However, SEO isn’t as simple as it once was. The methods of SEO are constantly changing as search engines evolve. In order to stay on top of the SEO world, it’s important to know what you should be doing, and perhaps more importantly, what you shouldn’t be doing. In many cases, it’s not what companies aren’t doing that results in decreased traffic, but rather what they are doing.  

Here are some of the most common SEO mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

Not Using Quality Links 

There are numerous benefits to building links. When it comes to getting the results you want for your efforts, most experts will agree that it’s all about quality over quantity. Don’t link your name to just any site that has no credibility.

Instead, make sure that you’re using links with pertinent information from reputable sources. In addition to choosing quality sources to link to, your anchor text needs to be applicable. Using phrases like “click this link” as your anchor text is a missed opportunity. Your anchor text should let your reader know exactly what it is you’re linking to, and as a result, the search engines will too! 

Using The Wrong Keywords

SEO is all about optimizing your site for keywords you want to be associated with. So it’s critical that you’re choosing the right ones. It’s important to get inside of the mind of your customer and consider what the best keywords are to lead back to your site.  

Do your research before choosing your keywords. Opting for generic blanket terms is a quick way to get lost in the crowd. Be specific and choose selectively!

Not Looking At Analytics

The only way that you’ll know if your SEO efforts are paying off the way that you’d like them to is to pay attention to your analytics. Don’t disregard the effectiveness of tracking your results so that you can measure the effectiveness of your SEO attempts. 

Reviewing your analytics should be a part of your marketing strategy and not overlooked. 

Search engine optimization is constantly evolving. Some new ideas may seem promising, and yet, in the long run, are found to be harmful to your internet presence. For this reason, you should always remain informed about the latest SEO techniques and practices to get the results you want for your business. 

The post 3 of The Biggest SEO Blunders And How To Avoid Them appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But today, there’s a new medium of communication that dominates our day-to-day conversations: short-form, immediately transferrable written text. In short, that means emails, texts, and instant messages. Even though each of these mediums has unique advantages and disadvantages, they can all be categorized together, as mastering the skills necessary to use them properly can make you a much more impressive candidate:

1.       Be prompt. Text-based conversations happen immediately, so it’s painfully obvious when you’re behind the ball. For example, if you’re sending out a post-meeting recap email, be sure to send it out within a few hours of the meeting being over. If you’re sending out a reminder for a meeting, send it out an hour beforehand—not too late, and not too early. If you’re sending a response to an email you’ve received, try to get to it within 24 hours.

2.       Eliminate unnecessary information. In longer forms of communication, like reports, you’ll have plenty of space and time to elaborate on your points as you see fit. In emails and text messages, the more concise and short you are, the better. Write better outreach emails by revising them before sending, eliminating any instances of unnecessary information that might obstruct or distract from your main points. Only include the information that’s necessary to make your points.

3.       Be clear and proofread every sentence. If a sentence of yours is incomplete, incoherent, or awkwardly written, it could force your reader to read it several times over, puzzling them rather than informing them. Rather than allow this to occur, be proactive and proofread every bit of written communication before it goes out. Ask yourself of every sentence—does this sentence express what I want it to? And does this sentence sound natural if I read it out loud? If all your sentences adhere to these qualifications, you’ll make a much better impression.

4.       Organize your content logically. Because it’s in a written format, the first draft of an email can often be spotty or sporadic. Take the time to organize your writing coherently, starting with a general introduction, moving on to your main points, and eventually concluding. For longer emails, you may even want to include subheadings, bullet points, or other formatting options that make it easier on the eyes.

5.       Show your personality. Adhering to these rules and striving for the shortest, most concise, most informative means of communication can unfortunately make you sound robotic or cold. To avoid this, show off your personality. Instant messages especially lend themselves to informal means of communication. Use first names, inject some humor into your content, and add personal touches that make your messages sound like “you.”

6.       Use mediums appropriately. If you’ve written up a long plan for a new project, sending it via text at midnight is less appropriate than sending it via email. Similarly, a quick meeting reminder 10 minutes before the start of a meeting is probably useless in an email inbox. Choose your mediums appropriately, and be considerate of your coworkers and bosses. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of each instant written medium.

