Just schedule it

Ever notice how all of those projects you want to get to “someday” just keep piling up? I have a To-Do list on Astrid that has 50+ entries tagged “someday” and until recently that list just kept growing.

Last week I started scheduling “someday” time. Just an hour or two chunks at a time, typically during the evening, or on the weekend and to ensure I get them done I remove myself from home-based distractions and go to a coffee shop until the project is done. Of course this only works if your “someday” projects are on the computer (which 99% of mine are). I don’t know how happy the coffee shop employees and patrons would be if you set up your table saw and started making new cabinet doors. However, actively putting aside the time still works for cabinets.

The key is making the time for someday. It’s actively finding that someday time in your busy life and doing things you actually want to do. I can only speak for myself, but when I get those things done, I feel fantastic. A true sense of accomplishment fills me and dammit, I feel great when it’s done. It’s completely worth overcoming the momentary bliss of apathy and procrastination.

I’m challenging you, today, to start making time for someday. You can thank me while you’re basking in the feeling of getting something done you actually want to do.

Thanks for reading,
Josh S Peters

All it takes is 60 minutes

I have a guest post up on Mashable, about running a 60 minute social media audit every quarter to make sure your social is “up-to-snuff”.

The audit is in no way complete, nor is it a full business audit where you look at metrics, conversions, goals, KPIs, or ROI. It’s a tactical and maintenance audit that will help you keep on top of all the little things that slide between the cracks and get put off.

Head on over to Mashable and take a look at 60 Minutes to a More Efficient Social Business Strategy and if you get a second I’d love to get your feedback on it.

Thanks for reading, you’re awesome.
Josh S Peters

Generic is forgettable

When was the last time you read or looked at something and said “Gee, that’s really average. I think I’ll share it.”.

Or how about the last time you saw a product and thought “This is so generic I must have it.”. Unless you’re a hipster, this probably hasn’t happened recently if ever in your life. Even when you’re bargain shopping and buying generic brands you’re not excited about it, it’s just something you do. You go through the motions.

Now think about the last time something excited you, amazed you, or wowed you. I can think of several things just this week that had that effect. The emotional memory stays with you. Participating or interacting in these experiences isn’t just something you sleep walk through. They leave an impression.

Let’s take a look at two examples to drive this point home.

2 videos, both selling razors to men.

Adrien Brody for Gillette

Crazy guy for Dollar Shave Club

Which one is more memorable? Which one haven’t you seen a 1,000 times before? Which one do you think you’re likely to share with your friends and family?

Thanks for reading,
Josh S Peters

I feel like this just says it all. How would you market to your mom? Would you spam and annoy her, or would you make sure she was well informed and had a pleasant experience?

Thanks for reading,
Josh S Peters

The second question is “What’s the max character limit of the OG:Description tag”? Short answer, there is none. Long answer 160-300. The actual OG:Description tag has no character limit. It’s a meta tag so there’s virtually no limit on how many characters you can include. What a site will display is a completely different scenario.

Every site has a character limitation to what it will display on links and content shares. so do many of the sharing services out there and that’s where we get the 160-300 number. Knowing this, the question is no longer about max size, but how to optimize your OG:Description tags for your audience.

The Facebook Description Limit is 300

Facebook OG:Description Tag Display Limit
Right now Facebook only displays the first 300 characters of a description so if your primary audience is on Facebook write your OG:Description tag accordingly. 300 characters is more than double the length of a tweet (2.14x to be exact) so you have plenty of room for product descriptions, keywords, and even a CTA.

The LinkedIn Description Limit is 225

LinkedIn OG:Description Tag Display Limit

Yes, LinkedIn also pulls from OG tags and the display limit is 225 characters. In this case if your primary audience hangs out and shares info on LinkedIn you don’t want to write your OG:Description tags to be any longer than 225 characters or else it will be truncated.

Another point of interest with LinkedIn is that it doesn’t seem to pull in special characters like Facebook, Google and other do. In the example the title has a ? instead of a TM after Party Animal so if you’re audience is on LinkedIn avoid special characters in your OG:Title tag.

