CX Demo

Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • The Ultimate Guide to Google Search Console in 2021

    What is Google Search Console?
    Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a free platform for anyone with a website to monitor how Google views their site and optimize its organic presence. That includes viewing your referring domains, mobile site performance, rich search results, and highest-traffic queries and pages.

    At any given time, I have GSC open in 2 to 10 tabs. It’s helpful on a macro and micro level — both when I need to see how many impressions HubSpot is gaining month over month or figure out what’s happened to a high-traffic blog post that suddenly fell.
    I’m a content strategist on HubSpot’s SEO team, which means GSC is particularly useful to me. But anyone who’s got a website can and should dip their toes in these waters. According to Google, whether you’re a business owner, SEO specialist, marketer, site administrator, web developer, or app creator, Search Console will come in handy.
    I remember the first time I opened GSC — and it was overwhelming. There were tons of labels I didn’t understand (index coverage?!?), hidden filters, and confusing graphs. Of course, the more I used it, the less confusing it became.
    But if you want to skip the learning curve (and why wouldn’t you), good news: I’m going to reveal everything I’ve learned about how to use Google Search Console like a pro.
    This guide covers:

    Adding your website to Google Search Console
    Setting up owners, users, and permissions
    Submitting a sitemap
    Understanding dimensions and metrics
    Adding filters

    Using GSC (24 use cases)

    First things first. If you haven’t already signed up for GSC, it’s time to do so.

    How to Add Your Website to Google Search Console

    Sign into your Google account. Make sure you’re using your business (not personal) account if it’s a business website.
    Go to Google Webmaster Tools.
    Click “Add a property.”
    Choose “Website” from the drop-down menu and enter the URL of your site. Make sure you’re using the exact URL that appears in the browser bar.
    Click “Continue.”
    Pick a way to verify you own your website (HTML file upload, domain name provider, HTML tag, GA tracking code, or GTM container snippet).
    If your site supports both http:// and https://, add both as separate sites. You must also add each domain (for example, hubspot.com, blog.hubspot.com, and www.hubspot.com).

    Google starts tracking data for your property as soon as you add it to GSC — even before it’s verified you’re the site owner.
    Verifying Your Site on GSC
    Because GSC gives you access to confidential information about a site or app’s performance (plus influence over how Google crawls that site or app!), you have to verify you own that site or app first.
    Verification gives a specific user control over a specific property. You must have at least one verified owner per GSC property.
    Also, note that verifying your property doesn’t affect PageRank or its performance in Google search. Of course, you can use GSC data to strategize how to rank higher — but simply adding your website to GSC won’t automatically make your rankings go up.
    GSC Verification Methods

    HTML file upload: Upload a verification HTML file to a specific location of your website.
    Domain name provider: Sign into your domain registrar (like GoDaddy, eNom, or networksolutions.com), and verify your site directly from GSC or add a DNS TXT or CNAME record.
    HTML tag: Add a <meta> tag to the <HEAD> section of a specific page’s HTML code.
    Google Analytics tracking code: Copy the GA tracking code that you use on your site. (You need “edit” permission in GA for this option.)
    Google Tag Manager container snippet code: Copy the GTM container snippet code associated with your site. (You need View, Edit, and Manage container-level permissions in GTM for this option.)

    Google-hosted sites, including Blogger and Sites pages, are automatically verified.
    URL Versions: WWW Domain or Not?
    True or false: hubspot.com and www.hubspot.com are the same domain.
    The answer? False! Each domain represents a different server; those URLs might look very similar, but from a technical perspective, they’re two unique domains.
    However, if you type “hubspot.com” into your browser bar, you’ll land at “www.hubspot.com”. What is this sorcery?
    HubSpot has chosen “www.hubspot.com” as its preferred, or canonical, domain. That means we’ve told Google we want all of our URLs displayed in search as “www.hubspot.com/……”. And when third parties link to our pages, those URLs should be treated as “www.hubspot.com/……” as well.

    If you don’t tell GSC which domain you prefer, Google may treat the www and non-www versions of your domain as separate — splitting all those page views, backlinks, and engagement into two. Not good.
    (At this time you should also set up a 301 redirect from your non-preferred domain to your preferred one, if you haven’t already.)

    GSC Users, Owners, and Permissions
    There are two GSC role-types. I know you might be itching to get to the good stuff (cough the data) but it’s important to do this right.

    Owner: An owner has total control over their properties in GSC. They can add and remove other users, change the settings, see all data, and access every tool. A verified owner has completed the property verification process, while a delegated owner has been added by a verified one. (Delegated owners can add other delegated owners.)

    User: A user can see all data and take some actions, but can’t add new users. Full users can see most data and take some actions, while restricted users can only view most data.

    Think carefully about who should have which permissions. Giving everyone full ownership could be disastrous — you don’t want someone to accidentally change an important setting. Try to give your team members just as much authority as they need and no further.
    For example, at HubSpot, our technical SEO manager Victor Pan is a verified owner. I’m an SEO content strategist, which means I use GSC heavily but don’t need to change any settings, so I’m a delegated owner. The members of our blogging team, who use GSC to analyze blog and post performance, are full users.
    Here are detailed instructions on adding and removing owners and users in Search Console.
    There’s a third role: an associate. You can associate a Google Analytics property with a Search Console account — which will let you see GSC data in GA reports. You can also access GA reports in two sections of Search Console: links to your site, and Sitelinks.
    A GA property can only be associated with one GSC site, and vice versa. If you’re an owner of the GA property, follow these instructions to associate it with the GSC site.

