5 Ways Brands Can Use Hashtags on Facebook for Marketing | Facebook #Hashtags Marketing

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Facebook recently introduced hashtags to its site - and about time too! - giving marketers a fascinating new tool to help try to boost engagement and interaction with their fans. Here are five ideas to help brands kick start their use of hashtags on Facebook: 

1. Add your hashtag to your cover photo

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One of the easiest ways to promote your hashtag to fans is to feature it in your cover photo, whether it's a hashtag that will always stay the same (such as your brand name) or one that will change over time (like one related to a seasonal promotion). 

2. Search your hashtag and join the conversation

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Hashtags on Facebook give you a much easier way to find out what people are saying about you and your brand. So, search for mentions of your brand's hashtag periodically and join in on the conversation to help drive engagement and strengthen relationships with your customers. 

3. Use hashtags in your status updates and comments

Facebook hashtags work as clickable links in Page posts, personal profile posts, and in comments, so don't forget to feature them in these places where appropriate. With consistent use and the odd prompting, you will educate your customers to start using your hashtags too!

4.  Utilise your hashtag's unique URL to drive traffic and engagement

Each hashtag used on Facebook has its own feed and unique URL. In the above example, the hashtag is #500socialmedia to represent my book, and the URL is http://www.facebook.com/hashtag/500socialmedia. The format always stays the same: facebook.com/hashtag/yourhashtag. 

Use this knowledge to drive customers to your hashtag feed - especially in real world marketing material - to interact and engage. Utilise re-directs and URL shorteners like bit.ly to make a link to the feed more memorable.

5. Remember: #hashtags join across all Facebook-integrated services

 

One of the coolest things about Facebook hashtags is that their function is maintained across Facebook-integrated services. In the example above, I shared this image from my Instagram account to my Facebook fan page. The image's caption remained in tact, and its hashtags are there and clickable too. 

Conclusion

I hope this post has given you some inspiration for how you might use hashtags on Facebook as part of your own social media marketing strategy. Let me know how you intend to integrate hashtags in the comments below! 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

Follow Me:
http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips/
https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/
http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia

http://www.youtube.com/500socialmediatips

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How to Embed An Instagram Video on Your Blog or Site in 3 Steps | Instagram Video Embed Code

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Instagram video gives individuals and brands a great new way to produce fresh and exciting content to their fans and followers to view within the app and via instagram.com, but what if you want to embed an Instagram clip on your blog or website? There is no official method at the time of writing this, but there is a pretty simple workaround. Below, you'll learn how to embed an Instagram video in three simple steps. 

1. Grab the URL of your video

Visit your Instagram profile on the web at www.instagram.com/yourinstagramusername, click on the video that you want to embed, then copy its unique URL from your browser's address bar.

2. Generate the embed code

Visit www.instaembed.com, paste the unique URL you copied into the box here, and click the Generate Code button. 

3. Embed the code on your blog or website

Copy the generated code and paste it as HTML into your blog post or onto your website. The result will look like my example above.  The default size of the video is 640 x 640 pixels, but you can change this by editing the height and width in the code. Lastly, if you're feeling courteous, do leave the "Embed Your Own Instagram Videos" link in at the bottom, to give instaembed the credit it deserves. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

Follow Me:
http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips/
https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/
http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia

http://www.youtube.com/500socialmediatips

 

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How to Record Video on Instagram: A Guide to Shooting Video on Instagram

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In June 2013, Instagram introduced video creation to the mega-popular mobile app. Shooting video on Instagram is super easy, so let's take a look, and answer any questions you might have about how it works: 

How to record a video on Instagram

1. Open Instagram as normal and tap on the camera icon at the bottom of the screen. 

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2. The app will default to taking a still image. To change to video recording, cick on the video camera icon.

3. To begin recording, press and hold your finger on the red video camera icon. To stop recording, lift your finger off. Every time you stop and start a new snippet of video recording, a break in the blue video bar is created to show it.

Instagram video clips have a maximum length of 15 seconds, and a minimum length of 3 seconds.  And unlike with photos you cannot import videos into Instagram; they must be recorded from within the app.

4. If you are unhappy with the previous snippet of video that you shot, you can remove it by tapping the 'X' arrow. When the snippet of video you want to remove is highlighted in red on the video bar, click the trash can icon to confirm its deletion. You can only delete the previous clip, so be careful that each shot is as you want it before you record a subsequent snippet. When you're done recording, click Next.

5. On the next screen, you can choose from over a dozen filters specific for video and preview how your video will look. When you tap a filter, your video will play automatically.

Cinema for Instagram

See the "shaky camera" icon below the video? That's Instagram's new Cinema mode, designed to eradicate the jittery quality of so many mobile videos.  Tap it and the effect will be applied, smoothing out your unsteady camera work as best it can. Click Next when you're happy.

 

6. Now it's time to choose a cover frame for your video. Like YouTube's video thumbnails, a video cover is the snapshot that will represent your video in its best light in Instagram search and in your friend's feeds. Simply tap and slide your finger over the bar at the bottom to select the frame you like best, and then click Next to continue.

7. Last up, it's time to give your video a caption (with hashtags, of course) and choose your sharing options. Unlike with photos, you cannot tag people in videos.

