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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

Social Media: Overposter or Underposter?

June 25, 2013 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

How Often Should You Post on Social Media?

If your business is just getting started on social media, you may wonder about how often to post. Once a day? Once an hour? Several times a month? Every other month? Unfortunately, there is no easy formula to discover the perfect number of posts on a platform. Each brand uses social media differently, but here’s what I consider appropriate.

Each Platform is Different

If you’re talking about LinkedIn, then you probably don’t need to post that often. A good rule of thumb would be a couple of times a week. The same with GooglePlus. However, on Facebook, most businesses post more often, in comparison. I post once a day on my business page–twice if there’s a big announcement or something I can’t wait to share. On Twitter, if you only posted once a week, people would probably never see your tweet. On Twitter, I post 11 times daily, plus engagement, for a total of 30 or 35 tweets daily. Each platform also has its own language.

Who is Your Audience?

If your audience is primarily younger, say, under 30 years old, you can probably post more often. If they’re a bit older, they may not respond well to frequent posting. That’s a huge generalization. And if your audience is Gen C, you might want to post more often, too. You might also ask your audience what they would like.

How Big is Your Audience?

How big is your audience?

If you have a larger audience, you may need to post (and engage) more often. Since social media is social, if you are asked questions, people will be looking for answers and responses from you. So for instance, if you only have 30 followers on Twitter, you will have fewer conversations than if you have 300 or 3,000. On Facebook, you might only post once, but interact multiple times throughout the day. Consider how often you’ll check in and put that in your social media strategy.

What is Your Brand Promise?

If you’re big on customer service, you may want to check in and post more often. Bigger brands often have an entire team of people who make posts. Consider that your needs may change as your audience grows.

Do You Consider Yourself Someone Who Posts Too Little?

How often do you post and how do you think you compare to others? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Followers, frequency, overposter, Platform, posting, Social Media, underposter

Pinterest: Five Ways to Prettier Boards

June 20, 2013 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

Five Ways to Prettier Boards

If you’ve been on Pinterest for a little while, you might be interested in finding some ways to go beyond being a newbie. You’re pinning like crazy, but still only have a few followers, and plus, you just feel like the entire experience could be, well, better. Here are some ideas that have worked for me. My main rule is I want my boards to be beautiful–because Pinterest is a visual medium! Engagement on Pinterest is another issue, for another day.

Pick a Color

Occasionally, I like to change the board covers on my Pinterest account. So I’ll pick a color (right now it’s red). I’ll go through each board and try to pick a cover with some red in it to give the entire account a unified color theme. If there isn’t a red pin on a particular board, I’ll search for one, and then make it the board cover.

Use Seasonal Colors

Sometimes, using seasonal colors can be fun. For example, in the spring, I’ll choose more pastels and neutral colors (think Easter egg colors). In the fall, I’ll pick fall colors, such as deep burnt oranges, mahogany, and copper. Think about the leaves as they change colors. In the winter, snowy whites are perfect, and for summer, greens and blues–the colors of the ocean and pools and summer vacation!

Use Black and White

Sometimes I like to have no color at all. That is, board covers that are all black and white. Or they might be mostly white. You could make all of your boards one color to emphasize one spot on one board. Or you could choose all black boards except for the one board you want to emphasize. Have some fun with it!

Black and White and a Spot of Color

Pick a theme to unify your Pinterest boards

Another, similar theme to not picking a color, is to have all black and white covers with just a tiny dot of color. This highlights a tiny spot on each cover, and can be quite stunning.

Pick a Theme

Is there something that you can choose that’s a visual theme, other than color? One example is to go for an uncluttered look. Choose a word, such as “serenity,” for example. Could you find pictures that embodies the Serenity theme across all your boards? This kind of theme would work really well for a business such as a yoga studio or a spa. Is there a word that describes your business?

Do Any of These Ideas Appeal to You?

If you’ve tried any other ideas, I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beautiful, boards, Pinterest, pretty, visual

LinkedIn: Profile Still Under Construction?

June 18, 2013 By Carol Stephen 5 Comments

Is Your LinkedIn Profile Under Construction?

