Lively Little Ghost Town: Thurber, Texas

Lively Little Ghost Town: Thurber, Texas

Restaurant Reviews: Smokestack Restaurant, Thurber, Texas; New York Hill Restaurant, Thurber, Texas.

THURBER, TEXAS – There’s more here than meets the eye. If you count memories, anyway.

Today we serve up a two-fer. Two restaurant reviews in one blog post. Both restaurants lie in the same town. Now, will we strain belief when we say that the town is a ghost town?

Thurber, Texas: Where the Echoes Remain

According to most sources, Thurber, Texas, does carry the rep of being a for-real ghost town. Yes, there’s a little bit of human activity here, as the two restaurants attest. And then there’s the museum, known as the “W.K. Gordon Center for the Industrial History of Texas.” It occupies a structure that looks like a former schoolhouse.

But that’s pretty much it. The ghost-town label is deserved. All three of these landmark facilities in Thurber are visible to anyone passing through the locale lying just to the left and right of Interstate 20, at the 367 exit.

Population… 5?

The employees who staff these three facilities live in Mingus, which is about a mile north of Thurber. Or they live somewhere farther away and commute here. The population of Thurber, Texas, itself gets cited variously as 5, 8, or 10, depending on the source. Thurber amounts to hardly more than a strip of windy two-lane road that straddles the interstate.

While dining here at the Smokestack on one visit, I had the liver and onions. Not usual fare for me, nor usual fare in most eateries, for that matter. But this being Thurber, I opted for it, thinking it would have been a popular dish back in the town’s heyday.

A Savory Repast

The main dish came with brown gravy and was topped with sauteed onions. Mine came also with sides of sliced peaches, cottage cheese, and a yeast roll. My dining companion had the wood-smoked pork chop with white cheddar mac-and-cheese, broccoli-and-cauliflower, and a yeast roll as well.

Smokestack Restaurant Interior
Smokestack Restaurant Interior
Smokestack Restaurant Grilled Porkchop Meal
Smokestack Restaurant Grilled Porkchop Meal
Smoke Stack Restaurant liver and onions Meal
Smoke Stack Restaurant liver and onions Meal

The entrées were excellent. All the food here was especially good. Fresh, flavorful, and served with courtesy and alacrity, the dining here stands as some of the best we’ve encountered.

Thurber, Texas, Backstory

Here’s a squib printed in the Smokestack’s menu, under the heading “A Little History”:

“Welcome to beautiful downtown Thurber, Texas, pop. 5 and home to the Smokestack Restaurant since 1971. Thurber, once populated by more than 10,000, is known for its coal mining and brick production. This building was the company mercantile building and is one of the only remaining buildings original to Thurber. They sold everything from cribs to coffins and the three biggest sellers were beer, macaroni, and oysters. We hope you enjoy the food, atmosphere, and especially the history.”

Find them online at Facebook.com/ThurberSmokestack.

Then to New York Hill

On another visit, we took in the New York Hill Restaurant, which is situated on the south side of I-20 (the Smokestack lies on the north side), about halfway up New York Hill. Here, we had the special of the house, aka the New York Strip Steak, which came with baked potato and a roll. For the steak, we were given a nice cut—savory and satisfying.

Read about this one at ThurberNewYorkHill.com.

I liked New York Hill better for its atmosphere (although that is a close competition) and I liked the Smokestack better for its food.

New York Hill Restaurant Interior
New York Hill Restaurant Interior

Overlooked Museum with an Overlook

Thurber’s W.K. Gordon Museum, which, like the nearby restaurant, perches on New York Hill overlooking I-20, is an under appreciated attraction. Maybe that’s what you get when you put your museum in a ghost town. At any rate, we share these words from a webpage maintained by Tarleton State University (based in Stephenville, Texas), which manages the W.K. Gordon Museum: “The mission of the W.K. Gordon Museum and Research Center is to provide educational resources on the industrial history of Thurber and greater Texas, and to preserve, document and interpret that history and its impact on the people of Texas. “Thurber was one of the most important mine sites in Texas, a major manufacturer of paving bricks, and located near the oil field that helped make Texas a worldwide giant in petroleum production.”

Thurber, Texas: a True “Company” Town

And we close with this, also from Tarleton’s website: “The entire town of Thurber—every nail, shingle, and doorknob—was owned by the Texas and Pacific Coal Company. Residents lived in company houses, shopped at company stores, drank at company saloons, attended company schools, and worshipped in company-owned church buildings. “Many people traveled from around the world—including Italy, Poland, Ireland, and Russia—to live and work in Thurber. This immigrant influence helped create the unique environment of the community.”
Thurber, Texas
Thurber, Texas - Photo credit: By Wlovin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

For more from TSU, see the TSU website.

Finally, a couple more sources, because Thurber has quite a history—one worth exploring:

Thurber, Texas Wikipedia page.

And Texas Coop Power carried a well written article on the ghost town.

10 Best Social Media Tools For Every Online Marketer

10 Best Social Media Tools For Every Online Marketers

Social media marketing is not an easy task. Social Media tools make the job easier. Reaching a large audience and building a significant following requires effort and consistency. It never happens overnight. There are many strategies one can employ, but no particular process that works for every business. To assist as you reach toward your business goals, employ some social media tools. They not only save you time, they save you money.

It goes without saying that one necessary element for your marketing efforts is reliable access to the internet. It is a hindrance to have a poor internet connection that stifles your ability to fulfill  your daily work load in the office or at home. One service to consider is Spectrum. Spectrum offers a simple plan with month-to-month billing, high speeds, and a personalized interface through My Spectrum. Once you’re set with dependable connection, you can build your social media marketing skills and use these tools best suited to move your business ahead.

