Being a good delegator often doesn’t come naturally. In fact, I’m guilty of being a pretty terrible delegator myself. 

Oftentimes, the risk seems to outweigh the reward — for instance, I might have a project I need finished immediately, and the risk of miscommunication that might occur as I offhand tasks to someone else seems too high for me to bother.

But delegating is a critical skill for any manager to learn, and can increase productivity and revenue for your company’s bottom line — in fact, CEOs who delegate generate 33% greater revenue than those who do not.

Additionally, delegating is often critical for achieving the highest-quality work. Why not delegate if you have someone on your team with talents and skills better suited for a certain task?

Simply put, delegating is critical for your team’s success, and your own sanity. But it’s easier said than done. Fortunately, the folks at Headway Capital put together the following infographic, full of tips and tricks to enable you to get better at delegating. Take a look.

Sometimes, a press release about your company’s new product launch, significant hire, or acquisition fails to pick up the coverage you were expecting. Journalists crave juicy stories and viral marketing campaigns, but standing out in a sea of conventional pitches is one of the biggest challenges for any public relations professional.

When you need a dose of inspiration, blogs like PR Examples are a great place to find the most compelling PR plays. To save you some time, we curated a list of the absolute best of the best to get the creativity flowing for your next campaign.

Read on to get inspired by some of the best minds in public relations.

1. Lyft & Netflix: Strange Mode 

Industry Relations

With over 360,000 people who binge watched Stranger Things 2 within a day of its release, it’s clear the show created unprecedented amounts of hype leading up to its premiere date. One of the stunts that built up this hype was Lyft and Netflix’s Strange Mode prank. By immersing Lyft customers in an environment that was as terrifyingly strange and eerily similar to Hawkins, Indiana, they made Stomranger Things fans feel like they were actually in the Upside Down.

2. HostelWorld: Even Divas are Believers

Customer Relations

Traveling the world can give you some of the best experiences of your life, but it can also thrust you into situations that you’ll want to scrub from your memory, like staying the night in a hostel. There are countless hostel horror stories online and hundreds of videos that mock their hospitality scattered throughout social media — so needless to say, they don’t have the best reputation.

But HostelWorld, a hostel booking website, decided to team up with Mariah Carey to freshen up their image and showcase the pleasant reality of staying in a modern day hostel. Together, they blasted through affordable accommodation stereotypes by spotlighting the lesser known luxuries of hostels like having access to the same facilities as more expensive accommodations, but at a cheaper price, and being able to connect with other fellow travelers.

HostelWorld’s message is simple: if hostels are nice enough for divas like Mariah Carey, then they’re nice enough for everyone..

3. Lawyer.com: Choosing Lindsay Lohan to Be their Spokesperson

Customer Relations

Picking Lindsay Lohan to be your company’s official spokesperson could spark a lot of backlash. But when you connect people with lawyers, the move can produce loads of smiles, publicity, and customers. Lawyer.com’s brilliant marketing play resonated with audiences because Lohan’s troubled past and her frequent brushes with the law makes people who might’ve gotten in a little trouble feel like they’re not alone. It also makes them feel better about themselves. If a high-status celebrity needed a lawyer — multiple times — then maybe it’s not so bad if you need one too — right?

4. Stabilo Boss: Highlight the Remarkable

Corporate and Social Responsibility

There have been remarkable women throughout history that might not have been celebrated as they should have been. Stabilo Boss — the company that sells highlighter pens — started a campaign to highlight these women and their incredible accomplishments. 

Stabilo took famous black-and-white photos from historical moments and drew a yellow highlight line to showcase the woman in the photo that made it all happen. The Boss PR campaign highlighted women like Katharine Johnson, the NASA mathematician responsible for the calculations that sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Other examples include Nobel Prize winner Lise Meitner ando First Lady Edith Wilson.

The campaign blew up on social media and went on to win multiple awards.

Photo credit: Ads of the World

5. Logitech: BS Detection Spoof

Industry Relations

Hours after April Fools Day, almost every marketing publication rounds up the best spoofs, pranks, and stunts that distracted everyone at work that day. One of the funniest spoofs that earned a spot in all the major roundups this year was Logitech’s fake Business Speak Detection product video. By giving their product a punny, yet subtly accurate name, the video pokes fun at most businesses’ obsession and overuse of buzzwords. But it also has the feel of a real product overview, which makes it even more hilarious.

6. Old Spice: Paper Blazer Ad

Marketing Communications

Photo Credit: PR Examples

When Fragrance brands advertise in magazines, they usually show off their aromas by drenching an ad with their latest cologne or perfume. But Old Spice realized people usually don’t enjoy unexpectedly pungent scents violating their nostrils when they’re flipping through their favorite magazine. So in typical Old Spice fashion, they gently ribbed other fragrance brands by inserting a paper blazer doused in their new cologne, Captain, in their print ad in GQ magazine. Then they wrote about how these paper blazers can help men attract attention not only with trendy style, but also with masculine smell. The only drawback of the blazer is that it’ll turn into papier-mâché on you in the rain.

Humor and cleverness is one of the best ways to appeal to your audience and gain earned media attention, and it seems like Old Spice can leverage them both on any marketing channel.

Photo Credit: PR Examples

7. Star Wars: Passing the Box-Office Baton to The Avengers

Social Media

Congratulations, @MarvelStudios and @Avengers: #InfinityWar. pic.twitter.com/PnHfaouOlP

— Star Wars (@starwars)
May 1, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War just shattered Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record for the biggest opening weekend ever by grossing over $250 million. LucasFilm, the studio that created and produced Star Wars, wasn’t bitter though. Instead, they were proud of their friends over at Marvel Studios, and sent them a heartwarming congratulatory tweet. By applauding them for their incredible accomplishment, and not sulking about their broken record, Star Wars earned the respect of movie lovers everywhere — not to mention some media coverage for the gesture.

8. Johnnie Walker: Jane Walker

Corporate and Social Responsibility

 

 Photo Credit: PR Examples

To promote gender equality and honor the many achievements of women throughout history, Johnnie Walker launched a female version of its whisky on International Women’s Day called Jane Walker. The limited-edition bottle featured a woman on their iconic logo, instead of a man, which connected the brand to individuals who also support their commitment to social progress.

In March 2018, Johnnie Walker released 250,000 bottles of Jane Walker, and for every bottle sold, they donated $1 to organizations that empower women. This tangible impact helped their campaign gain even more support and publicity.

9. AirBnB & BBC Earth: Night at Blue Planet II

Industry Relations

Blue Planet II is considered the greatest nature series of all time, with its first episode attracting over 14 million viewers and earning the title of Britain’s highest rated TV show in 2017. Watching the show can almost place you into the habitat they’re filming, but BBC Earth wanted to take things to the next level for their biggest fans: they offered them a chance to experience what it’s like to be a researcher and filmmaker for Blue Planet II.

To do so, they teamed up with AirBnB to run a contest for their members, and two lucky winners got to spend three days and two nights in the Bahamas on the research and exploration vessel used in the show’s filming. During their expedition, they lived with and discussed work with researchers and dove deep into the Atlantic Ocean in a submarine with filmmakers to observe some of nature’s most unique underwater wildlife. By offering a once in a lifetime opportunity, BBC Earth could get more people to watch their hit show, and AirBnB could build their brand affinity.

Photo Credit: PR Examples

10. SpaceX & Tesla: SpaceX Sends a Tesla into Outer Space

Public Affairs

View from SpaceX Launch Control. Apparently, there is a car in orbit around Earth. pic.twitter.com/QljN2VnL1O

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
February 6, 2018

Everyone knows Elon Musk wants to send humans to Mars. So when SpaceX launched their newest rocket, Falcon Heavy, into space, it made some headlines. But when the Falcon Heavy suddenly shot a cherry-red Tesla Roadster blasting David Bowie’s 1971 hit “Life on Mars?” into orbit, it was being called the greatest automotive PR stunt in history.

The car will now float between Earth and Mars for millions of years, and serve as reminder for current and future generations to always reach for the stars. The success of both launches also improved SpaceX and Falcon Heavy’s reputation. Falcon Heavy is now the most powerful rocket on earth, so it’s realistic to say it can launch heavy satellites and future space stations into orbit, shuttle cargo to Mars, and even transport humans to the moon. And that’s exactly what Elon Musk needs the public to think if he wants to accomplish his ambitious goals.

11. BBC Scotland: Scotland From the Sky: Glen Coe

Integrated Marketing and Communications

In 2017, Rough Guides, a renowned travel guidebook, named Scotland the most beautiful country in the world. And a big reason why it’s such a spectacle is because Glen Coe, a Scottish valley that cuts through the ruins of an ancient super-volcano, is one of the most striking landscapes in the world.

BBC Scotland’s immersive, 360 degree video of Glen Coe grips viewers because they’re able able to experience the landscape from an intimate point of view at every possible angle, which makes them feel like they’re actually there. Publicity of this video benefits both Scotland’s tourist industry and BBC Scotland because it compels people to travel to Scotland and consume more of BBC Scotland’s content.

12. State Street Global Advisors: Fearless Girl

Corporate and Social Responsibility

On the morning of International Women’s Day, the world woke up to find a four-foot high statue of a girl across from the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street in New York. She is standing tall and brave, hands on her hips, in a dress and high top converse. 

Fearless Girl, as she is called, was commissioned by the investment management firm State Street Global Advisors as a part of their campaign to pressure companies to add more women to their boards. By standing up to Charging Bull, she is standing up for gender diversity on Wall Street. 

Source: Forbes

Some argue that the girl’s defiance toward the bull — and male-dominated corporate boardrooms more generally — is controversial. There has been lots of pushback to the statue, but in general, this PR campaign received widespread support for the women’s movement and diversity in the workplace and remains outside the New York Stock Exchange.

13. ALS Association: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Corporate and Social Responsibility

A few years ago, videos of people dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads flooded social media, now known as the Ice Bucket Challenge. The viral sensation of 2.4 million videos was a way to raise awareness of a neurodegenerative disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The idea was to raise money for the ALS Association and research on the disease. 

 

The viral challenged raised more than $115 million dollars, with almost $80 million going towards research. The campaign was a massive success — awareness and funding for ALS has skyrocketed, all thanks to millions of people giving themselves brain freeze.

14. Guinness: Guinness Clear

Corporate and Social Responsibility

Guinness pushed a series of ads to promote its newest product: Guinness Clear. This completely transparent, refreshing beverage “will keep you hydrated and help you stay in control.” Their secret recipe? It’s just water.

This lighthearted PR campaign is actually trying to address a more serious issue — binge drinking. The company hopes that consumers will drink more of their “Guinness Clear” to remember their nights and not overdo it while still having fun. Guinness hopes the ads will drive conversation and healthier habits.

 

When you work at a small business with a limited budget, it’s not really possible to shell out $340,000 for a 30-second TV commercial, or $10,000 for an email marketing campaign.

It can be frustrating when your budget dictates how many people your business can reach.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of free ways to supplement your paid advertising efforts. By incorporating free advertising tactics into your strategy, you can remove some nonessential costs and dedicate your budget to deeper, more longterm plays.

In fact, we suggest some of these methods regardless of your budget.

