Which wagon? Oh, the blog writing wagon. I enjoy writing blogs and sharing information with all of you. Sometimes I dig in and write one with just one little idea that suddenly pops into my head. Other times, I struggle with them. One thing that really bogs me down with blogging though is the editing. I spend way too much time “polishing” them. And this past week during my travels, the last thing on my mind was blogging! And perhaps there is some meaning behind all that.
Maybe it’s time to stop blogging. Maybe it’s time to write that book on blogging I've been thinking about crafting for the past two years. Maybe it’s time to concentrate more on Groovy Reflections and give it more of my attention. The radio station and creating my show already takes up a LOT of time besides all the the other tasks related to it. Oh, and marketing clients get in the way too. Uh, NOT! I enjoy growing my client’s businesses very much! For the past few months I've been thinking of shutting down my MODern Marketing 4 U / ModlandUSA Facebook page. Facebook doesn't share my posts with anyone so what’s the point of having it? On the other hand, the page on Google+ is doing very well! And I continue to find myself drifting more and more towards tasks that utilize my right brain. Have I really fallen off the wagon? Or am I at a fork in the road?
Would love to hear from some of you when you've had to take a hard look at the all the things that mean most to you and when to shift priorities. Perhaps I'll take Yogi Berra's advice.
Hadn't really poked around much to see what kind of tools there are out there to assist you with your Instagram account. So I googled away and found the “InstaTrain” that promised tons of followers in seconds! Suspecting that this was a setup similar to “Seed” for Twitter (is that even still around?), I investigated: Board the train! Become a VIP! Do not miss out on our summer discount! You know the old saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?” Uh huh.
So here’s how it works. You can get on the train for free by tweeting or posting kudos for Instatrain or you can pay to be a VIP and get “hundreds/thousands” of followers after going through a few easy steps. Then, you “board the train”. You may have to wait a couple minutes and the countdown builds up the excitement. Then it happens…All Aboard! And it’s true! For free, you WILL get “instant” followers. Wow, huh? Ah wait a minute; there’s a punchline, right? Yep. My feed was immediately filled with: Young girls snapping photos of themselves, phone in hand, messages in Arabic, photos that weren’t exactly high quality, “colorful” language, poor use of English, and need I go on? I also noticed that a majority of my new follower’s handles had a “_” in it @iam_kayy is one example. Then there were a bunch that boasted their intelligence by their names: @wakyweirdo @xogeniuss @butburnasinner. My followers went up rapidly. Now, I only had about 190 followers and suddenly it was 230! Wow! Then, as soon as the followers built up, the number started going down again; deflating by half within minutes. Folks, if you've ever checked out Seed, it works the same way. The question is: Do you really need these people? Big thumbs down here. My suggestion is that you build your followers by finding people who post photos that you enjoy. Simple as that! You can find them through your friends, through hashtags, or as links from other social networks. Now, back to the mini-mess I made for myself: Luckily, you can clean up very easily with the Friend or Follow for Instagram! Didn't know it existed; had used the version for Twitter in the past! They give you three views:
Following: The ones you follow that don't follow you back. Was surprised that several of my friends were not following me back (well okay, some appear to not be active on Instagram!).
Fans: They follow you and you aren't following back.
Friends: The feeling is mutual.
Sigh of relief: Was able to clean up my account in a jiffy! I highly recommend this tool! Wish they had a version for Pinterest! In the early 90's The Farm sang about a train that we really like; a groovy train! If you need groovy strategy for your business, visit us at ourwebsite, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Have you ever created an event in Facebook? Sure, I've been invited to events hundreds of times, however, this was something new for me and I couldn't wait to finally test out that feature! Case in point: For my other endeavor, Groovy Reflections Radio I've been creating events for the first original show rolled out, My Front Porch. It's a show about folk music that has lots of humor (and song of course!). Since there are 16,000+ fans on the Groovy Reflections Facebook page, I thought that having an "event" for the radio program would make sense since there's an instant audience with fans who would be interested in the show!
Boy, was I wrong. While a page can create an event, a page cannot directly invite people to the event! Interesting huh? It has to do with spammers taking advantage of that feature. Well, okay. So I need to "join" and then invite my friends! That feels spammy to me so I try not to invite the same people all the time. The show is broadcast three times a week, thus three events a week.
However, over the past few weeks of observing the response to the events, I noticed something interesting. Very few people actually SEE the posts made on the page about the event. Facebook is holding out on us; they want us to pay! For the most part, I've been including the URL to the event in those posts to make it easy for people to join the event which could be the trigger for Facebook to "slam on the brakes" as far as sharing the post goes.
