Christian Karasiewicz, Author at Christiankonline.com

My current social media tools

For anyone who is serious about building a business and leveraging social media, it isn’t just about being on all of the networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Google+. Each network offers something of value, along with a distinct set of fans and followers that you need to work with and develop a relationship with.

In fact, if you are not careful, social media can consume your entire day – posting updates, constantly checking your accounts for new retweets, mention or likes, or even joining new networks. Eventually, you’ll actually be hurting your business, because you have gotten away from the core of it – building new products, your website, even writing new content for your blog.

So to help you all out, I’m sharing my current social media tools that I use – to help create, monitor, and analyze my social media accounts:

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5 types of status updates to build social engagement

This post doesn’t really apply to one single social network. In fact, you could apply it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ (or even one of the other smaller social networks that you’ve joined). We’re talking about status updates.

Just being on the hottest social network doesn’t guarantee that you’ll instantly amass a large following. It also doesn’t matter how many fans, friends or followers you have. No, you need to be engaging. We’re not talking about going around and meeting every single person that you’re connected with (that would take a ridiculous amount of time). Instead, we’re talking about using the basics that all social networks are built around – the status update.

Every social network offers a variation of the status update. For Facebook users, it could be a quote, sharing an event, posting engaging photos, or simply using the questions app. Twitter users are a little more confined – 140 characters to be exact, yet the status update is still relevant to share links, break news, or even tweet a photo from your encounter with your favorite celebrity. For Pinterest users, the status update isn’t just the photo that you pin to your pinboards – that’s a good chuck of it. In addition, be sure you include keyword rich descriptions (there’s a nifty search feature as well).

So enough with the examples, right? Take me to the 5 types of status updates that you can post to help build your engagement levels!

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5 ways to build engagement through photo-sharing

A great way to create compelling content that will build engagement for your brand – whether personal branding or branding for your business, is to utilize photos. If you don’t believe me, just look at Instagram, which was purchased for $1 billion. It is essentially a social network for photo-sharing. Since Facebook now owns Instagram (and who knows what they will do with it), I put together 5 ways that you can build engagement now on Facebook through the simple technique of photo-sharing.

With the help of these 5 ways to build engagement through photo-sharing, not only will you build better brand recognition, but you’ll also have fun doing it!

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[Download] 2012 Facebook Page Photoshop Templates

For those of you who are looking to customize your new 2012 Facebook Page, I’ve put together a handful of Adobe Photoshop PSD files to help you customize your Facebook Page layout – and make the transition as smooth as possible.

If you don’t have Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Elements, here are a 11 free Adobe Photoshop alternatives that you can use instead to get the job done. Also, feel free to work in stages, such as updating your Timeline cover photo and profile photo first (since these are the most viewed items on your Facebook Page).

Facebook Page Photoshop Templates

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3 things to do before joining a social network

Before you can do anything – whether it is to join a social network such as Facebook, learn how to use Instagram to capture and share photos with your friends, or even learn to get better at tracking your tweets on Twitter, you must have a goal in mind. Without a goal, it’s pretty difficult to develop a plan of attack to help get you from point A to point B.

For those of you that have made up your mind that you’re going to learn to incorporate social media into your business, here are 3 things you need to do before joining a social network.

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5 Twitter apps for tracking your stats

Twitter can be an extremely powerful social network to help your business capture leads and build better online engagement with customers and fans. While it is very easy to learn how to send a tweet, often times, this only produces more noise. That’s why it is important to track and analyze your tweets on a consistent basis.

The benefit to doing this is that it helps you not only know where you stand regarding who is following you, but you can also see if your account is gaining followers or losing them. Most importantly, by analyzing your tweets on Twitter, you can know which tweets are working and which ones are not. This way you can tweak your Twitter strategy so that your tweets are not only being seen, but also so that you get retweets, mentions, clicks on your links, and gain new followers.

If you already have a Twitter account or are completely new to Twitter, I suggest trying out these 5 apps for tracking and analyzing your tweets on Twitter.

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5 ideas for Facebook Page Timeline cover photos

Facebook Timeline – love it or hate it, it’s here to stay as of March 30, 2012. While embracing change may be difficult for some people, with the new Facebook Pages Timeline layout, there are now a lot of GREAT benefits for page owners. We’re going to share with you 5 ideas for Facebook Page Timeline cover photos to help you make the most of the new Facebook Pages and to help you attract more visitors and customers as a result.

