We've created a large number of sliders recently that replace various legacy website features. The slider introduced in this article show selected post type content as sliding panels. The feature may be used anywhere with a drag and drop Elementor widget or shortcode, with the expectation that it will be used on the front page of your website.
The latest slider was designed for content sent to your website social and video archives - both blog-style archives of what is traditionally external content, such as social media posts and video. However, in the light of a little early feedback, we have updated the slider to include virtually all post types.
Social and Video Archive: The mortgage broker website we provide our clients includes links to the social, video, and various other archives in the website footer. The content fed to the social archives is part of the standard (and optional) distribution made available via the Instagratify and Vista social media modules (the former is an Instagram hashtag-based filtering tool while the latter is a method to post to social directly from a dedicated Outlook calendar) - both amazing tools. The video archive was formerly an automated tool but we've since updated the system so videos ingested by Yabber enjoy a little TLC before they're sent. Both of these archives are presented in a blog-style format with a styled page showcasing your content. They're both an excelling customer-focused and SEO tool that assigns ownership of the content you create back to you. If your website is the centre of your marketing universe (and it is), then your website should be an archive of your entire digital footprint - we shouldn't allow other networks to take ownership of our content.
The Result
To return the default slider, we'll use the shortcode of [bm_posts_slider]. The slider isn't really intended to be used in an article, so we've used the shortcode attribute of truncate="16" to shorten the title, and this was done simply to ensure the title doesn't wrap around multiple lines.
Social Archive
For the last few years we've made attemps to call out illegal, non-compliant, unethical, or offensive financial advertising. Originating mainly from pay-per-lead services, the plethora of deceptive finspam has left a permanent stain on the industry's underpants. We were fortunate to be asked to provide advice and guidance to various groups over the last year, and it's great to see Facebook implement many of the changes we've suggested. What they've introduced is a good start. It's not a fix, but it's another layer of protection for consumer. After we authored our final recommendation, we asked 72 lenders to endorse our prposals, and we were thrilled to receive 72 responses. Of the 41 aggregators we asked, none chose to endorse what was essentially a manifesto for ethical advertising. As far as Facebook is concerned, anybody running ads will have to validate themselves and their licencing. We've completed this with all our active clients, so this post is for everybody else. From Facebook: To help prevent fraud and impersonation in financial products or services advertising, and in some cases to comply with regulatory authorities, Meta may ask you to verify information about yourself or your organization in order to publish ads that…
Social Archive
I tend to waffle on about the lack of a comparison rate in advertising, and It's not because I think the comparison is overly important, and it's not simply because it's against the law. It's because I see it as a deliberate means to deceive consumers. Failure to abide by such an entry-level and seriously basic obligation - particularly when consumer-facing communication is intentionally crafted to trick customers - is a symptom of something much uglier. Brokers have evolved into the primary channel for obtaining a home loan, and this places a bigger-picture burden on the entire industry to hold itself to the highest of standards, and our honesty, integrity, and ethical behaviour is measured in binary terms - either we're honest or we're not, and when over 80% of all consumer advertising manufactured by brokers is manipulative or dishonest in some way, this ubiquitous malfeasance inevitably shapes consumer opinion and invariably impacts the credibility of those honest brokers that have higher standards. Sadly, the everyday infractions aren't limited to advertising. Most of the time, it's because brokers simply aren't provided with the necessary guidance. We've created a package for aggregators and ACL holders that deals with a number of…
