Why write about some completely unsolicited financial advice? I was just reading friend Mitch Mitchell’s blog post 20 Personal Finance Ideas. And, although it’s off-topic from the usual topics that I write about (ROI, social media, and some blah blah blah), I thought I’d give everyone my two cents. Actually, that’s more like 25 cents now because of inflation and the Pandemic. That’s a joke. But seriously, people don’t talk about money very often. And they should! So here are some simple ideas that have helped me. By the way, I’m not a financial expert, and a lot of this stuff is advice that your friends, parents, or grandparents might tell you.

Save as much as possible

When I was just starting out as a lowly tech writer about one million years ago, a friend of mine told me to “max out my 401K.” For me that was usually 18% or 20%, which went right into the company 401K. Of course, you need to have enough to live on, so paying the rent and buying food have to be your first priorities. But in general, that advice is something I’ve lived by. If you can do this, you’ll be happy you did later when you need it. Start by getting that proverbial three months of living expenses in the bank. Work your way up to six months of living expenses, and so on.

Take classes or read

If you’re lucky, your company will offer classes or workshops on investing and finances. Take every class you can. Read all you can. Figure out how you learn (for me, learning in person is best), and do that. Some people need one on one instruction. Others like video. I’m an in-person person. So workshops or mentors have been best for me. To find out what kind of learning style you have, you could try a class. But I’ll bet you already know.

Completely Unsolicited Financial Advice| Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay

Hang out with smart people

One of my friends had a goal to make $50,000 in the stock market besides what he was making at his job. That was fascinating to watch and to learn about. He reached that goal fairly quickly and became very well off at a young age. Most people will give you advice if you ask. And it costs nothing to ask. The point is to hang out with smart people. And you might not know who they are, because often they won’t tell you! So watch and listen carefully.

Ready for more unsolicited financial advice? Learn to budget!

All you need to budget is a spreadsheet. You can use Excel or a Google sheet, and you’re set. At least once, you need to see where your money is going. Is most of it going to groceries? Fuel? Rent? Where can you cut those expenses? Most of the people I know (who are struggling) have never created a budget. It might sound boring to live within your means, but it’s a basic survival skill.

Cook your own food

Learn to make a few dishes. Now that there’s YouTube, you can learn just about anything. Unless you make enough money to either buy ready-made meals or go out to eat all the time, you’ll be happy to be able to cook. Yes, sandwiches count. And also–guess what? Cooking is one of the easiest ways to save money (there’s that budget word again). Seriously, look at your budget and see where you can cut back. Cooking at home is one of the best ways.

Get a financial advisor

You might think you can manage your own portfolio, but can you really? I thought I could, but I was wrong! It’s not something I want to check every day–I’d rather be doing something else. So ask friends who their financial advisor is. Interview a few. Do they talk to you in a way that you understand? Do they offer education? Those are both important.

You’re welcome!

I’m kinda joking, but did I miss anything? Let me know!

What is the True ROI of Social Media?

Have you ever considered what the true Return on Investment (ROI) of social media is? Is it worth having and using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms? Or is it time that you’d be better off spending on direct sales, such as cold calls? Stay with me while I explore this topic just a bit.

ROI of social media defined

You may be wondering if it’s possible to figure out what the true ROI of social media is. It’s not always straightforward. If measuring your ROI feels like a guessing game, that’s because it is! In fact, Sprout Social in their article How to Define an Actionable Social Media ROI for Your Business says this: “Besides, not everything you do on social media translates directly into dollars and cents.” In my over ten years using social media, I’d have to agree. Sprout Social, like many others talks about brand awareness, not following the money.

What is the True ROI of Social Media? | Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay

It’s about brand awareness

You can’t always prove that a customer found you because of social media. You can ask them if and when you make a sale, but that’s not always feasible. If you put money into your game, it’s more likely. But bear with me here. It’s more that customers know you exist. Social media is one stepping stone to someone becoming a customer, or knowing someone else who might like your services. And these days with social media, it’s mostly a pay-to-play game, especially if your product is a little odd or not your usual run-of-the-mill service. By the way, I’ve talked about brand awareness and social media before. You might like Social Media Isn’t Actually about Sales.

How many touches before a sale?

This is a question we social media managers get asked all the time. Unfortunately, the answer is: it depends. If you’re selling pencils, maybe it takes one touch. But if you’re selling diamond-crusted pens, that could mean eleven touches! Or twenty! Think about how you make a buying decision. You don’t just buy the first car where the dealer offers you a free pineapple, do you? Well, maybe if it’s a really really juicy pineapple. Just kidding.

