#let’s see I have to like write an 85 page script in two weeks for class first tho

[biluata]

… I may or may not write Dinbo fanfic after the semester is over…

[sanctimoniousscrawlings]

How I Fell in Love with the Sun and Other Tales of Woe

Chapter 1 // Day 1 // Aether

    The scent of the forest wafts throughout the garden, mingling with lavender, peppermint, chamomile, and black tea. I breathe it all in, lying on a stone bench with earbuds in and staring at the sky. I’ve got an hour left before I need to head to school.     It’s been three years since I’ve received the official letter, telling me to move to this town and attend The Academy (which is simultaneously the most needlessly ominous and excessively bland name for a school I have ever heard). I’ve received no instructions since then and at this point can only assume they’ll come this week or the final day of school.     My phone vibrates in my pocket but instead of answering, I sit up and pour myself another cup of tea before carefully placing the teapot back on the tea tray on the ground. I take another sip of tea and only then do I deign to check.     It’s Ness. Her shift at The Night Owl has ended and she wants to meet early before class starts. I agree to meet up with her and put my tea tray away inside then spread royal blue wings (that of a Rhetus Periander), taking off in flight.

    Trees sail by me as I fly toward the meeting spot, the rich scent of the forest filling each breath I take. Among the tall oaks and birches is a marble gazebo beneath a massive weeping apricot tree. Upon seeing me, Ness steps out from the gazebo, her hair like brilliant flames twisting in the breeze. Her eyes were forest green, luminescent in the morning light and made brighter by her pale skin and freckles.     Cackling, I loop my arms around her in an embrace as I land pretty much tackling her to the ground.      I roll off of her, helping her up while we both laugh. “Look at you- out here lookin’ like a Celtic goddess ‘n shit. I couldn’t resist knocking you from your pedestal.”     “Ugh, I missed you, ho. Man, you’ve really gotta get your rage toward her imperious maliciousness out. How’s that going by the way?”     I crack my knuckles behind my head, stretching, and start walking toward the road leading to the school. “Plans within plans, baby. I’ll knock her off her false throne by winter break.”     “Can I finally be in on this? I’ve got some bones to pick with her.”     “Absolutely. I think we can probably get at least 60 people together to take a stab at little miss Cesar.”     “Please tell me you’re literally planning on getting 60 people together to stab her. That would be so much more satisfying than the political intrigue I’m certain you’re gonna go for.”     “You know I don’t like actual violence unless it’s absolutely necessary.”     “She has half the school hypnotized. Evil witches get stitches.”     “Or,” I stretch the word, “we could break the hypnosis. I found a spell- it’s advanced magic, but I’m like 85% sure we can easily tackle it together. We’d need a third person, though. Know anyone skilled enough?”     “No one comes to mind- but then most of the spellcasters at school kind of hate me, so...”     “They don’t hate you, they’re intimidated. Few people can cast major spells without the rites like you do this early.”      “I’m one of three humans in this school. You know most otherfolk don’t trust us; my skill level just makes it worse.”     We get to the road and I’m about to ask how her trip home went when a black Jaguar zooms past us towards the school. The driver, Abby, screams something unintelligible- likely something rude- and cackles. Her poor boyfriend beside her stares ahead blankly.     "Speak of the devil. I see she's still a raging c-" Vanessa starts before a pickup honks behind us, burying the end of that sentence.     "Get in losers, we're going shopping!" It's Robin. His green eyes were lit with mischief and he had his thick black hair cut to a militaryesque fohawk since I'd last seen him. "C'mon, I'll drive y'all the rest of the way in."     "Sure!" I say before I can stop myself.     I catch the look Ness gives me as if to say When did you two become friends?   "It was a long summer," I say simply, shrugging.    "Clearly," the displeasure in her tone is enough to make me reconsider, but she tosses her things into the bed of the truck anyways.    She sits in the middle before I can pseudo-casually get there myself. He, of course, misconstrues this for interest and grins at her. "And how are you, gorgeous girl? My friend here treating you right?" He asks, winking at me. I melt.     She side eyes me knowingly and it makes me uncomfortable.     "Well, let's get goin'," I chuckle nervously. "Oh, Robin, this is Vanessa. Ness, this is Robin."     "We're acquainted," she mutters.     "I mean, we did have Chemistry together," he states, matter-of-factly.     "Ooh, chemistry?" I inquire, waggling my eyebrows with a mischievous grin. "Oh, do tell."     "Yes. But it was just that one class. And you destroyed the lab," she continues for him. "Worst lab partner. 11/10 would trade you away again."     "Wait that was you?" I ask, poorly attempting to stifle laughter.     "I'd like to take credit but it wasn't on purpose. A certain someone's handwriting-"     "Say no more, I get it," I laugh out. Ness narrows her eyes at me and I shrug at her. "You know your handwriting is an atrocity marring the entire human race. You may create beautiful images on canvas but your penmanship leaves something to be desired."     "Would you say it's something like... legibility?" Robin asks, voice dripping with mock innocence and we both crack up.     "It's gotten better, though," she mumbles, chagrined.     "I know, I know.  I still love you anyway." I kiss her on her forehead as we pull into a parking space.    "Well, we're here. I'll see you in class?" Robin gives me a look I can't quite decipher- a feat which terrifies me to the core. There’s never a moment I don’t know what the people around me are feeling. It’s my curse.    "Yeah, thanks for the ride! See ya!" I get out and grab my bag then Ness follows suit and we walk inside.    "I would just like to point out that the awkwardness of that entire ordeal was tangible. Like, I'm pretty sure if I had reached out I could have snatched it from the air. I probably should have." I feel the acidic green waves of jealousy pulsing out from her.     "I dunno. I think you guys would get along if you gave him a chance." I'm ignoring her point and we both know it.     "Guuurrrl. We are gonna have to have some words about that boy. Don't trust him, he's awful."     "I'm not allowed to have other friends now?"     "Friends. Uh-huh." She lengthened the grunt to make it clear she didn't believe me.     "I'm not gay."     "I thought your kind doesn't believe in sexual orientation."     "We don't. In fact, I don’t like men or women, so I have even less of an orientation. Hey, look, our lockers." I open mine, blocking her view of my face. This isn't a conversation I want to be having. "Hey, what's this? I pull an envelope from the locker, the only words on it say 'Game On.'     "Don't change the subject, she says. Not even bothering to look. "You aren't getting out of this."     I'm not paying attention, though. I open the letter, the locker door still blocking her view.  In an elegant script, the note reads:  

