May 12, 2016 12:21 pm
Published by Kirsty Sharman
As our platform grows we still want to show that we appreciate and value all our influencers. Every month we feature influencers from different categories on our blog, not only to show our appreciation for their work but also inspire like-minded influencers on the platform. This month we are featuring some of our very talented beauty influencers. Choosing who to feature is never easy however while going through multiple profiles these three talented ladies certainly grabbed our attention.
WishWishWish:
Carrie Harwood, is the creator of a London-based beauty blog, WishWishWish. Carrie shares her extremely helpful beauty tips and product reviews on her blog. She also has a YouTube channel which focuses on her lifestyle but still features the odd makeup tutorial. Her blog and very popular Instagram account is renowned for its beautiful pictures and going through her Instagram will certainly inspire you to re-think your photography skills. Take a look at her Webfluential profile.
Shawnee, aka Agent Shawnee has a very unique and funky YouTube channel where she focuses on her love for anime and gaming. You may be wondering what this might have to do with beauty? Well Agent Shawnee puts her unique spin on makeup and gives her subscribers tutorials on makeup looks that mimic her favourite anime characters. Her unique and geeky spin on beauty truly makes Shawnee stand out from the crowd. With her impressive Twitter following of 214k, it’s safe to say Shawnee’s fans love her work. Have a look at her Webfluential profile.
Temporary Secretary
From a young age Sarah discovered her love for both fashion and beauty. This UK blogger shares all her beauty and fashion tips and tricks on her blog – Temporary Secretary. Sarah utilises her degree in fashion and marketing to market herself and as a tool to monetize and manage her online store. Here’s Sarah’s Webfluential profile.
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May 9, 2016 10:30 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
At Webfluential we have a global community of over 8000 influencers. As our community continues to grow we want to ensure that we keep you up to date with changes on social media platforms that may affect you. The most recent change to have taken place is Facebook allowing businesses and influencers to be verified. Being verified not only gives you credibility but it also ensures you are taking the necessary steps to meeting the Facebook guidelines of posting sponsored content.
The blue badge is the new symbol of Facebook approval – pages with this tick have been confirmed as authentic pages or profiles for a public figure, media company or brand. The grey badge indicates that the Facebook page is a verified page for a business or organisation.
So how can your brand get verified? It’s easy….
- Establish your status
If your Page is categorised as a Local Business or as a Company & Organization, then you will probably need a grey verification badge. The blue verification badge is only available in certain regions so you may not be able to apply for it at this stage.
- Find the verification
Go to the top of your Page and under the General Tab, click on Page Verification. Then select Verify this Page and Get Started. You will enter your publicly listed phone number for your business, your country and location and your preferred language. Then click Call Me Now and wait for Facebook to buzz you with the verification code. Enter this four-digit code, click Continue and enjoy the awesome new badge on your Page.
Hot tip: Link your Page to your website and ensure your About section is complete
- Need an alternative?
If you don’t fancy getting a call or you don’t have a publicly registered phone number, you can use a business document. Just follow the same steps as above and select the Verify this Page with Documents instead button, upload the picture of your official document and make sure it clearly shows both your business name and your address. This process takes slightly longer as Facebook needs to verify the information against public records.
Hot tip: You can use a driver’s license, passport and birth certificate as well as articles of incorporation
What happens if you don’t?
If you don’t verify your Page, then you can’t post sponsored content and for influencers and brands this is not a great thing. You can post your own content, sure, but you can’t link to someone else’s services or solutions unless you have a badge. The verification process is easy and critical for influencers with their own brand pages. If you read through the Facebook Branded Content Policies, you can see that posts which ‘disclose the content is sponsored or provided by a third party’ are only allowed for Verified Pages.
Instagram is also at the party
Instagram is undergoing a number of changes (some of which have caused utter social mayhem) and one of these is a Facebook-a-like type profile with a new contact button, a location tag and category for easier business classification and identification. It’s a pretty nifty new design which can mean a great deal for the brand and the influencer in terms of being easier to contact and increasing potential reach.
Facebook owns Instagram. Facebook wants you to verify your business. It seems only logical to assume that, once the dust has settled on the Facebook platform, Instagram will follow suit. Getting verified today could save you a lot of hassle down the line and may well see you sorted across multiple platforms from the start. While you’re at it, you may as well verify on Twitter too. It pays to be prepared!
Hot tip: Don’t pay someone to verify your brand or Page for you. This is the land of the con artist and will only waste your time and money.
This post was written on behalf of Webfluential by a Webfluential contributor.
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April 14, 2016 10:00 am
Published by Kirsty Sharman
As Webfluential grows we want to continue to empower all our influencers and give them the means to monetize their blogs/ social channels. This month we feature a few of our top business bloggers/ influencers in an Q&A. They have all mastered the art of being successful online entrepreneurs, which is why we’re asking their advice on how other influencers can grow and become successful online.
Here’s what they had to say:
Jonathan Pollinger, the creator of Intranet Future writes about how businesses can use social media to achieve their objectives, even without a budget. When it comes to social media it’s safe to say Jonathan knows it all.
Q: What’s your advice to influencers who would like to turn their blog/ social channels into a successful online business?