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About This Stock and Bond Business, by Louis H. Engel. The ad is so good that I'm sharing it 76 years after it was first written. Most copy we see nowadays is forgotten within seconds. There's so much to learn from this amazing ad and copy. Ogilvy was famous for his story telling, saying over and over that "the more you tell the more you sell", but the unfiltered, raw, informative, compelling, educational, and entertaining copy that was central to the early examples of long form has slowly devolved into long 'squeze-type' 'copy that says virtually nothing, provides no answers, and exists solely for the purpose of escalating 'manufactured' intent with little regard to the broader 'Lantern' attributes that are central to BM's own advertising models (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust). We often draw upon a Simpson's line "you don't make friends with salad" to articulate the nature of the digital handshake at the top of funnel, and this ad tends to support this ideology. Content engages, while hyped sales copy does not. "About This Stock and Bond Business" was one of Louis H. Engel's most innovative advertisements. Considered one of the the one hundred most influential ads in North…
Social Archive
There are a few big-ticket compliance SNAFUs in this ad (the exclusion of the comparison being the most obvious), but usage of the Coat of Arms in a black and white ad designed to emulate a Government document is the focus of this rant. The use of the mark is regulated under federal law, and its use in any advertising is prohibited unless specific permission is granted (and it never is, particular when used in consumer-facing finance advertising, and certainly not on ad that is natively non-compliant or deceptive). Let's look at some of the laws relating to usage of the Coat of Arms. 1. Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). Section 73: Prohibits the unauthorized use of the Australian Coat of Arms in a way that suggests a connection to the Australian Government. 2. Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth). Section 39: States that the Australian Coat of Arms is a protected symbol and cannot be used in trade or commerce without authorisation. Use in advertising is considered a form of trade or commerce. 3. Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2015 (Cth). This amendment strengthens protections for official government symbols, including the Australian Coat of Arms. 4. Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The…
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Posted 2 weeks ago
"How to create financial advertising that sells" was a 1974 advertisement from New York based advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. It's a master-class in copy. [More information and a full transcript of this advert can be found in our FB group] The 'financial advertising' advert was one of a number of Ogilvy's long-form advertisements that were used as a means of demonstrating their expertise and providing industry-specific social proof. The long-form advertising was a technique widely avoided by many in the fear that they were "giving too much away" (a ridiculous proposition when measured against our current understanding), but the technique was a defining feature of Ogilvy's ads while others were trying to be cute. Of interest is Ogilvy's line "the more you tell, the more you sell" (top right). While Dr Charles Edwards might have said it first, Ogilvy made it famous. There's no question that long-copy sells if you're selling the right product in the right way (sadly, something brokers just do not do). When Ogilvy and Mather printed the article they essentially took ownership of the principles discussed despite the fact they were commonly applied by others at the time (their points of diff were shared by…
Social Archive
The relevance of the screenshot is because it was taken when our broker attracted 50 leads - the typical number of 'leads' delivered by leadgen charlatans at a cost of around 8k. Leads delivered by leadgen crooks convert under 3%, and usually closer to zero. You would literally enjoy more success if you parked your ass at a bus stop and talked to strangers. Let's say that our broker invested 8k into their *own* marketing using the above campaign (about 4X what most brokers will spend). That's 1221 leads. Funnel branded leads convert between 18% and 30%, with refinance campaigns usually coverting up to 28%. Let's say we converted just 25% of our 1221 leads with commissions at $3500. That's roughly 305 deals. The net result: $1,068,375. The guy that purchased 50 leads probably closed one deal and wasted a lot of time chasing ghosts. The reality? FB is slow initially with conversions around 20%. Even if you converted half of what we've detailed above you're still looking at $535k. Screw the pooch completely and you'll only walk away with $267k. On the flip side, you can always do better. Facebook advertising is not just interruption marketing - you're also…
Social Archive
Shad of the Day, 15th November 2024. More of the same nonsense with *multiple* compliance issues. This gem comes to us from 'Finance Group AU' (aka 'Finance Scanner' among other fake brokerage brands), and it's operated by a typical leadgen crowd called Biz Focused. If you're ever in need of some finance humour you simply need to sit yourself down and check them out... unless you're buying their leads, in which case you'll probably want a Bex and a sulky nap. I get tired of the Shad because it's the same recycled nonsense, but in this case it's worth mentioning because of the lengths these clowns go to in order to hide their involvement with the service (no mention on the website, no domain info etc). It makes me wonder if they're hiding from regulators, or perhaps they're creating distance so brokers don't connect the dots and identify the dodgyness (reminds me of the story of a guy that married a beautiful girl, only to learn on their wedding night that he had in fact married a feminine man). Either way, the pictured experience probably delivers leads to brokers at around $130, but if you did it yourself (a solid…
