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Using Canva to Create Beautiful Social Media Backgrounds. Ever struggle creating an eye-catching social media background? I did, for a long time. Then I stumbled across Canva. I have since updated nearly every social media background I have control over. Yes, it’s that good! Sure I can use Photoshop, but I’m not a typography expert and I can never seem to get it “just right”. Canva’s built in clean typography templates is probably the best part about their service. Their business model is excellent as well. Check out some examples of what I made in the past few days: I also used Canva to create these: It’s really easy to get started too. So what are you waiting for? Let me know what you think of it below.

Content Management

7 Things the Great Copywriters Wish You Knew. 8 Unique Places to Find Quality Free Photos – Function. 17 Online Photo Editors to Create Beautiful Visual Quotes. A New Analysis Model for Content Marketing From Kraft Foods - croesus.rl - Gmail. The Future of Curation is Evergreen. By Angela Dunn @blogbrevity What is Content Curation? Content curation is much more than simply collecting things you like. To be an effective curator, you need to have the eye of an editor, a sense of taste like a chef, and your own unique Point of View.

It is this Point of View – your taste – that can lead to authority and influence. But a Point of View is something that takes time to develop. But it is only with a Point of View that you can begin the process of finding, organizing, and editing the information you deem worthy to share with the community you hope to engage. Why Is Content Curation Important? Done well, content curation is sense-making. And in our 21st century digital social world, we need great content curators to help us make sense of it all. Content Curation Evolution When I was first asked to speak on the topic of content curation in 2011, most popular definitions for curation at that time only focused on aggregation. Machine Curation vs. Q&A with Angela Dunn 1. 2. Cooperative Content Will Eventually Dominate Your Polished Content.

This So-Called Digital Life: Re-Evaluating the Value of Social Media. InShare521 I think I’m getting tired… My connectedness is slowly seizing my quiet moments. My sanctuary of enjoying my thoughts alone is now threatened. The moments of watching life pass by as I take pause are now replaced by the need to plug in and socialize without truly socializing. I swipe, pinch and zoom, and scroll as if I’ve become a digital conductor of sorts. The light of my mobile screen is the calming I need to fall asleep each night and the stimulus that starts each day. The truth is that my thumbs hurt every now and then. I often feel alone when I’m not connected or that I’m missing out when I read the updates of my friends. I’m not addicted. It comes down to virtue I suppose and where I choose to rank the qualities of social networks and connectedness in what ultimately defines who I am and what I do. In social media, there has to be something more fulfilling than attention and validation around this digital self-expression.

Selfies. My new book…#WTF. Your Brand: The Next Media Company - Become A Content Organization. InShare181 Guest post by Michael Brito, author of Your Brand: The Next Media Company There are four fundamental truths shaping today’s digital ecosystem, which I outline in my upcoming book, Your Brand: The Next Media Company. Number one. There is a content and media surplus in the market place. There’s no shortage of advertising, marketing messages, mobile devices or social interruptions trying to command our attention, daily. Number two.

Number three. And four. For these reasons, you need to start taking content serious and begin to make the right organizational changes to adapt to the external chaos in the marketplace because it’s not going to change for you. This also means that you need to elevate the conversation beyond just content marketing. You can hire consultants, agencies, and even third-party journalists and bloggers using platforms like Contently or eByline to create content and campaigns on your behalf. Your brand must become a content organization. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6 Reputation Management Techniques To Protect Your Business Brand. The #1 Reason Your Content Is Not Engaging. Actually, your content is engaging—at least, it has the potential to be engaging. But for some reason, it’s just not getting many views, it’s not getting liked or shared, it’s not bringing in leads, and it’s certainly not producing any sort of traceable ROI.

“But why?” You ask yourself. “Our content is really high quality. We even hired an agency to produce some badass stuff for us, and we paid them a lot of money to do it.” All Aboard the Content Marketing Express! Truth be told, your content probably is high quality—and you probably have a lot of it, too. Last week the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs released their fourth annual B2B Content Marketing Report.

