Personally, I think there’s always something to blog about. Yes, if you run a creative business who are constantly, well, creating, it might be easier to find inspiration – but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible if you’re not.

Below, I’ve shared some ideas on finding the inspiration to keep your company (or personal) blog full of new content.

Look at your business It may sound obvious, but so many companies forget to blog about what’s new in their business. Whether you’re attending a conference, exhibiting at a trade show/fair, introducing a new service/product, putting on an event, moving premises, being nominated for an award, doing work for charity, being featured in the press… make sure you blog about it!

Read the news Whatever your industry, there’s always going to be news that affects it. Whether it’s talk about new legislation, trends or events; news and current affairs will provide you with content for your blog. Remember to share your thoughts on each news item, as well as some information about how it will affect you and/or your customers.

Think about what you know What specialist knowledge do you have that others don’t? Could you offer some advice or guidance in your areas of expertise? And remember – what seems like common sense to you probably isn’t to other people.

Keep an eye out for studies We all like to read statistics. Look out for new studies that affect your industry and that will be of interest to your customers and readers. Once again, when you blog about statistics, make sure you add some insight of your own.

Talk to people Don’t be afraid to talk about your blog in face-to-face situations. Your customers and colleagues may have great ideas for content. Ask your customers for “success stories” derived from your products/services. Especially if you work B2B – your customers are likely to be happy to be featured as a case study on your blog. After all, it’s extra publicity for them.

Think seasonal/topical Whether it’s the Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee, Valentine’s Day or Christmas… think about how your business relates to these and what it could have to say about them.

Open the floor to guest posts It may be your blog; but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to write all the content yourself. Perhaps your colleagues would like to have a go at writing a guest post? Ditto your customers, associates or suppliers. Incorporating guest posts into your blog can inject fresh energy, provide added interest for your readers and offer publicity for your guest posters.

Do you blog for your company? How do you stay inspired to create new content?

Two years ago tomorrow (11th February) I officially became self-employed. I attended a panel meeting in Glasgow for PSYBT Funding and after a nerve-wracking thirty minutes or so I was awarded the money. Thus began my life as a freelancer.

In the twenty four months since then, I have worked from London to Inverness with big clients, small clients, third sector clients and professional clients. I’ve worked on social media and copywriting projects along with more feature-based writing projects. I’ve met a lot of different people, spoke at a fair number of events and have tweeted an awful lot.

To celebrate my ‘freelancing birthday’, I wanted to share a few freelancing-wisdoms I have learnt along the way.

Like in life, most things in freelancing are about confidence

Two years ago, starting off in my freelance career, I was 21 and only seven months out of University. I knew that I knew what I was doing… but my main challenge was to convince other people that I did. Going to business meetings, providing consultancy services and speaking at events all required a lot of confidence.

When you are freelancing, you need to believe completely that you are the right person to be offering the services/products that you are offering. Being confident about this convinces other people to believe in you too.

Flexibility is great, but so is routine

The ability to be flexible with work is one that has had a great impact on my life. It enables me to work when I’m feeling my most productive, work from wherever I happen to be, and to take time off when I need it. In the past couple of months the flexibility of freelancing has even enabled me to take time to study for an MA.

For me, the beauty of this flexibility is in creating a routine that suits me. I find that working to my own flexible routine helps me to stay motivated and productive. It also stops me from working till nine o’clock at night and for more than a couple of hours over the weekend.

Communication leads to opportunity

Freelancing involves working hard to make opportunities for yourself. And you’ll find that most of those opportunities come from talking to people. Don’t underestimate anyone; you never know what they know or who they know. Networking events are great for expanding your contacts and seeking out opportunities (even when you have to get up really early!) but talking to people socially or on social media can be just as valuable.

Collaborations, new clients, inspiration and exciting projects all start in the same place – putting yourself out there and talking to people.

Share your knowledge

One of the reasons I love social media is that it encourages us to share more. Sharing your knowledge, online or at face-to-face events, is such a valuable exercise. For one thing, it shows people that you are knowledgable in your industry. It also opens up new conversations and puts you in touch with new people. It helps you to put yourself in front of new people. It keeps you in the mind of the people you already know.

I share my advice and thoughts on social media here on the blog, on Twitter and on Facebook every day. I’ve never found that sharing this knowledge means that clients don’t need to work with me. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Sharing general knowledge (or, advice for everyone) shows off your expertise and helps people to see why they would want to pay you for the benefit of your specific knowledge (or, personalised advice).