Social Archive
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I feel like I need to point out the obvious. Far too many legitimate businesses are exposing themselves to a litigious future, and excluding a comparison rate is the most obvious obligation imposed on our ads. If I were to consider quantitative claims, about every broker advert currently showing is illegal.... yet aggregation/ACL holders do nothing. I just don't get it. I've just published an article on a group called 'Broker Grow' showing some of the most egregious infractions I've ever seen (no relationship to our 'Broker Growth' program in any way). The article was necessary so brokers knew we had nothing to do with the lower-performing product. To recap. RG178.23 "An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement: s164, National Credit Code. We [ASIC] consider that the following examples would result in the comparison rate being less prominent than the advertised interest rate: (a) a comparison rate is smaller in size or faded in colour when compared to the interest rate;…
Social Archive
Had the pleasure of Peter (from 'Duck Duck Go') and his family at the farm today. Currently Duck's product manager, he's previously worked with Firefox, Blackberry, and others. As far as I'm concerned, his greatest claim to fame is work as the Technical Adviser for the series finale of HBO's 'Silicon Valley'. A true genius. Looking forward to next time. View on Instagram
Social Archive
Shad of the Day, 7th November 2024. Just another example of somebody using trickery to bait consumers into a phone call (by failing to disclose a comparison). Note the second comment. The subscription experience celebrates the same commitment to compliance and ethical marketing. It's probably unfair to point this group out since non-compliance is now the rule rather than the exception. View on Instagram
Social Archive
Pictured are some recent domain name sales, although the big-ticket sales are normally protected by an NDA. The purchasers of these names understood the value of online real estate. I'm selling the website and leadgen facility behind what I believe to be the best domain in the industy. It comes with trust, appeal, socials, and traffic. You'll take ownership of a massive and diverse segment of the population (as I once did), you'll attract significant organic traffic, and you'll promote with authority. Call me on 0400 777 300. police.com.au View on Instagram
Social Archive
Shad of the Day, 3rd November 2024. I'm not going to show you the landing page. It asks a bunch of dumb questions and qualifies me regardless of the nonsense information I provide. Typical 'Mortgage Magnet' leadgen finspam. The rate is an unattainable solar rate. The comparson rate (however useless it might be) and disclaimers are required by law, and they're required for the protection of consumers. Simple. ASIC's RG234 is a simple document that ratifies legislation and makes our obligations known in simple language. RG178.23: "An advertised comparison rate must be identified as a comparison rate and the comparison rate must not be less prominent in an advertisement than any interest rate or the amount of any repayment stated in the advertisement". Ref: s164, National Credit Code. ASIC makes it clear that the comparison rate should be as prominent as the advertised interest rate: or must not be smaller in size or faded compared to the interest rate, and the comparison rate must be in close proximity to the displayed interest rate. RG178/RG234.156 (and the linked legislation) states that it is not necessary to show that consumers have actually been misled. The law prohibits conduct that is *likely* to…
Slider Details: Showing a slider in this narrow post isn't ideal because much of the formatting is lost, and various spacing isn't preserved. It's likely we'll have an example on the front page of this website. As we'll introduce shortly, virtually every option in the slider may be customised (including the image shown as the 'featured' image). We looked at including the hashtags in various locations but ended up simply adding them to the end of the description. Note that only the most recent results will show the correct featured image and image icons until a Yabber database update is performed.
Pictured: Two slides showing post from the video archive. Note that we have 'play' icons that launch video modals. The featured image is inherited from the featured image defined as the video category in Yabber.
An option is made available in Elementor (and shortcode) that renders all post images as icons which will launch an image modal. This feature is enabled by default, and it is available for content other than the posts in the social archive.
