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12 Days of Giveaways: Free Google+ Download from Amanda Blain

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Amanda Blain It’s Day Two of the NMX 12 Days of Giveaways, and today we have something special for you from one of our returning speakers, Amanda Blain! You can get it for free right now here.

Amanda Blain knows how to get results on Google Plus – and that might be the understatement of the year. She’s built a fanbase of over 3.5 million on this platform.
If you’re not sure how to get results for your blog, company, or brand page on Google Plus, pick up your copy of Amanda’s guide today. You’ll learn:
  • The three reasons you need to be on Google Plus
  • Four steps anyone can use to improve their brand page
  • Quick tips for getting started, even if you have no experience

Amanda has the 27th most followed Google Plus profile in the world, which has over 210,000 comments, 230,000 reshares, and 860,000 of +1s on the network.

This guide is available for free for a limited time only! Just tell us where to send it by filling out your information, and we’ll email you a copy to celebrate the 12 Days of Giveaways.

Stay tuned for the rest of our giveaways that are part of our 12 Days of Giveaways promotion. We have lots of awesome freebies available between now and December 31!

10 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Google In-Depth Articles

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Brilliant Bloggers is a bi-weekly series here at NMX where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every other week, we’ll feature a brilliant blogger, along with a huge list of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.

This Week’s Topic: Google In-Depth Articles

Google recently announced a new search feature: in-depth articles. This new feature allows your content to get found, even if it is older, when you create a top resource about a specific topic.

I wrote a little about Google in-depth articles last week. Today, I wanted to direct you to even more brilliant advice on this topic.

Brilliant Blogger of the Week:

ana hoffman Google In-Depth Articles: How to Rank for Them in Google Search Results by Ana Hoffman

This was one of the first posts I read about in-depth articles back when this feature was introduced. I think Ana does a great job of covering the topic and giving you some insight about how to rank in search results using this feature. More importantly, however, I love this idea from Ana: “I am very excited about investing in thoughtful in-depth content that will remain relevant for months or even years after publication – for my incredible Traffic Generation Café readers, not for Google.”

After reading Ana’s full post on her blog, don’t forget to follow her on Twitter at @AnaTrafficCafe.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

(Please note: There are literally hundreds if not thousands of news stories about there about in-depth articles. My intention here was to post interesting views and how-tos on this topic, rather than just announcements of the new feature.)

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about Google in-depth articles? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link.

Next Brilliant Blogger Topic: Facebook Storybumping

I’d love to include a link to your post in our next installment– and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

Do Bloggers Need to be on Google+?

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google plus The principle behind the founding of Google is quite simple: Some webpages are much more important others. How do they decide which are the most important? Basically, importance is given to content that Google believes answers questions users have about a particular topic better than other webpages.

The face of internet search technology was completely changed by Google webpage evaluations. They evaluate each link pointing to a particular webpage according to the quantity, as well as how much Google trusts the sites the links come from.

However, in 1998 things changed even more. That’s when Google also began judging the popularity of a webpage based on the amount of likes it receives through social media sharing. Social sharing helps to increase the search engine rankings of a particular webpage. Yet, Facebook and Twitter still aren’t exactly cooperative with Google. The webpage itself was always the focus of the story, until recently. Thanks to Google+, the writer is now a central part as well.

How to Increase Your Google+ Audience

Google+ profiles serve as verifiable identities for bloggers. Your reputation on Google+ is influenced by several factors:

  • The actual number of Google+ followers you have.
  • The actual number of reshares for your content.
  • The actual number of +1’s you receive.
  • Your Google+ activity: regular posts, comments, reshares and +1’s you’ve given others.

Thanks to Google+, your content is not the only thing users can vote for to grow your reputation. Today, when you get a +1 on your content, you, personally, are also getting a +1 vote. Many users say that Google+ profiles appear to grow much faster than on both Facebook and Twitter.

So, what are some effective ways to build your Google+ audience? Just keep in mind that G+ is a social media platform made up of groups of like-minded people, called communities. Therefore, that’s exactly how you should treat it.

