Success Unscrambled Podcast

I was left feeling clueless after completing the course, what I really needed was an authentic Instagram hashtags cheat sheet.

If you have ever invested in a social media course but realised that the tips and tricks did not work then you probably feel the same way.

You see a few years ago this was my plight, I was promised the earth moon and stars.

However, after I signed up I discovered that the self acclaimed Instagram mentor really had no clue what he was doing.

In fact, the content that he as posting to get results was not only difficult to create but expensive to outsource.

The crazy thing is that he didn't teach anything about developing your personal brand or catering to your ideal avatar.

Truth be told, this course creator did not care about his followers and he was only in it to generate an income and move on.

In this post, you will learn about the key things that you need to consider before mapping out your various groups of hashtags every month.

What is the Key Function of Instagram Hashtags

A few years ago when I first encountered Instagram, there was something about the profiles I visited that did not feel right.

It seemed to be focused on lavish lifestyles, luxury vacations and daring stunts.

The images of things and places that seem unattainable was plastered across the feeds.

Nobody seem to care about the real reason why hashtags should be used at all.

Thankfully, after a few unfortunate events, the Instagram algorithm has changed and now caters for real people with real struggles.

Plus people can now stop scrolling mindlessly through the Instagram feed and search for what they need using hashtags.

As you can expect hashtags allow you to search for products, services, experts, communities and even topics that are of interest to you.

You can see hashtags as the keys to filing cabinets fill of content that is related to each other.

Instagram Hashtag Categories

Before creating groups of hashtags that you need to use every month there are a number of things to consider.

The first thing to consider is who does your content resonate with that you want to post daily, weekly or monthly?

Yes, it is that annoying ideal avatar subject again but this time from a more social perspective.

Depending on the content that you want to post here are a few key categories to consider.

* Niche* Community* Transformation* Values* Topic* Interest* Location

Did you know that when you choose your hashtags this list of categories are what you need to take into consideration?

Let's look at each one in turn to get a better understanding of how they can affect your reach.

1. Niche

This one is pretty obvious but just in case you didn't know it is a great idea to stick to niche hashtags when posting content.

For example, if you are in the fashion or beauty industry it is important to use hashtags that reflect your niche.

Niche related hashtags are probably the most popular hashtags on Instagram because everyone uses them thinking that is the right way to use them.

2. Community

This one can be a bit tricky for small business owners. While Instagram is not a place that has an area where people hang out together e...

The situation was desperate, a hot Instagram tip meant I only had 2 hours to rework a post and I needed a specific Planoly vs Later comparison.

Before I go into why I found myself in that situation let me give you a bit of background.

A few years ago I did some training on Instagram because I wanted to change my attitude towards the platform.

You might find this quite surprising since so many small business owners and brands love Instagram.

At the time you can easily classify my attitude towards Instagram as one that is a love-hate relationship.

Yes, there are many people generating an income for themselves using Instagram.

However, there are some that are doing this using methods that are fake and pretentious.

It does not mean that they all are that way. For this reason, I wanted to give it a fair attempt.

Sadly for me, the person running the course a few years back was using dubious methods which was a big turnoff for me.

The truth is that Instagram can be a great place to get visibility for your business using authentic methods.

In this post, you will learn about Later and Planoly, why I use them and which one you need to remain authentic and deliver value on Instagram.

Why Bother with Scheduling Tools for Instagram

This past week I was speaking with a potential client who was posting to Instagram everyday natively without using a scheduler.

Just in case that wasn't clear enough, she was creating Instagram posts from scratch and leaving them in draft mode.

She was doing this manually every day on the platform without getting sufficient visibility on her feed.

You might be thinking that this is not so bad but let me ask you a question.

If you want to get visibility across multiple platforms and/or scale your business exponentially do you think that is sustainable?

Well, it is possible to do it 24/7 but the results will be overwhelming and there will be no time for anything else in your life.

It is time to think about the reason you got into business in the first place.

Gaining time freedom in your life does require some automation and outsourcing of monotonous tasks.

Automation can be easily accomplished using scheduling tools like Planoly and Later.

What About the Instagram Algorithm?

I have heard a ton of people complain about the Instagram algorithm changing frequently.

The thing is that the only thing consistent across social media, business and marketing is change.

So, if you expect change then there should be no reason to complain at all.

The key is to embrace the change and adapt your business processes to meet the new way of publishing.

At this point, I would like to give a shout out to all those people who spend countless hours figuring out the change for the rest of us.

