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We all know that criticism can sometimes be hard to take, but we also learn very early on that it usually makes for a stronger and better business. 

But today, the stakes have gotten even higher. 

Now, customer complaints are increasingly being channeled through the oh-so-public social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. This means that companies have to get on board fast, or risk the wrath of their unhappy customers’ complaints and criticisms going viral. 

A 2013 study by Simply Measured showed that 30% of brands have a dedicated customer service handle on Twitter, with the average response to a complaint being 5.1 hours. Only 10% of companies answered within the hour.  

And the numbers haven’t gotten any better since then.

In 2015, a study by brandwatch showed that most retail brands still don’t listen to customers on Twitter. They discovered that 46.6% of brands engaged with any tagged @mentions (which were categorized as neutral, questions or complaints). 64.6% responded to questions within 5 days and only 11.2% responded within one hour.  

To help you figure out how to handle customer service on social media the right way, I’ve compiled some examples of the good, the bad and the ugly so you can learn what you should and shouldn’t be doing!

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What does July 4th mean to you? Freedom? Liberty? Justice? Independence? The American Dream?

Well, as an Irish lass, it never held much meaning for me. It was always just another day. Until last year, that is. Last year July 4th marked the day that my first post for Spokal, entitled “How To Overcome Your Fears And Write The Perfect First Blog Post“, was published.

As a writer, there are very few times that you look back at your writing and confidently declare, “I wouldn’t change a thing”. This, however, was one of those pieces.

When I was mulling over ideas for my first blog post, I realized a 2 things:

1. I had no experience in the marketing industry, so writing about SEO or lead nurturing was out of the question. I’d need more time to do some studying and learn about the industry before I can write about it in any legitimate way.
2. Being the sole writer of a business’s blog (that’s not your own) is kind of intimidating.

So what did I choose to do?

I focused on myself. I focused on what problems I was facing.

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Content marketing is an ever-evolving marketing strategy that can, at times, leave us feeling overwhelmed. How are we supposed to keep on top of all the latest news? When are we supposed to take time out of our very busy days to read all the latest blog posts? How does everyone know about the latest so-and-so before me?

Well, it’s all thanks to Twitter.

Twitter provides us instant access to the inside workings of some of the best in the business, and you’d be a fool for not tapping into it.

From social media strategists, to growth hacking gurus, and prolific bloggers, Twitter allows you the opportunity to follow some of the best in the business to help you keep updated and informed. But, it’s not as easy as “build it and they will come” anymore. You can’t just start an account and follow anyone related to “content marketing”. You may very well end up following a bunch of Twitter accounts that are less than stellar.

So, if you want to get all the latest and most reliable updates and insights quickly and easily, you have to know who to follow. Or, in other words, you have to figure out who’ll add the most value to your Twitter stream.

And while there are tons of amazing thought leaders out there, here’s a list of 16 best content marketing twitter accounts to follow.

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I love writing. I love language. I love reading a sentence that flows with such lyricism that stopping it could be likened to a blow against the very fabric of nature.

So it comes to no surprise that I’m all for preserving language and abiding by its grammar rules. For me, grammar rules are there for good reasons. They exist to ensure that we’re able to express what we want to say with complete clarity and confidence.

However, I believe that some rules are made to be broken. I believe that some rules don’t help with clarity. I believe some rules are outdated. Plus, language is fluid and should grow and change as society does.

So I like to start sentences with “and”. Sometimes there’s nothing like good ol’ slang. And I think using “I” makes things way more personal and creates connections with readers like no other word can.

And I want you to learn how to write without fear of the Grammar Police reigning down their corrections of terror on your content.

But before we go any further, here’s some ground rules:

1. Think about your audience. If you’re writing an academic paper, you should probably be writing in a formal tone. If you’re writing for an audience of small business owners who’ve very little time to waste, you want to keep things informal and straight to the point.
2. Be true to your voice where possible. If you’re writing for personal reasons, or in a market that’s more informal, this will come naturally. However, if you’re writing in a more formal tone, this is going to be more of a challenge, but one that you should definitely work on.  
3. Understand the context. What is the topic you’re writing on? What kind of content are you creating? An EBook will be more formal than a blog, for example.

Now, on to the rules you should know (and break).

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Let me ask you this: why did you think your service/product would be a viable idea for a business? I’m willing to bet it’s because you identified your ideal customer’s pain point and validated that your product and/or service could solve this problem. That’s how most successful businesses start out. They see a customer’s pain point, and they find and then offer a solution to it.

