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Social Media New Year’s Resolution: Do Less!

December 27, 2014 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Social Media New Year’s Resolution: Do Less!

Everyone is going to tell you to be thinner, to do more, and to mold yourself into a better person for the new year. People will offer up lists of ways that you can organize and prioritize your resolutions. However, from my point of view, this is wrong thinking. This year, for my New Year’s resolution, I am resolving to do less.

Instead of resolutions like eat fewer carbs or stop smoking, here are mine, broken down.

If you need justification for not doing New Year’s Resolutions at all, here are a few:

Change Pinterest Board Covers Seasonally (December’s Are Red)

One. Change Pinterest Board Covers Quarterly

Previously, I was changing my Pinterest board covers every month. Here’s why it’s a good idea to change Pinterest board covers. And the last day of every month, I’d be up half the night looking for perfect board covers. This year, I’m resolving to change them once a quarter. So, for instance, I’ll be doing all white board covers starting in January. To make this even easier, I created a secret board called “White.” It’s already got enough white pins so that I won’t be up all night! For Spring, I’ll create another secret board (maybe green), and so on. Four per year. Not twelve.

Use Secret Pinterest Boards to Plan Your Board Covers

Two. Fewer Scheduled Tweets and More Tweets Without Links

On Twitter, I’ll be posting fewer scheduled tweets, and adding some that are tips without links. As my friend, Bridget Willard says, having a link in every tweet requires a lot from your followers. And I agree. The additional benefit is there is no link to check and recheck if I reuse that same tweet later. Another benefit of linkless tweets is that they tend to foster conversation.

You can search in your stream for tweets without links by adding -http to your search term. For instance, search: “startups -http” to find people talking about startups.

By the way, Bridget has a terrific series of Guru Minutes on YouTube, and you can follow her here:

Bridget Willard’s Guru Minute on YouTube

Three. Get Offline on Sundays

Another social media resolution is to get completely offline on Sundays. Previously, I’d be checking in and pinning, tweeting, or posting on Sundays. This resolution does require getting everything scheduled on Friday, rather than Sunday.

One New Year’s Resolution? More sleep!

Four. Sleep More

What to do with all this extra time, you may ask? Sleep! Being a social media manager requires a lot of attention to detail. Posting and engaging with people can be exhausting if you’re working on a lot of accounts. Your job is probably the same way. My bestie Amy Donohue (follow her on Twitter at @TheFabSocial) goes to sleep early, and has influenced me to do the same.

Here are some articles about sleep that you may enjoy:

So here’s the part where I ask you about what you think, and whether you have any social media resolutions. I’d love to hear from you. That is, unless it cuts into your nap time!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Engagement, Facebook, New Year's Resolutions, Pinterest, posting, Retweet, Social Media, Startups, Twitter

Storm Social: Lessons from a Big Storm

December 18, 2014 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Storm Social: Lessons from a Big Storm

As I started this blog post, a huge storm was raging outside my home. Wind and rain pummeled the windows, and the river overflowed its banks, and in some cases, flooded. Over the past few days, the culvert under the road leading to my home failed suddenly from the excess water. Overnight, what had been a safe road became hazardous.

People Are Social

I was thinking about how dependent we are upon other people, and how often people will surprise you. And also about how people can become social if they’re forced to be. So far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by everyone’s willingness to help out, their friendliness, and how quickly things came together in the face of this big storm.

Neighborliness

One neighbor helped pull the big stumps and debris out of the culvert using the winch on his truck. Every single contractor I called for help phoned back within 36 hours, and they all showed up quickly to investigate the scene. Within 24 hours, I had chosen a contractor to fix the culvert, and within two days there were 3-1/2 truckloads of Gabian rock dumped in place to prevent further erosion. And by the way, I found all the contractors by asking for referrals through a neighborhood Facebook group.

Storm Social: Before a Big Storm

On the up side of the culvert, water rushed down and into the drainage. Corrugated metal was inserted into the rotting metal pipe and foam put in place to prevent the corrugated metal from sliding. A huge piece of corroded pipe was cut and then removed with a backhoe. The temporary fix was put into place.