    7 others attending the academy. Figure out their identities. Good luck, chumps.

   This is so stupid. Whatever; it will be a cinch.     "Hey, are you listening?"     I put the letter away before she can peer around the door.     "Yeah. You don't like him and erroneously think I want the D. Not just any D, but his specifically. Don't you have to prep your art station? Find me when you want to talk about something else." I slam the locker and walk away. It's harsh but now I'm on a mission and, unfortunately, I think I know who my first suspect is.

    I spend the first two periods trying to use my empathic abilities to figure out if anyone is feeling something unusual or potentially related to the first task. There are many nervous students- nervous about grades, about college, about dating, but not the Novae. Most of the students just seem to be half asleep and wanting to be anywhere else.     By third period, I’m way too exhausted to read Robin- who is now my lab partner for one of the many science/magic crossover classes. I open my textbook, The Science of Chemistry and Art of Potion Making, to work on the assigned tincture.     Towards the end of class, Robin slides me a notebook- the page it was opened to reading: 90% sure potion making does not qualify as art. It’s more sciencey than chemistry.     Agreed. I feel like it’s almost like being a pharmacist, I write.     He pulls the notebook back, giving it a strange look. I see I’ve traded up as far as lab partners go. Your penmanship is tight, my dude. You’ve got preschool teacher grade handwriting.     That is, I pause to think before continuing, the strangest compliment I have ever received from another guy.     Does that mean you’ve received a stranger one from a girl?     My best friend is Ness.     Valid point. I’ve gotta know what it was.     “I would not want to face you in a war.”    I pushed the note back to him. After a moment of watching him hold it out of the corner of my eye, I swivel my head to see his face had turned beet red and tears were forming in his eyes from trying to shove down the laughter.     Rolling my eyes, I grab it back and write, first of all how dare you. I’ll have you know I am an excellent tactician.    Upon reading this, he completely loses it and the bell rings. “Maybe- May- Maybe on something like Big Brother.” He struggles to get the words out through his laughter.     “First rule of conquering a country: take out its leaders. Assassination is smarter than marching a platoon in.”     “I thought you were nonviolent, like as part of your religion.”     “That’s offensive; I’m an atheist. I just dislike violence- and I never said the assassination had to be literal. You can assassinate someone’s reputation, then you can replace them with a puppet ruler when they’re removed.”     “And if they are removed violently? Plus, that could take years.”     “I didn’t have a direct hand in it and my conscience is clean. I didn’t choose the method of removal, only that it eventually happens. I prefer to play the long game.”     “That’s a little morally grey coming from you.”     “There is no honor in war- plus I like to toe the line. No one interesting was ever lawful good.”     “You’ve been playing with too many shitty paladins.”     “Holy hell, you got that reference. And expanded on it with a valid retort. I’m shook.”     “You play those games with my roommates a lot and Josh only ever plays ‘awful good’ characters. I’m planning on joining you guys and trying it out when you start your next campaign. I kind of wanna see you play a charisma based character so I can see this nonviolent tactical brilliance you speak of. I can totally see you as a bard. We’ll give you an electric lute and call you General Shredder.”     “Given that I am basically already a bard, that would defeat the purpose of the roleplaying game. Besides, I’d have to be a rogue with high charisma to make my methods work and it’s gonna be my turn to gm anyways.”     “Fair. Think you could convince Ness to join?”     “If I did manage to she’d likely play a barbarian or monk and attack all the things. ‘You come to a fork in the road.’ ‘I punch it.’” I crack up at the thought.      “Alternatively, she gets to the fork in the road and tries to intimidate it into telling her where to go.”      “Tries? Girl would probably nat 20 on every intimidate check she makes. Nothing else, just intimidate. That fork in the road just wet its metaphysical underoos. You know what? I’ll try. She’ll break the game, but it will be glorious.”     The minute bell rings and we part ways in the hall, our laughter echoing between us.    

[minnievirizarry]

Want to Be Better at Content Marketing? Read This

Are you interested in becoming a content marketer, or you have actually already started but are still wet behind the ears? Then this article about content marketing best practices is for you.

Don’t be fooled by how pedantic it seems to sound. Seasoned content managers still swear by these. And the sooner you learn the rules of the trade, the sooner you are to getting well on your way to content marketing success.

Just exactly what are best practices, anyway?

Technopedia describes best practices as techniques, methods, or processes considered as the most efficient ways to achieve the same desired result. These are often written out as part of a company's content marketing strategy to ensure that you reach your goals with as few errors as possible.

