Paula Wethington

How to kick start your social media efforts with just 10 minutes a day

By Paula Wethington

Years ago, I remember hearing “build it and they will come” as a theory on building social media follower counts. In other words: “Just provide the content, they’ll find us.”

But that theory was quickly proven wrong as I watched over time which social media accounts picked up followers – and which ones didn’t – despite any beautiful images, hilarious jokes or high interest content that were posted or shared.

Assuming you have a great content plan for your social media, let’s start moving that trend in the direction you want. I have a list of quick tasks that you can do in 10 minutes or less.

Pick one, two or three to do each day – however much time you have available.

And the next day, pick one, two or three more.

And so forth.

Here’s what will happen: Little steps will add up over time to your social media accounts looking more professional at first glance and thereby getting more attention. This feeds into more likes and followers; which feeds into your overall branding, marketing and content goals.

That being said: if your ultimate goal is getting page views on your website, best practices in social media will go only so far.

Your website needs to have timely, informative content and be user-friendly. Given the unpredictability of what might get attention on social media, it also is smart to study how Search Engine Optimization works and apply SEO best practices to your site so that you have a traffic source that is independent of social media whims.

But assuming your website is all in order, let’s talk social media.

Note: “Facebook page” in this checklist refers to a business or organization page; a Facebook profile is your individual / personal account.