Rubber was put into place to create a slide for the water. One piece of the corrugated metal was fanned out to create a waterfall effect at the down side of the water.

Social Media

While all this was happening, neighbors from far and wide came together to watch the progress, offer advice, give sympathy, and offer help in all forms. It was an amazing thing to see! So now I’ve met people up and down the street, as well as in the larger community, through social media.

Facebook groups were revived like mushrooms after a rainfall, so that neighbors could share posts, pictures, and resources about the storm. Many groups added huge numbers of fans quite quickly, as people wondered what the weather was like and which roads were passable. My new favorite on Facebook is the wonderfully informative U.S. National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey. They gave updates as well as answered questions live on Facebook and their Twitter account. Other, more local groups, gave very specific updates on the roads in the mountains.

I added to my Twitter list of news organizations to be able to track the news more easily–something I recommend everyone do. And if you don’t know about lists, you can learn more about them here.

We only had two days to get the culvert fixed and our “band-aid solution” in place, and then we prayed that the rain wouldn’t be too much for the culvert. During the height of the storm, I went by, and the culvert was intact! There was some dirt below, but most of it held. A not at all minor miracle!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Bay Area, California, friendliness, neighbors, San Francisco, Social, storm

Social Media Worst Practices

December 4, 2014 By Carol Stephen 12 Comments

Social Media Worst Practices

You’ve probably gotten tons of fabulous great advice about how to do social media, but what about bad advice? Bad advice is rare right? Just joking! Sometimes bad advice is so bad that it can be good. Or at least, good for a big laugh! Here are some social media worst practices suggested by a few social media manager friends.

“Social media is a waste of time”

Haven’t heard this one since 2009, but there may be some who still believe it. My friend Heather Baker Steele (of Blue Steel Solutions) suggested this one.

“Automate Direct Messages in Twitter”

Send an auto DM to people right after they follow you thanking them–or asking them to “like” you on Facebook. Maybe back in the day people were able to pull this off successfully, but I haven’t seen anyone do a good job with an auto DM recently. This is one that I’ve heard personally.

“Just connect all your networks to Facebook, and schedule, and it will all get cross-posted. #FACEPALM“

A beauty of a piece of bad advice, via Kirti Dwivedi, of Diya Marketing. What some people don’t know is that you can see when you cross-post. On Twitter, those posts show up with a shortened Facebook link. People know you’re not there, so they’re not very likely to follow you.

“Automate posts on Facebook (via 3rd party app) especially if you are strapped for time”

Ruby Rusine of Social Success Marketing sent that one. Did you know that it’s pretty easy to schedule from right within Facebook? No need to use a scheduler!

“Cross-Posting Can Save You a Lot of Time”

Yes, it can. You can save even more time if everyone unfollows you because your cross-posting annoys them! Because then you’ll only have a few followers, and fewer conversations.

Social Media Worst Practices: ROI on Every Tweet

“You Need a ROI on Every Tweet”

This one was submitted by friend Amy Donohue (@TheFabulousOne on Twitter). And yes, social media managers hear this one a lot. Some even try to micromanage Twitter by asking their social media managers to justify each tweet. See my post on how to demotivate employees for more information!

“We don’t need Twitter”

This one is pretty common, although most people then admit that they don’t understand Twitter. Another good one that Amy Donohue heard. And if you think Twitter is a waste of time…did you know that Amy donated her kidney because of a tweet? Take a look at the trailer for her movie, “Social Media Stole My Kidney.”

“Buy followers to get your clients started.”

Another wonderful and terrible piece of advice heard by Kirti Dwivedi of Diya Marketing. If you want to know about reasons not to do this, see my previous post about buying fake followers and why it’s a bad idea.

Did you get any really good bad advice?

Was there any bad advice that made you laugh out loud? I’d love to hear it!

