Jeff HunterJeff is the Chief Growth Officer of Branded Media where he creates solid, recognizable, legacy driven personal brands for legitimate companies and influencers. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/3-tips-for-hiring-team-members-for-your-marketing-agency-with-jeff-hunter-video/6708/
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We’ve all heard the saying that first impressions count, and this is just as true online as it is in real life. Internet users are inherently visual creatures, with approximately 50% of the surface of the human brain devoted to processing visual information. Images and visuals are much more powerful and easier to understand than just text, as well as being easier to recall. You can find all the data behind this here . Given the human propensity to form impressions and take in information via a visual format, images are tremendously influential and key to your business looking good online. As businesses and individuals, we’re all very used to curating the images on our website and on our social media channels in view of what we think they say about us both professionally and personally. But what of our Google My Business profiles? If you’re guilty of thinking of your profile purely in terms of reviews and local search position, you may have overlooked the need to keep a tight rein on your GMB photos. Ask yourself, for example, how do your existing and potential customers use photos to form an opinion of your business? And does this help them decide to engage with your services, or choose one of your competitors? Google is pretty clear on its stance on the importance of images in GMB, telling us that :
Google is increasingly visual in terms of how it uses AI to ‘understand’ the content of images (read our guide to visual search to learn more). In order to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by having great images, you’ll need to understand what opportunities to add images to GMB exist, who they can be added by, how they can be added, and what types of images work best. Let’s begin! Google’s Guidelines For ImagesIt’s always good to go straight to the horse’s mouth so we can understand Google’s terms of service for the photos that appear in GMB. This is currently the ‘hub URL’ for photos in Google My Business profiles: https://ift.tt/0w4Tsfp I’d recommend reading through all of the articles in this section—but some of the most important guidelines for photos are as follows:
Keep all of these in mind—these are the guidelines you can use if you need to get user images removed, and of course, these are the guidelines you as a business owner will need to adhere to when uploading your own images. User-generated ImagesUsers can also upload their images to your business profile (*gulp*)! Again, Google is very clear on the guidelines for UGC , which include the following:
Google has a pretty huge list of prohibited and restricted content , so have a good read to make sure that the images you add adhere to these policies and that the images that users have added do the same. Businesses need to be aware that they are not in total control of their images on GMB—sometimes even a user photo can be used to populate a cover photo if the business has not actively managed and monitored their profile: Why would I want a user to add images?Let’s start with Google. Google wants users to add images, and Google wants business owners to encourage users to add images. How do we know this? We know this because Google prompts us to do so with emails, and with notifications on our phones. Example of an email from Google to alert a business that new photos have been added by users Google’s Local Guide program incentivizes the upload of photos to Google Maps I’d imagine that Google encourages photo uploads to keep people engaged with their product(s) and to provide a richer experience for people using Google’s platforms such as search and maps. As businesses, we’re used to thinking and acting in terms of keeping both Google AND our customers and potential customers happy. So, in this case, encouraging users to add photos of our location, at our location *could* be construed as a clear engagement signal by Google. Plus, it’ll mean that we have more photos for customers and potential customers to browse, hopefully driving them towards using our location or service over an alternative. What’s NOT to like? (Spoiler alert—plenty, but we’ll get to that later). How to Encourage Users to Add Photos at Your LocationOf course, some types of locations are going to be easier than others, and encouraging user uploaded photos isn’t going to be viable for each and every niche / vertical. Here are a few ideas for getting photos: Make OpportunitiesWhenever you can, build photo opportunities into the servicescape: Provide a Photo-worthy ExperienceI’ve made a couple of high-cost purchases where an element of ‘showpersonship’ (if that’s a word) was built into the experience. For example, when I picked up a new car, the ‘unveiling’ was photographed and a video made of it, and the footage and images were emailed to me along with the other details from the garage: Help Customers Get the *Best* PhotosYes, selfies are a thing and people are used to taking them—but imagine you’re working in a bar or restaurant and you see a family group or a celebration and one of them has to duck out of the photos because *someone* has to take the photo? Why not offer to help, and help them get that perfect shot. If you’re offering a service where having images of that experience is an important part of the offering—because it might be a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience (think white water rafting, surfing lessons, a wedding)—you might also think about having a dedicated photographer that can take photos of your customers. Simply *Ask*The most straightforward tactics are so often overlooked. Simply by asking customers, either through posters or flyers at your location, digitally via email, or by actually having a face-to-face interaction (shock horror), you’ll be off to a good start with encouraging those photo uploads. How to Remove User-generated ImagesHappy and engaged customers uploading photos is great, but user-generated content can also suck: And aside from being poor quality, it could also be very inappropriate: When a photo is added by a user using the ‘photo update’ feature in Google Maps this can appear directly in your business profile If a user-added image in some way contravenes Google’s terms of service for user images you can flag it like this: Click “Report a problem” And then be clear about why you’re reporting the image: Once you have submitted your report Google should get that removed. If they don’t, you’ll need to contact GMB support. You can monitor user-uploaded images in your GMB dashboard, choose ‘photos’ then select the ‘by customer’ tab and order by date: Where do photos appear?Business uploaded photos and user photos can appear in many places (across devices) including:
What photos does a business need to add?Google has a great guide to the types of business-specific photos that can and should be added to a business profile. These include:
In the guide, Google recommends uploading at least 3 of each type, plus gives tips on how and why each type is recommended. If you haven’t already read this Google guide go read it now! Businesses can also add 360-degree photos and videos – videos must follow Google’s video guidelines and 360-degree photos need to adhere to these guidelines . Selecting your Google My Business images can be difficult as you want to showcase your brand in the best possible light—which can mean straying too far across the ‘corporate’ line for a local business. You want to have a great selection of professional images, of course, but steer clear of anything that seems too professional and overly polished as it can actually be off-putting and make your brand seem somehow less trustworthy. Instead, focus on professional yet approachable, realistic but not staged images. A smiley team photo, for example, is a nice alternative to a LinkedIn-style shirt and tie portrait picture. With a little practice and experimentation with good lighting and props, you should be able to produce decent quality images in-house without too much expensive equipment required. Google’s aim with images is to give local search users a real feel for the business and its products and services so please avoid the use of stock photos! What is the best Google My Business image size?You’ve likely had to dedicate quite a lot of time, effort, and perhaps even cash to get to this stage. You’ve undoubtedly had to hunt through your archives to find enough images to satisfy Google’s category recommendations. You may well have come up short and realized that you don’t have images of certain members of staff, particular products, or the interior and exterior of your office. If