If you are not in the habit of doing this: Write down the follower counts on all of your active social media profiles. On Facebook and Twitter, you can also look through the analytics / insights settings to find what those numbers were on Jan. 1. Moving forward, you want to track the numbers for all your accounts on a year to year basis and perhaps a quarterly or monthly basis.
Go into the settings on your social media accounts and remove authorization for any apps that have gone out of service or that you no longer use.
Go into the settings on your social media accounts to make sure that any logins that remain open are on devices you currently use.
Look at your profile photo / logo. Do the logo images match across your website, personal brand or business social media profiles? Is the logo visible and understood given the round shapes that are common now for that spot? Ask for an updated version of the logo if needed; or perhaps consider a rebranding. Is your profile photo recent and professional? Make plans to get a new picture taken if the photo is dated.
The graphics designer who made your logo may have given you a “branding palette” for social media images. If that wasn’t part of the package, you can create your own. Pick a font that you’ll use consistently for making graphics. Then pick a color palette that compliments your logo and has a mix of bright, dark and neutral colors. Save the hexcodes for those colors so that you can use the same shades consistently. If this is a DIY effort, don’t fret! You can rebrand the colors to a different palette or hire a graphics designer later if you decide you don’t like what you started with.
If you do not have a graphics designer who can make branded social media images, look up and install a graphics app or software that fits your budget and skill set.
If you do not have access to a stock art service (some graphics programs have a basic collection of icons and photos that will do just fine), do some research to consider subscribing to a service or setting up a stock photo account for a la carte photo purchases.
Create a new cover image to use on your social media accounts. The message should also be timely, not dated or old content. Use the same image or adaptions of it across your social media accounts: graphics programs can help you resize an image appropriately for each network. Of note: A new Facebook cover often results in a burst of likes because it is treated as a photo post and hits the news feed. A new Twitter, YouTube or Google + cover doesn’t hit the news feed; it’s just a profile design change.
Create a social media image or take a photo that you can use for a future project or assignment; or for frequently-used topics. It will save time when you have a collection of your own images ready to go.
Find and follow 10 new accounts on Twitter. Look through who is following you that you haven’t followed back; who is following accounts on your topic that you follow; and who is followed by accounts on your topic that you follow.
Set up saved hashtag or keyword searches on Twitter. You can create “saved searches” on desktop view that will be viewable on mobile view.
Create a new Twitter list or subscribe to someone else’s list. Private lists are seen only by you; and a common use is to privately monitor the competition or your customers. Subscriptions will let you follow someone else’s curated Twitter list and the subscription is added to your profile; but those who are on the subscribed list aren’t notified you are subscribing. Public lists are extremely useful because when you add someone to a public list, they get a notification. Of note: The fact that a profile has public lists and / or has subscribed to lists is seen as a sign that the account is actively run.
Create a Twitter list specifically to follow social media experts. The more you learn, the more you apply to the running of your accounts.
Clean up your Twitter lists. If you created them a long time ago, you might have lists that are no longer relevant or perhaps some accounts on those lists have gone silent or you no longer are interested in. An “Election 2018” list, for example, should be deleted or renamed with accounts moved to a different list.
Give two retweets or replies to tweets on Twitter. Look for conversations of interest via your Twitter lists, Twitter trending topics, hashtags on your topic or among the people you follow.
Unfollow 10 people who are not following you back on Twitter. Stop at this point, you can do more another day. This is not as critical as it was when Twitter follow/follow back limits were tighter. But it still makes sense to keep follow / follow back numbers in balance. Doesn’t it seem spammy if an account follows three, four or five times more accounts than who follows them? Hint: You can put accounts on public or private Twitter lists without actually following them.
Take a look at your Twitter profile. If someone knew nothing about you or about your business, could they understand at a glance where you are located and what information or services you provide? Be sure to add your city, metro area or at least your state in the location field! Brands and businesses often look for and follow other brands and businesses in their niche or in their community; you want to be found in those searches.
Post a photo directly to Twitter that you just posted to Facebook or Instagram. You can include up to four photos in a Twitter post.
Create a Twitter poll on a topic your followers will enjoy or find of interest. Pin the poll to the top of your Twitter account during the time the poll is active, so that you can find it quickly. After the poll is over, screenshot the results and post that image on Twitter so that people who didn’t vote can catch up.
Create a pinned post on Twitter that introduces yourself or provides a link that you don’t have room to include in the profile.
Set up a Pages to Watch list for your Facebook page. It’s a tool found under Facebook Insights. It will ask for at least five Facebook pages to start with, and you can add many more. With this dashboard, you can monitor the pages of your competitors and colleagues. Specifically, you can find what content was their top posts of the week; and see publicly available metrics such as follower counts that you can write down and track over time.
Give three likes to content on other Facebook pages via your Facebook page. Look over who is sharing your content and give a “thank you” like back. You can also look for content on pages that are on your Pages to Watch list.
Give a share from another Facebook page to your Facebook page. Because it can be difficult to get reach on page-to-page shares, look for content that is already getting a lot of likes and shares. There are third-party services that can help you find content on your chosen topics; but a simple way to do that is check your Facebook Pages to Watch list every couple of day.s
Do a search on Facebook to see if “community pages” or unclaimed pages show up with your business or brand’s name. Follow the process of claiming and deleting or merging those unclaimed pages so that when people search to do a check in or to message you, they only find your real account. Note: you can limit or prevent the creation of community pages by making sure your page’s name and profile image are current.
Go to your Facebook page settings on desktop. Find the tabs section; look over whether they are in a selection and order that makes sense for your page. If you don’t post events, for example, you can turn that tab off.
Go to your Facebook page settings on desktop and find the video section. You can toggle “featured video” off or on; and pick which video to feature. If it’s off, then the most recent video will be at the top of that section. Maybe that’s fine; but maybe a featured video is better.
Run a poll on Facebook. The current format allows for two choices, you can add square images or GIFs as the images for your choices. This method doesn’t seem to generate as much engagement as the “vote by reaction faces” tactic that was popular in 2016 and 2017. But if you hit the right topic, it can do well.
Send 15 page invites from your Facebook page to people who have liked or reacted to a post but haven’t yet followed the page. Here’s how that works.
Is there a topic your Facebook visitors ask about repeatedly? Create a pinned post on that. This is an extremely effective tool for news organizations to use during breaking news. It also works well for event promotions – create the event listing, then pin the upcoming event at the top of your page. Be sure to remove the pin when the content is old. A pinned post will NOT push that content further into the news feed; you will need other tactics to do that.
Create and distribute an FAQ list for everyone who is on your Facebook team so that they have answers for message that you receive repeatedly. Example: How do I contact the customer service department?
Set up hashtag searches on Instagram based on key words or phrases that are relevant to your account. With a saved hashtag search, you will see publicly posted content on Instagram that has that hashtag – whether or not you follow that account.
Try out an Instagram feature such as multiple photos or collage posts.
Find and follow five new accounts on Instagram. Look for accounts of interest via hashtag and location searches; or by who is followed by accounts you already follow.
Give three likes to other photos or images on Instagram. Take a look over what shows up on your stream; or what your favorite pages have posted recently.
Create an Instagram story with either photo or video and turn it into a highlight. There are some very creative ways to use highlights for marketing and promotion; think of this like a pinned post on Twitter.
Go to your YouTube channel and pick a featured video. If you don’t have a video that is appropriate for an introduction to your brand, business or organization, start brainstorming for a video you can create that will work.
Create branded covers for your Pinterest account. It doesn’t change what shows up in the news feed; but branded covers do provide a polished and professional look to your account. Take a look at my Pinterest boards.
Create a Pinterest board – or more than one – to pin and save social media tips. Bonus: pin your own best tips to Pinterest.
Add social media – or specific social media networks that you do well in – as a skill on your LinkedIn profile.
If you would like to automate crossposting to social media accounts such as a Facebook to Twitter feed or an If This Then That applet, run a test or two so you understand how it works. For example: RSS feed via IFFT of blog post or website headlines is just that – a headline. A Facebook to Twitter feed is limited to 280 characters.
Do you want to learn a new skill to use on your social media accounts such as standup videos? Take a few minutes to research available tutorials and software options; bookmark the links to follow up on later.
Give a crossover shout out on one of your social media accounts to encourage people to follow you on another. “Like us on Twitter? Follow us on Facebook at …”

Do you geek out on social media? Check out my massive collection of links and tips on Pinterest!

