That’s what I said after addressing the crowd at the #SMSSummit NYC on June 11th. And it was true! It was the first time I’ve ever presented at a social media event, and I can’t tell you how exciting it was to do so.

But leading up to the event was hectic – there were MULTIPLE issues.

I changed the keynote topic 2 weeks before the summit because the original didn’t resonate with the work I’ve done with social media. And I wanted to speak about something I am passionate about.

It was a mad rush to write a 30-minute presentation, and as the PowerPoint was sent off to a designer, I thought everything would be okay. But several days later, she sent me an invoice and no PPT. Then she disappeared.

Gah!

I’ve haven’t put a PPT together  since college, and back then it was merely using a template. I wanted my PPT to look beautiful – to stand out, so I was willing to pay someone several hundred dollars to make it spectacular. But instead, two days before I was scheduled to leave, I was designing a presentation in Keynote.

Then once it was complete, it wouldn’t export correctly. All the hard work I’d done to create it was somehow lost in the exporting process – colors, overlays, photos. But the Summit organizers were kind enough to settle for a PDF and I promised to bring my laptop on presentation day.

I left the next morning to fly up to NYC and arrived to a dirty AirBnb. But by then, I could only laugh. In fact, I had starting laughing when my designer disappeared.

It’s incredible how things start to fall apart when we are on the brink of pushing our limits and doing something awesome for our career or life. So I laughed in the face of mess after mess because there wasn’t ANYthing that was going to prevent me from taking on this new challenge.

And EVERYTHING went extremely well once presentation day arrived!

The morning panel with Michele Weisman, Emily Butler, Mindy Stockfield, and I went extremely well. We spoke about “Becoming a Storyteller – The Key Elements to Creating & Writing Powerful Stories” and could’ve stayed on stage talking all day.

It was wonderful to get a feel for what it felt like to be on stage before actually ascending it myself. I was nervous, but more focused on making sure my presentation was interesting and valuable.

And when the time came, I couldn’t have asked for a better first presentation.

Below are some photos from the event, my recorded presentation in two parts (it was filmed with my iPhone, but will hopefully have some professional footage soon), and the presentation slides.

My advice is, if you think public speaking will help your career or business, but you’re shy or concerned about how it will go – PUSH yourself to do it. What an incredible experience!!!

A photo of the Delegate dinner I cohosted with Ryan Lewis of Bonfire. Speakers could sign up to host dinners and hang out with Summit attendees to discuss certain subjects surrounding social media marketing. We had a packed dinner of 10 and it was such a blast to get to know the attendees in a more intimate setting.

A fun picture of me holding the sign for the dinner as we were gathering everyone together to go eat at The Marshall. Yummy food!

I woke up exhausted from the previous day, but excited to present!

The panel discussion with (R-L) Michele Weisman (moderator), Mindy Stockfield, Emily Butler, and I. Such a fantastic experience discussing storytelling with these ladies.

Emily Butler and I became fast friends. We met the week before on LinkedIn, but kept in touch and she was kind enough to stay throughout the day and support me during my presentation. She kept me laughing and my mind off presenting – couldn’t have asked for anything better!

The only photo I have of me presenting. The quality isn’t so fabulous, but I was having a great time!

When the day was complete, I celebrated by having a LOT of fresh oysters and a glass of wine with my friend, Josh Davis. We met while I was attending The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Here’s the recorded presentation:

Part 1:

Part 2:

And the Slideshare! Can also be viewed HERE.

There’s a lot of hoopla out there about social media. Some say it’s a nightmare, while others hail it as the best marketing avenue our world has ever known.

Big surprise – I happen to agree with the latter. Social media is extremely powerful when utilized correctly and businesses who have already invested in it can attest to it.

These days, most business owners I talk to are aware they need social media, but aren’t sure what it can do for them. To be frank – social media can be really confusing if you don’t do it everyday, and for business owners owners who want to protect their resources and time, that’s cause for concern.

But social media is a necessity for businesses – it’s not a luxury, it’s not a maybe, it’s a definite.

Let’s discuss the 5 reasons why your business needs social media marketing.

1. It’s where the people are.

Your consumers and prospects view social media as a place to congregate with family and friends, read the news, and laugh a bit. Social platforms give them the opportunity to find out about topics and see things they wouldn’t in real life. It offers them places to meet people, network, and get to build relationships with people all over the world.

That’s huge.

Successful social marketing takes their prospect into play and crafts messages that blend in with the updates people read everyday.

But you don’t build an online presence, there won’t be an opportunity to talk to them, build relationships, and get to know who they are.

And getting to know the people you want to target or those interested in your product/service is priceless. It helps you to be a better business, upgrade your product/service with them in mind, and continually innovate.

You can’t be successful in business if you don’t go where the people are. The old “build it and they will come” adage does NOT apply to business.

You have to jump in, get your feet wet, and build a consistent presence.

2. Gives your target audience a chance to know you

If you don’t get involved in social media, then you’re allowing other people to make generalizations about who your company is, what its values are, and how much you care.

That’s not good.

Consider a customer who had a really bad experience with your business. They bought something and it fell short of their expectations or customer service was rude, and now they’re telling everyone they know online about it.

Bad news.

But if your business is online and continually searching to find out if anyone is talking about it, it would give you a chance to make it right and to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

It’s important to be purposeful about constructing the brand people are getting to know, and social media is an excellent way to do so.

You want people to know that you’re reliable, their business is important to you, and that you’re listening.

More than once I have intervened in conversations for my client’s brands and was able to win over a new customer or educate them further about the product.

Successful social marketing is getting out there and writing your own story before someone else has the chance to write it for you.

3. Offers you a platform to promote

Let’s face it, your business needs to make money – you want more sales, and increased revenue.

Social media is the perfect way to do that because social networks offer a variety of platforms to promote your product/service, upgrades, features, specials, etc.

