bottom line. Customer service is one of them.

In a way, social media has helped bring customer service to the very front end of business. Customer services is no longer a “behind-the-scenes” thing. We’ve always known that is easier to keep an existing customer than finding a new one but, in the era of “everything is public”, it also plays a big role on the marketing of the company.

The customer service department today is capable of making your company a success story or simply destroy it.

This is why I love the phrase used by HelpScout in the Infographic below.

“Customer service is the new marketing” [Tweet this]

If you’re not convinced yet that your company, startup or even freelance business needs to put more focus in providing stellar support, here are some important stats you should consider:

• 86% will stop doing business with your company because of bad service experiences
• 51% will only give you one chance
• And the scariest problem in all this is that companies only hear from 4% of unhappy customers

See the opportunity?

There is one more number I want to point out to leave you on a positive note. While it is scary to see that only 10% of online merchants made the cut for “stellar” service, you should see this as an opportunity to enforce your customer satisfaction, this could very well translate into grabbing a bigger piece of the pie in your niche.

Infographic courtesy of HelpScout.

Guest post by Monica Carter Tagore, co-founder of Writer’s Living.

We have so many tools to help us collect lots of contacts on our favorite social networks, which can be really helpful for anyone — especially small business owners, freelancers, and solopreneurs.

But collecting contacts isn’t really the point, not if you want to make an impact in your niche. You see, social media allows us to collect contacts, but it’s not until we connect that we begin to build relationships. And relationships are where magic happens. Relationships help us land clients, grow our businesses, and take our big ideas to an even bigger stage. The story we tell is important to that.

If you only collect followers or friends but don’t connect with them, you will not get interaction or engagement. And you certainly won’t land clients. That’s because they won’t hear your message since it won’t resonate with them.

The story makes the message resonate. That’s right: An important element to cultivating relationships, especially via social media, is the story.

No, I don’t mean you must turn into your favorite novelist and spin a compelling tale of mystique, intrigue, and danger. But if you want to truly stand out in the minds of your contacts, you do need to think about your story and tell it across social media.

Here is how to tell a story via social media that resonates with your target audience so you can connect:

Introduce the story with your profile

No matter what social network you use, it has a profile or bio section. Use it. Briefly tell users what you are about — what type of content they can expect to see if they follow or friend you. Depending on the culture of the social network, infuse a bit of your own personal story into that profile, even if your intention is to use the network for business. For instance, in my Twitter profile, I tell users I am an author and ghostwriter. But I also say I am a mom. That’s the business story and the personal story combined. At Facebook, users know I like the Dallas Cowboys.

The profile is often the first point of contact a new user has with you. You can set expectations by using the space wisely to let your story begin to draw a connection with the user.

Share content that furthers the story

Once you have someone who has friended or followed you because of the short story you told in your bio, further that story connection with the content you choose to share. If you are using a social network for business, then be sure to share content that engages your reader on an emotional level. Storytelling is about emotion. Remember, it’s great to share facts and figures, but often, sharing that information wrapped in a story is a better approach because the story taps into our emotions and helps us recall the facts more easily.

For instance, if you run an organization that helps fight hunger, you can post a stat: “One in six people in America struggles with hunger,”  or even, “Millions of Americans struggle with hunger on a daily basis,” and get a lukewarm response, if any.

But when you wrap that stat in a story, you will get a better reaction. In this case, the story may be: “Seven-year-old Amy dreads the weekend. That’s because she knows she probably won’t get another meal until Monday when she returns to school. You see, Amy is one of the millions in America struggling with hunger. For Amy and her brother, the school lunch program is their best shot at a healthy meal during the day. Unless you donate now.”

See the difference?

Create content — blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. —that makes your point through emotionally charged stories. It’s not just about the facts you want to share. It’s also about the way you make your reader feel.

For instance, if you write a blog post about a problem your target audience has and you humanize it by talking about a time when you had that same problem and what you did to solve it, then you tap into the emotions. Remind the readers of the frustration, annoyance, headache, and pain of this issue. And show them how all that can be a thing of the past, with your solution or approach.

But you don’t have to create every piece of content you share. You can curate content that is compelling and engaging; that is related to your niche or target area. Share this content. Add a comment that asks a question or shares your opinion on some element of the content.

Yet another way to connect through story is to tap into the aspirations of your readers. Tell stories about the beautiful life or wok they crave. Help them see that they don’t have to remain stuck in the unproductive place they are in; they can actually move to something better. Your inspiring stories can help them see that.

The more stories you tell that inspire or that show them you understand their pain, the more opportunity you have to connect with them. In fact, they may even comment on your blog, email you to tell you how what you said affected them, or tweet you. From there, a relationship can emerge.

Even when you tell your story, know that it’s about your reader

Telling your own story can be a powerful way to connect via social media. You can use your story in a way that lets your reader see that you two have something in common. But be careful not to make it all about you. It’s not. Sure, you are sharing your story, but do that in the context of what your reader needs, if you are using social media for business. You do this by showing your reader how your story is relevant to her issue or pain. You do this by showing your reader how what you went through is just like what she went through — except that you have this one piece of advice or this suggestion for a way to improve the situation. You do this by showing your reader that what you have to say is really about this thing she is dealing with now.

