The Scoop.it Content Curation Blog

How content curation can help you to engage your audiences

Articles by Drew Hendricks

3 Lessons From the Biggest Social Media Fails of 2019 So Far

Social media marketing is like home repair: Everyone thinks they’re an expert — until they learn the hard way that they’re not.

Even companies that work with social media personalities all day get it wrong. Mediakix points out that many influencer marketing agencies, which should be master content strategists, are stuck on self-serving and stodgy content. But while around half of users will unfollow brands that post irritating content, the bigger danger is actually poorly thought out content that catches on.

It’s only April, but the first quarter of 2019 has had more than its share of social media snafus. The following three offer valuable lessons for all the “experts” out there:

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How to Use Customer Testimonials to Grow Your Business

How to use customer testimonials to grow your business

When it comes to getting the word out about your business, nothing beats word of mouth. Customers want to buy products and services from people they trust, and having a friend recommend your business is the next best thing to knowing you personally. One way to capture the spirit of word-of-mouth advertising is to present customer testimonials on your website, social media, and print materials, showcasing reviews from people who enthusiastically recommend you.

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5 business practices that became obsolete overnight

5 business practices that became obsolete overnight

Business practices are always changing and updating themselves as different socio-economic, political, and technological climates wax and wane with the changing world, but there are some traditions we were sure would be around forever. A stable corporate hierarchy, a regular workweek, using celebrities to help us market products. (This seemed like convention that would be around forever; tried and true and time-tested.) However, the way things are going, it seems even the celebrity will be joining the pencil-skirted secretaries and prized corner offices of yore. It used to be that a person picked a profession, joined a company, worked 45 years in that same company, collected the gold watch, and then retired, played golf, and vacationed with the wife (it usually was the man who did this, remember) until they died. To make sure your business isn’t a cliché, or stuck in the past, consider these five business practices that have become obsolete– seemingly overnight.

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The top 10 software development blogs in 2015

The top 10 software development blogs in 2015

From aspiring developers struggling through their first Intro to CS class to industry pros implementing the latest refinements to Google search algorithms, all software engineers who are passionate about their craft have one thing in common: they spend significant amounts of time religiously reading software development blogs. While developers’ blogs of choice vary greatly according to level of expertise, niche of interest, sense of humor, and more, this common theme is no accident.

The software engineering industry evolves faster than any other industry, and its fixation on open sourcing new technologies has led to a near-daily flood of new technologies, libraries and updates. If you’ve encountered a tricky task, chances are someone else has already solved it, and has written an open sourced library to save you the time. For software engineers who need to improve their skills or stay on top of their game, it is critical to regularly stay abreast of the leading software engineering blogs, tech news aggregators, and columns. Whether you’re looking for high-level tutorials, news updates, tech lifestyle pieces, or something else, there is a blog out there to meet your needs.

Here are the top 10 software development blogs.

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5 Content Marketing Rules for Google’s New Algorithm

5 Content Marketing Rules for Google ’s New Algorithm

On April 21, 2015, Google made a massive update to their SEO algorithm and was clear that they’d be handing out manual penalties to websites that didn’t abide by mobile best practices. Don’t panic just yet—Google doesn’t expect every website to run out and develop and app or otherwise become their “best” mobile ready self. In order to appease Google’s algorithm and avoid a penalty, consider these your new content marketing rules for a very mobile ready world (and marketing campaign).

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How to Make Old Content Topics More Exciting

How to Make Old Content Topics More Exciting

Obviously, one of the best ways to stay exciting is to look to what’s new—read up on industry news, check out your competitors’ blogs, and listen to what your customers are talking about, and use that information to generate some fresh, new material. However, this isn’t always possible. When it isn’t, you’ll have to look back at some of the older topics you’ve covered and find a way to present them as if they’re new—in a fresh, exciting way.

There are several strategies you can use to accomplish this.

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Website 101: Why virtual hosting is favorable over free hosting

Editor’s Note: At Scoop.it, we’re strong advocates of the content hub and building a place for marketing content to live. Website and SEO expert Drew Hendricks has some answers to one of the more technical questions involved in creating a content hub: what type of hosting should I use?

Virtual hosting is one of the most common options people choose when buying hosting services. It is affordable and easy to use. If you use free hosting, you could be losing valuable sales.  Spending the few bucks to upgrade to virtual hosting can really help you spike your sales as well as conversions. Read on to see how you could be missing out – and what you can do about it.

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6 Ways to Enrich Content and Media Online

Media richness is defined as a reduction of ambiguity. Whereas text can be misinterpreted, images and videos provide more concise delivery of information.

In an era when the average person skims content for the juiciest and most useful bits, companies have to say more with less and be very direct with content. Your web-using customer base prefers websites that specifically limit content length to six-second videos or 140-character posts, so your content should achieve brevity.

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6 Ways to Infuse Your Content Marketing with Personality

When it comes to content marketing, businesses can easily lose their personality behind lackluster, “robotic” blogs and other web content. This can result in disengaged audiences, reduced thought leadership standing, and lower search engine ratings.

According to GetResponse blogger Marya Jan, creating quality content requires that you infuse the unique, mutual personality characteristics of businesses and their customers into whatever gets written.

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8 Tools to Optimize SEO You Should Use

SEO has become a cornerstone in content marketing campaigns as businesses look to establish a presence on the Internet. However, SEO is about more than just making sure you have the appropriate keywords placed in landing pages and blog posts. Search engines are getting smarter – specifically Google – which is constantly trying to keep the playing field leveled with every new update.

Google’s goal is to ensure that Web surfers are getting quality results each time they submit a search query, and you need to keep these guidelines in mind to make sure your company site actually reaches your target audience. That being said, it helps to know how to optimize your SEO strategy to make sure that you’re always tapping into the potential of the Web. Here are eight tools you can use to enhance your current SEO plan.

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A Basic Guide to SEO

SEO may be one of the biggest buzzwords of the decade, but what is it and why does it matter? SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimization, has become a critical component to the way that companies do business on the Internet. This guide will help you understand the definition of SEO, why it matters and how you can measure it in terms of your own business.

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