With businesses around the world generating a ton of revenue from the web, social media marketing has become all the more important. While putting out great content and videos does win you business, many entrepreneurs are yet to perfect a formula for getting results from social media and taking their brands to the next level.

We’ve prepared a comprehensive list of proven and tested tips that you can incorporate into your online campaign for better results.

Here are 8 Great tips for getting results from social media this year:

1. Optimize Your Visual Content

Designing high quality, polished images for emails and ads is only the first step. Once you’ve captured attention, how do you drive traffic back to your landing page? This is where optimization comes in.

Make sure to attach links to all content that you put out. For instance, if you are uploading videos on YouTube, always link your landing page in the description section. In case of an image based email marketing campaign, add links to the body of text. This way, every time a user clicks on your content, they will directly view your landing page.

2. Produce Content on a Consistent Basis

One of the best ways to keep your target audience captivated is to constantly churn out content that is useful and relevant to them. Imagine publishing expert articles on how people could make money easily by trading for a month or two, and then going dry. Thousands of people who are relying on your blog to learn trading will eventually move onto another source and give them business instead.

No one is going to talk about you if you don’t show up for the party. Likewise, your company will quickly fade from the public’s memory if you are too slow to engage them.

3. Become an Authority on Facebook

Because of its extremely large user base and ongoing algorithm changes, Facebook is one of the best places to market your products and services. Simply having a page won’t cut it. You will need to put up content that will inspire, inform and entertain your audience.

This way, your campaign won’t be perceived as promotional content. You will end up being a resource in your niche. Once you’ve built up such reputation, sales and revenue will flow like there’s no tomorrow. Furthermore, try considering running a few contests and giveaways just to compete with your rivals.

4. Make Adequate Use Of LinkedIn Publisher

LinkedIn not only allows you to connect with other businesses and partners but also enables you to reach out to consumers with the Publisher tool. Regardless of your current network size, the Publisher tool can be used to expand your reach and credibility.

Publishing content on LinkedIn is also a great way to stay top-of-mind with your network. More often than not, a large portion of your network will get notified each time you publish new content on the platform. This could be all that is needed for them to remember your Boca Raton business, and to take the next step on their path to purchase.

5. Use Automation Tools

If you’re a lean entrepreneur who is running a company with a small team, you’ll need to learn to automate tasks.

Curating content takes a lot of effort, and you can save time by using suggested content tools such as Quuu. A few clicks is all it takes for the service to find content that is useful for your audience. With this tool (and others like it), you and your team can easily concentrate on other major tasks while simultaneously brewing up content for all your social media profiles.

6. Invest on Social Ads

Having a website is one thing, but think about all that work you’ve put in to lure people to visit it. Wouldn’t all that effort amount to nothing if they just exit quickly? To maximize the potential of each visit, it would be a wise move to invest in social retargeting ads. Basically, you will be able to follow your website visitors to other social networking platforms like Facebook or Twitter. For instance, on Facebook, you can set up an ad to only show to people who have visited your website in the last 30 days and who also happen to live in Boca Raton.

And of course, there’s a high chance for them to like your page or follow you if your content is useful. So if you don’t manage to capture your audience with your website (which could be based on a number of factors, such as an inefficient landing page), you can always do so on social media platforms.

7. Leverage Data Analytics

The rise of data analytics and mining has enabled businesses to learn from past mistakes quickly. If your goal to perform better on social media, the obvious question arises – how are you measuring your progress? Are social media campaigns tangible at all? For a few years, many marketers couldn’t answer this question. But thanks to analytics platforms from Google, Heap, Mixpanel, etc., now we all have the data right at our fingertips.

BuzzSumo is a service that lets you measure the effectiveness of all social media posts and interactions. You will be able to precisely know what has worked in the last month or even the last year. It’s a simple process – just enter the keyword that your campaign revolves around, and the service will bring up content that is performing well. If you don’t see your posts ranking in the top results, maybe you need to put in more work. Besides that, you can also use this tool for content curation.

8. Check If Pinterest Works for Your Brand

Pinterest isn’t for everybody, but if your brand has something visual to show off, or if your marketing campaign revolves around a lot of visual elements, being active on Pinterest isn’t a bad idea at all.

