Generating quality website traffic is critical to raising awareness for your mission-driven business. With search engine companies frequently changing their algorithms and requirements, it can be a challenge to stay up-to-date so your site can be visible to as many people as would be interested in what you offer as possible. I’m here to help by explaining why creating content pillars supported by long-tailed keywords is now the latest best practice for search engine optimization (SEO).

As a novice to the business world, I had no idea that there were so many marketing research standards and ethics in place. I have learned that research guidelines are designed to protect a company’s workers, its customers, and the validity of the information gathered — but the risk or reward for certain guidelines are not always clear. How can your small business get the cost-effective marketing research you need while still upholding multiple codes of ethics?

You know that “big donors” come from older generations. But younger generations are just as important. Your nonprofit needs to invest in the future: young people – those who will hear your message, spread your cause, and champion your mission for many years ahead. Building relationships with young people now will allow your organization to increase its network and gain future support.

As a business owner, you most likely already know how critical it is to be active and visible online. Google prioritizes mobile friendly sites over sites that aren’t mobile friendly when listing search results. Considering the oversaturation of websites online, having a mobile optimized website can make your business stand out. Let’s look at exactly why and how mobile optimization will improve your business.

Ephemeral content, which lasts only a short time before disappearing, is on the rise and being led by the popularity of Snapchat. Other platforms like Instagram and Facebook are following in Snapchat’s footsteps, so now more and more platforms are providing a similar service for distributing short-lived content. Ephemeral content is fleeting, and novel, which is the appeal for many (especially younger) users. Live streaming videos, and Snapchat Stories, are a few examples of ephemeral content. Is it worth investing your limited time and money to develop content that disappears in moments or within 24 hours?

You sit down at your computer to develop an infographic and couldn’t be more excited to share it with your mission driven audience. Then you suddenly remember you’re not a designer. Not to worry. In the online world today, nearly anyone has access to free graphic design software and tools to create an infographic. Unfortunately, the increase of free design tools has created an increase in badly designed infographics, and poor typography is often the reason. Your goal is to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time — a poorly designed infographic will be a big fail.

In a 2016 study conducted by RadiumOne, it was reported that 84% of online sharing was now being conducted via ‘dark social,’ with Facebook coming in second at a mere 9%. At this point you might be thinking, ‘What is dark social and why didn’t I know about it until now!’ And that’s exactly the point.

In today's social media marketing world, it's hard to stand out.  It's even harder to stand out and connect with your community at the same time. One opportunity for social media marketing made its debut this year, Facebook Live.

With the current podcast boom brought on by the likes of Serial and This American Life, it seems like there is a podcast for everyone and every brand is podcasting. But before you go out there and grab some equipment like the bright-eyed go-getter I know you are, you better take a look deep inside yourself and answer some questions.

The Change Conversations blog has covered how to make Twitter work for you in previous posts, but today I want to look in more detail at how each tweet reflects on your brand identity. The smallest difference in how you approach messaging on social media can change public perceptions in big ways — and Twitter is the first (and fastest) to reflect any change.

A study conducted by Harvard Business Review about inner work life and performance found people are more productive and creative when their work lives are positive. It is probably no surprise to you to hear employees are more motivated when they are happy with the work they produce and when they have a positive view of the organization they work for. But how do you translate values, ideals and beliefs into action to motivate your team and grow your socially responsible organization? How do you take a concrete set of shared values and create a workplace enviroment that will foster motivation day in and day out?

When you are given a document to read or you are emailed a newsletter containing information to keep you up-to-date, what is going to keep you reading and scrolling? Certainly not never-ending text! That’s what images are for. We need to keep our materials visually relevant as well as informative. But how do you know if it is the right type of image to help you tell the story for your mission-driven organization?

Maintaining a successful social media presence can be a daunting task — juggling your profiles on multiple platforms while keeping pace with the ever-changing social media world is intimidating. Fortunately, there’s a ‘golden rule’ of social media strategy that involves a simple formula, but one that is often overlooked: The Rule of Thirds.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in June of 2015 that Millennials are now the largest generation, outnumbering even the Baby Boomers. Thanks to the Millennial Generation the social media revolution has a large army of foot soldiers.

Vermonters have always taken the disruptive, “beat the band,” approach, or so we believe. The small, motivated, Green Mountain State prides itself on setting the example for legislation transformation and always remaining a step ahead. But how does such a small state have such a large influence on national political and environmental issues? A friend once told me, “it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight; it’s about the size of the fight in the dog.” It takes a passionate group of people with resilient voices to create change and that is something “we Vermonters” have done for many years.

Is your business using Twitter? Maybe not, because you've heard tending to a business Twitter account takes lots of time or money. Finding links, creating amusing posts, and keeping up to date with hashtags and industry news can seem like a job on its own, which is a major drawback when your business has other priorities. But did you know there are ways to grow your Twitter following with minimal effort and without any cost to your budget?

It’s frustrating to be a small business advertiser or nonprofit advocate today, especially if yours is a visually driven world. The return on your promotional tools just keeps getting smaller. Television is weakened by DVRs that let your audience record shows and fast forward through commercials. There has been a 25% drop in newspaper readership for ages 18-24 from 1999 to 2014. In fact, there isn’t a newspaper readership age group that hasn’t dropped at least 20% in that time frame. And the “banner blindness” audiences have developed in response to website banner or pop-up ads has been well documented for years. But Instagram may be your best visual marketing tool ever.

Over the course of my internship at Marketing Partners, I’ve learned about a variety of different topics and acquired some important real-world skills. Working with a mix of clients has exposed me to all sorts of different industries, but here’s one of my biggest takeaways that applies to all of them – social media isn’t a choice for your business anymore – and, as we’ve written about before, using social media for business is very different from personal social media use.