I'm into my 4th month where I post something very real, and something that holds me accountable for the goals I set for myself. I took the last few months off, but I'm back this month and hoping that by sharing my social media stats and marketing plans it will encourage you to set goals for yourself and your business as well.

Feel free to leave a comment and then join me in my Facebook Group for Wedding Pros where I'll be posting and asking my members to join in the conversation.

My main goals each month are of course to keep increasing my following within my niche market and continue being engaging. In return, this will lead to an increase in sales and conversions to my promoted link. Our social media efforts should be resulting in rewards for our time, right? And, while the higher numbers are wonderful - please remember that they won't mean anything if they aren't coming from your targeted audience.

Whether it's making connections, gaining new clients or growing our email list - we all need to have goals with our social media postings. What will your October social media goals be? Continue reading to see how my September ended up and then share your October goals in the comments . . .

So, here's my social media following numbers from July 1st to September 30, 2016
{please note - this is a 3 month time span}

Pinterest: from 11,642 to 12,520 > gained 878 {average gain of 292 per month}

Instagram: from 3,406 to 3,815 > gained 409 {average gain of 136 per month}

Twitter: from 19,747 to 19,940 > gained 193 {average gain of 64 per month}

Facebook: from 3,699 to 3,782 > gained 83 {average gain of 27 per month}

Periscope: from 623 to 651 > gained 28

Google+: from 607 to 620 > gained 13

I had a gain across all social media channels like previous months. My biggest gains were with Pinterest and Instagram which are the ones I continually put the most focus on as they are continually driving traffic {and sales} back to my site.

In addition to continually growing and building my social media following - these are my goals for October 2016

1. I'll continue to share marketing tips with Wedding Pros in my Facebook Group

2. I'm finishing wrapping up my very first Instagram Challenge which is receiving amazing feedback {partnerships, higher engagement, etc}. Once this challenge is finished - I will be announcing something HUGE - so please stay tuned.

3. I will continue promoting my FREE Social Media Content Calendar for Wedding Pros which is an entire month of content ideas to make social media fun and relevant to your followers.

4. I also plan to launch my brand new logo which I've slowly been getting ready for with the introduction of orange into the color palette of the graphics and text on the blog :)

Now, it's your turn to leave me a comment and let me know what goals do you have for October with your business? Let's hold each other accountable.

This is now the third month where I post something very real, and something that holds me accountable for the goals I set for myself. It's been receiving a great response, so I'm going to continue it again this month. I hope you feel encouraged to set goals for yourself and your business as well. Feel free to leave a comment and share your goals or join me in my Facebook Group for Wedding Pros where I'll be posting and asking my members to join in the conversation.

It's already July, how is this possible by the way? Since we're already into the new month, it's time for me to tally all my social media following from June and see where I increased from the previous month. I'm now only setting 3 goals each month so I don't feel overwhelmed since it is summer and I want to be sure to enjoy the fun and sun with my family too. My goals are to keep increasing my following with my niche market and in return - increase sales and conversions. Because, our social media efforts should be resulting in rewards for our time, right? And, while the higher number are wonderful - they won't mean much if they aren't my targeted following.

Whether it's making connections, gaining new clients or growing our email list - we all need to have goals with our social media postings. What will your July social media goals be? continue reading to see how my June ended up and then share your results/goals in the comments . . .

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So, here's my social media following numbers from June 1st to June 30th, 2016:

Pinterest: from 11,246 to 11,642 > gained 396
If you're curious how I can keep up my Pinterest growth momentum - please take a peek at my 15 Days to Power of Pinterest Course built for Wedding Professionals. I invite you to Join Me as I will help you and your business grow with Pinterest by bringing traffic back to your web site and/or blog as well as reaching your target audience in just 15 Days.