Most content marketing best practices are standard while others change as content marketing strategies evolve. That's why it pays to know what these are even if you've been doing content marketing for some time.

In this post, I will be sharing with you ten current content marketing best practices you need to observe to stay ahead of your competition and achieve the results you desire.

1. Quality writing matters

I decided to start off with this content marketing best practice because this is the most important. No matter how well you execute the other nine I will mention, if you don't observe this, all others will be useless.

A well-written piece of content is the heart of any successful content marketing strategy. Stuffing your article or video script or ebook with keywords (which is, by the way, a big no-no) won't be able to mask poorly written content.

That said, make sure that you give your content the time and attention it deserves. Do some research for the information you'll share, and make sure that your sources are credible.

And please, proofread and check your content for typos and grammar mistakes. With tools like Grammarly and Hemingway available, you have absolutely no excuse not to check your work before hitting the Publish button.

2. Perform periodic content audits

Doing a content audit on a regular basis is an essential best practice content marketers must implement for two reasons.

First, a content audit will help you find old content on your website and social media accounts. You can choose to take these out or freshen these pieces of content by incorporating more current data published. That way, your brand's website and social media accounts provide your target account with relevant and timely content.

Second, performing a content audit can reveal gaps in your content. Content creation is one of the significant challenges faced by content marketers, according to a report published by the Content Marketing Institute.

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Once you determine what these content gaps are, you and your team can transform these into topics for new content to publish.

3. Formulate your brand's value proposition

A goldfish's attention span is nine seconds. Most people that go online have attention spans much shorter than this. That means that your content only has 10 seconds to capture your visitors' attention and convince them to stay.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

This is where your brand's value proposition becomes do not. A value proposition essentially tells your audience what value would they get from your content, and why should they care. These are the two things that you need to communicate at the start of your content. Otherwise, you lose their attention, and they end up leaving your page.

4. Give your audience what they want

According to a survey done by Meaningful Brands, 84% of customers expect brands to create content that educates, inspires or entertains them.

Source: Meaningful Brands

Yet, the survey also saw that 60% of content that brands publish are not able to help them reach their content marketing goals.

The reason lies in the understanding that marketers have about content marketing. Despite all the information available describing what content marketing is, some marketers and even brand owners still think that content marketing and advertising are one and the same.

"You can see it in the content that they publish," said Adam Steele, Founder of Loganix Citation Building. "The content they publish tends to focus on either their brand or their products and services."

Of course, there's nothing wrong with having these kinds of content in your content marketing strategy. After all, one of the reasons why brands delve into content marketing is to generate leads to turn into customers that will buy from them.

But, as Aaron Haynes, Founder of Fenix Pro, pointed out, these should not be the only type of content to create.

"The goal of content marketing is to open the lines of communication with your target audience," said Haynes. "The way to do this is by first knowing and understanding the pain points of your brand's buyer persona. When you're able to give them content that addresses these pain points, and shows them ways how to overcome them, they will slowly let down their guard. Only then, will they be open to finding out more about what your company has to offer."

5. Use long-form blog posts and articles

A study done by Orbit Media showed that more content marketers and bloggers are writing up longer posts and articles.

Source: Orbit Media

Quite surprising, isn't it? After all, people's attention spans are much shorter these days.

Adam Heitzman, co-founder of Higher Visibility, said the reason is that of the amount of information they provide to your visitors.

"People are very impatient when they're online," he explained. "They don't want to keep on going from one blog post to another just so they can solve their problem. They want everything already available for them in one place. Writing a long-form blog post allows you to become thorough and in-depth on the topic."

6. Repurpose your content

Repurposing already published content should be a part of your content marketing strategy.

Let's face it: creating content is not easy, even for seasoned content marketers. Writing a blog post or article takes time and effort. Repurposing your content is a cost-efficient way of extending the life and profitability of your content while offering a fresh way of answering questions of your target audience.

Repurposing content also helps extend your audience reach. "Not everyone enjoys reading blog posts and articles," Zach Smith, Marketing Manager of PortaPottyPros, explained. "Some prefer watching videos. Others learn faster when the information is presented as an infographic. The more people you can reach, the more visitors you can nurture and convert into customers."

7. Optimize your content for multiple devices

Mobile internet use is one of the content marketing trends expected in 2018. But that doesn't mean that laptops will be a thing of the past. In fact, this analysis from comScore shows that consumers today will be using multiple platforms when connecting to the Internet.

In other words, your content should be easy to consume whether it's viewed on a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. By this, I don't just mean that it's easy to read. Everything on your brand's website must be accessible and easy to use, regardless of which device your audience chooses. Otherwise, your audience will not hesitate to leave your site and go to your competitor.

8. Distribute your content in multiple channels

Next to the quality of content you create, the most critical part that determines your content marketing strategy's success is your distribution plan. You must be able to distribute your content across different channels during their most optimal days and times to get the most engagement from your audience.

One good example of this is the Four Seasons hotel. Until recently, the content they publish in their Four Season magazine is only viewed by guests that stay in their hotels. They decided to expand this by featuring some of the material published here on their website and on their Facebook page.

Source: Screenshot from Four Seasons’ Facebook Page

Because of this, they're not only able to previous clients to stay again but also attract new customers.

Using a marketing automation platform is now the best practice when it comes to content distribution. It allows you to upload and schedule your content in bulk, freeing up time for you to devote to other tasks.

An even more effective way to expand this strategy would be to actually nurture conversations via email. Email marketing, to date, is still one of the most top-performing marketing channels in terms of ROI.

