I am no social media expert. I think that’s such a silly title any way. Most are self-proclaimed – who am I kidding, there is no degree in being a Master of Twitter. And, even though I KNOW I’m no expert, I have my own personal rules. This applies to many things in my life, and my mother thinks I should have my own “world according to Holly” rules. Silly things like, in the mall, you should always walk down the right-hand side…just like you are driving (at least in the U.S.). Makes me crazy when people go opposite and run into you. Tangent. Apologies.
Anyway, I have little rules when it comes to social media and one of them is blogging. I don’t get why people have blogs only to post once a month…if we’re lucky. I do feel that blogging is a necessity in business. My blog keeps people abreast of the newest things I’m doing, feeling, thinking, etc. It’s all about the brand you build as a business person. Sharing sneaks for my clients builds a bit of “fame” for them. It gets them excited. Even if you only post one sneak peek image, do it. It’s a level of customer service they aren’t getting at the big studio chains.
I’m always looking for new ways to improve my blogging and my physical blog. So, I thought for this Pay It Forward, I would share what I use and how I did my blog!
For one, I’m a huge fan of my own domain and WordPress. I have control issues, okay? I don’t like knowing that someone else is controlling the blog software. I like having a domain name. I was at the store the other day and had to give my email address (like I need more solicitation emails from retail stores) and the person said to me, “OH COOL! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN DOMAIN!” – I guess it’s so second nature to me, but it made them pay attention to what I do for a living, and asked about my job. It’s advertising at the simplest level. Go figure. The level of professionalism is important to me.
So, I have my blog on its own domain, hollymccaigblog.com – why? In the rare event that my website went down, my blog might still be active. I could still communicate about my website being down. I could still remain connected. For those that don’t know, I do own Pink Ink Studios and we keep various portions of our site on separate domains for this very reason. It has happened. And, luckily, I could still communicate with our customers. It’s my security blanket.
Next, my blog theme is by ProPhoto Blogs. I have researched, gotten quotes, etc. on various other blog themes from the A-list ravers, and the price of them is not something I’m willing to sacrifice. This blog theme is reasonably priced and easy to set up on my own. If I can do something on my own, I do it. I know when I can’t and when I have to outsource something. I know what you’re thinking…how did I make the header different? Oh I’ll tell you!
I’m not a fan of Flash anymore. I know, it looks cool and all. But, in all honesty, it doesn’t work on my iPad and my iPhone. I like being able to pull up my sites for people when I’m out and about. I don’t care if you have one of those fancy sites that says it will convert for you – sometimes, it doesn’t. And, if it does…it often looks so crappy and still takes so long to load that I just bail and give up on it. I removed the Flash from my ProPhoto Blog theme header, too. I want it simple, but looking great.
So, I designed something amazing in Photoshop, then, coded it in Dreamweaver. I then, pasted that header design’s code I made in the P3 Customize menu area of my blog’s theme. Easy. If you can design, and you can code something simple in Dreamweaver (or other html software) you can do this too. Then, I simply did like everyone else with this theme, I just matched all my colors up and voila. My blog is done. If you can design, but not code. Take that to someone and get a quote. Sometimes, it’s not that expensive!
I have tried the cutesy blog storyboard templates, but I find that I don’t like them. I am drawn to large, full-sized images – individual images. So, I did away with them – well, I didn’t use them for long – and now I save all my images as 900 pixels wide and I do a sharpen on them to give them that crisp, web view ready look. And, I’m glad I did. Because, I came across a plug in that I was DYING to have!
Flaunt Books Image Voting is awesome! I love that now, my images can be voted on by my clients and their friends/family. The more they vote and tell their friends to vote, the more of a chance they get to show their images off at the top of the blog. And, the more my blog is seen. If I had all my images in a storyboard look, voting wouldn’t matter. I want them to vote on individual images. (I can choose to not allow voting, like on the image below – look at other posts to vote if you wish!)
It lets my clients interact and really push their images in front of people more and more. I love it! With that I have enabled the I LIKE button for Facebook in the P3 Customize area of the theme – these guys thought of everything. And, I’ve installed a plugin called Wibiya. This has a small bar at the bottom of your blog allowing more connections. When your readers click on the share tools, they are helping to promote your blog and your business.
And, finally, I am a big believer in filling out the SEO area of your blog theme (if this allows it) as well as setting up a Google Analytic account. You can paste this code into this theme too. Doing all this drives more traffic to your site and allows you to review stats. It’s crucial to your business to know and learn what is working and what isn’t. While most of my business comes from Facebook, Google searches are a close second. It’s so fun to hear that!
So, there you have it. My take on blogging – just one form of social media and staying in the face of everyone.
