July 22, 2015July 21, 2015 by Alice Mathews

Mind Your 10 P’s So There Won’t Be Q’s

Being a baby boomer has advantages. A lifetime of battle scars have healed as common sense, especially when it comes to social media.

Here are 10 P’s this middle-aged marketer knows for sure to help prevent questions about you or your business:

Privacy is in the past.

No self-respecting phone today is without a camera. Look around and see who is photographing you, and be aware you could be the next online sensation.

Pause before you post.

Even with editing capabilities, chances are you have had Posters Remorse. Follow your own intuition; pause, read, re-read, make sure you are not offending anyone, hurting yourself or your company, then post away.

Present your best self.

Digital has a long shelf life. People astound me with their inappropriate pictures, comments, shares, etc. Whether your online activity is for a company or yourself, put your very best self out into the universe. Trash stinks while the good stuff is timeless.

Post with purpose.

There’s nothing more aggravating than having alerts go off to find a picture of the hottest new toenail color on freshly painted toes. Really? If you are expecting us to read what you’ve posted, make it worth it. Something that makes us happy, learn, grow, ponder, and motivated works.

Pain does not equal gain.

Know people who post sad stories, prayer requests, and bad news? You tend to ignore them? No problem when people share their hard times, but frame the messages so that good comes from it. By getting it off your chest and onto ours, we all feel bad. Therefore, let’s balance the joys with the sorrows.

Pay it forward.

Posting positives through shout-outs, encouraging words, and public praises has no down side. If you have a beef with someone, keep it private. Using social tools to duke it out is not in good taste.

Profanity isn’t cool.

No matter what your age, profanity can be offensive. Some may feel it has its place, but not on social media. Remember you are building your own reputation, and your form of expression speaks volumes about YOU. If you want respect, leave profanity out of the airwaves.

Protect your brand and your identity.

Whether it’s personal or business, your online presence creates a mental and visual picture of your persona, as well as provides followers with personal information. Look at your online presence like your mother or boss would. What do you see? Would mom be proud, and would your boss give you a promotion? If not, regroup. TMI is sharing information that could help someone access you or your security, so if in doubt…don’t.

Preserve your core message.

I love words as much as anyone and can be guilty of using too many. Whether you blog, post, tweet, or Snapchat, trim your word count down as much as possible while preserving your core message. You will maintain your audience’s attention, which is the goal.

Promote!

What better way to get information out to the masses in an instant with little to no cost? Whether you are selling yourself or a product, social media must be one of your marketing techniques. If you are inexperienced, do not worry. Social Media experts like Mandy Edwards, ME Marketing Services, can help you. Reach out, read up and write on!

Minding your 10 P’s can help you avoid common mishaps and maximize your potential when using social media. The more careful you are, the less questions others will have about your integrity, abilities and intentions. Move forward with being actively engaged online, and enjoy the rewards both personally and professionally. Just remember, use your well earned common sense to reap big rewards!

July 6, 2015June 22, 2015 by Mandy Edwards

5 on the 5th Interview: Peg Fitzpatrick

Peg is everywhere! She’s a social media pro, an author and seems to be Guy Kawasaki’s right hand! I met Peg through the Social Solutions Collective and have a lot of respect for her. From the way she handles her social media posting to her book, Peg is one of the few who actually walks the talk. When I was deciding who I wanted to interview, I knew I had to get Peg on here. Read her responses below and definitely go follow her on Twitter and Google Plus!

Name: Peg Fitzpatrick

Title: Author, social media strategist

Website/Blog: http://www.pegfitzpatrick.com

Twitter handle: @PegFitzpatrick

Question 1: Why did you choose to work in this industry?

I worked in traditional marketing and online customer service and made the move over to social media when I saw an opportunity for companies to market on Facebook years ago.

I love being in this social media evolution and keeping up with what’s coming and going.

Question 2: How do you keep continuing your education and staying up on all the latest trends and changes?

I read social media books and blogs, attend conferences when I can, and follow the updates from the big social media platforms really carefully. You never know when something is going to change and it could affect what you have planned so it’s important to stay sharp on the rules and guidelines.

I also use social media every day so I’m on the different platforms and catch the changes quickly.

Question 3: What do you love the most about working in your industry? What bothers you the most?

I love the freedom and challenge of social media.

My pet peeve is people who troll others because they are jealous or having nothing going on in life. If you don’t like a blog post or social media post, move on and do your own thing. Thankfully there are very few of these negative people but sadly they do exist.

Question 4: What is the hardest situation you’ve encountered in your business and how did you handle it?

I think the hardest thing is still that women aren’t treated as equals. Even in this online space, men seem to dominate in blogging, social media, and speaking engagements. I don’t see why it should be that way and I’m thrilled there are more up and coming female leaders in the social media space.

Question 5: What is the best business advice you’ve been given and why has it stayed with you?

The best business advice I got was to read The Four Agreements by Don Miquel Ruiz. It helped me when I was at a challenging job as well as now in the social media space. It’s a book that I re-read occasionally and I always get something from it.

One for the road…

Bonus: If you could come back to life as any person from the history, who would it be?

Hmmm so hard! I would chose to be William Shakespeare. He wrote amazing things that have lasted hundreds of years and still connect with people today. If you read Much Ado About Nothing today, it’s smart, witty, and biting – just as William intended it to be. That’s an amazing thing!