    Do You Need a Sitemap?
    A sitemap isn’t necessary to show up in Google search results. As long as your site is organized correctly (meaning pages are logically linked to each other) , Google says its web crawlers will normally find most of your pages.
    But there are four situations a sitemap will improve your site’s crawlability:

    It’s really big. The more pages you have, the easier it is for Googlebot to miss any changes or additions.

    It has lots of “isolated” pages. Any page that has few inbound links from other pages is harder for a web crawler to discover.

    It’s new. Newer sites have few backlinks (links from other sites) making them less discoverable.

    It uses rich media content and/or shows up in Google News. In these cases, your sitemap makes it easier for Google to format and display your site in search.

    Once you’ve built your sitemap, submit it using the GSC sitemaps tool.
    GSC Sitemaps Report
    After Google has processed and indexed your sitemap, it will appear in the Sitemaps report. You’ll be able to see when Google last read your sitemap and how many URLs it’s indexed.

    GSC Dimensions and Metrics
    There are a few terms you should understand before using GSC.
    What’s a Google Search Console query?
    This is a search term that generated impressions of your site page on a Google SERP. You can only find query data in Search Console, not Google Analytics.
    What’s an impression?
    Each time a link URL appears in a search result, it generates an impression. The user doesn’t have to scroll down to see your search result for the impression to count.
    What’s a click?
    When the user selects a link that takes them outside of Google Search, that counts as one click. If the user clicks a link, hits the back button, then clicks the same link again — still one click. If then, they click a different link — that’s two clicks.
    When a user clicks a link within Google Search that runs a new query, that’s not counted as a click.
    Also, this doesn’t include paid Google results.
    What’s average position?
    This is the mean ranking of your page(s) for a query or queries. Suppose our guide to SEO tools is ranking #2 for “SEO software” and #4 for “keyword tools.” The average position for this URL would be 3 (assuming we were ranking for literally nothing else).
    What’s CTR?
    CTR, or click-through rate, is equal to Clicks divided by Impressions, multiplied by 100. If our post shows up in 20 searches, and generates 10 clicks, our CTR would be 50%.

    Filtering in Google Search Console
    GSC offers several different ways to view and parse your data. These filters are incredibly handy, but they can also be confusing when you’re familiarizing yourself with the tool.
    Search Type
    There are three search types: web, image, and video. I typically use “web,” since that’s where most of the HubSpot Blog traffic comes from, but if you get a lot of visits from image and/or video search, make sure you adjust this filter accordingly.

    You can also compare two types of traffic. Just click the “Compare” tab, choose the two categories you’re interested in, and select “Apply.”
    This can lead to some interesting findings. For example, I discovered this color theory 101 post is getting more impressions from image search than web (although the latter is still generating more clicks!).

    Date Range
    GSC now offers 16 months of data (up from 90 days). You can choose from a variety of pre-set time periods or set a custom range.

    As with search type, you can also compare two date ranges in the “Compare” tab.
    Queries, Page, Country, Device, Search Appearance
    Click “New” next to the Date filter to add up to five other types of filters: query, page, country, device, and search appearance.

    These filters can be layered; for instance, if I wanted to see data for SEO-related queries appearing on mobile search, I’d add a filter for queries containing “SEO” on mobile devices. If I only wanted to limit the results even further to posts on the Marketing Blog, I’d add another filter for Pages containing the URL “blog.hubspot.com/marketing”.
    You can get very specific here — I recommend playing around with different combinations of filters so you see what’s possible.
    Index Coverage Report
    The index coverage report shows you the status of every page Google has tried to index on your site. Using this report, you can diagnose any indexing issues. Each page is assigned one of four statuses:

    Error: The page couldn’t be indexed.

    Warning: The page is indexed but has a problem.

    Excluded: The page is an alternate page with content duplicate with a canonical page. For this reason, it has been purposefully excluded while the canonical page has been found and indexed.

    Submitted Sitemaps
    In this area, you can make your sitemap available to Google and see its status.

    Can you see why I love GSC? Let’s dig into each use case.
    1. Identify your highest-traffic pages.

    Click Performance.
    Click the “Page” tab (next to Queries).
    Change the date range to “Last 12 months”. (A full year gives you a comprehensive overview of your traffic, but feel free to adjust the time period.)
    Make sure “Total clicks” is selected.
    Click the small downward arrow next to “Clicks” to sort from highest to lowest.

    2. Identify your highest-CTR queries.

    Click Performance.
    Click the “Queries” tab.
    Change the date range to “Last 12 months”. (A full year gives you a comprehensive overview of your traffic, but feel free to adjust the time period.)
    Make sure “Average CTR” is selected.
    Click the small downward arrow next to “CTR” to sort from highest to lowest.

    Note: It’s useful to look at this in tandem with “Impressions” (check “Total impressions” to see this information side-by-side). A page might have high CTR but low impressions, or vice versa — you won’t get the full picture without both data points.

    3. Look at average CTR.

    Click Performance.
    Click the date to adjust the time period. Choose whatever range you’re interested in. (Alternatively, click “Compare” to analyze two date ranges at once.)
    Look at “Average CTR”.
    Click Performance.
    Click the date to adjust the time period. Choose whatever range you’re interested in. (Alternatively, click “Compare” to analyze two date ranges at once.)
    Look at “Total impressions”.
    Go to Status > Performance.
    Click the date to adjust the time period. Choose whatever range you’re interested in. (Alternatively, click “Compare” to analyze two date ranges at once.)
    Look at “Average position”.