Here we will discuss several of the best tools that you may employ to facilitate your social media marketing.

Buffer:

To begin, let’s look at Buffer. Buffer is a scheduling tool for different social media platforms that include LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. It fills the social media feed with relevant posts without wasting time to find content. It lines up content in the queue in a schedule. It also provides three functionalities: publish, analyze, and reply.

Pricing:
Pricing starts from $6 per month for each social channel.

Hootsuite:

Next, we look at Hootsuite. Hootsuite handles and brings multiple social media accounts under interface. It enables businesses to follow their customers and interact with their brands. You may create a free Hootsuite account. Plus there is a paid version for collaboration with team members.

Pricing:
The price starts from $19 per month. It is for 1 user and 10 social media channels.

Social Status:

Another tool, Social status, is a reporting tool that helps social media marketers view detailed analysis of social media accounts. It offers four levels that include; profiles, ads, competitors, and influencers. Social status generates the reports for these levels. Social Status incorporates Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. It provides access to analytics dashboards for your social media accounts.

Pricing:
Plans are priced from $29 per month and it includes 10 social media channels.

Meet Edgar:

Now, another tool to examine is Meet Edgar. Want to manage your social media content? Meet Edgar manages traffic and re-sharing content. This tool is the content manager. It works for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more. One benefit of Meet Edgar is that it boosts engagement by running the posts regularly. Additionally, it keeps the audience engaged with different types of content.

Pricing:
The monthly cost starts at$19 per month and entertains 3 social media accounts.

eClincher:

For social media marketers, publishing content is quite a task. eClincher is a tool for content publishing. It monitors reach, engagement, publishing, and listening. The eClincher process is easy to use and publishes the content repeatedly within time intervals.

Pricing:
The package price point begins from $59 per month and entertains 1 user with 10 social media channels.

Visme:

For consideration, Visme is a tool is designed to create visual content for various social media platforms. It provides the option to add graphics, videos, presentations, and all types of content to fit your brand strategy. It offers more than hundreds of templates, animated characters, and pictures along with the editor.

Pricing:
There are two options: $29 per month for designs and $59 per month for business plans.

Socialalert:

Next, look at Socialalert is the tool that keeps the main focus on the performance of all the accounts and channels. It helps to track the keywords and hashtags which help in the growth of the business. It engages the customers and targets the right audience by providing relatable content. It analyzes the posts, engagement, users, and top mentions that help the business.

Pricing:
Socailalert starts from $9.95 per month and entertains 2 accounts.

Tailwind:

Here again, this social media tool is geared towards Pinterest and Instagram users. It tells the best timing and occasions for the post to be shared to engage large customers. It offers schedule options for Instagram and Pinterest.

Pricing:
Tailwind pricing starts from $14.99 per month.

Post Planner:

It’s true, many people enjoy this popular tool. With the help of Post Planner, schedule content so it will be discovered. Post Planner supports the majority of the main social media networks.

Pricing:
Post Planner’s economical plans start from $4 per month for 3 profiles and 1 user.

Loomly:

Because of its integrations, Loomly is another popular tool for social media management. One of its advantages is that it integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams. It is designed for branding and content development purposes.

Pricing:
Loomly’s pricing starts at $25 per month and entertains 10 profiles and 2 users.

Final words and Last Thoughts:

Summing it up, social media marketers should stay up to date with the latest things that are becoming trends and that people are interested in. Staying active and engaging makes the path a little easier. For managing the smoothest business and to get social media marketing in proper shape, these tools must be a part of social media marketing campaigns. It will increase the effectiveness and efficiency and give your name a boost on the platform and in monetary terms too.

For even more social media marketing, check out these related articles.

Comparison of Twitter Circles, Lists, and Communities

The Rise of Instagram Influencers: How They Became an Advertising Power

34 Best Social Media Marketing Tools in 2023 (socialchamp.io)

15 must-have social media marketing tools for 2022 – Biteable

12 Tips To Increase Reach And Get More Instagram Followers

12 Tips To Increase Reach And Get More Instagram Followers

Using Instagram for business can help you reach a wider audience, build an online community, and sell your products. But you need to find out how to get followers on Instagram. And you need to know the best ways to increase your Instagram reach and convert new followers to customers.

Previously, building a marketing strategy for Instagram posed few challenges. When you discovered the right time to post, all you had to do was stick to it. However, Instagram has changed since its early days. Now marketers find it harder to reach their target audience and promote their content. That’s why you should utilize the tools this platform has to offer business owners.

So, if you seek to boost your Instagram presence and organic reach, this post will be helpful.

12 Tips To Increase Instagram Reach

1. Avoid Fake Instagram Followers

At first, buying followers from a third party may seem reasonable to make your account look more legitimate. But this method proves counterproductive because of its shady nature. Why? Because when you purchase followers as a growth tactic, your followers will most likely consist of bots or fake and inactive accounts. What’s worse – your account can get flagged.

Instead, the smart choice means using an Instagram growth service focusing on growing organic Instagram followers. This way, you build real relationships with your followers, meaning more engaged followers in the long run.

2. Create An Instagram Content Strategy

A deliberate Instagram content strategy makes all the difference when it comes to your Instagram success. It keeps you on track and ensures you’ve outlined the goals you plan to achieve.

Creating a content strategy involves creating different content themes to engage your followers. If you want to increase awareness, try including Stories, contests, behind-the-scenes posts, and brand life features as part of your main content themes. If you need help creating content, work with a freelance copywriter.

