Carol Stephen, Author at

Secrets to Great Content You Forgot You Knew

April 2, 2015 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Secrets to Great Content You Forgot You Knew

Maybe you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a blog. You’re getting ready to get started thinking about it. That is, right after you finish that new business plan for next year. And waxing the car. And don’t you also need to balance your checkbook again?

The secret to great content is to begin creating it. Maybe your writing isn’t perfect. Whose is? If you never start writing, you’ll never know. And great, original content on your blog helps your SEO with Google. Here are a few ideas that helped me get started with blogging.

Don’t procrastinate.

“Procrastination, quite frankly, is an epidemic,” declares Jeffery Combs, the author of “The Procrastination Cure,” says in an article “How to Stop Time,” via the New York Times. Don’t add to that epidemic.

An unfinished blog post

Glue the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair.

Sit and start writing the first thing that pops into your head, and do that for 15 minutes. Can you do that? Sure you can! Now, you’ll probably go back and delete 90% of it, but there will be the glimmer of a good idea in there.

Write every day

Write every day.

Write whether you feel like writing or not. Often you will not. That monkey brain of yours will want to do other things. Pinning banana recipes on Pinterest comes to mind. You will procrastinate on this important job. So get it over with. Once you get past that first 15 minutes, the rest will get easier. Jeff Goins, in his article “Why You Need To Write Every Day,” says: “If you want to get this writing thing down, you need to start writing every day.”

Talk, then write.

Speak your ideas, then write them down. Or have them written down by someone else. Or use Dragon Naturally. Whatever. Just get the words down. You can change them later. Because everyone can talk.

Don’t expect perfection.

Perfection will never happen. Just make sure to get something in writing. You can come back and insert some long, impressive-sounding words later.

Let it simmer

Let it simmer.

Here’s the fun part. Go away. Get in your car and drive around. Go for a walk. Come back and everything will look different. When you return from your sojourn you can wear a different hat and edit your words.

Create five topics in your blog.

Today’s topic was one that I began months ago. It languished in my blog, along with some other unfinished work. But one day, you may not know what to write about. You’ll go to your website, and that half-written piece will start to take shape. By the way, here’s a post with some tips for blogging for startups.

Don’t wait to get going

Don’t wait to get going.

It’s going to be work, but once you ‘re done, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment. Your competition is already done. Don’t get left in the dust. And when you’re done, make sure to promote that blog, too.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Content, Google, how to, Pinterest, procrastination, secrets, SEO, time management, writing

How to Promote Your Blog Like a Pro!

March 26, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

How to Promote Your Blog Like a Pro

If you’ve just started blogging, or even if you’ve been blogging for a while, you might not realize how many ways there are to promote your own post. These ideas are divided into beginning and advanced ideas. If you’re more advanced in the ways of social media promotion, you can skip to the more “Pro” ideas.

Pinning your blog post (you did create a board for your own blog posts, right?) is something everyone can do, and is a fairly simple way to get more traffic to a post. You could have your own blog board, where you pin all your posts. If you need a beginner’s guide, you might read my Top Ten Tasks for Pinterest.

Invite Others to Your Group Blog Board on Pinterest

Pro

Repin that post, especially if the first time you pinned it, it didn’t get any repins. Delete the old post and pin it again.
Create a group board for your blog posts, like the example below, and invite lots of people to pin. You can invite anyone who follows your board. You could invite other bloggers who aren’t on Pinterest, too, and they might be motivated to be on Pinterest more often.
Repin the blog post using a different picture and onto a different board. For instance, my post about Introverts and Social Media could be repinned on a Social Media board, my blog board, my Pinterest board, etc. But I’d space them out, time wise.

Facebook

Post your wonderful writing on Facebook, with a good call to action and a big picture or two.

Schedule Your Facebook Post When Your Fans Are Online

To find your Facebook analytics, go to your business page==>Insights (at the top of the page). Examine when your fans are online and use the native Facebook scheduler. For instance, my analytics show that most of my fans are online at 8:30 am pst. Another good time would be around 2:00 pm.

Note: my top three posts above were all boosted.