One of the reasons I tend not to complain is because I would not like to be the one tasked with figuring out the algorithmic changes.

My zone of genius is problem solving in terms of figuring out how to get marketing campaigns done easier, faster and on a low budget.

This is one of the reasons I am launching a group program to help solopreneurs to get more visibility for their business.

It began as a mistake for me initially but for many small business owners comparing TubeBuddy vs VidIQ can be complex.

Using VidIQ started out as an accident for me in the beginning and I'll explain why later.

Publishing videos on YouTube looks like a very attractive opportunity for many people.

However, what several people don't realise is that there is more to the whole process than meets the eye.

Coming up with an idea for your YouTube channel and publishing new videos each week is only a small part of the work involved.

Getting views and retention on your videos are the two most important metrics if you want to be successful.

The truth is that becoming a rockstar YouTuber can be hard.

This is especially true if you have no idea what you are doing or how to increase retention.

In this post, you will learn the differences between TubeBuddy and VidIQ as well as why you will use one as opposed to the other.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

YouTube Video Elements

As a casual viewer of YouTube videos, it is difficult to imagine that there are many elements that contribute to ranking those videos.

You see, YouTube is part of Google so as a result there are many ranking factors that allow your videos to get to page one of the results.

Some of these important factors include:

* Channel optimisation* Video description and title* Thumbnail of the video* Tags* Length of video* Audience Retention* Number of views* Playlists and End screens* Hashtags

Just when you thought that growing an audience on YouTube is easy across all niches it is not that simple.

Creators in the music, beauty and cooking niche seem to have it easier compared to other niches.

Sometimes people just get lucky or they already have an audience on another platform.

So, if you are thinking of starting a YouTube channel soon remember that there is more to the setup and weekly publishing than meets the eye.

Important Video Factors

In order to help you to understand how TubeBuddy and VidIQ can save you hours of hard work and frustration.

Let me explain in some detail the key factors that make a YouTube channel and video successful.

1. Channel Optimisation

One of the key elements to get right when starting your YouTube channel or making it successful is by optimising your channel.

This optimisation process involves getting your key message, channel graphics and keywords right.

When creating your channel art follow the instructions listed in this video to ensure that it fits on all devices. He even supplies a template.

Setup your links to other social media channels and finally correctly setup all other elements in the channel settings.

Go to YouTube creator studio and on the bottom left of the channel dashboard you will see settings.

As you can see in the screenshot above it is advisable that you complete some basic information about your channel.

One of the best ways to increase the value of Twitter for your business is by using clever Twitter engagement tips.

If you have been using social media for a while you may have noticed that very few business owners get excited about Twitter.

The reason for this is because either they have created a profile because they were told that they needed to be on there but never touched it.

Another reason is because they do not understand the value that Twitter presents for their business.

If you fall into any of these categories then you are like me many years ago when I had no clue about social media.

In fact, many years ago I saw social media as this thing that will hopefully go away because it seemed so fake.

Fast forward to today and I finally got to understand the different personalities of each platform as well as how to use it.

The truth is that while having thousands of followers on social media has its place the real value for any business is a whole lot bigger.

In this post, you will learn a number of clever tips to help you understand how and why you should be using Twitter for your business.

Setting up your Twitter Profile for Success

I have to admit that Twitter is probably one of the easiest social media platforms to set up from scratch.

The biggest hurdle will be choosing your Twitter username or handle.

You will have the ability to customise your profile based on the objective or end goal.

In other words, why did you join Twitter? Is it to grow your followers, increase your visibility, build your authority or generate leads?

It is going to be very difficult to decide from the onset but for me, I wanted to increase the visibility of my podcast in the first instance.

Last year, I wanted to grow my visibility and authority. See screenshot below.

In my latest campaign, I will be driving awareness of my group coaching program for social media. It is called 20 Minute Social and you can sign up here.

My profile will change to reflect this new campaign shortly.

What is the Real Deal with Twitter

There are so many reasons why people use Twitter at the moment.

One good reason is to get the latest news on what's happening locally, nationally and internationally in real time.

Think of it like a place to tune your very own news channel which brings me to a personal story.

Over 10 years ago I made a decision to go on a media fast simply because I felt impressed to take a break.

At the time I also believed that my mind was being bombarded with so many forms of media.

So, I got rid of TV, movies, newspapers and everything media-related for one month.

It then continued for over 10 years which fascinates me as I didn't believe that I could do it.

The funny bit is that when I did that there were people in my life who would let me know what's happening in the outside world.

People like my mother would call me to fill me in on what she considered the 'important' bits.

