“Carol is amazing. She is detailed, thorough, and reliable. She’s also very professional and personable. Carol has created numerous materials for our company, often with very little direction from us. And yet she always produces something that is exactly what we want. She has been incredibly professional, organized and fun to work with and she has been integral to making our company look good”
Idan Benaim
@IdanBenaim
Maybe you read my first post, 6 Ways to Work From Home and Stay Sane. Or maybe not. In any case, people asked me what other ideas I had for staying sane. So here are some ideas that you might find useful.
If you’re like me, you have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all kinds of apps and texts (and phone calls!) all vying for your attention from your smart phone. To stay sane, put the phone away somewhere when you go to sleep. I leave the phone in another room (not the room where I sleep). Yes, I know you’re thinking you could never do that. But you really can! Think back a few years to when you either didn’t have a smart phone, or you didn’t have every app under the sun running on your phone. You can do it! It has helped me sleep better.
You’ve read about how you spend one third of your life in bed, right? Well, how about getting yourself some really fantastic Bedding? For me, Garnet Hill‘s flannel sheets are fantastic! (No, I don’t work for them!) They’re really soft and cozy, especially in the wintertime. And they make me look forward to going to sleep. They seem to get softer the more I wash them. Or maybe you like 600 thread count European sheets. The point is to get bedding you really love.
Exercise might seem like an obvious road to sanity, but so many people don’t exercise at all. When I started thinking of exercise as part of my job every single day, my sleep improved immensely, and my mood improved, too. Now I can’t imagine not exercising. For me, six days a week works. It’s one of those “simple-but-not-easy” routines. I love cycling, so I do some form of cycling or spin classes on most days, plus weight training and stretching. Pilates and yoga are in the schedule, too, twice a week. But I have to confess: that sixth day? I have to drag myself to the gym.
When there’s too much junk on my desk, I tend to get a little crazy. What about you? It’s like all those things have voices, and they’re all wanting my attention. So filing the paper or putting away the Post-it notes, the pens, the spare nickles and stuff, keeps me focused and sane.
Some of my friends make fun of me for using an egg timer. Yes, it’s an actual egg timer that ticks. I set it for 5 or 10 minutes or whatever time I need to focus on something. The ticking keeps me focused, for some reason.
Again, this is obvious. Eric Lofholm, the sales trainer, suggests using the 14-minute rule, and carving out time first thing in the morning (you can use the egg timer–exciting!) When I write my to-do list, the day goes a lot smoother. Everything is scheduled, prioritized, and more tends to get done than on the days when I don’t have a formal list.
Do you work from home? Are you a social person? Let me know by leaving a comment!
Pinterest: How to Unfollow People Who Don’t Follow You
So you got on Pinterest and followed a few hundred people when you first signed up. Now you’re wondering: how in the heck do I figure out who is not following me back or is inactive? You can look at the lists of who you follow and who follows you, sure, but it isn’t easy to figure out, is it? That was my conclusion, too!
After searching and reading many blogposts, I never found anything to help with this. Twitter has a million tools to help you unfollow, but Pinterest doesn’t seem to have the same tools (if there is a tool, I’d be happy to hear about it). In the meantime, here is a step-by-step guide.
Open your Pinterest account and click on “Followers” near the top of the screen. Now cut and paste each name into a doc. I tried cutting and pasting the entire list, along with the graphic images, but that didn’t work. So, yes, it’s time-intensive, but it does work. Once you have the names in there, save the document. I put the date when I did the cleanup at the top, too, so next time it’ll be easier.
Still in Pinterest, near the top, click on “following.” Scroll all the way to the bottom of that list. You’re going to start at the bottom and scroll up, one screen at a time.
Next, you’re going to have to search in your text doc to see if the person you follow also follows you. So you’re going to compare the two lists. Say you have someone in your “Following” list named “Silliest Pinner.” Go to your text doc and search for “Silliest Pinner.” If they’re there, you keep them. Of course, you may not care if someone is following you back. I follow some influential pinners because their pins are valuable. But if the person doesn’t provide any value (no pins through inactivity, for example), unfollow them.
To Unfollow, simply click on the “Unfollow” Button. Unfollowing is a little confusing because the “Unfollow” button is grayed out. You’ll know you’ve been successful when the button changes to say “Follow” and is darker.
