If you want more traffic for your blog, strategically sharing your posts through social media can accomplish that goal. Since every social platform has its own unique features and audiences, we want to cover the best practices for promoting your blog on four different social media platforms:

1. Facebook

The biggest of all the social platforms allows you to share blog posts on profiles, pages and groups. Although posts can be as long as ten thousand characters, Facebook only displays the first 480 in people’s feeds. Case studies have also shown that posts with less than fifty characters do best, so keeping things short and sweet is one best practice for promoting your blog on Facebook. Another best practice is to use an image when you share. One strategy for promoting posts is to upload a relevant image and then link to the post from the text field. The other best practice for promoting evergreen blog posts is to share them more than once. Given that Facebook will only show it to a fraction of your audience, it's worth re-sharing posts every two to three months.

2. Twitter

Even though Twitter now allows posts to exceed the 140-character limit, keeping your tweets short is still a best practice for the platform. As with Facebook, including an image will help get people's attention. Two other best practices for Twitter are including a call to action in your tweet and sharing your blog post more than once during the first week after it's published. Since Twitter moves even faster than Facebook, sharing up to four times on different days and at different times can yield very good promotional results.

3. LinkedIn

This social platform has evolved a lot over the last few years. Because LinkedIn wants users to share and engage with content, it's a great place to promote your blog posts. With LinkedIn, you can make your descriptions a little longer than is ideal on Facebook or Twitter. You should also ask a question or include something similar to encourage interaction. And in terms of which of your posts will do best on LinkedIn, list and how-to posts are at the top of the list.

4. Pinterest

Because Pinterest is such a visual platform, the most important thing you can do to get attention for your posts is to ensure that you use really great images which are optimized for the site. Currently, the ideal pin size is 736 x 1104 to 2061.

To learn more about getting the most out of social media promotion, take a look at our self-study social media certification program, which provides exclusive access to every tool and resource you need for success.

When Facebook paid $1 billion in cash and stock for Instagram in April of 2012, a lot of people thought Zuckerberg and his team were crazy. While Instagram's app for Android was downloaded over a million times on the first day it was released that year, those metrics still paled in comparison to the over one billion active users Facebook had by the third quarter of 2012. However, if we fast-forward to the present, it actually looks like Facebook got a great deal. With over 700 million users, Instagram has grown to over twice the size of Twitter. Not only has Instagram rolled out highly targeted advertising options throughout their platform, but they've expanded well beyond photos and filters.

For businesses, the most interesting area where the platform has expanded is Stories. During its initial rollout in August of 2016, Instagram Stories provided a way for users to take photos, add effects & layers, and add them to their Instagram story. Images uploaded to a user's story expire after 24 hours. A few months later, Instagram took a big step by adding live video functionality to Stories. As of a few months ago, Instagram reported that more than 200 million of their users were interacting with Stories on a regular basis.

Although stories have already reached a huge audience, this feature is still quite new. That means it presents a big opportunity for businesses that understand how to utilize it. Here are a few ways to use Instagram Stories to benefit your own business:

Special Offers

A simple but very effective way to get started with Instagram Stories is by delivering a special offer. Because Stories expire after 24 hours, providing special offers give people a very good reason to stay tuned into what you're sharing. Scarcity and time limits are very powerful motivators, and Instagram Stories is a great platform for utilizing them.

Showcase Creativity

Most people don't want to buy from or work with a faceless corporation. Instead, they want to support people they like and find interesting. Since Stories provide a way to be less polished than your main Instagram profile, it's great for showing off what goes on behind the scenes. You can show off creativity and other experiences that make your business unique.

Host a Takeover

A takeover refers to letting someone else "host" your Instagram Stories for 24 hours. While this can work well with another member of your team, what's even more powerful is letting the owner of a complementary business take over your Stories. Taking this approach is a great way to bring a new audience to your Stories.

We hope you will use the information we shared above to start harnessing everything Instagram Stories can do for your business. And if you want to stay in the loop with the latest features and marketing opportunities from all the major social platforms, our self-study social media certification is a great way to make that happen. For a one-time fee, you'll get instant access to every tool and resource you need for success!

With hundreds of millions of people using social media in the United States and billions more across the rest of the world, it’s not surprising that businesses across all industries have taken notice of sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. While businesses of all sizes understand that social media is a powerful way for them to connect with potential and current customers, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. Since so many businesses have personally experienced the challenges that go along with building a meaningful presence on social media platforms, there’s a lot of demand for solutions. One solution that many businesses pursue is hiring a social media manager. Because engagement is such an important driver of social media activity, businesses want someone who can build a thriving community through real interactions.

Whether you’re interested in getting hired as a full-time social media manager for one company or want to work on a contract basis for multiple companies, we want to share some tips on the best approach to finding success as a social media manager:

Be Proactive

One of the main traits that separate individuals who find a lot of success as social media managers from those who don’t is being proactive. Given the ever-evolving landscape of social media, it’s important to take real ownership of your role and always be on the lookout for new opportunities.