To those in the dark, Pinterest serves as the number one source for all things visual. Certain niches tend to do very well on Pinterest, not only in terms of getting engagement on their pins, but also getting traffic to their websites.

Moreover, visual elements such as images and videos are set to take over written content in the next 5 years. It might be too early to sow the seeds but it surely is worth the shot!

Ready, Set, Go!

Well, there you have it. 8 tips for getting results from social media in 2017, and beyond. If nothing else, hopefully this list inspires you to switch up your social media marketing campaigns and test new strategies. Because only by constantly trying new approaches will you be able to get better results over time.

And of course, if you’d like our team of professional social media marketers to handle any of these strategies for you, let’s chat! You can check out our on-demand marketplace of services right here and get started in seconds. Go ahead, browse our services today!

The post 8 Tips for Getting Results from Social Media in 2017 appeared first on FastBlink.

Okay kidding aside, I truly believe social media keeps us young. Social media has made it much easier to stay connected with really anyone we want, sometimes regardless of whether a particular person wants us too or not. It has changed the way the world communicates, how we do business, and made us rethink what advertising is all about. All of that is great, but to give you a better idea of what I mean, here are my five reasons I feel this way.

1. The Ability to Keep in Touch

Remember when everyone thought that “yeah, it is cool to have good friends in high school, but eventually you stop hanging out with them after you graduate because life gets in the way?” Think of your Facebook friends. No matter your age, I bet a good portion are the friends you had in high school. And I guarantee you have “friends” on Facebook that you went to high school with but was not a close buddy of yours, and you still accepted their friend request after you graduated just because you went to high school with them.

This makes it very easy to keep in touch. Think about it, you don’t even need to talk to a friend if they are active on Facebook. Your news feed tells you what is going on in their life. So maybe, thanks to Facebook, we can keep friends long past high school and college.

2. Knowing Latest Trends

My favorite tool on Twitter is seeing the list of trending topics or names. It is a snap shot of what is important for the world to be talking about at that very moment. So when I say social media helps us know the latest trends, I really mean it shows us what is trending throughout our communities, our country, and the entire globe at any given moment. And it’s fun to join those conversations.

3. Understanding Entertainment

It feels odd to say, but YouTube is technically a social media platform. It doesn’t feel that way though, right? It is a very powerful search engine, but users still create communities within the platform. That’s why I consider it social media. And it has radically changed the way we think of television and entertainment. If I watch a great show on TV, I can’t share it on social platforms. But if I watch a great video on YouTube, I can share it. With the rise of YouTube channels, the millennial generation in particular has grown accustomed to spending more time there than on traditional TV. Because of this, where we get our entertainment is changing.

4. Condensed Content

Why does condensed content make us younger? Because it takes less time to read, watch, and absorb it. Storytelling is becoming shorter and shorter every year. Why? Very simply, that is what people want. And platforms like Vine and Pinterest give us what we want. We can consume a piece of content that has been shared and within minutes we are moving on to something else.

5. Constant Change

As we said before, the only constant is change, especially in social media. New platforms like Snapchat and Jelly will continue to come from what seems like nowhere and take social media marketing by storm. That’s what excites Nicholas and I: the next big thing. Constant change requires continuing education, and that too keeps us young.

So there you have it. Social media keeps us young. It probably, okay definitely, will not take years off your appearance; that’s what the doctors here in Boca Raton are for. But what it can do is keep you current. That’s important.

If this article was of any value to you I would greatly appreciate a like and a tweet!

The post 5 Reasons Social Media Keeps Us Young appeared first on FastBlink.

It’s been decided. You and your brand need to be there.

The conversations about your products and services are already taking place. It’s up to you whether or not you want to take part in them or leave that opportunity open to your competition.

The questions marketers should be asking in 2014 have less to do with the necessity of social media, and more to do with the technicalities of what works best on specific platforms.

The general consensus in years past has been that you have to “do something” on social media in order to stay relevant. This meant setting up a social presence across a multitude of networks and then pumping out content. The emphasis was more on the volume of content than on the quality of content.

