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5 Fresh Ideas for Ongoing Content Generation

The post 5 Fresh Ideas for Ongoing Content Generation appeared first on HostGator Blog . Content generation can feel like an uphill battle in an online space filled with so much content. It’s your responsibility to bring new, engaging content to your audience. By offering a fresh perspective, your website stands out from the crowd and spotlights your business as an industry leader. Unique ideas can come from anywhere. Whether it’s videos or blog posts, take control of your content generation. Here are five resources to spark your imagination today. 1. Read Industry Reports A content idea doesn’t have to appear out of thin air (or endless original research). You can find what you need by downloading the latest industry report. Industry reports are usually long, dense documents that no one likes reading. However, they are goldmines of valuable information. You can transform those insights into an email marketing series to bolster your brand and thought leadership. For instance, explain a key point in the report, add your critical perspective as a business owner, and then send it to your subscribers in multiple emails. Don’t know where to find in-depth research? Start your search with Think with Google . This website uncovers digital trends with data reports, guides, and infographics. When using industry reports, it’s important to avoid regurgitating the information to your visitors. Your goal is to engage people with a different viewpoint. Don’t be afraid of controversial stances if your brand truly believes in an ideal. Take advantage of the resources available to your small business. An industry report could ignite your next great content piece that your readers will love.   2. Ask Your Audience In the hustle and bustle of work, we often forget the obvious when generating content ideas. Asking your audience is an effective way to add fresh insight to your content. Ross Simmonds , a marketer, strategist, and founder of Hustle & Grind, agrees: “So many people create content without talking to their actual target audience…But if you’re trying to grow a brand, you need to start with your audience in mind. So pick up the phone, open up the inbox or queue up the DM and get in touch with your audience.” Explore different methods of approaching your audience for content suggestions. You can send a three-question survey via email to a segmented group of subscribers. Or you can run a simple Facebook poll. You also may want to incentivize responses with free swag. Showing your appreciation will earn your brand quality feedback. User-generated content can work well for your content, too. You can do an open call for quotes or photos for a specific topic. People love seeing their names in print or hearing it on a podcast episode.   3. Scan Twitter Hashtags Twitter serves as the pulse of the latest trends in consumer behavior. From funny threads to serious news, the social platform gives your brand an inside peek at what your customers discuss and their daily activities. This social network is an oasis of content ideas that can fill your entire calendar. Use specific hashtags to search through recent tweets from your audience. For example, if your online store specializes in beauty products, you might do research with #beautytips or #beautyproducts. With a brand presence on Twitter, it’s possible to receive ideas directly from your customers. Every week make a conscious effort to read responses from your followers. You also should be replying back to them to express your gratitude. Broaden your research by checking out your audience’s responses to competitor brands. You’ll get a sense of what excites and bores customers about the competition. Regularly review your own your Twitter Analytics , too. This social intelligence is enough to build better content for your site. Use it to develop an amazing e-course or vlog.   4. Review Conference Agendas Every year, conferences get flooded with smart participants and charismatic speakers. If you desire remarkable ideas, the conference agenda holds the key to your content generation woes. When examining the agenda, the goal isn’t to swipe someone’s entire presentation. Instead, use it as inspiration to initiate adjacent content ideas. Carro Ford , a marketer and author, says: “Study the agenda and session tracks to get a sense of trending user problems and concerns.
 Conference keynotes and sessions highlight trending topics in your market that you can cover in your blog. You’ll also get ideas for keywords to use in your writing.” As a sign of appreciation, you should mention the speaker’s name and include a link to their work, if possible. These little actions provide an avenue to foster future content relationships. You also could use agendas as a syllabus for your content calendar. You might highlight a specific topic each month or create a quarterly infographic from the title of a talk. It’s not necessary to start from scratch with your content generation. Take the time to scour through conference agendas to find unconventional topics.   5. Connect with Influencers The content generation process shouldn’t operate in a silo. To produce your best content, you’ll want to collaborate with experts, thought leaders, and influencers . Working with others alleviates the ongoing demands of content production. Plus, it also gives your audience an opportunity to hear from other leading voices in your industry. Be selective when working with influencers. Don’t compromise your brand’s integrity just to earn popularity. You can vet thought leaders by analyzing their past content and asking for professional references. Moreover, expand your reach to lesser-known individuals. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) can assist you in developing relationships with experts in a variety of fields. It’s a free resource, and you’ll receive quality quotes for your upcoming stories. Think outside of the box with influencer content. Rather than the same old blog post, get industry leaders to take over your social media accounts for a day. Or ask them to record five three-minute video clips about an interesting topic. These content pieces will be more meaningful to your visitors. Step up your content game with the help of others. You can do more through collaboration.   Fresh Ideas, New Content Generating content is an ongoing process. For fresh ideas, read the industry reports or sift through your Twitter timeline. Be creative and craft extraordinary content for your audience. Need help brainstorming blog topics? Read this post. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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The June 2018 Tech News Stories You Need To Know