that’s the case, you might have been forced to purchase a decent camera, lights, and tripod, or outsource the job. If you’ve gone for option two, a professional photographer rarely comes cheap. The last thing you want now is for all of that energy to be wasted by uploading images that are incorrectly sized. Get this bit wrong and your pictures may appear distorted, could be too big or too small, too grainy due to a low resolution, or enormous because the resolution is too high. You could also find that you spend an unnecessary amount of time uploading, editing, deleting, and re-uploading images to try and get them to look right if you begin with the wrong resolution or image size. So, what size do Google My Business photos need to be? Google My Business Image DimensionsThe Recommended RatioThe ratio is the relation of height to width. Google recommends a 1:1 ratio where the width and height of the image are equal. Photos display differently across devices and platforms—so you’ll need to actively monitor how your images look. Choose an image that has a center focus and will ‘make sense’ whether it’s shown as a square or as a rectangle. The Recommended Image SizeIdeally, your Google My Business photos should be 720 px tall by 720 px wide. This size allows for the optimal display of the image on all device types. Use these dimensions as the standard for all images you upload and you’ll also maintain consistency across your photo albums. This gives your Google My Business profile a polished, professional appearance. The Minimum Image SizeGoogle’s minimum size limit for images is 250 px tall by 250 px wide. Format Selection (File Type)Google My Business accepts both JPEG and PNG file types. Your images should be saved as one of these two formats before you upload. Your photo editor will very likely provide you with this option when saving your file. You may find that your business logo has been supplied to you in a PNG format, whereas JPEG will likely cover everything else. Google Posts ImagesGoogle recommends 720px by 720px. However I’ve always used a 1200px wide by 900px tall image, and I make a Canva Post template for each of the businesses that I work with using their brand guidelines. Whatever image size you choose, I’d recommend monitoring how these look across devices and platforms. Google ProductsI usually add images for products at 1200px by 900 px. It’s worth noting that images for Google Products need to comply with Google’s Shopping Ads policy —if you have an issue getting products approved in GMB it might be because your product images don’t comply: How do I, as a business, upload images?Images can be added via the Google My Business dashboard, the new NMX SERP interface, and the soon-to-be-defunct GMB app. If you have a number of locations and you have bulk verified those listings you can upload images via bulk upload – you can find the full step-by-step instructions here. How do I know how well my photos are performing?GMB insights currently includes data on ‘photo views’: Along with an indication of how your metrics compare with other similar businesses. Photo views, as a metric, are currently absent from the new profile performance report but could be added at a later date. You can also bulk download photo insights for your location or group of locations via the GMB dashboard: You can choose the time frame: If you do this regularly you’ll be able to compare and contrast the following data points:
Influencing Which Images Show in ResultsWhen you upload images to your Google My Business profile, they will be labeled with ‘from the owner’ to distinguish them from images uploaded by customers. This does not mean, however, that your own images will automatically get preferential treatment and be displayed most prominently in your Google My Business profile. Given the importance of imagery for brand building, you’ll naturally want to wield tight control over which images are most visible to local search users. Google doesn’t specifically give you control over this aspect of your profile, and makes it clear that it won’t necessarily be your cover photo that appears in your business listing in the SERP or the results in the map pack: You’ll need to specify the image you’d like Google to use as your cover photo, and then you need to monitor how your profile photo appears across devices, platforms, and locations. In some instances, Google uses image search to populate the profile photo—read more about that here . If Google is using GMB photos to populate your cover photo in the business profile, and you still can’t get Google to show the image you’ve selected, then Sterling Sky offers these handy tips :
When your business appears in the local finder, Google will ideally be looking for an image in your GMB that they can use alongside your listing, justifying its inclusion in those search results. For this reason, it’s a great idea to make sure you have images that Google could use alongside searches for your most popular products and services. For example: Note here that in photos 1 and 2 Google is having a little trouble distinguishing between a sloth, a meerkat, and a lemur! In the business profile when viewed on a mobile, you’ll see a scrolling pack of images like this: These photos are algorithmically chosen by Google—the featured images could be uploaded by the business or by the user. According to aircam.ai: “ If a business owner shares high quality, local, recent photos the likelihood of Google showing your photos over user-generated photos skyrockets.” How often should I add or remove photos?Schedule Regular UploadsAs you get into a routine of sourcing images to populate your Google My Business, you’ll find that you naturally start to notice opportunities during the course of a typical day. A restaurateur might get into the habit of taking a picture of the daily special, for example, an interior designer might share an image before and after a room makeover, or a car dealer might upload photos of a happy customer driving away. Make sure that you have images that reflect how your business looks through the seasons, and make sure you keep your images updated to reflect any changes to your services, how you deliver your products and services, new team members, and any other relevant changes. Go All Marie Kondo on Your Image PortfolioDon’t be shy about removing images as and when they become outdated. For example, if you make over your guest rooms and the older photos no longer reflect the look and feel, or if you change up your product and service provision. Or, if you originally offered surfing lessons and no longer do so, you might like to remove those from your images, since they won’t be reflecting your current business offering. Other Helpful TipsShould I geotag my photos?TL;DR – No No, it’s not required. If you are desperate to geotag the images you *could* go ahead, but not until you have done absolutely EVERYTHING else you can do on your GMB with regard to optimizing for ranking and conversions. This is an interesting take on geotagging by Tim Kahlert . Are there any tools that can help me?We’re not all awesome photographers, and even though smartphones make it totally possible to take a very reasonable photo or video it might be that we—as business owners and marketers—need to turn to apps and tools to help us. Apps like LocalPics enable you to send new photos to your Google My Business account from a mobile device. LocalPics is designed to meet the specific needs of Google My Business users. With no log-in required and a text reminder service, LocalPics makes it quick and easy to push new images straight to your profile. This not only cuts down on the time needed to keep an influx of fresh images flowing to your account, it can also help to tick the ‘authentic’ and ‘genuine’ boxes that Google insists on. Aircam.ai is new to the market and manages the process of capturing photos for multi-location businesses. It uses Google’s Cloud Vision API to understand what Google will *see* in the images that their photographer captures for the business, allowing business owners to choose the right shots for their potential customers AND Google. Canva is a great tool that you can use to resize your photos and change up the design. There are both free and paid versions to choose between. The ‘Try the API’ function in Google’s Cloud Vision API allows you to upload one of your images to take a look at how Google classifies your image according to its millions of predefined categories. We’d love to hear what you thinkDo you have any tips for taking great photos? What are your favorite image editing apps? Share your thoughts and recommendations with us in the comments.
Claire Carlile is BrightLocal’s Local Search Expert. Her work at Claire Carlile Marketing, where she helps small businesses do better at digital marketing, allows her to provide real-world skills and expertise to what BrightLocal does.