With over 200 million users and a 10-year history, LinkedIn is like the sleeping giant of the social media world. People tend to forget about it and not spend very much time there. LinkedIn is not as fast moving as Twitter, artsy like Instagram, or visually beautiful like Pinterest. So we tend to ignore it, like a shy guest at a party. However, if you spend a little time on LinkedIn, you will be rewarded.

Search for Similar Businesses

LinkedIn is a mini-Google

Pretend you’re someone else for a minute. Say, a hiring manager or executive recruiter looking for someone just like you. What would you search for? Take a look at the top searches. What do those people or businesses have in their profile that might be missing in yours? Just like Google, you want your LinkedIn profile to come up at the top of the search results when someone searches for you.

Upload a Photo

Having a good quality photo will always improve your profile and make people want to connect with you. If I don’t see a photo, I am not likely to connect with a person, and certainly not with a business. People remember faces more than they remember names. Like all social media, not having a photo makes you look spammy.

Fill out Your Profile

Is your profile completely filled out? Have you added all your school information, all the places you have worked, and your employment history? Don’t forget your certifications, and any special training! Since all the information in your profile is searchable, add important keywords to help people find you. Make sure to use full sentences on LinkedIn, since each social media platform has its own language.

Give Recommendations

Like all forms of social media, being generous first works well. Which businesses would you recommend? Recommendations are gold, and businesses appreciate having recommendations more than you might realize. If you’re just getting started on LinkedIn, try giving a few recommendations. It’s a good way of being social on social media.

Make Connections

Ask people to connect with you on LinkedIn to increase your contacts. When you send an invitation, make sure to personalize it and give people a reason to connect with you. “We have similar business goals, are in the same city, and share the same demographic” would make me want to connect more with someone than “I want to connect with you.”

How Has LinkedIn Helped You?

Have you had success with LinkedIn? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Google, LinkedIn, Social Media

Pinterest: Five Newbie Mistakes You’re Making

June 13, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

Pinterest: Five Newbie Mistakes You’re Making

Since Pinterest showed up on the social media scene, people have been flocking to it like ducks to water, or maybe like addicts to a new video game. People who weren’t that visual became more visual, and those who didn’t know they were visual, are suddenly spending hours on this visual site. So what are a few things to avoid and what should you be doing to have fun for yourself or your brand on Pinterest? Here are some simple fixes to common errors.

Keeping Default Boards

Fix: decide on the boards you really want. Say you are a small business selling hand knitted leg warmers and other trendy items for chihuahuas. You might want to create boards such as Tiny Dogs, SPCA, Local Doggy Events, and of course a board for your own homemade doggy outfits. You might also want to create boards for different types of outfits, such as hats, vests, paw warmers, etc. Keep in mind that you can change the names of boards later if you like. To change the board name, click on the board, go to “Edit Board” –>Title (don’t forget to save your changes!).

Ugly Board Covers

Fix: Make Each Board Beautiful! To entice people to see the contents of a board, pin the most visually beautiful cover you can. To change a board cover, simply hover with your mouse over the board. Click on “Edit Board Cover” to choose a photo. You can position the photo if you like, at this point. Then click “Set Cover.”

Following Nobody

Choose the Best Covers for Your Boards

Fix: Follow people you already know or whose pins you enjoy. Although unfollowing people who don’t follow you isn’t easy, you can unfollow people later. Note: like other forms of social media, there is spam out there! So beware of people who have 40 boards with just one photo on each board, or who don’t appear to be real people, or who only sell things like wrist watches.

Not Commenting

Like other forms of social media, Pinterest is social. So “like,” repin, and especially comment on others’ pins! People will appreciate you, and they will be more likely to reciprocate!

Not Having Your Business Name in Your Profile

Fix: Along with your business name and logo, you might want to include a few things about you. A photo of you or a logo also legitimizes your account. People want to know a little about you! To make changes, click “Edit Profile.” You can use the First Name line for your business name. Don’t forget to click “Save Profile” when you’re done. Note: Pinterest has recently partnered with brands to add information to pins, which is very useful for brands.

Not Pinning on Sundays

Fix: Take Saturday off and pin on Sundays! Sundays are the busiest days on Pinterest. So even just pinning a few pins will really help you with traffic and getting more eyes on your content.

