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End of First Quarter Goals Check In

April 6, 2013 by Kelli 6 Comments

We are over a fourth of the way through 2013! Now is the time to sit down with your goals that you made at the beginning of the year and do an evaluation!

How are the goals coming?
Has your focus changed?
Have your priorities changed?
Are you working towards your goals?
Do you have new goals?

So, here were mine and how things are going now!:

1. Increase traffic on all 3 sites by 60%! This isn’t really measurable until the full year is up – but my traffic is higher for Jan, Feb, and March of 2013 than it was for those months in 2012. So, I feel as if I am on track. I am spending more time trying to write the things that you guys are wanting to read.

2. Increase Twitter followers on all 3 by 50%

Main started 17,455 so goal is 26,183 – As of 4/6 this is at 18,930 – if you do the math, I am not on track to reach my goals. So, I am going to push a bit harder this quarter on getting my Twitter following higher and better.
Deals started 6,212 so goal is 9,318 – As of today this is at 6,871 followers. Again, I am not on track to reach my goal. So, this will be something I really work on this month!
SMC started 2,095 so goal is 3,142 – As of today I am at 2,780 followers. YAY! I am on track to reach this goal!

3. Increase Facebook fans on both (3bd and smc) by 50%

Main started 5,584 so goal is 8,376 – Currently at 6,221 – Uggh, I am about 60 fans away from being on target to reach my goal.
SMC started 1,190 so goal is 3,142 – Currently at 1,267 – Here I am about 400 fans away from being on target to reach my goal! OK, so I need to be spending more time working Facebook as well.

4. Make $6000 for the year on Google Adsense (this is actually doable at my current traffic) – By only month 3, I am half way to this goal already!!

5. Add 12 new videos to YouTube account (I currently have 44, so I will need 56 by the end of 2013) – Thanks to my weekly G+ Hangouts, I have already surpassed this goal! So nice to mark one as complete in the first quarter!

6. Be a speaker at a Blog Conference I have applied like crazy but not heard a word from anyone.

7. Increase Pinterest Followers to 10,000 only have 4,800 so I am not sure that is doable, but I am going to try! – Currently at 8,791 makes me about 2500 OVER where I should be to reach this goal! YAY!

8. Finish the A to Z Veggies book! Geez, this HAS to get finished. LOL! – Uggh, seriously thinking of hiring someone to do it for me. ROTFL! Ok, adding this (and the SEO book I am working on) to my DAILY to dos. If I only do 5 minutes towards each one, it isn’t taking tons of time and I will be working towards the goal of completion!

9. Hire another paid employee (home craft/DIY writer for main site) DONE! I now have 3 paid employees and several product review contributors!!

10. Have 10, $1.00 printable packs available for sale on Deals Site (working on this!) Pshaw… this is on the back burner until I finish the other books I am working on.

11. Increase Aweber newsletter subscribers to 5000! I am working hard to get this increased and am seeing changes daily now. I am a little over 1/2 way to this goal. Since I don’t know what I started with, I can’t figure out if I am on target.

12. Be host/party planner for 6 twitter parties – I actually hosted more than this in 2012, but wasn’t the planner for all of them. I want to be the planner for at least 6. I have completed 2 that I have planned which actually puts me on target!

13. Become a Walmart Mom!

So, I am on track for a good portion of my goals and reevaluating like this tells me what I need to be working on. So, I have set up a few tasks into my daily planner to help me work towards reaching these goals!

Blogging Basics: 3 Productivity Boosting Approaches and Tools

April 3, 2013 by Kelli 3 Comments

Earlier in this blog post series, we talked about how each social network is just a little bit different and our approach to each one should be carefully crafted. At the time, I cautioned against simply using social media integration tools to broadcast the same thing across your social networks. I stand by that advice wholeheartedly, but there are still plenty of useful tools you can use to streamline your social networking process.

Here are 3 types of tools that are worth checking out:

#1 Integrating and Managing Your Streams: Hootsuite.com

Hootsuite creates an easy-access dashboard for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and more.