Google Plus Description Limit is 200

Google Plus OG:Description Tag Display Limit
Even the newcomer Google+ pulls info from OG tags, and it has the smallest description display of the social networks weighing in at only 200 characters. While 200 is very little compared to Facebook’s weighty 300, it’s still enough to ensure that you have a keyword rich description available.

Determining character limit on other platforms
By now we all know that social media is much more than just Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. There are hundreds of other sites, platforms, niche networks, etc. out there and many will have different limits for what they display. The easiest way I’ve to find out what that limit is (and the process I used here) is to share a link with a long description then copy the text (minus the …) and paste it in a character counter.

The list of sites and services that pull info from OG tags is growing every day. Right now there is a plethora of services that pull info from OG: tags including major sharing services like ShareThis. So if you employ easy sharing solutions like ShareThis it’s a good idea to have your OG tags in place. Check with any 3rd party addons, plugins, and services you use to see if they pull data from OG tags.

Even if you don’t use anything that pulls from OG tags (which would mean you’re not using any social sharing on your site) it’s still a good idea to implement OG: Tags to help you can control what gets displayed when your content or products get shared. If you don’t use the OG tags then the service will do it’s best to figure out what should be in the description, title, image, etc. and you have to hope the user corrects any mistakes before they share it.

Simply put, using OG tags help you direct the experience with your products or content even when the experience isn’t happening on your site and optimizing the OG:Description tag is all about where your audience is and your keywords.

Thanks for reading,
Josh S Peters

Now available on Amazon, Nook, and Apple iBooks

TwittFaced is now available on Kindle, Nook, and iBook! For all you lovers of digital media, Twittfaced can now be read on almost any smart phone or ebook/digital book reading device. To get your digital copy of  Twittfaced just click on one of the links below.

Kindle

Nook 

PDF

iBooks (search for it in the app / iTunes bookstore)

For you old-school paper lovers, use one of these links to get a hardcopy

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Thanks for reading & thank you for all the support we’ve gotten over the years with the book.
Josh S Peters

It’s that good. Stop reading and go get it. Still wondering why you should buy this particular book on social media? Well, for starters Jason Falls and Erik Deckers pull no punches in this social media business book and quickly get you into the right mindset for their book by breaking down the difference between social media hippies and social media marketers.

“Joining the conversation and engaging with your customers, providing value to earn trust and influence, and other gospels they preach are critical to companies understanding the ethos of social media. But the purists only take us halfway there. A company requires a back end to the ethos that has something to do with driving business.’

After a chapter of house cleaning and getting your mind right Falls and Decker take you down the rabbit hole of social media marketing. Feeling a bit and like Alice in Wonderland at first you feel a little disoriented because this isn’t your typical business book and they start narrowing down what social media marketing is for an what it’s about. That’s when they give you a cakey little nugget of knowledge and suddenly the world grows and once again the possibilities are endless, but this time they are clearer.

One of my favorite things about this book is that when Falls and Deckers say this is no bullshit they back it up over and over. They provide solid business cases and experiences to back up what they are saying. They outline real metrics that you can start implementing right after you read them to help determine the  success of your social media program (fiscal and otherwise).

The entire book is worth reading, but for those of you who really want the meat of the book read pages 71-191. That 120 pages covers, with a good amount of depth, how social media marketing works and why it works. If you’re feeling skeptical about social media marketing or you tried and failed because you threw your pearls before bulls, this chapter will help you fish them out of the bullshit and get you back on your feet.

Read it today. You won’t be sorry.

Thanks for reading,
Josh S Peters

Jason Falls Blog: Social Media Explorer
Erik Deckers Blog: Pro Blog Service
No Bullshit Book Site: No Bullshit Social Media

Apps like Quickoffice HD are alright, but they still have a lot of flaws. They don’t render everything perfectly, some of the work done on a phone or tablet doesn’t look right when re-opened on the PC, and there is a lot of missing functionality. Still, it’s better than nothing.