And thank you to all my social media manager friends for the bad advice!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: automated, cross-posting, direct messages, Facebook, fail, failure, Follow, Followers, Mistakes, Pinterest, ROI, Social Media, Twitter

10 Ways to Avoid Social Media Perfectionism

November 20, 2014 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

10 Ways to Avoid Social Media Perfectionism

Lately I’ve been running into a few people who are such perfectionists about their social media that they believe everything has to be perfect before they can make a single tweet. They listen in on conversations, don’t participate in tweetchats, and endlessly wring their hands over posts. Meantime, their social media is noticeably quiet. I’d really like to encourage you, if you’re one of these people, to get out there and start making some mistakes. Nobody’s going to like you any more or respect you if you wait around until everything is perfect.

Life Isn’t All Black or White

If your tweet, post, or pin has to be perfect in order for you to be worthy, then you need to knock it off. Get out there and do your best, but don’t spend ten times as long as everyone else getting it perfect. Simply adopting the mantra that you’re willing to be less than perfect goes a long way towards avoiding perfectionism.

Choose Your Social Media Battles

So maybe that tweet isn’t worth getting your undies all in a knot. Maybe spend more time writing that blog post. Or picking the right image for that post you’ll share.

In Ten Years, Will Anyone Care About That Tweet?

The point is to get some distance by using the filter of time. Even if you make a terrible mistake, will anyone remember in a year? Five years? Ten? Probably not.

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway

You’ve heard this slogan, or read it in bumper sticker format on the back of a car. And like everyone else, it’s one thing to have the bumper sticker, and another thing to live by it.

You Can’t Please Everyone

Sometimes aphorisms are aphorisms because many people have the same issue. This is another one. Please yourself first and let the ones who disapprove fall away like autumn leaves.

Stop “One More Thingitis”

This is my personal one. When you have five minutes before you head out the door, do you start another project so you don’t waste that five minutes? That’s something I do. Then five minutes turns into ten. One more thingitis is part of perfectionism. It’s also rolled up into time management. It’s ok to do nothing (or just breathe) for that five minutes.

Don’t Tie Your Self-Worth to Your Work

10 Ways to Avoid Social Media Perfectionism

This one is a little tougher to implement. Social media is part of your life, but there’s more to you. A lot more. Maybe deciding not to care comes with age, or having a few failures under your belt.

Ask Friends to Give You a Reality Check

I am blessed to have other social media managers as friends. Having a core group of people who can tell you when you’re too close to something can help you.

Be Kind to Yourself

Maybe you can be kind to other people, but how about being kind to yourself? Treat yourself like your own best friend and tell yourself what a best friend would say.

Laugh

Laugh at yourself, kindly. I love this article from Tiny Buddy, The One Thing You Need to Overcome Perfectionism.

If you’re a perfectionist, is it hurting you or helping you?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Facebook, failure, perfectionism, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter

Pinterest: How to Pin!

November 6, 2014 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

Pinterest: How to Pin!

People keep asking me about how to pin, hence this post. If you missed it, you can read my post about the Biggest Mistakes to Make on Pinterest, as well as the Top Ten Tasks and Power Tips on Pinterest.

Pinterest: Don’t pin things that are unavailable

Clicking Through

You see pretty things, pins about creating lamps out of mason jars and building doghouses from used pallets. Why not simply pin them? You see that beautiful painting? Maybe it’s already sold, and you’re sending someone to something like the above message. You could update your pin by saying it’s sold under the pin (and recommend other works by the same artist), or you could remove the pin altogether. Why? Because it’s considerate of your audience, which you wish to grow on Pinterest. And it creates trust when they click on something and what you say is there is there. Here’s a snazzy article about “5 Things Not to Repin on Pinterest,” which I enjoyed.

Pinterest: Don’t send people to dead links

Pinterest: Don’t you love finding one of these behind a pin?

Dead Links

Sometimes websites are updated and links change. Something might have moved. If you find one of these above two messages, you can go in and change the website that your pin points to by clicking on the little pencil. Your audience will appreciate not finding a 404: Not found error message behind that beautiful pin. Or, if you love the image, you can say “Image only” to let people know there’s nothing more. If you have a choice, though, choose the one with a permalink that goes to the actual thingamajig. For instance, if there’s a gorgeous cake, wouldn’t you like the recipe? What if someone leaves the cake out in the rain? Oh my goodness! I’m cracking myself up! Seriously, don’t make people dig around on a huge recipe site searching for that cake recipe. They will curse you as they drive to the store to buy a cake.

