One of my first jobs out of college was working as an entry-level PR associate. Like most recent grads without any real industry experience, I’d spend my days blasting out the same artless, impersonal pitch to any journalist who had ever covered a beat even vaguely adjacent to one of our client’s products.

Unsurprisingly, I got very few emails back.

If you work in PR, you don’t need me to tell you it’s a hard field to get started in. Now that I’m on the other side of it — receiving dozens of pitches per day — I appreciate a well-executed pitch even more because I understand just how much thought and energy goes into it.

Whether you’re a seasoned PR pro or an associate looking to break into the industry, reading expert blogs is a smart way to stay up to date on the latest PR happenings, expand your skills, and get inspired to do your best work. We’ve put together a list of some of our favorite PR blogs (in no particular order) for you to get started. Let’s dive in.

1. PRNEWS

PRNEWS started as a weekly print newsletter over 70 years ago, and today still serves as a comprehensive, go-to resource for the PR community. The PRNEWS Blog features in-depth analysis of current industry news, useful how-tos, career advice, and opinion articles from PR pros across numerous industries. I also recommend (and personally subscribe to) their weekly email subscription, The Skinny, which offers a thoughtfully curated rundown of the latest PR, marketing, and communications news and trends.

Three posts to check out:

• Why Does a Woman CEO Need to Be a News Story?
• From Media Royalty, Career Advice for PR Pros in the Margins
• 7 Business Writing Sins PR Pros Commit Regularly

2. PRWeek

PRWeek bills itself as “the essential title for PR professionals in the US,” and it has an expansive, high-quality content library to back this statement up. Covering topics from notable agency happenings to how brands are adopting new strategies, PRWeek is as entertaining as it is informative. Plus, their daily Breakfast Briefing is the perfect early morning subway read. It features a quick rundown of the latest PR news in a format simple enough to digest before you’ve had your coffee.

Three posts to check out:

• Do Brands Really Need to Be on Twitter?
• Female Agency Leaders Are Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
• Brand Mascots: A Dying Breed?

3. PR Daily

With sections on social media management, crisis communications, media relations, marketing, and more, PR Daily serves up a diverse range of topics for PR and comms pros. They’re quick to publish expert analysis on current events concerning the PR community, and also offer beginner guides on the tools and platforms you need to do your job — like social media ads, monitoring tools, and more.

Three posts to check out:

• Why Empathy is a Crucial Skill for Marketers and PR Pros
• 3 ‘Boring’ Brands that Have Made a Social Media Splash
• A Lesson in PR Ethics, Courtesy of ‘The Great Hack’

4. Digiday

While not strictly a PR industry publication, Digiday is a valuable read for anyone interested in how technology impacts media, marketing, and communications. Their editorial team leverages expert, insider interviews and original data to show how innovations in the tech landscape are changing the way brands and consumers communicate — for better or worse. If nothing else, I’d recommend checking out their ongoing column, The Confessions, which features anonymous interviews with professionals working in media. They dig deeply into revealing topics like working conditions in the industry and the (sometimes harsh) realities of advancing your career in a competitive environment.

Three posts to check out:

• ‘People are scared to speak up’: Confessions of a minority marketer
• How publishers navigate ‘bullshit briefs’ from agencies
• Google proposes tighter standards around data collected for digital ads

5. Spin Sucks

If you work in PR or corporate communications, chances are someone’s jokingly (or not so jokingly) called you a “spin doctor.” Spin Sucks is a blog dedicated to breaking down the negative perceptions of the PR field by calling out destructive practices in the industry and celebrating the authentic ones. The Spin Sucks team dissects recent campaigns and brand news to separate the spin from the reality, and share their own expert take on what could have been done better. They also regularly feature guest contributors, interviews with pros in different industries, and open-ended questions posed to their community of readers.

Three posts to check out:

• The Communications Professional’s Customer Behavior Playbook
• What College Football Teaches Us About Brand Development
• Spin Sucks Question: How Do You Respond to Internet Trolls?

6. Institute for Public Relations

IPR is a nonprofit organization that conducts and publishes in-depth research on the factors impacting the public relations and corporate communications fields. In addition to their extensive library of original research, IPR’s blog is a treasure trove of expert opinion pieces, strategy recommendations backed by credible studies, and takes on how new trends and tech will change the landscape of PR. Committed to sharing “the science beneath the art of public relations™,” IPR helps PR pros stay ahead of the curve.

Three posts to check out:

• Is Earned Media More Credible Than Advertising?
• How Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Will Affect the Future of PR
• The End of Linear Storytelling: The #Thumbstopping Story of Our Digital Future Or Trading Catharsis for Engagement

7. PRSay

PRSay shares thought leadership, tactical pieces, and professional advice for both seasoned PR pros and folks at the beginning of the careers. Their blog features helpful, how-to sections on training and development, but they also have dedicated sections that discuss diversity, inclusion, and ethics in the PR field.

Three posts to check out:

• The Business Benefits of Strategic Diversity and Inclusion
• Wildest Dreams? Far From: Why Taylor Swift Is a PR Role Model
• What Ohio Butter Sculptures Can Teach Us About Improving Annual Content Packages

8. Public Relations Today

This blog aggregates the best content for PR and comms professionals across the web into one convenient, easy-to-navigate location. Their team of expert curators shares pieces on everything from branding to crisis management. Their homepage is also ordered by what’s trending in the industry on social media, so it’s easy to discover articles other PR professionals are reading and discussing.

Three (aggregated) posts to check out:

• “Stakeholder Value” Is Good PR — And Good Business
• How Simple Automation Saves Time And Tedium In PR
• Online Reviews and How to Handle Them

9. ImPRessions

Crenshaw, a public relations consulting agency, started ImPRessions as a way to “share expertise, industry insights, and impressions” of the industry with an audience of PR pros. Their blog features thought-provoking investigations into PR best practices, trends, and lessons from real brands. The blog also offers actionable strategies and advice for PR firms big and small.

Three posts to check out:

• What The Best PR Strategies Have In Common
• Smart Speakers Offer A Clear Opportunity For PR
• Has Apple Lost Its Magic?

10. Solo PR Pro

If you’re a freelance or independent PR consultant, the challenges you face are certainly different than those experienced by an agency, in-house team, or large consulting group. Solo PR Pro is a blog specifically for PR and communication pros looking to “break free of the cubical” and be their own boss. The site focuses on topics relevant to the unique experiences of freelancers in the PR world, like promoting your services, building a client base, and balancing clients on your own.

Three posts to check out:

• How to Get Paid for Your Work
• The Introverted Solo PR Pro: Not an Oxymoron
• Search Engine Optimization is a PR Pro’s Friend

11. O’Dwyer’s PR News

Founded in 1968 as a print publication, O’Dwyer’s PR News diligently covers the latest industry happenings and keeps a running ranking of top PR agencies. For folks in the agency world, O’Dwyer’s is a good place to stay up to date on breaking agency news, big brand accounts, and controversies. The site also helps connect agencies with clients, with a section dedicated to RFPs and an extensive PR services database.

Three posts to check out:

• Crisis Communications and the Role of the CEO
• Why PR Needs Financial Literacy
• Uber Begins Rebuild of Marketing Capability

12. Edelman Insights

Edelman, a top global communications firm, shares articles concerning industry news, best practices, corporate culture, and more on their Insights blog. With pieces written by influential industry leaders (like Edelman CEO Richard Edelman), Insights gives readers an inside look at the topics PR pros should be paying attention to. In addition to tactical and opinion pieces, the blog tackles meaty topics impacting the soul of the industry, like diversity and inclusion, and the responsibilities of professional communicators in the “fake news” era.

Three posts to check out:

• Crippling the Creative Agency
• 3 Takeaways from Women Leading Change
• Why Diverse Voices are Better for Brands

13. The Future Buzz

Founded by San Francisco-based PR agency EZPR, The Future Buzz covers all things public relations and digital marketing with a refreshingly straightforward, decidedly un-sugarcoated tone. With headlines like “PR People: Don’t Do This” and “You Pitch Sucks,” you can trust this editorial team to tell it like it is. The Future Buzz is a solid source for hands-on advice, reflections on the industry, and commentary on the latest trends.

Three posts to check out:

• Marketing and Branding is Not a Tagline or Logo
• PR People: Don’t Do This
• Your Pitch Sucks – One of the Reasons Why No One Is Reading Your Boring Pitch

If you’re a frequent online shopper like I am, you’re likely already well-acquainted with order confirmation emails.

At its most basic, an order confirmation email needs to signal to the customer that their order has been processed — without receiving one, a customer might believe their transaction hasn’t gone through properly.

But an order confirmation email can do more than just act as a digital receipt.

For instance, take a look at the order confirmation email I received from Massachusetts’ Franklin Park Zoo, upon my recent purchase:

This email provided me with all the information I needed, but it also made me feel good about my purchase by letting me know that my money was helping support conservation efforts.

