Grow Your Pinterest in 10 Minutes a Day

March 22, 2017 By Mindy Leave a Comment

Are you using Pinterest to its full potential? I can’t tell you enough how important Pinterest has been to growing my blog and my business. Pinterest accounts for about 40% of my blog traffic every month! And since it’s a visual platform, weddings is one of Pinterest’s most popular categories. A couple years ago, 70% of brides admitted to having a wedding Pinterest board – and I’m assuming the number has only grown from there (source)! In fact, in a recent poll of my bride community, the vast majority said they used Pinterest, not Instagram, to search for wedding vendors. So if you’ve been slacking with your Pinterest account, let this be a wake up call for you!

Growing your Pinterest following doesn’t have to be terribly time consuming. In fact, I spend about 10 minutes a day working on Pinterest (however – I do spend some extra time browsing and pinning, for fun).

Here’s a quick 10-minute per day strategy for Pinterest. The routine may take you a bit longer at first, but once you have it down you’ll fly through it!

Grow Your Pinterest in 10 Minutes a Day

1. Pin five things from your feed. (2 minutes)

This is an easy one! Just pull up pinterest.com and scroll through your feed and find five pins you love, and repin them to your boards.

2. Check your notifications. (5 minutes)

Click on the top right icon where you see the little red number bubble. These are your notifications, telling you when someone pinned your content. Find people who recently pinned your content and follow their boards. Also repin something from one of their boards. Do this up to five times, but don’t spend longer than five minutes on it.

Just click on the red “Follow” button to follow their board. Once clicked, the button will show “Unfollow” and this means you successfully followed them.

3. Look at related pins. (1 minute)

Use the notifications to find a pin that has been recently repinned. When looking at the pin, you can scroll down to see “related pins.” These are pins that Pinterest considers to be similar to your pin. Find a pin you love and repin it.

4. Leave one comment a day (2 minutes)

It’s great practice to leave a comment on at least one pin per day. It’s great if you can find a pin that already has a lot of repins, because this means it’s popular. Leave a genuine comment about the pin, meaning don’t just type “Nice pin!” or “Great!” and defintely don’t leave your website in the comment. The goal with leaving comments on other people’s pins is to try to get your profile seen by more eyeballs! And if you leave a spammy comment, the account owner will likely delete it.

5. As you do the above, look for a pin you can share on other social media accounts.

Need Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter content? Grab an image you love and share it on one of your other platforms. Don’t forget to make a note of the original source of the image so you can give them credit!

That’s how you grow your Pinterest following in 10 minutes a day! Of course you can spend more time on it, and get results even quicker. But if you only have 10 minutes to spare, this is a great strategy!

The Introvert’s Guide to Networking

March 14, 2017 By Mindy Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links.

Alt Summit SLC 2014 – Photo Credit: Brooke Dennis via Flickr

When I first got into blogging several years ago, I really threw myself into it. I read books, posted in forums, participated in webinars, basically anything I could absorb about the business of blogging. Before I knew it, I got carried away and I found myself suddenly signed up to attend three blogging conferences in a four month period! The only problem was … I’m a total introvert. Yep, I’m that girl who ate lunch by herself in the bathroom in high school. I’m that girl who doesn’t make eye contact unless absolutely necessary. I’m that girl who always preferred online socializing to real life human interaction.

Oh geez … what was I going to do???

Luckily for my first conference I went with a friend, which is good and bad. It was easier to walk into a room full of strangers with someone you’re comfortable with alongside you. But for the first part of the conference, we found ourselves sticking together. For the afternoon sessions, we were assigned to different tables for each session, which forced us to move around the room and meet new people. And luckily, every session started with a business card exchange and it wasn’t too difficult to find someone you could connect with (“Hey, you’re from Los Angeles? Me, too! Hey, you blog about weddings? Me, too!”). By the end of that first day, my friend and I, who are both somewhat shy, were chatting it up with anyone who would walk by.

