Tag Archives: Social Media

Blogging

Time To Do It All

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Yesterday on a Google Hangout, I led a discussion on the topic of trying to find enough time to do it all. I state how I’ve found it much more difficult to keep up with everything these days as I’m leading a plane-hopping life where only one of the 3 airports I deal with has free wi-fi, which means there’s an extra 4 hours of time I lose.

Keeping An Eye On Time
Ian Foss via Compfight

In the past I’ve been able to write content in advance, and in the case of this blog, I’d actually written some posts in advance. But it caught up with me, and thus here and on my other blogs I’m not keeping up as easily, though I’m learning a few things based on that.

One, I find myself having to pick and choose what’s most important. Therefore, this blog stays up to date moreso than the others. I also comment less, though I save a lot of links in my Evernote program so I can get to those I really have something to say on later. That’s actually a very helpful program because I have it synched with my main computer, laptop, smartphone and now my Nook; oh yeah!

I’ve found that it’s not just my social media or blogging life that’s suffered. Unlike when I’m at home, where often on Sundays I prepare meals I’m going to eat off for the week, I’m in a hotel room with two small burners and a small pot and small skillet. Those aren’t great accoutrements for cooking big meals. So I have to plan them, which means I eat out a lot. I try to find time to workout, time to do laundry, time to get to the grocery store, etc. Work is the only thing I’m always able to find time for; I guess that’s the important one.

As you’ll see in the video below, we discussed this and some options were offered, though to tell you the truth one of the options I already do, and the other options won’t help for everything. Still, it was entertaining, especially with our guest for the day; I hope you enjoy it.


http://youtu.be/lK6vqxckmdI

 

Social Media

Is Social Media Giving You Everything You Need

42 Comments

My wife and I always seem to have the same discussion about me and one of my particular eating habits. She says that I don’t always have a filter for portion control. When I’m hungry or thirsty, my mind doesn’t quite see that maybe “this much” is all I need to get rid of either of those things. At least not all the time.

IMAG0173
um, chocolate milk!

Thus, sometimes my mind will say “I can eat that entire pizza” when logically I know I can’t. It’ll say “you need to heat up 20 chicken nuggets” when I know I can only eat 13. And yet, every once in awhile I hear her words jumping into my mind saying “that’s going to be too much, restrain yourself, which explains this picture of chocolate milk that I made in a 32oz cup, bypassing the 48oz cup I initially grabbed; yeah, that would have come close to taking the entire carton of milk. lol

I know what you’re wondering; what’s that got to do with the topic above. The thing about social media is that most of us can define it based on what we think it is and what we think it should do for us. Most of us believe it’s supposed to be everything we want it to be, no matter what the limitations or realities might be.

I’ll own up to it; I’m one of those people. I have my own idea of what social media is supposed to be, and I want it to be that thing, and yet it’s not that thing. Let me explain.

I enjoy much of social media, but I find it lacking. I love Twitter, which you’ve heard me mention before. I’ve enjoyed Facebook, and I keep trying to make Google+ work for me the way I want it to work. LinkedIn, well, I can’t say I’ve ever gotten any business from my participation there, even though that’s what it’s supposed to help us with, connecting with those people who may be able to use our services.

What is it I want from social media? Truthfully, when all is said and done I want more engagement, and I want it more immediately. As an experiment, last night I decided to try an experiment. I announced around 8:30 that I was going to hold a Google Hangout at 9PM and that anyone who wanted to come was welcome, as I could take the first 8 people who asked to participate. I posted it on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.

I wasn’t expecting much, and for the first 10 minutes that’s exactly what I got. No one came; not even a hint. So I decided to invite some people, and invited 8 of them. Two people popped in surprisingly, and two others acknowledged it on G+ but neither could come. The two who showed up were Michael Belk and Beverly Mahone. Shocking to me was that both of them showed up via their smartphones, both then tried to get on through their laptops and failed, and Michael came back to the phone, while I never could get Bev back on. I thank both of them, and Michael and I had a good conversation for awhile after he got back on.

I know some people would say that I should have put that message out way in advance but I had to try an experiment first. Here’s my take on it all. If there are a billion people on Facebook, 500 million on Google Plus, and 300 million or so on Twitter, and all of these sites have people on them 24/7, and 9PM Eastern time is only 6PM out west, I should be able to post something 30 minutes before its time and have some people show up. Of course, I don’t have that many people following me so let’s look at it this way. If I have almost 700 people following me on both Google Plus and Facebook and another 3,000+ on Twitter, that’s almost 4,500 people, and if that’s the case I should still be able to get at least 3 or 4 to show up, wouldn’t you think?