Ultimately, when done right, email confirmations can help create customer loyalty, build awareness around other products or services, and drive traffic to your blog or social media accounts. 

Order confirmation emails are also phenomenal for lead generation. In fact, order confirmation emails have the highest average open rates of all email types, with about a 70% open rate. So if you’re not optimizing your order confirmation emails, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to engage with your customers.

Here, we’re going to explore some unique and effective order confirmation email examples to provide inspiration for your own transactional emails. We’ve also included templates to help get you started on your own order confirmation email.

Order Confirmation Email Examples

1. Uber

Uber’s order confirmation emails are sleek, clean, and aesthetically-pleasing, with large text, plenty of white space, and a blue CTA to incentivize the rider to “rate or tip” the driver. The email is organized so the rider sees the most critical information above-the-fold — “Thank you” followed by the price — to ensure the recipient only needs to scroll if they want to.

2. JetBlue

JetBlue’s order confirmation email opens with their fun and clever slogan, “You’re all set to jet”, which immediately reassures the recipient that their order was successfully processed.

Additionally, the text below the initial slogan promises the recipient “the most legroom in coach, free wi-fi & entertainment, and free snacks & drinks” — even though the recipient has already paid, JetBlue does a good job ensuring the customer doesn’t experience any buyer’s remorse, and uses the order confirmation email as another opportunity to cultivate stronger customer loyalty.

Below the confirmation, JetBlue provides a simple “Manage trip” CTA, so the customer can easily update a seat assignment, add extras, or switch flights. Best of all, they’ve included a link to their mobile app — it’s likely that any customer receiving an order confirmation from JetBlue will need their app to access their mobile ticket, so it’s a smart strategy for JetBlue to include the app link.

3. Hausera

Hausera, an ecommerce site that sells kitchen and bathroom fixtures for remodeling projects, does an excellent job ensuring their order confirmation email is sleek while offering the recipient any information they may need. At the beginning, they’ve included positive messaging like “Progress is a beautiful thing” and “Congratulations” to thank the customer for their order.

Additionally, below the order summary, they include helpful CTAs such as “Keep Shopping”, as well as options to either email, call, or live chat with a support rep. Whether a customer has an issue with their order or simply wants to continue perusing Hausera, the ecommerce site does a good job ensuring the customer can find next-steps from within the order confirmation itself.

4. Tobi

Tobi’s order confirmation email is simple and straightforward. The ecommerce site offers two critical CTAs — “review my order” and “contact customer care” — within the email itself so that the recipient is able to immediately check and correct any information if their order doesn’t look right.

Tobi also effectively outlines their order process within the body text of their email, telling the customer “Please allow up to 2 business days to process and ship your order. You will receive another email when your order has shipped.” By including this information in their email, Tobi ensures minimal outreach from customers who are wondering when their order will ship, or why they haven’t received shipping information already.

5. BigStub

BigStub’s order confirmation email, while admittedly text-heavy, does a good job providing the customer with plenty of critical information throughout their email, including a CTA to check order status, a phone number to contact customer support, and a note regarding delivery details for the recipient’s ticket.

Additionally, BigStub offers a $25 rebate within the order confirmation email with enrollment in Great Fun. Even if the customer doesn’t apply for the rebate, the inclusion is still an effective method that allows BigStub to potentially boost positive brand perception.

6. JustBats

JustBats, an ecommerce site that sells baseball and softball equipment, does an excellent job of cross-selling other products in their order confirmation emails. For instance, if you purchase a glove on their site, you’ll receive an email with the following message — “Need a bat? You have the glove, now get the bat.”

The rest of the email is designed to help a user choose a bat, with CTAs like “Shop all bats” and “Shop closeouts”, as well as helpful resources to ensure the recipient is able to find the right bat for his or her needs. Alternatively, if you purchase a bat from their site, you’ll receive an order confirmation email that helps you choose a glove.

JustBats proves an order confirmation email can be an effective opportunity to suggest other relevant products or services, particularly since the order can help you understand the customer’s needs. In the above example, a glove is a logical next step for someone who has just purchased a bat, and vice versa.

7. SoulCycle

SoulCycle’s order confirmation email, while simple, effectively provides all relevant information and demonstrates SoulCycle’s ability to go above-and-beyond in customer service. Once they’ve outlined when, where, and on which bike the customer will be riding, SoulCycle includes other useful information including studio address, and a note that shoes and water will be provided.

At the bottom of their email, they send a cheerful invitation that reads “Questions, concerns, or just want to say hello?” with both a phone number and email if the recipient needs to reach customer support.

Ultimately, it’s important to pay attention to your language in your order confirmation email, and look for areas where you can add brand voice.

Order Confirmation Email Template

There are plenty of online sites with email templates that allow you to build an order confirmation email today.

For instance, you can create an order confirmation email within the HubSpot Email Marketing tool for free. You can either choose a pre-made template and customize text, images, and overall design, or you can create one from scratch. Here’s an example of an order confirmation email made with HubSpot’s email tool:

There are plenty of other order confirmation email templates available through tools such as Stripo and Squarespace.

Alternatively, if you use an ecommerce website builder like X-Cart, you can use one of their email tool add-ons to create your own order confirmation email within the tool.

It’s important to note — there are a few best practices you’ll want to follow regardless of the template builder you use.

For instance, it’s critical your order confirmation email:

• Is mobile-friendly, since many recipients will check their email on their phones to see whether an order processed.
• Is skim-able, since many customers are on-the-go and don’t have time to read dense text. If you have important delivery information you’d like to include, consider linking to it instead of including it in the body text.
• Provides an email and phone number of your customer support, in case the recipient’s order is incorrect.
• Outlines next-steps, i.e. when the customer should expect an order to ship, or how the customer can find/track their order.
• Includes shipping address, payment method, and order number.

Additionally, consider how you can include brand voice in your text to cultivate customer loyalty, particularly with first-time customers who might not know your brand yet. You might also add links to your social media accounts or blog, so new customers can find other ways to engage with your brand.

Order Confirmation Page

Typically, when a customer places an order, they’ll see a confirmation page before they even receive the confirmation email.

For instance, here’s what you’ll see when you place an order on Amazon:

Image Source

Ultimately, an order confirmation page is a page you’re re-directed to when you click the “Buy” or “Purchase” button, and signifies that an email should be on its way. An online confirmation page is a temporary notice that tells your customer that their transaction went through correctly. If a customer doesn’t see this page, he or she will likely assume their transaction didn’t work.

When you’re creating an online confirmation page, here are a few things you should include:

• Messaging such as “Success! Your order is confirmed”, as well as a note that the customer should expect an email in their inbox soon.
• An order number, delivery details, and order summary (including total cost).
• Optional: Images of the products or services bought.

Additionally, you might include other relevant “Popular Items Based On Your Order” on a customer’s order confirmation page, to incentivize them to purchase other related products. For instance, if they’ve purchased a blender on your site, perhaps you want to show them a smoothie recipe book on their order confirmation page.

Ultimately, it’s critical you remember your order confirmation page and email can serve as major lead generation opportunities if you optimize them correctly, and will ensure your customer feels supported throughout their entire buyer’s journey.

When you’re trying to grow a following on Instagram, you depend on hashtags and engagement to expand your audience and reach. So it can feel more than a little disheartening when it suddenly seems like your content isn’t showing up anywhere.

If you feel like your posts are receiving fewer likes and comments, or aren’t appearing for certain hashtags, you might be shadowbanned.

From Instagram’s point of view, shadowbanning makes sense. Shadowbanning allows Instagram to filter out accounts that don’t comply with their terms. Some people use inauthentic measures to expand their Instagram following, like automated bots or hundreds of hashtags irrelevant to their content. If that’s the case, it seems only fair for Instagram to block those accounts, so users can continue receiving genuine and helpful content.

While Instagram doesn’t openly admit to shadowbanning, they released a statement in February that addressed the problem users were having with their content not showing up for certain hashtags.

Their statement at least confirms the hashtag dilemma as a real one — but many speculate that the statement is Instagram’s way of admitting to shadowbanning, without actually admitting it.

It’s important to note that Instagram changes its algorithm often, so those alterations could be the reason you have witnessed a drop in your engagement.

However, there’s a possibility shadowbanning is a real tactic meant to hide users’ content from the wider Instagram audience, and if you’re being shadowbanned, it’s important you take the necessary measures to get your content seen.

Let’s explore how to know if you’re shadowbanned, as well as our tips for getting yourself off the list.

Luckily, there’s an easy trick to figure out if your account is shadowbanned.

If one or two of your employees can see your post, you might simply be dealing with a drop in engagement. If that’s the case, you can take a number of steps to fix this. (Check out our Instagram Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for advice).

If you run this test and believe you’ve been shadowbanned, don’t worry — we have a solution for you.

