While browsing the social media if we find something interesting, our first urge is to share. Our brain conspires to keep us happy. At that moment we want to share happiness with either the someone special or a small group of friends or to the world.

Depending on a large number of factors, you either want to share it and leave it or want a response in return. If it is that special one, you would wait for a response because you want to share that moment of happiness you just experienced.

We care about a few special people in our life and want to see them happy. Sharing a thought, good experience or a picture are ways of sharing happiness.

We respond to happiness because of our brain and the ability to find happiness. Your brain will respond to only those with whom you had a prior moment of happiness.

It is this happiness effect that the social media and even messengers are cashing on.

You can now proceed to read the longer version.

History of stories

In 2013, Snapchat introduced the feature of stories for the first time which had a series of pictures which disappeared after 24 hours. At that time, Snapchat was mostly used by the young people. Stories drew its popularity even further. Twitter was the first one to copy it two years later in 2015.

In 2016, Instagram copied it and soon Facebook and WhatsApp also followed. Finally it appeared on YouTube too.

Curious case of Instagram

For the first time Instagram in a blog update explained how they rank Feed & Stories, Explore section and Reels. Take a look at the screen grab below.

Originally Instagram assumed that people were only interested in seeing original stories shared by people. Also Instagram was initially not ranking anything from stories shared. However soon Instagram realised that people were sharing anything and everything in their stories and soon enough they had to change the algorithm.

The happiness factor – exploited

Happiness is believed to be the most dominant human emotion. So our brain is working overtime to keep us happy. All the day we have our happy moments. Instinctively we reach out to share. In the old days, with no digital communications we used to wait till the end of the day for a family time for talking and sharing. Today we are connected 24×7 and each happy moment we reach out for our smartphone.

For those lucky ones, be rest assured that you will get a constant stream of updates from that one special person which will actually make you more happier. While sharing this person is actually waiting for your response.

For those unlucky ones, who do not have that someone special, there is a group of close friends. Stories is the place where status updates are posted and the response goes to DM.

For those cursed ones who do not have friends share their stories to the world with their public account.

With most of the behaviour data available with the social media, they have seen the rise of story sharing. They are exploiting the happiness factor.

Story sharing for different scenarios

For personal accounts sharing for friends or for entertainment purpose is what most of us do. Instagram and Facebook measures the metrics just for data mining about behaviour. If you share sensitive information, you will land up in trouble with a ban.

For public accounts and small creators, Instagram goes all the way to give them space to grow and reach more audience. Originality and consistence is the key to get more visibility.

Brand owners can use stories to promote content and allow it to reach a wider audience. The first action which most people do as soon as they open the app is to check stories. It is basic human tendency to check what someone else is doing first. To get to that, you have to first have a target list of people whom you have to follow. Here is the suggest list of whom to.

• Other accounts of similar products which you sell
• Your suppliers and whole-sellers
• Other accounts connected to your brand
• Your prior customers/clients
• Potential target audience

The post Why do we like to share – the science and stats appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Define blog niche

Lifestyle blogs can cover just about anything. But besides that, you have to define your niche. Even a broad based category like photography or travel may not work. This is the age of micro niche. Agreed that many people are good at everything. However writing about specific topics will help you to focus. If you are on a writing assignment, understand the blog niche for which you are writing. Many times the blog owner will not clear before giving you an assignment. If required, ask questions.

Choose the right topic

Get the topic right. As a start point it will matter whether your prospective reader will start reading your article or not. Title should be long, it can have numbers and it can be a question also. Too long topics have problem with visibility when shared on messengers or social media. Your SEO plugin will warn you if the topic is too long or if there are any problems. The bottom line to understand is that topic should be clear, to the point and should contain your keyword.