Successful social marketing builds a thriving community of people who love your product/service, enjoy interacting with the brand voice/content, and are willing and excited to accept your promotions.

The hard-selling companies never make it on social media because no one likes having ANY message smashed in their face time and again, but when relationships are developed, consistency is portrayed, and care is translated – people want to hear from you.

And the coolest part is that there’s so many creative ways to construct promotions! You can take pictures, make videos, play around with wording, and see what resonates the most with your audience.

Social media is fun!! But it can also make you a lot of money. And who doesn’t want that?

4. Allows you to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time

Remember when TV ads brought in outstanding numbers? Or when magazine ads gave your brand the reach it had been dreaming about? Yes, I do, too.

But that time is gone.

People ignore TV commercials, unless it’s Super Bowl time, flip through magazines at the speed of light or just read them online. Our prospects/customers no longer go the traditional routes.

That’s why social media is so powerful.

It allows us to reach thousands of people with one message, promote our products to hundreds of thousands with the click of a button, and spread our brand like wildfire.

Successful social marketing let’s us reach large amounts of people without every having to leave home, but it must be managed correctly and grown effectively. Still, the power is overwhelming.

5. Social media marketing IS the future

If you’re one of those people who’s standing with their hands over their eyes and hoping social marketing will pass us by – it’s time to wake up.

Social media is here to stay for the long haul, and 2015 is going to be the make or break it year for businesses who’ve started investing and those who lag behind.

In fact, I predict that unless businesses jump into the social media game this year, they’ll be too far behind in the coming years.

And you don’t want your business to get behind!

This isn’t meant to scare you, it’s to jolt you into realizing that it’s worth the time, investment, and commitment for your business.

Don’t wait! Start now.

Did I miss anything? Why is social media important to your business?

In last week’s post, “Why Your Business Needs Snapchat NOW” I gave you a few examples of how businesses can utilize Snapchat for marketing purposes, and action steps for spreading the word you’ve decided to jump the Snapchat train.

But what if you don’t know how to operate Snapchat?

No worries – this post is going to cover the bases for you.

This beginner guide will show you what the buttons mean, how to avoid losing Snaps (believe me, you WANT to know this one), and what the deal is with Stories.

So, let’s jump in!

Initial setup

1. It’s pertinent to stick to your branding usernames and make it easy for people to find you. My account username is, ahnahendrix, the same name for basically everything I have online. Keep it simple.

2. The account you set up will be tied to the cellphone it originates on, but that doesn’t mean that other cellphones can’t use the same account.

For example, my parents own a restaurant and want to incorporate Snapchat into their marketing, but there are three people involved with the marketing. No problem. Although it isn’t optimal, a user can use someone else’s account simply by signing in and signing out with a different username. It’s similar to how Instagram used to be.

A bit maddening, but until 3rd party developers build apps for us to more easily manage Snapchat, it’s the best we’ve got.

Inside Snapchat

The first thing you will see when signing in is a camera screen with a bunch of buttons on it.

Here’s more explanation on the main screen buttons:

1. Flash – Camera flash.
2. QR code and friending options – A photo further down will go into greater detail, but this is where you can take a picture of your personal QR code and make it easy for people to find you, in addition to other friending options.
3. Camera switch – Front or back on your cell phone.
4. Snaps and chats – Clicking on this loads the Snaps (photo and video) and Snapchats (text messages) you receive. You can also go to this screen by swiping RIGHT.
5. Camera – Click it quickly for a photo. Hold down continuously to record a video.
6. Snapchat Stories. This takes you to the screen where your friend’s Stories are featured (more on that in a minute) and the Discover channels. You can also swipe LEFT to get to this screen.

The little ghost on the main screen at the top center will bring you to your main friending options. This QR code can be scanned by cellphones making it easy for friends/users to find your Snapchat account.

Take a screenshot to capture it and share it across your social networks, especially the visual networks (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr) and in your email marketing.

You can Add Friends with your phone contacts or by searching for a username.

My Friends will show you the list of people who are your friends. This is where you can unfriend someone.

Taking a picture

From the main screen, when you take a picture, you are given a whole bunch of new buttons. Here’s some clarification:

1. Try again – Cancel your Snap (photo or video) and start over.
2. Add text – Include a message on your Snap. See below for more ways to do that.
3. Add color and draw – Offers a few varieties for you to draw all over your photo in an array of colors.
4. Timer – Decide how long you want the receiver of your message to be able to view it. After they’ve viewed it, the message will disappear, so if you message is more intricate, give them longer time.
5. Save to your phone – Does exactly that! Downloads the picture or video created to your cell.
6. Add Snap to your Stories – Add your photo or video to the Stories that are featured to your friends. Stories last 24 hours before disappearing.
7. Next – After taking your picture or video, you can click Next to choose exactly who you want to send it to or you can add it to your Stories.

Text.

Text can be arranged a multitude of ways. You can change font size and positions. It can be BIG..

*BIG messages must remain brief – there isn’t much room for lots of letters or emojis.

Or small..

When it’s smaller there is a black background that highlights the text, which comes in handy.

As you can see my scarf doesn’t exactly offer the best background for seeing small text, so the black background helps significantly. Plus, smaller text also allows for more copy.

Message panel

By swiping RIGHT from the main screen, you see the message panel. This is where your Snaps reside – photo, video, and text.

***It’s important to remember that you MUST hold down continuously on the Snap to view it until the end. If you let go, it will be lost forever. 

The top left icon represents Snapchat text messages. This is what you click on to start texting with a friend.

The top right icon represents the same as the left, but for photo or video messages.

The list below shows the history of Snaps, received and sent. Blue represents Snapchats (text) messages, purple are videos, and red are photos. The arrows represent sent messages and the squares are received.

Stories

If you swipe LEFT from the main screen, you’re taken to the Stories screen. Stories are photos or videos that last for 24 hours. They’re shared with everyone on your friend list and anyone who adds you.

