Jun
2018

So where have I been?

categories: Uncategorized

I have been fighting breast cancer for the past 5 months.

I have not written for some time on my blog. I felt I should explain why.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer in the Spring of 2018. I have had  2 surgeries, 4 chemo treatments, and 20 radiation treatments.

I had no idea what was to follow after getting that message that my annual mammogram showed some calcifications from my family doctor.

This is what happened with my fight with Breast Cancer Stage 1.
Breast Cancer

First what where these findings?

Calcifications?

In some cases, a biopsy of normal-appearing tissue may be done. This can help check for cancer

“”Suspicious” calcifications may be benign or an early sign of cancer; therefore, your doctor may recommend you have a biopsy. During a biopsy, a small amount of breast tissue containing the calcification is removed and sent to a laboratory to be examined for cancer cells. If cancer is present, treatment may consist of surgery to remove the cancerous breast, radiation, and/or chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.”

source: https://www.webmd.com/women/guide/breast-calcification-symptoms-causes-treatments#1

Many types of Biopsies
Surgical biopsy. Either open or laparoscopic surgery may be necessary to obtain a biopsy of hard-to-reach tissue. Either a piece of tissue or the whole lump of tissue may be removed. In my case, I had two surgeries, lumpectomies. No spread or metastases beyond the lymph nodes. I was very lucky to find this very early. Stage 1.

source: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/what-is-a-biopsy#1

Told you have Cancer

The biopsy came back positive for cancer.

I was quickly given an appointment with a surgeon after my biopsy that showed cancerous cells. The surgeon told me rather matter of factly, he had done this over and over for many many years.  But for me it was devastating. So I did my research.

source: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/cancer-prevention-detection-16/cancer-diagnosis

The Cancer Hosptial

Cancer hospital

It was recommended by my oncologist that I have chemo and radiation as I had a family history of cancer. My mother had had Ovarian Cancer and as I would not find out if I had the harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation gene (genetic testing is still ongoing)  rather than wait I decided to go ahead with the method of treatment.  Should I learn that I do have the gene it would make me more likely to get breast cancer again or Ovarian Cancer. So further surgeries would be recommended.

My mother had Ovarian Cancer when she was .. 72 yrs old. About 10% of cases are related to inherited genetic risk; women with mutations in the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2 have about a 50% chance of developing the disease. So I or my daughter, or my sister may be at risk because my mother died from Ovarian cancer.

A harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation can be inherited from a person’s mother or father. Each child of a parent who carries a mutation in one of these genes has a 50 percent chance (or 1 chance in 2) of inheriting the mutation.

Angelina Jolie
Preventative mastectomy and ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce the high risk of developing cancer from the defective gene she carries.

I will be going to find out if I have the ” BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. If I do there will be further surgeries such as the ones that Angelina Jolie has had. Preventative mastectomy and ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce the high risk of developing cancer from the defective gene she carries.

I have written a previous article about my Mothers Ovarian cancer for PAC. http://www.poweraffiliateclub.com/do-you-have-lady-balls/

Chemotherapy

Chemo

Treatment was done in my local hospital, only 5 mins from home. The first day was ok, you think “this is not so bad”. After the third treatment, your body starts to feel the effect of the chemo medication. I felt sick to my stomach, food had a very strange taste and my hair started to fall out. Chemo brain is a reality, not able to concentrate and I was so tired all the time.

source: http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/chemotherapy

Radiation

Radiation

Treatment had to be done in an Ottawa  Hosptial.  An hours drive there and back again for many weeks. Again the first day was ok, but after about 5 treatments, things were uncomfortable, my skin felt like a sunburn, itchy and raw by the end of treatment.

source: http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/radiation

Finally, after 5 months, I am done with Chemo and Radiation.

Done Cancer treatment

It will still be a while before I am feeling like I did before all this happened but I am happy to have it over with.  I hope that the information I have listed can help someone going thru cancer treatment or help you to understand what is involved for a friend. Cancer is so prevalent today, so many people going thru treatments that were much worse than mine.  God’s blessing to them all.

Breast Cancer Gone

Breast Cancer Tests: Screening, Diagnosis, and Monitoring

Breastcancer.org 120 East Lancaster Avenue, Suite 201 Ardmore, PA 19003

source:  http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types

Canadian Cancer Information:

55 St Clair Avenue West, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario

source:
http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/breast/breast-cancer/?region=on

 

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A blogger with WordPress /domains & hosting for web development. A certified Social Media Campaign specialist sing Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google + Also an Affiliate & Network Marketer using resources such as: the  Power Affiliate Club. PAC  Expert Author and Coordinator for  Power Affiliate Club

Please comment below.

 


Apr
2018

10 Exciting Pro Blogger Tips on Social Media Marketing

categories: Marketing, Social Media

Learn how to blog and become a…. PRO Blogger

Pro Blogger

Did you know that 82% of marketers who blog consistently (at least on a weekly basis) -acquired a customer from using their blog, as opposed to 57% of marketers who blog sporadically or only monthly?

I do believe this but have been unable to do so due to being very ill recently. I am feeling better but re-publishing this article today. Hope to get back to my regular duties of blogging and working at the Power Affiliate Club.

Businesses that blog get 97% more inbound links – And since social media and blogging are so closely tied together, you’ll also want to track which of your posts are being shared the most on social media. More on this …

Social Media Strategy Goals for your  Blog

You have a goal for your business. You know what you want, but how do you get there?

Start by being clear about what it is that you want. If that includes blogging for your own business then you need to set up a social media strategy.  There are blogs on almost every subject you can think of, yet they all different.  We are attracted to people for many reasons, but mostly because of who we see them as. Entertaining, colorful, informative or attractive. This is called branding.   Their style and personality. You need to be YOU and create this unique recognition and reputation for yourself.

marketingofflineonline.net

Branding

The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

Branding you and your business

Your Brand –  Everything You Do In Your Business:
– your consistency -followers like to be able to find you on a regular basis
– your authenticity – you are unique,  no one else is quite like you so your content is unique
– your core value – the big benefit our prospective clients  receives from engaging with you

Your Content Marketing

Content Marketing, such as starting a blog or make videos or podcasts, blog posts.

Your blogging goals become recognized by your ideal customers when you produce services and products that build trust in your relationships.  “That know, like and trust factor.”  KLT.  Content between brands and consumers. Your content is the hub or center that attracts your target audience to your blog for your business.

social media

 Social Media

Very valuable to your blogging goals. These are firmly anchored in your blog’s priorities. Make sure your social activity where you share on networks, is tied to your buyer personas. Your ideal client or customer or target audience. If you’re a business brand, you’re likely going to be spending a lot of time on LinkedIn which is business oriented. If you’re a lifestyle type of brand, you probably are going to be more on Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram.

Different Ways Of Learning

Some people are more visual, while others like to read. Some like video or audio. We all have different learning styles. Repurpose your content to reach your audience on their own platform of preference. Take your most popular blog post and turn it into a  series of short videos. I use Lumen5 (free) to create a video with music and images to go with the content of a blog post. Very effective for people who like video and the music is nice too.  You could put this video in the article itself adding interest with less bounce rate, or you could add it to your Facebook business page with a link back to your site or a Twitter post in the article its self.