Define your specific style and aesthetic. To help figure this out, ask yourself questions like:

  • What impression do I want to be seen and felt by my followers?
  • What brand’s style guide do I follow in terms of, for instance, writing captions?
  • What kind of hashtags should I use?
  • What types of photos, videos, and reels do I want to post?

You’ll need to establish a distinct and consistent brand voice through your content strategy.

3. Know Your Best Time To Post

Remember, time is of the essence. When it comes to making the most of your Instagram reach, gaining likes and comments immediately after posting matters greatly. If the initial round of engagement charts high, Instagram will have cause to move your post up in the feed. Examine Instagram Insights to see when your followers show greatest activity.

4. Try Instagram Reels

Instagram ReelsTo discover which posts enjoy most popularity with your audience, try experimenting with Reels. Your followers might enjoy discussing and sharing the entertaining Reels you share. In creating Reels, try these tips:

  • Make your Reels pop with the tools that Instagram includes, like editing tools, music, and visual effects. Every time the platform releases a new feature, you should use it to boost your exposure. So, maximize your reach by recording, editing, and adding effects from within the App.
  • In creating Reels, be sure that the first few seconds instantly pull in your viewers. To grab their attention, try using a sticker or a flashing piece of text somewhere on the image or video.
  • Use Q&As in your Reels to keep your followers coming back for more. End with a CTA to drive taps, and for them to leave questions for you, so you have an endless supply of content ideas.
  • Don’t hesitate to shout out or spotlight your community in your Reels. This is the fastest way to get people talking.

With Instagram Reels, find out what works for you and adjust your social content strategy accordingly.

5. Optimize Your Instagram Bio

Your bio stands out as the first thing people see when they visit your profile. So make an excellent first impression. You need to create a captivating Instagram bio to get others to follow you.

Therefore, you should communicate the compelling narrative of your brand in addition to the fundamentals, including your contact information and website URL. You won’t stand out by merely stating the type of business you have. Give them a reason to identify with and follow your brand.

6. Curate Visually-Appealing Content

Curate Visually-Appealing ContentCuration includes identifying excellent content. And since Instagram users just love good visual content, curate smart and appealing visual content. Use photos, videos, carousel posts, GIFs, infographics, illustrations, memes, or animations. Also, you provide readers a broader perspective by citing sources, including links, and adding insight.

In curating content, try these tactics.

  • Create a listicle that focuses on conveying an idea visually in just two to three lines to generate shares and comments. This listicle incorporates images (preferably 5-10) and GIFs.
  • Create curated how-to posts and tutorials that entertain and inform.
  • Feature up-and-coming design professionals or artists by inviting them to share their work on your Instagram profile. Just make sure you’re aware of copyright rules.

7. Utilize Instagram Analytics

Instagram analytics help you track progress, identify trends, and understand your target audience better. Use Instagram analytics to learn which hashtags get greatest usage, which photos receive the most interaction, and which times prove most popular for posting.

Wisely, employing information from useful metrics can help you focus on the most valuable Instagram growth hacks. And can set you up for success.

8. Use Branded Hashtags

Use Branded HashtagsUsing hashtags works as a tried and true method for reaching out to more people and gaining more Instagram followers. You should explore which hashtags enjoy popularity in your niche and which have relevance to your industry, brand, and content. Then, use a combination of these hashtags for your Instagram posts to connect with users who follow those hashtags.

9. Cross-post Across Facebook and Twitter

Use cross-posting as a time-saving tactic to allow you to share content with a broader audience without putting in the extra effort. This step helps for new brands that haven’t produced much content or brands with a limited marketing budget. By multi-purposing your content, you’re increasing the chances people will see and engage with it.

10. Start Meaningful Conversations With the Audience

Your Instagram captions allow you to engage your current audience and even encourage them to converse with you. So, why not take advantage of this opportunity?

You can use your Instagram captions to tag people, ask questions, and so on. The more you encourage your audience to express an opinion, the greater likelihood they will invite their friends to join in on the conversation.

Beyond sparking conversations yourself, get mileage by joining conversations started by others. Just find a popular conversation within your niche. When you join in and comment, people reading might check your profile and decide to follow you.

11. Check Out Competitors’ Efforts

To maximize organic reach and enhance brand health, employ competitive analysis. When you check out your competitors, you can stay updated with the trends in your industry.

Keeping an eye on your competitors helps you develop new ideas and find inspiration for your content strategy to grow more Instagram followers. More importantly, you’ll find out how you can gain an advantage over them.

12. Ask Questions In Your Posts

Ask Questions In Your PostsWhen you ask questions, your followers have a better chance of getting engagement. You can ask these questions through the caption of your post, through an Instagram Story with an emoji slider. Or through an Instagram story with a poll Or through asking your followers these questions directly through an Instagram Live video.

Some great examples of questions to ask are: 

  • Do you like…?
  • Would you buy…?
  • Which do you prefer…?
  • Have you seen our latest…?
  • This or that?
  • What year would you travel back to in time, and why?
  • What’s one thing you can’t live without?
  • What are you most thankful for today?
  • What’s the one thing you do for everyone?
  • Who inspires you every day?
  • What was your dream job as a kid?
  • Are you a cat or a dog person?
  • What’s your superpower?
  • What’s the best compliment you ever gave?

Be aware that people generally enjoy naming their favorites in any category. And they love to share about themselves. As you get to know your audience better, you will find ways to ask questions that tap into their interests.

