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#DigiBlogChat November 15, 2022 Topic: SEO with PamAnnMarketing

November 11, 2022 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3683757">Gerd Altmann</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3683757">Pixabay</a>

#DigiBlogChat November 15, 2022 Topic: SEO with PamAnnMarketing | Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The topic for Tuesday, November 15, 2022 is SEO and Analytics with PamAnnMarketing! Join us on Twitter each Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. PDT for #DigiBlogChat. My partner for these chats is @LazBlazter. If you need to know how to participate, click here: How to Join #DigiBlogChat. P.S. Don’t forget to add the #digiblogchat hashtag!

Here are the questions:

What is your personal definition of SEO?
Why should business owners and marketers focus on SEO?
Why is SEO so complex?
How do you create an organized SEO strategy when there are so many different SEO factors?
How long does it take for SEO to start working?
What does analytics have to do with SEO?
What’s all this “GA4” nonsense about? Do I really have to deal with this now?
Can I import my old Google Analytics data into the new Google Analytics?
Will I be able to log into my old Google Analytics account after the transition?
How long does Google Analytics 4 store data for?

Filed Under: Digiblogchat questions Tagged With: analytics, DigiBlogChat, Google, SEO

How to Engage on Social Media: the Complete Guide

December 1, 2016 By Carol Stephen 7 Comments

How to Engage on Social Media: the Complete Guide

Recently, I co-taught a class with Alyson Harrold of the Spectrum Group at University of California, Berkeley Extension. What surprised me was that so many of the students said they didn’t know how to engage. Hence, this series on how to engage online.

What is Engagement?

As the folks from Sprout Social outline, it’s smart to break engagement down into several tangible steps. You could call them baby steps. What you want is a channel where you can talk to potential customers and they can communicate with you. By the way, here’s an article about Tweeting for Engagement: Links Versus Text that’s an easy way to share and engage on Twitter.

Why Should Your Business Care?

Engagement is the gold standard of social media. It’s how you get closer to people making a purchase from you or doing business with you. If your potential clients don’t know, like, and trust you, they won’t want to do business with you.

Audience

Each platform has a different audience. How do you engage them? They’re somewhat different. For instance, LinkedIn is the most formal of the social media platforms. LinkedIn is the land of full sentences, and no hashtags. Twitter, on the other hand, is filled with abbreviations and hashtags. Here’s my Twitter: Top Ten Terms and Power Tips to get you started.

Platforms

Each platform has a different culture, and needs different content. Here are some of the top platforms, which will be updated as I write each piece:

The Language, the Hashtags, and Particulars of Engagement

The language is different on each platform. There’s a continuum of formal to informal in language, which includes whether to use hashtags. There are other things to do and to avoid, as well. For instance, can you reshare your content? What is evergreen and what isn’t? You don’t want to share too little or too much and each platform has its own conventions.

Social Sharing

When is it a good idea? When is it not a good idea? Also, it’s a good idea to know how much you’ll share of your personal life on social media. There are things you may not want to share, such as details of your children’s lives. Religion and politics can be tricky, too. But if your brand is about religion and politics, that’s a different story!

Tagging

Should you always tag people? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. On Instagram, it’s a great idea. You can tag on Facebook and Twitter, too. But should you always tag? No! We all have that one friend who’s always tagging you because they think you collect salt and pepper shakers. After awhile, it can be annoying. Don’t be that guy! Or gal.

Connecting the Dots

Using analytics and common sense to see what’s working and what’s not is your best strategy with social media. Analytics don’t tell the whole story, but they can tell a lot. Sometimes analytics just proves a theory that you have.

What Else?

If there’s something else you’d like to see covered, let me know in the comments! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, audience, engage, Engagement, Language, Social Media, social media platforms, tagging

Should You Do Your Own Social Media? Absolutely Not!

August 4, 2016 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Should You Do Your Own Social Media? Absolutely Not!

Here’s something I hear all the darn time: “social media is easy! My [insert 12-year-old relative here] could do it for me! Yes, they could do it for you. Just as you could do it yourself! But do I fix my own plumbing? Nooooo! So should you do your own social media? Again: Noooo!

