Barb Drozdowich's Blog, page 23

June Social Media Key Dates

Welcome back!

For those of you who search for something to post on social media – here is a list of hashtag days for June. Enjoy!

I found this calendar here.

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MailChimp has Shot Itself in the Foot

And yes, I really feel that way.

Let me explain. MailChimp has been the entry level newsletter service for hundreds, if not thousands of authors over the years. I have helped many set up their first account and connect it to their website. In fact, I am connected in some fashion to about 75 different MailChimp accounts.

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For years I’ve fashioned newsletters in addition to the initial set up of the account. I spend quite a bit of time each week in and out of various MailChimp accounts, setting up newsletters, adding subscribers, etc. I even use MailChimp for my volunteer activities.

Several years ago, in response to so many concerns, I put together a book on newsletters and mailing lists and one whole section was devoted to MailChimp. The material in the book covered all aspects of the subject – meant to be a “soup to nuts” kind of book addressing not just how to use MailChimp, but all the pieces of the puzzle called “newsletters.”

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In the first 8 months the book was for sale on Amazon and other retailers, MailChimp put through significant changes to their platform 7 times – resulting in me re-writing the section on MailChimp 7 times and re-editing and re-uploading to the retailers.

When they changed the platform for the 8th time, I threw in the towel and created a video course and directed people to that – thinking the videos would be easier to change than the text in the book. And it was – it has been changed quite a few times since it was put live to match the incessant changes on MailChimp.

When the last run of changes started at MailChimp, my eyes started crossing – even I struggled to make sense of what they were doing! I mean, why would someone want to be constantly reminded of how many people have unsubscribed – but that was part of what they seemed to be doing with this “audience” crap.

At my most recent local author workshop, I found my self talking with an author about how complicated MailChimp had become. I assured her that I would be updating my video soon and have been trying to carve out time to do that in my overly busy work week.

Last week we all received a note from MailChimp announcing significant changes – effective immediately! What I took from the note was that we would be charged for everyone in our “audience” total. No worries, I thought – just delete the unsubscribes and they won’t be charged for.

Then I read David Gaughran’s post .

If you haven’t, I strongly encourage you to do so. One of the key takeaways from this post is that I hadn’t figured GDPR rules into my potential actions on behalf of all my authors. It had never occurred to me that GDPR rules would potentially require information from folks who unsubscribe to stay with the account.

Crap.

Back to the drawing board.

There are other choices in the Newsletter world than MailChimp. Many just dipping their toes into the newsletter/mailing list world appreciate starting with a service which is free to start. MailChimp seemed to fill this service perfectly with a service that would grow as needed.

I no longer recommend MailChimp to my authors and I’m actively working to move them all away to a different service. I’m sure it will consume my work week for some time to come.

As David has pointed out in his article, even if we make some changes to fit in with the new rules on MailChimp, they can’t be trusted to not change the rules again.

So…where am I sending folks? I have quite a few authors on Mailerlite. They have a relatively straight forward platform and I created a course to help navigating it earlier this year. They seem to be interested in working with small fish! They also don’t seem to be changing their platform – resulting in the constant confusion we saw at MailChimp.

I also actively use CampaignMonitor and ConvertKit. Both are reasonable alternatives for those of you interested in moving.

I’m heading back to the drawing board with my newsletter book – re-writing that chapter once again to remove all traces of MailChimp. I’ll also be pulling them off my resources page.

Thanks for listening to my mini-rant! Reach out if you have questions or concerns about MailChimp or any other newsletter service.

Please feel free to use the little share buttons below to share this information with anyone who might be interested – the same with David’s blog post. Knowledge is power and all that…

The post MailChimp has Shot Itself in the Foot appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

Infographic: Four factors to consider when creating a winning newsletter

Welcome back!

Newsletters are a common topic of questions and concerns I get. So much conflicting information floating around the internet – and particularly in the author world! Today’s infographic give the reader 4 important points to consider.

