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WordCamp San Francisco: Favorite Things

July 30, 2013 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

WordCamp San Francisco State of the Word

WordCamp San Francisco

WordCamp San Francisco (or #WCSF) hadn’t even begun yet, and I could tell already that limiting myself to just one post was going to be very difficult. Now, if you’ve never been to a WordCamp, it’s a community of people interested in WordPress who gather to present, share, and tell stories. At the volunteer dinner, there were already some cool things to share. For starters, we got volunteer t-shirts from the uber friendly Automattic folks, and got to break bread (well, thick-crust pizza with spinach) and fancy-pants salad with the other volunteers. Not only that, but I got to carpool with Phyllis Garland! If you’re curious about how WordCamp San Francisco compares to a smaller WordCamp, you can read my post about WordCamp Orange County.

WCSF Automattic Headquarters

Accessibility

One of the first things you notice at #WCSF, is how accessible everyone is, and how genuinely happy they are to see you! It was as if the souls of golden retrievers had magically been transferred to humans: everyone was that happy to see you.

WCSF: Library at Automattic

WordCamp Run by Volunteers

Secondly, getting to meet the other volunteers at WordCamp and seeing Automattic’s library, was an eye opener. The library includes t-shirts from previous Wordcamps from all over the country, a cool wooden map of Automattic’s location, as well as swag, like stickers, buttons, and water bottles.

WordCamp San Francisco Badge

Laminated Badges

Third, a detail that might get overlooked is the wonderful laminated badges with our avatars and Twitter handles right on them. And volunteers had them all organized when we got there, complete with the lanyards that would be recycled later. Yes, everything ran smoothly because all the details like badges were covered.

Friends Online and IRL

Fourth, and my most favorite thing about WordCamp, was getting to meet new friend Ruby Rusine (@SocialChirps on Twitter) in person. We had met and tweeted to each other, but had never met in real life. Live-tweeting is one of my favorite things and it turns out that Ruby also loves to live-tweet. So we happily retweeted each other’s tweets while sitting right next to each other. Nerd Heaven!

State of the Word

Fifth was the State of the Word address by Matt Mullenweg (@PhotoMatt on Twitter). Secretly, I was afraid that I would be trapped inside a hot conference room for a long, boring talk, but was pleasantly surprised. He’s a great presenter, funny and witty, and the crowd absolutely adored him.

Have You Been to a WordCamp?

What did you like best about your WordCamp experience? Tell me in the comments below!

WCSF Me and Ruby Rusine

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Matt Mullenweg, San Francisco, State of the Word, WordCamp, Wordpress

Pinterest: Tips for Startups

July 25, 2013 By Carol Stephen 5 Comments

Pinterest Tips for Startups

You’ve been using Pinterest for your startup for awhile now, but aren’t quite sure what to do. You pin sporadically, but have no strategy yet. Your new intern is already complaining about doing too much! What to do? Let’s say you’re a high-tech startup, as an example.

Branding

If you already know what your company stands for, you’re way ahead of the game. Make sure the entire team is talking to one another and ensure that you give the person doing the social media a very high overview of your brand and what it stands for. Is your brand down-to-earth? Techie? Do you specialize in video for the startup market? What words describe your brand? Your social media manager needs to have that list of words. You might also want to avoid a few newbie mistakes.

Consider Your Audience

Although everyone at your startup may be technical, your audience probably does not have the same level of expertise and know-how that the average engineer does. If you don’t know who your audience is, consider modeling yourself after a competitor. Ask yourself what they’re doing right, and also what they aren’t doing that you could do on Pinterest. Keep it simple.

Make Ten Boards

Use some of the branding words to design your boards. Ten is a good number to start with, so this process isn’t overwhelming. You can add more later, as you come across content that doesn’t fit neatly into any of your categories. For example: “Apps,” “3D Printing,” “Ted Talks,” “Movers and Shakers,” etc.

Have a “Bait Board”

Create a “Bait Board”

This is a silly board–I don’t know what else to call it. It could be high-tech dog beds, or funny race cars, but something that humanizes you as a brand. Mine is called “Kittehs.” It is extremely silly, as you might imagine. Pick something like “Dogs at work,” or “Big Cats.”