Pro

Promote your post for as little as $5 per post. You can choose who sees it and get more eyes on your post that way. Most people can afford $20/month for promotion.
Tag people who might be interested in seeing your words of wisdom (but do this carefully–nobody likes to be tagged too many times).
To see what your post will look like, schedule it 10 minutes or more in the future, so you can edit it if you need to.
Check your business page’s analytics to see when the best time is to post.

Can You Schedule Like a Pro?

Twitter

Of course you’ll want to tweet about your newest creation. And you can schedule it one or more times. Guy Kawasaki retweets his posts about four times a day, but you may want to wait days between posts! Of course, use a scheduler like HootSuite to get the word out.

Pro

Pin your tweet to the top of your Twitter feed. Upload a picture (tweets with images are much more likely to be retweeted), as in the image below.
Repeat your tweet, but use a different picture and headline.
Ask for a retweet (again, don’t ask very often unless you’ve been giving to others as well). Tag others who might be interested.
If you mention others in your blog post, call them out in your tweet.

Pin Your Tweet to the Top of Your Twitter Feed

Post your wonderful writing after you’ve created it on your blog. You can upload a picture, too.

Pro

Don’t just post your writing, but republish it. LinkedIn’s new publisher is called Pulse, and anyone can now be a publisher on LinkedIn.
Focus on entertaining, motivating, or educating people. As Jeff Haden suggests, write your piece as though you’re writing to one person.

Get Syndicated!

If you’re a regular blogger, you might consider getting syndicated. My blog posts are syndicated at Business 2 Community. There are lots of reasons to be syndicated; here are a few.

Are You a Blogger?

Try a few of these ideas and let me know how they work for you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, Blog, blogging, Facebook, Google, Google Plus, group boards, LinkedIn, Pinterest, promoting, promotion, repin, repinning, Social Media, syndicate, syndication, Twitter

Six Facts About Introverts and Social Media That Will Impress Your Friends

March 19, 2015 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

On #DigiBlogChat this week, my Twitter chat (along with @LazBlazter) about new technology and blogging, some of the participants started a side conversation about introverts and how well they do with writing, and that led to a discussion of social media. As a result of that chat, I decided to write this post. Many of these facts have been taken from Susan Cain’s wonderful book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” Susan Cain’s TED talk is wonderful, if you haven’t heard it yet. And by the way, one of these facts is not a fact. See if you can spot it!

Six Facts About Introverts and Social Media That Will Impress Your Friends

Introverts Need Alone Time

Now, not all introverts are writers, but having and enjoying more alone time means that introverts can spend the extra time focused on their writing, or go out into nature for inspiration. Part of being a good social media or content provider means that you must write. So just by having that extra time, introverts can easily use it to recharge through their writing. And enjoy the time alone.

One-Third of the World’s Population is Introverted

In an article in Time Magazine featuring Susan Cain, the author discusses the introvert revolution (the website, ironically, starts playing a loud video), and how it tapped a nerve. With one-third of the population being introverted, is it any wonder that the popularity of social media is growing? All of us introverts (myself included) need a place to express ourselves with as loud a “voice” as those extroverts. Social media allows us that forum.

Al Gore and Warren Buffet Are Introverts

Along with Charles Darwin, J. K. Rowling, Mahatma Gandhi, Google’s Larry Page, and at least a third of the world, who prefer listening to speaking, who think before acting, and who speak softly and maybe don’t want to carry a big stick. So would it surprise you to know that introverts can be such naturals on social media since they like to think long and hard on things? While parties and small talk may be like torture for introverts, writing a social media headline or creating a blog piece are not nearly as difficult.

In a Gentle Way, You Can Shake the World. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Introverts Are Not More Intelligent Than Extroverts

Unfortunately, introverts would like to say this is true. However, being introverted does not automagically make you a better or deeper thinker. However, introverts are more cautious as a general rule, and they like to listen more. If you haven’t read my post on the five hidden benefits of listening, by the way, you might want to. This caution can lead to slower decisions during social media disasters, which seem to happen quite often.

Introverts Love the Internet and Cats More Than Extroverts

Secretly, or not so secretly, introverts love cats. Introverts also love the Internet. And since the internet was invented by cats (not Al Gore, although he is an introvert), introverts of course have the edge with social media.