It’s important to get that mix of social media marketing going to the right people. Where does your target audience hang out? Master one social platform at a time and then move to another. It’s quality, not quantity that rules social media. An interesting article on what Facebook is doing might be of interest.

Facebooks Latest Change To its Newsfeed

Facebook is taking a big chunk out of the newsfeed Facebook now wants to replace news with more content from friends and family. With all new fake news and injustice to women, the new algorithm will change, (as it always does) but this time it’s different.  All the more reason to have more than just Facebook as your source of social media.

“Facebook wants to encourage GENUINE interactions on their platform.

So, “the soul-less re-posting, the click-bait tactics – all  those things are going to be penalized…which doesn’t actually sound like a bad thing.” – Cathy Topping of yourwebtoolkit.com  She is right I’d say.

Mike Stelzner founder of Social Media Examiner emailed me some important info on the new Facebook News Feed changes.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s CEO) said Jan 11th. “We are making a major change to how we build Facebook.”
Head of Facebook’s News Feed (Adam Mosseri) outlined coming changes. He posted in media groups of which Mark Stelzner is a member.

Fact 1: Adam said, “space in News Feed is limited.”

Fact 2: “We’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses,” he said.

Fact 3: “Pages may see their reach, video watch time, and referral traffic decrease,” -Adam Mosseri

Fact 4: “Over the next few months, we’ll be making updates to ranking,”

So here is what we know so far:

#1: Video will get less watch time. Inference: you’ll see less video in the News Feed.

#2: Links to external pages will get less visibility. Thus, they won’t be showing as many links to blog posts, news, and so on.

#3: ALL posts from people and pages will be impacted. In Facebook’s News, Media, & Publishing group

“The update applies to all post types, from pages and people.”

Facebook Ranking

 

So what are the important ranking factors?

Facebook will “prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people,” – Adam Mosseri.

In a recent Wired Magazine exclusive interview, Adam said, “we’re going to be (weighing) long comments more than short comments,” and that “comments are more valuable than likes.”

So, actual “meaty” dialog between people (not pages and people, see the language distinction) is critical for News Feed exposure.

Now to video. Adam said, “video is, primarily, a passive experience. You tend to just sit back and watch it. And while you’re watching it, you’re not usually liking, or commenting, or speaking with friends.”

I believe this means a lot fewer shorter videos, a lot fewer Tasty-style how-to videos, and a lot fewer video animations.

At this point, it should be very clear that your strategy has got to change…

Some of Mike’s ideas
Step 1: Scale back your frequency of posts. Less is more here.

Step 2: Figure out how to create content that will get people talking to EACH OTHER, not just you.

Step 3: Up your live video game plan.

Adam said, “live videos often lead to discussion among viewers on Facebook–in fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.”

Step 4: Avoid engagement bait. These are posts that encourage people to comment. Adam said Facebook will “demote these posts in News Feed.”

Step 5: Master Facebook ads: This will be one of the only reliable ways you’ll be able to drive traffic off of Facebook.

Step 6: Learn Messenger Chatbots: Moving conversations into Messenger and using bots will be a huge trend that will allow you to nurture leads and sell.

A lot of the above steps will likely require a complete shift in your current Facebook strategy. If it helps, share this email with your boss, clients, or friends.

Ways to rapidly improve your Facebook strategy, live video experience, Facebook ads, and Messenger chatbot success.

Setting Goals For Your Business

social media strategy

Using an editorial planner is a great step for organizing your business.  I use a free tool called Asana. Good for people with a team or only for you.  Start with writing your to-do list for the next month as tasks. You can list by a table or a kanban (separate areas) It’s free and you can incorporate a buddy as well to whichever section you like. Works for soloprenures as well. I use it every day to organize my business.

Prioritize. When thinking of which goals to work on first ask yourself these questions.

  • Are the goals you have right now realistic?
  • Would there be some goals that haven’t helped that you could let go of?
  • Which goals have more priority over others?

10 Exciting Pro Blogger Tips on Social Media and  Marketing Your Blog

Goals represent the big change or result you want in your business, the social media systems represent each planned step you take towards the big result.

1. Do Your Homework – Keyword Research
One of the biggest benefits of blogging…it brings organic traffic from the search engines. Having your site seen much more is relevant to your industry.  Google loves this. One of the first steps in the process of getting more search traffic through blogging is by doing your keyword research well.

So What Is Keyword Research? 

It is the process of finding the different search phrases and terms that your customers would use to find your website.  So write blog topics that target these specific phrases. If one of your keywords is “social media branding.” That might inspire a blog post called ” Ultimate Guide to Personal Social Media Branding.”

Most marketers start with Google AdWords Keyword Planner as their keyword tool of choice because it’s free and produced by the leading search engine. You will need a Google AdWords account to use this tool, but all you need to do is create the account — you do not have to run any ads, you just use the research tool for your keywords. Some keywords I chose for this article – blog  1M-10M Low  / how to become a blogger  1K – 10K Medium/pro blogger   1K – 10K low

2. Learn From Your Competitors

If your competitors are blogging, and they’re successful, then you should spend some time examining what they’re doing. Try to implement similar strategies on your own blog.

For example, if you notice a lot of your competitors’ blog posts are lists, and they’re getting shared heavily on social media, then it’s probably a good idea to start creating some “Social media…” list posts for your own blog. eg. 8 ways to…. Or if you see that they’re marketing heavily on Facebook to push traffic to their blog, then you ought to be getting more familiar with Facebook and it’s Ads using the Power Editor.

I follow many successful marketers. I get great ideas from seeing what successful marketers are doing. I sign up for their newsletters and my email box and it gives me many ideas on what to work on, adding my own slant to it.

3. Let Your Own Personality Shine Through

There’s nothing worse than reading a  bland, boring blog post. In a world where companies tip-toe around saying the wrong thing, many businesses are afraid of being a little edgy or entertaining with their content. However, the companies that are really seeing the most success with their blogs are the ones that inject humor and fun into them. FUN! Think of the commercials for Bud Wiser with their horses.

Fun Images Pro Blogger

4. Remember to Grow Your Email List

Building your email list is HUGE. Setting up an email subscribe form on your blog should be your #one priority. If you come up with an irresistible gift, people are happy to join your list so you can have them get to know who you are and what you can do for them. More on this here  My choice of autoresponder  ConvertKit

While people will find your blog through the Google search engine, social media or links from other sites, if they leave your site after getting their information, well you just lost a lead. Give something away: Create a free report, offer a coupon code or make a free guide to entice people to sign up to your list. Get their email address by offering something of great value that they won’t refuse.  Give them your best info for FREE. They will be interested in what else you have and buy from you later on.

That is why there is a HUGE focus being put on getting people to follow you or your company on Twitter, or like your Facebook Page. Rightfully so!

Social media marketing is VERY important, but email gives you an even closer way to connect with your audience because you can contact them directly. There are 3x the number of emails out there as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. Be sure to stand out with your email titles.

