Carol Stephen, Author at

How to Use Yelp that Will Help Your Business Gain Social Proof

September 20, 2018 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Now I realize that a lot of people really really despise Yelp. I know because some days I am one of them. And in the past, I was one of those people every single day. But then I watched my brother use Yelp, and realized that for some businesses, Yelp is just what the doctor ordered. For instance, automotive shops, restaurants, and plumbers all do really well on Yelp. For a snazzy chart about the businesses that do the best on Yelp, see 5 Things You Absolutely Need to Know as a Business Owner on Yelp. Here are a few things to help you get started if you’re considering Yelp.

Register Your Business

Yelp makes it pretty easy to register your business. You can do it right here and it’s free. Also on the same page, you can see why you should register your business. If you’ve spent any length of time on Yelp, you’ve seen the reviews where no one ever checks in to see them. Why not, at the very least, thank people for their positive reviews?

Respond to Bad Reviews

Most people can read between the lines of bad reviews, esp. when business owners or managers take the time to respond reasonably to bad reviews. Usually, fake reviews look fake. For instance, the people who leave them have spammy names such as WhyMe123456 and no picture or their avatar looks really bad. So when a business owner says, “thank you for leaving this review after that time you used our service in 2012,” most people know the person leaving the review has a personal vendetta against the business. But if you don’t say anything, no one’s going to know.

Use the Reviews in Other Places

Take the reviews and post them in other places, like Beth Staub of AdventureAutoGlass does. By the way, if you need a windshield replaced and you’re near Prescott, Arizona, you can find them on Yelp! And if you do use your review in other places, you may want to put a link back to Yelp (or wherever those reviews appeared), so they don’t look as though you wrote them yourself!

Stay Engaged

You may also want to engage with the bad reviewer privately offline, so you can resolve the issue. Staying engaged is the important thing here. If the complainer stops responding when you offer a to resolve the issue, then it’s out in public for everyone to see. And if you have issues with being engaged on social media, then you may be interested in my book (co-written with Eric Lofholm) available on Amazon: 21 Ways to Total Social Media Engagement That Will Make You Look Like a Pro!

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Filed Under: Blog

This is why I am sick and tired of social media

September 6, 2018 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

Accusations on Facebook

Recently in a closed Facebook group, someone posted a video of someone at a local restaurant hacking something on the ground, which the poster claimed looked like meat. Now, from my angle, and the size of the video, it was pretty difficult to see anything. But that is beside the point. You can imagine what happened once this video hit Facebook. People volunteered to be judge, jury, and executioners.

Racism

Someone made the comment that a lot of local cats were disappearing, and insinuated that this restaurant could be the reason why. Once the Pandora’s box of racism was opened, there was no way to get that box closed again. It devolved from there into name-calling, with people making sweeping generalizations about Asians, about Chinese restaurants, about the health department, and so on. A few people tried to defend the restaurant owners, but the majority had already found them guilty without the business owners even realizing they’d been accused of health code violations, disappearing cats, etc.

Snowballing Rants

The person who shot the video was very proud of the number of views, and even thought they might set it to music to make it more popular. More people were pitching in with thoughts about the owners, why they shouldn’t be in business, and more racist remarks about Asians in general.

No Moderators

I kept watching this train wreck of a post, astonished that the moderators let the post remain despite the racism. No one stepped up. In fact, as far as I know, the post is still up.

Lack of Faith in Humanity

Now being on social media is my job. Most days, I’m enthusiastic about the positive changes that can come about because of social media (see my previous post about how social media is changing us for the better). For instance, animal welfare organizations can have petitions go viral quickly. People can find organ donors online. We can meet other people quite easily, extending our networks for collaboration and friendship. But posts like the one I saw really make me wonder why I’m on Facebook, what I’m doing in that particular group, and whether I moved to the right place, since it was in a local neighborhood group

Does This Ever Happen to You?

As an Asian-American and local business owner, there was something so heartbreaking and disturbing about the lack of compassion, jumping to conclusions, and ignorance, that I can’t even put it completely into words. Have you had an experience that made you wonder, too? I’m sure I can’t be the only one! And thank you for reading.

How to Use Pinterest to Curate Content

August 30, 2018 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

There are lots of different and fun ways to use Pinterest, and just one of them is for content curation. If you’re curious, or even serious about content curation, then using Pinterest is a perfect way to go.

Plan Your Content Curation Strategy

Ask yourself a few questions about your content curation strategy, such as the following:

Who is your audience?
What would they like to know about or see from you/your brand?
What kinds of headlines could you use?

You don’t have to have a complex strategy, at least not to begin with. That can come later. If you want to know more about why you should curate content, you might want to read: Content Curation: 5 Killer Reasons It’s Your New BFF.

