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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).
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.
Tuesday Tip – It’s that time again
It’s almost August – which means it’s almost BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!!!
Some people that read this blog have school kids and look at this as an opportunity to start spending more time on their business. Some people reading this might go “OH DARN” that means traffic …
But most small businesses forget one really special event at this time of the year.
Girl Writing Back To School As A Symbol For Education
BACK TO SCHOOL $ALE$
That’s right, even if you don’t have kids, or your kids are well before or past the age of school, you can still take advantage of all those school supplies being on sale. There might be some back to school items you don’t need, but most “office” supplies are covered in the back to school sales. For example, mini staplers that can fit into a middle school locker can also fit in a purse or briefcase. Unless you have a locked office, I’m willing to bet that sometimes your pens wander off your desk. (Okay – even if you’re the only one that touches your desk I’m still willing to bet ballpoint pens disappear – see note below*). Every time I give a client a report or a contract, I put it in a two pocket folder. I rarely pay retail for those (they are either $0.10 or $0.15 during August). I know some consultants (I’m looking at YOU Michelle Smith at Z & B consulting) that often make use of colored markers and easel pads. Even if you don’t explore every sales flyer to find the “best” deals, you can’t walk down a school (office) supply aisle at this time of year without deals jumping off the shelf at you.
Staples Back to School Deals (moneysavingmom)
“Tips” image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
*In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams has a theory that ballpoint pens slip off to their own planet and live (the ballpoint pen equivalent of) the good life. For their sake, I hope it’s true, because the ballpoints never stay on my desk.
Thursday Tip – Herding Cats
Have you ever tried to arrange a meeting time with several people and had difficulty finding a time when everyone was available? Sometimes it feels like herding cats (which is extremely difficult to do). We’re all busy and our calendars are filled.
Fast forward to 2015, and yes there is, in fact, an app for that, and it’s called Doodle.
Doodle is a free app that you can use to manage a simple schedule for multiple people. There is, of course, a version where you can spend a bit more money and get more features if you find that works best for your business.
Basically speaking though, Doodle is great time saver and you can use that time to work on your business, make follow up calls, get dinner started, or pick up a pen and paper and doodle. Don’t we all love free things that free up our time?
Tips and Tricks for January
Every month or two I will be doing a posting on timely tips and tricks. For the most part these will be guided by the questions I run across from clients or while networking. In other words, if I have to dig out information, I’ll pass it along instead of having others need to look up the same information.
LinkedIn Recommendations. While helping a client update her LinkedIn profile, I ran across an article about getting and using LinkedIn recommendations. The link to the article is in the “Related Articles” section. While this article is mostly focused on people in the job market, many points are the same as for a solopreneur asking clients for LinkedIn Recommendations, especially #6 (reach out personally when you ask for a recommendation) and #7 (only ask those who truly know your work.) This emphasizes what was said in my post on finding your social media voice. Be authentic and consistent.
Tips and Tricks for September
Every month I will be doing a posting on timely tips and tricks. For the most part these, will be guided by the questions I run across from clients or while networking. In other words, if I have to dig out information, I’ll pass it along instead of having others need to look up the same information.
Moving Outlook contacts to your phone. This simple YouTube video shows how to transfer Microsoft Outlook contacts from your computer to your Android phone using a free app called Wondershare MobileGo. There’s another YouTube video showing the same transfer with music. There is also an article in PCMag titled How to Sync Android with Microsoft Outlook. The article itself is over 18 months old; however, there are many great tips (some recent) in the comments. As I don’t use Outlook, I’ve never had to transfer contacts so I do not have first hand experience with these.
“Write” it down. As many productivity experts can tell you, having written lists is wonderful for keeping track of things. I discovered something else in the past month. Twice, when I was “writing” (well, once writing in pen on paper and once typing a question to one of my Google+ groups) something down, in the process of writing I discovered the answer to my question.
Multitasking. According to an article (must move laundry to the dryer) in MailOnline, women might not be (was that the door) better than men at multitasking. It seems our brain copes well with well-practiced routines (driving a car and listening to the radio) but some things need our entire focus.
Once I took my car in for repair and decided to take a walk in the neighborhood adjoining the repair shop. During this time I was texting my husband with reports on the car. I found I am not capable of walking and texting at the same time. I’m fairly proficient at either, but I cannot mix the two. (However, I’m perfectly capable of typing a blog post and drinking my coffee.)Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Related articles
It’s not just men who can’t multi-task: New research says women are just as bad at juggling tasks. (dailymail.co.uk)