Here Are Some Tips On Growing Your Email List:

Make a strong CTA -Call To Action: People are very understandably protective of giving out their email address. Make your call-to-action so appealing that they can’t resist. Offer something irresistible.

Experiment: Try placing forms as pop-ups, in your sidebar, before/after blog posts, the top of the screen and other locations to see what converts the best. SumoMe  http://sumome.com/ It also comes as a plugin, for WordPress.

Keep In Touch: If you’re only sending out emails once every three months, your list won’t pick up much traction. Try emailing a few times a week, or at least once a week. Try using a great autoresponder  ConvertKit

See my sign up form for emails on weekends. Marketing and social media tips and tricks. 

Never sacrifice the quality of your blog. People want quality content, not a poorly written fluff that doesn't provide any type of valueClick To Tweet What is the best way to combine content marketing + social media marketing + SEO?

5. Create a Blogging Schedule

Being consistent in blogging, it keeps people coming back. Not only that but publishing blogs on a regular schedule can even lead to more subscribers. They get to know like and trust you and enjoy visiting your blog on a regular basis.

Publish your blog post

 

From  (Be a Better Blogger), the company tested the difference between posting five days a week versus once a week. Here are the results:
. Social shares increased 84%
. Comments increased 119%
. Traffic increased 46%

Posting five days a week can be a challenge,  I posted on a regular basis for a PAC Challenge for a few weeks.  Ideally, you should push for two to five new posts a week. But if you can publish at least once a week, you’re still doing better than companies that only blog once a month or less.

6. Don’t be all about the Sale

While your blog is a promotional tool. Blogging does generate leads, however, that is not the purpose of the blog. If you want people to know about your services, they should be able to go to your services page and read about them there.

Your blog is where you provide helpful information that they can benefit from somehow. So offer your audience and your potential customers’ value through your free content, and once you have built up that know like and trust factor, then the sales process doesn’t feel forced it will seem very natural.

7. Make Your Blog Posts Look Good

Too many blog posts are huge walls of text. Reading a blog post shouldn’t be like reading through a college research paper. What do you like to see on any blog?  Images that are beautiful or interesting.

Your blog posts should be visually appealing.
That means:

  • Using lists
  • Using images
  • Using bold and italics
  • Using Headings
  • Using bullet points
  • Using a nice sized font (preferably 16px)
  • Keeping paragraphs short and sweet (two to four sentences)

If You’re Having Trouble Coming Up With Great Blog Post Title:

This is THE most Important factor. Your TITLES! You can use tools like HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. Simply enter up to three of your keyword phrases, and HubSpot will start by suggesting some good titles.

http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator

Or you can use Co-Schedules Free Headline Analyser. http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer#

It gives you a list of what you try. For this article I came up with after several trys.

61 -10 Exciting Tips Pro Bloggers use in Content Marketing
62 – 10 Exciting Tips That Pro Bloggers use in Content Marketing
65 -10 Exciting Tips That Pro Bloggers us in Social Media Marketing
69 -10 Exciting Pro Blogger Tips on social media marketing
63 – 10 Pro Blogger Tips on content and social media marketing
54 – 10 Pro Blogger Tips on content marketing + social media marketing + SEO?

8. Track Your Efforts

The only way to judge whether or not your blogging efforts are actually working is to have some type of analytics installed to measure your ROI. Google Analytics is free and you can start seeing which posts are the most popular, which posts people are staying on the longest and even which posts are performing well.

9. How to Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO

As mentioned, blogging is a very good way to get some organic search traffic. In addition, your blog posts should be optimized for search engines. There are step by step ways to do this if you want to know how to become a blogger.

How to Optimize Your Blog post

. Put your main keyword in the post title ( ex  of this article title)
. Include related keywords in the content
. Use appropriate subheadings h2, h3
. Optimize images –https://yoast.com/image-seo/
. Include internal links to other articles
. Link out to authoritative websites
. Include your main keyword in the URL

10. In addition to your on-page SEO

You will also want to make sure that you’re sharing your blog posts as much as possible through social media. Use the url to your lead magnet in the bottom of your emails. In your Pinterest profile, or on Instagram the url to your landing page with your optin. Use blog comments or anywhere else you can to get the word out. The more people that find out about your content, the higher chances of them linking to it.

And since social media and blogging are so closely tied together, you’ll also want to track which of your posts are being shared the most on social media. A quick way to do this is with the Quicksprout social media analysis tool.
http://www.quicksprout.com/

Just paste in your site’s URL, then click on the social media analysis tab. You’ll see a list of the social shares each of your posts has organized by social media site.

Never sacrifice the quality of your blog. People want quality content, not a poorly written fluff that doesn’t provide any type of value. Take the time to create thoughtful content that has a purpose and you will have much better success with your blog like a Pro Blogger does.

If you found value in this article please comment below and share it with your social media or send to a blogging friend.

Sourced information from  http://sproutsocial.com/insights/blogging-tips/

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A blogger with WordPress /domains & hosting for web development. A certified Social Media Campaign specialist sing Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google + Also an Affiliate & Network Marketer using resources such as: the  Power Affiliate Club. PAC  Expert Author and Coordinator for  Power Affiliate Club


Apr
2018

Social Media and a Great Content Calendar

categories: Boost Your Biz

On a Content Calendar, you can keep track of information for your business, such as Holidays so you can plan in advance. A calendar is a great scheduling tool that helps to create your marketing campaigns around things like Christmas, New Years etc. But it’s more than that…

It’s the CONTENT that you want to deliver on a consistent basis, that is organized by your content calendar that is of the utmost importance. “Content is the magnet that attracts people to you. It showcases your experience. It’s what helps the visitor to your site with your insight and your advice.” – Lisa Larter

Social Media

How you spread that content is by using your social media channels. SOCIAL is the key word here. You want your social media to mean something special in spreading your own content online. Is your social media clear, branded and are your present or M.I.A.? Make a list of all of your social media networks. Look at the accounts from your prospective buyer’s viewpoint. Would you buy from yourself?

Editorial Content Calendar

If you have felt that pressure to create content, just because everyone else is, (create a  Facebook group,  do videos, etc.) Use so many social media platforms and you get lost trying to keep up with it all. ( I use most of them as my business as a social media manager.)

Do a social media audit and check all your social accounts. Check your analytics to see what has been working. …..

One of the easiest ways around all that is to use IFTTT. It’s free. You can make it even easier by connecting it to an EVERNOTE account. Opening an account is free but some features require a subscription. There are three tiers to choose from Basic, Premium, and Business.

I can publish a note to my Evernote account which publishes to my calendar on my site for ideas to write on using this Integration with IFTTT which provides various utilities that WordPress core lacks.   Connect Evernote and WordPress

IFTTT and Evernote

Business Goals
The only type of content that really matters is what leads people closer to your business goals…

  • What is your objective? Do you want to be an influencer? Do you want new offerings?
  • These should be clearly defined and tangible. Quantify them with check marks to be reached in 3 to 5 years.