Guess what? Those days are over. Volume of content now takes a back seat to quality of content.

Let me give you a great example of this.

Let’s say you’re a dentist and on your Facebook page you regularly post articles published by national news sites such as the New York Times or USA Today that have to do with dentistry, teeth, and related health topics. You’ve been distributing this content through your Facebook page for months now, yet you have very little engagement on these posts. Why is that?

Well, for one thing, it’s a “low effort” social activity.

How long did it really take you to find a news article about dentistry and post it on your page? Not long at all. Facebook knows this, and that’s why they’ve created an algorithm that attributes a much lesser weight to such content as compared to a “high effort” social activity.

Advancing this example, a “high effort” social activity would be for you to host an interactive question and answer session on Facebook on a regular basis where you spend a couple of hours at a time taking questions on dentistry and responding in real-time. Whew, that sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Yes, it is.

But those kinds of efforts are what works best in a noisy world.

Let’s face it, if I really wanted to read an article on dentistry published by the New York Times, I’d follow the New York Times, or I’d do a quick Google search for articles on that topic. There’s no point in bloating up my news feed with “low effort” social content like that, just because you needed something to fill empty space on your page.

If I’m going to “like” your Facebook page, it’s because I want to stay in touch with what you’re doing, at your office, in your company, for your clients.

Tell me how you are different. Share original articles from your very own blog. Post pictures from your latest event. There are so many ways to connect with an audience that are far better than just linking to a third-party news article.

Yet, brands still do it all the time.

And please don’t get me wrong. This isn’t an all-or-nothing approach. Posting a few third-party article links every now and then is fine. You have to switch things up and sometimes this can give a fresh perspective. Just don’t make this your main strategy.

What I’m getting at is that if this is all you’re doing on social media, then you’re actually doing your fans and followers a disservice. You’re just filling their news feeds with junk (if it even gets into their news feed, but that’s a whole different issue).

The bottom line is that in 2014, the brands that succeed with social media will be defined by the quality of the content they produce. If you want to be within that group, stop posting “filler” content and start producing your own stuff, whether it be blog posts, infographics, white papers, PDFs, videos, slide decks, images, podcasts or a million other things for that matter.

Be a creator first and a curator second.

Of course, sharing the work of others is important. We do it all the time. The backbone of social media is built upon social sharing. There’s a time and place for it, without a doubt. But don’t let your entire social campaign be defined by sharing.

Add to the conversation in your own unique way.  It takes more time and effort, but your fans and followers will thank you for it in the long run.

The post Be a Social Media Creator First and a Curator Second appeared first on FastBlink.

Enter stage right: Applebee’s. The restaurant chain has an active presence on Facebook, and has developed a relationship with a certain customer on one of it’s local pages. His name, according to his profile, is Chip Zdarsky. The two talk on the regular. It is a fascinating showcase of how serious a brand treats its social media presence. Below are some of our favorite interactions.

They like to exchange jokes.

Source: zdarsky.tumblr.com

Chip shares the struggles he’s faced in life.

Source: zdarsky.tumblr.com

Applebee’s gives halloween costume advice.

Source: zdarsky.tumblr.com

But the talk is not always personal. There is a selling component to the relationship. Chip helps family realize how great Applebee’s food is. Applebee’s chimes in when needed. Essentially, this is word of mouth becoming relevant again.

Source: zdarsky.tumblr.com

As the bond grows, Chip is unafraid to offer cuisine suggestions.

Source: zdarsky.tumblr.com

The relationship is not limited to the interactions pictured above. Check out this BuzzFeed article to see a more complete list.

So were these conversations funny? Yes. But what is more important to notice is how high Applebee’s regards its customers on social media. That is why companies like this will “win” the Internet in 2014. Winning the Internet is a running joke across the web. It is a phrase used when readers want to label something funny or meaningful they have read or watched that day. Because they are so consistent in their approach, no matter how inconsequential a particular conversation may be, companies like Applebee’s will not just win the Internet for a day, they will win the Internet for an entire year.

