Wednesday Words: Live-blogging/live-tweeting

Today's term is something you see quite frequently during football games, television shows and more and that's a combination of terms - Live-blogging and Live-Tweeting.

The terms are basically the same thing, just a different platform. Live-blogging/live-tweeting is blogging or tweeting about a particular event (football game, t.v. show, writing a novel, etc.) as it happens in real-time instead of writing them after the fact.

Most of these blog posts (or tweets) are short commentary as things happen. Recent popular live-tweeting events have been the Presidential debates and The Walking Dead (pro-tip, if you aren't watching the Walking Dead live, don't follow the tweeters as you may get spoilers).

Live-blogging and live-tweeting is a great way to get followers if you are attending an event specific to your brand. It gets you coverage and gives you coverage and posts for people to retweet. You can also live-tweet about topics that are important to your brand.

Keep in mind, Live-blogging/tweeting happens as things occur, so you or your social media manager have to be prepared to set aside time during the event to make it happen, otherwise it can quickly flop.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Wednesday Words: Vlogging

Today's word is a word you see often in tweets and Facebook posts encouraging people to watch their Vlog. Vlog is short for video blog and Vlogging, naturally, is short for video blogging. Basically, instead of writing everything down, they instead do a video about it.

A great example - instead of me writing this post, I could do a video about vlogging and just link to it - but as I hate being on camera and much prefer video editing and being behind the camera, it's not likely you will find me Vlogging, though I do often do video chats related to gaming (not social media).

There are advantages and disadvantages to Vlogging. Like Blogging, it takes time and energy to build a following. Vlogging also requires you to look good and edit your video before posting it, while writing it may be quicker. While it still requires editing, it can happen quicker since you don't have to process video.

There are many types of blogging and you don't have to limit yourself to just one. See which one or ones work for you.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Wednesday Words: Repin

Today's Wednesday Words is a continuation of the past few weeks, focusing on terminology associated with Pinterest. Today's word is Repin.

Repinning is when you're looking through the pins of people you follow, see one you like and "re-pin" it to an appropriate board for your Pinterest account. It can also be from Pins suggested to you by Pinterest. Repinning shows you have interest in what the other Pinterest user has shared and helps you find new things to add to your boards as well.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Friday Sharing: Why You Need A Social Media Marketing Strategy & How To Start One

Today's article share was found on Pinterest with this fun description: "Running a business? Want to boost sales? You need a social media marketing strategy! Here is how to start an effective social media marketing strategy."

Seeing as I've mentioned social media marketing planning and strategy a few times this past month, I figured this would be a good article to share.

You can find it on Pinterest here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/275775177159910243/

Or on the original website, here: http://www.twelveskip.com/marketing/social-media/1414/start-social-media-marketing-strategy

Have a great Friday!

Wednesday Words: Pin

Once again, this week delving into terminology from  Pinterest.

Today's word is Pin.

A pin is any image used to mark a website on Pinterest. You PIN the image to denote the article with a brief description. These pins can then be referred back to later on for something you're looking for or wanting to do.

Items are pinned to a Pinterest Board. You select which board you want to pin it to when you decide to Pin it.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Wednesday Words: Board

Today we're going to delve into terminology from another social media network - Pinterest. While many times we've shared articles about Pinterest and how it can help with social media marketing endeavors, we haven't ever really touched on the terminology, tips or tutorials regarding Pinterest. For many users new to social media or social media marketing, Pinterest can be a bit confusing. So over the next few weeks we will start intersparcing tutorials and tips for Pinterest along with tips and tutorials for other social media networks we already cover.

We start out this week with the word Board.

A board, in Pinterest, is basically similar to a corkboard at home where you'd pin recipes, menus, etc. The difference is, the board is online on Pinterest and serves as a category where you can pin specific things to it.

So, for example, my board "Favorite Recipes" contains nothing but recipes I want to try or have tried and really like. Another of my boards, Video Game related, contains links to things I find interesting on Video games. Some of them contain links to my own articles. Another board, Etsy, contains pins of all items I created in order for me to promote sales through Pinterest.