Here's a recent invite. The snip is from about one hour after the post. A total of 249 people saw the post (out of 16,500 fans on the page). That's not many eyeballs!
About 45 minutes later I made another post. No URL, no invite. Just copy. In a very short time frame (in this case under a half hour), the post was seen by well over 1,000 people, more than four times as many that saw the previous post!
What's up with THAT, Facebook?
For the record: This little experiment has been conducted several times, all with the same results. And what have we learned?
DO post about your events without links as well as with them to get the word out.
Post about your events several times! Only a small percentage of fans will see the information about your event at any given time; they may be offline when you post and/or Facebook is sharing your post to just a few of your fans via the newsfeed. Post during different times of the day as well.
Don't be discouraged if only a handful of people reply. We're all getting bombarded with information nowadays; and you may get tuned out.
Facebook should not be your only source for announcing events. Utilize other social networks such as Twitter and Google+.
Create eye catching artwork for your event and a great name for your event! In my example above I used the theme of the show rather than the actual name of the show: "Viagra, Bananas, and Knees" sounds more intriguing compared to "My Front Porch"! Speaking of that fine fruit, Harry Belafonte sang about bananas long ago. Peel back those social media layers and create a smooth, tasty strategy! No need to go bananas! Stop by our website, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Move over Tweet-up; there’s a new IRL meeting in town! And why not? Since Vine opened up the app to android users, they're exploding with fresh activity. Thrilled to say I attended what could very well be the first Vine-up in my little corner of the world. Oh, just a handful of us in attendance. Okay by me; this made it easy to converse and exchange ideas.
The app is so simple which makes it difficult. I had to ask someone how to begin making a video! After pressing the little movie camera icon, I couldn't find anything to press to get the video started; where IS that button?
Turns out there isn't one. Put your finger on the pic and Vine takes off! Keep it there for six seconds or try stop motion by lifting your finger up and putting it down again. The hosts for this vine-up were promoting the shopping center where the Vine-up was held. We all made Vine vids about the center and added the shopping center’s hashtag cinematic creations before posting. Towards the end of the meeting we all reviewed each other’s videos and had some really good laughs! What a fun concept, right? There were prizes too. Our hosts also provided beverages (they brought them) and appetizers from one of the local restaurants. Nice! Some of the folks there were already following each other on Twitter so it made the in real life experience all the more special. A couple of things I've learned. The android app and the IOS app are not exactly the same. Therefore, friends of android, much of what is already written in blogs and articles on how to use Vine may not apply to you. Suggestion to those who have blogged about Vine prior to the android release; go back and make it clear that you are discussing IOS. Was trying to figure out how to share a Vine post to Twitter after you've already shared the post only to Vine. For IOS, it’s crystal clear; tap on the three dots under the post and there is a share option. For android, that option isn't there! Sigh. Since I deleted my posts to Twitter that I made yesterday during the Vine-up I’m not able to share them here on the blog at the moment! However, in the meantime, here’s some flax blowing in the wind:
Explore people and have fun with Vine! Lene Lovich sang about new toys in this song over 30 years ago. We don’t play games with your social media strategy! Stop by our website, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
There used to be an easier way. You could go to a section of your profile where they were all listed without icons or any additional information and rapid fire zap them away. That option appears to be gone now; possibly because of all of the other changes with the newsfeed and everything else. The developers at Facebook have turned their attention elsewhere for now. Oh, the times they are a changin’! What to do? You could go to every single page, one by one, and unlike them that way. Oh, what a pain! The good news (hey, you knew I had to put a positive spin on this, right?) is that there is a slightly easier way. Here we go: Click on activity log on the wall of your personal profile (it's near the bottom of your cover art) Using mine as an example here.
Click "like" on the left side of the page. Then click pages and interests. Directly to the right you'll get a list, starting with the most recent page you liked and going back in time. And you thought I was going to show you all my likes, right? Nope! If you hover over the name on the left side a pop-up appears with the icon and cover art of the page.
See near the bottom where it says "liked"? Hovering over that word gives you lots of options: Get Notifications, Show in News Feed, Settings, Add to Interest Lists, and Unlike. This is where you make the big choice! Note: In this example I'm hovering over the name of my sister page, Groovy Reflections. Rest assured that I won't be unliking that page! DO think about the implications of unliking a page: Does it belong to a friend of yours? Was it a "like for like" therefore you risk losing a "fan"?