You may want to schedule time to do cleanouts, or add people to your “Following” document, now that you have a “Following” document.
If you have any tips on how to make this process simpler, please share. Really. I’d love to hear from you!
Aida wrote to me, via @Business2Community, and told me about the “Followers on Pinterest” App for iPad/iPhone. So for those of you with iPhones or iPads, you’re in luck! Us Android users may have to rely on old-school methods, unfortunately. Thank you Aida!
You may be new to Twitter, or you may have been around for awhile. Spammers have been around for awhile, too, and are getting more clever all the time. Here are some ways to identify people who don’t have the best intentions.
A potential spammer may call you out by name in a familiar way and ask you to do something, like click on a link, visit a website, or vote for them in a contest. Never click on links if you don’t know where those links go. If you think a message came from someone you know who doesn’t know what they’re doing, or your friend who has been hacked, you could write back “Have we met?” or “Have you been hacked?” Start with a Direct Message, then send a public message after that (many people don’t check their DMs). If you don’t get an answer back, that’s an answer right there!
Phishing tweets are often Direct Messages (DMs) which sound like this: “I can’t believe this is you!” and then a shortened link. Or “What are you doing in this video?” If it sounds like high school “drama” or something your friend (who may have been hacked) would never say, don’t click on it! Tell your friend to change their password—which may or may not stop the unwanted DMs from appearing.
If someone follows you and their tweets are filled with bad spelling mistakes and incomplete sentences, that can be an indication of a spammer. Or if their tweets are just filled with @this and @that, at the very least that will be annoying after about 2 minutes. And if they only have 3 tweets, but 100,000 followers, that can definitely be an indication that they bought followers.
Just as with a Twitter account with bad spelling mistakes, an account with a naked person or pornographic image as an avatar is likely to be a spammer. My own opinion is just not to follow back. Unless they actively reach out to me, I ignore them. Just like anyone else, if they sell something I’m not interested in, I simply won’t follow them.
Someone may not exactly be Spam, but they may be annoying! For example, they may be plagiarizing your tweets or stealing from you in some other way. There are zombies and ghouls around on Twitter, even when it’s not Halloween!
If someone advertises their services on Twitter and you don’t like those services, that isn’t Spam. Just unfollow that person. There is no need to block or report them as Spam. Sometimes newbies report as Spam people who are not spammers.
Follow @Spam on Twitter and report Spam to them.
Go to the Spammer’s profile page and report them as Spam. You do not need to follow them to report an account as Spam.
Slam the door on Spam includes ideas on how to report Spam (NY Times blogpost).
Want to know how Twitter is working behind the scenes to fix Spam? Sure you do!
Do you think Spam is getting worse on Twitter? Why or why not? Please comment!
I’m a Social Media Strategist who works from home. While I love working in my pajamas and bathrobe, things can get a little, well, dicey if I never go outside and see that yellow orb they call the sun. Here are some things that have helped me to stay sane and still get my work done.
For me, that means I have had my breakfast and am sitting at my desk by 8:00 a.m. Usually a little before. I can still have coffee, but the breakfast has been cooked, eaten, and the dishes are rinsed.
This is a really tough one because people often think that if you work at home, your time is their time. Not so fast! If you don’t pick up that phone, the next time they go to call you, they might think twice. You can return those calls later when you have time.
Frankly, I’m not very good at following my own advice here. But every hour, you should get up and stretch. Some people say more often. On the days I take more breaks, I feel better and get more done.
Now if you’re at all introverted, you may be resistant to this piece of advice. Even so, I’ve noticed that I feel much more lighthearted if I see two people face-to-face every single day. Sophia Dembling, author of “The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy Word” agrees. A trip to the gym (if you actually talk to people there) counts. The other might be coffee or lunch date with another home-based friend. Maybe you’re fine with only one visit outside the office per day, but figuring out how much “face time” you need is the important take-away concept.
That’s corny, but you do need to know when to quit. As in, before…
You get the idea. If you work on or around social media, stopping is difficult because there’s always “one more tweet.” The Huffington Post article “Facebook Addiction” chronicles some of the telltale signs. Don’t be that person who loses sleep because you have to be social all the time. Go to sleep.