Use Bit.ly to point to your Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/CSAuthor

So how do you measure the ROI of social media?

You can measure things other than sales numbers, such as when people go to your website or when they want to buy your goods. For a restaurant, that could mean someone using a delivery service to order food or checking your menu. For these measurements, I like to use bit.ly, but there are other ways to create clickable links as well. I’m not an affiliate, by the way, just a fan. If you create a shortened link, you can also customize it. For instance, on my Twitter bio, I have a shortened and customized link to my Amazon Author Page, where I sell my books. You could do the same thing. Occasionally, you can log into Bit.ly and see how many people clicked on that link.

Using formulas to calculate social media efforts

You could also use a formula to discover whether your efforts on social media are paying off. In this article How to Measure Social Media ROI, emplify uses the following formula, which they call the most basic social media ROI formula:

Profit / Investment x 100 = social media ROI %

So you can use this to discover whether your paid ads are paying off immediately. However, as they mention in the article, you can use other methods such as newsletter signups, follower counts after a paid ad campaign, etc. Only you can decide what’s important to your brand.

Benchmarking is important

Benchmarking might seem like an incredibly difficult thing to do, but don’t let it put you off. It’s simply a way of measuring what’s important to you. To benchmark, ask yourself which stats are important to you or your brand. Is it engagement? Don’t forget that follower count is most often considered a vanity metric. Some of the larger accounts with huge numbers of followers have no engagement! And that’s just silly. It’s much better to focus on things like engagement. Here’s an article about engagement you might like: For Better Social Media Results, Focus on Engagement.

Engagement and visibility go hand in hand

For any brand, getting out there on social media is no longer optional. In my opinion, everyone needs to be there. Your potential clients are looking for you and your services, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, or Yelp. It’s important to make the effort.

Are you supporting your friends on social media? Nearly everyone has been suffering lately, it seems. Or maybe it’s just that that old saw “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is at play. Because of the economy and the Pandemic, many have lost their livelihoods. Some have lost their transportation, housing, or loved ones. So it’s more important than ever to be kind, and to have compassion toward others. It might sound corny, but helping others helps us, too. Here are some ways to support others–many of them don’t cost a cent, and are easy, too. By the way, I’ve written about friendships before, and you might like to read about that: Why Friendships are Absolutely the Best ROI of Social Media.

Give them shoutouts

A shoutout doesn’t cost you anything, except your time. Who do you know whose business could use a little boost? You could talk about that friend on social media, tell others about their products in a Yelp or Google review, or just give them a digital high five. How easy is that? Super easy! Another thing you can do with shoutouts is give those friends some backlinks! So not only tell everyone about your friend Randy Clark, but include a link to his book, How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever on Amazon! (Yes, I’ve read it and refer to it often.) If you’ve read a friend’s book, give them a review on Amazon, too.

Support Your Friends While Supporting Yourself! | Image by Zigmars Berzins from Pixabay

Support your friends by buying their products and services

You might not need what your friends are selling yourself, but maybe you do need a gift for an upcoming birthday, wedding, or party. Why not buy something to give away? That helps you, your friend, and the person who receives the gift, too! Why not send someone a wonderful cutting board from Sandy at Creative WoodWorking of Windsor? You could buy some hand-painted cards from Maricar Jagger and give them away. As far as services, maybe you need some help with your website. You could hire someone like Justine Pretorious and then tell others about her.

Introduce them to others

This is my favorite way to support others. Do you have friends with the same interests and do they not know each other? For instance, friends Terri Nakamura and Stacy Garcia both have an interest in unusual architecture, so introducing them was easy. Others might make good podcast guests, so an intro to Inci and Rod Jones of Thought Row Podcast would be in order. Or if you know someone in the trades who needs help with their social media, how about an intro to friend Bridget Willard? She can provide training or you can do it yourself!

Lovely cutting boards from Creative Woodworking of Vermont

How do you help your friends?

Give me your ideas, friends! I’m all ears (it’s an ugly sight! lol). Seriously, let me know how you help your friends.

Here are ten items under $100 that I couldn’t live without. I’ve discussed online productivity before, and time management, too. Productivity and time management are intertwined, so it’s impossible to discuss one without the other. Here are some items that have helped me, and by the way, none of these are affiliate links. They’re just good tools. If you haven’t read this article about time management, you might like it: In a hurry? Time Management for the Busy Professional!

NokoTime

NokoTime is a great way to keep track of your time on social media, blogging, or anything else that requires you to know how much time you spend. I like putting the timer off to one side because often I promise myself I can quit doing an activity after 15 minutes of activity. At $19/month, it does quite a lot, including reports and invoices.

