The Laptop Mom

How to Generate Loyal Followers (it starts with a smile)

February 1st, 2012

Is your social media glass half empty or half full?

If you are looking to attract loyal followers and fans in social media, you may want to consider showing off your positive, optimistic, Pollyanna attitude. Being upbeat and cheerful really draws a crowd.

Let’s face it – we get enough negativity in our lives, don’t we? Between the negative outlooks on the economy or the latest depressing news stories, we’re bombarded with negativity.

Why would anyone want to follow someone who gives them more of it online?

Positive posts invigorate all who read them. People who are energized by your happy attitude are attracted to you, and want to hear more. A buoyant approach to social media is the best way to generate a community of active and loyal followers, and build lasting relationships.

How to Generate Loyal Followers Just by Being Positive and Friendly

#1: Be Authentic

Yes, it’s important to have a bright attitude, but people can see if you’re being phony. Don’t pretend to be happy when you aren’t. That’s like pasting a smile on your lips. If it doesn’t reach your eyes, everyone knows you are faking it.

If you want to share about something that is bothering you or making you angry, can you put a positive spin on it? Can you write it in an entertaining way? Add a little humor to your grumpy mood.

Computer froze up 4 times today. I want to throw it through a window. I guess that’s a sign I should take a break and go shopping. Who’s coming with me?

#2: Rebroadcast Positive Posts

Connect with positive people, and repost their inspirational messages to your community. These motivational posts will further the positive image of your brand, catch the attention of key influencers, and help build valuable, lasting relationships.

#3: Roll Out the Welcome Mat

Don’t be shy! Write on your new friend’s wall, give them a shout out on Twitter, or comment positively on one of their posts. When your community is growing very quickly, it becomes almost impossible to extend personal greetings to everyone, but don’t resort to automatic messaging.

These often evoke negative feelings. Select a few interesting new followers and send each a message. Include something personal you’ve learned about them from their page. This will engage new followers and establish authentic connections.

#4: Ignore Negative Nellies (Yes, it happens, even to us Positive Patties)

How do you respond to that guy who calls you names and tells you that your opinion is stupid? You don’t. Spending time and energy in negativity is a detriment to your positive branding. Breathe, smile, and move on.

This approach does not apply when a customer is complaining about your product or company. Ignoring that kind of post can lead to increased anger and retaliation. Use good customer service skills and keep a level head.

#5: Be Funny and Entertaining

What’s the number one thing your fans and followers want? To be entertained!

Get over it! People are not visiting your Fan Page or following you on Twitter to hear more about your products and services. They only come back if you are highly entertaining.

Give ‘em what they want, in your own friendly way, and you’ll generate a happy, loyal community.

Remember social media is a virtual extension of YOU. Let your beautiful smile shine through, and you will establish loyal, lasting relationships based on happiness and success.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone wrote your positive posts, day in and day out, creating celebrity-status social media for you? Get all of the valuable benefits of Social Media, with none of the work. Check out our Ghost Tweeting (aka Social Media Done for You)!

1 Comment | Tags: community, Facebook, how to use social media, how to use twitter, Laptop Mom, Nika Stewart, Social Media, social media communication, social media engagement, social media for business, social media posting, social networking, Twitter
Category: business, social media, social networking, Twitter

How To Connect On Social Media (#1 Tip from @RickiLake)

January 31st, 2012

Social media has changed the world forever. In just 140 characters or an update to your Facebook status, you have the potential to connect with a complete stranger in the same town or across the globe. In an instant, Friendships are being formed. Business is taking place. People are connecting. And the world will never be the same.

But it isn’t that easy…

Many people are standing on the sidelines of social media, unsure of how to jump into the conversation and contribute their thoughts. There is uncertainty about how one can form bonds with people they have never met “face to face.”

Are you one of many asking the question, “how?”

That is why we are here and you can know one thing for sure… You are in the right place! We have teamed up with Ricki Lake, one of the most engaged celebrities on social media, to share 5 tips for connecting with people in an instant on social media.

Watch this video to hear Ricki Lake’s #1 Tip for Connecting on Social Media

2. Be Respectful.

Leave judgment at the door and respect that other people on social media have beliefs and opinions that are their own. This is what makes them unique! Just as in offline relationships, if you want to make friends, you have to be one first. If you want people to respect you, start by being respectful of them.

3. Be Inspiring.

People like social media for many reasons. Many will share that they feel uplifted and empowered to live their best life by connecting with inspiring and positive people. If you want to make a lot of friends on social media, be inspiring. Be encouraging. Be a friend.