What Have You Learned About Pinterest?

Have you changed your strategy along the way with Pinterest? What has helped you the most? Please leave a comment below! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beautiful, board, boards, Business, Default, Followers, Following, Mistakes, newbie, pin, pinners, Pinterest, Sunday

What’s the Future of Business: Generation C

June 11, 2013 By Carol Stephen 13 Comments

Brian Solis and Friends at Yammer

Recently, I had the privilege of hearing Brian Solis speak in person at Yammer in San Francisco. You’ve probably been hearing about Brian’s’ new book What’s the Future of Business because when Brian speaks, social media people listen. At this event, not only did Brian give his time freely, he also gave away stacks of his new books (in hardback, no less), stuck around for his fans, answered questions and signed autographs. So while the content of the book is innovative and exciting, the context and the giveaway are what really surprised me.

Social Media “Gurus”

Being in and around social media myself, every single day I get bombarded by people who call themselves gurus and leaders. Many of these self-proclaimed gurus spend little time actually engaging: instead, they broadcast! They don’t answer questions or engage with their followers. Instead (prepare to clutch your pearls!) some of them actually buy their followers. Brian doesn’t call himself a guru like a million others–he does the unexpected–by doing a massive giveaway. I’d say that’s inspiring! And also something that I’ll personally remember for a long time.

Generation C

Brian focuses not on Gen Y (the “Millennials”) but on Gen C, where “C” “represents a connected society based on interests and behavior. Gen C is not an age group–it is a way of life.” To Gen C, connection is everything. Which means, ultimately, that if you or your brand are not spending time connecting, then you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Shared Experiences

What’s the Future of Business

Clearly, Brian Solis is famous already and doesn’t need to share his expertise for free. So why did he give away his book? I think he did it to drive home his point: if businesses want to connect with Gen C, they will need to create memorable and non-traditional experiences for their customers.

Are You Creating Experiences?

What are you doing, as an entrepreneur or a brand, to create experiences that will appeal to Gen C? Are you using a combination of social networks and more traditional marketing to sell your products or services? Please leave a comment below!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Brian Solis, connection, Future of business, Gen C, Gen Y, generosity, gurus, Millennials, Social Media, WTF

Six Reasons Twitter Might Not Be for You

June 7, 2013 By Carol Stephen 9 Comments

Six Reasons Twitter Might Not Be for You

I’m a huge fan of Twitter. I mean, really huge fan. I’ve met many friends through Twitter, love Tweetchats, and get much of my news through Twitter. Despite my love of Twitter, I sometimes tell people that they don’t have to be on Twitter. When I do, I can see them visibly relax. “I don’t have to be on Twitter?” they ask. “Well, no. Why would you think you have to be?” “Oh, whew!” they usually say. “I’ve just been hearing so much about Twitter lately.” So if you’re one of those people who feels obligated, here are some reasons that Twitter might not be the right place for you.

Your Clients Aren’t on Twitter

Have you ever asked your clients what their favorite social media platform is? How about starting with a quick survey or phone call asking a few of them? Survey Monkey has free surveys, and you could do a random sampling of a few of your clients to see what platforms they use. If your potential clients are not on Twitter, why feel obligated?

You Can’t Speak Your Mind

Twitter May Not Be for You

If you’re in banking, or the medical field, you may need to be compliant on all social media and not just on Twitter. The banking and medical fields have been slower than other businesses to adopt social media, and that may be because major financial or banking corporations have not allowed their employees to use social media because of the extra workload for their compliance departments. That does not seem to be changing very quickly. If that’s the case, you may not want to fight that battle–at least not just yet.

TMA (Too Many Acronyms)

Twitter has its own specific language and acronyms. Tweets do not give you a lot of real estate to speak your mind. Tweets are usually a headline, maybe a link, and a hashtag. That’s it. So if you really dislike that form of communication, maybe the language of Facebook or LinkedIn would be better for you.

Twitter Won’t Get You Business

I hear this prejudice all the time from people who are not on Twitter. If you really believe this, then what are you doing on Twitter?

Twitter is Just People Talking about Food

What’s Stopping You from Tweeting?