Increase Your Reach

The ideal strategy for increasing your reach and growing Instagram followers involves taking the time to understand your audience, create content that encourages engagement, and strategically use the platform’s features. Be consistent in working to meet your audience’s expectations.

You can’t build an organic Instagram following overnight, but if you have the right mindset, you can.

For more advice on using Instagram for business marketing, see these Jemully Media articles.

Author: Sheila Kickstarter - sheila@kicksta.co

How to Develop Apps on Android Through an Android Bootcamp

How to Develop Apps on Android Through an Android Bootcamp

If you have wanted to develop your ideas and turn them into apps, you may have already considered attending an android bootcamp. An android bootcamp can help you develop your ideas. More, it can help you turn your ideas into a fully functional user-friendly app. Bootcamps vary with regards to what they offer, as well as to when and why. Establishing what matters most to you, as well as to your app, will help you select the right bootcamp and aid your app development.

Finding the Best Bootcamp

You might find that multiple bootcamps exist. Some of these exist online, while others take place in the real world. When it comes to finding the best fit for you and your app, do your research. Look at what past participants have said about the bootcamp. Does their feedback indicate that their knowledge improved from being part of an android bootcamp?

Also think about what type of app you want to create and develop. Then decide if the bootcamp can (or will) focus on this. Weigh the various offerings, keeping your specific needs in mind, to help make that decision a little easier.

Understand Best Practices

You want your app to be awesome. And you want to make sure it is competitive. To ensure this happens, you need to understand and follow best practices at all times. Hands-on bootcamps, and even virtual bootcamps, will help you understand what best practices you should be following and applying to your app. They will demonstrate how best practices can help you build user trust within your app, and help you build a strong and positive reputation.

Top Tip: Look at what other bootcamps developers and creators may have used (and when). If you have basic coding skills, you may find the bootcamp you are looking at is too elementary for your needs. Try reaching out to other developers and see what they learned from bootcamp attendance.

Having an Action Plan for Your Apps

Once you have selected the best bootcamp for your app, start working on an action plan. What do you want to achieve for your app? And what area of development would you like to focus on? For instance, are you going to focus on functionality, or on ease of use and access? When you have an action plan for the development of your app, you stay firmly in command of what you want to achieve. When you are developing apps, it can be easy, without a plan, to lose sight of your goal.

Creating a Development Timescale

A bootcamp will help you focus your efforts. Also, it will help you create a workable and realistic development timescale. Developers must carefully gauge how much time they need to complete a project. They must do this before committing to the job. But just as important, they must budget and track their time, to avoid so-called “scope creep.” To stay within time constraints, you need to make use of a development timescale. This can then be applied to any coding project you undertake. Establish what you want to do, and by when, with your app. This timescale will help you turn your vision into reality.

Oh, and when you have become the proud parent of a new app, nurture it with the promotion it deserves. Get a head start on that with this “Simple Guide to Business Promotion.”

Book Review “Start Your Own Business” by Rieva Lesonsky

Book Review "Start Your Own Business" by Rieva Lesonsky


When you decide to start your own business you set yourself to one of life’s great challenges. Launching a business can be both exciting and daunting. It requires dedication, hard work, and a strong understanding of what it takes to be successful. The book Start Your Own Business by Rieva Lesonsky offers valuable insights and practical advice on how to start and grow a successful business. 

Rieva Lesonsky is president and CEO of GrowBiz Media, a custom content and media company. GrowBiz focuses on small business and entrepreneurship. The company also publishes the blog SmallBizDaily.com. Prior to starting GrowBiz Media, Lesonsky served as editorial director of Entrepreneur magazine. 

Steps to Start Your Own Business In what follows, we will outline some of the key points covered in the book.

  1. Identifying a profitable business idea: One of the first things Lesonsky emphasizes in the book is the importance of identifying a profitable business idea. The author stresses the importance of researching the market. She stresses the need to understand the competition. And she urges that you consider your skills and interests when choosing a business. Lesonsky also covers the importance of testing your business idea before investing significant time and money into it.
  2. Developing a business plan: A comprehensive business plan is essential for success. Lesonsky provides step-by-step guidance on how to develop a business plan. These include advice on how to identify your target market, set goals and objectives, and create a financial plan. She also advocates for regularly reviewing and updating your business plan to ensure that you stay on track.
  3. Marketing and sales: Lesonsky covers the various marketing and sales strategies that can be used to promote your business. She discusses the importance of building a brand and creating a strong online presence. We appreciated the fact that she recognizes the tools that social media and email marketing afford for reaching your target market. She also covers traditional marketing methods, such as print and broadcast advertising. And she provides practical advice on how to develop a successful sales strategy.
  4. Financing: Starting a business often requires significant investment. Lesonsky covers the various financing options available to entrepreneurs. She discusses the pros and cons of traditional bank loans, venture capital, and crowdfunding. Moreover, she provides advice on how to secure funding for your business.
  5. Building a team: Lesonsky highlights the importance of having a strong team in place to support your business. She covers the key steps to finding and hiring the right employees. You’ll find discussion of the importance of providing training and support to help those employees succeed. And the author knows and extols the virtues of managing your employees effectively, including setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and recognizing and rewarding success.

What Others Have Said About Start Your Own Business

Checking out the sentiment on GoodReads, one finds this to be a popular book with 166 readers who gave the book a rating of 3.73 out of 5 stars.