Analytics

In order to make the best decisions about when to post, what to post, and how often to post, you’ll need to look at your analytics. If you don’t know what that means, then you’ll need to study up on analytics. Here’s a post about Twitter analytics, for a start.

Choosing Your Platform

Do you know where your audience is? Do you know the average age of people on the different platforms? Do you know the best place for women to hang out online (hint: it starts with a “P” and ends with a “T!”

image centrism

Image-Centrism

I’m not sure that’s a real term, but you know what I’m saying. These days, you need a good image. Gone are the days when you could post an article without a good image to go along with it. There are some exceptions, of course. But not many.

Your Time

Recently, I started to use Noko, a great time management tool. How much is your time worth? Do you really want to use it to learn how to manage your time online, when there’s someone who’s already ironed out all the kinks of an online posting system?

frustration

Frustration

Will you know what to do when there’s an emergency online? Who will you talk to if something goes wrong? Wouldn’t you prefer to have someone else handle everything for you?

Do You Do Your Own Plumbing?

If I did my own plumbing, probably there’d be a lot of leaks. Also, a lot of extra pieces of pipe that went nowhere, spurting water. It would maybe look like the Winchester Mystery House, except I couldn’t charge money for people to come over and see it.

Research and content

Research and Content

How will you handle finding your own content for posting? Will you create original content every day? How much time will that take away from your other business? How will you know what to post?

Constant Changes

Today, Instagram introduced Instagram “stories.’ Recently, Facebook changed its newsfeed to focus more on friends and families. Will you be able to keep up with the rapidly changing social media scene? Will you want to?

Still Think You Want to Manage Your Own Social Media?

Many people think they don’t have the budget, or the means to hire someone. Possibly that’s true. And a few people do a good job themselves. But if you don’t do your own plumbing, why would you do your own social media? Tell me why in the comments! Thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, images, platforms, Social Media, time management

Pinterest: 10 Quick and Easy Tasks You Can Do Right Now

April 14, 2016 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

Pinterest: 10 Quick and Easy Tasks You Can Do Right Now

If you’re confused by Pinterest, there’s no need to be. You can start pinning for yourself or your business right away. For this post, I’ll skim over a few basics, and then get into some tasks you can do immediately. And I’ll make it as quick and easy as possible!

Set up a Business Account

If you haven’t set up a business account, go to Pinterest’s blog for the easy setup. Don’t forget to verify your business account, too. Skip this step if you’re on Pinterest for fun, of course.

Your Action: Set up your business account.

Create 5 Boards

Create Five Boards

Yes, you could create more, but start with five boards with five pins each. That’s quick and easy, right?

Your Action: Set up boards with simple names to reflect your business interests. For instance, if you sell windows, you could have boards about Glass, Architecture, Shades, Window Boxes, and Trim.

Make ‘Em Pretty!

Make ‘Em Pretty

Your board covers need to be pretty! Guys, that includes you, too!

Your Action: Choose the best of the five pins and make that your board cover. Here’s a post that includes how to create better board covers, by the way.

Pin Descriptions

Of the pins that you pinned, are they filled with keyword-rich words?

Your Action: Put yourself in the shoes of someone searching on Pinterest. Would they find your pin?

Pin At Good Times

If you’re only pinning in the middle of the night, you’re going to get middle-of-the-night results!

Your Action: If you only have a few minutes, pin at 6 pm. That’s when most people are on Pinterest.

Find Your Analytics

Click the little gear at the upper right of your Pinterest account.

Your Action: Spend 10 minutes getting cozy with your Pinterest analytics.

On the first page of your analytics, you’ll see the above screen, or something like it.

Check Your Own Website’s Impressions

Pinterest By the Numbers

In the screenshot above (Find Your Analytics), you can see some of the ups and downs of the numbers. If you hover over what interests you, you can see more details. Here I’m interested in activity from my website. Check the impressions from your own website. Go to the top right (third panel, above) and click More. You will see impressions from the past week, by default.

