What Is Vine and How Does It Work?

The Vine app, which can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store at the moment, is a mobile only platform which will soon be available for Android and other operating systems. It can be thought of as a video alternative to Instagram. However, Vine is so much more than just Instagram and is a real business tool. It helps users to create short video clips that last for 6 seconds.

How to Use Vine to Create 6-second Videos

One would need to use Vine’s in-app camera in order to shoot what they want. One needs to click on the camera button within Vine and hold the screen with one’s finger until the recording is complete. If one wants to record a video that simulates stop-motion photography, one needs to hold the screen and release and then hold it again when the subject is within the camera’s sight. Totally, it can record only 6 seconds worth of video at one go. In fact, there are several tools that can help people to convert Vine videos into GIF images. While Vine was not taken seriously by marketers initially, it quickly proved to be rabidly popular not only among common users, but also among journalists, media professionals and celebrities. The gloss and glamour associated with Vine has quickly catapulted it into becoming one of the most popular social networking apps to be downloaded from the App Store.

Vine has to be the simplest social networking site out there. It comes with no bells and whistles, and has a very clean and clutter free interface. It offers only 4 options in the menu: Home, Explore, Activity and Profile.

When you click on ‘Home’, you will see a list of videos in place of tweets or status updates on Facebook news feed. You can type a tag that you want to view the videos as well. A hashtag #cats will bring you a lot of cat videos. The videos play without you having to do anything. If you would like to comment on a video, you can do so. If you want to ‘like’ a video, all that you need to do is click on the smiley.

If you do not like the video you are watching, you can either report the person who made it.

When you click on ‘Explore’, Vine lets you type in tags or names of people you know. The app also lists editor’s Picks, which is a curated list of most popular videos on Vine. ‘Popular Now’ similarly brings the most popular videos on Vine at any given point of time. Just below these two options, you can see a list of popular tags as well, which can bring back interesting videos of users across the world. Tags and People work similar to Twitter.

Tags are similar to hashtags on Twitter and ‘People’ is similar to users on Twitter. Based on what you are looking for, Vine brings a list of videos that have been tagged accordingly.

Clicking on Activity lets you know what is happening with people you know and follow. Profile lets you edit your own profile and account settings. It is probably the simplest social networking site that we have ever known.

8 Ways Vine Can Revolutionize Digital Marketing

Vine is a great tool for businesses both small and large. The network has huge potentials and now is the time to optimize your marketing strategy with the help of Vine, when your rivals and competitors may not even be aware of Vine’s importance. With that in mind, here are some of the most important ways with which you can use Vine for your business and marketing purposes.

1. 1.      Engage Your Audience

Vine is particularly suited for engagement because it is very simple. It is a great way to build your fan base with attractive videos and use that fan base to engage and promote your products. Vine is fun to use and keeps its users engaged as long as you are taking awesome videos with your iPhone (and other phones in the future). You could ask your audience to send their video clips of how they use your products or what they do with your services. When they use hashtags and tweets to reply to your Vine videos, engagement not only builds on Vine, but also on Twitter and elsewhere.

1. 2.      User Generated Content

Vine encourages you to ask your audience to interact with you buy generating video clips on their own. If you have steady groups of fans and followers, they will only be too happy to take video clips and share it with you. You can ask them for ideas, tips and tricks, suggestions and opinions with the help of Vine. You could ask them to shoot their own faces and voices and upload them. As these videos are just 6 seconds long, it won’t take a lot of your time to engage either.

1. 3.      Create Marketing Narrative

Vine is a great tool to build your marketing narrative. It helps you to create a series of videos that tell stories. Storytelling using Vine can help you to reveal the story of a product that is being incubated for launching, a service that is being planned or a company event that you want to share with your audience. All this leads to better engagement and more credibility for your products and services.

1. 4.      Demonstrate and Instruct

Vine is a great way to demonstrate new products and services. You can create a series of videos that are simple and succinct but tell the viewers what they need to do in few seconds. It can be a great way to instruct your viewers and followers to do certain things the way you want them to. You can build user guides that are 6 second long or provide your own inputs to your audience about what they should be doing with the products they purchase.

1. 5.      Show Your Human Side

As companies and businesses, we often lose the human touch and become a faceless corporation. That surely spells death knell for any social engagement that we wish to create. Vine helps you to avoid such situations by helping you to publish short videos that feature your employees, office events, short interviews with customers add one word testimonials from those who matter. You could even be creative and feature a CEO, programmer, accountant, designer or just about anybody that you think will capture the audience. Do not be afraid to reveal your creative and quirky side.

1. 6.      Corporate Journalism

Vine can double up as a great tool to showcase exhibitions, seminars and shows that you may be attending. Take short videos and publish them in order to receive more engagement. Speeches and trade shows can be featured on Vine too, as long as you are creative enough to choose the right moments to publish.

1. 7.      Showcase Products, Services and Previous Work

There is no place better than Vine to feature and showcase your own products and services. You can create short advertisements and videos that make your products and services look attractive. Moreover, if you are a freelancer or an independent professional, you can create a Vine portfolio by showcasing your previous work and featuring client testimonials.