  • Create a Great Bio – Effective Google+ bios include your actual name or pen name, a summary describing who you are, what your business does, why you’re using Google+ and the type of content you plan to share on G+. Make sure that there are keywords included in your places, education, employment and introduction sections of your Google+ bio.
  • Build Relationships – When you first begin, follow people you actually know. Then, simply search for more people to follow and get to know. Google has also implemented Google+ Hangouts, which gives users a more unique way to interact with other G+ users.
  • Share Content – Create original content for your blog posts. These can be video, photo or text posts. Then, share links to your content on G+. Be sure to create an attention-grabbing headline and add a brief though about the content. Also, end your post with an intriguing question to encourage user comments.
  • Comment, Comment, Comment – Leave relevant, interesting comments on photos and posts, asking thought-provoking questions. You can also refer (or tag) other users by typing “+” and their name to get a display of results to choose from.

Using Google+ for Social Media Marketing

Your blog must contain interesting content that’s relevant and valuable to the lives of your target audience. Social media marketing is one of the most effective techniques for getting the word out about your blog and its great content.

Are you using Google+ to interact with your target audience? If so, what are some of the methods you use to lure readers to your blog posts using Google+?

A Hard Truth: Google Doesn’t Care About Your Awesome Content

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Recently, Google introduced a new search feature called “in-depth articles” The idea behind this feature is that mid-way down on the first page of search results for more popular keywords, you’ll find older, but extremely relevant, content that serves as a “guide” to the topic at hand.

Google wants good content, not necessarily new content. When you hear bloggers talk about “pillar” evergreen posts, this is what they mean.

Learning More about In-Depth Articles

Ana from Traffic Generation Cafe wrote a really great piece about this announcement, which you can find here. I really recommend giving it a read if you want to get started writing content for Google’s new in-depth article feature. In this post, she also points to another interesting and extremely helpful post on the topic, from Mark Traphagen. In one of the comments, he writes,

 

We tend to think of Google as being really, really smart and almost omniscient. And compared to other data retrieval systems, it is leaps and bounds ahead. But the reality is that properly indexing, evaluating, and ranking the billions upon billions of pages on the web is more enormous than most people think. And at the end of the day, even Google ends up taking easy short cuts.

We have to face the reality that Google doesn’t care about “surfacing the little guy” or “reduced access to legacy content.” Their business model is built upon getting something useful to the searcher withing the top few results or ads. They may say they want to rank the “best,” but at the end of the day, how can they even successfully judge that, and if users are happy with what they are getting in the top few positions, then it works for Google.

What really struck me about this statement was how right Mark is about Google not caring about “surfacing the little guy.” In fact, I would go as far as saying that Google doesn’t care about your content at all, even if it is awesome. They aren’t some altruistic being whose job it is to find great content and make sure the world sees it. They’re a business performing a service, and that service is giving people answers to their questions based on whatever keywords they type into that little box.

Google doesn’t care if your piece was more well-written or insightful if the search results are already full of relevant, quality content. Their aim is to consistently show good results, even great results, but they don’t care about showing the best results.

This post sounds a little bitter, but I promise it’s not. What I’m trying to get across is this:

Awesome content is not enough.

At least, it isn’t for Google, especially for their new in-depth articles. Awesome content will make readers love you, but search engines care about relevant more than awesome.

So, What Can A Blogger Do to Get Some Google In-Depth Article Love?

Actually, it isn’t as hard as it sounds. Google might always cater to large sites they know and trust, but just because you’re not The New Yorker doesn’t mean you’re doomed to live on page two or three of the search results.

I’ve never given much thought to SEO. I always thought that writing great content was always the best SEO tactic I could use. And I still think that’s the case. But recently, some SEO experts taught me a little about basic keyword research (shout-out to the team at DragonSearch!) and it has made all the difference. In addition, here are a few tips Google has given us about getting your content flagged as an in-depth article:

And ALWAYS write awesome content, even if Google doesn’t give a rat’s patootie. At the end of the day, people matter more than Google. Google will help you get found initially if you cater toward their algorithm, but people will share your in-depth content if it is the best they’ve seen.

 

Small Business Blog Tune Up: Turbo Charge with SEO

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SEO turbo charge for your blog

Let’s face it: small businesses blog for one reason: to get noticed and eventually lead to some sort of sale. Whether demonstrating expertise on a topic, promoting your services or brand, or interviewing someone in the industry, you are encouraging people to come to your site, share your content, and ultimately do business with you. Paying attention to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can fuel your blog with more horsepower for relatively low effort.