Introverts Don’t Care So Much If You Like Them

Introverts don’t care so much what you think about that post on Twitter or Facebook. This attitude may translate into a more interesting and honest post, headline, or article. An introvert will have their opinion and doesn’t need to be validated as often as an extrovert. And that is impressive!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Al Gore, Charles Darwin, Google, introversion, introvert, introverts, Larry Page, Mahatma Gandhi, Social Media, Warren Buffet, writers, writing

Five Things You’re Doing Wrong on Pinterest and How to Fix Them

March 12, 2015 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Five Things You’re Doing Wrong on Pinterest and How to Fix Them

If you’re a business on Pinterest, then you probably would like to get more business. Am I right about that? And if you’re not getting any engagement on Pinterest, chances are you’re making one or more of these mistakes.

Not Clicking Through

What that means is keep clicking until you get to the other side of that pin. Where does it lead? Personally, I hate a dead end. And Pinterest now makes it easier than ever to see where a pin leads. You can hover over a pin and see the source. But occasionally, you’ll still wind up on a porn site or one that’s been blocked. You don’t want that happening on your own account, however.

Fix: Check every pin. Here’s a basic primer on how to pin.

Not Answering Comments?

Not Answering Comments

When people talk to you, answer them. If someone says hello to you in real life, you say hello back, right? Do the same thing on Pinterest! Especially if you’re just starting out. That doesn’t mean you need a 300-word reply to every single person, but a “thanks for stopping by!” or “glad you enjoyed the pin” go a long way toward having a truly social account.

Fix: Answer the people who bother to comment on your pins if at all possible. And if you’d like to know how to get comments, Tailwind has written a good article. (I like their advice to comment on others’ pins and you’ll get comments back.)

Not Filling Out Your Profile

It really doesn’t take that long to fill out your profile. Write down a few things about you or your brand, put in your website and your interests, and upload a picture. Having the red pushpin as your profile picture is a lot like having the egg pic on Twitter (you know who you are!).

Fix: Spend the ten minutes to fill out your profile before you get started.

Not Following 10,000 Accounts

Yes, everyone desperately wants followers. But pinning good content will really be better in the long run. Have a little patience. Look for good stuff that people want to see.

Fix: Pin more good content and follow just a few people at a time.

Would You Follow You?

I was thinking about this the other day, while fixated on a new DIY front door that I could make out of pallets and Mason jars (that’s a Pinterest joke). Would you follow you? That is, are you pinning high-quality articles, images, and videos that interest you? Are you putting in the time to craft great headlines that tell people what that article is about? If not, you might want to brush up on writing headlines.

Fix: Check out your competition. Could you do something that they do, if their Pinterest is getting more followers?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: clicking through, comments, fail, failure, Following, Mistakes, pin, pinning, Pinterest, porn, Twitter

11 Ways Being Outdoors Can Improve Your Productivity

March 5, 2015 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

Most lists only go to ten, but this one goes to eleven! There’s just that little bit more, you see, right at the end. It’s just that much more productive.

Get Better Sleep

When you’re more relaxed, you sleep better, and when you sleep better, you’re more productive.

11 Ways Being Outdoors Can Improve Your Productivity

Have A Better Attention Span

Being outdoors helps you clear your mind, focus on the present moment, and not stress over something an hour or two in the future. And being outdoors during the workday gives you an edge, according to Active.com’s article about how exercise boosts your brainpower.

Be Reminded of Childhood Memories

Certain sights, sounds and scents outdoors can remind you of childhood memories. For instance, redwood trees remind my boyfriend of where he grew up in the far north of California; the trees have a relaxing effect and make him feel at ease. Certain vistas, even particular configurations of fallen trees also bring back memories. And of course scents are closely linked to memory. That “walk down memory lane” can bring you a more productive day–that is, if your childhood memories are happy ones.

Be More Relaxed

Can anything new be said about being outdoors and being relaxed? One study suggest that even looking at greenery can make people more productive. A study by Frances Kuo, at the University of Illinois, focused on women in Chicago. Kuo and her colleagues compared women randomly assigned to various apartments. Some had a view of nothing but concrete sprawl, the blacktop of parking lots and basketball courts. Others looked out on grassy courtyards filled with trees and flowerbeds. Kuo then measured the two groups on a variety of tasks, from basic tests of attention to surveys that looked at how the women were handling major life challenges. She found that living in an apartment with a view of greenery led to significant improvements in every category.