1. 8.      Build Online Identity and Ensure Social Proofing

There is nothing more important on social networks than building an online identity and ensuring social proof. By revealing a human side, you will ensure that people see you and your company as a reliable entity that can be trusted. Thanks to quirky way with which Vine allows you to showcase your products and services, you can build your identity in an easy and non invasive manner.

Though Vine is a very new application, it has a lot of promise and potential as evidenced by the number of people who have begun to use it. This year we expect Vine to become ever more popular and will compete with the likes of Instagram and Tumblr. Now is the right time to start using Vine for marketing and brand building purposes.

YouTube as a Video Marketing Platform

The YouTube community boasts of an astounding 450 million people looking for entertainment and information. A video uploaded on YouTube has much at its disposal to go absolutely viral when compared with other video networks. The main goal of a video uploaded on YouTube is to elicit as many clicks and views as possible.

Before uploading a video on YouTube, you should bear in mind the type of audience you want to target with your film. YouTube caters mainly to commoners who are not professional film making. Also the discussions and comments on YouTube can often get frivolous and too trivial. This puts Vimeo at a better level when being compared for professionalism among audience.

Vimeo As a Video Marketing Platform

Vimeo consists of a meager 14 million users, who mostly are college students and people who are well-versed and knowledgeable in the art of film making. Most of the users of Vimeo are artists and designers too. Vimeo exudes a professional ambiance. The discussion and comments (or feedback) on Vimeo are a boon to the aspiring film maker and can be enriching if taken constructively – with a pinch of salt, of course.

Pros and Cons of YouTube as a Tool for Content and Video Marketing:

. YouTube caters to 800 million visitors per month, giving you a huge platform to excel at video marketing. As 75 hours of video is uploaded per minute, it takes a little more than just uploading your video to go viral – it should be promoted in an organized manner. This is a definite downside, but the audience it garners is a definite pro.

. Services rendered by YouTube are absolutely free and as it is managed by Google itself, the search results can be absolutely spot on. There is no limit to the number of videos that can be uploaded, but the length of the videos is limited to 15 minutes.

. Instead of content marketing, businesses can profit from advertising on YouTube as a proxy to television advertising, provided you have the wherewithal.

. YouTube doesn’t part with its brand value and the logo it endorses. The videos you upload always display the YouTube logo, which could prove detrimental to your brand. This surely can be categorized as a downside.

 Pros and Cons of Vimeo as a Tool for Content and Video Marketing:

. Vimeo is still developing and establishing itself with only 60 million visitors per month, dwarfing it in comparison with YouTube. This means that there is a less possibility of the video going viral- enlisting this to be a downside.

. The quality of the search results do not match up to the standards set by Google’s YouTube, but the interface is good and there is no restriction to the length of the video that can be uploaded.

. Vimeo caters to creative people like film makers, film enthusiasts, designers, artists and the like. This is a pro for businesses focusing on B2B outreach.

. Vimeo’s player is not designed to go with the brand. If offers a complete customization of its player – you can embed your logo and brand on the player itself, unlike YouTube. This can definitely be considered as an upside.

What Must a Business Choose?

Online video viewing is synonymous with YouTube. The strategy employed in the promotion of videos can play a vital role in their success. Considering the tags or the right keywords a video is associated with also plays a major role in helping it appear in a whole lot of search results. Being a featured video too accounts for the placing in search results. On Vimeo, one has a fat chance of being directed to the exact search results which means, your prospective viewer will have to be directed to your video through an external link. This can prove to be a handicap or an impediment to the success of your video. Google on the other hand can favor YouTube links to be displayed in a variety of search results, thus, meting out step motherly treatment to Vimeo.

Succinctly put, the ultimate choice for content and video marketing depends solely on the objective you want to attain- the critical acclaim on Vimeo or the likeability of random viewers on YouTube. If you are looking for popularity among your customers, YouTube is certainly the better alternative. However, if you are looking for a professional and business feedback or taking up a B2B endeavor, Vimeo can be a better option.

It is very crucial for every startup, be it small or big, to launch a blog as it opens a channel for the company to communicate with its customers and also collect valuable feedback. Most companies believe that they have seen a positive impact on their business processes and measurable improvements in their operations after launching a blog.

Why Is Tumblr Important for Marketing?

Tumblr is one such micro blogging service which has created quite a stir in the market because of its unique features and distinct style, which have aided in providing effective marketing and advertising strategies to many companies. Tumblr allows its users to blog with multimedia content and offers a global platform to companies trying to promote their upcoming products and services without any hassles.

Promotion of a brand is very important to make it big and small businesses usually suffer losses because they do not invest much in promotion and advertising. This is where Tumblr shows up like a knight in shining armor to save them from dying an untimely death. Small business owners who are planning to cut costs in advertising must consider Tumblr as it is an effective social networking tool that can propel your company to new heights.

Here are few tips that can help you in formulating successful marketing strategies using Tumblr.

1.Showcase Products with High Quality Pictures

Tumblr focuses on audience who is visual and prefer brevity over verboseness. This feature can be very well exploited by online merchants to sell their products. Multiple high quality pictures can be posted on Tumblr to give a comprehensive view of the product and lure visitors into buying it without having to go to a store.