Surprisingly, many small businesses have never heard of SEO or are intimidated by the acronym and what it means. But in reality, basic SEO takes little time and budget–you just need a little extra TLC every time you publish a post. I’m a big believer in the oft-repeated mantra, “The best SEO is good writing,” but imagine if you enlist the powerful combo of great content and some SEO tricks? Unstoppable.

Start Your Engines (Search Optimization that is)

Getting your site to rank high and often on search engines like Google and Bing is considered both an art and science, but still remains a mostly mysterious formula that mere mortals like us don’t control or understand (unlike Google). To make matters more confusing, search engines change and update their algorithms often, like the much-talked about Google Panda. But there are regular, basic steps you can take to increase the chances of your blog getting noticed early and often on search engines.

Get into Gear

If you have a WordPress.org site (that you pay to host the content), there are all-in-one SEO Plugins that will help guide and do the work for you out of the box. (Important and sometimes confusing distinction: Many small businesses use the free version of WordPress.com, which does not offer SEO plugins).

For the many small businesses on WordPress.com, the company stands behind its SEO in that “80 to 90%” of SEO mechanics is done automatically, which builds confidence, but we can can top 100% with just a little extra work.

Blogger.com is generally not considered particularly SEO-friendly (and ironically owned by Google) but has a page devoted to the practice. You can also find some tips here and other resources on the web about SEO on Blogger.

Move into the Fast Lane

For the majority of bloggers that are on WordPress.com, take these easy steps before publishing each post. The order you do them is a matter of personal preference: planning up-front versus optimizing at the end, just so long as you do it.

  • Use keywords for turn signals.

Once you have your topic and content nailed, think about potential keywords for your  post. For instance, if you’re writing about mortgage trends in your local real estate market, include all associated words at least once and think about other ways to say them sprinkled in your blog, typically this will happen organically anyway. The Google keyword search tool offers a comprehensive view of how your chosen keywords will fare. Be aware that there are different schools of thought on keyword density and “formulas” for the best results,but I advocate authenticity above all, meaning your post should sound natural, like a human communicating, not  a word-repeating robot. In fact, search engines have sophisticated tools that route out black hat seo practices like keyword stuffing and mark as spam.

  • Move the headline to front seat.

Sometimes in our quest to be clever or get attention (myself included) blog post titles can be obtuse for search. As with keywords, take the time to make  your headline  searchable. For instance I recently did a post on outdoor billboards and the headline was “Sex, Religion, Politics (and a Hitler teapot): Controversial Billboards Revisited”. Not exactly SEO-friendly. So I at least changed the “slug”, after the date, to “controversial-billboards-2012”. That earns me a more regular hits and I can still maintain my self-proclaimed witty headline.

  • Images ride shotgun.

As bloggers, we know the value of adding images and graphics to tell our story and it’s also a proven fact that content with images get more hits that those without. In a few easy steps, graphics can be a powerful SEO tool by reducing the file size (search engines dislike slow loading sites), renaming the file name to something specific and meaningful, and adding a title. There are other steps you can take.

  • Make Pit Stops for Categories and Tags.

Even if you’re pressed for time, “Categories” and “Tags” is worth the effort to do some of the SEO work for you, especially knowing the difference between the two:  Think of “Categories” as the bucket of content type versus “Tags”, which are more detailed words and phrases about the post. For the outdoor billboard piece, the Categories might be “outdoor billboards” and “advertising.” Tags would be more specific, like “Hitler teapot” or “J.C. Penney”.

  • Create your own traffic.

As a standard practice, linking to your own related posts, other blogs, or external content add value and insight, and also work to boost your SEO. As with keywords, link strategically and where it makes sense. No stuffing allowed!

  • Honk Your Own Horn

Most bloggers use their social network to get the word out for each new post. This is just good old self-promotion, but a reminder you can also increase your SEO with every share and reaching your extended network. A quick way to do this each time is by using the WordPress publishing feature that automatically sends to all social media outlets, or you can manage this process yourself. I opt to share manually to target different messages to my audiences, but nice to know I can use publishing in a hurry.

… Never Hit the Cruise Button

Once you’ve taken these primary steps to SEO-ize your blog, keep the wheels in motion for long-term good habits and practice. And remember, it’s not just good content that helps build organic SEO, but posting on a regular basis is just as important. Last but not least, pay attention to your stats: what are people searching on to find your blog? Use that data to fine tune your content continually.

