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Favorite Resources — November 2020
To quote Stuart Smalley (a fictional character from Saturday Night Live), “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it people like me.”
Albert Einstein (one of the greatest minds of the 20 century) said “Never memorize something you can look up.”
While I’m good, and I’m smart — I do not even attempt to memorize things “I can look up.” Especially in the realm of the works of social media.
Things change ALL THE TIME!!!!
And I’m a nerd — really I am — and I will spend quite some time diving into the annual reports and summaries and knowledge but I will not attempt to memorize everything, because I KNOW that things will change.
In my private program, (you can find out more about that here) I have a running resource of what’s new. Here are some of those useful resources:
- In November 2020 AgoraPulse published their opinion of the 45 best social media analytics tools. (NOTE — since this was published be AgoraPulse – there may be a slight bias). Find the AgoraPulse Report here.
- The folks at Sprout Social maintain an “Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Image Sizes.” This is updated every few months. As we all know that the “best” size can change for any platform I always advise my clients to review their platforms regularly (from both phone and laptop), and ALWAYS leave a bit of a border on any image you create (so … if it does change … there’s a chance you might not get information cut off). You can find the Sprout Social guide here.
- As of this writing (November 2020) I’m expecting to see all the “year-end” and “new year” data coming out within the next 30-60 days, As a geek, I’ll enjoy pouring through all the information, and as a consultant, I’ll be reading with a thought to what my clients need to know (because for the average business person, some of it is kind of dry and boring). If you would love to see the information I pull out and highlight – ask me about my private program.
And as a side note — I know many start-ups that “bootstrap” their social media. If you are looking to learn from free YouTube channels or webinars — my best piece of advice that I want to have folks understand is
PLEASE LOOK AT THE DATES on any “free” resources. If it’s over 6 months old just walk away. There was an article published listing 15 social media training courses, this was published in 2020. It listed a course on YouTube, that was published in 2016, so please, always check the dates. (I was going to list it as a resource — but not with a course that is over 4 years old).
If you’d like to always keep up with the latest changes happening in the social media world, I can share the 4 podcasts, 5 Facebook groups, 2 newsletters, and 1 videocast that I watch or you can save time and discover the summaries that I post in my private consulting program. (Psssst — you might want to send me a private message and ask about the year-end special I have going on).
It’s that time of year
For me, it’s the “beginning” of a new semester (I know the semester started a while back — but the first class I’m teaching is on October 14).
I teach the same subjects – but they change ALL THE TIME
But — they don’t change at all.
The technology changes, the “how-tos,” which buttons you push change. The size of images changes frequently, but there are some basics that stay the same.
So — what are the basics? I’ll list 5 things you should be considering when you’re planning your social media activities.
- Begin with the end in mind. Whether you’re thinking about a long term strategy or thinking about a 3-minute video, know what action you want your readers/viewers to take after your post. You do not need to do this for every post everywhere – but you should have an idea where you’re leading your readers. (pssst stay tuned I’ll show a great example later.)
- Know WHO you are talking to. Figure out who your ideal client is and make sure you are directing your information to that person. Knowing your ideal client not only helps with your messaging, but it also helps you determine where your message needs to be (for instance, if you’re product is an anti-aging cream you’re not needing to spend time and effort on Tik Tok)
- Be YOU. There are “experts” out there that want to train people to do social media the “one right way.” But the great thing about people is that we’re a mixed-up bag of different personalities and styles and ideas. Let YOU shine through — people do business with people they know, like, and trust. Be yourself and your people will find you. (Okay – they won’t find you if you’re locked in a house and not posting or commenting or networking — but you get the idea).
- Stay focussed. Getting clients and referral partners on social media is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’ve done a Facebook Live once a week for a month — don’t give up if you don’t have thousands of followers. Be persistent (but if you need to, you can always check with someone you trust to see if you need to make adjustments).
- Know your limits. Make sure you are actively engaged with others on your chosen platform. If you are a business owner and you actually have, like work to do, you can’t be on every platform. So make sure you follow #2 above – find your platform – and engage with the people you want to attract.