Why You Got Shadowbanned, and How to Fix It

There are a few potential reasons your account could have been shadowbanned. To ensure this doesn’t happen again, let’s explore some actions you might have taken that led you to being shadowbanned:

You use bots or another automated “Instagram growth” tool.

If you aren’t putting in the hard work yourself, you’re not growing a following authentically. Instagram frowns on this — in their statement above, for instance, they encourage users to have a strategy that focuses on connecting with the right audience. Using bots is a spammy tactic, and could result in a shadowban.

You use broken hashtags.

Occasionally, a popular hashtag will become overrun with inappropriate content. When this happens, Instagram can remove the hashtag or limit its use. If you use a broken hashtag, it will prevent your other hashtags from ranking, and could also result in a blocked account.

Your account is often reported.

When users repeatedly report an account, Instagram will assume your account is posting inappropriate content or violating their terms of service. They might disable your account, or they could shadowban it.

You’ve been posting, commenting, engaging, or following people too quickly.

Instagram places time constraints on how often you can follow, unfollow, like, comment, or post within an hour or day. This makes sense — if you’re following 80 people within an hour, it’s likely a bot doing the work, not you.

These actions might help you grow a following quickly, but they can’t help you connect with the right people, which is why you’re on Instagram in the first place. Additionally, these behaviors likely result in shadowban, which severely restricts your exposure to a new audience.

How to Fix or Prevent an Instagram Shadowban

To get your account back to normal, you’ll want to reverse the damage. Here’s how:

If you use a bot or another automated service, stop using them and delete them immediately.

To make sure the accounts aren’t still attached to you, go to your desktop Instagram and click “Edit Profile”, and then “Authorized Applications”. If you see any of your bot accounts in the list, click “Revoke Access” to remove them completely. Remember, it’s better to have 100 followers who love your brand and purchase your products, than 1,000 followers who never buy from you or interact with your content.

Don’t use hashtags that are already been banned.

Take a look at Preview’s list of banned hashtags for 2018, and make sure to remove all broken hashtags from your content. Moving forward, be selective and careful with the hashtags you choose, and when in doubt, take a look at the hashtag’s page — Instagram will likely post a message like, “Recent posts from #summer2018 are currently hidden … “, which will indicate to you that the hashtag is no longer in use.

Take a two-day break.

People have reported a full 48-hour break from using their Instagram accounts can reset the system and get you back on track, and it’s worth the temporary social media cleanse anyway, isn’t it?

Follow Instagram’s rules and regulations.

Read and follow Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.

Most importantly, it’s critical you’re posting helpful, authentic content, and abiding by best practices when growing your audience. It will take longer to do this, but slow and steady wins the race — and doesn’t get shadowbanned — right?

Instagram isn’t a new platform, but it changes so often, sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

You might have some questions: how can I add the new geofilters feature to my Instagram Story? Can I use my Snapchat filters on my Instagram pictures? What’s up with this new update — how do I even apply a filter anymore?

Whether you’re an Instagram pro and stuck on choosing the best filter, or an Instagram beginner and not sure how to even apply a filter, you’re in luck. Here, we’ve covered everything from the most popular filters in the U.S., to how to use Instagram filters and even how to use a Snapchat filter on Instagram. Get ready to take your Instagram images to the next level.

Most Popular Filters

There’s a reason most of us turn to our friends to ask, “Which filter should I use?”

With 25 Instagram filter options, it can be tough to choose one. A filter can change the whole mood of an image, and it can even lead to more likes and comments. So wouldn’t it be helpful to know which filters the majority of the U.S. likes best?

Luckily for you, Canva recently analyzed the filters of over one million Instagram photos to figure out which filters are most popular.

Next time you’re in decision-paralysis over an Instagram filter, take a look at this list of the top eight Instagram filters below.

1. Clarendon

2. Gingham

3. Juno

4. Lark

5. Mayfair

6. Sierra

7. Valencia

8. Walden

To use Instagram filters, open the app and either take a picture or upload a picture (or video) from your camera roll.

Tap next, and then tap the filter you want to apply.

If you want to adjust the filter’s strength, tap the filter again.

Click done when you’re happy with your filter.

On the next page, you can add captions, tag people, or add locations. When you’re ready, click share in the top right corner.

How to Use Snapchat Filters on Instagram

But what about when you want to use a filter outside of Instagram’s options? Snapchat offers a whole different array of filters, including face filters and animated filters. If you want to show your Instagram audience your goofiest Snapchat puppy-dog face, you’re in luck. Here’s how.

When you post a picture to your Instagram story, have you ever been frustrated you can’t add a fun geofilter to the image like you can on Snapchat? Recently, Instagram released its own version of Snapchat’s geofilters, called Instagram “Geostickers.” Right now, Geostickers are only available in New York City and Jakarta, Indonesia, so if you live in one of those places, here’s how you can use the new Geosticker feature.

Instagram is an undeniably powerful channel for businesses to reach a larger audience — in fact, approximately 80% of the platform’s one billion users follow at least one business on Instagram.

The platform is ultimately a site for engagement: we “like” friends’ photos, comment on their posts, and tag friends in influencer giveaways to try and win a free pair of yoga pants.

In short — if your brand is on Instagram, you need to be communicating and engaging with your audience.

Engaging with your audience will help boost brand awareness and create customer loyalty. It can also help inform your knowledge of brand perception, and gain a deeper understanding of what your customers care about.

Fortunately, in 2018 Instagram introduced a new feature that makes it easier than ever to engage with, and receive feedback from, your followers — the Questions Sticker.

Here, we’re going to explore nine creative ways to use Instagram’s Questions Sticker to properly engage your followers. But first, let’s dive into how to use it.

How to Use Instagram’s Questions Sticker

1. Go to your Stories feature, and either upload a photo or take one (I took one within the Stories feature of my pizza box). Then, click the square smiley face in the top right of your screen.

2. Click the “Questions” module.

3. The default for the Questions Sticker is “Ask me a question” but you can click the text to type a customized question — for instance, I typed “I love this pizza place! What’s everyone’s favorite pizza toppings?” Once you’re done, add filters or any other features you’d like to include.

When you’re ready to post, click “Send To” in the bottom right.

4. Finally, click “Share” beside “Your Story” to post your question to your Story.

5. When you’re ready to see your followers’ answers to your question, open your Story and click the images of the profiles in the bottom left (these are the people who’ve seen your Story).

6. You’ll see “Responses” above the list of people who’ve seen your post. To individually share one to your Story, click on it.

7. Click “Share Response” to share an individual response to your Story for your other followers to see.

8. Next, take a photo or upload one, and the follower’s response you chose will appear on top of the image. When you’re ready to post, click “Send To” in the bottom right.

It’s important to note — your followers will become tired of constantly answering questions on your Story, so use the Questions feature sparingly. You don’t want to overuse the Questions Sticker and risk answer-fatigue from participants.

Additionally, you have a “Poll” feature if you want to ask your followers a binary question, like “Which pizza topping is better, cheese or pepperoni?” Save your Questions feature for more complex questions — and try to make them fun. Remember, your followers are on Instagram for entertainment, so they don’t want to feel quizzed by tough questions.

Lastly, consider what types of questions might actually help you know more about your audience. This will take some trial-and-error, since every brand’s audience is unique, so test a few different formats. For instance, if your brand is in the tech industry, perhaps you want to post a Question asking your followers’ their feedback on an innovative new tech product.

Alternatively, if your brand is in the retail industry, maybe you want to ask more generic questions like, “Do you still follow the no-white after Labor Day rule? If so, tell me why.”

For more inspiration, let’s explore some creative ways influencers, celebrities, and brands use the Questions Sticker.

Instagram Questions Ideas

1. Conduct a Q&A with your followers.

Influencers and celebrities often use the Question feature to conduct Q&As with their fans. For instance, Ali Fedotowsky, a blogger and former Bachelorette, will typically tell her followers to “Ask me stuff :)” at the end of the day.

Her responses are usually fun, casual, and friendly — like “Today? The wine” in response to “Best part of being a mom?”. These Q&A’s enable Ali’s followers to feel like they’re having a casual conversation with a friend. Additionally, the Q&A’s help Ali create stronger relationships with her fans and gear content towards what they want to know.

2. Showcase your brand’s values.

Away, a luggage company with 502K followers on Instagram, used the Questions Sticker to demonstrate their support for Pride week while engaging meaningfully with followers. In the first post, they wrote “Happy #Pride from all of us at Away”, and followed the post with a question — “How are you celebrating?” to further engage with followers.

3. Conduct a pop quiz.

WeWork, a company that provides collaborative workspaces for startups and entrepreneurs, used their Stories to feature WeWork spaces around the globe with “fill-in-the-blank” quiz questions, such as “WeWork in ____”.

Best of all, they finish their round-up of quiz questions with a “What quiz would you like to take next?” It’s a good idea to use the Questions Sticker as an opportunity to ask followers what they want to see more or less of on your feed — it can help your team brainstorm more content while ensuring you’re making viewers feel like their opinion is valuable to your brand.

