My Top 8 Takeaways from the Alt Summit 2017 Conference

So we’ve established the fact that Alt Summit 2017 was seriously fun. But what did I learn? Because despite what my husband, friends and family thought (Brooke and I ditched our responsibilities and the cold for three days and ran around the desert snapping 4,000 photos when not sitting poolside sipping cocktails and mocktails.), we did much more than that. That was only one day. 😉 For two full days we packed our brains with as much info as possible, took furious notes, shook tons of hands and networked our sun-kissed faces off. There was so much to learn and we did so from some of the very best (Jordan Ferney, Alison Faulkner, Jehan Zencirli, Darcy Miller, Elle Rowley, Susan Peterson, just to name a few). While I have a new notebook full of findings, below my top takeaways from the Alt Summit conference. May they help you as much as they’ve helped me.

1. USE EACH PLATFORM DIFFERENTLY 

This one is fairly common sense but a good reminder to take a little more time (ha!) and be unique on each site. I don’t know about you but I hate seeing the same thing over and over again. If you see the same post promoted, in the same exact way, likely just shared, on Insta, Stories, Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Pinterest… It gets old, quick. Share different things on each one or at least in a new way. Plus, for many, the algorithm works more in your favor if it’s an original post and not a share from another social platform.

2. SHARE OTHER’S STUFF

Not only is this just good manners and karma, sites like Facebook and Twitter reward you for it. If you’re only sharing your stuff and promoting your links, not sharing, retweeting and interacting with others, you’ll be punished for it. Only seeing a few likes, if at all, on Facebook? Start spreading the love and see if that changes!

3. REUSE OLD CONTENT

Spent a ton of time on some really good content and feel like no one ever saw it, it fell flat? It’s likely not a testament to your work but the way in which you promoted it (or didn’t). They say it takes 7 touches (7 times) to convert someone. 7 times! I’m pretty sure you didn’t share it on one social platform 7 times. I know I didn’t. I was lucky if I did it once. Repin, repost, change up the headline or angle… Swap links with other bloggers and friends, put a “top posts” or “most popular” on your homepage, put old posts in newsletters or do annual or holiday round-ups. And check out sharing sites like True Anthem Social and Pub Exchange.

4. PINTEREST

Either this is your best friend or your frenemy. Mine is the latter. I haven’t given it the love it deserves so, in return, it’s given me none which continues the vicious cycle of me ignoring it. Big mistake. Most of the top bloggers I know get the majority of their traffic from Pinterest. I’m making it a 2017 goal to conquer the crap out of it. Wish me luck. The following tips should help…

-Average pin should be 600 x 900

-Speak to the reader, be conversational. For example, don’t say “elastic shoelace replacement” instead say “Never tie your shoelaces again!” Place copy where it looks best on the image or not at all. Some pins without text are doing better these days.

– Repin posts. Don’t delete and add them again. Every 30 days.

– Work 3 months out. Haven’t tackled Easter yet? You’re almost too late. Tackle Mother’s Day NOW! It takes 30 days for pin to really reach people and a full year to reach its full potential.

– Change up the description and keywords with each posts to give the algorithm new life. Are you promoting a post with five different photos? Make sure each has a different description and keywords.

– Use Rich Pins

-Visit the site EVERY DAY (oy!) and be active

5. INSTAGRAM

-Be Active. It rewards people who are active (and timely!) in the app. Like and comment on other’s posts. Not with emojis! 4 words or more, a genuine comment and in real time not days later. Use Insta Stories and Insta Live. The more active you are, the more the algorithm will favor you.

-Strategic Hashtagging. Instead of “coffee” or “coffeeshop” try “coffeeshopcorner” or “coffeeshopmorning”. Change them up and experiment with different ones.

-Targeted Commeting. Find users like you and comment on their accounts and their followers accounts.

-Captions & Shout Outs. Start off with a question, don’t bury it. Try adding something engaging like, “tag a friend who __”, “like this photo if you __”

6. FACEBOOK

-For every 1 post of your own content, you need to do 3 others between that to build up your “battery” (a.k.a. be on the algorithm’s good side). So 1 post promoting your blog or business, 3 other posts (i.e. 1 video, 1 photo, 1 share) with no links. Links drain your “battery”.

-Don’t tag or hashtag in your posts. That also drains your “battery”. If you want to let a business or blogger know you mentioned them in your piece, email them and share the link, don’t do so in the Facebook post.

-Set up trades with other businesses and bloggers. Ask them to share your stuff in exchange for you sharing theirs.

7. ADDING UP YOUR AUDIENCE

You should be counting all of your social following/numbers into your page views and UMV’s.

8. KNOW WHAT OTHERS ARE CHARGING

On average, every 10k followers equal about $100-200 per Instagram post, depending on engagement. If you have high engagement, it could be higher.

$1,000 average blog post per every 100k page views.

Hope this helped! Questions? Just ask below! Here’s to women supporting other women!