Create a Schedule

Before you start madly pinning, create an editorial calendar. So for example, you may want to pin 5 pins twice a week about your field. If you’re a 3D Printing Startup, that might mean pinning 5 pins about 3D printing on Tuesday and Thursday. Keep it manageable because it will take some time. You don’t have to go crazy with pinning every day. The important thing is to be consistent and not make the intern crazy!

Start Following

Follow a few pinners whose pins resonate with you, and whose businesses might not be in direct competition. And if you decide you don’t like what they’re pinning for whatever reason, you can unfollow those pinners later.

What Has Helped Your Startup on Pinterest?

Do you have any ideas you’d be willing to share? Please leave a comment! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, bait, board, brand, Editorial Calendar, humanize, Pinterest, Schedule, Startup, Startups

When Social Media Isn’t

July 23, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

When Social Media Isn’t

I’ve been saying this until I’m nearly blue in the face: you have to be social on social media to succeed. People are still doing feeds from Facebook, saying that they get no clients from Twitter (because they only have a feed from Facebook), and doing everything they can to make social media easier for themselves. Social media requires some work if you want to do it right. Here are some worst practices!

Broadcasting

What can I say about broadcasting that hasn’t already been said? People want conversation and engagement. So listen, chat, be friendly, and inclusive. Reach out to newbies and be generous first.

Reckless Retweeting

Retweeting conversations between other people, retweeting a whole list of people when you’re having a conversation with just one person on the list, and retweeting Friday Follows with no reason given to follow all come across as lazy.

Bad Auto-DMs

On Twitter, good Auto Direct Messages are a rare breed. The majority of auto-DMs are, at best, boring and at worst spammy.

Whining on Facebook

Having a negative attitude on Facebook won’t generally make people want to engage more with you. Don’t tell people how stupid Facebook is on Facebook. If you hate Facebook that much, don’t use it. But if you hate it and still insist on using it, for God’s sake, shut up about it (you know who you are!). I can say this, because I know you’re not reading this right now, you Facebook hater, you.

Oversharing

Are you anti-social on social media?

Do you have people who’ve begged you not to post pictures of them on Facebook, and yet you continue to post and tag them? Hint: you’re not Ansel Adams! Respect your friends’ wishes, and don’t overshare or stalk, and tag responsibly. Remember, friends don’t let friends tag unflattering photos.

Using Personal Facebook Page as Business Page

Occasional spillover isn’t so annoying, but your friends expect to see more personal posts on your personal page. There are many benefits to having a business page for your business!

Alienating Your Audience

Recently a friend sent me a tweet from a brand saying that “The likelihood that I will unfollow you on Instagram once you have a baby is about 97%”. Maybe someone thinks this is “disruptive” but it just seems antagonistic.

Giving Twitter Shoutouts to Those You Don’t Follow

When you give shoutouts listing people to follow, yet you don’t follow any of them, this is inexplicable.

Repinning Every Pin

Have you experienced this? Someone repins every single thing you pin, yet doesn’t follow you. That, my friends, is stealing someone’s Pinterest soul. If you like my pins that much, follow me!

Do You Practice Social Media or Anti-Social Media?

Certainly you’ve seen some anti-social media practices. Which ones really get your three billy goats gruff?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: anti social, antisocial, Auto DMs, broadcasting, direct messages, Facebook, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, worst practices

Battling Content Thieves

July 18, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

Battling Content Thieves

You work so hard at your business. You’re out marketing, making phone calls, visiting companies, and shaking hands. Is it really fair that you should have to create original content when there’s so much out there already? Why not just swipe it from someone else? After all, if it’s on the Internet, anyone can use it, right?

Discovery

Recently, I learned about a new and nefarious Internet Villain: a scraper. A blogpost I wrote was scraped. Scraping means that someone took the content, without permission, and posted it on their site. I discovered it through a pingback on my blog. By the way, I’m not sharing the crook’s name with you.

What to Do if Your Content is Stolen?

That made me wonder…what can you do if your post is scraped? First, I asked some of my friends. They were outraged on my behalf, but also thought that it was a result of being successful. One said that the more you write, the greater the odds of being scraped. Next, I went to Google and did a search. And Ginny Soskey’s wonderful Hubspot article came up on how to fight back if people steal your content. Luckily, I could skip the first step–I already knew it had been stolen.

Is it Worth the Fight?

Soskey asks this question, and comes up with some instances when fighting isn’t worth the effort. For me, the answer is yes, since I’m delving more deeply into this subject, and writing about it here. But you could ask yourself how much time it will take.