And yes, this is a time consuming endeavor. If you have hundreds of pages to rummage through, go through a small chunk to unlike or keep per day (maybe choose to show in news feed?). Spend about five to ten minutes so it's not too painful. Maybe Facebook will introduce a new way to maintain your liked pages eventually. One can only hope. On a brighter note, The Romantics "liked" you in their big hit tune (see below). Feel free to "like" us and drop by our by our website, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Do you sometimes feel that you're over promoting your product or service on various social networks to the point that you're putting your fan base at risk? I've felt that ever since the launch of a new service, an internet radio station from my other endeavor, Groovy Reflections, since the get go. I needn’t be worrying though. Oh sure, I posted about it on my personal profile on Facebook and Google+ a few times, maybe three times on Facebook and about ten times on Google+. No one unfriended or uncircled me. I even got a few likes on it; perhaps because I included fun artwork with it. Of course, I've been promoting relentlessly (or so I thought) on the Groovy Reflections Facebook and Google+ pages. The radio station launched on May 6. It’s been well over a month since we've been broadcasting already! Surprisingly, most of the fans aren't aware of the radio station! Here I am thinking I may be overdoing it, yet comments like in the example below keep coming up:
And this was after the radio station had been around for about five weeks! Have dozens more examples like this one. Lesson learned: Don't be afraid of letting your fans know about your product or service. If it’s too much for them, they'll leave (thus they weren’t true fans in the first place) or they'll complain (hopefully it won't come to that; hasn’t happened to me yet). As it stands now, promos on the pages go out about three times a day. That feels comfortable to me. On average, the Groovy Reflections page has about thirty-two posts a day on Facebook (yes, it is a very busy page!), thus making the promotional posts just under 10%. On Google+, it’s a little higher since there’s about half the number of posts there compared to Facebook. The audiences on the two social networks differ; the Facebook is U.S. centric, while Google+ is more global. Take that into consideration when posting as well; who do you want to respond to your promotional posts? Where are they physically located and is that relevant to your business? Another element to ponder is the timing of the posts. You do want to catch “the morning crowd”; the ones who are breezing their timeline before running off to work, the lunch crowd taking a peek before or after catching a meal, and the evening crowd. Which raises yet another point; these people are busy! They are scanning quickly to catch relevant posts, perhaps eating while doing so, and doing other things like watching TV. The likelihood of their catching your promotional posts goes way down when your fans are multi-tasking their lives away! Do use some eye catching artwork that will slow their scanning down!
In 1978, The Sports asked the musical question “Who Listens to the Radio?” (See below). Hope you do! If you dig everything 60’s and 70’s, tune in here. And if your social media efforts need a "tune-up", stop by our website, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Okay, there are many things that could be classified as a no no when posting or tweeting. If I listed them all in one neat place, maybe you'd spend five seconds looking at the list and perhaps you'd absorb one or two on the list. Makes more sense to give you just ONE instead. So, here we go. If you are the proud owner or administrator of multiple accounts, don't do this:
Yes, it’s not one, not two, but THREE tweets at the same time. And yes, I heard your question: “Why not?” While I could give you a lengthy boring list, here are just a few items that come to mind:
It’s spammy.
It looks bad, plain and simple.
You run the risk of being unfollowed because you look bad!
It’s confusing to your tweeps.
It doesn't demonstrate professionalism thus potentially harming your reputation.
Enough. You get the idea. And for the record, I had no desire to click on the link on these tweets! If you MUST tweet your message out several times using several different accounts (note this surely applies to two accounts and multiple posting on any given social network), DO use a tool such as HootSuite so that you can easily space out the tweets or posts! Ironically, the example above shows an incorrect way to use HootSuite!
Or, use your egg timer to post or tweet “live” at different intervals! Just kidding. In the 70’s Grand Frank Railroad sang about bad timing (see below). Okay, they were singing about romance, however we think you’ll just love our offerings and you’re welcome to visit our website, or say hello on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Go to your wall, or profile page, or whatever you want to call it.
Click on “Friends” just under your cover art, in that row of options in blue.
Click the edit button (see pic below)
Select Edit Privacy (we'll get to Edit Sections later). Two options in there.
The first section is Friend Lists. Click on the drop down on the right.
Now you get to choose an option! Public, Friends, Only Me, Custom, or any lists you’ve created. Setting to Only Me will hide your friend’s list with the exception of the mutual friends you have in common; they’ll still be visible.