I’m still pretty shy and socially awkward, but here’s the thing to remember about bloggers and most solopreneurs: we all are to some degree. We all chose a life where we work from home, usually alone or with small humans or animals, and communicate with clients via typing instead of speaking. There’s nothing wrong with that. But attending conferences and meet-ups and interacting with each other is important if you really want to learn new skills, collaborate with other companies, and grow your business. And if you want to do all that, you can’t be a wallflower.

So if you’re shy like me, I have some tips for you.

The Introvert’s Guide to Networking

Set goals. Why did you sign up for networking event? Don’t say to “to meet new people” or “find collaborators.” Be specific. My goal for one conference was to gather thoughts and opinions about a new website idea I wanted to start. Another conference I set a goal to pass out 300 business cards, creating 300 new contacts and 300 new pairs of eyes on my business. One friend told me she had a goal of connecting with three specific conference sponsors. Another friend had a goal to find and build collaborations with all the bloggers in her same niche. Yet another friend wanted to get better at using her DSLR, so offered to take free headshots for attendees (she was quite popular). By the way, all these “friends” of mine? They were not friends before I met them at networking events.

Get awesome business cards. Speaking of cards, I would strongly suggest getting some professional cards verses printing your own (unless you’re an amazing designer with professional printing equipment). If only because nice cards are an instant and easy conversation starter. Moo and Minted both offer eye-catching, easy to use business card templates. I personally use Moo for my business cards and I always get compliments! Having a unique or interesting business card is often an instant conversation starter. And make sure the card clearly shows off what your do and how to find you online.

Bring your credit card statement with you. If you paid to attend the conference or event, seriously, print out the receipt or statement and carry it with you. When you feel like leaving early or hiding in a bathroom stall for half of the event, take out that statement and remind yourself how much money you spent to be there. Are you getting your money’s worth? Are you letting this networking opportunity slip away? Will you have any regrets on the trip home?

Take a moment if you need it. No one is perfect, so don’t try to be. If you’re feeling overwhelmed – really overwhelmed – take a moment for yourself. I had some social anxiety during a party at one conference and had to go back to my hotel room and cry a little bit. But I gave myself a pep talk and got back in the game. I could have changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed at 7pm (I really wanted to). But I fixed my makeup, got back out there, and actually talked with some fellow attendees about my dumb feelings and felt a million times better.

Be yourself. The buzz around some conferences can make you feel a little intimidated about your appearance. But, I promise you everyone there wants to meet the real you. If you feel better wearing a cute skirt and heels when you’re networking, then do it. If you wear jeans and sneakers every day, dude, rock your jeans and sneakers to the conference. When I went to Alt Summit for the first time, I stressed hardcore about my outfits. And you know what? No one really cares. If fashion’s your thing, then by all means, dress it up, go bananapants. But the bottom line is to wear whatever makes you feel CONFIDENT and comfortable.

Have you attended any networking conferences? What advice would you give to introverts about attending a conference?

This article originally appeared on Blogging It Forward in January 2014 and has been updated.

6 Apps to Make Your Instagram Photos Pop

February 21, 2017 By Mindy 4 Comments

If you’re struggling to get your photos seen and discovered on Instagram, you are not alone. On a platform with more than 500 million users, there is a lot of competition to overcome. Remember Instagram is a above all a visual platform, so it’s important for your photos to be the absolute best they can be. I am not a professional photographer, AT ALL, but I use an arsenal of mobile apps to tweak my photos. The apps make my photos brighter, clearer, and more colorful – which gets them noticed, sometimes even by much larger accounts!

If you aren’t a professional photographer (and even if you are but want to try some new things with your mobile photos) here are six great apps I recommend and use regularly. If you’re ready to make your Instagram photos pop, these will certainly do the trick! And the best part is, all of these apps are either free or cost just a couple dollars and are well worth the money.

Below I’m sharing the “before” and “after” version of my photos, so you can see exactly what kind of difference a good app can make!