Whether it positions you as someone that’s important in your niche or one that’s just noise, with sales sales sales…

Your position online leads people to say YES to your products and services… Because when people are attracted to your style, your own particular way of doing things. The experience they get from your BRAND < more about that)…they do want to hear from you!  Do you open emails from people you don’t know or don’t want to hear from? No.

Have you been hacking together excel spreadsheets and google docsI…or other methods in hopes of managing your business? I have found a better way.content calendar

 A Content Calendar

 

 

4 Ways to keep a Calendar for your Blog  Ask yourself…

  1.  What is your main goal for your blog?

  • What are your yearly, quarterly and weekly content marketing goals?
    This would include all of your content related goals such as blogging posts, webinars, presentations etc

2. What are the monthly themes that you will be focusing on?

  • Tie these to seasonal on the calendar if possible.

3. What services or products will you promote within your content?

  • A list of the products you want to create and promote.
  • A list of price points for every product for the next  3 -5 years from your free magnet to your highest product.
    Types of text, video, audio, infographic reviews etc within your content.

4. What resource list of products or affiliate products that correspond to the monthly themes that you can promote?

  • lead generating products from free optin
  • e-books or reports
  • tripwire product
  • upgrades
  • membership product

Types of business organization < read more here

 

There are several  types of content calendars you can use

More about > Air Table  A calendar that you can drag and drop your images or files too that is great. Very simple to use.

Or read more on >Asana, also pretty easy to use. Keep track of all things pertaining to your business.

These two types of calendars have a free and a paid program. Other things to keep track of – what you have used in the past such as your inbound and outbound links. What meta descriptions you used for what. Instagram captions, all the little things can be entered into your database on either of these programs.

I personally use Asana to organize my business step by step using tasks and projects. Everyday planning that is also free and has a paid upgrade. You can manage just yourself or a team. More on that here > Asana  

 

Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is just a fancy term for a publishing schedule. It is a plug-in for WordPress.org
It also uses the integration for my editorial calendar as stated above with IFTTT and my Evernote account. This is automated to my calendar which is a plugin on my site.

Did you remember to write a post for next Tuesday?

What about the Tuesday after that? WordPress doesn’t make it easy to see when your posts are scheduled. The editorial calendar gives you an overview of your blog articles, and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right on the calendar, and manage your entire blog! So handy to have this calendar plugin on your site.

Find out more about content calendars  < here

WordPress Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar

 

(There is a video  that shows just how this works  -scroll down)

 

WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin
-A free plug-in that lets you see all of your blog posts in one place with drag and drop to manage publication dates.

A successful blog requires consistent quality and a regular uploaded schedule. If you’re creating every piece of content yourself, then using an editorial system as a  guide, is a very helpful tool. Especially if you’re working with multiple contributors to your website such as guest authors.

Your WEBSITE that you have the editorial calendar on, needs to be clear about what it is you do immediately…. It should have a re-do of the site every 3 – 5 years, as your social media should also be done every 3 – 5 years.  Freshened up with new images and (new images of you as well.) This is your storefront that people see first, before your information. That first impression is all important. Make sure it’s what you want potential clients or customers to see.

In Conclusion

Using an editorial content calendar helps to organize your content for your business.  Social media gets your content spread to people who are interested in what your brand is all about. Your website should be as good as it can be.

Quote from Lisa Lartner  – see Facebook below link for her video.

Join my newsletter and you will receive my e-report on the social media I use for my business, with weekly info on marketing I am doing, every weekend in your email box.

Kathryn Maclean

 

 

Kathryn Maclean  https://www.facebook.com/KathrynRMaclean/
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.


Mar
2018

10 Creative Tactics to Craft a Compelling Blog Post

categories: Blogging

Creative Tactics to Craft a Compelling Blog Post

by guest author Anuradha Chawla

10 Creative Tactics to Craft a Compelling Blog Post

One of the famous sayings is: “Anybody can cook, but only the courageous can be great”? You can easily revise these inspiring words as, “Anybody can compose a blog post, but only the courageous bloggers can be great.”

See, an excellent idea or question, proper spelling and grammar, and a strong knowledge of the essay form makes a good blog post. But if you require writing a great blog post or one that makes people go “Wow! I’ll share this on Twitter!” rather of “Meh, this is nothing special,” you have to go farther than the essentials…

In my experience, one of the best ways to write great content is to make time to write great content. I’ve got some tips that are certain to help the content you produce, connect with your audience.

  1. Begin with a kick-ass headline that makes an impression:

Insert attractive words that would spark people’s curiosity. Start with an engaging subject or most-used search terms such as “How,” “Why,” “How-To,” “Do,” etc. Using numbers and attention-grabbing attributes are also an excellent way to attract users. For example, instead of using “Craft An Effective Blog Post,” here the title is “10 Creative Tactics to Craft a Compelling Blog Post.” Still, don’t ignore to keep your title accurate and straightforward to understand.

  1.  Hook Them With The Commencing Sentence:

Certainly, this is the toughest section of drafting a blog post. As the first statement in the article should be able to stumble in the reader, and at the same time, give them an view what your story will be all about.

You can begin with:

  1. Thought-Evoking topic – “Do you know what a blog post and a sandwich have in common?”
  2. Quote – “Stephen King once said: ‘If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.’
  3. Statistic – “Article posting (79%) and social media excluding blogs (74%) are the most popular tactics for B2B content marketers.”
  4. Source: http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/

Story – “The another day, I had a Newtonian adventure. That is, an apple dropped on my head.”

  1. Make Every Word, Phrase & Sentence Count:

These days you have to struggle harder to retain your users’ attention from the opening till the conclusion of your blog post. To do that, every statement, phrase, sentence and even punctuation marks add something to your piece.

A convenient method is to read your draft out loud. If it seems like you’re describing things too slowly, or you’re slipping asleep to your voice (gasp!), you may require editing the irrelevant bits. Your draft could probably feel “incomplete,” in which case, you can embed additional message to explain your ideas or enhance your arguments.

  1. Shrink Your Sentences, If Possible:

Do you read a statement out loud, and drop your breath by the end of it? Do you notice too many adverbs, adjectives and other words that don’t add something to a sentence?

If any of these occur, compress it! Otherwise, that kilometric sentence is seemingly fine as is. 

  1. Play With Analogies: 

Blogging is like dating. It’s not ample that you make a great impact on the first date. You also have to show, again and again with your subsequent visits, that you’re a person deserving someone’s time, commitment, and love.

  1. Use Easy, Yet Definite, Words:

Users hate it when you swamp them with highfalutin buzzwords. Not only do these jargons acidify the reading experience, but they also give your blog post seem egotistic and showy.

Rather of attempting to look “smart,” attempt to sound sensible. Use words that best send your idea and can be understood by the amateur. Like, “to utilize sources” can be abbreviated as “to use resources.”

  1. Create Your Article Unique (Even If The Idea Isn’t):

Let’s face it: coming up with 100% real blog post ideas is anything but easy. If you run your topic in a quick Google search, possibilities are someone else has previously penned on it. So, what should a blogger do in this situation? It’s easy.