Before we introduce the simplicity of Elementor, consider the shortcode necessary to render the next slider. Shortcode of [bm_posts_slider post_type="post" meta_margin_top="-12" include_first_image_as_featured="1" slide_speed="6" number="14" items="1" truncate="50" apply_shadow="0"] returns the following:
Blog & News
We've had an increasing number of businesses come to us that require a word-for-word privacy, terms, complaints (dispute resolution), and General Disclaimer on their website, and ACL holders are sensibly requiring the sea of websites managed by their credit representatives to be kept up-to-date. Once printed, these disclaimers are usually managed via a non-controlled email that might introduce changes, but very few changes are actually actioned by downline businesses. The net result is a very mild compliance infraction. What I'll do in this article is introduce a very simple method of creating a distribution channel that ensures broker statements (and the credit guide link) are always up-to-date. We have our own module that'll enable brokers to and credit guide reference in Yabber. However, the feature is one that manages individual policies, so the requirement to update the policy - regardless of how easy it might be - is still an action that needs to be performed. If you're a larger group using our systems, Yabber does provide for an update of all websites under your 'control', so this article is entirely irrelevant. First, sharing always up-to-date compliance statements is just the start. Another article introduces how you might , such…
Blog & News
The single most significant change we've introduced to our website framework in the last few years is the inclusion of full-featured . The module will make its way out of a lengthy Beta sometime soon and find its way into our standard website and Elementor plugins. The Property module is significant and unique in that the effectiveness of rendered widgets are supported by around 30 APIs retuning data of various types. As part of this API architecture, we required the inclusion of an address form field that would automatically populate based on keystrokes. Common with forms that require address validation, the form comes in two varieties: the form that is used within a , and a single form that will redirect the user to a when a property is selected. It's the latter feature that we'll discuss (in brief) in this article. At the time of writing, the functionality we'll describe on this page is available to all clients although we're yet to actively promote the features to those that use our products. The entire module when reviewed out of context, or when evaluated without an understanding of its future purpose, can be a little confusing, but it makes far…
Blog & News
During the Banking Royal Commission, I participated in an ANU Committee that investigated the viability and role of aggregation in the mortgage market, with findings fed to the commission in order to shape their discussions. Our recommendations weren't published, discussed, or considered. Instead, it was the focus of broker commissions, best interest duty, and the need for trail commissions that dominated commission conversations and media commentary. What the investigation did prove is that the existing aggregation model is vulnerable to massive disruption without a significant operational impact on brokers. In this article we'll speculate on what some of these changes might or should look like and consider the possible impact on the mortgage industry. The mortgage industry is very much a dinosaur. The aggregation model, in particular, is a metaphorical steam-driven swiss-cheese ridden Titanic driving at full-speed towards an iceberg. The difference for us is that the iceberg is in full view. What are we doing about it? We may not know precisely what any change will look like, but we can bet with certainty that the next few years will introduce changes whether we like it or not. This article provides no answers or solutions. One of our core…
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Some time back we had a website with an 'unauthorised' plugin introduce sophisticated Malware into a website that resulted in damage that made its way into other system files. As a result of that breach we introduced additional measures to mitigate the impact of potential intrusions - a necessity given the sensitive nature of any financial asset. Every server can be penetrated in some way, and it's only a matter of time before one finds themselves victims of a malicious actor. We create daily website backups so the restore process is always easy, but the process of tightening server functionality is one that is always ongoing. One of the more recent security measures we introduced makes use of our Abuse API that will simply ban any incoming request that is in any way associated with known, reported, or suspected illegal activity or abuse. The Abuse (Malware) API is updated every hour with hundreds of thousands of records sourced from multiple vendors. If an incoming request matches a suspected source, that request is blocked and a '403 Forbidden' message is returned. This article will details how the Abuse (Malware) API is used. In addition to returning details on IP addresses and…
Blog & News
There's no easy way to stop spam and scam phone calls. We looked at building a mobile application that'd rely on user data to build a reliable and open freely-available database but the process required garnishing millions of local users... but this process was just unreasonable and outside our areas of focus. The fact that a reliable real-time database of phone numbers likely associated with scams isn't made freely available by the Australian Government through the AMCA is just unacceptable when it'll potentially protect the thousands of Australians that lose hundreds of millions every year as a result of fraud. As part of our everyday phone usage we can generally rely on popular diallers made available from the likes of Google and Samsung to block shonky calls, but this isn't of any use to those of us that build applications that should include a measure of protection against (mainly offshore) malicious scammers. Gaining access to a database that'll protect our customers is hard. Until then, our Phone API is more of a 'Resolution API' than the intended Abuse API... and quite frankly, we're unlikely to pursue the latter anytime soon. Until our API reliably returns scam caller information, the primary…
