How long has it been since you went through your blog and social media platforms and gave them a little spruce up? Or a health check-up? Quite often I get so caught up in the ‘doing’ that I forget to check-in and make sure everything is up-to-date and working properly. Below is a checklist of health-checks you might just need to perform on your various platforms. Go on, the Doctor is in the house!

Facebook

▢ How long has it been since you updated your profile photo or cover photo? For tips on how to make a great cover photo for your page, have a read of this post I wrote last year.
▢ How is your Facebook page working for you? Go to your last post and down the bottom you’ll see ‘X people saw this post’, click on that. It’ll show you the post that connected most with your audience {or more correctly that the most people saw}. Have a think about how you can bring a bit more of that good stuff to your followers.
▢ Are you sharing a mix of links, photos, status updates etc on your page each week? Have a think about how you can mix it up a bit and engage your audience.
▢ A few bloggers have now taken on a new method of sharing links to their blog posts, by writing a status update and sharing the link in the comments. While I’m sure it works for some, remember two important things: user experience and share-ability. Is it offering your readers a good experience to have to click through the comments to get to the link? With Facebook one of our main goals is to make something so good that people want to share it {make it viral baby!}, and if you’ve got a link in the comments it gets totally lost and the post isn’t shareable at all {well it’s shareable, of course, but they’ll be sharing your status update not your link}.

Twitter

▢ Does your profile photo look like you, or is it a photo of you in 1998 when you were at your most fabulous? Make sure you have an updated photo of the current you.
▢ Have you checked out your profile page on Twitter? It will be one of the first places people go to check you out, so make sure it gives a great insight into you, or is at least witty enough that they’ll want to follow you ASAP.
▢ How is your header looking? Add a little jazz to your Twitter profile by uploading a photo or collage that shares a bit more about you. If you need a little help, you can use TwitCover to create one.
▢ Ask yourself – “Why am I actually on Twitter?” If it’s to connect, make sure that you’re taking a little time each week to be active and connect with others online. If it’s to share your website/blog, then why not check your blog stats to see that people are actually clicking from Twitter to read what you’ve written.

Pinterest

▢ Again, how is your profile photo? Is it up-to-date?
▢ Make sure that your website URL is highly visible so if people like your pins they can find more of you elsewhere.
▢ How often are you pinning stuff? Have a think about how you want Pinterest to work for you, and then set aside an amount of time each week/month to grow it. Perhaps it’s just a place for you to play, and that’s a-ok too!
▢ Is the content on your blog pinnable? You can check who has pinned your content by using the URL: http://pinterest.com/source/YOUR-WEB-ADDRESS {so mine is http://pinterest.com/source/fatmumslim.com.au/}. What are people pinning? Think about how you can make more shareable content on your site.
▢ Another great thing to do is to find people that inspire you online and follow them. Being inspired is a wonderful thing!

Instagram

▢ Instagram won’t bring a huge amount of traffic to your site, but that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about having fun {mostly!} and growing your profile online. There are loads of ways to get involved {challenges are just one way}. You can share even the most boring on Instagram, but just as long as you’re sharing.
▢ Clean up your following feed, and find inspiring people to follow. Comment on their photos, be active in the Instagram community. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make friends and connections.
▢ Are your profile details up-to-date? And how long has it been since you updated your profile picture? Freshen it up if it’s been a while.

Your blog

▢ Go through your blog with fresh eyes. Pretend you’re visiting it for the first time. Check your about page, contact page and other links. Make sure there’s a photo of you somewhere. Does it need a freshen up? Click all your social media links and make sure they still work. Go through and write a list of anything that needs updating or changing and put it on your to-do list for the next few weeks. If you want a new header but aren’t so crafty, look on Etsy for a new design or affordable designer.
▢ Make sure you’re being legal. If you’re running competitions on your blog, make sure you’re doing it right. In Australia all giveaways need to have an element of skill to them, otherwise you need to purchase a gaming licence {around $80 from here}. If you’re running a Rafflecopter competition simply asking people to ‘like’ your Facebook page to enter, and you haven’t purchased a licence, you’re risking hefty fines. Play safe!
▢ I know stats are so boring, and I try not to look at mine very often – but it’s good to check out what patterns are forming and get an insight to how people read your blog. Delve into what the page impressions and unique browsers have been for each month so far this year. Is your traffic going up, or down? Which posts have had the most impressions? Why do you think they did?
▢ Where is your traffic coming from? Have a think about how you can make that work for you more.
▢ Look at comments. Which posts got the most people talking on your blog?
▢ Look at shares {Facebook, Twitter, Pins etc}. Which posts got the most shares on your blog?

