Tag Archives: Social Media

How to Create, Join and Use Pinterest Group Boards

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Pinterest, despite all of the updates and changes that have been made over the last 9 months, is still a primary source of traffic to my blog. I took my time to join and develop my boards (and I wish I’d have done it sooner) but it remains my favourite way to share my posts and to access interesting posts that cover posts of lots of different topics.

One of the easiest ways of boosting my traffic has been the creation of my own board and joining those created by others.

Essentially, a blogging group board is like an ongoing link-up and sharing opportunity (and those of you who follow the blog regularly will know how much I like I good party). It works in the same way as all the other boards, but instead of just the creator sharing their pins, others are allowed to join the board and pin their own posts and posts from others that they have enjoyed. The more members and followers a board has, the more likely the pin will be seen and repinned elsewhere.

Each board is different, usually with specific rules depending on the creators preferences. Some are a free-for-all, ie. you can pin as many posts as you like, while some only allow one pin a day. Others ask that you share someone else’s post along with your own. Some are focused solely on a theme – blogging tips, DIY, recipes, crafts, beauty. Some have no theme at all, as long as they are blog posts. Continue reading →

I’ve Discovered that Twine Makes Me Happy…

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With less than two months to go before I get married, I’ve been busy finalising the last bits and pieces required before the big day – bouquets, decorations, seating plans, food orders… Luckily, I had done a large amount of organisation at the beginning of the year so most of these jobs mainly involved checking and rechecking things, but it has still felt like I have had a large list to complete every day. On the whole, it’s been quite an enjoyable experience and of course I’m looking forward to the day, but I have learned a lot of lessons – namely the fact that I am never organising a large scale event ever again. I have also discovered an intense interest in all things crafty that I didn’t realise I had – who knew a glue gun, some scrabble tiles and some twine could be the source of so much enjoyment? I blame Pinterest, eBay, Hobbycraft and my youngest sister – the house is filled with jars for centrepieces and flower arrangements, photobooth props, photo frames, seating cards, RSVP’s… I got ridiculously excited the other day when I popped round to my next-door neighbours house after they returned from their honeymoon and they gave me a massive box of craft things left over from their own wedding that they were going to throw away, including twine. So much twine! The Bloke should count himself lucky – if I could glue gun twine onto him, I would. Continue reading →

How to Create a Bullet Journal for Blogging: Part Three

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Over the last few days I have posted Part One: Materials and Ideas and Part Two: Spread Layout of my How to Create a Bullet Journal for Blogging series in which I gave hints and tips on materials available, content ideas and set up and layout of spreads. The final instalment of this is decoration and design – something that I enjoy immensely. It isn’t for everyone and isn’t actually necessary at all, but one of the many exciting things about creating your own Bullet Journal is that it can be personalised according to your own preferences and available time. These can be as simple or as complicated as you like. For me, if a spread that I’m working on looks nice, I’m more inclined to use it and therefore inspired to make more.

Remember: they don’t have to be super complicated or something that causes stress levels to rise – stick with what you are comfortable with.

Continue reading →

How to Create a Bullet Journal for Blogging: Part Two

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In my previous post I gave hints and tips about starting a Bullet Journal for bloggers, with advice about materials that can be used.

This post is about setting up pages – or SPREADS as they are known in the Bullet Journal community.

Before I even started, I worked out what I needed to help with my blogging activities each month.

A monthly overview (1 page)
A weekly calendar that would incorporate my To Do lists (4-5 pages)
Blog post ideas and earnings (1 page)
A daily checklist with a list of blogging tasks and stat tracker for the month that would incorporate clients social media trackers too (1 page) Continue reading →

How to Create a Bullet Journal for Blogging: Part One

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This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small amount of money if you make a purchase from any of the Amazon links included

For the last two years, I’ve requested one thing for Christmas – a notebook. In that notebook, I keep ongoing trackers of my blog and social media stats, monthly and daily checklists, trackers of my social media client stats and some ideas and small drafts for blog posts.

What I didn’t realise that I was doing was creating my own version of a bullet journal. In fact, up until about two months ago I’d never really heard much about them, that is, until I watched a ‘July Plan With Me’ YouTube tutorial from AmandaRachLee on creating a monthly set of ‘spreads,’ (that’s page layouts to us ordinary folk). Since then it has become a bit of an obsession – I’ve watched more tutorials than I can count, allowed myself a small budget to buy materials, practiced different handwriting styles and layouts and began the process of setting up a bullet journal ready for 2018. My intention is to set up most of the journal for the year in advance, although many Bullet Journal users plan from month to month. I need something that is ready for me to use – I’m the sort of person that would fall behind and would leave myself with too much to do if I had to set up each month the day before. Continue reading →

Boost Your Twitter and Pinterest Stats with my Social Media Management

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Pinterest and Twitter social media management

Of all of the blogging regrets that I have, my hesitation when setting up my social media accounts is the biggest. Why?