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We provide a large number of forms via Yabber integration, meaning that lead forms, event forms, referral forms, fact find reports, property forms, and others, may all be quickly created and then included on your website in a number of ways (our supports shortcodes, Elementor drag-and-drop forms, significant automation, form escalation, interest-based rendering, and so on - all designed to support a real marketing funnel). We've recently updated Yabber to support the default Elementor form-building block, so any custom form created in Elementor is now submitted to Yabber, and automation will take effect as if the form were one of our own. This article introduces now the Yabber component of the submissions will improve your workflows. The native Elementor form is quite good, and it has improved enormously since the rather boring early versions. The form supports multiple field types, stepped forms, and post-form actions. Creation of any form of any type takes no more than a few seconds. The standalone Elementor form block has some optional webhooks built in by default, so it can send to select platforms, and the default feature will POST submissions anywhere. By default, and without any modification, any Elementor form you create yourself will…
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LoanOptions.AI are an asset finance company that leverages their technology by making it available to mortgage brokers. Asset finance filter through to LoanOptions, while home loan leads are fed back to brokers. We've had a couple of our own brokers partner with the company so we built a standalone WordPress plugin to quickly enable the feature. We have our own , and we'd argue that it's a better solution for our clients. Our mortgage-focused solution is smaller, faster, and we believe returns more accurate results... but the idea behind LoanOptions is that you're essentially partnering with an asset finance company, so it's a completely different style of feature than the tool we've built (ours will optionally send asset deals to any company - not just a single brokerage). Our AI-engine delivers results based on passing through a classifier engine and policy matrix that filters results based on lender policys, so our filtration mechanism is vastly different to those returned via LoanOptions. If installing the necessary code to make LoanOptions work for us was problematic (and it was, we encountered numerous issues with the code), then brokers may possibly needlessly struggle.... so the WordPress plugin will hopefully mitigate the low level…
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Around March this year we had a client ask to have default page titles and formatting modified on around 70 pages. The request exposed a weakness in the architecture that prevented easy modification of page titles on a large number of pages, and with a recent update to the website framework, we've made modifications to the title module that permits a far greater measure of control over text and stylistic presentation. Titles haven't changed since version 2 of the framework which dates back over 3 years. The early website title blocks were created in a manner that assigned focus into one key area - conversions... and we ignored those subtle stylistic components that improved presentation. Changing the formatting completely would be foolish given their demonstrated performance, so the new titles are presented in an almost identical manner with the exception that we include a few icons for bling, and the title and formatting is optionally altered in Yabber. Not unlike most of our other text elements, the titles themselves may optionally include rate placeholders to return current rate data of any type. First, a look at the former title block. Similar in presentation to around 70 other pages within the…
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We've recently updated the 'Testimonials' website and Yabber module, and the changes are significant enough that they require a reintroduction to the feature. Some like reviews. Others don't. We don't. In the broking world, however, and in the broader finance space in particular, reviews serve a valid purposes, and in a world populated with copious qualities of , it's important to validate your business as one that is real and actually exists. Testimonials and reviews provide social proof and tend to shape the early opinion that borrowers will have of your brand. Many businesses will use a simple plugin for their website that pulls reviews from Google, and that's fine for most brokers. Our system is a little different (and far more advanced) in that we aggregate reviews in Yabber, send them to one or more websites as a dedicated post, and then allow various types of modifications to be made in Yabber to alter the appearance of your website testimonial slider. In addition, we manufacture a mix of testimonial review images for use on . We've made the effort to ensure that Yabber supports the most versatile testimonial module available anywhere, and this article introduces how the updated system…
Blog & News
A couple of years ago we introduced a that'd return formatted rates within a style of textbox. On the back of a recent request from a client, we've created a new style of featured panel that'll return a similar lender rate textbox that is managed entirely from Yabber. While the former rate panel remains, the new panel is simplistic and arguably more persuasive. This article will introduce the basic feature, the WordPress shortcode, and how to use the Elementor block. For the first example, we'll look at the typical lowest rate that many brokers rightly or wrongly show on their entry page (and this is where the requesting client required the basic rate text). We've in Yabber that includes the type of rate we require and we've defined the . The result of the shortcode returns the following: The basic text-only style shown above is the expected usage. For those that insist on using prominent call-to-action rate text on page entry, this is the general style that should be applied. In the second example we'll use the lowest against a . We've also linked the rate to an internal page. An may be applied the container as shown below. In…