What SEO practices work best for your blog?

28 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Adwords

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Brilliant Bloggers is a bi-weekly series here at NMX where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every other week, we’ll feature a brilliant blogger, along with a huge list of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.

This Week’s Topic: Adwords

Adwords from Google is a great solution if you want to drive more traffic to your business website or online content, since you can get started so easily. However, it’s easy to waste money on Adwords if you aren’t optimizing your campaigns. This week’s Brilliant Bloggers is all about doing just that – making the most of Google Adwords to help you reach as many new readers, viewers, or customers as possible.

Brilliant Blogger of the Week

A Simple Guide for Setting Up Your First Google AdWords Campaign by Amanda Sibley

I’m a big fan of Hubspot, and this post from Amanda Sibley is top-notch, just like everything else they publish. If you’re just getting started with Google Adwords, this is a great place to start, since Amanda reviews the process step by step. If you’ve used Adwords before though, there are still some valuable tricks and tips in there that you might not already know.

If you aren’t currently using Google Adwords, why not? Writes Amanda:

If it’s because you’re intimidated by Google’s AdWords interface, we get it. There’s a lot of options that make for better targeted campaigns — but also lead to a lot of confusion among marketers new to the paid search game. But fear no more! After reading this post, you’ll be able to execute your own paid search campaign at the drop of a hat.

After you check out Amanda’s post and the rest of the Hubspot blog, you can also follow her on Twitter at @AmandaSibley1.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

  1. 4 AdWords Optimization Tips to Try This Week by Lisa Raehsler (@LisaRocksSEM)
  2. 5 AdWords Tips from PPC Masters by Elisa Gabbert (@egabbert)
  3. 5 Killer AdWords Tips for Converting Clicks by Aaron Charlie (@aaroncharlie)
  4. 5 Top Adwords Tips by Justin Bruce (@justinbruce1969)
  5. 6 AdWords Tips for Small Business Owners by Zach Thompson (@RYPMarketing)
  6. 6 AdWords Tips from Brad Geddes’ Advanced Training by Bethany Bey (@Bethany_Bey)
  7. 7 Ways to Improve Your Google AdWords Click-Through-Rate by Angela Stringfellow (@CODAConcepts)
  8. 10 Quick Adwords Optimizations Tips for All PPC-ers by Sarah Peduzzi (@sduzy496)
  9. 10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Google AdWords by Nahid Saleem (@antsmagazine)
  10. 25 Ways to Use AdWords Data for SEO by Tom Demers (@TomDemers)
  11. AdWords Tips & Tricks: Advanced Account Structure by Eric Wortman (@Eric_A2)
  12. Getting More Quality Clicks from Google Adwords by Chris Soames (@csoames)
  13. Getting Started with Google Adwords Tips by Brenden Prazner
  14. Google AdWords Guide for Small Businesses by Hannah Smith
  15. How to Improve Google Adwords Quality Scores [Infographic] by Digital Net Agency (@digitalnetagenc)
  16. How To Use AdWords For Video by GoAnimate (@GoAnimate)
  17. How to use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool by Ryan Kettler (@boostsuite)
  18. Maximizing Your Google AdWords Using Ad Extensions by Cathy Nguyen (@eqmarketing)
  19. SEM Google Adwords Tips by Matt Ganzak (@MattGanzak)
  20. Three Basic Google Adwords Tips for Beginners! by Alok Vats (@vatsalok)
  21. Top 7 AdWords Tips and Tricks For Beginners by Josh Muskin
  22. Top 15 Tips for Managing a Google AdWords Account by Jack Martin (@jackthemartin)
  23. Top 20+ AdWords Tips by Jordan McClements (@PPCNI)
  24. Using AdWords Data for SEO: Unlocking the Ultimate Keyword Research Treasure Trove (Arrrgh!!) by Larry Kim (@larrykim)
  25. Using AdWords’ Recent Remarketing Changes To Improve Your Account by Sam Owen (@SamOwenPPC)
  26. Using Google Analytics To Collect & Benefit From AdWords Position ROI by Carrie Hill (@carriehill)
  27. Winning The Google Real Estate Game : 5 Google AdWords Tips by Tom Jelneck (@ontarget)

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about Adwords? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link.