Twitter: from 19,698 to 19,747 > gained 49

Facebook: from 3,692 to 3,699 > gained 7

Instagram: from 3,265 to 3,406 > gained 141
A little insight - I joined an Instagram challenge last month and was rather disappointed that I didn't see the results that were being promised. I wasn't the only one that felt this way as I chatted with several other wedding pros about this. Going forward, I'm going to stick to my own methods for growing a niche Instagram following. It's been a great decision because it's really working! If you want to join me and others as I share my Instagram tips, please join my Wedding Pro Only Facebook Group.

Periscope: from 604 to 623 > gained 19

Google+: from 606 to 607 > gained 1

I had a gain across all social media channels like the past two months - my biggest gains were with Pinterest and Instagram which are the ones I continually put the most focus on.

Yay! Get Ready to find out how to create relevant content for social media when you’re stuck on ideas - please check your email to confirm your subscription so each month you will receive the full scoop on creating content when your brain just won't think clearly. Copy and Paste the following link to access the July Social Media Content Generator: http://www.brendasweddingblog.com/july-social-media-content-generator

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For June, these are the goals I set - let's see how I did . . .

1. Continue scheduling pins/re-pins {at least 10-20 per day}
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Happy to say that while I may not have scheduled 10-20 each day, I did schedule pins and pinned live as well - and each week I ended up with 800-900+ repins

2. Get my posts shared on Google+ the day they go up
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Still need to work on this one

3. Try Facebook Live
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Still need to work on this one too

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So, here's my three social media goals that I plan to take on in July. Please share your goals for this month in the comments.

Whether it's 1 or 5 - I'd love to hear how you will be working with your social media accounts this month and we can hold each other accountable.

1. Continue scheduling pins/re-pins {at least 10-20 per day} as Pinterest is my number one traffic referrer so it's important that my social media focus is here

2. Get my posts shared on Google+ the day they go up - moving this one to July and we'll see what happens - I have to get better at this one :)

3. Engage and Grow my Instagram Account Even More - I want to make July my biggest growth month yet for Instagram. So, I'll be engaging more with those accounts that like my photos and hopefully posting twice a day most of the week.

So, what will you be working on this month with social media? Please share in the comments. I want to be your personal cheerleader :)

Yay! Get Ready to find out how to create relevant content for social media when you’re stuck on ideas - please check your email to confirm your subscription so each month you will receive the full scoop on creating content when your brain just won't think clearly. Copy and Paste the following link to access the July Social Media Content Generator: http://www.brendasweddingblog.com/july-social-media-content-generator

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

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Last month I decided to start doing something totally new, something very real, and something that holds me accountable for the goals I set for myself. It received a great response, so it's going to continue and I hope you feel encouraged to set goals for yourself and your business as well. Feel free to leave a comment and share your goals or join me in my Facebook Group for Wedding Pros where I'll be posting and asking my members to join in the conversation.

Since June is now here it's time for me to tally all my social media following from May and see where I increased from the previous month. Since school is finishing up later this month for my oldest and her dance recital is this coming week, I'm going to only set 3 goals this month {instead of 5} as it's getting hectic. My goals are to keep increasing my following with my niche market and in return - increase sales and conversions. Because, our social media efforts should be resulting in rewards for our time, right?

Whether it's making connections, gaining new clients or growing our email list - we all need to have goals with our social media postings. What will your June social media goals be? continue reading to see how May ended up for me . . .

So, here's my social media following numbers from May 1st to May 31st, 2016:

Pinterest: from 10,837 to 11,246 > gained 409 {62 more than last month}
Twitter: from 19,610 to 19,698 > gained 88 {41 more than last month}
Facebook: from 3,655 to 3,692 > gained 37 {17 more than last month}
Instagram: from 3,060 to 3,265 > gained 205 {85 more than last month}
Periscope: from 568 to 604 > gained 36 {14 more than last month}
Google+: from 603 to 606 > gained 3 {4 less than last month}

I had a gain across all social media channels except for Google+ and like last month - my biggest gains were with Pinterest and Instagram which are the ones I put the most focus on.

For May, these are the goals I set - let's see how I did . . .