2014 is going to change they way companies think about selling, advertising, and customer service. As we have said many times, business is becoming much more humanized, and social media deserves major props for that. No one signs up for Facebook or Twitter to see the latest sales going on, or to get the best deals. They join these communities to socialize with others, to engage, and to share ideas. They don’t sign up to buy snake oil.

As a disclaimer, Applebee’s is not the only company crushing it on social media. But this is by far the most hilarious example of what the right approach to social media interaction is. What is most encouraging about this relationship between brand and customer is if a chain restaurant as big as Applebee’s can keep up with what is being said to them across their social channels, so too can any brand no matter the size.

Stories like this are encouraging because it shows that companies are beginning to display just how much they care about their customers. Applebee’s understands how important listening is, and because of that they will not just win the Internet in 2014, they will crush it.

The post Why Companies Like Applebee’s Will Win the Internet in 2014 appeared first on FastBlink.

With all this talk of fitness in the air, I thought it would be an appropriate time to use this as an analogy for putting together a solid social media marketing campaign.

Believe it or not, there are more similarities between seeing results in the gym and seeing results in your social media campaign than you might think.

So, without further ado, here are seven tips you can use to whip your social media marketing campaign into shape:

1. Set realistic and measurable goals

If you walk into any gym and tell them you want to get in shape, they’re probably going to ask you to define your specific goals. You need a starting point. Whether it is to lose 10 pounds in the next 90 days, or increase your vertical jump distance in the next month, these goals need to be realistic and measurable.

The same can be said for your marketing goals. Don’t expect to be an overnight success with 1000 new fans or followers by tomorrow. That’s not realistic.

Also, you have to know where to look in order to know what is working. For example, if your goal is to increase social media engagement, don’t obsess over your fan or follower count. Rather than that metric, look at the number of likes, shares, retweets, comments, mentions, etc.

2. Make it a habit

Many fitness experts say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Similarly, the correct approach to social media marketing is to make it a habit.

Of all the folks who give up on social media marketing, most do so simply because they either didn’t give it enough time, or they engaged in what I like to call “sprint marketing.”

Sprint marketing is as simple as it sounds. It is marketing in short sprints or surges of activity and then doing nothing for a while. You might see this often on various Facebook pages, where brands will have a deluge of activity for a day or so followed by months of inactivity.

Don’t do that. Let your campaign be known for consistency. One post per day across all of your social channels is better than ten posts in one day and then a month of neglect.

3. Take some time to rest every now and then

Just as it is important to rest after a tough workout, it is important to occasionally take a short break from social media so as not to get burned out. Here at FastBlink we tend to take Sunday off. While we’re still continually monitoring our campaigns and we’re available for our clients, we’re not as active as we are during every other day.

The idea here is to prevent burnout. Social media marketing done properly is an intense activity, because the amount of content that is continually being produced and shared is overwhelming. Give yourself an occasional break. You can thank me later.

4. Switch things up

We all know that some of the most successful fitness programs work by changing things up. You don’t want to do the same workout every single day of the year. That would not only be boring, but eventually you’ll reach a plateau.

To translate this tip into marketing language, try to keep your audience guessing. For example, don’t share exactly the same content on Twitter as you do on Facebook. Fit your content to the unique characteristics of each platform.

Furthermore, try something different from time to time. For example, Chris and I have recently been experimenting with Vine, the new(ish) six-second video platform owned by Twitter. While we haven’t produced that many videos yet, we’re working on it just because we want to do something different.

5. Consume the right type of fuel

You don’t want to run a marathon on an empty stomach. Obviously you need to consume the right types of food prior to the race. This gets you ready for what is ahead.

In much the same way, you need to understand your industry like the back of your hand before you embark on your social media journey.

For example, we try to read as much as we can about the latest social media trends every day. This allows us to keep our tactics and strategy current and relevant to our clients’ needs.

In much the same way, you need to keep up-to-date on what is happening in your industry, and what is interesting to your audience. This way you can provide that audience with the highest quality content.

6. Find the right partners

Working out always seems to be more enjoyable when you have a workout buddy. Or maybe you can make it a group effort by trying a fitness class. Either way, there is something to be said about attaining your goals with others.