4. Ask followers their thoughts on a new product or service launch.

If done wisely, you might consider using the Questions Sticker to ask your followers what they think about a new product or service — but conduct these Questions sparingly, since they might seem too self-promotional.

Beardbrand, a line of high-quality grooming products for men, effectively used the Questions Sticker to ask their niche audience how they felt about Beardbrand’s new shampoo and conditioner products. Beardbrand also posted their followers’ answers, and used it as an opportunity to demonstrate the brand’s sense of humor — for instance, in response to a follower’s “Crafted by the gods” answer, Beardbrand posted “If you say so” with a side-eye emoji.

If you do decide to ask followers about their thoughts on your product or service, consider posting their answers with funny or unique responses, as well.

5. Share information from a thought leader or expert.

Your Questions feature doesn’t just have to feature your own brand — you might also use it to post useful content from other experts in the field, as long as you believe your followers would still be interested in it.

For instance, Eva Chen, an author and influencer with 1.2 million followers on Instagram, knows a good portion of her followers are mothers as well — which is why she featured her sleep trainer, @thebabycoachofficial, on her Story to answer some of her followers’ biggest sleep-related questions. This partnership helps @thebabycoachofficial reach a new audience and grow her following, while providing Eva Chen’s followers with free, useful tips — a win, win.

6. Use Questions as a lead generation strategy.

Megan Gilmore is a best-selling author and creator of the Instagram account @Detoxinista, which posts healthy recipes as well as Instant Pot tips-and-tricks. When Gilmore conducts “Ask me anything” Q&A’s, her followers typically ask recipe-related questions, which allows Gilmore to organically link to recipes on her blog — for instance, in response to “A good vegetable soup recipe”, Gilmore links to her vegetable soup recipe.

However, it’s important to note Gilmore doesn’t just link externally in her Q&A’s — she also provides useful tips and content from within the Story itself. When followers ask her about an Instant Pot, for instance, she posted the answer right within the Story for other followers to see.

Simply put, you can use Questions as an opportunity to link to your website, blog posts, or other helpful content, but do so sparingly, and ensure some of your responses to your followers’ questions can be found within the Story itself. This can help drive traffic to other content, but doesn’t require your followers to be ready to click-away from your Instagram page if they don’t want to.

7. Share tips from within the industry.

On Instagram, HubSpot’s followers are often other marketers — which is why it’s helpful for @HubSpot to post “What are some of your favorite marketing tips?” and share the responses of some of its followers, so other marketers within the industry can collect tips from a myriad of sources.

Ultimately, you might use Questions as an opportunity to connect with your followers and learn from them, as well. Rather than asking questions directly related to your product or service, consider how you might ask a question that helps your followers learn more about the state of the industry, including tips, trends, and new ideas to improve their own business strategy. Show them their voice is valuable, too.

8. Have fun with your followers!

Reese Witherspoon is an exceptional example of someone who uses Stories, and Questions Sticker, to have fun with her fans — for instance, during the press tour for Big Little Lies, Witherspoon used the Questions feature to ask her fans for theme song recommendations for the tour. Later, she posted some of her favorites.

Ultimately, the Questions Sticker is a chance to have fun with followers and post lighter, more entertaining content. If your brand is heading to a conference, you might use Witherspoon’s tactic to ask followers a good “theme song for the conference” or “favorite ice breakers to use at a conference”. Plus, posting their responses shows them you’re listening, and might make other followers more willing to partake in future Questions you post.

9. Announce new releases.

Starbucks playfully quizzed their followers with a question that added up fire, chocolate, and sun emojis, and said “The __ _____ is coming back…”. Starbucks then posted followers responses throughout the day, before finally posting one page with the “correct” answer — “S’mores Frappuccino”.

By building suspense (and showcasing some funny followers’ responses), Starbucks successfully created excitement around their new product while quickly (and cost-efficiently) spreading the word. You might consider using a similar strategy when announcing an upcoming new product or event.

We’re living in a golden age of startups and side hustles, where it seems like more people than ever before are striking out on their own with new business ventures.

Whether you’re just beginning to think about starting a business, or already drafting a formal document with your current business goals, it’s crucial to clearly define the scope of every aspect of the company — from mission, to target customers, to funding and finances, and beyond. 

When you’re just getting started, it can be tempting to think of a business plan as just a catchy company name and a quick description of what you’re selling.

But in the back of your mind, you’re probably aware that planning a business involves thinking through a huge number of details and decisions. It can be daunting to consider the full scope of all that starting your business really takes.

HubSpot and General Assembly have teamed up to help get you started on the right foot with our free Business Plan Template. Inside, you’ll find templates and checklists to help you:

• Sell the story of your company
• Describe your product line and plan for how to stand out among competitors
• Put together the necessary financial projections to make a strong start
• Plan longer-term goals and metrics
• Consider legal formalities that require attention
• Create your buyer persona and determine your product/marketing fit

Influencer marketing has skyrocketed since it first made its mark.

That’s very much due to the way purchasing decisions have changed over the years. In 2018, a study found that only 4% of people trusted celebrity endorsements. This is probably because they prefer to seek product and service recommendations from those who are, above all, knowledgeable and credible.

And today, those qualities often come in the form of social media influencers.

When it comes to getting advice or recommendations on what to do — which product to buy, which movie to see, and where to travel on vacation — there are still areas where we trust our peers more than we do “experts.” 

But that’s part of what makes an influencer so powerful: Despite perhaps being an expert in his or her field, by sharing content and insight in a certain way, consumers view that person more as a peer. We have things like constant access to video and other visual content to thank for that — the tools that help us “get to know” people online in ways that weren’t quite as accessible only a few years ago.

So, how can you tap into this area, and become an influencer in your own field?

Influencers are ordinary people who have earned a substantial loyal following because of their expertise and transparency. Unlike celebrities actively endorse products on their social media accounts, influencers achieved their fame because of the valuable information they share with their followers.

It’s for this reason why one of the influencer marketing trends experts anticipate in 2019 is the increase in demand for social media influencers, specifically micro-influencers (influencers with less than 100K followers). Not surprising, more and more people want to become social media influencers.

The question is: where do you start?

In this blog post, I’ll be laying out ten ways how to become a social media influencer. On their own, they will help you slowly make your mark and establish you as an influencer in your industry. But do all these together, and you have a powerful strategy that will help speed things up exponentially.

1. Find your niche.

If you want to become a social media influencer, the very first thing you need to do is to choose a specific niche where you want to be known.

Although most social media influencers start out posting content, they’re passionate about, what sets them apart is the fact that they tend to focus on a particular niche within the industry they’re passionate about.

To find your little corner of influence, you’ll need first to determine who is your target audience by developing a unique persona—a semi-fictional representation of your ideal reader. Tools like HubSpot’s Buyer Persona Generation Tool can help you identify the individual wants, needs, challenges, and goals of your ideal reader that you can help solve and address, pointing you to the right niche to establish yourself and grow as an influencer.

2. Use the First Principles Thinking approach.

In an interview with Kevin Rose, Elon Musk explained that there are two reasoning approaches people use. The first and most common is the analogy approach. People that use this reasoning method decide to do things based on what has happened in the past.

That’s why we often see many people in a particular industry doing nearly the same thing, talking about the same topics, and even using similar formats when it comes to publishing and promoting their content.

The second reasoning approach is what Musk refers to as the First Principles Thinking approach. Instead of basing decisions on past successes or failures, Musk and others that use this reasoning approach study objective fundamentals and make their decisions based solely on that.

What’s good about following Musk’s way of thinking and reasoning is that it opens you up to other possibilities and approaches by “forcing” you to disregard the status quo, and think differently. Doing that can help set yourself apart from other influencers in your niche, and allow you to bring something new and fresh to the table for your target audience.

3. Choose your social media channel.

It’s important to pick the right social platforms where audiences with interests that align with your brand could engage with you. Two of the most prominent social networks where influencers are thriving in 2019 are Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Instagram is the channel where 93% of social media influencers focus their content — because it gives them the best results.

Source: Marketing Profs

However, just because those are the current statistics doesn’t mean that Instagram is a perfect choice all the time.

The reason is simple: Your ideal audience may not be spending most of their time here.

On Instagram, you might see influencers that focus on lifestyle-oriented industries. For example, you might see a travel blogger posting about hotel stays or videos of food bloggers making a recipe. Because Instagram is quickly becoming video friendly with its Stories feature, you might also see sponsored content and marketing videos such as influencer hosted makeup tutorials.

Although LinkedIn is gaining more traction with lifestyle content, influencers can succeed on this platform when they focus on career or academic tips, or job-related content. While LinkedIn does offer video posting options, influencers can also embrace text more heavily on this platform by publishing blog-styled posts or regular text-posts.

