Carol Stephen, Author at

How to Use Gratitude to Empower Your Social Media Campaign

October 31, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Thanksgiving is undoubtedly my favorite holiday. Being surrounded by friends and family, eating and drinking and giving thanks. Who can argue with turkey and gravy and friendship? Nobody, that’s who! How does gratitude tie in with your social media campaign? Read on to see!

Gratitude Marketing

Gratitude marketing can boost your customers, followers, and just plain feels good. Every time you thank someone for sharing something of yours, buying your product, or simply being supportive, that’s gratitude. Done regularly, gratitude marketing attracts other like-minded people. There have even been studies done about the effectiveness of gratitude marketing. See Duct Tape Marketing’s The Power of Gratitude in Marketing, for instance. And I like the idea of a hand-written card or note. Hardly anyone sends hand-written notes anymore.

Social Media and Gratitude

As part of your social media campaign, I highly recommend thanking people for sharing, for retweets, and for following you and your pages. After all, they have a choice not to. You probably have die-hard fans who like what you do no matter what. These are the people you need to thank regularly. And beyond thanking them, how about giving them a little or a big gift every once in a while? By the way, you might like How to Develop and Unlock a Tremendous Gratitude Muscle, by moi. You could start with ten things you’re grateful for in your business, and take it from there.

Be Grateful During the Tough Times

This month has been a little tough. It’s important, in my opinion, to be grateful even during hard times. We haven’t had power or WiFi for a few days during October, so working is harder. I’m writing these words from a friend’s house, and it’s easy to fall into the habit of feeling sorry for myself or feeling angry. But I’m grateful that we still have a gas stove for cooking, a good heater, and a car to go shopping. And although it’s inconvenient, I’m hopeful that we can figure something out going into the future. And if you want more reasons to be grateful, check out 31 Benefits of Gratitude: The Ultimate Guide. There are some surprising reasons, including that people will like you more if you’re grateful.

Choose to Believe that People Are Good

Most friends, family, and coworkers have been extremely kind during this tough time of no power and no WiFi, and very understanding. People have offered places to work, and said not to worry about their social media. And for that I’m very grateful. Of course, there are people who will take advantage of a bad situation, but they seem to be in the minority. The main reason I choose to believe people are good is that believing the opposite can make you crazy. That is, you might be paranoid thinking that bad people are out to get you or steal from you. Looking over your shoulder all the time is no way to live.

Gratitude Strategy

Do you have a gratitude strategy? There are many reasons you need one. And they’re all outlined in this post: Gratitude Strategy: How to Develop One and Why You Need One. So since tomorrow is November, how about starting or restarting a gratitude practice?

Thank You

If I haven’t said it lately, thank you to all the readers of my blog! Especially those who’ve stuck with me through thick and thin. You are very much appreciated.

Behind the Scenes of the Great Pumpkin’s Social Media Campaign

October 24, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Few people consider the feelings of the Great Pumpkin. Think about it: alone for weeks in a cold, dark field, with his closest neighbor competing for the same air, food, and water. Eventually, to be weighed and possibly turned into a Jack-O-Lantern (best case scenario) or thrown at someone’s house by angry teenagers (worst case scenario). The Great Pumpkin needs a new strategy for his social media! And I’m calling him him because that’s what Linus of Peanuts fame calls him.

Which Platforms?

First of all, where should the Great Pumpkin be on social media? As a pumpkin afficionado, I’d say EVERYWHERE! Because who doesn’t like pumpkins? Communists, that’s who! Even LinkedIn, that most serious of social media platforms, needs a little pumpkin. However, if we had to choose just one platform, maybe one of the visual ones. He’d do well on Pinterest, as well as Instagram. And of course, YouTube. Linus would certainly provide the soundtrack, since Linus is the Great Pumpkin’s biggest fan. By the way, you might like: Ten Simple Ways to Choose the Best Social Media Platform.

What’s His Audience Like?

Kids of all ages love pumpkins. Everyone from kids through great-great grandpas. That’s pretty much everyone, except maybe your one friend who pretends it’s not Halloween and hides behind a locked door with the lights out and the garbage can pushed up against the front door. Even porcupines and big cats love pumpkins! Just do a search on YouTube, and you’ll see it’s true. You need to know who you’re writing for so you can change your wording if you need to. Here’s an article about audience and social media that you might like.