I want you to think of Twitter like my mother. You can follow the people who fill your feed with the important news and that's it.

Childhood is the most blissful time of life for many people. As an adult, you look back at that time and wonder why you're not achieving your dreams.

In fact, you may remember many adults around you encouraging you to chase your dreams and find fulfilment.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

As a child, you wanted to become a doctor, lawyer, nurse, eye specialist, teacher, fireman, footballer or some other profession but things didn't work out.

Your parents got you gifts frequently to help you move along the path to that profession.

The gifts included a blackboard and chalk or stethoscope or gavel or fireman outfit, dollhouse or a soccer ball or other significant item

Something happened along the way but that dream started fading during your years at school.

The truth is that it is not your fault at all. No one ever teaches any of us how to achieve our goals or to turn our dreams into reality as teenagers.

In this post, you will learn the 11 things that you are doing wrong when it comes to fulfilling your long term dreams.

Dreams vs Goals

As I am sat writing this blog post, I can think of several reasons why it is so easy to get all confused when it comes to the topic of dreams.

For the purposes of this exercise I am not referring to nightmares or random dreams that you have at night.

The focus here are those dreams as it relates to positive or progressive things that can transform your life.

I will not be diving into the world of manifestation or supernatural things or astrology.

Everything will be practical and down to earth and include everyday actions that anyone can do comfortably.

Dreams in this post, will be related to life goals.

11 Things You are Not Doing

There are so many reasons why you are not achieving your dreams yet despite having the best intentions.

Here's a list of the top 11 reasons why your dreams have not yet come true.

* Did not set goals* Goal not big enough* Unsure what's good for you* Not exercising skills or talent* You are not serious* In action* Stopped learning* Hiding from others* No collaborations* Have not hired a coach* Misaligned with God's will

Let's spend some time looking at each one of these individually to better understand how to turn things around.

1. Did Not Set Goals

In case you are new to this concept, it is often said that the first step to achieving your dreams is to write them down.

"A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.”Greg Reid

As you can see this is not something I invented recently. It is a quote by Greg Reid encouraging us to turn our dreams into goals.

Let me tell you that it was one of the hardest lessons for me to understand because I thought the exercise of writing down dreams was absolutely pointless.

In fact, the main reason for this is that the first time I wrote down my dreams nothing happened or so I thought.

The reality is that I did not have a good coach the first time I wrote down my dreams.

2. Goal Not Big Enough

Do you like playing small? What I mean by that is the fact that instead of making a plan for a big dream ...

So, you need to promote your content every week and you wondering if there are any Chrome extensions for marketers to help save you time.

Let me know if this sounds familiar if you publish content every week.

You are preparing to write your next blog post so you need to research the keywords, user intent, questions, problems and subtopics before you create the outline.

While this may sound pretty straight forward to the casual onlooker the time involved gathering all the data is unreal.

Here's another scenario. When your blog post goes live, you need to spend time promoting it to get the word out there.

Of course, the time spent actually involves taking the images, captions, descriptions and videos that you created and pushing them to social media.

If you currently spend over 7 hours every week promoting content and you wish that there was a better way then keep reading.

In this post, you will learn how to drastically reduce the time taken to research, create and promote your content using Chrome extensions.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What are Chrome Extensions?

In case you are new to the world of Chrome extensions and you have no idea what I am talking about let me explain.

A great way to access the Internet is by using browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Each of these browsers offers small applications that will help users get stuff done faster or to help customise the browsing experience.

One popular example is the ability to capture a video of what you are doing while using a specific webpage.

Awesome Screenshot is a Chrome extension that can be used to capture a quick video that can you can use to illustrate a feature on your blog post.

There are many other Chrome extensions available to do all kinds of things.

However, in the post, I will share those that will help you save time with content marketing.

Chrome Extensions for Marketing

As a marketer, you will probably know the process of promoting content every week involves several activities.

These activities include logging in to social media platforms, creating images, writing captions and descriptions for social media.

In some cases, you will also find yourself creating videos or going live on platforms such as Facebook.

You may also need to use other applications like Google docs and keyword research tools to plan and organise your content.

Here is a list of Chrome extensions that will save you a lot of time each and every week.

* SEOQuake* MozBar* Buffer* Tailwind* TubeBuddy* Grammarly* WhatTheFont* Eye Dropper* Pin on Top* Emoji Keyboard* SimilarWeb* VidIQ* Airstory

Let's spend some time looking at each one to see how it works at saving you time each week.