And as far as email outreach goes, NinjaOutreach is an example of a tool you can use to:

Find email addresses

Add your contacts to a list

Create personalized messages

Add dynamic fields to suit each of your contacts, and

Set your emails to go out at the best times, complete with automated follow-ups

Source: Screenshot from NinjaOutreach Home Page

9. Capitalize on User-Generated Content

According to Adweek, 85% of customers consider User-Generated Content (UGC) highly influential in their decision to buy from a particular brand. Incorporating this into your content marketing strategy can also help increase conversion rates by 29%.

Unlike influencer marketing which involves collaborating with a micro-influencer to create content for your brand, UGCs are pieces of content created by your existing customers. Not only are they more genuine, but also capitalizes on the fact that people love an opportunity to share their opinions about different brands.

One way to generate UGCs is by running a contest. This is exactly what Starbucks did through its White Cup Contest as part of the launch of their reusable plastic cup. Customers were encouraged to doodle on their Starbucks cups and send in pictures on social media using the hashtag #WhiteCupContest.

Source: HubSpot

Within three weeks, the contest generated close to 4,000 entries. That's 4,000 pieces of content that Starbucks used to promote their brand and their latest tumbler!

10. User experience matters

In 2016, the Columbia College in Chicago decided to significantly reduce their website from 36,000 pages to just 944 pages.

At first, this move may sound surprising. But, as it turns out, by cutting trimming down their site, the college received double the number of student inquiries they get in a month.

The Norwegian Cancer Society also did the same thing, removing 4,000 pages from their website. As a result, the organization received 70% more one-time donations, 88% more monthly donors, and a 164% increase in members.

The positive results experienced by these two sites show the importance of ensuring that your users have a pleasant experience on your brand's website. You need to make sure that the content here is not only relevant but also well-organized so that your visitors can find what they need quickly.

While you don't need to be a master in web design and development, it is considered a best practice to learn and understand the basics. That way, it will be easier for you to coordinate with the company's design team so that your visitors will find it easy to navigate through your website.

In Conclusion

Content marketing will continue to evolve. These 10 best practices I mentioned are those that have been tried and tested to deliver results despite industry changes. Experiment and test these out, so that you can find the ones that you can immediately incorporate into your current content marketing strategy.

The post Want to Be Better at Content Marketing? Read This appeared first on NinjaOutreach.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://ninjaoutreach.com/content-marketing-best-practices/

[mariemary1]

How to Create Engaging Short Videos for Social Media (Including 7 Excellent Examples)

When was the last time you watched a video on social media?

Videos are becoming increasingly popular on social media, especially on mobile. Over the past year, the time people spent watching Facebook Live every day has increased by four times and Instagram videos by 80 percent1Facebook, 2017.

To create engaging social media videos, Facebook recommends creating videos as short as 15 seconds2Facebook, 2017. Sounds easier? But where do you start?

In this guide, you’ll learn step-by-step how to create short social media videos — anything from a few seconds to a few minutes. We’ve also included many tools and examples to help you get started.

How to create engaging social media videos

Creating videos can be more challenging than writing a blog post or designing an image. But it isn’t as difficult as you might have imagined. Here’s how you can create effective short social media videos easily:

1. Ideate

The first step is to brainstorm ideas for your videos. Here are three quick ways to generate a ton of ideas:

Look at your top blog posts

If you write a blog, like us, you’ll likely have a treasure trove of content ideas on your blog. The blog posts that resonate with your audience is probably great content for your videos. This strategy has helped us create well-liked videos such as this and this.

You can use your Google Analytics to find your top posts. Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. You should see something like this:

In the upper-right corner, increase the date range to a month. A quarter or a year is fine, too.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and change the number of rows shown to 100.

Voilà! Now you have your top 100 blog posts for the past month (quarter or year) — and tons of content ideas for your video.

Study the most shared content

Sometimes, your top blog posts are also your most shared. But sometimes, they aren’t. Using a tool like Buzzsumo, you can find your most shared content. You can also find the most shared content for any topic!

To find your most shared blog posts, enter your blog URL on Buzzsumo.

You’ll get a list of your most shared blog posts, ordered in terms of the number of shares.

You could also sort the results by the various social media platforms. For example, if you plan to create a Facebook video, you can sort the list by Facebook engagements. Now, you’ll have a list of blog posts that generated the most shares, likes, and comments on Facebook.

Check out popular videos from similar brands

Finally, you can also look around on social media to see what topics are popular at the moment. With Facebook’s Pages to Watch, you can easily check out the top posts from your favorite or similar Facebook Pages.

To access Pages to Watch, go to your Facebook Page > Insights. You’ll find the section at the bottom of the Overview tab.

When you click on any of the Pages, you’ll see its top posts for the week. The posts should give you some video content ideas. It’ll be great to keep an eye out for video posts specifically.

For Twitter, Social Bearing is a great tool for finding any Twitter account’s top tweets. For Instagram, you could try using the Explore feature, which shows you popular posts that are relevant to your account. On LinkedIn, you have the Companies to track feature in your Company Page analytics.

2. Plan

Once you have brainstormed your content ideas and picked one to work on, you can start planning for it.

The two ways I like to plan for a video is to either write a script or create a storyboard. Both encourage me to think through the entire flow and important aspects of the video. A storyboard also helps me visualize how a shot would look like, which will be handy for the next step — recording.

If you are not familiar with storyboarding, here’s a quick guide to get you started.