7.       End with action items and takeaways. Even if you’ve spelled it out clearly in the body of your content, it helps to add a digestible list of takeaways toward the end of your email. Not only does it serve as a nice summary that the reader can come back to, it also shows that your email has a measurable purpose.

Use these seven strategies to make a better impression on your bosses and coworkers when relying on short, written communication to convey your ideas. Like anything else in the professional world, the more you practice it, the better you’re going to get—so take every opportunity to hone your craft.

The post 7 Ways to Make a Good Impression via Email and Instant Messages appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

When Pinterest released its “buyable pins” feature at the end of June, it was heralded as a significant step forward in the advancement of social media. Instead of merely interacting with others, users are now increasingly able to shop and make buying decisions. Instead of waiting for “buyable pins” to settle in the marketplace, Pinterest is investing even more time and money into the idea of social shopping with three new e-commerce platforms.

As of October 5, Pinterest is adding three new outlets for online purchases: IBM Commerce, Magento, and Bigcommerce. New brands are also being pursued by Pinterest, including Wayfair, Bloomingdale’s, and thousands of storefronts through Shopify. Pinterest hasn’t disclosed its full plans for utilizing and integrating these e-commerce platforms, though it’s reasonable to suspect the company is planning on overhauling or expanding the shopping features of its core mobile platform.

There are several factors that could be responsible for this new investment. First, Pinterest recently released its “buyable pin” growth statistics. Since the feature’s release just a few months ago, use of the function has ballooned to more than 60 million. Merchants are also pleased with the service, noting conversion rates twice as high as those associated with other pins on the platform. These early numbers could be all the data Pinterest needed to know that social shopping is a viable and lucrative commercial opportunity.

Second, Pinterest isn’t the only social media platform in the game, and its competitors are increasing their efforts. For example, YouTube recently announced shopping ads, which will be integrated into the platform, allowing consumers to make direct purchases from retailers. Twitter, which has had its own version of a “buy now” button for some time, is now expanding that purchasing function to be available to any retailer in the United States. Facebook, too, is working on increasing the convenience and availability of its advertised products, so users can complete transactions without ever leaving the app.

The risks of Pinterest’s new strategy seem relatively low. The brand has built much trust and loyalty from its customers in its six years of existence, and because users are already responding positively to buyable pins, it’s reasonable to suspect the strategy can be scaled. However, there is a chance that an overabundance of ads and shopping opportunities could transform the platform into something similar to eBay or Amazon, with the social functions of the app becoming secondary. The transition would be gradual enough to keep most users happy throughout the process, but could alienate the minority who aren’t interested in using the platform to make buying decisions.

The gradual trend in social media has leaned toward keeping users engaged for as long as possible. For example, Facebook has unveiled tons of new features—from in-post search engines to help users find links to in-app publishing opportunities for content producers to universal messaging—to prevent users from ever leaving the app. With Facebook drawing most of its revenue from advertising (and soon to be social shopping), more people in-app for a longer period of time means more money to be made. Pinterest likely sees a similar road to profitability.

While Pinterest’s plans remain to be seen or fully realized, it’s a safe bet that this is only the beginning. Social apps have begun competing against each other for more time in-app, more convenient purchasing opportunities, and greater user trust. Expect to see more features, bells, and whistles rolling out in multiple social apps, all geared toward helping users shop while engaging with others. 

The post Why Pinterest is Betting Everything on Social Shopping appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

If you have the time and internal resources and team, the following tips will be helpful in building links, otherwise a professional link building services company is probably the best “outsourced” option.

Follow The Rules

For SMBs aiming to boost their SEO performance, the first step is to learn and follow the rules. While some parts of SEO are strategic, some are straight forward, technical tasks. For example, websites that don’t follow major security rules will be pushed down in the rankings. One easy way to make sure that your website performs as well as possible, then, is evaluating and reinforcing your website security. This has the added benefit of protecting your users and making your company more trustworthy.