To help you spread the word about your business without breaking the bank, we’ve compiled 14 ways to get advertising for free.

1. Use Google My Business to optimize for local search.

One of the most powerful free ways to advertise your business is through Google My Business, which enables companies to manage their presence on Google Search and Google Maps. The tool can bolster your rankings in local search results.

Ranking high in local search shows you’re a legitimate and relevant company: you wouldn’t rank #1 in Google for “pizza places near me” if you’d closed down six months ago. Plus, if you rank high in local search, more consumers will choose your business over a competitor’s. In today’s fast-paced world, convenience is key.

Click here or scroll to the bottom of this post to learn how to advertise on Google for free and find out more about this process.

2. Check out Yext

The more places your business is listed online, the better your chances of showing up in search results, and the easier it is for potential customers to find you. To ensure great local SEO, the details of your listings on every website and online directory need to match up.

For instance, if your website lists your company’s new phone number, but Yelp lists your old one, this inconsistency could hurt your SEO. Yext scans the web to find every place your business is listed, so you can tweak your listings to guarantee accuracy.

3. Write guest posts for other blogs

There are a few major advantages to guest posting for a well-established blog. You can benefit from connecting to that blog’s audience, and you can also start establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

Since guest posting on a popular blog allows you access to an established audience and high domain authority, this practice can sometimes be more beneficial than posting to your own blog. Plus, you can link back to your own website from your article, giving you an inbound link that boosts your domain authority and can increase your own website’s ranking in search engines.

4. Answer Quora questions.

Writing content for Quora can expose your business to a large audience: TechCrunch reported that some of Quora’s active contributors receive more than 30,000 monthly views.

Besides the large built-in audience, your business can answer direct questions from prospective customers. This lets you interact with high-quality potential leads and establish yourself as an expert in the subjects that matter most in your industry.

5. Publish content on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is an platform to connect with professionals, which is why it’s also a great place to share business-related content. LinkedIn’s blogging platform lets you demonstrate your expertise within your industry.

Your connections and other LinkedIn members will engage with your posts and share them, doing the free promotion for you. With almost half of all social media traffic coming to B2B company sites from LinkedIn, it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t publish and promote content on LinkedIn.

6. Offer to do interviews on other business’ podcasts.

To figure out which platforms your team should priortize, it’s important to diversify your promotion platforms to discover where your audience is already consuming content. Some of your audience might prefer listening to podcasts over reading articles. To reach those people, contact a few businesses with podcasts and pitch interview ideas.

7. Promote your website on your email signature.

With all the emails you send every day, it’s a shame if you aren’t taking advantage of the promotional potential of your email signature. Your email signature can also be unexpected property to promote a sale, contest, event, or even a new blog post. Add a link to your business’ website on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles, as well.

8. Send email newsletters.

An email newsletter can be a useful vehicle to promote content, share business-related news, and build deeper relationships with both potential and existing customers. There are plenty of free tools out there that assist you in designing, sending, and optimizing your newsletter.

With the right time investment, an email newsletter can be the perfect place to share quality content with leads and potential consumers, establishing your brand as helpful and informative.

9. Network at in-person events.

Connecting with fellow professionals at industry networking events is a great opportunity to meet potential consumers in a place where they are eager to discuss your business. The niche topics of networking events ensures you’re meeting high-qualified leads. For example, a “Best Technology Startups of 2018” event will primarily be filled with participants who are interested in technology and startups.

Particularly for small businesses looking to make their first connections, networking is a chance to get your name out there, meet potential partners, and find opportunities for growth. Plus, it’ll keep you up-to-date on trends in your industry.

10. Speak at an event.

Similar to networking, speaking at an event about a topic related to your industry is another way to exhibit your expertise. Giving a thought-provoking and powerful speech will draw attention to you and, by association, your business, which can increase brand awareness and prove your business is qualified to tackle consumer’s challenges.

To start, brainstorm different topics and volunteer at various upcoming networking events and trade association conventions. If you’re afraid of public speaking (don’t worry, a lot of us are), you could enroll in a local Toastmasters chapter to improve your game.

11. Do a free product giveaway or contest

A product giveaway or contest is an easy way to incentivize new viewers to check out and subscribe to your social media channels or website. Plus, handing out inexpensive branded products like t-shirts or mugs is a good way to spread your brand name. Word of mouth is alive and well — and a little swag can go a long way.

12. Put up brochures or flyers.

Putting up brochures or flyers in local libraries, coffee shops, and businesses is a unique way to market to offline locations where people spend a good deal of their time.

You can create free brochures and flyers on PowerPoint. Depending on your industry, it might even help you reach an ideal clientele: if you’re a physical therapist, for example, perhaps you could hand out brochures to local gyms or nearby hospitals.

13. Create YouTube videos.

YouTube has more than a billion active users, which accounts for almost one-third of everyone on the internet. Plus, 59% of executives — i.e. decision makers — go to videos before written content.

Creating engaging and informative YouTube videos is one of the most efficient ways to sell your brand. If done right, your YouTube videos will entertain viewers enough to seek out your website.

14. Take advantage of your partnerships.

Partnerships are an opportunity to offer supplementary services that you don’t provide. For example, a web design company and a copywriting agency might choose to partner together, so when a client requires written content for her web pages, the web design company can offer copywriting services from their partner.

This increases consumer satisfaction, and it also provides exceptional advertising opportunities. When your partner’s consumers need your services, your partner will point them in your direction.

15. Post on social media.

Nowadays, social media is crucial to most marketing strategies. Luckily, most types of social media platforms and posts are free — even to businesses. While many platforms will let you advertise, you can still post or tweet for no cost if you’re on a budget.

Pick the platforms that best suit your audience. Then, post links, photos, videos, or text posts about your company, product launches, or any other occurrence that you’d like to promote. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are a suitable place to start for most businesses. They all offer a way to share video, text, photo, and link-based posts and have large user bases. To learn more about other forms of social media, check out this post.

16. Experiment with photo and video platforms.

While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn could be great platforms to start on, expanding to platforms like Instagram or Pinterest will give you more opportunities to show product shots or embrace the heavily-visual strategy of influencer marketing.

Aside from spreading awareness with free images of your product or service, most social platforms, including Facebook, offer live video and story features which can allow you to create video promotion related to your products. For example, you might use Instagram Stories or Facebook Live as an outlet to publish tutorials of how to use your products.

Because these videos and photos are on social, you can also boost their shareability by hashtagging them, creating interesting captions, and encouraging fans to react with actions like “likes” or comments.

17. Encourage happy customers to give online reviews.

Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to market your product. Consumers trust the opinions of other consumers, especially when there are many great testimonies.

If you have happy customers, encourage them to write a review about their experience on popular review platforms like Google, Facebook, and Yelp. If you want great reviews on Facebook, be sure to create a Facebook Business page if you don’t have one already.

How to Advertise on Google for Free

As mentioned above, you can create a free page on Google My Business which can help you rank higher or first in search results. Here’s how it works.

Create Your Google My Business Account

First, you’ll want to create a GMail account for your business. Then you’ll want to register for Google My Business with that account.

Google will first ask you to enter the name of your business. Then, you’ll be asked to select a “Delivery Area.” In this form, note the mileage and area where your target audience lives.

Optimizing Your Business Page

After your setup process is complete, you’ll be able to fill out your profile. As you do this, you ideally want to fill out all the information Google requests for the best search optimization. A few key things you’ll want to include will be:

• Your address
• A phone number, email address, and other contact information.
• Your website
• Hours of operation
• Photos of your business and products
• A detailed description on what your business offers
• Pricing or menu information
• The year your company opened
• Other business attributes such as “free Wi-Fi.”

The above items are things locals might search specifically for. For example, if someone searches for a “cheap Mexican restaurant open after 8 p.m.”, Google will examine your business profile’s details and prioritize your restaurant if it seems like a great match. 

Here’s an example of what it looks like when a Google business fills out all their information:

Verify and Monitor Your Business Page

Once you’ve created your Google My Business profile, be sure to verify your listing so Google knows it’s a real, legitimate business. There are a few ways to do this including email, postcard, and phone verification.

You can also download the GMB app to monitor how your business is doing on a smartphone. This post walks you through the different verification processes. 

Don’t Forget About SEO

Along with Google My Business, taking advantage of free SEO strategies can also help your website rise higher in search results. These tactics can be simple and easy to work into blogging, web design, or other processes. Here’s a template that can help you plan your SEO strategy this year.

Startup life can be lonely. Even with a growing team, dozens of customers, and supportive friends, it’s easy to slip into solitude as you figure out how to grow your business.

Thankfully, organizations and investors around the world have put together intensive business programs to combat that loneliness and provide mentorship, education, and support. One of these programs is the startup accelerator.

Startup accelerators aren’t right for everyone, and they can be competitive, exhaustive programs. However, these programs have quite literally transformed budding businesses into global, revolutionary companies. (Airbnb and Dropbox, anyone?)

Read through this guide to better understand what startup accelerators entail and if they are right for your business.

It’s common for startups to enter accelerators in hopes of walking away with funding from investors. Some programs guarantee some sort of funding in exchange for an equity stake. Other programs give away limited amounts of funding for nothing in exchange (besides successful completion of the program).

In terms of preparing for accelerators, startups don’t typically need to have any funding beforehand. Although, it can be assumed that some money is needed (whether through funding or bootstrapping) to develop a product, team, and customers — and therefore qualify to apply.

From nearly zero programs in 2005 to almost 200 in 2015 (and even more in the last few years), the number of startup accelerators in the U.S. has risen substantially in the past couple of decades. This has allowed even more startups to learn, improve, and grow. In fact, these accelerators have invested nearly $20 billion in over 5,000 startups — and that’s just in the U.S. alone.

Startup accelerators benefit all parties involved — investors, companies, customers, and the economy. But they’re not the only business development program available for startups. Often times accelerators are confused with incubators and other intensive programs.

Let’s discuss the differences and what makes accelerators stand out.

Incubator vs. Accelerator

While accelerators are for established businesses, incubators are for entrepreneurs who need help developing their ideas into full-blown businesses. In theory, you’d apply to and attend a business incubator prior to a startup accelerator.

The table below breaks down the main differences between an incubator and accelerator.

Feature	incubator	accelerator
Pre-requisites	Business idea or business plan	Established business model and MVP
Application	Competitive process; restricted based on community or industry	Extremely competitive; open to all
Timeline	Up to 2 years; flexible	3-6 months; rigorous
Purpose	To build the foundation for new startups	To accelerate the growth of established startups
Support	Office space, administrative and legal support, business planning, prototyping, and product development	Seed funding, mentorship from industry experts, and networking
Funding	Often from universities or economic development organizations	Private funds; often take equity in exchange for capital

Is your business ready for an accelerator?

Is an accelerator right for you? If you’re thinking about applying for a startup accelerator, ask yourself the following questions to see if your business is ready.

Note: Curious about what an accelerator entails? We walk through how startup accelerators work in detail in the next section.