“A must-read book on entrepreneurship for knowledge workers and aspiring entrepreneurs.”  – Lori G., GoodReads

“A good introduction to what it takes. However, this book is rather too thick in my opinion, and is perhaps too broad to be truly useful. This book covers all types of businesses from store front services to manufacturing to bars to software concerns and more.”  – Josh R., GoodReads

Incidentally, another book we have reviewed and that we found valuable for entrepreneurs (albeit in an indirect fashion) is The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. 

the bottom line

Start Your Own Business by Rieva Lesonsky is a helpful resource for anyone looking to start and grow a successful business. The book covers the key points that entrepreneurs need to consider. These range from identifying a profitable business idea to securing financing and building a strong team. Whether you are a first-time entrepreneur or an experienced business owner, this book provides valuable insights and practical advice to help you succeed.

Comparison of Twitter Circles, Lists, and Communities

Comparison of Twitter Circles, Lists, and Communities

Twitter Circles, Twitter Lists, and Twitter Communities collectively give users three different approaches to organizing and managing their followers. Each feature has its own advantages and disadvantages. Understanding the differences between them helps you determine which one works best for you. Read on for our look at Twitter Circles, Twitter Lists, and Twitter Communities and a breakdown of their differences.

Twitter Circles

Twitter Circles, a feature introduced in 2010, allowed users to categorize their followers into groups. Then the platform discontinued the feature in 2011. They resurrected Circles in 2022 as a way to send Tweets to select people. And to communicate messages to a smaller crowd. (In other words, smaller that one’s total follower base.)

Today’s version of a Twitter Circle allows you to select the followers in your Circle. Then, only the individuals you’ve added to the Circle can engage with the Tweets you share in the Circle. A Twitter Circle makes an efficient way to keep track of specific groups of people. Use it for coworkers, clients, vendors, business prospects, friends, or family. For detailed information, use this link to About Twitter Circle from Twitter’s Help Center.

Key Things to Note about Twitter Circle.

  1. Only One Twitter Circle –  You can only have one Twitter Circle. So you must choose which group of your followers gives you, and them, the greatest benefit from this special kind of treatment.
  2. Limited Number of People – Twitter limits the number of people in your Circle to 150.
  3. Twitter Circles are Private – Only people currently in your Twitter Circle will see your Circle tweets.

Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists give you a handy way to organize the Tweets in your timeline. Think of it this way. The feed you see on your Home page comes from any and all of the accounts you follow. The restricted feed that we call a List gives you a stream of tweets from just selected accounts. You can assign as many accounts as you want to any particular feed.

Many Twitter users customize their Lists by categorizing them according to topic. Meanwhile, others categorize their Lists by groups. And still others use a combination of both topical Lists and groups Lists. To organize a List by groups, some users combine business contacts on one List, news sources on another List, and influencers on yet another List. The folks at Follows.com see the potential value in creating Twitter Lists. “[Twitter Lists] can be quite valuable in the right context and with the right purpose.”

Check out the full list of ins and outs of Twitter Lists on the Twitter Help Center.

Key Things to Note about Twitter Lists.

  1. Twitter Lists are Private – Twitter designates Lists as “private” by default. But you can make them public if you want others to find them and, possibly, follow them.
  2. You can discover new Lists – Twitter suggests Lists that may interest you. Twitter sends you a prompt to “Discover new Lists.” If you like the List, you may choose to Follow that List.
  3. You can Have Multiple Lists – Unlike Twitter Circles, Twitter Lists allows you to set up multiple Lists.
  4. Lists Organized For You – As you compile multiple Lists, Twitter serves up a directory of your Lists at your command. You simply click the one you want to arrive at a feed of just the tweets from the members of that particular List.

Communities on Twitter

Twitter created something called Twitter Communities, a new feature introduced in 2020. Twitter Communities serve public groups centered around a specific topic or theme. These groups allow Twitter users to connect with others who share their interests, discuss topics, and share content. Similar to Facebook groups, Twitter Communities bring people together around a shared interest. If you would like to set up a Community on Twitter, use this link to visit the Help Center.

Key Things to Note about Twitter Communities.

  1. Twitter Users Themselves Create Twitter Communities. Similar to Groups of Facebook, or LinkedIn, Twitter Communities get their start when individuals create one around a particular topic.
  2. Twitter Communities have Admins and Moderators – Admins and Moderators within Twitter Communities exercise responsibility for accepting members into the Community and enforcing the Community rules.
  3. Community Tweets – The Tweets in Community can be seen by anyone on Twitter. They are not private Tweets like within Twitter Circles. However, only members of the Community can engage and participate in the discussion.
Jemully Media Twitter Comparison
Jemully Media Twitter Comparison

Comparison of Twitter Circles, Lists, and Communities

Twitter Circles, Twitter Lists, and Twitter Communities all have their own benefits, but they also have some key differences.

Twitter Circles allow private groups with private conversations between you and the people you have added to your Twitter Circle. According to How To Geek, “Twitter Circle is simply a way to limit who sees your tweets. The big difference is the visibility rules.”

Meanwhile, Twitter Lists are a great way to manage your Twitter feed and keep track of specific groups of people. Lists also simplify the firehose of messaging on Twitter by breaking it into more topical streams. Private by default, Twitter Lists can be made public if you would like to share your list with others. Twitter Lists do not allow for discussion or community building like Twitter Communities do. But still, Twitter Lists provide you a way to organize your stream of Tweets into categories.