From a social media marketing standpoint, you want different boards to share things in different topics, but also to promote things specific to your company. You could have a sales board or a book covers board or really anything you can think of.  More importantly, if you blog for your company regularly, you can share your blogs, assuming they have appropriate imaging to do so, through Pinterest.

Pinterest is a whole new world for those new to social media. Take time to learn it!

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Wednesday Words: MySpace

For those of us that were using this from the time it came out - before Facebook - we all know what MySpace is. A lot of us no longer use it, but it seems to have made a comeback after Justin Timberlake and others purchased it and turned it around.

That being said MySpace is another social media platform, similar in many ways to Facebook, but was known for users being able to completely customize their profiles and be unique from other users profiles. It was the most popular social networking site until Facebook took over.

All of that said, MySpace is still around and you can check it out by visiting www.myspace.com.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Tuesday Tips: How to Create a Social Media Plan

Do you know the things you need to do to start creating your social media plan? If you don't, or are unsure of what you should be looking at, let's look at these four steps to create a solid social media plan.

1. Define your goals.
   Understand exactly what you want to accomplish with your social media plan. Are you looking to drive sales? Are you looking to drive hits to your website? Are you looking to gain more followers? Knowing your goals is an important first step in creating any plan of action.
2. Define your metrics.
   Once you have your goals in place, you have to be able to measure them. What will you be looking at to know if your plan was successful? Will you be looking at conversions, click-throughs, increase in purchases/followers? Know what you will be looking at to define your metrics.
3. Decide your tactics.
   Know what actions you will take on a regular basis that will help you achieve your goals. Have a plan in place if those actions don't help you.
4. Execute your plan.
   Keep an eye on your metrics and redefine your plan as necessary to achieve your goals.

The basics of this blog post came from this infographic on Pinterest. For more details on how to create a social media plan/strategy, check it out here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161214861638319635/

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your social media presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Thursday Tutorial: How to create a Twitter list

I've mentioned several times about creating lists on Twitter. Twitter lists help people to get seen but also help others to see people you follow. Lists can help you sort people into categories based on their type of posts. I have lists for authors, book promoters, social media marketing, gaming and a few other categories. You can promote your lists as part of your tweets as well.

Don't know how to create a list? Well that's what this tutorial is here for.

Login to your Twitter account then look at the top right next to the Tweet button where your Avatar is. Click on your avatar to generate a drop down menu. Click on Lists. This will take you to a Lists page that looks like this:

On the lower right hand side, click on create new list. It will generate a pop-up menu that looks like this:

Fill out the name of the list. The description is optional, but could be handy if you have multiple lists that are similar and want to differentiate them a bit. From there you can chose whether others can see the list you created (public) or if only you can see the list (private). Once done, click "save list" and it will load a page like this:

You can add people to this list by searching for people. The other option is to go back to your profile and go to your Following page, which looks like this:

From here, you can select the little gear icon on anyone you want to add to a list. The gear icon will pop up with these options:

Click on "Add or remove from lists" and the following pop-up window will appear:

Simply put a check mark in the boxes of the lists you want to add them to - yes you can add them to more than one list - and then click on the X and you're done.

However, if you want to create a new list, just click on Create a list. The same image from above for create a list will pop up, complete it and it will return you to this page. You will still have to check mark what lists you want and close out.

Pretty simple!

Enjoy your list making!

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people. Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users. Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind. You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

An Unintended Break

Between the extended holiday and thinking I had an extra week of posts already planned for the second week of September (and ended up only have one post already scheduled), there was an unintentional lapse in posts last week and for that I do apologize.

I try to write a month's worth of posts, or more, at the beginning of each month, the only exception to this being the weekly job listings and the occasional extra shares that appear during the week outside of Fridays or Saturdays.

That being said, if you are looking to pad your resume a bit and would like to help post a second post a few days a week, please contact me. I am looking for an additional poster. It is an unpaid position - just like mine is - but I'll promote your posts as well as mine.

Here's looking forward to regular posts this month and next. Thanks to all my readers and hope everyone has a great week.

Tuesday Tips: Show Restraint

Many people new to social media for their brand make one common mistake: they spread themselves too thin and put their brand on social networks that don't support their brand like it should.