If you want to quickly grow your following and establish yourself as a social media influencer, you need to make sure that you choose the right social media channel based on your niche and ideal audience.

Here are three questions to ask to help guide you in choosing the right social media channel:

Who is your target audience?

Again, this is where creating a holistic persona of your ideal audience is crucial. Instagram and Pinterest are excellent choices if you’re aspiring to reach out to millennials. On the other hand, if your target audience consists mostly of business executives, LinkedIn may be your best bet.

Where are the other influencers in your niche?

Aside from sharing the same target audience, being active in social media channels where the big influencers in your niche open the door for you to reach out to them, and even collaborate with them in the future.

One tool I found extremely useful for this is BuzzSumo. When you do a search here using your targeted keyword, you’ll not only see what topics other influencers have tackled, but where they also share these pieces of content.

What type of content will you create?

Some social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to post a diverse range of content formats while others like YouTube and Instagram only focus on providing users a specific content format.

That said, it’s vital that you select the social media channel that best suit the content strategy you’ll develop, which we will look into in the next section.

Regardless of which social media channel(s) you choose, remember not to go overboard with your selection. Stick to using two to three networks. Otherwise, you’ll be spreading yourself too thin, and will find it difficult to build your credibility and following.

4. Develop your content strategy.

Just like in inbound marketing, the format and quality of the content you publish will make or break your chances of successfully building yourself as a social media influencer.

Decide on the format you’ll use when creating your content. It should be one through which you’re able not only to deliver valuable information, but also, express your personality and voice — which help add uniqueness to the content you produce for your target audience.

Part of developing an effective content strategy is giving your audience the right balance of informative content and personal content. Remember, one reason why people trust influencers is due to their relatability.

One efficient way to do this is through the 5-3-2 principle: Out of every 10 posts you publish in your social media account, five of these should be valuable content written by someone else, three are educational and informative content you created yourself, and two should be posts about yourself.

Now, you may be thinking, “How will this help me become an influencer if half of the content I’ll be publishing is curated content?”

For starters, influencers are known for being able to provide valuable content to their audience. That includes sharing content written by others that they believe their followers will find useful.

More important, sharing content published by other influencers in your niche will help you slowly get their attention. As a result, it will be much easier to reach out to them and ask them to do the same for you later on.

If you need help discovering topic ideas for your content, try these resources.

Google Related Search Keywords

This is found at the bottom of the page after you search on Google. It lists down the most frequently used long-tail keywords used by your target audience when searching for content on the internet.

Answer the Public

Answer the Public is a website that gives you a comprehensive list of the different questions that are commonly asked around your chosen keywords, which you can then answer through your content.

Quora

Similar to Answer the Public, Quora gives you a list of different questions asked surrounding your selected keyword. The main difference between the two is that unlike Answer the Public, which offers you a list of questions based on search algorithms, the questions you find in Quora are those that were left explicitly by individuals currently facing a problem or challenge.

At the same time, Quora allows its members to leave answers to these posted questions. This gives aspiring social media influencers the chance to flex their muscles, and showcase knowledge on this topic — and, eventually, your niche.

5. Distribute your content.

No matter how great your content is, if you’re not getting people to see it and engage with it, it’s not exactly useful.

That said, it’s important that you carefully plan out when you’ll be publishing and distributing your content on social media.

The best time to post content on social media hugely depends on which social media channel you chose to use. This infographic provides a detailed breakdown of the best days and times when to distribute content for each of the most popular social media networks.

It’s just as critical to know how to post your content on social media. While each social media channel has its own rules and guidelines, here are some general best practices that are applicable regardless on which social media channel you use.

Stick to one theme per social media channel.

Focusing on one specific theme for each of your social media channels allows you to give your followers a more holistic picture of who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. That way, you’re able to publish more diverse content while still keeping your profiles very sleek and cohesive.

More important, it helps you categorize the different types of content you publish. That way, your followers know which social media channel they’ll find the content they need from you.

Customize your message.

Even if you’re posting the same piece of content on different social media channels, always take the time to make sure that you customize the message you include in it. Not only does it make each of your posts more personalized, but as Aaron Haynes, founder of Fenix Pro points out, it prevents your followers from feeling like their being spammed on their social media feeds.

“You need to make sure that you tailor every single content you post caters to the wants and needs of your followers, whether it’s a regular post or a paid post,” he explains. “The worst thing is that they can report your account as spammy, which could mean the end of your social media influencer dream.”

Optimize posts for mobile.

The average person spends over three hours on his or her mobile device.

Source: eMarketer

And within that time, 80% of it is spent on social media. That said, make sure that the posts you publish are just as appealing in mobile as they would be when viewed on desktops or laptops.

6. Post tutorials on Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook.

People who are looking to learn more about brands or products love to use video to do so. If your strategy or industry is highly visual, consider showing audiences how to use a product you’re trying to promote with a quick how-to.

Once audiences see a product in use, they might want to replicate the how-to project you’re doing or feel like the product is easy to use. These thoughts might lead them to an actual purchase and make your clients or sponsors very happy. 

To help you brainstorm ideas, here’s a quick guide to how-to videos that really work.

7. Or, write LinkedIn or Medium thought leadership.

Thought leadership is content from an industry expert that offers advice or information on a certain topic. If you want to be an influencer in a business-related industry, or have people look to you as a leader or management-guru, a great place to start posting thought leadership is on LinkedIn. 

As we mentioned above, you can use LinkedIn’s blog post feature to write a more long-form post, comment on other posts or discussions, or just publish standard posts. If you prefer video, the platform also has options for that as well. 

If you want to write a lot of blog posts, another great place to publish your work could be Medium. Users on Medium see posts on their feed based on their interests and who they follow. So, if users share the same interests as you, they might be directed to your post.

8. Grow your network.

While you’re still in the process of establishing your credibility and expertise as a social media influencer, you’ll need to actively grow your follower base.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is through blogging. Even though more Internet users are turning to social media networks for information, the fact remains that you don’t entirely own your space here. One misstep can easily cause these social media networks to take down your account, causing you to lose all of your content and followers.

Blogging can help you kickstart your follower base by helping you get discovered. By including social media sharing buttons on each of your blog posts, your visitors can share your content with their respective social media networks.

If you have the budget, and you have a premium content offer on your blog, Justin Morgan — a.k.a., the Dental Marketing Guy –recommends promoting it as a sponsored post. That way, your content can find its way onto the feeds of those that match your ideal persona, introducing yourself and what you have to offer to them.

Blogging is also an efficient way to reach out and connect with is influencers in your niche as well as those related to yours. Blogging was how I connected with key influencers in my niche and exponentially grew my follower base.

Creating guest posts is another way of growing your followers. Getting featured on a reputable site within your niche helps you further establish your credibility and authority. At the same time, it will help you capture the attention of the more prominent influencers in your niche, and even open the door for collaboration with them.

9. Engage with your followers.

When your followers leave a question or comment on your posts, take the time to acknowledge and respond to them. That can make them feel like they’re valued and that you sincerely want to help them. It will also help you develop a relationship with them.

Of course, not all of the comments and questions will be positive. As an influencer, expect that you’ll have your fair share of negative comments and criticisms. Make it a point to keep your cool and address them professionally.

10. Evaluate your progress.

This step is crucial, especially if you’re looking to collaborate with brands for their influencer marketing campaigns, since this is one of the things that brands look for in an influencer to partner with.

Most social media channels give you insights and analytics to monitor your progress — things like demographics, reach, and engagement rate, that will show how quickly (or slowly) you’re building your audience. It will also shed light on which content formats get the highest engagement rates, so that you can create more of these.

11. Stay updated.

If you’ve been active on any social media channel, you know how often networks update their algorithms, as well as their posting terms and conditions. As an aspiring influencer, you need to keep yourself updated with these changes to avoid penalizations.

You’ll also need to familiarize yourself with FTC guidelines and policies, especially if you’re going to be collaborating with brands to promote their products and services on your social media accounts.

With influencer marketing proving itself as a highly effective marketing strategy, the FTC has become even more vigilant in monitoring brands and partner influencers that might be violating marketing guidelines.

12. Be consistent.

According to Adam Steele, founder of Loganix, if there’s one thing that surpasses quality content, it’s consistency.

That’s because your followers need to be able to count on you to deliver quality content on a consistent basis. If you don’t, they’ll eventually stop following you, or at least paying attention to you.

Scheduling your posts using a social automation tool like eClincher or HubSpot’s social publishing tools can help ensure that you stay consistent with your posts. Instead of manually publishing on each of your social media profiles, these tool allow you to create, upload, and schedule posts in batches.

Positioning yourself as a social media influencer will take some time, so you’ll need to be patient with the process, and stay consistent with it.

Most important, understand that becoming a social media influencer in your industry is not the end destination. Instead, it’s a stepping stone to more significant opportunities and responsibilities.

