Another Year Over
I hope everyone had a great holiday break and you found some time to reflect on your 2014. I took a little break from the blog to work on my 2015 business plans, review everything that happened in my business in 2014 and spent some time with my family.
I must admit, it felt good to sleep in and not turn on my laptop every morning. I felt like a kid getting back into a school schedule this Monday when that alarm went off. I struggled to get back into my work routine.
But here I am, back at my desk. Sifting through 2014 and setting the foundation for 2015 to begin. I like to use the word ‘foundation’ because I look at my business like building a house.
You can’t just decide one day that you’re going to build a house. You don’t wake up in the morning and say, OK, I want it to have two stories, a big backyard and a red front door. A contractor would look at you like you’re crazy and tell you to get your plans in place and call me back when you’re ready to do this the right way.
So in the spirit of building the house of my business, I’d like to share with you how I review 2014 and get ready for 2015.
My Power Words
It seems to be the big thing to have power words for yourself every year. Words that represent how you’d like your year to go. Words that give you direction or help you move outside your comfort box.
Last year was the first year I came up with my power word AND used it to help me move through 2014.
My power word for my business was Design.
I spent 2013 building the foundation of my business with a new website and finding my focus. 2014 began the process of designing the plans of my business.
I designed the content of my new online Social Media Images that Convert course and worked through the steps to ensure that my online products would flow with my services of helping small business owners fit social media into their busy schedules.
I even used the word Design for inspiration for a series of blog posts. It was a good to see how this whole thing worked to bring me back to my focus.
For 2015, I thought about how to take my power word to the next level. This year my power word will be Build.
Using my home building analogy, it was the next logical step. First I developed the foundation and last year, I designed the plans and blueprints for the direction of my business.
And now it’s time to Build.
When I looked up the definition of the word Build, I found this:
I like how that sounds so I decided that 2015 will be the year of Building.
My Behind-the-Scenes 2014 Check-in
Last year I did a full disclosure of my social media management – what worked and what was a constant struggle. As 2014 evolved into the year of every social media site changing, I found myself moving and shifting with them.
Some changes were good and I saw growth and connected to more people. Other changes left me scratching my head and wondering if I should drop the whole thing.
Read on as I share with you my 2014 Social Media Story:
Pinterest still continues to be my number traffic referral to my site. And yes, I’m still on the site almost every single day.
I pin to share my content and promote my online products. I pin to collect research for blog posts and I pin to look for great content to share with my other social sites and my newsletter Social Media Conversations.
Pinterest changed their news feed to include a new detailed search feature so I started testing new ways to use the social program. I even ran a 30 day experiment to grow my followers to 10,000 (and I’m oh-so-close right now!) and learned even more ways to grow my site traffic.
With Pinterest’s new smart feed programming changing the way we use this social site, I’m working on some more experiments that I’ll share once I work through what’s working and what’s not.
I don’t see my use of Pinterest slowing down. Honestly, it was all the questions I got from small business owners about Pinterest that triggered the content for my new online Social Media Images that Convert course.
My Blog
I’ve taken a couple of blogging courses in 2014 to help me learn more about the process of blogging. Of course, the usual advice of blogging more than once a week comes up but I’ve decided to stick to my blogging schedule of once a week again this year.
I’d rather share content that you can use to help you grow your business rather than just posting for the sake of SEO traffic. The courses did give me some ideas about some re-branding so keep an eye out for some changes happening to my site!
As far as content goes, I did a few social media time management experiments which turned into the 30 Minute Social Sessions workbook. The whole process of learning what worked and how to create a social media routine was more than just insightful. It was actually pretty fun to run those experiments. So I thought, why not, let’s do some more!
And so I will. Keep watching my blog for the next series of social media time management experiments.
Twitter became my second favorite social site in 2014. I really got into it and started to see real results from tweeting.
I made more connections on Twitter than any other site. It seems that Twitter is one of the first places that small business owners search for you and I was thankful that I was there when they came looking.
In between sharing content to help solopreneurs and my funny image quotes, I promoted my online products and local workshops. Twitter jumped to my second traffic referral source to my site and it continues to grow every week.
I’ll keep pushing on my Twitter posts, meeting new people and I even have some ideas for a 30 day Twitter experiment to grow my followers that I’ll run this year. And I decided that I’m not going to shut off the odd quotes and maybe share even more of my personality in 140 characters.
Because that’s still me on Twitter.
I moved past the block thing I was experiencing on LinkedIn. I’m posting status updates at least three – four times a week but honestly, I could be using the social site better.
Seriously, this is the one social site where it’s more than acceptable to just promote your business and push your services. LinkedIn is one of the best places where I can connect with small business owners who would be interested in my online products.
Why am I not spending more of my time and efforts linking in? Maybe it’s because it’s not as fun as pinning on Pinterest. Or it’s not as as cool to check LinkedIn updates on my phone as it is to see the latest tweets when I’m killing 15 minutes.
So maybe I still have a bit of a block there that I need to work on in 2015. I need to change the way I think about LinkedIn and do a better job of participating in my LinkedIn groups and connecting with new people.
Facebook was a big flat tire for me in 2014. I had a few moments where I rode the Facebook roller coaster but mostly it was like a flat tire – slowly losing air and making that squeaky sound mocking me.
By the time Facebook made its changes to our organic reach, I realized that it was becoming useless for me to try to stop it from deflating. It didn’t matter that I was adding images to my marketing messages or I was doing what they call “Link Share” posts. Nothing seemed to work to increase my engagement or reach.
When I posted my little rant about To Facebook or Not to Facebook, I was halfway out the Facebook door. I was close to just dumping the whole fan page thing. If someone as big as Copyblogger can kill their page, why not me?
I could close that page down and no one would notice. I mean, none of my fans were seeing my posts or commenting or sharing my stuff, so why bother with creating content or spending any time engaging?
But then I did my end of the year assessment of my social sites. I checked my fan page’s insights and realized something – the people who had LIKED my page were the ones who signed on BEFORE I found my focus. They were there from the old consulting work I was doing and most likely had no interest in my new direction.
I was not reaching my target audience. I was spending all this time promoting to the wrong people. Well, no wonder this wasn’t working. {Actually I think the word DUH came out of my mouth.}
So I made the decision to shut down my old fan page and start over. And the minute I signed on to my new fan page, I got excited again. I started posting to people to who got me and wanted to see my posts.
Hopefully, you’ll join me over at my new Facebook Page! I’d love to connect with you over there and we can work on this together to see if this Facebook stuff really can work for small business owners.
Your Social Media Story
As you get ready for this year to start with your business plans and fresh ideas for 2015, I want you to think about how you’re using social media marketing. What does your relationship with your social sites look like?
Do some work better than others? Are there some that you’re avoiding even though you know you should be using it? Are you like me, excited to see traffic referral numbers going up yet you’re struggling with others?
I said this last year when I posted my social media story and it’s worth repeating again:
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 social media story. This is my truth.
Leave a Reply