Tag Archives: Social Media

Organizing the Organizer on Social Media

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Today’s post is a guest blog from Matt Baier of Matt Baier Organizing.

My memory is poor. I mean bad. Oh, I remember stupid crap like cigarette ads on TV from the ‘60’s, but important stuff? I studied four languages and can’t remember ANY of them. So since I can’t rely on my memory, I rely on systems, so much so that I made setting up systems, my life calling, as a professional organizer. I find myself needing systems for everything and social media is no exception.

 

This guest post is really a testimonial for Brian Bish, my social media architect. I knew I couldn’t get social media to work for me unless I got an expert to set up a system for me.

Brian started by getting me clear on what type of audiences I am seeking. For me, that’s mostly busy moms and realtors. He recommended that I go a little heavier on businesses and business groups on Linked in, non-business on Facebook, and everything on Twitter. That’s a loose guideline, not a rigid formula.

Of course, rigid formulas are so much easier. They don’t require thought. That’s good for me. I figured I’d start with a formula and throw in loose interactions, when I have time for them.

The answer to that formula can be summarized in two words: Hoot Suite. Brian impressed upon me the possibility of devoting just one small block of time to devote to social media every week. That really appealed to me, as I don’t have the time to be on social media ALL the time. An hour over a beer at Coalhouse Pizza every Sunday afternoon, allows me to cover my audiences with a carpet bombing of social media all week, thanks to HootSuite.

With HootSuite, I can schedule posts on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter from one source. Brian recommended a quote every day. Smart guy. Quotes always get a lot of responses. I choose to do quotes at 9:30am to ALL social media.

Next up, something for the busy moms. At 10:05, I schedule a post find related to parenting, time management, life hacks, recycling, etc. on Facebook and Twitter. At 10:30 I send out a general organizing blog, again on Facebook and Twittter. That’s where I will schedule my own bi-weekly blog. By the way, I always include Twitter in my posts. Brian says you can never Tweet too much.

At 10:55 I always have something for the realtors on Linked In and Twitter. It will be a post related to home staging, real estate, architecture, unusual homes, or interior design. I will then do a retweet at 3:00 and 4:00pm.

If I read a post at anytime during the week that inspires me, I will comment and interact with the poster. Brian tells me this is the most important part of Social Media. Yeah, I’m terrible at it. I suppose it’s because I don’t find anyone as interesting as me. Also, I’m lazy.

Another great piece of advice from Brian that I ignore, is to comment on trending topics, which is a challenge for the terminally unhip, like me. I suppose realizing the problem is the first step.

Oh, and hash tags, that’s so easy. Why can’t I remember to include hash tags on Twitter (and now on Facebook)? Oh yeah, it’s because I have a bad memory.

Don’t get me wrong. I really don’t enjoy beating myself up. I guess the points I’m making are:

1. Don’t be afraid to just dive in to social media,
2. Find a way to make it work for you
3. be patient and unafraid to make adjustments

Despite my social media shortcomings, I have had a couple clients tell me that the reason they hired me was because they saw me all over social media. Not too shabby. Now what did that cost me? (Come on memory!) Oh yeah, NOTHING. Well, maybe a beer at Coalhouse, but somehow I can live with that.

I should add one final point, which is: get help. There’s a lot to know with this social media stuff and odds are very good that you’ve got better things to spend your time, energy, and frustration on, so trust your social media needs to an expert that will save you of all three.

Trust Brian Bish. I do.

 

Matt Baier is the owner of Matt Baier Organizing, who’s team of organizers, who can be relied upon to get you expertly organized, quickly but safely, throughout Fairfield and Westchester counties. Check out Matt Baier Organizing and see how they work.

 


MONDAY MUSINGS: Stop it, Miley!

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I’ll admit it.

I didn’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards. Nope. No VMAs for me.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE music. And I love a good awards show. But in my opinion, it’s been a long time since MTV has delivered a “good awards show”.  So yeah… I’m pretty much at a point in my life where the VMAs just don”t warrant a timeslot in my schedule.

Of course I was curious to see Lady Gaga’s performance. And yes, I was maybe even a little curious to see the *NSYNC reunion. (Don’t judge me.) But not curious enough to tune in to what has become one of the biggest televised train wrecks in current history.

And THANK YOU, Miley Cyrus for reinforcing my decision not to watch.

Social Media exploded this morning with comments of shock and disgust at her performance. So against my better judgement, I watched the video of her performance and learned the following:

  • Duck Face is a horrible phenomenon, but Miley Tongue Face? So much worse.
  • Every young performer will go through a  period of rebellion where they try to declare their sexual independence. However, Madonna and (frighteningly) even Britney Spears did it much better.
  • Miley Cyrus’ stylist was either on vacation or should be fired immediately.
  • Her PR Agent obviously has forgotten about Social Media.

Yes, I know that “There is no such thing as bad publicity”, but wow… That was SO much bad publicity that it sort of burned my eyeballs a little to watch it.

Remember, we live in a world now where everyone is a news reporter. Just look at the sea of cell phones in the crowd.

The most important lesson from this is…

Remember to always be responsible for your actions. If you’re going to go a little crazy in the public eye, be ready for the backlash.

Your fans (if you have any left Miley) will be waiting for your statement. Let’s see how this plays out.

Oh wait… it’s Miley Cyrus we’re talking about. I just remember I have other things to do.

Like ANYTHING else.

Are You Choosing To Be Negative?

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(Artwork by Randy Bish)

You may have noticed that I often start my day online with a positive, motivational quote.

So what does that have to do with social media? Why post quotes if they’re not directly about social media?

Well, the first (and far less important) answer to that question is a business who ONLY posts about their business shows no personality, and that frankly becomes boring!

But the REAL answer is this:

I want to do whatever I can to bring some positivity to this world each and every day!

