Social Media Marketing / Design / Princeton, NJ

The New Year is here!  Are you ready?  Here’s a quick list to help you head into the new year with a fresh start.

1. Update your LinkedIn profile.  Unless you’re a LinkedIn pro, you might find that your LinkedIn profile has gotten a bit dusty.  Take 5 minutes and give it a once-over.  Read through your job & project descriptions, add any updates, freshen up the language.  Take another look at your photo: is it working? (Is it clear, professional, well-lit, inviting…?)  Finally, join some new groups and ‘follow’ some industry pros.  It’s all about expanding your network, after all.

2. Write yourself an editorial calendar for one month.  An editorial calendar is an outline for your blogging or marketing goals, laid out in advance.  It’s an invaluable tool if you’re serious about providing regular, exciting content.  If you don’t use one regularly, try it for one month.  It doesn’t have to be complex or lengthy, just give yourself enough detail to go on so that you’re inspired to keep at it.  (Prediction: You’ll see an increase in post frequency.)

3.  Change your Facebook Cover Photo.  It’s a minor one, but this change gets attention!  Think about your brand ‘s major initiatives are right now, and how you can convey that through a photo.  Freshen things up!  While you’re updating your photo, take a look at your page through a stranger’s eyes and see if there’s anything else you can add to or enhance to captivate new visitors and engage those who already ‘like’ your page. (…and if you’ve written your editorial calendar, you’ll be prepared to serve up engaging content all month long!)

4.  Sign up for social media management tools so you can stay active on Twitter.  In my opinion, it’s better not to have your brand on Twitter at all than to have a stale, neglected Twitter account!  If being consistently active Twitter is a challenge for you, check out some tools to make Twitter more manageable.  Programs like HootSuite are designed to make tweeting even easier, with features that let you write and schedule tweets ahead of time, data reporting to help you judge how effective your tweets are, and more.  Finally, remember to check your Twitter account often so that you can reply to mentions and interact with your fans in a timely manner.  

Here’s to a happy and productive New Year!

There’s a ton of information being shared on social media, designed to lure readers, engage them, make them click, buy, retweet, etc.  When you are just one voice among these millions of other voices, how will you make sure you’re heard? How can you be certain that the content you’re sharing is engaging your followers, and attracting new ones?  Here are some strategies for smarter sharing on social media sites.

1. Mind your post frequency.  Too often and it’s annoying, too little and you get lost in the crowd.  Deciding on how often to tweet or share takes time, and you’ll find your rhythm as you go.  For starters, shoot for a handful of posts per day - more than 3 - and see how that goes.  The key here is consistency.  If you suddenly vanish, the social media world will forget about you and keep moving on.  Dedicate yourself to a regular number of posts - blog posts, Facebook and Twitter posts - and stick with that frequency. 

2. Maximize your reach.  If you’re managing multiple accounts, consider this point raised by Robert Caruso, author of bundlepost.  He argues that strategic posting across each of your social media channels increases the exposure of your post.  If you’re sharing your new blog post on Twitter, share it on Facebook at a different time, and engage a new audience.  The audience on your social media sites fluctuates throughout the day, and if you only share it one time, double-posting on social media sites, you’re only reaching one audience, one time.  With that in mind…

3. Work the metrics.  There are many apps that can work to your advantage when it comes to content sharing.  One of my favorites at the moment is an app called Buffer, which allows you to schedule tweets and Facebook posts ahead of time, and then provides you with the analytics for each afterwards.  (Read my review of Buffer here.)  The benefit to this is being able to see how effective each post was - how many people saw it, how many clicks it got, etc. - so that you can fine-tune your sharing strategy. 

Thinking strategically about how you share will increase traffic to your site, engage your audience, and help you grow your social media presence. 

There’s nothing better than relaxing with friends & family - and that’s ALL I did this holiday weekend!  It was a welcome break from the usual, and I made sure to relish every minute.

The highlight of the weekend was brunch at some friends’ house.  Eggs, bacon, bagels, lox, and a waffle station (check out that spread!) along with glasses filled with mimosas, bloody marys & fresh coffee… add in a dozen close friends and you have the perfect party, in my opinion!

Now, back to work.  And speaking of brunch - have you checked out Blog Brunch?  It’s a collaboration between bloggers run by Megan of The Fresh Exchange and Ms. Pink of The Pink + Blue Blog.  Every first Saturday of each month you can find them hosting a chat on Twitter and discussing the ins and outs of the blogging world.  Topics vary, and there is always a lot of inspiring group participation.  (Last month’s recap at the link!) Get ready, it’s almost time for another - Saturday Jan. 7!