Oh – and remember what I said above about knowing the actions you want people to take. WELL!!!!!!!!!! I will be teaching classes in October and November so if you need to know more about social media, LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Mailchimp, or Instagram, check out the following link. I’m doing 5 classes and each is $39
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ENTREPRENEUR TRAINING AT JOLIET JUNIOR COLLEGE
My classroom will not look like this — but the information will still be great.

How to add an Admin to your Facebook Business Page
Of all the social media platforms, Facebook has the highest traffic. While it might not be the best for every business, it is a standard.
If, however, you want to have someone else manage your Facebook business page, here’s how to do that.
Once you have your Facebook page set up, go to your business page and click on settings.
You’ll get to another page and you’ll click on Page Roles.
And from here you can add anyone to your page as long as they are a “friend” of your personal profile.
You can add an Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser, or Analyst. If you go to the Facebook help center, you can see what each role is able to do.
NOW – you can sit back, relax, and outsource your Facebook page management.
Outsourcing: How to find help for your business
In a previous post, I’ve suggested you find people to help you with tasks that don’t fall within your strong skills. You might note that nobody can do your job as well as you can. Nobody can love your business as much as you do. Nobody can understand your business to the same degree.
That’s probably true. If you decide to hire someone to help you with some of your work, you might need to spend MORE time upfront training that person (but I don’t have the time).
In the Related Articles Section I have included an article titled The 6th Realization of Rich People — R.O.T.I. — Return on Time Investment. Following is an excerpt from that article …
A professor in one of my business classes taught me that “when trying to decide whether to delegate something to someone else or to do something yourself you should use the 30 to 1 rule.”
That is, that if it was a daily task that took a skilled person like yourself five minute to complete, you should plan to spend at least 150 minutes (5 minutes multiplied by 30) instructing the subordinate on how to complete the same task.
Now the 150 minutes shouldn’t all be done at one time and could be spread over a few months as you help the subordinate master the task.”
He then explained the math behind it.
“If a task were to take you personally 5 minutes a day for 250 days in a working year then that means you would spend 1250 minutes per year on that task.
Rather than doing that however, if you decided to spend 150 minutes training someone to do that 5-minute task and they instead did that task for you then that would give you an annual savings of 1100 minutes per year.”
Think about it just for a minute …
If you spent some time, up front, training someone to do a task for you, what would you do with the extra time that you found? (more…)
7 Steps to Starting Your List — Part 8 – the Resources
Things found while looking for other things
A review of the previous posts on this topic. Click on any of these links to read previous posts.
- Build your list — define your target email audience
- Create Freebie Offer
- Promoting your sign-up form
- Remember CAN-Spam
- Set up your program
- Create your email
- Test and Track
Yes, this is number 8 of a 7 part series. (Think of it this way – if I give 8 posts for a 7 part series, I might end up doing 75 minutes of work and charging for 60 – it’s been known to happen).
The main purpose of this post is so that all the resources I’ve found while doing this series are in one place. (I tend to do a great deal of research for my blog – Google is my “bestie”)
Review and Resource Link
1. Build your list — define your target email audience. We started by pointing out that (despite reports to the contrary) email is NOT dead. We had you think about who you want to be sending email to. Before you start, you need to think about your WHY — why are you sending mail, and who are you sending it to.
2. Create Freebie Offer Many people have a valuable free offer when you sign up for their email list. I listed some examples of what people I know are doing. You want to give something that showcases your products and services but you ALSO want to give something that addresses a pain point for your clients. The Hubspot article listed below had some great ideas for your free offer.
ARTICLES
- How to Create Marketing Offers that Don’t Fall Flat. (hubspot.com)
- 5 Tips for Running Successful Social Media Campaigns. (socialmediaexaminer.com)
3. Promoting your sign-up form There was discussion of some of the places you could put your sign up form, and a reminder that if you are collecting names for your email list (say through a drawing or speaking engagement or a sign-up sheet at a trade show) you are REQUIRED to mention that you will be adding someone to your mailing list.