*Be cautious in what you share for Stories because they are public unless you keep your account private.

In addition, it’s where your friend’s Stories are located, so you can watch them for 24 hours. Recently, Snapchat has been showcasing long stories covering holidays or important events that are fun to watch, i.e. the Super Bowl, Oscars, and holiday happenings. They’re interesting to watch.

The top right button is for the Discover channel. More on that below.

Discover

The Discover channel is a pre-party of all the goodness we have to look forward to.

It shares 12 different news channels that display videos and articles about the latest trends and topics. But laced between the videos are subtle ads.

This is just one of the places Snapchat will turn into advertising realty in the future.

An example of a news piece on the CNN channel.

Have to say that although these are trending news topics, the Snapchat videos/articles take a different approach and share interesting back information.

So now that you’ve learned the basics for Snapchat, download it, choose your username, add friends and start playing!

As I mentioned in the previous post, Snapchat is still growing, but now is the perfect time to begin getting used to Snapchat and building an audience.

As you can see, Snapchat is quite easy to use. In fact, once you get the hang of it you’ll be surprised you ever need this tutorial

Did I miss anything important? Comment below!

Businesses fail at it every day.

They post “company updates” on their blogs, filled with news that nobody cares about (except maybe their own employees).

They send irrelevant “newsletters” that add zero value to their prospects and customers.

They craft poorly written, boring content that packs less punch than a pillow fight.

They hard-sell, when they should educate.

What are they failing at?

Content marketing.

In a world where traditional marketing is less effective, and people’s attention spans are shorter than ever, smart marketers understand that content marketing is crucial for generating new leads and gaining customers.

But what exactly is content marketing anyway?

Here’s how the Content Marketing Institute defines it:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

The keyword here? Valuable.

That’s where many businesses go wrong. They either don’t have a content marketing strategy, or, if they do, it’s seriously lacking value.

You might be one of those businesses—but that’s okay. After you read this article, you’ll have the tools and knowledge you need to craft and execute a lead-generating content marketing strategy.

Before we go any further, let’s list out some of the most common types of content marketing:

• Blogs
• eBooks and regular Books
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Infographics

There’s a good chance you’ve consumed all of these types of content. And if the content was good, you gained respect and trust in the source of the content.

Which leads us to the even more important question: WHY is content marketing important for your business?

It helps you speak to your audience at different stages of the buying cycle, take their hand, and lead them further down the buying cycle until an eventual purchase.

The four stages of the buying cycle are 1) awareness, 2) research, 3) consideration, and 4) buy.

Content marketing taps into the first two stages by raising awareness (letting customers know that there is a solution to their problem), and educating customers about a product or service they’ve never considered before.

Here’s the bottom line: it’s time to do content marketing right—and stop letting leads slip through your fingers.

Here are 4 secrets to a lead-generating content marketing strategy:

1. Add Value

I’ve mentioned it before. It’s the biggest reason why businesses fail with content marketing. They don’t understand how to add value.

How can you add value? Figure out your customer’s problems, and help solve them.

Every piece of content you create should have a clear and direct benefit to your customer.

Let’s get really meta for a second. This post is part of ARCH’s content marketing strategy. Our audience (you) is interested in growing their businesses through social media and content marketing. And that’s the service we provide.

Through blog posts like this one, we help you solve a nagging problem, while also exhibiting our expertise in the area. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Here’s another example: Let’s say you have a software product that helps businesses with their email marketing. You can create content around that value proposition. Some good content ideas would be: “How to generate revenue from your email marketing;” “5 dirty little secrets to rapidly grow your email list;” etc.

There’s a little trick to this that can put your content marketing on steroids. We’ll get to that in a minute though.

2. Define Your Purpose

Stop creating content for the sake of creating content. Every single word you write should be purposeful.

And that purpose? Well, for 99% of companies, it should be to get the reader’s email address.

An email campaign is essential for your business. It allows you to connect and build a relationship with your audience. Most website visitors won’t be ready to buy the first time they go to your site. But you can nurture and transform them into buyers with an effective set of emails.

There should be an email opt-in on every page. Your content should entice readers to enter their email address and sign up for your list.

3. Reframe Your Product or Service in Your Reader’s Mind

Remember that little content marketing trick we mentioned before? Here it is.

The best content adds value and reframes your product or service in your reader’s mind. It makes your readers stop thinking of your product or service as a “cost,” and start thinking about it as an investment.

How do you do this?

First, identify the benefits that your customer gets when they successfully use your product or service.

Let’s go back to the email-marketing example. Here, the main benefit is a profitable email list (i.e. make more money).

Then, create content around what they can do to gain that benefit (i.e. “How to Generate More Revenue from Your Email List”).

Finally, highlight your product or service as the solution, AKA the “how” that will make it easiest to get that benefit.

So, you could include a call to action like, “Are you ready to create a profitable email list? Sign up below to start your free trial of [software name].”

Side note: you don’t necessarily need to explicitly highlight your product or service in every piece of content. Your value proposition should be fairly obvious, so that when your reader thinks, “Wow, I do want to create a profitable email list [i.e. solve a problem or experience a benefit],” your website itself presents it as an obvious solution.

4. Be Consistent

Consistency is the glue that holds your content marketing strategy together. If you blog once in a while, send out an email every few weeks, or podcast randomly, you’ll completely drain the content of it’s potential.

You want to be the go-to resource for your audience. In order to do that, you NEED to be consistent. Post a blog on the same day every week, send out timely emails, always add value.

Your audience should expect that they can come to your for awesome content, expertise, and to help blast through their pain points.

Conclusion

You have two choices. You can be an average business, and publish mediocre content that bores your readers and does nothing but sit there, purposelessly on your website.

OR

You can use these secrets to craft and execute an awesome content marketing strategy that transforms your business into a lead-generating machine.

Either way, the writing is on the wall. Businesses that take content marketing seriously are the ones who will thrive…and those that don’t will ultimately fail.

