WordPress has made a recent upgrade, and although I think it all looks awesome, I will probably wait a few weeks to hit that upgrade button.   I’m never one to jump in right away, as I would rather they fix any issues that might arise first!  But If you must have the newest version right away and you just can’t wait, please remember to back up your site first!

This isn’t where you tell me you don’t back up your site, because that would make me really sad, and you don’t want to do that so close to the holidays, right?

But if you are going to tell me this, I am only going to give you the best solution to back-up your site regularly, it is Back-Up Buddy.  It’s about $75 for 2 sites, which you might balk at.  BUT ask yourself how much time it would take you to rebuild your site if it were to disappear and you will quickly realize it’s super cheap!!

My fellow Mari Smith VIP and all around awesome chap, Kevin K Lau, recently tapped me to take part in his social media interview series, so I thought I would share it with you here!

If your inbox felt a little light today, or perhaps you had an empty feeling that you couldn’t quite put your finger on, it’s probably because you didn’t receive my newsletter!  I made the crazy decision to upgrade my email marketing system, and it required everyone to opt-in AGAIN.

{sigh}

Needless to say, I have lost a few subscribers in the process, but if you are one of them and you would like to reconnect, all you have to do is enter your info into that box up there on the right and you will good to go!

See you next Tuesday!

13.  Our Best Customer – this is a perfect way to attract your “ideal customer”, literally tell the world who you would love to work with!

12.  Your next 30 days – give your clients a snapshot of what you have coming up and just how busy you are!

11.  Fun facts about your company – Halloween is coming up, will your company celebrate?  Will there be awesome photos to share??

10.  Book reviews – Keep in mind you want to keep the information relevant, so if you are a photographer, chances are your followers don’t want to read about your deep and secretive love for toy trains.

9.  Should something go wrong – This is especially good for you service providers who know WAY more than your clients about things that could go wrong.  Share your expertise and help them make better decisions!

8.  Frequently asked questions – Ideally you want to have a place on your website for this collection of questions, but if one keeps coming up over and over  blog about it.. {hint, like this post!}

7.  Industry news – Things are always moving and shaking in most industries, highlight something you think your readers will want to share!

6.  Community involvement – If your company are you are giving back, tell your readers!  You never know, you may just connect with a client who supports the same causes as you!

5.  Client spotlight – Do you have a tremendous client who you want to give a shout out to?  Do it!

4.  Ask your community – Throw out a question on Twitter and/or Facebook and share the insights via a blog post?

3.  Invite Guest Authors – Do you know someone who is an expert in something that relates to your field?  Maybe they have an awesome following?  Ask them to guest blog for you!

2.  Top 10 list –  Tell your readers the top 10 industry-related blogs you are reading and why you like them!

1.  Ways a client might use your product or service – There are times potential clients may visit your website and think you only do one thing, but this blog post gives you the chance to expand on your services in an on-going way!

Blogging benefits your business is so many ways, so don’t let something like a little writers block keep you from creating informative and share-able content that your readers and potential clients will love!

1. It’s all about you, ALL of the time!

The whole idea of social media is to start a conversation, but when every post and every tweet is all about you, your product or your service, then you are totally missing the point! Offer up some useful and industry specific information, retweet other people’s awesomeness, ask your audience some questions that will encourage them to engage with you. Honestly for every post about you or your company, there should be 10 – 20 more that aren’t. What’s your current ratio?

2. Check your Grammar

Please learn the difference between there, their & they’re, hear & here, its & it’s and so on. It can take your well crafted update and turn it into a punchline! Or even worse, perhaps you are responding to a potential client and you hit that grammar speed bump – OUCH! If you need help, here is a great free tool for you to use: Grammarly

3. Failure to respond to every bit of feedback on your Facebook Page

This one is naughty on 11!!! If someone is kind enough to stop by your page and leave you a comment or ask you a question, your job as the Page & company owner is to respond in a TIMELY manner. If someone finds your company on Facebook and they leave you a general question on the wall and it takes you DAYS to respond, you have totally lost them. This is why I encourage you all to show up and be active on your Facebook Pages and prove to your clients, and future clients, that you offer awesome customer service! Every time a client touches your brand they should be left with an excellent experience, so don’t drop the ball here folks!

I hope these few tips help you to do a little better!

Whether your peeps are seeing your posts or not all comes down to Facebook’s secret sauce, EdgeRank.  What the heck is that you ask?  Facebook defines it as a mathematical equation:  Affinity x Weight x Time Decay = EdgeRank.  I don’t know about you, but I slept through math class, so knowing that equation is lovely and all, but it feels like absolutely no help to me.

They will also tell you your best EdgeRank day of the week, as well as your worst – which is a great way to tailor your weekly posting strategy.  They will tell you which days you get the most new fans, which is a great way to see if your posting strategies are actually working.

EdgeRank Checker is actually in the business of helping fine business owners like yourself optimize their news feeds and to get your EdgeRank super high, which I imagine would be of great interest to some of you to read more about.  I personally have not tried the service beyond the free check, but I imagine more services like this will continue to pop up around the web!

For those of you who aren’t in on all the Google + excitement, here is a slick little video that will tell you a bit more about what it’s all about. I will be talking about it more myself in the coming day, so watch for it!

The free option is available through HyperAlerts, and as far as I know, there is no limit to how many Facebook Pages you can track either… nice!  I personally use this service to monitor the really active Facebook Pages I know I won’t have time to read throughout the day, so HyperAlerts mails it to me in a digest form every morning.

If you haven’t read “Content Rules” {amazon affiliate link} yet, then we need to talk!  Better yet, if you are in Irvine, CA this Tuesday morning at 9am, we can talk in person, you can get a FREE copy of the book and  listen intently while the co-author teaches you how to:

1.  Leverage Content Management intelligentlybuild a successful content marketing program for your busines

2.  Develop content that resonates with customers and drives business to you (versus you chasing after it)

3.  Leverage your existing content assets

4.  Integrate SEO best-practices into your web content

5.  Develop your online “voice”

6.  Tell stories that engage

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, the event is FREE, and just over an hour long.

Use the link below to register today my friends, space is limited, and don’t forget to say hello when you see me!
Here is the Registration link

The fabulous folks over at Social Media Examiner have put together a fantastic FREE REPORT for all us mere mortals to enjoy.  It’s 41 pages of insights, and well worth reading at least twice!  Click anywhere you see a link to get it your hands on it, and as a favor to Social Media Examiner, fellow business owners, and me, share it with a friend or 5!

Go forth and be more awesome!