1. Going to continue scheduling pins/re-pins {at least 10-20 per day} as Pinterest is my first/second source for referral traffic each day - alternating with Google.
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I am happy to say I did amazing with this one as I LOVE Pinterest. Just last week alone I had 831 repins and that was with scheduling a few less pins due to a busy week outside of work.

2. Scheduling more tweets {with photos and hashtags} to bring traffic back to my blog
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Wasn't horrible and wasn't that great at this. I didn't necessarily schedule a ton - but I definitely sent tweets out as I utilize SumoMe on my blog and at anytime I can go into my blog posts and send out a tweet with a photo on the go. LOVE doing this!

3. Scoping more as April was hard when I got sick {losing my voice and coughing aren't a good mix for scoping}. But, I did join in conversations on other scopes which helped me gain followers even though I wasn't scoping as I had planned.
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I did not do well with this one as I didn't scope at all in May {still gained followers though}. Despite not scoping, you know what? I'm ok with that. I came to the realization that my focus needs to be in my facebook group for wedding pros and I've loved the opportunity to work one-on-one with many wedding pros this past month and have even re-written Instagram profiles to take their accounts from "ho-hum to oh wow" and they are gaining followers and growing each day as a result. Literally brings a smile to my face to see that. And, when scopes started getting as gimmicky as the next webinar pitch - I just said enough is enough. When someone was scoping "How 20 oz of water a day saved my business" that pretty much sealed the deal. It's too much for me right now. But, I have a plan in one of my goals for June so be sure to see below :)

4. They say every 5th post should be a promo one for Instagram - I don't even think I do every 10. So, I'm going to work on that and promote both my freebies and services I offer. If it's not shared - how will anyone know what we offer, right?
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This one I did great on and my post yesterday afternoon was converting at only 23 likes. This made me smile as it proves that it's not all about the likes - but if you post something that attracts your audience to take action, you've struck gold!

5. Get my posts shared on Google+ the day they go up - hard to remember to add this to the mix, but it doesn't take long and does still help with ranking despite what some say.
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Unfortunately, I did not do well on this one at all. Moving this one to June :)

So, here's my three social media goals that I plan to take on in June. Please share your goals for this month in the comments.

Whether it's 1 or 5 - I'd love to hear how you will be working with your social media accounts this month and we can hold each other accountable.

1. Going to continue scheduling pins/re-pins {at least 10-20 per day} and want to bring back some past top posts with pin-friendly graphics to bring new eyes to the posts.

2. Get my posts shared on Google+ the day they go up - moving this one to June and we'll see what happens.

3. Try Facebook Live - remember how I had an idea above since I haven't been scoping? Well, I'd love to give Facebook Live a try on either my business page or my facebook group. The reach when a video is shared on my business page is huge so I'd love to see what it can do for me when I'm sharing tips to my followers.

So, what will you be working on this month with social media? Please share in the comments. I want to be your personal cheerleader :)

Have you recently checked your Periscope follower list?

If not, you may want to do this ASAP and be sure you don't have anyone looking to show you their "b-double o-bs". Every so often {at least once a week if you're growing your following fairly quickly} you will want to go into your Periscope follower list and block the spammy accounts.

Why Should You Block The Spammy Accounts?

Because, if you have any of these yucky accounts following you and you invite people to someone's broadcast, you are also inviting those spammers that are following you. And, you know what? The spammers will then usually invite their followers who are spammers too. Double Yuck! So, go block them now and you will keep their unwelcome comments out of your scopes and the scopes you are watching.

PS: So thankful to Danielle of The Merriweather Council for alerting me {and others} to this great Periscope tip.

And, if you want to follow me on Periscope - you can do that right here. Be on the lookout for another social media tutorial/tip scope from me very soon.

I'm sure you've seen many pins all about how to "Brand Your Social Media". These tips often apply mainly to Instagram. But, wouldn't you want to brand yourself on social media across all the platforms? Well, I'm here to tell you that while those ideas you've seen might all be great, there is one simple {and easy} way to brand yourself on social media without figuring out which of these "tricks" you need to "test" out first.