A social media checklist before a people’s choice contest begins

By Paula Wethington

‘Best of’ and ‘people’s choice’ contests have been around long before social media was a ‘thing.’ Even in 2018, you might see coin boxes for a “cutest baby” contest during a festival and paper balloting during a chili cook-off.

That being said, online balloting is how many of “people’s choice” contests have been run during the past 10 years. And for those, it is commonly understood that social media is part of the marketing strategy.

The reason: people who are on social media are just one click away from finding your name on a ballot.

However! If you only post on social media to ask people for votes, have outdated information on your social accounts, or started a social account just as a contest began, it can look a bit spammy or at least odd. This is why about a month out from launch, or as soon as you know that you are entering such a contest, you should review your professional or business social media presence and refresh it as needed.

Even if you don’t win a prize, the fact that your name appears on a ballot gets attention. People will look you up. You don’t want to miss that opportunity to show off who you are and what you do.

Therefore: think through this social media checklist before such a contest begins:

1. Review the photo or logo on your social media profiles

If you had a special logo on your page for a campaign or a season, but the project is done; flip it back to your standard logo. If your profile photo is over two years old, fuzzy or hard to see on a small screen, get a new one taken.

If you have one image on some accounts, but another image on others, can people can recognize you across platforms? This can be complicated when you have both business and personal profiles; I run into that myself. But I try to maintain some visual consistency among my accounts.

2. Review the profile / bio on your social media profiles

Read your profiles through the perspective of someone who knows nothing about you. It might not be specific or helpful enough. What can you say in 140 characters or less that tells them what you do and what your specialty is?

Remember to include a geographic location in the profiles! Surprisingly, I have seen numerous professional accounts that fail to include what city, or even which state, the company or individual is from or does business in. This is relevant information if you are competing in a geography-based “people’s choice” contest.

In addition:

Do you use “story highlights” on Instagram? Check to see that those stories are fresh or current. If not, delete and replace them.
Did you fill out the “your story” feature on Facebook page? It’s so new that you might not have included it as part of the page setups. But it’s there and can be seen by others.
Do you use the “pinned post” feature on Twitter or a Facebook group? Even if that information is still current, consider replacing it with a new pin because people can see the dates on the Twitter post in particular.

3. Review the cover art images on your social media accounts

Some people post a “vote for me” message as a social media cover art images during such a campaign.

But before the contest starts, review what you have as cover art and update or refresh that as needed. Ideally, a cover image will represent or portray in visual format a message, idea, location or concept that gets interest from your target audience. The image or mood also should be consistent across your profiles.

It’s also worth noting that the sizing can look different on desktop and mobile view; so you’ll want to be sure to review how it looks on multiple devices.

Of note: Pinterest doesn’t have traditional “cover art” options; but a business account on Pinterest can have showcase boards and a featured pin collection. Choose the options that work best for you.

4. Know who your target audience is, and what content they like

What are the demographics of those who are most likely to vote for you?

Be social with them and build up your audience before the contest begins, so they know who you are! Start or participate in conversations on content they are interested in. Give follows, comments, likes, links and shares as appropriate to your industry, cause, business or brand.

And thank your friends and fans for voting you as “best of… ” whatever in a previous contest.

5. Starting accounts from scratch – a reminder

It’s perfectly fine to have a new social media profile without many fans or likes. Everyone needs to start somewhere. But people do need to like what they see when they come to your social media profile; and they need to see that you will be active.

Therefore, if you are starting from scratch or haven’t used the account much: Get some new posts and retweets or shares on the account before you go on a following spree and / or the “best of” contest begins.

What are the first nine images they’ll see on Instagram? What are the first five posts they’ll see on Twitter? Do you have an upcoming event that can be posted on your Facebook page?

Good luck with your contest efforts!

For practical ideas and how-to’s on social media branding, take a look at the Branding Tips pin collection I have in my Pinterest collection.

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Digital media strategy explained as a chocolate cake recipe

By Paula Wethington / @WethingtonPaula

Digital / social media strategy is like a recipe for a chocolate birthday cake.

If you do everything right, you create awesomeness that wins blue ribbons and bragging rights.

(Been there, done that!!)

But if you miss a step or key ingredient, the friends you are serving the cake to might realize it’s a bit off or they’ve had better. The challenge is they might not understand what is wrong with your baking creation; and even if they do, they might not tell you.

If it’s really bad, they may politely ask for apple pie the next time you offer to make dessert.

But unless you were paying close attention while assembling and mixing the ingredients, you might not figure out exactly what went wrong.