To help you with your planning, here are some tips from Facebook for creating effective videos:

Capture attention early: Videos auto-play on most social media platforms. By capturing attention with the first few seconds of your video, you have a higher chance of stopping a viewer while she scrolls through her feed. Facebook recommends starting with your most captivating elements, incorporating your brand message and identity early, and using engaging post copy.

Keep your message simple: Facebook encourages you to ask yourself, “What is the most important message I need to deliver in this video?”

Design for sound off: Facebook found that people watch mobile videos everywhere — home, at work, during their commute, etc.3Facebook, 2017 Oftentimes, they wouldn’t want the sound (and perhaps that’s why mobile videos are designed to play without sound). According to Digiday, 85 percent of Facebook videos are played without sound4Digiday, 2016. Add captions or text to tell your story visually.

Experiment with size: More than 50 percent of videos are played on mobile now5Ooyala, 2017. And square and vertical videos take up more screen space than landscape videos when the phone is held vertically. In our own experiments, we found that square videos outperformed landscape videos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in terms of average engagement and views.

If you’re looking for information about video specs of all the major social media platforms such as the maximum length and default audio state, we hope we’ve gotten you covered with this blog post.

3. Record

Now, the fun part — recording!

Thanks to the advancement of technology (yay to smartphones!), you can create engaging, high-quality videos with just a few simple tools and tricks. Here are some of our suggestions:

Use your smartphone

You don’t need expensive video equipment to get started. One of the most powerful video tools is right in your pocket — your smartphone. Most smartphones today can record videos of high visual and audio quality.

There are also many video-editing mobile apps available, which you’ll learn about later in this post.

Stabilize your phone with a tripod

A stable video helps it look more professional. You can easily get affordable tripods from Amazon. For example, a mini tripod for phones costs about $11 while a 50-inch lightweight tripod costs $13.

Speak into a microphone

It’s best to find a quiet location to record your video. To improve the sound quality further, you can get a lavalier microphone for just $20. Just plug it into your phone and hit record.

Find good lighting

Natural light is one of the best light sources for your videos. If you can’t get that, lamps work great, too. When recording your video, be sure to face the light source so that the light spreads evenly across your face.

If you prefer a more advanced light setup, you’ll love this “Lighting on the Fly” guide by Wistia.

Find or create your video background

Finally, find a nice background for your video. A simple colored background is a great option as it encourages viewers to focus on you and prevents them from being distracted by things going on in the background.

If you can’t find a suitable background, you could create one yourself. You could buy a large foam board from Amazon or a stationery store and place it behind you. Or you could build your own lightbox if you are filming a small physical product.

4. Edit

Great work on recording your video clips! Now, let’s put them together.

Here are a few of our favorite video-editing tools:

Animoto

For creating video slideshows, we love to use Animoto. It allows us to easily combine video clips, stock videos, photos, and text together to create short engaging videos. Music can also be added to the video in just a few clicks.

If you’re looking for more music choices, Brian Peters found 13 fantastic places for background music.

Other tools like Animoto: Adobe Spark Video, Promo, and Wave

Quik

If you like to edit on-the-go, Facebook recommends Quik by GoPro (Android, iOS). You can just pick your videos and photos, and Quik will automatically find highlights, add effects, and sync transitions with the music. You can then customize the video to your liking.

Other tools like Quik: Videoshop (Android, iOS), Stop Motion Studio (Android, iOS), Vidlab (iOS)

Legend

With Legend (Android, iOS), you can turn simple text into impressive animations. These animations can be a great addition to your videos as a transition between two video clips.

Other tools like Legend: Crello, Adobe Spark Post (iOS)

Note: You’ll want to be mindful of the copyrights and royalties of the videos, images, and music you use for your videos. Here’s a quick rundown of a few rules and licenses.

5. Share

Finally, you’re ready to share your video!

While there are many ways to share your videos on your social media profiles, we hope the best way for you is to use Buffer’s Tailored Posts.

With Tailored Posts, you can easily schedule or post different videos to each of your social media profiles. All at once, from a single place. And videos will be uploaded directly to the social media platforms.

To use Tailored Posts, click on the Buffer browser extension on any website. (Tailored Posts is coming to the desktop and mobile dashboards soon!)

Then, select the social profiles you want to share the video with, update the copy, and upload the video.

Then, hit “Add to Queue”. Your video will be added to your respective social profile queues and shared at the selected times.

7 video ideas and examples to help you get started

I know creating videos can feel a little intimidating at first. I had many questions myself. What should I include in the video? How long should it be? What type of music should I use?

I hope from these ideas and examples of short social media videos, you’ll find some inspiration and the answers to your questions.

How-to, tips, or tutorial

HubSpot created a short video on how to convince your boss to let you work from home, with stock footages and text.

Customer testimonial

GoPro interviewed three customers to promote its drone, GoPro Karma, and to introduce its new features.

Events

Wistia did a recap video of their time at Inbound 2017.

We had such a great time at @hubspot’s #inbound17! Check out our recap video and head over to the blog for 3 lessons learned from the year’s biggest conference for marketing and sales professionals. Link in bio!

A post shared by Wistia (@wistia) on Oct 5, 2017 at 1:15pm PDT

Behind-the-scenes

Patagonia shared a quick behind-the-scenes look at their factory.

What makes a factory #FairTrade Certified? Rigorous standards for health and safety, respect for the environmental, no child or forced labor, maternity and paid leave, community empowerment, and additional money back to workers. Learn more about our #FairTradeFleece and the #FairTradeDifference through the link in our profile. ⠀

A post shared by Patagonia (@patagonia) on Oct 10, 2017 at 4:58pm PDT

Product launch

Ben & Jerry’s created a simple looping video to promote a new flavor of ice cream.

