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.

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

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.

Content Marketing, such as starting a blog or make videos or podcasts, blog posts. My article on Content Marketing here

 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 reposting, the click-bait tactics – those are the things that are going to be penalized…which doesn’t actually sound like a bad thing.” – Cathy Topping yourwebtoolkit.com

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,” said Adam.

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.”

So what are the important ranking factors?

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

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

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.  See my article on Asana here.

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.

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?

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.

Contact me if you would like to chat for 15 min free, about your goals. See my contact page.

About Kathryn Maclean  ~ Marketing Offline Online  http://marketingofflineonline.net http://www.facebook.com/marketingofflineonline
A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google +. Affiliate Network Marketing  Affiliated with Power Affiliate Club – Welcome Coordinator for PAC

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! 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Improve Your Facebook Post

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

or Asana.com

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

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. 

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.

We all post Facebook updates, but do you post on a Facebook Group that you own?

Private Facebook Groups are easy to join, just the click a button. It’s much less threatening than being on an email list that we don’t really want to follow. But these groups are only good for us if we respect everyone. What should be #1… Rule be?…. NO outbound links. (Yet, isn’t that the first thing people so often do the moment they join a group ?)

Post Facebook Fan Or Business Page 

My Facebook posts were rarely seen. Facebook groups brought me a much better return on my (time) investment. I’m part of various groups, some of which have daily promotion threads, others have weekly share days that I make sure to take advantage of. Keeping track of all these on AirTable is a good idea. It’s free.

Before you start a Facebook Group, do your research. Find out about all the different types of groups there are. The best groups are the well-established groups.  They have been online for sometime and have learned what to do.

After many years on Facebook, I have found the best way to really connect on a higher level is with groups that have been on facebook for years. They are successful for a reason. They really make a connection with people and that means they build real relationships online. They have real engagement and meaningful communication between the admins and the members.People make lifelong friendships in these successful types of groups.

One of these variations on a group – Master Mind groups.
If the idea of meeting a few people once a week feels daunting to you, there are all kinds masterminds, they come in all shapes and sizes. Do your research on Facebook search.

I can tell you that, from my personal experience, there is nothing more transformational than getting together with a group of other entrepreneurs, on a regular basis, discussing what works for your business and what doesn’t. The regular meetings also create great friendships.  When you show that you care and are not just interested in “what’s in it for me” people can tell that and you do make good friends in a community.

Groups In General To Avoid

There are good groups that help their members and are generally helpful. However, there are also the terrible groups, plain spammy types of groups. You know the ones, all they are, are linkfests.

People join a Facebook group… they join many groups.Why because they want help. Finding someone to trust. KLT factor.

And they get SO EXCITED about their opportunity they’ve just joined and they think that they need to tell everybody “look at what I’m promoting!”………

Everyone screaming “buy my product,” with an outbound link. Some use bots that will post to hundreds of groups. They just don’t get it! The Group owners or admin seem to have disappeared because they don’t want to look at that either. It can take over a group quickly if the admins don’t stop it. Having a Facebook post group that is successful is work.

Google does not like this at all! You should not be putting outbound links in a group. Period. No one gets anything from them. Make an effort to know the people in the group.

Middle Types of Groups

In the middle are the groups that are just well… ok or good. They may have a lot of people signed up to their group, but are they engaged with the members? Is there a real sense of community? No it’s not.

Note: Manually share your posts to Facebook, instead of using a scheduler because Facebook penalizes anything that comes from places such as CoSchedule, Buffer, or Hootsuite so it’s less likely your followers will see it. .

Or I have seen that it really does not make a difference.  I use MissingLettr and no problem at all, I also use Lumen5 videos.

Well Established  Groups

If you ask the right questions, you might find that many of the community members are struggling and they need your help. Someone they can trust to help them. You find something that you may have in common which is always pretty great, just talk to them as you would any friend offline.

Create Your Own  Group

Using another social media platform is a great idea because of everything that Facebook offers in the way of excellent communication. If you direct people from Instagram to a group on Facebook you are able to get to know them in your group much more than you could on Instagram.

A really exceptional group might have the desire to succeed, this doesn’t end when money of any amount is obtained.  Growing your desire to succeed, to better your life. It could be the opening for an incredible lifestyle, with spiritual and personal growth. Build your community, step up and stand out.

When you have a Facebook group you are removing the barriers. Rather than someone opting in with their precious email addresses (we all have way too many emails)! With a group – They just click to join. It’s  faster and far easier.

You get to know them personally and they are much more likely to join your business than just someone in their email box that they don’t know. It’s so much more personal.

In your group, you can add files, interesting things from blogs, sections or pages and you are able to contact them.  A real community. It starts slowly, one person at a time.

People will comment and build you up. Those who don’t like it just vanish. As it grows, so do you and your knowledge. So, your goal is ALWAYS going to be the same …you want to build: K LT (know like and trust) with your members. If you are sincere and genuine, this will happen very naturally. Once that happens, your members will become more active in your community and maybe, just maybe…they will also want to work with you outside of your community. They may join your business or buy your products or your services… People buy from people they know, like and trust.

I have been lucky enough to find some really great groups on Facebook.

First I started with:

Gavin Montford’s group “Networking Superstars” a marketing teaching type of group. The people I met there ended up having their own groups that are now very successful.

The PAC or”Power Affiliate Club” for bloggers and affiliate marketers. PAC has different types of groups you may join. A Mastermind group and several others on blogging and affiliate marketing. I am happy to be the welcome coordinator at PAC. This Group is not an old community (going into our 4th year) but a vibrant and exciting one with successful bloggers and marketers. Headed by Lesly Federici.

Each group is unique and very specialized in helping it’s members success online. They have become my very good friends and colleagues and I am so very grateful for having met them, and hope to continue with these excellent Facebook groups.

So, I encourage you to start a Facebook group today and post Facebook posts that reach out to people and you will be happy that you did. Successful groups show that this is the way to succeed.

My Facebook Group for Women in Business. My facebook page below.

About Kathryn Maclean  https://www.facebook.com/womensinbusinesstoday/

Blogger with WordPress /domains & hosting. A certified Social Media Campaign specialist using Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Google + Also an Affiliate & Network Marketer. Welcome Coordinator for PAC. PAC-Power Affiliate Club