Don't make the same mistake - or if you have made the mistake, now's the time to scale it back. Learn which social media networks your patrons are on then embrace those. In addition, when considering adding new social media networks to your marketing plan, make sure the network will effectively support your brand's promise to your customers as well as your customer's perceptions of the brand. If the network doesn't do these things, don't participate on it.

So the ultimate tip here is, exhibit restraint when you start using social media for your brand. Start with 1-3 social media networks then grow from there if it is appropriate.

Good luck!

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your social media presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Friday Facts: The 3 S's of Social Media Maintenance

Do you know what the three S's of Social Media Maintenance are?  Well the S's are easy:

1. Setup
2. Strategize
3. Schedule

Obviously, there's going to be more to that than just those words, but it's a great thing to remember - you have to set up your social media before you can began strategizing. Once you have your strategizing down, schedule posts.

The infographic, found here https://www.pinterest.com/pin/165296248800925370/ , outlines exactly what you need to do with steps for each S to follow.  It also includes some interesting facts, such as "Blog posts shared on twitter and Facebook receive 149% inbound links than those not shared."

If you're still working on your social media strategy, check this article out.

Wednesday Words: Call to Action (CTA)

Call to Action is a term used by marketers as well as Facebook to call any text, image, etc. that asks the readers to do something.  Calls to Action can include simple things as "Click here for more information" "Enter to Win" "Tell us What you Think?" "Have you ever been in this situation" "Buy this book" etc.

Facebook's Call to Action program allows you to create a specialized Call to Action button that will take the user to whatever you want them to do - go to your Amazon page to buy your books, sign up for your newsletter with a link to the newsletter sign up page etc.

While it may seem simple, writing a call to action in your marketing copy is actually essential to getting your readers to do what you want them to do.  Yes - they may know that they need to go to your website to buy your book or sign up for the newsletter, but if you don't actually include the text and a link to make it easier for them to do it, chances are they won't be bothered to do so.

If you're not sure what your Call to Action should be, figure out what you're wanting to drive users to on your social media. If you want more interaction, things like "Tell us what you think" and open ended questions are a great way to go about it. If you're wanting them to buy your product or sign up for your newsletter, write your copy accordingly. If you're still unsure, check out other brand's social media pages that are similar to yours and see what they are doing, then emulate it.

Good luck!

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Friday Facts: Why Business Owners Don't Embrace Social Media

This article came across my Twitter feed yesterday and I shared it there, but I thought it would be good to share it here too.

Have you been having problems getting your boss (and business owner) to embrace the need for social media? Has he/she been pushing back against it? If so, the reasons why, and how to combat them, may be found in this article.

The biggest hold back (and I've seen this with several companies) is that the people who want to help out with social media don't have a plan. Create the plan first, then talk with the business owner.

Check out the whole article here: http://www.onlinesuperninja.com/why-business-owners-dont-embrace-social-media/

Tuesday Tips: Recycle Old Content

A regular piece of advice is to post content several times a day to your social media networks in an attempt to gain more viewers - or so that those that miss your first post catch a later one. This is good advice but many people think that this means having several new pieces of content on their site to promote every day - which isn't necessarily true.

While new content is helpful, creating several pieces of new content daily, especially if you are a small brand or small blog, is damn near impossible. If I was perfectly honest, I'd say that creating a post a day six days a week is quite trying and I barely manage it some weeks. I manage it poorly on other weeks when my posts aren't scheduled out in advance. Yet, even scheduling in advance, it can be hard to have more than one post available to share daily.

This is where today's tip comes into play: recycling old content.

When I want to drive more content to my site, I will often share old posts via Twitter and Facebook. I'll take a look at what was most popular that week or what was most popular in the last year and retweet those posts with a different post than before.

A lot of recycling content is presenting it with a different wrapping. Instead of just linking it how it appears in Twitter - create a different statement, like "Why is spell check important? Check these tips out?" or "Have you seen the most popular blog post on my site? Check this one out on spell checking." There are many ways to re-present old content.

Alternatively, there are also many ways to rewrite old content. Keep in mind, you definitely do not want to repost the same content over and over again as new content - that kills SEO and unique article rankings in Google and most search engines - but finding new ways to say what you said before is always a great way to drive more traffic to your site.