Start With A Roundup

If your website is new to SEO, refining your strategy may be challenging. That’s why it’s important to recognize that no one backlink strategy is, in itself, effective. Also, SEO isn’t just one thing; it’s a combination of many different ways a website can market itself and connect with its audience. All that being the case, though, you still have to start somewhere – so why not start with a link roundup?

Link roundups are a popular way to boost SEO rankings and someone is almost always putting one together. Search online for link roundup opportunities and pitch the organizer. Most are excited to connect with new sites and joining a roundup is a great way to build a network that can lead to future collaborations.

Be A Guest Blogger

Once you’ve participated in a few link roundups, you’ll have also established a network of sites that are curating content, and like you, these sites likely don’t have the budget to build a big, in-house marketing team. That’s actually good news for your company. Help your peers build content while boosting your own backlink portfolio by guest blogging for other sites. As long as you’re partnered with other sites in your niche with a solid DA ranking, then your guest blog will go a long way.

Build Your Own Blog

Backlinks are critical to your SEO ranking, but they don’t function on their own. You can’t generate strong backlinks, and you definitely can’t generate organic backlinks if you don’t have great onsite content. Spend time creating high-value onsite content that other websites will be excited to link to; evergreen content is most important, but seasonal content attracts huge spikes because it’s timely. Once you’ve built up your own site’s content library, you can also market these links around to sites with broken or outdated links within your niche, offering a simple improvement that will boost both of your sites.

Syndicate And Affiliate

Recalling that no backlinking strategy alone is sufficient to put your site on the map, be sure that your SMB is open to diversification strategies. Many websites find that they benefit from syndicating content on important industry sites. Other companies run affiliate programs to disseminate their links. As long as your company emphasizes quality and authority at each step in the process, each individual link has the potential to yield major benefits.

However your website shapes its SEO strategy, it’s important to know that it will always be an ongoing process. SEO norms are constantly changing. Partnering with an SEO firm will help you keep up, but these core approaches will never go out of style.

The post What Are The Best Link Building Strategies For Small Business? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Already, social media platforms have begun to encroach on news companies’ territory. Users are relying on the posts that show up on their news feeds more than any particular news source, though those posts currently still originate on respective news sources. As a result, direct traffic to news sources has lagged, but overall, they’ve still received enough traffic to stay afloat. New advances by Twitter, however, may change that.

The Acquisition of Periscope

The revolution started with Twitter’s acquisition of the social app Periscope, which allows users to broadcast live, first-person video to a dedicated audience. At first, the integration seemed straightforward enough—Twitter users like to make updates about their life in real time, so why not give them an application to broadcast video of their lives in real time? But consider the origins of Periscope; the app was originally inspired by a particular incident in Istanbul involving the founders. The founders found themselves in the middle of a group of protestors and police, a situation that could have been avoided if there were some way to “see through the eyes” of others in the area. Essentially, it serves as a live news update as much as it does a social update.

The Dawn of Project Lightning

Twitter either became inspired by this acquisition or the acquisition was a part of their original long-term plan. Regardless of its origins, Project Lightning is beginning to emerge. Project Lightning is a new feature for the Twitter app, but according to former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, it represents a major shift in the company’s direction. The project has been in development for years, and seeks to change how people consume news online—when it launches, presumably in the next year or two, it will be called “Moments.”

Project Lightning’s goal is to automatically aggregate data it finds within the updates of its users. For example, if there are protests going on in Istanbul, the app would be able to collect the most relevant pictures, live feeds, and posts about the event and organize them in a way that makes it easy for other users to see exactly what’s going on. It’s a form of user-curated news content that cuts out the journalistic “middle men” and instead connects users directly to the events as they unfold.

Though details about the feature are still being kept under wraps, we do know that the feature will be a key point on the home row of the app.

The Acquisition of Flipboard?

While nothing has been finalized, Twitter is also looking to acquire Flipboard, a news aggregation app with more than 100 million activated users. It’s entirely speculation at this point, but it appears that Twitter’s acquisition history is forming a pattern. Gradually, Twitter aims to improve its ability to create and distribute news among its user base. Already, Twitter’s greatest advantage lies in its ability to connect people in the moment, and if it continues taking on the news industry, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes dominant.