Google Drive

Google Drive is the best and easiest way to share files, photos, collaborate, etc. It’s easy and free (that counts as being under $100, right?). In case you didn’t know, Google Drive is a cloud-based storage solution that allows you to save files online and access them anywhere from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. My favorite way to use Google Drive is to collaborate with others.

Productivity: Ten Items under $100 That Make a Difference| Image Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

Schedulers

Once upon a time, I would’ve said Hootsuite was my favorite. But after they recently quintupled the price without any warning, I’d no longer recommend them. So if you have an alternative that you like, I’m all ears! I’ve heard good things about Buffer and Tweetdeck. Do you have a favorite?

A good notebook

Are you one of those people who needs to write things down in order to remember them? If you do, then you’ll appreciate a good notebook. I’ve tried probably hundreds of notebooks. The best ones are the ones I’ve used since high school, with ruled paper and plenty of space to write.

My favorite pen

At the moment, I’m enjoying a Pilot hi-tecpoint V5 grip pen. It’s super easy to write with, and makes my to-do list fun. I must say, though, that ever since that #DigiBlogChat where we talked about bullet journaling, I’ve been using Pentel Sparkle Pop pens, too.

Calendars

My giant at-a-glance calendar always comes in handy. So is the calendar on my iPhone.

3 x 5 cards

These are so easy to use and so useful! I write down goals for each account. It reminds me of high school chemistry, when our teacher told us we could have as many notes as would fit on a 3 x 5 card. The general idea is to have a few reminders of what your goals are.

Backups

I like having a backup on a separate hard drive, which I can grab in case anything goes wrong.

Social media apps

These are the social media apps you can get mostly for free from the app store! They live on my phone so I can check in whenever I want.

DashThis

Last but not least I’ve been using DashThis for reporting. You might like it, too. You can get it for as little as $33/month (less if you buy a yearly subscription.

What did I leave out?

Do you have any favorite helpers?

Do you need a guest blogger checklist? Recently, I wrote a post about how to avoid getting spammed by guest bloggers. You might want to take a look at it if you’re getting that kind of spam on your blog. The outcome of that post was that a few of us might need a guest blogger checklist! So here you go.

Who are you?

Check out the potential guest blogger’s credentials. Do a Google search on their name, company, and make sure their email matches up with what they say. You might want to talk on the phone with them, too, if possible. I receive a lot of requests where the email address looks spammy and there’s no real signature.

What topics do you want to write about?

If your topics don’t align with what your potential guest blogger wants to write about, that’s an immediate no in my book. But be creative and see if there’s a way. That’s if everything else about the writer looks legit!

Guest Blogger Checklist: Ten Things to Ask Your New Guest | Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

How many links do you need?

My formula is about two incoming and two outgoing links, maybe one more or less. That’s for a 500-word article. Not 50 links and certainly not 100 links! Also, I wouldn’t add links in silly places. One guest blogger wanted to put links in words like “the” and “an.” Um…no!

Where do you want the links to go?

If the links are spammy, that’s another immediate no. Links should go to legitimate websites, not to unrelated places that would simply anger your readers. Check all the links before publishing and make sure they’re adding value to your post.

Who provides the graphics?

Ensure that the graphics are really in the public domain or create or buy your own graphics for the article. A place like Pixabay has free graphics, but for a guest blog, you might want to go with Shutterstock or another subscription-based site. Also, you might want to take a screenshot (if you use a free graphic and store it somewhere safe in case the artist changes their mind about it being free. It happens all the time!).

Who writes the headline?

You don’t want a click-baity headline. I’ve written about headline writing before: What Happens When You Wtie 25 Headlines Before Choosing One? If your potential guest writes click bait, then they’re not for you. Sometimes I’ll write one for fun, but humor can be tricky.

How many drafts do you need?

I prefer two drafts myself, but maybe three if the subject matter is complicated and needs more research. Beware of anyone who doesn’t want to have their copy checked, researched, or edited. That’s a sign that you’re dealing with someone shady.

When can you write the article?

Is there a specific timeline? Does your guest blogger want fast turnaround? Do you? Spell it out–then tell your potential guest blogger!

How long will the writing take?

Will your potential guest need a week to review each draft? A day? Let the blogger know what to expect. And let them know what you expect, too. For me, the process could take a couple of weeks to review and send back and forth the drafts.

How long will the article be?

Do you have a minimum number of words that you like to publish on your blog? And is there a maximum number, too? Decide upon what you’d like the length of the article to be. Yoast recommends a minimum of 300 words for a blog post.

