Three social media tips which may seem obvious on the surface, but can easily be overlooked.

Tip #1: Our Minds aren’t Computers or Smartphones
Like great writers of all times, carry a notebook with you wherever you go. 
When an idea or a line comes to you, write it down, otherwise you may lose the pearls of wisdom you had been writing in your head. 

My favorite notebooks are moleskin. I have them in lots of different colors and sizes. If you’re not familiar with moleskin their claim to fame is how for two centuries they’ve been “the legendary notebook of artists, writers, intellectuals and travelers.” I keep a small one inside my bag with a mini pilot G-2 pen. I’m always pulling the journal out and making a notation. Recently I’ve started using my iphone for quick notes too, but sometimes there’s nothing like a quick scribble in my moleskin. For some inspirational uses of moleskin journals check out these stories.

Tip #2 Don’t Make Your Readers Play “Where’s Waldo”
Remember to put the date, time, place of the online or in-person event you’re promoting in within the first 3-5 lines of your message (e.g. email newsletter, blog post)

Yesterday I received an email newsletter from an organization who I have great respect for. They were promoting an upcoming event and have a great line-up of speakers who will be speaking on some interesting social media & marketing topics. I had to read the description three times before I could find the date, time and place of the event. If I hadn’t been so fascinated by the “Where’s Waldo” like experience, I would have given up after the first two attempts.

Tip #3 Don’t Let Yourself Fall into the Shoemaker’s-Children-Go-Shoeless Syndrome
Make a commitment to spend a few minutes each week to work on your own social networking profiles and pages.

It’s easy to fall into, what I like to refer to as the shoemaker’s-children-go-shoeless syndrome, where you spend time blogging and carrying out social media related activities for your work and start to neglect your own online presences. Case in point. Up until a few weeks ago, when I logged into my LinkedIn profile it showed that my profile was 30% complete. I kept telling myself I didn’t have time to work on it, but all it took was committing a few minutes a week to start getting the percentage higher. Okay, I admit, it should be 100% complete (that’s what I would tell you if you asked for my opinion), but at 80% complete, I’m feeling pretty good for now.

What tips do you have to maintain and enhance your own social media experiences?