Think carefully about the projects you take on

I’m going to let you in on a little secret; sometimes I can be picky. As soon as I reached the stage that I could afford to pick and choose the projects I took on, I did. I’ve learnt from experience that a bad client is just not worth the stress they cause (no matter how much they’re paying you). I rely heavily on my instincts and don’t agree to work with clients that I think will cause problems later on. I have occasionally ignored these instincts. I’ve always come to regret it.

Successful freelancing is all about communication and good business relationships; work with the clients you are confident you can have this with.

Cultivate your personal brand

I know, I know, that sounds a bit corporate. Coca Cola have a ‘brand’, Virgin has a ‘brand’, Topshop has a ‘brand’. But so do freelancers.  When you go to face-to-face networking or business events – the clothes you wear, the business cards you hand out and the way you act are all part of your personal branding. Online, your website, your Twitter avatar and your Facebook page bio… again, all part of your brand.

A big part of my brand is my typewriter; both the one in my logo and the real one you’ll see in my profile pictures. I also consciously choose to use the same palette of colours across my online and offline business items to create a sense of consistency. We all have a personal brand, but being aware of it and cultivating it can really help to show who you are as a freelancer.

*  *  *

After two years of freelancing, I can say honestly that it’s what I want to be doing with myself for the considerable future. Freelancing is hard, and it’s certainly not for everyone. But it is for me. And if it is for you? Then I hope you find my two-year-wisdom of some use.

A lot of ‘back scratching’ goes on on social media. If I ‘like’ your page on social media, or subscribe to your blog, or follow you on Twitter… you might feel obliged to like or subscribe to or follow me in return.

Of course, there are those social media users who do connect to you in the hope or expectation that you will do so in return. Often doing so is a great thing to do, but it isn’t always. In this blog post, I wanted to talk about when you should return the favour on social media, and when you shouldn’t. 

When You Should Return the Favour

When someone new connects to me on social media, on whatever platform, I ask myself the following questions.

• Are they in a similar industry to me? If the new connection is also concerned with social media/writing – then it’s likely that I’ll be able to learn from them. It’s great to connect with other social media users from your industry, as you can be inspired by the information they’re sharing, the way they’re using social media and more. And of course, there’s always a chance that you may be able to help each other out or collaborate.
• Are they in a similar location to me? I think it’s really valuable to connect with social media users who are located in the same area as me. Building a network of local users can help you to keep up with events and happenings in your areas, as well as local opportunities.
• Are they interesting? Regardless of location or industry, if someone connects with me  I’ll take a look at their profile to see if they’re interesting. If I’m interested in the kind of updates they are sharing and I want to continue to receive those updates…. returning the favour is a no brainer.

Often, my answers to the above questions aren’t positive ones. If a new connection isn’t in a similar industry to me, isn’t located nearby and isn’t of interest to me… it’s likely that I won’t choose to connect to them in return.

It follows that if someone doesn’t fit into the three categories that they may be a spam user. If they;

• Have a large disparity between the number of people they follow and are following
• Have a nonsensical username/bio
• Have only minimal updates
• Don’t have a profile picture

The Benefit of Returning the Favour 

The key thing to remember when someone connects with you, is that you don’t know why they’ve done so. If they are what I define as a ‘genuine connection’ (i.e. they’re not spam and fit into the three questions above) I do tend to return the favour and say hello.

After all, you never know why someone has chosen to connect with you. Maybe they’ve heard great things about you from a contact. Maybe they’ve met you at a recent event and you haven’t put two and two together. Maybe they really like what you have to say. Maybe they know of an opportunity that may be perfect for you. And maybe, just maybe….. they want to work with you.

‘Returning the favour’ to genuine connections can be a great way to build your online network and increase the possibility of new opportunities.

Keeping up with Twitter is easy when you follow a small, select group of people. If you just follow friends from “real life”, or a group of business people from your networking rounds, or a group of local artists/writers/whatever – you’re not going to have any problems keeping up with your home screen. If, however, the group of people you follow is expanding in numbers and demographics… you might be finding it difficult to keep on top of it all.

I follow more than a thousand people (and this number is ever growing) so I find it vital to keep organised. Below I’ve shared some of the ways I do this.

Lists

In my experience, Twitter-newbies often don’t see the potential of Twitter lists straight away. They’re great for creating resources for other people, sure, but once you start following large numbers of people – they become vital to your experience of Twitter. For me, lists provide me with the opportunity to adapt my Twitter experience depending on what I’m looking for. Instead of just dipping in and out of my unedited home feed all the time, lists allow me to filter the kind of people I want to see tweets from.