Here’s how the creation of an awesome chocolate birthday cake is like the creation of awesome digital media strategy:

The cake (website) ingredients

Here’s the list of ingredients to assemble:

Eggs = The basics: who, what, when, why, where and how and specific keywords. People use search engines to find answers to these questions. As a result, content, headline, subheads, description box and photo captions must be filled out with words and phrases that present the basic message.
Butter = Accurate and reliable content is like choosing the very best ingredients in your cake. Just as you shouldn’t trade butter out for cheap margarine, don’t take shortcuts on research that becomes the foundation of your content. Explaining how and where you learned or found the information helps build trust factor among the audience.
Sugar = Sweeten it up. Look for interesting topics, or an interesting angle on an otherwise routine topic. When you localize or explain national statistics with a reference to your community, it becomes more appealing to the target audience. They’ll be more likely to understand the core message.
Vanilla = You’ll notice at the taste testing if vanilla is missing from the cake recipe. This is like failing to include an image or photo on a website story. Yes, technically, the cake will bake. Yes, technically, a text-only website post can be read. The reality in both situations is that missing it will not work as well. Photos grab attention on an email newsletter and on social media. Branded or one-off graphics are easy to make on a service such as Canva or Snappa if you don’t have photos or file art that fits. Bottom line: Don’t forget the vanilla!
Flour = The flour in a cake represents reliability as it is a critical ingredient for the recipe. You apply the idea of reliability to website content by having the information available when people are looking for it. Plan ahead for topics that are recurring or seasonal; and act fast during breaking or trending news in your niche, to build the reputation of reliability.
Baking soda = This ingredient makes the cake batter rise. But it’s a little box and a usually just a teaspoon, so it’s easy to forget. A detail in website programming that’s easy to overlook is adding alt tag descriptions to the images. You’ll understand why this detail is important the next time you hit “image search” when doing a Google search.
Salt = Salt can help enhance the flavors of the cake when a batter recipe calls for it. Does your content call for the context of an author’s note to explain that this is something special or different? If so, add that.
Cocoa = This is what makes the cake chocolate flavored and not vanilla. If you want your content to be “not vanilla” in comparison to what can be found elsewhere on social media on the Internet, then you explain the content a bit better, go more in depth or take extra effort in the visual presentation. This is what multimedia extras such as video or map embeds can do. People will linger a little longer on pages that have such content.

Now it’s time for mixing the cake batter. While you do that, double check your list of ingredients to make sure you did not skip anything.

Selecting the shape and size of the cake pan you will pour the batter into is like selecting what category keywords you want that content to be found under.

The 8-inch circle pan size is the most common presentation; and maybe that’s exactly what you want. But a heart-shaped pan is a little more special. And the sheet cake pan bakes the treat in potluck party-friendly format.

Does your website article need only your routine category tags? Or does this also warrant “breaking news” or “editor’s choice?”

Putting the filled cake pan in the oven is like posting it on the website. This is the “baking process” that takes place when you hit “post” or “send.”

It’s going to be a cake. It’s going to be on your website. Yay!

The icing (social media) ingredients

You can certainly eat an unfrosted cake after it is taken out of the oven.

But you probably want icing on that cake.

Think about this: If you offer a spatula covered with icing leftovers and a spatula covered with cake batter leftovers to a friend who is working with you in the kitchen, which one do you think will be grabbed first?

This is what social media does to website content: social media attracts and interests a larger audience. Do some research on how much traffic comes to your website from social channels! It’s not all search engine traffic, although they do work hand in hand.

With a popular buttercream chocolate icing recipe as the theoretical example, here are the ingredients to creating the icing and how they represent your social media efforts:

Butter = Just as with cake, real butter in the icing mixture represents quality. Get your “quality” message across with coherent writing and appropriate visuals. Include a “call to action” if appropriate of what you want people to do after reading the message.
Powdered sugar = Just like with website content, social media content needs to be interesting. That’s what sugar can do. But powdered sugar is not the same formulation as granulated sugar. Do some research on preferred writing and visual presentations for the social networks you are working in; it is not the exactly same as writing for SEO purposes. Paying attention to those little details makes a difference on the results you’ll get with your social media efforts.
Cocoa powder = Cocoa powder is what makes the icing chocolate flavored and not vanilla. Brainstorm and settle into your unique perspective and brand personality so that you stand out from others who are posting on that same topic.

Blend all that together and frost your cake!

The decorating (social media extras) steps

Now did you decide to put birthday candles or candies on that cake so it is extra special? Of course! It’s a birthday cake.

You can also give your social media efforts an extra touch by creating a branded look to your social media.

But now I think it’s time to make a cup of coffee to accompany my theoretical piece of chocolate cake!

I work as a reporter and social media team member at The Monroe News in Monroe, Mich. Years ago, I really did win a county fair blue ribbon for a chocolate cake.