A year ago, I downloaded a trendy new app called TikTok. When I opened it, I was overwhelmed by a feed of hilarious looping videos and bizarre music montages made by other users. It reminded me of Vine, the looping video platform that was killed by Twitter a few years beforehand.

As I continued to explore the app, I felt like I was witnessing utter chaos — but in a good way. The stream of odd videos had no rhyme or reason to it, but it kept me entertained and easily distracted for the whole weekend.

As the app neared its one-year mark, a news story caught my eye about how brands were becoming more interested in TikTok due to its astounding user growth. I was shocked that this funny platform was starting to be taken seriously.

When I offered up a few TikTok-related post ideas at a HubSpot Blog pitch session, colleagues who knew of the app were also as surprised as I was about this marketing trend.

Meanwhile, others were asking, “What the heck is TikTok? All I can think of is that Ke$ha song.”

While many marketers have heard of it — and might even know that it got over 1 billion downloads in its first year, they might still scratch their heads when they read about TikTok or see some of its nonsensical videos.

So, why are people so obsessed with it? And — most importantly — should marketers even care about this super bizarre, niche app?

In this post, I’ll attempt to unravel some of the mystery behind TikTok and explain how marketers can leverage it now or in the future. To give you some added marketing inspiration, I’ll also touch on a few brands that have already conquered the platform.

In 2017, ByteDance acquired the app Musical.ly and later merged it with its new app, TikTok, in 2018.

The app, which now has more than 500 million monthly active users, is like a combination of its predecessor, Musical.ly, and the discontinued short-video app, Vine.

Before essentially becoming TikTok, Musical.ly had nearly the exact same layout. The app allowed users to lip-sync and virtually duets with friends to musical overlays. To give you an idea of what the app looked like, here’s an old ad for it:

Image from TikTok

Meanwhile, users on Vine had a similar layout to Instagram. They could record and post basic 10-second looping videos. Most of which had a comedic tone to them. Although Vine didn’t have a musical overlay feature til later in its existence, users would often play music in the background or work in sound effects in other creative ways.

When you enter TikTok, you’ll see a video feed — similarly to Musical.ly’s — with a wider variety of post styles, from music montages to funny shorts with insane AR filters. Here’s a screenshot of what this feed looks like:

Like other visual apps such as Snapchat or Instagram, TikTok has become a creative outlet for young adults and teens. To give you an idea of what you might see on the platform, here’s a highlight reel published on TikTok’s official Youtube page:

Soon after its launch and youth popularity, celebrities and comedians, like Jimmy Fallon, began to discuss it and use the app themselves. Here’s a quick video of Fallon showing it to his audience on an episode of The Tonight Show:

 

Examples of TikTok Posts

If you’re interested in joining TikTok for personal or business-related reasons, it can be helpful — and pretty entertaining — to look at other posts for inspiration. Here are a few of the common post styles you’ll see there:

Music Videos or Montages

On any given day, you’ll see a number of musical montages or mini music videos on the platform. While some people are just lip-syncing to songs, others might get more creative. In this interesting example, a user combines a video game’s storyline with a song with lyrics that relate well to what the main character is doing.

Comedic Shorts

Most of the posts you’ll see on TikTok are aimed at getting laughs. While you might see shorter and simpler funny videos, you’ll also see more detailed, well-planned posts that feel like short narratives. Here’s a great example of a post which tells the story of a cat going on vacation.

Videos with Special Effects

In this funny example, users take advantage of TikTok’s AR face filters.

Duets

With the Duets feature, you can reply to a musical post by recording your own video to the same music. Your video will then display back-to-back with the original post. While some people will use this former Musical.ly feature for lip-syncing videos, others will get more creative by adding a visual response, like this:

Challenge Videos

On TikTok, you’ll also regularly see hashtagged challenges. These videos will often encourage you to record yourself doing something odd to join in on the challenge. Here’s an example of someone participating in the Chipotle’s #ChipotleLidFlipChallenge. The goal of the challenge is to flip a Chipotle to-go bowl’s lid with only the bowl:

Brands on TikTok

Although TikTok might feel like just a hub of odd posts, its popularity and video-focused layout opens brands up to a variety of unique marketing and brand awareness opportunities. In fact, it’s already becoming a tool that companies like Chipotle and Washington Post use to engage new audiences.

But, because TikTok doesn’t hyperlink posts to websites and only recently started to allow advertising, these businesses seem to be focusing on boosting brand awareness, rather than leads or traffic.

To succeed on TikTok, marketers will have to get creative. While entertainers and publishers might have an easier time transitioning content into a TikTok videos, some brands will require more brainstorming.

One brand that creatively and virally highlighted a product line naturally on the app was Guess. The major fashion brand recently launched the #inMyDenimChallenge, which encouraged TikTok users to film a music video while wearing Guess’ new denim line.

Two other notable companies that are taking a unique approach are The Washington Post and the United Nations.

The Washington Post’s account takes shockingly casual and comedic approach with the app. Here’s an example of one of their recent posts:

While The Post publishes a variety of funny shorts about the newsroom, the United Nations has started dance challenges to spread awareness about more serious topics like global warming and world hunger. Here’s a video post that responded to the UN’s #danceforchange challenge:

Although some of the first brands to join TikTok were large, well-known companies, it can still be helpful for small businesses to look at what businesses and influencers are trying on the platform.

Branded video examples, even from bigger companies, could arm you with helpful takeaways related to creative marketing strategies and experimenting with new platforms. Even if you don’t join TikTok, checking out these videos could also help you come up with ideas for posts on other visual platforms, like Instagram.

If you’ve enjoyed the examples we’ve shown you so far and want to start making your own, below are a few basic instructions for filming your first video. Because TikTok has so many features, we’ll also be publishing a detailed guide on how to use the entire app. Stay tuned. 

1. Open the app and go to the center camera tab.

2. Use the labeled icons around the screen to explore and add filters or music.

The Music icon will appear in the top center of the screen while the more intense AR filters and video overlays can be found by tapping the “Effects” button on the bottom left of the camera screen.

3. Tap a time setting at the bottom to choose how long your video will be.

Your video can be 15 or 60 seconds long. You can also use this bar to enter Photo Template mode. This will allow you to upload photos into slide-show styled templates.

4. Start recording all at once or in segments.

Hold down your finger on the record button and release it when you’d like to pause recording.

5. After recording, add more filters, text or musical overlays, and stickers.

6. Press Next to enter post settings.

Include a caption and relevant hashtags to make it more searchable. You can also tap Drafts to save the post for later. 

7. Adjust the privacy and comment style by tapping on the settings under the video caption.

You can also turn Duets on or off if you don’t want people to share a video response to your post.

8. Publish it!

What’s Next for TikTok

TikTok isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. While companies like Facebook have tried to recreate the app, they haven’t been nearly as successful.

With TikTok’s growth and lack of competition, we highly recommend keeping this app on your radar — even if you aren’t sure of how you’ll use it yet.

If you think TikTok could be a great part of your strategy, download it and start experimenting. This will help you learn about what content is or isn’t engaging long before your competitors. Not to mention, the app is so new that there aren’t many rules or norms around what you can or can’t post.

So far, if TikTok has taught marketers one thing, it’s that experimenting with new platforms and thinking outside of the box can help you engage new audiences and boost brand awareness.

As you start to brainstorm your first TikTok posts, here are some tips to help you get your creative juices flowing:

• Embrace the filters and musical overlays.
• Don’t be afraid to be funny.
• Use hashtags and reply to challenges for more engagement.
• Come up with creative ways to show off your brand, product, service — or even a company jingle.
• Consider using videos to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at your work.

To learn about other new and emerging social platforms, check out this helpful post.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking for investors for your small business, or the CEO of a large corporation, a business plan can help you succeed and is a critical component for long-term growth.

In fact, one study found companies that use business plans grow 30% faster than those that don’t.

A business plan includes a company overview, your company’s short-term and long-term goals, information on your product or service, sales targets, expense budgets, your marketing plan, and a list including each member of your management team.

While a thorough business plan is necessary, it’s equally critical you provide readers with a short, attention-grabbing executive summary, as well. A CEO or investor might not have the interest or time to read your full business plan without first getting the general gist of your company or goals through a brief synopsis.

Essentially, an executive summary is the back cover of your book, convincing readers that it’s worth their time to read the whole thing.

To write an impressive executive summary that effectively embodies all the important elements of your business plan, we’ve cultivated a list of necessary components for an executive summary, as well as an example to get you started.

What to Include in Your Executive Summary

Your business plan should convey your company’s mission, your product, a plan for how you’ll stand out from competitors, your financial projections, your company’s short and long-term goals, your buyer persona, and your market fit.

To create a business plan, take a look at our business template.

An executive summary, then, should be a short, maximum two-page synopsis of the information provided in your business template.