Next Brilliant Blogger Topic: Blogging Apps

I’d love to include a link to your post in our next installment– and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

25 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Google+ Hangouts

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Brilliant Bloggers is a bi-weekly series here at NMX where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every other week, we’ll feature a brilliant blogger, along with a huge list of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.

This Week’s Topic: Google+ Hangouts

Whether you love Google+ or hate Google+, I think one thing we can all agree on is that their hangouts are pretty cool. And now that everyone has the ability to publicly broadcast on air, hangouts give both content creators and businesses some cool options, from hosting webinars to simply chatting with fans online.

Today’s Brilliant Bloggers are all talking about hangouts, so read on to find more information about hangout tips, hangout ideas, hangout etiquette, and more!

Brilliant Blogger of the Week:

shira gal My Google+ Hangout Experiment by Shira Gal

What I like about this post from Shira, who is a self proclaimed “Duru” (do guru – love that concept), is that she goes through the entire hangout process from start to finish, talking about some of the problems she experiences with her hangout, tips to make things go more smoothly, and whether or not Google+ Hangouts are a better option than Skype and GoToWebinar. She’s honest about the limitations of Google+ Hangouts, as well as the high points of her experience. Check out her entire post, then consider following her on Twitter at @shira_gal and, of course, circling her on Google+.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

Note: I usually only included Twitter handles here, but given the topic, I also includes Google+ profiles this week when I could find them!

  1. 4 Lessons from a Google Plus Hangout Moderator by Garrett Kuk (@garrettkuk / Google+)
  2. 5 Reasons Google Hangouts Are Cooler Than Skype For Video Chats by Tina Sieber (@tinasieber / Google+)
  3. 5 Ways To Use Google Plus Hangouts In Your Business by Arelthia Phillips (@PintopPro / Google+)
  4. 10 Ways B2B Marketers Can Benefit from Google+ Hangouts by Trevor Nolte (@trevornolte / Google+)
  5. Cameraman App for Google Plus Hangouts On Air by Sarah Hill (@SarahMidMO / Google+)
  6. Chris Brogan’s Google Plus Hangouts Tips – Live Video Chat For Business by Grant Crowell (@grantcrowell / Google+)
  7. Five Google+ Hangouts Features Businesses Will Love by Joseph Fieber (@josephfieber / Google+)
  8. Google Hangouts – A Creative Way to Increase Your Small Business by Jason Phillips
  9. Google Plus Hangouts On Air is a Killer App by John Jantsch (@ducttape / Google+)
  10. Google+ Hangouts: 4 Creative Ways People Are Using Group Video Chat by Amy-Mae Elliott (@amymaeelliott / Google+)
  11. Google+ Hangouts On Air and the Education On Air Conference by Melissa Venable (@melissa_venable / Google+)
  12. Google+ Hangouts On Air = Awesome for Your Business by Larry Snow (@SJCWebDesignLLC / Google+)
  13. Google+ Hangouts On Air Tips by Ray Hiltz (@newraycom / Google+)
  14. Google+ Hangouts On Air: What Marketers Need to Know by Mike Delgado (@mikedelgado / Google+)
  15. Google+ Launches Hangouts on Air to the Masses: What Marketers Need to Know by Pamela Vaughan (@pamelump / Google+)
  16. How Google Plus Hangouts can Help Your Business by Paolo Tosolini (@tosolini / Google+)
  17. How to Hold a Google+ Hangout and Why You Should by Marc Pitman (@marcapitman / Google+)
  18. How To Use Google Plus Hangouts On Air For Your Business by Luis Galarza (@luis_galarza / Google+)
  19. How To Video Podcast Using Google Plus Hangouts by Rob Jackson (@phandroid / Google+)
  20. Minding your Hangout Manners by James Fierce (@Fierce_Living / Google+)
  21. The Freelancer’s Ultimate Introduction to Google+ Hangouts by Laura Spencer (@TXWriter / Google+)
  22. Using Google+ Hangouts For Business by Sheryl Loch (@sherylloch / Google+)
  23. What People Are Using Hangouts For Other Than Hanging Out by Alex Growwman (@GrossmanAJ / Google+)

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about Google+ Handouts? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link.

Next Brilliant Blogger Topic: Tumblr

I’d love to include a link to your post in our next installment– and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

Three Steps To The Art Of The Tease

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Photo Credit: Tiom

When you want your listeners to stick around and listen to what you have to say, you need to give them a compelling reason.Your listener needs to anticipate what is to come later in the show. You need to excite them. You need to tease them.