Who’s His Competition?

Can anyone compete with the Great Pumpkin? No! So let’s skip this question. Well, maybe the Tim Burton film the Nightmare Before Christmas. Although the Great Pumpkin seems more innocent.

Photo by kromom

What Message Should He Convey?

The Great Pumpkin needs to be, well, great! He should never whine about being cold or having a candle that goes out, or anything like that. He should always look forward to the holidays. His ambition to be the best pumpkin on the block, city, and county should be highlighted. He should encourage photo ops, too. Definitely.

Photo by makelessnoise

Lifestyle of the Great Pumpkin’s Followers

What other posts could you promote if you were the Great Pumpkin’s community manager? They’re probably a fun-loving, outgoing group. We imagine lots of frolicing would be involved. Do you love the Great Pumpkin? If so, leave me a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Great Pumpkin, Halloween, social media campaign

People Are Looking for You Online. Ready to be Found?

October 17, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Photo by darkday.

Everyone knows you should be blogging and paying attention to the little bots that roam around on Google. Consistency is important in blogging. As in, blogging more often will get you more attention, and blogging on a regular schedule helps. A lot. But what do you do if someone finds you?

So Who Is Looking for You?

And how many people are looking for you? That depends on your business, of course. For instance, if you’re a realtor, there are many many realtors in California. That’s going to be a harder sell than if you’re selling, say, hamburgers. Certain businesses have an easier time. Where I live, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, people with services do really well. Plumbers, electricians, and handy people have plenty of work. You can always set up a Google alert for yourself or your business if you’re wondering whether someone has mentioned you online.

Social Media Helps You Get Found

Social media doesn’t usually help with sales. It helps with brand recognition. So if people have seen you a few times on social media, they’re more likely to do business with you, so long as you do an outstanding job at your business. Social media can help your business even before the business officially gets started. Often, people will start their social media campaigns before the business has opened its doors. You can do the same thing! Want to know what else social media does? Here’s what social media marketing does in a nutshell.

Why Do You Want to Be Found?

That is, what do you want people to do once they’ve found you? Do you want to have coffee with them? Do you want them to download a report? Or do you want them to interact with you in some way? Decide what you want from people, and tell them. Nicely, of course. Good manners, especially online, always helps.

Here are 31 Call-to-Action examples you can’t help but click on, from Hubspot.

Having a Positive Mindset

It’s not fairy dust, I promise. People really are looking for you. And you can do a lot to help them find you. Having a positive mindset is the most important thing. Believe that people are looking for you. It’s not that the belief itself will help them find you, but the belief will help you act in a way to be found. Does that make any sense? And by the way, you might like this post about having a gratitude strategy.

Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up

The gold really is in the follow up, especially if you have a service that’s costly. People take a long while to decide whether something is right for them. The more the service or item costs, the longer it takes. People don’t normally buy a car in five minutes–they like to do research.

Do You Want to Be Found?

If you’d like some help getting found, I can help! Leave me a comment, and I’ll get back to you! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, getting found online

This Is What Happens When You Manage Your Time

October 10, 2019 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

Whether or not you manage your time the Internet is filled with rabbit holes ready to grab you by the ankles and not let go. You may end up going down one and not emerging for the entire day. This can happen to the best of us. You’re on Pinterest, looking at shoes, and suddenly it’s 5:00! How did that happen? There are lots of shoes and shiny objects on Pinterest, and it happens. So how do you manage your time and what happens if you do? Here are some ideas.

Smarter, Not Harder

We’ve heard about working smarter not harder, but how many of us do the opposite? Here it is the end of the day, and you’re working on something that should’ve been done in the morning. Ugh. For me sometimes the important items (like blog writing) get pushed to the end of the day when I’m most tired. It’s hard to think creatively when you’re exhausted! In his article on Inc., Work Smarter, Not Harder: 10 Ways to Be More Effective at Work, John Rampton says to “keep your to-to-lists lean and mean by only focusing on your 3 to 5 most urgent, important, and challenging tasks for the day, aka your Most Important Task (MIT).” And if you do at least one of them in the morning, it’s much more likely to get done.

Photo by NathalieSt

Read Articles about Time Management

There are so many places now to find articles and podcasts about time management. Inc. Magazine has a list of 10 podcasts that will help boost your productivity. Also, you may find a few ideas to help you with time management here:

Work in Batches

Do group all your similar tasks together to make it easier. For instance, I first check email in the morning, then do my Twitter. Next comes Facebook.