Be sure to read the original blog post on Media Update .

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May Social Media Key Dates

Welcome back!

These Social media calendars are a hit! Since I started sharing these in January, I’ve gotten many positive comments on how helpful they are.

Here’s May’s calendar – drop back by the first of June for the next one. If you are interested in visiting the helpful folks who created the original post with these calendars – the link is here.

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What is the difference between Social Media Follow and Social Media Share

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Social media follow and social media share are two different things. I get a lot of questions and I’m frequently asked about the difference between the two.

And I get a lot of questions about why authors should bother with either.

Let’s started by defining them first, and then we’ll move on to the topic of why bother.

Social Media Follow

Social media follow icons are branded icons for graphics that are hyperlinked to a person’s account on the various social media. For example, social media icon or graphic can be a little F for Facebook. That graphic or icon can be hyperlinked to a Facebook page. When a blog visitor clicks on the graphic or icon, they are taken to the person’s Facebook page. They are then given the opportunity to like or follow the page. The graphics or icons can be set up for any social media. Typically they appear in a grouping, either in the upper right of the sidebar, or along the menu line.

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The graphic above is what my follow icons look like. You can see them over to the right on the sidebar – near the top. Head over and click on several and see what happens. You’ll notice that the statement “Follow Me” sits above the icons. That is just a label and can change to say whatever you want – hopefully still remaining helpful.

Social media share

Let’s move on to social media share icons or buttons or graphics. These icons look the same as follow icons or graphics in many cases but are usually found in different locations.

Here are two different examples of what share buttons look like:

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Share buttons are typically found either at the top or bottom of a post (or both) and often have the label of “Share this” or “Please share” or something cute like “Sharing is caring.”

Social media share buttons are linked graphics or icons which when clicked on, result in a post (or a website) being shared in link form (and excerpt with graphic form) on the social media account of the sharer.

You’ll notice in the above definition, the sharing is done to the accounts of the person sharing, not the website or blog owner. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear here:

It is your job to create attractive, interesting content that your readers want to read and share. It isn’t your job to dictate where or to which social media platforms they are allowed to share it to. Because of this, include as many different icons as you can.

Make sure your social media sharing icons or buttons are set up properly. In the previous paragraph, I stated you should include as many different icons as available, but they should also be set up properly. Seems intimidating, but only involves two steps and one choice.

Make the share buttons or icons obvious and their purpose obvious. Use a label such as “Share This” or similar to let newbies understand their purpose.Make sure the Twitter share icon will carry your @username with the message as you can see in the screenshot below. You want your username to be embedded in the tweets sent out so that you can track or be notified of people sharing your post in this way.



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Above I said setting up sharing buttons involves two steps and one choice. The two steps have been covered – now for the choice. The choices is whether or not your share buttons or icons show the number of shares. An example of share buttons or icons displaying numbers can be seen below:

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My general rule of thumb is accentuate the positives and hide the negatives. Because of this, until you work up an active audience who regularly shares your bog posts with their friends on social media, don’t include the numbers. Share buttons or icons that advertise only one person has shared on Facebook is something I find sad.

Why to include follow and share icons or buttons

We’ve talked about what social media follow buttons or icons are and we’ve talked about what social media share buttons or icons are. Now to discuss the “Why” of this subject. Why do you want to offer these choices and why in the big picture would you do this. Let’s make a list of the “Whys.”

Not everyone will prefer to follow you or keep up to date with you on your blog – that’s just not their thing. By providing direct links to your other social media contact point, you provide options. (and hopefully regularly update your social media streams with current information)You want to be as helpful as possible. Rather than making your readers guess whether or not you have a presence of Facebook or Twitter or another social media, you are providing that information – and hopefully making it obvious.You are allowing and encouraging your readers to interact in a very powerful way. If a reader leaves a comment, they interact with you. If they share with their (possibly) thousands of followers on Twitter, the interaction is potentially much larger. As the saying goes – more bang for your buck.Although what Google finds important is somewhat of a mystery, there are a lot of educated folks on the internet who have made educated guesses. Many of these folks feel that the amount of social shares are important to Google.