If only our world was made out of marshmallow and salted caramel swirls

A post shared by Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) on Nov 8, 2017 at 12:51pm PST

List

We made a short video slideshow sharing five tips that increased our Facebook video views and engagement.

User-generated content

Starbucks compiled photos of its iconic holiday cups from its customers into a simple video slideshow.

For more ideas, check out Facebook’s Creative Hub, where they have listed close to 100 Facebook videos for your inspiration.

How do you create your social media videos?

With videos being the third most-wanted content type in the future (after social media posts and news), it’ll be great to get started now6HubSpot, 2016. Here’s a simple framework you can use (and adapt):

Ideate

Plan

Record

Edit

Share

If you have already been creating videos, I would love to learn from you. Do you have any tips for creating engaging social media videos? How does your video creation process look like?

—

Topic: Video marketing

Image credit: Unsplash, UX Planet

.footnoteContent a{ font-size: 1.3rem !important;} Thank How to Create Engaging Short Videos for Social Media (Including 7 Excellent Examples) for first publishing this post.

[theworstbob]

yellin’ at songs: week 32

brief reviews of the songs which debuted on the billboard hot 100 the weeks of 16 august 1997, 18 august 2007, and 19 august 2017

8.16.1997

6) "2 Become 1," by Spice Girls

This is just a '90s R&B song! This song doesn't even have the courtesy to be kitschy! This is completely indistinguishable from the rest of the '90s R&B, breathy whispered vocals about sex. There's no -- "Be a little bit wiser, baby/Put it on/Put it on" -- okay. OKAY. Sure. I guess that's something. If your song has no other value, might as well throw quality actionable advice in there. I hope the next song is some milquetoast R&B beat while people sing lines like "Your stomach takes a while to tell your brain it's full/Don't have that third slice of the ‘za, baby."

51) "All I Want," by 702

Oh hell yeah, I love this. I love that this is a Missy Elliott track, and I also love that this group did the titular song for Pootie Tang. I am way into this. This is a breezy summer jam that hits all the Good '90s R&B buttons.

54) "To Make You Feel My Love," by Billy Joel

this sounds exactly like you think it would sound and is as pleasant to listen to as you think it would be and i'm just gonna bounce after 30 seconds because i get it, i see what he's trying to do here and don't want to stick around to see if he pulls it off

55) "Big Bad Mama," by Foxy Brown ft./Dru Hill

I don't disagree with this! I can't find any way to hook onto this, but I already called one thing a breezy summer jam because I didn't feel like thinking too hard about it, so I'm in a bit of a predicament here. Like, this song is OK. It has a memorable bass line, Foxy Brown's pretty great at her thing, and whichever member of Dru Hill showed up sure did the most singing of anyone in 1997!, but like I can see why we've left this behind. It's fine. No one needed this one unearthed, though. We've found some buried treasures, y'know? This is like finding a buried booklet of commemorative state quarters. Like, neat! But also, not even $15.

83) "Far from Yours," by O.C. ft./Yvette Michele

"I be the Chosen One/Beyond the Moet and Cristal/A son of King and a Queen/Therefore ability/For song run in my genetics/I gave ideas to L. Ron Hubbard to write books on Dianetics" ...Setting aside the major issues I have with this man's rhyme schemes, IS HE TAKING CREDIT FOR SCIENTOLOGY. IS THI -- IS HE SAYING THAT HE IS THE INSPIRATION FOR SCIENTOLOGY. What the fuck kind of boast. He's saying his raps are so powerful they inspired a crazy man to write books about bad science. I am flummoxed by this song. This would have been just another okay song by a rapper who honestly just seems like a normal-ass dude who somehow wandered into a recoriding studio, but HE'S TAKING CREDIT FOR L. RON HUBBARD'S IDEAS. WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF LUNATIC IS THIS MAN.

89) "Tide Is High," by Angelina

Someone went to the store and said, "OH BOY! Another new verson of 'Tide Is High!' I gotta pick up this new interpretation of this song, which is of course someone's favorite song ever because it's MY favorite song ever!" Also none of the back-up dancers in the video looked like they were trying their absolute best. They knew where they were. They knew it didn't matter. They took a few plays off and got that check. I have so much respect for those backup dancers. ROCK TO THE BEAT ROCK ROCK TO THE BEAT, ROCK TO THE BEAT ROCK ROCK TO THE BEAT and so forth

92) "Relax & Party," by Ivory

So I've been sick the past couple days, which is why this post is going up on Wednesday and why there's no Thing Journal for last week (SUNDAY DOUBLE) and real talk why this has been a weak edition of YAS so far, ‘cuz I'll be honest, I'm still in the doldrums. My back hurts, which is a fun side effect of getting sick in your late 20s, I've found. So I'm not. In a mood? Conducive to caring about this song. I'm sure this is OK, but honestly, right now, in this moment in which we find ourselves, me and this song, sharing the same space on this planet, I could not care less about the things it wants to bring to my life. It's a stupid song and doesn't do anything. It just goes on for four minutes. Great. Great! Hey, just release an album of that fucking bass line for fifty minutes, honestly, it's probably your best bet if you want me to at least respect you.