Twitter Communities, on the other hand, are a great way to connect with others who share your interests and discuss topics. That’s because Twitter Communities, being public, allow for greater engagement and community building. However, if you’re looking to keep your Twitter activity private, Twitter Communities may not be the right choice for you.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Twitter Circles, Twitter Lists, and Twitter Communities give you three different features that allow you to organize and manage your Twitter followers. Each feature has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it’s important to understand the difference between them to determine which one is right for you. Whether you’re looking to manage your Twitter feed, connect with others, build a community, or more effectively use Twitter for business, a Twitter feature exists to help you do it.

7 Ways to Implement a Pillar-Based Content Marketing Strategy

7 Ways to Implement a Pillar-Based Content Marketing Strategy

Pillar-based content marketing strategy follows a systematic approach to creating and delivering content designed to achieve specific marketing goals. This strategy employs the concept of creating a “pillar” or a central theme or topic. That pillar becomes the foundation for all the content that a business creates and distributes. Content creators take the pillar content and break it down into subtopics. Then, the subtopics, once developed, complete the desired result of creating a hierarchy of content. This hierarchy serves to educate prospects, engage them, and eventually convert them into customers.

First, Some Background

We can dive into some specific ways you can employ a pillar-based content marketing strategy. But first we should review the idea of content marketing in general. We’ll benefit from an understanding of the overall purpose and goals of content marketing.

Content marketing takes a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. Done right, this will attract and retain a clearly defined audience.  Ultimately, it drives profitable customer action. Content marketing seeks to educate, inform, entertain, and nurture an audience, rather than solely promote a product or service.

Content marketing builds a strong relationship by providing your audience with media that addresses their needs, interests, and pain points. Further, it establishes the marketer or brand as a trusted expert in their field. This comes to fruition through employment of a variety of content formats. These include blog posts, videos, social media posts, infographics, e-books, and more.

Benefits of Pillar-Based Content

Now down to some specifics. A pillar-based content strategy benefits your site through the diversity of content created around a pillar topic. When you link internally between these pieces, search engines begin to recognize your site for its authority and they improve your page rank accordingly. The primary topic becomes what we call the pillar page. In the example below, the “Business Law” page acts as the pillar, or broad topic content page. The supporting, or, as frequently termed, “cluster content,” is the more narrow-focused content under the subject of Business Law. As Neil Patel, digital marketing guru, remarks, “Don’t be confused by the term “cluster content.” It’s basically just content that focuses on narrow topics related to the pillar page.”

Jemully Media law firm pillar-based content marketing example
Jemully Media law firm pillar-based content marketing example

Here are 7 ways businesses can implement a pillar-based content marketing strategy:

  1. Identifying the pillar topic: The first step in creating a pillar-based content marketing strategy calls for identifying the central topic or theme. This theme serves as the foundation for all the content. This topic should closely relate to the products or services that the business offers and should hold interest among the target audience.
  2. Creating subtopics: Once the pillar topic has been identified, decide on subtopics that can create a hierarchy of content. These subtopics ought to closely relate to the pillar topic and provide more in-depth information on specific aspects of the central theme.
  3. Developing a content calendar: A content calendar will ensure that the content gets created and distributed on a consistent basis. The content calendar should include the type of content to create, the target audience, the delivery channel, and the due date for each piece of content.
  4. Creating pillar content: The pillar content functions as the cornerstone of the pillar-based content marketing strategy. This content provides a comprehensive overview of the central topic and will educate and engage the target audience. Examples of pillar content include eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, and infographics.
  5. Creating cluster content: Cluster content consists of a series of related pieces of content calculated to provide more in-depth information on a specific aspect of the central topic. Examples of cluster content include blog posts, videos, and podcasts.
  6. Creating cornerstone content: Cornerstone content consists of articles of content that serves as a resource for the target audience. This content should provide valuable information on the central topic and should be designed to inspire trust and establish the business as an authority in the industry. Examples of cornerstone content include case studies, research reports, reference material, and tutorials.
  7. Promoting the content: The final step in the pillar-based content marketing strategy is to promote the content to the target audience. This can be done through a variety of channels including email marketing, social media, and paid advertising.

Pillar-based Content Builds Authority

To sum it up, a pillar-based content marketing strategy serves as a powerful tool for businesses looking to build trust and establish themselves as an authority in their industry. By creating a central theme or topic and breaking it down into a hierarchy of content, businesses create a consistent and effective content marketing strategy that achieves specific marketing goals.

Why Oilfield Services Companies Need to Use Social Media

Why Oilfield Services Companies Need to Use Social Media

A mainstay of the oilfield, the oilfield services sector, finds itself today in a highly competitive market. Especially in the prolific Permian Basin of West Texas and S.E. New Mexico. The rise of digital marketing and the increasing prevalence of social media has brought new means of messaging. And also brought new channels on which to compete. 

Oilfield Services Have Much to Gain

But oilfield services in the Midland/Odessa region of Texas’ Permian Basin and in the Hobbs, N.M., area of the Permian can profit from this trend. Opportunity beckons for forward thinkers ready to evolve and embrace the power of social media to grow their businesses. Consider some of the advantages (below) of adding a social media marketing effort to your business strategy.