    4. Monitor your CTR over time.
    I recommend keeping an eye on CTR. Any significant movement is significant: If it’s dropped, but impressions have gone up, you’re simply ranking for more keywords, so average CTR has declined. If CTR has increased, and impressions have decreased, you’ve lost keywords. If both CTR and impressions have gone up, congrats — you’re doing something right!
    5. Monitor your impressions over time.
    As you create more content and optimize your existing pages, this number should increase. (As always, there are exceptions — maybe you decided to target a small number of high conversion keywords rather than a lot of average conversion ones, are focusing on other channels, etc.)
    6. Monitor average position over time.
    Average position isn’t that useful on a macro level. Most people are concerned when it goes up — but that’s shortsighted. If a page or set of pages starts ranking for additional keywords, average position usually increases; after all, unless you’re ranking for the exact same position or better as your existing keywords, your “average” will get bigger.
    Don’t pay too much attention to this metric.

    7. Identify your highest-ranking pages.

    Click Performance.
    Click the “Page” tab.
    Change the date range to “Last 28 days.” (You want an up-to-date, accurate snapshot of your pages.)
    Make sure “Average position” is selected.
    Click the small upward arrow next to “Position” to sort from smallest (good) to highest (bad).
    Click Performance.
    Click the “Page” tab.
    Change the date range to “Last 28 days.” (You want an up-to-date, accurate snapshot of your pages.)
    Make sure “Average position” is selected.
    Click the small downward arrow next to “Position” to sort from highest (bad) to lowest (good).

    Because you’re looking at average position by URL, that number is the mean of all of that page’s rankings. In other words, if it’s ranking for two keywords, it might be #1 for a high-volume query and #43 for a low-volume one — but the average will still be 22.
    With that in mind, don’t judge the success or failure of a page by “average position” alone.
    8. Identify your lowest-ranking pages
    Follow the same steps that you would to identify your highest-ranking pages, except this time, toggle the small upward arrow next to “Position” to sort from highest (bad) to smallest (good).
    9. Identify ranking increases and decreases.

    Click Performance.
    Click the “Query” tab.
    Click “Date range” to change the dates, then choose the “Compare” tab.
    Select two equivalent time periods, then click “Apply.”

    At this point, you can look at the data in GSC, or export it. For an in-depth analysis, I highly recommend the second — it’ll make your life much easier.
    To do so, click the downward arrow beneath “Search Appearance,” then download it as a CSV file or export it to Google Sheets.

    After you have this data in spreadsheet form, you can add a column for the position differences (Last 28 days Position – Previous 28 days Position), then sort by size.
    If the difference is positive, your site has moved up for that query. If it’s negative, you’ve dropped.
    10. Identify your highest-traffic queries.

    Click Performance.
    Click the “Query” tab.
    Click “Date range” to choose a time period.
    Make sure “Total clicks” is selected.
    Click the small downward arrow next to “Clicks” to sort from highest to lowest.

    Knowing which queries bring in the most search traffic is definitely useful. Consider optimizing the ranking pages for conversion, periodically updating them so they maintain their rankings, putting paid promotion behind them, using them to link to lower-ranked (but just as if not more important) relevant pages, and so on.
    11. Compare your site’s search performance across desktop, mobile, and tablet.

    Click Performance.
    Go to the “Devices” tab.
    Make sure “Total clicks,” “Total impressions,” “Average CTR,” and “Average Position” are selected.
    Compare your performance across desktop, mobile, and tablet.

    12. Compare your site’s search performance across different countries.

    Click Performance.
    Go to the “Countries” tab.
    Make sure “Total clicks,” “Total impressions,” “Average CTR,” and “Average Position” are selected.
    Compare your performance across nations.

    13. Learn how many of your pages have been indexed.

    Start at “Overview.”
    Scroll down to the Index coverage summary.
    Look at the “Valid pages” count.

    14. Learn which pages haven’t been indexed and why.

    Go to Overview > Index coverage.
    Scroll down to the Details box to learn which Errors are causing indexing issues and how frequent they are.
    Double-click on any Error type to see the affected page URLs.

    15. Monitor total number of indexed pages and indexing errors.

    Go to Overview > Index coverage.
    Make sure “Error”, “Valid with warnings”, “Valid”, and “Excluded” are all selected.

    The total number of indexed pages on your site should typically go up over time as you:

    Publish new blog posts, create new landing pages, add additional site pages, etc.
    Fix indexing errors

    If indexing errors go up significantly, a change to your site template might be to blame (because a large set of pages have been impacted at once). Alternatively, you may have submitted a sitemap with URLs Google can’t crawl (because of ‘noindex’ directives, robots.txt, password-protected pages, etc.).
    If the total number of indexed pages on your site drops without a proportional increase in errors, it’s possible you’re blocking access to existing URLs.
    In any case, try to diagnose the issue by looking at your excluded pages and looking for clues.
    16. Identify mobile usability issues.

    Click Mobile Usability.
    Make sure “Error” is selected.
    Scroll down to the Details box to learn which Errors are causing mobile usability issues and how frequent they are.
    Double-click on any Error type to see the affected page URLs.