Or a dog. Or a tortoise. Or some little creature that makes you smile every once in awhile. My cat, Purrsilla, will dangle her paws onto my keyboard when I’ve done just about enough typing, thank you very much. Sometimes she’ll send me a message. It will say something like “[[[[[[[[[uuuuuuuuuu99999”. I’m pretty sure that means something in cat language. (Get up and feed me?)
Maybe you have something that helps you keep your sanity. If you do, I’d really like to know. No, really! I’m still trying to figure out how to work from home. And stay sane.
Your Twitter background says a lot about you. Even though it’s static you can add beaucoup information.
You’ve seen those Twitter profile sidebars with all kinds of graphics on them. If not, go and take a look at a few Twitter profiles, expand them so they’re full-screen, and see what’s there, beyond the basic profile. For example, take a look at @kimgarst’s profile. Do you see the graduated colors? Notice that she has a different picture of herself there than on her main profile picture. She uses the profile background to expand upon her passions. Or look at @FitnessMagazine, with their simple graphic of balloons and their “Mind, Body & Spirit” tagline listed. Pretty snazzy, right?
The sidebar can have other websites and information listed, but you can’t click on a URL on the sidebar. So it’s possible for someone to see a url, but they’ll have to copy it and put it into a browser window themselves—they can’t click and go directly to that address. Unfortunately, that’s a limitation within Twitter.
If you’re talented with Photoshop or another graphics package, then you may want to add a picture of yourself—or something that inspires you—to the background. For example, if you’re a dog trainer, how about a picture of a giant dog? If you’re a cyclist, a picture of your favorite cycling route or bicycle would work.
If you have a slogan, adding that to your profile would be a great addition; it’s a way for people to remember you. A tagline — a short statement that combines your mission, purpose and brand — can be an important selling point.
Hire a Graphic Designer.If you’re beyond a beginner at Twitter, you might be wise to hire help. A graphic designer can help you with a logo, color choices and photos. Having a professional to create your background makes you look polished. And you can use the same image or logo across all your social media platforms, such as Facebook and other sites. That’s leverage!
Since the majority of people are visual, having a stunning profile background on Twitter (as well as other sites) can cause more people to follow and connect with you. And isn’t that what all of us want on social media?
When customizing your Twitter background have you had any mishaps? Tell me your horror stories.
So I’ve noticed lately a lot of people with extremely huge numbers on Twitter. By huge numbers, we’re talking about tens of thousands. If we were in a grocery store, and these people were in the produce aisle, they would not be organic. Ok, maybe that metaphor isn’t really going to work. What I mean is, they have no relationship with those tens of thousands of followers. Among my friends who are social media managers (SMMs), we say those people “bought” their followers — they literally plunked down some cash so they could get a thousand or ten thousand followers.
How can you tell if someone bought their followers? Here’s what I’ve noticed.
If you’ve been on Twitter awhile, you use lists as shortcuts, a way to organize so you can cluster followers together. For example, your list called “locals” might have people in the same city as you, and so on. So, for someone to have, say…10,000 followers and not be listed anywhere? Suspicious.
Unless you’re a celebrity superstar or news channel, you need to have some conversations going to get big numbers. If you read a few tweets in the other person’s timeline, and there’s no engagement, and they’re not a celebrity, how did their numbers get so big? Also suspicious.
Building a big following organically (read: not paying for them) takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. So 10,000 followers and 200 tweets? Very, very suspicious.
If the account is only two weeks old, how could they possibly have 25,000 followers? Even a caffeine addict who never sleeps couldn’t add that many followers in two weeks. Extremely suspicious. Especially if their avatar is the Twitter egg.
We all know that having big numbers makes people look popular on Twitter. And sometimes being popular can impress others. But: so what? Who are they trying to impress with those 100,000 followers who have no real relationship with them?
If you’ve come across someone with huge numbers, would you follow them based on their number of followers? Please leave a comment below! Thanks!
Just received my social media strategy from Carol Stephen and it rocks! Is this what it is like to train with a Jedi Master?
I met Carol via social media. She has served as a mentor and ally to me. She is a true social media expert. Carol lays out a plan and theme for each week, leaving herself time to engage with her followers. An excellent mentor, partner and friend. It has been a pleasure working with Carol and I cannot thank her enough for her help and guidance!
Wendy LaPlaca
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