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Should You Do Your Own Social Media? Absolutely Not!

August 4, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Should You Do Your Own Social Media? Absolutely Not!

Here’s something I hear all the darn time: “social media is easy! My [insert 12-year-old relative here] could do it for me! Yes, they could do it for you. Just as you could do it yourself! But do I fix my own plumbing? Nooooo! So should you do your own social media? Again: Noooo!

Analytics

In order to make the best decisions about when to post, what to post, and how often to post, you’ll need to look at your analytics. If you don’t know what that means, then you’ll need to study up on analytics. Here’s a post about Twitter analytics, for a start.

Choosing Your Platform

Do you know where your audience is? Do you know the average age of people on the different platforms? Do you know the best place for women to hang out online (hint: it starts with a “P” and ends with a “T!”

image centrism

Image-Centrism

I’m not sure that’s a real term, but you know what I’m saying. These days, you need a good image. Gone are the days when you could post an article without a good image to go along with it. There are some exceptions, of course. But not many.

Your Time

Recently, I started to use Noko, a great time management tool. How much is your time worth? Do you really want to use it to learn how to manage your time online, when there’s someone who’s already ironed out all the kinks of an online posting system?

frustration

Frustration

Will you know what to do when there’s an emergency online? Who will you talk to if something goes wrong? Wouldn’t you prefer to have someone else handle everything for you?

Do You Do Your Own Plumbing?

If I did my own plumbing, probably there’d be a lot of leaks. Also, a lot of extra pieces of pipe that went nowhere, spurting water. It would maybe look like the Winchester Mystery House, except I couldn’t charge money for people to come over and see it.

Research and content

Research and Content

How will you handle finding your own content for posting? Will you create original content every day? How much time will that take away from your other business? How will you know what to post?

Constant Changes

Today, Instagram introduced Instagram “stories.’ Recently, Facebook changed its newsfeed to focus more on friends and families. Will you be able to keep up with the rapidly changing social media scene? Will you want to?

Still Think You Want to Manage Your Own Social Media?

Many people think they don’t have the budget, or the means to hire someone. Possibly that’s true. And a few people do a good job themselves. But if you don’t do your own plumbing, why would you do your own social media? Tell me why in the comments! Thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, images, platforms, Social Media, time management

Twitter Spotlight on locals: How to Connect Ten Ways

January 21, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Twitter Spotlight on locals: How to Connect Ten Ways

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, such as a shop or a restaurant, what’s the best way to get people to your place? Although I’ve written a previous post, Social Media: 7 Ways Your Business Can Connect with Locals, there are other ways to get people in the door.

Follow Locals through Search

Now following locals might seem obvious–locals will be your best source of traffic–but how, you might ask? Search on a city, neighborhood, or county (or a hashtag). Find something you have in common with people, whether that’s tweeting about the weather, puppies, or beach photography. Follow locals, retweet their content, and talk to them.

Be Curious

I’ve said it a million times–talk to people. No matter which platform you’re on, that is the key. Ask questions, give compliments, and be generous. Say hello, say thank you, and be curious. Curiosity is your best friend on Twitter.

Tweet Specials

Give people a reason to come into your shop. Tell them what your specials are. What gives your place the edge? Tweet about that. Why did you start your business? Tweet about that. You can also “pin” a tweet to the top of your feed so it’s the first thing visitors see when visiting your Twitter stream. You can even “pin” that tweet on mobile.

Add High Quality Content

Look at the analytics on your Twitter. Who’s following you, and what do they like? If you want more of the same kind of followers, give your audience what they want. Do they like technical content? Art? Give them that.

Use Beautiful Images

There are so many images to choose from. If you’re a restaurant, tweet images of your food. If you’re a shop, tweet what you have for sale. And make the images beautiful! I see so many accounts with ugly images. Don’t be that business!

Use Maps

Tell people how to get to your shop! Go to Google Maps, and map a nearby location. Now take a screenshot of the route, add a caption, and pin it to the top of your feed.