Enter Another Realm

When you’re outdoors, you can think about something entirely different than work and getting that next item on your “to-do” list checked off. You can clear your mind to focus entirely on where you are, or that next step on the beach. Even a walk in a city park, where there is greenery, is superior to walking on city streets. Here’s a good article from Lifehacker about surrounding yourself with nature to be more productive.

Dream of Ewoks

Ewoks are sentient, diminutive, furry bipeds native to the forest moon of Endor, as described in the Star Wars’ Wookieepedia. When you’re out and about traveling in the woods, you can feel their presence. They’re especially prevalent in the woods, near where I live.

People who exercised during their workday were 23 % more productive on those days!

Get Aerobic Exercise

Hiking up and down steep hills and cutting across rocky outcroppings will make your heart pump hard. When you’re indoors all day long, you may not realize how shallow your breathing becomes; being outdoors in nature helps to cure that restricted breathing.

Reduce Stress

Although a certain amount of stress can be helpful (for instance if you’re being chased by a bear), stress usually makes people less productive. Being outdoors is widely known to reduce stress.

Do You Have a Nature Deficit?

Practice Listening

The sounds in the forest or at the beach are much different and more subtle. Practice a different kind of listening when you’re outdoors (not that you can’t use Twitter as a listening tool). And if you didn’t read my article from last week about listening, you might want to.

Recovery Leads to Better Productivity

No one can be productive at the same rate every day, and everyone needs some recovery time. So taking an hour or two to be outdoors brings you back to your work, as outlined in Daniel McGinn’s article about Being More Productive from Harvard Business Review.

Being in Nature Makes You Smarter

According to this article Is a Nature Deficit Hurting Your Productivity? ,” being in nature exposes you to soothing stimuli that engages your involuntary attention, giving your directed-attention a rest and a chance to become rejuvenated.” And if you’ve read this far, then maybe I’ve convinced you to go to the park. It’s a start.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: aerobic exercise, brainpower, Ewoks, listening, productivity, relaxation, time management

Five Hidden Benefits of Listening

February 26, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Five Hidden Benefits of Listening

Coming up with content 24×7 gets old really fast. But what if there were some other way than blasting out your own content all day long? Something easier, some way you could get your stream filled with content without being in complete broadcast mode all the time. What if you could stop being like a one-way valve and have a two-way valve instead as part of your social media strategy? Crazy, right?

Intensify Conversations

What if you went to a party and talked about yourself the entire time? That would be pretty boring! And yet, some people still talk non-stop at parties. But if you listened twice as much as you talked, you might learn some things about your new and old friends. The same concept applies online. As David Tovey says, hearing is not listening.

Take the Strain Off Yourself

Although listening might sound more difficult than talking, all it requires is that you be fully present. That is, ready to listen and free of distracting thoughts. That may seem a little “zen” to you–like a meditation. And listening can also involve watching the other person’s posture, mannerisms, and all the different tones in their voice. So instead of hearing your own inner thoughts, for a few minutes you can focus completely on someone else. Think of it as a mini-vacation, a way to balance your online life.

Listen Without Expectation

When I searched online for “listening,” there was an image of a shower head on the site–someone out there has been listening to my online searches. They wanted to sell me something. However, that’s different than not having any expectation than to hear. And it’s tricky to not be waiting with something to say, but to listen with no advice, no retort, and no pushing your own agenda!

Be Unique

Everyone (on social media or not), is spewing information. We are up to our ears in information. And if you believe, as Julian Treasure outlines in his excellent TED Talk 5 Ways to Listen Better, that we are “losing our listening,” then it’s extremely important to work on this vanishing skill. Rather than reducing your friends’ thoughts and words to sound bites, listening fully lets them express the subtlety of their experiences–and lets you shine by being unique.

Start participating by listening

Save Time

What if you knew what your clients were thinking about? Or what your friends were focused on? You can! Just ask them. It’s that simple. Be creative in how you reach out. Try asking in a simple, yet direct way. “What’s the haps? Or “what’s new, Daddy-O?” are sure to elicit a smile. Rather than worrying about what they might be thinking, ask and then listen.

Be a Great Conversationalist

Here is my call to action for this post. For one day, try listening. Repost, retweet, and talk to people online. Could you do that? I’d be willing to bet that most people will say that you’re a great conversationalist! Like Ted Rubin says “Jump in & do it.”

