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Social Media in 60 Minutes a Day

October 1, 2015 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

You’re creating your new app, your new software, or your new restaurant. You’ve been at it for months. Suddenly, you look up. Oh no! You need social media. You have to spread the word! But you have nothing! What to do, what to do? After all, 72% of all internet users are now active on social media (Jeff Bullas).

Look at the Top Traffic Generators

Facebook has 1.44 billion monthly active users, of whom 65% are daily users (VentureBeat)
Twitter has 316 million monthly active users (Twitter)
LinkedIn has 300 million users (Forbes)
Google+ has a few million active users (TechTimes)
Pinterest has 50 million users (Mashable)
YouTube has 1 billion monthly active users (Social Media Hat)
Instagram has 300 million monthly users (CNN Money)

Consider Your Demographic

And please don’t say it’s everyone! Are they Millennials? Women with college degrees? Of a particular ethnicity? This article from Pew Research gives an excellent overview. Then consider where that person shops, eats, and lives. Ask five people who would use your product or service how they use social media. A short survey could help. Don’t forget to consider the visual aspect of your business. That is, is it very visual or not at all visual? If it’s very visual, Pinterest and Instagram are good choices.

Consider age, gender, ethnicity, as well as interests and level of techno-savvytude.

Pick Three

Choose the three that appeal most to your target audience. Let’s say you’ve picked Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. The easiest way is to begin with the one you already know or use.

Narrow it to One

Start with the platform you already know to hit the ground running. Say you’re already a Facebook user. Set up a business account. Set up your profile, business hours, and physical address if you have one. Then: 1. Post when your fans are online, 2. Use large, beautiful pictures. 3. Use Facebook’s native scheduler.

Choose Daily Topics

Say you’re going to post five times a week, Monday through Friday. Let’s say you have a restaurant, for instance.

Your daily topics could be:

Monday: DIY food, specials
Tuesday: Behind the scenes with the chefs, nutrition
Wednesday: Wines and beer that goes with food
Thursday: Comfort food
Friday: Why people deserve to have dinner out, Happy Hour

Rinse and Repeat

Once you have Facebook under control (it will take more time in the beginning, naturally), add Twitter to the mix. Then add Pinterest. Now spend 20 minutes per social platform (use the same or similar topics). Schedule some posts and engage with people. Of course, this is greatly simplified. Facebook is not Twitter is not Pinterest. But you get the gist.

Still Stuck?

Hire a social media manager. Here are some things ten of the worst social media managers do. Make sure yours don’t do any of them. Let me know what else you’d like to know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, posting, Social Media, time management, Twitter, YouTube

Finding Your Next Social Media Manager

May 14, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Finding Your Next Social Media Manager

Wikipedia is not going to help you much with finding your next Social Media Manager (“SMM”). In fact, Wikipedia can’t tell you anything about how to choose an SMM. Google can help to some extent, if you get your search terms correct, and focus on a good headline. (By the way, if you’d like to know about writing headlines, those can be a pain in the asterisk!) So what can help you? Here are some ideas.

1. Don’t look under a rock. Hint: Those are worms!

If you want to find a good SMM, you might want to look around on social media. Check on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or wherever you’d like to be posting. See if the person you’d like to hire is posting there, too. Their posts don’t have to be perfect (because, after all, they’re busy with clients), but they should have some posts of substance.

2. Check out their websites and social platforms.

Most SMMs have a website, although I know some fab ones who don’t. Check out their testimonials and what other people are saying about them. If you can’t find anything, you could ask for testimonials directly. See whether their website has been updated in, say, the last two months. It should be active. And of course, check out their social platforms.

Check out websites and social platforms

3. Read their blog.

Does your SMM have a blog and do they post about social media? That would be a good thing, especially if you need help with blogging. Is their writing clear? Do you like their style? If they’re writing about Twitter, for instance, do they include particulars that you like?

When you read a SMM’s blog, do you like the particulars?

