New Year's Resolutions Archives -

#Digiblogchat January 9 2024 Digital NY’s Resolutions

January 5, 2024 By Carol Stephen Leave a Comment

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/gdj-1086657/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8178255">Gordon Johnson</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=8178255">Pixabay</a>

#Digiblogchat January 9 2024 Digital NY’s Resolutions| Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

The topic for #DigiBlogChat on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 1:00 pm is Digital New Year’s Resolutions! So use your collective imaginations and tell us your dreams, wishes, and resolutions for the coming year!

Join us on Twitter each Tuesday from 1:00 through 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time 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!

Whether or not you’ve made your resolutions, you’re welcome to join the fun!

Here are the questions:

Q1. What are some ideas for creating secure passwords? #digiblogchat

Q2. How would a digital detox change your working life? #digiblogchat

Q3. Have you considered a digital photo book so you could stop lugging around those giant photo albums? #digiblogchat

Q4. What are some tips you’ve discovered for caring for your digital devices? #digiblogchat

Q5. What is your favorite digital new year’s resolution? #digiblogchat

Q6. What apps would you recommend that would help others with their digital resolutions? #digiblogchat

Q7. What information will you stop sharing this year on social media? #digiblogchat

Q8. Is this the year that you’ll minimize phishing attempts? How? #digiblogchat

Q9. How would you declutter your digital life this year? #digiblogchat

Q10. What other ideas do you have for digital new year’s resolutions? #digiblogchat

How to Make Stretch Goals That Make You Stretch

January 2, 2020 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

The idea of stretch goals used to make my teeth hurt. My best friend and I were talking about stretch goals the other day (as I’ve been working on my own goals for 2020). And we both agreed how pointless and stupid they are. Every manager we’ve ever had would want us to create those idiotic stretch goals. I would rather accomplish my goals and hit that ball way out of the ballpark than have goals that make me feel inadequate. But as I thought about stretch goals more, I realized there are some different ways to think about and use stretch goals.

Literal Stretch Goals

The first way I thought of stretch goals differently was to have goals for yoga. For this year, I’d like to be bendier. And to do that, I thought why not include goals that are fun as well as actual stretch goals? So I’d like to be able to do a good shoulder stand by the end of the year, as well as do a Crow stance. According to Women’s Health Magazine, these 3 moves will help you finally master crow. The three moves didn’t help so much as this one sentence near the end of the article:”Modify or ease your way into the pose by placing your hands on blocks.” Yes, blocks and also maybe a roomful of pillows. I’m kidding, sort of. Maybe you also have a literal stretch goal.

What If Goals

The next thing I did to change my goals this year was to make exciting goals. And I think that’s where the gold nuggets really were. Since I’ve taken up knitting, I’m really enjoying both the knitting itself and the community I’ve found. So, to make knitting more exciting and challenging, I asked myself what if I made all my own clothes? And that made me think about what I’d need to do to get there. First, I’d have to really want to do it. Second, I’d need to learn some more sewing and knitting techniques. Sure, I can sew a cover for the blender or make a scarf. But I’ve never done zippers or buttons. And I’ve never knitted a sweater. I can start with YouTube videos, but probably an in-person class would supercharge my learning there. By the way, you might like 100 Best Questions that Will Guide Your Social Media Resolutions.

Learn from Others

As I was tooling around the interwebs, I found an article about micro-resolutions: Year-long resolutions don’t work. Here’s how to make 12 ‘micro-resolutions’ instead. Then I thought what if I took the best of those resolutions, and “borrowed” them? For instance, his July goal of fresh fruit and water was very successful. I think I could do that one! The second one that resonated with me was November’s micro-resolution of thankfulness. Another successful one. As you read someone else’s resolutions you, too, might think “that’ll never work!” Or you might think “I could do that!”

Now that is interesting!