Pinterest: Sometimes there are spammy links behind pretty pictures

Spam

You know that cute teddy bear party, where they’re all having tea in the meadow and the one in the tutu is pouring? Sometimes bad people put spam behind those cute pictures. Or porn. Please don’t send all the kids and their moms to those sites when they want more info about the teddy bear picnic. Instead, report those spammers! Kids want bears, not bares!

What to Say?

You know what not to pin, but what should you say? I like to think of Pinterest as a mini-Google. Actually, it’s better than Google, in my opinion, because it’s image-driven search. So think about your audience. What are they looking for? Say that!

Tell People What to Expect

If you click through and there’s only an image, tell people that. If there are lots of pictures on the site, say that. Describe the pin a little bit. Here’s an example.

Pinterest: How to Pin!

If someone is searching for “tiny house with rooftop terrace,” chances are they’d find this pin. On the other hand, if you say “cute,” how many people are searching for the word “cute”? Odds are, not very many. So describe your pin and your chances of being found will be greater. I could even add the word “brick house,” or “wooden deck,” and more people would probably find this pin.

When pinning, add your own personality to a pin

Add Context

Adding your own personality makes a pin much more attractive. You could cut and paste a description (better than nothing), but adding your perspective gives people another reason to follow you. For instance, the article above is all about bad examples of tiny homes (made out of pallets!), which I found funny, because personally I don’t understand the make-stuff-out-of-pallets craze, either.

How Do You Like to Pin?

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

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, basics, dead links, failure, pin, pinning, Pinterest, porn, Spam, tiny homes, tiny houses

WordCamp San Francisco: Why A Blogger Should Go

October 30, 2014 By Carol Stephen 3 Comments

WordCamp San Francisco: Why Bloggers Should Go

This isn’t the first WordCamp I’ve attended, and it won’t be my last one, either. There are so many reasons to go, I can’t even begin to list them all. Here are a few highlights. If you haven’t read any of my other posts about WordCamps, here are a couple of my faves: WordCamp Orange County 2014: Awesome Moments and WordCamp San Francisco: Favorite Things.

The Bill Was Fabutab

Frankly, I was more than a little excited that WordCampSF had so many women speakers this year. You could practically spend the entire two days and not listen to one single man, which is unusual at a technical conference, and even more unusual in San Francisco, where even Pinterest events are filled with men. This is awesome in so many ways. More on the particulars below.

The Bloggess

One of the biggest draws for me at the 2014 WordCamp was getting to see and hear The Bloggess. If you’ve never read her blog, you should. Come back here after two and a half years, when you’re done laughing. Yes, she’s that funny. If you don’t come back, I don’t blame you. Whatever. I was a little bit afraid to hear her speak because she has reached that stage of awesome in my mind, but she did not disappoint. In fact, my favorite moment came from her talk.

Listening to the awesome @thebloggess at #wcsf14 pic.twitter.com/Byr8vWIG9S

— Carol Stephen (@Carol_Stephen) October 27, 2014

She was talking about trolls, which we all get as bloggers, especially on the more successful posts. And she said “It’s my house, so if you’re going to comment, entertain me. And if you don’t, look out!” Since her blog is curated, she can change the comments of trolls, which she does. Simple, but brilliant, right? Then when the troll returns (they always do!), she can again change their comment from the extremely negative to the extremely positive.

WordCamp San Francisco: Buttons Are Everywhere

WordCamp San Francisco: MailChimp Cat Apparel

The Freebies

Yes, this might seem trivial, but deep in our hearts we all love the cheesy t-shirts, mugs, and free things we get at conferences. Even the stickers help make a lackluster conference better. This year’s winner was clearly MailChimp’s cute knitted cat hat. They had full-sized hats for people, too. I’m not sure how much my cat loved the hat, but she’s fussy that way. Anyway, she put up with it long enough to get a picture.