The second section is Following. This is where you control whether or not you want people to see that you are following a particular person (if they are a more “public” person you can follow instead of friend) or any lists that you’re following. Edit Sections will bring a long list of items; these are the things you can choose to show or not to show on your wall, including Instagram pics, Pinterest pins, and likes in catagories such as books, games, TV show, movies. It may be a great time to hide all those old “notes”, like the 25 songs chosen at random from your ipod or how many states you visited; remember those? Now that your friends are “secret” we know that The Go-Go’s won’t tell a soul (see video below). And our lips are sealed when we conduct custom marketing for your business; being ethical is a given. Stop by our our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
I was recently pulled into a group on Facebook; the primary intention is to get more “likes” for the pages of small business owners. We'll all “like” each other’s pages and then we'll have lots of fans! Would you believe that I don't want your “likes”? It’s true. I don't need fans that are never going to pay any attention to what I have to say. What’s the point? So go ahead and “like” a bunch of pages that you have no interest in and get back a lot of empty “likes” in return. The ratio between “likes” and “talking about this” for your page will deteriorate even further. Is that what you want? A long time ago I read that the average “talking about this” was around 3% to 4%. That’s pitiful! Facebook doesn't make it easier since they only show your page to a very low percentage of fans. Who do you really want to “like” your page? Think about it:
People who have a genuine interest in your product or service
People who will engage with your posts
People that fit your demographic target
Of course you know all that already; it’s in your marketing plan! What? No marketing plan. Okay perhaps it is time to write one! Oh and for the record I'll stick with the Facebook group. It was created by a friend. I'm hoping to turn things around in there a bit and have people share their social media issues, frustrations, and questions and have intelligent discussions instead. Sadly, it appears to have turned into a sales bulletin board "buy my cupcakes!" "I make handicrafts" etc. No people, this is not what it's all about about! Dan Fogelberg sang about plans back in the 70’s (see below); how are your plans going? If you need any assistance with your strategic plans and marketing needs, stop by our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. There's no obligation to "like", "follow", or "+1".
Recently saw an article about DKNY using photos without permission. Perhaps it was an honest mistake; who knows? They offered a street photographer $15,000 for use of 300 photos. The offer was turned down in hopes for more money. However, DKNY had been using the photos internally "for inspiration". A few leaked out and wound up in a display at a store in Bangkok. DKNY made a public statement and pledged $25,000 to the YMCA. A noble gesture. However, if they would have offered the photographer a more reasonable price for the photos in the first place, this never would have happened! On my Facebook Groovy Reflections page some time ago, we posted a picture of teen girls at a high school gym class in the early 1960's. This photo brought a lot of discussion because of the uniforms the girls wore. So much so, that several months later, we decided to post the photo again. We used a viewer, Jeffrey’s Exif, to check the copyright of the photo before using it. There was none. However, this time when the photo was posted we heard from the photographer and he was not happy! He told us that he does put a copyright in the photo information. And yes, it’s possible to strip that information from a photo. We provided our source to him so that he could inform them of the misuse. About a year ago, I was contacted by Huffington Post; they wanted to use one of my photos showing advertising on a banana that they found in a blog I wrote. They ultimately decided not to use the photo; however, I was happy to grant them permission. I had used that photo for an article about finding advertising in odd places. For the record, I rarely use photos I find on the web and if I do, I credit them if there is any manner of copyright, though it’s unlikely I would use them at all in that case. My photo library of original material has thousands of photos in it and there’s no issues there. Most of the time, I put a watermark on them; it’s highly unlikely that someone will crop it or remove it. From time to time I take photos of pictures that are in out of print books. A favorite is a Vogue 1960’s coffee table book. Besides my watermark I add the source of the photo; just to play it safe! Likewise with catalogs; I own several vintage Sears catalogs. You know, the "bricks" with hundreds of pages that shows how we lived in the Sixties, what we wore, what our appliance looked like, and the furniture in our homes. Interestingly enough, Sears started following the Groovy Reflections Pinterest board on Sears fashions! If I'm misusing those photos in any way Sears, let me know, okay? I certainly hope you feel that this is a positive extension to your brand! In closing, take caution when using photos. As you read in my personal example, it’s easy to make a mistake! And to the corporations: Give the photographer what he or she deserves! Photography is an art and capturing that moment in the highest quality and at the best angle involves hard work and talent! The Clash had a successful cover version of a reggae tune back in the late 70's that spoke of authority and those who steal (see below). Don't get robbed by an "expert" marketer; for honest, experienced marketing visit our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Ever feel like your social media efforts are weighing you down? I sure do! So I thought up a way to make some changes. Just created a little spreadsheet starting with a list of all the social media accounts that I have, both personal and for business, and the list includes just the ones that are active. The count? Eleven major social networks with 15 business accounts and 7 personal ones. The personal accounts may be related to my businesses to some degree but only slightly (say less than 20%). That’s a LOT of accounts to handle! No; wait a minute! It is insanity! And it explains why my days get bogged down at times. Putting it “in writing” brought things into focus.