6 Apps to Make Your Instagram Photos Pop

1. Afterlight (iOS and Android) – Afterlight is my #1 editing app. I run any photo I want to post on Instagram through Afterlight first, ALWAYS. There is a one-touch clarity tool I use primarily. I also often use the brightening/saturation tool to fix dark photos. The straightening tool also comes in handy and is very easy to use to fix crooked photos. This app costs $0.99 and is probably the best money you can spend with editing apps. You can see the subtle difference the clarity/brightening tools can make in the photos below.

2. Snapseed (iOS and Android) – Snapseed has a lot of cool filters, but I really only use it for one – HDR Scape. It creates dramatic landscape photos which do especially well on Instagram. I even had one of my HDR photos regrammed by the official Disney’s Aulani account! For a free app it offers a lot of tools, so be sure to play around with it.

3. A Color Story (iOS and Android) – This free app comes with filters and effects you can add to your photos, with additional bundles available for purchase. I have purchased the Chroma and Candy Minimal bundles, as well as the Color Fogs, and I use them often to create dreamy and dramatic effects. (My palm tree photo below was even shared by the official A Color Story Instagram account!)

4. Photo Mirror (iOS only) – This is a free app which creates mirror images of your photos. It can create some fun, surreal shots. I have tried a number of mirror-effect apps and I have found this to be the easiest to use and most intuitive. While this app is not available for Android, I’m sure there are similar mirror-effect apps available.

5. Layout (iOS and Android) – This free app is by the makers of Instagram, so you know it’s probably the best collage app out there. Select up to 9 photos and choose your desired layout from the top row. With your layout selected, you can drag your photos around until you have your ideal image. You can make a collage out of several images, or zoom in on detail, or play around with repeating images.

6. Real Bokeh (iOS and Android) – Bokeh is “out of focus points of light” and can add dramatic effect to any image. While there are several bokeh apps available, the reason I like this particular one is due to the massive selection of bokeh shapes to choose from – including a “Mickey” shape, which goes well with my Disney aesthetic. You can also easily change the size, shape, and color of the bokeh. This app costs $1.99.

I hope this post helped you discover some new favorite photo editing apps! What are your favorite photo apps?

(Feel free to follow me on Instagram, also! @fairytalemindy)

Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2017

January 28, 2017 By Mindy Leave a Comment

2016 was a big year for social media changes. We saw the rise of live streaming, the debut of Instagram Stories, and algorithm changes up the wazoo. For a while there it seemed like there were new features and updates every single week! How is anyone expected to keep up with it all?!

One of the best things about entering a new year is that it offers the perfect opportunity to reflect and regroup. I’m going to help you take a look at some of the biggest social media trends happening right now, and what you need to be focusing on to maximize your social media success.

Social Media Trends You Need to Know for 2017

1. Authenticity Matters – The biggest social influencers are moving away from those perfectly staged and overly filtered photos and getting real with their followers via social stories. Worried about poor lighting or lack of makeup? Don’t be … your followers want to get to know the real you. I suggest giving your followers a good mix of curated content (via Instagram or Facebook posts) and unfiltered real life (via Instagram Stories or Snapchat).

2. Boost Engagement with Social Stories – Social Stories, like Snapchat and Instagram Stories, are where it’s at right now. Social Story platforms give you a chance to have a REAL conversation with your followers … wish them good morning, share what you’re up to for the day, and ask them questions. Engage with them and they will engage back. You may feel frustrated because your Social Stories follower count seems low, but keep in mind these are not just regular followers. These followers made a choice to watch YOUR stories; it’s different from just scrolling by you in a feed. They are your hardcore fans, so treat them like VIPs!

3. Video – Like it or hate it, audiences respond well to videos, especially on Facebook. Making a short video, just one or two minutes long, or going Live on Facebook will boost your reach and engagement. You can do quick tips about your job or industry, or show a creative process. I have an artist friend who sets up a live video while she’s painting, and it’s fascinating to watch! I have another friend who is nervous about turning the camera on herself so she does live streams whenever shes visits a new wedding venue.