4. Look at their writing skills.

These days, many SMMs have degrees in writing or related fields. If you want your SMM to do a bit of writing for you, a degree in English could be beneficial. Or perhaps experience writing. Some SMMs, myself included, have a background in technical writing. If you have a particular grammatical mistake that bugs you, such as the abuse of commas, check their work for that. Here’s a list of 10 Common Grammar Mistakes (“lose” and “loose” are often confused).

5. Ensure that they embrace “social.”

Broadcasting your message over and over (and over!) is old-school marketing. Make sure that your SMM enjoys interacting with others. Saying hello, while it sounds simple, usually causes others to say “hello” back! Engaging with others on social media is the fastest way to an engaged and engaging account on any platform.

Ensure that your SMM embraces “social.”

6. Ask them some questions.

For instance, ask about their least favorite platform. That should help you get some idea of what their favorite platform is and isn’t. Also, ask which subjects to avoid. There are many more questions you can ask.

Ask about their least favorite platform

7. Your SMM should be excited at your success!

When you make sales, or when your posts are shared with lots of people, your SMM should be happy for you! They should have in mind a vision for you and for your success. After all, it’s in both your interests that you should succeed.

Finding a good social media manager shouldn’t be this hard, right?

With overpriced agencies and undervalued CMOs, it’s a serious challenge to find that juggernaut to pave the way for your future marketing strategy. Do you have a successful story where your SMM has developed your online presence into what you wanted? We would truly like to hear about your experience(s).

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Blog, blogging, Content, Engagement, Facebook, Pinterest, posting, SMM, Social Media, social media manager, Twitter, Wikipedia, writing

Five Hidden Benefits of Listening

February 26, 2015 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

Five Hidden Benefits of Listening

Coming up with content 24×7 gets old really fast. But what if there were some other way than blasting out your own content all day long? Something easier, some way you could get your stream filled with content without being in complete broadcast mode all the time. What if you could stop being like a one-way valve and have a two-way valve instead as part of your social media strategy? Crazy, right?

Intensify Conversations

What if you went to a party and talked about yourself the entire time? That would be pretty boring! And yet, some people still talk non-stop at parties. But if you listened twice as much as you talked, you might learn some things about your new and old friends. The same concept applies online. As David Tovey says, hearing is not listening.

Take the Strain Off Yourself

Although listening might sound more difficult than talking, all it requires is that you be fully present. That is, ready to listen and free of distracting thoughts. That may seem a little “zen” to you–like a meditation. And listening can also involve watching the other person’s posture, mannerisms, and all the different tones in their voice. So instead of hearing your own inner thoughts, for a few minutes you can focus completely on someone else. Think of it as a mini-vacation, a way to balance your online life.

Listen Without Expectation

When I searched online for “listening,” there was an image of a shower head on the site–someone out there has been listening to my online searches. They wanted to sell me something. However, that’s different than not having any expectation than to hear. And it’s tricky to not be waiting with something to say, but to listen with no advice, no retort, and no pushing your own agenda!

Be Unique

Everyone (on social media or not), is spewing information. We are up to our ears in information. And if you believe, as Julian Treasure outlines in his excellent TED Talk 5 Ways to Listen Better, that we are “losing our listening,” then it’s extremely important to work on this vanishing skill. Rather than reducing your friends’ thoughts and words to sound bites, listening fully lets them express the subtlety of their experiences–and lets you shine by being unique.

Start participating by listening

Save Time

What if you knew what your clients were thinking about? Or what your friends were focused on? You can! Just ask them. It’s that simple. Be creative in how you reach out. Try asking in a simple, yet direct way. “What’s the haps? Or “what’s new, Daddy-O?” are sure to elicit a smile. Rather than worrying about what they might be thinking, ask and then listen.

Be a Great Conversationalist

Here is my call to action for this post. For one day, try listening. Repost, retweet, and talk to people online. Could you do that? I’d be willing to bet that most people will say that you’re a great conversationalist! Like Ted Rubin says “Jump in & do it.”

