Make 2013 Your Best-Ever Year: A 12-Month Plan For Social Media Success [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012 was the year of social media.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest all experienced tremendous growth in social media.

So how can you as a business, capitalize on the success of these growing social networks in 2013? First, you need a social media plan.

No, you don’t have to get your calendar out and start feverishly writing. Instead, there’s a handy infographic that can help you figure out what you need to be doing each month to reach social media success in 2013.

A few of the key steps include:

  1. Assessing your social fitness
  2. Revisiting your social goals
  3. Becoming a better listener
  4. Integrating all of your social platforms, and
  5. Planning for the future
  6. ….

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Facebook Graph Search, the Next Big Thing In Social Media?

Facebook Graph Search

Today, Facebook unveiled Facebook Graph Search, a new way to search through your Facebook connections and to help make them more useful (outside of just providing updates). What this means is that instead of searching through your Facebook news feed, you can use Facebook Graph Search to help you get more granular within your existing connections and make new connections in the process.

What is Facebook Graph Search?

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Everything I Need to Know About Social Media, I Learned From Football

Blue 42, hut hut, hike.  Who’s ready for some Football? With the NFL Playoffs set, I put together this fun (and handy) infographic to help explain social media in terms of Football.

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The State of Social Media in 2012

2012 was a HUGE year for social media – especially for mobile.  Twitter revamped their mobile app, Facebook followed suit and overhauled Facebook for iOS (which was sorely needed). Then, not to be outdone, Pinterest launched business pages for Pinterest, which allowed businesses to create their own accounts that didn’t require a complex way to squeeze your business into the first name and last name fields (finally).

Besides mobile, 2012 was also big for investors as well, as Facebook went public – and who can forget about Facebook Timeline, which also launched in 2012 – I know, it’s hard to remember all the way back to January 2012.

So what else happened with social media in 2012? Take a look at this infographic on everything that happened in social media in 2012.

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5 last-minute ways to boost online shopping sales this holiday season

So you’re not exactly the best planner when it comes to social media. Everything is just off-the-cuff or when you get around to doing it.  Although the clock is ticking on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, there’s still time for you to leverage your network of friends, fans and followers this holiday season to help boost your online sales.

Instead of throwing in the towel on holiday shopping and missing out on online sales for your business, I’ve put together a collection of 5 last-minute ways you can give your online shopping sales a boost.

What’s great is that these are items you can start implementing today or even tomorrow (after you’ve had your fill of Turkey and stuffing).

Remember, if you have trouble implementing any of these items, don’t hesitate to contact me for help.

Let’s get started with 5 last-minute ways you can give your online store a boost in website traffic and online sales this holiday season.

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5 ways to fix low social media engagement

Low social media engagement

At the urging of your business partners, you signed your business up for the most popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even went so far as to create a LinkedIn profile for yourself.  Upon joining, you expected the growth to be slow – a few fans, a few followers here or there.  Fast forward 90 days later though and your accounts have stayed consistently flat. No grand splash.  What to do?

Like most businesses who joined a social network, expecting a social networking gold rush complete with lots of fans and followers, that’s not the case. In fact, most businesses will start off and remain flat – not because it doesn’t work – it does.

The typical problem with most businesses who join a social network is that they’re expecting overnight growth.  This is something that doesn’t just happen overnight. Growth through social media is something you have to work at – just ask anyone who joined a social network. For example, I didn’t start out with 27,000+ Facebook fans. It was (and still is) something that I have to work at each and every day.

So how can you fix the low social media engagement that you’re experiencing? The wrong answer is to give up. Instead, try these  5 ways to fix low social media engagement.

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Why a routine should be routine

Develop a social media routine like putting on your socksHave you ever stopped to think about what you get done throughout the course of a day? It’s actually pretty remarkable if you really think about it. Not only do you find time to make lunches, drop the kids off at school, go to work – and still make soccer practice as well as dinner, but somehow you are able to get all of this done in a normal eight hour day.

Whether you realize it or not, the reason you are able to accomplish so much is because you follow a routine. For a lot of people who are just starting out incorporating social media into their already long list of daily activities, having a routine should really be routine and here’s why.

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My current social media tools

For anyone who is serious about building a business and leveraging social media, it isn’t just about being on all of the networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Google+. Each network offers something of value, along with a distinct set of fans and followers that you need to work with and develop a relationship with.

Social Media Monitoring Tools - Hootsuite

In fact, if you are not careful, social media can consume your entire day – posting updates, constantly checking your accounts for new retweets, mention or likes, or even joining new networks. Eventually, you’ll actually be hurting your business, because you have gotten away from the core of it – building new products, your website, even writing new content for your blog.

So to help you all out, I’m sharing my current social media tools that I use – to help create, monitor, and analyze my social media accounts:

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Social Media Hex Color Codes

Social Media Color Hex Codes

Knowing the right social media color when working in Adobe Photoshop Elements or your favorite graphics program can help save you valuable time when you need to create a social media icon or match your design to your favorite social network.

Here’s a list of the the hex codes for your favorite social media sites. Be sure to bookmark this page this way you have the right social media colors when you need them.

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