Archives for October 2015

Due to the incredible nature of my work, I’m able to work from home or on the road. And I planned it that way.

I still remember my first airplane ride – looking down and realizing that I wanted to have the freedom to travel as an adult.

But unless I was prepared to become an airline stewardess (not such a bad idea) or a travel writer (life reserves special places for those people), there were limited ways for me to make my dream of travel come true.

Enter social media in 2009. Much love and thanks to a professor who told us the first day of class to “get a Twitter,” which I did that very evening!

By the time I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Mass Communication and Journalism, I had landed two excellent (one paid) internships managing social media and was addicted.

All of a sudden, I saw the heavens open and the path to working from anywhere IF I could create a successful social media business. Within 6 months of graduating, I had launched my business.

That was over three years ago, and I’m still going strong. [Read more…]

I spend a lot of time auditing websites for clients, and geeking out in curious website research. Lately, I’ve noticed how many website make it VERY difficult to share their content or to simply locate where they are on social media networks. What’s even more concerning is that the websites offering the most native content are the biggest culprits!

They’re missing out!

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that native content is king these days. And what does that mean? Any content that comes directly from a brand – content made by a brand, i.e. blogs, videos, photos, etc. Content that can ONLY be aligned with your business.

As the proliferation of marketing continues to work its way through all our favorite social networks, we’ve become numb to marketing messages, and that’s important to take into account. Because what sets your brand apart is the native content it’s producing, and how it’s utilizing that content to tell stories and share the brand values.

But you can make the best, coolest, most beautiful content on the web, and if it’s tough to share from your website OR it’s tough to find your social channels on your website – you’ll completely miss the mark. And all the content you’ve spent money or time on creating won’t benefit you in anyway.

That. is. tragic. (READ MORE)

When I started my business back in 2012, I included the “3 Core Strategies” as an explanation for successful social media marketing.

What’s crazy is that over 3 years later, they’re still the same!

Almost everyday, I’m asked to explain how to be successful with social media, but the answer is not a short one. That’s because there’s unlimited ways to build an audience, engage, develop relationships, and ultimately sell your product/service.

But there is one foundational recipe that stands true and has stood the test of time – a singular magical way to find social media success that can be stretched and pulled to fit your industry, business goals, or ideals. [Read more…]