  1. Oilfield Services Need a Big Reach
    To begin with, social media provides a platform for oilfield service companies to reach a wider audience, beyond their traditional marketing methods. By creating and maintaining a strong online presence, service companies target new and existing customers in the key locales of the region (Midland, Texas; Odessa, Texas; and Hobbs, N.M.), as well as customers across the country. With millions of active users on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, oilfield service companies have a vast audience to engage with and promote their services to.
  2. OFS Companies Need a Strong Online Reputation
    Social media brings oilfield service companies another advantage by building a strong online reputation. For example, social media provides an opportunity to showcase services, expertise, and commitment to the industry. By sharing valuable information and updates on industry developments, companies demonstrate their knowledge and position themselves as leaders in the field. Social media also allows customers to easily provide feedback and share their experiences with the company, which can be leveraged to improve their services and build a positive reputation in the market.
  3. Get Enhanced Customer Engagement
    Creating a direct and personal connection between oilfield service companies and their customers furnishes another valuable benefit from active participation in social media . By responding to customer inquiries and comments on social media, companies demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction and improve customer engagement. By creating engaging content, such as interactive graphics or callouts of newsworthy industry trends, oilfield service companies provide customers with a better understanding of their services and products.
  4. Cost-Effective Marketing for Oilfield Services
    Looking for cost-effective marketing options? Fortunately, social media marketing fills the bill. Oilfield service companies can tap a large audience and build their brand while keeping costs reasonable. Unlike traditional marketing methods, such as print and radio advertising, social media marketing costs are comparatively low. Thus, social media marketing makes sense for companies of all sizes. Additionally, with the ability to target specific demographics, such as location and interests, oilfield service companies can ensure that their marketing efforts are reaching the right audience, thereby increasing their return on investment. Of note, there are several factors that impact the cost of your social media management. Knowing these factors  as you plan your social media keeps your marketing expenditures on budget.

From our experience, oilfield service companies in the Midland and Odessa areas of the Texas Permian Basin, and in the Hobbs area of the New Mexico Permian, gain much by embracing social media marketing to stay competitive and grow their business. For some who are doing it right on social media, check out Integrity Wireline, Halliburton, and Nabors.

Social Media for Oilfield Services

Social media delivers the ability to reach a wider audience, build a strong online reputation, enhance customer engagement, and provide cost-effective marketing. We recommend you harness the power of this marketing tool to succeed in the oil and gas industry.

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm

Get Found. Stand Out From the Rest.

If your law firm has had a set-it-and-forget it web presence, make this your year to give that marketing philosophy another look. You will likely discover that certain tactics will increase the number of clients you serve, and ultimately increase your profits. As you assemble the key elements necessary to create a strong, professional brand in your market, it’s important to remember that the foundational component of your marketing plan is your website.

As you plan an online marketing strategy for your law firm, we recommend three fundamental ingredients. First focus your attention on your website. Then, create a strategy for a content development plan. Lastly, follow your content plan with a distribution plan.

Prepare to Make a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Firm.

Assess and Identify: What’s working and what’s not working?

Before you jump into a new digital marketing strategy for your law firm, before you think about revamping your website, before you create a social media post, take an assessment of your current site and see how well it has performed for you. Some pages likely have worked well to attract visitors to your website, and engaged them with a call to action. 

Furthermore, some pages on your website likely get very little traffic and underperform. So look at your website analytics and let the data tell the story.  If you don’t know how to do this, find an agency, like Jemully Media, that has the tools. A good agency can give you the information you need to understand the health of your current website. And they can deliver a diagnosis and a plan for a stronger future.

What questions should your website data answer?

The following questions should give your law firm some insight into how well your current website is accomplishing your marketing goals.

  • How much traffic does your site get each month?
  • Where does that traffic come from?
  • Is the traffic generated from online search, links from other websites, or links to your website from social media?
  • Which pages on your website receive the most traffic?
  • Are there pages on your website that are not working for you? Could you add more keywords and content to help those pages perform better?
  • Are there gaps in information that could be opportunities for generating new clients? Are there common questions that potential clients might ask in a search engine query that your firm could answer?
  • What keywords could be more densely incorporated into the site to help improve your SEO?
Jemully Media law firm target audience
Jemully Media law firm target audience

Identify All of Your Audience

Once you have identified the good and the not-so-good about the performance of your current website, you can utilize that information as the basis of a new plan. The next part of the identification process calls for you to establish a clear picture of your potential clients. In determining your audience, do not forget that you may actually have multiple audiences, based on your firm’s areas of practice.  As you enumerate the audience groups, keep in mind that each audience has its own unique questions. In answering these, you can get their attention. Make note of some of the questions that come to mind for each group. You can weave these questions into your marketing plan later in the process.

Create a Digital Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm: A 2-Step Process

In the following section, we introduce you to two steps in the process of creating a marketing plan. We will paint with pretty broad strokes and save the details for another post. This is not an exhaustive marketing plan. But it addresses the most important and foundational pieces. Pieces that take your firm a long way towards the success you envision. The two steps of planning can be relegated to two buckets: (1) your website, and (2) getting your website found. Another way of saying it is: (1) build your hub online, and (2) attract visitors to your hub using content.

PART 1 – Plan Your Website: Your Hub Online.

We begin with your website because it is the only place on the web where you will have total control and ownership of what is published about your firm. That’s why we refer to your website as your online “hub.” Everywhere else should be viewed more like rented property where you have to comply with the property owners’ terms and limitations. This is true of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, law firm directory listings, and such.

Your website should consist of a multi-page custom-designed site that you own. Why do we recommend a custom-designed site as opposed to a pre-built GoDaddy, Wix, or Weebly website? It’s about your professional reputation. You are in the business to project an image of trust and authority. If you choose to represent your firm online in a canned, pre-fab package, you are communicating an image of quick-and-easy versus sturdy, reliable, and forward-thinking. 

Consider WordPress

Our recommendation is to build your website on a WordPress platform. WordPress has 43% of the market share. According to W3Techs, that 43% translates to “a content management system market share of 65.3%.” The next closest competitor to WordPress is the eCommerce website platform with 6.7% of the market share.