Use the Heck out of Lists

Make lists, use them daily, and share them with others. They’re free and make you look pro. Also, if you don’t use lists, you will surely go insane. You Too Can Be A Guru’s Bridget Willard has some terrific examples of good lists here: Organize Your Twitter Stream–Use Lists. You can create lists by city, neighborhood, or county.

Join Chats Your Audience Would Like

Check your analytics and join chats that will draw in people who are your best audience. Are the people techies? Join a techie chat! Are they boomers? Join a Boomer Chat! A couple of my favorites are: #BufferChat (Wednesday mornings at 9 am Pacific) and #DigiBlogChat (my chat about all things digital/blogging Tuesdays at 1 pm Pacific). Twubs has a list of chats that may interest you.

Make Followers Feel Like Friends

Share what excites you. Share non-business content, too. Tips on things you have learned. Maybe a secret place nearby, a good venue in the area, or an app you really like. Put up posts from museums, or a little trick you learned.

Meet in Person

Of course, this is ultimately what you want. Make sure their visit is positive by giving the same great customer service and friendliness that they experience on your social media.

How Do You Get People in the Door?

Did I miss anything? I really do want to know! Leave me a comment! Thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Engagement, images, Lists, local, Twitter

Insomnia: A Social Media Manager’s Battle

December 17, 2015 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Insomnia: A Social Media Manager’s Battle

Social media managers often get insomnia. I read about it one time on Mashable. I was sleepy, but I think that’s where it was. We worry about getting online traffic, clicks, and a whole host of other ridiculous things, such as the following.

The Ridonculous Headline

We worry about silly things like headlines. You’ve all heard that the headline is the most important part of writing an article or blog post. It needs to be catchy, but not linkbait. You want people to click on that link and then dive into the blog post. You might want to read about why headline writing is such a pain in the asterisk.

Forgetting

With social media, there’s always more to do. One more tweet to write, one more person to talk to, one more half-baked task to implement. So while you’re trying to sleep, there’s always a little voice saying “what did you forget to do?”

The Stupid Call to Action

As if writing a decent Facebook post isn’t hard enough, there’s always that stupid call to action. Sometimes it’s implied, but usually not. It can be a question, such as “tell me what you would do,” “do you agree?” “Tell us! Yes or No.” Sometimes it’s a button to subscribe or sign up for a newsletter. Hubspot has some terrific call to action examples, by the way.

The Ludicrous Return on Investment

If you track everything carefully and use your analytics, you can figure out where you’re getting the most return on investment (ROI). But with social media, it’s more like your audience gets warmed up before making a sale. Could you track where every single customer comes from?

The Image

The Compelling Image

Is the image captivating enough? Does it tell a story? Is it boring? Again, without sliding over into linkbait, the image has to ride that fine edge between captivating and linkbait. Will your audience lean in to see what’s happening in the image? Line, color, and texture all need to work together.

Timing

Timing is another preposterous thing to consider. If you post too early, no one will be awake (except the other insomniacs who haven’t been to bed yet. Post too late and only the zombies and creatures of the night will see it. Then again, you don’t want to do what everyone else does! That late night post just might get picked up and go viral! It could happen!

What if No One Shows up to the Twitter Chat?

What If There’s a Chat and No One Shows Up?

Akin to “if a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there…”. You tweet out carefully crafted questions and nobody answers. Tick-tock, Tick-tock, Tick-tock. Crickets. Getting those first few people to join your chat can take forever. Meantime, you have to keep plugging away, and whistling a happy tune.

Scheduling Versus Being Online Live

Do you wait around for someone to respond to your tweet? Or do you post, go away, and come back three days later? That’s the dilemma right there. Of course, the more you’re online, the better your chances are of making a good contact. And as my buddy, Bridget Willard says, “Relationships are long-term investments.”

What Dopey Things Keep You Up At Night?