    17. Learn how many total backlinks your site has.

    Click Links.
    Open the Top linked pages report.
    Look at the box labeled “Total external links.”
    Click the downward arrow next to “Incoming links” to sort from highest to lowest backlinks.

    Every backlink is a signal to Google that your content is trustworthy and useful. In general, the more backlinks the better! Of course, quality matters — one link from a high-authority site is much more valuable than two links from low-authority sites. To see which sites are linking to a specific page, simply double-click that URL in the report.
    18. Identify which URLs have the most backlinks.

    Click Links.
    Open the Top linked pages report.
    Click the downward arrow next to “Incoming links” to sort from highest to lowest backlinks.

    If you want to help a page rank higher, adding a link from a page with a ton of backlinks is a good bet. Those backlinks give that URL a lot of page authority — which it can then pass on to another page on your site with a link.

    19. Identify which sites link to you the most.

    Click Links.
    Scroll down to “Top linking sites” > “More.”

    Knowing your top referring domains is incredibly useful for promotion — I’d recommend starting with these sites whenever you do a link-building campaign. (Just make sure to use a tool like Moz, SEMrush, or Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs to filter out the low-authority ones first.)
    These may also be good candidates for comarketing campaigns or social media partnerships.
    20. Identify the most popular anchor text for external links.

    Click Links.
    Scroll down to “Top linking text” > “More.”

    Anchor text should be as descriptive and specific as possible — and best case scenario, include your keyword. If you find websites linking to your pages but using anchor text like “Click here” “Learn more”, “Check it out”, etc., consider sending an email asking them to update the hyperlink.
    21. Identify which pages have the most internal links.

    Click Links.
    Scroll down to “Top linked pages” > “More.”

    It’s normal for some URLs to have more inbound links. For example, if you run an ecommerce site, every product page in your “Skirts” category will link back to the “Skirts” overview page. That’s a good thing: It tells Google your top-level URLs are the most important (which helps them rank higher).
    However, a heavily skewed link distribution ratio isn’t ideal. If a tiny percentage of your URLS are getting way more links than the rest, it’ll be difficult for the 95% to receive search traffic — you’re not passing enough authority to them.
    Here’s what a heavily skewed distribution looks like:

    The optimal spread looks like this:

    Use GSC’s link data to learn how your links are distributed and if you need to focus on making your link distribution more smooth.
    22. Learn how many total internal links your site has.

    Click Links.
    Scroll down to “Top linked pages” > “More.”
    Look at the box labeled “Total internal links.”

    23. Find and fix AMP errors.

    Click AMP.
    Make sure “Error” is selected.
    Scroll down to the “Details” box to see which types of issues you have and how frequent they are.

    Google recommends fixing errors before looking at the pages in the “Valid with warnings” category. By default, errors are ranked by severity, frequency, and whether you’ve addressed them.
    24. See Google how Google views a URL.

    Click the white magnifying glass at the top of the page.
    Enter the page URL. (Make sure it belongs to the property you’re currently viewing.)

    Here’s how to interpret the results. If the URL is on Google, that means it’s indexed and can appear in search.
    That doesn’t mean it will — if it’s been marked as spam or you’ve removed or temporarily blocked the content, it won’t appear. Google the URL; if it shows up, searchers can find it.
    Open the Index coverage card to learn more about the URL’s presence on Google, including which sitemaps point to this URL, the referring page that led Googlebot to this URL, the last time Googlebot crawled this URL, whether you’ve allowed Googlebot to crawl this URL, whether Googlebot actually could fetch this URL, whether this page disallows indexing, the canonical URL you’ve set for this page, and the URL Google has selected as the canonical for this page.
    The Enhancements section gives you information on:

    The AMP version of this page, if it exists, and any AMP-specific issues
    Status for job posting and/or recipe structured data

    Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • 50 YouTube Stats Every Video Marketer Should Know in 2021

    In 2005, when I was 10 years old, a kid from my neighborhood was bear hugging a fallen tree trunk that bridged across our creek and yelled, “I better not see this on YouTube!”
    That was the first time I’d ever heard of YouTube. And it definitely wasn’t the last time I’d hear about it. YouTube has experienced explosive growth since it was founded in an office garage in 2005. Just one year after its inception, it was attracting more than 65,000 new video uploads and 100 million video views per day. A couple of months later, the high-growth startup was acquired for over $1 billion by a titan in the tech industry — Google.
    Since then, YouTube has opened up avenues for brands to advertise on their videos and, in turn, let content creators earn a living just by making videos. This potential for monetization has incentivized content creators to craft the most engaging videos possible and host them on the platform, which has enabled YouTube to become the second most trafficked website and the second largest search engine in the world.
    As a video marketer, you already know how crucial building a YouTube presence is for boosting your videos’ and brand’s visibility. But if you just started your brand’s YouTube channel or need some help convincing your boss to double down on your YouTube efforts, we’ve got you covered.
    Check out these stats about the platform’s mobile usage, its demographics, subscriber growth, general usage, and history that can help you build your YouTube following or persuade your boss to focus more of your efforts on the video platform.
    YouTube Stats Every Video Marketer Should Know in 2021

    How many videos are on YouTube?
    1. Since 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute (and a lot of those videos violate YouTube’s guidelines and subsequently get taken down) it’s impossible to determine the exact number of videos hosted on the platform. However, over one billion hours of videos are watched on YouTube every day.

    What is the most-watched video on YouTube?
    2. “Baby Shark Dance” by Pinkfong Kids’ Songs & Stories is the most-watched video on YouTube. It has received over 7.91 billion views since 2016.