What are ways that you have recycled content?  Leave your answers below!

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Friday Sharing: Case Study: Target on Pinterest

This won't be a long post today because  I really just want to direct you to the post to read it.

Hello Society recently did a case study Regarding Target on Pinterest. The article breaks down what Target is doing right, what Target could improve upon, as well as pros and cons. The article contains great graphics to illustrate exactly what is right and what could be improved upon as well.

Check out the case study here: https://hellosociety.com/blog/case-study-target-creating-a-bullseye-pinterest-strategy/

If you have a retail store, this article could teach you what to do and not do with your Pinterest brand acccount.

Tuesday Tips: Proof is in the Pudding

We've talked many times in the past that quality content and conversations with current and prospective customers is more important than a large quantity of posts - and this is very true. Today's post talks a bit more about that - with the proof being in the pudding, as the saying goes.

You need to write and share interesting and amazing content that your followers will be inclined to share - either because they like it, found it useful or think others will find it useful.

It is important that if you are making certain claims about your product that you can provide proof of what you are claiming. You also need to establish that your brand is the authority in what you are talking about.

This takes time, but providing consistent, quality posts, images, videos, etc. will eventually establish these factors and help your brand and social media along in the future.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Saturday Sharing: 10 Tips for Twitter Marketing

With more than 271 million users creating more than 500 million tweets a day, if you aren’t using Twitter to promote your brand, your book or your blog, the only question I have is why? Because of it’s size and the mass amount of content, using Twitter can be challenging to anyone new to Twitter, especially with being confined to 140 characters.

CIO Whitepapers offers an ebook titled “10 Things Marketers Should be Doing on Twitter” which promises to teach you what you should be doing to get more retweets, followers and business prospects as well as best business practices for Twitter.

You can acquire the 13 page ebook/whitepaper here: http://research.ciowhitepapers.com/?option=com_categoryreport&task=viewabstract&pathway=no&title=50414&frmurl=http%3a%2f%2fforms.madisonlogic.com%2fForm.aspx%3fpub%3d162%26pgr%3d977%26frm%3d1676%26autodn%3d1%26src%3d10873%26ctg%3d2%26ast%3d50414%26crv%3d0%26cmp%3d16778%26yld%3d0%26clk%3d6160158076151597188%26embed%3d1

Thursday Tutorials: How to Compare Page Performance to Similar Pages

Facebook has a relative easy tool to use to allow brand managers and page owners to easily see how well their posts are doing compared to pages of similar brands. While it requires you to do a little leg work to find similar pages, the information it may provide could be invaluable, especially if you use it to compare 5 other fanpages to your own.

To access this insight, go to the page you own that you want to compare to other pages and click on the Insights option.  That will load this page:

Scroll down to the bottom. This is where you'll find the "Pages to Watch" section. Your page will appear there by default. Click on "Add pages" to pull up the following pop up window.  Please note: if you click anywhere outside the window, it will close, but all you have to do is click on "Add pages' again.

 If you know of a specific page you want to watch, you can type in the name of it and it will help you find it. Otherwise, you can search for topics like I did. I searched for "social media tips" and had the following list shown for pages I could add to watch:

To add a page, simply click on Watch Page. Unfortunately the window completely disappears and you have to redo the search again, but it's not too much of a pain.  Once added, the page you watch is automatically added, based on rank, to your Watched pages section, compared to yours, as seen below.

You can add a total of five pages to your watched pages list. From there you can look into what posts worked well for them and see what you can do to improve your own page's statistics.

Good luck!

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

Wednesday Words: Content Strategy

A lot of what we talk about on this blog has to do with content and using that content to drive sales, website visits, or whatever it is you're looking to get out of social media. We've talked about planning and creating a social media plan. That brings us to today's word: Content Strategy.

Content Strategy is part of creating a social media plan. It helps you define what social media channels to use for your company, what types of content to be shared via what channels as well as a schedule of content production and posting. It is, ultimately, the planning and development of the social media plan which you use to create your shareable content.

What is your content strategy? Have you looked at what social media networks you want to use yet? Have you considered the various types of content and what works best for each network? Do you have a strategy and a plan of action? These are all things to consider when working on your social media plan.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media. These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media. You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.