Meeting People

Hobnobbing with the other WordPress nerds is always a highlight, and this year’s WordCamp participants were no exception. I got to hang out with my buddy Peter Woolvett, too.

Crafty Chica was a huge and welcome surprise as well. She’s @CraftyChica on Twitter, by the way. You’ll love all her glitter and positivity.

Getting Retweeted. By Matt Mullenweg. Twice.

Standing room only for Matt Mullenwegs State of the Word talk! #wcsf14 pic.twitter.com/jRNMZ5MJHf

— Carol Stephen (@Carol_Stephen) October 26, 2014

If you don’t know who Matt Mullenweg is, Google him!

Giants. Fans.

As in the “Orange Tide” was right outside the door. When we wandered outside, we’d see planes with banners, people dressed in orange, tailgating parties, etc. Did I mention dogs wearing orange and black shoes? As thousands poured through SOMA, up King Street and over to the stadium, it was impossible to ignore. Walking out of WordCamp and into the insane orange-and-blackness that engulfed San Francisco was incredible.

Will You Go? Have You Been?

I’d love to hear from you! If you’re planning to go next year, let’s meet up for coffee!

WordCamp San Francisco: Giants Fans

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, hashtag, highlights, San Francisco, Social Media, Startups, trolls, WordCamp, Wordpress, writers, writing

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: LinkedIn

October 23, 2014 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: LinkedIn

This is the fourth and final way to fail on the biggest social media platforms. If you missed the others, here they are:

LinkedIn has survived in Social Media Land almost longer than any other platform. It’s there quietly behind the scenes, ready for when you want to make new connections. There are roughly 300 million people on LinkedIn. If you’d like to read more statistics, you might want to read this interesting compendium of 100 Amazing LinkedIn Statistics.

No picture

Do you connect with people who have no photo? Neither do most people. Also, with a photo, people are much more likely to view your profile. As on other platforms, people think that you’re not “all in” if you don’t have a photo. If you really still think you don’t need a photo, read this article on Huffington Post, 5 Reasons You Must Have a Photo on LinkedIn.

Saying you did something you didn’t

Why would someone do this if they could get caught so easily? Were you really an astronaut AND a brain surgeon during college? Ok. I believe you.

No original content

It’s hard to imagine, but some people have stolen other people’s words. If you’re not good with words, there are many people who are good with words who can help you. Ask your friends. Or do a search for editors! You’re sure to find someone.

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: LinkedIn

Don’t finish your profile

What about those people who stop writing right in the middle of a sente…?

Asking for testimonials from strangers

Have you ever had this happen? You just got connected with someone and they ask for a testimonial! You’ve never worked with them before, and only met them at an event a couple of times. Don’t be that guy.

Don’t have connections

You can still make connections with people even if you’re not looking for a job.

Only connect to people you know personally

You don’t have to have lunch with someone five times before you connect with them on LinkedIn. Really.

Spelling errors

See, “No original content,” above. An editor can help. Use a spell checker if you don’t have the time or money to hire an editor.

Sending spam

If you immediately ask people to buy from you, that’s spammy. Whether it’s an auto-DM on Twitter, or a private message on Facebook, most people won’t engage with you if you do that.

Never posting

People want to know what you think, so posting an article, even occasionally, helps them see what your interests are.

What LinkedIn mistakes have you seen?

Leave me a message in the comments! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: errors, Facebook, fail, failure, LinkedIn, lying, Mistakes, original content, photograph, picture, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

October 16, 2014 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

Facebook

This is the third in my series of four on the ten ways to fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms. You can go back and read the ones on Pinterest or Twitter if you’d like. By the way, here’s an excellent article about Five of the Biggest Facebook Mistakes and how to Fix Them.

1. Crosspost from Twitter using hashtags.

Use tons and boatloads of hashtags. People love them! Make up your own private jokes using hashtags. For extra points, use random words. For instance, #SuperCaliFragilisticalSpaceShip. See how random that is? And how long, too?!

2. Steal content

Pretend that the cool article you just found is yours. Steal the post and don’t say where you got it! Deny everything if accused. Don’t forget to remove the artist’s signature off that artwork, too! (This has happened to me more than once, by the way.) After all, if it’s on the Internet, it’s meant to be taken and used!