Reframe Goals

Thinking about what I’d need to do to get to a more ambitious goal has made the creation of goals so much more exciting. Maybe that’s what people really mean by stretch goals. And if your goals don’t excite you, why bother?

Print the Goals

We’re so used to having everything online these days. The printer gets barely any action at all. So the next new thing I’m going to do is print my goals and put them in one of those plastic sleeves so I can look at it every day. That way, the stretch goals can become more a living document, and less something that gets created and forgotten by February. What do you think of stretch goals? Yay or nay? Leave me a comment. And thank you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: literal stretch goals, New Year's Resolutions, stretch goals

100 Best Questions That Will Guide Your Social Media Resolutions

January 4, 2018 By Carol Stephen 4 Comments

100 Best Questions That Will Guide Your Social Media Resolutions

Don’t know exactly what resolutions you should have for your social media for 2018? Here are a few questions to help you develop your social media resolutions. There are 10 sections: Audience, Identify Your Why, Engagement, Content Creation, Platforms, Video, Images/Infographics, Keywords and Hashtags, Measurement, and Personal Accounts.

Photo by perzonseo

Audience

There’s a reason audience is at the top of this list! When you’re talking to someone, you need to know what is important to that person, and what their pain points are. If you have no idea who your audience is, here you go: 10 Free Tools to Help You Understand Your Social Media Audience. And here: Using Surveys to Define Your Target Audience.

Who is your audience? (And please don’t say everyone!)

What is the lifestyle of your audience? In other words, what do they do when they’re not buying your product or service?

How will you build a better target persona?

What type of language does your target audience use?

What will you do to better target your audience this year?

Where do you think your audience likes to hang out?

Do you hang out the same place your audience hangs out?

If you don’t hang out where your audience is, why not?

What is the best time or the best times to post for your audience?

Where in the world does most of your audience live? Yes, brick-and-mortars will have a more local audience, of course.

Identify Your Why

Social media isn’t a magic bullet. Social media is very good for branding and recognition, but it probably can’t replace all your forms of marketing. You’ll still want to meet some people in person, go to meet ups, or do other forms of marketing. So if you’re looking for sales, realize that social media does help to generate sales, but usually not immediately.

Engagement

When I co-teach with Alyson Harrold (at UC Berkeley Extension, the students want to know how to engage on social media more than anything else. So I wrote this to help them (and maybe you): How to Engage on Social Media the Complete Guide. And I really like Coschedule, so here’s their 30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions.

On a scale of 1-10, how much will you focus on engagement this year?

If your engagement was low last year, how will you create more engagement?

Are there any hashtags you could use to create more engagement?

Which hashtags will you use to increase your followers and engagement?

Do you repost from those who follow you?

Do you use the 80/20 rule (80% other people’s content/20% your own content)?

Will you thank people for sharing your posts in order to create more engagement?

Will you tag the people you write about in your posts to help increase engagement?

Will you participate in TweetChats to help your engagement on Twitter?

Could you use a Facebook group to increase your engagement on Facebook?

Content Creation

Content creation has become more important than ever. And if you don’t believe me, how about this post from Hubspot: How to Develop a Content Strategy? I look at the blog as the torso, or body, of your efforts, with all the social media platforms as the arms and legs of your strategy. You might also like: Content creation: 5 Killer Reasons it’s Your New BFF.

Will you be starting a blog this year?

If so, what will you use (WordPress, etc.)?

Will you create a content calendar?

How often will you post?

How long will the posts be?

How many images, if any, will each post have?

Will you have a newsletter?

What will you use to create your newsletter (Mailchimp, etc.)?

How will you get signups for your newsletter?

Will you count posts, tweets, and comments on others’ posts and blogs as part of your content?

Photo by Lisavanovitch

Platforms

By platforms, I mean Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. If you don’t know yet, this might help: Ten Simple Ways to Choose the Best Social Media Platform. The Huffington Post identifies seven best social media channels for business (#7 might surprise you! And no, that’s not clickbait!).

