I’m always up for new challenges so when I saw that Michele Scism and Michelle Schaeffer were collaborating on running a blog challenge together I signed up immediately.  I participated in the last part of the 30 day Blog Challenge but didn’t quite get into the groove and felt like I was missing something.  Maybe because I started more than half-way through.

But this time I am getting in right from the beginning!

One of the things that I’m going to do is utilize my WP Editorial Calendar.  I’ve actually got a pile of posts pre-planned so I’m hoping that will help.

This challenge will be particularly challenging in the first week for me because my family is moving.  Not just across the city but 6 hours away from where we are now.  We’re moving into a house so I know there will be lots to do to get settled.

And not only are we moving but I’ll be making the big transition from part-time writer to full-time writer.  There’s a lot to do there!

But, I’m still really excited about this.  I love challenges.  Why?

• They are motivating
• They introduce you to new people
• They introduce new people to your blog
• They bring forth new ideas
• They help you to develop the discipline of maintaining a blog
• They are just plain fun!

Do you need any more reasons to join me?  How about the big teleseminar launch with Michelle and Michele that is going to happen on July 26th?  I’ve been to one of Michele’s teleseminar’s about how she grew her Facebook Page so I can tell you that she’s a great speaker so I’m sure the launch will be awesome.  There’s another one in the middle and then one at the end as well.

Now, what are you waiting for?  Go and click on the picture and join me!

Getting re-tweeted is one of the points of Twitter.  Of course, the main point will always be to develop relationships and trust but if you want to get publicity, if you want others to visit your site, your followers need to find value in your tweets and re-tweet it.  But how do you get them to re-tweet?

I find that not as many people re-tweet my links as I’d like so I started doing a little bit of research.  A couple of weeks ago I jotted down some notes and came across them today.  I have no clue where this comes from because I forgot to write down the source.  It could have been an e-mail newsletter or a blog or maybe even an audio that I listened to.  If you know where it came from feel free to speak up in the comments.

Anyway, one of the things I jotted down was that,

Less is more; keep tweets to 1 per hour.  Especially if it is a post you want re-tweeted.

That’s something I’ve been working on.  I tend to go in and tweet several thing at at time because, well, no one I know really has the time to go in and tweet every hour.  But, if you use something like Hootsuite, you can schedule your tweets.

At first I thought that was being kind of manipulative because – well, it isn’t completely genuine.  It makes it look like  you’re always there.  But if you do it carefully, interspersed with your own casual comments as you go on, it can be a lot easier on your followers.  Personally, I hate it when I go into my feed and find that the same person/business has tweeted twenty links in a row.  I’d rather they space them out.  I want to see others’ tweets, too.

I found some more interesting advice today when I stumbled across Dan Zarella’s blog, The Social Media Scientist.  He wrote a great blog post on the 20 words and phrases that will get you the most re-tweets.    I was surprised to see that “please retweet” or “pls rt” were on that list.  But I can imagine if people start to see it all the time they’ll start to over look it.  I think it depends on how often you use it.  I know one guy (that I recently unfollowed) that would post about 10 things in an hour and ever single one of them said, “Please RT” at the end.  Did I?  Maybe the first once or twice – until I realized that he does that all the time.

So, have you noticed anything that helps you get re-tweeted more often?  Would love to hear your successes or your thoughts.  Leave a comment!

When I was checking out my Facebook account today I saw that Mari Smith is using a Facebook Follow Friday that is very similar to what you do on Twitter.  On Twitter you put the hashtag #ff or #followfriday in your tweet and then suggest people to follow with the @ sign.

Facebook now has a similar way of highlighting others that your Facebook Page members can Like if they are interested int them.  If you check out the picture above you’ll see mine for today.  It’s pretty easy to do.

Start your Page status with a statement that tells them what you are doing.  ”Here are some Pages I Like that I thought you might like to check out” or something along those lines is fine.  Then use the @symbol and name some of the pages you Like.  When you use the @ and start typing in a page name, Facebook will suggest people and pages that you are friends with.  When the one you are typing in comes up in the list below your status, click on it and it will become a clickable link that others can follow.

Tips:

• Don’t suggest the same Facebook Pages every Friday.  If you’re suggesting the same pages all the time people will start to ignore these updates.
• Stick to 3-5 pages to highlight.
• Be relevant.  If your Page is about Writing then the people who like you won’t be interested in engineering Pages.  But you can put in an interesting topic that the general population might be interested in once in awhile.  For instance, everyone should be interested in health related info so a page like Healthy You should be of interest to everyone.

And do you know what the coolest part of this is?  When you use the @ symbol in your status, not only does it make it a clickable link but it also makes your status show up on their page!  That means that they know you have suggested them and their Page members know that you are related to the page they are following.  And, if they are paying attention they will likely stop by your page and thank you. See the picture where Lizbeth Tanz commented?  She is from Savvy Freelance Writers.

Try it for yourself and let me know in the comments what you think about it.