Leave me a ridiculous comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: call to action, headlines, images, Social Media, Social Media Managers, Twitter, Twitter Chat

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

October 16, 2014 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

Facebook

This is the third in my series of four on the ten ways to fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms. You can go back and read the ones on Pinterest or Twitter if you’d like. By the way, here’s an excellent article about Five of the Biggest Facebook Mistakes and how to Fix Them.

1. Crosspost from Twitter using hashtags.

Use tons and boatloads of hashtags. People love them! Make up your own private jokes using hashtags. For extra points, use random words. For instance, #SuperCaliFragilisticalSpaceShip. See how random that is? And how long, too?!

2. Steal content

Pretend that the cool article you just found is yours. Steal the post and don’t say where you got it! Deny everything if accused. Don’t forget to remove the artist’s signature off that artwork, too! (This has happened to me more than once, by the way.) After all, if it’s on the Internet, it’s meant to be taken and used!

3. Post when no one’s there

Can’t sleep in the middle of the night? That’s a great time to post! Don’t take advantage of Facebook’s native scheduler. Don’t save that post for later, either.

4. Don’t post at all

Don’t have any opinions ever and don’t “like” or comment on any one else’s posts. That’s a good strategy.

5. Never use images

Plain text rocks! Especially when you’re ranting. Use a lot of run-on sentences so you can go on. And on. In fact, a whole paragraph with no line breaks is the best of all.

6. Don’t reply

When people comment, ignore them. Be mysterious. Be cryptic. But don’t answer any questions or comments.

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

7. Post and run

Like a hit-and-run accident, a post and run works best when your friends and fans feel like they’ve witnessed a car crash. Post when you only have five minutes left and you’re about to go on vacation. That’s how you appear to be even more mysterious. If you do reply, wait until you’re back from vacation (in two or three weeks).

8. Don’t invite your friends to like your page

They probably wouldn’t like it anyway. Would they? And if you don’t tell them about it, they won’t ever have to know! That will save a lot of work.

9. Don’t have a business page

Post all your business stuff on your personal page. Your friends won’t mind. That’s what friends are for!

10. Make your posts private.

Don’t let anyone see what you’re talking about. You can also have posts where you address just one person.

What failures have you seen on Facebook?

I really do love failures. Here are a few more, in this article from Business to Community, 7 Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes. Without calling anyone out, let me know what really great failures, mistakes, and belly flops you’ve seen on Facebook!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Business, crosspost, crossposting, Facebook, fail, failure, friends, images, Mistakes, post and run, posting, Private, reply, stealing, Twitter

Pinterest Place Boards: Tell a Story

March 27, 2014 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Pinterest Place Boards: Tell A Story

People love stories. Stories are a way of making time stand still. All the world falls away when you’re listening to or reading a story. Did you know that you can create a story using a place board on Pinterest? Think back on those Day in the Life coffee table books. A Pinterest board can be used the same way. Here’s how.

Brain Dump

For this example, I’ll use my own Santa Cruz Daycation board. Write down everything you’d like to do in a single day. Put all the parts of the day in chronological order–I used a numbered list in a Word document to do this. Search for each item online and make sure that whatever you’re going to do is available and open for business. For instance, is the restaurant open? Can you zipline at that time of the day? Can you do yoga early in the morning?

Write Captions

Say something about each step of the day. If you love shoes, and you get to the shoe store 10 minutes before they close, that’s a “SQUEEE!!!” for sure. Rinse and repeat for each event. Add these to your Word doc. And when you’re writing those captions, consider how people search on Pinterest. Here are 18 Tips for Optimizing Your Images to Improve SEO, from Pam Dyer.

Find Images or Use Your Own

Search within Pinterest, find already-existing photos, or use your own images. And remember, Pinterest is about beautiful images, so make it pretty! Here’s a blog post I wrote about creating beautiful Pinterest covers.

Start Pinning!