Your Action: Check the impressions for a pin that got repinned and see what you did right! What was the subject of the pin? (To check when a pin was pinned, simply click on the pin and you should see how long ago it was pinned to the top right.)

It’s All in the Details

Check the details. I’m interested in the spike shown on April 10, above.

Your Action: Choose a pin and check the details. See the impressions, clicks, repins, and likes. Below the Top Ten Impressions, there’s a list of places where your pins got repinned. Skim over it–don’t spend a lot of time.

Follow One Pin with the Highest Impressions

Here’s where it gets interesting. One repin onto a board with very high traffic caused all of the 4565 impressions, above. Pretty neat!

Your Action: See where your highest pinned pins got those impressions. Above, you can see that one repin caused a number of clicks. Is that something that you could replicate?

Be a Tortoise Not a Hare

Pin steadily. Don’t worry too much about daily fluctuations in analytics.

Your Action: Commit to pinning five minutes per day. If that’s too much, maybe five minutes three times a week.

Bonus!

Bonus Tip

Once you’re a regular pinner, you may want to do more.

Your Action: Create one board of your highest ranked pins. Use your analytics to find, say, your pins that got more than three pins. Or five pins.

What Would You Recommend?

What quick and easy tips have helped you? Let me know in the comments! Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, boards, pinning, pins, Pinterest, Pinterest for business, quick and easy

How to: Business Analytics Tricks You Need to Know For Twitter

March 3, 2016 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

How to: Business Analytics Tricks You Need to Know For Twitter

Recently I’ve been using analytics for Twitter more and thought I’d share some of what I’ve been learning. Here’s a look behind the curtain at some of my favorite stats. These might strike you as a little nerdy, but they’re really quite fun! First, take a look at your overview in Twitter. To check your own analytics, choose home, then click the pull-down menu and choose Analytics.

Twitter Analytics Overview for 28 Days

Twitter Analytics Overview

From your overview, you can see at a glance whether the account is moving up, down, or flat. From my 28-day summary, you can see that Tweets, impressions, followers, and tweets linked to me are all up. Areas for improvement: Profile visits and mentions.

Monthly Summary

Another quick overview is the monthly summary. Above is mine from February of 2016. Tweet impressions are one item I like tracking. Don’t be fooled into thinking that vanity metrics, such as new followers, are important. As Eric Ries says, Vanity Metrics Are Dangerous (yes, it’s from 2009, but still holds true).

Top Ten Interests of a Twitter Audience

Audience Interests

You might be surprised to know what your audience is interested in. My top three are technology, entrepreneurship, and tech news. Of course, your audience is attracted to you by what you tweet. If you tweeted jokes and cartoons all day long, you’d see your followers’ top interest as comedy. The top interests (in particular the top three) can guide the content you provide.

Overall Impressions Show Heaviest Days

Overall Impressions

In the above bar graph, you can see day by day and week by week where my biggest impressions are. Because I have a Twitter chat on Tuesdays, those days get the most impressions. (More about measuring a Twitter chat, below, under Tweetreach.)

Impressions Can Tell You What to Share Again

Impressions

Here’s something that you can easily replicate. Take a look at the tweet with the highest impressions. Mine had 8 retweets and 8 favorites. There is something about your highest tweet that resonates with your audience. There are several ways to optimize this tweet (in this case a blog post).

Wait a few days, weeks, or even a month and share it again.
Change the headline and share it.
Use a different image and retweet it.
Share at different times of the day, still within business hours.
Pin it to the top of your Twitter feed.
Thank those who shared.
Ask for retweets!

Gender and Household Income

If you look at my analytics for gender and household income, you’d see that the majority make $175-250K+.

What does that tell me? Many of my followers could afford my services. I’ve taken over accounts before where the income has been much lower, although the product or service is an expensive one.

Country Analytics Can Help You Decide When to Tweet

Country

You can see from my analytics that most of my followers are in the United States. How does that help, though? It helps with when you time your tweets. I try to time mine between 9-5. If you’d like to know more about whether to schedule, how much to schedule, or how to balance, I talk about that in a previous post, Automation and Social Media: You Need to Know How to Balance.