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/google-my-business-photos-the-ultimate-guide-to-looking-good-online/6706/ Social Marketing Trends
Need a new plan? Find out how thousands of marketers plan to change their social marketing activities in our 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. This 39-page report reveals what marketers have planned for their organic social activities, video marketing, social ads, and more. Get this free report now and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/why-web3-is-good-for-business-social-media-examiner/6705/ When you hear the word “leadership,” do you think of a particular person? If you’d been asked that question anytime before the 1900s, chances are you’d think of an accomplished politician or a battle-tested general. These were the people leading society for most of recorded history. Today, you might have someone else in mind. Since the industrial era, the US has birthed a pantheon of founders who’ve arguably led our society as much as any statesman or president. We put Rockefeller and Ford right next to Lincoln and Jefferson. Think about it; these guys haven’t just changed the US; they’ve changed how the entire world lives and does business. Founders of successful companies today command even larger amounts of capital and power than JD and Henry. With the rise of social media, they are often thrust to the forefront of their brands and the public, whether they like it or not. Some manage the responsibility better than others. In my opinion, the best businesses use all that capital, manpower, and name recognition to do more than simply make a profit. By leading with authenticity, inspiring positive action, and influencing their brand’s vision for innovation – they try to make a change. I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some modern founder-led brands I think are doing a killer job of creating unique, world-changing businesses and company cultures. I also want to discuss the lessons I have learned from them.
Elon Musk – TeslaWhen talking about founder-led brands of the 21st century, it’s hard to pass over electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and its outspoken CEO, Elon Musk. Love him or loathe him, he belongs in any conversation on influential founders. While Musk isn’t technically the founder of Tesla, he is one hundred percent responsible for the company’s direction over the past decade. I think two of the strongest leadership points for Musk are his focus on branding and innovation. Tesla created showrooms and charging stations long before his business had the sales to justify the expense. People saw the name Tesla everywhere, got curious about it, and now that’s paying off big time. Tesla today is at the forefront of the EV industry while all the other car companies play catch-up. Behind the scenes, Tesla was also early to create a vertically-integrated supply chain – giving it almost complete control over its product and logistics. That’s another feature with a hefty upfront price tag but paid off when the pandemic hit. Now the biggest automakers in the world are rushing to copy that model. Musk arguably even convinced China to deregulate foreign ownership of automotive companies. That’s hard to prove. However, China changed its rules around foreign ownership of EV companies shortly after he refused to enter the country. Arguably, Tesla today is one of the frontrunners in redefining how traditional companies run. Musk is known to hate bureaucracy and traditional hierarchies. He hires other people to take care of bureaucratic processes for him. Musk is also known for hiring relatively young, hard-working employees into high-power management positions in the company and letting them prove themselves. That inspires extreme loyalty from his employees from an early age. Musk’s focus on efficiency and rejection of traditional hierarchies has sparked a small revolution in tech companies. Finally, I respect Musk because he has goals beyond showing year-over-year growth to shareholders. That’s hard to do day in and day out.
Sara Blakely – SpanxSara Blakely is an example of a founder with her hands in every part of her business, from product creation to sales. Most importantly, she created an authentic company culture with values she felt the business world lacked. For those who know her story, Spanx very nearly didn’t happen. Blakely pitched her slimming undergarment to multiple women’s brands run by men. Most told her it would never work. It might seem silly now, but men used to think they knew women’s fashion better than women. It wasn’t until one executive gave Blakely’s product to his daughters to try out that he agreed to start stocking Spanx. It’s a great example of how businesses can make a lot of money by listening to their customers. Besides founding a women’s clothing company that sells products women want, Blakely strived to bring “feminine energy” into the workplace. I saw this poignant quote from her in an article: “Twenty-one years ago when I started Spanx, I ended up in the paper in Atlanta, and I was at a cocktail party and a couple of guys came up to me and they said, ‘Sara, we read about you. Congratulations! We heard you invented something.’ And I said, ‘Yes I did, I’m so excited.’ They said, ‘Business is war,’ and then they pat me on the shoulder and they kind of laughed at each other. I went back home to my apartment that night. I was 29 and I just thought, I’m not going to war. I’m going to do this very differently. I’m going to honor a lot of feminine principles — intuition, empathy, kindness. Just allowing myself to be vulnerable through this process. And of course, a lot of the masculine energy has helped me also — it was a balance. But I wasn’t going to do it by squashing the feminine.” Blakely worked hard to create a sales-oriented company culture that was purposely welcoming from that point forward. She regularly scheduled “oops meetings” where employees could stand up and say how they messed up and turn it into a funny story. At Spanx, it was okay to make mistakes and learn from them. Blakely wanted everything about her product to be fun, including the way it was sold. She created a mandatory boot camp for salespeople, which, among other things, requires employees to perform standup comedy. Little things like that resonated with people and made Spanx synonymous with “fun.” Even famous actresses were flashing their Spanx on the red carpet. The lesson we can all learn from Spanx and Blakely is that fun and positive energy are great marketing tools for any business. Many companies try to push a fun culture publicly without any authentic leadership that genuinely exemplifies that narrative, they won’t have the same effect. Blakely’s story of Spanx is not just a story of the brand but a story of her life and the experiences that shaped her vision and goals.
Jack Dorsey – Block (FKA Square)While better known for founding Twitter, Jack Dorsey has recently been in the news for his move to solely running payment processing business Block. I admire Dorsey because he radically encourages his teams to think differently about how they work. Dorsey is known for optimizing ways to stay productive and focused throughout the day. He manages through unconventional tactics like communicating only through voice memos on his phone that he runs through transcription apps. He says this prevents him from being sidetracked by distractions on his computer. I think that kind of mindfulness is necessary now more than ever. Dorsey tries to bring this level of focus to his interactions with his employees too. I saw a great quote from him in this article discussing computer-less meetings at Block. “When phones are down and laptops are closed, the team can discuss any issue at hand without distraction. We can actually focus and not just spend an hour together but make that time meaningful — and if that time is 15 minutes, then it’s 15 minutes and then we move on with our lives.” Besides limiting distractions, Dorsey is known to walk five miles to work daily, theme each day, and create detailed agendas and goals for each team meeting. In his former company, Twitter, the culture was frequently described as a space where employees could speak freely to management about things they wanted to change. On that subject, Dorsey has been known to push hard for employee control in his companies. Perhaps ironically, he was also quoted saying he wants Twitter to break away from its co-founders’- vision and control, calling founder-led companies “severely limiting.” However, it still seems he has some sort of vision for the world that he wants to bring around via Block. His business goals are visionary, pushing the boundaries of innovation in the financial world. Dorsey is a known cryptocurrency enthusiast but had pushback from the Twitter team, including his CFO, about making a crypto-centric product. His move to payments processor, Block, seems to be a bid to follow his passion and exert his vision on the world. Block has since made headlines for being extremely bullish on cryptocurrencies, while many have expressed doubts. Dorsey even changed the business’s name to Block to better reflect its focus on blockchain and famously purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin in 2020. All the while, Dorsey has been quietly creating arms of his business in the hopes of improving BTC’s usefulness. That may pay off down the line.
