Maintaining Your Social Media Profiles

After you have you social media profiles up and running, you may forget to pay attention to your profiles. It is easy to do as you are focused on posting, tweeting, and uploading videos. However, in order to maintain a positive image on social media networks a bit of maintenance is required. You need to make sure that you keep your social media profiles up to date at all times.

The social media profile is extremely important, so here are some things that you can do to make sure that you are getting the most out of your profile.

Adhere to Image Size Requirements

If your customer comes to your Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, or other social media page and sees a profile picture that is too large, too small, or out of focus, they are going to get a quick first impression that is not good. Most people will immediately think that if they cannot get their profile picture right, what else are they going to mess up? Make sure that you check the size requirements for each page and keep your photos at that size so they look their best and you make a good first impression.

Social Share Buttons

There is no real way to know the preference of our consumers for sharing content. For this reason, you want to make it as easy as possible for your consumers to share your content on whatever platform that they prefer. Use the buttons for the different social media sites so that if your customer likes Facebook they can share it there, if they want to pin an image to Pinterest, they can do so easily. Remember, you want them to share your information and in order for them to do this, you will need to make it as easy on them as possible.

Descriptions for Upcoming Events

When a person hears about your event on a social network it is important for them to know how to buy tickets or register. When you are creating descriptions for your event make sure that it is clear where the official registration for the event will occur.

Many users may click on the I’m going tab and not have any idea that they actually need to register for the event. Include easy to follow links when you are promoting your company events online.

Keywords

Despite what you may have heard, SEO is not dead and keywords are not a thing of the past. Social profiles are included in search engine results, which mean that your profile should include keyword rich text. The more that a keyword is used in your profile; the more likely you are going to be associated with that keyword on the social media platform. Make sure to use a keyword tool such as Google’s in order to make sure that your business is associated with the appropriate industry keywords.

Encourage Reviews

Remember, social media is all about engaging your consumers. You will want to make sure that you are encouraging your customers to leave reviews about their experiences with your business. They may leave reviews directly on your Facebook page or on other review sites such as Yelp or Urbanspoon.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags, phrases or words that are prefixed with the # symbol provide a way to group messages on social media sites. This is a great way to make your content or event stand out. Your hashtag can be anything from the name of your event to a special promotion to something simple. Make sure that your hashtag is descriptive so that it will keep your followers interested.

Be Real

As your social network communities begin to grow it is easy for your customers to begin to feel as though they have been lost in the crowd. One way to avoid having your consumer’s feel this way is to use their names when you are responding to their comments or questions.

Meta Descriptions and Title Tags

The title tag and Meta description of your blog or business needs to include your business name. If you do not include your name, a person that is searching for you may have difficulty finding you. For example, Whole Foods has a blog called Whole Story. This is a catchy title for their blog, but a person that is searching for it may have difficulty finding it as they do not know to search for that name.

To avoid these problems make sure that your company name is a part of the meta description and title tag for your blog so people that are searching for your business can find it easily.

Optimize Your Presence on Social Media

Just as you optimize your website for your business, you also need to optimize each of your social media sites. Businesses may add new social profiles at different times, which make it easy to create different profiles that are not cohesive.

It is important to make sure that your social media presence is optimized. If you are just starting out, focus on one social media outlet at a time. Facebook is typically one of the easier social media sites to set up. When you are ready to move on to one of the others, make sure that the information that you are providing is similar in style and format on all of the other platforms that you create.

Your bio’s and profiles should be kept up to date at all times. Make sure that you complete each of the profiles and clean them up as necessary. A clear and concise description of your business, your logo, and the URL of your website should always be included.

Put a regular housekeeping check on your calendar. Once a month or so make sure that you check all of your social media profiles to keep the logos, images, and information up to date.

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Powerful Personal Branding Tips to Take You from Digital Zero to Social Media Hero

I don’t know about you, but I like to know who I’m doing business with.

I always appreciate when I know a little about the owner of a business and not just the business name—it helps me feel more comfortable about spending money with someone if I can see that they are who they say they are.

But personal branding isn’t just for the business owner—in the digital age, it’s for everyone, even your grandmother!

Tim Ferriss, Author of the 4-Hour Work Week has this to say about your personal brand:

“Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name. Going to a job interview? Ditto.”

The point is, your info is out there, whether you’re aware of it or not. You can let it sit out there, looking good or looking bad on its own…

Or you can take control of it.

Your personal brand doesn’t just encompass your professional work it is anything related to you—online and offline.

Ready to take control? Here are 3 helpful tips so you can start building your own personal brand:

1. Google Your Name And See What Comes Up

This is step numero uno. If you have no idea what your name is associated with, you need to find out now.

Your name could be associated with nothing.

Or, you could share a name with a famous tiger-taming comedic actress in sweden.

But if you don’t check, you’ll never know.

Once you know what’s out there, you can work on influencing it. I find value in having a Google+ profile because it allows me to have a little more influence on what Google displays about me and how it displays that information.

And since Google is not only where most people start researching you, but also the place where you have the least control, any method of influencing it should interest you.