• Are you growing quickly? If your company is collecting customers (and employees!) at an almost overwhelming rate, you’re likely ready to enter an accelerator to take your business to the next level.
• Are you ready for expert mentorship? Can you articulate your challenges? If you have distinct, unanswered questions and curiosities that only experts can answer, it’s time for an accelerator.
• Do you have a minimum viable product (MVP)? Accelerators are only for businesses who’ve defined and sold an MVP.
• Do you have customers and an established customer profile? Accelerators benefit businesses who know who they’re selling to and are willing to conduct extensive research to deepen those customer profiles.
• Would you be willing to relocate? Many accelerators require physical relocation to take full advantage of their resources and offerings — an arguably small sacrifice for the greater reward of growing your business.
• Can you afford it? While accelerators provide some funding, they don’t necessarily pay your way through the program. Be sure your team and business can afford to set aside a few intensive months as you focus on growth.

Looking for ways to acquire and retain more customers … at a startup-friendly price? Check out HubSpot for Startups and gain access to countless educational resources and robust integrations.

Not every accelerator operates in the same way, but most follow a similar process. Complete the following steps from start to finish if you’re looking to join a startup accelerator.

1. Choose your accelerator

There are hundreds of startup accelerator programs in dozens of cities. These programs vary based on location, industry, expert involvement, funding opportunities, and the kind of network they connect you to.

In the U.S., most of these programs are in bigger cities like San Francisco, New York, and Boston. You can also find notable accelerators in Canada, the UK, Russia, and Chile — practically all around the world. Comprehensive databases like Seed-DB are a great place to start.

What to look for in an accelerator

Before you apply, do extensive research on the accelerators that’d be a good fit for your business. (Don’t worry if you’re a good fit for them … yet.) Here’s what to look for:

• Social proof. Which startups have “graduated” from each accelerator, and how much funding did they receive? Make sure those businesses are successful today. Similar to formal education, names and prestige are just as important in the entrepreneurial world. Being associated with a well-regarded accelerator can help your business grow long after graduation.
• Relationships and networking. What kind of community and network can each accelerator offer you? Also, what kinds of experts and educators do each accelerator provide … and are they relevant to your business? The network you gain from your time in an accelerator is another factor that outlasts graduation.
• Industry. Some accelerators work with marketing technology companies, while others specialize in finance technology. Others focus on cybersecurity, retail food-tech, or big data. Look for a program that aligns with your product and business as the education and mentorship resources will follow suit.
• Location. As we mentioned above, there are accelerators around the world. You’ll likely be required to relocate to physically attend the accelerator programs. If you can’t move too far away, look for programs that are close to home. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a change of scenery, check out programs across the globe.

2. Apply to the accelerator

Startup accelerators are notoriously difficult to get into to. The most famous accelerator programs, such Y Combinator and Techstars, only accept 1% to 3% of their almost 6,000 applications — the very best of the best.

To gain ranking among the elite, take the accelerator application process seriously. You’ll likely have an extensive written application as well as multiple live interviews.

What accelerators look for in applicants

While all accelerators vary, most look for the same factors and features in those who apply. Here are a few things to be sure your application reflects:

• Coachability. If the experts who lead the accelerator choose to mentor and educate you, will you accept it? Will you choose to apply their suggestions and listen to their expert opinions about your business, product, and growth? Humility and coachability go a long way in accelerator applications.
• A minimum viable product (MVP) and real customers. Without a viable product and customer profile, accelerators won’t take a second look at your application.
• A concise competitive advantage. What sets your budding business apart? More importantly, can you communicate your competitive advantage and value proposition in one to two sentences — with real data included? Accelerators look at a lot of applications. Boil your story down to an elevator pitch to have a greater chance of being seen (and remembered). Remember, accelerators are looking to benefit from your business success, too.
• A strong team. Who will lead your business to success? Accelerators are not only looking for a strong product; they’re also looking for a strong, capable team. If the team’s skills match the business needs and show cohesive dynamics, there’s a good chance the business will succeed past the accelerator.
• Network and community. Does your application show that you’ve networked and developed relationships with others in your industry before leaning on an accelerator to do the work for you? While name-dropping can’t promise a spot, displaying a well-connected network can reflect that you’re willing to put in the work to expand it.

Also, check out this blog post by Paul Graham of Y Combinator on how they choose between applicants.

3. Focus, learn, and grow

Applying to an accelerator is tough, but once you’re accepted, expect the real work to begin. Be ready to travel to the accelerator location, set up with your team, and get started.

Here’s what you can expect when attending an accelerator:

• Dedicated co-working space where your team can focus on the accelerator and educational opportunities
• Educational seminars and workshops on a variety of topics, such as legal counsel, pitching practice, product development, and more
• Group and individual mentorship opportunities from industry experts, investors, and other founders
• One-on-one check-ins with accelerator leadership (e.g. investors, alumni founders, etc.)
• Networking events with industry leaders, investors, and other startups, which can help with future fundraising and recruiting

4. Present your business model and receive funding

What sets accelerators apart from other intensive business programs is how startups exit the program. When it comes time to wrap up an accelerator, founders participate in a “demo day” during which they present their business model. This process happens for two reasons: to share everything the company learned and worked on during the accelerator and to potentially receive funding.

Founders are responsible for building a comprehensive slide deck and pitching directly to investors — sometimes hundreds, depending on the accelerator. (Here’s an example deck from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.) If startups receive an offer for funding, it’s typically in exchange for equity.

Accelerator “graduates” also receive direct and indirect support after exiting the program. This support includes:

• PR
• Professional connections and networking
• HR/recruitment support
• Board participation
• Office space
• Future VC support
• A strong alumni network and lifetime relationships

Startup Accelerator Programs

Interested in joining an accelerator? Time to dive into some research and figure out which accelerator is best for you.

With hundreds of accelerators available around the world, it’s impossible to list them all here. Instead, we’ve pulled together some of the most popular as well as some niche accelerators that may interest you.

Popular Startup Accelerators

Y Combinator, Mountain View, CA

Y Combinator is one of the most popular — and most competitive — startup accelerators. The program has produced almost 2,000 investments and 200 exits (which are sales to larger companies, meaning a return on investment for investors). Y Combinator has worked with the likes of Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Twitch, Coinbase, and Weebly.

500 Startups, Mountain View, CA

500 Startups has made just over 1,600 investments (in companies in over 60 countries) and has produced 162 exits. Notable alumni include companies like Udemy and Credit Karma, as well as others that’ve been sold to Google and Rakuten.

Techstars, Boulder, CO

Techstars, another highly competitive accelerator, has produced over 1,500 companies and 132 exits. Companies like Bench.co, ClassPass, and Pill Pack have worked with Techstars. It’s also the name behind Startup Week and Startup Weekend.

MassChallenge, Boston, MA

MassChallenge has worked with over 1,300 companies, produced almost 40 exits, and indirectly produced over 80,000 jobs. The program also has locations in Israel, the UK, Mexico, and Switzerland.

International Startup Accelerators

Startupbootcamp, London, UK

Startupbootcamp is based in London (InsurTech) but runs a variety of programs in Mexico City (FinTech), Milan (FashionTech), Cape Town (AfriTech), Rome (FoodTech), and more. The program has made over 420 investments and produced 21 exits. Notable alumni include Bellabeat, Joyride, and Zenith. Overall, the program has raised over €1.1M.

Start-up Chile, Santiago, Chile

Start-up Chile, unlike other accelerators, was launched by the Chilean government to boost entrepreneurship and encourage economic investment. The program has made over 830 investments and produced 16 exits. Start-up Chile also offers a “pre-acceleration program” called The S Factory just for female founders.

Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF), Moscow, Russia

IIDF focuses on companies in cybersecurity, adtech, big data, IOT, and more. The program has made over 330 investments and seen over 20 exits. IIDF also organizes events and hackathons, which attracts over 20,000 investments.

Minority Startup Accelerators

MergeLane, Boulder, CO

MergeLane only invests in startups that have at least one female leader. It offers a variety of funding and accelerator programs, and has invested in over 40 companies to-date.

DigitalUndivided, Atlanta, GA

DigitalUndivided works exclusively with Black and Latina women. The program has funded 52 companies, worked with over 2,000 founders, and raised over $25M in funding.

Accelerate Your Startup Today

No two startup accelerators are alike, but they all share the same vision: seeing entrepreneurs of all kinds scale their business success and impact. Regardless of what industry you operate in or what kind of product you sell, there’s a startup accelerator for you.

Follow these tips to find the right program, prepare your application, and get the most out of your accelerator experience.

In the early days of the web, design and SEO weren’t really friends — websites with good SEO often had a weak design, while websites with impressive design often weren’t great for SEO. During that era, there was some crazy stuff going on involving stuffing keywords into content, bad website navigation, and just plain ol’ outdated design.

When I joined HubSpot, I partnered with our SEO team to design online experiences that could grow organic traffic to our website at scale. Knowing the reputation that SEO has amongst designers, I was skeptical about being able to produce engaging designs while delivering the traffic and lead counts for which I was accountable. However, I welcomed the challenge!

Luckily, I was in for a surprise. Working with our company’s SEO team over the past year has led me to realize that the goals of SEO and design don’t have to be at odds with each other — in fact, they’re intertwined around anticipating and delivering value to your customers.

Designing with SEO in mind ultimately creates an excellent customer experience.

Here, I’m going to explore how you can use SEO-minded design to increase traffic while still maintaining an engaging user experience — but first, why is it even important?

The Impact of SEO-Minded Design

At its core, our team is looking to deliver traffic to our website, which impacts our ability to acquire leads and product sign-ups.

I see design as an integral part of being able to deliver these KPIs, because we directly influence what visitors — and search engines — see on a given page.

Ultimately, designing pages to provide a thoughtful and valuable experience for visitors affects whether our content appears in a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) or not.

For instance, if users find our navigation confusing, they might exit our page quickly — which will indicate to the SERPs that our pages are outdated or don’t match the keywords at hand.

There are plenty of other design-related factors that could influence SEO — take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Google Ranking Factors in 2019 to learn more.

Next, let’s explore how your team can practice SEO-minded design.

How to Practice SEO-Minded Design

There are a few concepts that tie SEO and design together that are helpful in balancing the best practices of both areas, and I want to cover four in particular today. Let’s dive in.

1. Don’t neglect the mobile experience.

Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing, which means that it uses the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking.

The crazy reality is that Google may never see a desktop version of your website.

This change makes it imperative to ensure content quality isn’t compromised when designing for smaller screen sizes. Hiding content on mobile but showing it on desktop is like clipping a bird’s wings — crawlers (the bots that scour the web for new content) won’t be able to explore the breadth of your website and gain enough context regarding the value your content provides.

In practice, this means that your site navigation should be fully available to mobile users.

Additionally, you’ll want to ensure the link structure on mobile isn’t dramatically different from navigation options offered on desktop. Plus, text content and images should remain available to ensure crawlers have enough context to understand what your website is about.

I’ll be the first to admit that reducing content for mobile is a bad habit I developed earlier in my career, and it’s really tough to break.

To better embrace responsive design, I’ve shifted my mindset from trying to
replicate the experience across all touchpoints, to delivering the
best experience possible on each platform.

This gives you the freedom to optimize conversion flows on a per-platform basis, leveraging what you know about the needs of your users when they visit your site through different devices.