3. Post when no one’s there

Can’t sleep in the middle of the night? That’s a great time to post! Don’t take advantage of Facebook’s native scheduler. Don’t save that post for later, either.

4. Don’t post at all

Don’t have any opinions ever and don’t “like” or comment on any one else’s posts. That’s a good strategy.

5. Never use images

Plain text rocks! Especially when you’re ranting. Use a lot of run-on sentences so you can go on. And on. In fact, a whole paragraph with no line breaks is the best of all.

6. Don’t reply

When people comment, ignore them. Be mysterious. Be cryptic. But don’t answer any questions or comments.

Ten Ways to Fail on the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Facebook

7. Post and run

Like a hit-and-run accident, a post and run works best when your friends and fans feel like they’ve witnessed a car crash. Post when you only have five minutes left and you’re about to go on vacation. That’s how you appear to be even more mysterious. If you do reply, wait until you’re back from vacation (in two or three weeks).

8. Don’t invite your friends to like your page

They probably wouldn’t like it anyway. Would they? And if you don’t tell them about it, they won’t ever have to know! That will save a lot of work.

9. Don’t have a business page

Post all your business stuff on your personal page. Your friends won’t mind. That’s what friends are for!

10. Make your posts private.

Don’t let anyone see what you’re talking about. You can also have posts where you address just one person.

What failures have you seen on Facebook?

I really do love failures. Here are a few more, in this article from Business to Community, 7 Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes. Without calling anyone out, let me know what really great failures, mistakes, and belly flops you’ve seen on Facebook!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Business, crosspost, crossposting, Facebook, fail, failure, friends, images, Mistakes, post and run, posting, Private, reply, stealing, Twitter

Ten Ways to Fail with the Biggest Social Media Platforms: Pinterest

October 9, 2014 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Ten Ways to Fail with the Biggest Social Media Platforms Pinterest

This is the second in a four-part series on ten ways to fail on social media platforms. If you missed the first one on Twitter, read it here.

You’ve had a presence on Pinterest for a few months or years, yet nothing seems to happen. The pins seem to languish on abandoned boards, with no one liking or repinning any of them. Your three followers don’t pay any attention to what you pin. If you set out to fail, you’re in luck! Here are more ideas about ways to fail!

Don’t pin anything

Why doesn’t anyone follow you even if you have no pins or boards? Aren’t they your friends? Don’t people owe you that much at least?

Fix: Get pinning!

Ugly pins

Some of the ugliest pins, to me, are the failed Do it Yourself projects. So if you have something that doesn’t look quite right, why not take a picture of that and pin it? Better still, make it the board cover! No adorable, beautiful, or funny pictures for you!

Fix: Make your pins beautiful, useful, funny and adorable. Here are some thoughts on making beautiful board covers, by the way.

Put everything on one board

Why do you need so many boards, anyway? Why not have one humongous board called “Stuff I like a lot for many different reasons!!!!” and put everything there? Why not, indeed?

Fix: Create a few different boards to organize your pins.

All your pins look the same

Variety is so overrated. You can easily pin the same pin over and over. And over.

Fix: Think about the person coming to your account. Then act accordingly.

Steal pins and identities

Ten Ways to Fail with Pinterest

If you find an account you like, pin everything from that account. Don’t change the descriptions of the pins, and use the same names for the boards, too. Better still, create accounts with other people’s names and pretend you’re them. Celebs like having “fans.”

Fix: Nobody likes a thief, so don’t be one. Here’s a great article (see number six on his list, “Don’t Steal Someone Else’s Board.”

100 pins, then nothing

When you can’t sleep, get on Pinterest and pin. A lot. Nobody who follows you will be annoyed by all those pins of cute hedgehogs, right?

Fix: If you must pin, pin to a secret board. Then, when you’re more awake, move those pins a little at a time, to other boards.

No descriptions

A period (“.”) is the best description. Or you could also use a slash (“/”). Both are equally descriptive.