Not everyone is blessed with the ability to create jaw-dropping content.

But as the tidal wave of visual content hits, creating beautiful content has become a necessary skill for social media marketing.

Sharp design exhibits professionalism, generates credibility and displays awareness to online audiences.

Think about it. Don’t you feel more at ease buying from an online business that showcases its products or services in an attractive and effective manner?

Of course you do!

So, what is good design? That mostly depends on the eyes looking at it. But there are a few things that make or break a piece of content. Follow these 3 steps to learn how to go from meh to ahhhhh with your online content. These principles can be applied to any photo, graphic or image you create.

Step 1: Fontography.

Fontography is the study of fonts or lettering. Fonts are not created equal, and they make a huge impact on the mood you communicate to the reader, so choosing wisely in important. By the way, Comic Sans is a no go. Ever.

There are whole courses dedicated to fontography, but since there isn’t time for that, I will cover the most relevant rules you need to know.

1. Mix serif and sans-serif fonts together.

Serifs refer to the tips on text, and sans-serif refers to the lack of them. Pictures explain best. When you mix the two, it generates a heightened emotion or style. Sticking to one or the other brings about smoother feelings. For example, the Franklin Gothic in this picture is considered modern while the Garamond is classical.

But the use of both heighten emotion and variety. This Marie Forleo graphic uses a sans-serif font to express the general message, while adding the attribution with a sans-serif font.

Additionally, check out her brand signature. It’s a mixture of the two. It shows she is both a modern lady with a bit of elegance, which if you follow Marie, is true.

Another example is one of Sandi Krakowski‘s quotes which uses the serif for the title, but the message is sans-serif. And unlike Marie, her branding signature is entirely sans-serif (bolding her name to differentiate it).

2. Add a complementary font to your branding font.

The chosen brand font influences which fonts are complementary.

Add your original font to a blank page and combine it with others to create a few complementary matches. Different sets will connote different emotions and can be used in original ways. Be adventurous, and ask for second opinions.

This Sacramento & Alice font expresses a sort of whimsical comfort. This plaque mixes a handwritten font with a serif.

3. Stick to easy-to-read fonts for small text.

While you may enjoy a serif or calligraphy type, if there is a lot of text or the text is small, use a sans-serif to make it easy to read.

Check out the Month, Day and Year font – a sans-serif font makes them possible for anyone to read even though they’re small.

4. Text placement.

Right, center or left can be a big decision. There is no easy formula for where to put your text, but it should balance out the image placed with it.

These examples should help explain.

Left. The focus of the photograph is on the right, so placing the text on the left will even it out. If it was placed in the center the font would take away from the photo, and right would be plastered over the people.

Center. There are two things to take note of here. 1) The brand slogan is four words (Destroy Convention Create Demand). 2) The logo is large and circular.

The best decision would be to place the logo in the middle and cut the slogan in half (with emphasis on its focus). If the slogan was three words, this would have been impossible for aesthetic reasons.

The logo would have been placed on either the right or left side. Finally, the business name was centered directly below the logo. If it was placed anywhere else, the name would have been confusing to the viewer.

Right. The photo is placed on the left and seems to be looking in the upward right direction. This is a marketing tactic that says people look where others do, so marketers often place pictures of people looking or pointing towards text to give it emphasis.

But, the text is actually centered with the picture even though it resides on the right side of the picture.

Action steps:

1. Check out a few free font websites and nab a few that appeal to you (with consideration to your branding font).

• dafont
• Fontsquirrel
• Fontspace

2. Use a few pictures and play around with combining texts. Go for mixing extremes and see what type of emotions you can generate.
3. Play around with the placement of those texts. Left, center, right.
4. Take the font combos and add them to a Google Doc or somewhere you can easily access them the next time you create a graphic or image.
5. Have some fun and be creative!

Step 2: Artwork

Choosing pictures for social media or website content is not always an easy choice.

You may love pastel colors and fluffy clouds, but if your brand is edgy – it obviously won’t work.

There is a method to the madness, but it is only suggestion. So take these guidelines, and think about how they can work for your business. Being creative is about experimenting, and therein lies the magic.

1. Pick artwork that stands out against font choice and color.

First, you must decide if the artwork will be 1) the focus of the content piece or 2) be the background. Either way, it is essential to pick an image that could reside online without a message, but still attract attention from online viewers.

Basically, it should be pretty!

But mainly, it should be an image that will not interfere with the font or font color. Simplicity is underrated, and when in doubt, go for a clean background.

What I love most about Kimra Luna‘s website and graphics is the stark contrast between her background images and the font color choices. They’re bold and eye-catching, BUT very simple.

2. Choose artwork that matches your brand.

There’s no reason to use pictures of milk cartons if you have a conservative software company or a picture of a lightbulb for children’s toys.

The chosen artwork should match your brand and/or be simple enough it doesn’t matter. The more it correlates with your brand, the more people are going to mentally connect it with your brand, which is a plus for you.

Sandi Krakowski used to be a body builder and often talks about the importance of being healthy and exercising. It’s just as much a part of her brand as the motivational quotes and verses she shares everyday.

This simple graphic matches any brand and explains exactly what the message of the graphic is for. (Which leads us to the next point..)

3. Use artwork to enhance the message, not work against it.

Using artwork that clashes with the overall message is counterproductive. The artwork and font choice must work together in correlation with the content’s message.

For humorous posts, use fonts with personality, incorporate playful colors and/or blatant pictures that drive the message home.

Likeablemedia did a great job putting together this graphic. It emphasizes the focus perfectly with images, colors (minimal), and font choices (modern, sans-serif).

Melanie Duncan put together a stunning graphic that mixes a bunch of elements without looking cluttered. It contains 3 different fonts, a personal picture and a transparent overlay to make the fonts stand out.

The goal of this graphic succeeds because it’s asking the user a question, and she’s looking directly at you as if she just asked it.