June 23, 2015June 22, 2015 by Mandy Edwards

If you want to pitch me an article, PLEASE do not do these things…

As the owner of a website that publishes blog posts and articles, I get emails just about daily from people wanting to publish on my site. In fact, it got so bad I set up a separate email address for it.

There’s nothing wrong with pitching an idea or an article already-written to someone for publication on their site. I’ve done it and I’m sure you have too.

However, there are things that will get your email an automatic NO. Seriously, I wonder if some of these people ever took a class on correspondence. Let’s take a look at what not to do in an email pitch…

Fail to greet me by name.

Rule 101 in writing a letter (or any correspondence) – you always greet the person by name. My name is all over my website – it’s not hard to find. Not greeting the person you are emailing by name is a total disrespect to that person. Since you went to my website to find the email address you are sending it to, you would have seen my name on the site and my about page. Here’s a variation on that – you get my name right, but ask who they need to talk to. If you got my name, then you should see I am the person to talk to.

Real Examples:

Advice: Take the extra 2 or 3 minutes and find the person’s name you are wanting to email.

Make it obvious you’ve copied and pasted your email.

Okay, I’ll admit it – I copy and paste between emails. Who hasn’t? However, it’s kinda obvious you’ve done it when you have multiple fonts and font sizes going on in the email. We won’t even touch character and word spacing. Why would I accept a post or pitch from someone who cannot even proof their own email?

Real Examples:

Advice: Show some professionalism and proof and spell check your email before sending.

Assume I’ll pay you for your article.

I do not believe in paying for guest posts. It’s a GUEST post. Do you pay people to be guests at your house? I didn’t think so. If I’m paying someone for their blog posts, they are considered a contributor, not a guest. If someone asks, I’ll tell them, but don’t just assume I pay by telling me your content is of no charge. Wait for someone to bring it up before just assuming. I am aware there are bloggers/writers who sell their articles for a living. That’s fine – just please be tactful about it.

Real Example:

Advice: If unsure, ask if the person you are approaching compensates (use that term, it’s nicer) for guests posts. Do. not. ever. assume.

Pitch me something that is not even the industry I work in.

If you pitch me something (like the below example) that doesn’t even have to do with my industry, I’ll think you’re an idiot who didn’t do their homework. Make sure what you are pitching is relevant to the person/business/industry you are approaching.

Real Example:

Advice: Do you homework and make sure you are contacting companies in the right industry.

Send me testy emails when I don’t respond fast enough.

I hardly ever respond immediately to pitches, even legitimate ones. If it’s legit, I will take the time to research you and/or your company before responding and I will respond. I’m just as busy as you and the next person and cannot respond immediately. The last thing you want to do is get snippy following up (see below).

Real Example:

Side note: Do not ever buy links unless you want to be black-listed by Google.

Advice: Be patient.

I will say I have gotten some great pitches via email – they aren’t all bad. I will respond back to legit inquiries when I get them, so if you are reading this and are interested in a possible guest post, please do contact me. Just make sure to avoid the list of things above 😉

Now it’s your turn – what do people need to avoid doing in their email pitches to you?

in Blogging / Social Influence / Social Media 9 comments

June 11, 2015June 10, 2015 by Mandy Edwards

Even Social Media Pros Screw Up

This may be one of the shortest blog articles I’ve ever written, however sometimes you do not need a lot of words to get your message across.

Despite all of the articles we write advising others about what to post and not to post, we fall prey to our emotions sometimes and mess up online. On our personal accounts.

To make a long story short, I had a situation concerning one of my children’s afterschool activities and something happened that I perceived as unfair and was handled totally the wrong way (my opinion). Knowing I couldn’t rant on Facebook about it specifically, no matter how badly I wanted to, I put together what I thought was a well-crafted vanilla post about the matter seeking advice from my fellow moms on Facebook. Of course my husband (who sometimes is this redhead’s voice of reason) told me, when he read it, that I shouldn’t have posted it. He didn’t read it the way I intended it to be read.

Fast forward to many likes and comments (none negative towards the situation) later, I’m asked by one to delete the post and another (who was one of my closest friends) unfollowed (not unfriended) me on Facebook. It didn’t matter how well-thought out I thought the post was or even the fact no person or activity was tagged or named, looking back, my husband was right – I shouldn’t have posted it.

See, even the social media pros mess up personally at times. I thought that I had aired my opinion very calmly and quite generically, but apparently I was wrong. We all fall prey to our emotions at time and post things without thinking them 100% through. We may think we’re posting something okay, but that’s not how others will see it. That is what I failed to take into account.

Since then (it was in the Spring), I’ve hardly posted anything other than pictures and silly links, rarely typing out what I really want to. I’ve censored myself online. It got me to thinking… if everyone was 100% honest and posted what they really thought on social media, what kind of place would Facebook (or really any other platform) be? People can be so fake online, but when one is completely themselves and honest, well, let’s just say no one wants to see that in their feed.

So what’s the lesson then? Don’t post anything anywhere when you are not completely calm. If you’re upset, aggravated, pissed off, sleep on it before taking to the internet. Had I done that, I wouldn’t be kicking myself every day. The friendship that was hurt has not recovered – we’ve talked about it and still talk if we see each other, but something in that friendship was lost. And I regret that everyday.

We’re all human. We’re going to mess up. The key is knowing what to do next to overcome it.

in Social Influence / Social Media 3 comments

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015 by Mandy Edwards

Win A Copy of “The Content Code”

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in Social Media 0 comments