Because my social media is now responsible for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of referrals of my total views.

The problem with social media is that, during the initial set-up in particular, it’s incredibly time consuming, even when using schedulers. Posting a blog post now doesn’t just involve pressing the publish button – I think about keywords, create a pinnable image for Pinterest and then pin it, tweet it using specific hashtags, stumble it, share it on Flipboard and then share it again into specific Facebook groups. I then use my BoardBooster Pinterest scheduler to incorporate my latest post. How, when and where I share it will depend on the specific day and time so that they get the maximum audience. Continue reading →

Should You Self-Censor Your Personal Blog?

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Should you self-censor your personal blog?

It’s common knowledge that employers will check social media pages during an interview process and things that are deemed inappropriate can have a potentially damaging impact on a candidates success when applying for a job. Similarly, there are endless stories of people who have had their employment terminated after posting something online. Social media has now become a part of our daily lives, to the point where are now teaching students in the education system about how to manage social media accounts appropriately.

It seems logical for me that blogs that are solely for the purpose of business should be handled in a professional, efficient and eloquent manner, in the same way you would expect someone in any profession to behave in person within the workplace. Continue reading →

How To Monetise Your Blog

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How to use a blog to make money

A little while ago I gave a presentation at the Annual Bloggers Bash in London with the focus being on monetising a blog and using a blog to make money in other creative and writing fields. Since then, I’ve received numerous requests to post the content of my presentation for those who were unable to attend, so here it is (hopefully with a little less waffle)…

Having a blog has been a life-changing experience. It has allowed me a lifestyle that I could have only previously dreamed of and enabled me to take more control of when and where I work and who I work for. Four-and-a-half years ago I was working as a teacher, I had an outstanding reputation and good results and was in a financially stable and secure role… And I was miserable – stressed, tired, depressed and had started to develop panic attacks. Writing has always been therapeutic and the house was beginning to become overrun by beautiful notebooks containing my scribbles, so The Bloke (who is an IT Technician) suggested that I start a blog. After a particularly bad day I signed up to WordPress, hastily gave myself a name, wrote a post and pressed the publish button. That was it – there were no expectations or technical knowledge behind what I was doing (I don’t think I even used tags for the first few weeks) – but it became a hobby that I quickly found satisfying. That was in April 2013 and by March 2015 I handed in my resignation and left the teaching profession at the end of the academic year. Continue reading →

How to Use Facebook Groups to Increase Your Blog Traffic

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How to use Facebook groups to increase your blog traffic

Facebook groups are a brilliant source of information, community and traffic. They differ in purpose and each have different rules, but essentially they can all be used for the same things: to meet new bloggers, ask questions to the community and to promote your posts.

As with many things in the blogging world – it took me a long time to discover the power of blogging focused Facebook groups. I joined one, run by a close blog friend when it had just a few hundred members last year and a very small targeted sharing group, but didn’t actively participate in either. My Facebook traffic was low at the time – I’d had a post go viral with 100,000 views in my first year of blogging, but since that point I averaged between 5-20 views a day, depending on whether I published to my blog Facebook page. Continue reading →

Things I’ve Learned in Four Years of Blogging

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Blogging advice

Today marks the four year anniversary of Suzie Speaks.

Four years, 838 posts (if you don’t count the hundreds that I’ve deleted), a collective following of nearly 19,000 people, nearly 780,000 views, the biggest blogging hashtag of the weekend, an amazing Facebook group and three awards.

Since starting the blog I have quit my job, got engaged, gained a brother-in-law and gorgeous squidgy niece, travelled, attended events, reviewed everything from restaurants and cocktail bars to theatre shows, hotels and products, made a whole bunch of new friends and experienced things that I could only have dreamed of in what I consider to be my previous life. What an unbelievable journey.

The blog began as a simple online journal – an outlet to try and calm the stress and anxieties I was experiencing at the time. There were no expectations or dreams, just a desire to write. However, as my blogging knowledge grew, I found a community, started to develop promotional strategies, learned a great deal about social media and, as a result, now have a whole list of things that, if I could go back and start again (not that I would want to, mind you), I would do differently. Continue reading →