A: Get active! Publish blogs; post and tweet regularly and show a genuine interest in your community by engaging with them. Follow, like, share, comment but above all, talk with them.
Q: How can influencers make their blogs more appealing to marketers?
A: Publish and post original thinking and or practical advice and tips. Too many marketing blogs and posts are regurgitated news and comments or waffle. Provide value.
Q: What are your top three do’s and don’ts for influencers?
A: Do
- Plan and schedule your posts and tweets.
- Listen and find out what your community values.
- Engage with your readers and take a genuine interest in them.
Don’t
- Just be online. Get out and meet your community face-to-face as well, through talks and networking.
- Steal other people’s thoughts and ideas.
- Assume that everything you write and comment on is correct. Do your own research.
George Honiball is an entrepreneur consultant with 20 years experience in business consulting and line management. He shares his extensive knowledge of both social media and business on Twitter.
Q: What’s your advice to influencers who would like to turn their blog/ social channels into a successful online business?
A: Keep your content relevant, interesting and establish yourself as a subject matter expert.
Make sure that you post content at the right time! Thursdays and Fridays are generally quiet, while Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best. Know your followers and engage with them online. Encourage feedback and respond publically to questions or comments.
Don’t be scared to ask for help. It’s better to learn from somebody else’s mistakes. Surround yourself with the right influencers. Don’t expect and demand favours without giving anything back. Do a lot of research before committing to specific products/services, providers or platforms.
Know who your competitors are. Don’t be naïve and think you are the first person to have come up with this idea. Look at their content, website and social media accounts. Buyers are becoming far more selective. They no longer respond to spam with special offers that are not relevant to them (“pray and spray”).
Q: How can influencers make their blogs more appealing to marketers?
A: Don’t rehash other people’s work. Create your own fresh, new content. It’s important to have an opinion. Pick sides but also understand other perspectives. Appreciate that there are many views but make clear what you stand for and believe. Be able to explain “why” eloquently and confidently.
Have fun and enjoy what you are communicating. If it’s boring to write it will be worse to read. Use practical examples of your life lessons. Don’t talk down but make your followers discover with you.
Give your followers a reason to come back regularly. Post different formats of content. Write but also post pictures and even make videos. The quality does not need to be perfect.
Be real. If you say something that offends or is incorrect, admit your mistakes and rectify the matter. Acknowledge other views and opinions and be prepared to give as well. Forge mutually beneficial relationships rather than dictating, believing that you are the only source of all wisdom and knowledge. This turns people off immediately.
Q: What are your top three do’s and don’ts for influencers?
Do
- Have fun! Be positive, optimistic, friendly and polite, even to your followers that disagree, criticise or judge you. Other followers will watch how you handle them to see what you are made of. You cannot hide anywhere on social media.
- Interact regularly with followers publically. Use humour but never try to be sarcastic.
- Be a responsible social media citizen. Follow back, respond to messages/emails. Try to be a solution and not a problem. Leave a positive legacy and try to make more friends than enemies.
Don’t
- Be creepy. Disclosing too much or sharing very personal information can alienate rather than endear you to your followers.
- Be too serious. You must be able to laugh at yourself and acknowledge your weaknesses and faults. People like to see a real, fully rounded person with faults.
- Sell too obviously! If you are desperate to make that commission or close that final deal for the month you can be viewed as too desperate. You should only try to sell something that will help to solve another person’s problems.
The Money Shed is one of the UK’s largest community, website/blog dedicated to earning money from home. Jonathan Gutteridge created the blog and started his online money-making journey filling out simple surveys online. Over the years he discovered more opportunities to make money online.
Q: What’s your advice to influencers who would like to turn their blog/social channels into a successful online business?
A: Be friendly! No matter what social media channel you are using. Don’t just post generic content over and over again. Engage with as many people as you can!
Content is king. Without content you won’t have the audience and without the audience you won’t be able to make any money.
Write good, organic, engaging content and over time you will gain an audience. The other big factor when it comes to making money from your blog is trust. Without trust, they won’t be clicking on your links!
Q: How can influencers make their blogs more appealing to marketers?
A: Make sure their blog is mobile responsive and works and displays well on tablets / mobiles / laptops, etc.
Show that you are willing to cover topics that are a bit ‘outside the norm’. This will mean that marketers will contact you for opportunities you hadn’t even thought of.
Post content regularly. At The Money Shed we put up a new post once a week and always see a good spike in traffic on that day as readers expect to see something new to read. If your readers don’t know your posting pattern it can be hard for them to know when to come back.
Q: What are your top three do’s and don’ts for influencers?
A: Do
- Be flexible in terms of the content you are willing to host.
- Be willing to do guest posts on other sites for free to help get the name of your blog out there.
- Develop a ‘personality’ for your blog in terms of writing style.
Don’t
- Ever think your blog design is finished. Always look for ways to better the experience for the readers.
- Ignore PR. Even if the content they are offering you is paying peanuts make sure you reply and say ‘thanks but no thanks’. You never know when you might need them further down the line.
- Neglect social media. It can take seconds to strike up a relationship with someone and who knows what opportunities that might bring!
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