Anticipation is a key feature to storytelling. Your story should build just like a good plot builds in a movie. You need to make your audience anticipate the content that is on the way.

Your story is similar to a vacation you are planning to take. The fantastic anticipation for the trip is almost as pleasurable as the trip itself. You can’t wait for it to arrive. You want your listener to feel the same way about your story.

When your listener can’t wait for the story to arrive, you have created some great content with a powerful tease. Your listeners will get more enjoyment from your show when they get the tease payoff more often. The pleasure of the “oh wow” factor will be increased. The joy of anticipation will keep your audience coming back for more.

There are three steps to creating an effective tease.

1. Intrigue me.

When you promote content that is coming up later in the show, you must give your audience an intriguing reason to stick around. It isn’t enough to simply say, “A great story about this weekend is coming up.” Few will stick around for the payoff. The tease lacks stickiness. It doesn’t hook the listener.

A creative tease produces anticipation. Instead, use something like, “You’re never gonna believe what I found in the attic this past weekend. My world is about to take a wild turn.” With that statement, your imagination begins to work.

What could it be? A wasp nest? An antique? A structural problem with the house? Imagination is the magic of a creative tease. Stir the imagination of your audience to truly engage them with your content.

When possible, intrigue by incorporating the listeners world. “This weekend, I discovered a way to save $100 a month on my grocery bill by changing one thing in the way we shop. I’ll tell you how you can do it too.” It answers “what’s in it for me” for your listener.

2. Give them 80%.

To create an effective tease, give your listener 80% of the story while leaving out the most important 20%. It is similar to giving the setup for a joke without providing the punchline. Lead your listener right up to the line, but make them wait to step over.

The key to an effective tease is to withhold the most important 20%. Let’s use our previous example of the attic weekend. I could say, “You’re not gonna believe it, but I found a $25,000 antique painting in the attic this weekend. I’ll tell you what’s on it coming up.”

This is a perfect example of withholding the wrong 20%. Who cares who is on it. If it’s worth $25,000, it could be a painting of the sky. It wouldn’t matter to me. I’d only be asking where I could sell it.

Twenty-five thousand dollars is the most exciting piece of information in the entire story. That is the piece that I need to withhold to create some excitement. To properly tease, I need to say, “In the attic this weekend, I found an antique painting of Napoleon. You’re never gonna believe how much it is worth.” You are more likely to stick around to see if I can retire on my winnings when I set it up in this fashion.

3. Make it impossible to search online.

You want your listener to keep listening for the payoff to your set up. If I can simply search on Google for the answer to your tease, there is no reason to keep listening. I can just look it up and be done with it.

You need to get creative to make your tease unsearchable.

Let’s say I have a story about Joe Celebrity getting drunk at High Profile Bar in Las Vegas over the weekend where he got arrested for assault. I could say, “Another movie star got arrested this weekend after he got in a fight with a customer at High Profile Bar in Las Vegas. I’ll tell you who it is coming up.”

Celebrity name is part of the correct 20% I’m withholding. However, I can look this story up on Google in a heartbeat. If I search “Arrest High Profile Bar Las Vegas” the chances are good that I will find the story in the first few search results. The tease isn’t effective. It is too easy to search.

To make the tease more powerful, make it impossible to search. “Another bar fight over the weekend landed another celebrity in jail. The story is coming up.” This tease makes it much more difficult to search. If you entered “celebrity bar fight weekend” in Google, 70 million results show up. It will be much easier to wait for my payoff than to begin searching 70 million Google entries.

The three steps to powerful teases will help you begin to engage your audience on the way to building powerful relationships. Use the three steps to entice people to listen to the episode. Then, use them again during the introduction of the show to get listeners to enjoy the entire recording.

You’ve worked hard to create your content. A lot of effort has been exerted on your part while writing and recording your show. Make your content intriguing by using these three steps to intrigue your audience.

When you use the art of the tease, your listeners will spend more time with your show. The increased frequency of the tease payoffs will help your audience enjoy your content more. When your show is more entertaining, it becomes more engaging. When you truly engage your audience with your content, you can begin building powerful relationships. That’s where trust and influence with your listener begins.