Did you know that you can set an alert on Google for your name and even your business? Sh-yeah, neato!

That way, when something new is posted online, like a news article (or a Facebook post that went viral for all the wrong reasons), you will get a notification #ThanksGoogle.

2. Develop Your Personal Mission Statement

Every successful company has a mission statement—something they strive to do or be.

At Blue Steele Solutions, our mission is to help small businesses grow, be more efficient, and perform like the big guys!

My personal mission is to make an impact in and through the areas I care about most: family, community, and marketing.

Ready to write your own mission statement? Start by asking yourself, “What do I want to be known for?“ Create a word cloud by writing down all the words you want to be associated with you.

Then, start putting these words into short phrases, little sound bites about you. Finally, write a sentence. Keep it short and sweet. Use strong verbs and focus on what you want to do and how you want to do it.

3. Get Digital

Part of building a personal brand is building and nurturing connections—and one place to start is with friends and family.

Guys, there are so many tools we can use to update our friends, family, and network about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Letting the people around know what’s going on with you is a great way to start networking (and be a part of your community at the same time!)

Social media is a great place to start, but that’s not the only marketing tool available to you. Building a personal website is awesome, but you have to know what you’re doing—you don’t want to build some junky weebly website that reflects poorly on you. The personal website might be something you put together down the road with the help of an expert.

In the meantime, you can use a few simple digital tools to tell your circles about the initiatives in your life that are in line with that “personal mission statement” you just made. Here are a few of my favorites:

MailChimp

MailChimp allows you to create newsletters and deploy them to your email contacts at no cost. That’s right! Free-gratis-frei!

Consider creating a monthly or maybe even quarterly newsletter—this helps you foster a sense of community and also keeps you in their minds for that mission you’re trying to achieve. That way, when an opportunity arises that falls in line with your mission, you’ll be the first person they call, and not the last.

LinkedIn

If you’re a professional and you’re not on LinkedIn, literally what are you doing with your life? Get on there!

LinkedIn is a necessity for a business professional (or anyone that thinks they will one day be looking for a job).

And unless you’re independently wealthy or have a secret trust fund I don’t know about, that’s basically everyone.

Your LinkedIn profile should incorporate your personal mission statement in some aspect, but it’s more than that.

It is a catalog of all your successes—like a digital resume. You can show off all the fun organizations you’re involved in and a listing of all the people that you have networked with. Instead of keeping a drawer filled with business cards (and facing the nightmare of sorting through them), LinkedIn sorts everything nicely for you—and it’s free!

Plus, LinkedIn’s publishing capability allows you to create posts in blog form to share with the online community. If you’re not ready to make your personal website just yet, LinkedIn publishing is a great place to start.

These Are Just Beginnings—Your Ultimate Goal Should Be A Website

At the end of the day, you have something of value that you want to share with people. Your business card, your social media posts, and your LinkedIn posts all should point somewhere—to one place that people can find out what you’re really about—and that’s your website.

If you’re in the beginning stages of building your personal brand, the website might be far in the future, but it should always be the ultimate goal.

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How Many Consider Blogging As a Form Of Social Media? [Infographic]

If you thought that blogging was different from social media, it’s time to think again.

It’s not just about writing

Successful blogs converse with their readers, just like you would do on social media (if you’re using it correctly, of course!).

That may sound a little harsh, but I see plenty of unknowing businesses use both blogging and social media as marketing tools, as somewhere to advertise their services or products. They think a blog is a vehicle to showcase their business’s wares and social media is another place to publicise the links back to their blog.

For years I thought this was what you should do. So don’t be too hard on those who have yet to understand what social media is all about.

I wanted to know what it was that made successful bloggers and businesses successful, so I lurked, listened, watched and read until I got it!

Make sure it’s relevant

You can always spot when a copywriter is trying too hard. They miss the point. They waste the most important part of the post, the first 100 words, with total drivel that has no relationship or representation with the remainder of the post.

For example, one young, inspirational marketing chap likened writing blog posts to missing socks and black holes. What the…? Sorry, but I can’t find any connection there. And I also can’t see how his readers are going to appreciate him talking about his laundry or his sky-at-night activities in relation to the subject of blogging.

You can be conversational without being an idiot. Maybe I just don’t get the sock and space thing, being a middle aged woman and not a 20-something male. But surely there are other ways of gaining your reader’s attention?

Record your conversation

In the Infographic above I referred to your post as a transcription of your conversation with your ideal reader. For years I have talked to myself in mirrors, or driving home from events in my car. Yes, I know the men in white coats are just waiting in the wings for a chance to pounce and wheel me away. But these antics have held me in good stead when it comes to writing posts.

I type what I hear in my head. I am actually talking to you now through my fingers on the keyboard (yes, all of them!). It is important for me to type in silence, and not have distracting noises in my vicinity. Otherwise I won’t be able to hear the conversation generated by my brain. And over the years I have learned to type fast enough to accommodate my train of thought as it materializes.

This is because I have noticed the bloggers who do have a large audience write their posts in the same vein. They talk to their readers. They focus on their readers’ desires, deliver what they want, make an effort to position themselves in their readers’ shoes.