Really? Again, usually people who have never been on Twitter say this. They’re the same people who said they’d never use a phone for texting and now can’t get in touch with their own kids unless they text those kids.

You Have Nothing to Say

If you really have nothing to say (and I seriously doubt that!), and dislike being social, then Twitter might not be right for you.

What’s Stopping You?

Is there some other reason you don’t want to tweet? Leave me a comment, below! You don’t have to tweet about it, promise!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: acronyms, Clients, Social Media, Survey Monkey, Twetchats, Twitter

WordCamp OC 2013: 10 Awesome Things

June 4, 2013 By Carol Stephen 11 Comments

WordCamp Orange County 2013

This past weekend, June 1 and 2, I attended WordCamp Orange County (my first WordCamp ever!). There were many sessions, ranging from Lucy Beers’ WordPress 101 to Devin Walker’s Website Optimization for Speed. Here are a few things that I learned.

Surround Yourself with Smart People

If you’re at Wordcamp, you’re already surrounded by smart people. WordCamp felt like being back at Berkeley, where people were interrupting each other’s interruptions because everyone shared the same curiosity and joy of learning. If you’re an entrepreneur spending hours and days working alone, getting out and soaking up some new ideas and fresh ways of looking at the world can reinvigorate you.

Say Hello

When you say hello to people, they say hello back! You might laugh at the obviousness of that, but really: People are so friendly, open, and generous with their ideas. Often all you need to do is say hello.

Work on Five Blogposts at the Same Time

Who’s the chick with Syed Balkhi?

During @syedbalkhi‘s talk on Time Management, he discussed focus and how no one can really multitask. What Syed does is start five posts at once, then if he gets a little writer’s block, he switches from one to another. Now that’s something to implement immediately. This is such an elegant and simple idea! By the way, Syed’s Beginner’s Guide to WordPress is jam-packed with ideas! As well as being technically awesome.

Have Deeper Conversations

Many times, between or after sessions is when the real learning occurs. That person you just met will give you a fabulous tip if you do a little homework (for example: read their blog before asking them a question about a particular blogpost they just wrote!). If you buy someone a drink or, better still, lunch, be prepared to hear more of the truth than you would during a session. This, paraphrased from Chris Lema.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!

Don’t try to do everything yourself. Hire someone to do your accounting, or the chores that you might not enjoy doing. That includes everything from designing a logo to building a website to creating content.

Learn to Say No!

Do not meet that vampire at the coffee shop! (A vampire is someone who pretends to want to hire you, but then says they’re broke, and just wants free advice.) Do not pick up the phone while you’re blogging. And learn to say no to yourself, most of all. Do not let yourself get distracted and don’t head down the rabbithole with a “great idea” and end up buying 10 new domain names which three days later you’ll regret. Not that I’ve ever done that (today). Sayed Balkhi drew laughter and a lot of head nodding when he discussed the idea of buying domain names and meeting the broke customer at the coffee shop.

Focus on Your Strengths

Me, Peter Woolvett, and Bridget Willard

My friend Peter Woolvett of CustomerSpecs always says “mind your strengths,” and we heard it over and over at WordCamp. Don’t try to develop your weaknesses. Rather, do whatever it is that you’re good at.

Spend Time on That Great Idea

If you know something is important, spend the damn time on it. Use the time management matrix to determine whether it’s important and not urgent, and then eliminate distractions and do it.

Don’t Rely on Your Memory

How many times have you had a great idea and then promptly forgotten it? Use Evernote or a white board or a notebook, but get it down in writing!

Wake Up Early

Come on! You’re not really a night owl. Get up early when you’re your most productive and do your work. Then go out and “canoe with alligators”–Sayed’s phrase. Or whatever you like to do for fun–like meet that broke customer for lunch. Just kidding.

Be Accountable

We all perform better when we’re being watched. If you can’t afford a coach, try Timedoctor, which monitors your activities. You can’t improve if you don’t know where you’re starting from.

Your Favorite Part of WordCamp Orange County?

Maple-Bacon Donut Dispenser AKA Sidecar

Was it the maple-bacon donuts? Learning about WordPress Mobile? The after party at Durty Nelly’s? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Blogpost, Orange County, Time, time management, WordCamp, Wordpress