In support of mobile-first indexing practices, search engines also heavily weigh the mobile friendliness of your website. As a result, you should pay close attention to the following things when designing your site for mobile devices:

1. Size of tappable areas: Ensure there’s enough space for a person to tap on a link with their fingers. Tap targets of at least 48 pixels in size are considered standard by search engines like Google.
2. Using legible font sizes: Text sizes should scale to ensure legibility on each device. Using fonts that are too small will result in penalties from search engines.
3. Image asset file sizes: When exporting images and other media content, try to optimize the file size for web so it doesn’t take forever to load. User attention span is short and if pages take too long to load, potential visitors will abandon your site.

We used this approach when building HubSpot’s Business Templates directory, which launched in March 2019. The content we offer is in the form of editable document templates, which users can download and use. Since the templates are offered for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF — typically desktop applications — we realized users probably wouldn’t find much value in downloading the templates to their mobile devices.

On mobile, I decided to prioritize the option to email a link to themselves to download the template later, enabling users to achieve their goals regardless of the platform they were on.

 

Slight modifications in the download experience between desktop and mobile create an optimized experience for each platform. These screens show how email to self is the primary option on mobile, while downloading is prioritized on desktop.

I also made a very simple change to my workflow to ensure I’m considering responsive design at every stage of the design process. When I set up a new file in Sketch (the main software our team uses for interface design), I always create two “artboards” next to each other — one for desktop, and one for mobile.

As I’m designing a screen for desktop, I concurrently arrange the same content to the mobile screen size without deleting anything, then make adjustments needed based on the mobile context. It’s not quite a mobile-first approach, but it’s a step in the right direction.

An example of a file set up for a responsive design approach.

2. Make navigation meaningful.

The better your navigation is at surfacing the way your website is structured, the better crawlers will be able to discover content and understand what your website is about.

But clear navigation isn’t just for bots — it also helps visitors navigate your website and find interesting, relevant content. Think about your own experience visiting a website for the first time. Perhaps you’ve found an article on Google that you enjoyed reading and want to see more articles by that author. A well-organized website makes that content readily available to you.

You’re probably familiar with several modules that are commonly used to organize content: “Related” feeds, “People also search for”, “People also bought …” — these features are commonly employed on ecommerce and directory websites. Although they might seem gimmicky, they can be valuable to customers for the following reasons:

• Reinforces content categorization. Visitors will learn about how you define categories on your website and the type of content that belongs in each. This empowers them to find specific content without aid.
• Promotes discovery of relevant content. This allows websites to deliver value for customers beyond their original query, encouraging customers to perceive us as knowledgeable, helpful sources for information. When they see content from us in the future, they may be more likely to trust us.
• Helps with decision making. These components reduce the cognitive load of having to recognize versus recall data, and customers feel reassured that they are not alone. However, it’s important to use this data wisely to be helpful — and to not abuse it.

Other UI components like breadcrumb navigation and table of contents may have a bad reputation in the design world, but they’re useful for leveraging complex information architectures.

These components help manifest how your website is organized — and let crawlers and visitors more easily find their way around your website.

From a user perspective, clear navigation acts like road signs, telling you more about where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. There’s nothing worse than having to resort to the Back button on your browser because you don’t know where else to click.

3. Give people what they want.

How many times have you searched Google for answers and clicked on a link that gave you different content than what you were expecting? We can probably agree that getting content that doesn’t answer our question is a frustrating experience, and can result in a loss of trust.

Search engines want to serve quality content that answers the queries they receive — which makes designing pages with relevant content one of the most important parts of enabling strong SEO. After all, when search engines don’t deliver quality content, they lose customers and revenue as a result.

Understanding what will be valuable to visitors comes from understanding their intent behind a query. Being familiar with user goals lays the foundation for you to create content that will deliver value.

There are a few simple ways to learn more about user goals (short of being able to read their minds) that I like to practice on a regular basis:

1. Keyword Research

Keyword research examines the terms that people are typing into search engines, the number of times it’s being searched in a given time period (usually monthly), and a few other metrics that help you determine the value and difficulty of pursuing a search engine ranking for that term.

Examining the full queries people are searching allows you to uncover more about the user’s knowledge of the keyword and intent behind their search. Matching the specificity of your content to the user’s expectations is critical for ensuring you deliver value.

For instance, here’s an example to consider:

In the first example, someone searching for “business plan proposal template download” might expect a page that enables them to directly download a business plan template, and connotes a high level of specificity and intent — this customer is likely in the consideration phase of their search, and probably already knows what a business plan proposal is and how to use it.

On the other hand, someone typing a query like “business plan proposal template examples” might not know what goes into a good business plan, and might be interested in a high-level article that gives them more context, as well as a few different options.

Keyword research also serves as a good litmus test for how well your copy resonates with customers. You can use metrics like monthly search volume (MSV) to see which keywords are commonly typed into search engines. This can help you understand how customers are referring to relevant concepts in the real world. You might consider this when weighing the cost and benefits of leveraging a commonly known term versus teaching a new one.

However, it’s important to understand the limitations of using keyword research when incorporating it into your process. Keyword research shows you what users are searching for, but doesn’t tell you what they’re actually looking for.

People searching for the same term might be looking for very different things, and that depends greatly on the context that prompted them to enter a query. You can use keyword research to help you form a hypothesis about user intent, but you can’t draw any conclusions about causality from it. Using keyword research can be a powerful tool, but only if you take its findings at face value and use it properly.

2. Empathy Exercise

Once I’ve looked at the words people are searching for, I start to analyze the possible intent behind their query. For each page or asset I’m creating, I’ll create a brief list of the keywords, goals, and content a visitor might find valuable to accomplish their goals.

This simple empathy exercise helps me consider the context in which people are visiting, and map out the modules that would create value to users.

Here’s a template to help you get started with your own empathy exercise:

For the Business Template directory, I made a list that looked something like this:

The context behind a user’s search query can have a huge impact on their expectations for your content — so while performing the empathy exercise, it’s important to know that you might not capture every use case or scenario.

I use this empathy exercise to form a hypothesis about a user’s goals, and then determine what content might be most valuable on that page. This sets a benchmark of the content that must be included, which allows me to wireframe modules that will showcase essential content.

We can build off this foundation and add content that oru marketing team or stakeholders may require, as long as it doesn’t prevent customers from reaping the most value.

3. User Research and Testing

User testing or research is another helpful tool in evaluating the assumptions you bring into a project. It’s incredible how often your assumptions could be off-base from the actual values your customers hold, so it’s critical to get their direct insights whenever possible.

On our team, we’ve incorporated both moderated and unmoderated user testing into our arsenal using programs like Validately and Respondent, both of which allow you to recruit and screen users to test your designs.

When used together, these three methods can give you a stronger understanding of the context behind people’s search terms, as well as the goals they might expect your content to help them meet.

4. Apply accessibility best practices.

Making your content accessible for all visitors is an important but often overlooked step in the design process. There are a lot of common explanations for why accessibility hasn’t been prioritized — unfortunately, some of these might sound familiar:

“Accessible design isn’t as visually interesting and looks boring.”

“It takes extra time to make something accessible for all.”

“It only impacts a small subset of our customers.”

The truth is that accessibility isn’t that hard, and it’s unacceptable to make excuses about why we can’t do it. Making content accessible impacts SEO because it creates a better user experience and helps search engines understand what your content is about.

If it sounds daunting, these are a few simple things you can do to improve the overall customer experience and positively impact your SEO:

1. Add descriptive alt text.

Alt text helps people who have visual impairments understand what non-text content on your website is about. Technology like screen readers are used to help people with visual impairments interact with websites, and these tools read the alt text you provide when it encounters an image, video, or other non-text content.

Additionally, in cases where images aren’t able to load (like slow or unstable internet connections), alt text appears in place of the image so users can still understand the content they’re unable to see.

People aren’t the only ones who use alt text — search engines do, too. Crawlers use alt text for two things:

• Understand what an image is about. Capturing the topic and purpose of your image in the alt text description helps search engines rank your image in image searches and drive additional traffic to your website.
• Understand what your website is about. This helps search engines better understand what your website is about and the value it delivers to users, which impacts what SERPs your page is seen on.

Designers, developers, and marketers can work together to ensure that descriptive alt text is implemented on all content. Collaborating and keeping each other accountable for this practice can drive traffic to your site, and help us create an inclusive experience for all.

2. Create a clear content hierarchy.

Using headers to establish a consistent visual hierarchy makes content more digestible for both people and crawlers alike. It’s difficult for people to read long bodies of text, so headers play an important role in providing users a way to quickly scan and find their way through long pieces of content.

Headers should be visually distinguished, clear, and descriptive, and tell readers (and crawlers) exactly what lies ahead.

3. Write descriptive anchor text.

It’s relatively common to see buttons and CTAs that say “Read More” or “Learn More”. Unfortunately, this isn’t very helpful for visitors or bots in understanding what they should expect to see next.

When effectively used, CTAs and hyperlink copy should help set the visitor’s expectation about what a linked page is about, allowing them to evaluate whether or not it would be valuable for them to visit the page.

Anchor text is also read by screen readers for visitors with visual impairments, and using links that aren’t descriptive can be especially confusing for users who don’t have the visual context of where your CTA lives.

Designing with SEO in mind will help you create a stronger, better customer experience. Ultimately, the best thing you can do in any situation is put the customer first.

By using a collaborative, intentional approach to design and SEO, we can drive measurable impact for our businesses — and create more inclusive experiences for all.

Did you know that 91% of web content gets no traffic from Google? While creative marketing tactics like blogging will boost brand awareness and show that you have expertise on an industry, not writing a post properly for SEO could mean it misses out on all the great SEO traffic it could get.

Numbers don’t lie. If you want to climb to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), well-written, engaging content alone won’t cut it. You also need to focus on writing SEO-driven, keyword-focused content that attracts not only website traffic, but the right kind of traffic. You might be thinking, “That sounds great, Courtney! But, how do I get started?”

We’re sharing seven essential tips for creating SEO-friendly blog posts without sacrificing user experience and engagement, tips you can start using today:

1. Identify highly-effective keywords when looking for post ideas.

Google handles over 40,000 search queries a second. Staggering, right? If you want to cut through search result clutter and outrank your competitors, you need to target the specific keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching. How else will they find your content and website?

To identify those hot keywords, head on over to the social platforms your target audience frequents and see what’s trending. Pay close attention to the exact phrases they use and monitor popular industry terms and topics.

Google Trends can also give you a feel for what keywords are popular at any given time. If you see searches are steadily declining over time for a specific keyword, you know that’s probably not the right keyword to target for your marketing and vice versa for increasing trends.

If you’re ever running low on keyword ideas, get inspiration from your competition. Use tools to see what keywords they’re currently ranking for — if these keywords are relevant to your business, consider using them too! SEMRush lets you enter a competitor and see the keywords they’re ranking for, their position in search results, traffic received for that keyword and other key metrics.

Keep in mind that the most obvious keywords aren’t always the best keywords. Searchers tend to use very specific “long-tail” keywords, keyword phrases and questions when they’re looking for something.

Long-tail keywords comprise up to 70% of all search traffic and can unlock the door to successful SEO. When WPBeginner, the largest WordPress resource site for WordPress beginners, adopted a long-tail SEO strategy, they increased their organic search traffic by 20% in just two months!