These bloggers are aware of the WIIFT (what’s in it for them) scenario, and produce their content accordingly. If there is any reference to themselves, it is produced in a way their readers can relate to it, imagine themselves in the same situation, appreciate the human element of sharing a story.

Similar to socializing

If you want to see good examples of writing conversations, then look no further than on social media. The space constraints either forces or induces people to ‘speak’ in their updates (I have yet to work out which one is applicable). And this ‘speaking’ thing is so attractive, it generates a similar response using the same style.

Nobody appreciates a bore. Those with awkward social skills do less well in parties. Whereas garrulous people tend to be popular, especially if they are entertaining and worth listening to.

But we know it is a skill to say stuff that people like and want to hear. Some of us may never master it properly. Some may become more successful through writing rather than verbally expressing themselves. But whatever system is best for you, it needs to be incorporated into how your write your posts.

And it doesn’t have to be writing, either. One hypnotherapist lamented to me that she found writing in her blog was becoming increasingly difficult. I quickly analysed what it was that made her popular: her lovely Scottish burr and her natural way of talking. It was obvious she needed to adapt her blog into an audio one. A quick explanation in how to create podcasts resulted in a fabulous series of recordings and several new clients to boot.

Eliminate the boredom

Many a time have I started to read a blog post, only to be put off by the boringness of the writing. It may have contained the most fabulous content, but I never got that far.

Blog posts that drone on, either in a jargonized corporate style, or with longwinded sentences, never do anyone any favors. In today’s world readers don’t have time to sit through a thesis, they want immediate impact. They will respond better to being hit between the eyes with the subject, solution, sensational statement or whatever. Don’t make them search for what they are looking for.

Think about the kind of words you are using. Would they be what you would normally use when talking to someone? Remember to include explanations for anything difficult that you would do for someone who doesn’t understand your subject well. Never assume every reader is at your intellectual level. But you don’t want to put them off. You never know who they are and what they might do to help you, once they have properly understood what you are writing about.

Also, are your sentences constructed in a way that resembles natural speaking? This is not easy to do, hence why I suggest having a conversation inside your head and then transposing it onto the page. You may have to abandon what you have been taught in your English grammar lessons at school. Speaking is not the same as essay writing.

Social media restraint

Social media doesn’t offer much room in their updates. Therefore what you write in them tends to be short. And conversation is also comprised of short sentences. Plus, you repeat many words rather than making an effort to find a different one that has the same meaning.

It is the ping-pong style that can be attractive. The to-ing and fro-ing of a repartee. There is no reason why you can’t replicate this within your posts. Even if it is one-sided – you need to imagine the kind of responses you will get, and incorporate this into what you write.

Social media can be seen as restricting for some writers. It’s much easier to create a blog post rather to limit yourself to 140 characters. Actually, one of the things about tweeting my mother loved so much was being forced to condense what she was going to say into a short, punchy missive. And I find this an exciting challenge too. But unfortunately you can’t fit all of your blog post into a single tweet.

The answer is to use social media to provide amuse-bouche for your potential readers. Tantalising tasters of your blog post to stimulate curiosity, desire and a must-have scenario. Perfect for short communication. Ideal for short attention spans. Great for practising your attention-grabbing tactics.

Use social media as a lever

Social media and blogging go hand in hand through conversation. But they also can collaborate together to drive more readers back to your blog.

This involves setting up the means to attract, entice and persuade your social media followers to click on a link to your latest blog post. Either write a headline for the post that is so wonderful it cannot be ignored, or instigate an introduction or discussion around the post’s subject. The former is attraction, and therefore instantaneous; the latter is social interaction, and requires some work from you.

I nearly put an image in my Infographic that would have been a pile of dung. Nearly. I was tempted. This stems from the phrase ‘dump and leave’, which is often seen as a result of automated RSS systems of sharing posts on social media, or by the uninformed that don’t understand the power of engagement.

Conversations make the world go round. They are also good at stimulating persuasion. A cold statement will generate very little results. You need to ‘warm up’ your readers, get them on your side, allow them to find out more about you and therefore to know, like, and trust you.

Don’t forget the ‘social’ bit

Social networking happens on social media. Networking is about making friends, gaining contacts, increasing your profile. Social is about talking, having conversations, exchanging ideas, commenting on what others have said.

Blogs are at a disadvantage in that they can’t accommodate the ‘real-time’ commenting facilities social media has. Okay, there are plugins that ‘show’ any interactions you may have had on other social media platforms, but it’s not the same as having a proper conversation, seeing the response immediately and being able to reply accordingly.

But blogs allow writers to say a lot more than they can within social status updates. Therefore it is imperative to make the necessary connections on social media, warm up your crowd, get them on your side, and only then introduce them to what you have written on your blog. Let’s hope that then they will succumb to the ‘old ways’ and happily leave a comment under your post, which will probably remain there for as long as the blog is active.

This, dear reader, especially if you have got to here (fabulous, thank you so much!) is a hint to leave me a comment. Are you going to oblige?

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