4. Mobile is King – Have you checked your website analytics lately? If not, I suggest you do so right now. (And if you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website, contact your webmaster ASAP.) Only 30% of my website traffic is through desktop – which means 70% of my visitors are viewing my website via their phone or tablet. And 90% of Facebook users are doing so via mobile. So, be sure you are checking out your websites and social media pages on a regular basis to make sure they are in tip-top shape.

5. More Messaging – I’ll be honest with you, one of my biggest pet peeves is when I get messages through Facebook or Instagram instead of email. I wish everyone would just email me so I have all my messages in one place! But, this is a perfect example of someone who’s – ahem – older needing to adapt to the times. We live in an instant-gratification society, where we ask Alexa to tell us the temperature outside and we can Google the answer to any question from our phone or watch. With 700 million Facebook Messenger users every month, it’s a platform that cannot simply be ignored. This is why more and more brands are setting up Messenger chatbots – AI software to answer basic questions. If you’re like me, your small business isn’t chatbot-worthy quite yet … but what you CAN do is set up a Facebook Messenger auto-responder, requesting the sender email you their question or inquiry. (Side note – if you feel like you’re answering the same basic questions over and over again – be sure to write a FAQ blog post, and link that post in your auto-responder.)

6. Increase Personalization – Social media is vast, saturated, and busy. When someone notices you in the huge sea of social media profile pictures, doesn’t it feel good? Make sure you’re giving your followers personalized attention. If someone leaves you a comment, respond thoughtfully and use their name. Hop over to their profile and find out what you have in common so you can start a dialogue. Be their friend, not just another account they follow.

These are the items I feel everyone should be focusing on this year. If anything is 100% certain, it’s that the landscape will change again over the next 12 months. I’m excited to see what the year ahead will bring!

How to Set Attainable Goals for the New Year

December 21, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

The end of the calendar year tends to be the time everyone sets goals. (New Year resolutions, anyone?) It feels like a fresh start … out with the old, in with the new. A new beginning to wipe the slate clean and feel motivated to do all those things we’ve been wanting to do. And then, a couple months later, we fall back into our old routine. We forget about our goals when life gets in the way, and sometimes we never return to them until the end of the following year. “Oh yeah, remember all those things I wanted to accomplish by now?”

If you struggle with goal setting, you are certainly not alone. I’ve been running my blog for five years but 2016 is the first year I actually sat down, brainstormed what I want out of my business (and my life), wrote everything down, and revisited my goals throughout the year. And you know what? Sure, I didn’t cross everything off my list. I’m not as close to my Big Crazy Dreams as I wish I was, but I got way more done this year than if I hadn’t set any goals at all. I’m sharing my tricks with you below. Keep these four items in mind when you’re goal setting and I promise you will be successful with your achievements.

How to Set Attainable Goals for the New Year

1. Dream big, but set small goals. Do you have big dreams that seem utterly unattainable? Yeah, me too. It’s probably unrealistic to say “I want a six figure income by the end of my first year in business,” but we can probably break that down into smaller, more reasonable goals that will help get us to our larger goal. “I want to attend 6 networking events this month and hand out 60 business cards.” “I want to publish one blog post this week that shows off what my business can do.” “I am going to get the ball rolling on my new website design by researching designers.” These are all small goals that will eventually push you towards your big goal.

2. WRITE THINGS DOWN. Honestly, if I don’t write things down, they don’t exist. Grocery shopping lists, relatives’ birthdays, scheduling yoga into my calendar. Why would goals be any different? I love my paper planner because there is space to write down your goals each week and each month. If I write down my goals, I feel like I have a sense of purpose. I sit at my desk in the morning, I look at my planner, and – BOOM – I know what I need to be doing. Actually writing down my goals (hand writing, not typing) makes them more real.