2.Tumblr Can Fetch Visitors to Your Official Website

An official website is essential for a company to outsource information. It is crucial to have your target audience go through your company’s website where they can get detailed information on what they are interested in.  Companies can direct traffic to their websites using Tumblr by creating a blog with a lasting visual impact on its audience.  There is also an option of providing a direct link to your official website which can boost traffic to your website.

3.Directs Traffic to Other Social Networking Sites

Tumblr directs target audience to your account on other social networking sites and increases your chances of making a lasting impact. With Tumblr you can make the most of social networking and micro blogging services by linking your company’s accounts on other social networking sites with your blog. This optimizes the scope of advertisement and marketing with minimum investment. This strategy is very useful for small businesses which do not want to invest a lot in advertising and marketing and. It facilitates in focusing on different features of a product depending on the target audience available on different social networking sites.

4.Pictures Speak Louder than Words

The most appealing feature of Tumblr is its ability to host pictures which almost fill the entire screen space. These pictures can also be used to communicate thoughts and ideas and not just products. Text oriented businesses can also reap the profits of hosting a blog on Tumblr as they can use pictures to accentuate the features of their business and reach out to visual thinkers. Most news portals have used this idea to cater to their audience and the results have been strikingly impressive.

5.It Helps You to Add Character to Your Brand

One of the prime factors of brand communication is to create a certain character for your brand so that people can relate to it and Tumblr helps you achieve this with utmost ease. By hosting a blog on Tumblr companies get a chance to interact with their target audience and create awareness about the product or feature that they are talking about. This social networking site provides an interactive medium for companies to answer the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and resolving doubts once and for all. Customers have a propensity to trust the comments of other customers and if the comments suggest a positive feedback then you have struck oil. All you have to do is go public with it, which Tumblr can very well help you with!

6.Promotion of Your Skills and Past Work

Consumer market relies heavily on the credibility of a brand. It goes a long way in creating a niche for the company. Promoting your company’s distinct skill set and past work history on Tumblr can work wonders in building the credibility of your company. Letting your work speak for itself is another smart advertising strategy that you could employ. Companies could use testimonials from their clients to certify the quality or focus on the skill sets which make them distinguishable from others. By using pictures the effect of this strategy can be amplified.

7.Have Your Company Featured in Search Engine Results

Companies can do a lot to show up in the results returned by a search engine and why shouldn’t they? It is one of the best shortcut methods to propagate a company’s existence. Tumblr offers a feature which allows it to be easily accessed directly through the web and it can project your company’s information directly on the search engine and increase traffic to your blog which in turn can increase traffic to your website if you have linked it on Tumblr. New business start-ups can benefit a lot by this as it requires minimum financial investment and the impact is far reaching.

8.Let the World know What Goes on Behind the Scenes

Companies have come to love and appreciate the platform Tumblr provides for them to associate with their customers. One more unspoken trick to make your brand dearer to customers is by letting them know how great your company is and that goes a long way in building brand loyalty. You could share post production videos, behind-the-scenes pictures, reviews from your company’s employees and even pictures of the employees grinning widely to project how happy they are to be associated with the company.

Many companies have used this game plan as a financial instrument as it straight away increases the brand loyalty and drives people to believe that there is nothing better than your brand. The best part about this strategy is it can be used by any business type be it product oriented or project oriented.

9.Keep an Eye on Posts Related to Your Business

If you are planning to use social media tools to advertise your brand and benefit your marketing strategy then it is crucial to master the tricks of the trade, which are, listening to others and making others listen to you. It is very important to spend few moments every day or as often as you can to go through posts which are relevant to your business and leaving a mark there.

By doing so, you not only put yourself on the map but also divert a significant amount of traffic which majorly comprises of target audience. With this activity you can promote your brand among prospective customers and definitely expect some business. All you have to do is make your presence felt on related posts as often as you can.

10.Exploit the “Reblogging” Feature of Tumblr

When it comes to diverting traffic to your post Tumblr’s “Reblogging” feature makes this taxing task as easy as pie. You don’t have to device strategies and come up with myriads of tags. All you have to do is share other relevant posts: in Tumblr’s lingo, re-blog! The process is fast and simple like ripping off a band-aid plus you can take up the role of a critic and express your views on the “reblogged” post. No matter how opinionated the audience is, it is always up and running to hear other’s opinions.

11.Share and Show you Care

With Tumblr you can show your audience that it means a lot for you to stay connected with them or at least pretend to do so by sharing interesting relevant posts on web that you think your audience might be interested in. It helps you in establishing brand loyalty and for all you know at some point people might even start looking forward to reading your posts on Tumblr. If you install “bookmarklet” this activity gets even easier.

All you have to do is scan and skim the web and click “Tumblr” on your browser toolbar and it will immediately create a post without you having to log into Tumblr and doing an elaborate version of it. This is a smart way for small businesses and new start-ups to make their presence felt in the market without spending a dime.

The Story of Crowd-sourcing through Social Media

Decades earlier the market was led by the supply and demand rule. Consumers bought what was sold by the marketers and the manufacturers produced what was beneficial for them. Times changed and slowly demand took over supply. Consumers, backed with the power of money, realized that they could demand what they desired. The trend of catering to the consumers slowly set in, eventually recognizing the fact that ‘Consumer is King’.