Tweriod

For more detailed analytics, try out Tweriod. I know that my tweets early in the morning always get the most engagement. If you look at Tweriod, you can see when your followers are online.

TweepsMap World View

TweepsMap

Another way, besides Twitter’s own analytics, to see where your followers are is through an excellent and fun tool: Tweepsmap. Like the name suggests, you can get a map of your followers. So you can see which countries they’re in, or zero in on a state or city. Above is my worldmap.

State-by-State TweepsMap

Above is a screenshot of my state-by-state Tweepsmap. It’s interesting that Twitter analytics shows that 56% of my followers are U.S.-based and TweepsMap shows that 62% of my followers are in the U.S. At any rate, the majority are in the United States.

How does TweepsMap Help Me?

Suppose you are a purely local brick-and-mortar store. If you had above map, you might decide to focus more on gaining followers locally. Or, if you sell widgets overseas, maybe you don’t have enough followers in a particular country. So you can change your focus to attract more of the followers you’d like. Since the majority of my clients are in the U.S., this map is fine. That is, I wouldn’t change when I tweet.

Measure Your Hashtag or That of Your Twitter Chat with TweetReach

TweetReach

With Twitter, there are tools that can assist you in finding out how far a tweet or hashtag reached. For my chat, #DigiBlogChat, I use TweetReach, which gives you a snapshot report to show you potential reach, impressions and Tweet volumes. Login through Twitter.

Other Things to Measure

I like to measure influential followers, especially for local accounts. I track these over the course of a month in a spreadsheet or document. Also: a good one to track is conversations with people interested in your services. Sometimes those conversations take place in direct messages.

What One Thing Would You Measure?

If you could measure one thing, what would it be? Leave me a comment! Thank you.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, Business, how to, metrics, Startup, Startups, TweepsMap, Tweetreach, Twitter, vanity metrics, Visible Tweets

The Gamification of Social Media

September 24, 2015 By Carol Stephen 16 Comments

The Gamification of Social Media

Robert Nissenbaum (follow him on Twitter at @RNissenbaum) of Tactical Social Media recently wrote a post about fun being the ROI of social media, which made me think. We’re all intrigued by fun, but can it lead to more business? If you read the statistics on how many hours people spend playing games, with every subsequent generation spending more time and money, then you’d say it makes a lot of sense. For instance, Millennials spend 1.47 hours a day playing games, according to the Wall Street Journal. 1.47 hours!

Anything Can Be Gamified

Gamification is the practice of adding gamelike elements to reward behavior in a non-game setting. Think: getting points every time you brush your teeth.Or an award for doing the laundry. Or washing the car. I’d like a prize for doing the dishes! Also: can someone please make music come out of the soap dispenser? Please and thank you.

Foursquare

Foursquare is one of the first social media platforms that made social more fun. With its location-based checkins, badges, mayorships, and points, Foursquare gave users a way to measure excitement during outings. Foursquare’s explosive success has led to its morphing into a company that rewards its users in different ways now, without the intense competition that led to its early success. Still, the idea of play and social became intertwined with Foursquare.

Are Fun and Serious Work At War?

Fun and serious work can coexist peacefully. Playing games at work or playing games for work is possible when the purpose is to get work done. Many people experience a “flow experience” from playing music. And a game player achieves that same “flow” while playing a game. So why not play games at work? In fact, as Mario Herger explains “with new times there are new tools. And “Sales gamification platforms are one new set of tools that you can use.”

Could Gamification Work with Social Media?

Among your co-workers, how about running contests for the post with the biggest reach, or the most comments? You might consider giving away movie tickets, a night out, or a board game as a gift for the tweet or post that creates the most “likes” on a company account. Of course, the playing field would need to be level for each instance. You could also give away a prize for the best tweet during a tweetchat. Here’s a post about Twitter Chats: 101 tips for success.