New Media News Break: Google’s Knowledge Base, Student Hoaxes, and More

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Every week, we post a New Media News Break to help catch you up with what’s going on in the world of new media and get you through the work week. Here are this week’s top stories:

Google Begins Rolling Out Major Search Changes

This week, Google began rolling out “Knowledge Base,” which will drastically change the way we search and use other Google tools. If you search for an ambiguous term, Google will now ask you which term you really meant. The hope is that people searching for cats the animal will no longer see results for Cats the musical. Basically, it’s a way to filter your results. Google will also show you related results (if you like Cats you might also like Fiddler on the Roof). They’re also incorporating an error reporting system, in part because this new web of knowledge will draw from sources like Wikipedia, which are user-generated and often include subjective opinions or misinformation. Check out this video to learn more about Google’s Knowledge Base will work.

46% of Americans Believe Facebook is a “Passing Fad”

For those of us working in the new media industry, Facebook is a part of our daily lives, almost second nature. But not all Americans like this site – and a new study has revealed that nearly half of them believe Facebook is a passing fad. About half also believe that the company’s stock market value is overvalued and only 18% said they were “extremely confident” in the ability of Mark Zuckerberg as CEO. You can read the entire study from Associated Press and CNBC here (PDF). It’s eye-opening, especially if you’re in a niche other than social media/blogging. It’s not that Facebook isn’t important, but remember that it might not be the best place to connect with your target market.

Twitter Introduces Top Stories Emails

Twitter announced this week that users will soon have the option to receive a weekly email with a digest of top stories. This digest will include the “most engaging” tweets from your friends, tweets you’ve liked or retweeted, links that are important based on what your followers are sharing, and more. These emails aren’t yet available for everyone, but will be rolling out over the next several weeks. For content creators, this can be a great tool to see how your tweets are performing, what kind of content your followers want, and how you can make changes in your tweeting activity to better connect with others.

Verizon Kills Unlimited Data Plans, Even for Older Customers

Verizon customers used to enjoy unlimited data, but recently the company has moved away from this model. Still, users who had previously purchased this unlimited plan were not made to change, so many (myself included) have been clinging to their old contract. Verizon, however, has put their foot down and will be killing the unlimited plan altogether in the coming months, forcing data users to change to a limited plan. Why should you care? Well, as a content creator, it is important to ensure that you’re taking these limitations into consideration. If users have to “spend” a lot of data to view your content, they likely won’t come back, at least on this mobile devices. It’s important to at least have a mobile version of your site, keeping in mind that you been to be optimized for these users.

Reddit Catches Student Hoax

A few years ago, Professor T. Mills Kelly and one of his classes pulled the wool over the Internet’s eyes by planning an elaborate hoax complete with fake Wikipedia pages, videos, and expert interviews. He’s at it again, teaching a class where he encourages students to form groups and attempt to fool the Internet. It’s a social experiment of sorts, and one that many, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, detest. This year, though, Reddit users shut down the hoax in a matter of minutes. That should be a lesson to anyone even thinking about lying online. People will find out, so it’s better to always be 100% honest from the start.

In Case You Missed It

Here’s what you might have missed on the BlogWorld blog in the past week:

Awesome from the Archives

There are some golden posts in the post hidden in the BlogWorld archives. Here are three of my favorites that I think you should check out:

Check back every Wednesday for a New Media News Break just when you need it!

How Will You Use Open Google+ Hangouts?

Author:

Recently, Google opened up Google+ Hangouts so everyone can broadcast on air (previously, this function was only available to a select few). Hangouts are the best Google+ function in my opinion, so I’m excited to see this change. When you’re hanging out, you can also embed to stream on your site, and it will record and post to YouTube automatically. Here’s a video showing what people are doing with Google+ On Air Hangouts:

So the question is…how will you use this new function? Here are just a few ideas for online content creators:

  • Run weekly online course
  • Broadcast a webinar to promote a product
  • Hold a Q&A session with fans
  • Hold weekly meetings for a virtual club or group.
  • Record podcasts live

And of course…you can just hang out with friends and fans online this way, allowing others to join or just watch if they are too shy.

How will you be using Google+ On Air Hangouts? Leave a comment below!

Feeling unsure about being on camera? Check out Perry Lawrence’s Video Podcasting session at BlogWorld New York this June. We also have a complete Web TV track you can check to learn more about making the most of videos online.

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