    How many people use YouTube?
    3. YouTube has over more than 2 billion users.

    YouTube Mobile Stats
    4. On mobile devices alone, YouTube reaches more adults aged 18-49 during prime time than any cable network does in an average week.
    5. 75% of adults report watching YouTube on their mobile devices.
    6. More than 70% of YouTube watch time is generated from mobile devices.
    7. Over 50,000 years of product review videos have been watched on mobile devices since 2017.
    8. In 2020, YouTube was the fourth most popular IOS app after ZOOM, TikTok, and Disney+.
    YouTube Demographics Stats
    9. Over 77% of 15-35 year-old American internet users watch videos on YouTube.
    10. Over 67% of American internet users who are aged 56 and over watch videos on YouTube.
    11. Over 50% of YouTube’s audience is female.
    12. 39.4% of social media users in the U.S. expected their YouTube usage to increase significantly while staying at home.
    13. 24.3% of social media users in the U.S. expected their YouTube usage to increase slightly while staying at home.
    14. 70% of millennial YouTube users watched a YouTube video to learn how to do something new or learn about something they’re interested in.
    15. 16.6% of YouTube’s website visitors are from the United States.
    16. YouTube attracts the most visitors from the United States, India, and Japan.
    17. YouTube is available in more than 100 countries.
    18. YouTube is available in 80 different languages.
    YouTube Subscriber Growth Stats
    19. The number of channels with more than 1 million subscribers increased by more than 65% since last year.
    20. The number of YouTubers who earn six figures per year has increased by more than 40% since last year.
    21. The number of YouTubers who earn five figures per year has increased by more than 50% since last year.
    22. The top ten YouTubers earned 30% more revenue from June of 2019 to June of 2020 compared to the previous year.
    23. T-Series, a Hindi music channel, is the most popular YouTube channel with 171 million subscribers, followed by PewDiePie with 109 million subscribers.
    24. The most popular branded YouTube channel is LEGO, which has over 10.04 billion views.
    YouTube Usage Stats
    25. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine.
    26. YouTube is the second most trafficked website behind Google.
    27. YouTube users collectively watch over 1 billion hours of content daily.
    28. Watch time for shopping-related videos grew more than 5X in the U.S. between 2016 and 2018.
    29. The majority of the most popular YouTube videos are music videos.
    30. YouTube is the most popular music streaming site.
    31. 70% of viewers say that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands.
    32. Viewers say they’re twice as likely to buy something they saw on YouTube.
    33. Viewers are four times more likely to use YouTube to find information about a brand, product, or service (vs. other platforms).
    34. YouTube users watch more than 180 million hours of content on TV screens every day.
    35. YouTube users are three times more likely to prefer watching a YouTube tutorial video compared to reading the product’s instructions.
    36. “Relaxing” and “feeling entertained” are the top two reasons viewers watch YouTube.
    37. Relaxation videos like soap cutting and slime playing experienced a 70% increase in watch time in 2018.
    38. Comedy, music, entertainment/pop culture, and “how to” are the four most popular content categories on YouTube.
    YouTube History Stats
    39. “YouTube.com” was activated on February 14, 2005.
    40. “Me at the zoo” was the first video uploaded to YouTube on April 25, 2005.
    41. Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 billion on October 9, 2006.
    42. YouTube launched InVideo ads in December 2007.
    43. YouTube streamed the United States presidential debates for the first time in 2012.
    44. The youngest successful YouTuber is Ryan ToysReview, who is a 8-year old boy who makes $22 million a year and has 22 million subscribers.
    45. “Gangnam Style”’s surge in popularity broke the video’s view counter.
    46. YouTube provides a free space in Los Angeles where YouTubers with over 10,000 subscribers can learn, connect, and create videos with each other.
    47. The first YouTube video that reached one million views was a 2005 Nike ad that featured football star, Ronaldinho.
    48. The YouTube video that received the most views in 24 hours is BTS’s “Dynamite” music video, which attracted 101.1 million views in a single day.
    49. The most liked video on YouTube is the music video for the song “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee. It has received over 42.71 million likes and boasts an 89.65% like percentage.
    50. YouTube’s own YouTube Rewind 2018 video is the most disliked video on the platform. It has received over 18 million dislikes and owns an 86.38% dislike percentage.
    Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • Giving negative feedback: 8 key tips for Managers, and for others too 🙂

     

     

    Giving negative feedback might be a tough nut to crack for both, the employee and the employer. We collected our pearls of wisdom in a short, concise guide to master the art of giving constructive opinions on one’s work.

     

    Not the first time, not the last

     

    Whoever has not had tears in the eyes after receiving negative feedback from the employer should cast a stone first. The truth is – negative opinions on your work can be really unpleasant, unhelpful, and hard to handle when delivered badly. On the other side of this coin is the feedback giver, who may find the burden of reproving someone even harder. As it turns out, it is neither easy to give nor take. 

     

    Does this mean, when your feedback is not likely to be positive, you shouldn’t give it at all? No such thing! 65% of employees want to receive their feedback to get a better overview of their work. Let’s dig a bit deeper into the matter, and see 8 relatively easy tips to give your negative opinions like a pro.

     

    Don’t be on a short fuse

     

    Everyone gets it, someone hasn’t done the expected work, and you are going berserk. You truly don’t want to criticize your employee when you are still angry or upset. If tempers are hot, better to wait it out, and then take a problem with a fresh head. Giving constructive feedback makes sense as soon as the situation arises but when the atmosphere is heated, it is better to wait until the next morning.