ARTICLES
- Add a Sign-up Form to Your Website (includes video) (mailchimp.com)
- Adding a Sign-up Form to Your Facebook Page (icontact.com)
- HTML Sign-up Forms (icontact.com)
- How to Create Marketing Offers that Don’t Fall Flat. (hubspot.com)
- 5 Tips for Running Successful Social Media Campaigns. (socialmediaexaminer.com)
4. Remember CAN-Spam While we were reading the CAM-SPAM rules, we took a nap. (Seriously – just typing CAN-SPAM makes me want to nap). This is probably the most boring post of this series, but it’s highly important (if you don’t have a lawyer on retainer). Anti-spam laws protect us (somewhat) from unwanted emails. If you are using any of the major email services, they automatically help with compliance to CAN-SPAM in the setup (where you’re required to give a physical address) and allowing people to opt-out. You are still responsible for complying with correct header information, not using deceptive subject lines, and monitoring what others are doing on your behalf.
ARTICLES
- CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business (ftc.gov)
- Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Requirements for Campaigns (mailchimp.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (aweber.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (iContact.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (constantcontact.com)
5. Set up your program This is a part that I consider great fun. I do offer this as a separate “one off” service for clients that are not retainer clients (because I love doing this so much). I compared some of the email services (and not ONCE did I mention a preference for MailChimp – no, I mentioned a preference for MailChimp more than once). I also added my affiliate link for MailChimp just in case you want to set it up through MailChimp. I mention that it is an affiliate because, well one I am basically an honest and transparent person, but ALSO because it’s required by CAN-Spam (see step 4). There were some bullet points on template design and links to some tutorial pages. I also took a few digs at iContact, which I don’t much care for, but I’ll now state that they have had some recent changes making it slightly less annoying.
ARTICLES
- AWeber vs MailChimp: Which is Better Suited for Building Your List? Brenda Barron (elegantthemes.com)
- MailChimp vs Constant Contact: Which Email Marketing Software Reigns Supreme for Small Businesses? Katie Hollar (capterra.com)
- How to Choose Between AWeber and MailChimp. (cloud-coach.net)
- AWeber vs. MailChimp: Which Email Marketing Service is Best. Debbie LaChusa (debbielachuas.com)
- Aweber vs Mailchimp – A Quick Look (socialpositives.com)
- 10 most popular email marketing software reviewed :infographic (onlinemarketing-trends.com)
OTHER
MailChimp tutorial page
Constant Contact tutorial page
6. Create your email We reviewed some high points for successful email campaigns (including short concise paragraphs, mentioning special offers, and adding personal stories). I also gave 4 examples of some newsletters I am working on or have worked on.
ARTICLES
- Writing an E-Newsletter that Gets Results. INC. Staff (inc.com)
- How to Write Effective Email Newsletters (webmarketcentral.com)
7. Test and Track We reviewed what you should be measuring and what industry reports say might not match your ideal clients. Check your open rates, your click through rates, your bounce rates, and your unsubscribe rates. (As a side note, I’d like to point out that not all unsubscribes are a bad thing – some people just might not be your ideal client.)
ARTICLES
- 5 ways to Increase Your Email Click-Through Rate (getresponse.com)
- Getting Started with A/B Split Campaigns (mailchimp.com)
8. Finally –
Your main goal is consistent, clear, concise, customer-focused communication.
If you’re looking for someone to help you set up and maintain an email list, or if you’re just looking for someone to coach you through one or two steps, feel free to contact me for a free 30-minute consultation session.
7 Steps to Starting Your List — Part 7 – the penultimate
Test and Track
Yes – I know the title says “penultimate” and penultimate means “last but one in a series.” I plan to follow up in the next post with a complete list of resources so even though this is #7 of 7, it’s still the penultimate.
We’ve come an incredibly long way – from defining your target audience to remembering not to Spam people to actually writing email. Testing and tracking is an important last step because you need to see how things are working.
What should you be measuring?
- Open rates (the % of subscribers that open an email)
- Click through rates (the % of subscribers that click through to a webpage)
- Conversion rates (% of unique visitors that convert to a desired action – sale, membership, event registration)
- Bounce rates (% of undelivered emails)
- Unsubscribe rates (% of users that apt out).
One way of testing is to do an A/B split test where you send different segments of your list almost the same email with slight differences (perhaps a subject heating, or perhaps a day or week or time of day sent) to see which produces more open rates (this is detailed below in the “Related articles” section.)
While I can’t give exact statistics and industry averages on the following, I’ve noticed two things from personal observation:
- From lists I’ve managed, I’ve noticed that the more consistently email is sent, the better the open rates.