Outsource, Outsource, Outsource

I say this a lot, but if you’re not good at something, or don’t like doing it, it’s unlikely to get done! Outsourcing will give you energy to focus on your most important tasks.

Photo by brunkfordbraun

Plan the Night Before

The times I’m most productive are when I can write out my entire schedule the night before. This really helps if it’s a busy or stressful time. Even five minutes spent planning your day can be helpful. When you write things down, you might think of more things you need to do! And then you get to check them off your to-do list (it’s exciting!).

Find Nirvana

Maybe not literally. But you’re most likely to be happier and less stressed if you can manage your time. Do you have a particular system you like? Tell me about it! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: manage your time, time management

Why Outsource Your Blogging When You Could Do it Yourself?

October 3, 2019 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Why should you outsource your blogging when you could do it yourself? Of course you could do your own blogging. But have you? Have you even started? You could also do your own plumbing. It’s easy, said your brother the Master Plumber. You could also build your own house using leftover palettes. There’s probably a YouTube video made by those guys in Indonesia where they do (and it includes a swimming pool, too!). But have you? No!

Sewing Buttons on Pants

Here’s another thing that hasn’t happened. Sewing a button on those pants, the ones you wore five years ago that used to be your favorites. Hasn’t happened. Inevitably, you end up at the dry cleaner and ask them to do it. And that’s way easier than blogging, right? So if you haven’t sewn that button on your favorite pants, why wouldn’t you outsource your blogging? There are plenty of online resources, such as this: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business. I like their idea of hiring specialists, not generalists.

You’re Great at What You Do

What you do is raise money for your startup. And manage people. You’re great at networking, talking to people, and finding new business. So if you’ve ever wanted to outsource your blogging, why not now? After all, there are people with tons of talent, a background in writing, and years of experience. You might enjoy my previous article: Outsourcing Your Blogging Might Be the Best Thing You Do.

Find Someone Qualified to Blog for You

If you don’t know where to start looking for someone who could write for you, try asking around. You might be surprised at who has people writing for them. Often, bloggers are ghost writers and no one knows where they are (or who they are). Of course, doing a Google search could help you, but you might only find the biggest agencies that way.

What Questions Should You Ask?

There are a number of questions you could ask a would-be blogger. For instance:

Where did you go to school?
How much experience do you have?
Could I see some examples of your work?
Tell me something you do that no one else does

You might like this article: Hiring a Professional Blogger? What You Need to Know First.

Here Are Some Answers You Might Hear

I studied English at Berkeley, have many years of experience (five is a good minimum number, by the way), and yes, I’ve written hundreds of articles. Your results may vary, of course. There may be other questions you want to ask a professional blogger. There are some good comments on this Quora thread: Should I hire a professional blogger for my startup?

What Else Do You Want to Know?

If you were hiring someone, what other questions would you have about the process? Let me know in the comments! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, content creation and outsourcing, hiring a professional blogger, outsource, outsource your blogging

How to Automate Your Social Media without Looking Like a Jack*

September 25, 2019 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

The dirty secret of the social media world (besides outsourcing) is automation. Most of us do it. But you don’t have to look like a jack* when you do! If you share other people’s posts and then automate your posts, most people will still love you. But there are some ways to not just broadcast all the time.

You Must Be on the Platform

That means you have to get on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you say you are from time to time. You can’t just broadcast. After all, you’re not the New York Times. For me, that’s at least once a day, interacting live with people. Of course, there’s no law that says you need to be there. But if you don’t want to look like a jack*, get on the platform. How often should you post? According to this post from Sendible “aim for consistency, not frequency.”

Respond to Others’ Queries

If someone asks you a question, answer them. If they share your posts, thank them. And so on. It’s important to have a presence or you’ll largely be ignored. Engage with people. Ask them questions, too. If you don’t know how to engage with people, you might like my book: 21 Ways to Total Social Media Engagement That Will Make You Look Like a Pro.

Don’t Make it All About You

Use the 80/20 rule to share other people’s posts. Comment on their blogs if they have them. Introduce people who might have something in common. Talk to people they way they want to be talked to. You’ll be surprised that people will answer you when you reach out. Here’s some more about the 80/20 rule in case you didn’t know: Why the 80/20 Rule Works for Your Social Media.

