Author: Hollie Clere

New Year, New Habits – Getting Into a Blog Routine

Even if you don’t understand why, you know you need to blog. Everyone is doing it and you keep hearing about the values of blogging. In today’s age of digital socializing, just having a website often isn’t enough. When potential clients and power partners are seeking more information about you and what you do – they turn to the Internet. Larger companies and corporations have a digital footprint of online reviews, press releases, and branding information. However, smaller businesses lack information and personality. There is often only a single webpage with contact information to use for research. The lack of a blog, or the presence of a blog that hasn’t been updated in awhile, is a turn off.
A blog is a great way for people to discover you and determine whether or not they want to work with you. It’s a way to encourage an online following of brand advocates and individuals passionate about you and your work. It will also dissuade the people that won’t make good clients and partners from contacting you. Once people have a better feelfor your work, they will be more inclined to talk and do business with you.
Developing a New Habit
The common misconception is that it only takes two weeks to form a new habit. Turns out that information isn’t entirely accurate. This studyover the course of 12 weeks showcased that the time differed, depending on the person and the complexity of the habit. On average, it took around 66 days for a new habit to be formed. For some people, it took much longer. The point is that you have to make a commitment and stick to it. Don’t give up on the habit and one day you will wake up and realize it no longer needs to be forced but is an automatic part of your routine.
Scheduling Time to Blog
The first, and probably most important, part of developing a new blog routine is scheduling a set time to do it. It needs to be a time where there are no excuses. Also taken into consideration should be the time of day you feel most inspired and productive. If late at night sounds like a regular time that would work but every time you sit down you are too tired to write – then that schedule will never be successful.
  •        When do you feel most productive?
  •        When do you feel most creative?
  •        When are there fewer distractions?
  •        What time of day could you be most consistent?

Do you spend the first 30 minutes of your day checking your email and/or social media profiles? Put that off until later in the day – when you are tired and drained and distracted. Is 10 am the time of day you find yourself whizzing through projects or client calls? Then schedule a 10 am meeting once a week or month and dedicate it to developing your next blog post.
Developing Your Voice
This is the tricky part. This is true for every type of writer just starting out. Finding and developing your writing voice is essential. However, it’s important to understand that you won’t know what it is at first – and that’s ok. The only way to truly discover your writing voice is simple – you have to write. Write every day, if you can.
Why do you need your own voice? Without it, you come off as boring or unattached. Your voice is your personality on paper. Your audience will become curious and dedicated to you only once they begin to feel like they know you. It shouldn’t feel like they are reading a textbook. Knowledge is important but personalityis the hook.
You will find, that with time, your voice will sort of naturally develop. However, if you are having issues with it there are some things you can do to help locate it.
  •  Aim to write the same way you would talk to people.
  • Also a good branding exercise, come up with a handful of adjectives that describe you.
  • Examine blogs you enjoy reading and write down WHY you enjoy them.
  • Imagine that you are your perfect reader. What are you looking for in a blog?
  • Ask trusted advisors what they think about your writing voice.
  •  Join some blogging groups for advice and support.

Finding Inspiration
We all have moments where we can’t access new ideas. We get stumped and blocked and frustrated. It’s important to make finding inspiration a regular practice. This means examining when you feel the most creative. What time of day do you usually find the creativity flowing? What activities do you engage in that motivate you? Do you finding listening to music inspiring? Do you get your best ideas during exercise or in the shower? Starting paying attention to when you feel creative and see if you notice any patterns. Then develop a techniqueto jot down ideas during these peak times.
It’s often possible to force creativity into action as well. This will vary based on the individual. Perhaps it means taking time to read a book, or go to a museum, or watch inspirational videos online. Does the sunrise motivate you? Then wake up early from time to time and spend a few moments enjoying it. Create a playlist that you can listen to over and over again as needed. Spend some time reading blogs you enjoy or finding new blogs and voices. Grab a book and learn something. Whatever works for you, make it a part of your regular routine. Do this even when you aren’t stumped for ideas because then you will have a list of concepts already developed for moments when inspiration eludes you.
As with any new habit or activity, only the investment of time and energy will yield results. No one should expect to come out of the gate as an expert on something they have no experience doing.
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
It’s necessary to continue to dive in there and just do it. You’ll find that, after time, you will get better and that will encourage better results from your blogging efforts. Stop procrastinatingand make a commitment TODAY to develop your new blogging habit. It’s just one more way that I’m encouraging you to #BeAwesome in your business! #NewHabits
~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

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Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn,FacebookTwitterBlogGoogle+ , YouTube,Pinterest, Instagram  and the tools to manage them. 