Because you face fierce competition for shorter, more general keywords, you often have a better chance of ranking in the top results for long-tail keywords. And, long-tail keywords allow you to zero in on higher quality website traffic that often knows what they’re looking for and may be farther along in the buyer’s journey.

Once you’ve done your research and built a list of what you think are the most valuable, relevant keywords, plug them into a keyword research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest, Keyword Tool and so on. Many keyword research tools give you the monthly volume for any given keyword. Test out different keyword tools — marketers are drawn to different ones for different reasons.

Depending on your business or industry (or budget or bandwidth for SEO efforts), it may be important to rank for high competition, short tail keywords. Still, try to also optimize for a healthy dose of long-tail keywords that are high in search volume but low in competition. You may find it’s much easier to rank for these words.

Remember that your focus keywords will evolve over time as trends shift, terminology changes or your product/service line changes. Be sure to conduct keyword research periodically to ensure you’re still focusing on the right keywords for your target audience and not missing out on vital ranking opportunities.

2. Naturally integrate those keywords throughout your posts.

Once you’ve decided on a list of target keywords, it’s time to write a blog post focused on one of these keywords. Brainstorm blog topics with your team and decide on a topic that will entice and engage your target audience.

Keep your buyer personas, their motivations, challenges, interests, etc. in mind throughout the brainstorming process. Choose a topic that will emotionally resonate with your potential customers and their needs, desires or pains.

As you write your blog, your keyword and natural variations should be regularly interspersed throughout the post. Your primary keyword should appear in these key places:

• Title
• Headings and subheadings
• URL if possible
• Image alt text (search engines can’t read images)
• Meta description
• Throughout the content

Remember that you’re writing for humans, not search engines. Focus on engaging readers with a natural writing style that takes their needs and interests into account.

Be sure to avoid overusing any keyword (also known as “keyword stuffing”) at all costs. Keyword stuffing may lead to a website being penalized or banned in search engine results pages either temporarily or permanently. But even more importantly, if your keyword appears too often and feels forced, you sacrifice a reader’s experience, insult their intelligence and compromise the article’s quality. Don’t give readers any reason to hit the back button and turn to a competitor’s blog for answers.

3. Link to influential websites.

As you build out your blog post, don’t be afraid to link to other articles or blogs.

Linking to applicable and reputable websites not only offers blog readers additional reading material to expand their knowledge, but it also shows Google and other search engines that you’ve done your research. And the blogger or writer may even return the favor and link to your site.

Nothing strengthens a blog post like hard-to-argue-with, research-backed statistics from influential websites. Compelling stats help you build a more convincing and concrete argument that will get your readers thinking (especially when they’re from trustworthy sites they know and love).

4. Aim for scannable, longer posts.

In an age of short attention spans (average of 8 seconds for humans), you would think shorter blog posts are the way to go. But search engines actually prefer longer, in-depth blog posts.

The longer your blog post, the greater its chance of appearing in the top search engine results. SerpIQ found that the 10th position pages have 400 fewer words than 1st position pages. Longer posts will rank more easily for your target keyword.

Think about it: the more content on the page, the more clues search engines have to figure out what your blog is about. We recommend writing a minimum of 300 words per blog post. This length gives search engines plenty of keywords and text to crawl and helps them understand what your blog is about.

The downside to longer blogs is that they may scare off your readers. We live in a world of skimmers and scanners. In a heat map analysis, CoSchedule learned that only 10-20% of their readers were making it to the bottom of their posts. So, the million dollar question is, how can longer blog posts appeal to today’s online readers?

You can write scannable, readable blog posts that hook online readers by tightening up your sentences and paragraphs. Turn a long-winded sentence into two. Keep your paragraphs to 2-3 sentences max.

Also, take full advantage of bulleted lists and subheadings that grab reader’s attention. By following these tactics, you’ll create blogs that are easier to read (especially on a mobile device!) and less intimidating to the scanner’s eye.

5. Internally link words or phrases to other posts on your site.

Linking to other pages or blog posts on your website helps search engines crawl your website and create a more accurate sitemap. It also helps your audience discover more of your content and get to know you as a trustworthy, credible source of information.

Internal links to other valuable content keep users on your site longer, reducing bounce rate and increasing your potential for a conversion (and isn’t that what it’s all about?).

When linking to any pages on your website, or even outside sources, use natural language for your anchor text. Avoid using spammy or generic text such as “top-rated cheap laptops” or “click here.”

Instead, use descriptive keywords that give readers a sense of what they will find when they click on the hyperlink, such as a search engine optimization guide.

Never force feed links to your top webpages, featured products or discounted items. These types of links will only turn off readers and could lead to search engines penalizing your website.

A word of caution: don’t overdo your internal linking or any linking. We know it’s tempting to link to all of your blogs and webpages, but only choose the ones that best enhance the point or insight you’re writing about in any particular blog. Always think about whether or not these links naturally tie in with the subject matter and if they will offer significant value to your readers.

6. Optimize pictures for the fastest possible page speed.

Google rewards pages with faster page speed and places those that lag lower on its rankings. So, it’s important to make sure your page-load times are as quick as possible.

One of the leading culprits of page lag is large photos. If the photo you uploaded is too big, it will make the page take a longer time to load — even if the image doesn’t seem huge on screen. Luckily, you can keep your posts visually interesting without sacrificing crucial speed.

Once you pick a photo, use a free compression software, like Squoosh.app to make it as small as it can go before it loses any quality. Any removal of excess photo data will speed up loading times so readers won’t have to wait.

If you suspect that your SEO issues are related to low page speeds, Google offers a free tool that can score your page and give you suggestions for speed improvement. Here’s a guide on how to use it and boost your score.

7. Preform link building strategies.

Traffic from places other than Google is crucial to your search rankings. Why? Think of search results like a competition where the winners get the most votes. Each webpage that links back to you is considered a “vote” for your website, which makes your content more trustworthy in the eyes of Google. In turn, this will make you rise farther up on search results.

So, it’s good to write posts that other websites or publications will want to hyperlink within their own posts. You can also write posts on other business’ websites that link back to your website in some way.

To make your website’s blogpost more linkable, include valuable assets or information, such as your own data, original thoughts, infographics, definitions, or other facts that people might not find anywhere else.

Here’s an example of how this mindset could help you. If you write a post titled “How to Make a Video Tutorial,” or “13 Stats about Video Tutorials,” bigger sites that are writing about something similar might hyperlink words like “video tutorials” or “research from [Your Company Name]” to your post so they can give their reader more context without repeating your work.

Once you’ve written the post, you might want to start sending it to other publications or websites that might want to discuss it or link it to their other posts. This outreach lets other publications know of the post and might also help you grow link building alliances with them in the future.

You can also consider doing promotion, such as interviews or guest posts that link to your website’s blog post to further encourage link building.

These strategies can be key to your SEO success, but they can be time consuming. To help you, consider trying out one of these softwares.

How to Title Blog Posts for SEO

Even with a great, SEO-friendly post body, a bad title could hurt you in search engines. To title your post with SEO in mind, draft a clear understandable title that both shows the reader what they’re about to read and integrates the keywords you identified in the first step. As mentioned above, write something that pleases Google’s ranking algorithms, but is also understandable and enticing to humans.

Here are a few examples:

• If you’re a beauty blogger and you see that people are searching “how to wear matte lipstick,” your post could be titled, “How to Wear Matte Lipstick: A 5-Step Guide.”
• On the other hand, if your blog covers artificial intelligence and you see that people are searching a new AI app, you could write a blog post called “How to Use [Insert AI App Name],” or “We Tried the New [Insert App Name] App: Here’s What Happened”
• If you blog about farming or sustainability and find out that “what to buy at farm stands” is a regular search, you might write a listicle titled “What to Buy at Farm Stands This Summer.”

The Bottom Line

If you want your blogs to rank at the top of page one (and why wouldn’t you?), your main focus should be on creating blogs that both users and search engines will love. By optimizing your blogs for both, you can earn higher rankings in SERPs, get more qualified web traffic and increase conversion rates.

Wasn’t that the exact reason you started blogging to begin with?

Facebook started as a way for college classmates to communicate, and it’s since evolved into a hub for content creation, sharing, and advertising.

Over one billion active users engage on Facebook every day, which represents a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to leverage their content in front of potential customers.

The variety of targeting options available allow marketers to get the greatest value out of each ad dollar spent on this vast network, making it an ideal place to drive conversions, downloads, and lead generation. In fact, Social Media Examiner found that 55% of social media marketers use Facebook as their primary platform, and eMarketer learned that nearly 68% of all social media ad spending is on Facebook Ads.

We decided to consult with a variety of successful social media marketers to learn more about their strategies for Facebook Ad targeting. Whether you’ve been advertising on the platform for years or are just starting out with Facebook marketing, check out these lessons from the pros to maximize your social media advertising ROI.

1. Keep track of qualitative metrics.

Matt Diederichs, Social Marketing Lead at Hootsuite:

“We focused on two metrics [in our Facebook Ads campaign] — video views and offer redemptions. These help us to understand whether it’s worth our investment to pay for direct customer acquisition.”

“Video views are primarily an efficiency spend, looking at the gross number of video views we can get for our investment, at the lowest possible CPV (cost per view). In the offer redemption area, we can go a bit deeper and also calculate our CPA (cost per acquisition) for each person who redeems the offer.

Through all of this, we [also] look really hard at qualitative feedback. Facebook’s Reactions allow us to see not only how many people ‘like’ our content, but also when people ‘love’ or uh … [don’t] love our content. We also aspire for our content to be shareable, so we look for post shares and for comments on Ads. To us, that’s a leading indicator of content resonation.”

2. Take advantage of Facebook’s precise Ad targeting.

Shari Medini, Co-Host of the Push Pull Sales & Marketing Podcast:

“You can target any audience [using Facebook Ads]. Almost everyone is on Facebook, and we all share incredible amounts of information about ourselves. Facebook compiles and organizes all of that data for their Ads platform so that marketers can go as broad or as narrow as they’d like.”

“You want to target moms of young children in a 15-mile radius from a [children’s] clothing consignment store? Facebook lets you do that. You want to get young men in the sales profession between the ages of 30 and 35 to click through to your site? Facebook lets you do that.”

Andy Odom, Digital Marketing Director at Santander Consumer USA

“Use the Audience Insights feature in your Ads Account to research all of Facebook, fans of your Page, or people in any custom audience to gain better insights into who they are and how to target them.”

“You can upload [an email list] as a custom audience and serve special ads just to them.”

 Haidi Zhu, Head of Performance Marketing at WeWork:

[With Facebook Ads,] we start by analyzing the demographics of our current members to better understand who they are based on location, interests, industry, and more. We use this data to develop audiences to identify potential members and further segment down to deliver ads that feature the WeWork offerings, locations, and services that we strongly believe will benefit them most.”

3. Test different creative assets for best results.

Frank Emanuele, Co-Host of The Marketers Next Door Podcast:

“Always A/B test your creative [assets].”

“It’s easy to think you know what will capture your audience’s attention, but you’ll be surprised when you actually test it. I always compare at least two options and track their performance carefully. Then I put my spend toward the top performer to get the most bang for my buck. I often find that the creative I liked best actually isn’t my top performer.”