Let me know how that goes. Although some of you are probably already there, listening.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: audience, Content, Conversation, hearing, listening, post, posting, Retweet, Social Media, strategy

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

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

October 16, 2014 By Carol Stephen 6 Comments

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

Facebook

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

1. Crosspost from Twitter using hashtags.

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

2. Steal content

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

3. Post when no one’s there

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

4. Don’t post at all

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

5. Never use images

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

6. Don’t reply

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

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

7. Post and run

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

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

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

9. Don’t have a business page

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

10. Make your posts private.

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

What failures have you seen on Facebook?

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

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

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

October 9, 2014 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Ten Ways to Fail with the Biggest Social Media Platforms Pinterest

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

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

Don’t pin anything

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

Fix: Get pinning!

Ugly pins

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

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

Put everything on one board

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

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

All your pins look the same

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

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

Steal pins and identities

Ten Ways to Fail with Pinterest

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

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

100 pins, then nothing

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

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

No descriptions

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

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

No fun

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

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

Pins that link to Spam or Malware

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

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

Seen any good fails lately?

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

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

When Posts Go Viral: Four Lessons

September 25, 2014 By Carol Stephen 2 Comments

When Posts Go Viral: Four Lessons

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

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

First of All, Transparency

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

The Next Morning

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

The Next 24 Hours

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

Gold-Plated Problem

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

Lesson One

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

Lesson Two

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

Lesson Three

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

Lesson Four

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

When Your Social Media Post Goes Viral

OutComes

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

And Another Thing

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

Has One of Your Posts Gone Viral?

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

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

Facebook Stole My Cheese!

August 13, 2014 By Carol Stephen 10 Comments

Facebook Stole My Cheese!

By now you’ve read multiple articles and heard countless complaints about the changes in Facebook’s algorithm. In fact, maybe by now you’re sick and tired of hearing about how Facebook lied, how they should’ve kept things the way they were, etc. You know that you can’t get the same reach any more, and on a personal level, you can’t see the stuff your friends post, either. And you’re thinking about jumping ship, but where would you go? You’ve invested so much time into Facebook, how can you possibly leave now?

Facebook Won’t Go Away Any Time Soon

Maybe you’ve read my previous post asking if it’s time to leave Facebook. But maybe you haven’t taken the leap yet. With 1.19 billion users (see the Next Web article), Facebook is the behemoth that won’t go away. People love Facebook, and it’s a great way to share content, post embarrassing family pictures, and find videos of goats climbing in trees set to hip-hop music. Oh, wait. That’s my life.

Let’s Say You’re a Mouse…

So let’s pretend for a minute that you’re a mouse–because in a way you are a mouse. And Facebook? They have the cheese. So how do you get some of that precious cheese that keeps disappearing because there are too many mice and they’re all squealing at once for more cheese but there just isn’t as much anymore? Well, maybe this metaphor has run its course through that maze (did you see what I did there?).

How Do You Make Your Posts More Visible?

How to Get Back Some of the Cheese

Here are a few ways to make your posts more visible. And get some more of that precious cheese.

Create Unique Content

Your own content, preferably in the form of blog posts, can benefit by being adorned with your own images. Bigger images are always better on Facebook. You can also use video or a simple picture, one that you took yourself.

Post More Often

Post a little more often. Most business owners don’t have time to post multiple times a day, but the posts don’t have to be big deal posts. You could ask a question, thank your new fans for following you, or pick a small quote from a blog post. Yes or no questions are often very successful. Don’t ask people to recite a poem or do an interpretive dance because it’s not gonna happen.

Post At Different Times

The analytics on your business page might say that your fans are online at noon. But probably so are everyone else’s fans, too. Why not experiment with posting at a few different times? And remember that scheduling your posts ahead of time is really easy on Facebook.

Look for Surprises

One thing I like to do is search for the surprises within my posted content. By that, I mean to scroll back through the posts and see what kind of content got shared, liked, commented on, etc. What time did you post? What day of the week? Then rinse and repeat: use the same types of posts, and the times you posted, too. How have you readjusted to the change in Facebook’s reach? Or did you quit?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: algorithm, blogging, Content, content creation, Engagement, Facebook, posting, reach, Social Media, visibility

Social Media: New Ways to Fail!