Get a new perspective.

If someone previously came up with “5 Reasons Why You Should Try Freelancing“, you can draft a post about the darkened view of freelancing like “15 Reasons To Say ‘No’ To Freelancing“. Or you can work with “5 More Causes Why You Should Work on Freelancing”.

Tip: If you are suffering from lack of blog post ideas,  I recommend you to read out an ultimate list of blog post ideas with an awesome infographic.

  1. Close With A Punchy Result:

So, you’re finished with your introduction and body. Now, it’s time to wrap it up, which is just as hard to write as (if not more challenging than) the initiation. The simplest way out of your difficulty is to compile all your tips in conclusion. Then again, that would be dull, since that’s what most bloggers do.

Rather, you can either end with a thought-evoking query or a call-to-action; or rephrase your main point, and persuade your user to consider your point.

  1. Review the quality of your Blog Post:

Make certain your post is valuable. Keep it simple but meaningful. Ask yourself before publishing:

– Is the content of my article related to the headline, and vice versa?

– Are my readers getting the learning that they seek?

– Will my target readers be able to understand my ideas?

– Did I benefit them resolve a problem?

– Did I convey what I promise?

– Did I give alternative solutions just in case?

  1.  Spray the Love:

Of course, you require promoting your new post to drive traffic back to your blog. Spread your post over multiple channels such as email newsletter, social networks like  Google+ or groups in Facebook or LinkedIn, and forums.

 Feel free to use these tactics– or not – based on what’s suitable for your piece. The value is consistently reproducing posts that are appealing, informative, and unique to keep your readers coming back for more. 

Are there any other ways you use to make a blog post useful?
We’d love to hear from you! Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Author Bio: Anuradha is the co-founder of DHost.com, a website specially designed for Web Hosting Shoppers who are looking for effective tips for blogging and reliable hosting reviews. Anuradha has been in the web hosting industry for more than four years. She is a professional blogger and actively engages with readers. In her free times, she loves reading novels along with some soft music.

Follow Her: Website / Twitter / Facebook

Thank you, Anuradha for your great guest post !

Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.


Mar
2018

Websites with Great Design Developers for Your Business

categories: Blogging

As you well may know, creating websites can be nothing short of intimidating.

It can take a few weeks for even a few months to get it done right. Learning all about how to build great websites can take years, as it was in my case.

Over the years I have learned quite a lot about creating websites. I learned all on my own, taking many courses and can put together almost any type of site or blog.  Here are some Experts that I follow in the field of Website Design and Developers to give you some ideas on what you can do yourself or have me help you out.

marketing Offline Online.net

Liz Azyan of Digital Matchbox and Steve Dotto of Dotto Tech Wednesday Webinars which I feature every week in my Facebook Group Women online in business  

Liz Azyan

 

Liz was the designer and developer of Steve’s websites for Dotto Tech. From that webinar, I learned quite a lot…

What you should know and prepare before starting your new website or website redesign project 

 

  • Learn how to map your websites –  key pages for your website
  • What elements make a good homepage
  • Critical website pages you need to include

They covered analytics, design considerations, content tips and making your site search friendly.

Discover how to eliminate any leaks on your websites –

Useful tools you can use for your websites –
Get insider tips on how to choose a website design and development company that is the best fit for your business.

Liz had an excellent product deal that she offered with a big discount to Dotto Tech Patreons, of which I am one.  I bought it. I think she is one of the most qualified designers and developer I have found online.

Web Content Summary Checklist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The product  –the Complete Guide to Creating Your Client Attracting Website and the Bonus of a checklist  – Website Content Summary.  A checklist to help you prepare your website content. Great info for designers of websites.

Complete Guide to Creating Youre Client Attracting Website

Click pic to see Coupon code.

    Liz is a Post Graduate research student. Google Fellowship Award for her work and initiative in technology and social entrepreneurship area.

UK newspaper panel expert. Mentioned in publications such as Huffington Post and Computer Weekly.

If my blogging community would like to talk to Liz about any specific topic, please feel free to fill in her survey so she can cover them in a new series for Steve’s Youtube teaching of how she does things.
https://digital-matchbox.com/youtube-topic-suggestions/

 

Allison Marshall  of Wonderlass

Allison Marshall

 

“That life is too damn short to spend endless hours working a job that leaves you feeling like an empty shell.

Life should be largely FULFILLING and FUN!!! ”

From this, you can tell she is a fun marketer to the extreme! But she has been in the business many years and knows what works. I have purchased many of her courses and ebooks. Rather a different type marketer, she is uniquely herself. I love her spirit. Her Facebook Page .

~ Allison Marshall Her New About Page  

 

Meera Kothand

Meera is just wonderful at email marketing, and you can tell from her domain page to her blog page.

Meera Kothand

Meera helps bloggers and solopreneurs create authentic blogs and businesses.
Simplifying digital marketing with thorough step by step action plans and her bite-sized strategies.

Her Facebook page Simplifying Email and Marketing for Solopreneurs & Bloggers

Very strong branding techniques. She just makes things easy to understand. I am an affiliate for her planner Create on Amazon. Going thru it in the new year for my business.

Her Freebies: Are you struggling with your email list?
No idea what to send your list or where to start? Her Free Email Lists for Newbies.

Is overthinking stopping you from launching your blog? Discouraged and feeling like
you’re not getting anywhere?  Her Free Blog Start Simplified mini-course.

I recommend her eBooks and Books on Amazon. I have purchased a few of them. They are excellent content.

Cathy Topping

Cathy is an online course marketer “a recovering corporate designer, who has been carving her own path for 5 years now (and counting.. “.I plan to NEVER have a ‘real’ job again “). – Cathy Topping.

Over on her website, Web Toolkit she creates resources to help you take control of your online business – whether that’s showing you how to build a website, build your email list, sharing tools, tips, and strategies that I use to keep growing my business and brand.

Her Facebook group  Your Web Toolkit Community

Cathy Topping
Cathy gives away a good amount of freebies like her build  WordPress websites in a day. I recommend it, I couldn’t do a better job.

Her One Hour Website webinar on her site using the Divi theme. She demystifies WordPress. Her blog on all topics about marketing. Very great Pinterest guides. Various courses some of which I have purchased. – How to get 1000 subscribers in 90 days was one. She also has email courses on building  WordPress websites. Free!

If you would like me to refer you to Cathy just let me know.  I am an affiliate of her Website Creating Business. She has shared my articles to her social media in which  I have mentioned her. She has a few spots open for the year, she told me. We would love to be of help with your Websites or Blogs.

P.S. Cathy has a new product coming out “The Website Playbook”. Excited about this, she has had in the works for 2 years.

 

My design and developers that I recommend would be of great help to you. If you would like to chat about what would be best for your business, I do offer a free 15 min chat to see how I might be able to help you or recommend one of my friends in this article. See my contact page.  Happy to discuss what you should know before starting new websites or website redesign projects.

If you would like more info on websites, design or website development I am adding this opt-in.

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.

 


Jan
2018

Affiliate Programs

categories: Marketing

 

Are you an Affiliate?