Pin in reverse order from the end of the day to the beginning because the first pin will be at the bottom.

Location, Location, Location

For each pin, first click “Add to Map,” then choose the city. A map appears and will zoom into the city you just selected. Once you’ve found the city, click in the “What’s This Place Called” spot to find the location, and press enter to map it. Some locations will appear instantly while others may require more searching.

Review Your Captions

You can edit the text for each pin later if you like. For instance, I wanted more of a timeline for my place board, so I made sure to add that I was having breakfast, lunch, or dinner, without being too regimented with the times.

Have You Created a Place Board Yet?

What story would you like to tell? Leave me a comment below! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: how to, image, images, pin, Pinterest, place board, search engine optimization, SEO, writing captions

What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

March 14, 2014 By Carol Stephen 17 Comments

What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

If you’ve been reading my blog, first of all, let me say how much I appreciate you. I am very blessed that I’ve gotten so many comments, and learned so much from all of you, out there reading these words. Because I’d heard all kinds of horror stories about people blogging for YEARS and never getting one. Single. Comment. I’ve been lucky enough to have extremely engaged readers and comments on nearly every post.

Now that I’ve written 100 posts, here’s some stuff I’ve learned. By the way, thanks for the inspiration to Randy Clark and his What We’ve Learned From 300 Posts.

Use Beautiful Images

Images are one of the most important aspects of a blog. Some people, I’m convinced, don’t read at all, but skim the headings and look at the pretty pictures. So I make an effort to use Flickr’s Creative Commons or my own photos whenever possible. Maybe in the future, blogs won’t even have words, just images. When I began, I stuck to the formula of two photos per post, but now sometimes use more.

Mistakes Were Made

I once made the mistake of using someone’s photo and got a “takedown notice.” Since then, I make sure to check in Creative Commons by using the Advanced Search and only using those available for commercial use so that doesn’t happen again! Wow. That was embarrassing.

Secret Killer Aliens from Outer Space!

Headlines matter. A lot. And stacking the important (read: SEO-centric) words towards the beginning of the headline is important. For instance, rather than saying “Most Important Hashtags on Twitter,” say “Twitter: Important Hashtags.” And shorter is better on headlines, too, for ranking. Not that every headline has to follow a formula, but it’s something I’m more aware of now. I learned about the SEO-centric headlines from friend Pam Aungst Marketing.

WordCamp!

Going to WordCamp provides inspiration and inspiration is the juice that keeps your blogging engine fueled. So I highly recommend finding a WordCamp and attending. I’ve gone to both WordCamp Orange County and WordCamp San Francisco (the mother ship!). And each time have made numerous new friends, as well as meeting online friends like Peter Woolvett and Ruby Rusine!

My Secret Weapon

My Secret Friend

Yes, I have an editor friend. See? There she is behind that tree. She promised me I could take her picture–and she didn’t really lie. She is a real person, and she has helped me when I’ve painted myself into a grammatical corner many times. She doesn’t help me with every single post, but you can definitely tell when she does help. Because those posts make a whole lot more sense (and also contain more references to clowns)! Also: subject-verb agreement For The Win!

Syndication

My blog is syndicated on Business to Community, sometimes appears in Yahoo Small Business! and Women of Technology. That has helped with traffic and probably brought me more followers and fans.

Don’t Worry That You Won’t Have Topics

I’m convinced that writing has helped me with my listening skills. Now I’m always listening for the question that someone might have. Many posts are inspired by my followers or fans. And I’ve been surprised at how many friends I’ve made among other bloggers, too. It’s a little community.