Which social media platforms do you want to be on?

Will you squat on a social media name until you have the time to be there full-time?

How do you propose starting out a new platform?

Which new platforms would you like to research?

Are there any platforms that you definitely don’t want to use?

Which is your favorite social media platform? Why not start there?

Which social platforms will you use less of or spend less time on this year?

Why will you use that/those platforms less?

Which top sites will you focus on this year?

How will you measure your efforts (if at all)?

Video

Why should you use video in your social media? Forbes has a nifty article: Why You Need to Know about Social Video Marketing in 2017. Yes, video is an up-and-coming item to add to the mix. Here’s my first video (with tons of mistakes! so don’t feel intimated about getting started): How to Organize Jewelry.

Will you add video to the mix this year?

If you choose to add video, will you produce it yourself?

What tools will you use to produce your video?

Will you use YouTube this year? Vimeo?

Do you have your own YouTube channel? My friends Chef Ivan Flowers and his wife, Tracy, and now-famous pooch Pickle have a great YouTube channel (go subscribe!).

Will you create unique video on Instagram? Facebook? Twitter?

Will you make money with ads from your YouTube videos?

How will you brand your channel?

How will you create unique calls-to-action?

How will you discover key words to add to each video?

Images/Infographics

Social media posts have become more and more image-centric. So what’s your game plan for including images in your posts and blog articles? Here’s a good article article from Jeff Bulas: 6 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Include Images in Your Marketing (check out the infographic, too!). And you might like this: How to Recycle Content the Ten Best Ways (includes ways to recycle images).

Where will you find images for your social media posts?

Will you be using free images, or will you pay for images?

How many images will you create yourself?

Will you use your own photographs for your social media?

How will you give credit to those who provide images for your posts?

Will you use infographics in your social media mix?

How will you produce great quality infographics?

Will you create your own infographics?

Which social platforms will you use to showcase your images?

Will you use any interactive images? How about gifs?

Keywords and Hashtags

Keywords and hashtags have become more and more important. Keywords help your articles and post get picked up by Google. Hashtags also allow your posts to be seen by Google (thanks for this tip, Robert Nissenbaum!). Here’s a longish post about hashtags you might enjoy: How to Catapult Your Tweets Using Hashtags!

Are there keywords that you use regularly or that you’re trying to dominate?

Are keywords part of your strategy yet?

When you tag your blog posts, are there certain tags that you use over and over?

Will you continue to use the same keywords?

Do you need to research hashtags more before you use them more regularly?

Will you start using hashtags over the next year?

Do you have favorite hashtags that you use all the time?

On which platforms will you use hashtags?

Do you prefer local hashtags or more generic ones for your Instagram posts?

Do you have a way to store and then reuse your hashtags?

Photo by MCAD Library

Measurement

Measurement of your social media efforts can be a tricky thing. You can use branded links, and you can always ask people how they found you, but often social media is one of many marketing “touches.” And people don’t always remember how they found you. You might like this: How to: Business Analytics Tricks You Need to Know for Twitter. And you might like this: Google Analytics Demographics & Generational Insights by my friend Alyson Harrold.

Will you measure your efforts on social media?

If you have a simple measurement system, what is it?

Are there certain items that you won’t measure?

Will you use a branded hashtag to see how far your posts have traveled?

How about branded links? Will you use those?

Do you need help figuring out what to measure?

If you measured your efforts last year, how will this year be different?

How often will you check your analytics?

Will you use Google analytics?

Or will you use each platform’s analytics to measure your success?

Personal Accounts

Some business owners would prefer not to have any presence on social media at all. Many would like to avoid it altogether! Are you one of them? Some would prefer to have one account, rather than separate personal and business accounts (I don’t recommend this approach.)

How much will you post on your personal social media platforms?

Do you plan to post at all on your personal platforms?

Will you post more or less on each platform compared to last year?

How will you guarantee that you unplug or stop surfing the net?

