In 2014, I decided I wanted to share my skills with others. I taught a Digital Marketing class at General Assembly and then spoke at Alt Summit in January 2015 and co-taught an Instagram workshop at Makeshift Society SF that March.   This April 2016, I'm speaking to another community of creatives at Snap! in Salt Lake City.     Will you be at Snap! 2016?  

Is there ever a time you should stop focusing on growing your social media platforms? If you're not regularly monitoring how your social media efforts are mapping to your business goals, you'll never know. For me, December is that time and here's how I know.     How are you measuring the success of your blogging efforts?  

It's that time again. Time to sit down and see whether or not social media efforts are increasing awareness of this site. The raw data compiled in this traffic report comes from Google Analytics, the various social media channels themselves.     What would you like to see covered in a blogger's traffic report?   I'd like these reports to be informative to other lifestyle writers. What are you curious about? What would you like to see me track or discuss?  

Social media influencers use the number of followers to show that their work has impact--value. Bloggers bandy around their pageviews as a yardstick . But what all these numbers lack is context. Without context a number is meaningless. You can't tell whether it's helping you accomplish your goals or not.     In July, I decided to see if I could add context to my social media numbers. I now record the size of each of my social media networks, my pageviews here, the number of sessions generated here by each social media network, and the number of new users to The Road To The Good Life. The context is not perfect, but it's a start. Here's how I did on my brand awareness goal of driving new users.   How are you evaluating you're working on the right things?  

Whether we come right out and say it, we all want more traffic to our blog. Come on admit it, you get a lift when Google Analytics sends you an alert that you just broke your all time high unique visitor in a day record. So let's look at ways to optimize what we're doing and get more visitors. In the first of a new series, Up Your Game, I take a look at Pinterest.     One channel that I have not taken advantage of personally is Pinterest. I love Pinterest, but I haven't leveraged it as a way to get my content out there. Sure I've made half-hearted attempts, but nothing with a concrete action plan. That changes in 2014!     Susan Petersen's Tips for Maximizing Your Exposure on Pinterest Occasionally Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked teaches classes on Alt Channel (I've taken both her Pinterest and Instagram classes). In her Pinterest 101 class, she shared the following tips on how to use Pinterest: Link to your Pinterest feed on your website. Add a Pin It...

A strong voice and passion through writing take time to develop.   Yet, with the barrage of information and opinions available on the Internet today, it's too easy to write what we think others want us to say to drive traffic to us.     What do you think makes the most impact and creates an engaged readership?   Along your journey to five hundred posts, you'll find what works for you and you'll filter the rest. Today I'm sharing how I reached my 502 post in hopes my journey inspires you.  

It's easy to become fixated on numbers; FeedBurner's hiccup with subscriber counts was a wake up call. If you're obsessed with numbers you're doing it wrong. Instead, focus on why readers subscribe to your blog and the numbers will come -- whether you can see them or not.     A funny thing happened when Feedburner's subscriber counts dropped to 0 for everyone . Panic. For me? No, life went on. I just temporarily deleted the widget. The funny thing came after the counts were restored and I went to add back the widget.   Somehow I had two -- not one, but two Feedburner feeds -- for my blog. One feed had a steady base of two to three subscribers; this was the feed originally reported on my blog. The other feed -- the one I wasn't aware of -- had more subscribers.   Did the low number of subscribers influence me? Yes. Because people follow me, I want to deliver consistent, well-thought out, quality posts. Sometimes I don't, life happens, but it's not becaus...

Ever wonder if anyone visits the websites or blogs you've been inspired by? Or the store fronts you window shop at or the items you want to fill your home or closet with? Does the position of a referral make a difference? Does anyone follow the links in captions or credits? Google Analytics can yield some clues.   First you have to add some code to the links you want to analyze. (This can be incredibly time consuming.)   Here's an example of a default link: a href="http://www.gemkitty.com/custom-jewelry/necklaces#style=zoe&gem1=tigb14fof&metal=thin-gold-chain"   Here's an example of a link set up to track events: a href="http://www.gemkitty.com/custom-jewelry/necklaces#style=zoe&gem1=tigb14fof&metal=thin-gold-chain" target="_blank" onClick="recordOutboundLink(this, 'Outbound Links - Within Post, Caption', 'gemkitty.com/custom-jewelry/necklaces#style=zoe&gem1=tigb14fof&metal=thin-gold-chain');ret...

It's been awhile since I talked about Klout . To summarize, I'm no longer an Explorer, up until last week I was a Conversationalist, now I'm a Networker. How did I do it? (I had a baby, and I post lots of photos of my cat.) Read on for my secrets! First a quick review of the three Klout Styles: Explorer: " You actively engage in the social web, constantly trying out new ways to interact and network. You're exploring the ecosystem and making it work for you. Your level of engagement shows that you "get it," we predict you'll be moving up. " Conversationalist: " You love to connect and always have the inside scoop. Good conversation is not just a skill, it's an art. You might not know it, but when you are witty, your followers hang on every word. " Networker: " You know how to connect to the right people and share what's important to your audience. You generously share your network to help your followers. You have a high l...

When it comes to measuring your influence for shared images, whether on Flickr, Instagram, or Pinterest , there's not yet an aggregated influence score. (With Klout you can link your Flickr and Instagram accounts, but Klout is not yet incorporating statistics from these social channels in the overall score. Flickr provides high-level account statistics, as does Statigram , an Instagram application that I looked at a few months ago. There doesn't appear to be an influence measurement tool for these channels yet.) Today I look at two online tools for determining your Pinterest influence -- Pinpuff and PinReach (formerly PinClout). Both of these are in early development. Side by side, Pinpuff has the edge right now, giving the best breakdown for influence on Pinterest. Pinpuff doesn't dive into effectiveness of specific content - for example, most popular repins or likes. If you want to see most popular repins to judge effectiveness of your content, you'll also need to pe...

For almost a year now, I've watched my Klout scores (yes I mean scores) rise and fall while I remained an Explorer . ( Klout attempts to measure one's online influence.) While Klout occasionally has hiccups , it can be a tool for learning. Last Friday, before I started playing with my profiles again, my scores were 28 and 34. My Klout styles were Conversationalist ("You love to connect and always have the inside scoop. Good conversation is not just a skill, it's an art. You might not know it, but when you are witty, your followers hang on every word.") and Socializer ("You are the hub of social scene and people can count on you to find out what's happening. You are quick to connect people and readily share your social savvy. Your followers appreciate your network and generosity."), respectively. (By the way, I'm pretty excited that I've graduated from Explorer where I was firmly planted for most of the year.) With one profile, I've earn...

I'm addicted to Instagram - an iPhone application that lets you take photos, transform those photos using filters, and then share them via Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr. Initially I had no insight into how well or how poorly my content was performing. Now, I can get statistics for my Instagram content with Iconosquare (formerly Statigram) .   Iconosquare gives you a few features you don't get with Instagram, the ability to see who followed you recently, who unfollowed you, which fans follow you that you follow back, and more. You also get recommendations about when to post.   Reviewing Your Most Popular Content In the Viewer (the default view), you can organize your photos by Likes and by Comments Received. This ordering allows you to see which photos are getting liked or commented on, and if you chose, influence the direction of your future content.   You can also quickly scan through entries into Instagram Challenges or your uniquely tagged Instagram series. ...