Unexpected Results

Blogging has helped me to go to cool places in my own imagination. I very often start writing and don’t know where a post is going. Some of my favorite posts have come out of times when I really didn’t feel like writing, but forced myself. What do you get out of blogging? Do you have a secret friend who encourages you to write about clowns?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Blogpost, Content, editing, editor, headlines, images, Mind Your Strengths, Pam Ann Marketing, Peter Woolvett, post, Randy Clark, Ruby Rusine, secret, weapon, WordCamp, writing

Social Media Calendar: Six Ways

February 20, 2014 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Social Media Calendar: Six Ways

What do you think of when you consider creating a social media calendar? Would it be a complex document, filled with charts and graphs, passed around at long meetings? A calendar is simply a tool to help you, a structure that can assist you with your overall goals (including your time management)–nothing more. You don’t even have to follow it all the time. And if you want to know why you need to create a social media content calendar, this Sprout Social article has plenty of reasons.

Keep it Simple

First, create a very high-level, daily structure. So for example, say you are a new zoo. Your schedule could go something like this: Monday: Monkeys, Tuesday: Toucans, Wednesday: Warthogs, Thursday: Tortoises, Friday: Flamingos. You can always revisit your daily calendar later and tweak it to suit yourself or your team.

Decide When to Post

Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you’ve set up a business page, you might want to post once a day to begin with (two or three times a day is fine). So, keeping with the above example, find content that matches your strategy of Monday Monkeys. What do they eat? Where do they live? You might start your search with Google and then find more specific sites to search.

Find a Model

Monkey See, Monkey Do Could Work for Your Editorial Calendar

Say your zoo is in Sydney, Australia. Find another zoo in a different part of the world to model your account after. (Maybe the San Diego Zoo?) Then find two more. Examine what the zoos are posting. What posts are getting the most traction, likes, comments? How often do they post? Adjust your schedule. “Monkey see, monkey do” could work for your social media editorial calendar.

Learn from What Doesn’t Work

You may not find another account you like, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from someone else’s failures. You can often learn more from someone’s failures than their successes. If you had to write the headlines for someone else’s Facebook posts, what would you do differently? What makes you want to comment on a post? Is there a particular writing style that you like?

Use Analytics Combined with Common Sense

Try using analytics, but also experiment with posting at different times. For instance, you may see that everyone is online at 5:30 pm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re active then–lots of people leave their Facebook accounts open while they watch TV or eat dinner. Also, your followers may not be online on holidays.

Track Good Sources of Content

You might have your own blog, but you may also need content from other places. Could you share content from another zoo? Or is there enough going on at your zoo that you can post every day? When you find a good source, record it somewhere. I like to throw everything into a Word doc, so if I’m half-asleep looking for content, I’ll have some ideas. Images are becoming increasingly important in posts, so make sure to have a good source for images. Huffington Post has a great article on how to create engaging images.

What Else Goes Into Your Calendar?

What has helped you create your content calendar? Please leave a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, calendar, common sense, Content, editorial, images, Social Media

The Perfect Retweet: Seven Ways

January 28, 2014 By Carol Stephen 14 Comments

The Perfect Retweet: Seven Ways

A blog post about how to retweet might seem like Twitter 101 (and here’s my blogpost on Twitter 101 for Baby Boomers). But before you pull out that “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt” line, give me a minute to explain. Because lately I’ve seen a lot of bad retweets.

Don’t Hit That Retweet Button!

My good friend, Bridget Willard, of You Too Can Be A Guru says it best:

Using the Retweet Button in real life would be like being in a conversation and your reply is playing a recording of what they said.

— Bridget Willard (@YouTooCanBeGuru) January 20, 2014

There are lots of reasons not to use the retweet button. For one, people often don’t see your retweet. For another, when you use the classic retweet, you use your own branding, instead of having a bunch of other people’s logos all over your Twitter account. For a third, you can add a comment more easily. The fourth reason is that using the retweet button can be a conversation killer. Do you need more reasons? I did a Google search and my bud Bridget Willard’s post on why she doesn’t use the retweet button was right there on page one. Seriously.

Use the Classic Retweet

To use the “Classic” retweet, hit reply, then cut and paste the tweet. Check that the tweet will fit. Put a “.” or RT or MT (for “Modified Tweet) in front of the tweet. Note: If you start a tweet with an @ sign, it’s a reply and only you plus the person in the @ sign will see it. More details about using the @ sign, plus other newbie hints here.