     

    Constructive, not critical

     

    Choosing your words wisely may affect how valuable your opinion is. The key to giving your negative feedback is to focus on improvement and assuring the employee won’t let another failure happen. Focus more on a situation that occurred, highlight the problems and how to solve them, but don’t criticize the competence of employees. After all, you don’t want to lead to a mental breakdown, or if you do, keep tissues close. 

     

    Face-to-face makes sense

     

    Under any circumstances, do not let your feedback be heard by others. Your opinion on someone’s work should be available only to that person. Letting the information slip outside your office, would be seen as a really douchey move, therefore find a private place, schedule a meeting or a call, and converse one to one.

     

    Be specific

     

    Don’t beat around the bush, effective feedback is specific. Don’t generalize, don’t say things like: “Hey, you are failing this task time and again.” Instead, you could try to specify the things your employee has been doing wrong and list them. Pointing out particular mistakes, with proposed solutions will lead to better understanding and possibly eliminating the issue.

     

    Listen before you speak

     

    Consider that the person responsible for the fuckup has something to say about the occurred situation. Hear the person out, better be sure that you have all the important information before you act. Try putting yourself in the employee’s shoes and listen to the issues, challenges, and fears that person might have. By showing your empathy and that you want to help, employees are more likely to be more receptive.

     

    Don’t pre-judge

     

    This one is simple and strictly connected to the previous tip. Do not make assumptions before talking to the employee. Do not interrogate others first, do not judge before the talk – that could just worsen the situation.

     

    Sandwich, anyone?

     

    No one is neither all bad nor all good. Even if you intend to give strictly negative feedback, maybe try to balance it a bit. Ever heard of Feedback Sandwich? No, it’s not the newest position in Subway, it’s a strategy comparing the talk with the employee to a sandwich structure. The top of the bun, in this case, would be a bit of positive affirmation, something like: “I know you did all you could, and you were trying.” Then comes the time for the sandwich filling, which you know comes after one magical word: “BUT…” *insert constructive criticism*, and then it comes to the bottom of the bun, which is another positive affirmation. Easy and clever!

     

    Be consistent

     

    Remember about constant feedback and don’t let it stack. By interacting regularly with your recipient, you avoid lengthy and unexpected talks. Schedule weekly meetings to be in constant contact with employees. 

     

    The bottom line

     

    That’s it! Now you know exactly what to do and what to avoid in your feedback. The most important rule however is to have respect for your employees, and even when the fuckup is done, you should handle it with grace. Of course, all employers are humans (I suppose), and a bit of rage is rather unavoidable, but try to hold your horses and be professional. It will not only profit in better performance but also affect in improving your relationship with your crew. 

    marketing automation

    marketing automation

  • Full Aweber Review 2021–Tried&Tested Features

    https://szdebrecen1.medium.com/full-aweber-review-2021-tried-tested-features-badc8f6974d8
    submitted by /u/szdebrecen1 [link] [comments]

  • Research Reveals a Customer Relationship Crisis

    Struggling to get a clear picture of their customers, more than half of sales leaders say their CRM is costing them revenue. According to a new CRM and Sales Impact Report from SugarCRM, many companies are facing a customer relationship crisis. Forty-eight percent of sales professionals believe that their CRM systems are unfit for purpose, while…
    The post Research Reveals a Customer Relationship Crisis appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

  • Grievance and possibility

    We might be settling scores or we might be opening doors. It’s up to us.

    Grievance and possibility have confusing roots.

    Grievance isn’t about grieving. In fact, it’s the opposite. Grievance is the narrative of getting even.

    Possibility doesn’t itemize everything that’s possible. Instead, it focuses on the side effects that come from acting as though things are possible.

    Grievance looks back and possibility looks forward.

    Organizations and relationships that are focused on grievance care a lot about their share. About the competition. About maintaining ‘enough’.

    Organizations that are focused on possibility care a lot about how big the pie is. About innovation. And about what’s next.

    You can build a relationship or a career on grievance or on possibility.

    And you can run a justice/penal system that way as well.

    Possibility begets more possibility. Opportunities multiply.

    And, alas, grievance leads to more grievance. Because it’s the fuel that keeps the narrative going.

    Organizations/partnerships/systems that are usefully focused on possibility don’t deny that there are reasons for grievance, that there have been actions and omissions that must be addressed. In fact, they adopt a posture of forward motion as the best way to address the problems that came before.

    One challenge is embracing the effective and generative approach of possibility when we’re sure that we’re entitled to grievance.

    Toward better.