Get Comfortable with Tools

Trying to manually do everything that’s required of a social media manager simply isn’t going to work. That’s why you need to be using comfortable using a variety of tools. From spreadsheets to scheduling tools, trying different tools and then fully learning the ones that work best will help you a lot.

Create Case Studies

Regardless of whether you prefer to work as a full-time or contract social media manager, it’s important to have a personal brand. One way to build a brand is by showing what you’ve done for different businesses. Case studies are an excellent way to share this information. And if you do work for any B2B companies, knowing how to create compelling case studies will come in quite handy.

Always Be Learning

Social media is something that continues to evolve at a very rapid pace. If you want to ensure that you’re always in the loop about what’s new and working, it’s essential to make ongoing learning a priority. A simple but very effective way to keep up with the latest in social media is our self-study social media certification. Not only will our program give you all the skills you need to thrive as a social media manager, but it will ensure that you’re able to keep those skills sharp.

If you’re looking for a proven way to grow your business, social media marketing is an excellent option. By learning the ins and outs of social media marketing, you’ll be able to harness the power of some of the fastest-growing platforms on the Internet to connect with potential customers. This learning path is also great for anyone who wants to change or advance their career. The one drawback to this type of marketing is social media continues to evolve at a very rapid pace. As a result, many people try to use social media platforms for marketing, only to give up in frustration when they don’t see the results they’re expecting.

Since the cycle of trying to utilize social media for marketing and then giving up after failing to see any traction is something that’s been happening for many years, we created Web Media University as the leading resource to solve this problem. By going through our social media training program, you’ll learn about all the common pitfalls business owners face with social media, as well as how to overcome them. Once you finish our program, you’ll have all the skills and knowledge needed to fully harness the power of social media.

5 Key Benefits of Web Media University

The first reason to choose the Web Media University self-study social media certification program is we provide a great return on investment. Whether your goal is to grow your business or expand your career outlook, the attractive monthly payment options we offer mean you’ll get incredible value from the program. A big part of this value comes from the fact that we’re an online program. Because social media does change at such a rapid pace, the online format of our program allows us to keep our material up to date. By going through this Web Media University program, you’ll learn the most cutting-edge strategies that are available.

Another benefit we’re able to provide is continuous learning. As a business owner or professional engaged in social media marketing, you don’t want to get stuck with an outdated skillset. Having 24/7 access to Web Media University and all of our excellent resources will ensure you never find yourself in this position.

We take a lot of pride in the dynamic nature of our program. You’ll get exclusive access to tools like our case study library, social media software, apps, live webinars and expert teachers. We also offer a wide range of industry-specific training resources. Last but certainly not least is the self-study format of our program. We understand the busy schedule of a business owner or professional, which is why we make it very easy to tailor your studying to whenever you have free time.

If you’re ready to master all the social media skills you need to find business or career success and beyond, enroll now in our self-study social media certification program.

There are a number of ways to drive traffic to a blog. One that has been around for over a decade but continues to be very valuable is blog SEO. By optimizing your blog for search engines, you won't just attract traffic to your blog. Instead, you'll attract visitors that have already expressed an interest in the kind of topics you write about on your blog. So whether you're using your blog to promote your business or are monetizing your blog through different methods like advertising, the right approach to search engine optimization can create a lot of value for your blog. Here's how to get started with getting your blog ranked for the right terms:

Do Some Keyword Research

Before you can start optimizing your blog, it's important to know the right search terms to build your keyword strategy around. A common mistake bloggers make is investing time and resources in optimizing for keywords that get very little search traffic. Although long-tail keywords with smaller amounts of traffic can be valuable, there should be a few cornerstone terms with medium to high amounts of traffic that your strategy is built around. You can get this information by using a keyword research tool. Google offers a tool directly through the AdWords interface. There are also a number of free and paid tools that use various data sources to estimate how many people are typing in specific search terms every month.

Write First, Then Optimize

Once you've done your research and know the terms that you want to focus on ranking for, you're going to want to use them in the blog posts you publish. However, that doesn't mean you need to use each term a certain number of times per post. This approach will lower the quality of your writing and not really make a difference with SEO. A better strategy is to write for your audience first, then add any target keywords during the editing process. This will allow you to place them in areas like the meta description, title and opening paragraph without watering down the quality of your posts.

Pursue the Right Links

In addition to the content you publish, links also play a big role in search engine rankings. You'll want to look for opportunities to connect with other publishers and get them to link to your blog. Just be sure that you don't try to take shortcuts. When bloggers attempt to create lots of links by pursuing low-quality sources, they put themselves in a position where they may receive a penalty that cuts off all their search engine traffic.

If you want to learn even more about how to take your blog to the next level, our blog marketing course covers everything you need to know and do to find success.