This post was updated March 22, 2018

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How to pick branded colors for your social media images

By Paula Wethington / @WethingtonPaula

If you hire a consultant to help with personal or business branding, or purchase a premade branding package, the services will likely include a style sheet or branding board that showcases a selection of colors.

That being said: maybe you are in a do-it-yourself situation for your “look,” and the design concept has become overwhelming.

Don’t skip the color palette decisions.

You’ll love the results when you can pick up a carefully selected crayon box, so to speak, and start using it on a project.

Here’s how I ended up with my choices of dusty rose, off black and complementary colors. As you’ll see, it’s not the first range of colors I had in mind.

1. Set up an idea board on Pinterest

When I decided to give color branding a try, I created a board on my Pinterest account called “color theory,” where I pinned a huge collection of articles and infographics about the use of color in design.

Along the way, I pinned color palettes that struck me as interesting.

If you hire a designer, he or she may suggest as part of the process that you build an idea board on Pinterest so they can understand the direction that represents “you.”

Did anything strike me as “that’s it!” right away? No.

As a result, I went in another direction for research:

2. Use Canva’s color palette generator

You may have heard of Canva, or already use it to create social media graphics. But this particular tool is a terrific feature on its own merits:

Go to Canva color palette generator and upload your logo or a photo that represents the look you want. See how the color range settles out. Do you like it?

I had a lot of fun playing around with this site.

When you seem to be going in the right direction, get a screenshot and / or write down the hexcode numbers on the color bubbles. You’ll use those hexcodes as a reference point at the next step.

3. Make some sample images

Now adapt an idea from the designers and create a simple infographic in your favorite graphic design program to be your “branding board.” This image displays the colors and fonts for your branding look, accompanied by any patterns or inspiration images.

Although you can save preferred colors in some programs once you get going, how do you find and replicate that exact shade to begin with?

The color hexcode from your designer or the generator tool is the key.

5. How do your colors work in real life?

Because I felt overwhelmed with choices I saved on Pinterest, I started my personal brand color efforts spinning off my recent business photos!

I thought my teal blue blazer could be a great signature color and the Canva palette generator came back with this range:

But after using it for about 20 to 30 images, I decided I really didn’t like this combination at all. It wasn’t “me,” despite the fact I look terrific in that blue blazer.

6. Keep experimenting.

I finally decided I wanted a dark red, dusty pink, and dusty purple as my core colors; with off white and off black as the neutrals. They are feminine and creative, but not too trendy. My teal blue business jacket looks fine with that color range; as do other fashions I tend to wear.

After I made a couple dozen graphics with this palette for my social media accounts, I realized this was right combination. But I needed a few more colors. I don’t like a “monochromatic” look.

I took another look at my Pinterest board, to see what choices I had saved as “likes” that might blend in. With that review, and some cross referencing on the palette generator, I picked shades of navy blue, purple and tan to include in my collection.

The result: version 2 of my branding board.

You can see the results by looking over my Instagram and Pinterest accounts, as using branded colors on social media images is a huge trend on both networks.

How to make branded Pinterest board covers

By Paula Wethington @WethingtonPaula

Have you seen Pinterest accounts where each board has a themed cover image that matches the brand or account?

It’s easier to create this visual cue than one might think. If you do it, you can create a very professional appearance for your Pinterest account!

To explain, branded or themed covers is a visual design element. It is possible to do on Pinterest because you can pick one image to serve as the “cover” for each board or collection. Think of the design opportunities as you compare this to the cover images on your Facebook or Twitter accounts. The board cover is seen as a bigger image on your Pinterest page than other recent pins.

However! The vertical images that best work on Pinterest don’t always fit into the square space for covers. How can you get around that?

The answer: you can design a collection of image specifically for the covers. And because so few businesses or individuals create branded covers on Pinterest, this is very impressive when done well!

If you don’t have graphic design software or need a free option, an easy way to do this project is through a image creation service called Canva.

Since writing the original version of this post in March 2017, I have since started using another budget-friendly image creation service, Snappa, for some of my image designs.

Either service will work just fine for this project.

1. Color selections

If you have already picked a color palette as part of your logo or branding kit, those are the colors you will select from.

If not, then pick a photo or your logo as your starting point. Your social media profile image is a logical choice. Now go to the Canva Color Palette generator. Upload your image.

You’ll get something like this – a color palette that was based off a photo of me in a teal business jacket:Take screenshot of the five colors with the hexcode numbers that appear beneath them. Paste that along with a copy of your logo into a word document. Now you have the color choices as a reference point.

But as you try these out, you may decide you want other colors. I did.

That’s why I saved a whole lot of ideas on my Pinterest board about color theory. I ended up picking what I liked best from multiple palettes and came up with my new social media color scheme. The rose, gray and off black palette doesn’t exactly match the photo of me in a teal jacket. But this range of colors works much better for creating images!