Years have passed by and brands have now come to consider consumers as their extension. Brands have left no stone unturned to ensure that they please, impress and hang on to their loyal consumers and at the same time lure consumers from other brands by creating excitement. Brands always realized the value of engaging consumers, but it was difficult to measure the results. Every consumer wants to feel invested and recognized by the brand they adore, while brands look for every opportunity to keep the relation with the consumer strong.

In that perspective, social media came along as a boon to brands and consumers to connect with one another. Social media came with many opportunities for brands to market themselves in the most desirable way. It became a catalyst for the brand and the consumer to get to know each other better. Brands now had a tool to measure and map their activities to act upon them accordingly. They could directly reach out to the consumer who was extremely pleased with them and even do damage control by talking to a disappointed customer, setting things right instantly.

Brands also realized they could get more from their consumers: that a consumer apart from spilling out his wallet for the brand, could also give fresh ideas, create free and wide spread publicity and indirectly make the brand the talk of the town.

Need for Crowd-sourcing to Build Brands

This is where Crowd-Sourcing put its best foot in. Brands have begun to associate themselves with those consumers, who can talk on the brand’s behalf, ideate and lure others into believing the brand. A consumer’s testimonials are the best words a brand can count on at any point of time. Brands by creating a relationship with a consumer, will up his status among his friends giving him more reasons to stick to the brand , endorsing it at all times.

A few ways to create successful crowd sourcing:

1.Consistent Participation: Brands need to make sure they have a set of identified consumers who regularly participate on the brand’s social media page to ensure that every post/content of theirs has some interaction going on. Regular interaction will also help the post stay on top of the page reaching out to more eye balls and eventually participation.

2.Varied set of Target Audience: Brands need to identify more than one set of target group who belong to different age/demographic and behavioral aspects. This will assure the brand of varied feedback enabling the brand to understand the tastes and expectations of their consumers of a wide range.

3.Recognition: Consumers are not dumb. After a period of intense engagement activity on the brand’s page, the consumer will expect to be identified and rewarded in some way. Direct acknowledgement from the brand will boost the consumer’s ego and will desire to do more. Acknowledgement with monetary rewards along with VIP content, exclusive brand content also act as a great motivator for the consumer.

4.Reliable Measuring Scale: Social media can act as an almost accurate measuring scale to gauge the consumer engagement success. Analysis of the trends and behavioral patterns of the consumers should be studied in depth to understand the consumers better and improvise on upcoming engagement activities.

Crowd sourcing is proving to be a strong channel creating an almost symbiotic relationship with its consumers. For brands, market research agencies almost become redundant due to the access of direct communication with their loyal and potential consumers. Even before a brand sets up a pilot project, the idea can be run through the most active consumers on their social media page helping the brand get deeper and genuine consumer insights.

Brands smart enough, will find a way to make their consumers do the sales for them. Be it creating publicity for an advertisement before it goes on air or even testing out new products in the market to get an initial feedback or even invite friends and extended friends for a brand event.

Need for Impeccable Copywriting

A website is one of the primary things a company focuses on during the start-up process and it reflects the purpose of the business and acts as a virtual salesperson. Since it is an online window of your company you must be very careful about what is being published and projected. Even trivial errors in this domain can spell doom for your company.

A website’s design may appeal to the visitors and also communicate to an extent but will not deliver the same results as the content will. It is like virtual glue that holds visitors to a website. Gone are the days when companies used to get away with their mere existence on the Internet and now it is all about exhibiting powerful and impeccable content without giving any room for copywriting errors.

Copywriting Errors and Avoiding Pitfalls

As we know, websites thrive on visual communication and thus, it is very important to be clear about what you want to project. For years, visual impact has been used as a marketing paradigm: what you see is what you perceive, and you do not want to bungle up web content with copywriting errors, as it is the only medium through which you communicate. Copywriting errors can do more damage than you can think of and they can not only destroy the marketing strategy but also taint a company’s reputation. Here is a list of common copywriting errors which should be avoided to maintain and uphold the quality of a website:

1.Know Your Content

More often than not, while developing web content companies tend to furnish more information than needed. Visitors pay little attention to the information that they deem unnecessary and if unnecessary information is available in abundance then they tend to skip the webpage, which is not something that you would want. Make a list of prime features that you want to showcase in your website and use catchy phrases and punch lines to highlight these features.

2.Focus on Grammar and Proofreading

When you are talking serious business on your website, you wouldn’t want the visitors to pass you for a ten year old because if they do, your company’s reputation may land in serious trouble. Make sure that you have proofread your web content time and again to avoid any spelling errors and maintain correct usage of grammar. Impeccable web content goes a long way in establishing your point and your company’s reputation. You may keep it simple, but it has to be impeccable.

3.Simplicity is the Best Policy

You may be well aware with jargon associated with your product or a feature that you are trying to showcase on your website. However, the visitors to your website may not be experts at what you are dealing with. Try to keep the text simple and understandable so that it does not appear elusive to a layman. The added advantage of keeping it simple is, you can easily put forward your focus points without leaving much room for any errors.

4.Highlight the Lead

Remember, visitors spend very little time to conclude whether your webpage is of relevance to them or not. It is in this short period of time that you either make or break an impression. Hence try to keep it short, lead with the main point and do not beat around the bush. Stick to the basics and provide whatever you think a visitor would want from your webpage in the first few lines of the text. Many visitors scan and skim the first few lines and decide whether to hop on to another website or stay on yours.