4. Pay attention to what visitors do after they click.

Alicia Palmieri, Senior Social Media & Content Specialist at 2U:

“2U uses the ‘Learn More’ call-to-action because it performs well with the type of thought leadership [education] content we share.

Our end goal when advertising on Facebook is to get people to view longform, data-rich content.”

“Since we host most of this on our website, we work with our web analytics team to track behavior of people coming from our Ads. This helps us ensure that we’re targeting the right people and providing engaging content that they will enjoy.”

5. Don’t force new trends into your Ad strategy.

Rachael Samuels, Social Media Specialist at Sprout Social:  

“The social landscape is constantly evolving, and our social team is constantly adapting to meet the needs of our community and stay authentic in our social presence. It’s great to be aware of trends, but you shouldn’t force a trend or new network if it’s not the right fit for your brand.”

“You have to determine a trend’s genuine value offer before diving in headfirst. If something isn’t resonating with your audience, there’s no reason to continue chasing the hype just to be seen doing it — your audience could see that as a major turnoff.”

Aaron Moreno, Digital Advertising Specialist at Sprout Social:  

“It’s important to have a clear objective for your ads, clear KPIs and a desired cost-per-conversion.”

“Identifying these metrics, setting up proper tracking and keeping a pulse on performance is key to determining ROI from social advertising.”

Chelsea Hunersen, Social Media Manager at HubSpot:

“The principles of creating a good post and grabbing attention are the same no matter what the medium.”

For example, providing clear value and connecting about [your audience’s] real needs is something I always try to do.

“I’m less concerned about using a new medium like video or canvas just to use it, but I will try it if the technology gives us a better way to reach our audience.”

6. Find inspiration from your competition.

Rebecca White, Community Manager at TrackMaven:

Being able to tell what your competitors are promoting on social is invaluable. Comparing our Facebook spend with that of our competitors gives us a level playing field on which to evaluate the impact of our content.”

7. Publish videos that are short and sweet.

Erica Moss, Community Manager at Trello:

Because [Facebook offers] such a small amount of real estate, it’s important to get to the point quickly with one specific call-to-action, whether it’s a discount to redeem, an event to attend or a prompt to learn more about your product or service.”

“Avoid lofty or flowery language.

When considering images, faces and bright colors pop more (high-res only), and video can be super impactful for ads when kept to 30 seconds or less. Bonus points if your video has closed captioning so that users don’t need audio to consume your message.”

8. Don’t fixate on vanity metrics alone.

Jenna Dutcher, Content Marketing Manager at Localist.com:

“Facebook Ads can be a valuable tool, but only if you put effort into actually optimizing and measuring them. We’re big fans of A/B testing here at Localist, and always have at least two iterations of an ad running, sometimes 10-20 versions, where we’ll test things as small as capitalization, imagery, headlines, and CTAs.”

“You also need to be mindful of what you’re measuring. Success can’t just be based on how many people click or view an ad — what does 500 clickthroughs to a post mean to you and your company?  Be sure to tie superficial metrics like this to an acquisition goal or metric that you actually value, like cost-per-download or cost-per-lead.”

9. Focus on the mobile experience.

Jason Myers, Social Media Manager at The Content Factory:

Try composing, or at least previewing, your Ad on a mobile device. Most people view Ads on a phone screen which is why those with stark, text-free images and simple messages get more engagement.”

10. Experiment with video.

Ben Kessler, Director of Marketing at WeWork: 

We are always eager to test new products and the latest betas to innovate with our marketing. This includes 360” video, renderings, and more, all developed by our in-house team.”

“Because WeWork is truly something you need to experience in person, we’ve seen a lot of success with video to convey our brand and message within Facebook.”

11. Diversify your ad format.

Alex York, Senior SEO Specialist at Sprout Social:

There are so many different ad channels on Facebook, and choosing which ones to invest in can effectively increase your reach and brand awareness.

“Not every type of ad will work for your brand. However, one of the best techniques to follow when creating paid content is to seamlessly blend into feeds, walls and timelines.” 

 “It’s necessary to learn the various ad formats so you can fit in well with organic content on the network. For example, if you only used text ads, the ‘pop’ or ‘wow factor’ would be much less than a video or brightly colored image.”

There are messenger ads, dynamic ads, video ads, sponsored mentions, slideshow ads, collections, instant experiences, lead ads, and more. Different formats lead to different results, so Facebook will recommend formats that are most conducive for your objectives.

12. Pay attention to load time.

Sandra Rand, Director of Marketing at Tinuiti:

The longer your website takes to load, the more it adversely affects your conversion rate. Even if your CTR from Facebook Ads is pretty high, your advertising efforts and budget will be wasted if your website takes more than 7.5 seconds to load.

“For the retail e-commerce brand, the difference between 7.5 second load times and 11.5 second load times (which, if my math serves me correctly is a whopping FOUR seconds), meant a conversion rate that plummeted 60% and a revenue drop of 62%.”

By connecting with your developers and eliminating unnecessary parts of your landing page, you can cut down on load time and boost your ROI. 

13. Convert high-performing content into ads.

Dooley Tombras, President at Tombras Group:

Dooley Tombras claims that we are in the third phase of social media advertising, where companies need to strike a balance between editorial and real-time content. 

“Pay to boost above-average performing content, let below average posts die, and when content blows up, put real advertising muscle behind it to drive sales. Only then does the post become accountable for driving sales.”

Organic social is a powerful platform of mass reach and content distribution as well as a great space for content experimentation. When something really resonates with your audience, it’s a positive sign to put advertising budget behind it. 

Learn From the Pros

Now that you’ve learned different strategies for successful Facebook Advertising, apply them to your next campaign. A common thread among the responses we received for this article was the importance of constantly testing and evaluating results.

Don’t hesitate to change tactics midway through a campaign to drive greater value and conversions from your Ads. If you’re unsure where to begin with launching an Ads campaign, we have a step-by-step guide to start you off on the right foot.

What advice would you give for Facebook Advertising best practices? Share with us in the comments below.

When you visit the App Store or Google Play and search “social media,” there are hundreds of apps to choose from. But, as the pool of social platforms grows, will any of them really change the game for marketers this year?

The truth is, probably not. In fact, HubSpot’s own social media experts say we should be paying attention to how older platforms evolve in 2019.

“For 2019, what I’m keeping my eye on is some of the forgotten channels. Those will be the ‘new’ channels for 2019,” says Kelly Hendrickson, HubSpot’s Social Media Manager.

She adds, “We’re seeing Snapchat make a play to provide more relevance to new demographics, especially with the gender-swap feature’s popularity. And with Facebook’s push for privacy and connections with friends and family, Facebook Groups could be seen as a new channel as the newsfeed becomes more challenging.”

Aside from Facebook and Snapchat, we’ve also been watching platforms like Reddit and Pinterest aim to improve on advertising and marketing features.

But, if your role specializes in social media, audience growth, or online engagement — or if your company targets the early-adopters in Gen-Z or millennial age groups — you’ll still want to be on the lookout for platforms that could gain momentum later on.

Why? Watching the growth of young, promising social channels will help you determine which are worth joining and which aren’t worth your time. And, if you do end up joining a hot new social channel early on, you may have more time to pick up on what promotional really content works there. This will put you ahead of competitors that launch their accounts later and might struggle to come up with creative post ideas.

To help you stay on the cutting edge of social media, we’ve compiled a list of five young social platforms that you might want to put on your radar this year. These platforms were either launched or completely rebranded in 2016 or later. They’ve also all gained a large user base, interest from investors, or news buzz in recent months.

For each platform, we’ll walk you through how it works, its user base, why it might be promising to marketers later on, and how you should approach it today.

1. TikTok

Year Launched: 2017 (Founded in 2016)

Number of Users: 500 million+ monthly active users

In 2018, the lip-syncing app, Musical.ly merged with a similar one-year-old app called TikTok. Since then, TikTok has reportedly passed 500 million active monthly users. With more than 800 million global downloads, TikTok is now more popular in app stores than Facebook, Instagram, and other prominent social media platforms.

For those who remember Vine or Musical.ly, TikTok is like a mix of the two. The platform allows you to film short videos that play on a repetitive loop just like Vine. But, like Musical.ly or Snapchat, you can add fun effects, AR filters, text, and musical overlays to zest things up. Like similar video platforms, it has been primarily adopted by users under 30 years old.

Once you make a video, the app also allows you to optimize it by adding hashtags that can make it easier to find via search.

One way hashtags have been embraced on TikTok is through its “Challenges” tab. This area of the platform prompts you to propose a challenge with a themed hashtag. When you post a video that responds to a challenge, you can include the corresponding hashtag so those following the challenge can see your videos.

Along with being widely discussed by publications including the New York Times and Digiday, the app has also gained notoriety from comedians like Jimmy Fallon. Here’s a clip from The Tonight Show where he talks about the app and tells fans to compete in his #tumbleweed challenge:

 

 

Aside from being fun and entertaining, the app is “leaking into brand territory,” according to Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s Social Media Community Manager. She explained that more brands are on the platform, adding that, “The Washington Post is on TikTok and they are pretty popular too.”

The Washington Post, as she mentioned, has already gained more than 54,000 followers.

While you would expect a newspaper like this to post content with a more serious or investigative tone, the Post shows off a lighter, behind-the-scenes look at its newsroom. In this example, one of its journalists struggles to walk up the stairs to the sounds of MGMT’s “Electric Feel”:

Brands like Guess have also started to experiment with TikTok. To highlight its new line of denim clothing, Guess launched the #inMyDenim challenge encouraging users to publish videos of themselves wearing Guess denim with Bebe Rexha’s song, “I’m a Mess.” playing in the background.

Here’s a video that someone posted in response to the challenge:

At the moment, fashion, publishing, and entertainment companies are starting to play with TikTok. As the platform grows, we might see it expand to other industries that are able to get creative and visual with their marketing tactics.

While you might not want to focus all of your social media resources on TikTok just yet, it’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the app and start experimenting with a few fun videos. You could also try to brainstorm a few challenges or video ideas that could align well with your brand and the platform’s young audience. If you see any brands that are in a similar space as you, follow them for some added inspiration.

2. Caffeine

Year Launched: Founded in 2016 and unveiled in 2018

Number of Users: Unspecified

Caffeine.tv, a platform built by ex-Apple designers, allows you to create live broadcasts for friends and followers. The broadcasts show up in a feed where you can give an emoji reaction or respond with comments.

Along with live video broadcasts, you can also stream your computer or TV screens as you play video games. This makes Caffeine a possible competitor to the slightly older game-streaming service, Twitch.tv. Like Twitch, which offers you money for high views or subscriptions, Caffeine has launched a monetization program that rewards engaging broadcasters.

The company hasn’t specified user numbers yet, but its Crunchbase profile reveals that is has over $140 million in investments so far. Caffeine’s biggest investor to date is 21st Century Fox.

Aside from investor interest, the platform is starting to make waves in the worlds of entertainment and sports. Recently, Fox launched a broadcasting initiative with the company. The platform was also used to broadcast the 2019 X Games in Aspen.

