Social Media Mistakes, Instagram Marketing, Hashtags and MORE! – October’s Best

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October

For me, October has always been the lead-up to the mad dash into the holiday season, kicking off with Halloween and charging forward from there. We have your holiday plans and processes for your business in place (I hope….) and are executing on them. There’s ALWAYS room to gain a bit more insight into what you can do better (or stop doing, if that’s the case..) when it comes to your digital marketing efforts. This set of “The Best Of…” articles is selected with those objectives in mind. Enjoy , along with some of that left-over candy you have lying about……

Social Media Mistakes

Social Media Mistakes

Sometimes you make a little mistake online, and your customers and audience “forgive” it….however there are some things that you should avoid at all costs. Here are twelve of them…..

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Social Media Do’s and Don’ts, Ensuring a Cohesive Team, and a Better You – Best of September

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Autumn

Autumn is Officially Here!

September brought more content about social media and website success, and how to keep up the continuous improvement process that is your business and your own professional growth!

Social Media Mistakes

Social Media Mistakes

Every single one of these mistakes is avoidable AND crucial to a vital social media presence for your business. Knowing WHAT NOT TO DO is just as important as knowing WHAT TO DO!

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Social Media, Engagement and Talking to the Right People – Best of August

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Fires and a Smoke-Storm

Fires and a Smoke-Storm

Well, summer’s ALMOST a “wrap!” Being stuck inside for the “smoke-storm” here in the Seattle area this past month (“cough, cough….”), I got to spend a lot of time online gathering the best articles for you all. You will note they don’t focus on a particular platform or service, but more so on social media overall, content, and how small businesses best grow engagement online.

Engagement

Engagement

The fact that you probably don’t have full-time staff to manage your social and digital media marketing doesn’t need to hamstring your effectiveness. Right-sized resources (especially time..) and the right kind of assistance can really help you get your efforts to pay off. This article hands you so top level tips to implement, and you don’t even have to stay up all night!

Social Media Platform

Social Media Platform

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INTERVIEW: Social Sapiens and the Seattle Shrimp Tank!

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Seattle Shrimp Tank pros and Me (Social Sapiens)

Seattle Shrimp Tank pros and Me (Social Sapiens)

I was asked recently to be interviewed on a podcast (of and for entrepreneurs and business owners…) of which I have been aware and have listened to a few times. Most of my familiarity with the content and tone of it, however, derived from my relationship with one of the co-hosts, Dan Weedin. Dan is a colleague, friend and fellow Rotarian, so familiarity bred a bit of lowered attention on my part, I admit.

Dan called recently and asked me if I would like to be interviewed for the Seattle Shrimp Tank podcast. It sounded like a load of fun, so I agreed.

Some of the things we talked about include:
  • Where did social media start, what’s going on with it today, and where is it going? (the short version!)
  • What is the importance of thinking about business goals, plans and strategies when considering digital marketing and hiring an expert to help?
  • How important is it to learn how to express yourself well online? What is the balance of listening, asking powerful questions, and understanding in developing an authentic and powerful online presence?
  • What else is there other than the “usual suspects” of social media (like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Yelp, Instagram, Pinterest and the like)? Is there more there?
  • What’s the right frequency to post online?
…and so much more. Check out the whole podcast here, and the shorter video follow-up here. We covered a lot of great questions and concerns.

If this interview brought up other questions for you about your business and professional presence online, please reach out to me and also look for some other information that’s relevant to you on my site here.

Engagement and Choosing the Right Platform – Best of July

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Engagement

How’s Your Audience Engagement Coming Along?

July always feels like the mid-point for summer…the home for vacations, cook-outs, and many more outdoor activities (especially here in the Pacific Northwest…) than the rest of the year! There’s still the constant tsunami of articles and tips online, though, holiday or not! July’s compilation is weighted towards engagement online, assessing the right platform and service for your digital marketing efforts, video tools, and taking a bit of that “sunshine time” to practice thinking for the benefit of your business and your life.
"Follow Us" = Engagement?