5.Maintain Brevity

Websites that talk a lot are avoided just like talkative people are avoided at parties. A visitor should not find reading web content a cumbersome task, which could very well happen if it is too verbose. A garrulous text not only kills the interest but also leaves nothing to imagination. Most internet users are usually digression intolerant, which makes it all the more important for a company to focus on what needs to be communicated and maintain brevity in the text.

Online trolls are anonymous trolls who wait to disrupt someone’s reputation, start fight between friends or even strangers, harass the ones who are already insecure about themselves, poke fun at someone’s loss and even post offensive messages on people’s page who are no more. These trolls make merry by spreading unhappiness and discomfort amongst others. Sadists by nature, they are forever looking for opportunities to target the weak spot of a person. A majority of times, celebrities are their target.

Who or What Are Trolls?

Trolls are regular people who indulge in the world of anonymity. The opportunity of being anonymous lures then to taunt people online letting the sad side of them flow in full form. They are primarily cyberbullies.

If you are one to spend time online, you possibly would have met a troll and been appalled at the obnoxious behavior. Cajoling them, being polite while trying to make them understand or even being stern wouldn’t have worked to stop them from being highly abusive.

What trolls are looking for mostly is a victim who will get easily infuriated. They are on the search for possible weak audience and a focus that is most sensitive to the person. This place could be anywhere on a blog site, games website, music forum, social network sites, news sites, forums containing teenage members and such kinds. Unless there is a strong moderator on these forums who can control their behavior, trolls make the best use of the opportunity.

How do you handle such revolting behavior?

Unfortunately you are not in a position to control not being a troll’s target, but you definitely are capable of choosing to not become a victim. Since all that a troll is looking for is to hurt, embarrass and provoke a person, ensuring that you do not feel any of these, or at least by never showing it plays a huge role in not becoming a victim.

Follow selective Ignorance: A lot of people suggest ignoring the troll, but that would mean giving the troll the power to silence you. Rather than ignoring the troll, chose which troll’s response is worth ignoring. If the comment is something trivial and does not harm you and your reputation in anyway, then you can ignore it.

But if the comment is something that will lead to an entire group’s outrage or something that is going to harm you or your company’s reputation then you could address the troll, but not directly. Acknowledge that you are aware of a troll’s intrusion among the conversation and further pay no heed to the troll’s comments. By doing this, you are hinting at the other members to not bother thereby killing the troll’s purpose.

Freedom of Speech: In order to curb the troll menace, victims and supports suggested anonymous posting to be banned. But the First Amendment of the US constitution protects free speech. Since being anonymous fits into the free speech definition, this could not be banned. Trolling is used in a very broad perspective. It can be an offensive, nasty comment or even a post made by disgruntled customer. So ignoring and treating trolls the right way should be done carefully.

Disinhibition and Boredom: Experts still haven’t found out the exact reasons for trolling. “Online people feel anonymous and disinhibited,” says Prof Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. “They lower their emotional guard and in the heat of the moment may troll either reactively or proactively.” He also says that trolling is usually carried out by young adult males for amusement, boredom and revenge.

We all have the capacity of being trolls ourselves. A comment or a post against our beliefs can trigger us to say abusive things impulsively. When our emotion is triggered, we tend to get caught with the moment. Hence, we all have to be careful of what we say when and to whom, especially online.

The problem gets worse for writers who regularly work on deadlines: creative writing becomes more of an ordeal and less of an avocation. Every cloud has a silver lining and writer’s block can easily be identified. Like they say, if you identify a problem you are half way through the solution. Since a writer’s block is no alien to a writer, every writer has his own well formulated strategy or a coping mechanism to deal with it. Given below are some of the tried and tested ways to address this despicable problem:

1.Take Proper Rest between Two Writing Assignments

It may not be a feasible solution for writers who have a lot to finish, but it is certainly the most effective way to bring out the literary genius in you. Taking some time-out will help you to clear the loops of repetitive thoughts from your mind and think clearly in a new dimension. During a hiatus, one must try to steer clear of any work related thoughts and concentrate on the joys of being.

2.Take Up Physical Activity after an Intensive Writing Session

It is common knowledge that brainstorming and writing for hours together can elevate stress levels and to alleviate this condition nothing works better than an intensive work out session or any physical activity which makes you break a sweat.  With alleviated stress levels you will notice writer’s block turning into a mere figment of imagination.

3.Deviate from the Given Topic and Write at Will

This may sound a bit unreasonable, but it helps significantly and has proved to bring about desirable results. Spend few moments writing about anything that fancies you and you will witness an inundation of ideas which you thought you lacked.

4.Do Your Research

Writing block may also occur from poor knowledge of the subject. Spend some time collecting information and delving deep into the data already available with you. This will give you a firm understanding of the subject and thereby reducing the chances of experiencing a block due to lack of knowledge.

5.Do Not Brainstorm while Sitting at Your Work Desk

You cannot expect to explore all the literary avenues sitting at your desk in front of your monitor.  Thinking requires open spaces and arguably, that is how the term out-of-the-box came into existence. Take brief breaks from work and take a stroll outside and do most of the brainstorming during these brief time-outs.