What to look out for with affiliate marketing because it is misunderstood and it can be misused. If you are looking at the income above all else, rather than an attitude of serving, this is what has given affiliate marketing a negative connotation.

Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting other people products, for which you earn a commission.

If you have a product that you are happy to use in your business. Would this be a reason to earn a commission by promoting it to others? Yes and No.

Affiliate Marketing

 

Affiliate marketing predates the Internet, but it is the world of digital marketing, analytics, and cookies that have made it a billion-dollar industry. A company running an affiliate marketing program can track which links bring in leads and, through internal analytics, see how many leads are converted into sales.

Read more: Affiliate Marketing Definition | Investopedia

 

A very smart video about Affiliate Marketing… with John Chow (like how he says his name)

Promoting a software may sound like a great idea…

But what if they sell the company and the new owners don’t run something like the old owners did. This actually happened to a person I know online.Your people start to complain to you and so you deal with the new owners. You can spend quite a lot of time doing this. If it was a one time sale, it was likely not a high commission. You see the problem. It wouldn’t be a good use of your time.

You should base your recommendations solely on products in the context of “How you use them in your business.” So start with the product, not the commission. What does your audience need? Analyze your target market. What are their pain points? Find out how you can help them solve their problems.

The commission that you earn will vary between the different programs. Affiliate marketing is marketing a product that someone else has created, not your own product. You pick one that will be helpful for your target audience You make a commission one time or an ongoing commission depending on what the product or company state.

Another good aspect of affiliate marketing is that there is no customer service, no follow up or dealing with payments This is all taken care of by the company you are promoting or recommending.

The company also keeps track of who is sending traffic to their product through a unique identifier link. Each company has their own affiliate program that you sign up to join. The fact that it is so easy to do this, is why affiliate marketing has earned a negative connotation, as there are a lot of unscrupulous people doing this.

 

Affiliate

Some of what you share will not include an affiliate link but you want to share content because you want to be helpful and some of your solutions will include affiliate links. Some solutions might be things you create, your own products, and some might be solutions that other people have already created.

 

“You can be an affiliate for Amazon but because Amazon is in so many countries now, books hardware, and almost anything else, it’s a real balancing act. Setting all that up is rather complicated. Using Amazon to promote a book that works with a product you are promoting is fine. You really have to be an expert in affiliate marketing to really make it work with Amazon. –  Planting your garden in someone else’s soil. ” Steve Dotto

What is the most important asset that you have in business? It's not your email list...Click To Tweet

 Your most important asset is “what builds trust with your audience.”  That Know Like and Trust. That is the reason why they subscribe and the reason why they will give you honest feedback.  Sharing a product that you do not use and stand behind is a poor strategy. Your reputation means everything in this business.

 My recommendations list

Treat the products that you recommend as if they were your own.

If you would like to chat for 15 for free about affiliate marketing see my contact page.

 

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.


Jan
2018

Content Calendar Publishing Utilizing the Power 0f Asana

categories: Marketing

 

Asana, is a content calendar that is a  cloud-based task management app to facilitate team communication and collaboration.

It can work for personal task management as for bloggers and solopreneurs but is also suited for management of teams for project management. Asana helps to manage tasks and people effectively.

content calendar Asana

Asana is iOS or Android app

If you have worked with other people on a team you know just how frustrating it is to go back and forth on email. Also, it’s equally nuts to get everything together for yourself, if it’s just you managing everything in your one-woman business.

I have found that using Asana as a content editorial project management tool is my answer to managing my business. I really love using it because I have everything I need in one place. I can keep track of everything and if I need to send my partner who is my husband, I can do so easily and we have a trail of it so no more ” I never got that payment!”

 

Asana is a large organization with three offices worldwide. SF, NYC, and Dublin.  25,000+ paying customers.

Main organization

Breaking down your annual marketing plan into the next steps:

  • Marketing strategy
  • Content calendar
  • Campaign management
  • Creative production
  • Product launches
  • Event planning

So everyone can see how their work adds up to the big picture.

Organized Content  Calendar using the Publishing Process of Asana

What are the features?
Free unlimited projects and conversations up to 15 people.

I have a membership on Patreon for “Dotto Tech.” Steve Dotto publishes “Free Wednesday Webinars” on marketing practices which I feature on my “Women in Business Facebook Group“. A very well know Canadian Marketer, Steve had a TV Show for many years on the Canadian network. He is very entertaining, I try not to miss his webinars. Patreon members see archived shows but others only see them for 24hrs on his Youtube channel.

Here he talks about Asana,  which is why I am using it now.

I like to organize my tasks in lists or projects as kanban-like boards or I think Steve calls them cards.
Communicate with entire teams or just for yourself.  It pays to remind myself!
Automatic updates of tasks and email reminders.
Tracking of projects with dashboards

I can set up a project simply or with all the moving parts. Recently I did a challenge and I have all the parts of that including the graphics saved under sections with tasks and subtasks under them. Great way to keep track of it all!

I have a template for everything I need to write a blog post. My checklist to make sure my posts go out on time. I just copy it for each week. I don’t have to go searching for something I need like the URL of the headline analyzer tool from Co-Schedule . because I have it in my template.

Organized Content using the publishing process of Asana

In addition to my tasks, I also check my Inbox daily. It has the new activity on all the projects and tasks I am following.
Asana is available on the web, it’s flexible and customizable, a great tool for teams large to small or individuals who want to organize their work in one central place. Asana does all that I have mentioned here but it does a lot more…

Here is another video that I have searched for that I like. to tell you more about what Asana can do for you.

Asana Content Calendar


Megan Minns

Check out the Asana Blog  https://blog.asana.com/

One of the articles from the blog I found very helpful

So to conclude Asana is a content calendar that breaks down your annual marketing plan into steps so everyone can see how their work adds up to the big picture. This includes solopreneurs who need to see the big picture in one place.

Asana is a cloud-based task management application and editorial calendar to facilitate team communication collaboration. It can work for personal task management for bloggers and small solopreneurs as well.  Try it!

If you would like a FREE 15 min consult on building your business using Asana see my contact page.

 

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.


Jan
2018

Fresh New Year for Profit with Social Media

categories: Social Media

Are you feeling uninspired and frustrated with social media,  moving your business forward in the New Year?

Challenge is now over…. see below

Still struggling with marketing and social media for your business?  I’ve got the solution! 

Fresh Year Profit Challenge

If You haven’t been doing EVERYTHING you can

If You haven’t been giving it 100%

What would happen if YOU would just DO what is necessary?

You’re just doing the bare minimum and it’s hardly showing up at all

You’re making excuse after excuse as to why you can’t

-Instead of MAKING positive statements like Why You Can and You Will!

The journey to results that my offer provides has been anything but simple for me! Can you relate?

  • Over the weekend my part of the world remembered the 20th year Anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in Canada, “the Storm of the Century” Ice Storm that hit  Ottawa and parts of Quebec. Freezing rain for five days coating cars, homes, trees and power lines, everything. People went without power for days, some even weeks.  We stayed for a week at my Aunt’s house as we had no power, no heat, and no water. Dangerous days.  Some people died as a result of this storm.