Ultimately, an executive summary should provide a preview for investors or CEO’s, so they know what to expect from the rest of your report. Your executive summary should include:

• The name, location, and mission of your company
• A description of your company, including management, advisors, and brief history
• Your product or service, where your product fits in the market, and how your product differs from competitors in the industry
• Financial considerations, start-up funding requirements, or the purpose behind your business plan — mention what you hope the reader will help your company accomplish

To understand more tactically how an executive summary should look, take a look at the following example:

Executive Summary Example

Our Mission

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers delicious gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten-free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position. 

The Company and Management

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, Massachusetts, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her Bagel Shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.

Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:

1. Jeni King, partner at Winding Communications Ltd.
2. Henry Wilson, president of Blue Robin, LLP

Our Product

We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment, with opportunities for open-mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the north shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses, or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling-point. Additionally, our market research (see Section 3) has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.

Financial Considerations

Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.

We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.

Start-up Financing Requirements

We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup funds to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.

When you hear the word “blog”, what do you think of?

Maybe your mind goes to stories about travel, yoga, and exciting new restaurants to try.

What if I told you that, although these thoughts may be valid, other terms and phrases should be coming to mind? These include conversions, a boost in revenue, calls to action, inbound marketing, and improving customer relationships.

Blogs are powerful business tools. They improve conversion rate, foster relationships between your business and audience members and customers, boost revenue, promote brand awareness, increase your ranking on search engines, and positively impact your bottom line.

In this guide, we’ll review the different types of blogs there are and examples of each. These will give you a better understanding of the various ways your business can write and publish content to help you achieve the benefits we listed above … and more.

Before we dive in, what is a blog?

Any type of business — whether it’s focused on ecommerce, retail, technology, or services — can benefit from publishing and maintaining a blog. By writing about topics that resonate with your audience and incorporating optimization tactics your business can experience a variety of benefits that result from having a blog.

Speaking of the benefits of a blog, we mentioned some of them above. Let’s dive into them in more detail. This section will help you answer a commonly asked question around the topic: why blog?

Benefits of Blogging

There are a variety of reasons why your business should blog. These all explain why it’s a beneficial time investment and addition to your business’s branding, marketing, and sales efforts.

• Rank on search engines and build authority online so your content and website appear first on the search engine results page, or SERP, when people look up specific terms and keywords. Human Marketing does this well with their mix of blogs and pillar pages (or topic clusters).

• Drive organic traffic to your website, social media profiles, and other forms of content in a way that feels natural and doesn’t interrupt your audience. Cloud Elements is an example of a company that has seen an increase in organic traffic due to their blog.

• Educate your leads and customers by helping them stay informed on industry trends and development, and educated about your products, services, and how you can solve their challenges.

• Contribute to your inbound marketing tactics so you can avoid having your content feel pushy and “salesy”. Grand Rapids Chair is an example of a company that blogs to improve their inbound growth.

• Convert leads and prospects into customers by including helpful and educational information in your blogs so they can understand why your product or service is right for them.

• Become known as an expert in the industry and stand out against your competition by writing about the various topics your business and product line is known for or relates to. These may include content marketing, public relations, or software for small businesses. 3PL Central is an example of a company who has become known as an industry expert and separates themselves from the competition thanks to their blog.

• Foster a sense of community so your audience members know there are hundreds (or thousands, depending on the size of your blog) of other people equally as interested in your information and content.

• Engage audience members and customers so they keep coming back to read your content every day (or as often as you publish your blog) and potentially check out your products or services.

• Promote your business and products or services by writing about their benefits and linking to information where your readers can learn more … and convert into customers.

• Boost revenue with calls-to-action (CTAs) and links to your website pages where your audience can learn about and purchase your products or sign up for your services.

• Support all of your marketing and greater business initiatives by staying consistent with your branding and tone throughout all of your blogs.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what blogging is and how it can benefit your business, let’s dive into some examples. You can these examples for inspiration and as a point of reference as you start your business’s blog.

Get six free blog post templates to help you get started creating and publishing your posts.

The following blog types are targeted at various industries and audiences, and I include real examples of each below. You’ll notice each blog description includes main takeaways to help you apply these examples to your own business’s blog.

Before we start, you might be wondering: Is there anything all successful blogs have in common that I should be keeping an eye out for?

Fair question — and in terms of the examples we’re about to review, the answer is yes.

What do successful blogs have in common?

Successful blogs have a specific purpose that’s clear to readers. Whether or not a blog relates directly to the product or service the company sells, each blog has a defined purpose readily apparent to readers. You’ll notice this is often the main takeaway for the examples we’re about to review.

Now, let’s dive in.

Marketing Blogs

Marketing blogs cover a wide array of topics related to inbound marketing, social media, content creation, and organic growth. They may focus on one specific field within marketing or cover broad, industry-related trends to help you develop a marketing strategy specific to your business.

1. DWDigitaWeb Blog

DWDigitaWeb is an inbound marketing agency. Their blog educates marketers on useful inbound tactics to help them grow their business and drive organic traffic. They write about lead generation, SEO, and how to use your blog to convert readers into customers.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog educates readers on the importance and impact of inbound marketing on any business.
• Relevant subtopics, such as social media, inbound recruiting, website strategy, and sales enablement, educate readers on all aspects of the marketing trend.

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2. HubSpot Marketing Blog

The HubSpot Marketing Blog is also focused on inbound marketing. It teaches readers about the level of organic growth and traffic inbound marketing promotes. The blog attracts a large audience due to the wide variety of inbound marketing topics that are written about, which apply to virtually every type of company.

Note: HubSpot also has a Sales Blog, Service Blog, and Agency Blog.

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Main Takeaways:

• It includes several resources (such as closely related CTAs and articles) to support the topics being discussed throughout the blogs.
• The blog’s tone remains the same across all pieces of content which creates a sense of consistency for readers.

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3. Scholes Marketing Blog

Scholes Marketing publishes a blog for anyone looking to optimize their website and improve their organic traffic with inbound marketing. Their content educates readers on related subtopics including how to build a great, searchable website and how to generate leads and revenue through content.

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Main Takeaways:

• The main function of the blog, which is to teach and educate readers about how to enhance their business and broaden their reach through inbound marketing, is clear to readers through the content they provide.
• The blog gives readers a number of applicable ways to grow and expand reach through inbound marketing.

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Manufacturing Blogs

Manufacturing blogs are used to inform those in manufacturing and closely-related field (such as supply chain, distribution, and logistics) about best practices, news, and trends in the industry. These blogs keep you up-to-date and well-versed in this ever-changing business sector.

1. Dustless Blasting Blog

Dustless Blasting uses their blog to promote their product, the Dustless Blasting machine. They share real stories and write about common situations in which their target audience may find themselves in need of the product. They create guides and instructional pieces (as well as instructional videos) to teach customers how to use the machine.

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Main Takeaways:

• By describing real scenarios in which their target audience may find themselves needing the machine, they’re able to determine whether or not the product is right for them.
• The blog includes applicable information about how to use the Dustless Blasting machine so readers can better understand how the product fits their needs (and potentially convert into customers).

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2. Epec Engineered Technologies Blog

The Epec Engineering Technologies blog covers a wide variety of topics about electronics manufacturing. There are Q&As, interviews with industry experts, directions on how to assemble specific electronics, cables, and more, and even information on technical writing for similar businesses looking to begin their blogs.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog is a one-stop-shop for all types of electronic manufacturing solution knowledge and queries.
• The blog posts are written in a variety of formats to engage readers and provide unique content for everyone.

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3. Marlin Steel Blog

Marlin Steel’s blog covers all things related to steel production, use, and technology. Blog posts and listicles cover everything from how to use specific steel tools and products as well as how to use steel in various situations. There are also several posts about developments and changes within the steel industry over the years.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog has an array of content about steel products and use to educate readers on their options and keep them up-to-date on industry trends and advancements.
• Even though steel may be a niche topic, there are blogs written in a number of engaging formats including interviews, how-to’s, and listicles.

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Healthcare Blogs

Whether it’s policy, law, treatment, technology, or research, healthcare blogs exist to help businesses and individuals stay informed of the newest and highest impact innovations made in the field.

1. Six Month Smiles Blog

The Six Month Smiles blog is a place where individuals can participate in clinical conversations and learn more about short-term orthodontics. Blog posts are written by industry experts, including people who work for companies that create and design dental tools. Writers also include hygienists and doctors who perform dental cleanings, surgeries, and more. The blog has a variety of interviews, Q&As, and informational pieces for readers.

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Main Takeaways:

• Industry experts, doctors, and dental hygienists can collaborate and talk about their work and developments in the field through this blog.
• The blog provides a way for potential customers to learn about the services they may be interested in paying for.

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2. Algamus Gambling Recovery Blog

The Algamus Gambling Recovery Blog is for anyone who is (or knows someone who is) going through gambling addiction recovery. The blog covers all topics related to gambling addiction and gambling addiction recovery including treatment, ways to get support, and how to support a loved one going through treatment. The posts are formatted in a variety of ways such as guides to self-help, guides to support, and scientific studies.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog has content for everyone including gambling addicts and the people supporting them through their recovery.
• By including scientific studies, their blog content feels trustworthy and legitimate which is important since they’re covering a real medical issue.