6.Listen to Your Body Clock

It is very important to work according to your body clock, a dozing mind is not much help in dealing with a creative block. Make sure that you understand your body clock well, and fix your writing schedule accordingly.

7.Quality Matters, But Not Always

You may be pushed to deliver high quality literary work, but that does come at a cost. It drains your reservoir of creativity and unleashes the maddening writer’s block. You must learn to cut yourself some slack. It is ok to goof up and it is ok to write badly.  One must understand that creativity is not mechanical!

8.It Is Easier to Conquer Smaller Territories

Most of the writers know it for a fact that a writer’s block usually manifests itself at the inception of a herculean writing project. Try to divide the project into small divisions which can be covered up in the stipulated period of time. This technique will help you to get through monstrous assignments with utmost ease.

9.Systematic Questioning Can Spell Doom for Writing Blocks

Systematic questioning is often practiced to come up with a set of ideas relevant to the topic in a structured format. It helps one to device the outline of the piece to be written and maintain brevity in the text. It gives the author a clear idea about what is to be conveyed and he goes about writing a succinct piece without straying much.

10.Draw References from a Relevant Piece of Writing

Go for articles with a similar subject line as that of yours and try to draw parallels. Do not make your article a mere copy of the original text, but just infuse the essence of the original text into your writing. You will see evident results in no time!

11.Limit Your Number of Breaks

As discussed earlier, the importance of taking breaks while writing is crucial but one should not go over board and spoil one’s discipline. It is very important for an author to restrict the number of “coffee breaks” to maintain the discipline.

12.Pick up Easier Writing Projects

There can be some writing projects which can be a tad awful and tedious; breaking your head over it just won’t help. Try picking easier projects first and finish them on time. Believe it or not it helps giving you the much needed motivation to get through tougher projects.

13.Record Your Thoughts

This is by far the most well received way to skilful writing. One tends to lose one’s trail of thoughts while jotting them down, the best way to hold onto that nascent nexus of words is to utter them into a recording device. It helps you to maintain that free flowing trail of words while describing your thoughts, and when you are done with it you may play that recording device and jot them down. It can also be used to record the thought provoking topics that crop in your mind, which would have otherwise sunk without a trace.

14.Just Get to Work

If you are trying to avoid writing block, being workshy will make matters only worse. Pull your socks up and take the bull by its horns. Just begin writing, do not think about the quality and focus on quantity, try to fill in one full page with relevant content. Half way through this exercise you will unbolt the door to unlimited verbal prowess and start getting a surge of thoughts.

15.Consider Writing Your Job Rather than an Art

Most of the prolific authors have related writing to just any other physical work to get over writer’s block. It is obvious that writing becomes elusive if you associate it with art, writers unintentionally condition their minds into believing that it is a form of art and needs a great deal of creativity. What writing primarily needs is grammar and vocabulary and the rest comes following. So, try not to glorify your writing project. It is just another job!

16.Keep Noise at Bay

Noise can do more harm than you can ever imagine. It can not only disrupt the flow of words you utter, but also make you forget your train of thoughts to an extent of permanently obscuring some thoughts. When you sit down to begin a new writing project, make sure that you do not let any kind of noise creep in, because that is the most vulnerable period. Once you get a go-ahead there is no stopping you.

17.Seek for Feedback and Ideas from Your More Opinionated Friends

This is the best time to use the suggestions and opinions of your more opinionated friends who are rather annoying at time. Such people are usually headstrong and tend to have a certain approach which might have eluded you. Make sure that they understand the topic well and familiarize them with the data and statistics available with you so that they do not digress from the topic in question. They can yield fairly interesting suggestions which you could include in your piece.

18.Seize Ideas from Wherever You Can

Carry a notepad with you wherever you go and capture any stray thought which you think might have the potential of sparking a debate. It is a building phase wherein you capture random ideas and in the next stage you put them to use in desired contexts. This brings out your best performance in every piece you write.

19.Do Not Try to Fit a Preconceived Idea into Your Text

It is crucial for you to understand that no matter how clever a punch line is you won’t be able to put it to use unless it doesn’t fit in the context. Never shoehorn a profound statement or a punch-line into your text if it refuses to fit in. Much to your dismay it will increase your despair and in the process you will block your ideas.

1.Importance of Specificity

Be specific and do not wander from the point. Journalists are swarmed by hundreds of press releases every day. To avoid further aggravating their burgeoning task of sifting through a lot of unnecessary information, the contents should be kept precise. The content should preferably be one or two pages and readable.

2.Write Killer Headlines

The headline should be a feast to the eyeballs. The headline or the subject line of the press release should be such that it sums up the whole release. It should evoke interest in the mind of the reader. Keep in mind that the page should not be too cluttered, but presentable.

3.High Resolution Images

Use pictures wherever possible. Photographs should preferably be in high resolution, in a commonly used format and a regular size. Make the information readily available to the reader because pictures are commonly not displayed in many mailboxes. It should not be attached to the release as it can be flagged as spam. A collage of pictures can tell a story better than a lot of words.

4.Contact Information

Include relevant contact information such as email addresses, phone numbers, dates, locations, full name and postal addresses. These should be provided to interact and be communicated with the latest of the company’s developments.

