I experimented with the free version until I wanting to connect to more social media accounts than the free version offered, then it was time to switch to the Pro version. Here are some of the benefits of going Pro:

• 30 Day Free Trial of HootSuite Pro*
  *30 Day Free Trial of Pro gives access to ALL HootSuite Pro functionality and add-ons such as HSU ($21), 1 Free Team Member, Analytics ($50), and Ow.ly Vanity URL ($50) to name a few ($142 value)
  **Google+ is only available to Enterprise level users
• Base Pro price at a very affordable $9.99/month
• Multiple social network management from one dashboard (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+**)
• Scheduled Messaging
  Lets you schedule the same message to be posted at different time to different social media sites
• HootSuite App Directory (Tumblr, YouTube, InboxQ, Get Satisfaction)
  Engagement, Team Collaboration, Analytics and Security
• Listening tools
  What does listening mean? Customizable feeds and streams let you focus easily on what is important for you right now.

Disclaimer:
You should assume that the owner of this website is an affiliate for providers of goods and services mentioned on this webpage and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider.

social media icons

You have a personal Facebook profile and also a Facebook page or two, then there is Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn and you want to post to all your social media sites, but what is the best way to take advantage of them? Do you post the same post to all of them at once which is very easy to do with HootSuite, but is it the best way?

This week I just watched Amy Porterfield’s webinar video replay: “Facebook marketing strategies” and found the answer.

She is talking about your Facebook profile and page timeline, but it goes for all social media.

First: Try to keep your personal social postings for your personal profiles and your business postings for your business profiles. That does not mean that you cannot occasionally post personal info to your business profiles.

Second: Don’t post the exact same thing at the exact same time across all your social sites. The reason for this is that there is a good chance that you have some people that follow you on all your social media sites and so they would receive the same post multiple times. Also by posting at different times of the day you reach a different audience.

So how do you handle posting to your Social Media Sites?

The answer is: Mix it up! Any information that you would like to post to multiple social media sites should be split up and this is were sites like Hootsuite come in handy as you can schedule your posts.

In WordPress you can send a message to Twitter when you have written a new blog post and then on Twitter you can set it up so it will automatically post to Facebook or do the reverse and have Facebook post to Twitter.

Example:
Post in the morning to your personal Facebook profile and then in the afternoon or next day to your Facebook page and maybe at noon to Twitter and Google+. You will have to find your own rhythm and see what gives you the most responses and you won’t look so repetitive.

Just a few weeks ago I was noticing that a lot more blogs had a comma before the word and. When I learned English in Switzerland many moons ago, I was taught that there was no need to put a comma before the word and, as and always followed a list of words and was was place before the last word in the list. I asked my son and then daughter-in-law who is a copywriter and the both said that they have noticed that trend, but could not give my an answer.

Today I found this answer in an blog article. Here is the excerpt about the comma:

Egregious Use of the Comma
For whatever reason, Americans overuse commas. We use it to emphasize a pause in a sentence, to clear up ambiguity, or to list items in a sentence. When it comes to the listing of items, however, this is perhaps where we go crazy with the comma. The serial comma (as referred to in the U.S. which is also known as the Harvard Comma or the Oxford Comma in the U.K.) is  frequently seen preceding  the word “and” or “or” when listing items in a sentence.The idea of putting the comma before “and” or “or” in a list comes from the Chicago Manual Style. For example:
a. I bought milk, eggs, bacon, and orange juice at the store.
    However, the AP Style Guide recommends against it.
b. I bought milk, eggs, bacon and orange juice at the store.
So this one’s up to you to decide.

Read the rest of the grammar mistakes here. I would love to hear your thoughts about this subject, please leave a comment below.

I just came across this helpful article explaining exactly how to do it.

1. Pinning late at night, past 8pm, is successful
2. Writing a description for each pin is key
3. Use popular boards with high subscriber numbers

I will have to experiment and see if it is true for me also.

Pinterest inforgraphic

Doing some research lead to all kinds of tips and ideas. I tried some and ignored some, but they did not work and then at the end when I was ready to just give up I came across this little tip. I used it on the Windows XP machine and don’t know if it will also work for Vista or Windows 7.

Tip

• Click on the Start button
• then click on run
• write this in the box: regsvr32 wuaneng.dll
• press enter
• Now reboot and try to update Windows again.

 It worked like a charm for me. Let me know if it worked for you.

The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing

I’ve just finished writing Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies with two fabulous co-authors (Amy Porterfield and Phyllis Khare) and we’ve been neck-deep in Facebook for the last 9 months.

Even Copyblogger is on Facebook now. Do you have your Facebook Page yet?

For a platform that’s used by hundreds of millions of people, Facebook can be kind of … complicated. Particularly if you use it for business. So let’s get you some specific how-to advice so you can get rolling without getting frustrated.

How to Add Notes to Your Files and Folders

The average PC contains so many files it’s pretty easy to forget what a particular file contains or what it does. Most users try and get around this by using descriptive file names. So rather than call a file something like “list.doc” they might call it “thanksgiving acceptances 2007.doc”

In principle this should work pretty well as Windows will accept file names up to 255 characters in length. However in practice, lists of very long file names are difficult to quickly scan and are often truncated by Windows Explorer. And there are other problems. The maximum file name length in the Joliet system commonly used to burn CDs is 128 characters. Worse still, the maximum Joliet path length (including file name) is only 160 characters. This means that many really long file names will be lost when you burn your data to CD.

But there is another way of documenting files using an inbuilt but little-used Windows feature. This involves the use of the “Comments” field. It’s an attribute of all files and folders in Windows just like name, size and date created. Most users don’t know about this field as the Comments field is by default not displayed in Windows Explorer in XP.

Turning it on is easy. Open any folder in Windows Explorer and right click on a blank space in the field title bar. That’s the grayed out area that says “Name Size Type” etc. When you right click you will see a list of fields displayed with some checked. To display the Comments field, simply check that field. Once checked you now see that field on the right hand side of your Explorer window, though you may have to scroll to the right to see it.

The Comments field will be blank, as we haven’t added any comments. I’ll get to that later but first we have to tell Windows to now add the Comments field to every window. To do that select Tools / Folder options / View from the window where you just added the Comments field. Then press the “Apply to all folders” button. NOTE: If you have customized folder views for different folders you may want to skip this step as it will give all your folders the same view.

Now here’s how you add comments: Just right click a file, select “Properties” then click the “Summary” tab. You can then enter your comments directly in the Comments box at the bottom of the Windows. Whatever you enter will then be displayed in the Comments field in Windows Explorer.

Neat eh? But here are a few additional tips that make the comments field even more useful:

When searching for a particular file you have commented, remember, you can sort on the Comments field in Internet Explorer by clicking on the title, just like any other field. Sorting will group all your annotated files together, which makes them easier to scan when looking for a particular file. Sorted comments are also in alphabetical order, so try to annotate systematically using meaningful keywords at the start of your comments.

Many desktop search programs index the Comments field. That makes searching your comments even easier.

Finally, you can comment your files even more quickly by using the free HobComment Explorer Extension utility that makes the Comments field available directly off the context menu when you right click a file. You can get HobComment from here:

http://www.dr-hoiby.com/CommentExt/index.php (14KB)
http://www.dr-hoiby.com/CommentExtXP/ (12KB) <= XP users may need this as well

Please wait for the video to load.