Create Boards

You can create boards of, say, ten different subjects, based on the questions you ask yourself. Don’t forget about secret boards! You can always create more boards later. Use simple names for your boards, such as Cats, Tiny Houses, or Autumn. Post Planner suggests “being glaring obvious about what your board contains.” They have more suggestions on how to name boards in their article 37 Pinterest Board Names that Will Get You More Pins, Clicks, and Followers.

Use Secret Boards

One of my favorite tricks is to use secret boards. When you’re using Pinterest on your phone, and come across a compelling pin, pin it to a secret board so you can check it out later. I like to pin to a secret board on my phone and then thoroughly research the pin later on my laptop. Making a secret board isn’t a secret, in fact, you can get it straight from the horse’s mouth (Pinterest): All about boards.

Optimize Your Descriptions

After you examine that pin and make sure the content behind it is good (by clicking all the way to whatever website it goes to, for example), you can optimize your description. To optimize a pin, talk about what your pin is, where it goes (aka website), and by all means, don’t spam people. So if you use hashtags, make sure those hashtags accurately describe your pin so that your target audience can find those pins.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Do you use Pinterest for content curation? Why or why not? Leave me a comment! And thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: content curation, Pinterest for content curation

Up Your Social Media Engagement with These Quick and Easy Tips

August 23, 2018 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

Some of the best social media posts are also the most simple. You may not know which posts will get you the most reach, but you can make your life on social media a whole lot easier just by streamlining your posts. Here are some ideas for you.

Simple Calls to Action

Don’t make your followers or friends jump through a million hoops to interact with you. Give them simple choices. For example, “Which of these two choices do you like better?” And then give two choices. Don’t give them ten choices, and ask everyone to rank them. Keep your call to action really simple for the best results. Speaking of simple, did you know you could create a blog post in an hour? You can!

One Sentence Posts

We’ve all gotten so complex. How about some one-sentence posts, for a change? Nothing too complicated. Not three paragraphs, but a nice picture and maybe underneath it, where you were when you took it and whatever else you can fit into a simple (not a run-on!) sentence. Could you stand it?

Share Something Funny

This is one of my favorites. Also, I have kittens, and they crack me up all day long. But you could also take a picture of something you see in your travels around town, and say what you think of it.

Post an Open-Ended Question

For instance “What do you think?” is a good question. This allows people to say “I like it!” or “that’s great!” It doesn’t always need to be intellectually challenging.

Share Your Friends’ Posts!

If you didn’t read my last post about Why the 80/20 Rule Works for Your Social Media, you might like to read it! See, the 80/20 rule lets you off the hook for creating everything yourself! Yes or no: do you like that idea? (See what I did there?)

Here Are Some Friends’ Posts

One of my friends, Mitch Mitchell, writes about social media, blogging, and a whole lot more. Here’s a recent post: Should We Quit Blogging? The List, that you might like.

Are You Easy to Engage with?

How so? Please leave me a comment and thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: better engagement on social media, better social media engagement, quick and easy tips for social media engagement, Simple Calls to Action

Why the 80/20 Rule Works for Your Social Media

August 16, 2018 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

Among social media manager, there is a rule and it’s called the 80/20 rule. That means you share 80% of the content of others (while trying to stay relevant to your audience) and 20% of your own content. You’ve all heard the saying that you should be generous first, probably. If you’ve never heard of the 80/20 rule, here’s an article about it from Social Media Today.

Nobody Wants a Hard Sales Pitch

Back in the olden days, people were more accustomed to a hard sell. But now, most marketers cater to a person’s lifestyle. So if you’re selling pricey watches, for example, you might also want to figure out what else that watch wearer might be interested in. Italian vacations? Leather briefcases? Fancy shoes? And then talk about those things 80% of the time. Gary Vaynerchuk in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, also talks about sharing educational, entertaining, high-quality content before landing that “right hook.”

The Point is to Be Generous

The numbers don’t have to be exact. You could share three posts about something other than yourself before landing that right hook. The point is to give something first and be generous. If you haven’t read it before, you might like Social Media: Quick and Easy Ways to Pay it Forward. I’m a big believer in giving first and having some social currency in the bank before asking for a withdrawal.

Ways to Share

If you don’t know how to share, here are some ideas:

Give someone encouragement
Repost something that restores your faith in humanity
Ask about someone else’s health or a recent accomplishment
Introduce two people who might have something in common
Tell others to follow someone you like!

Why Use the 80/20 Rule?

Let’s see. First of all, people will see you as generous, which means they’ll be more likely to want to connect with you. Secondly, you’ll probably make more friends, and you can never have too many friends in my opinion. Third, you’ll have more loose affiliations, which if you’ve ever read about those, you know that’s the way to more gainful employment!

How Do You Use the 80/20 Rule (if at all)?