5.Statistics Are Important

Provide numerical data to support your claim. Statistical data should be provided to highlight the uniqueness of the product.

6.Pay attention to Grammar

Keep the release free from grammatical and spelling error. Even a single mistake in your spelling and grammar could shoo away a prospective client. Proof read the release many times. The release should be a third person account and in consistent tenses.

7.Use Quotes Appropriately

Enliven the release with a generous dash of quotes. Quotes from users of the product can really be an icing on the cake. The quotes should come from a diverse section of people from various walks of life- be it occupation, race or culture. They should be free from grammatical errors which are often encountered while collecting opinions. The idea of people endorsing the product can mean a lot to the release. The quotes in the release gives a human feel to it where people in the respective fields can relate to their opinions

8.Don’t Be Pretentious

Overtly sophisticated and fancy words can prove to be a big turn-off. Fancy words such as adjectives- ‘number one company’, ‘leading’, ‘world class’ are ignored by reporters. Such words lack credibility. If used, reliable sources should be cited. Awards won can be highlighted. Products sparking a trend can be mentioned.

9.Target All Platforms

The target should not be the print media alone. Websites, eMagazines, blogs, television and other medium should also be targeted.

10.Following up

Subsequent follow-ups of the release’s status should be avoided and can be bothersome to the journalists, who are a busy lot.

11.Distribution

Interacting with the publications via email is wise. Other websites can also be used such as Press Dispensary. There are a few distribution sites that journalists register with, who charge a nominal fee for the services rendered Such as Response Source, Real Wire, Source Wire, Neon Drum and PR Web.

12.References

Provide relevant references at the bottom of the page. To satisfy the curiosity of the inquisitive reader, some references need to be cited. While links can be published, you should ensure that your press release does not stray away from being precise and specific.

These tips can help your business to ensure that a decent press release has been written. Hiring great copywriters to write press releases is always a good idea, and if you can afford, go ahead by all means. If you cannot afford to hire good copywriters, you should follow these tips studiously.

The network was announced late last year and was made public once again in late February. Pheed became immensely popular with teenagers and young adults and quickly became the #1 social networking app to be downloaded on iPhone. Pheed can be used as a mobile application and also on the desktop. It has a very slick and stylish interface and certainly has something in it that will make you lurk around for a little more time than you would normally on any other newer social networking site.

Starting to Use Pheed – Step by Step Guide

Signing up on Pheed is an easy process. You can either use your Facebook or Twitter account from the mobile application or use your email to register. In order to complete the registration process, you need to subscribe to at least three channels, which are mostly at the moment spare.

Pheed offers a Twitter-like profile page, where you can add a short bio and a profile pic along with a background image. You can also choose to set your channel rating to the age group you cater to. If you plan to post adult (not pornography) content, you can choose 17 and above. Similarly, you may choose your own safety filter for the content that you get to see. Pheed also requests you to invite your friends from Twitter, Facebook an email to join Pheed.

Just like Twitter or Instagram, you can type tags and usernames in order to find content and people to follow. The choices are many and you should in fact find a number of interesting people and users to follow and interact with. Pheed lets you share what you post on Pheed with your Facebook account. Similarly, you can do the same on Twitter as well.

Using your Pheed timeline and filtering the content you see is just as useful. You need to tap the house-shaped icon, which reveals a dropped down of filters for you to choose from. You can choose to view all content or block remixes from appearing in your timeline. A remix is similar to retweeting on Twitter and reblogging on Tumblr. Similarly, you can choose to display only text, audio, photo, video or broadcast from the dropdown menu. There is also a Notifications bubble that lets you know when someone subscribes to your channel or interacts with you.

At the moment, you can share pheeds across Facebook, Twitter or email. You may also flag or keep content, depending on how strongly you feel about it. Creating a Pheed is very easy. The interface on the mobile application looks similar to typing a tweet. It lets you add images, video or audio. Moreover, Pheed lets you type 420 characters instead of just 140 on Twitter. What sets Pheed apart is the option to copyright your pheeds. You may click on the little copyright button so that no one can publish your pheeds or content within without your explicit permission.

Popularity among Youth

Pheed seems to be especially popular among the young. 81% of Pheed’s users are aged between 14 and 25, though the platform is not targeted only at youngsters. One may explain that most youngsters are looking for a space of their won, and Pheed came at the right time to provide an alternate space vis-a-vis Twitter and Facebook, which are more popular among people of all generations.

Pheed Has Important Celebrity Friends in Hollywood

The popularity of Pheed among teenagers and young adults is also because many celebrities like Acacia Brinley, Pia Mia and others began to use it. We must note that Pheed is based in Los Angeles and the founders have noted that they have a lot of friends in Hollywood, which also explains why many celebrities have begun to use Pheed. While Hollywood connections may have helped Pheed to garner support from teen celebrities, we must not ignore the fact that it is a very well designed platform which is already the #1 application in recent weeks on App Store. This popularity should be enough for us to pay more attention to Pheed before others grab the opportunity to do the same. In fact, now may be the right time to grab your Pheed handles before someone else takes it away.