Melanie Perkins – CanvaI identify strongly with Melanie Perkins, co-founder of graphic design SaaS, Canva. Besides being roughly the same age, we both came from nondescript beginnings with no background in entrepreneurship or tech. Canva is an excellent example of a business created by becoming intimately familiar with a customer problem and executing. Perkins spent years teaching people how to use design platforms like Adobe Creative Suite because they were so complicated. Taking that knowledge, she started a simple product to help customers create high school yearbooks. That expanded into a super app covering every aspect of design. This super-app has unlocked a way for millions to learn design and produce high-quality content at any skill level. The cost to use Canva is many times lower than anything else on the market. While Canva is an amazing product, what I like most about Perkins is that she believes business serves a higher purpose than maximizing profits. When she was suddenly thrust into the limelight with a $40 billion valuation, people were even more impressed by Perkins’ philanthropic goals. She vowed to donate a 30 percent stake in Canva to a charity dedicated to eliminating poverty (about $12 billion). She is also known to regularly fundraise for 25,000 different nonprofits through her app. She doesn’t just inspire people with words, but by actions, she’s actually taking. Canva is very public about its ethos. I like their values because they are general yet avoid the jargon many companies fall into. They are:
Besides revolutionizing how modern businesses design and harness goodwill marketing, Canva was also one of the forerunners of the remote work trend. Most of Canva’s “Canvanauts” worked from homes worldwide even before the pandemic. Canva showed a lot of tired old businesses that you could still run a successful company without having employees in the office 24/7.
How I Try to Learn From the BestFinally, I want to talk about what I am trying to contribute to my team and society with my current business, startup acquisition marketplace, MicroAcquire. As I’ve mentioned, I think it is very much on myself as a founder to set the tone of my business – and that starts with who I hire. When I’m searching for new employees to join the “#Micromafia” I not only look for productive workers, I look for people I genuinely enjoy spending time with. It’s the best feeling in the world to go to meetings where you leave thinking, “That was really fun.” Besides creating a great team, I’ve tried to address another problem I see again and again at major tech companies: employee burnout. There’s a reason the average tenure of a tech employee is three years. I love working on startups. It’s like playing a video game for me, and it’s probably why I’m a founder. That said, I know my employees don’t always feel the same way. As CEO, I make sure my team knows I want them to live their lives outside of MicroAcquire. On the business side of things, I take cues from the best. Like Musk and Dorsey, I want to preemptively create features that I know our customers will love. I knew people wanted an easy way to sell their startups because I wished I’d had one back when I was doing it. Like Spanx and Tesla, I also strongly believe in the power of innovative branding – and I make sure we spend in areas that will give us significant returns down the line. For example, we’ve made it easy to get MicroAcquire merchandise online completely free. The extra exposure we get from tech people rocking MicroAcquire t-shirts is more than worth the cost. We also created our own media publication Bootstrappers.com to tell the founder stories we thought major publications had missed. That’s been a huge hit with our customers, who also happen to be founders. These people traditionally have had to spam inboxes and pay for press because they didn’t raise billions in funding. Finally, like Blakely and Perkins, I also want to actively listen to customer feedback and make sure we create a necessary and desired product. That’s why I make sure we’re constantly engaging with our community both on our website and social media. Many of the features we’ve added are just things we’ve heard mentioned multiple times from customers. So far, I love the community we’ve created online and in the office. I don’t claim to have the winning formula, but I feel we are making a real difference out there. We’re lucky to live in a world with so many smart people getting their ideas out and making a positive change in the world.
Featured image via Unsplash.
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/4-founder-led-brands-that-are-done-right/6703/ What if trying to save money ends up costing you more? If you’re like most business owners, you want to save money wherever you can. And when it comes to SEO, it’s tempting to try to do it yourself in order to save on costs. After all, what could be easier than optimizing your website for Google yourself? Unfortunately, DIY SEO can be very dangerous – and it often doesn’t work. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the dangers of trying to do SEO by yourself, and why hiring a professional is always the best option. You Might Not Target the Right KeywordsKeywords are the primary tool of SEO, and most business owners don’t know how to find the right ones. Many small business owners struggle with doing their own SEO because they don’t have the time or knowledge needed to effectively identify and target the right keywords. At first glance, it might seem like any keyword related to your industry would be a good option for improving SEO rankings. But this isn’t always the case. In order to really harness the power of specific keywords, you need to have a deep understanding of what people are searching for online and how those searches relate to your particular business niche. Without a clear sense of which keywords are going to attract targeted web traffic and provide long-term benefits, you could miss out on important opportunities that would help you grow your small business. An SEO expert can help you find the right keywords — from locally-focused terms to industry-specific phrases — that bring you ready-to-buy customers from your ideal audience. Your Website May Not Be Properly DesignedWhat does a well-designed website look like? Many business owners only think about whether they like the colours and layout, and that’s a mistake. Designing a website that is both user-friendly and search engine friendly can be a challenge. This is especially true for small business owners who are trying to do SEO by themselves. To do well in search results, your website needs to be attractive to Google and to your audience. That means having the right keywords in the architecture of your website. It also means creating engaging content so that your visitors have a good experience and want to visit again. You have to build the trust factor and display your authority while also speaking to your ideal client’s biggest needs. Finally, your website needs to be mobile-optimized, fast, and secure. In other words, creating the right website is really challenging. Are SEO companies worth it? When they give you an SEO-optimized website you can be proud of, they certainly are! You Might Damage Your Website’s Ranking With GoogleIf you offer services like plumbing, lawn care, or construction, you’ve probably seen what we’ve seen. People who try to DIY what they don’t quite know how to do often do more damage than good. Sometimes this means the entire project has to be torn out and started again from scratch. It costs more money and takes more effort than if they had worked with a professional in the first place. There are a lot of ways to make SEO mistakes that result in penalties, and it’s very hard to recover. In order to ensure that its users have the best possible experience, Google penalizes websites that violate its guidelines. Some common SEO mistakes that can result in a penalty include keyword stuffing, cloaking, and other black hat strategies. In other words, if you try to get an advantage that isn’t based on earning a high ranking by providing high-quality content to users, you’ll end up losing. SEO is Time-Consuming and Hard to Do ProperlyYou already have expertise in a specific industry. Do you have time to learn another one? Many business owners are under the impression that they can handle their own SEO, and while it is true that anyone can learn the basics of SEO, it is a complex and ever-changing field. Trying to keep up with the latest algorithm changes and best practices is a full-time job, and creating success requires the right strategies to be applied consistently. You have a business because you’re successful in your industry. Trying to become an expert in the many aspects of SEO is not just difficult, it’s not a good use of your time. For this reason, it is often best to work with a marketing professional who has the knowledge and experience needed to ensure your website ranks highly in search results. While it may require an initial investment of time and money, working with a marketing professional will save you both time and money in the long run. Don’t Go it AloneSEO is a complex and ever-changing field. If you’re trying to DIY your way to the top of the search engine rankings, you’re setting yourself up for failure. The best way to ensure that your website gets the visibility it deserves is to partner with an experienced and professional SEO team. At Local SEO Search, we have a proven track record of helping businesses achieve their desired online results. We would be honoured to help you grow your business through effective SEO strategies. Contact us today to get started!