Social Competition

Of course, the relationship between social media channels and news outlets hasn’t gone unnoticed by the other major players in the arena. For example, Facebook recently announced a program called Instant Articles, where news outlets can publish pieces directly to Facebook rather than their own sites. This is Facebook’s own way of cutting out the journalistic middle man, but rather than cutting out the actual journalist, Facebook is only cutting out the journalist platform. The modern chain of communication is something like User > Social Platform > News Outlet > Journalist > Actual Event. Comparatively, Facebook’s Instant Articles would offer a setup like User > Facebook > Journalist > Actual Event while Twitter would offer something like User > Twitter > Actual Event.

Theoretically, the shorter this chain is, the more accurate and more up-to-date the “reporting” will be. In this way, Twitter’s plan is more forward-thinking than Facebook’s, but the competition will still be fierce.

The Future of Journalism

No matter how Facebook, Twitter, other social platforms, and artificial intelligence algorithms interpret online content, the world of journalism is in for a significant overhaul over the next five years. For human journalists, the future may seem bleak, but for the average consumer, the potential results are promising. We could soon live in an age where we can be connected to live events, directly and instantly, with the only biases stemming from a constantly fine-tuned mechanical algorithm. On the surface, it’s a little unsettling, but as we get used to the idea, we’ll learn to appreciate it for all the benefits it has to offer.

The post Is Twitter Trying to Reinvent How We Read the News? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

What we aren’t used to, and what we fear, are even more in-depth explorations of our actions and behaviors. For example, Facebook made headlines back in 2014 when it was revealed that it was artificially manipulating users’ emotions by selectively controlling their newsfeeds—just to see if it could. This, and other perceived infringements on user privacy, has sparked a wave of concern over privacy and responsible use of information that persists to this day.

But now, Facebook is moving forward with new ways of using user information, and it could be influencing its competitors and contemporaries to do the same—we’re looking at a potential new era of social responsibility, or even social good, in user data.

Previous Efforts

Social responsibility isn’t a new construct for Facebook; the company has made a number of concentrated efforts in the past to do some form of collective good. For example, Facebook has partnered with Amber Alerts to distribute and make visible more detailed information about children and adults who have gone missing. It’s also attempted to raise visibility for natural disasters, prompting users to donate to disaster relief funds and other charity efforts.

Safety Checks

The company also employs a feature called Safety Check, which allows friends and loved ones to check on each other’s safety during events of turmoil, such as natural disasters or major attacks. The company activated the Safety Check feature in the United States for the first time recently, during the shootings in Orlando. Within the feature, Facebook users can check for and mark friends and family members they believe to be in the affected area, and those users, upon loading their newsfeeds, can mark themselves as “safe” as a notification to their friends and followers.

Suicide Prevention

Recently, Facebook announced it was also rolling out a new host of tools and features to support suicide prevention. With these tools, Facebook users can identify other users who are exhibiting signs of depressive or suicidal behavior. They can access tools and resources to help these afflicted users, including suicide prevention hotlines and prevention organizations, or simply refer the user in question to Facebook directly, which can take further action as an organization to prevent things from developing any further. As a central location for things like bullying, harassment, and trolling, Facebook has been gradually rolling out new features and safety screens to cut down on these destructive forms of user interaction.

The Future of User Data

The volume and specificity of data Facebook has access to are always increasing, and as those levels increase, it’s going to have more power to influence our lives. The new safety features it’s developed are useful and positive forces for society as a whole, but they’re not yet fully automated, nor are they solely controlled by the user data to which Facebook has access. It will be interesting to see how Facebook adheres to its new vision of social responsibility once it develops the capability of joining these useful features with even bigger volumes of data.