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3. StayWell Insights Blog

StayWell helps businesses, healthcare providers, and others discover and create health empowerment solutions. Their blog, called StayWell Insights, does this, too — their pieces provide readers with a wide range of information about health habits, insights, studies, and trends. All of their content is supported by scientific studies and news.

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Main Takeaways:

• Blogs are written about a variety of topics within healthcare such as information about providers, trends, and industry events so all readers can find what they’re looking for.
• By backing their content with official studies and news, they feel trustworthy to readers — this is important considering they’re writing about healthcare and healthcare providers.

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Ecommerce Blogs

Ecommerce blogs help online businesses and retailers of all kinds learn about the best technology, trends, and tools in the industry to help them grow and reach their short and long-term goals. These blogs cover ecommerce marketing and strategy, online shop development, and more.

1. M.M. LaFleur Blog

M.M. LaFleur is a women’s professional apparel brand designed to bring ease and comfort into the lives of their customers. Their blog, called The — M — Dash, promotes female empowerment.

Women who work in virtually any industry can read the blog to feel inspired by other businesswomen as well as learn about different aspects of being a woman in the workplace (gender equality, stereotypes, etc.). Lastly, there are blog posts related to attire including topics about what to wear on your first day, casual Fridays, and to job interviews.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog promotes education and discussion around the topic of women in the workplace, all while relating this content back to their clothing line.
• They discuss these societal issues in a way that makes readers feel good which leads them to feel good about the brand as a whole.

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2. JustBats Blog

From baseball and softball bat reviews to bat gift ideas, the JustBats blog covers all topics related to finding the right bat for every individual. JustBats sells hundreds of baseball and softball bats, so their blog does a great job of explaining to customers which options are best for them.

There are blogs about bat brands and specific models, as well as posts about technique and how to improve your baseball or softball skills and knowledge.

(Note: JustBats has such a large product line that they also have a separate website for baseball and softball gloves, called JustGloves, with a respective blog.)

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog’s purpose is to educate readers on the business’s product line so they can make the right purchase.
• JustBats’ product line is so vast that their blogs help simplify the purchase process for customers.

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3. G FUEL

G FUEL is an energy drink, and the company has a blog they use to promote their product line. The content G FUEL shares includes news about their business as well as their products. Rather than trying to discreetly talk about their drinks, it’s very obvious to readers that G FUEL is trying to provide education around the benefits of their product and what makes them stand out against their competition.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog teaches readers about the benefits of G FUEL and why it’s a better drink than those of their competitors.
• The blog provides customers and fans with a unique inside look at their business they wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. This promotes relationship building between customers and the company.

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Technology Blogs

It’s no secret that the tech world is always evolving. With so many advancements being made every day, it’s critical that businesses do what they can to keep up with the cutting-edge developments that impact their ability to grow and reach their target audience.

1. Dotloop Blog

Dotloop is a real estate transaction management solution used by professionals and clients to conduct and close deals. Dotloop’s blog covers all topics related to real estate automation, what it’s like to work in the field, industry trends, and product offerings. They also write about the ways their product can help simplify all aspects of the real estate process.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog distills the broad topic of real estate down and organizes it by role (for example, agent vs. broker) to simplify the reading experience.
• The real estate education the blog provides readers with is expert-level. This allows visitors to leave the site feeling confident in their new or improved knowledge.

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2. Adaptive Insights Blog

Adaptive Insights is a business and financial planning software company. Their blog provides insight into how active financial planning processes drive success. Their blogs include tips, latest news, and best practices related to active financial planning. Adaptive Insights even writes about specific causes and events that matter to them as a company (such as social causes, employee and customer success, etc.) so readers get to know them on a deeper level.

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Main Takeaways:

• It educates readers and visitors on the various ways active financial planning is beneficial to their business which helps the company promote their software.
• Adaptive Insights also gives visitors an inside look at their company and what matters to them (and their employees) through their blog — this helps them build relationships with readers.

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3. Inside Design by InVision Blog

Inside Design by InVision — a digital product design platform — has a blog for technology, UX, UI, and product designers. Designers can turn to the blog for inspiration or to learn about industry trends, resources, and best practices. There’s also a section of the blog that covers design news and information about design workshops.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog’s content covers all aspects of digital design — no matter what type of digital designer visits the site, there’s blog content for them.
• The way the blog is organized makes it easy for these different types of designers to quickly find the type of information they’re looking for.

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Education and Nonprofit Blogs

Education and nonprofit blogs provide teachers, administrators, volunteers, and leaders with a way to learn about each other’s findings and strategies. Most importantly, they give these people the opportunity to collaborate and share knowledge to help each other grow.

1. Teach Away Blog

Tech Away is an education-focused company that recruits individuals in North America to teach abroad. Their blog provides interested teachers and site visitors with a look at everything they need to make an informed decision about whether or not Teach Away is right for them. Blog topics include teaching abroad vs. teaching online, teacher training, teacher success stories, teaching destinations, and more.

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Main Takeaways:

• Since the teachers who participate in Teach Away experience a large lifestyle change, the blog is a place they learn about all parts of the program and decide if it’s right for them.
• All aspects of the program are separated into different sections of the blog so teachers and prospective teachers can easily locate the information they’re looking for.

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2. Trinity College London Blog

Trinity College in London is a school focused on performing arts, English, music, and teaching. They have several education blogs for students, teachers, performers, and retailers. Trinity has separate blogs for each of the respective fields of study they offer so visitors can easily log on to read, or subscribe to, the content that matters most to them.

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Main Takeaways:

• Trinity College is a school with many course offerings, so they organize their blog content by field of study for easy navigation.
• No matter which topics students are studying or educators are teaching, they can review dozens of articles in one central location.

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3. GuideStar by Candid Nonprofit Blog

GuideStar by Candid is a well-known clearinghouse of nonprofit financial and leadership information. No matter the type of foundation you work for, this blog is a place where you can learn about all sides of running or volunteering for a nonprofit. Their blog posts provide a summary of nonprofit news, best practices, and information about leaders.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blog covers all aspects of non-profit work including latest trends, tips, and news so there’s information for volunteers and leaders of all kinds.
• Blog posts educate readers on what successful organization are doing and which strategies they’re implementing so they too can give them a try.

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Digital Agency Blogs

Digital agency blogs allow your business to get help and advice from certified agencies and consultants. The following blogs belong to service providers from across the globe that help businesses implement successful digital and inbound strategies.

1. Synx Blog

Synx is a digital agency, marketing, and technology company based out of Australia. The Synx blog covers all things related to digital marketing including tips and tricks about content, inbound tactics, mobile marketing, and more. They share their blogs in an array of formats including listicles, interviews, success stories, and thought leadership pieces to cater to all types of readers.

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Main Takeaways:

• The blogs are written in a variety of formats and styles to suit every visitor’s business needs and preferences.
• The blog content promotes Synx’s services by explaining why businesses need it and how it differs from the competition.

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2. Dotdynamic Blog

Dotdynamic is a digital marketing agency based out of Ireland that provides businesses with the techniques and strategies they need to generate qualified leads and convert more people into customers, both on and offline.

Their blog provides businesses with key insights and tips on how to achieve an impactful and effective digital marketing strategy. They also educate readers on the latest industry trends and tactics to attract, engage, and convert more audience members.

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Main Takeaways:

• All blog content relates in some way to the business’s mission of empowering and educating other companies on digital marketing.
• The blogs are organized by specific topic within digital marketing for easy access — examples include SEO, PPC ads, digital marketing strategies.

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3. HAL Company Blog

HAL Company is a digital agency and consulting company based out of Argentina. Their blog shares applicable advice and information about the latest trends in marketing, sales, and automation platforms throughout their variety of posts and listicles.

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Main Takeaway:

• Blog topics support the overall mission of the business: help companies grow while boosting conversions and brand awareness through specific marketing, sales, and automation tactics.
• The blog posts recommend specific automation tools, software, and technology to help businesses grow better using digital marketing tactics.

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Whew, that was a lot of info … but, hopefully you’re feeling inspired and ready to begin (or improve) your business’s blog. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the type of blog content you produce and share — after all, blogging is an iterative process. And remember to remain open to new ways to engage your target audience with your blog down the road.

Blogging Helps You Grow Better

Blogging can be an effective way to positively impact your business’s bottom line. No matter your industry or business size, you can start and manage a blog that brings in leads, converts them into customers, and boosts revenue.

You’ll also likely see an improvement of your brand awareness once your blog begins ranking and growing. Remember — building a blog takes time and patience, but the results are worth the wait. So, determine what type of blog is right for you, use the examples we’ve reviewed above for inspiration and guidance, and start writing.