When I first heard about this book I thought “oh great… another.” Though after a quick read I changed my tone.

The Real Truth About Social Media is packed with unique insights and real world perspectives it’s an invaluable addition to any social media library and a must read for any true professional. Not because it’s information you don’t already know, but because it reinforces what every social media professional should know: ”Old-School Business + New-School Technologies = Success ”

The book is broken down into 8 myths and 8 truths that the author, Eric Harr of Resonate Social Media, works to reveal and uncover. Weighing in at 105 pages this books holds a lot of value in very few pages (sounds like another great book I know of).

To get the complete treat you will need to read the whole book (lucky for you I’m giving away a copy). However, for the purpose of this review I’m going to give you the bookstore preview.

Myth / Truth #1: Social media is media / Social media is relationships - This is something we’ve all know for years, but it’s always worth repeating. There’s nothing like walking into my favorite coffee shop and having the barrista say “The usual Josh?”. Using social media you can build that feeling on a grand scale and encourage the repeat customers your business needs to survive.

Myth / Truth #2: Trust your instincts / Trust the data - When you want to know whether your social media is working or not “it looks good” isn’t good enough. Mr. Harr lays out several clear and consice ways to see the difference between “shiny” numbers and real actionable numbers. Knowing that increasing your Likes isn’t nearly as important as increasing your active users will take you, and your business, far.

Myth / Truth #3: Nice guys finish last / Nice guys finish first - How does giving away boxes of Wheat Thins or donating money to your consumers home communities help your business? You’ll just have to read this chapter find out.

Myth / Truth #4: There’s a sucker born every minute / What goes around comes around - The law of reciprocity is in full effect on the social web. Solving your people’s small problems for free will bring them back later, money in hand, to solve their larger problems.

Myth / Truth #5: To be heard, talk / To be heard, listen - Listening gives you more than just a heads up for when the shiitake is about to hit the fan, it can also give you insights into exactly what your fans / users / customers want to hear and what you can do and say to attract more.

Myth / Truth #6: People will share your stuff / People share awesome stuff - When was the last time you read something and said “wow, that was very mediocre… I should share it with everyone I know.” It just doesn’t happen. The lessons and case studies in this chapter will help you create the kind of awesome stuff that gets shared.

Myth / Truth #7: Social media is easy / Social media is hard (but worth it) - Without going into details, here’s the skinny on this one. Social media may not cost you giant bundles of cash like a Super Bowl ad would, but what it will cost you is a couple barrels of elbow grease. It’s time consuming, it’s sometimes tedious, but if you do it with the right attitude and focus towards results it will be worth it.

Myth / Truth #8: Honesty and transparency can be bad for business / Honesty and transparency are be good for business - Ever get caught in a lie? How much worse was it than if you were just open and honest about it at the beginning? Now imagine that all of the people who contribute to your paycheck with their purchases found out that you’ve been lying to them… not a pretty picture is it? Learn where to draw the line between being open and leaking company secrets and you will be a jewel in your customer’s eyes.

This review is just a taste of the nuggets of wisdom contained in this book. I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting out, has been in the field for a while or even if you’re a seasoned pro. It’s a quick read and if you don’t learn anything new it will reinforce your own thinking and give you more great case studies and ammo to put the few remaining nay-sayers in their place.

Now, if I’ve done my job you’d like to get yourself a copy. Luckily, I can help you with that desire one of two ways. The first is to click this amazon affiliate link (truth #8) which will send a few dimes my way if you purchase. OR you can simply tweet the following “I’m tweeting this link to @JoshSPeters review of The Real Truth About Social Media so I can win a copy http://bit.ly/tiQOSY”

If you’ve read this book already what did you think, if you haven’t what do you hope to learn from it?

Thanks for reading,

Josh S Peters

Embedded below you can see a screenshot walkthrough of the New YouTube Analytics and on The Search Agents blog I’ve written a post about the significant changes and a quick guide to the new reports that can be pulled.

Thanks for reading,

Josh S Peters