Let me first show you how you might brand yourself if you were focusing on Instagram so you can see why you want to "brand yourself" across the social channels. You could . . .

1. Create a co-hesive look to your entire feed {some feeds have a special look for every third image - this requires too much planning for me}
2. Use a consistent filter {although I'm personally not a fan of filters, but I do use the brightness, contrast, warmth and saturation adjustments within the IG app}
3. Have a dominate color throughout the images in your feed {pink is super common}
And, of course there's even more ideas that can leave you still questioning what to do

But, these "branding tricks" won't work for twitter or pinterest

So . . . are you ready to find out the NUMBER ONE way to brand yourself social media? One that you could have up and running by days end?

The NUMBER ONE way to "brand yourself" on social media . . . across all platforms . . . is to . . .
USE THE SAME HANDLE FOR ALL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS.

You want to tell your audience something like this . . . "You can find me at @weddingsites". And, then, your audience can easily find you on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, even Periscope, and any other social media platforms you choose.

When you brand yourself online in social media with the same "handle", your name will become recognized whenever and where ever you share content online. When you do this, you will also be gaining authority in your field.

Please come back next week, when I share with you the second easiest way to continue to brand yourself across all the social media channels.

Until next week, please do share this article with your followers {via the social share links on the left}

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When it comes to Giveaways on Instagram, there's no denying there are many out there.

There's the flash giveaways
There's the loop giveaways
There's the single shop giveaways
There's the partnered giveaways
The list goes on and on . . .

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But, did you know there's a truly easy way to host an Instagram giveaway?
One that won't discourage your followers and have them give-up on entering?

Yes, I'm talking about those darn loop giveaways. They pretty much require a post all on their own - so stay tuned for that. But, I will say this for now - if participating in a loop giveaway - make sure it keeps within your niche so you gain qualified followers.

Today, I have a few do's and don'ts to share with you when it comes to Instagram giveaways.

Then, I have a template that you can actually copy and paste right into your own IG post to make your next giveaway easy for you to create and easy for your followers to enter. So, here we go . . . when creating your Instagram Giveaway . . .

Don't make it complicated
Don't offer a prize unrelated to your niche {ex. no iPad as you will get many entries just looking for a freebie + you want your target audience to be entering}

Do keep it simple
Do keep it all on instagram {ex. no asking for likes on Facebook}
Do have a deadline
Do include a standard Instagram disclaimer

I have found the best Instagram giveaways ask for a like of the photo, a follow of the host's IG account, and tagging of friends in the comments. You can even offer an extra entry for re-posting the photo and tagging the host's account and a special hashtag created for the giveaway. You will of course want to check your hashtag before posting to be sure it's ok to use. The Instagram giveaways that require me to re-post the photo on my page result in me not being able to enter as I have consistency in my feed that I don't want broken up by another person's graphic.

“Instagram Giveaways : The Do’s and Don’ts PLUS a FREE Copy + Paste Template”

So . . . are you ready for the copy and paste template that you can use TODAY to launch your very own giveaway on Instagram?

Simply sign up below and access to the Copy + paste Template will be unlocked right away :)

Did you know the average tweet
has a lifespan of only 30 seconds?

So, now my question for you is . . . How often do you tweet? Thirty seconds is not a long time at all. So if you are only tweeting once a day and your audience isn't viewing their twitter newsfeed within 30 seconds of the time you tweet, they will likely NEVER see your tweet{s}. Unless they of course go directly to your profile - which isn't a likely scenario.

What should you do? Tweeting once an hour from early morning until late at night isn't likely going to work for everyone {even though that's the recommendation}. I personally aim to schedule tweets or send direct tweets about 10 times every day {M-F}.

Now, I want to hear from you . . . please leave a comment letting me know how often you tweet. Will you be increasing your tweeting frequency?

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