Do you believe in the 80/20 rule? Or do you do something different on social media? Let me know! I’d like to hear! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 80/20 rule and social media, generosity, sharing good news, Social Media

At the Intersection of Social Media and Gratitude

August 9, 2018 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

At the Intersection of Social Media and Gratitude

I’ve been thinking about gratitude more lately. Partly that’s because there’s so much negativity in the world right now, and especially in politics. Facebook, in particular, has been very negative, with depressing stories being shared more than ever.

Social Media Affects Your Mental Health

There are numerous articles and studies about how social media affects your mental health, including this one from Forbes: 6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health. The article’s author Alice G. Walton states “Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive ‘offline’ social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it.”

One Person Can Make a Difference

Do you believe that? Because I do. If there’s too much negativity out there, why not counter it with something positive. As you’re tooling around your social media sites, why not leave a few kind, considerate thoughts for someone else?

Say Thank You–It’s Not That Tough!

Seriously, thank the people who’ve helped you. Maybe you can’t always retweet them or post something of theirs, but say thank you if it’s at all feasible. If you’re a big brand, occasionally issue a blanket thank you for everyone’s sharing an article. Or have a customer appreciation day. If you’re a non-profit, you can thank people publically, give shoutouts to those who helped the most, thank volunteers and donors, etc.

Gratitude Has Many Benefits

There have been many studies about the benefits of gratitude. As you might see in this article The 31 Benefits of Gratitude, the benefits can be emotional, and can affect your personality, career, or social life. And gratitude can affect your happiness, too. Have you read my previous post about having a gratitude strategy? You might like it.

What’s Your Gratitude Strategy?

Do you have one? Why or why not? Leave me a comment–I’d be very grateful if you did!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: gratitude, Social Media

How to Write a Perfectly Fine Blog Post in an Hour!

August 2, 2018 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Actually, you can write a perfectly fine blog post in 20 minutes, but here we’ll talk about one that takes an hour. For the ones I’ve written in 20 minutes, those usually have no images, and they’re somewhat limited by the amount of research I do, too. If you’re feeling tired and uninspired, you might want to read this article first: Content Creation: How to Inspire Yourself When You’re Tired.

Start with the Headline

Getting the headline done is the hard part. Really. After that, it’s all downhill. Choosing the subject is what takes the most time. So don’t spend too much time. Use Coscheduler’s Headline tool to help you. I try to get a headline that’s in the “green.” You don’t want it too long or too short.

Done, Not Perfect

One thing that’s important to keep in mind if you’re writing quickly, is that it won’t be perfect! But it will get done. So if you’re planning to write something that’s fast, you can definitely do it. If you’re a perfectionist, this might be the most difficult part for you, not the headline. But keep the goal in mind of finishing, not writing and rewriting ten times. If you think you’re a perfectionist, you might want to read this short article on perfectionism by Psychology Today.

You’re Allowed to Repeat Topics

Yes, you are. For instance, I wrote about this very topic before here: How to Create a Wonderful Blog Post in One Hour. But you know what? What I write today and what I wrote then will be different. And your audience won’t be the same, either.

Add Outgoing and Incoming Links

Add a few links. I like to add two outgoing and two incoming links–two links to my own blog and two to outside blogs or articles. Of course, you’ll need to read or at least scan those other links for accuracy and to make sure they support your premise.

Add An Image and Some Tags

I like ImageInject for free images, which is a nifty plugin that also includes the attribution to the image for you. Or, if you have someone to help you, that’s also a wonderful option! Adding tags can be done in probably under a minute.

Done for You

If it’s still too much pressure, shoot me an email or connect with me on social media. I’d be glad to help!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blog post in an hour, done not perfect, marketing, writing, writing quickly

What Happens When You Write 25 Headlines Before Choosing One?

July 26, 2018 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

What Happens When You Write 25 Headlines Before Choosing One?

Having patience is important when writing headlines. Like other tasks, if you set aside a block of time to write headlines, it will greatly help you to stay focused on your writing and producing blog posts regularly. My friend Randy Clark sets aside regular blocks of time to blog, and that includes writing headlines. In fact, he wrote a book about blogging that you might like: How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever.

Writing 25 Headlines

First of all, how do you write so many headlines? When I write headlines, I write them very quickly, without a lot of deep thinking. That is, without overthinking. I run them through CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer and make sure they’re the right length. More importantly, they need a balance of emotional words, power words, common words, and uncommon words. And I want to get a high enough score. For instance, this particular headline got a 76, which isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good.

Do You Need to Put So Much Effort into a Headline?

Well, yes, you do. Because a lot of people will read the headline without ever reading the article. The headline might get them to read the article. Maybe or maybe not. In any event, writing headlines is indeed a pain in the asterisk, as I’ve outlined before in Headline Writing: Ten Reasons It’s a Pain in the Asterisk!