By connecting your accounts, you can view all your social networking streams in one places, instead of logging into each site individually. It also allows you to schedule posts to publish at specific times that you choose.

Hootsuite provides some analytics, but many of the features are available with a Pro account and can get quite expensive. Depending on how much you use Hootsuite, this may or may not be worth it. A Pro account is also useful if you have more than 5 profiles to manage and/or you have a number of members on your social networking team.

Other similar tools in the marketplace include SproutSocial.com, Tweetdeck.com

#2 Getting Your Analytics: Twentyfeet.com

TwentyFeet provides you with a dashboard of social networking analytics for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. It also can bring in your analytics for bit.ly, if you happen to use that as a link shortening service. They actually call it an “egotracking service,” but it’s more meaningful than something like Klout, which reduces social networking into a popularity contest.

The site allows you to compare the analytics from various sites to see where you might increase or adjust your efforts. The service also notifies you whenever something noteworthy happens in your accounts.

A basic account with one Facebook account (not Page) and one Twitter account are free. There are monthly fees if you want to add anything from there, but the cost of analytics is more affordable than provided with Hootsuite.com.

If you’re looking for something more in-depth, but more expensive, you can look at a service like Trackur.com. Or if you’d like to track where people are talking about you and your brand, do a free search at SocialMention.com. At this site, they’ll give you an idea of the sentiment in the mentions

#3 Timing Your Posts: TweetWhen.com and Tweriod.com

There’s something to be said about finding the optimal time to participate in social networking. After all, you want to ensure you reach the biggest percentage of your targeted audience as possible, right? While, there are plenty of studies out there to help you find the optimal time, it always depends on your own unique audience, so you have to analyze things yourself.

A couple of tools that might help you include TweetWhen and Tweriod.

TweetWhen analyzes your audience for you and gives you an optimal time to tweet, based on when you are most likely to get the best response. Because you don’t have to log into your account to use this service, you can also use it to gain intelligence on the best times for other Twitter users like your competition and other likeminded tweeters. However, it’s important to realize that TweetWhen’s data is based on when you’re actually tweeting, so if you tweet more at certain dates and times, these are more likely to be favored in the results.

Tweriod is a service that looks at the activity of your followers to determine your best time to tweet. The logic is, you should be more active when they’re active. Taking the data from TweetWhen and Tweroid together can help you figure out ways to adjust your participation in Twitter for best results.

Technology is out there to help us and you can certainly use it to your advantage to make it easier and more efficient to participate in social media…without looking like some kind of bot that is just auto-broadcasting everything. Find the right tools for you and it will be much easier for you to manage your social media participation.

Stayed tuned next week as I bring you more Social Media tips and trick to grow your blog as a business! ~Greg Watson

Filed Under: Blogging Basics Tagged With: Blogging Basics, Hootsuite, Integration Tool, Klout, social media, social networking, Social Networking Service, tools, Twitter, web analytics, Your Social Networking

Blogging Basics: Your Roadmap to Social Networking

March 20, 2013 by Kelli 3 Comments

Over the past couple of posts, we’ve been working on helping you understand your target audience and find your unique positioning when it comes to social media. These are crucial first steps to becoming a social media success and once you have those items a bit clearer in your mind, you’re ready to start experimenting with how you’ll participate in social media.

The nice thing about working online and in social media is that you can reshape your plan as you go along. So don’t worry about having your target market and unique positioning engraved in stone. It’s not necessary as you will find that even if you have it figured out now, your audience and their needs change over time. And if you’re smart, you’ll evolve with your audience.

So with all that in mind, let’s look at our big 5 networks to see how you can fit in.

Facebook

This is a pretty visual social network with a lot of possibilities for sharing. Images and video do well, and while you can share text, you might find that if you add an image to your text, you’ll get more views and responses to your status update.

Facebook also offers the ability to poll your audience which can be a lot of fun for participants and enlightening for you. You can also share your company history through the Milestones feature, keeping in mind what would interest your audience most.

Facebook offers pretty in-depth analytics and gives you plenty of clues on which content does well and which type of content doesn’t. Use these analytics to figure out how to hone your presence.