Take Screenshots

I took screenshots of the offending scraped material, created a folder, and saved it.

Contact the Offender Directly

Asking people to remove your content

Although I contacted the offender three different ways, apparently they weren’t listening. (Ironically, the title of my blogpost was “Twitter as a Listening Tool.”) I commented on the material, asking them to remove my post. No response. Then, I tweeted to them directly. Still no response. Some of my followers retweeted my tweet, too. Then I emailed then. Still nothing! I wondered if perhaps Twitter wasn’t the best platform for them!

Has Your Material Ever Been Stolen?

What happened and how did you choose to handle it? Please leave a comment! Thank you.

P.S. There will be another update to this story! Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, Content, scraping, Social Media, stealing, stolen, thief, thieves

Pinterest: 6 Reasons I’m Not Following You

July 16, 2013 By Carol Stephen 15 Comments

Why I’m Not Following You on Pinterest

You’re following a million people a day on Pinterest in the hopes that a few of them will follow you back. However, some of your practices make me instantly not want to follow you. Here are a few!

You Don’t Consider Your Audience

If you have women as part of your audience, consider not pinning images that are demeaning to women. And if you are trying to gain business from Pinterest, that goes triple for you. You might not get reported for porn, but you certainly won’t get followed, even if 99% of your pins are of good quality. Considering your niche and what they want to see should be part of your pinning strategy.

You Pin Too Much

Even if I like your pins, if my entire stream is filled with stuff from you, I might decide not to follow. While one or two Hello Kitty products are ok, seeing 100 of them all at once will probably make me want to unfollow. However, a thousand of them would be the best thing ever! (Joking!)

Subject Matter Doesn’t Interest Me

If you only pin ballet shoes, snow removal equipment, or feather dusters, I probably won’t follow you. But if you make those subjects interesting, I might follow you after all. Having a sense of humor about a subject matter that’s dry would probably make me admire you for the creative effort.

Too Many Boards with One Pin Each

If you have 150 boards with only one pin on each, that looks like you’re a newbie, or worse, a spammer. Fewer boards with more content on each board looks better. For one thing, your followers won’t have to scroll as much.

You Steal Content

If you steal content and claim it as your own, I’ll definitely unfollow you. Right after asking you to remove those pins, that is. Nobody likes a thief.

No Pins, No Followers, and No Boards

If there is nothing on your account, I won’t follow you. How will anyone know what to expect if there’s nothing there? There has to be some “there there!” Here are some ideas on how to unfollow on Pinterest.

What Makes You Unfollow?

Did I leave anything out? Please let me know in the comments! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Followers, Pinterest, Unfollow, unfollowing

Twitter as a Listening Tool

July 11, 2013 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

One day, while chatting on Twitter, I got this tweet from @Tsledzik, above, and got to thinking about how to use Twitter as a listening tool. Yes, everyeone says Twitter can be used that way, but how does that work? What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? Large companies or brands can search on their own names or special hashtags. But how can a Startup just starting out or smaller company use Twitter as a listening platform? Here are a few simple ideas.

Use Twitter to Listen

Click on @ mentions

From the Twitter client, click on the @ or connect sign right at the top of the screen. Your interactions will appear in the column and you can easily thank or respond to people. Yes, this is basic, but some people only seem to use Twitter to broadcast, and listening doesn’t even occur to them.

Use Hashtags to Search

Not only can you use hashtags to allow people to search for your tweets, you can use them to search for any topic you can think of that might allow you to start conversations. For example, type in #Startup in the search bar to find others tweeting about startups. In the example above, I searched on #Startup problems, with only the word “startup” hashtagged (it’s unlikely that #StartupProblems would give many results). Now you have a whole string of possible people to talk to. Note: the top result is promoted, and like the top search results on Google, you may want to overlook it.

Create a List

You may want to listen to local news through Twitter, or what people in a certain geographic area are saying. You can create a list called “Locals” or “San Francisco” and add people to that list. This is a great way to cut down on the “noise” of Twitter. And you can make your list private or public, depending upon whether you want to be in stealth mode.

How Do You Listen?

I would love to hear what you have to say! Leave me a comment below! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: hashtags, list, listening, search, Startup, Startups, topic, trending, Twitter

Social Media Meetups We’d Like to See

July 9, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Social Media Meetups We’d Like to See

Have you signed up to get email from Meetup.com? If so, then you get a few emails from them every day, showing you some meetups that you’d supposedly be interested in. “20-somethings partying the night away” and “Hikers Who Speak Tagalog” could very well be in the same email.