1. SEOQuake

As the name suggests SEOQuake is a Chrome extension that allows you to effortlessly see search engine optimisation details for pages that rank in the SERPs.

The key benefit comes in when you are doing research for a set of keywords.

If you are using video for marketing you know how important it is to add subtitles to videos.

However, this process does not seem to be as straightforward as you originally thought.

YouTube creators know that in order to get this done they need to either have the script already written, word for word.

Otherwise, they would need to painstakingly write out the text using the YouTube Creator Studio.

While this may seem logical for the casual onlooker I want you to stop and think of what that process looks like for a second.

You spend endless hours planning, shooting and editing a video to get the copy, thumbnails, description, keywords and tags right.

Imagine having to upload 3-5 of those videos every week and still needing to write the subtitles or captions.

What if there was a way to get this done faster or to have them auto generated in the background while your videos are uploading.

The truth is that there isn't a one size fits all solution for all social media platforms.

In this post, you will learn how to easily add subtitles to almost all your social media videos including Facebook, Pinterest, IGTV, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

So that you can grab the attention of your followers without feeling overwhelmed and frustrated every week.

What are Subtitles and Why You Need Them?

In case you are new to the world of video marketing on social media let me spend some time explaining what are subtitles or captions.

Subtitles are basically the script of the video or audio file that you watch or listen to online when the sound is off.

Camille Hughes of Intro to Digital reported that "video traffic accounts for about 80% of all consumer traffic".

She goes on to say that "videos that are about two minutes, generate the highest engagement levels."

Did you know that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound? A whopping 60% of Instagram videos are watched with the sound on.

The number one reason why you need subtitles or captions are for those people who would like to consume video without sound.

If you think that this is weird try to remember a time when you really wanted to watch a video but didn't have earplugs or headphones.

Consumers dictate how marketers should cater for their every need just by their behaviour alone.

Yes, I know of some people who would try to lip read the actors on video but I am just not there yet.

Which Platforms Accept Video + Criteria

At the time of writing this post, I can think of 5 social media platforms used by business to promote content via video outside of YouTube.

These platforms include:

* Facebook* Twitter* Instagram (IGTV + Stories)* Pinterest* LinkedIn

Let's spend some time looking at each platform as well as their capabilities for subtitles.

Facebook

Of all the social media platforms, Facebook seems to be ahead of them all because they now offer autogenerated subtitles or captions.

Did I mention that these auto-generated captions are close to 100% accurate?

I have been doing a Facebook Live Monday to Friday fo...

You already know and understand the benefits of Pinterest keywords for your business.

In fact, you have been using Pinterest for some time now but you seem to be getting the same results no matter what you do.

Just recently you spotted another pin with someone who got 1 million Pinterest viewers to their account.

Could it be that they are in some way gaming the system? What are they doing differently that you don't know?

The truth is that Pinterest has an annoying habit of changing the algorithm every few months just to keep you on your toes.

If only there was a way for you to understand how to get more eyeballs on your pins every day.

In this post, you will learn how to diligently search for those elusive Pinterest keywords and how to use them on your Pinterest account.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What are Pinterest Keywords Anyway?

It is possible that you have only used Pinterest to search for delicious recipes, meal planning ideas and DIY crafts.

However, there is a whole business side of Pinterest where publishers like me use it to promote their content.

Because Pinterest is a visual search engine, the feed is driven by your preferences as well as search terms called keywords or search terms.

You can think of it as a visual version of the Google search engine except that it has a lot of pretty images.

So, when you search for meal planning ideas only those pins that have those terms or related ones on it will show up in the results for you.

If you are thinking about how Pinterest knows which pins to show first compared to all the others then I'll explain that later in this post.

In the meantime, let's look at some Pinterest analytics for a short while so that you will know why keywords are important.

What You Can Learn From Pinterest Analytics About Your Account

Before jumping in and looking at where to find the best juicy keywords for your content it is important to understand Pinterest metrics.

Here is a list of the main metrics that are important in your Pinterest business account.

* Impressions* Link clicks* Saves* Close-ups* Engagements

To ensure you understand what these mean let me give a solid explanation of each one of these metrics on the list.

1. Impressions

This means the number of times your pin was shown to users on the Pinterest platform.

There are two things that drive impressions, the first is Pinterest keywords and the next is the smart feed algorithm.

If your pins are not getting impressions it means that you need to improve the keywords on the pin.

To get more impressions all you need to do is include a bunch of keywords related to the content that users are searching for on the platform.

Remember that people use several different terms to describe the same thing all the time depending on culture and location.