2. Font selections

Now look through the Ultimate Guide for Font Pairing as found on Canva Design School’s blog. You’ll find samples of fonts that work well together and suggestions of which designs fit specific themes.

Make a note of font names that you think fit your brand, project or persona and try them out on a few samples.

I picked Lora font as my go-to font choice long before I settled on my social media branding colors!

3. Create the square template

You may find tutorials on the web referencing the former rectangle sizings for Pinterest cover images. Use the designs as inspiration, but ignore the sizing ratios.

Instead, the current sizing for that space is square. I’ve experimented with both 800 px by 800 px and 1080 px by 1080 px. Either one will work.

Pick a color from your palette to serve as a background and start making some designs. You will use the hexcode to tell Canva or Snappa what colors you want. (Canva has helpful Design School tutorials to help get you started)

4. Design a sample

If you are working in Canva and hope to keep this effort budget-friendly, I recommend you select from the free templates and icons. The reason is you’ll pay for every download on premium images and you may have quite a few samples and covers by the time this is all done.

But play around with your options.

Type a headline and text using the fonts you already chose.

Pick colors from your palette and change the colors of your headline and text.

Do you like what you see? If not, keep trying. This sample was made I was brainstorming my early choices.

When you end up with an arrangement you like, save and download it.

Now download and paste some sample designs into the document that has your logo, photo and hex code images. This file is now your style guide, sometimes called a branding board.

5. Make one Pinterest cover

Create your first Pinterest cover. Include the board name with your headline font. Download your image.

Go to Pinterest. Tap the + sign and load it up as a image pin to the selected board. You can fill in that link box to lead to your website or even back to that Pinterest board.

After the image pin is uploaded, go to the edit feature for that board and change the cover. Since it’s your most recent pin, you’ll find it quickly.

Do you need to make the words larger? Move the logo to a slightly different spot? Do you want to change the colors?

If it just doesn’t look right, delete the pin and start over.

6. Make the rest of your covers

If you are using Canva, you can’t copy and paste work from one image into a new image. There are options for resizing images and saving brand colors in Canva for Work, but definitely not in the free usage side.

The workaround is treat your first image as a template. Create and download one. Now go back to your dashboard in Canva, change the text on the image, download that with a different file name. Repeat.

If you have a membership to Snappa, you can save and duplicate images as you make a collection.

The ones I made on the Monroe News account are from Canva; the ones currently on my account are on Snappa.

7. How many do you need?

Do you need a branded cover on every Pinterest board? My theory is no. Focus on the boards that complement each other and are the primary theme of your account.

Boards that focus on just for fun or personal interests can have slightly different covers or no covers. Remember that unrelated boards can be sorted to the bottom of your page or hidden in the secret board tab.

Group boards also are a complicated situation in that only the board originator can create and set a cover. If you are the leader and wish to design a cover, go ahead; otherwise, don’t worry about it. After all, group boards are their own niche purpose on Pinterest.

For example: One of my group boards is a joint board between me and the newspaper where I work. I styled the cover for the design used on the newspaper’s Pinterest account.

Want more tips?

Pinterest works very differently from other social media networks – and not just because of the demographics that skew toward females.

It’s best understood as a search engine where evergreen content can continue to pick up an audience for months (and sometimes years) as long as the image and description fit the visual searches of Pinterest . As a result, it’s a nice counterpoint to time-sensitive or viral content you may be posting on other social networks.

I have quite a bit of pins on several social media topics in my Pinterest collection. If you’re specifically looking for a discussion and examples about branded Pinterest covers, check out what Brilliant Business Moms has posted at How to Make Pinterest Board Covers in 2017 – and Why You Need Them!

This post was written March 24, 2017; and updated May 19, 2017.

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100 awesome hashtags for writers, journalists, photographers

By Paula Wethington / @WethingtonPaula

Let’s say you’re spending way too much time on Pinterest (waving hand…) and randomly come across a treasure trove of social media inspiration: pins pointing to collections of recommended hashtags for use on Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Let’s assume further that some of those lists were curated specifically for niche topics and interests such as entrepreneurs or photographers.

Wow! That’s gold for the right audience.

With that inspiration, here’s a list of 100 hashtags that I’ve collected by poking around on Instagram and on Twitter on the theme of Awesome Hashtags for Writers, Journalists, Photographers. I included hashtags for my broadcast friends in this collection even though my career is on the print and digital side.