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/do-it-yourself-seo-the-dangers-of-going-alone/6701/ By Chris Vasquez May 26, 2022It’s important to have methods for idea generation that really work in an increasingly remote world. Here’s what’s worked for us. One of the things that seemed most challenging when AWeber was transitioning from a physical location to becoming a remote team was figuring out how we’d effectively brainstorm. So much good creative work comes from people putting their heads together, identifying problems to be solved, and coming up with ways to solve them. Historically at AWeber, we had done this by swinging by someone’s desk, or catching them in a common space and working things through on a white board. How could we maintain this free-flowing innovation when people weren’t in the same physical space (or even the same time zone)? It turns out it’s easier than we thought it would be. We ended up finding the parts of in-person brainstorms that worked best and combining them with the principles that make asynchronous communication so transparent, clear, and inclusive. Here are a few tips for brainstorming with a remote team. Always start with documentation.Whether you’re going to be brainstorming synchronously or asynchronously, documentation is necessary to make sure people have shared goals and understand their role. Your first step should be to create a document that lists:
These meeting notes are also where you close the loop and share the ideas and outcomes from your brainstorm. Having this doc is the single most effective way you can increase transparency and participation around your early stage thinking about a problem. Gut check whether you need a meeting at all.I’ve been surprised by the number of interesting ideas we’ve been able to come up with and refine asynchronously. Ask yourself a few questions before you schedule a meeting:
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then you’d probably benefit from a meeting. Live brainstorming sessions can be more effective at resolving differences, can spur more creative ideas (given some constraints), and can speed up resolutions to time sensitive issues. Otherwise, consider sharing the docs you created with relevant reviewers and asking them to share their ideas on the page. Narrow your focus.When you’re brainstorming solutions, some constraints encourage creativity. For example, we want to make sure it takes as little time as possible for people to send an email to their audience. When we ask “how do we make the process faster” there are all sorts of ways that we could solve that problem from better user education, to improved design, to changes to our message editor. This level of abstraction can be helpful for identifying opportunity areas, but it isn’t super effective at actually finding actionable ways to make improvements. If instead we pick one of those problem areas and really dive in, we end up with a much more focused set of ideas we can actually implement. We did this recently by asking ourselves where the friction was in the text editing portion of our message editor. Because we focused on that one issue, we came up with all sorts of ways to save people time writing their messages that we’re actually doing! Keep meetings short.The longer the meeting, the more opportunity to get distracted or tune out. Keep meetings small.Be ruthless when setting your list of brainstorm attendees. Video calls tend to be more draining and difficult to focus on than in-person meetings. The more people you add to your call, the less any single person will have to contribute, giving them more opportunity to tune out and frankly waste their time. How should you decide who to add to your brainstorms? Invite:
Proactively call on participants for feedback.The loudest voices will have an outsized impact on your brainstorming for the simple reason that they’ll talk the most. To make sure you’re getting perspective from everyone, periodically ask folks who are quieter what their opinion or idea is. Don’t stop there. To avoid groupthink, ask the quieter people to explain their ideas so everyone doesn’t end up just repeating what the louder voices are saying. Record your meeting and synthesize afterward.Writing down notes and outcomes is essential to having brainstorming sessions that actually result in action. However, note taking during a meeting can slow down discussion and lead to distraction. Instead, record your meeting so everyone can participate fully and listen back afterward, summarizing and grouping relevant information. The world feels like it’s sped up exponentially in the past few years, and that doesn’t look to be changing. It’s important to have methods for idea generation that really work in our increasingly remote world. The things I mentioned have really worked for us. What’s been working for you? from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/how-to-effectively-brainstorm-in-a-remote-environment/6699/ In many ways, doing local SEO for lawyers is similar to other industries. 97% percent of Google and other search engine users look for local businesses online, and these businesses include law firms or individual practitioners. However, it is also different from local SEO for other industries because law tends to be a highly specialized practice. For instance, while a personal injury attorney has a basic knowledge of taxation from law school, you’d rather engage with a tax lawyer if you’re trying to determine how much tax you’ll pay for real estate you’ve inherited from a grandparent. So, how can you make sure that your client’s law firm appears somewhere at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs)? Well, you need a robust local SEO strategy. Such a strategy will help your client’s law firms rank higher in the local SERPs where more potential clients can see it. Below are seven local SEO tips that will help a law firm’s website climb up the rankings so they appear higher up in local search: 1. Managing a Practitioner and Business GBPOptimizing your client’s Google Business Profile (GBP) is an excellent start to implementing local SEO for lawyers. This profile improves the discoverability of your client’s business. GBP also helps improve client engagement and allows your client to reach a broader audience through maps and location searches. Moreover, creating a Google Business Profile helps you manage your client’s law firm’s online reputation by responding to reviews. Enabling GBP features like the messaging can also make it easier for prospective customers to get in touch with your client’s business. You’ll see SEO results through increased impressions on Google Maps and rich Google search results. Source: Google When optimizing your client’s Google Business Profile listing, ensure you add the correct business category. You should also avoid keyword stuffing in the description and title. For example, if your client’s law firm specializes in granting services on taxes and family business, you must optimize your listing title and description with relevant keywords like ‘family law’ or ‘tax law’. This allows your client’s law firm website to appear in the organic search results when people search for those specific or related terms To maintain good local SEO rankings and reach a local audience, you also need to provide accurate and up-to-date NAP (name, address, and phone number) information about your client’s law firm. 2. Get More ReviewsReview signals make up 17 percent of Google’s local search ranking factors. Therefore, you must collect as many customer reviews as possible to improve your client’s local SEO campaign. And it’s not just about the quantity. You’ll need positive reviews that are more in-depth (two to three sentences long) to rank above competitor law firms. Client reviews are helpful in various ways. For starters, reviews help Google place your client’s Google Business Profile listing higher in local search results. Why? Because Google wants to serve quality results. If a business has dozens of