by KarenYankovich | Aug 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
Do I make social media look easy?
Do other’s in my biz make you feel like there is no way you can compete with their posts?
Does frequent social media seem so effortless for most people you follow, as you struggle daily with figuring out what, why, how to post?
You all know (I hope you know) that I use MANY tools to keep my social media, and my client’s social media, humming along. This is NOT a one woman show, nor could it be with the volume of information we are all trying to compete with out there in the virtual stream.
I can’t go it alone, and neither can you. So if this blog finds you sitting there stressed and overwhelmed about your social media plan day after day, then grab a cuppa coffee (or beverage of choice) sit back and read on.
I’m going to share with you some of MY favorite social media tools that make my life EASIER and why.
Social Oomph:
I have talked about Social Oomph before and it really is one of my go-to Twitter tools. One of the best features, available even with a free account, is the “set it and forget it” feature. You can upload a list of tweets, schedule the post times, and then “forget it” meaning Social Oomph will post a tweet at your scheduled time, then add it to the back of your rotating queue.
Make sure you have a meaty list, or space them out enough, so your followers aren’t bombarded with the same tweet each day or even each week. After you take care of that you will be freed up to post on topical items that reach you every day, engage with your followers, and create more business online instead of having to ponder: “What 20 things shall I talk about today?”
ManageFlitter:
This tool is for those of you who have been playing on Twitter for a bit, as it has some more subtle, but very powerful features. I recommend using this tool when you are massively growing your list and then maintaining an active Twitter account with a high number of followers. In the free subscription plan, and for $12/month you can get access to features I really like.
For example, when building your Twitter platform it is important to search for and follow people who are relevant to you. The Follow feature on Manage Flitter will keep your follow list topped up by copying another person’s followers to follow and by automatically reciprocating when someone follows you. Conversely the Unfollow feature helps keep your followers list clean and more importantly, more useful. This tool can show you who didn’t follow you back, which accounts are inactive, and how influential they are, to help you decide who deserves to stay in your list and who does not.
A third tool of Manage Flitter that I like is the PowerPost tool (this tool requires a monthly fee). With the help of analytics this feature allows you to choose how and when to schedule your Tweets for the most impact. Easily select your most powerful and relevant posting times so your Tweet gets seen by the people you want to see it.
Hootsuite:
Hootsuite is a powerful scheduling and organizational tool that I like a lot because you can see all of your social media platforms at a glance, you can bulk upload, and schedule posts to multiple platforms at once. The free plan is more than enough for a solopreneur who is handling all your social media yourself.
One nice feature I like is I can give my VA access to my Hootsuite account who can then upload and schedule for me without having access to all of my logins for all of my accounts. Hootsuite is definitely a great “one-stop-shop” and worth taking the time to learn to navigate the few key features I mentioned above.
Schedugram:
Finally a tool to schedule Instagram! Instagram is a platform that should not be missed for anyone who is in business. Especially if your business is product based, travel based, really anything that is visually appealing needs to have a presence on Instagram. But until now Instagram could only be accessible via photos uploaded on your smart phone, which really made it difficult for a busy on-the-go entrepreneur to use. Believe me I know!
With Schedugram you can upload multiple posts, schedule posts easily, and create a scheduled sales campaign for multiple Instagram accounts, all within the application. There is no free subscription level (only a 7 day free trial period) but if your business relies on Instagram for its simple and visual beauty then look into this tool to help you manage your posts on this platform with ease.
Iconosquare:
If Instagram is your go-to platform or you are looking to make headway there, this tool will help you do it. And it’s free to boot! I know you hear a lot about “analytics this, analytics that,” and I know that information can be overwhelming and confusing to say the least. With Iconosquare your analytics information is set out in a very easy to read and understandable format.
- You will find out who your new followers are – so you can talk to them directly if you want!
- You will find out which followers you lost – which is just as important when dialing in your social media message.
- You will be shown which posts were the most liked – a fantastic piece of information as you decide how to structure your message and what to say.
- You will even find out how “viral” your post was (I still have work to do on that!)
- This tool will also give you prompts on which hashtags to use that garner more attention and more hits. Something we could all use help with.
So there you have it, 5 of my favorite tools to help you navigate the social media world.
[Tweet “5 great tools to help you navigate the social media world”]
With these tools in your tool kit it’s almost like having your own social media coach whispering in your ear giving you advice along the way!
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Together we will figure out the social media machine, one platform at a time.
by KarenYankovich | May 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
What’s your social media strategy?
Do you have one?
Even if it’s a few simple rules you have set up for yourself, do you follow it?
Using social media without a strategy is simply noise, social media WITH a strategy is where the money is.
Stop making noise, start making money.
Today. This week. This month. I’ll show you how.
[Tweet “Stop making noise, start making money.”]
Focused on Twitter?
Read about my Twitter strategies here and here, that you can implement right now.
Ready for LinkedIn?
Find out the one major, yet super simple, strategy you can use on this platform today. Click here.
Interested in Instagram?
I got you covered. Click here for a quick Instagram specific hashtag strategy sesh I posted on my blog this month.
