Month: February 2015

10 Tips to Get More Followers – Courtesy of Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

If sharing is caring, Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick are the King and Queen of caring.

Hubspot’s Amanda Sibley hosted a webinar featuring Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick a/k/a The Dynamic Duo of Social Media. This was a no-nonsense webinar packed with useful information. Here are the Duo’s 10 Tips to Get More Followers:

  1. Be Valuable
    – Inform, assist, and entertain your followers
    – Pass the reshare test: create content people want to share with
    their followers
    – Embrace the NPR model: check their tweets out; you’ll want to be
    just like them
  2. Be Clever
    – Piggyback onto existing services (Kawasaki’s Alltop.com, for example, where content is ready and waiting)
    – Share what’s already popular – in a timely fashion
    – Use lists, circles and communities – take advantage of existing groups
  3. Be Gracious
    – Show a little social love and share other people’s content
    – Give thanks if someone shares your content or provides content you find valuable
    – Stay positive or stay silent
  4. Be OrganizedArt of Social Media
    – Use the right tool: Buffer, Sprout Social, Hootsuite
    – Create a calendar
    – Be consistent
  5. Be Dramatic
    – Add visuals
    – Add text on top of visuals
    – Add user-generated content
  6. Be Optimal
    – Perfect your profile – your face for profile pic; photo that tells story for cover photo
    – Add share buttons: make it easy for your followers to spread your content
    – Use optimal visual sizes for each social media forum: use largest photo
    size possible to make your photo stand out
  7. Be Bold
    – Take a stand on an issue
    – Express your personality
    – Be topical and timely: jump into the conversation when it’s hot
  8. Be Tough
    – Embrace complaints
    – Ignore trolls: you’ll come to recognize them soon enough
    – Go three rounds: let the conversation go – three responses show that
    you paid attention, and engaged your audience
  9. Be Active
    – Be calm and post often
    – Repeat your tweets – Yes, repeat your tweets – 3x, every eight hours
    – Get on Pinterest
  10. Be Curious
    – Experiment constantly
    – Watch what others do
    – Use incognito mode

Over-delivering on their promise of sharing their top 10 tips, Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick also let us in on a few power tips:

  1. You can add up to four pictures with each tweet; one picture will double your engagement.
  2. You can tag photos in your tweets and names tagged will not count as part of your 140 characters.
  3. Upload your video directly to Facebook rather than embedding a YouTube video on Facebook
  4. Promoting posts on Facebook is inexpensive and effective.
  5. In their continuing education, Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick are experimenting with paying to promote on Pinterest.

Put these tips in place, and I suspect your audience will grow and become more engaged. Keep me posted, and let me know about your success.

10 Tips to Get More Followers – Courtesy of Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick was last modified: February 19th, 2015 by Deb Nelson

Asking Bold Questions Following A Cancer Diagnosis

It’s easy to get thrown into a tailspin upon learning that you’ve got cancer, and it’s really challenging to get the information you need to make the best choices to heal your cancer.

For more than three years, I’ve been talking with cancer survivors, attending conferences, reading book after book after book, and scouring the interwebs for information about the relationship surrounding nutrition, lifestyle, and cancer diagnoses. There is no shortage of information on this topic, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because for those of us who love to explore, there’s plenty of information. Bad, of course, because so much information can seem overwhelming.

To help dial down that feeling of overwhelm, I’ve released an eBook to help people navigate the world of cancer treatment on their path to health. Heal Your Cancer: 12 Bold Questions to Ask on Your Journey to Health is offered free of charge and is designed to lend a hand to people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer. It serves as a catalyst to discussion – discussions cancer patients will want to have with friends, family, healthcare practitioners, coworkers and colleagues. These questions are by no means an exhaustive list of questions that need to be asked, yet they will serve to start much-needed dialog.

Let me know if you find this eBook helpful, and best of luck on your journey to health. Keep the conversation going; stay connected on Facebook and twitter.

Download the eBook for free here. Learn a bit about why I started researching the relationship around cancer diagnoses, nutrition, and lifestyle here.

The information on this blog post is written as a source of information only. Deb Nelson is not a doctor and has no medical training. The information contained on this site should by no means be considered a substitute for the advice of a qualified medical professional, who should always be consulted before beginning any health program. The reader is cautioned to carefully assess the risks associated with following any health program and is responsible for obtaining health care appropriate for his/her condition.
Asking Bold Questions Following A Cancer Diagnosis was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Wrestling with Your Approach to a Challenge? No Problem. Go Snowshoeing.

Here in the Northeast, we’ve been the recipients of an abundance of snow. It provides a beautiful landscape, opportunity for great recreation, and insight in approaching work challenges.

Yes, that’s right. Snow is offering up assistance to work challenges – and I’m not talking taking the day off because there’s too much of this white fluffy stuff in your driveway. What I mean is that the snow encourages us to get out of our routine, day-to-day activities, open our eyes, and let our mind wander.Snow Cat

Take a look at these two photos to the right; they are pictures of the same pile of snow. From one direction, the snow resembles a cat of the ferocious variety. From another angle, though, this clump of snow looks more like a sea lion or walrus. How many of your challenges at work could benefit from being seen through a different lens? Do a little upfront analysis by:

  1. Having a conversation or two with people from other departments.
  2. Collecting input from current and/or prospective clients.
  3. Gaining insight of advisors who have
    been there, done that.Snow Walrus

Taking a literal seat on the other side of the table will help you:

  1. See things from others’ prospective / point of view.
  2. Identify opportunities you hadn’t realized existed.
  3. Visualize impact of your actions.
  4. Reduce trial and error.
  5. Minimize unintended consequences.
  6. Eliminate poor choices.
  7. Build a coalition of support within your team / organization.
  8. Map out strategic / purposeful path.
  9. Position yourself to respond to unintended consequences.
  10. Accomplish your goals more efficiently.

Go sit in someone else’s chair, go snowshoeing, have a conversation with a co-worker or colleague; and see how your perspective changes.

Let me know how you make sure you get the input you need to meet a challenge.

Wrestling with Your Approach to a Challenge? No Problem. Go Snowshoeing. was last modified: February 9th, 2015 by Deb Nelson