I use lists to separate the people I follow into the four broad categories that most of the people I follow fall into; Social Media & Digital (a work in progress!), Writers & Lit Types (also a work in progress!), Manchester based and Glasgow based. With just a few clicks these lists let me view Twitter from four different angles easily – either on the main site, on a 3rd party platform, or on a mobile device.

Finally, I also have a fifth private list that is made up of my eclectic “must reads” – the people who’s tweets I really don’t want to miss.

Twitter Clients

Third party Twitter clients are great for keeping organised. Currently I use Hootsuite, but I have also used Tweetdeck in the past. Which client you decide to use doesn’t really matter. What does matter is how you organise it!

My use of Hootsuite goes hand in hand with my use of Lists. My Hootsuite dashboard features my unfiltered home screen as well as columns with my lists in. This lets me see tweets from any different group of people at a glance.

Cleaning Out

The thing about staying organised on Twitter is that you need to be strict about who you’re following. I regularly take a good look at my followers list and cut it down.

To do this, I use Manage Flitter. I use this site as it’s easy to use, quick and free. Also, most importantly, it doesn’t tweet from my account without my permission (no passive aggressive “I’ve just unfollowed 32 people who weren’t following me back” sort of tweets). I use it to unfollow accounts that have been inactive for more than a few months as well as people who I haven’t been engaging with.

Regular clear outs are great for keeping your list of followers relevant, interesting and engaging.

Do you have any more tips for organising your following list? Pop them in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.

Using the internet today, you may see some unusual sights. Today (January 18th) has been chosen by many internet giants to protest against the proposed American bills of SOPA and PIPA.

Though these bills are intended to prevent online piracy, many people feel that they are not going about it in the right way. In the words of Wikipedia; “these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet.”

There are ways to get round the blackout, particularly when it comes to Wikipedia. They themselves state that the blackout will be lifted for those who disable Javascript in their browser – and they have also allowed access on mobile devices and smart phones via their app.

However, I think it’s great that a stand is being made. By blacking out their site, Wikipedia are showing how much the world has come to rely on the availability of free and open information online. By blacking out Wikipedia, we see how important it is to protect it.

For more information about the blackout, and the SOPA and PIPA bills, read Wikipedia’s information page (which, conveniently, is excluded from the blackout!)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I was as freaked out as anyone when I scrolled right down to the bottom of my own profile and found a notification about my birth and an invitation to “add a photo”. But, overall I think the new timeline looks great and offers more control over how information is displayed.

My favourite part of the timeline is the cover image. I think it’s a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the recent photos bar – and it really gives a sense of style and personality. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, here’s what my personal cover image looks like;

I’ve uploaded a shot my fiancé took over my shoulder while I was reading. I really like it… but it’s not as creative as some of the timelines I’m going to show you.

Last week I came across this list of “40 (Really) Creative Facebook Timeline Covers.” It was great to see how people have approached the new timeline covers in such an inspired way. Here are some of my favourites;

And of course…. there’s always one.

The new Facebook timeline and the cover images aren’t yet available on business pages, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. I’m really looking forward to seeing how brands use the space to express themselves.

I don’t know about you, but it’s 3pm on Friday 23rd December and I’m metaphorically signing off for the festive week. (I say metaphorically because I won’t stray far from my laptop/smartphone/iPad… I just won’t be tweeting about work or social media).

This seems the perfect time to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

I look forward to seeing you all, and continuing to share these blog posts with you, in 2012.

For me, this is certainly true. I’ve been self-employed since January 2010, and building the network I have on social media has been a huge part of my success. Yes, I have ‘sold’ to some of my network. But more importantly, my network have recommended me to others countless times; they’ve shared links that have informed and inspired me; they’ve been someone to chat to when I’m having a bad day; they’ve been someone to share news with when I’m having a great one; they’ve always had an answer for my questions; and they’ve put me in touch with professionals who have been able to support me and my business.

Running your own business is not an easy way to make a living, you don’t need me to tell you that. But surrounding yourself with positive and informed circles of people can make the whole thing a little less daunting. When using social media for business – I suggest building a network of other businesses and individuals who you are genuinely interested in and inspired by. Doing this, and working to develop these relationships, can lead to the creation of really valuable contacts.

For businesses new and old, big and small; social media has so much more to offer than just an additional marketing channel. (And of course – don’t forget to think about how you can support the people in your social media circles in return!)