Do your blog and social media platforms need a little health check-up? Which one do you give the most attention to?

In June last year I spent a week with Darren Rowse {ProBlogger for those not familiar}. No, it wasn’t some romantic trip away, although we did spend some time on an island… rather a trip with Tourism Queensland where 10 lucky bloggers got to learn lots of great blogging information, as well as discover Tropical Queensland.

It wasn’t all work, but two days were spent in particular talking about blogging, and one part has stuck in my mind since then, so I thought I’d share it.

We were all sitting around our tables talking about each others blogs, and Darren was taking us through a presentation on his best tips for blogging when up popped a picture of some dude with a camera. Darren started explaining to us that the dude with the camera was one of the people he writes for.

A few people responded with confused faces. “Do you know him?” one person asked.

He didn’t. Darren has three profiles in mind when blogging or creating content on his blogs. He’s picked pictures from Google to represent the people, added a portfolio on information including age, sex, likes, dislikes and needs. He writes for them. You can read more about why Darren does this here.

It’s something I’ve done for a while now, but I just haven’t gone as far as creating a visual image or profile of the people. When creating the photo a day lists I think of three people: A student, a mum at home in the country and a guy working in an office. When creating the prompts I ask myself whether these people would be able to take a photo of each of these things. I’ve distinguished the the guy in the office as being a male, because I do need to make sure that my prompts don’t get too feminine.

I’ve had people ask if I can make the photo a day lists all about bands like One Direction or Jon Bon Jovi. It just wouldn’t work.

Bloggers, do you have someone in mind when you’re writing your blog posts, or creating content for social media? Who are you writing for? Who is your audience?

photo credit: Tc Morgan via photopin cc

One of the most common questions I get when I tell people I’m a blogger is, “But… how do you get all of those people to read your blog?”

I’m not holding a room full of people ransom with laptops in theirs laps insisting they read Fat Mum Slim, I promise. Creating and writing a blog is the easier part of blogging, I guess, and getting people to read it a bit harder. So today I’m sharing my best tips for getting people to read your blog. Because when you’ve gone to all the effort to put it together, wouldn’t it be nice to have people to appreciate it? Of course.

Write stuff worth reading

I think you have to step outside of yourself and think about what would make you read a blog. You have to make your blog read-worthy. If your blog is a space for you to moan about the world, I’m probably not going to read it. But if you’re going to moan about the world with passion and creativity, or even humour – well then you’ve got something worth reading!

Be a commenter

I’m a bit of an accidental blogger. I started a private blog, enjoyed it and opened it up for everyone to read. I love the blogging community and would comment regularly on my favourite blogs. I’m still friends with those people today. So find a few favourite blogs and comment on them. They’re sure to come back to your blog and read it too, and even the other people leaving comments might pop over and become readers as well. I used to love commenting at Mamamia {not realising that people were seeing me comment and coming over to read my blog}. It was a bit of an accident, but a happy one.

Be social on Social Media

Think of social media this way. Imagine you’re a shoe designer and you’re just starting out and you’ve got a great little range you want to share. You could stand on a corner and hope the people come to you and buy them, or you could turn up at the party where the people already are {wearing fab shoes, mind you} and be seen there. Facebook is just like this. Facebook is the party where all the people are already at {as are Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc} so you need to go to that party. Start up a page, or account with other platforms and start growing your presence.

