One Cool Day
It’ll be the coolest thing one day when I run a search for the words ‘Inner Social Media-ness’ and it shows up in a Google search. For now, the only place where you can find this term is here on my website.
For those of you who have stumbled into this blog and for those of you who warm my heart and hit that Follow button to get my weekly blog posts in your inbox, let me explain.
Here is the story of how I developed the idea of Inner Social Media-ness:
It all started from a conversation with one of my graphic designer friends. I was working through some ideas for the design of this website. I wanted this site to show the social media work that I do but yet, I didn’t want it to look like all the other social media consultant websites that you see out there.
I wanted it to show my personality, my unique view on marketing with just a touch of my inner weirdness. And then I said, “I want people to see how I can teach solopreneurs how to use social media and show them how to find their own inner personality within the social world and to find their own … inner social media-ness.”
We both laughed at how funny that sounded. Throughout the rest of our meeting, I repeated that expression a few more times. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I liked the idea of what it meant. I liked what it stood for and quite honestly, I liked saying it out loud.
From that meeting, Inner Social Media-ness was born.
My Inner Social Media-ness for 2014
With the year coming to a close, I’ve been working on my business plans for 2014. Part of my planning involves looking at what happened in 2013. How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been?
I’ve worked through some business planning workbooks which led me to read a few blogs from other solopreneurs who shared the truth about their business resolutions. The whole process really got me thinking about my story and my social media path.
Some of you may connect with this and others may just shrug your shoulders and move on. If you’re in the group who wonders what the behind-the-scenes looks like for a social media strategist, then read on as I share with you my triumphs as well as my struggles.
I love this social program! One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to click on my Pinterest app and dream, learn and grow my visions.
I use Pinterest to help me find new content and social media updates as well as promote my own programs and blog posts. In 2013, I received more referral traffic from Pinterest than Facebook, Twitter and Google organic search COMBINED.
I shared with you the details of how I’ve been growing my Pinterest presence in the Story of a Pinterest Board. My plans for 2014 include testing more Pinterest marketing strategies as well as some ideas I have about developing an online class to create a visual content plan.
My Blog
Most of the blogging advice will tell you that the more often you blog, the more traffic you’ll get to your site. In my first attempt at a business blog, I tried to write 2 – 3 blog posts a week. But like anyone who runs their own business, life got in the way, clients needed work done and I just couldn’t keep up.
I was just cranking out content and adding to the online noise. No one was visiting my old site and I couldn’t blame them. Most of the time, I didn’t want to read what I was writing either. I just posted to put something out there.
Then I learned about the theory behind how The Conversation is The Relationship. And when my site was launched and ready to go, I decided to post just once a week.
Sure I’m probably missing out on some SEO traffic but what I’m giving up in page views, I’m making up with people who come back. I’ve taken the time to do my research and write posts that people want to share with their social circle.
Connecting to the right people and teaching them something of value is more important to me than big web traffic numbers.
It took me awhile to find a way to get Twitter. I shared my story with The Confessions of a Twitter Addict but I always knew that it had to be more than that. Twitter had to mean more to me than just helping clients use it or seeing how many tweets I could post in one day.
I can honestly tell you that I’ve never made a sale from a tweet. I know people who do and they swear by the connections that they’ve made through Twitter. Me? Not one sale.
But I’m OK with that. Twitter is where I connect with people I’ve met through blogs. I share my own content and programs like my Strategy Builder workbook as well as share other people’s posts.
Twitter is my place to show my personality. When I meet someone in person who wants to follow me, I warn them about my tweets. Some days, I share the oddest quotes because they make me laugh.
And if you’re anywhere near Twitter on a Saturday during college football season, you’ll get updates and commentary from the University of Georgia Bulldogs football games. Because that’s just me on Twitter.
This social media program use to be my nemesis. I had a profile on there and heck, I even taught a class about how to network on LinkedIn! But for some unknown reason, I had a block about going on there and using it the way I’d teach my workshop attendees.
Then one day, a friend of mine reminded me about the story of adding cheese to your broccoli. As a mother of a 10 year old boy, I’ve done all the tricks to get him to eat his veggies. I finally got him to eat broccoli as long as it has two pieces of cheese on it. Now he asks for broccoli every day.
Just like with my son and eating vegetables, sometimes we have to add something we like into something we’re avoiding just to get it done. So I joined a LinkedIn Pinterest group to get my two pieces of cheese with my broccoli.
I’ve met some great people in that group who I’ve connected with offline. We’ve promoted each others’ programs, shared each others’ blog posts and supported each other in other social media outlets.
I’m moving through that weird block thing I was doing and finally starting to see for myself why it’s so important for small business owners to be on LinkedIn.
I saved this one for last. Here’s the big confession my friends …. Facebook is a struggle for me.
This is a big confession for me to make to you. I wrote and then re-wrote this section several times because I couldn’t decide to how to share this. So, I just decided to come right out and say it.
I’m on a Facebook roller coaster. One month, I’m up and the next two months, I’m down. I’ll spend the down months analyzing all my Insights and carefully choosing the content I want to share. The next month, I’ll get busy and just throw stuff up there.
I realize this sounds strange coming from me since I wrote this Facebook post about Insights and this one about Facebook Promoted Posts. Truth is, those posts were written from the work I’ve done with clients. I’ve seen these results from their fan pages and watched how they’ve grown their Facebook Likes.
My big social media goal for 2014 is to get off the Facebook fan page roller coaster. I’ve come up with suggestions I’ve been testing to help grow your Facebook fan page while being more efficient with your time. All of these steps can be done in 30 minutes or less.
I’ll share them in my first edition of a new feature called 30 Minute Social Sessions. This feature is only available to the people who receive my Social Media Conversation newsletter. If you’d like to get my bi-monthly newsletter in your inbox, click here to signup.
A new year begins
As we all get ready for this year to end and to start another one with fresh ideas and excitement, I want you to think about your own Inner Social Media-ness. What does your relationship with social media look like to you?
Are you like me with triumphs with some and struggles with others? Is there something holding you back from using a social media program you know you need to do to grow your business?
I think the first place to start is to admit to where you are right now. Share it with friends, post your struggles in the comments section or write your own blog post. Just find a way to get it out of your head and start thinking about how you can make some changes.
So there you are my friends. This is my Inner Social Media-ness. This is my truth.
Photo credit: Road Less Taken
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