Factors to consider in your web design

As you consider factors for your website design, user experience should be at the top of your list. Easy-to-navigate menus and a logical page hierarchy need to be well-planned with your web development team, as well as a selection of a professional and modern layout and typography. Lastly, in the development planning, be sure to request mobile responsiveness. While most people today use a combination of desktop device and a mobile device, Broadband Search points out that, as of early 2022, in terms of market share, mobile was commanding 56% of the global traffic. And that mobile trend will continue to rise.

What pages will you have on your website?

When you get to the place where you are planning out the pages of your site, it’s there that you’ll need to revisit the data from your existing website. Make an outline for the pages of your new site that keeps the content that worked well for you. Then add to the outline a list of revamped or new pages to fill the gaps of information that were left unaddressed on your old site.

Jemully Media law firm social media promotion
Jemully Media law firm social media promotion

PART 2 – Promotion: Plan how your law firm’s website will get found.

Once you know what information you want on your website and how you want to present it, you are ready to move to the next phase of your planning. You will determine how you will get your site in front of the various audiences of potential clients. There are fives ways your site can be reached. A visitor can:

  1. Type in the web address from a business card, billboard, or brochure
  2. Click a link from search results
  3. Click a link from social media
  4. Click a link from an email newsletter
  5. Click a link from a paid advertisement

Audience Specific

The first way visitors may reach your site is not a result of a digital communication. So we will not include direct access to your site in this discussion. The second, third, and fourth items in the list above are all “organic.” Organic marketing is also referred to as “inbound marketing.” The Business Department at the University of Alabama describes it thusly:

“Commonly referred to as inbound marketing, the organic approach is essentially the modern marketer’s way to utilize word-of-mouth messaging. The idea is to take advantage of social media and online search engines to share relevant content targeted to a specific audience.”

Think “Organic.” Think “Inbound.”

The benefits of organic, inbound marketing is that “51 percent of today’s website traffic comes from organic search and over 40 percent of revenue is the result of organic traffic.” Organic digital marketing is the most productive method when compared to direct access to your site and paid advertising. It is well worth the investment it takes to focus on a content-driven strategy that delivers solid results over time. You will find that the value of your content continues to increase and produce results year-after-year.

The last item on the list of ways to get visitors to your website is purchasing paid advertising. Paid digital advertising can be a tool to jump your website to the top of a search results page. However, for some consumers, paid digital marketing is sometimes skipped over. Some view paid ads as less trusted sources than the organic search results.

A Good Law Firm Marketing Plan Needs Content That Works

In this phase of lining out your digital marketing strategy, you will develop a plan for content creation. The fact of the matter is this. The more content you have on your site, the greater the keyword density you have on your your site. This in turn brings more opportunities for your content to appear in the Google search results, when your potential clients are using Google to deliver their search results. A thorough use of keywords within your content is important, as keywords serve as indicators to the search engine algorithm as to what your website and specifically your articles are about. This brings us to the topic of planning your content with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind.

On-Page SEO

SEO is vitally important to the viability of your website. SEO is best described as the process of helping your site stay visible to the major search engines so your practice can be found in the organic (not paid) searches. Each web page, and each blog article you will add, needs to be optimized with key words (as mentioned before), but also with other signals such as descriptions, and a hierarchal page structure that gives signals to Google, Bing, and Duck-Duck-Go. Because search engines regularly update their guidelines, it is important to monitor the latest changes to the search engine algorithm that determine which pages get to display. Then, as changes occur in the algorithm, your website may need to be tweaked to comply.

On-Going SEO

Once your website is live and you have pages on your site that tell about the firm, each attorney, and your areas of practice, we recommend a strategy of regular blogging. This is the inbound marketing, or content marketing, that we referred to earlier. When you consistently add new articles to your website, those articles signal Google that your site is not static. Google gives preference to websites that are updated frequently. Google also prefers websites that provide good, informative answers to queries that searchers ask. These articles that answer questions become a resource for potential clients who are looking for an attorney. Your website can become a go-to source of helpful information.

Develop a Plan for Distributing Your Content

Lastly, your digital marketing plan should culminate with a strategy for distributing your content. We recommend using various social media channels. These three elements, your web + your content + your social media, work together to exert a positive impact on your website’s search engine optimization, helping your firm stand out from the rest, and helping you to attract new clients. LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Instagram and Pinterest can be used as marketing tools to get your content in front of potential clients.

Maybe you are asking, “What should we post on social media?” It is always good to create social posts about your various services and the areas of law that your attorneys practice. Include some posts about your community and your attorneys’ community involvement. 

Multi-Purpose Your Content

Most importantly, create posts from the content of your blog. This is where you will stand apart from the competition.

Why would your firm want to use social media at all? It’s back to Google. Google measures your presence on social media along with your followers’ engagement with your social media posts as part of their page ranking algorithm. Google tracks each time a social media post is clicked and a visitor comes to your website. Therefore, it is another must-have in the line-up of page rank tools.

Summary of the Steps to Creating a Law firm Marketing Plan

  1. Prepare for the plan by analyzing your current website. What’s working? What is not?
  2. Identify all of your audiences.
  3. List the pages your firm needs on its website.
  4. Determine how your website will get found.
    1. SEO – On-page keywords, description, and hierarchical layout
    2. Blogging – Long-term plan for inbound/content marketing
    3. Social Media – Distribution plan to build links back to your website

These few steps will help you build a solid marketing foundation for your firm. You will reap the benefits over time if you consistently add new content and push that content out to multiple social media platforms. It is a proven formula for success.