Twitter is a more text-based social network that requires you to be succinct in your sharing, as you only have 140 characters to make your point. You can post images and link to videos, but users will generally need to click through to view them.

One of the biggest opportunities with Twitter is to use their @ replies and RT (Retweet feature). Place an @ before a username, allows you to communicate directly with users on Twitter and can pave the way to new connections. RT allows you to share someone else’s useful update with your audience, which is another way to foster goodwill among likeminded users.

Google+

Google+ is another visual network with a lot of images and, in particular, videos being shared.

While using Google+, definitely take advantage of their Circles feature, which allows you to categorize your contacts in any number of ways. This allows you to keep friends and family separate from business contacts. It also allows you to categorize your business contacts as well. For example, you can make circles for your customers, affiliates, mastermind groups and more.

One of the most unique opportunities at Google+ is Hangouts, which offer a group video and/or audio chat. It’s perfect for brainstorming groups, planning and getting to know your audience better…so take advantage.

As you probably know, Pinterest is the most visual network of all because it is simply a collection of images. Videos can also be shared, but aren’t in as much abundance.

Images that you share on Pinterest should be categorized appropriately and include a description that adds to the user experience. Choose images that are visually striking that make people feel like the item in the picture is in the same room as them.

Your approach to LinkedIn should be that of an information sharer and connector. Connect people who should know each other and offer help through groups and answering questions. For LinkedIn, the key isn’t in the number of connections you make, but the quality of those connections so put your focus there.

As you can see, each network is a little bit different. A lot of people attempt to use social media integration tools that simply broadcast their updates across all networks, but this is a short sighted approach. While I do encourage the use of social media integration tools, it’s important to use them wisely and we’ll talk about that in a later post. Take the time to deliver the right information to the right audience on the right social network and you’ll have much better results.

Stayed tuned next week as I bring you more Social Media tips and trick to grow your blog as a business! ~Greg Watson

Filed Under: Blogging Basics Tagged With: Based Social Network, blog hosting services, Blogging Basics, Google, Linkedin, Pinterest, social media, Social Media Success, Social Network, social networking, Social Networking Service, Target Audience, Twitter, Using Social Media

Blogging Basics: Growing Your Highly Targeted Social Media Following

February 27, 2013 by Kelli 1 Comment

We’ve all seen pages on Facebook with thousands…even millions of followers. We’ve seen the same with Twitter and other social networks. It may seem a little overwhelming if you’re starting with a small following and it may feel like you’re just not going to get anywhere if you don’t have a huge following.

But the truth is, a targeted following is always your best bet. While you should always work toward growing your following, you can still get results from your well-cultivated following. So keeping pushing forward. It’s worth it.

To get you started, here are some tips for growing your following:

Invite Your Website Visitors

When someone visits your website, one of your main goals (if it’s not for them to buy a product) should be to get them on your email mailing list. That way, you can contact them directly over and over again through your list. But another thing you want new visitors and even regular visitors to do is follow you on social media. Having multiple avenues to communicate with your audience is a good thing and allows you to stay in the mind of your prospects.

Include buttons on your site that allow your visitors to follow you directly on your main social media networks. While, it may be tempting to offer up a ton of options and include buttons for every social network you’ve joined, do consider these pitfalls:

- By including too many choices, you decrease your chances of getting your visitor to do anything. The old saying that “the confused mind always says no,” is absolutely true.

- Add to that, when you include buttons for networks you’re not that active on, you don’t provide a very good experience for your following.

Instead, keep it focused and limit your follow buttons to the networks where you participate readily. In addition, include invitations to follow you on social media in your blog posts and other content. Don’t just rely on buttons in the side bar…ask them to follow you directly.

Invite Your Mailing List

Asking your mailing list to follow you in social media gives you yet another way to communicate with your audience. Include follow buttons at the end of your emails, but also mention some of your interesting posts inside the emails you send. For example, if you posted a video you know they will want to see, send them to Facebook to view it. Or if you’re online and are available to chat, start a Hangout on Google.