The short answer to the question posed in the title is a simple one; yes, they do. The long answer is a bit more convoluted. Niche social media platforms can provide excellant opportunities for brands, but maximising these opportunities tends to involve a little more out-of-the-box thinking than it does on mainstream counterparts. Yes, they do work; but they need to be approached creatively and on a need-assessed basis. I see no sense at all in jumping on the so-called ‘social media bandwagon’ (as illustrated above!) and signing up for every site you can find. You should only involve your brand on a new platform if you’re confident about these three points;

A) You know that your audience are there

B) You are confident that you have the time and ideas to invest in the new platform

C) The functionality of the platform suits what you are trying to achieve

Niche platforms can certainly be hugely beneficial to brands. I’ve spoken to many owners of bars, restaurants, hairdressers etc who have found that maintaining a presence on Yelp and Foursquare has brought in lots of new customers. A business without a premises, however, is likely to find that this type of platform doesn’t work as well. Many fashion and design business have discovered ways to use Pinterest to develop look books and inspiration boards… while a great number of brands are using photo sharing sites like Instagram and Flickr to create visual journeys for their audience. (If you’re interested, Instagram themselves have some great examples on how brands are using their platform).

The key things for brands to remember when branching out into niche social media platforms is that they are niche! Take the time to research which ones suit your and your brand type, and which ones your target audience are using. Remember too that these platforms are not sales tools. Instead, think of them as building tools. Using them effectively will enable you to build both awareness of your brand and relationships with your chosen audience. Concentrate on these two key issues, and you’ll find that your audience will be much keener to engage with and buy from you.

Which niche social media platforms have you found work for your brand?

What was I trying to do? Move my blog from Blogger to WordPress with the minimum of disruption for my readers & subscribers.

What was my situation? I was moving from a Blogger hosted blog to a WordPress.com address. I was using a custom domain (www.katieandersonwriter.com) that I did not purchase through blogger.

How did I do it?

Step One 

I set up a wordpress account and personalised my new blog to get it looking the way I wanted it.

Step Two

I exported an .xml file of my blog archives from blogger. I did this by going to settings > other then clicking ‘export blog’.

I then logged into WordPress and went to Tools > Import. I clicked on ‘Blogger’ and followed the (very simple) steps.

Step Three

I was now ready to switch. The first thing I did was to go to Blogger and remove my custom domain from my blog. If you’re not using a custom domain, you can obviously skip this step! You’ll find the option for doing this in Settings > Basic. Just click the ‘X’ next to your custom domain to delete it. Your Blogger blog will then revert to its .blogspot.com address.

Once I’d deleted the custom domain from blogger, I logged into my domain provider (the website you bought the domain from) and edited the DNS settings. The exact way to do this varies depending on what provider you’re using, but here are the DNS settings I used;

I then had to wait for around 24 hours for these settings to update. Once they had done, I went to WordPress and selected Settings > Domains. I entered my domain (www.katieandersonwriter.com in my case) and paid around £6 to map it to my WordPress blog. I then waited for it to work – sometimes this does take a couple of hours.

Step Four

Once I’d switched the domain over, I wanted to make sure that anyone who was subscribed to my blog in Google Reader or similar would still get my updates. To do this I used Feedburner. I didn’t already have a feedburner account for this blog, so I set one up. It’s important to note here that I set up the feedburner account using my .blogspot.com address.

I then went to Blogger Settings > Other and entered my new feedburner URL into ‘Post Feed Redirect URL’

Step Five

Still with me?! It’ll be worth it in the end!

I then went to my new feedburner account and selected ‘Edit Feed Details’

I changed the ‘Original Feed’ address from my .blogspot.com address to my custom www.katieandersonwriter.com address.

To make sure it had worked, I ‘pinged’ Feedburner to make it update my feed instantly rather than only every 30 mins. I did this by going to http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/ping and entering my URL.

I then closed down my browser and reopened Google Reader. My subscription HAD updated and was now picking up posts that I had put on the new WordPress blog.

Step Six

Finally, to catch any readers who might have been using the .blogspot.com address rather than my custom domain – I went to blogger and redirected them. I did this my going back to Settings > Basic and RE-ADDING my custom domain. This did feel a little bit like going round in a circle , but this time blogger recognised that the domain was now mapped to a WordPress site.

This meant that now if you go to my .blogspot.com address you are greeted with this message;

If the reader clicks yes – it takes them straight to my new wordpress blog.

This fix seems to have worked and updated feeds for those people who had subscribed to my blog both through Blogger itself and those who had just added my URL to their reader. If you’re planning on making the move – I hope these steps are helpful!