Caffeine’s success so far demonstrates how live video and video platforms are gaining quick adoption from younger audiences, especially in the Gen-Z age group. If the app continues to gain interest, marketers might consider using it to show off their brand through a variety of strategies, like behind-the-scenes content, Q&As, or other live videos. This platform could also be useful to marketers in a wide variety of industries, including news, entertainment, gaming, and sports.

If live streaming could help your company spread awareness of a product, it might be a good time to familiarize yourself with both Caffeine and Twitch. As you learn more about the platforms, be sure to determine if your audience is actually using either of them and what they’re using them for. Similarly to TikTok, you should also check out what similar brands are doing if you find any with active accounts.

If you have an idea for a live stream that seems too out of the ordinary for Facebook or Instagram, Caffeine could be an interesting place to test it. Because the platform is new, there might not be many norms or rules associated with what content works or doesn’t work just yet.

3. Lasso by Facebook

Year Launched: 2018

Number of Downloads: 70,000+ in the U.S.

Lasso, which was quietly launched by Facebook in 2018, competes directly with TikTok as you can use the platform to make short videos with filters and musical overlays. Here’s a quick example of a Lasso post with a musical overlay:

While Lasso is just getting started, it might be a promising platform in the future because it’s owned by Facebook. This could mean the app might benefit from Facebook’s user base, technological resources, and financing.

While the user base for Lasso is still small and its demographics aren’t yet specified, this might be Facebook’s attempt to reach younger audiences similar to those on TikTok. If that’s the case, companies targeting Gen-Z or millennials should continue watching and comparing Lasso and TikTok to see what types of content thrives on these platforms.

Like TikTok, this type of social platform could be of interest to people in visual or creative fields like publishing, entertainment, and fashion.

4. Houseparty

Year Launched: 2016

Number of Users: 20 million+

Houseparty is a group-video messaging app that allows video chats that can host eight users at a time. To make things more fun for everyone in the chat, you can use video filters, stickers and other fun effects while a live conversation is in session.

While the app itself has been around for a few years, it has gone through a few evolutions and recently gained large bumps in interest and usership. The app first started as Meerkat, but rebranded itself to Houseparty and revamped its features in 2016. Since then, Houseparty has climbed app store charts and risen from 1 million to 20 million users in 2018.

In 2018, Houseparty continued to expand by launching an in-chat gaming feature which allows you to play games with your friends. The app company reports that over 10 million users have already played the trivia game, Heads Up, on the platform.

Although the app does offer ad-space, marketers of the future might use it in other creative ways. For example, a small makeup company might sponsor a “houseparty” where an influencer can answer beauty questions and show attendees how to use one of their new beauty products.

Although it might sound promising, still keep in mind that this app has a number of big-name competitors, including Snapchat which rolled out group video chats in 2018.

This app might also take added time and creativity. If you don’t have time to host a houseparty or can’t think of one that would effectively market your product, you might want to prioritize other platforms first..

5. Steemit

Year Launched: 2016

Number of Users: Nearly 1.2 million

This platform is like Reddit with a cryptocurrency twist. While Reddit rewards “upvoted” engaging posts by pushing them to the top of feeds, Steemit also gives you “Steem” coin if your post does well. Like Reddit, you can engage with posts by sharing, commenting on, or upvoting them.

Here’s a look at the platform’s “life” category feed. The site’s design is simple and similar to Reddit’s older website designs with a white background and basic feed style.

Because users might be aiming to earn, use, or sell Steem coin, the interface also includes a sidebar that shows the cryptocurrency’s live value up against other prominent coinage like Bitcoin.

Steemit claims to have over 1 million users and over 50,000 monthly active users. While its user base is still much smaller than other platforms, it has been buzzed about by TechCrunch, WIRED, and other publications. It has also been called a leading social platform in the world of cryptocurrency.

Even though Steemit is still small, we’ve included it on this list because it’s notable in cryptocurrency communities, discussed by tech journalists, and seems to be one of the first platforms of its kind. Even if the platform does not take off, it’s a good example of how cryptocurrency and social media could align to create a social platform in the future.

However, we encourage this to stay just on your watchlist for now. Although Steemit seems new and unique, marketers shouldn’t heavily invest time or money into it just yet. Its biggest flaw is that it relies on a strong cryptocurrency market to succeed.

The platform already took a huge hit during the “cryptocurrency winter” of 2018 when most major coinages lost serious value. While Steem began at $7 USD, the coin’s value dropped to just over 40 cents. Today, the coin’s value is only 25 cents — equal to 2.5 Bitcoin Bits.

According to TechCrunch, this loss led to mass layoffs at the company. Since then. Steemit has begun to hire more staff and recently named a new chief officer.

If this platform, or one like it, were to take off, it could be a great marketing tool for companies that sell products or services in exchange for cryptocurrency. If cryptocurrency gains more adoption and gains a greater sense of understanding from younger, more tech-savvy audiences, this could boost opportunities on other social platforms like this.

How to Navigate This Crowded Landscape

A marketer who discovers a hot new social channel first can become an expert on posting engaging content before their competitors even sign up. But, while it’s important for marketers to keep interesting platforms on their radar, the first priority should still be to focus time, effort, and resources into the platforms that are already thriving.

To make sure you’re balancing your time between new and old channels accordingly, focus on growing and refining strategies on the successful platforms, then timebox an hour or so once a month to look into newer platforms.

If you find a platform like TIkTok, that’s both relatively new and has a fast-growing user base, brainstorm and schedule a few experimental posts.

Be sure to use experimentation time wisely and on the right platforms. While TikTok is a great place to experiment and doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere soon, there’s always a chance that an extremely niche platform, like Steemit, could get purchased and absolved — or that it could shut down quickly if it fails to grow.

When you’re determining which platforms are worth watching or experimenting on, here are six questions your team should ask themselves:

• What are its active user numbers? Big numbers could mean that the platform is gaining momentum and that you have even more chances to engage with a large pool of users.
• Are publications or thought leaders talking about it? If a platform doesn’t specify exact numbers, but a lot of people, prominent figures, or news publications are discussing it — it might be promising.
• Do older platforms have a similar tool and a bigger user base? If an older platform does the same thing, people might hesitate to adopt a newer platform. For example, marketers primarily use Stories on Instagram as opposed to Snapchat. Although Snapchat pioneered the story, the Instagram interface and experience is something that a lot more people know, understand, and trust.
• Will my audiences understand how to use the platform? It might be challenging to get a less tech-savvy person to join Snapchat or TikTok, but they might love a platform like Facebook or Twitter because the interfaces might be easier to understand. Pick platforms that your audience can easily use and enjoy.
• Will audiences even be interested in the platform? While a tech novice might not enjoy TikTok, a teenager might get bored on a platform like Facebook. In fact, younger people prefer visual apps like TikTok and Instagram. While you want to pay attention to the level of adaptability, you also should pay attention to how your audience wants to consume media.
• What type of content or post could we use to promote our brand on the platform? You should always make a plan of action when considering or launching a social platform. If you can’t come up with any interesting ways to market your specific product on a really niche platform, you might want to hold off on making an account. On the other hand, experimenting with different posting strategies could allow your brand to look creative and cool to the platform’s audience.

If you ultimately decide that you aren’t ready to jump on to a new platform right now, and just want to focus on the bigger platforms, here’s a guide to the different types of social media and how you can use them for your next marketing campaign.

A toxic work environment can impact your physical health, mental health, and overall level of happiness at work. As a result, it can compromise the quality of work you produce — which can negatively impact both your team, and your career.

Negativity in the workplace can manifest in a variety of forms — including bullying, mismanagement, aggressiveness, and distrust among team members. If it makes you dread going to work each day, it’s an issue that needs to be solved.

However, if you’re suffering in a toxic workplace, it’s not your responsibility to fix it. The causes are typically partly systemic, and partly cultural — alternatively, perhaps it’s the behaviors of your colleagues or boss that leads to such negativity.

Therefore, to deal with it, you need to work on protecting yourself. Self-care, personal development, and certain choices around the workplace can help you form a protective barrier against the onslaught of negativity, while preparing yourself to find a better job. Being positive and supportive to colleagues who are similarly affected by this toxicity can help create a sense of collective resilience.

Luckily, the people at resume.io have figured out some precise steps you can take to make these things happen — and they’ve created a new visual guide to cope with a toxic work environment. Have a look through it, and start protecting yourself against negativity today.

Did you know an Instagram post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than a post with no hashtags?

Hashtags are powerful. They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image.

Here’s the thing, though: with great power comes great responsibility (#spiderman).

Hashtags can skyrocket your business to new heights, but if used too frequently or without a clear strategy in mind, they become pointless and inefficient, e.g.: #happy #superhappy #ecstatic #jumpingforjoy #whatsanothersynonym.

We want your business’s Instagram posts to receive optimal engagement, so we’ve put together an ultimate guide for using Instagram hashtags in 2018. With this guide, you won’t just attract followers — you’ll attract the right followers.

Why are hashtags important?

Hashtags are essentially Instagram’s sorting process. With around 95 million photos posted on Instagram every day, it’s difficult for Instagram to efficiently deliver the right content to the right people. Hashtags help your post get discovered by viewers most interested in seeing it.

Krystal Gillespie, HubSpot’s Social Media Community Manager, explains the importance of hashtags this way: “Hashtags are like a funnel. For instance, #marketing is incredibly broad and attracts all types of posts. We’ve found #digitalmarketing or #marketingmotivation gives us a more specific, targeted reach. The audience searching for these hashtags are also trying to narrow their search to what we offer related to Marketing, so we’re actually reaching more of the right people.”

Essentially, hashtags are a better way to categorize your posts. They help you reach a target audience, and more importantly, they help your target audience find you. These users are more likely to engage with your post because your post is exactly what they wanted.

Adding one of the most popular Instagram hashtags to your post doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see more interaction. Since the hashtags above are so popular, they are being used by millions of people, so your post will most likely be obscured by the competition. Narrowing your hashtag topic is important, but we’ll get to that next.

Here are some of the top Instagram hashtags of 2018.

1. #love

Instagram users build their photo galleries on good feelings. For this reason, the #love hashtag is ever present next to the pics of friends, family, vacations, and beautiful scenery.

2. #instagood

Occurrences of this hashtag are inspired by the @instagood Instagram account, which scours the Instagram community for excellent photos and videos that are just too #instagood not to share. Add this hashtag to your content for a chance to be reposted.

3. #style

This hashtag has more than 400 million posts associated with it, making it one of the top tags in 2019. It’s used for beautifully edited photos of outfits, vacations, luxury products, and anything aesthetically stunning. Tag #style on a gorgeous outfit inspiration or new product, and Instagram users looking to add a little glamour to their lives will find you.

4. #dogstagram

We all know that the internet loves cute puppies, so it shouldn’t be surprising when a hashtag for our beloved doggos trends on Instagram. It’s always a good idea to include man’s best friend in an Instagram post — your followers will love it and you’re almost guaranteed dozens of heart emojis in your comments.

Source: Instagram

5. #me

This is the quintessential selfie hashtag, indicating to the Instagram community that the photo it’s captioning is a picture of you.

6. #fashion

People often turn to Instagram to see what styles are “in”, looking at posts ranging from fashion week to everyday outfit inspirations. This means that a significant portion of the content on Instagram revolves around fashion — in fact, there are more than 700 million #fashion posts on Instagram today. You will find celebrities, luxury brands, clothes, makeup, and other aspirational images tagged with #fashion.