3. Find an accountability partner. Being self-employed is hard, y’all. Hard and lonely. Find another lonely entrepreneur and hold each other accountable for getting stuff done. Knowing someone else is tracking your goals is a big motivator. You can even make bets, if that works for your personalities. If you don’t finish rebranding your website or updating your social media bios or writing that blog post, then you have to buy dinner for your accountability partner. Trust me, it’s nice to have someone kicking you in the metaphorical butt now and then.

4. Reward your progress. Give yourself proper credit when you reach a goal! Treat yourself to a small reward for working hard and making a dent in your goals.

Setting small goals – weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly – will give you something to work towards and get you closer and closer to your Big Crazy Dreams that may seem impossible … for now.

5 Tips for Making Your Instagram Photos More Interesting

November 15, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

Are you making the most of your Instagram account? Since Instagram is a visual platform, it can be a great social media marketing tool for wedding industry professionals and creatives. But you have to use it in the right way! Instagram is saturated with gorgeous wedding photos, so the challenge is to stand out. Here are a few simple tips and tools to help you do just that!

5 Tips for Making Your Instagram Photos More Interesting

1. Stay on brand. The #1 most important tip with Instagram is to always stay faithful to your brand. If you are using your Instagram for business, be sure you are only sharing photos that relate to your brand and image. Before you share any photo, ask yourself, “Does this photo represent my brand? Will this photo attract my ideal client?” If the answer is no or maybe, don’t share it!

2. Don’t use the in-app camera. The Instagram app allows you to open it, take a photo, and immediately share the image. I don’t recommend this! I suggest taking your photo through your regular phone camera first, then EDIT the photo before uploading it to Instagram. This will provide you with a higher quality image.

3. Edit photos using third party apps such as Afterlight or VSCO. If I take a photo with my phone and want to share it on Instagram, I always edit the photo in Afterlight first. It’s my favorite photo editing app! Afterlight has a “one step” clarity tool which automatically tweaks my photo to make it clearer and brighter. I also use the Brightness tool if I need to make a dark photo brighter. VSCO is another popular editing app you can download and play around with, but I found the Afterlight interface to be easier for me and is worth the $0.99 price tag.

*Bonus tip – Don’t feel like you HAVE to use any of the filters inside Instagram. In fact, I generally do not recommend using the filters built into Instagram. The majority of those filters make your photo look washed out, darker, or lowers the quality.

4. Keep things square. Instagram just recently allowed users to upload landscape or portrait images after years of only allowing square cropped images. It’s fine to play around with your image size, but the Discover screen still shows square thumbnails so keep this in mind as you crop your image. If you want to play it safe, keep your photos square.

5. Show your personality. People are following you because they like you and want to get to know you! Social is all about making that human connection, so don’t keep your feed “all business.” Show a selfie once in a while, or a behind-the-scenes image of you working. You can even show your personality by writing a meaningful and heartfelt caption on every image you share.

What are your best Instagram tips?

Social Marketing Tip #4 – Show Your Personality

October 31, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

When posting on social media, a lot of business owners tend to be “all business.” Of course you want to talk about your business, but one of the best aspects of social media is making connections with people. You will reach more people and develop meaningful relationships if you also show your personality! Social media was never intended to be full of corporate profiles. Facebook even has FACE in the name! But I realize some business owners are shy or nervous about putting too much of themselves online. Here are some ideas to show your personality alongside promoting your business.

1. Put your bio and “About” pages to good use. Your bio and “About” pages should tell anyone what they need to know about your business but they should also give a little glimpse into your life and personality. So mention your family, pets, favorite vacation spot, favorite movie, favorite food, etc.

2. Post pictures of your face now and then. Social media is about making connections with other people and the best way to do that is face-to-face. In my opinion, a successful social media campaign results in your followers thinking of you as a friend instead of a corporation.

3. Add meaningful captions to your photos. Don’t just post a photo. Post a photo with a caption explaining why you love that photo. Tell me about the location and why it’s meaningful to you. Or tell me about the people in the photo and why I should care about them. This will not only make your followers relate to your photo on a deeper lever, but it will give them a glimpse into what makes you tick.