  • Your Guide to Call Center Outsourcing in 2021

    When you first start a business, everything is on you – from accounting to customer service to sales. However, as you grow your business, you can’t focus on everything internally.
    This is especially the case with customer service and customer care. Outsourcing customer service can potentially save your business money while allowing you to focus on other areas of the business.
    In this guide, we’ll walk you through the reasons why businesses outsource their customer service strategies to call center companies. We’ll also explore some of the pros and cons that come with call center outsourcing and customer service companies.
    Reasons to Outsource Customer Service
    Outsourcing your customer service allows you to focus on other areas of your business, and it can also be cheaper in the long run. This is a very common practice – in fact, many companies choose to align with customer service organizations or call centers — whether inbound or outbound — to handle the area of the business in which they’re weakest. Rather than hiring employees to perform an uninformed strategy, they simply communicate their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to outsourced services who can take over these operations.
    Here are some great reasons to consider outsourcing your customer service operations:
    Cost Savings
    There is a reason why major telecommunications and technology companies outsource their customer service operations — it’s cheaper. Major markets in India and the Philippines can hire workers at a much lower hourly rate, which can save you money in the long run.
    Time Efficiency
    Outsourcing can allow you to redirect your main focus to other areas, such as growth and innovation. Creating strategies for your business takes a lot of time and planning. Outsourcing your customer service operations to call centers will free up your employees to focus on the tasks for which you ought to be paying them, and save you time on extensive interviewing and hiring.
    In addition, hiring a customer service organization or a call center service may enable you to provide 24/7 customer service. If you hire a call center located abroad, depending on the time zone difference, you can provide round the clock service for your customers. This is a factor that sets many businesses apart; customer care and support is expected and if it can’t be delivered, it could deter customers from engaging with your brand in future.
    Budget
    Just because you’re leading your business doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best person to interact with your customers. Engagement, time of response, and handling complaints are all key aspects of a businesses’ customer service goals — however, it costs time and money to execute them properly.
    A good call center service will understand how to deliver results at a lower cost. You can establish a set of goals or deliverables over a certain period, and for a set price, you’ll get a set of results and access to data that will help you stay in line with your budgetary targets. Keeping on top of your budget is important for any successful business, and outsourcing customer service can help you maximize your efforts.
    When to Outsource a Call Center
    Depending on the type of business you have, you might not need to outsource a call center. But if you’re growing at a rapid rate, it might be time to change things. These outsourcing deals don’t have to be a permanent part of your business. If you work a seasonal business where calls are likely to overflow during a certain period, outsourcing can help you manage that demand.
    This is especially true for holidays, summer trade work, and repair work during natural disasters and other crisis-related emergencies. Having a response team in place to deal with customers at a time of freneticism will get you through the grind so you can keep focused on your overall objectives.
    Things to Consider When Center Outsourcing
    If you’re currently looking for a good company to outsource to, it’s important to consider the product and services they’ll be supporting your customers with. You’ll want to find a cost-effective solution, but it’s also important to consider the quality of customer support. In addition, you’ll want to glean from outsourcing companies or market research, while being able to rely on their organization for lead generation and technical support.
    Here are some key factors to consider:
    Language Barrier
    While there are many excellent businesses abroad that can handle your outsourcing needs, you need to be realistic regarding their ability to communicate with your customers. Agents who have strong accents and different levels of language fluency will be something to consider. Keep an open mind while putting yourself in your customer’s shoes to ensure that the team you hire will be able to effectively engage with your customers and provide the level of service you require.
    Training and Ramp Up
    Regardless of whether you hire an in-house or external team, there will be a learning curve involved. You’ll want to think about this before you choose a company. Having a more experienced call center service or customer service organization in your corner might be beneficial to avoid a product learning curve. Outsourced call centers rarely specialize in any one industry and will serve a range of companies. Customers will get a faster, more comprehensive response with a well-trained agent, and ultimately be happier with your service.
    Opportunities for Feedback
    Your customers will be calling for support with their product or services, but their feedback can get lost in the shuffle. That information is valuable for growing a business, so make sure you have a way to learn from your mistakes. Create channels, whether on social media or through an email service, where customers can deliver direct feedback without having to call in.
    How Much Does Outsourcing a Call Cost?
    Outsourcing your call center operations is not a decision to be made lightly. But if do it correctly you can save a ton of money. An in-house operation in North America could run you more than six figures, but you’ll be able to spend a lot less money by hiring a business in places like Latin America, Asia and India.
    Your product and service will dictate the right path to take – remember to take that into consideration along with the above pros and cons, and it will become clear whether outsourcing is right for your business.The post Blog first appeared on Fonolo.

  • What’s the best way to improve Customer Experience in the new normal?

    Even before COVID-19 hit, the CX world was changing fast. Companies were already investing heavily in digital transformation to become more efficient and flexible. At the same time, customers were increasingly demanding a convenient, seamless and emotionally engaging experience across multiple online and offline channels.  The social and economic disruption of the pandemic has accelerated…
    The post What’s the best way to improve Customer Experience in the new normal? appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

  • A Bottle of Shampoo and Digital Customer Experience

    Make no mistake, 2021 is the year to focus on how to ready your contact center to handle larger call volumes on multiple channels. But it’s an opportunity to up your game in the employee experience department by giving agents the tools and help they need so that they can advance, most importantly it gives you an opportunity to continue pushing your organization to deliver meaningful and enjoyable customer engagements that build lasting relationships. Below are the three important lessons about digital customer experience: Lesson 1: The BIG Lesson – Customers want to solve the issues themselves when it makes sense Lesson 2: The Need for Speed – Used correctly, chatbots can greatly accelerate routine engagements Lesson 3: The lesson that is hidden from customers Full article: https://www.niceincontact.com/blog/a-bottle-of-shampoo-and-digital-customer-experience
    submitted by /u/vesuvitas [link] [comments]

  • How To Download & Repurpose Your Facebook Live Content

    Your brand’s team went on Facebook Live and now the live has ended. Instead of leaving that footage to collect dust in your video library, you can repurpose it.
    Think of live content like an item of clothing in your closet. You wouldn’t wear a shirt once and throw it out, right? That’s because you know you can style it in many different ways depending on the look and feel you’re going for.