Fix: Tell us what we’re seeing. And don’t say something like, “Jeff would like this.” Unless we’re a close friend, we don’t know who Jeff is!

No fun

Make sure everyone knows your opinion. Repeat it many times and use a lot of exclamation marks!!!

Fix: Modulate your voice a little bit. Unless you’re a celebrity, people don’t like ranting.

Pins that link to Spam or Malware

Nobody’s going to actually click on that pin. Are they?

Fix: Click all the way through the pin to see where it goes. There are some not-very-nice people on the Internet. Here is Andrea Eldridge’s Article about 12 Mistakes You Are Probably Making On Pinterest.

Seen any good fails lately?

Have any made you laugh? Have any made you cry? Have any made you shout? Leave me your opinion, please! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: descriptions, fail, failure, malware, Mistakes, Pinterest, posting, Social Media, Spam, stealing, theft, Twitter, visually appealing

When Posts Go Viral: Four Lessons

September 25, 2014 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

When Posts Go Viral: Four Lessons

You’ve been writing your fingers to the bone for years now, writing about everything you could think of for your business blog. You’ve covered all the major topics and included photos of cats, hedgehogs, fancy race cars, and pictures from other viral posts. So maybe by now you’ve given up on anything going viral. By the way, I wrote about pins on Pinterest going viral, which you might like, too.

Recently, a post of mine went viral, and I can now tell you how random it seemed at the time. And my thoughts on it now.

First of All, Transparency

A client of mine could not post a photo on LinkedIn, and asked me to see if I could post a photo. So I took an old blog post from April, “Is it Time to Quit Facebook?, and republished it on LinkedIn, around 11 pm, along with the image and went to sleep, with the thought that maybe one or two people might see it.

The Next Morning

Before I got on LinkedIn, a friend of mine texted me that there were quite a few comments and shares on the post. I went to check, and there were already 45 comments. Since I was at a workshop, I didn’t have much time to reply.

The Next 24 Hours

The next day I tried to keep up with the comments, angry replies, thumbs up, thumbs down, replies to angry replies from other angry people, etc. It was a whole big thing. It really was. Also, LinkedIn picked it up and promoted it under “LinkedIn Pulse.”

Gold-Plated Problem

My business mentor, Caterina Rando, would say this was a “gold-plated problem.” You never expect anything to go viral, but when it does, you think about what you could’ve done differently.

Lesson One

My post could’ve been written better. Well, I always think that. It could’ve been longer, more thorough, and could’ve had better images. Doesn’t every blogger think this about every single post? And yet, there are deadlines, so posts get published. You don’t know what’s going viral.

Lesson Two

You can’t complain about a post going viral. Seriously. You might as well complain that your house is too big for one maid to clean. Or it takes you ALL DAY to shine your gold watches. Nobody wants to hear that. Or, at least, if that’s your biggest complaint, then your life is pretty cushy. It would be all the way at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Social Media Needs.

Lesson Three

You can’t really prepare any more than you’re already prepared. Well, I guess I wouldn’t post right before going on vacation or a long weekend. You always leave a little time to comment back to people, but probably not 48 hours worth of free time for a single post.

Lesson Four

Forgive yourself for not answering all the comments and move on. You can post something along the lines of “thank you for commenting and sorry I can’t reply to all of you.”

When Your Social Media Post Goes Viral

OutComes

Here’s a screenshot from that one post on LinkedIn. In addition, I got about 45 new people wanting to connect, a couple of hundred shares of the article on Twitter, new connections on Pinterest (not too many), and around 25 new followers on Facebook. And of course, the usual spam. Oh, and a job offer. So that was nice.

And Another Thing

I’m not sure why this post went viral. It could be that LinkedIn likes posts about Facebook not having good reach, since Facebook and LinkedIn do compete for some of our time, in a way. Maybe it was late at night and there was a quota (self-deprecating humor for the win!). Most probably, the article was selected by the secret magic LinkedIn algorithm.

Has One of Your Posts Gone Viral?

Were you prepared for it? How did you handle it? I really do want to know!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Caterina Rando, Facebook, going viral, LinkedIn, Pinterest, posting, Social Media, Twitter, viral