Social Media Tips

Now I'm not claiming to be an expert {because I honestly don't think there can be such a thing} but I wanted to share some social media/blogger tips. These are things I've learned from others that have really seemed to help me and more often than not had me saying 'oh my goodness I had know clue, thanks'. 

Twitter - The Power of the @ symbol

Do you want to promote someone on twitter? Do you want all of your followers to know about someone you love or a great article or post? Then listen up. If you are like me and just look at your main feed in twitter {I'm sorry, who has time to click on each person and read ALL their tweets and replies} then you will only see stuff tweeted or retweeted by the people you follow. Sounds simple enough right?! Well I think the @ symbol tends to confuse some people. For example I want to tell all my followers about this great new song Blake Shelton has and I want to tag him because maybe {or never} he will RT me or reply. So my tweet could be :: @blakeshelton I'm so in love with your new single, you should come to ND to party with us. ESPN knows how awesome we are, you could see too! :: Now who will see this tweet? Unless you follow me and @blakeshelton this will not show up in your normal twitter feed. The @ symbol at the start of your tweet makes it more of a private message for anyone who follows you and the person you tagged. Something as simple as a period in front of the @ symbol will change that tweet so now all of your followers can see that you liked the new Blake Shelton single {and are a NDSU fan}. Here is another Example; I want to promote my fellow North Dakota blogger and her awesome DIY project and I know not all my followers follow her as well, so I'm going to make sure they see it :: @SamanthaMarie_8 just made an awesome DIY headboard & has an easy tutorial > Check her out :: . @SamanthaMarie_8 just made an awesome DIY headboard & has an easy tutorial > Check her out :: Now everyone who follows me is going to see that Samantha has a great DIY headboard not just the people who already follow both of us and probably already saw she had a DIY post about her headboard. 

Blogger Comments - Reply Feature *for blogger comments, does not apply to disqus or other comment services*

Someone just left you a great comment on your post and you want to say thanks or reply to their question. So you hit Reply while in your post, seems logical right?! WRONG. This essentially does ... Nothing! Unless the person who left you the comment is someone who goes back and checks all their comments {again who has time for that nonsense} to see if you replied they have no notification when you use the Reply feature. What you need to do is make sure you are notified by email each time a comment is made on your blog, then all you have to do is respond to the email. Praying the person who left the comment isn't a no reply blogger and that is a whole other story that Sarah can keep taking care of! {If you just said to yourself 'what is a no reply blogger' or said 'there is no way I'm one of those' -- pretty please double check and read THIS POST just incase}

Instagram Comments - again with the @ symbol

Someone just commented on your IG photo asking where you got your adorable shirt. You want to tell them because you'd love to help promote the store you got it from. You MUST tag them when commenting back otherwise they won't get notification that you responded to them unless, of course, they have no time and go back to all photos they comment on every 5 minutes waiting for a response {people don't do that}! In this case when you comment on your photo you can put the @ symbol with their username right at the beginning and then just proceed to answer their question or tell them thanks, etc. 

I hope these little tips were helpful, made sense, and will make your social media life just a little easier!

Now don't forget to enter my awesome giveaway, did I mention you could win over $50 in prizes! 

The Gamer & The Blogger {Why I Blog}

My husband is a gamer and I'm becoming a blogger. We each have our own little niches to keep us busy. Of course I think my husband is a huge nerd sitting on his headset playing with a bunch of 12 year olds {there are probably more adults than I care to know about though that play video games so lets pretend they are all 12} but at the same time he thinks I'm a nerd and doesn't understand me talking to a bunch of ladies I've never met and calling them my friends. Some nights that is our life - he kills zombies and I blog about it.

I am so fortunate to have many real-life friends but in the recent months I've made some awesome blogland friends who I wish I could meet. I'd like to welcome all my newest readers joining me from the Simply Clarke Giveaway; I'm so excited to be part of my first giveaway and super pumped I get to be part of it with some pretty awesome fellow bloggers! {Enter Here}

What I want to talk about today isn't my husband killing things on Call of Duty {because let's face it that is already annoying enough} but instead: 

Why I Started Blogging.

Let's see I've always enjoyed writing. When I was younger I kept journals, which are Hilarious to read now but it is interesting to see how I've either learned from mistakes or kept the same best friends. I love documenting my life through pictures and social media {to an extent} I want my great-great-great-grandkids to know what I was like and what better way to get to know me by reading about how I lived my life. In a nutshell that is why I started blogging, to remind myself what happened on a daily basis and to have something 20+ years from now to look back on and think 'that was SO dumb' or 'wasn't that the best day ever'.

I started this little blog venture in 2011 after my {now} Husband and I got engaged this was going to be our family blog but of course I knew Steven wasn't going to contribute. My posts were few and far between and I took many 'blogging vacations' ... I've since given my blog a facelift and renamed it in hopes I would blog more. Has it helped? I think so, well at least I am posting more and exploring new blogs and all I can hope is people are exploring and enjoying mine too.

Why do you blog?? Let me know and link up! 

Oh and Don't forget to Enter in my FIRST EVER giveaway!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tweeting Got Me Somewhere

I never thought I'd start liking Twitter more than Facebook but with all the crap and spam on Facebook lately it might be happening. I am still pretty new to Twitter and not totally comfortable with all the jargon, @ and # symbols but this social media outlet is growing on me. 

A few months ago I got a private message on Twitter from Snapfish. If you are unfamiliar with Snapfish they are the number one online photo service; this is the site I always use to make my photo books and they wanted to feature me in their monthly newsletter!! I was SO totally excited, I was getting recognition from a company with over 90 million members and MY tweet caught their attention!! 

From now on I won't be able to say 'Tweeting is pointless' because I have bragging rights that I was featured by Snapfish all thanks to one of my tweets!! Isn't social media great?!

Click Here for the Snapfish Email (Featuring Me)

Oh it was on Facebook too … Sorry can you tell I was am really excited about this!! If you would like to know more about my photo books please don't hesitate to ask. 

Have you ever got a Retweet or a Favorite from someone on Twitter that made your day?