Let me know how that goes. Although some of you are probably already there, listening.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Content, Conversation, hearing, listening, post, posting, Retweet, Social Media, strategy

The 9-1/2 Best Places to Find Inspiration

February 5, 2015 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

The 9-1/2 Best Places to Find Inspiration

You’ve been wracking your brain trying to figure out what to write about on your next article or blogpost, but have come up with nothing. Zero. Zilch. When you’re at your wit’s end, here are a few places to go for inspiration.

Go Into Nature for Inspiration

Go Into Nature

There’s something about the sight of trees, the sound of rain, the smell of the ocean, and the feel of sand and rocks that help you to refocus and rediscover what’s important. Here’s an interesting article about sounds: Why Buffalos and Crickets Help Us Relax. A field trip to a nearby park can really get the inspirational juices going.

Take a Shower if you want inspiration

Take a Shower

A warm shower is one of the most relaxing places there is. You don’t have to take one with your dog to get the benefits, but that could help as well. Look at how happy that dog looks!

Get Enough Sleep for Better Inspiration

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep has been touted lately as important to alertness and health. And if you don’t believe me, take a look at these articles:

Go for a Drive

A drive forces your mind to focus on something other than your work (unless you’re a taxi driver). Hopefully, there’s a place to drive nearby with trees and that doesn’t involve sitting in traffic. Rolling the windows down and feeling the wind can help clear the cobwebs out of your mind and help inspire you.

Get inspired: Go Drive

Explore Other Blogs–Or Your Own

Other blogs may give you ideas that you hadn’t thought about. You could even search Google for “Inspiration,” and see where that takes you. Another idea is to go back through your own blog and see if you could take off or expand upon an idea that you had.

Explore Blogs

Spend Time with Pets to Be Inspired

Spend Time with Pets

Your pet cat, your pet iguana, and your dogs would all like you to inspire you. And it turns out that you can get a lot of great ideas from man’s (and woman’s) best friends. Being more curious is but one of the things you can learn from your pets.

Go Somewhere with No Internet

Better still, go there without any way to record those new ideas. Then you’ll be forced to remember that idea. Many of us who are online all day find being offline a welcome relief.

Answer the Questions Your Clients Ask You

Clients will often ask you the best questions, questions that you didn’t know that anyone had! Last week, someone asked me how to have a conversation on Twitter, and seemed surprised that a conversation was even possible. That could turn into a blog post, or a series of tweets.

Talk to Your Friends

I’ve talked about having a blogging buddy before. That is someone who supports your crazy, crazy ideas, and inspires you to have more of them. Bridget Willard is mine. You could also have coffee or lunch with someone, especially if, like many entrepreneurs you often eat lunch alone.

Let Tweetchats Inspire You

Sometimes I’ll get inspiration from others on the #DigiBlogChat Tweetchat (Tuesdays at 1 pm pst if you’d like to join!). Recently, someone asked about Twitter best practices, so that became a blogpost and it also turned into chat questions, too. Yes, the tweetchat idea was the 1/2, but really it’s more like one and one-half. That chat always invigorates me!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, DigiBlogChat, drive, inspiration, Internet, nap, nature, pets, shower, Tweetchat, Twitter

Social Media: 7 Ways Your Business Can Connect with Locals

January 29, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Want to Find Locals with Social Media?

What is the first thing that someone looking for you would see if they looked for you online? Would they see a sadly abandoned account, and hear crickets? Would they get an ad telling them to sign up for a free newsletter? Would they hear an anthem from the 80s? Or would they see a finely tuned profile that appeals to their local audience? If your business depends on locals, here are a few ideas to use on the big social media platforms to magnetize your presence.

Have Apps on Your Phone

Because everyone is online these days, going from online to offline should be seamless. That means having apps on your phone so that when you meet someone, you can immediately connect and continue the conversation online–on their favorite platform. And when you “e-meet” someone, you can hopefully continue to talk offline.

Reach out to Your Audience: Post Local Events

Maybe you have a meetup, like my friend Ruby Rusine does, and you’d like to get more people to attend. You could post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and then tag people who might like to attend. Or **gasp** pick up the phone and call a few people in the area.