Digital marketing is a field that continues to grow at a rapid pace. What's interesting about digital marketing is the field itself evolves almost just as fast. This rapid evolution means companies of all sizes find it challenging to hire people who have the current knowledge and skills to step right into a role in a meaningful way.

While there are definitely benefits to having a college degree, those benefits don't directly cross over to the digital marketing field. Even if a degree includes courses that are focused on digital, the curriculum isn't updated often enough to reflect the current state of digital marketing.

Whether you're interested in moving into the digital marketing field or want to get a promotion within it, you're probably wondering what steps you should take We're going to explain why social media certification training is the best thing you can do along with how to get started on this path.

The Value of Social Media Certification Training

There are a number of reasons why social media certification training is so beneficial to anyone who's involved or wants to get involved with digital marketing. The first is that the instructors teaching you throughout this training are professionals with real-world experience. Having someone with that perspective on social media marketing is essential for learning in a way that you'll be able to apply.

The next benefit is all the practical knowledge you'll gain. Because this type of training is focused on the skills needed to engage in actual social media marketing, you'll have a significant advantage in any role that you take on. The first two benefits tie in directly with the third, which is being able to show someone who's making hiring decisions that you're both proactive and have the type of skills they want from a candidate.

Maximize the Value of This Experience By Choosing Web Media University

If you want to take advantage of everything that a great social media certification training program has to offer, Web Media University is the perfect choice. We offer a coached social media certification and self-study social media certification. Having both options available means you'll be able to choose the perfect fit for your specific goals.

With Web Media University's coached social media certification, you'll get access to an expert teacher who will provide a hands-on training session designed just for you. Everything you learn will be reinforced by a homework assignment that follows each session. And with our self-study social media certification, you'll have access to courses that you can study whenever works best for you. This program also includes live training webinars, a case studies library, software directory and more.

If you want to accomplish something that will help you move your career in the direction you desire, compare our social media certification programs and then get started with the one that's the perfect fit for you.

When Facebook changed their algorithm and reduced organic reach, a lot of businesses panicked. They worried that this change would torpedo all the work they had put into building a following on Facebook. For businesses that had made the mistake of buying low quality followers just to boost their numbers, it’s safe to say that their “investments” didn’t pay off. But for businesses who have a real following, things don’t have to be so bleak.

It’s true that even if you have a quality following, you probably aren’t happy when you look at the current reach analytics for your posts. However, what businesses often forget is the reality of Facebook. When you pull up your personal Facebook feed or the feed of any other individual user, the first thing you’re going to notice is there’s no shortage of content.

Although the quality or value of that content may be questionable, there’s a lot for people to see every time they get on Facebook. So what Facebook has to do is figure out the few dozen posts people are definitely going to want to see out of the hundreds or even thousands of possibilities.

The way Facebook does that is through their algorithm. And a big part of the platform’s algorithm is based on interaction and engagement. In order to reach more of your followers organically and expand your reach, you need to publish posts that generate a lot of activity.

Since that’s easier said than done, we want to share three different Facebook post ideas that will help you ramp up your organic reach:

1. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

The most common mistake we see businesses make is trying to guess what’s going to work well on Facebook. Because there is so much being published all the time, it’s not hard to see what’s already working. Whether you do it through manual research or with help from a tool, digging into what’s worked great for others (as well as what’s fallen flat) will give you a much better start than simply guessing.

2. Repost your popular post

Another mistake businesses make is assuming that every post they make has to be completely original. In reality, the generally limited nature of Facebook’s organic reach means a significant percentage of your audience hasn’t ever seen your older posts. That’s why you can go back 3-6 months, see which posts did well for you and then share them again as long as they’re still relevant.

3. Use Video posting

Currently, video is a type of content that tends to get a higher amount of organic reach. Find ways to utilize video and you’ll be able to reach more of your followers. It’s also a good idea to stay on top of any new content types that are performing well so you’ll be able to take full advantage of them.

For even more Facebook post ideas and lots of other great information about finding success with Facebook marketing, be sure to take a look at our Facebook Training Courses for Businesses.

When businesses first start with social media, they generally do everything manually. Since there’s a lot that goes into understanding a target audience and what they like, this manual approach is usually a good learning opportunity. But at some point, a business will start to feel the strain of manually managing all of their social media efforts. This is often a time when a business starts to fall off track with its social efforts and loses momentum.
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Although online video is nothing new, the amount of video being watched has absolutely exploded over the last year. According to Google, the amount of time spent watching YouTube videos has increased 60% in the last twelve months. And with both Facebook and Snapchat aggressively rolling out new initiatives related to video, it’s safe to say this is a trend that will only continue to grow.
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In a relatively short amount of time, Facebook has developed their ad offering into a very powerful platform that is able to take advantage of Facebook’s precise targeting and large amount of data. As part of their development of this platform, Facebook recently rolled out a new type of ad unit. This unit is known as Dynamic Product Ads.
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