ProBlogger: 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success

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15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success Posted: 15 Dec 2012 06:01 AM PST While it’s not new, I’m often surprised by the way bloggers use—and mis-use—social media. Each of us has our own blogging journey, and we use different tools in our own unique ways. Yet there are still quite a few very common errors that I continue to see bloggers making as they work with social media. Image by stock.xchng user These mistakes have the potential to make your social media experience a struggle—if not put you off it completely. But if you persist with them over time, they have the potential to do significant harm to your brand and your blog. Think about it: social media is a very public space, perhaps even more public than your blog. Although we might not be conscious of it, every time we make a status update on a social network, we have the potential to reach a huge audience of people we don’t know through others sharing our messages. That can happen whether the messages are good or bad, for better or for worse. Take a look at these 15 mistakes, which definitely send the wrong message. Then, let me know in the comments if you’re making any of these errors. 1. Using social media as broadcast media We all know that social media is an engagement tool, but how many of us treat it that way? What’s your ratio of “broadcast” updates to direct, personal updates that address other users individually? And who are those direct updates to—friends and family and people you feel “safe” with, or are you reaching out to new contacts, readers, and others in your niche? 2. Not responding to contacts While you may not want to connect with everyone on every social network, the blogger looking to build an online presence should focus on responding to contacts from others on social media. Avoiding one-word responses is ideal—look for ways to connect naturally and easily with every person who approaches you, and you’ll see real benefits from social media. 3. Not joining your readers on the networks they use Where are your users congregating online? Which networks do they use? Are you on those networks, or are you holding off because you think you don’t have enough time or energy to tackle a new network? Not long ago, I started developing the dPS presence on Pinterest, and I’ve never looked back. While there’s no perfect time for anything, leaving yourself out of a social network where your audience is active could mean you’re leaving money on the tqble—or readers out of the loop! 4. Not offering follow and share buttons on your content On your post pages, do you offer readers the option to share the post on social networks and the opportunity to follow you on those networks? Offering one or the other is better than nothing, but it’s important to offer both. Of course, your follow buttons might appear in a location that’s globally available throughout your blog—like in the header or sidebar. But do make sure users have both options. 5. Not following or friending your readers If a reader contacts you on social media, do you follow them? While following massive numbers of people can be overwhelming, if you’re just starting out on a new network, connecting with those who contact you is a great way to make the most of the medium and get a feel for what your readers are doing on that network. 6. Not following or friending industry contacts Connecting with people from your broader niche is an excellent way to stay abreast of news and get on the radars of others you haven’t met, but whose work you admire. Who knows? They might follow you back—and share your updates with their followers. But even if they don’t, you have the potential to get a sound perspective of the players in your niche, and their work, on social media. 7. Not presenting your brand consistently on a network Every blogger and blog brand has a range of facets, but these need to be carefully managed—even curated—if you want to give your followers a clear idea of who you are and what you’re about. Chop and change in the way you approach a given network or your followers, or present your brand, and you might do more harm than good. 8. Not presenting your brand consistently across different networks Following on from the previous point, you will have readers who follow you on multiple networks, so it’s important to present yourself and behave consistently in all your dealings, whatever the network. Your blog’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts should share brand characteristics, even if you target the information you share with each network individually. 9. Only doing the basics on each network Social networks have come a long way since they were first launched. Even the more recent arrivals to this industry are evolving new features all the time. Yet many of us ignore these developments, and just keep posting the same stuff, day in, day out. Are you aware of the features of each of the networks you’re using? Are you up-to-date with what each network offers your blog? If you’re not, you could be missing valuable opportunities to promote your blog, to meet potential readers, and eventually, to make sales. 10. Not tracking social media traffic At the most basic level, it’s worth knowing what portion of your blog’s traffic comes from social media, and from which networks. This knowledge can help you focus your efforts, prioritize your work, and manage your time to best effect. It can also help you to respond to one-off traffic events arising from particular networks. 11. Not tracking how much your content is shared On the other side of the coin, it’s also important to keep an eye on how much your content is shared. I’ve found this particularly useful when I’ve joined a new network, as it helps me to understand what works in that space and what doesn’t. Looking at what’s shared—in terms of blog content and my own social media updates—is an essential step in making the most of a social network. 12. Not listening to discussions about your brand and niche Similarly, it’s important to track not just what people on a given social network are saying about your blog and brand, but also about your niche itself. Social listening is the answer. This can give you post ideas, opportunities to connect with readers on topical issues that they care about—even ideas for updating your blog’s layout or post categorisation. Social media listening is a great way to get to know what your audience is thinking and feeling. 13. Not listening to your main competitors The listening doesn’t stop there, though. you can also set up searches for social media discussions of your main competitors, or key players in your niche, and find out what the audience has to say about them. This can help you find gaps in your market for information and commentary, give you prodict ideas, and a lot more. 14. Not posting at high-sharing, high-visibility times of day This is a big one. Even if your social media followers are in your timezone, there are going to be better and worse times to share on social media. If you’re listening to find out the way your niche works on social media, you should have an idea of when its players—organizations and audience members—are most active. By tying that information to the traffic and sharing tracking mentioned above, you should be able to piece together a picture of the best times to get traction from social media among your target readership. 15. Not realising that promotion doesn’t stop with social media Social media has its place, but it’s only one way to reach the people you want to read your blog. It’s one piece in a big promotional puzzle, and it’s one that’s actually independent of a digital presence that you own. That presence is on your blog itself. But if you only ever use social media to try to get people to your site, you’ll soon kill off any goodwill you’d established. This is why social media really should be used as part of a broader promotional toolkit that lets you attract some of the other kinds of readers we mentioned late last week. Are you making any of these 15 mistakes? They could be slowly strangling your blog’s authority, brand, and ability to attract new readers! Share your thoughts—and tips for social media success—with us in the comments. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 15 Social Media Mistakes that are Strangling Your Success

