How To Make Your Social Media Accessible For The Deaf Community

If you aren't captioning your stories or videos, you're probably leaving money in the scroll.

I don’t know about you, but I do not know too many people whose phone volume is turned up when watching Instagram stories.  One of my favorite things to do is sit places and watch how other people consume social media. Observing helps me understand how people interact with the platforms and allows me to alter posts for the demographics I am targeting on behalf of clients.

For example, during lunchtime, I notice single people eating their lunches but scrolling Instagram stories without sound. You are getting tapped on by if you are talking during your Instagram stories and not captioning them.  If people do not have their earbuds, most likely they do not have the sound on. They will not be that person sitting by themselves with their phones sounds up for all the cafe to hear what it is precisely they are listening to; Especially when they aren’t sure what the account will be saying.

I have observed when people are out in public and scrolling while they are waiting for a table, picking up an order, or whatever else they could be waiting for, they will not turn up the volume just to listen to your story. They also are even less likely to go back and find your account to watch when they are in the comfort of their home. If you had the captions turned on, they would watch and read them, but you are getting tapped to the next without captions. 

Another reason to caption your stories and videos is that not everyone in the world can hear. Making your social posts accessible to all communities is an excellent way to show that your brand supports inclusivity when you caption your posts. This deaf community uses screen readers to correct the words and context of your videos because the screen readers pick up the words in the captions. 

Federal laws require closed captioning — or subtitles you can turn on and off — to be offered on broadcast television, including on live programming. But those laws, like so many others, were crafted before social media exploded and have not been extended in most cases to the user-dominated Internet. 2020 favorite and gaining in marketing popularity Tik Tok doesn’t even offer a closed caption feature; you manually need to type your captions in if you decide to use them. 

There is plenty of caption creator software out there, and Instagram even offers a caption sticker within the app itself; which side pro-tip, watch your videos back and read through the captions to see how accurate they are at translating your words. 

Hard of hearing or deaf social media users are part of the human condition, please consider them and the visually impaired community when creating video content. 

Is Blogging For Your Business Dead?

In a meeting a few weeks ago, a client of mine asked if blogging was dead? While I understand why it might be perceived that blogging is dead. Especially since we live in a world where a person would choose to watch a video to learn or connect with someone instead of reading a post.  The world of blogging is most certainly not dead, at least from an SEO standpoint. 

Blogging as much of a pain in the ass that is is, helps Google understand that you are a current website. A regular blog schedule helps keep your SEO up to date,  and the more that you blog, the more that Google will continue to feed your content to the top of people's searches. 

The other day I posted a survey on my Instagram stories asking an audience if they thought that blogging was dead.  And the response I got was pretty eyeopening. 44% of the audience I surveyed said that Yes, they felt that blogging was dead while 56% of the audience noted that No blogging is not dead.   

I have been working with a photographer client who when we first started working together wasn't completely sold on the idea of blogging.  She has two young children, a blossoming photography career and didn't have the time to devote to sitting down and adequately blogging her sessions for future clients to see. 

We had a one-hour session together, working on a blog about an elopement that she shot on top of Haleakala.  After being live for 72 hours, that blog post was the first item in a Google search for anything related to having a wedding or an elopement on Haleakala in Maui. Her inbox started blowing up with inquiries for booking her for their Maui nuptials. 

During our coaching session, while we talked about goals, one of her biggest goals was to shoot more weddings and elopements in Hawaii. With the goal in mind, we tailored the SEO on that post to get her in front of more couples looking for a photographer for their Hawaiian weddings.  

We also worked some SEO magic on other venues that she would love to shoot at more and low and behold her inbox is getting requests from couples who are hosting their nuptials at the sites she wants to shoot at all because she is now making blogging those sessions a priority in her digital marketing plan. 

While you might be one of the people, who think that blogging is dead, perhaps because you, yourself are not reading blogs. Remember that when it comes to your digital marketing, you are not your target audience. Blogging even twice a month will help keep your SEO fresh and clean to the Google machines, which will put your website in front of your target searchers.

Five Ways To Successfully Instagram Story For Your Business

During one of my latest speed marketing sessions, we were chatting about Instagram Story Highlights and how some stuff is better left off of them. If you’ve met with me or heard me talk you already know that your Instagram Highlight buttons should be where you put work that you would want on a portfolio or that you want to live permanently in your feed.  

You’ve also heard me say that your Instagram Stories should also showcase a more personal version of your business, highlighting the person and people involved in doing the business. The stories should give a behind the scenes of the person that is engaged in the business for 24 hours.  

Stories could include slides of your dog, cat, kiddos, camping trip, etc. However, these slides should not necessarily make a permanent home on your highlight reel if they do not have anything to do with what your actual business is. The more candid stories that relate to your business should live in your highlight reel if you love them and fit into the themes of one of your bubbles.

I’ve flipped my way of storying and started thinking of Instagram stories as “trailers” to grab the attention of the viewers to click your name and check out your entire feed. Since I started experimenting with this method on my feed, and a few clients, feed their stories, views, and profile visits have skyrocketed. It’s insane, stories that used to get 20 pictures or so have quadrupled! I’ve been testing this on my feed for 30 days, and while my likes and engagement are down, my website, clicks have quadrupled as well.  