95) "Dancehall Queen," by Beenie Man ft./Chevelle Franklyn

So there are two different versions of the song "Dancehall Queen" that I could find. There is this one, but there is also one released more recently with Lady Sovereign as the featured artist. So I have a few questions about our beautiful ever-expanding dying universe: 1) What did Chevelle Franklyn do to get deposed? 2) Does Chevelle FRanklyn give input into the decisions Lady Sovreign makes? 3) Who gave Beenie Man the powers of coronation? As far as I can tell, he does not proclaim himself the Dancehall King. 4) How often does the Dancehall Queen title change hands? 5) Is there a library that has data on the Dancehall Queen history which I can look up? 6) What are some books on the Dancehall Queen succession which you would recommend? Let me know in the comments! Hit that follow button and LIKE THIS POST!

8.18.2007

28) "Me Love," Sean Kingston

This is like a song you enjoy if you've never enjoyed a song before. If you're someone who appreciates music and attends symphonies and has opinions on concertos, and you're approached with this song, you'll probably use snooty music language to say, "This is a delightful confection!" Or like, if your musical diet consists entirely of Gary Jules' cover of Mad World and songs of that ilk, if the only songs you've been allowed to enjoy in this life are Gary Jules' "Mad World" cover and other songs which could have been selected for the Donnie Darko soundtrack, and you hear this song for the first time, this is probably the most amazing thing you've ever heard. This would sound so revolutionary. But if you've even heard one other fun pop song, you know this is useless.

89) "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)," Dierks Bentley

it is good when things are nice! at last, a song that says what none of us are brave to say out loud

90) "All My Friends Say," Luke Bryan

I think a couple months ago I tabbed this as a semi-iconic Luke Bryan song, in the sense that it's a song I hear and immediately attribute to Luke Bryan, which is something I can't do for any Blake Shelton song. But like, this is the song that establishes Luke Bryan's persona -- he's a free-wheelin' sumbitch who's gonna drink too much and try not to drunk-dial any ex-girls. There's personality in this song, a hack and shitty personality, but hey at least he hacked up and/or shitted out an identifiable character. All Blake Shelton's songs are about a man who wishes things would either be better or remain the same, depending on how good they presently are. The song is garbage and Luke Bryan only ever got worse, sure, but it is undeniably a product of Luke Bryan’s particular brand of dunderheaded twanging.

100) "Can U Believe," Robin Thicke

There is a long list of things I need to do with my life. Near the top are items like "only wear a suit at your little sister's wedding," "learn the lttp any% nmg speedrun," and "write a whole good thing," you know, standard stuff, standard life goals, and then there's a million pages of things I will never accomplish. Nowhere on that list was "listen to Robin Thicke tell you that I don't know when someone's watching." I did not need to hear Robin Thicke tell me he was stalking me before I died. I could have learned the Blind script with this time. Maybe this is about God? But it's not even vaguley Christian, he just randomly starts saying you never know when someone's watching, which is only something anyone says WHEN THEY ARE PRESENTLY LOOKING AT YOU THROUGH A TWO-WAY MIRROR. Been a decade of garbage with this man, my gosh.

8.19.2017

(38) "You Da Baddest," by Future ft./Nicki Minaj

Beach Future is such a weird thing to consider. I'm on the record as being pro-Beach Future in general, it's not as random a pivot as the time Lil Wayne picked up the electric guitar and said "OH YEAH! THIS IS A THING!" but it's still hard to get the brain around the idea of Beach Future after, what, three years and roughly 20 albums of morose, despondent Future? All of the Future songs I know are about the nightmare of being Famous and codeine, and now he's dropped two songs that are just, "Yeah, man, chillax! Life's pretty breezy, friends, pull up a chair, let's just enjoy a sunset together!" I'm into it? But it feels like the world is imbalanced right now. Beach Future has completely thrown off my equilibrium and I am Scared.

(68) "Unforgettable," by Thomas Rhett

Ah. Balance! After making a surprisingly hot '80s jam earlier this year, Thomas Rhett just sort of bleats over an acoustic guitar for two and a half bland minutes. This song tries to turn the word "mangorita" into a stirring kick-off to its chorus, and while I recognize the enormity of the task it placed upon itself, that doesn't mean it didn't fail to accomplish its goals. "From your blue jeans to your shoes/Girl, the night was just like you/Unforgettable." I'D NEVER SEEN JEANS JUST THAT BLUE BEFORE. I NEVER EVEN KNEW THEY MADE BLUE JEANS IN THAT PARTICULAR SHADE OF BLUE. WHY, THEY WERE... DARE I SAY? TURQUOISE! ALL HISTORY'S SCULPTORS DEVOTED THEIR LIVES TRYING TO MOLD YOU

(85) "When it Rains it Pours," by Luke Combs

A lot of the reason I don’t mind Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban when we run through 2007 is because, when I was growing up, my mom would only listen to country music, and those artists are the ones I minded the least when we were on the half-hour rides to and from church. I forged deep and lasting connections with the dudes I minded the least of anyone else. This song is definitely "best song on the ride to church" quality. It has a Toby Keith-y sense of humor which is more or less agreeable -- I can't imagine any scenario that a waitress at Hooters is impressed enough by any customer at Hooters to leave their number, but here I am, complaining that my suspension of disbelief in a country song was interrupted -- and it's unique, I haven't heard a lot of "fuck her, she's outta my hair!" songs from dude country artists this year. It’s not “I’m Gonna Miss Her,” but what is? Once again, Luke Combs has made a song that's unique enough that I can appreciate its charm, but not so intriguing that I'm gonna seek him out on my own. I'll give his next album a spin, see if he takes the right lessons to heart, but the one he’s got out now, I think I’m good!

