Using Social Media in your neighborhood....

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I hate to tell someone to ditch all the expert advice, because truly all social media specialist have good advice, but does that advice completely fit your needs. 

I was bombarded with questions last week by a fellow blogger that was asking how to get readers to their blog post.  To be brutally honest, I had no clue what to answer back, I have learned that I must process everything to have a true solution. 

To my fellow blogger, here is what might help….

It is not what you say, but how you say it!  Unless you are bitterly angry, person negativity is normally not, what you want to hear.  So watch your tone on your social media post! 

Do you have conversations with your readers?  I keep my both personal and business Facebook page public, so readers feel they can communicate with me.  The key to my success is being there for them, I get email, messages, and comments all the time asking for advice. 

Know your target area!  I cannot SCREAM this enough, know your target audience.  If you are local and are trying to reach local readers, understand that local readers do not always enjoy the same conversations as folks 1000 miles away.  This is where you have to be very careful about what “advice” you take from the experts.  I follow many social media and blogging experts; I read their post and many I agree with.  However, I also believe I have convert that advice to reach my readers…..I am local and must speak like a local.  (note…I love my local people).

Do you know how to tag people in your conversation?  I giggle at this, but I have seen so many post and think why didn't they tag the business they are talking about in their conversation?   On Facebook to tag a business page you must first LIKE the page and then use the @ symbol to tag the page.  Example you want to tag my page:  Go to my business page Adventures Among Us, LIKE my page, then in your status type @Adventures Among Us in the status and my page should be highlighted.  NOTE…this CANNOT be done through a scheduling app; you must do this on Facebook.  Business pages can tag other business pages, but must first LIKE the page as their business page. 

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet….Do you have a #hashtag?  I have probably been asked a billion times what #TMOM stands for, well TMOM is the hashtag that TravelingMom.com uses to trend on Twitter.  I am the Missouri Traveling Mom, therefore I tweet my travel related post with the #tmom hashtag.   I encourage people that want to trend to either find a hashtag that fits them or create one.  #justmakessense

Keywords!  I have this pretty easy, I write about Missouri Traveling, therefore, my keywords are usually the place I am talking about.  However, if you are just writing about random things you need a focus set of keywords. 

Last but not least…Give it some TIME!  I have been blogging off and on for 7 years, but I really got into blogging a little more than 2 years ago.  Getting readers to your page can be frustrating, but with time, if you have “interesting” content then you will find people landing on your page. 

~Becky