Gamification Makes Us Smarter

Gabe Zichermann, in his excellent TED talk on gamification, explains how kids, given a game-based curriculum, improved in math and science from a third-grade level to a mid-fourth grade level. And the kids, when interviewed, say that “learning is fun.” He underlines that for Gen G (Millennials and those growing up on games), their primary form of entertainment is games or a game-like environment. And he recommends that we all get in the game so that we can understand kids. You might also like this article about how the San Francisco Giants can improve your game.

Gotta Go

So excuse me but I’ve got to get back to World of Warcraft! If it would be fun for you, leave me a comment. Thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, Big data, Facebook, Foursquare, games, gamification, Gen G, Millennials, Social, Social Media, Twitter, video games

Social Media: Ten Reasons to Automate

September 10, 2015 By Carol Stephen 8 Comments

Social Media: Ten Reasons Why You Should Automate

Many social media consultants feel that automation can hurt your brand. Whenever you mention the “A-word,” people fall on one side of the divide or the other. Hardly anyone is in the middle on this one. And yet, it’s something that can be done gracefully, and without looking like a robot. Of course, I’m not recommending total automation, but a hybrid approach.

Your Mental Health

Even if you’re not a social media consultant, if you must make every post manually, you will surely go insane. And since you’ve carefully been getting enough sleep, why risk your health now?

Time Management

Creating posts all at once, maybe a week at a time, is a better use of your time than doing them one at a time.

Maintain Consistency

If you have decided upon a certain number of posts per day, automation can help you reach that goal.

Time Zones

It’s simply not possible to be on all day long. Everyone needs some time off. And if your client is on the east coast while you are on the west coast, automation is the way to go.

Automation Can Make You Feel More in Control

Feel in Control

Social media can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’re trying to run your startup at the same time. Automation can help you get your life back. By the way, here’s a post about how to blog for your startup, in case you missed it.

Post When Fans Are Online

If you’re up at 2 a.m., you might not want to send out that tweet if your audience isn’t there. Schedule that tweet and go back to bed!

Use a Scheduler

Analytics

When you see a post that you like, use a scheduler such as HootSuite to auto-schedule the retweet for an optimum time. For most of us, that is 9-5. You can use a program like Tweriod to see when your followers are online.

Vacation

Sooner or later you need a few days off. Schedule some stuff, but make sure to have someone check in for you if you do.

Posting Frequency

As more and more people get online, the marketplace is more competitive. It’s possible to post more frequently using automation (as long as the quality still remains high).

Stay Top of Mind

If you’re the most brilliant person in the world, but you don’t show up? No one will remember you.

Scale Your Social Media

With automation, you’ll be able to grow your followers more easily.

A Hybrid Approach

After six years of trying different approaches, I’ve come up with an effective hybrid approach. It’s partly automated (from blog posts), and partly live participation, which includes posting others’ articles and engagement. The hybrid approach has gotten me the most followers and, more importantly, the best relationships. And everyone knows that Relationships are the ROI of social media, as my friend Bridget Willard says.

Where Do You Stand?

Do you automate a little bit? A lot? What tools have helped you? Leave me a comment!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, automation, Engagement, Social Media, Startups, time management, Twitter

WordCamp Orange County 2015: Why Go?

June 11, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

WordCamp Orange County 2015: Why Go?

There are so many wordcamps around the world–there are many in the United States, Europe and Asia. So why should you attend the one in Orange County (WCOC)? If you’re anywhere nearby, I highly recommend this Wordcamp. And if you’d like to read recaps from Orange County WordCamp 2013 or 2014, please do.

Everything WordPress

If you’ve been writing your own blog for awhile, or if you’re thinking about starting a blog, you can get plenty of friendly advice here. From hosting to plugins, to how to use a content calendar, you can find it here, or you can find someone to ask.

Everything WordPress

Friendly Volunteers

At WCOC, there’s a non-competitive vibe that prevails, with people willing to offer you their time and opinion on just about everything. The entire camp is run by volunteers, too, so if you’d like to give back to the community, there are many ways to do so. From helping people park to signing in the participants, there’s a job for everyone.

A Huge Bargain

At $40, WCOC is the best bargain you’ll get for any conference, hands down. That $40 includes two lunches, all the sessions, a t-shirt, mug, and tons of bling.