4. Share things you truly love. When posting on social media, it’s important to put your audience first. But that doesn’t mean you can’t share things you love. Have some personal Pinterest boards, talk about your favorite things and places, and share links to articles you think are important. (But also heed my warning about being controversial.)

5. Respond to every comment. How many times have you commented on someone’s photo or post and felt disappointed when you didn’t get a response? And on the flip side, how special did you feel whenever you DID get a response? Make your followers feel special by responding to each and every comment, and view it as an opportunity to further develop a relationship with that person.

Do you have any tips or recommendations for showing your personality on social media? Any success stories you want to share? Feel free to add them in the comments!

How to Measure Marketing Results on Social Media

September 20, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

Today I’m going to address one of the questions I hear most often from my clients – “How do I measure the results of my marketing efforts on social media?” I realize this is the million dollar question, and unfortunately I’m going to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear: There is no easy answer!

Measuring marketing results on social media is difficult but not impossible. In order to do so, you still have to go through the same steps as traditional advertising – create a goal and assign a value to the outcome – and most business owners simply do not want to put the time and the energy into this. People want instant, easy-to-see results and that’s just not how social media marketing works!

A lot of small business owners want to see direct sale results from social media, when really you should be viewing social media as an indirect sales tool.

What does that mean?

A direct sale comes from someone viewing an ad and making a purchase.

An indirect sale comes from someone becoming aware of your brand, following you for a while, becoming a fan of your work and business, and then eventually making a purchase.

Here is an example of both:

Direct sale – Client A sees your ad in a magazine, contacts you, and hires you.

Indirect sale – Client B sees one of your posts on social media thanks to a friend sharing it. Client B enjoys the post and starts following you, even though they don’t need your services right now. Client B continues to follow you on social media for a few months because you share valuable and entertaining content they enjoy. Client B reaches a point where they are in need of your product or services, so they contact you and hire you.

I want you to start thinking of social media as an indirect sales tool. Social media helps make people aware of your brand and the follow up actions you take on social media (the valuable content you share) help close the sale.

So how do you measure indirect sales as a result of posting on social media? Well … it’s tricky. Nearly impossible. Which is why I’m going to tell you to get that idea out of your head, and change your way of thinking about social media.

The best thing to do is to set other goals, aside from sales. Goals that can be directly measured.

Here are 5 suggestions for setting tangible goals and measuring results on your social media efforts.

How to Measure Marketing Results on Social Media

1. Increase Followers

Here’s some real truth for you … if you have less than 1000 followers, you’re going to have a tough time measuring any kind of marketing results because your sample size is too small for this purpose. I’m not saying this to hurt feelings, or saying that accounts that have under 1000 followers are hopeless or “small” – that couldn’t be farther from the truth! My own Joy Social Facebook page has way less than 1000 followers. BUT, for the specific purpose of measuring sales results, a sample size under 1000 isn’t going to yield very reliable data. It’s like if you tried to predict who was going to be the next president by polling under 1000 people.

If your following is under 1000, your main goal should be to increase your follower count. Don’t fret much over comments and shares, and certainly don’t expect crazy results from any sales campaigns. Focus on growing your following first and foremost. If your following is under 1000, a good goal is to work on increasing your follower count by 10 followers a week. If your following is over 1000, aim for 30-50 new followers a week.

2. Site Traffic

Another great goal is increasing the number of hits to your website. The purpose of your social media accounts is the lead people back to your website, and the law of averages says the more people who visit your website, the higher chance you have of landing a sale. A great goal is to increase traffic to your website via social media by 10% every month. You can use Google Analytics to measure these results.

3. Increase Reach

Increasing your reach across Facebook and Instagram is pretty simple – just post more! Reach also grows if people interact with your posts, so make sure you’re posting things that are interesting. Want a big goal? Aim to increase your reach by 50% each week!

4. Assign Number Value to Likes, Comments, and Shares

Here’s an EASY way to measure social media results. Assign a number value to the likes, comments, and shares you get on your Facebook posts.