HONESTLY, I often find that the most successful social media strategies are a series of simple and easy tweaks that often go unnoticed.
One of my favorite easy tweaks is scheduling.
Regular readers of my blog will know I am a HUGE fan of scheduling, namely with Social Oomph. Yet even the act of scheduling can be tweaked a little bit here and there, and often with big results.
For example: Let’s say you are a restaurant owner. You may feel happily content that you are being wise by posting ALL of your dinner specials for the week ahead, each Monday, every Monday. And you are wise, batching your time like that is a great time management skill.
However, what if every Monday, when you sat down and scheduled your dinner specials posts, you changed it slightly to post to your platforms every day at 4PM? A simple easy tweak that could bring regular customers to your restaurant on a much more consistent basis! Yet this shift didn’t take up any more of your time nor did it require a change in your fantastic habit of “scheduling posts every Monday”. You’re making your customers hungry for your amazing specials and they know they can drive right over and indulge themselves.
Same restaurant owner. Thinks there’s no time for social media. Implements a strategy that every patron that “checks in” on Facebook gets a free drink. TONS of free advertising (WARM leads, they know their friend is a patron), no real ongoing effort by the staff, lots more customers. MUCH cheaper and more effective than those newspaper ads he keeps taking out.
Again, same restaurant owner. Implements a strategy that all employees must Instagram one food or drink pic per shift, using strategic hashtags and geo-tagging. Makes it part of their job description. Again, no real ongoing need to manage, regular content being posted, tons of buzz generated about the restaurant
I can go on forever.
What simple, easy tweak are YOU missing?
Need help figuring that out? Sign up for my list (in the box at the bottom of this post) so you don’t miss a weekly blog post, you just might find YOUR tweak in there.
In the NYC, Boston, or South Florida area? Email friends@socialmediaandpr.com for details, I’m hosting “invite only” live “Profitable Social Media Strategy Intensives” in your area!
by KarenYankovich | Mar 26, 2014 | entrepreneur
I love Twitter. I didn’t always! It wasn’t more than a year or so ago that I was whining that Twitter takes up a lot of time, and I wasn’t seeing any real results. Some business friends called me out on it, said that basically Twitter is the great equalizer, you can tweet directly to Oprah, Richard Branson, your favorite celeb, really anyone you want! [Tweet “Twitter is the great equalizer.”] They were right. I quickly stopped whining, and started building my Twitter following. It might be the single most effective thing I’ve done to grow my business in the past year. The more followers I have, the more followers I get. The more followers I get, the more respected I become as an industry expert. The more respected I get, the more interview requests I get. The more interview requests I get, the more profitable my business is. Now, I’m a HUGE Twitter fan! I tweet all the time. Twitter is fast, it’s chock full of information, it’s sometimes hard to understand, but it IS an important place to be and here’s why:
- Twitter is democratic: Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t screen your posts based on most liked or commented upon, it lets each post be equally visible in the stream for anyone to see.
- Twitter is a trove of information: Search what your competitors are saying, search for the people who like what you like, find out what your ideal customer needs. Bam! You have enough information to create your next service offering, to find your next tribe of followers, to write your next blog post and more.
- You have equal reach to all Twitter users: You can talk directly to every user on Twitter. It’s a great way to reach out to influencers in your industry, and to get your name in front of them! Engage with their posts, and you may be able to kickstart a real relationship.
- Twitter establishes your expert status: Show what you know without pressure, just a few words and a link and you are set! No need for fancy pictures or perfectly worded posts, just the facts. (Ok and maybe a little funny in there too)
On the flip-side Twitter can feel like a lot of work. I recommend to my clients that they post an average of 22 times per day. No worries! There are ways to take the burden out of the bulk and I’m here to tell you how. Scheduling and automation is key. The one caveat here, automate your tweets not your DMs (direct messages), please don’t risk sounding like a robot. Automated tweets are important foundational posts about who you are, what your business is about, your business WHY, and all of your expert knowledge in one place rotating through queues of topics. You can share quotes, statistics, industry information, and general information about your products and services. Hootsuite and Buffer are two popular scheduling tools, however my personal favorite is Social Oomph. Unlike Hootsuite and Buffer, Social Oomph allows you to create re-occuring queues of tweets. It takes a little bit of time and effort to set up, but in the end, just like everything else, the hard work pays off in time saved and ability to focus on the more meaty parts of Twitter – namely having time to engage. I like to set up Social Oomph with the following queues:
- blog posts
- industry stats
- favorite quotes
- promotions
- general “my stuff”
Once you have your queues set up, each time one of your posts is tweeted Social Oomph automatically places it at the back of the line to wait until its turn comes again. This could take days, weeks, or longer. The longer the better of course as you want to have a lot of fantastic content for your audience to chew on, to get to know you with, and to trust you because of it. With the bulk of this churning in the background you can finally sit back, relax, and actually enjoy social media again through connecting and conversation. THEN I use Hootsuite to engage and for analytics. I also use ManageFlitter, a paid service that allows me to sort followers by all sorts of traits, helping me to follow and unfollow strategically. That’s a more advanced service. So what’s your first step going to be with Twitter this week? Find me and tell me! @karenyankovich