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“Lookin’ Good! A Brief Intro to Inline CSS for Bloggers” plus 1 more

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Lookin’ Good! A Brief Intro to Inline CSS for Bloggers Posted: 14 Dec 2012 12:09 PM PST This guest post is by Andrew Couch of Learningwebbasics.com. As a website owner it can be really handy to know a bit of web coding. The HTML editor in most blogging platforms gives you enough power to do a lot of cool things without any risk of screwing up your site. Adding inline styles to elements is one of the easiest. What are inline CSS styles? CSS is the style language of the web. It describes to the browser how web pages should look to the last detail. These styles can be packed together in a style sheet and attached to a site as a whole. Or they can be added to individual elements to affect only that element, not the entire site. This second way of applying CSS styles is called inline styling. These pieces of CSS are inline styles. Why can they be the blogger’s best friend? 1. They’re easy to use You can add an inline style in the HTML editor of your platform. Just a few pieces of code can go a long way. And all without hacking into your theme. The most common element to style is the paragraph. An inline paragraph style would affect all of the text in the styled paragraph. In WordPress HTML editor you need to add the tags <p …> </p>. Type this into your HTML editor: &lt;p style="border:1px solid red;padding:5px;"&gt; This is the text that I want to affect. &lt;/p&gt; This is how it’ll look in the visual editor, and the post itself: This is the text that I want to affect. P is the name of the element. It stands for paragraph. Style is the name of the element that lets you define an inline style. So border:1px solid red;padding:5px; is the style in the example. It adds a red border around the paragraph and a bit of spacing to keep the border from running into the text. Pretty easy! 2. They’re safe Since you are working only in one post instead of the theme itself, there is no chance you could screw up your entire site. This is often a worry of novice coders—that one mistake could take down their site. Inline styles can give you a safe place to play with your creations. Using inline styles could at most affect the one post you are working on. However if you use your blog’s Preview feature to look at the post before it gets published, you can reduce even that risk. Styles only affect how specific elements look, not how the site functions. At most, mistakes mean the effect you are going for won’t be seen; they don’t result in a loss of functionality. 3. They are powerful Many effects can be created on a specific element using inline styles. They do not need to remain as bland as changing the color, or be as functional as spacing out paragraphs. How about a box set aside as a tip? This tip callout floats next to your text and lets you push something out of the flow of the text to highlight it. It looks impressive, but is just a slightly more complex inline style. &lt;p style="padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #cccccc; background-color: #f9f595; width: 210px; float: right; margin: 0 0 5px 5px;"&gt; How about a box set aside as a tip. &lt;/p&gt; Why aren’t inline styles used more? Themes for blogs and custom-built websites include a set of CSS rules that are attached to the site as a whole. This style sheet dictates how the site looks. This means you don’t need to use inline styles to achieve effects that fit within the overall theme style. At a technical level, these overall styles are more efficient than using inline styles on every element. This just means that you would never use them to build an entire site. But inline styles are still very powerful and often overlooked as a way to impact certain elements in a single post. Give inline styles a try Basic knowledge of CSS can help you make small changes to the appearance of an individual post. It’s a simple way to make important parts of a post stand out, it can make your post look more professional, and it can break up the monotony. Best of all, learning a few basics of CSS isn’t too complicated. If you are intrigued about what CSS can do for you, check out the extensive list of examples at w3schools and their entire CSS section. These move beyond inline styles and into stylesheets, but can give you an idea of what’s possible for your blog. Andrew Couch is a career web developer and author of a tech e-book for non-techs called Web Foundations for the Non-Geek. He also runs a travel blog at Ctrl-Alt-Travel with his wife. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Lookin’ Good! A Brief Intro to Inline CSS for Bloggers