Key Takeaways from the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Report 93 percent of B2B marketers are using content marketing73 percent of B2B content marketers are producing more content than they did a year ago42 percent of B2B marketers say they are effective at content marketing Digital PR: The solution for content engagement. What Is Pressgram and Why Every WordPress Blogger Should Use It. If you are a WordPress blogger or have a WordPress powered website, Pressgram is the newest tool you need to add to your toolbox. Why? In a few words, content ownership, more content creation, and more page views! For some of you, that’s enough and you’ll probably just want to jump over and download Pressgram right now.

Keep reading though. Pressgram is a photo publishing iOS app with a focus on content ownership and WordPress. It allows you to take and/or add stylized filters to your photos and then publish them directly to your WordPress powered blog (.com or self-hosted). So essentially, it’s Instagram without the whole “we own your content and can do whatever we want with it” thing. “But Dustin, what if I don’t want all the images I post crowding up my blog’s home page?” I’ve told you before, I don’t like being called “Butt Dustin” so please lets avoid childish jokes, shall we? Content Creation Benefits It’s really not rocket science here folks. How I’ve Been Using It. Three Emerging Behaviors That Are Reshaping Branding | Wired Design. A new report from Wolff Olins outlines the three key consumer behaviors that are shaping the marketplace today.

Image: Wolff Olins Today’s consumers are more informed–and more skeptical–than ever before. With technology, in many ways, the power has shifted from brands to buyers–the winds of social media can galvanize the public for or against a brand with astonishing speed, and people now vote with their dollars by supporting companies they believe in. This isn’t exactly news. It’s helpful to put that in historical context. People are side-stepping institutions At minimum, savvy consumers want to understand the give and take.

This one’s a no-brainer, and it has to do with something you hear about all the time: disruption. But that’s not something that’s exclusively available to disruptive start-ups. Through devices like the Makerbot 3-D printer and sites like Kickstarter, consumers will be able to sidestep traditional manufacturing. Chipotle is another example. The Best Content Marketing Advice Ever. Have you ever wondered what the best piece of content marketing advice is? Where do you need to focus your marketing efforts versus what’s just nice to have? Now that content marketing is the hot marketing buzzword, what are the critical elements your content needs to rise above the noise to drive measurable business results?

To help you, we surveyed 19 top content marketing experts to get their advice and here’s what they say. “Stop being amazing, and start being useful.” From Youtility cited by Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, author of Youtility and Peg Fitzpatrick one of the ringleaders at 12Most. “Content marketing is like producing a movie. It requires a cast of skills to design, execute, distribute and measure a content initiative.” These references are chuck full of useful information for every content marketer. What other useful content marketing advice would you add to this list and why would you include it? Related Articles Top 23 Content Marketing Blogs. Apps That’ll Make You A Content Curator Extraordinaire. For a busy guy like me, it’s difficult sometimes to keep up with all of the latest best practices and technology tools that seem to crop up continuously in the field of digital marketing.

One of those areas that I’ve apparently fallen behind on is content curation and marketing. Not good! Because this is an area that has become, as Stephanie Graves notes, “the go-to audience building strategy for top brands and organizations seeking to connect with their target audiences in a meaningful, non-sales-y way.” I am one of those people who was merrily going along using the combination of Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, Google Reader and BufferApp as my preferred set of tools for finding interesting third-party content on particular subjects of interest and sharing them on my own Facebook Pages or others that I help to manage. When Google announced that they were discontinuing Google Reader and made Google Alerts disappear I was perturbed to say the least. But, you know what? I also came across XYDO. 12 Most Mind-Blowing Content Curators to Follow. There is a real art to content curation. Not only do you have to find worthy content, but you have to find a way to deliver that to your audience.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Following are my top 12 sources for mind-blowing information. 1. Doug Rice You may not know this, but regular 12 Most contributor Doug Rice curates the best reads on his blog every month. 2. His design blog has literally blown my mind. 3. Maria Popova, author of Brainpickings, is one of the most well-known curators online. 4. 12 Most We cannot forget 12 Most. 5.