Now that we are at the end – do you feel that you understand this subject a bit better? Let me know what you think.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please use the share buttons below to share with friends that might benefit from this information. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my blog using the form below.

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The post What is the difference between Social Media Follow and Social Media Share appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

LinkedIn Pages: Know the Basics [Infographic]

Welcome! I’ve posted helpful hints for LinkedIn in the past and we are back at this topic again!

This handy infographic I found attacks the subject of LinkedIn Pages in a straightforward manner. Let me know if you found it helpful.

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Why Printables? Learn about my time saving creations.

Welcome back!

I’ve been struggling over the last few months to work less hours and to be more effective during the hours that I do work.

So many pulls on my time!

Client work always comes first and as a result I start feeling like those children of the cobbler who have no shoes. I cringe when I talk to someone who starts a sentence with “I was looking at your website…” Crap, wonder what they saw…when was the last time I added content? When was the last time I actually look at my website?

Just before Christmas I gave a talk on an “Author’s On-Line Presence” and was not very happy what I saw when I actually looked at my various social media platforms. I quickly spruced things up. Once the talk was over, paid work interfered again and I stopped paying attention…again.

This had to change!

I need to walk the talk. If I am going to teach social media management, I need to practice social media management. Early this year I started playing with various ways of organizing my time.

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I’m kind of tied to my computer – and have always tried to use my Google Calendar as a way of keeping track of appointments, work to do and all the other aspects of my life. As a result, my Google Calendar is more than a bit of a monster. (like the graphic above) Certainly no room to try to schedule plans for social media!

I tried to move to paper – in years gone by I was a DayTimer kind of girl. My overstuffed DayTimer helped me keep my life as well as the department I was responsible for – very well organized.

Go to Pinterest and there are a ton of free printable organizers. I tried a few but my heart wasn’t in it for a number of reasons. They were free – so I had no skin in the game as the saying goes. And frankly they didn’t really work for my needs.

I reached out to my graphic designer and asked if she could create something customized for me – something that had spots for everything – something that could help me organize my work, social media, blogging as well as have spots for important reminder of my real life.

Michelle of FreshDesign is a miracle worker! After a bit of back and forth she created the perfect set of printables – and charged me for her time.

I now had skin in the game. I now had something that I had to pay for – so the frugal side of me had to find a way to use it.

Honestly, it’s a work in progress, but I am using my printable daytimer sheets. (I prefer the ones with blue splashes to add a bit of color)

I have three different versions of the printable sheets and I want to offer them to you as well. With the same basic thought – if you pay for something, you are more likely to put the energy into using it.

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You can find the printable sheets here. Download a set today and let me know if they help you get all your ducks marching in a row!

I hope you enjoyed this post. Please use the share buttons below to share with friends that might benefit from this information. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my blog using the form below.

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The post Why Printables? Learn about my time saving creations. appeared first on Bakerview Consulting.

22 Benefits of Social Media for Business (infographic)

Welcome!

Today’s infographic is compliments of Social Media Today – one of my most favorite blogs. I encourage you to subscribe to this book if you don’t already! I think we get so busy looking at the trees that we don’t see the forest when it comes to social media. I like today’s infographic as it lists 22 reasons we do what we do

April Social Media Key Dates

Welcome!

Here are some great ideas for April social media posts. To see the full year of ideas, click here.

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7 Common Pinterest Marketing Mistakes you should never make (Infographic)

Welcome!

Are you using Pinterest as part of your platform? Do you feel like you are stumbling around? Even if you have your act together are you curious if you are making any mistakes?

Here’s my latest find – an infographic on Pinterest.

I found this infographic on one of my favorite blogs – Digital Information World.

Enjoy!

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