Will your personal accounts be in alignment with your business accounts?

Are there any topics you will avoid posting about?

Will you stop following people/pages who make you unhappy?

Will you focus on vanity metric, such as numbers of followers this year? Or not?

How do you use social media personally, and will that change this year?

How does social media affect your personal life, if at all?

Need Help with Your Social Media?

If all of these questions leave your head spinning, send me an email or comment here! I’d love to help!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: content creation for social media, images for social media, keywords and hashtags on social media, New Year's Resolutions, social media and video, social media audience, social media engagement, social media measurement, social media new years resolutions, social media platforms, social media target audience

The Magic of Media: Joy in the New Year

December 31, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

The Magic of Media: Joy in the New Year

When the clock hits midnight on the last day of the year, enthusiasm is at its highest. Hope is in the air. Anticipation and excitement fill the streets and the champagne glasses overflow. This hope and enthusiasm fuel social media resolutions.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Everyone will tell you how easy it is to master social media. You can learn Pinterest in a weekend, take a seminar on Twitter, or watch YouTube videos on Facebook until the cows come home. And it’s that time of year when everyone wants to start their resolutions. Heck, you can certainly do your Social Media in 60 Minutes a Day if you really try. There are lots of reasons to be excited about this new year, with a few caveats.

RockStar Expectations

I’m not going to be a Debbie Downer and tell you that you’ll never be a rockstar, but be a little easy on yourself and set your expectations accordingly. Getting 1,000 followers a month sounds good on January 1, but by March you might give up and do nothing at all.

Startup Mentality and S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Having lofty goals is often a by-product of startups. Having S.M.A.R.T. goals, which equals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Responsible and Time (completion date) enables you to reach those goals. As Allan Hirsch explains “we need to set goals using strategic planning” in his article As New Year approaches, don’t just set goals, set ‘SMART’ goals.

Out of the Ballpark

If you’re an entrepreneur, you want to hit grand slams. And the way to achieve that is to set yourself up for success by overdelivering. Test the waters with your social media before committing to something so huge that you’ll feel overwhelmed.

Stretch Goals

Stretch goals are demotivating. To my mind, they are more about reaching a monetary goal than about reaching smaller goals while having fun and being creative. In his excellent article, The Folly of Stretch Goals, Daniel Markovitch outlines how stretch goals sap intrinsic motivation.

Going Viral

There are ways to make that post or tweet go viral. That is, you can be poised for the opportunity but it usually happens when you least expect it. What is that saying–success is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. And if you’re successfully poised, that post may spread like a virus in ways that make you look good.

Be Open to Surprises

What I’d like for myself for this new year is to be open to the fun and excitement of social media. Every day, it’s possible to talk to real people online, connect with them, and perhaps meet them in real life. And although that’s tough to put into a resolution, being open to surprises is my new year’s resolution.

What’s Your Resolution?

Tell me in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: going viral, New Year's Resolutions, SMART goals, Social Media, Startup, Startups

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

#Digiblogchat January 9 2024 Digital NY’s Resolutions

How to Make Stretch Goals That Make You Stretch

Literal Stretch Goals

What If Goals

Learn from Others

Reframe Goals

Print the Goals

100 Best Questions That Will Guide Your Social Media Resolutions

Audience

Identify Your Why

Engagement

Content Creation

Platforms

Video

Images/Infographics

Keywords and Hashtags

Measurement

Personal Accounts

Need Help with Your Social Media?

The Magic of Media: Joy in the New Year

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

RockStar Expectations

Startup Mentality and S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Out of the Ballpark

Stretch Goals

Going Viral

Be Open to Surprises

What’s Your Resolution?

Social Media New Year’s Resolution: Do Less!

One. Change Pinterest Board Covers Quarterly

Two. Fewer Scheduled Tweets and More Tweets Without Links

Three. Get Offline on Sundays

Four. Sleep More

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