Check the Link

If you’re retweeting with a link, check the link. Even if you don’t read the entire article at the link, at least scan it. Make sure the link is still alive, and that the article isn’t spammy. Yes, sometimes you may tweet out a dead link (and please tell your friends if they do!).

Ask Yourself if Your Followers Will Like the Tweet

Try to retweet articles of interest to your followers. Who are your followers? What would interest them? For instance, if you tweet for a bank, your tweets could be about rising interest rates, banking history, events in your bank’s home town, etc. If your followers love the outdoors, tweet about hiking and mountaineering. And so on.

Don’t Retweet a Bunch of @ Names

Here comes the analogy. Ready? I’m sitting at one end of a long bench. John is sitting at the other end. I say hello to John and we start talking. But our conversation has nothing to do with anyone else on the bench. That’s how it is when you retweet those long chains of names. It adds to the noise. It’s also like a “reply all” in email. Remove all the @ signs if you’re talking to just one person. Everyone else will thank you for the peace and quiet.

Add an Image

For extra credit, add an image

If you really want extra credit, add an image. Since about Halloween of 2013 and its IPO, Twitter has allowed the addition of multimedia, as outlined by the New York Times. You may need a little time to find something appropriate (Creative Commons is good for this purpose), or you can use one of your own pictures to steer clear of copyright infringement. One of my friends, @TheSoulfulEmu on Twitter, sometimes adds an image to my tweets. How cool is that?

Ask for a Retweet

If the tweet is very important to you, add the words “Please retweet” at the end. Just make sure that you’re also retweeting other people’s tweets, too, not just asking for favors all the time. Yes, there’s that whole thing about being social again. Strange, I know.

What Else Do You Love in a Retweet?

Please leave me a comment! I appreciate it.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: classic retweet, Followers, Following, images, Retweet, tweet, Twitter

Analytics

Choosing Your Platform

Image-Centrism

Your Time

Frustration

Do You Do Your Own Plumbing?

Research and Content

Constant Changes

Still Think You Want to Manage Your Own Social Media?

Follow Locals through Search

Be Curious

Tweet Specials

Add High Quality Content

Use Beautiful Images

Use Maps

Use the Heck out of Lists

Join Chats Your Audience Would Like

Make Followers Feel Like Friends

Meet in Person

How Do You Get People in the Door?

The Ridonculous Headline

Forgetting

The Stupid Call to Action

The Ludicrous Return on Investment

The Compelling Image

Timing

What If There’s a Chat and No One Shows Up?

Scheduling Versus Being Online Live

What Dopey Things Keep You Up At Night?

Facebook

1. Crosspost from Twitter using hashtags.

2. Steal content

3. Post when no one’s there

4. Don’t post at all

5. Never use images

6. Don’t reply

7. Post and run

8. Don’t invite your friends to like your page

9. Don’t have a business page

10. Make your posts private.

What failures have you seen on Facebook?

Brain Dump

Write Captions

Find Images or Use Your Own

Start Pinning!

Location, Location, Location

Review Your Captions

Have You Created a Place Board Yet?

Use Beautiful Images

Mistakes Were Made

Secret Killer Aliens from Outer Space!

WordCamp!

My Secret Weapon

Syndication

Don’t Worry That You Won’t Have Topics

Unexpected Results

Keep it Simple

Decide When to Post

Find a Model

Learn from What Doesn’t Work

Use Analytics Combined with Common Sense

Track Good Sources of Content

What Else Goes Into Your Calendar?

Don’t Hit That Retweet Button!

Use the Classic Retweet

Check the Link

Ask Yourself if Your Followers Will Like the Tweet

Don’t Retweet a Bunch of @ Names

Add an Image

Ask for a Retweet

What Else Do You Love in a Retweet?

Follow Carol!

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