Likes – 1 point
Comments – 3 points
Shares – 10 points

Shares are the Holy Grail because shared posts introduces your brand to new people, so I assigned Shares a very high value. As for your goal, aim to always get more “points” than the week before. If you have a smaller account, start with a goal of 20 points per week. Obviously the more you post, the better chance you have of meeting your goal.

5. E-mail Newsletter Signups

It’s always a good idea to focus on your e-mail list. One suggestion is to create some kind of freebie for new email subscribers, which you can promote across social media. Set a goal for one new e-mail subscriber every day!

***

If you fall short of your goals, it doesn’t mean social media marketing doesn’t work. Everyone has good weeks and bad weeks, and a bad week doesn’t mean your strategy isn’t working. However, if you find you’re consistently not reaching your goals week after week, don’t lose faith! It simply means your efforts and goals should be re-evaluated and tweaked a little.

Don’t forget to join my private Facebook group, Social Media Tips for Awesome Biz Owners, where you can discuss your social media marketing strategy with other small business owners.

As always, if you have any questions about this topic, please leave me a comment below or send me an email. I’m here to help you succeed on social!

6 Tips for Staying Productive While Writing Blog Posts

August 14, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

Maintaining a blog is a crucial marketing tool for any small business owner, especially in a fast-changing and highly visual industry such as the wedding industry. Most business owners say they don’t have time to write blog posts, but what if I told you writing a blog post should only take you about an hour? It’s true! If it takes you more than an hour or two to write a blog post, it means you’re not focusing! Here are a few tips to help you focus on writing and getting those important blog posts published! No more excuses!

6 Tips for Staying Productive While Writing Blog Posts

1. Take some time to brainstorm blog post topics and save them as drafts. In the same vein, write down blog post topics or ideas as soon as you think of them. I keep a running list on my phone; you can also text or email yourself when you think of an idea. Then save it as a draft on your blog as soon as you can. When I find myself with some time to write but don’t know what I want to write about, I can go back to my list of topics instead of blankly staring at my laptop for hours!

2. Set a timer. This is a big one for me! I have Shiny Object Syndrome and find myself constantly distracted when I sit down to write. But if I set a timer on my phone (usually for an hour or 30 minutes), just the act of doing this helps me stay focused! I think to myself, “Okay, don’t do ANYTHING else except write until that timer goes off!” And it’s a challenge for myself to get the blog post finished before the timer even goes off. This really motivates me!

3. Use a blogging checklist. Anyone who keeps a to-do list knows that having a task list is the best way to stay productive. Reference a blogging checklist to remind you what to do in order to finish your post. This way you’ll finish your post faster and you also won’t forget any important steps! (Keep reading to download a free blogging checklist I’ve created just for you!)

4. Write the body of your content first, then go back and write your introduction paragraph. Unless the introduction flows right out, then by all means. But I often struggle with the introduction, so generally I write the bulk of my content first and then go back and summarize the content in my introduction.

5. Don’t agonize over images. I can sense all the photographers out there clenching their jaws right now, but I mean it. Look, if you’re a photographer then by all means, be particular about the photos you share on your blog. Or if you’re a wedding planner or if you’re blogging about a real wedding you were involved with, then of course photos are important. But don’t spend more than 30 minutes selecting photos. In fact, even that seems too long to me! Also, you only need about 10-15 images per blog post. Remember readers on the Internet have short attention spans. For any other kind of post you only need 2 images – one portrait image for Pinterest and one landscape image for Facebook. And remember to always properly credit the photographer for any image you share. (Need free stock photos for weddings? I like Pixabay and Pexels.)

6. Remember perfection is another form of procrastination. Some people get tripped up thinking their blog post is not perfect, and therefore they never publish it. Guess what … I always find something in my blog posts I consider to be “wrong” or something I could have done better after I publish them. This is SUPER common and I’m even willing to say it happens to everyone who blogs. So don’t be so hard on yourself and just hit PUBLISH!