- INDIVIDUAL lists do not necessarily follow industry averages.
So even if some industry rag says to send messages at a “best time,” this might not necessarily hold true on your specific list.
Test – test subject headings, test different send times – or not, but REMEMBER
Consistent, clear, and customer focused communication is always a good option.
Related articles
- 5 ways to Increase Your Email Click-Through Rate (getresponse.com)
- Getting Started with A/B Split Campaigns (mailchimp.com)
Finally, a review of the previous posts on this topic.
- Build your list — define your target email audience.
- Create Freebie Offer
- Promoting your sign-up form
- Remember CAN-Spam
- Set up your program
- Create your email
- Test and Track
Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Tuesday Tip – Decisions, Decisions, Decisions – or NOT
Tuesday Tip – Decisions – or NOT?
It’s been a few months, but a while back there was quite a bit of news about Mark Zuckerberg’s wardrobe (see related article). From the Business Insider article: “He said even small decisions like choosing what to wear or what to eat for breakfast could be tiring and consume energy, and he didn’t want to waste any time on that.”
This actually makes a lot of sense to me in some aspects. While I wouldn’t want to have the same thing for breakfast every day (I like to “mix up” my smoothie ingredients), I can see the benefits to limiting decisions.
I recently updated a filing system (a real PAPER filing system). Had I wanted to, I could have come up with some kind of color coding system. But I just ran with what I had on hand for 2 reasons.
- It was on hand, so I didn’t need to make any runs to Staples or Office Depot and (more importantly)
- I could easily have spent days with an internal debate (do I have certain color hanging folders for “months” and others for “days” and others for “general” and others for “clients” or do I have certain tabs for the above — should I get multiple color pens for each different tab to make different things stand out.
These files are in a lidded case that nobody but me will ever need to see, and as you can see, there are yellow tabs and blue tabs and clear tabs, and blue and brown and yellow and … files, but there is no method to this. Because what really matters is what the tabs say, and that I have set this up to better organize myself and serve my clients needs.
If I had spent days fretting over which color scheme to go with, it wouldn’t have served anyone’s needs.
Sometimes it’s okay to have things planned out and look a certain way (for instance, a Powerpoint presentation, or a proposal), but when it doesn’t really matter, just remember the KISS principle. (Keep It Simple Stupid)
How do you simplify your decision making?
Related articles:
- Here’s The Real Reason Mark Zuckerberg Wears The Same T-Shirt Every Day Eugene Kim (businessinsider.com)
- Keeping it Simple Doesn’t Mean You’re Stupid. Amy Rees Anderson (forbes.com)
“Tips” Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
7 Steps to Starting Your List — Part 4
Subtitled Boring But Important
(or how to avoid calling your lawyer)
If you’re anything like me (and if you’ve got a good spam filter set up), you’ve got a folder FULL of completely useless and unwanted email that has been sent to you, much of it illegally. In this article we’ll discuss how to avoid sending SPAM. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the following is copied directly from the Federal Trade Commission CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide.
- Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
- Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
- Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
- Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
- Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
- Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
In the “Related articles” section, I’ve included the Federal Trade Commission CAN-SPAM guide and the Anti-Spam policies from MailChimp, AWeber, iContact, and Constant Contact. I highly suggest reading through them (if you ever are suffering from insomnia).
The important take-away from this is that if you are creating a mailing list, and if you use an email service such as MailChimp or AWeber, as you walk through the setup and as you add people to your lists, the service has automated ways of making sure that you are complying with their Anti-Spam policies. If you hire someone to send out mail for you (using one of the web-based mail applications or using your Gmail or Outlook), you are legally responsible for anything sent in your name.
Related articles
- CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business (ftc.gov)
- Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Requirements for Campaigns (mailchimp.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (aweber.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (iContact.com)
- Anti-Spam Policy (constantcontact.com)
Finally, a review of the previous (and upcoming) posts on this topic.
- Build your list — define your target email audience.
- Create Freebie Offer
- Promoting your sign-up form
- Remember CAN-Spam
- Set up your program
- Create your email
- Test and Track
AND — since I realize that this topic is incredibly boring (BUT EXTREMELY IMPORTANT), I’d like to leave you with a final thought.