4. Be Generous.

The more you offer to help others in life, the more “likeable” you will be. When on social media you can help others by supporting their work. Take the time to mention people, and give them positive feedback. When you re-tweet or share the content of others they feel good and are more likely to appreciate and connect with you. Remember, “it’s not about me, it’s about we”.

5. Find a Fun Community!

Following a hashtag community on Twitter or joining a group or community on Facebook is a great way to connect with people who are like you and who are usually looking for the same type of connection you are looking for. Twitter and Facebook are the largest gathering of individuals on the planet. Communities are simply small groups within. Think of communities on social media as you would small break-out sessions at a very, very large conference. The name on the door is the community. Pick the door that tells you that you share common interests with those on the other side. Then, open the door, step inside and say hello via a tweet or a post on the Facebook wall. You will be surprised that many are waiting for… you!

If you are looking for a community that is based on friendship and connection, please join Ricki Lake and the Friends of Ricki for a very special announcement and a first hand look at social media connection on Ustream at http://ustream.tv/rickilake and using Twitter hashtag #FriendsofRicki at 5pm PST this Wednesday, February 1. We look forward to seeing you and connecting with you there!

Do you have any ideas or questions about making connections on social media? Please leave your thoughts in the comments and let’s discuss.

No Comments | Tags: how to use social media, how to use twitter, ricki lake show, ricki lake social media, ricki lake twitter, Social Media, social media communication, social media engagement, social media for business, social media plan, social media strategy, twitter tips
Category: business, social media, social networking, Twitter

Why Retweets Equal Implied Endorsement (and How to Get More of Them)

January 20th, 2012

“RT @(you): Your post is worthy of rebroadcasting to my valuable community. I want them to see how awesome you are!”

A “retweet” is a rebroadcasting of your post to someone else’s community. If a twitter user finds your message inspiring, informative, entertaining, or simply worthy of re-sharing, they will repost it, citing you as the original writer of the post. This is one of the fastest ways to spread your message and increase your following in the Social Media universe.

Retweets mean more traffic to your blog and wesite, increased online visibility, and enhanced expert status among the Twitter community. Your increased exposure also attracts more ideal followers.

So how can you increase your chances of being retweeted by others? Here are 5 easy tips:

Retweet others

Find posts that are in alignment with your message and brand, and share them with your followers. The more you share other people’s valuable tweets, the more they want to share yours.

Keep it short, baby

You can post up to 140 characters, but for someone to retweet you, there are extra characters added (RT @yourname:). Make it easy for people to retweet you without having to edit and shorten. People also love to add comments to the retweet, making it more personal and compelling, so leave even more room for that!

Quote

Inspiring quotes are often retweeted. Find quotes that match your style and branding, and inspire your audience to think or take action.

Tweet, tweet, repeat

Don’t be afraid to post an important message several times. When you repeat your tweet, change it a bit. By re-wording your tweets, you’ll appeal to different people, and inspire more retweets to different communities.

Be different, be profound, stand out, be funny

Twitter is very busy, fast, and chaotic. To get noticed, your tweets much catch someone’s attention in the blink of an eye. Don’t be afraid to be uncommon, controversial, bold, witty, or daring. The tweets that stand out are the ones that get retreated.

No Comments | Tags: how to get retweets, Social Media, social media engagement, social media posting, social networking, Twitter
Category: social networking, Twitter

How to Post Effectively – The Proven Laptop Mom Formula

September 16th, 2011

When I first work with clients to grow their businesses on the Social Networks, I often hear:

“I don’t get how this works. Why would people care about what I ate for lunch?”

Well, if what you eat is the subject of all your social media posts, you’re right. No one will want to follow you or engage with you. You will not attract a community of your target audience, and the people you do attract will not feel loyal to you or want to invest in your services.

You are using social media to attract ideal clients, build a targeted community, and increase your expert status. So you want to post accordingly. However – that does not mean you post on one business subject all day every day.

So what types of subjects or topics should you be posting?

I want to make it easy for you. So I’m going to give you a formula.

The proven Laptop Mom formula for social media posting:

50% of your posts should be around your main area of expertise
20% of your posts should be about supportive areas of your expertise (related, aligned topics that support your subject of brilliance)
30% “Character Development” – let your audience get to know you

When you post valuable information on your area of expertise, your audience learns to trust you. Your “guru” status grows every day.