Keyword research

At this point writers should come to terms with the fact that in today’s digital publishing, there is no job for a pure writer. Isolating yourself and then expecting that people will read you stuff, those days are gone. As a writer you should be updated with the latest trends of social media, understand the technical aspects of topic selected and should be able to post the article on any platform. That is just the basic. Anything more will surely get you to the top of the food chain. But first let us understand what is keyword research. For writing an article which are the term that your readers will expect in the article, which concepts you need to explain, what will interest them. All this comes under keyword research. If you are just writing for your blog, then keyword research is an ongoing process. But even if you are writing for some other website, you still need to do keyword research. Sometimes you might get even less than a day to submit the article. That is why selecting a niche is important because then you can keep track of just your niche and become an expert on that subject.

Master the SEO plugin

Whichever WordPress plugin you are using for SEO, it has a technical part and a writing part. Understand both and get maximum scores for your article. As a writer one does find hesitation and difficulty in the technical aspects of blogging and vice-versa for SEO and Digital Marketing experts. But as a single person webmaster or blogger, you have to don both the roles. The SEO plugin will give you a fair insight into your writing skills as well.

Master the language

Few years back, English was the primary language of the internet and content writers were grammar junkies. But now thanks to the penetration of smartphones all over the world, the three primary languages are become Hindi, Chinese and Arabic. Bloggers need to have a good command over the written language. Be grammatically correct and keep sentences to the point. Use simple words and break down long sentences into shorter ones. Do not use too many clichés.

300 words or 600 words

Two most popular SEO plugins on WordPress gives an article a minimum of 300 to 600 words. Rank Math SEO plugin asks us to write a 600 word article. Authors then report to filling up the article with unnecessary sentences. The paragraph goes on and on. If readers lost interest, they will simply close the page and leading to an increase in bounce rate. In classical terms it is called beating around the bush. If a post is just an announcement or some news to share, it can be less than 100 words too. Just don’t over do it for the sake of SEO compliance.

Structure the article

A post should be like a full size burger. Introduction like the top bun, lustrous and sprinkled with sesame seeds. One look at the introduction should entice anyone reading it to go on. Next comes the fresh and crunchy veggies. Bring out something interesting. A fact or two which no one is aware. Some unique points or even controversial points can do. Next comes the meat and cheese or the patty. Put all details here and break it down to minor points if required. Finally the bottom bun which supports the whole thing and finishes the structure. In case of a restaurant review it can include points like would you visit again or what will be the lasting memories of the place.

Make use of sufficient headings and sub headings. If the article is too long, use table of contents. Use references only if necessary. Use bold and italics as you feel fit. And do not forget to add relevant images wherever necessary. Give credits wherever due and use stock images if you do not want to click them.

The post How to write posts for a blog appeared first on Start Blog Writing.

Pre-requisites and preparations

• Get the post and caption ready. Description if needed and hash tags.
• Connect Instagram with Facebook page for automatic posting.
• Choose the suitable time for posting as per the composition of your audience.

Step 1 – Post on Instagram

Create a post on Instagram. Linking with FB page should auto post on Facebook too. Create a link of the post on story. Make it catchy and attractive for people to click on it. Story on Instagram is replicated on FB stories also. But you can create a different Facebook story. You can share a story between close friends too.

Step 2 – Create a Facebook Story

Facebook is the largest social media network and build your social circle and client circle around Facebook. Stories are the best way to reach to your audience. It is the fastest way to take your followers to new content on your page. Post can be featured in profile story as well as page story.

Step 3 – Share you post in Groups

Facebook groups are active and they help you meet people with similar interests. Some groups are area based and include general members from all categories and background. Small locality groups are very useful to promote your services in the form of a post. Keep searching for groups which your posts will fit and engage your audience.

Step 4 – Share to Google My Business

Google My Business should be on the top of your to do list. Even if you do not want to mark a location publicly on Google Maps, you should have a presence. Offers and Services especially can be posted on Google My Business so that any customer coming for the first time is able to see your portfolio.

Step 5 – Share to other social media

Finally you can share to the rest of the social media accounts like Twitter or Pinterest and so on. Remember, there are far too many social media networks these days to even keep a track of, leave alone getting meaningful traffic from it. Besides you do not want to keep posting content throughout the day.

The post Why the 12 hour gap between posts – work flow for social media appeared first on Start Blog Writing.