Many of these hashtags are now saved in a notes file on my iPhone for quick reference. After all, I work in a newsroom. #newsroomlife

#abovethefold (did you know this old school phrase is now website design jargon?)
#behindthescenes
#caffeinateandconquer
#camerabag
#cameracrew
#cameragear
#cameralove
#cameraman
#cameraporn
#ClarkKent
#coffeebreak
#coffeegram
#coffeeoftheday
#columnist
#comics
#comicstrip
#copyeditorproblems
#digitaljournalism
#digitalmagazine
#digitalmedia
#editors
#electionnight
#electionnightpizza
#fakenews (this one is way too timely to ignore)
#firstamendment
#fourthestate
#fourfreedoms – or if you prefer, #fivefreedoms (First Amendment phrasing)
#freelancerlife
#frontpage
#headlines
#journalism
#journalismlife
#journalist
#journalista
#journalistlife
#journoproblems
#newsanchor
#news
#newsflash
#newspage
#newspaper
#newspaperart
#newspaperbag
#newspaperbox
#newspaperarticle
#newspaperclipping
#newspaperdesign
#newspaperfeature
#newspaperhat
#newspapering
#newspaperpic
#newsprint
#newsreporter
#newsroom
#newsroomcoffee
#newsroomfun
#newsroomlife
#newsroompizza
#newsroompokemon
#newsroomproblems
#newsstand
#onlinemagazine
#onlineradio
#onmydesk
#ontheblog
#pagedesign
#partylikeajournalist (this one will get the attention of @journalistslike)
#photobomb
#photogram
#photography
#photographer
#photojournalism
#photojournalist
#photooftheday
#photostudio
#picoftheday
#presshat
#pressrun
#presspass
#presspassmemories
#producerproblems
#radio
#radioboss
#radioonline
#radioproblems
#radioshow
#radiostation
#radioweb
#reporterlife
#reporterproblems
#SundayFunnies
#SundayPaper
#TVproblems
#video
#videogram
#videooftheday
#visualcrush
#writersblock
#writerlife
#writersofinstagram

You can find me on Instagram at @paulawethington where my hashtags have included #ClarkKent #partylikeajournalist and #newsroompokemon.

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How to pick out Twitter bots from Twitter newbies

By Paula Wethington @WethingtonPaula

If you follow back too fast on Twitter, or rely too much on automated searches when seeking out your fan base, you might very well be missing the newest and most likely fans to follow you back while following more spammers than you intended.

This is why I go through a pretty detailed process when sifting out bots from real people.

I don’t just look at the photo, the location line or the profile description. I look over the entire profile, about three to four tweets and sometimes also who they are following.

Here 10 clues that can lead you in the right direction:

Does the name, profile, location, image and cover make sense as a whole package? If you have a good understanding of your target audience, you’ll know whether this adds up. I’ve seen some laughingly chaotic combinations on spambot accounts claiming to be from nearby towns.
Who is this person following? If the account is following a lot of random celebrity accounts and I have no other clues that this is a real person, I pass. A real person in my target demo is probably following real people I already follow or know about.
Are they posting clickbait headlines from a URL you don’t know? Yes, some legit Twitters autofeed blog content and headlines either as their sole content or to fill in the gaps throughout the day. But clickbait titles give a clue as to what you’ll find on those sites.
Is the content Not Safe For Work? Block those accounts immediately; and if you are so inclined, report and then block.
Does the cover art promote buying followers? Using the cover art and profile link to send people to a spammy website has been quite a popular tactic. It doesn’t matter a whole lot what content is posted; they’re trying to get you to click on the link in profile.
Does the content match the hashtag they are using? It’s a popular spammer strategy to hashtag their way into an unrelated trending topic. That being said, the tactic is against the Twitter Rules.
Are they following way more people than they follow back? I’m not worried about a 10 or 20 percent difference because it’s rather easy for small or growing accounts to skew off balance. I’m talking about a 50 or more percent lag in people who follow back.
Are they following way fewer people than they follow back? This is the other extreme; and is sometimes a sign of a quick turnaround “follow / unfollow” strategy. There are very few accounts where I will accept a small percentage of follow backs on Twitter as a legitimate approach.
Does the account profile include favorites and lists? Not everyone uses these features; and newbies or inactive people are less likely to understand them. But someone who has set up those features is more likely to be a real Twitter user than a spambot.
If this is a business or organization, can you find their website independently to check the account name? Most, although not all, organizations include links to their official social media on their websites. This bit of research can help you verify the authenticity of a particular account in the absence of a verified check. And unfortunately, it’s been harder than some brand and business users would like to get that verified check.

Would you like more Twitter tips? Check out my Pinterest board on that topic!

This post was made March 18, 2017; and updated May 19, 2017.

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Checklist: How to be a Twitter rock star

By Paula Wethington / @WethingtonPaula

Are you ready to give up on Twitter as a communications and marketing opportunity because followers and conversations don’t seem to happen?

Don’t! It’s easier than you might think to build a sizeable and targeted audience on Twitter. After you have an established community on that network, you have a starting point to move those contacts to an email list or your other social networks.