For instance, if you are a personal trainer using social media to get new clients, then share your own personal weight loss or transformation story, but also share stories of clients you’ve helped do the same. Share before pictures, and after. Share testimonials from people who are in much better shape now than before they let you help them. This is all the story of your work and what it can do in someone else’s life.

Storytelling isn’t about being a writer

The idea of storytelling in social media can be intimidating, but don’t let it be. Remember, while I am a writer, I’m not saying you have to be one. This isn’t about winning a literary award. It’s about connecting with your followers, friends, and circles on an emotional level. Connect on an emotional level, and you will have a deeper, more meaningful social media conversation.

This is a guest post by Shanna Mallon from Straight North.

In 2013 more than ever, content will be king. According to Doug Kessler, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Velocity Partners, it’s “tipping this year because it works. Content is the engine of search, social, outbound and Web marketing.” So with that in mind, what are you doing to jump on the content train?

To help you decide which content marketing methods are right for you, here’s a list of 15 types that work. Which will you use this year to build your business?

1. Blog Posts

It should come as no surprise to see blog posts on this list—blogs are often the first thing that comes to mind when people think content marketing—but that’s only because blogs are such a natural way to promote your message. By setting up a blog, you create a resource for your customers and a place that reinforces your brand.

2. Guest Blog Posts

Just as important as writing posts on your own blog is contributing elsewhere online—in fact, according to author Jeff Goins, “Guest-posting is the single most important strategy for growing your blog readership and platform.” When you write articles on other websites, you get your content in front of new audiences and expand your presence.

3. How-To Guides

Whether in a video, a blog post, a series of photos, or a website page, how-to guides draw readers in and give you a chance to demonstrate your subject expertise. Use them to show your audience how to complete a project, learn a new skill, or put into practice some specific tips.

4. Images

A whopping 93 percent of communication is nonverbal, says psychologist Albert Mehrabian, which means almost all of what you tell your audience happens outside the words you say. With powerful pictures, illustrations, and graphics, you have an opportunity to make a real impact on your fans—amplifying your message, explaining an idea, and gaining user attention.

5. Infographics

A particularly powerful type of image is the infographic—the fastest growing form of content marketing for B2B brands. A well-designed infographic organizes and communicates technical or detailed information in a visually attractive, easy-to-process way. What’s more, infographics perform well on social sharing sites like Pinterest, where images are key.

6. Video

What better way to differentiate yourself from the competition than with video? Videos are an ideal platform for interviews, demonstrations, how-to guides, and any content with which you want to communicate a clearer sense of your personality and style.

7. Illustrations

Just as infographics present information in a more readily understandable way, so too illustrations add an extra dimension to your content. Whether it’s an ironic comic strip, a pretty watercolor, or a hand-drawn recipe, illustrations are great for catching reader attention and adding visual punch.

8. Testimonials

Endorsements from satisfied customers act as major social proof for your company’s value. Whether you post testimonials on your website, across social media, or strictly on review sites, the power of these comments is undeniable.

9. Case Studies

Show the value of your product or service through tangible facts—case studies are the perfect way to demonstrate what you offer. Show your clients how you’ve helped others as an example of how you can help them.

10. Memes

When retailer Forever 21 runs a “21 Days of Style” campaign that instructs followers to “Show us what kind of turquoise is hiding in your stash!” the brand is demonstrating a great way to run a meme. Each day, the store gives followers a way to engage with the brand by posting related content and tagging it with the #21DaysofStyle hashtag. In so doing, the store not only promotes its brand but also strengthens connections with fans. Consider following in these footsteps by creating a similar campaign to engage your audience.

11. Email Newsletters

The opt-in email newsletter is a fantastic avenue for getting your message out to loyal followers—the key is providing highly relevant content that they actually want to read. This means it’s time to forget recycled blog content and opt instead for unique content that meets a need for your audience: inspiration, humor, information, etc. Ask yourself how you can make your newsletter a must-read.

12. Ebooks

For your customers who are hungry for more about your brand and your story, eBooks offer many advantages. Package your best writing into an ebook to sell or give away, and you can share more in-depth info on your company’s unique personality, story, etc.

13. Podcasts

Thanks to the prevalence of smartphones, laptops, and MP3 players, people today listen to podcasts in the car, while riding the morning train, running errands, or doing the dishes. What this means for you is multiplied opportunities to expand your message. You might podcast to conduct interviews, tell stories, or provide or more personal look at your business operations.

14. Twitter Chat

In the world of social media, Twitter is becoming increasingly influential. As a content marketer, use the network to engage with influencers in your industry. Schedule Twitter chats to discuss topics, find out what interests your audience, ask questions, and generate dialogue about your subject matter.

15. Newsjacking

Take advantage of public interest in a hot news story by finding a way to connect it with your brand—and write about it.