Bundlepost, a content management system (that I can’t LIVE without) always has some fun with what could be a considered a dry product. Software isn’t exactly sexy, but they do an excellent job of incorporating humor into the brand with comical graphics.

This graphic is a great example of using the image to match the message in a blatant (but witty) manner. Everything works here – 3 font choices, 3 font colors and two images pieced together with the logo in the bottom right corner to remind the user where it came from.

Action Steps

1. Decide what the message of your content piece is going to be, i.e. quote, promotion, etc.
2. Think creatively about how you can depict that message in a visual way i.e. with subtle, blatant or abstract imagery.
3. Go fishing online for graphics! Here’s a few awesome places to nab FREE images. *Do NOT neglect the importance of checking the copyright before using an image.

• Gratisography
• Dotspin
• Pinterest
• Pixabay
• Superfamous

Or use content creating apps that offer cheap images you can purchase

• Canva (Here’s why it’s my current FAVORITE content creation tool)
• PicMonkey
• ShareAsImage

4. Combine all the elements together until they match! TIP: For inspiration, hit up Pinterest and Search for a term that describes your idea in some way. I love using Pinterest, Google Images and Facebook to get my creative vibes going.

Step 3: Optimize for social sharing.

1. Add your business logo or website link to the image.

How will the viewer know it belongs to you if you don’t claim it?

Adding attribution ensures that online users know where it comes from, and it spreads your brand when the graphic is shared.

Kim Garst does a fantastic job of tucking her branding signature into motivational quotes, social media tips and graphics by placing them in the corner. Notice it’s not obtrusive, doesn’t look sales-y, but adds to the overall graphic.

2. Size is everything! (well, kinda)

It’s vital to plan ahead and know how big the piece of content needs to be. Different social platforms require different size graphics depending on what they are for. A Facebook Timeline image doesn’t need to be the same size as the cover image, etc.

Facebook

I’ve read that Facebook pictures should be 600 pixels wide, but a minimum of 650 works better for my clients. Especially when it comes to sharing blog posts and articles on Facebook.

Blogs should offer the capability to upload a Featured picture that doesn’t show up in the actual blog, but is perfect for social sharing. If not, place one at the top of your blog post and Facebook should pick it up.

One of my pet peeves is coming across an excellent article featuring a tiny graphic. It’s the perfect example of how NOT to optimize your content for social media.

Get in the habit of using big images, so not matter what, your brand is well represented.

You won’t find this image in the article by Social Media Examiner, but it was optimized it for social sharing and grabs the attention of readers.

And it definitely looks better than the Google image.

Twitter

There isn’t really an optimized size for Twitter pictures, but as a rule I stick to at least 600 pixels.

Pinterest

Again, larger pictures – at least 600 pixels.

This example shows what happens when the image is too small.

I barely saw it in my Pinterest feed and that’s exactly what you don’t want to do! However, they do get some points for using an easy-to-read font. (I’m not totally heartless, haha)

Google+

Let’s just go with big pictures all around! A minimum of 600 pixels.

You can get away with smaller images on G+, as little as 400 pixels, but it’s not worth the possibility that someone may want to share your content (blogs, images or graphics) elsewhere.

So, lesson: BIG IMAGES ARE BEST! (No, not yelling – but it’s crucial!)

3. Choose the right format.

I’m sharing as if you don’t know what a JPG or PNG is.

Suffice it to say, they’re two different kinds of image saving options.

All you need to know is that JPG’s are often best for smaller images, while PNG’s have a knack for compressing large images into lightweight file sizes. And since we have discussed the importance of larger images, I’d advise to stick to PNG’s. It’s my preferred image format for web-ready graphics.

4. Use consistent branding across ALL social platforms.

Consistency in all things is imperative.

Using the same or similar graphic ensures that your audience know when they are interacting with your social channels.

Use a high-resolution image of yourself or your logo for the profile picture, and create background images to match your brand.

The one exception is the Facebook cover photo, which should change at least once a month and feature promotions, information or products/services you offer.

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Facebook

Action Steps

1. Don’t forget to add your business’s logo/website link/signature to EVERY image or graphic that is shared socially, including blogs.
2. Create graphics larger than 600 pixels wide from the get-go! Starting with a larger canvas gives you confidence that your graphic will look good on every social platform.
3. Jussst PNG it. PNG, PNG! It’s wonderful for website photos and will kick your website upload speed up a few notches.
4. Play around with your Facebook cover photos and incorporate holidays, specials, or fresh graphics. Have fun with it!

Weigh in: Did I leave anything out?

A practical breakdown of ROI and social media marketing.

Let me know what you think!

Nate is an incredible guy with a variety of marketing skills that have enabled him to work in places like Chile, Israel, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. And recently, he packaged his knowledge of Pinterest into a online course.

If you are interested in learning what Pinterest can do for your business, Nate’s course isn’t an opportunity to miss.

Enjoy this interview about Pinterest, working abroad as a location-independent entrepreneur and making dreams come true.

Meet Nate

1. Please introduce yourself!

Hello! I’m Nate, a location independent internet marketing consultant and entrepreneur. I help businesses leverage paid traffic to scale and recently finished a course helping businesses use/leverage Pinterest.

2. What is your definition of a location-independent entrepreneur?

Someone who has their own business and is not tied to any physical location.

Phuket, Thailand

3. Why did you decide to become an LI entrepreneur?

A few years ago I was backpacking in SE Asia and I met my first location-independent entrepreneur or ‘digital nomad’. It totally blew my mind that this kind of lifestyle was an option and I immediately knew that was what I wanted to do.

4. What are some of the obstacles you deal with concerning the management of your business while traveling or living in foreign countries?

At first, while I was still new to the whole work/travel thing, I found it difficult to concentrate and stay focused on biz when I was in a new place. However, after a while it became more ‘normalized’ which made it easier to focus and work. Now, the biggest challenges I find are at times shaky internet and dealing with time differences.