The post The June 2018 Tech News Stories You Need To Know appeared first on HostGator Blog . June 2018 Tech News & Trends to Watch It’s hot outside, but that hasn’t slowed the tech world, which is posed to bring as many new stories of controversies, product updates, and IPOs as usual. For all the professionals too busy to keep up with it all on their own, we bring you our update on tech trends to keep an eye on for June. 1. Companies Worldwide Strive for GDPR Compliance By now, everyone with an email address has seen a slew of emails announcing privacy policy updates. You have Europe’s GDPR legislation to thank for your overcrowded inbox. GDPR creates rules around how much data companies are allowed to collect, how they’re able to use that data, and how clear they have to be with consumers about it all. Companies around the world are scrambling to get their business and its practices into compliance – a significant task for many of them. While technically, the deadline to get everything in order passed on May 25, for many companies the process will continue well into June and possibly beyond. Some companies are even shutting down in Europe for good, or for as long as it takes them to get in compliance.   Even with the deadline behind us, the GDPR continues to be a top story for the tech world and may remain so for some time to come.   2. Amazon Provides Facial Recognition Tech to Law Enforcement Amazon can’t seem to go a whole month without showing up in a tech news roundup. This month it’s for a controversial story: selling use of Rekognition, their facial recognition software , to law enforcement agencies on the cheap. Civil rights groups have called for the company to stop allowing law enforcement access to the tech out of concerns that increased government surveillance can pose a threat to vulnerable communities in the country. In spite of the public criticism, Amazon hasn’t backed off on providing the tech to authorities, at least as of this time.   3. Apple Looks Into Self-Driving Employee Shuttles Of the many problems facing our world, the frustrating work commute is one that many of the brightest minds in tech deal with just like the rest of us. Which makes it a problem the biggest tech companies have a strong incentive to try to solve. Apple is one of many companies that’s invested in developing self-driving cars as a possible solution, but while that goal is still (probably) years away, they’ve narrowed their focus to teaming up with VW to create self-driving shuttles just for their employees.  Even that project is moving slower than the company had hoped, but they’re aiming to have some shuttles ready by the end of the year.   4. Court Weighs in on President’s Tendency to Block Critics on Twitter Three years ago no one would have imagined that Twitter would be a president’s go-to source for making announcements, but today it’s used to that effect more frequently than official press conferences or briefings. In a court battle that may sound surreal to many of us, a judge just found that the president can no longer legally block other users on Twitter .  The court asserted that blocking users on a public forum like Twitter amounts to a violation of their First Amendment rights. The judgment does still allow for the president and other public officials to mute users they don’t agree with, though.   5. YouTube Launches Music Streaming Service YouTube joined the ranks of Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon this past month with their own streaming music service . Consumers can use a free version of the service that includes ads, or can pay $9.99 for the ad-free version. With so many similar services already on the market, people weren’t exactly clamoring for another music streaming option. But since YouTube is likely to remain the reigning source for videos, it doesn’t necessarily need to unseat Spotify to still be okay. And with access to Google’s extensive user data, it may be able to provide more useful recommendations than its main competitors in the space, which is one way the service could differentiate itself.   6. Facebook Institutes Political Ad Rules Facebook hasn’t yet left behind the controversies of the last election. The company is still working to proactively respond to criticism of its role in the spread of political propaganda many believe influenced election results. One of the solutions they’re trying is a new set of rules for any political ads run on the platform. Any campaign that intends to run Facebook ads is now required to verify their identity with a card Facebook mails to their address that has a verification code. While Facebook has been promoting these new rules for a few weeks to politicians active on the platform, some felt blindsided when they realized, right before their primaries no less, that they could no longer place ads without waiting 12 to 15 days for a verification code to come in the mail. Politicians in this position blame the company for making a change that could affect their chances in the upcoming election. Even in their efforts to avoid swaying elections, Facebook has found themselves criticized for doing just that. They’re probably feeling at this point like they just can’t win.   7. Another Big Month for Tech IPOs This year has seen one tech IPO after another and this month is no different. Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has a particularly large IPO in the works. The company seeks to join the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 7 with an initial public offering that experts anticipate could reach $10 billion. The online lending platform Greensky started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 23 and sold 38 million shares in its first day, 4 million more than expected. This month continues 2018’s trend of tech companies going public, largely to great success.   8. StumbleUpon Shuts Down In the internet’s ongoing evolution, there will always be tech companies that win and those that fall by the wayside. StumbleUpon, a content discovery platform that had its heyday in the early aughts, is officially shutting down on June 30. Since its 2002 launch, the service has helped over 40 million users “stumble upon” 60 billion new websites and pieces of content. The company behind StumbleUpon plans to create a new platform that serves a similar purpose that may be more useful to former StumbleUpon users called Mix.   9. Uber and Lyft Invest in Driver Benefits In spite of their ongoing success, the popular ridesharing platforms Uber and Lyft have faced their share of criticism since they came onto the scene. One of the common complaints critics have made is that the companies don’t provide proper benefits to their drivers. And in fact, the companies have fought to keep drivers classified legally as contractors so they’re off the hook for covering the cost of employee taxes and benefits. Recently both companies have taken steps to make driving for them a little more attractive. Uber has begun offering Partner Protection to its drivers in Europe, which includes health insurance, sick pay, and parental leave ­ ­– so far nothing similar in the U.S. though. For its part, Lyft is investing $100 million in building driver support centers where their drivers can stop to get discounted car maintenance, tax help, and customer support help in person from Lyft staff. It’s not the same as getting full employee benefits (in the U.S. at least), but it’s something. Those are the main stories we can see coming in June, but there’s sure to be a lot of tech news this month we can’t predict. Check back next month to see what tech stories to look out for in July. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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Getting Started With Twitter Advertising: A Guide for Businesses

The post Getting Started With Twitter Advertising: A Guide for Businesses appeared first on HostGator Blog . Twitter Advertising Guide Twitter’s become a big part of our lives. Tweets now regularly receive news coverage, friendships begin on the platform, and brands are both expected to have an active presence on Twitter and be quick to respond to any messages people send on the platform. Twitter is no longer optional for most businesses. […] Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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