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What’s the Best Social Media Site for Connecting with People?

October 4, 2018 By 4 Comments
What's the Best Social Media Site for Connecting with People?

What’s the Best Social Media Site for Connecting with People?

What’s the Best Social Media Site for Connecting with People?

Twitter Is Terrific for Connecting with People

Twitter is a wonderful place for connecting with people, but it isn’t the only site that’s good for connecting. LinkedIn and Facebook also allow you to connect and engage with people. You can also use Twitter to build relationships, check the weather, do research, search for content, as well as engage in chats! For more about Twitter chats, check out Twitter Chats: 101 Tips for Success. And if you haven’t checked out #DigiBlogChat, do come visit us on Twitter. Tuesdays at 1:00 p.m. PDT.

Whatever You Really Use Tends to Work

Recently, I wrote about my brother and how he used Yelp! for his business, and how successful he was. You don’t have to do whatever the latest guru is saying to do. Like my brother, you can find your own way, and rocket to success. Of course, you’re also going to have to do the hard work to get there. You can choose to go deep on one platform and really learn it inside and out, or you can go light. Or, of course, you could hire someone to take over for you.

Romantic Connections

Instagram is certainly filled with lots of romantic destination, as well as adorable babies, but what about romance? Recently I was a guest on a Zoom webinar, and we discussed Instagram as a way to meet people romantically. And a recent New York Times article seems to indicate that Instagram, played correctly, can be a good place to find love: Instagram is Now a Dating Platform, Too: Here’s How it Works. So if you’re looking for romance, Instagram might be the place to go.

Backyard Barbeque

To quote the incredibly talented, yet humble Carol Stephen (a personal friend), in her soon-to-be translated into 5200 languages including Klingon and Esperanto “Twitter is the friendliest place to engage. To me it’s like a backyard barbeque, or an informal party, where you’re likely to meet all sorts of people, at every hour of the day, from all over the world.” By the way, her book 21 Ways to Total Social Media Engagement That Will Make You Look Like a Pro is for sale on Amazon.

Do You Have a Favorite Site?

Where have you met the most people? Leave me a comment! And thank you.

 

 

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What Happens When You Use Just One Social Media Site?

September 27, 2018 By 4 Comments
What Happens When You Use Just one Social Media Site?

What Happens When You Use Just One Social Media Site?

What Happens When You Use Just One Social Media Site?

Most social media folks will tell you that you need to use more than one social media site. And I’d agree with that advice, for the most part. But there are people who successfully use just one social media platform with great success. What about those people? Last week, I wrote about How to Use Yelp That Will Help Your Business Gain Social Proof.

More About Yelp

As I mentioned last week, my brother used Yelp exclusively for his plumbing business. And he really rocked that plumbing business, with 55 five-star reviews. How did he do it? By offering outstanding service, and by paying attention to Yelp all the time. He checked it every day, he returned calls promptly, and he really went above and beyond. And if you’re in the restaurant or contracting business, Yelp can be quite valuable there, too.

Using Facebook Exclusively for Business

If you’ve been using Facebook exclusively for your business marketing, you know that things have changed. Back in the day, when Facebook wasn’t pay to play, you could definitely get away with just using Facebook. But now you really need to have a budget for Facebook ads or your posts won’t be seen. So that’s one danger of using any social media platform exclusively. By the way, here’s a good Guide to Using Facebook for Business. It includes such things as the difference between Facebook pages and Facebook profiles.

The Down Side

Putting all your eggs in one basket is great except when it isn’t. For instance, in the case of Facebook, they may decide to make you pay. Can your budget handle that or will you have to jump ship? Or a social media platform might lose users way too fast for your taste. There’s no way to guarantee that what you’re doing right now will still be a viable option in six months or a year.

What To Do?

For one thing, back up your posts, in case you lose everything. Maybe you can salvage some of your posts and reuse them someplace new.

How Many Platforms Do You Use?

Leave me a comment! And thanks for stopping by.

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

September 20, 2018 By 2 Comments

concert photo

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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This is why I am sick and tired of social media

September 6, 2018 By 8 Comments

butterfly photo

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.

 

 

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How to Use Pinterest to Curate Content

August 30, 2018 By 2 Comments

 

turtle photo

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!

 

 

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Up Your Social Media Engagement with These Quick and Easy Tips

August 23, 2018 By 9 Comments

talking photo

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!

 

 

 

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Why the 80/20 Rule Works for Your Social Media

August 16, 2018 By 8 Comments

sunshine photo

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.

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At the Intersection of Social Media and Gratitude

August 9, 2018 By 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!

 

 

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

August 2, 2018 By 2 Comments

writing photo

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!

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What Happens When You Write 25 Headlines Before Choosing One?

July 26, 2018 By 4 Comments
What Happens When You Write 25 Headlines Before Choosing One?

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.

 

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