Get More Blog Readers Using Lessons from Email Marketers Posted: 14 Dec 2012 06:02 AM PST This guest post is by Alana Bender. Bloggers could probably stand to learn a few marketing tips from email marketers. For years, email marketers have used all kinds of demographic email lists to build up customer bases. They’ve created lists aimed at women aged 40-plus, with kids, driving a family car, and working part-time from home. And there's a list targeted to reaching those professionals who work in a particular field of industry or service. Another list for guys in their 20′s who are single and spend $500 a year on electronic devices. Acquiring or developing these lists is the first step for a good email marketer. But it takes a bit more than that. Email marketers (or in-house writers) must be skilled in the practice of writing great subject lines (sound familiar?), catchy copy (know what I mean?), and an offer to buy (comments, please?). Then they have to wrap their message into a great email marketing design, one emphasizing Buy now buttons and with a mobile-optimized view that's readable on both Android and iPhone. Without a compelling visual to back up the content on offer, a particular marketing promotion might fall flat. As it stands, email marketing isn’t fading away as a marketing tool. In fact, it's likely growing in usage. Internet research firm eMarketer points out that email volume and revenue increased over the previous year. And customer retention and acquisition are leading priorities for marketers. What does all this have to do with blogging, you might ask? Well, the same touch points that make customers respond to emails are the same touch points provoking your readers to comment on a post and/or email. Simply put, customers reply to emails because they’re interesting and relevant to the customer. If a customer regularly purchases school supplies from a local small business site, the likelihood is that this person will be open to new, interesting emails about new school-focused items. The same goes for blogging. If you write regularly about a topic that amasses a large amount of comments, why not return to that topic (if possible) on a monthly basis? You have proven the relevance (check) and interest to your readers (check) of that particular topic. Come back to it. As a pro blogger, ask yourself these questions: How do I reach my customers (readers)? Where do I look for new customers (readers)? What tools do I use to retain these current readers, and what tools do I use to find new readers? What can I learn from pros in the email marketing business? If you're unsure of how you're building your base of readers, or you're just blogging away happily without an idea of how to gain new readers, then maybe the lessons of email marketers will apply. That's what we want to focus on in this piece. There are email marketing tips that easily transfer over to your blogging strategies, to help build readers, find sponsors, and grow advertising. And, with the ease of email marketing software programs, you can learn how to create a great-looking email to help find new potential readers, and use repeated emails to turn an interested reader into a daily subscriber. Let's look first at creating a smart email marketing list for small business or blog sites. How can you get your site out to interested readers or customers using good email marketing practices in the most effective way possible? In the presentation mentioned above, eMarketer suggested several key ways that email marketers can increase their success with finding new customers and retaining existing customers. Customize email content Personalization helps build relationships. We all want emails to be personalized to some extent. Sure, it doesn't always mean, the Dear (Your name here) email will be fantastic every time, but it beats a completely anonymous email send. You can do the same thing with blog posts. Address a topic you absolutely know is near and dear to your readers’ personal interests, or be open and transparent on your own blog about a personal issue that you feel might be applicable to others. You'll see that getting to the core of an issue at a blog can be a boon for social media pass-alongs and comments at your site. Use email marketing software Good email marketing software can help develop a professional and effective marketing campaign, to help you win over new readers for your blog. Most email software packages feature options to allow you to design and create an attractive email. You can fully import already-developed landing pages from your site right into the email template or use one of the email templates to create a new design. Draw in new blog readers with pictures, video clips, background images and audio clips in your emails. Customize landing pages Can you customize landing pages at your blog? Sure you can. Offer a special deal or discount to existing readers (or use new subscribers) on a personalized landing page the reader can go from a link in the email directly to a page for the discount. One-on-one communications rule here. Leverage customer data Have you ever found who reads your blog, and more importantly, why they read your blog? Take a chance to survey readers once or twice a year to get to know some general knowledge about who they are, what work they do, and why they read your blog. Learning why a large portion of readership cares about what you do can inspire you to blog more frequently about issues that matter most to readers. Be personal (and personable!) Let your blogging tone of voice be unique (all your own) and uniform (consistency is key). When readers see that your blog has a good release consistency, that it's well-written, and more prepared than not, they’ll respond to your blog's direct emails for special offers and joy. Building a consistent readership, consistently As bloggers, we all know the value of a consistent readership. Our readers not only keep us on our editorial toes, but help to serve our content with tips, ideas, and suggestions throughout the year. So it makes sense that we should continue to look for ways to keep existing readers on board, while using techniques from email marketing pros to acquire new readers. How is your blog working to acquire new readers? Are you using customizing your email content? Are you developing special landing pages for new and existing readers for discounts on reports and case studies? Can you use your reader data to bolster your editorial efforts? Let us know in the comments! After getting my Computer Science degree in NorCal, my interest in writing about technology took over and I started freelancing for various blogs and publications. I love the beach and Apple products! Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Get More Blog Readers Using Lessons from Email Marketers

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