That’s it. That’s the answer.

The horrible tragedy this week at the Boston marathon was a sobering reminder of the evil that exists in the world. And the violence continued throughout the night last night and early this morning with more explosions, gunfire, and the fatal shooting of an MIT police officer.

Throughout this week, both the news media and social media have been flooded with bloody images and heartbreaking stories. And though the news this week has been especially brutal, there is always negativity out there. It may be in the form of another news story, online bullying, or even something as simple as a friend with chronically negative status updates and tweets.

With so much out there, it’s easy to fall into this trap. But remember – for every one shooter, there are hundreds of heroes. For every bully, there are multitudes of friends. And though we will all have our bad days, there will always be people surrounding us to make it better.

So each morning, I make the choice to do my small part by posting one positive and motivational quote on my social media profiles. It may be the tiniest gesture, but I truly believe we all have a responsibility to make this world a better place, and this is one simple way I can do just that.

So… let’s make a change! What actions can YOU take today to spread positivity?

SOUND OFF in the comments below!

 

Social Media Gets Offensive!

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Let’s be honest. We all have friends on Facebook that might get a little bit… well, out of control in one way or another, right?

Seriously. You”re thinking of at least one or two of your Facebook friends right now.

In my last blog, I shared my list of 5 Things NOT to do on Facebook. So it’s no surprise how much I LOVE these Social Media Citations that I purchased from my friends at Mirth In A Box. (If you love these like I do, get your own here!)

 

So… Which of these offenses are you guilty of?

Which one is your biggest pet peeve with your friends?

SOUND OFF IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

 

 

Will Social Media Make Me Watch The Super Bowl?

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It’s almost SUPER BOWL time!!!

Yes. If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty much… well… “Sports Illiterate”. Seriously, I’m pretty much the guy that might yell out “Homerun!” at a party on Sunday and get pelted by flying Buffalo wings from angry fans. But mix in social media, and I’m there!

With that in mind, I’m pleased to share that this year’s Super Bowl has enough social media fun to keep me interested.

Whether you’re a real sports fan, the spouse who is dragged along to the parties, or a techie kind of guy like me, you won’t want to miss out on some of this!

Of course you can do the traditional things like following your favorite team and players on Facebook and Twitter, but here are some other fun highlights:

Coke Chase Coke is always in the action for Super Bowl commercials, and this year is no different with CokeChase.com. When you visit the Coke Chase website, you can view the first part of a commercial where Showgirls, Badlanders, and Cowboys rush through the desert towards a large bottle of coke.

And the interactive element? You get to choose which team you want to win the race AND you get to choose to “sabotage” one of the other teams. Go vote now! Tomorrow the winning ending will be revealed during the Super Bowl.

 

LikeBowl Which team do you want to win? Go to LikeBowl.com and “Like” and “Share” your favorite team to help them score in this poll!

 

VineBowl Twitter’s new service Vine gets in the action this year with VineBowl. Fans are encouraged to create 6-second looping videos to answer the question – Whose fans are louder?

 

Shazam Remember Shazam? It’s the smartphone app that you “listens” to music and tells you the name of the song and artist. They may not be talked about very often lately, but this year they are in the game (so to speak) by making Super Bowl commercials more interactive. Use Shazam during the game to unlock special offers and more content.

 

Mobile Viewing For the first time ever, this year’s Super Bowl will be streamed for mobile devices at www.cbssports.com. Of course everyone prefers to watch on the big screen, but when you access the game on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, you can pick your own camera view! No… really. How’s that for technology hard at work?

 

So let’s bring on the game and score a social media homeru… um… TOUCHDOWN!

After all, did you know that 60% of people watching the Super Bowl will be on their mobile devices during the game?

What about you? Which of the items above interest you the most? Any others you want to share?

SOUND OFF IN THE COMMENTS!

The Bleach Has Gone To My Head!

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While running some errands this week, I stopped to pick up a few boxes of hair color. Actually this is a pretty normal thing for me, as I haven’t seen my own natural hair color since I was 17 years old.  Yes, my online headshot is only about one year old, but my hair color is prone to change far more often.

For those who haven’t met me in person, I like change….a lot! In fact, over the years I’ve pretty much done all of the colors – from the standard brown, black , blonde, and red, to the more shocking blue, green, purple, etc. With that said, it’s a pretty regular occurrence for me to purchase three or four boxes of dye at a time.

As I piled the boxes on the checkout counter, the cashier asked me: “Are you a barber? I mean, do you do people’s hair?”

“Well” I answered, “I do mine.”

“Seriously?” the cashier asked. “I always wanted to try blonde hair, but I’m scared.”

“So what’s stopping you?” I blurted out. “No. Really. Why not do it today? Try the blonde, and if it doesn’t work out, dye it back to your natural color.”

Yeah. He wasn’t expecting that. As he tried to form a response, I could see that he was both surprised and intrigued. After a moment he replied, “You know… I might just go for it!”

Many of us have these little things that we’d like to try in our lives, but there’s that little voice of fear whispering, “Don’t do it!”.

Why is that? Why do we give in so easily?

This is as true in daily life as it is in my business. Sometimes when working with clients, they have wonderful ideas of different things they’d like to share on Facebook and Twitter, but they are afraid to try them out. I say WHY NOT TRY IT?

After all, we have all seen a business online that only talks about their products and promotions, and not much else. While this isn’t always a bad thing for every business, it can potentially become, well… boring. In most cases there are many companies out there representing your field. So why should a customer choose you?

This is why it’s critical for you to let your personality shine through in your social media presence! People connect with real people, not just logos and promotions.

Whether you express yourself with bleached hair, a passion for caffeine, or anything else, be sure that you take the time to be yourself! And don’t be afraid!

In the words of Oscar Wilde:

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”