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There are dozens of ways in which you may render lender data on your , and this data includes page-level archives that'll return information in an indiscriminate manner to support your funnel and educate your clients. These archives are supported by various panels and widgets that are used to showcase data of a certain type or from certain lenders. Supplementing existing features, and in preparation for of our website framework, we've introduced a suite of new archive pages that render the lowest rate from all accredited lenders on a specific page. The pages were built into the framework because we could... and necessarily because we should. In the light of operational experience, and on the back of millions of pages views, we can definitely claim that providing lender data in various formats objectively improves page views and conversions, so it stands to reason that providing additional resources will further cement broker expertise and authoritativeness and ultimately converts more website funnel traffic. This article introduces the new lender archive pages in brief. Like it or not, borrowers want access to research material and lender data, and rightly or wrongly, over 93% of all mortgage clients consider the rate to be the…
Blog & News
In creating the of our , we've had to create various elements that'll support different types of navigation. The first of these tools is the 'Link Block' module, and this article introduces the very basic feature. Similar to the module, the feature simply creates a block of styled links in a block or list. Used by a large number of pending Yabber features, such as '' and '', the links assigned to any single profile may be rendered in a styled menu, standard list, or accordion panel (again, similar to a related reading list). Link block content is updated globally from within Yabber, meaning that any website reference to any link block will update sitewide (or across all your websites) in the same way as other modules, such as . WordPress has its own method of creating nested menus, and it's quite good, and with a little fiddling around it can be used an an alternative to what we're describing. The advantage of our system is that link blocks may be included in managed and supported content, such as that provided via our article system. Our menus are easily maintained without having to mess around with the WordPress backend. To…
Blog & News
We recently encountered a broker that waited 6-months to have a logo changed on an aggregator-style website. A full 6-months! This gave us reason to dust off the old Platinum logo features, add a little more functionality, and push the tools into a standalone Yabber panel. The result is an additional component in the Website module that provides immediate, conditional, and seasonal control over how your website logos are managed. As far as your leadgen and big-picture marketing efforts are concerned, the website company logo module is a small and somewhat insignificant feature. However, as with all primary assets on your website, we should remain true to the philosophy that underpins our broader marketing efforts, and part of this agility comes from having full, quick, complete, and granular control over primary website assets. The logo system performs three primary function: Update any webiste logo at any time by uploading and sending an image. Define scheduled timeframes where a company logo will automatically swap over to another. Define conditional logos that will show on the basis of resolved borrowing objective and or industry/interest type. This article will introduce how the system functions. The Result The result is as you would expect.…
Blog & News
The FAQ system we incorporate into our is both 'similar' and fundamentally different to the design of typical websites. The has evolved significantly since it was first introduced, but the FAQ titles were always something that we were always going to come back to 'fixing', so they haven't changed much since the module was first introduced. The 'Statement' modules takes care of this design bottleneck and provides a method of rendering nicely styles titles and general website content in a manner that supports your broader . This article introduces the super-simple 'Statement' (title and description) feature. It needs to be stated that we're not really a web design company. We're a marketing company that provides a website to support your marketing efforts, and we do so in a manner that is superior to other solutions availed to the market.... and our tools are more affordable, scalable, and suitable for any growing business (we provide a website because we were sick of inheriting solutions that simply didn't work the way websites were meant to work). All our website tools are designed to support your organic and promoted marketing funnels... and the Statement block is an attempt to further amplify funnel conversions.…
The example does illustrate how the slider may be used for alternate post types, and at the moment it supports posts from the following post types: instagram and video posts (intended usage), posts, pages, FAQs, resources, and education. Standalone sliders exist for post types such as testimonials. In the above example, we've applied the 'meta' data which shows icons for images associated with each post, but this is an option we've enabled.
Our shortcode editor will make light work of applying this style of 'complex' markup, but until then, Elementor is far easier to use.
Elementor Widget
As with all our primary tools, a drag-and-drop Elementor Widget is made available that'll allow you to place the slider on any post or page. The widget includes customisation options for virtually every aspect of the slider style. Additional options will be added as they're requested.
Pictured: The Elementor Post Widget. Drag and drop the widget onto a post or page, select the post types to show, and the slider will start showing results. A large number of options apply that alter the style and formatting of the rendered slider.
Shortcode is available, but the large number of options introduce a complexity that is best avoided. That said, rendering a default slider with only minor changes takes just a few seconds.