You have the final say

Remember: it’s your blog and your reputation on the line. Make sure the guest blogger knows that you have the right to change what appears on your blog! Did I leave anything out? Let me know!

Have you been considering restarting your social media? Everyone can have a lull in their creativity or ideas. Maybe you’ve had a death in the family or been feeling low. It’s to be expected, especially during Covid. If you’re thinking of restarting your social media, stick around. Here are a few ideas!

Decide where to start

Have all your accounts gone dormant? Why not start with whichever is the easiest one to restart? That might be LinkedIn for you, or it might be Facebook. Start wherever you think would be easiest. Then pick the second one and the third, and so on. If only one account has gone dormant, then you know where to start. You might also want to start at an slower time of the week (Friday, for instance) to ease back into the water. I’ve written about Fridays before here: Why Friday is the Worst Time to Publish a Blog Post.

Choose some topics

Maybe you’ll have five topics to write about. That could be one topic per day of the week. Say you’re beginning with Twitter and you have a brick-and-mortar women’s boutique. You sell dresses, skirts, pants, plus accessories. Maybe you’d do something like the following: Mondays = bright colors, Tuesdays = designers, Wednesdays = purses and wallets, Thursdays = throwbacks, Fridays = weekend sales. For other ideas on topics, check out 14 Talk-Worthy Social Media Topics. You can also look at what you competitors are doing and do something similar (just don’t copy them!).

How Restarting Your Social Media Can Revive Your Business| Image by 5688709 from Pixabay

Write four posts about each topic

If you do this, you’ll now have enough content for four weeks! Having some structure will help you decide what to post on your social media. It’s important to have some ideas before you really get started. I’ve written about writer’s block before, so this might help: What to do when writer’s block has got you down.

Too busy? Hire someone to do it for you!

If you do the above exercises, you will have some structure to show your newly hired gun. To find someone good, ask your friends in business who they use. And remember–they may not need to be local to you. It really depends upon your business. You might hire someone out of state or even out of the country! For instance, I’d hire my good friend (and have) Bridget Willard in a heartbeat. Read what she says about her Twitter Management Process.

Rinse and repeat to restart your social media

Measure your success rate with the content that you share. What kind of content does best? Try to repeat that success. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but you can do it! Remember that each social media platform has its own analytics, so they’ve made it easy for you. Just Google analytics to get started.

Have you ever received guest blog spam? Recently I was rereading Randy Clark’s book, How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever. In it, Randy explains how he gets many requests for guest blogs and he included one that was filled with terrible grammar. However, some requests are much tougher to discern as being possible spam.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed about these many guest blogging requests. Mostly, you can ignore these blogging requests.

They’re unsolicited.

If someone reaches out to you and you’ve never heard of them before, that’s a big clue that you’re dealing with spam. Read carefully if they say you’re the greatest, best, etc. Sometimes there may be a link to one of your blog posts, but often there isn’t. I’ve talked about spam before: Worst Social Media Practices (and how to avoid them)

There are no signature lines.

At the bottom of the email, where there should be a signature line, there’s no phone number, no website, no nothing. Who reaches out to someone with a business request and has no signature line? Spammers, that’s who!

Requests are filled with mistakes.

Does the request read like it was written by a third-grade student on a bad day? That’s another red flag. Do you want someone who doesn’t even edit their own work messing around with your website? NO!!! By the way, if you’ve never used an editor before, you might want to consider one yourself, at least for your important and/or lengthy articles. How a Good Editor Makes Your Writing Shine.

How to Avoid Guest Blog Spam Requests| Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Vet every request thoroughly.

As Randy says in his book, “Don’t let ego get in the way of common sense. It’s nice to be wanted, and some of these requests look impressive. Don’t bite without a complete search of the author and all links he or she represents.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

Check out any links the guest blogger wants to include.

I generally only have 4-6 links in a blog post maximum. Recently a guest blogger wanted to included upwards of 30 links in a short blog post (under 500 words). You might want to decide how many you want. If someone is creating many many links, that’s a clue. And check where those links are going.

Create a checklist for future guest bloggers.

If you really want to include guest bloggers as part of your strategy, make a list of what those guest bloggers need to do. What is the minimum and maximum word count? How many links in and out? Who provides the images and how many? And don’t forget which topics you’d like your guest blogger to write about. If you have an audience of technophobes, then having a guest blogger write about a technical subject isn’t going to appeal to your audience. What else do you have on your checklist? Leave me a comment!

