Putting the work into social media

I spend a lot of time meeting with individuals who are looking to put into practice a solid, result-producing social media strategy. The first question I always ask is if they’re ready to work. Most of the time, I get a lukewarm response, because they think that just because they join a social network and post a few updates, they’ll begin to see results like extreme growth after just a few days. That’s not the case.

If you want to see any sort of results, you should know this:

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App of the day: KLIK facial recognition

KLIK facial recognition social media appToday, Face.com launched version 1.0 of their new facial recognition app. for the Apple iPhone.  After spending just a few minutes with this new app, I can tell you I came away extremely impressed. So what does it do?

The KLIK facial recognition app let’s you take photos using your iPhone’s camera, but with a catch. Not only does it let you take photos, but it also has the ability to identify friends’ faces from  their Facebook photos and to tag them. In addition, the KLIK facial recognition app also pays homage to Instagram by letting you add “face filter” photo filters – try saying that one three times!

What I like about this app:
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App of the day: Flipboard

Download the Flipboard app for your iPhone or iPadOften times when we do repetitive tasks, such as checking our favorite social networks on a daily basis, things become mundane and sometimes we need to change things up. For those of you who have become comatose from the linear view of Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter streams, here’s an app that should breathe a little fresh air into your social experience – Flipboard, a social news magazine.

What I like about this app:

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Giving yourself a tune-up

Check engine lightEvery couple of months, we change the oil in our car. When we reach milestones, such as reaching 75,000 miles, we give our car a tune-up. By doing this, it helps to ensure that our vehicle will continue to perform at a high level. It also helps to ensure that we won’t experience any unwanted repairs in the near future.

While we spend time maintaining our vehicles, we often forget to give ourselves a tune-up.

Because we lead such busy lives, it can be easy to forget to give ourselves a regular tune-up.  What happens when we fail to give ourselves a tune-up is that we could end up needing major repairs down the road.

Here’s why you should assess yourself and give yourself a tune-up regularly.

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Your favorite 5

Last pick on teamQuick, grab a piece of paper, don’t give this any thought, and write down the names of five people.

So what do these five people you’ve just selected represent?  No, they aren’t your starting five on your first basketball team.  In fact, they’re a lot more valuable than that…  Now that you have selected five people, take a moment and look at how successful they are in their own lives – we’re not talking about money here.

Do they have a good family life, are they in good shape, how is their attitude, are they influencers or inhibitors in your personal life? Chance are, you’ll come to find out that the people you just named are people who are influential in your life in one way or another (your favorite five). Some might influence you financially, because you aspire to be where they are at. Others might be deeply rooted in family. Others might be holding you back from reaching your personal goals.

What’s the point?

Just as these five people influence your life in-person, these same principles hold true online as well on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc.

Who you spend your time with impacts your own life – whether it is having a physical conversation with them or commenting and liking their status update on Facebook.

Now that you know more about your favorite five, take a moment and think about the five people you listed. Are these people influencers or inhibitors? There’s nothing wrong with adding or removing from your favorite five. In fact, to be successful, I suggest surrounding yourself with people that will have a positive influence on  your life – this can be someone who brightens your day or that somebody who really irritates you because they seem to have it all, yet they challenge you to get better.

5 types of status updates to build social engagement

5 status updates to build online engagementThis post doesn’t really apply to one single social network. In fact, you could apply it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ (or even one of the other smaller social networks that you’ve joined). We’re talking about status updates.

Just being on the hottest social network doesn’t guarantee that you’ll instantly amass a large following. It also doesn’t matter how many fans, friends or followers you have. No, you need to be engaging. We’re not talking about going around and meeting every single person that you’re connected with (that would take a ridiculous amount of time). Instead, we’re talking about using the basics that all social networks are built around – the status update.

Every social network offers a variation of the status update. For Facebook users, it could be a quote, sharing an event, posting engaging photos, or simply using the questions appTwitter users are a little more confined – 140 characters to be exact, yet the status update is still relevant to share links, break news, or even tweet a photo from your encounter with your favorite celebrity. For Pinterest users, the status update isn’t just the photo that you pin to your pinboards – that’s a good chuck of it. In addition, be sure you include keyword rich descriptions (there’s a nifty search feature as well).

So enough with the examples, right? Take me to the 5 types of status updates that you can post to help build your engagement levels!

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3 things to do before joining a social network

Social Media game planBefore you can do anything – whether it is to join a social network such as Facebook, learn how to use Instagram to capture and share photos with your friends, or even learn to get better at tracking your tweets on Twitter, you must have a goal in mind. Without a goal, it’s pretty difficult to develop a plan of attack to help get you from point A to point B.

For those of you that have made up your mind that you’re going to learn to incorporate social media into your business, here are 3 things you need to do before joining a social network.

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5 things to avoid doing on LinkedIn

5 things to avoid doing on LinkedInWhile Facebook is a social network primarily centered around connecting with friends and family to share your personal social life, LinkedIn is considered THE standard for business professionals.  What this means is that it’s not about posting personal rants, sharing photos of you on vacation or even photos of your pets.  Instead, it is about connecting with employers, fellow employees, and friends with the professional purpose of finding jobs, people or even business opportunities.

Below are 5 things to avoid doing on LinkedIn that can not only help you avoid an embarrassing situation, but also help you make better connections with other business professionals.
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Facebook Help – Master Resource List [Bookmark]

Facebook Help

Over the years, I’ve been compiling a master list of helpful Facebook resources.  Below is a list of important links to know and bookmark anytime you need Facebook help.

This list of Facebook Help resources covers everything from Facebook Profiles, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Events, Facebook mobile, Facebook Ads, along with a few interesting links for reporting abusive content and more.

Be sure to bookmark this blog post so that you have all of these forms accessible.

Facebook help – Master resource list

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