2. Link Clicks

As the name suggests link clicks is the number of times users clicked on the pin link to view your content.

You just hit publish on your brand new blog post and you now need to figure out content repurposing.

It is so tedious coming up with a topic each and every week, spending hours researching, editing and writing only to have to promote as well.

Surely, brands must realise the amount of work that goes into keeping a blog fresh and exciting every day.

They are always eager to take advantage of your labour of love by asking you to promote their stuff for free.

As a blogger you knew that 'this blogging thing' was never going to be a walk in the park.

The truth is that you would think that someone would have invented an easier way to turn blog posts into several pieces of content.

So that it would be a whole lot easier to spread the news about your blog across social media.

In this post, you will learn how to take a single blog post and turn it into over 11 pieces of content in under 3 hours using content repurposing hacks.

What Is Content Repurposing?

Content repurposing involves taking a piece of content like a video, podcast, blog, ebook or anything and reusing it for something else.

The best way to explain this is by giving you an analogy from the kitchen.

I have to warn you that this analogy may forever change your perception of Ireland. Haha!

There is a cake in Ireland called Gur cake. If you already purchased it in your life time then you may know where this is going.

Gur cake is a pastry confection that is made from a whole bunch of left over cake in a bakery.

Apart from cinnamon, orange juice, sugar, tea and shortcut pastry the main ingredient in Gur cake is actually cake crumbs or left over cake.

Did you just make a weird face while reading this blog post? Haha!

Anyway, your blog post consist of sentences which make up paragraphs and in the same way these sentences are like cake crumbs.

I'm going to show you how to take those precious cake crumbs and make something that is even more beautiful than Gur cake.

Where is Your Audience?

Before running off with excitement and spraying sentences all over the place incessantly let's stop and develop a strategy first.

In this exercise you want to get the most return on your blogging investment which means concentrated effort where it matters.

Do you know the top three places where your potential audience hangs out?

As you already know there are 5 major social media platforms which include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Of course, Snapchat and TikTok are still there in the background and it is not my intention to teach you a new platform in this post.

My advice to you is pick three of the 5 platforms or if you are comfortable with all 5 that is fine as well.

Once you decide on which platforms you want to promote this new blog post then think about the format.

Which Format is Best?

The reason why you are focusing on the format is because you need to revisit the goals and objectives of your blog or business.

What are you hoping to achieve by promoting this content?

Here is a shortlist of possible outcomes.

* Awareness* Feedback or research* Website traffic* Grow email list* Advertise a free class or webi...

You have a rough idea about what you want to promote but finding the best social media scheduling tools is proving difficult.

Each time you do a search online to help you save time with scheduling content you are presented with dozens of options.

In fact, you are beginning to think that you will need a tool for each social platform.

It is possible that you have seen a number of reviews recommending an awesome tool but the price tag was jaw dropping.

As if planning out your social media content wasn't bad enough you never realised that choosing a tool would be so time consuming.

What if there was a way for you to know what key features to look out for when choosing a tool that will save you time and heartache.

In this post, you will learn what you need to have in place before choosing a scheduler, which ones to choose and why.

Also, how to use them to save you hours, constant overwhelm as well as unnecessary trial and error in the long run.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

Why Use Social Media Scheduling Tools Anyway?

In case you never knew these tools existed, social media scheduling tools are apps or software to help you automate posting to social media platforms.

There are broadly two schools of thought when it comes to posting content to social media.

The first group believes firmly that posting to social media should be done 100% manually in order to get more reach.

However, the second group sanctions that it is okay to use third-party scheduling tools as long as it is combined with regular manual posting.

I am a firm believer that small business owners should not become slaves to social media platforms.

This means that it should be okay to schedule some content then post some manually and engage with your followers.

We all have a life to live so it would make sense to automate daily promotion as much as possible so that you can spend time doing what you love.

Social Media Marketing Pre-work

Before looking at all the amazing tools that are available to help you and me to automate social media marketing the content needs to be mapped.

In other words, social media scheduling tools are just pieces of software to help you automate tasks.

It is important to realise that once you sign up for these tools there is a certain expectation for them to be effective.

The most important thing you need to have are business objectives or goals about what you hope to achieve from using social media.

After you know an understand your objectives and goals then it is time to map out the content.

This may sound obvious but your content should have a direct correlation to your goals and objectives.

For example, if your goal is to launch a course or increase membership sales then the content inside your plan should reflect that objective.

Let's spend some time looking at an example of a 90-day plan to help you get your content on point.

90-Day Social Content Planning Example