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Social Seven – Budgeting for Social Media Ads

Here are some tips on how to budget for paid ads in social media and how to set yourself up for success.
Tip #1: Credit Card Safety
If you have really struggled with Facebook charging too much for adds or having fraudulent charges show up on your credit card, there is something you can do. Go to the store and get a Visa gift card. Put on there the exact budget for what you want to do. That way it never interacts with your bank account or credit card. The cards can be refilled as needed.
Tip #2: Don’t Rush
You’ve got to be able to look at advanced features. Do not rush through creating your ads. Facebook, in particular, has a lot of options for paid advertising. Twitter, Pinterest and other platforms now have options for paid advertising. There are more opportunities than ever to get higher visibility syndicated as a sponsor. With that knowledge, however, comes the ability the mess up. If you rushing through the ads, you are going to run into situations where you are overcharged because you didn’t pick an end date or you didn’t pick the right keywords. You have to be really specific with your target.
Tip #3: Images
Images are going to make a world of difference.  People like images so include clear, crisp, attractive images in your ads.
Tip #4: Keywords
Think about all the keywords in your ads. Who’s your demographic? Who are you trying to reach with this ad? Then speak directly to them. Don’t copy another company’s keywords. Your demographics are not going to be the same.
Tip #5: Your Budget
What is an ideal amount of money or a sample budget for social media ads? People are going to disagree but your budget is your budget. Remember that. Don’t let anyone suggest an amount you aren’t comfortable with. You can go as little as $5 a day in any ad on Facebook. If you wanted to run a campaign for five days, start off with a $25 budget ($5 a day) and track your results. It’s small but you will be able to see some results.
There is a theory that if you don’t spend more that you won’t get bigger results. However, how are you ever going to be comfortable and confident with this if you don’t try? Start small. You may find that the smaller ads have a better or more significant reach. Tracking and monitoring is important. This will help you establish an ad strategy.
Tip #6: Advanced Options
Make sure you are checking all of those advanced options. Check every single section. If there is a down arrow, you need to be clicking on it and opening that section to make sure that all options are combed through. Some of the Facebook ads allow you to pick your start date and time but others don’t. You will only know that by clicking on an area and answering the questions.  Do I want to boost this post? Do I want to get more traffic to my website? Do I want to boost this page for more likes? Am I going to pay to have my new call to action visible?
Tip #7: Ad Location
What about the ad space on the right side of Facebook? Should you use that square shaped ad on the Facebook newsfeed? If I am scrolling the feed and I already ignore that side of the screen because they are all ads, this might not be the best place to purchase an ad. Consider using other options such as desktop and mobile advertising. Viewers are now well trained to ignore the areas of the screen where ads are more likely to be placed.

Think this might help you with budgeting and staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live! 

 Join us each week as Erin Cell of Socially Powered and Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor dive into conversations about Social Media Tools, News and Guests in the Social Media World!  

Social Seven: Tools of the Trade – Post Planner

Post Planner claims to triple your engagement and reach. Erin used the tool for her own business for a while to compare its effectiveness against simply posting natively to Facebook.
It goes back to posting images versus just posting text. Posts with images get more engagement, likes and shares than if you just use text. People are drawn towards color and visual stories. Text alone is boring. It’s good to have a healthy combination of both. There is a lot less reach with a text only post than if an image is added. One of the things Erin really likes about Post Planner is that they have added the capability to create a post in Post Planner then create an image in Canva and the tool will automatically share it. It combines the two processes into one step and saves time. It’s connected to your Facebook and Canva so all those designs are saved in both places.
Another great thing about Post Planner is that it gives you ideas about what to post. When you are drawing a blank, you can search Post Planner for images, quotes, or engaging questions to ask to boost your content management. This is similar to what Hootsuite and Buffer offers but it is more of a searchable database than a list of links. Post Planner also offers insightsfor those seeking motivation or additional ideas.
Post Planner is only $7 a month to use, with occasional sales to make it even more affordable. Therefore, it is a reasonable, cost effective tool with some decent perks to help keep up with social media management.
We’d love to hear your feedback if you have used Post Planner and it has helped your business or helped you engage your audience.
Think this might help you with scheduling content and staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live!


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