    Live content follows the same idea. You may think that once your live Facebook video has ended, it’s no longer usable. But in fact, you can use that same video to produce 10 more pieces of content. It’s all about reframing it to fit your goals.
    With that in mind, let’s dive into how to download your live videos on Facebook and extend their shelf life.
    Can you download Facebook Live videos?
    Yes, you can download Facebook Live videos but only on a computer. Facebook does not currently allow users to download their live videos to their phones or other mobile devices.
    The first thing you can do after downloading your video is share it on your timeline for followers who may have missed the live session. You can then use a transcription app, like Descript, to get a written version of the content, adding to your audio and visual formats. From there, you can brainstorm ways to extend the video’s shelf life.
    The main benefit of repurposing live content is saving time and money.
    “Live can be a great way for businesses who are light on resources to make video content. While lives can be complicated, they can also be as simple as a person in front of a camera,” says Kelly Hendrickson, social media marketing manager at HubSpot. “The biggest benefit of a live is the low cost and low production needs.”
    You can save a lot on production costs by re-using past footage and building from it instead of starting from scratch.
    Tips On Repurposing Your Facebook Live Content
    1. Don’t force it.
    Repurposing content only works if it’s valuable to your audience.
    Hendrickson highlights that the question to ask when repurposing any content is, “Is this valuable to my audience?” With live content, there’s a second layer to it. You now have to ask if live content is the most effective way for your audience to get this value.
    “There is a balance between providing value in the most digestible way and creating content in a sustainable way for your business,” she says. “If your audience could take the value easier in a still image or a quick text post, that will be a better option.”
    She also adds that before you decide to use the live content to create another video, dig into your data.
    “If the answer isn’t video, don’t force it because the algorithms won’t give you brownie points for putting your best effort forward,” Hendrickson says. “They are going to serve your audience what performs best for them.”
    While you may know where your audience consumes media, they may have different expectations and behaviors on each platform. So, before scheduling that post on social, make sure it aligns with what your audience is looking for.
    2. Get usage rights from talent.
    Before you start repurposing, make sure your team has gotten prior approval from the talent featured in the live video.
    “You often cannot repurpose live content without a contract from the talent who agrees to this, either going into the live record or after the fact,” says Jamee Sheehy, director of video at HubSpot. “If someone has agreed to one live piece of content and then there’s 20 different cut downs of it from Instagram to YouTube, that’s not a good thing, you need to agree on usage.”
    The contract should include the following details:

    The timeframe of the usage – Usage rights can range anywhere from one to 12 months.

    Where the content will be repurposed – Brands will need to specify if the content will be used for organic social media posts, paid social campaigns or on digital marketing channels.

    Once you have these details ironed out, it’s important to share them with your marketing team to ensure compliance across all channels.
    3. Create a blog post.
    One of the best ways to repurpose live Facebook videos is by creating blog posts from the key points discussed during the live.
    For instance, let’s say Bike World sells bicycles and hosts a live with an influencer known for their outdoor adventures. Let’s say you mainly discussed bikepacking tips, biking communities and the best biking trails in the world during the live. You can take each topic and turn it into a blog post for your audience, including quotes from that influencer.
    You could also include a video and/or audio snippets in the article to add more depth to your posts.
    4. Get snippets for social media.
    Just because your live video was originally on Facebook doesn’t mean it has to stay there.
    You can reformat your content to fit on other platforms where your audience lives, like Instagram or TikTok. Instead of reposting the full video, take snippets of the best moments from the video.
    “During a live, you’re there for the live feel, the random trailing off topics, the moments. Find the substance of the talk and edit to those,” said Sheehy. “Once you make an edit out of that, add graphics to fill out the story if something got lost in translation, or to add something that wasn’t talked about in the live.”
    One thing to keep in mind when repurposing content on other platforms is formatting. You want to make sure you adapt the video frame to the platform so it fits the screen accordingly. For instance, the dimensions for Facebook Live videos are different from those on Instagram Reels. As such, you’ll need to create a platform-specific version.
    You may also need to adapt the content for the platform. While a video snippet with cool graphics may work well for a short TikTok video, that approach may not work so well on Twitter. For that platform, it may be better to write out a stand-out quote from the video instead, as it’s a text-heavy app.
    To generate the best results, you’ll have to adapt the content to the platform.
    5. Use the audio for a podcast.
    What better way to use audio than incorporate it into a podcast? It’s one of the most popular ways people are consuming information these days.
    While your video may not work well as a full podcast episode, you can use snippets from the video to include in your podcast series. For instance, if you interviewed someone in your live video and your podcast series has an interview segment, it could be a great way to integrate that audio.
    However, if the audio from your live isn’t so great or the conversation relies heavily on visual elements, a podcast may not be appropriate.
    6. Upload to YouTube.
    If you want your live video to be easily accessible to your audience for a long time, upload the video to YouTube.
    Similar to social media, it allows those who are newly introduced to your YouTube channel to freely explore your past content. They’ll also get to enjoy the off-the-cuff feel that you only get through live videos.
    Keep in mind that YouTube has strict copyright rules. If your live video features music or other content not permitted under fair use laws, you may have to edit that out of your video before uploading it.
    In most cases, it’s best to plan out what content you will repurpose before you start your live video. That will give you direction on what to cover during your live to maximize the material you’ll get to use on other platforms.