Create an Event Board on Pinterest

On Pinterest, have your own event board and take photos which you upload. You can then add a url to the pin to send people to your website for more info. Don’t forget to change the dates when you have a new event!

Post About Local Events

Twitter Local Search

You can use Twitter’s search on your city. For instance, let’s say your business is in San Francisco, California. By searching on either San Francisco, #SanFrancisco, or #SF, you can get local news, traffic reports, etc. There might be a big event that you’d like to attend, or maybe there’s a news story you want to share. Advanced search has even more options. For instance, you can search on zip code.

Tweets Near You Integrates with HootSuite and Google Maps

Tweets Near You

A great Chrome plugin is “Tweets Near You,” which shows you other people tweeting near you, and integrates with HootSuite and Google Maps. In the screenshot above, you can see tweets within 5 km of AT&T Park (a fabulous place that you must visit, by the way!) to see the incredible San Francisco Giants and their wonderful social media cafe. But I digress.

Communicate Directly Through Instagram or Twitter

Another way to reach out to your local audience is by communicating directly through Twitter. Restaurants can search on terms like “I’m hungry,” “hamburger,” “I need sushi,” etc. Use hashtags (i.e. #specialdeals, #dailydeal, etc.) to maintain follow through with your client base; they can directly message you regarding your business in real time. A clever business could also use Instagram to search on a hashtag (one sushi restaurant did this with me recently) to find people who already love whatever they sell.

Facebook

Although Facebook has recently throttled its traffic, almost everyone and their mom, sister, cousin, and grandma is there. Social Media Examiner has a terrific article with tips about filling in your profile and appealing to locals.

Get Traction through Local Visibility

Be Found

Just as you can find others, you want to ensure that you are found, too. So make sure to optimize your profiles everywhere, and keep the content fresh. And if you need someone to help you, you could read my Social Media Managers: Top Ten Questions to Ask When You’re Looking for One.

Have You Been Found? Or Has Someone Found You?

I’d love to hear your story about being found online if you have one. Really!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: events, Facebook, Instagram, local, Pinterest, San Francisco, search, Social Media, Twitter

Headline Writing: 10 Reasons it’s a Pain in the Asterisk*

January 22, 2015 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

Headline Writing: 10 Reasons it’s a Pain in the Asterisk

You have a perfect topic for your next blog post. You go out and take a million beautiful photos, all photoshopped and sized just right for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest cross-posting. Then you suddenly realize: you don’t have a headline! Has this ever happened to you? Here’s why headline writing is so tough!

Everybody Says to Spend More Time on Headlines

Your headline is the first thing people see. In fact, some people will retweet or report that snazzy article of yours without even reading it. Not convinced by me? Read these articles, then (Copyblogger says to spend 50% of your time writing the headline):

So there’s a lot of pressure to come up with something grand.

A Good Headline Can Help Your Post Go Viral

A Good Headline Can Create a Viral Post

If you haven’t read my When Posts Go Viral: Four Lessons, you might want to take a look. A controversial headline (for instance, Is it Time to Quit Facebook?) can spark people’s emotions and cause a small or large furor. Again, no pressure (just kidding!).

Headline Writing: Your Words Need to Be Perfect

Your Words Need to Be Perfect

Like a good tweet, a good headline needs to have all the right elements. It can’t be too short or too long. The important words need to be near the beginning of the headline. And you need to include “power words,” like “secret” and “magic.” And so on. Is that not a pain in the asterisk?

Because Traffic Blah Blah Blah

Every blogger wants traffic, right? When that post you wrote explodes all over the Interwebs, your blog gets a boost, you get more followers, and that 15 minutes of fame will follow you from platform to platform. So that’s another reason you have to get it right.

You Can’t Outsource It

Everybody has outsourced everything. I’m surprised we don’t remove our own hair and ship it to the Philippines (no disrespect to anyone in the Philippines–it’s just something I’d prefer to do myself). But if you want your post to be in your own words, then you have to do the work yourself.

Pain Points: Sisyphus, via Beth Scupham

Pain Points

Your audience experiences pain, just as you experience pain when you try to write a headline. So you want that headline to draw your reader in. The headline has to be magnetic enough so people will want to read it. It might be fun to write, but if it’s not fun to read? Fuhgetaboutit!

I’m Trying to Think But Nothing Happens!