Posting topics related to your specific expertise shows that you are well rounded. This increases engagement. You community begins to see you as a trusted resource.

And why – when you are looking to build business – do you post about yourself, your family, your hobbies, etc.? Because of human nature. We all love those warm connections – when we feel we aren’t alone.

“Oh, you have an obsession with scrapbooking? Me too. Where do you get your stamps?”

“I let my dog sleep in the bed with me, too. People say I’m crazy just like you!”

“I know how you feel! I’m on my third cup of coffee, also.”

These posts are not about business, and they aren’t intended to get business. They are all about connection and engagement. Your best clients are the ones who start out feeling like you get them. Do you get that?

So now that you have a formula to follow, what exactly are you going to post? For specific ideas, take a look here.

Now go connect, engage, and inspire!

4 Comments | Tags: building community, Facebook, Laptop Mom, LinkedIn, marketing your business, Social Media, social media engagement, social media posting, social networking, Twitter
Category: business, marketing, social networking, Twitter

Check out: The Laptop CEO Online Success Secrets

September 14th, 2011

I am honored to be one of the 15 women interviewed for the Laptop CEO Online Success Secrets program – a no-cost series designed to help aspiring online entrepreneurs kick overwhelm, overwork, and underpay to the curb, so you can get your business groove back fast!

My interview is one among other successful women, including Kim Englot, Michele Scism, Jennifer Bourn, and many others.

We’re sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly, so that you can model our success – and avoid our mistakes, too. This is the kind of advice I wish I had access to back when I was starting my own business. I’ve enjoyed watching many of the featured experts elevate their success, often wondering how THEY did it. Now we’ll know!

There’s something else I want you to know. When I was invited to participate I said YES immediately, knowing the dedication Gina Bell has to the highest quality of events, resources, and programs. I can’t wait to hear the interviews of my colleagues. Gina has a gift for squeezing all the goodness out of every conversation.

One online success secret I’ll share with you now is: Delegate regular business tasks to technology. Online programs will automate certain “chores” so that you can save hours of time each week, and spend that time earning more income. I’ll share a few of my favorite time-saving online gadgets in the Laptop CEO Online Success Secrets series.

The only thing left for you to do now is get your complimentary pass to The Laptop CEO Online Success Summit – including bonus gifts and chances to win valuable prizes here.

Mark your calendars! The parade of experts started on September 5th and the interviews start on the 20th. Get registered here.

See you there!

No Comments | Category: business, monetizing, work from home

3 Ways to Maximize Social Media Engagement

September 8th, 2011

You probably know that to get the best results on Social Media, you need to engage your audience. It isn’t about simply broadcasting – even if you are posting valuable information. People will only work with people whom they know, like, and trust – and they get to know, like, and trust you through interactions, conversations, and meaningful social media engagement.

If you share the right content AND effectively engage the right people, you will increase your online visibility, impact, and influence.

So how do you engage your audience? Here are 3 tips for effective social media engagement:

Keep your posts short.
Of course, on Twitter you need to keep your posts under 140 characters, but if you make them even shorter, you allow people to re-tweet you. Keeping them really short will encourage people to add a response while re-tweeting you, keeping the conversation going.

On Facebook, a recent study showed that posts 80 characters or less in length have 27% higher social media engagement rates.
Ask questions.
Questions encourage engagement. Ask for opinions. Ask your connections to share personal stories that relate to your main subject of expertise. Ask a silly question once in a while.

Don’t stick your question at the beginning or middle of your post. Posts that END with a question have a 15% higher social media engagement rate.

Start your questions with Where, When, Would, or Should. These question words require short, quick responses, so they are answered most often. (“Why” questions have low engagement rates. Why? I don’t feel like answering.)
Use photos and videos in your posts.
Photos and videos show up more in News Feeds, so you’ll get more visibility. People love to comment on photos and click on videos. Post photos of your latest work, upcoming projects, your office. Encourage your fans and connections to post their pictures on your wall, as well.

Engagement is crucial for building your reputation as an expert, spreading your knowledge to more ideal prospects, and allowing your audience to get to know you, like you, and trust you.

So now you know the Rules of Social Media Engagement!

No Comments | Tags: building community, Facebook, Laptop Mom, marketing your business, Nika Stewart, Social Media, social media engagement, social networking, Twitter
Category: business, expert status, marketing, social networking, Twitter

5 Ways to Get More Done…the Laptop Mom Way

September 2nd, 2011

Get more done. Get more done. Every entrepreneur wishes they could squeeze more into every day.