Influencing Other Platforms?Facebook isn’t entirely alone in its pursuit of social responsibility; for example, Twitter, and most other publically available social media platforms have taken measures to crack down on abuse. But Facebook serves as a role model for other companies in the tech sphere, influencing things like newsfeed algorithms, design layouts, and even general approaches to data management. Hopefully, its bold steps forward on the front of user data responsibility will similarly influence the other rising stars and mega-corporations in the arena. It’s hard to say exactly how this trend might develop, or when, but Facebook is on an interestingly beneficial trajectory, and it’s unlikely to stop here.

The post How Facebook Could Lead a Trend in User Data Responsibility appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But there’s a way to harness the power of this competition: partnering with those content creators.

Why Partnerships Are Beneficial

Working with other content creators, instead of directly competing with them, can have several benefits:

• Follower cross-pollination. First, you’ll have the opportunity to cross-pollinate your follower pools. At least some of your followers will discover this person for the first time, and at least some of theirs will discover you for the first time.
• Mutual support. If you co-produce an impactful piece of content, both of you will be willing to distribute and promote it. That means twice as much effort, and hopefully, twice the results.
• Link opportunities. Regardless of who hosts the finished content, each partner will build links to the other’s site and social media profile. More, higher-authority links lead to more referral traffic, but more importantly improved search engine rankings.
• Reputation by proxy. This is especially beneficial to newcomers in a given industry, but you can grow your reputation simply by being associated with other high-authority figures in your industry. The more people see you with the top brass, the better they’ll think of you.
• Competition softening. Working with someone else gets them to stop seeing you as a competitor. Accordingly, you may enjoy more friendly offers instead of territorial pressure.

Types of Partnerships to Consider

The term “partnership” is vague, so what does that actually mean? You can team up with another content creator on social media in many different ways, with varying levels of commitment and intensity. For example:

• Commentary and discussion. Engagement is always a good thing on social media. Sometimes, simply commenting on the same thread or having a friendly discussion is all it takes to start building a partnership—especially if you have a respectful disagreement or different points of view on a major topic in your industry.
• Interviews and round tables. You could also conduct interviews, shining a spotlight on your partner while getting some visibility for yourself. If you bring multiple partners into the fold, you can host a bigger, more involved “round table” discussion on a given topic.
• True collaboration. In one of the more advanced types of partnerships, you can truly collaborate on a piece of work together. For example, you can co-author an eBook, or share research to create a comprehensive piece on a given topic.

Over time, you’ll likely gravitate from lower-intensity interactions to higher-intensity ones, but there’s no surefire recipe to follow; do what works best for you.

Building an Initial Partnership

The hard part is finding a potential partner and convincing them that collaborating will be good for both of you. There are a few best practices that can help you in this regard:

• Choose the right candidates. Not everyone is going to be open to partnership, and not everyone would make a good partner. Keep your eyes out for people who seem friendly, chatty, responsive, and good at creating content. Also make sure they have similar interests and a similar background.
• Start slow. Don’t let your first message to someone be, “Hey, you want to write a book together?” Start slow, with friendly comments and questions, and build the relationship from there.
• Be sincere. Be sincere and honest in your interactions. If you’re only partnering with someone to get access to their followers, they’ll probably be able to tell.

Nurturing Your Successful Interactions

Inevitably, you’ll run into content collaborators who shirk their responsibilities, dismiss your ideas, or otherwise make themselves difficult to work with. Don’t worry about these people. Instead, focus on the partnerships that were really successful—the eBooks you cowrote that got thousands of shares, and the people who are eager to work with you again. You may be tempted to search for new partners, but it’s equally important, if not more important, to spend time nurturing the high-quality partnerships you’ve already established. The more you interact, the stronger your potential collaborations will become.

Too many people view social media marketing as a solitary venture. They want to outcompete everyone else in the space and foster a gigantic audience for themselves. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Instead, spend more time and effort interacting with your peers, even if they are your direct competition, and work together on something better than either of you could have created individually.

The post How to Partner With Other Content Creators (and Why You Should) appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

If you own, manage, or work in a digital marketing agency, you know just how crazy the space is at the moment. And one of your biggest challenges is discerning between what works and what doesn’t. The line between authentic and spammy isn’t as clear as it once was. If you aren’t careful, this can land you in hot water with clients, customers, and even Google!