positive reviews, it means they are doing something right. Therefore, Google will prioritize that business over one that doesn’t have any customer reviews. So, if you want your client’s law firms to show up higher in local searches, collect more positive reviews. After all, higher local rankings could result in more qualified traffic and leads. Second, customer reviews help pull more clients. Think about it, when scrolling through local searches, are you more likely to go with an establishment that has more positive reviews or one with few/no reviews? You’ll go with the former, right? The same thing applies to prospective customers looking for local law firms. Therefore, more positive customer reviews will provide much-needed social proof to pull prospective customers to your client’s law firm. You can get more reviews for your client’s listing by enabling reviews on their Google Business Profile. You should also encourage existing clients of the law firm to leave reviews. Source: Google reviews Responding to good and bad reviews is also essential. It makes existing customers feel appreciated and recognized. It also increases client engagement and shows that your client’s business cares about its customers. 3. Add Legal FAQs to Your SiteGoogle is always looking for relevant content to provide helpful answers for users. The same goes for local search results. You can add relevant legal FAQs to your website as part of your content website ideas. While there’s no silver bullet when it comes to FAQs, these are general best practices to help you get started:
FAQs allow you to optimize the client’s content with additional keywords. You can create FAQs that target local keywords for better search engine optimization results. Take this question, for example; How much does a personal injury attorney in New York charge? That question helps you target a local, potentially lucrative long-tail keyword “personal injury lawyer in New York.” The phrase could help drive tons of qualified traffic to your client’s law firm website. FAQs can also help you secure featured snippets. That means your client’s site will occupy “position zero” of the first search engine results page, where it can generate even more clicks. However, you will need to indicate that a certain piece of content on your website answers a specific question. That’s where schema markup comes into play. 4. Use Schema MarkupSchema markup is a code that tells search engines exactly what your web pages are about. With schema, you can optimize for rich results by providing explicit information through structured data that crawlers pick on to show in prominent SERP positions. These rich results increase brand exposure and can improve click-through rate (CTR) by 58%. For FAQs, adding schema markup to your code will help Google identify your content as an answer to a common user question. For instance, NoLo uses the schema markup below in its HTML code: When you search for ‘how do courts choose jurors’, LegalZoom’s content is second on the search results: In addition, you can use the local business schema to help Google identify and show information about your client’s business in the local pack easily. For example, it will display hours of operation, address, phone numbers, and ratings. You can also include an action schema such as ‘Book an appointment’ or ‘Book a free consultation’ to make it easier for prospects to contact your client’s law firm. Since some of the information presented in rich results comes from Google Business Profile listings, be sure to claim your client’s listing and set it up correctly. 5. Optimize for Multiple-lawyer FirmsIf your client’s firm has multiple lawyers, create a separate page for each lawyer. Make sure these pages contain vital local search engine optimization elements like reviews and local business data such as NAP. What if you want to rank multiple personal injury lawyers on the same page? Well, here’s what you can do to make sure they all get their fair share of the limelight:
Optimize the firm’s pages with unique content and relevant keywords. However, if you’re not careful about your strategy, the firm’s lawyer pages might end up competing for the same local search terms. This could be counterproductive as prospective clients may be unclear about which page or person to contact. Therefore, be sure to target specific keywords for every lawyer based on their practice. For example, you could optimize a separate page within the law firm’s website for ‘car accident lawyer’ and another for ‘corporate lawyer’ or ‘immigration lawyer’. 6. Citation SignalsCitations mention your client’s business name, address, phone number, and website on other websites. They act as a reference to your client’s business on the web. Even if the influence of citation signals on local search results has waned in recent years, they still play an important role in your SEO strategy. When local searchers look for a particular term related to your client’s legal practice, local citations can help you show up more often in the search results. Citations don’t have to contain a link — although they often do. However, they need to match with other data points listed on the website for maximum effectiveness. For example, your client’s NAP citations must match with the indexed page on their website. The number of citations you have signals to Google that your client’s law firm is legitimate and trustworthy. It also gets their business in front of more potential clients searching for legal services online. You can sign up for a free account with Brightlocal to quickly build citations. Source: BrightLocal High-quality and relevant citations will drive more organic traffic to your client’s website and increase overall search engine rankings. 7. Tap Into Legal DirectoriesLegal directories can help you build authority and trust. They act as a citation distribution source for your client’s legal practice and local business data. They’re also a significant source of backlinks. Pro tip: You can also write guest posts and publish them on other industry-related blogs or publications. Doing this can help you gain exposure and backlinks for your client’s website. Get listed on relevant directories to get clients in your local area. Directories use geolocation technology to ensure prospective clients can easily find you when looking for a lawyer in your area. There are many local directories where potential clients can search for local lawyers who practice the type of law they need help with. Some examples include Justia, Nolo, HG.org, Avvo, FindLaw, Martindale-Hubbell, and Lawyers.com. Image: FindLaw These sites let you create free profiles with links to your client’s website. They also have premium options to help your client’s law firm get more exposure and attention. Complete your client’s profile with information about their firm, including photos and videos. Final ThoughtsThe local SEO for lawyers tactics discussed above can be one of the best things for your client’s law firm. With so many law firms using local SEO strategies, you need to stay ahead of the curve by implementing these strategies. Start by building an optimized Google Business Profile listing. Then collect more Google reviews, build an FAQ section on their website, utilize schema markup, go after citations, and utilize law firm directories. If your client’s law firm has multiple lawyers, optimize the website to ensure every lawyer gets enough attention. With this law firm’s local SEO guide at your disposal, we’re confident you’ll help your client’s website rank higher on Google’s local search results and even gain a spot in the local pack. More importantly, you’ll help them drive more qualified leads.
Tomasz is the Marketing Executive & Partner at Surfer, a platform that merges content strategy, creation, and optimization into one smooth process. With almost a decade of experience in the industry, he is responsible for incorporating and executing marketing strategies. Currently, he manages a team of 3 wonderful experts.