Click here to open my Blogging Checklist. I recommend saving it to your computer, or printing out copies to reference every time you write a blog post.

What is your best tip to staying productive while writing? Please share with me in the comments!

How to Use Instagram Stories

August 3, 2016 By Mindy Leave a Comment

This week, Instagram is rolling out a new feature called Instagram Stories. Instagram Stories is a 24 hour feed of photos or short videos that you create which are separate from your regular Instagram feed. So basically it’s like Snapchat.

Here is the introduction Story from Instagram:

There is a lot of Internet backlash against Instagram Stories for basically copying Snapchat’s interface, and it’s clear Facebook/Instagram is trying to capitalize on the features that make Snapchat so appealing to its users. I’m not sure Instagram stories will be the Snapchat killer Instagram hopes it will be, but I’m sure it will become a popular feature and a lot of people will start using it. Personally, I’m hoping Instagram stories will serve as a bridge to Snapchat, and once people see how the format works hopefully they’ll migrate over to Snapchat where the functionality is much better.

There are two ways you can find peoples’ Stories. When you open the app you’ll see a row of Stories at the very top of your screen. They will show up as little circles above your regular feed. You can tap on each circle to view that person’s Stories. When you reach the end of that person’s Stories, it will automatically start playing the Stories of the next person in line.

You can also go to an individual profile page, and tap on the person’s profile picture. If there is a story available to watch, the profile picture will be outlined. (Notice in the image above, there’s a circle outline around my profile picture.)

Here’s how to create your own Story

On the main page of the app, click on the + in the upper left corner.

A new screen will open with the camera. You can switch between the forward-facing camera or the selfie camera.

To take a still photograph, tap on the round circle at the bottom. To take a video up to 10 seconds long, hold down on the circle.

Once your photo or video is recorded, you’re taken to a screen where you can do edits. You can add text or drawings or apply a filter.

To add text, tap on the “Aa” icon in the upper right corner. You can move and resize the text by pinching it with your fingers.

To draw, tap on the pen icon.

You have three pen options – standard marker (as shown above), a style I’m describing as “neon,” and a calligraphy style.

You can also swipe right to add filters, although they are not very impressive. And unlike Snapchat, there are no geofilters, date/time/temp filters, speed-up or slow-mo, or – and most importantly – face filters.

When you’re ready to publish, tap on the check mark at the bottom. Your image or video will be added to your Story feed and will be available to view for 24 hours. After 24 hours, neither you nor your followers will be able to see that image anymore, so if you want to save it to your camera roll be sure you tap on the save icon before it disappears.

Once your Stories have been published for a while, you’ll be able to see who has watched your Stories.

Tap on the number at the bottom to pull up a list of people who have viewed your Stories. From there, you can tap on a person’s name to be taken to their profile, or you can scroll through your Stories to see the list of people for each Story. (I blurred out the names on the below image.)

As a viewer, you can send a message to someone while you’re watching their story. Just tap on the “Send Message” text in the bottom left corner of the screen. It will pull up your keyboard, where you can type a message. It will end up in the person’s Instagram inbox. Unfortunately you cannot send photo/video messages, but one thing Instagram has over Snapchat is that the messages won’t disappear after reading them. (Image below from Bridal Boost on Instragram.)

There are also some basic settings for Instagram Stories. To access them, click on the icon in the upper right corner. You can control who can see your Stories (by hiding certain usernames from your Stories), and you can also choose a setting for who can send you messages.

Also, when you are watching your own Stories, you can tap on the ellipses in the bottom right corner to access some options. You can delete your Story (just that one Story, not your entire Stories feed), save the photo/video or save your entire 24 hour story, share it to your regular Instagram feed, or access your settings (as described above).

After using Instagram Stories for 24 hours now, I have to say I enjoy it. I think it will become a valuable marketing tool, but so far it won’t replace Snapchat for me.

Are you excited to use Instagram Stories?

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