Being Playful is the Key

Your questions don’t have to be serious all the time, it’s ok to be playful. In fact, I really like this blog post about play: Why Playfulness Is the Key to Success in the 21st-Century. Author Zat Rana says “…play is an act of learning. More specifically, it’s a low-cost way to explore the world in order to obtain high-value advantages.”

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: automation of social media, social media automation

Yes–Why Not Call Your Friends on the Telephone?

September 19, 2019 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

With the rise of social media and texting, we’ve lost something, and that something is telephone calls. We no longer have access to the sound of the human voice, at least not in an interactive way. We love texting because we can “cut to the chase,” right? And now, very few of us use the phone the way we used to. Remember sitting on the floor, talking to friends until all hours of the night? Who does that anymore? This topic reminds me of a couple of posts I wrote awhile back about Baby Boomers. Here’s one: The Best Reasons Baby Boomers Must Start Using Social Media.

Photo by Tom Hilton

Talk to People on the Telephone

By the way, the inspiration for this post came from the following tweet from Robinson Meyer, staff writer at the Atlantic. Robinson refers to an article by fellow writer Amanda Mull: Talk to People on the Telephone. And that really rang a bell for me.

I would go even further than @amandamull: Phone calls are the best way to communicate, we lost something as a society when we abandoned them, and we should bring them back en masse. https://t.co/Z1Sx9JzXpy

— Robinson Meyer (@robinsonmeyer) September 16, 2019

Phone Calls and Messy Reality

Amanda Mull’s words in her article (link above) about pestering her editor with phone calls made me laugh–the person I usually pester is also an editor and my best friend. When I text my editor friend, she says “Let’s talk on the phone.” Or she just calls me. Personally, I hope that millennials do not murder the phone call, as Mull suggests could happen. “Phone calls force you to contend with the messy reality of living in a world where other people might need your attention without warning you through a calendar invite two weeks in advance.” That’s really it, isn’t it? We need to make play dates just to talk. And at the same time, we’re all lonely, sitting at our desks trying to figure out how to make friends.

Complex Interactions Call for Real Conversations

And also, real conversations–phone calls or in-person conversations–are more satisfying than a million text messages. Despite having emojis, videos, and photos that we can add to our texts, they’re still not as fun as a phone call. You can’t hear the person on the other end laugh, or hear their cat meowing in the background. Or hear said cat break a plate and then the ensuing barrage of cursing.

Nuances in Language Are Better on the Phone

When you talk on the phone, you get to hear the weird ups and downs in a person’s voice, the question mark where you wouldn’t ordinarly put one, or the sarcastic tone. And you don’t get the long silences, usually. The other thing you get on the phone is the greeting. The hello! how are you? and the Good Morning. Greetings are important because they say to the other person I see you and you are important to me. As Sam Sommers says in The Power of Hello “little things make a big difference when it comes to social interaction.”

So Say Hello!

When you say hello, people usually say hello back. You might like to know more ways to be social: Ten Ways to Be Social. Saying hello, welcoming people, and noticing them are all good ways.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Call on the telephone, Phone Call, say hello, saying hello, telephone calls

Is Failure Mandatory on the Road to Success?

September 12, 2019 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

The short answer is no. You do not have to fail repeatedly in order to achieve success. That being said, having some failures is the fastest way to learn, so long as you look at why you failed. If, like many of us, you remember your failures more than your successes, then certainly you’ll avoid the same failures.

Fall Down Seven Times, Fall Down Seven Times?

Why the emphasis on falling down so much? I mean, I get it about persistence and getting up over and over, but do we all have to scrape our knees so many times to learn the lesson? You might like this other article about failure, too: What Happens When You Focus on Failure and creativity? Then again, many people learn the hard way–by making mistakes themselves.

Learn from Others

Sometimes a person’s only purpose in this world is to provide a bad example to others. You know what I mean. Drunk driving is just one example. We don’t have to experience it firsthand to know it’s a bad idea. Amy Reese Anderson suggests that “At the end of the day we can learn things the hard way or we can learn them the easy way – the choice is up to us.” And the advice to accept help or advice from others is one that seems to gain favor the older we get. Read her article: Learning from Others Mistakes is a Great Way to Save Yourself A Whole Lot Of Time, Money, And Pain.