Yum… lol

That’s what I thought. As Michael and I were talking, he said that the problem with social media is that it’s not really social. On Google Plus most people seem to be interested more in promoting themselves than in talking to anyone. For the most part the same is true of Twitter. On Facebook, people love playing games and sharing images, and you might be able to get a conversation going that takes place over a number of hours, but for anything immediate you have to use that chat function, and most of us don’t like that.

Isn’t that thought provoking? Social media not really being social? Goodness, for most people it’s not even a great way to market, no matter what we try, and when I think about it, most of the people on Twitter are marketing more than communicating, and I have to share in that one, although I only post my links twice a day at most. I try engaging people when I share some of their links & quotes and occasionally talk to people, but not all that often, and that’s my favorite platform.

Is social media giving me everything I need? Not even close. But what about you? Are you getting everything you could possibly want out of it? I’m not talking marketing wise now, so don’t answer that question. And I’m not talking blogging either, since I consider that part of social media, though more indirectly. How do you view what you get out of social media now? Is it enough, or is there something else you wish you were getting?

Oh yeah; that other picture is of… well, you know what it’s a picture of. I ate all of that as well, in one day but not in one sitting. My wife is right; sometimes I just want too much. 🙂
 

Social Media

The Last Post Of 2012 Is About…

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Last year on December 31st I put out an article titled The Last Post Of 2011 Is About… and in that post I talked about comments and commenters and thanked them in general for commenting on this blog over the first four years. This time around I decided to figure out what the biggest topic of the year was that I wrote about, and it’s not going to be on blogging itself because, well, that’s what I already know I talk about most of the time. After some introspection and research it looks like the biggest thing to talk about is…

Flickr Meet #3 - Nottingham
Craig Marston via Compfight

Marketing and promoting on social media. I tied a lot of it in with blogging, but overall it was mainly about social media. Why was this such a big deal?

Because social media isn’t going away, never. There were some naysayers earlier in the year saying that social media was going to fail and that people should think more about traditional ways of marketing, to which I wrote this post saying that waiting for social media to fail was a stupid move. It might not look exactly like it does right now but it’s not going anywhere folks. We need to get comfortable talking about it and interacting with it.

At the same time, things are already changing. Facebook is getting in the way of what those who have liked our business pages are seeing, which led to a business comparison between Facebook and Google Plus. There’s no doubt that both of these are players, though for different reasons, and even LinkedIn will be an important piece of social media marketing with all the changes they’re started to make.

The reality is that many of the ideas that were very good just 2 years ago don’t seem to work as well now. There’s so much competition, so many options, and so little time. We also have less patience that we used to, and I’ll own up to that one. I work on 5 blogs and the top social media sites, and I also have a couple lesser known sites that I’m on, testing to see if they’ll give me anything to work with here and there and then talking about it, as I did with Social Buzz Club, which turned out to be a failure for me.

Just like most of you, I need to concentrate more on what will work for me as I move into 2013. This year was a better year for me than the last two, but not close to what I want or where I thought I’d be, both online and offline. After all, I have a dream to reach by September, and so far things are moving way too slowly in getting there.

Social media was the big conversation in 2012, and I think it will continue to be a big deal as we move into 2013. What do you think about it all? And are you ready to have a happy new year, regardless?
 

Blogging

12 Things “I’m Just Sharing” Addressed In 2012

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A couple of weeks ago on 12/12/12 I wrote a post titled 12 Things For 12/12/12. That one was more a post about stuff I believed in, more of an opinion piece. This one is something quite different.

Grandfather and Me

I decided to do a post on things this blog addressed in 2012. This particular post is #199 on the year, and since we all know I’ll have at least 2 more posts, if not 3 more, by 12/31, it’s easy to say that I’ve written more than 200 posts this year, which is actually down for me and yet has made for a more comfortable blogging year, especially since I added 2 more blogs last year.