There are plenty of tools and services that make big promises, but under-deliver. Some of them even break rules and skirt the legal limits with what are legal business practices. If you aren’t careful, you can unintentionally align your agency with the wrong solutions.

In order to build a sustainable agency that generates value to clients in a highly transparent fashion, you need a suite of white label marketing tools and services. To help, we’re providing you with a list of the top solutions on the market. Take a look:

• White Label Marketing Automation: HubSpot

HubSpot is one of the most trusted names in all of digital marketing. Out of all the tools and services they offer, their marketing automation platform is probably the best. It has a ton of robust features, including automated lead nurturing (email drip campaigns), visual workflows, social media monitoring, SEO analytics, ad tracking, and more. 

• White Label Social Media Monitoring: Keyhole

When it comes to social media monitoring, you have your pick of any number of platforms. However, if you want one that’s carefully designed with agencies in mind, Keyhole is your best bet. Keyhole’s social media monitoring platform helps you track what people are saying about your brand, while also gleaning powerful engagement metrics and analytics across every platform. In short, it’s a lifesaver. 

• White Label Social Media Management: ZoHo Social

Every digital marketer has his or her own favorite social media management tool. And while you’ll hear the same names over and over again, many of the biggest platforms have become too big for their own good. This is not the case with Zoho Social. 

Zoho Social is powerful, intuitive, and a breeze to use. It allows you to schedule unlimited posts across all platforms, while simultaneously monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) and create custom reports for your clients. 

• White Label Project Management: Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the top project management software across any industry or niche – but it really shines with agencies. In addition to having all of the features that your average project management platform has, Basecamp is designed to help marketing agencies streamline communication with clients. You get to decide what your clients see, what your team sees, who has access to which files, etc. – all with the simple flip of a switch. Never worry about sharing something private with a client. Everything is clearly labeled for optimal discretion. 

• White Label Website Analytics: Google Analytics

As much as other companies have tried to knock off Google, the search giant continues to produce the top analytics tool on the interent. (They sort of have an unfair advantage!) Not only is it free, but the data is essentially guaranteed to be reliable. Sometimes there’s no sense in messing with a good thing! 

• White Label SEO Link Building: SEO.co

Links continue to be one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s search algorithm. If you want to provide your clients with quality link building services, look no further than white label SEO link building with SEO.co . Our reseller services are among the few honest and transparent link building solutions available today.

SEO.co starts by identifying exceptional content on your client’s websites. They then tap into their deep network of authoritative publishers and editors and select one that aligns with your client’s goals. Organic content is then carefully crafted and published – using your client as a resource or reference. The content is pitched to relevant sites, your clients gain SEO traction, and everyone is happy.

• White Label Competitive Analysis Tool: SimilarWeb

When it comes to understanding your clients’ businesses and the industries they’re in, it’s helpful to have a powerful suite of competitive analysis tools in your arsenal. With SimilarWeb, you get access to things like market mapping and benchmarking, customer behavior, channel acquisition, funnel optimization, historical data, and more. It’s extremely data-rich and reliable. 

• White Label PPC Management Software: Opteo

Clients want to see direct and immediate results. So while you’re pounding away to ensure they have a long-term SEO strategy in place, you can use PPC management software like Opteo to leverage AdWords. The system provides data-driven suggestions for improvements; details on how to monitor and diagnose performance issues; strategic budget management; and powerful segmentation to help you zero in on what works for your clients.

• White Label Landing Page Creator: Unbounce

There are probably 100 or more landing page creators available online, but only a handful of them actually live up to their claims. Unbounce falls into this elite club of white label landing page creators. 

With Unbounce, you don’t need to be a developer or programmer to create beautiful, high-converting landing pages. The drag and drop platform has everything you need to get quick results. Not only is it highly customizable, but it also comes with an impressive A/B testing built-in. 

• White Label Email Marketing Software: Emma

Emma is of the most under the radar email marketing platforms on the internet. Not only does it pack a powerful punch for agencies with lots of clients, but it’s also surprisingly affordable. Definitely check it out!