Success Is Not a Good Teacher; Failure Makes You Humble

Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian actor, said “failure makes you humble.” Not only does failure make you humble, you will have empathy with others who have failed. And then there’s the laughing-at-yourself part. That happens, too. And who amongst us doesn’t enjoy self-deprecating humor? But why go out of your way to fail when failure comes naturally? We’ll probably fail no matter how hard we try not to.

Steve Jobs on Failure

Steve Jobs famously said, “you’ve gotta be willing to fail. You’ve gotta be ready to crash and burn.” He also says that you need to ask. Be willing to pick up the phone and ask, which most people don’t ever do. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.

Photo by sagesolar

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: failure, failure makes you humble, reframing failure, success

What to Write When You Have No Clue

September 5, 2019 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

You’ve been wracking your brain for the past 30 minutes, staring at the blinking cursor. That blog post isn’t going to write itself, now is it? So how do you get started? Here are some ticklers that could help.

Mindmap Your Way to Success

Write down every word you can think of that pertains to your business. Open up a thesaurus, and find synonyms for those words. Connect the dots using colored pencils. This process can be a lot of fun. By the way, you might like this article: How to Keep Your Content Fresh: Innovative Ways, Part Two (there is an example of a mindmap in there).

What Do Your Clients Always Ask You?

Write about that. The next time someone asks you the same tired question, refer them to your blog post. “But why can’t I take images off Google?” they’ll ask. And you’ll have an article you can send to them. If you don’t know why you can’t get images off Google, I hope you have a good lawyer. Because c’mon! Don’t do that. If you’re really stuck on the idea of using Google to find images, Google has an article about it because of course they do. They’re Google.

What Do You Wish People Would Ask, But Don’t?

Do you want your clients to ask about your experience? I know I sometimes do! Or my degree. Or where I went to school. But it doesn’t always work that way. You could tell your client “would you like to know where I went to school?” And they’ll probably say yes! You can also put that into a post.

Gamify Your Posts

There may be some ways that you can gamify what you’re doing. And by gamify, I mean make it more fun. Because, really, if you’re not having fun why bother? Recently, I’ve been writing lots of restaurant reviews on Google. Why? Not because they pay me! Because it’s fun. They give you little badges and send email every once in a while. It costs them practically nothing, and yet makes the review process fun. You can award yourself points when you write a certain number of words, for example, or whenever you publish something. If you can quantify it, you can gamify it. You may even want to gamify your life, as outlined in this excellent article: Gamify Your Life and Become Massively Successful. And you may want to gamify your social media.

You Won’t Always Feel Creative

That’s a given. So when you’re in a creative mood, write down your ideas and work on them later. And by all means, if you need a hand, give me a call or send an email!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: brainstorming, content marketing

Why You Need to Conquer Your Blogging Fear

August 29, 2019 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

By now, you probably have an opinion about blogging. Either you love it or you hate it. There doesn’t seem to be much in between. You have a few friends who blog, but mostly they don’t. And you’ve considered blogging for your business or brand, but it seems…daunting. It doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can create a blog post in as little as 60 minutes. You might like: How to Create a Wonderful Blog Post in An Hour.

Accountability Can Help

If you’re having problems getting started, why not find an accountability partner or have a mentor help you? Either way, having someone look over your writing or checking in with someone will make you accountable and get you going. Sometimes my pal, Bridget Willard, and I will exchange ideas or do some brainstorming together, and that helps. Find Bridget Willard here: Bridget Willard.

Photo by jcubic

Create a Community Online

One of the best reasons to conquer your blogging fear is so you can have an online community. Your community may not be a huge group, but they can make you feel connected throughout the day. For me, such an online group is the chat group, #DigiBlogChat. If you’d like to join us, here’s how: How to Join the #DigiBlogChat Twitter Chat.

Reach out to Potential Clients

Your clients are out there waiting for you. Really, they are. You just don’t know who they are yet. Write about your issues, the questions that people frequently ask, and why people would want to do business with you. You know more than you think you know!

You Have a Lot to Say

Believe it or not, you have a lot of opinions about your own business. You are uniquely situated to write about your experiences. Clients sometimes think they have nothing to say. Once they start talking, though, they have all kinds of things to say!

Need a Hand?

If you need someone to help with your blogging, reach out. Email is probably the best way to reach me. And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging fear, create community with blogging, reach clients with blogging