So before we begin, lets talk about why you would want to use a Timeline cover photo.

With Facebook removing the ability to have fans land on a default landing page, page owners will need a new hook to get fans excited about their Facebook Page. Enter Timeline cover photos. Not only are they the first thing fans see, but they can really help show off your business and what you have to offer. And we’re not just talking logos or photo of yourself. If you’re a musician and you write your own songs, share photos of you in the studio. If you have a product, show photos of that product – it could be the product when it is getting manufactured, a finished product, or even a sample product you are working on. This way you let fans know who you are and what you have to offer, and it gives them better insight into what you do and helps get them excited about it too.

So here are 5 ideas for Facebook Page Timeline cover photos to consider posting on your Facebook Page.

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How to teach Siri to tweet for you on your iPhone 4S

For those of you who have tried Siri, Apple’s breakthrough voice recognition software, it’s pretty amazing. It’s great for composing text messages, making calls, and sending emails. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you interact too much with the apps on your Apple iPhone 4S.

In addition to saving you time by letting you compose tweets using voice recognition, Siri gives you the ability to compose an email; however, you cannot open other apps, such as Twitter and send a tweet.

That’s where this helpful tip comes in. Not only can you use Siri for composing an email, opening websites and setting reminders, but you can save yourself some time by composing tweets too — when you’re on the way to meet up with friends, walking from the building to the car, even when you’re driving (let’s hope you use a hands-free bluetooth headset).

Here’s how to teach Siri to tweet for you from your Apple iPhone 4S – in just 5 steps.

Enable text messaging: On your computer, visit Twitter and enable text messaging. To do this, login to Twitter > Click Settings (top right corner), and then mobile. For those of you have unlimited texting with your mobile provider, this feature works great for you. If you are limited with your text messages, this might not be the best option.
Enter your phone number: Once in the mobile settings section, enter your iPhone 4S mobile phone number with area code in the field labeled "Phone number." Click 'activate phone.'
Verify your phone: Once you've setup Twitter to allow for mobile updates, the next thing you need to do is verify your phone. To do this, send a text message to 40404 (if you're in the United States) with the word "GO"
Create a Twitter contact: On your iPhone 4S, create a new contact. In the 'first name' field, enter "Twitter." Add a phone number - put in 40404 (United States). If you are in a different location, here's a list of Twitter shortcodes to choose from.
Have Siri send a tweet: To use Siri, either hold the home button or put the phone up to your ear. When you hear a beep, say "text Twitter." Tell Siri what to tweet and then send it. Should you need to edit your message beforehand, you can do so as well before you send it.

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Facebook Page changes in 2012

Another year, another Facebook Page change. Over the past few days, I’ve been producing a series of videos on Facebook Page changes in 2012 that cover the new changes you can expect when all Facebook Pages are switched over to the new layout on March 30, 2012. For those of you who want a quick rundown on what has changed and how to apply these changes, I’ve put together a complete guide below — complete with a downloadable PDF file.

Not only are Facebook Pages getting a facelift in 2012, but I can definitely tell you you’ll really like these new features once you get used to them. They add depth to your Facebook Page, something that was sorely missing from past iterations. In addition, page owners will get a lot of new features that they can use to upsell their content. And by upsell, I don’t just mean products. If you primarily post updates about news, you can highlight some of your best posts, use the pin to top feature – to keep polls at the top of your Facebook Page, and add layers of content by adding in Milestones.

So enough about all of these exciting new changes – take a moment to view the following image, which highlights Facebook Page changes in 2012. There’s a lot there, so I’ve broken them down to make it easier to digest.

New features for Facebook Pages in 2012:

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5 reasons why people aren’t following you back on Twitter

When Twitter launched, everyone looked at it as a great way to get people to follow you back and help you grow your audience. Unfortunately, a lot of people failed to realize that it wasn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ social network. Rather, Twitter is a site that requires a little time, some effort and a plan of attack to amass a strong and loyal following.

Here are 5 reasons why people aren’t following you back on Twitter.

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