The challenge is you can’t grow an account too fast or Twitter will take note. Twitter’s rules include this statement: “We do monitor how aggressively users follow other users.”

And yes, those policies are enforced. I remember hitting the initial follow ceiling when it was set at 2,000 (it’s now 5,000) and needing to drop who I followed in response until I was eligible for a bump. I also saw a friend’s account get a warning from Twitter one day because the bots took notice of a spurt in follows. The following activity was legit, it was just too fast for Twitter.

The point is: with a slow, steady and consistent effort to build your Twitter account, you can pick up up enough followers to send traffic to your site, run a poll, promote newsletter subscriptions, get a response to your photos, host a chat, etc.

Follow these slow but steady steps for best results:

1. Fill out your Twitter profile.

Do not follow anyone on Twitter before you have account setups done. It’s like introducing yourself at a party when you’re not dressed for the occasion.

Even spambots are programmed to appear at first glance to be a real person before they launch following sprees and spew nonsense into the stream.

You’re far more real than a spambot. Act like it.

In social media jargon, tweaking your profile setups is called “optimization” or “branding.” It means making sure that at one glance, someone can understand who you are or what you represent – and what you are most likely to post about.

Here’s what to do on Twitter:

Pick a user name and handle that represent you, your company or your project.
Fill out the profile line.
Add a location that makes sense to people who might find you or search for you.
Add a profile photo. Choose a person’s face or a business / brand logo.
Add a cover photo. Use this space to feature a mood, scenic or group photo; portray a campaign or project; even promote an event. Pro tip: Use the free tools in Canva to create a Twitter cover that can include text while being sized correctly.

2. Decide who you would like to follow you.

The followers you want might include friends, family members, current and potential customers, active / chatty people who are likely to retweet your content, colleagues and competitors; perhaps news media who report on your community or favorite topics.

Now that you have your profile set up, make a list of Twitter accounts you know about and go follow them. A trick for finding official accounts: go to your favorite websites to see if there are links to their social media.

Follow 10 to 50 accounts and call it a day. Continue this effort gradually during the next few days if there are more accounts you want to follow.

Remember: Twitter will not like it if you follow too many people too fast.

3. Plan what you will tweet about.

One advantage to Twitter is that promotional messages are seen by your audience in real time just as if they were other topics of the day. There is not a complicated formula skewing potential views as is done by Facebook.

But to attract followers and keep them, you must focus on high-interest content that isn’t consistently “sales” oriented. You will run into trial and error as to what conversations, trending topics, news events, retweets, links and topics get the best response.

You might also find demographics of your followers on Twitter affects the timing or content choices. That’s fine. As your account grows and there is content to review, you can study the analytics and adjust your plan.

Even when you wish to focus on a theme or concept, Twitter allows a range of creative opportunities. For example, trending topics often include puns from brands and celebrities who noticed a conversation and decided to jump in. A news outlet can run a sports fan poll in addition to the headlines of the day. “Real-time” tweeting of historical events is a tactic that National Weather Service accounts have used for special projects.

The more significant problem is posting no content at all. An account that is inactive for 30 days or more is at high risk of being unfollowed. Third-party apps can help people identify too-quiet accounts and unfollow them. This is why an inactive account eventually WILL be dropped by people who actively manage their Twitter accounts.

4. Create Twitter lists.

In my opinion, the best – and most overlooked – feature on Twitter is Twitter lists. This helps you organize accounts as you follow their conversations. Lists also provide clues to people that your account is actively managed and what topics you are interested in.

Here’s how to set the Twitter lists up.

You can designate a list as public or private. Accounts you add to a public list will be notified just as they get a notification when they are followed. You also don’t need to follow someone to add them to a list.

The advantages and applications:

Add an account to an appropriate Twitter list after adding them to make sure they know you noticed them.
Create awesome names for your Twitter lists so these notifications stand out.
Create a list to showcase project team members or co-workers.
Create a widget for your blog or website with on a Twitter list.
Create lists of accounts you want to watch for content ideas or retweets.
Monitor a competitor via private list without giving them a public follow.

5. Look up other Twitter lists.

Now that you understand how Twitter lists work, look at accounts you follow or are followed by to see what lists they created or have been placed on. See if there are accounts on those lists you also would like to follow – either for their content or in hopes of getting follow backs.

Caution! Finding a highly curated list of active accounts on a favorite topic will feel like hitting a gold mine on Twitter. You cannot follow new accounts too fast or Twitter will think you are a spambot. Pick 10 to 50 to start with, then wait another day or two before you follow more. Pro tip: “Subscribe” to a gold mine list until you have pulled the potential contacts into your public follows or created your own list.

By following these tips, you’ll pick up relevant follows and follow backs and have a Twitter fan base worth bragging about.

If you’re interested in this topic, take a look at my Twitter Tips board on Pinterest!

This post was written in February 2017 and updated May 2017.

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