The Wordcamp Bandana doubles as a blanket

The Bling

Yes, we’re not supposed to be all about the bling. But WCOC has such good designers that all the stickers and t-shirts and mugs every year are fab. It’s like a branded event at a million-dollar conference.

Wordcamp Swag

The Sessions

This year, the sessions were the best I’ve ever heard. From Sunday’s business conference to William Bay’s session on SEO, they were each packed with so much information, that there was no way to remember it all. Luckily, there are videos and slideshares!

Feet up at an abandoned sponsor booth. Shh. Don't tell. #wcoc pic.twitter.com/SRIgXYpODs

— Bridget Willard (@YouTooCanBeGuru) June 7, 2015

The Friends

Tweeting to my bestie Bridget Willard, I told her that Wordcamp is 1000 times better with friends. In classic introvert fashion, here are our shoes (above). And meeting lots of new friends (see below).

Thanks to all cool people we met at #WCOC, we had an amazing time here and we promise that will come back :) pic.twitter.com/mLxNNbb9LL

— SiteGround (@SiteGround) June 8, 2015

Crazy Inspiration

At every turn, WCOC is filled with inspiration. You might be in the hall waiting for the next session when you overhear someone talking about something you’ve had an issue with. Or out having fish tacos with your bestie when you realize what you have to do next on your blog. Picture below by By Mendel (@ifyouwillit).

WordCamp Inspiration

Controversy

Perhaps the most controversial session I attended was the one in which Jarrett Gucci outlined how to create a blogging calendar for 20 posts in 30 days. And no, it’s not like one of those feats where you work up to it and then slack off. It’s a lifestyle change. Yup.

SteveZehngut shared Shia LaBeouf’s video at the opening of the Business Workshop.

Call to Action

My call to action for you is to put Wordcamp Orange County on your calendar for next year. Just do it!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, bling, Orange County, SEO, WCOC, William Bay, WordCamp, Wordpress

Three Favorite Tools to Manage Twitter Chats

May 28, 2015 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Three Favorite Tools to Manage Twitter Chats

If you’ve been tweeting for awhile, you are already familiar with some of the more common tools out there. However, you may not know about which tools you can use to help you with Twitter Chats. Many people use the Twitter app on their smartphone to tweet, or manage their accounts with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. For a chat, it’s much easier if you use the desktop–there’s so much going on and so quickly.

You can use Tweetdeck/Hootsuite with specific columns for your chat’s hashtag and mentions, but specialized tools are much more helpful. What other tools are available to help you manage your chat and keep your sanity? Here are three of my favorites.

TweetChat is a Favorite Tool to Manage Twitter Chats

TweetChat

TweetChat is an interface that allows you to run and attend Twitter chats. Enter your hashtag to start, and login through your Twitter account. As moderator, your questions will be highlighted and more visible to others in the chat. You can slow down the stream, which is handy if you’re on a busy chat. TweetChat automagically adds the hashtag to your tweet, too.

TweetChat Automagically Adds the Hashtag to Your Tweets During a Chat

The screenshot above shows you the TweetChat interface during an actual chat (#DigiBlogChat is on Tuesdays at 1 pm Pacific time, run by myself and @LazBlazter). Note the green “Pause Stream” button–very handy sometimes! I also like the “active rooms” feature, where you can see which chats are active.

Twubs is a free and easy-to-use tool to help you manage your Twitter chat

Twubs

This free and easy-to-use tool helps you manage your Twitter chat. Simply enter your hashtag and sign in through Twitter. Like TweetChat, Twubs adds the hashtag for you, and lets you isolate tweets from the chat. There’s also a handy list of chats if you get on Twitter and feel like chatting (tweetchats are an excellent way to get high-quality followers), but don’t have a chat in mind.

On Twubs, people can join as contributors or members of a chat

Another nifty feature of Twubs is the ability to register your hashtag. Keep in mind, though, that no one “owns” a hashtag. And people can join as contributors or members if they are regulars to your chat. On a busy chat, you could easily miss someone’s tweet, so seeing contributors is a handy feature–though this is a partial list of total contributors.