At that time I lived in Ottawa, Canada in a small co-op with my husband and our two kids.  I had taken a government-sponsored secretarial course and was doing temp work for several agencies.  Up at 7 am to put the kids on the bus, off to work on the bus till 5 pm. Make dinner, housework, laundry, baths, and bed. Only to do it all over again the next day. I was so exhausted and frustrated with my life. I vowed to find a better way of life.  And Hey, I did but it took it took me…20 years!!

If it wasn’t for searching on the internet for finding something more to life… I would still be in that way of life.  Over the following years, I learned how to set up a website the right way. Learned all about marketing with various training packages until today I can do just about anything I need to do to move my business forward. But I learned the hard way by trial and error over 20 years.  I have seen success in my niche which is connecting businesses to the internet using social media.

 

Social Media Challenge

My Fresh Year Profit Challenge

I would have never been able to develop my … offer with complete confidence without all those years of trial and error. I know my methods work because I have used them myself in my business for the past 5 years.  I mean, I developed them through my own experience. I wasn’t always nailing it in my niche, but now I am.

The good news? You’ve got me here to make YOUR journey a little easier. … I understand the struggles of setting up a website/ blog and learning all the social media platforms.  I have a diploma as a Social Media Campaign Creation Specialist that I worked long hours to earn. Updating social media constantly.

social media certification

I understand your struggles…

-Setting  up an attractive but more to the point a Website/Blog that works for your business

-Being unsure about what Social Media would work for your particular business

-Where to find help with your Blogging for your Business

Value of the content of the Challenge

  • A 40 min call to discuss your business on  Zoom – face to face.
  • I send you a link for the call on the agreed upon time using my Book like a Boss software

I will be charging  $50. for this service.

A written report about the strategy call with my suggestions on what I see that you can do for your business

I would charge  $50. for this service

  • The Group call on Zoom.  I would charge for my time and organizing the call on Zoom  $40.
  • The Training call on Zoom that I would give on a particular social media platform would be $75.

My Facebook Group I do not have a charge for it is only for women that I personally invite.

The total of the content that I will be charging for in the future $165.

 

And while I don’t have all the answers, I can help to make this just a little bit easier!

For this week only, I’ve put together a special offer,  Fresh Year Profit Challenge at a deeply discounted rate.of 50% OFF  to solve ( website problems and  Social Media problem and Get Blogging help) once and for all, for a very reasonable investment. One month of help with your business using social media training. $43.95 US  exchange  $49.95 Cdn.
Fresh Year Profit Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my Offer for  The Fresh Year Profit Challenge

  1. 40 min strategy call about you and your business on Zoom. I send you the link in an email for the call that you book here in my Book Like A Boss Page. This can be set up later.
  2. You get a written report on the call about any suggestions I might have for your business ASAP.
  3. 1 Group Call scheduled when most people can attend. Hopefully recorded for those that can’t attend 1 Hr on Zoom.
  4. 1 Training call is done on a Social Media platform that the majority of the group would like it to be on. 1 Hr  on Zoom
  5. An established Facebook Group of mine  Women in Business to communicate with the group and me.

This is my way of helping you skip over the struggles that I experienced with business marketing online. The result the offer gives is all about keeping it simple and sustainable, rather than making it complicated and hard. That’s LITERALLY what my  Fresh Year Profit Challenge…offer is all about.

I’ve created simple solutions that are available to you (if you want them) and the best part is…you can get the SAME results I’ve experienced myself, and that I’ve helped my private clients with for a fraction of the cost.

BONUS you get immediately after paying and optin in.  My e-book I created on “What Social Media ” I use for my business.

Social Media Report

The challenge is my way of saying THANK YOU for being a part of my community and really kicking off 2018 on a high note. …my audience is very important to me.  I don’t want YOU to go thru so much trial and error. I am here to help. If not happy, your money back guaranteed.

Time to say goodbye to … wasting time on activities that:

  • won’t make you money
  • not spending ENOUGH time on the tasks that will.
    There’s just no time for that.
  • Open to 10 women only

 

This challenge is over as of Jan 15th. If you would like to get on the wait list for the next challenge please opt in below.

 

Optin here > Waiting list optin 

 

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.


Jan
2018

Facebook Update

categories: Social Media

Improve Your Facebook Post

Facebook engagement

 

How can you have the best Facebook post?

If you market on Facebook, you are probably interested in having better reach for your Facebook updates of your posts. Here are 7 tips to help you.

Many businesses start posting on Facebook without a  plan. As a result, their posts don’t often address the needs of their audience. You have seen Facebook pages that have been abandoned with nothing on them for months. Here are some tips that will help you with what to post, how often to post, and the big one, engagement!

A Facebook page is for your business presence. It’s public and you can post people who have liked your business fan page.  You set this page up yourself.You can not use the first page that Facebook gives you – the profile page for business. This is in the TOS of Facebook. People can search for your business on Facebook for your hours of operation and what you are doing for your business.

A Facebook Group
You set this type of page up to post Facebook info and have people get to know you. This is not public but closed. You invite and ok membership.

1. Create Your Facebook Update ” Road Map ” for Posts
As an example,  fitness tips, if you are in the fitness field

  • healthy recipes to promote health
  • blog posts on subjects relating to various aspects of fitness

Write out the content you could use in a list:
Fitness tips
Blog marketing on health
Healthy recipes
Nutritional value of foods
Healthy living tips
Correct postures, exercises
Different exercises for different people according to their needs

2.  Start A Content Calendar
After choosing the topics, create a calendar. A content calendar maps out what to post each day. When you have a schedule, it also helps you build in enough time to create your social media images to go along with your posts. Pinterest images are different sizes than Facebook ones etc. These take time to do. I use Canva and Picmonkey to create images using images from stock photos. A previous post on free stock photos.

Various online methods of content calendars can be used.

Airtable.com

www.airtable.com/collaboration/teams‎   Airtable is the all-in-one collaboration platform

or Asana.com

https://asana.com/  It’s free to use, simple to get started, and powerful enough to run your entire business, are free to use and can connect to Google calendar if required.
Facebook

3. Scheduling Facebook Updates

Start to schedule your content a week at a time in advance. This gives you the flexibility to keep up with timely topics. Using Google Alerts  <Click ( You pick what you want to be delivered to your email inbox)

 

 

 

Your Written And Visual Content On Facebook.

4 types of content.

  1. Links
  2. Images
  3. Videos
  4. Text updates

Facebook

Ideas On Facebook Update Engagement That Will Keep Your Posts In The Feed Stream

  • Create a Facebook page for your blog posts. You’ll be able to share your blog posts on this Facebook page.
  • Use scheduling tools such as HootSuite and Buffer to schedule posts in advance. Initiate engagement – ask questions.

Join a few Facebook Groups related to your niche. Post often to these Facebook Groups, answering questions,  grow relationships etc.

Analyze your business and audience before choosing content types for your posts. If Engagement to your blog is your objective, the link format likely would work well for you. See the link above for my article on this.