Open Culture curates resources for life long learners. 6. I know that Lisa Barone has left Outspoken Media, but she left an archive of amazing links. 7. The world cannot get enough of these. 8. Every week Kristi Hines offers “Fetching Friday.” 9. Sonia of “Logallot” shares great content. 10. Are you itching for a new business idea? 11. Michael Stevens, aka the Bearded Nun from “Key of Awesome,” has a YouTube channel called VSAUCE. 12.

Content Curation Primer. Photo by Stuck in Customs What is Content Curation? Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging, and publishing information. A content curator cherry picks the best content that is important and relevant to share with their community. It isn’t unlike what a museum curator does to produce an exhibition: They identify the theme, they provide the context, they decide which paintings to hang on the wall, how they should be annotated, and how they should be displayed for the public. Content curation is not about collecting links or being an information pack rat, it is more about putting them into a context with organization, annotation, and presentation.

Content curators provide a customized, vetted selection of the best and most relevant resources on a very specific topic or theme. Getting Started. How To Write Content For Your Company People Actually Want To Read. When it comes to doing business on the Internet, nothing brings in new leads and generates buzz about your business like content. But for busy business owners, generating content regularly can be a hardship, especially if you don't know what to write about. So I asked some content-generation experts offer their advice on producing content for your business: Reusing Content Done Right One of the first things new content producers do is find an article online that resonates with them, take the main ideas from it, and rewrite it in their own words. James Chartrand, founder/owner of Men with Pens, an award-winning copywriting firm and blog, believes reusing content in this way won't do your business any favors.

"It's clearly been established that reusing content just to fill your blog doesn't work. Just recycling the same old content and using the same old approach as everyone else in your niche means you're going to fade into the background. " Rowse believes honesty builds credibility. Content Curation. Discover what content curation is, its challenges, and how to use it to improve your social media branding. Part of a good content marketing strategy, content curation is the art of finding, selecting, and sharing the best, most relevant content related to a particular theme or topic.

It’s not possible (or recommended) to share your own content 100% of the time, which is where content curation comes in. Curating and sharing topical content that’s useful to your audience associates that content with your brand and creates brand affinity. Curata’s Content Marketing Pyramid nicely illustrates all the facets of content marketing and the amount of effort required for each initative. At the top of the pyramid is dense, high-value, hard-to-produce content that’s difficult to distribute, like hardcover books. In my next post, I’ll review many tools that aid in finding quality, industry-specific content that you can share with your audience to continually position your brand as a thought leader.

55 Content Curation Tools To Discover & Share Digital Content. Creating Great Social Content. 7 Content Marketing Ideas That Have Nothing To Do With Blogging. Finding Relevant Data: the Most Important Part of a Monitoring Tool? The Accidental Narcissist And The Future Of [Connected] Customer Engagement. Best 6 Social Media Marketing Tips. Content Curation. More Doing, Less Promoting: The Key To Creating Great Work. A Dozen Of The Best Content Strategy Blogs. Blog Content Strategy 101. 10 Great Content-Filled Content Strategy Blogs : Media. Content Strategy starter kit for beginners | Firehead. The Epic List of Content Strategy Resources. Content Strategy: 7 Tips to Make Your Blog Stickier. How to Create a Blog Content Strategy. The Future Of Mobile-Social Could Spell The End For Social Networks. If I Were Starting Social Media from Zero.

8 Data-Based Tips for Optimizing Your Content on Pinterest and Instagram. Organizing for Content: Models to Incorporate Content Strategy and Content Marketing in the Enterprise. 14 Unusual Ways to Get New Blog Post Ideas. How to Find More Content Ideas than You’ll Ever be Able to Create. Content Curation for Social Media. 11 Smart Content Marketing Tools for Every Budget. Getting a Business Blog Ready for Prime Time.