TweetReach analyzes the reach of your Twitter Chat

TweetReach

TweetReach analyzes the reach of your Twitter Chat. Also use it to see how far a url or phrase has traveled (could be a handy way to see who has retweeted your blog posts, for instance). If you use it halfway through the chat you can get an idea of how well your chat as a whole is doing. You could also pay the $20 to get the full-fledged report with all the analytics. If you like data, you’re likely to be in Nirvana if you see the full report!

Have a Favorite Twitter Chat Tool?

Leave me a comment, below. I’m always fascinated by the tools that people use to help manage their Twitter chats. And thank you for reading!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: analytics, DigiBlogChat, HootSuite, Tools, Tweetchat, Tweetdeck, Tweetreach, Twitter, Twitter Chat, Twubs

How to Promote Your Blog Like a Pro!

March 26, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

How to Promote Your Blog Like a Pro

If you’ve just started blogging, or even if you’ve been blogging for a while, you might not realize how many ways there are to promote your own post. These ideas are divided into beginning and advanced ideas. If you’re more advanced in the ways of social media promotion, you can skip to the more “Pro” ideas.

Pinning your blog post (you did create a board for your own blog posts, right?) is something everyone can do, and is a fairly simple way to get more traffic to a post. You could have your own blog board, where you pin all your posts. If you need a beginner’s guide, you might read my Top Ten Tasks for Pinterest.

Invite Others to Your Group Blog Board on Pinterest

Pro

Repin that post, especially if the first time you pinned it, it didn’t get any repins. Delete the old post and pin it again.
Create a group board for your blog posts, like the example below, and invite lots of people to pin. You can invite anyone who follows your board. You could invite other bloggers who aren’t on Pinterest, too, and they might be motivated to be on Pinterest more often.
Repin the blog post using a different picture and onto a different board. For instance, my post about Introverts and Social Media could be repinned on a Social Media board, my blog board, my Pinterest board, etc. But I’d space them out, time wise.

Facebook

Post your wonderful writing on Facebook, with a good call to action and a big picture or two.

Schedule Your Facebook Post When Your Fans Are Online

To find your Facebook analytics, go to your business page==>Insights (at the top of the page). Examine when your fans are online and use the native Facebook scheduler. For instance, my analytics show that most of my fans are online at 8:30 am pst. Another good time would be around 2:00 pm.

Note: my top three posts above were all boosted.

Pro

Promote your post for as little as $5 per post. You can choose who sees it and get more eyes on your post that way. Most people can afford $20/month for promotion.
Tag people who might be interested in seeing your words of wisdom (but do this carefully–nobody likes to be tagged too many times).
To see what your post will look like, schedule it 10 minutes or more in the future, so you can edit it if you need to.
Check your business page’s analytics to see when the best time is to post.

Can You Schedule Like a Pro?

Twitter

Of course you’ll want to tweet about your newest creation. And you can schedule it one or more times. Guy Kawasaki retweets his posts about four times a day, but you may want to wait days between posts! Of course, use a scheduler like HootSuite to get the word out.

Pro

Pin your tweet to the top of your Twitter feed. Upload a picture (tweets with images are much more likely to be retweeted), as in the image below.
Repeat your tweet, but use a different picture and headline.
Ask for a retweet (again, don’t ask very often unless you’ve been giving to others as well). Tag others who might be interested.
If you mention others in your blog post, call them out in your tweet.

Pin Your Tweet to the Top of Your Twitter Feed

Post your wonderful writing after you’ve created it on your blog. You can upload a picture, too.

Pro

Don’t just post your writing, but republish it. LinkedIn’s new publisher is called Pulse, and anyone can now be a publisher on LinkedIn.
Focus on entertaining, motivating, or educating people. As Jeff Haden suggests, write your piece as though you’re writing to one person.

Get Syndicated!

If you’re a regular blogger, you might consider getting syndicated. My blog posts are syndicated at Business 2 Community. There are lots of reasons to be syndicated; here are a few.

Are You a Blogger?

Try a few of these ideas and let me know how they work for you!

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