I talk about multiple topics in the video, and to get you to watch the video I’m not going to necessarily tell you what all those topics were. However, I did have these 12 titles and links that I briefly mentioned in some fashion, which is what the video was based on. So I’m going to give those links beneath the video. It’s about 20 minutes long; I was shooting for 10 minutes but there’s no timer! I did it using Google+ Live Hangout, which means anyone could have been watching, except I started it around 12:45 or so in the morning, so I doubt anyone saw it live, and that’s just fine. Hey, at least I know Brian will watch it, though I mentioned Sheryl, Ileane, and Holly. 🙂

 

 

And now, the links:
 
Our Reluctance To Market Ourselves

Post 1,300 And On Friday To Boot

Black Web Friday

5 More Lessons About Blogging Learned From A Poker Tournament

Social Media And Your Familial Obligations

11 Lessons Learned From 11 Years In Business

Blogging Tips – Will People Like Your Blog?

Dream It And It Will Come

100 Things About Me

Don’t Lie About Your Health

I’m Just Sharing 10 Things You Must Have For A Happy Life

Google Authorship – Pretty Cool
 

Social Media

7 Ways To Increase Your Visibility On Facebook

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About six weeks ago I wrote a post here talking about Facebook and its Edgerank algorithm that prevents a majority of your connections from seeing what you put out, whether it’s your regular profile or your business profile. I then told you how you can set things up so you can see what you want to see on Facebook with a couple of neat little steps.

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and MyblogLog
Luc Legay via Compfight

Today I’m going to give you 7 things you can try to increase your Facebook visibility. I’ll warn you up front that some of these are time intensive, and yet I’ve found that they work in small degrees. Are you ready? Let’s begin:

1. Select 5 to 10 people you’re connected to and visit their page. I don’t mean the people you talk to all the time but some of the other people whose news you almost never see, if you see it at all. Check out the page to see if they have any activity whatsoever. If not, think about unfriending them; they obviously won’t care. If they do then find something you can like or comment on, and if you don’t see anything like that then send them a short message asking them how things are going or whatever. If they respond, you’re on your way.

2. Share a lot of the images you see in your stream from your friends. I know, you think it’s redundant, but when you realize just how little of your stuff is being seen you then realize how little stuff from others is being seen. There’s nearly a billion people on Facebook; do you really think most people will mind if they happen to see something twice? Not only that but it seems Facebook has taken care of that by grouping things that have shown up in one’s stream more than once in a day, so no worries.

3. Either “like” or comment on more of the things you see in your stream. I’ll admit that I was hesitant to do this type of thing for a couple of years. Then I realized that it’s a way of making sure you keep seeing things from people you want to see it from, especially once I learned about Edgerank. That’s how Facebook decides what you see, by determining what you liked to see previously. And if people see you more often, there’s a likelihood that they’ll like your stuff and share it as well.

4. “Like” many pages of things you like that pertain to your business or interests. I have joined a few leadership pages because that’s what I talk about mainly on my Facebook business page. I also love motivational stuff so I’ve joined a few of those pages so I can see and share what they have here and there. And of course a few things you really like which, in my case, means Star Trek and Snoopy! 🙂

5. Visit select pages that you’ve liked, go through them, and if there’s anything you see that is share worthy share it. This is the biggest thing I do, and I do it daily. I do it for three reasons. One, because it helps me find a couple more things I can share on my business page other than my own blog posts. Two, it helps give me some things to share that others might not see because they’re haven’t liked what I like. And three, it promotes other people’s stuff, which they like and thus feel a sense of obligation to share some of your stuff. It’s all about cooperation in the long run.

6. Invite people to your page. As simple as this one seems, you’d be surprised by how many people never think about doing this. Your group page offers you a chance to invite people you’re connected to without your necessarily having to publicize it in the open, although doing that every once in awhile can’t hurt either. My strategy was to selectively invite people in groups rather than everyone at once, so I did it by inviting 50 people at a time. You only get to invite them once, just so you know.

7. Ask people to share your stuff. We hate doing this, and I’ll admit that it’s rare I’ll do it. There’s nothing wrong with asking people if they’ll share something you think is pretty special but don’t abuse it. If you always ask then there’s nothing special about it and people will get tired of seeing it. I dropped a page I liked that had lots of great stuff in it because there was always this message asking you to share, and it was there when I did share, thus making it hard for me to write something over it.

I know you’re asking “how much did your traffic increase.” It’s hard to say. However, I’ve noticed that I’m seeing people on Facebook whose missives I’ve never seen before, and the number of people who have liked my Facebook page has increased. None of that depresses me at all. By the way, if you’d like to check out my Facebook page take a look at that little widget to the right and give it a little click. 😉

Meanwhile, I did a video with my Hot Blog Tips crew on the topic of alliances, which kind of pertains to this topic, and we even argue a bit over SEO:


http://youtu.be/XyJVEjPqU1c