Bohol, Philippines.

5. What are some of the benefits of the LI lifestyle?

Oh man, so many! Where to start.. I guess the biggest ones are freedom and the community. The freedom to live/travel/work anywhere you want.. not answer to anyone but yourself, set your own schedule/goals/future is invaluable. It’s gotten to the point that I couldn’t imagine life any other way.

Also, the people that you can share the journey with are beyond incredible. It could be a lonely road traveling by yourself all the time, but thankfully we have the DC (Dynamite Circle) which is a group/network for location independent entrepreneurs. The quality of people is SO high. Everyone is so smart, genuine, encouraging and similar in ways that make us different from a lot of other groups of people. The community is so great for personal reasons, making what I know will be lifelong friends. And also professionally, getting to network with some of the smartest, most successful people in their respective fields.

DC’ers hard at work.

6. You have just released an online Pinterest course, can you tell us about it?

Yah, Boards For Business is a training program to help business owners understand and leverage Pinterest to drive traffic, sales, and exposure for their business on Pinterest.

I got started playing around with Pinterest about a year ago for a project of mine and very quickly started to see success. We’d see traffic spikes of 100+ visitors in an hour! I was hooked and it turned into a deep dive on Pinterest.

The more I experimented, the more I learned the ways Pinterest could be leveraged for business. And, when I spoke to other business owners about Pinterest it seemed no one else had a clue. So, that’s why I created Boards For Business. To help others achieve the same success I was having on Pinterest for their businesses.

DC’s at the monthly Junto.

7. In your opinion, why is Pinterest so vital to a business’ social strategy?

Few reasons, first, it drives traffic like no other social network. Not uncommon to get 100+, 200+, 500+ visits a DAY from Pinterest. I’ve never seen that sort of traffic coming form other social networks. And, since Pinterest is still relatively new, it makes it easier to stand out and get noticed. This allows you to establish yourself/your business more easily as well as provides opportunities to easily connect with people.

Finally, and very importantly, people are on Pinterest looking to BUY. The way the platform is set up it’s often used as a wish list where people pin (bookmark) products they are interested in to come back to and buy later. That buying intent is powerful and leads to massive sales numbers generated from Pinterest.

8. What is unique about your course in comparison to others?

It provides valuable and actionable information for people at all levels of experience with Pinterest. If you are new to the platform, you’ll get walked through the basics.. how it works, how to set up your profile etc. If you are already familiar with Pinterest you can skip to ‘the good stuff’ and watch the modules on ‘how to drive traffic’, ‘how to make sales’, ‘how to build your list’ etc.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

9. How has Pinterest amped up your business?

Pinterest is a huge referral source for my biz. It’s the first place I go to for content marketing and has allowed me to connect with some amazing clients. Since the platform is still relatively new and uncrowded, it’s allowed me to stick out more and has generated unsolicited interest in myself/my business.

10. Your course is being offered for a limited time – can you tell us about the special?

The first 100 signups get it at a discounted price of only $37!

Working in Cebu, Philippines.

11. What advice would you give to business owners who are interested in getting to know Pinterest?

For a quick run down, check out my article ‘5 Minute Pinterest‘. I break down the basics (in 5 minutes) on what to do for Pinterest success!

12. What advice would you give people who are interested in the LI lifestyle?

If you are interested, just do it!! It’s really not as scary as it seems some people think. The first step is to take that plunge. Hope on a plane and join us in Saigon! You’ll figure the rest out

Everyone is jumping on the social media train these days, but many are doing it wrong.

What is wrong? Trying to be everywhere at once.

Social platforms differ in audience demographics, culture, and engagement. And to be efficient, it’s best to chose which ones fit your business type and master them before moving on.

Example, Pinterest is a social platform mainly comprised of women. Even though the male audience is growing, it’s still about 2/3 female. So if you have a construction business, this may not be one of the first social platforms to master. But if you sell men’s retail, it would be perfect because women enjoy shopping for the men in their lives.

I tell my clients that it’s best to choose 2-3 social platforms carrying a heavy majority of their target audience to start with, and then branching out when the time comes. This allows one to adequately grow, foster and maintain a consistent social presence.

It’s better to manage 2-3 social platforms with excellence than trying to establish credibility on every platform.

I do believe every industry type can gain success on every social platform. But it’s wise to narrow the field in the beginning unless you have the resources and money to do it correctly.

There are two truths when it comes to choosing social platforms for your business.

1. Where you spend the most time, is where you will be successful. Regardless of where that is.
2. Not every social network is worth your time. Choose wisely.

But the tough part will be choosing which platforms to start with.

To begin, research where your competitors are the most successful and where your target audience most hangs out? If you’re a lawyer, Pinterest will not be one of your core kickoff platforms. But if you are a photographer and don’t choose Pinterest – you’re missing out.

Example, one of my clients is a non-profit that offers fine art workshops located in the western North Carolina mountains. It’s a nonprofit with a tight budget, so they chose to start with two social platforms. For the industry type, I picked Facebook and Pinterest to be our initial platforms for the first 6-9 months because they both specialize in visual content and boast the largest target audience for the program. The director initially started a Twitter account, and although it’s a suitable platform for the arts, it will not reap the benefits of Facebook and Pinterest.

Let’s dive in a little deeper, and break down the top social platforms in general terms.

Facebook:

The largest social network. Facebook may be the exception to every rule solely because it wins out in warm bodies. Let’s face it, you may dislike Facebook, but every business type can make a happy, comfortable home on it.

It allows for video, photo, link and text updates, so there’s no boundaries on what type of content can be posted.

Artist, Lisa Pressman shares workshop pictures on her page.

Twitter:

I’ve heard some people say Twitter is the online community for marketers and social media peeps. While there are a heavy load of marketers on Twitter, there is also a plethora of differing professionals.