Similarly, social media marketing done right involves many strategic partnerships. Maybe it’s a guest blogging opportunity that you regularly take part in or an online group that you engage with regularly, or maybe it’s as simple as making sure every member of your organization contributes in some way to your social media campaign.

Whatever the case may be, having the right partners can make a world of  difference in achieving your overall marketing goals.

7. Walk before you run

Last but not least, here’s one last tip. It’s a simple one. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. By walking before your run, you start slowly and work your way up. This can be said for both achieving your fitness goals as well as your marketing goals.

Social media can look intimidating. Where do I begin? What do I say? How do I get noticed? These are all valid questions, but don’t let them intimidate you. You just need to start somewhere. Maybe you’ll chose just one platform to focus on for the first 30 days and really dive in. This way you won’t be spread too thin.

As the old saying by Author Ashe goes, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

That’s all for this analogy. Did it make sense or was it just too silly? Let me know what you thought. I’d love to hear from you.

Best of luck in reaching your social media marketing goals for 2014!

The post The Social Media Marketing Workout appeared first on FastBlink.

Think back to email newsletters. We used to love receiving them. We would read every word. Nowadays, we unsubscribe without thinking twice if we feel just the slightest bit spammed. How dare you send me two emails in a week!

Marketers did this. We ruined email. We made it less personal. We made it automated. We transformed it from a communications tool to a sales tool. Sorry about that.

Social media is following the same path. It was never intended to be a sales tool first and foremost.

Facebook wasn’t built with business pages in mind. It was built for people, like you and I, to connect with our friends and family. Pages however, are a great way for brands to get their messages out there, nestled between the posts in our news feed from Aunt Sally and Joey from college.

Brands began to abuse this opportunity, spamming us in much the same way they have with email marketing. Facebook’s reaction to this was EdgeRank, the algorithm that determines what shows up in our personal news feeds, based on our interests and interactions.

Now, brands are paying a strong price for access to our news feeds. They either need to produce killer content, or they need to pay the piper. Either way, this requires an investment of time or money (or both).

It’s not so easy being a brand on Facebook anymore.

But don’t despair. This isn’t the end of the road. No, this is just the beginning. Brands have had it too easy for far too long. It was too easy to gain access to a wide audience. It never should have been that easy in the first place.

EdgeRank should have been acting as a gatekeeper since day one. There have to be safeguards in place to ensure only the highest quality content gets through to us. If not, we’d be sick and tired of Facebook by tomorrow, because we’d see so much irrelevant junk in our feeds.

So, what does all of this mean for you and your brand? It means you need to put in the effort to make your content really shine. You see, ever since EdgeRank popped up, content really is king on Facebook.

Now, let me drop the main point of this entire article, summed up nicely in one short sentence:

The quality of your content is even more important than your advertising budget, because without quality content, you can burn through your entire ad budget and still get nowhere.

Boom.

Think about it for a second. Even if you pay Facebook to advertise on their platform, you’re only paying for access. You’re making a wager that Facebook users will notice your page and decide to give it a “like” or engage with a particular post.

What this means is that if you’re paying to advertise, yet your content isn’t up to par, people won’t take action. Thus, your investment will be wasted.

This is why it all comes down to having the best content out there. It’s a must. There’s no way around it.

We didn’t make these rules, but we’re certainly going to be playing along with them. What about you?

The post Why Your Content is More Important Than Your Budget appeared first on FastBlink.

It may sound elementary, but just because you read something on the Internet, does not make it true. Before I go any further, let me first explain that I love the Internet. So don’t be confused, I admire everything the Internet has brought to humanity. I use it countless hours every week, and chances are you do too. And that is sort of where the problem lies.

We consume a whole bunch of content day in and day out. On social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, content is shared very quickly through our feeds. Because of this, it is hard to decipher the accuracy of what is being shared. Being too “share” or “retweet” happy can lead to the worst symptom the Internet can be exposed to: misinformation.