You Thought You Were Done

You outlined that article, got your topic sentences down, have all kinds of good images, and now you have to come up with a headline? Are you kidding?

The World is A Noisy Place

The world is getting noisier, and more crowded. The Internet has more people competing for the same space. So your headline has to be the juicy, juicy hamburger, and not the bun! It has to stand out.

Headline Writing: Your Headline is the Juicy Meat, Not the Bun

When You Try to Think, Nothing Happens

You can only come up with one-word headlines, or headlines that don’t make sense. If you think they’re boring, what will your readers think?

Always keep one eye open. You never know who’s lurking.

You Come Up with a Perfect Headline and Someone Steals it

It’s not a very good feeling, is it? But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then is stealing even more flattering? I don’t think so.

*And you know what that asterisk really stands for, right?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blog topics, blogging, Facebook, going viral, Headline, headlines, outsource, outsourcing, pain points, photos, photoshop, traffic, Twitter, viral post, writing

Twitter: Best Practices

January 15, 2015 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Twitter Best Practices

You’ve heard so much about Twitter and how to tweet, schedule, run tweetchats, etc. You may be running your own account, or managing one for someone else. What best practices still apply? Here are some things I’ve learned over about six years.

Talk to People

I’m tired of saying to engage, so will say it another way: talk to people. Chat with them, thank them, tell them stuff, retweet their pictures, read their articles and blogs, laugh at their jokes. You know–much like you would in real life! As Derek Silvers says in his video there’s A Real Person A Lot Like You on the other side of that computer. Hat tip to bestie Bridget Willard (@YouTooCanBeGuru) for that video.

Subscribe to Toyota Equipment’s Lists on Twitter

Use Lists

Lists are the great underutilized tool of Twitter. Here’s my post about lists for the power user if you’d like to read it. And if you want to see an example of someone who really uses lists, check out Toyota Equipment’s (@ToyotaEquipment) lists. While you’re there, follow them and subscribe to a few lists. You won’t be sorry.

Discover the Discovery Tab

If you click on the Discovery tab, while you’re on Twitter, you’ll see a mix of popular tweets and tweets from those you know and like. It’s an easy way to find content to retweet, see what’s trending among friends, and catch up quickly.

The Hashtag Can Sarcastically Undercut Your Own Tweet

Employ Hashtags

A hashtag helps you organize your tweets, find others’ tweets, have a decent tweetchat, and mock your own tweet. It has even evolved into something else, as this fab article from the New York Times, In Praise of the Hashtag, points out.

Retweet with an Image

If you want to be a super resource, tweet someone else’s link, but add an image! This super charges their tweet, and makes both of you look good. Here’s the how-to directly from Twitter. It takes maybe 15 more seconds to do.

Report Spammers

Twitter is a community. Reporting spammers helps everyone. Most spammers don’t last too long on Twitter because they tend to get shut down fairly quickly. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, as Hunter Walk says, if Twitter closed the loop and told us how our efforts stop spammers? Yes, it would be.

Follow People

Don’t be a snob. You don’t know who people know. For instance, there’s a contractor who doesn’t follow me back because I’m not in his neighborhood. Little does he know I live about 10 miles away from him! And I run accounts that would retweet his content and probably also use his services. I tend to follow anyone who looks legit if their content is at all interesting. I don’t follow bots, spammers, porn accounts, or repetitious accounts.

Join Tweetchats!

Want to know who’s real and who talks? Join tweetchats in your area of expertise and interest. For fun, you could even engage in some way outside your usual area. If you’d like to join mine, it’s #DigiBlogChat (Tuesdays at 1 pm PST). Here’s my post about how to participate in tweetchats.

Twitter isn’t all glitter and unicorns

Believe in the Power

Twitter isn’t all unicorns and fairy dust and glitter. But you can meet real people. You can discover your own deeper interests, keep up on the news, enter contests (if that’s your thing), or even donate a kidney, as my buddy Amy Donohue (@TheFabSocial) did. (Her tweetchat on live organ donation is #KidneyChat Mondays at 7 pm pst, by the way).

What’s Your Favorite Best Practice?

Did I forget one? Probably. What’s yours?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: best practices, discovery, hashtags, Lists, Retweet, retweet with image, Spam, Spammers, Twitter