Using Keywords

One thing about creating headlines is that it’s important to put your important keywords first. So in that last headline in the paragraph above, the words Headline Writing need to be first if those are the keywords.

Need Help with Your Blog Writing?

If you’ve fallen behind (and can’t get up!), I’d love to help you. Contact me and we’ll see what kinds of headlines we can create.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: headline creation, headline writing, headlines, writing headlines

This Is What Happens When You Experience Social Media Burnout

July 19, 2018 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

This Is What Happens When You Experience Social Media Burnout

Social media burnout is a real thing. If you have been checking Facebook while driving, at restaurants, or every time you wake up at night, then maybe it’s time to put the phone down. We’ve all been a little tired of social media at times. Other times the temptation to live in a cabin in the woods with no WiFi is real. And maybe you’ve wanted to go back to simpler times, when there were fewer choices, but more in-person experiences.

It’s Addictive

You can’t really blame yourself too much. We all have that fear of missing out. And all the social media platforms are fun in their own right. Whether we’re sharing pretty pictures on Instagram, or pinning recipes for chocolate cake on Pinterest, it’s easy to let a few hours go by without a second thought. And then you look up and think, “where did the afternoon go?” or worse, “where did my day go?”

The Downside

There’s always a downside, isn’t there? Here’s what Mark D. Griffiths’ writes in his article Addicted to Social Media?

“Because social media is most frequently accessed via smartphones, their usage is intimately intertwined and their mobile nature contributes to excessive checking habits, which often derives from what is commonly labelled as the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO).”

He goes on to say that the good news is that it’s not really an addiction (for most people), but a habit. And habits can be broken more easily than addictions.

Time Management

Limiting how much time you spend on social media is a goal many have, but few actually achieve. Because of its addictive nature, social media is like New York City, the city that never sleeps. But there is hope. First, have your mantra ready. At the moment, mine is “post and get out.” And yes, it’s possible to spend an hour or less per day on social media interacting and posting. Perhaps you might like this post: How to Face and Overcome “One More Thingitis” Six Ways.

Don’t Quit Altogether

Before you delete all your social media accounts, there are other things you can do instead. On Facebook, you know how if you unfollow someone, Facebook asks if you’d rather just take a break? This is kinda like that. Because if you quit, later you may wish you hadn’t!

Switch Platforms

Often, when I say I’m tired of social media, it means that I’m tired of one platform and the stuff people are posting there. Right now, for me, it’s Facebook. So I simply spend less time there, and move to another platform. If you like Instagram or Twitter more than Pinterest or Facebook, go to your favorite place.

Get Back to Nature

Have a Change of Scenery and get outside. This works well for quite a few people. In fact, forest bathing has become all the rage. Here’s an excellent article you might like: Forest Bathing is Good for Your Health: Here’s How to Do it. The upside is that forest bathing is the bridge between us and the natural world.

How Do You Overcome Burnout?

Leave me a comment and thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: don't quit social media, forest bathing, social media burnout, switch social media platforms, time management

How to Use Social Media for Content Creation

July 12, 2018 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Using Social Media for Content Creation

If you’ve been looking for content on social media, you’re not alone. There are several ways to speed up your searches if finding content or inspiration for blog posts is part of your job. Here’s how.

Saved Searches on Twitter

Saving searches on Twitter is my favorite way to look for content to retweet or post in other places. It’s fast and easy. Just do a regular search on Twitter and then save that search. You can search for a hashtag, single word, or phrase. For example, I often search for startups, so that’s one of mine. For more details, see this article: How to Use Twitter Saved Searches.

Guided Search on Pinterest

If you don’t know where to start searching on Pinterest, start with the general topic. Recipes, DIY, and inspiration are all popular topics on Pinterest. And you may not know exactly what you’re searching for until you see it. Follow the suggestions. Here’s an article about Guided Search on Pinterest.

Google Search Suggestions

When you do a search on Google, at the bottom of the first page results you’ll see a list of related searches. This can be very handy to search in a slightly different way if the original search doesn’t turn up what you want.

Google Scholar

If you need a scholarly article or study, go to Google Scholar. You’ll look like a superhero if you summarize the study for your audience, too. You can see case studies, citations, and patents.

Lists on Twitter

Twitter lists are a fabulous way to search. My favorite list is Science, Museums. And did you know you can subscribe to other’s lists? So if you see one you like, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Use That Search to Create a Blog Post

You’ll probably get some ideas for blog posts as you search for things your audience would like. You can comment on someone else’s post, too, and incorporate it into your own post.

Do You Use Any of These Ideas?

What other ideas do you have? Leave me a comment! And thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Google Scholar, Google search suggestions, Pinterest guided search, social media for content creation, Twitter lists, Twitter saved searches