A big thumbs down! Ah, but a spreadsheet is really useless without data. A list has been created and nothing more. A little birdie tells me that I've been checking these accounts all too often because they’re checked on a whim; kind of like an “ooh ah! I haven’t checked that one in a while!” Need to add some structure! Time to put in some columns. How ‘bout times of the day? I put them in intervals of 2 hours, starting with 7AM …on second thought, I snuck in 8AM too since I tend to do a lot of “busy” stuff in the morning. And for good measure, 12PM is now there too. Started using the spreadsheet today. A couple weeks from now when there's enough data: Analysis! Will it eventually show patterns and and where there’s too much time being spent, or perhaps not enough? The good news is that not all social networks need my attention on a daily basis, such as Pinterest. However, it’s there on the sheet as a reminder not to forget it; it is important that I pin my blogs there as well and also see what other people have pinned, however, it just can’t be every day! See, I'm already prioritizing before even getting started: Mindset! This little “experiment” is going to pan out. While I feel like I'm twiddling my thumbs, I know that’s not actually true and now there will be evidence of how much work is involved with social media upkeep. How ‘bout you? Would you try something like this? The Rolling Stones sang about something we all want to have better control of (see below). If you need better control of your time spent marketing, let us help you with your strategy. Stop by our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
The temperature is climbing; it hit 99 here yesterday and felt like a blast from a furnace. The norm is between 57 and 76 for May. Some ice cold root beer could be refreshing, however, I'll opt for water; lots of it! Some good news: As the temperature climbed, so did the level of creativity! It’s in all of us; it’s playful, fun and insightful. You gain insight into yourself and reveal your expressive self when you share that creativity with others. For us folks that were mainly utilizing the left brain assets for many years there’s a feeling of guilt that pangs up now and again, along the lines of “this is too much fun so it can't possibly be work.” Bah! Well, I've got right brain fever. It started last night when I remembered a photo I had taken a few days ago of a Victorian house; actually just the roofline of the house. I turned the camera so that the photo would be angled in an unusual way. Then I thought of the word spired …kind of like inspired. Here was the result:
And that was just the warm up. Took a short walk this morning in the warm sunshine just before the temps rose to where you could fry an egg on the concrete! And what did I see? Lots of things: Peaches, gardens, a house being tented for termites, interesting cracks in the sidewalk, and a low wall with flowers growing beneath it.
I even took some photos of grass, freshly wet from sprinklers doing their daily job.
And for nearly every photo taken I thought of a use for it! Many will wind up on Facebook; some will wind up on my personal profile, others on Groovy Reflections, and others on ModlandUSA. A portion of them will be on Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest too. Fever pitch: The possibilities are endless! It is okay to be creative. Incorporate what you see into your everyday work. Share it; it’s a part of you and a part of how people see you both professionally and personally. No doubt Southside Johnny had a fever when he sang this tune and Bruce Springsteen might have been feverish when he wrote it (see below)! If you need to have your marketing heated up, stop by our website, or visit us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
It’s May! Bring on the flowers! Or, if you live in the area I live in, bring on the next wave of flowers! Daylight Savings Time brings us out of the cave and now there’s even a better reason to spend more time outdoors. Beauty. Dazzle. Color! Do be prepared for fewer eyeballs on your social media efforts as your merry fans and followers start skipping through the forests and soaking up the rays. They may be surfing, however, that might consist of wading in the surf. Pay a little extra attention to them now. As they prioritize their summer plans they may also be deciding to prioritize their time spent on social networking. Your small business wants to be at the top of their list!
Use more visuals to get your point across. If you're a restaurant, let’s see something that’s going to make our mouth water and then return to your page to see more!
Late Spring / Summer specials for those that are taking a “staycations”. Maybe they'll take short day trips instead or decide to splurge on something special during that time and maybe visit your location!
Tie-ins to summer activity. Are there opportunities for your business to co-partner with another business and extend your reach further? Perhaps something that is sports or outside activity related?
Its spring …it’s warmer. It’s sunnier. The earth is alive with more colors! Time to think outside of the box! I think I’ll take my notepad and plop down on the chaise lounge out on the patio for a while! The Box Tops sang about colors back in the sixties (see below). For colorful, cheerful assistance for all your marketing needs, stop by our website, or visit us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
Which wagon? Oh, the blog writing wagon. I enjoy writing blogs and sharing information with all of you. Sometimes I dig in and write one with just one little idea that suddenly pops into my head. Other times, I struggle with them.