Create shareable content

This rule combines the first rule {write stuff worth reading} and the social media rule. If you’re creating really great stuff, people will want to share it. Say you wrote a really passionate piece about a topic. The topic resonated with Judy so much that she had to share it, so she did on Twitter to her 403 friends. A handful of those friends read it, and perhaps felt compelled enough to share it too. And that, my friends, is a very happy moment. I wouldn’t expect every single piece on your blog to be that shareable piece, but try and create a few golden nuggets every now and then.

Are you a blogger? Share a link below and hopefully the people will come.

photo credit: victoriapeckham via photopin cc

When I was younger my Aunty met this guy and he was different to our family. He was like a breath of fresh, fun air. He said funny things, was full of energy and made us laugh. One thing he used to say was, “immediately, if not sooner”. As in, “I want an ice cream immediately, if not sooner.” I thought this was the funniest thing. Sooner than immediately? Impossible. Anyways, they ended up married, those love birds, and more craziness was injected into our family. Immediately, if not sooner.

Moving on. Today I wanted to chat about Facebook. Facebook is my thing. I love it. I don’t mean the personal page side of thing. I mean the business page side. Some platforms can overwhelm me, but Facebook I love exploring. Having been a Social Media Editor for a few years, it is my favourite platform {yes, I play favourites}. So, here you’ll find five things you should do to your Facebook page today. They’re quick and easy, so do them.

1. Add your URL to the ‘about’ section of your Facebook page
This happens to me a lot. I’ll stumble across a Facebook page. Perhaps it’s someone selling really cool furniture. I love what they do, they’re doing great stuff so I want to click over and see prices and perhaps buy something. So I scroll down their Facebook page trying to find a link; nothing. They lost me. It doesn’t matter if you have a blog or a business, if you have a website make it easy for someone to click over and get to it.

You can see that just under my profile image I have the link {in the image above}. It’s front and centre, and obvious. To add your URL do this: Go to your page > Click Edit Page > Select Update Info from the drop down menu > In the small ‘about’ field add your URL and a few words about what you do > Click Save Changes.

Don’t forget to go back to your page and make sure it looks right. If you’ve written too much and it’s not all visible, edit it and shorten it. Easy.

2. Make your profile image about your business
You want your profile image to be recognisable, so that when people see it around Facebook they’re like, “Oh, that’s {insert business name here}.” A photo of you is personable and nice, but it won’t set you apart when you’re leaving comments among your ‘likers’ on your page. A logo will. The size of that image is 180px by 180px.

3. Create a cover image that gives visitors a feel for your business/blog
The cover image on your Facebook page is the opportunity to give visitors a real feel for what you’re about. If you sell furniture, make a great collage of pieces in your current range. If you’re a blogger, give visitors a sense of understanding by creating an image that shows what your blog is about. It could be a few images, your blog header, your blog’s tagline or something else. Play around, change it up every now and then. And if you need help designing it, here’s a post I wrote on how to make your cover photo all fancy. The cover image size is 851px x 315px.

4. Make it about your community
There’s a real difference between personal Facebook pages, and business pages. I think people forget that. Personal pages are about YOU. Business pages are about your business, and your audience. Of course, sometimes make it about you. Definitely. But bring it around to your audience as well. Engage them. I hate talking about myself {which is weird when you’re a personal blogger} so I’m much more comfortable talking about other people. Plus I’m nosy. I love knowing how other people think. Also, most people love to share details about themselves especially when you make it easy for them. So think about 1-2 potential posts/updates where you can get to know your audience a little better.

5. Ask your audience a question

One of the easiest ways to get your audience active is by asking them a question. They don’t have to comment. It’s one click from them, that’s all. So click Offer, Event + and then selection question from the menu. Pose the question, and make it really simple with a clear call to action. It could be as simple as ‘What’s your favourite meal of the day?’ and then in the poll options you’d add breakfast, lunch, dinner {and maybe dessert}. Of course, that’s a really simple question option, tailor it to your page and your audience. With the right question you have the opportunity to reach a lot of people. My most viral posts on Facebook are usually the question ones. Give it a try today.

If you have any other questions about Facebook, leave them in the comments below and I’ll either answer in the comments as well, or create a future post around it.

What are your favourite pages on Facebook? What do they do that you love?