To post your Instagram, hit Share. Instagram will process your video for a short while before it appears live on the app and on the web.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

Follow Me:
http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips/
https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/
http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia
http://www.youtube.com/500socialmediatips

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YouTube Cover Art Template PSD | 2560 x 1440 Photoshop, GIMP

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There was something bothering me about my last YouTube One Channel cover art template - not just the fact that, since it was made, YouTube has significantly upped its recommended dimage size without warning!  While it aids well in creating an image that will scale well for any resolution or device, it does not take into account the position of the channel icon, which overlays the image from the top left-hand corner. This new template is the new, bigger size, and optimised to take into account channel icons.

A quick recap on how YouTube channel art works: The YouTube One Channel artwork is massive (2560 x 1440 pixels), and designed to present consistent branding on whichever device it is viewed on, from a HD television down to a mobile device. What proportion of the image a person sees depends on the device they are using. On HD televisions and mobile devices, the channel icon does not even appear, but this template is designed to provide an optimised design for any device: television, desktop, tablet, or mobile. 

Example of Non-Optimised Channel Art

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As you can see in the above example from the EpicMealTime channel, the channel art looks great at higher resolutions on desktops, but at 1024 x 768 pixels, the channel icon infringes on their cover art branding. My new template will help you avoid encountering any problems like this.

An Explanation on the Template

When you open up the .psd template in Photoshop or GIMP, it'll look like this (click for an enlarged view). It might look complex, but it's pretty simple, really. Here's how the different sections break down:

  • Lime green background: portion of art seen on HD televisions
  • Orange rectangle (full width): maximum portion of art seen on desktops.
  • Purple rectangle: Maximum portion of art seen on tablets. 
  • Brown rectangle: Logo safe area - this portion of the art will be visible on all devices. 
  • Multicoloured squares: Representation of the positions and size of channel icons at different resolutions - it does not appear on mobile devices.

How to Use the Template

              Here are a few quick steps to use my YouTube One Channel template: 

              1. Hide or delete the instructional text layers. 

              2. Design your channel art over the coloured rectangles, covering the whole space as you like. However, make sure to add the most important elements in the LOGO SAFE AREA, so that whichever device someone views your channel on, they can see it.

              Avoid placing important elements of your design behind the multicoloured squares that represent the position of channel icons at different resolutions on varying devices, otherwise they will be hidden and obscured.

              3. Once your design is complete, hide the remaining template layers - the coloured rectangles and squares - and save your image as a .png or .jpeg. 

              5. Upload your channel art to YouTube. Do not  adjust the crop.

              6. Click Select and admire the finished work!

              Download the Template

              Download the template

              This YouTube cover photo template (and several others for all the biggest social networks - expertly measured, simple to use, and up-to-date) is available instantly as a downloadable zip file via the purchase link above. For more information on all my social media templates, click here.

              Note: Payment is fast and secure via PayPal, but you do not need a PayPal account to buy and download. 

              Simply work around the template layers to add your design, save it as a .png file and upload it!

              ABOUT THE AUTHOR

              Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

              Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
              Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
              Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

              Follow Me:
              http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips/
              https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/
              http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia
              http://www.youtube.com/500socialmediatips

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              A Top YouTube Channel Trailer Tip: Use Shortened URLs

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              One of my most popular video tutorials is about how to make a great YouTube ​channel trailer. A point I neglected to make in it, though, is how you can use shortened links to make the channel trailer video's description as enticing and clickable as possible. 

              The old description (and three reasons why I didn't like it)​

              ​This is how my YouTube channel trailer and its description looked before. If you take a close look, you'll see that several of the links to my social media profiles - which I obviously want users to click on - are not visible in their entirety. This small detail bothered me for three reasons: 

              1. It just looks a little messy.​
              2. The links cannot be glanced at and memorised, even if they aren't clicked on immediately.
              3. Any clicks on these links - visible front and centre on my YouTube profile - cannot be tracked easily, and I cannot measure their effectiveness over time.

              The new description (and why I like it much better)​

              ​

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              I my updated YouTube channel trailer description recently, and there are a couple of main differences:​

              1. The links are all shortened, look much neater, and are visible in their entirety.​
              2. Several of the shortened links are customised with my own branding to make them much more memorable.
              3.  All of the shortened links can be tracked via the sites on which they were created.

              The URL Shorteners I used

              I used several different URL shortening sites in my description, including:

              bit.ly: My preferred choice, which adds the shortened Amazon ("amzn") text to products on the site, and allows link tracking - sign up required for URL customisation.

              pin.st: Mirrors Pinterest site name and allows tracking - sign up required for URLcustomisation.  

              goo.gl: Google's own URL shortener, includes publicly visible tracking but no customisation option at present.

              Conclusion

              Neatening up your YouTube channel trailer description and links is only a small detail, but I guess these little things are the elements that add up to make the big impacts :) ​

              ABOUT THE AUTHOR

              Andrew Macarthy is the author of the #1 Amazon Web Marketing Bestseller, 500 Social Media Marketing Tips, available for Kindle and in paperback.

              Buy 500 Social Media Marketing Tips
              Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007L50HE6
              Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007L50HE6

              Follow Me:
              http://www.facebook.com/500socialmediatips/
              https://pinterest.com/500socialmedia/
              http://www.twitter.com/500socialmedia
              http://www.youtube.com/500socialmediatips

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