A few simple ways to create a “trailer” for your feed:

1. Make use of the quiz, survey, and question stickers.

• Erase the “Ask Me A Question” statement on the question sticker and ask your audience a question you want their answer to. 

• The survey sticker is a great way to do a market research of your target. A few times, I did a survey asking if people would prefer speed marketing during happy hour and the response was overwhelming that they did. Therefore, I’m going to try a few sessions during the happy hour. 

• The quiz sticker is a cool interactive sticker to see who in your audience is paying attention to what you are putting out there and an excellent way for your audience to get to know you better and for you to be more personable. 

2. Don’t always be trying to sell and talk about your business. Show what your life looks like, messy desk, no makeup and all. You also want to show who people are going to get in real life when they sign up to meet with you.

3. Make sure that your highlight bubbles are categorized including services that you offer, reviews, and any other page that is also on your website. 

4. If you are selling products and have them in your feed, shoot those posts also to your stories. 

5. Try to keep up to 4- 6 slides on your story in a 24-hour time frame. Any more than that and people are going to swipe away from your account. This is extremely important if you are doing a video story. Please be conscious that you are saying everything you want and getting to the point in ONE story slide. If your video goes for multiple slides, you’re going to get swept next. Longer video can most definitely live on your IGTV channel. 

The story neighborhood seems to be the hip place to hang out these days. If you are not storying, consider giving it a try, and if you need help with ideas sign up for one of the Speed Marketing Sessions. 

Why Your Product or Service Needs To Be Blogging

This one goes out with the intent to all of the product and service sellers out there. You really do need to start a blog and maintain writing on that blog! I know I know this sounds like a complete hassle for two big reasons:

1. I know that you do not have the time.

2. You have no idea what parts of your products or business to write and share.

Here’s the thing; blogging helps your audience connect with you differently. Sharing your stories will help them relate to you and develop a different level of a relationship than you have on social media. Not only does blogging mean that your audience feels a connection with you it also means that Google loves you because you are showing the Google algorithm that you are a current website and this, in turn, helps boost your SEO and ranking.

As a product seller and any business, you need to have the mindset that the purpose of your content marketing strategy is building that “know, like, and trust factor” because the more ways you are pumping content out there that content is working for you to turn into a connection and connection turns into currency.

We all want to sell all of the things right away off of our website, but in the times that we are in, we have to work harder because chances are there are more people out there offering the same thing that we have to offer.  We need to set ourselves apart, with the goal of getting these potential customers to subscribe to your email list or directing them to another platform that you would like them to learn more about you and follow you. The road to the intent to buy or book can be painfully long these days, and the only way to shorten the distance between marketing to the point where a wallet comes out is to build an actual relationship.

Now you’re thinking, “But I’m already using social media as a sort of microblog for my products and services.” To this, I say fantastic, however, using social media as a blog for your business is handing over the rights of your content to social media and it’s not doing any SEO favors to the website which customers can buy or book you from. Blogging on your platform provides an SEO boost to your site, while also providing value to your audience. Building and focusing your core content out via Instagram or any other social media source is not going to offer that same or any return on the time investment. Look at Instagram or any other social platform as creating a lead for your audience to connect with you another way. Work on creating lead generating content there that triggers a response from a user to click your website to learn more about you and your products.  By having current blog posts on your site that your audience can stumble upon and read is going to help you create a connection which will in time lead to the exchange of currency.

Having your content on your site also helps when people are searching for you on Google. Having your content current and living someplace on the internet gives your SEO a massive boost, which will cultivate long term growth because your content isn’t on a death march to die in an algorithm 72 hours after you post it.

So how do you do it?

Blogging today is much different than it was when it first came out.  In its popularity, which btw lead to influencer marketing, we used to sit in front of our computers with our cups of coffee and read the latest post on whatever lifestyle blogger we were following. Much like how the generations before us would sit at the kitchen table and read the morning paper over their coffee or breakfast.  While both these ways of consuming content are pretty much extinct writing and maintaining a blog puts searchable words to what you do out onto the world wide web. These words are what your target is searching for and the key to getting your target of potential customers to find you and learn more about you.

In a world where consumers being fed content every day, you will need to be more strategic, creative and mindful about how and what you are blogging. The goal here again is to thoughtfully gain the attention of your target market and convert them to your email list, to speak directly to them, earn their trust and eventually have them make a purchase. Some ideas on what to actually write include: talking about yourself, how you got started, educate them on a part of your business, talk about what you are currently working on or what is inspiring you.

Stop stressing, you do not need to be blogging every day, because that is craziness and I know that you do not need one more marketing thing to add into your daily mix. You could start with a few basic posts that are full of crucial relevant search words for your product and continue to post twice a month or even a monthly post about new products, services or what you have been up to.

Remember, whatever content you are putting out there, it creates a connection that will eventually create currency.  Content creation doesn't have to be hard, but it's just going to be time-consuming. The overall goal of your content should be getting eyes on your products and offerings enhancing your site's SEO and triggering your target to signup for your email list so you can connect and talk directly with them, if they happen to purchase at first look then that’s even more amazing!

If you need help with this, I offer one-on-one coaching sessions as well as a FREE monthly 20-minute speed session where you can ask me anything related to your business's content marketing plan and management.