(87) "They Don't Know," by Jason Aldean

"Just another field/Just another farm/No, it's the place we grew up on." Jason Aldean is a multi-millionaire who owns several hundred acres of land in a major metropolitan area nad has the chutzpah to speak for the common man. Fuck this dude and fuck him for this Trump-vote of a song.

(88) "Honest," by The Chainsmokers

hey guys the chainsmokers made a song about how they're sensitive boys who're sad about breakup, wow what a fascinating new look for these cats, truly evolving as artists before our very eyes. see, this is the one where they go "whoa-oh." i don't think they've gone "woah-oh" in a song yet. this is a pony certainly capable of developing a second trick!

(89) "The Weekend," by SZA

"What kind of deal is two days?/I need me at least 'bout for of 'em" is one of the single-saddest lyrics 2017 has produced. This song is so good. SZA in general is so good, but I never had to deal with how good this song is, given how much there is to parse with Ctrl. When's the last time we heard from a side piece's perspective, y'know? When's the last time we heard how a booty call felt about being a booty call? We heard "Booty Call," which was about the act of engaging in a booty call, but we don't know anything about the booty call's wants and desires outside of that moment. I enjoy hearing this perspective on the events, hearing from the girl the '90s R&B dude has to apologize for seeing, because that's a person, too, that's a person who's alive and lives a life of their own. It took us until 2017 to get the side piece's take on things. What were the rest of us doing?

(90) "New Rules," by Dua Lipa

This is really enjoyable. Nothing terribly complex, just a "don't fuck your ex" jam, but it's confidently delivered (I get the sense that Dua Lipa is a much better singer than the current musical trends are going to let her be), and I love the subtle horn drop. Evidently, the producer of this song was also involved with "Bad Liar" and "Now and Later," so I'm getting on the Ian Kirkpatrick train. I approve! Great work, all.

(93) "I Wish I Knew You," by The Revivalists

oh wow fuck everything about this. where did this come from? why am i listening to this? did 13 reasons why drop another season? who wanted this. who wanted another indie band biting the hell out of franz ferdinand. they're not even biting franz ferdinand, they're biting all those bands that were biting from franz ferdinand a few years ago, except they're doing so nakedly, "the revivalists" is code for "we have no original ideas." way to revive 2013, yeah dude, it was so long since i heard the neighbourhood, i'm so happy you're reviving four years ago. also this willy wonka-ass muthafucka's hat is stupid. i'm honestly not sure i'm reacting to the song as much as i am the stupid goddamn hat in the music video. (also: i'm not into this song, despite the presence of a saxophone. i have limits. i'm not gonna go home with just any brass instrument, you guys.) white men ruin everything.

(94) "Every Little Thing," by Carly Pearce

Well, number one, it's a country music song with actual drums, so it's automatically starting with 95 points out of a possible 100. This is dope. "They say time is the only healer/God, I hope that isn't right/'Cause right now I'd die to not remember." Fuck, man. That is heavy. And this is a solidly-produced song, too, there's enough going on that the song feels rich and lived-in, but not so much so that it's distracting, it's definitely in the backseat wearing a seatbelt so the lyrics and what might be the saddest fucking voice in 2017 country music can drive in peace. More from this woman, and more from other women, look how good you are when you let women do things, country music!

(97) "Learn to Let Go," by Kesha

I think this is fine. I'm not as into EDM-lite Kesha as I am Kesha declaring her womanhood backed by a million beautiful horns, but this is fine! Three songs. Three songs is enough distance to start delivering back-handed not-criticisms. But no, like, I wouldn't mind this as the opening track to the album, this sets a tone and opens up the possibility for cooler things to come, but on its own, hey! It's just alright, and that's fine! I'm just glad Kesha's making music, y'know?

(98) "All the Pretty Girls," by Kenny Chesney

this song wasn't even released in 2016, what is it doing here, what, why would, i don't, how did we end up here? what do we hope to accomplish while we're here? did he just say "don't blow my cover on freedom night?" what is freedom night? i don't -- you know what country radio, you batted .400 this week. that's ted williams hype, right there. .400 is better than any of us ever could have anticipated, and i can appreciate that you got things as right as you ever possibly could. please tell me what freedom night is, though.

(99) "For Her," by Chris Lane

...adjust that number down to .333. i'm sorry. i saw the haircut and assumed edm, which you'll agree is a fair assumption to make. this dude sucks. he is trying his best with that falsetto but, and i hate to repeat myself, you can't make your own outsized ambition an excuse for your failure. know your limits. i'm sorry i was ever lukewarm about any kesha song. i kinda feel bad for saying those things about the revivalists' hat. this was a good week apart from the bro country! "For her I would walk a straight line/Wear out the soles of my shoes for her." WOAH! SLOW DOWN, BUDDY! LET'S NOT MAKE ANY PROMISES WE CAN'T KEEP, NOW! Careful! Girls remember things you say to them! Imagine how disappointed she'll be when every day she spends with you your shoes still shine as bright as they did the day she met you.

Who won the week?

Well, 2007′s best song was a Luke Bryan joint, so that’s out. Think we gotta give it to 2017. Four shitty country songs, yeah, but 1997 countered with Spice Girls and a Billy Joel cover of a Bob Dylan song, so those cancel out, and the cream of 2017 was much better than the best 1997 gave us this week. I’m still thinking about that Carly Pearce joint, that was really cool, and it anchors an earned win for 2017. THE STANDINGS: 2017: 12 1997: 11 2007: 9 Next week: keep your heart, Three Stacks.