While we all have the same amount of hours in a day, some people seem to fit more in. How are these time geniuses getting so much done?

Being a mom has forced me to be more resourceful in order to master my time. Since I have more priorities to fit into every day, I need to get business tasks done extremely efficiently. This is a list of five ways that I am able to get so much done – without sacrificing family and personal needs.

S.A.D.

This is step seven in the Laptop Mom S.U.C.C.E.S.S. System: Systemize, Automate, Delegate. EVERY necessary business task must be systemized, automated, or delegated. Every one. (And if the task is NOT vital, it should be deleted.)
Boundaries

Set boundaries and stick to them. Family time is family time. Self-care time is sacred. Business time is for working on your business. We actually get much more done when we are totally focused on one thing – and not multi-tasking.
Leveraged Tools

Take advantage of tools that multiply the impact of what you are already doing. You spend dramatically less time – and reach vastly more people – when you make use of helpful technology, like autoresponders, social media schedulers, and automated file delivery systems.
Keep it Simple

Whatever you are doing, find the simplest way to do it. Strange how we purposely make things harder for ourselves. Look at your business tasks and simplify everything!
Good enough

Perfectionists: listen up! The best thing you can do to achieve time mastery is to follow this mantra: Good enough is good enough. Say it every day. Breathe. It will all turn out better than you could ever have imagined.

Implementing just ONE of these ideas will skyrocket your efficiency, which translates to more income for you. Now go get more done, and enjoy your day!

3 Comments | Tags: automate, delegate, Laptop Mom, Nika Stewart, productivity, projects, systemize, time management
Category: balancing, business, leveraging

My Dirty Little Secret for Getting Projects Done

August 25th, 2011

How to assure you finish writing that book, launch your next program, get your money-making projects out to the world

When you have a “job,” you get things done because you have to. When the boss says that a project needs to be completed by a certain day, it gets completed. Of course it does. That’s part of the job. If you didn’t get things done on schedule, you wouldn’t have the job for very long.

But when you work for yourself, all of the assumed accountability goes away. You have no one to answer to. Nobody gives you a deadline. You need to create your OWN schedule, and hold YOURSELF responsible.

And that is why so many small business owners struggle to get things done.

We start our own businesses for freedom. We become our own boss so that we don’t have to answer to anyone else. And then, because we have no one to answer to, we lose that accountability. We lose that reliable guarantee that assures that work gets done.

Having someone hold you accountable for getting things done is actually a GOOD thing! (But I still don’t want to get a job and have a boss.) So how do we create that assumed accountability without having an actual boss stand over our shoulders?

I start by publicly announcing the launch of my newest program / book / teleseminar series BEFORE it is actually completed.

Sounds simple, right? And you’ve probably heard this before. As entrepreneurs, we need to do things to hold ourselves accountable. And doing it in a public way adds to our level of accountability.

Yet some entrepreneurs still struggle to get projects completed, even if they’ve announced it publicly. They stand up at a mastermind meeting and commit to getting their book written by the next meeting. They announce in their ezine that a program will be launched on a certain date. But those dates come and go, and their projects are not completed.

Well, here is the step that is usually missing:

Add something that makes it practically impossible for you to weasel out of your commitment. Make sure the consequences of NOT getting your project done are something you could not live with.

If you tell your friends that you are going to have your new website completed by February 2, and you don’t have it completed by February 2, your friends might tease you. If you make a commitment to your mastermind group or your coach that you will write your book by March 4, and you don’t, it could be embarrassing, and you might feel disappointed in yourself for not following through.

Unfortunately, the desire to avoid that pain is not always enough to motivate us.

But the potential of even bigger pain? Well, that’s a powerful motivator!

Here is my dirty little secret…

I invite people to “pre-order” my newest program / product / book.

I announce the launch date of my program, and I offer a special early-bird, pre-order rate. Most of the time, I get a rush of orders, and this often puts thousands of dollars in my bank account.

Now I have no choice! If I didn’t get my program completed, launched, and shipped by my committed date, I would not only anger my clients and sacrifice my reputation, but I would have to repay everyone who pre-paid.

So that never happens.

I get my projects done on time because I have no choice!

Choose to put yourself in a position where you feel you have no other choice – but to get your projects done.

14 Comments | Tags: commitment, goals, Laptop Mom, motivation, Nika Stewart, productivity, projects
Category: business, leveraging, motivation

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