The most dramatic case of misinformation because of viral content that I recall came just hours after the bombing at this year’s Boston Marathon.  After the FBI released the photographs of the suspects involved in the bombing, very quickly social media users scoured the Internet looking for clues. A young woman stumbled upon a Facebook page dedicated to a missing high school student in Rhode Island. The teenage male resembled the photos released by the FBI. That young woman shared what she found on Twitter. The revelation quickly made its way to Reddit.

At this point, according to many on social media, the identity of the suspect had been found. The problem, however, was that the high school student from Rhode Island had nothing to do with the marathon bombings. Nothing at all. But before the correct information could get to the public, users on Facebook had already left nasty messages on the page dedicated to the missing teen.

Why do I bring this up? Because I strongly believe that when you share content on social media, it is your job to make sure everything your sharing is accurate. You owe it to your audience. And just because a headline from a major news source has popped up while scrolling through your favorite platform, you really should make sure the report is accurate. Need we be reminded how many times CNN had to restate what they had previously reported in the days following the marathon bombings?

So in times of breaking news, as the most well known sources of information are always in a fury to be the first ones to report breaking news, the wrong information can quickly spread like wild fire. Why is this important regarding social media marking? This phenomena of being first to report does not only happen in TV. Breaking stories always spread to the Internet. In fact, most times the Internet is where a story breaks.

Do not misunderstand what I’m trying to say. The Internet and social media are great sources for information and yes, even news. But verify the content you share. Your audience will respect your brand if you check for accuracy. And if your audience respects you, all of your blogging and social media marketing efforts pay off.

The post When Good Blogs Go Bad appeared first on FastBlink.

That’s it, plain and simple. There is no shortcut. You can stop reading now if you’re in a hurry. But if you want to see exactly what I mean when I say “put in real hours,” then stick around.

First, let me explain the age old problem faced by brands of all sizes that want to use social media to grow their business. They want the results, but they just don’t have the time, or so they say. So, what do many of these folks do? They either give up on social media completely, or they try to automate as much as they can so that they don’t have to do any real work.

They end up using social media as just another distribution platform, similar to the way they’ve been using email marketing and pay-per-click advertising. It’s another channel to fill with “stuff” with the hopes that people will click on the links and buy something.

Guess what? That is not how social media works.

To be effective, you first need to understand the nuances of each social media platform and the unique culture of the average users on each platform.  For instance, if you’re selling handbags, you absolutely, positively need to have a strong presence on Pinterest (where over 70% of the demographic is female). However, you might not need to worry about LinkedIn as much as someone in a B2B industry.

In an ideal world, you could be everywhere at all times. But let’s be practical. It’s just not possible to have an engaging and active social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Vine, Snapchat, Tumblr, SlideShare, etc. Well, you get the idea. The list goes on and on. You need to pick and choose your playgrounds.

Once you’ve immersed yourself in these social channels, the real work begins. You now need to craft content that is “native” to the platform. For instance, after spending some time exploring the culture behind what works on Tumblr, you’ll notice that animated GIFs are a big thing over there. They get lots of traction. Therefore, the ideal approach on Tumblr would be to post animated GIFs, or at least visual content of some sort (not long-form blog posts).

All of this takes patience, as you’ll be working through a lot of trial and error. You have to put out tons of content to see what sticks, then, once you’ve found the right formula for a given channel, do more of that.

But, this is just the “content” end of social media marketing. We haven’t even discussed the “engagement” side of things.

You see, social media is about sparking conversations, so that your brand can build awareness, authority, and trust. Ultimately, this will lead you to more sales down the road, because people buy from those they trust.

However, publishing content is only one side of the coin. You need to also understand the best ways to engage with other users on various social platforms, and this takes continual effort on a daily basis. You need to be tuned in to the conversations that are already happening. What are people talking about? Then, you need to find ways to jump in on these conversations in a way that adds value for all of the participants.

Whenever you hear marketing experts talk about “listening” via social media, this is what they’re talking about. And sadly, this is what most brands are simply not doing, because frankly, it takes too much time.

Time is our most precious resource, so I can understand why we don’t want to waste it. But spending time to use social media as it was originally intended to be used is not a waste of time. So give it a try, put in the hours, make a real effort. You’ll be amazed at the response you can get.