So why doesn’t our content marketing work in the same way?

In Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he tells us of an anecdote of researchers who conducted a study where they sent two different ads to homeowners in the same neighborhood. 

One ad said, “if you insulate your home fully, you’ll save 50 cents every day.” The other said, “if you don’t insulate your home fully, you’ll lose 50 cents every day.”

When the study was completed it showed that the people who received the ad that focused on “loss language” were 150% more likely to insulate their house than the other group.

What this study shows us is that people are more often motivated by fear of loss than hope of gain. As humans, we’re wired in a way that avoiding pain is much more important to our survival than gaining pleasure is (most of the time, anyways!).  

If you want to find more customers, then focus on creating content that provides them with a solution to their pain points.

There are a lot of questions that come to mind when we talk about keywords. How should we use them? Where should they be placed? What’s too much and/or too little? Are long-tail keywords or short term ones more effective? Does Google even take them into consideration anymore?

If you’re new to the content marketing world, or just trying to keep up with the latest updates, you’re probably going to want to get the skinny on keywords and, as is natural, query some of those questions. What you’ll find is a whole bunch of conflicting advice. Some will tell you that keywords are obsolete, while others will tell you that they’re still as important as ever.

And, with Google constantly updating their algorithms, most of these results are undoubtedly outdated too.

It’s a little frustrating, to say the least.

What’s more frustrating is that keywords aren’t all that complicated. In fact, keywords make more sense now than they ever have before.

Here’s the 5 things you need to know about keywords.

Every day, without fail, you’re writing.

This could be because it’s part of, or the entirety of, your job description. Or maybe it’s because you’re a business owner and content marketing is the lifeline of your business’s success.  

Whatever the reason, you find yourself producing and writing content on a daily basis.

But, lately things haven’t been going so well. Sure, you’re putting out the content that you’ve been asked to, you’re finishing up the posts that you’ve been assigned and you’re always hitting your word count target every day. It’s paying the bills, you’re checking the boxes, and on the surface, everything’s going just fine. You’re doing what you love as a career, how can you complain?

When you go home, you’re tired. But that’s normal, right? You’d love to work on those personal writing projects that you enjoy, but you just can’t write anymore today. You’re finding yourself more often than not sitting brainlessly in front of the television.

Then, you start to notice that even your content writing at work isn’t going too well.

It’s taking you longer to finish writing projects, and the content just isn’t that deep or exciting anymore. Your editor can tell, your readers can tell, heck if you’re being totally honest with yourself, even you can tell. Your writing has become formulaic, basic and low-quality. You’re not proud of it, and you begin to resent the restraints on your creative mind that are holding you back from writing something truly remarkable.

This, my friends, is writer’s burnout.

It’s seems like every month there’s some new marketing strategy emerging online. Some fad or trend that business owners clamber to look at with a mixture of caution and awe as they ask themselves, will this be the next big thing, or a complete waste of time?

Inbound marketing is an ever-growing topic and it seems like every year it becomes more complicated, more intricate, more… well, more. 

And sometimes it can feel overwhelming. 

But not to worry – there are people out there committed to keeping up to date with all the latest updates, trends, news, research and data. People so committed to keeping up to date with all of this information that they maintain wonderful blogs that then help us to stay on top of this fast-paced industry. 

Last year, we brought you the top 7 content marketing blogs to read in 2014. Each and every one of those blogs is still going strong, so check them out if you get a chance! This year we wanted to top that number and bring you 8 more that are sure to help you stay at the top of your game. 

Here are the top 8 content marketing blogs to read in 2015 to get more customers and boost your sales online.    

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Ah, hashtags. Once simply a button on my telephone that I was often prompted to press while using automated telephone systems, the hashtag now claims a spot in the Oxford Dictionary (along with “selfie” and “totes”), with the accompanying definition:

“A word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media sites such as Twitter to identify messages on a specific topic”

It wasn’t until 2007 the idea of using hashtags on social media came to be, thanks to one Chris Messina, a social technology expert, who first posted the hashtag #barcamp in August 2007. The whole tweet appeared like this:

“how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”

Nowadays, it’s hard to go a day without hearing/reading/saying/using the word “hashtag” – even if you aren’t a social media marketing guru like moi! (I use term “guru” very lightly).

But, as we know all too well, just because something in prevalent in our day-to-day lives (such as beards, dadbods, and the colors blue, black, white & gold) doesn’t mean we really understand it very much at all.