It’s an incredible platform for networking, managing customer service issues, monitoring your brand, and is set to explode in 2015.

And with recent updates, it also shares rich videos, photos, text and article links.

Aaron shares a great mix of media.

Instagram:

Instagram is gaining major momentum these days, and the audience, once mostly young and inquisitive, is now more varied.

Think creatives galore – travel, art, fashion and photography.

But what is so addicting about Instagram is the ability to get personal. The video updates and private messaging features give businesses an even greater chance of sharing the human side of business and gaining credibility for being real.

Pro tip. Instagram accounts are best for those with great aesthetic appeal. If you’re selling spyware software – skip it to start. Instagram thrives on beautiful picture sharing.

But don’t underestimate it’s ability to bond with fans. My projection is that Instagram will be the biggest (in engagement) social platform of 2015.

@Lonestar has no problem sharing the inside view of their retail business.

Snapchat:

Snapchat is the wild card right now for businesses.

Once the social platform for naughty teens, it now offers incredible possibilities for business. It currently has more potential for bigger brands, and still has some growing to do before all industry types can jump on board.

To understand how it can be used, think about a major brand like Target. If Target added a little yellow ghostman sticker to its store fronts, TV commercials, and magazine inserts offering special sale notifications – a bunch of people would start following them. Then the next time they needed to get rid of inventory, they could send out ONE message to all the followers and reap the benefits of big advertising.

It’s akin to the text message advertising that was making the rounds about a year ago, but FREE.

Still, restaurants could share a picture of delicious food on a slow night. Or hairstylists could upload a fancy new color/cut special. It has incredible potential.

Wetseal insider views.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn in not an easy sell because spam sharks take advantage of groups and messages in this community. But it is worth your time if your business relates to the ‘drier’ sorts – marketing, finance, law, healthcare, etc.

It is full of professionals looking for the right hookup, and B2B sales rock out the LI community.

Pro Tip. Get involved with groups, but only join the private groups with high activity levels. Private groups are much better at keeping spam to a minimum.

I LOVE to follow Gary V on LinkedIn!

GooglePlus:

When G+ was first released I was so excited. I stuck with the network for months – talking, generating discussions and ‘hanging out.’ But eventually I chose to move on.

That being said, there is now a thriving community on G+. These folks are sick of Facebook’s egotistical discussions and are interested in business. All types abound on G+, too – no snobs allowed.

However, having a GooglePlus account set up is basically a necessity these days. It boosts your business SEO, allows users to change the background setup on YouTube, and let’s face it – your biz photos/info can pop up in the most random places on Google.

It’s best to be proactive and set up a nice account.

Pinterest:

Pinterest is the ridiculously addictive platform stealing the time, energy and sociability of women. No, I’m joking. However, it is very popular and only gaining traction in the social community.

Users share fashion, how-to’s, infographics, art, design, recipes, photos, travel – basically anything you can think of. It 100% relies on visual content and businesses can get very creative when it comes to explaining their brand.

It’s best for visually exciting businesses to take root in first. The “drier” industries will have to work harder to generate interest. I’ve seen marketing firms have a tough time gathering followers while design galleries effortlessly rack up a devoted audience.

Etsy ROCKS the Pinterest game.

Bottom line,

None of these social networks are easy to break into anymore.

But time and consistency are your best allies when it comes to being successful in social media. Research, choose your social networks, develop a plan and stick to it.

And when in doubt, ask those who have a better grasp on the networks than you do. Don’t be afraid to reach out and get information – it’s what social networking is all about.

Which social platforms did your business start out with?

I met the founder and creator, Robert Caruso, on Twitter about three years ago. He was immediately helpful and insightful about social media. And even though BundlePost was already available in Beta, he never pushed it. In fact, I was the one to initiate that conversation.

Robert Caruso

The idea for BundlePost originated out of a pain Robert saw within his marketing agency.

They spent an excessive amount of time gathering quality content, and he knew that time should be spent engaging – one of the most important factors in growing an online community.

Robert partnered up with his best friend and father, hired a developer, and a rough sketch of BundlePost was born. BP became fully operational about a year ago, but there are regular feature additions.

It has been incredible to watch BundlePost develop, and I am fortunate to be a user. BP saves my business a considerable amount of time on a daily basis.

In this tutorial, you learn how to set up a BundlePost account, and then I share my process for uploading Twitter content into Hootsuite.

Set up a BundlePost account.

1. Schedule. This is the first step to take when starting a new BundlePost account. Click on Add Schedule, name it, and save. It will appear on the list. Click on the blue icon next to the red X, and add in your specified times for that schedule. Choose a beginning and ending time, and at which intervals they will publish. Single or multiple times can be added or deleted.

Times can be added or deleted easily.

Action steps: Create clear schedule names. Whether it’s for your personal brand or clients, make them easy to recognize.

2. Create content Feeds. Click on Feeds and add a Feed Channel (RSS feed) or Create a Bundle Feed, which is BP’s feed generator. A RSS feed may take up to 24 hours to generate content, but the Bundle Feed can immediately be tested and saved. Testing a feed is wise because it ensures quality content will be generated.

Adding an RSS feed.

Bundle Feed and test.

Action steps: Watch the BundlePost video tutorials first. Then be sure to choose clear and concise keyboards for your feeds, i.e. social media.

3. Add in My Content. These content pieces are all about you or your clients. This is content directly related to your brand or a client’s brand. It can be blog posts, pictures, videos, RSS feeds – anything with a link.

Adding in personal content.

Action steps: Don’t forget to create requests for people to join you on social platforms (i.e. Are we connected on LinkedIn? Let’s make it happen!).

4. Create Hashtag folders. These folders can be built for multiple clients or divided by subject i.e. sports, art, or music.

Create a Hashtag folder, name it and save. Just like the Feed creation, click on the blue icon and click Add Hashtag. Choose which client or subject they will be directed towards, essentially naming it. Then add a phase with the phase hashtagged below it.