If brand awareness is your main goal, images and videos are a better bet. If you want to drive attention to a link in the description in the post you should include an image along with the link. A video keeps people on your site longer than any other media. See a previous article with the link brand awareness.

So the takeaway is that the content type you choose effectively helps to drive attention to the link. Do be sure to check your analytics to see if you are choosing the right content types.

4. Hashtags on Facebook Updates?

Hashtags are a pound sign immediately followed by a keyword. They are used for categorization on social media.
How many, which ones, and where to use them.

The value of hashtags and a few ideas on how to find some to use in your social sharing. If you’re looking for a simple rule of thumb for hashtagging posts, I think there’s a lot of truth here in this advice from The Next Web:

Rule of thumb: 1 – 3 tags is best over all platforms. ( Exception of Instagram up to 30 )

Twitter: to categorize
Pinterest: to brand, and be specific (tags are only clickable in pin descriptions)
Instagram: to build community, and be unique/detailed
Google+: to categorize; autogenerates tags based on what it thinks your post is most relevant to
Tumblr: to categorize interests, can be specific and general (has a “track your tags” feature)
Facebook: sort of a hashtag fail – if your audience is very business-minded, follow Twitter rules; if it is community-oriented, follow Pinterest/Instagram rules.

5. Facebook Post Descriptions
When you post a link say on your fan page, it fetches the metadata automatically. You can then edit it, removing the URL altogether and the pic below stays there. You then have a larger area to post your message. Remember that posts on Facebook are searchable. What you post could make your article popular on Google search engine, bringing traffic to your website. Always use your keywords in that description.

6. Best Time to Publish Facebook Updates
If you dig into your analytics you will discover the ideal days or times to post. Not a good idea to simply post when your content is ready. Remember you are working with world time zones here.
According to a HubSpot article, the best days to post on Facebook are Thursdays and Fridays. But do check your analytics. I have checked mine and I would say they are right. Hubspot  Best time to post.

Think about it: Is your audience spreading their time on social media equally throughout the day? Of course not. Every social network has higher and lower traffic times throughout an average day and an average week.  They don’t have schedules as to when they visit, it can be rather random. Check your analytics for a while and you will see a pattern.

Posting strategically at higher traffic times will help drive traffic to the content you’re sharing on social. For me it’s 3:00 pm generally.

7. It’s Important to check your analytics.
To maximize your engagement, tools like Facebook Insights and Bitly if you post links. Or other link tracking programs I like ClickMeter.  These are helpful if you don’t want to invest in analytics tools. FREE tools.

For more information, there are paid tools available to give you more detailed analytics. Fanpage Karma gives stats on each type of content.  Very extensive and has a free to try account.

Today with businesses striving to get more and more attention on Facebook, which has 1.5 Billion monthly active users.  Using the right strategy can get you more success from your Facebook business posts.

Joining a community on Facebook to help you understand this complexity of the always changing information, is a smart way to go. I belong to  The Power Affiliate Club.  See more information on my website that links to my facebook pages. marketingofflineonline

I have 5 Facebook Pages. The main business page is  marketingofflineonline see below :

https://www.facebook.com/winchesterlocalevents 

https://www.facebook.com/KathrynRMaclean/

https://www.facebook.com/womensinbusinesstoday/

https://www.facebook.com/Ilovemymixedbreeddog/

 

My Group (Women only)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Womenonlineinbusiness/

Please feel free to contact me on any of my sites. See the contact page to arrange a free 15 min chat with what I can help you with -using social media for your business including Facebook updates.

To Read More – Curated  SocialMediaExaminer

 

About Kathryn Maclean http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline

Blogger with WordPress /domains & hosting. A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google + & Instagram. Affiliate & Network Marketer using resources as  Expert Author status and the Coordinator for PAC the Power Affiliate Club.


Dec
2017

Exciting Innovative Company Goals for the New Year

categories: Blogging, Marketing

Your company goals for your business change…

I learned this year what I didn’t want  -when it came to my business.  I was into way too many things. It took up to much of my time. Can you relate to mindless scrolling through Facebook 5 or more times a day? How many facebook groups do you belong to? I counted over 70, then  I stopped counting…

Exciting Innovative Company Goals for the New Year

To have what you want, you need to recognize what you don’t want. Making way for what you love doing.

So this coming year  3 things you can get rid of:

1) things you did not enjoy  … 75 Facebook groups
2) things that were not profitable enough to do any longer …2 other websites
3) things that  don’t allow the freedom you want … my other business

Take stock of what worked for you and what did not.

Simplify
Doing things with a master plan for your company goals. A good time to work on this.

  • What is the goal financially?  How many products or services do you need to do to reach that goal? Start with your calendar, be it online or off. I used Asana to plan my projects on a quarterly basis. Attached to Google Calendar.

How to reach your goal? – Spread the word

On Pinterest, I post every day using an automated service.  I use Tailwind to automate my Pinterest traffic.  On Instagram, I use an automated service Instamate for one of my accounts (my business account) that posts my images that I create using Canva and  Picmonkey.

Pinterest Lumen5 Video

 

I use Lumen5 to make my videos. This has worked very well. You can see an example video on Pinterest in my link to my Facebook page at the end of this article. Looks great!  Free to use too!

Another thing I really like using this year is  Missinglettr. Every one of my posts they turn into pieces that are spread to all of my social media for an entire year. See the image in the sidebar. That is also Free to start.

 

 

 

At some point, you just have to stop listening to all the noise. Focus on doing the things that will drive your business forward to success. It’s fine to listen to how others manage their businesses, but you have to decide how you will manage your own business your way.

Spending less time on things that don’t move the needle for you financially will give you more time to spend on other things that you set up as your priorities for your business. I have a related article on using an editorial calendar here.

 

Company Goals

First, visualize what it is that you do want. Write that out. This year I want to….

  • Make a vision board for what you want. Print images, cut out pics, use special words.
  • Use a calendar to plan your upcoming year with major dates and plug-in projects you want to do each quarter.

Plan your month and days with your blogging objectives…

example – doing a weeks challenge that leads to an ebook you have written that you sell on Amazon.

  • Track your numbers and see what works, what gives you the highest ROI.

 

Blog On A Regular Basis
Publishing a new post on your blog is fine as long as it leads somewhere. Adding links to landing pages for whatever you are promoting.  Get people on your email list with a landing page promoting your product, with an option form. Content upgrades that further the message in your post. You get the idea.

Evergreen posts that drive traffic back to your site work well, even when you don’t publish regularly. Most of my traffic
comes from Pinterest and Instagram. Consistent traffic.

 

Don’t be unsure about the way you do things in your business.  When they aren’t the best fit for the business and your company goals that is the time to reorganize what you are doing. Sometimes you have to change things to move forward, be courageous or things will just stay the same.

If you would like to chat about your business and what you think you need to move forward this year see my contact page.

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

About Kathryn Maclean    MyPinterst Video  > http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline   
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing using resources such as PAC Power Affiliate Club – PAC Welcome Coordinator.