What’s a Gal to Do? Create her own meetup, of course! Here are some of mine. Feel free to create your own, and then send me an email!

Tweeters Without Washing Machines or Change

#MismatchedSockExchange

We could meet at a public laundromat or any place where we could get change. We could take turns watching each other’s laundry, folding, telling our worst laundry stories, and tweeting. Hashtag: #MismatchedSockExchange

Not a 20-Something

Let’s be frank. We’re tired of Millennials. Let’s get together and not talk about Millennials. They’re not invited. If anyone can figure out how, we’ll make a video about something non-Millennial-related and post it on YouTube. No one will watch it, but still.

Seriously Old School

Do people tell you you’re a Luddite?

Do people tell you you’re “old school” or a Luddite? No, me neither! Do you still have an aol account that you cling to like a security blanket? Do you think Twitter is only for talking about food? Perfect. You have found your people. And when people show up to this meetup, thinking it’s about social media, their phones are taken away, and they get a lecture about the evils of social media.

iCanHazCheeseBurger Meme Lovers

Because how can there be too many pictures of cute cats? Or jokes? Or stories about cats? And yes! You can bring your cats if they have their own carriers. We’ll each share our favorite icanhazcheeseburger meme. And make our own memes.

Overposters Anonymous

When you can’t sleep, you post. You post closeups of your face, your tattoos, your kids, your kids’ butts, you post when you’re drunk and when you’re high. You go to a lot of restaurants and you post pictures of food, perfectly lit. Sometimes you Instagram said pictures. Sometimes you post from Instagram to Facebook or to Twitter. You know who you are. You disrespect underposters.

Those Who Put Tape Over Their Webcam Viewers

Is this you? I didn’t think so. Could be, though. Really? That’s not you? It seems like it could be you. Ok. It’s not you. But you do think there are aliens living among us, right? Thought so.

Is There a Meetup You’d Like to See?

Let me know in the comments! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: anonymous, Facebook, hashtag, Instagram, meetup, Millennials, old school, overposter, Social Media, Twitter, underposter, YouTube

Social Media: First Steps for Startups

July 5, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Maintain focus to maximize your time

You are the CEO of a startup, about to launch. The website is looking great. You have an app and a product that looks like it will be an enormous success. Suddenly, you realize that you have no social media. Quick! What are you going to do? Here’s a high-level overview.

Choose Your Name

Make sure your name is available across all the platforms you are looking for. You may need to insert an extra space, or an underline (for example, my name, @Carol_Stephen, has an underline between my first and last names on Twitter). Now check that your name is available on all the other platforms, too.

Pick a Platform

The platforms with the most traffic are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and GooglePlus. Depending upon the type of startup you’re in, you could also use Instagram and YouTube. But to simplify matters, choose the top ones you’d like, then pick one platform to start with. The easiest one is LinkedIn. Like juggling, once you have that first object in the air, you can add another and another.

Grab Your Handle

Register your name across all platforms–even if you don’t plan to start posting yet. Create an email account just for your social media, for example, social@startup.com, and use that email exclusively.

Organize the Names

Write down email, along with the login names and passwords in one place, and tell someone else on your team. Put the names into a Google doc, binder or other safe spot with office procedures. The number one problem I hear is that people have lost their own passwords. Yes, really!

Have a Backup Admin

Juggle one social media platform at a time

Make sure at least one other person is the admin for all your accounts in case something happens to you. This should be a trusted friend, co-founder, or your mom, but someone trustworthy and a little bit tech-savvy.

Designate a Lead

If your time is limited (and people in startups are always busy), designate one person as the social media manager. You may want to share this responsibility, depending upon how many are on the team. The lead will be the point person, and main decision maker for your brand.

What First Steps Would You Take?

Is there something else you would include for a startup? Let me know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: admin, First Steps, how to, Manager, Platform, posting, Social Media, Startup

Follow Friday: 8 Best Practices

July 2, 2013 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

Friday Follow: Best Practices

What is Friday Follow?

Every Friday, people on Twitter recommend their friends to their other friends, using the #Friday Follow or #FF hashtag. If you have someone you like, you can tell your other friends about that person, and connect good friends. This practice has been going on for years. However, some #FFs have become more spammy recently, as described in this fabu-tastic article from The Onion.