7. #cute

#Cute puts your content in a pool of Instagram photos and videos that elicit “awes” from all over the Instaverse. If you think your puppy is the cutest puppy that ever lived, it deserves a photo with this esteemed hashtag.

8. #tbt

#Tbt stands for “Throwback Thursday,” and encourages Instagram users to post an old photo of themselves or an event they’re reminiscing over. Everyone likes content from the good old days — here’s your hashtag for enjoying the nostalgia.

9. #foodporn

I hope you’re hungry! The #foodporn tag is brimming with mouthwatering posts of desserts, pizza, recipe videos, and so much more. This hashtag is for the best of the best when it comes to delectable treats on Instagram — find the most original, delicious, and tantalizing food pictures on the internet under this hashtag.

10. #photooftheday

Managing a business account? This hashtag is a surefire way to attract more followers and repeat visitors. If you plan to post daily content, all around a common theme, add the #photooftheday hashtag to increase your exposure.

11. #instamood

#Instamood is all about the vibe or emotion a photo or video elicits. Pretty scenery, a day at the beach, or a night out with good people were all prominent under the #instamood hashtag in 2018. Landscapes are a popular starting point when figuring out what to post on Instagram, according to Jumper Media, and they fit into this hashtag perfectly.

12. #follow

This hashtag — currently tagged on half a billion posts — is a tactic used by public accounts looking to gain more followers. It’s a ubiquitous tag, non-specific to any one type of content creator, so you’ll see #follow on fashion accounts, travel blogs, makeup tutorials, celebrity fan pages, and much more. The idea is that if a user comes across content that they like on your explore page, they might be motivated to follow the account for more of that content.

13. #iphonesia

#Iphonesia is dedicated to the burgeoning community of Instagrammers in Indonesia.

14. #food

Meal pics are the bread and butter (no pun intended) of a people-oriented Instagram account — and 2018 was no exception. Use the #food hashtag to caption your next delicious Instagram photo.

15. #motivation

On Twitter, #MondayMotivation encourages inspiring quotes and messages to help people start the week off on the right foot. On Instagram, the #motivation hashtag has come to caption anything from a photo of a user after a big gym session, to a computer screen right before he or she gets to work.

The above 10 hashtags might have helped define Instagram over the last year, but there are still plenty more that end up trending every year. The following hashtags can help inspire photos and videos that Instagram users always seem to find captivating — and are sure to in 2019.

16. #Instagramhub

This hashtag isn’t specific to one type of post — #instagramhub is a place for active Instagram users to demonstrate their presence on the platform and reach larger audiences. By including this popular hashtag, influencers on Instagram are able to connect with as many users as possible.

1. #life

This one goes out to all the photos and videos that encompass the essence of your life.

2. #beautiful

Instagram is the place to go to put your best foot forward — whether it be your amazing getaway, a new hairstyle, or a breath-taking sunset, #beautiful photos encompass the best of what the platform has to offer.

Source: Instagram

3. #travel

Away for the weekend? Show your followers where you are, using this hashtag to indicate you’re traveling somewhere new.

4. #fitness

Get in on a trending community of workout warriors with photos and videos from your best exercise sessions, using the #fitness hashtag to share the moment.

5. #happy

Sometimes the best part of feeling good is sharing that sunshine with others. The #happy group of posts is full of radiant people and lighthearted content that brings us joy. Tag a photo of a cute kitten or one of yourself after getting a promotion with #happy.

6. #repost

Reposting is a common function on Instagram that allows you to share content from other users, with credit back to the original user. Use the hashtag, #repost, to tell others on Instagram that you were inspired by this photo or video.

7. #igers

#Igers is short for “Instagram users.” If you’ve got a photo or video that encompasses the Instagram community, show your solidarity with this colloquial hashtag.

8. #photography

At its core, Instagram is a photo sharing media, so it makes sense that there are some stunning and artistic images shared in #photography. Instagram is unique in that a user could be scrolling through the #photography posts and see National Geographic and professional photos next to amateur photographers.

9. #instadaily

This hashtag is similar to #photooftheday — one of the most popular hashtags of 2018 above this list — and is perfect for Instagrammers who post every day.

10. #bestoftheday

The #bestoftheday tag offers a glimpse into the massive amount of varied content that is posted to Instagram every day. Here, you’ll find some of the most noteworthy images on the platform — images of beautiful spots around the world, award-winning photos, yummy recipes, adorable animals, and so much more.

11. #followforfollow

Interested in building a fast list of followers on Instagram? #Followforfollow tells everyone who browses this hashtag that you’ll follow users who choose to follow you. This hashtag is always trending highly.

12. #likeforlike

#Likeforlike is similar to the #followforfollow hashtag explained above. Use this hashtag if you want to increase engagement on your Instagram account, telling users that you’ll like their photo or video if they like yours.

13. #tweegram

There is plenty of multi-platform sharing across social media sites, and in #tweegram, you’ll find images taken from Twitter, Pinterest, and more. #Tweegram is best known for quotes, screenshots of Tweets, and memes.

14. #summer

The summertime is the best season to enjoy fun vacations, fruity drinks, and time by the pool. This tag is full of Instagram users enjoying the long summertime hours on the beach or showing off the breezy outfits keeping them cool under the hot #summer sun.

15. #nofilter

Instagram offers so many different filters to help enhance photos, it’s practically assumed that any picture on Instagram has been edited. But if you’re posting a pic that was beautiful all by itself, let the world know that this gem didn’t need a filter to look so nice.

16. #ootd

#Ootd stands for “Outfit of the Day,” a hashtag dedicated to Instagram users who love showing off new clothing and styles on a regular basis.

17. #instafood

This popular tag is different from other food hashtags because it accompanies food pictures that are gorgeous, creative, and, most importantly, worthy of Instagram. Instagram posts are  known for being aesthetically appealing, and #instafood is no different. Use this tag if you’re posting a photo of a colorful, unique, and sumptuous dish!

18. #fun

If it’s not fun, it’s not Instagram-worthy. Make it known to millions of Instagram users that you had a blast in your latest photo or video with this popular hashtag.

1. Keep your hashtags organized.

To create an efficient hashtag system, you can use Excel or an Instagram analytics tool. If you choose an excel sheet, you’ll need to manually keep track of which hashtags you use, how often, and which ones correlate to your most popular posts. Over time, you’ll see relationships between certain hashtags and your most popular posts, and this can help you decide which hashtags work best for your brand.

If you have a more advanced social media team, you might want to consider a tool like Iconosquare, which automatically stores top hashtags and provides reports on which hashtags reach the most people.

For smaller businesses with limited budgets, Krystal Gillespie says that, “an excel sheet is the best way to start. Once you get more advanced I would highly recommend using a tool to track the data. A manual system can get overwhelming when you’re posting three times a day and using about 20 hashtags per post.”

2. Figure out your magic number.

Most top brands — 91% of them, to be exact — use seven or fewer hashtags per post, so it’s easy to assume that’s the magic number for everyone … right? Krystal explains that this isn’t always the case: She told me HubSpot has been more successful with hashtags ranging in the low 20s.

The point is, you can’t know how many hashtags work best for you until you test it. For HubSpot, it took the team several months to find a number that worked best, and during our trial period, we ranged from seven to 30. Give yourself the same flexibility for trial and error.

3. Narrow your hashtags.

There are two big reasons more specific, smaller-volume hashtags are better for your brand: first, you can compete in a smaller pool. HubSpot, for example, doesn’t typically use the hashtag #marketing because it’s too broad. If you search #marketing, you’ll find pictures of restaurants, inspirational quotes, before-and-after hair style pictures, and memes.

The randomness of #marketing leads me to the second reason specific hashtags are a good idea: as a user, I’m more likely to find what I need if I search for something specific, and when your business comes up for my specific search request, I’m more likely to be happy with what I found.

Krystal explains: “Keeping a hashtag close to the interests of your brand really helps. We try to use hashtags tailored for a specific topic and then narrow it down further — for instance, we’d use #SEOTips if our marketing post was mostly about SEO.”

Think of it this way: #dogs is more popular, but it has a wide demographic. If I search #goldenretrieverpuppies and I find your post, I’m more likely to engage with it because it’s exactly what I wanted.

4. Research what other people are hashtagging.

An easy way to generate hashtag ideas is to make a list of your followers or competitors and research what they’re hashtagging on their own photos. It can also be particularly helpful to research what influencers in your industry are hashtagging — by definition, influencers are people with a large social media following, so they must be doing something right.

5. Test out related hashtags.

When you type a hashtag into Instagram’s search bar, Instagram shows you related hashtags in the scroll-down menu. Instagram also delivers related hashtags on the next page after you click on a hashtag. This is a simple way to create a longer list of hashtags to try out.

6. Follow your own hashtag.

Another way to use Instagram hashtags for your marketing purposes is to follow your own hashtag. Krystal explains, “On Instagram I actually follow the hashtag #hubspot so I can find anyone who talks about us and connect with them. As long as your account isn’t private, people will be able to find you via the hashtag.”

Following your own hashtag is an effective way to engage with other people talking about your brand and develop better relationships with them.

7. Create a brand campaign hashtag.

This is the trickiest item on the list, but if done successfully, it can pay off big time. Some businesses have successfully attracted followers by creating their own campaign hashtag. A campaign hashtag needs to be funny, clever, or at least memorable in order to work.

Campaign hashtags are particularly useful for promoting a new product or upcoming event, or even just inspiring people. Red Bull, for example, encouraged followers to post Red Bull pictures with a #putacanonit hashtag (see what I mean about clever?). LuLuLemon, rather than running a more traditional ad campaign, developed a positive connotation for their brand by asking followers to post real, active pictures of themselves with a #sweatlife hashtag.

Now that we’ve covered the importance of using Instagram hashtags for your business, you might be wondering how to search for Instagram hashtags within the app, or how to use the search function to find related ideas. If you’re unsure of the technical process for hashtag searching, here’s how:

1. Open Instagram and tap the search icon.

Instagram wants you to use hashtags, and has made it extremely easy to find the perfect ones for your post. To start, open the Instagram app on your mobile device and tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen.

2. Tap the search bar at the top of your screen.

The search screen on your Instagram might first send you to a newsfeed-style page with suggested content based on topics you’ve demonstrated an interest in on social media. To switch to a hashtag search, tap the search bar at the top of this page, as shown in the screenshot above.

3. Tap “Tags.”

Once you’ve tapped the search bar at the top of your screen, Instagram will give you four options with which to filter your search. Instagram refers to hashtags as simply “Tags,” as shown in the screenshot below. Tap this “Tags” option, then tap the search bar above it, and begin searching topics for which you want to find a trending hashtag.

You don’t have to include the pound sign (#) in your search — your results will be the same with or without it — but you will need to use this pound sign in the caption of your photo once you choose a hashtag.

4. Browse hashtags based on post count and current content.

Voila! You should see multiple options for hashtags based on your search. Browse around at each related hashtag that Instagram suggests for you — you might find that a hashtag with slightly fewer posts includes photos or videos that are more in line with the content you’re posting.

Happy hashtagging!