Pheed Is Popular Among Creative People

Apart from youngsters, Pheed seems to be especially popular among the creative types. It is being increasingly used by filmmakers, musicians, actors and designers. The network’s slick interface and ease of sharing not only on Pheed but also cross post on Facebook and Twitter alone (without actually sending a Pheed) makes it ever more popular not only as a social networking site, but also as a social networking tool that can be used to handle Twitter and Facebook. Pheed is already one of the top apps in almost 30 countries across the world, and the number is only growing steadily. Its popularity depends on its ease of use, speed, slick interface and the ability to share photos, video, text and audio.

Paid Subscriptions and Copyrights

Pheed lets people monetize their social status and content, something that no other social networking site has done so far. While it may sound gimmicky and you may wonder why anyone would pay money to read someone’s social posts, it makes a lot of business and commercial sense to not only Pheed but also to users to opt for such services. We can expect a lot of investigative journalists, celebrities, politicians and company CEOs to offer their Pheed channels for a premium rate.

Pheed lets you charge anywhere between a little more than a dollar to $35 per month for your feeds. Subscriptions are not carried over automatically and people will need to pay again every month in order to view your tweets, if you make your channel premium. On the other hand, you have the option to keep your channel free and charge only for certain broadcasts which you may choose. Pheed also proclaims that it respects all your content and would never share it with anyone. This emphasis on privacy and copyrights will help Pheed find a lot of fans among those who are concerned about their privacy and intellectual properties.

What We Think of Pheed with Respect to Other Social Networking Sites

Pheed is an impressive social networking service that works seamless on its iOS app and also on its web platform. It is attractive, well designed, intuitive and looks very trendy. Photos appear larger, videos look better and the typography is fantastic. Moreover, it is Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr all combined into one amazing and unique experience. It has a growing user base and 81% of that group belongs to those who are aged between 14 and 25. While this is a strength, they are not the ones who spend the most.

Older millenials and those who belong to Generation X spend more money and continue to remain most advertisers largest target audience. It is not clear if older users will make the shift from Facebook and Twitter to using Pheed. It is also not clear if businesses that are concerned with older consumers should dive in to engage with Pheeders. However, it is certainly clear that we shall should go ahead and grab those account usernames before someone else snatches them.

In the coming months, Pheed will continue to grow and probably more older Millenials and Generation X users will make the switch, prompting us marketing professionals to take Pheed more seriously. At the moment, creating an account on Pheed and trying it out for fun is a better idea than ignoring it. Pheed is certainly not a social networking site that can be ignored. It is one of the best social networking sites that we have come across and it has a lot of potential. Only time will tell if jaded older Millenials and Gen X users will begin to use this amazing platform as well.

Internet Reflects the General Mood and Attitude of the World around Us

With Internet reflecting larger attitudes, moods and the way we generally feel, it should not come as a surprise that we must often try not to reveal our negative emotions in content, no matter how testing the times are. With this in mind, we are often asked if blog posts and other content forms should be as honest as the writer is feeling at the time of writing. Thanks to a terrible economy and a general sense of skepticism and doubt, we often tend to be snarky, and that is of course, a word popularized on the Internet.

What On Earth Is Snarky and Why Should You Bother?

Snarky means ‘short tempered’ or ‘irritable’, according to the most popular definition on Urban Dictionary. The lack of a dictionary meaning for the word ‘snarky’ itself suggests that the word is very new and is yet to appear in mainstream dictionaries. No matter what the origin of the word is, snarky certainly seems to be the prevalent attitude and mood across the Internet, thanks to the bad economy and political situation across the world.

With that in mind, should your content be snarky? The answer to this question is not simple and is certainly not straight forward. It is always a good idea to be honest and forthright about how we feel and receive. If that is reflected in our writing, it is not really a big deal unless it is offensive. Most companies tend to be as pleasing and friendly as possible when they get their marketing copy written.

Snarky Content Is Not Always Bad

However, sometimes it is not a very bad idea to be snarky. Healthy cynicism and skepticism can reveal a more honest side of your company than sugarcoating words. Of course, snarky content is not for everyone but for discerning consumers and customers, snarky content can actually mean that you understand their predicaments and apprehensions about life in general. Life is not easy for either business owners or for their customers. If a healthy dose of cynicism and sarcasm is reflected in your content, it can come across as you being transparent, witty and intelligent, while acknowledging the darker side of life.

A Healthy Dose of Cynicism and Skepticism Can Be Good

With this in my mind, most of the times, a good measure of cynicism and genuine skepticism at the way things are is not such a bad idea at all. As a business writer or content manager, you need to know who you are writing for, and what they expect to read on your website. Most of us tend to underestimate our own readers and the reality is, they are smarter and wittier than we believe them to be and a healthy dose of sarcasm and cynicism will be well received. You do not have to sugarcoat your words all the time and try to present things in an appealing manner. Speak your heart out and if you wish the tone of your language to be snarky, then go ahead and be snarky!

Snarky is neither bad not unpleasant. It can actually be a great way of connecting with your readers instead of churning out typical marketing copy that will eventually get buried under heaps of words that is published later on. A snarky attitude if done right can strike a note with readers who are disillusioned and bored with the way things are. It can help you to create an online persona that is based in wit, intelligence, skepticism and humor. This persona will help you build your brand around the same wit and skeptical attitude with which you build your content. And these are qualities that indicate trustworthiness, reliability and intelligence.