Updates to the Social Archive
In building what was a 'simple' slider, we encountered a 'problem' (and an opportunity). In the past, Yabber would create a social article on your website based on the attributes of the post content... but it wouldn't create tags or categories. However, social posts are based on hashtags, so it only seemed appropriate that we'd assign them to each social post created. The assignment of tags (or, in this case, hashtags) means that all content connected via a hashtag may be navigated independently of other content, thus providing a more usable and engaging customer experience.
Pictured: The social archive on this website showing images associated with the #bankhistory hashtag. The archive allows a user to experience your social archive as if it were a social network by bouncing around content based on the hashtags associated with the post. This new archive presents some interesting social options we're yet to fully explore.
The framework is now shipped with a social tag archive that is linked to from the tags associated with each post (meaning you're able to browse your own social archive in the same way that you would Twitter or Instagram).
In terms of the slider itself - the primary reason the above changes were made - we now have the capacity to include hashtag links from within each panel, thus giving your website visitors direct access to social, video, and other content that interests them most.
In creating a searchable archive for the social media custom post type, we were required to create a 'hashtag' taxonomy (which is basically an association that connects the hashtag to the post), and we were required to build in a searchable hashtag archive page (or a paginated archive that shows all posts containing a single hashtag). If you're sporting a framework that was delivered anytime before January 23rd, the searchable hashtag archive will not work, and you shouldn't include hashtags in your social slider (or anywhere else) as the tags will link to an invalid page; this restriction only applies to social panels as it's the only location the tags are shown.
For those with an existing website, we'll provide video instructions on how to perform the update yourself (changes were already made on managed client websites). If you're an active social media user, and you're using our social systems, then we'd recommend an update.
Ironically, archived social media posts on your website will almost always have a higher reach than content posted to social media platforms.
Considerations
If you expect to use the slider, consider the following:
- In most cases you will use your post featured image as that which is shown in the social slider. For those cases where you set an unrelated and default featured featured image in Yabber, you may select the first post image
shown in your article as the featured image.
- Video and Social archives are the only two post types that will display 'alternate' content (images for social posts, and a video link for video posts). Other posts types will show in a generic format. The slider can be used for posts from any archive type, including just those from your blog (supplements an existing default Elementor tool).
- There are a large number of Elementor options . In most cases you will only select the post type, and alter only those values that are related to your brand. You may select your brand 'global' colour so that any updates in the future will alter the colours to all slider instances. It's expected that we'll build a panel in Yabber to set default or specific styles.
- Linked hashtags in social may be rendered above or below your post text. The option is defined in Elementor or with shortcode. We'll tidy up this option in the near future.
The feature is very new so you can expect minor bugs. Please report them as they're found. Please also forward any feature requests and we'll include them in the next plugin update.
Continued Development
One of the features we've considered implementing into the website framework is the history of lenders and banks in Australia. We've built up a significant archive ourselves, and as we post finance history to your social channels via the managed program, and as you post your own content, we can link that content to a 'history' page with more information. It's a little 'outside the box' so we'd appreciate your feedback on this type of feature.
Aggregation & Franchise
While it's yet to be used, Yabber provides for an aggregation or franchise group to include a full library of social content from all brokers on a dedicated or company website, with each post linking back to the original author - this style of social tool may also be suitable for an operation with a larger number of independent brokers. The idea is that we want our social media efforts to be archive and come alive before its buried deep down under thousands of feet of cat pics and dancing babies.
Conclusion
We're often required to explain why a company often perceived as a 'lead generation' company applies so much effort into building industry leading website tools... and the answer is a simple one: your website is required to support a full-stack marketing funnel, so the persuasiveness and value derived from your broader digital experience contributes towards your conversions. Simple.
While the slider is a fantastic tool that elevates the awareness of your social media content, it's the evolution of the social media archive that is probably more significant. Hosting your own social and video material gives you complete ownership of your own content. The searchable hashtag archive makes your website come alive with a complete searchable library of the content shared to social, and the system adds significant SEO value in the process.
Coming Soon: One of the more significant steps we've taken in this whole process was the modification of the backend framework to support a facility that will permit you to post to social media from within your social media archive. In other words, you will create content on your website, and the content and media associated with the post will send to selected social accounts. This tool will supplement the Vista and Instagratify tools, and will arguably be a more efficient mechanism for creating social content.
The last of a slider-style tool that we'll build in the short-term will return selected videos uploaded to YouTube and/or Wistia in a video slider, and the Elementor tool is expected next week.