Hashtag folder.

Action steps: Add both lower case and upper case words that might be represented both ways, ex. sports –> Sports. And keep the keywords simple i.e. Instagram –> #Instagram.

5. Add Follow Friday content. Click on Add A Follow Friday Folder, enter the client name or Feed it will be used with. And add in content. There’s no need to add a hashtag to every entry IF you have #FF added to the hashtag folder.

Action steps: Mix it up and continually add new #FF content to promote your favorites of the week.

Follow Friday folder.

6. BundlePost Chrome extension: Bundlet. In the words from BundlePost, it offers “real-time content discovery through your Chrome browser.” The content marked is uploaded directly to a Queues folder and can be added in with content. It’s awesome – check it out.

My Twitter/Hootsuite Scheduling Process

1. Sign in. Head over to Bundlepost.com.

2. Export. Chose the date and Schedule to be published.

Home page inside BP

Calendar

3. Choose a Feed topic and add content. Content subjects are divided by colors on the export table.

Tips: Articles can be opened by clicking on the magnifying glass. Headlines can be edited by double clicking on the text.

Feed content

Click on articles to add to the Export Table.

Export table layout. Colors divide the Feed subjects.

4. Add content from My Content folders.

Choose articles from the chosen content folder.

5. Auto Sort. Shuffle up the color content boxes.

Auto Sort RULES.

6. Hashtag it!! This used to take me SO long!

Tip: Last minute hashtags can be added at anytime during this process.

Hashtag folder layout.

Hashtagged content ready to go.

7. Export. Export via one of the 7 content management tools partnered with BP. I use Hootsuite. It downloads as a .CSV file.

Bonus: The file downloads as the Schedule name, so it’s easy to locate on your computer.

Export downloaded.

8. Upload export. Upload it to the chosen content management system. Use the correct date format.

Hootsuite Bulk Upload.

Chose the right date layout.

9. And that’s it! Easy right? Once your content is chosen, it takes about 5 minutes to upload it.

Currently, BundlePost offers the ability to Bulk Upload to Hootsuite, Hubspot, Spredfast, Sendible, Plug.io, Buffer and Social Oomph, but will be adding social media management tools. And there are multiple ways to learn how to use BP with LIVE webinars, chat features, video tutorials, and blogs.

Disclaimer: I am not an affiliate of BundlePost, nor do I benefit from this writeup.

To stay up to date with BundlePost’s updates, sign up for their newsletter!

What could you do with the extra time saved by using BundlePost?

Almost immediately, Canva stood out. It’s an easy-to-use tool that anyone can utilize to create professional and beautiful graphics for their business. It offers a wide array of templates for Facebook covers, flyers, posters, invitations, blog graphics, presentations and more.

What makes me a design tool expert: Before launching my business in 2012, I created interactive designs for clients like Eva Longoria, National Geographic, Angry Birds and Wolfgang Puck. Since then, I have been on the lookout for something easier, faster and cheaper than Adobe products (Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign) to develop high-quality graphics for my clients.

Disclaimer: Canva is currently in Beta and can be glitchy. But the customer service is friendly and responds quickly if you hit a snag.

Check out this quickie video that shows you a Canva process in 15 SECONDS!

How To: Canva

To demonstrate Canva, I create a graphic to showcase my newest weekly blog featuring an array of high-res quotes and tips for readers to download. It’s perfect Pinterest content, but needed a professional cover for easy marketing purposes.

Step one

: Decide on a project template. I chose the Pinterest template.

Action steps: Try out the Facebook cover first, it’s an easy landscape to start with for practicing. Once you feel comfortable, move on to a poster or presentation. This is an excellent tool for free opt-ins!

Step Two

: Choose a layout. Pick a layout to reflect the material it will represent.

I nabbed a simple graphic to display the amount of images included in my blog.

Action steps: But yourself in the place of your business’s target audience and ask, “What would attract you to read or view that material?” Search on Pinterest for similar pieces of content and see what others have created. Pinterest is an incredible place to build up creative inspiration.

Step Three

: Format the content. Canva offers hundreds of fonts. The color, size, and positioning can be altered to fit your preference.

I kept the calligraphy text, but changed the bottom half in alignment with my brand.

Tip: Formatting the text can be frustrating as Canva creators are still building the program. Stick to the original layout to start with, and then practice creating your own text borders on round two.

Action steps: For an eye-catching look, blend a calligraphy or handwritten text with a sans-serif. A sans-serif does not have any small projecting features called “serifs” at the end of strokes. For example, Arial.

Step Four

: Change your background. The Canva database has a large array of patterns and photos to choose from. The patterns are mostly Free, while pictures cost $1.00. But you can upload photos, create color palettes, and mix patterns and colors together. In addition, Canva features a beautiful photo editing panel to tighten up unedited photos.

I chose a simple pattern and added a color on top of it. Specialty colors are added to the palette by using the color picker or typing in your brand’s six-digit hex color code.

Action steps: Play with Canva’s options before deciding on one. Upload a picture, use a pattern, add your brand colors to the color palette, and decide what looks best. Do not allow the font to compete with the background. What is most important is that online readers know exactly what the content is without much effort.

Step Five

: Brand it. Make it easy for online users to find your business. Canva’s photo sizing tools adjust logos and allow for easy positioning.

I added my logo, website link and branding pic to the design.

Action steps: Upload a .PNG file. They are more clear than .JPG’s and allow for a transparent background.

Step Six

: Download. Look over your design once more and download. It can be downloaded as an online graphic or a PDF that can be printed out. Canva automatically saves your work, so you can return and edit it at any time.

Additionally, a team member can edit the image if you click the box option.

Action steps: Download your design as an online graphic and also a PDF to compare the differences. Online graphics are much smaller, while printable designs are quite large.

Tutorial Reference

For more Canva tutorials, watch the YouTube videos Canva made to hook you up!

What can YOU use Canva for?