December 3, 2013 By Carol Stephen 14 Comments

Social Media: New Ways to Fail!

You got on Twitter, but you don’t tweet. You won’t show your face on Facebook, your Pinterest has a bunch of boards without any pins, and forget about Google Plus! There’s absolutely too much to do, and you don’t have enough time to goof around on the Interwebz. Does that sound like you? It actually sounds like a lot of people. There are so many ways to fail, and here are some more in case you haven’t tried these.

Ignore People

When people send you a tweet or tag you on Facebook, don’t respond. Turn off all notifications (what a nuisance!) and pretend not to notice anybody.

Post Once a Month

Post about 2,000 times once a month. Then stop until the same time next month. Calendar it now!

Use Broadcast Mode

Send out your messages continuously, and use UPPER CASE. And lots of punctuation marks!!!!!!!!! People love it when they think you’re yelling!

Don’t Say Anything

Alternately, adopt radio silence. Make like a cricket.

Stalk People

Post embarrassing pictures of your friends on Facebook without asking them and then tag them so that all their friends will see how great they look when they’re drunk and punching a cop in the face. When they ask you about it, laugh. If they ask you to take them down, say “why? you look so good!”

Steal Content

Take other people’s content and pretend it’s yours. When someone politely asks you to stop sharing your content, ignore them.

Be Boring

Make every story sound exactly like the last one. And the next one. And the one after that.

Cross-Post

Use your tweets on Facebook, your Pinterest pins on Instagram, and act hurt when nobody comments on your things.

101 Dalmations

Post only pictures of dogs, nothing else. Or if you’re not into dogs, how about cookie jars? Or old spoons? Everybody finds fire hydrants as fascinating as you do!

Rant

Ranting is a wonderful way to fail

Are you a member of the aluminum foil hat brigade? Let your freak flag fly and rant endlessly about aliens, conspiracies, the government, the other political party, how ObamaCare has failed, and so on. Here are some of the benefits and down sides of ranting.

What New Ways Have You Found to Fail?

Are you as amazed as I am at all the creative ways people find to fail? Let me know about it in the comments!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: boring, broadcasting, cross-post, fail, failure, posting, ranting, silence, Social Media, stalking, Twitter

Best Posting Times: Social Media

September 3, 2013 By Carol Stephen 13 Comments

Best Times to Post on Social Media

By now you’ve read a million and a half articles about the best times to post on social media. I’ve read them all, too, and honestly, I think people just write those articles to puff themselves up and make you feel bad (the article in the link above is a good one, by the way). One study says the weekend is best. Another says 9 am. A third says after dinner. My opinion? Whenever you have time to post is a good time. Maybe the middle of the night wouldn’t be the best time, but even then.

Chicken or Egg?

Let’s say you did start posting in the middle of the night. Now at first you might not see so many people. But after awhile, maybe your friends would be all the insomniacs and zombies who are up late at night. That would be your audience because you’d have something in common with them. Would that be so very awful? Would you actually change your hours or schedule posts just because some dumb study said that you should post at a certain time, even if you weren’t awake then?

What About Weekends?

Chicken or Egg?

Some people don’t post at all on weekends, but say that was the only time you had available. You could post on weekends and then have time to engage with people if that was when you were free. And maybe you’d capture more attention because a lot of people don’t post then. So people relaxing around the house and checking in might find it a perfect time to engage with you.

People Talk to People Who Are Like Themselves

If you’re looking for a “tribe,” then why not try posting when you have the time, instead of going by a study? Or use a combination of, say, Facebook’s analytics and Twitter tools to figure out the best times for your audience. Personally, I’m not going to twist myself into a pretzel because of some study.

When Do You Like to Post?

Do the studies about when to post drive you crazy? Do you ignore the studies and do your own thing, or do you prefer to “follow the numbers” on social media? I’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: best times, posting, posts, Social Media, timing, tribe, weekend