If you found any value in this article, please share it with others and leave your thoughts and comments below.

The post Are You Putting in Enough Hours on Social Media? appeared first on FastBlink.

1. Make sure you’re using Google Authorship on your blog [Click to Tweet]
2. Start building an email list today [Click to Tweet]
3. Try to create evergreen content that doesn’t expire [Click to Tweet]
4. After writing a blog post, go comment on similar posts [Click to Tweet]
5. Use a tool like Buffer to schedule posts over time [Click to Tweet]
6. Turn a single idea into a blog post, image, video, etc. [Click to Tweet]
7. Monitor your brand keywords with Google Alerts [Click to Tweet]
8. Think like your audience [Click to Tweet]
9. Decide how often you can be self-promotional [Click to Tweet]
10. Become genuinely interested in other folks [Click to Tweet]
11. Schedule time every day for social media engagement [Click to Tweet]
12. Never jump in without spending some time just listening [Click to Tweet]
13. Respond to every single person who reaches out to you [Click to Tweet]
14. Convert your real-world connections into online connections [Click to Tweet]
15. Seek out and connect with influencers in your niche [Click to Tweet]
16. If you don’t like writing blog posts, try creating videos [Click to Tweet]
17. If you don’t like creating videos, try writing blog posts [Click to Tweet]
18. Never hog the spotlight [Click to Tweet]
19. Pay more attention to your Klout score than your follower count [Click to Tweet]
20. Never, ever buy likes or followers [Click to Tweet]
21. Participate in groups, communities, tribes, etc. [Click to Tweet]
22. Test the waters, see what works for you, and do more of it [Click to Tweet]
23. Every now and then, do something random and unexpected [Click to Tweet]
24. Always ask yourself, “How is this action adding value?” [Click to Tweet]
25. Create content based around information, ego, or emotion [Click to Tweet]

Which of these tips did you find most helpful? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments section below.

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Actually, scratch that. Technology probably moves along thousands of ideas and products at a time. But how exciting is it, to live in the fastest innovative period in the history of the world? We’ve seen some amazing things with the expansion of the internet: online shopping, communication at a global level, and the ability to share content on a massive level.

It’s fun to see the reaction people have to new technology. A vast majority of the time, innovation excites us. Let’s take a look at a prediction Gary Vaynerchuk made on twitter recently.

Just bought ( using Bitcoin ) my Google Smart Pants & had it delivered by a drone in 21 minutes #ThingsIwillTweetin2016

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) December 2, 2013

Think of what our friend Gary is talking about. It is actually pretty funny. He thinks that someday we will use a digital currency other than the dollar to buy computerized clothing that is delivered to our homes by a drone. The scary part? He is probably right.

Here’s my version:

Just left the CoWorking office with the 3D printed spare part for my car. #ThingsIwillTweetin2016

— Naff (@Chris_Naff) December 23, 2013

Gary’s tweet got me thinking. No one knows what the future holds, but if we look at trends over the last few years, what we do know is that the only constant is change. The way we work will be different. We will see new forms of advertisements. And as we see more by the day, the Internet will continue to improve lives by the masses.

And you know what else that means? Social media will continue to change. Okay, you probably figured that. But what if I said a platform you use daily will be obsolete by 2016? Yes, that will probably happen. New platforms are growing in popularity, and the largest networks will have to do their best to keep their audiences from fleeing to places like Snapchat and Vine.  If we examine the current trend of the internet, users generally like content that is visual and does not take long to consume.

Story telling is becoming more condensed than most could ever imagine. Thought we would never see six second commercials? Wrong. Does a photo sharing app that doesn’t save the images sound silly? Wrong again. That’s the nature of communication today; very short lived.

So where will we be in 2016?

I am not sure. I am excited to see what is next; what that new innovative idea will be. I suspect the platforms that allow for short story telling that catches the eye of users while scrolling through their phones will perform best. That’s why we are so bullish on Vine and Pinterest. We will see new social media platforms come and go because technology disrupts markets. It will continue to happen in social media because again, the only constant is change.

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