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/local-seo-for-lawyers-7-ways-to-get-started/6697/ Are you a business owner who is unsure about digital marketing? If you’ve heard some of the statements going around about marketing and small businesses, we don’t blame you. Fortunately, these are myths. Many business owners have misconceptions about digital marketing and what it can do for their business. In this blog post, we will debunk five of the most common myths about digital marketing! Digital Marketing is Too ExpensiveOne common myth is that digital marketing is too expensive. That’s not true. While it is true that some digital marketing campaigns can be costly, there are plenty of affordable options as well. In fact, there are many digital marketing tools and techniques that cost nothing at all. For example, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter offer free ways to reach a large audience. Email marketing, for example, is an effective way to stay in touch with customers and build relationships over time. And SEO marketing can be a cost-effective way to attract traffic to your website. There are a number of affordable digital marketing options available — you can find the right mix of strategies for your business. It’s Only For Large CompaniesAnother common myth about digital marketing is that it’s only for large companies. But the truth is, small businesses actually benefit more from digital marketing than big ones. Why? Because digital marketing strategies require you to be nimble and react quickly to feedback, which small companies do well. Also, there are some strategies that are uniquely helpful to small businesses, like local SEO. Local SEO is all about making your business visible to people who are searching for products and services in your area. And since most small businesses rely heavily on local customers, local SEO can be a powerful tool for driving new business. Plus, unlike traditional marketing channels like TV or print advertising, local SEO is relatively affordable and easy to implement. You can even partner with SEO consulting companies to have everything taken care of for you. Digital marketing is a perfect fit for small businesses! You Have to Be Really Tech-Savvy to Succeed at Digital MarketingOne common myth about digital marketing is that you have to be very tech-savvy to do it. That’s not true – there are user-friendly tools that make it easier than ever, and there are plenty of tutorials online if you need help getting started. And if you’re not sure where to start, or you don’t have the time to commit to a full-fledged digital marketing campaign, partnering with a firm can be a great way to get started. You don’t have to be the expert. Companies like Local SEO Search are available to take care of your digital marketing so you can do what you do best — build your business! You Have to Spend Hours on Social MediaMany people believe that digital marketing is all about endless hours on social media, endlessly scrolling and posting and engaging with other users. But the reality is that most successful digital marketing campaigns are not focused solely on social media. In fact, you don’t need to spend hours upon hours in front of your computer or phone to be successful. Instead, what matters most is understanding the principles behind a good digital marketing strategy, gathering the right data and using that data effectively, and utilizing tools that can help to streamline your campaigns. With just a bit of planning, creativity, and strategic thinking, you or your marketing partner can create an effective digital marketing campaign that doesn’t require endless hours online. If you’ve been letting a concern about time hold you back, it’s time to relax. You can work with a marketing partner to create a strategy that frees you up to serve your customers while your business still grows online. Digital Marketing Doesn’t Work AnymoreWhat’s the point of digital marketing if everyone is doing it? These days, it seems like everyone is online. With so much noise, it can be hard to get noticed. As a result, some businesses have thrown in the towel when it comes to digital marketing, believing that it’s just not worth the effort. However, this is a misconception. While it is true that it is harder to stand out online than it used to be, digital marketing is still an incredibly effective way to reach your target market. The key is to create a strategy that is designed to cut through the clutter. This might mean experimenting with new and innovative platforms or developing targeted content that speaks directly to your audience’s needs. One of the easiest ways to do this is to work with a marketing firm. They already know the landscape and can give you the expertise you need to succeed even in a crowded online market. Are You Ready to Succeed Online?These digital marketing myths might be keeping you from achieving your business goals. Don’t let them! Contact us to get started with effective digital marketing today and see how you can reach more of your target audience. We promise it’s easier than you think.
from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/5-business-myths-about-digital-marketing-debunked/6695/ Collecting user-generated content or UGC has become an integral part of many successful marketing campaigns. One reason is that you build a repository of helpful and engaging content to publish. More importantly, people are 10 times more inclined to trust your brand and buy from you when you publish user-generated content on your website and social media accounts. That’s because UGC, like reviews and social media posts, are created by your users and existing customers based on their experience and opinions about your brand and products. The challenge, of course, is getting your customers to create them. That’s why I’ll be sharing with you today 9 tips to get more user-generated content for your brand that you can start doing today. Ask For Feedback From UsersThere’s a saying: “You have not because you ask not.” If you want your customers to leave you a review of your product or brand, then go ahead and ask them. One way you can do this is by sending them an email like this one from Gecko. Another way is by adding a form right below your content for customers to fill up. Hosting Canada makes it easy to curate reviews of online hosting providers by providing a “Leave a review” CTA at the bottom of each of their reviews. Right underneath this are the reviews left by past and current customers of the product being reviewed. Create a unique hashtagCreating your brand’s very own hashtag helps promote your brand on social media channels like Twitter and Instagram. You can also use social media management tools for the best results in social media marketing. At the same time, it helps you find posts your customers published on their respective accounts. Here’s a snapshot of user-generated content created that included #socialpilot in their descriptions: What’s great about this is that the user-generated content’s already published. All you’ll need to do is to reach out to these users and ask if you can repost their content on your website or other social media accounts. Many of them will be happy to let you. After all, who doesn’t like added exposure for their accounts? Launch a contest on InstagramHosting a contest on Instagram is another way for you to get more user-generated content for your brand. A perfect example of this is the #RedCupContest Starbucks hosts on Instagram every December. Not only did the contest give Starbucks more than 30,000 user-generated content for them to use throughout the holiday season, but it also positively impacted their sales. After all, you’ll need to buy a Starbucks drink in a red cup to participate. When launching a contest, be sure to clearly state the rules for your contest – including how users can participate. For example, you might put up a Facebook-only contest that asks customers to create a Facebook post explaining what they love most about your brand. Listen to your users’ social conversations.At any given time, your happy customers would recommend your products and services on social media. Social media automation platforms can help you keep track of these conversations as they happen. That way, you can thank them for the kind words and also request if it’ll be possible for them to work with you by creating a UGC. These tools come with social media analytics that’ll help you track and evaluate which user-generated content is performing and at which social media channels. Based on the data you’ve gathered, you can tap these users and work out an arrangement so that they can continue. Gain some ground with influencersWorking with influencers who are also your customers benefits your brand in two ways. First, they know what types of content will resonate well with your target audience. That way, you ensure that the UGC they’ll be creating for you will yield results. Second, since they already have a substantial following and are highly respected within their niche, it’ll give your brand and product a boost. For example, vlogger and success coach, Amy Landino, is known for her organization and time management hacks. As someone who admits to practicing bullet journaling, she was one of the ideal influencers Ryder Carroll–the creator of the bullet journal system–could collaborate with when he launched his book on the Bullet Journal method. Create an employee engagement programYour employees are your brand’s most valuable assets for three reasons: First, they’re the force that keeps your business running. Second, they’re your best spokespeople when it comes to your brand. In fact, the Edelman Trust Barometer shows that your customers are more willing to trust what your employees say over your senior leaders, stakeholders, or even you (OUCH)! Lastly, your employees’ engagement levels have a direct impact on your business’ brand reputation and even your income. One way to do this is by creating a social media account where your employees can publish content they’ve created. HubSpot’s HubSpot Life Instagram account is a perfect example:
Each week, a HubSpot employee is selected from one of their offices worldwide. He or she is given full control of the account and what to post here. As you can see, the result is a fantastic collage offering a glimpse of the company’s culture. Because of this, HubSpot is able to attract new hires who not only have the skills they need but also have the same values they uphold. Create an ambassador programAn ambassador program can be a great way to encourage loyal fans and customers to create content for your brand consistently because you’re treating them like VIPs. By becoming part of an exclusive clique and being treated to exclusive perks, your “ambassadors” are more likely to create content about your products and services. To start an ambassador program, make sure you make the ground rules for users very clear. These may be about the kinds of posts they can create, what they aren’t allowed to mention vis-a-vis posting about your brand, and even how to use the perks and benefits that being an ambassador for your brand provides. Create a compelling challengeIf you can come up with a challenge that both excites and pushes users either physically or creatively, this can make great content for your brand. Many fitness content creators, for example, design a multi-day fitness challenge wherein users can participate and share their progress on their social media accounts. You can find ways to integrate free challenges for your customers, and not only do you get potential content to curate for your marketing channels, but you also engage audiences in ways like never before. And that’s not all. If your challenge is truly exciting to consumers, it even stands a chance to go viral, further increasing brand awareness and retention. Offer your customers an incentiveI know you’re probably thinking: isn’t this like bribing your customers to get user-generated content? No, it isn’t. And here’s why. As I’ve mentioned earlier, creating high-quality content’s not easy. If seasoned marketers struggle with this, imagine how much your customers would? Offering them an incentive like G2’s Starbucks coffee treat they offered on Twitter is a way of you saying, “Thanks for taking the time to help.” Besides, you won’t lose much when you nurture your relationship with your audience. Before long, you’ll be getting user-generated content even without incentives – because your fans are loyal enough to talk about your brand online on their own. Best practices for getting more user-generated content for your brandAs you create your user-generated content campaign, here are a few best practices you’ll have to note moving forward. Always credit back when repostingIf you repost any photos, quotes, or text that you didn’t create, credit them back to the original owner. On social media, this can be as simple as tagging the owner in your caption or over an image on Instagram. Tagging, after all, will bring you more exposure. Especially Instagram image tagging, where the tagged post appears on both profile pages – yours and the account you tagged. The tagged section on Instagram works as a great UGC repository. Are you slammed with managing Instagram tagging for multiple client accounts? Use SocialPilot to tag multiple Instagram public profiles in your scheduled image post. No need to jump back to Instagram after scheduling your post. Simply, tag profiles anywhere in the image at the time of scheduling and create Instagram-ready posts directly from SocialPilot. Start Your 14-day Trial Ask permission to use photos or videosIf you intend to use photos or videos created by fans or customers in any of your brand material, you’ll need explicit consent from users. Get in touch as best as you can to talk about fair compensation for using their work in your brand campaigns. If you’re unable to receive a reply, it’s best not to move forward with using user-generated content in your marketing campaigns. Respect boundariesNext, it’s essential to respect the boundaries and privacy of your users. Only curate and repost branded content if you saw you were tagged or mentioned or if your hashtag was used. Put up full disclosuresBe sure to put up full disclaimers and disclosures about how you intend to use any user-generated content about your brand. Explain that your business may most likely use these curated content across your social media channels and that you won’t compensate for reposted material. Monitor new content with the right toolsLastly, make the process of curating and monitoring user-generated content easier by using the best tools on the market. You’ll want to use content curation tools to help you spot fresh content about your brand. Also monitor the performance of your user-generated posts with some analytics tools. Do they get better engagement? What type of user-generated content performed best? Knowing this, you can refine your efforts even further to only curate the best posts, and think of new ways to keep getting high-quality, curation-worthy posts for your brand. Final thoughts Publishing user-generated content can significantly boost your brand’s reputation and your products, which will, in turn, help you generate more customers and increase your revenue. Each of the tips shared in this blog post can help you get more user-generated content for your brand. Results won’t happen overnight. But if you stay consistent, you’ll soon start receiving UGC from your satisfied customers. And that’s the key. More than anything, you need to make sure that you provide your customers with high-quality products and an even higher quality of customer service. When you can give this to your customers, they wouldn’t hesitate to help you spread the word. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/9-tips-to-get-more-user-generated-content-for-your-brand/6693/ Adding 3D features to your website has never been easier. Thanks to advancements in CSS and JavaScript, there are now built-in methods and frameworks for doing so. What’s more, these powerful tools open up the door to some serious creativity. And while 3D animation is widely-used, a third dimension can be utilized in other ways. Content containers such as card UIs, buttons, or typography, can benefit from the effect, as can product demos and infographics. There are tons of possibilities. In particular, 3D features can be great fun. Whether you use them to power a game or an attention-grabbing hero area, they naturally draw users in and keep them interested. And fun is our focus for today. We’ve rounded up eight entertaining code snippets that can help bring a smile to your site’s visitors. Let’s begin! The Globe You Were Looking For by Ksenia KondrashovaThis interactive 3D globe sports a unique look and includes some interesting technology. Not only can you “spin” it via click-and-drag or touch, but also plot points. Click to add a point, and the script will display its geo coordinates. See the Pen The Globe you were looking for (Three.js + GLSL + GSAP) by Ksenia Kondrashova 3D Lowpoly Pyramid in CSS by S. ShahriarHere we have the winning combination of a 3D object and polygon art. Drag the multicolored pyramid around to change its perspective. Impressively, this snippet is mostly powered by CSS, with a small assist from JavaScript. See the Pen CSS 3D Lowpoly Pyramid (simplified) by S. Shahriar Grow Anim by YCWWatching this eclectic mix of plant life “bloom” on the screen is fun. But start rotating this 3D object for a truly jaw-dropping effect. The presentation can be rotated a full 360° with incredibly smooth animation. The presentation utilizes HTML canvas and could serve as a guide for creating an interactive product demo. See the Pen 124. grow anim by ycw Recreating the “Minimal Keyboard” by Dibyajyoti Mishra by Jacob FosterThere’s more to this virtual keyboard than meets the eye. It not only looks amazing, but it’s also fully interactive. Make sure your browser is focused on the presentation, and the keyboard will mimic your typing. Hit the colored buttons on the right to set off a fun animated effect. See the Pen Recreating “Minimal keyboard” by Dibyajyoti Mishra by Jacob Foster 150ml of Vanilla CSS by Paulo NunesHere’s proof that you don’t need fancy animation to make a fun 3D element. This virtual package is built with CSS and takes advantage of the See the Pen 150ml of vanilla CSS by Paulo Nunes Bounce by Louis HoebregtsThere is some serious physics at play with these playful bouncing balls. Watch as they fall onto a rotating 3D platform and burst upon impact. Bonus points for the comic-like visual effects after each ball reaches the end of its journey. See the Pen CodePen Challenge – Bounce by Louis Hoebregts Toggle 3D by AdirToggle switches make for a nice addition to forms. They’re incredibly simple and offer a more attractive alternative to a set of “Yes/No” radio buttons. But this snippet takes it to a whole new level, complete with a 3D ball and some cool animated transitions. It wouldn’t be out of place on a user account dashboard. See the Pen Toggle 3D by Adir CSS Only 3D Image Effect by Temani AfifAre you looking for a way to spice up ordinary images? This pure CSS effect offers a compelling visual experience. Each image features a 3D perspective while hovering “flattens” the view and reveals a title. No heavy framework is required to add an element of fun. See the Pen CSS only 3D effect image by Temani Afif 3D Elements That Leap off the ScreenWhen you think about it, all that’s needed to create a basic 3D element on your website is a tiny bit of CSS. It just goes to show how far the language has progressed over the years. But CSS is only the starting point. Adding JavaScript, including frameworks such as GSAP, can bring professional-grade results. Some of the snippets above are shining examples of what can be accomplished. The third dimension has never been within closer reach for developers. Want to check out more fun and creative ways to integrate 3D into your projects? Head on over to our CodePen collection to continue your journey. from https://fatsfixedassettracking.com/8-fun-3d-features-you-can-recreate-with-css-javascript/6691/ |
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Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Archives
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