Some Avoid Friday Follow

Your #FFs Are Boring!

Many people now pull the covers over their heads and go back to sleep just to avoid Friday mornings. Why? Millions of tweets go out with that all-too-familiar #FF hashtag and the much-maligned list of @ThisPerson @ThatPerson that fills tweet after tweet. To make matters worse, people retweet those #FFs! If you’d like to optimize your time on #FollowFriday, here are some ideas for you.

Don’t Tweet Big Lists of #FFs

People like to have a reason to follow other people. So if you stuff as many of your followers into a tweet as possible, that can be very off putting. And people may decide to unfollow you, if they categorize you as a spammer.

Don’t Retweet #FFs

If you happen to be recommended, do not retweet the entire list and add to the spam. Just thank the person who recommended you (and delete everyone else on the list, please!).

Choose Your Top Engagers

Give People a Reason to Follow!

There may be only a few people who really engage with you every week. Pick four or five of them. Now tell us why you follow them. Be as specific as possible. I like recommending one person per tweet. Then, next Friday, pick different people to recommend.

Follow Other People’s Suggestions

If someone recommends you in a list of people to follow, check out some of their friends. Following friends of friends is a good way to extend your reach on Twitter. Notice who has good recommendations and whose recommendations are, well, bogus.

Tell People When You Follow

I like to thank the person who is the connection, like so: “Thank you, @PersonA, for the #FF! Also followed your friend @PersonB.” This often results in @PersonB thanking and following back. And @PersonA will notice that you read their tweet, too.

Recommend On Other Days

Why not do a #FollowMonday or #FollowRightNow hashtag? It’s unexpected, won’t add to the spam, and is much more likely to be well-received by your followers. You could slip one of these in between your other tweets (maybe do one per day), instead of #FollowFriday.

Go the Extra Mile

If you want extra bonus points and gold stars, you could tell everyone to follow, “like” on Facebook, and also follow on Pinterest, along with shortened URLs. This gives the person getting the recommendation a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Create a Friday Follow List

Put the people you really like onto a list, and then recommend that people check out or subscribe to the list. This requires a little more work from you, but will pay off in the long run.

What Are Your Friday Follow Recommendations?

Did I forget anything? Please leave a comment! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Friday Follow, Spam, Twitter, unfollowing

Pinterest: 5 Annoying Things

June 27, 2013 By Carol Stephen 16 Comments

What Would Help Improve Pinterest?

Many of you love Pinterest as much as I do. You spend hours and hours there, so you may have discovered some things that really bother you about Pinterest. If you’re a newbie on Pinterest, maybe these things don’t bother you. But for those of you who are past being beginners, here are a few changes that I’d love to see in their next release.

Messaging

Wouldn’t it be great to have a messaging system? I’d love to be able to say to someone “I love everything about this board!” Or “Your entire Pinterest account really inspires me!” But there is no way to do that. Leaving a comment on a particular pin, even with a tag for the owner of the account, seems inadequate. Right now, you get an email if someone has @ messaged you, but it’s easy to miss , given the volume of mail most people get.

Deleting Multiple Pins

Deleting pins is a headache. I like to go through and delete pins that no one has liked or repinned and it takes FOREVER! You have to go to the board, scroll, scroll, scroll, then click three times in order to delete one pin. Why? I’d love to be able to select a bunch of pins and then delete them all at once. Could we have a way to do this, please?

Unfollowing

I’d like to know easily who’s not following me so I can decide if I want to continue following them. There are some workarounds, and there’s an app that lets you unfollow, but in general unfollowing on Pinterest is not easy.

Pinning a Board Cover

Pinning a Board Cover Takes Forever

Right now, you have to click through many pins to get to the one pin you want to choose as a cover for a board. There has to be an easier way! Doesn’t there?

Seeing Boards I Follow Versus Pinners

I’d love to be able to see whose boards I follow (versus entire accounts). Sometimes I only follow one or two boards, and not everything by a pinner. There are ways to unfollow boards, but it’s clunky.

What’s On Your Wishlist?

Are there things you’d like to see in the next version of Pinterest? Would you like to see any of the changes above? Please let me know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: boards, cover, deleting, messaging, pinning, Pinterest, Unfollow, unfollowing, wishlist