•  White Label Video Marketing Tool: Vidyard

Video is clearly the most powerful content medium in today’s marketplace. However, most agencies are too intimated to approach it with the vigor that they should. With Vidyard, you no longer have to worry about what you don’t know.

Vidyard is arguably the best video marketing platform around. It allows you to host videos, analyze the results, and accelerate the buyer’s journey through a suite of conversion features. 

White Label SEO Software: Nightwatch

When it comes to having a solid SEO tracking tool, Nightwatch is no exception. It is an SEO tracker of the next generation designed for companies who are focused on scaling up their internet business. Standout features? Their intuitively-designed dashboard, customizable reports, and site audit. It’s definitely worth checking out!

Which Tools Will You Use?

It’s a new year, which means it’s the perfect time to reassess what solutions your digital marketing agency is relying on. You might not need every tool on this list, but we’d recommend bookmarking the page so that you can refer to it as often as necessary. 

High quality white label marketing tools and services aren’t easy to come by. Guard this list and leverage it to grow your agency in the midst of a noisy and chaotic business marketplace!

The post 11 White Label Digital Marketing Tools Leading Agencies Rely On in 2020 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

YouTube has been a staple of online video viewing since its introduction in 2005. Bought by Google in 2006, the platform has remained profitable thanks to advertising opportunities—and free for its more than one billion active users. Considering the ever-growing library of content available on the platform, a few seconds of ad-watching is a price most users are happy to pay.

Now, YouTube is offering an option for viewers who can’t stand the advertisements any longer. Its subscription service Red is available for Android devices (at $9.99 per month) and iOS devices (at $12.99 per month). With this service, users can watch as many videos as they want as often as they want without ever having to watch ads in the meantime. Other bonus features of the services include the ability to continue playing videos in the background while working on other apps, as well as saving videos locally for offline or future viewing. This will admittedly hurt advertisers who are looking to create both free and paid content for YouTube.

In the future, there may also be Red-exclusive video submissions. YouTube has repeatedly hinted that it is interested in procuring content from its most popular creators, and now it appears that these procured shows and videos will make their debut only for subscribers of Red.

Currently, the service is available only in the United States, but YouTube plans to introduce the service globally next year. New users can sign up for a one-month free trial to evaluate the service before subscribing on a month-to-month basis. The service will also apply to all of YouTube’s individual apps, including YouTube Music.

Another Netflix?

There’s no shortage of paid subscription video streaming apps. Netflix currently has more than 33.3 million paid subscribers (and growing), and its closest competitors Amazon Prime and Hulu have millions of paid users on their own. On the surface, YouTube’s decision to offer a more content-driven paid streaming service could be construed as an effort to put it more in line with these industry leaders.

However, there’s something different about YouTube; Netflix, Hulu, and similar apps are all focused on bringing users professionally created material, essentially making them entertainment apps. And while YouTube certainly has significant entertainment value, it is primarily classified as a social app. Users leverage the platform to create and share their own material, engage with other creators and users, and ultimately build and contribute to communities. Despite its potential use as an exclusive entertainment app, it’s a social media app first and foremost.

Applying to other social apps

The best question to ask now is, will other social media apps pick up on YouTube’s idea and apply it to their own user bases? Snapchat, another social app, recently made headlines when it offered a paid feature to its previously cost-free app. Instead of letting snaps fade away and die their natural death, users can choose to “replay” them using a limited number of credits, buying three more credits for $0.99. It’s possible that Snapchat could one day introduce a special subscription service that allows a guaranteed number of replays for its highest-paying users every month in exchange for a monthly fee.

As pressure starts growing for social media companies to make more money and users grow exhausted of advertising, it’s reasonable to suspect we’ll see more subscription services like these. Undoubtedly, free options for social users will continue to exist, but these paid options could become the new norm for practically any app available, including major players like Facebook and Twitter. Advertisers may soon need to find alternatives for direct audience communication online.

The post What does YouTube Red mean for the future of social subscriptions? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.