Why you need to use empathy in your marketing

Recently, I was on Bridget Willard’s podcast, Launch with Words. If you haven’t checked it out, you definitely should because Bridget is awesome! And my friends know that I don’t use the awesome word lightly. Honestly, Bridget is one of the hardest working marketers around and you should get to know her. Here’s the full podcast: Empathy is More Important Than Ever with Carol Stephen. And I want to go into a little more detail about why your marketing should encompass empathy.

Marketing and social media have changed

I’ve talked about this before: gone are the days when you can post a picture of an old lemon and have a hundred people like it. Now your competition is tougher, even if you jump to the newest social media platform. You’re going to have thousands of people posting about lemons, lemonade, recipes for lemon cake, and so on. You have to differentiate yourself, and in many cases, you need to pay. Even a small budget will help get more eyes on your posts.

Engagement counts

If you just post and go or constantly broadcast without any interaction, people will lose interest. That is, unless you’re a big fancy news outlet with millions of subscribers. But for a small or medium-sized business, you need to interact. In order to interact, your business needs to have a unique voice. So it’s a good idea to decide ahead of time what you’ll say, what you won’t say, and what kind of personality or voice you’ll have on social media. For more about engagement, you might like this: You Don’t Need Fairy Dust to Improve Your Social Media Engagement.

More empathy, less snark

Right now, people are hurting. Many are hurting a lot. Think about all we’ve been through recently. Climate change, the Pandemic, and now World War Three (at least many are calling it that). We’ve lost friends and family and haven’t been able to travel. Some of us couldn’t even visit our sick relatives in the hospital. Kids, in particular, are having a tough time with being on Zoom calls and not being able to see their friends. It’s a lot to handle right now. So erring on the side of empathy in your marketing is an especially good idea. Which reminds me of a recent article I read about the Culture of Caring and retaining talent. “Creating a culture of caring really starts also with the leadership team,” said Laura Brusca, senior vice president of corporate communications for Forbes. Leaders must show that they care, not just saying the words. That can be as simple as checking in with employees and making sure they’re taking vacation days.”

We’re tired

All of us are more than a little tired. But as marketers, we still need to be able to see things through our customers’ eyes. They’re tired, too, and engaging with them on an emotional level is a good idea. Sometimes just listening is a good idea. A lot of people could use a high five, a hug, or a big pile of cookies.

When social media breaks down, it’s back to basics!

We’ve all had those days when something doesn’t work, technologically speaking. Zooms don’t zoom, WiFi breaks down, or Facebook won’t let you post what you want. And in those moments, you might have to get back to basics with how you market yourself or your business. So what would you do if forced to market without social media? Here are some ideas.

Call people on the (gulp!) telephone

Now that our phones do everything except bake bread, we don’t use them for their original purpose anymore. We store thousands of photos, use it for complex math problems, or play games on it. But calling people? Nah! Who does that any more? But listen: if you really want to get the word out about your event, business, or new website, why not call people? So few people do this any more, that it just might work! I wrote about this a couple of years back: Yes-why not call your friends on the telephone? It’s fun to scare people with a phone call, after all! And I’m guessing the first thing they’re going to say? “What’s wrong?”

Send a postcard or letter

Another old-school technique that could work if nothing else does! If you remember how to use a pen, and you still have some cards or paper around, you could actually write a letter. Or, if you want to be funny, you could sketch some emojis and send that instead! Seriously, though, sometimes a letter or postcard campaign could be the way to go if no one else is doing it.

Use door hangers or flyers

Do you remember these relics of days gone by? Hotels still use door hangers so you can tell the cleaning staff whether you want your sheets changed or not. But you could use door hangers, especially if you have a brick-and-mortar business that’s looking for locals. I’ve heard they work well for car repair shops, in particular. Flyers are another one that people might not have seen for a while. If you don’t understand what flyers or door hangers are, maybe call your local museum. Or your local boomer friend.

Word of mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is probably the best kind there is. And although the word of mouth might be facilitated by social media, it’s often just one neighbor telling another about a service that they like. It’s how I’ve found my CPA, plumber, and handyman, come to think of it. Nobody wants to try a service that’s untested by their friends and neighbors. Nobody wants to be that first penguin off the iceberg!

Go to their house!

No, no, no! I’m just kidding about this one. If you do this, you’ll probably get arrested for being a stalker. But one thing’s for sure, when social media breaks down, you need to get back to basics and use your creativity! Whether that’s getting outside or calling people is up to you.

Email marketing

Believe it or not, email marketing continues to be very popular. People will follow and read newsletters from those they know, like, and trust. Here are 11 Ways to Promote Your Product Without Using Social Media (and they list email marketing as one way to promote your product).