“Follow Us” = Engagement?

How frequently you post, how relevant your posts are to your audience (based on you research…), how many clicks and likes you get….it’s all empty until you can really “engage” with you audience. That’s the point of a lot of social media content and your presence…so how do you DO that? Here are some great tips, delivered in a very helpful infographic, to help you!

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Practicing Thinking

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Thinking

Thinking

Before you can truly get to clear communication, you need to have clear thinking. 

Neither of these “just happens” because you want it to. Generally, neither of these comes complete “right out of the box”. Our society and education system do not directly reward clear thought or effective communication. An excellent education teaches you how to think, not necessarily what to think, or what bits to repeat back when asked on a test. Learning to communicate clearly can’t take place outside an environment where you can, or need, to communicate. Being around others and learning the basics is a start, but the real learning takes place when you have to express an idea or story to someone who doesn’t have the same background or beliefs you do. This makes you shelve your assumptions. Then you have to make sure that the words and phrases you use are understood the way you use them.

This is very, very hard to do.

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Confronting All Those Challenges – Best of June

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Challenges

One of many challenges

This month’s top articles consider a number of challenging “How-To’s”. Overcoming challenges of content marketing, social media, strategy and your business website. Also considered are the opportunities hidden in business trends and becoming more productive by loosening up on your to-do lists.

Social Media Top Challenges

Social Media Top Challenges

Social media has been around long enough for there to have some settled challenges for businesses, regardless of size and scale. Read on to discover what they are, and some ideas on addressing them so you can be more successful in this central component of your digital marketing.

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Productivity and the Space Beyond the Hand

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The Space Beyond the Hand

The Space Beyond the Hand

How do you stay on top of all the things you have to do?

Productivity systems and books. To-do lists / apps, daily planners and date books. I have used and tried a good number of these over the years in a effort to get a better grip on “getting stuff done”, which is the goal of almost all of us these days. We read about the “5 Things the Most Successful People Do Everyday”. We try out yet another focus / productivity tool or app, attend workshops on time management / prioritization, and make lists of lists. So much of what we do feels like busy-work, even if it isn’t.

I’ve been thinking about this topic lately, especially in the context of “wasted time” or “wasted effort”, the definition of “productivity” and the holistic truth of our lives. One of the works that came to mind is the book Slack by Tom DeMarco.  I read it a couple of times after I first got it 14 years ago, in the context of working for a large corporation, and now I return for consideration in the context of being an entrepreneur approaching, one hopes in the next several years, something that looks like retirement.

There are a lot of things to be said for getting the numerous things you need to get done for your business and you life “gotten down” someplace. The nature of our lives today is information-driven, and the resulting tsunami of stuff to get done and make headway upon is generally too much to try and hold in your head without dropping a bunch of them along the way. I know several people who have cascading lists…that is, lists of lists….YIKES!

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Not the neighbor I was expecting….

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The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan

Just before Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, he was asked “Who is my neighbor?” The reason this question arose was because that same person had asked Jesus a question about how to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” The man answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus told him that he’d answered correctly and encouraged him to “do this, and you will live.” Then came the “clarifying question” about the identity of his neighbor and the parable followed.

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Social Media Blunders and Challenges, GDPR, and Just Keeping Up – Best of May

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Best of May

Best of May

The month of May provided a bumper crop of great articles, and this is a concise digest of the best ones for your business!  They touch on meeting the challenges of social media marketing, as well as the things to avoid, the impact that the GDPR might have on your business, and how to keep up with the constant changes and new information available almost every minute (without going nuts…).

Blunders

OOPS!

It’s just as important to learn and know what NOT to do as it is to pick up the best practices….in many cases these kinds of tips have been gained by, shall we say, “learning the hard way!” Take advantage of others’ hard lessons and make the right moves.

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