Just one tip…make sure the updates you share are public. While it might make sense to make them private, so people have to follow you to see them, it can be frustrating for your subscribers. After all, your subscribers have ALREADY told you that they’re interested in your stuff and have ALREADY given you their email address. Don’t make them jump through hoops to see your additional content.

Make Friends in Your Niche

One of the easiest ways to grow your social networking and online following is by making friends with others in your niche. That effect is even more dramatic when you make connections with influential people in your niche. Always spend time on developing meaningful relationship with likeminded people because it has a lot of benefits:

- You can share one another’s content
- You can share ideas and give each other advice
- You can cross-promote products

And we’re talking about meaningful relationships here. Not just simply following someone on Twitter and hoping they’ll notice your @ replies. You need to connect them directly, meet them in person or offer to help them in some way. Real relationships don’t develop through liking someone’s Facebook status, so do the work necessary to grow your network of friends.

Get Involved and Interact

Even though liking someone’s video on Facebook isn’t going to make you best friends, interacting regularly with people can help you get noticed. Provide useful commentary on content that is complementary to your niche, get involved and be visible. If people can use you, they are more likely to follow you.

Of course, balance this with the important of keeping your schedule and avoiding distraction. Always be very purposeful about your participation and you will reap the benefits.

Remember, Growing a Following Goes Both Ways

Remember, that growing a following through SM goes the other way too. Get people to share your content on social media, so you can drive that traffic back to you. Getting that traffic back from social media helps you grow your list and sell your products.

Always make it easy for people to share your content. Include sharing buttons on your blog posts, free report download pages and just about anywhere you publish content. The easier it is for people to spread the word, the more likely they are to do it.

More Advice Coming in the Next Couple of Posts

Obviously, the most important key to gaining and retaining your following is to be interesting and useful. These are huge topics that deserve some discussion of their own. So we’ll be talking about just that in the next couple of posts. Next up, we’ll examine how to be interesting by understanding your target market and really getting a grasp of who you’re talking to. Then we’ll talk about being useful and providing something unique that others in your niche don’t. When you master that, it’s much easier to grow and nurture your following.

Stayed tuned next week as I bring you more Social Media tips and trick to grow your blog as a business! ~Greg Watson

Filed Under: Blogging Basics Tagged With: blog hosting services, Blogging Basics, facebook, grow, Grow Your Network, Highly Targeted, social media, Social Media Network, Social Network, Social Networking Service, Twitter, Ways To Grow

Blogging Basics: Making Twitter Work for You! #learntoblog

February 9, 2013 by Kelli Leave a Comment

Last Tuesday, I co-hosted a G+ Live Hangout with Crystal and Company. Several of you guys attended and I think it went extremely well. This week we will be discussing Pinterest and giving you some suggestions to make it work for you. So,

On Tuesday February 12th at 10 am Central (11 EST, 9 MST, and 8 PST) you can find us on G+. If you RSVP you will get a reminder an hour or so before the hangout!

But, before that I wanted to do a quick recap of the hangout including clickable links to the places we discussed and the video so you could watch it again (or for the first time)

if you are reading this in email or your feed reader, don’t forget you will need to click on over to watch the video below.

So, for beginning bloggers we gave a few tasks:

1) Spend 10 minutes today responding to tweets that mention you and responding to tweets that are interesting
2) Go in and follow 200 twitter people that are like you (See: Twubs and Hashtag.org
3) Signup for a Twitter third party provider like Hootsuite (TweetDeck, Social Oomph)

For More Advanced Bloggers:
1) Set up an auto tweet service like TwitterFeed and ask 2-4 blogging friends to do the same automatically retweeting each others tweets (Psst, if you have a food or cooking blog that is at least 1 year old please email me at Kelli(at)southernmomcooks(dot)com if you want to do a collaboration. I am working on building my site over there and looking for a great Tribe for it.
2) Use your third party service (like Hootsuite) to schedule at least 1 tweet that will go out every day for a week
3) Participate in a twitter party or chat surrounding your niche – look at Twitter Party Calendar and Twitter Party Guide