And so, gentle reader, we bid adieu to another year. I don’t know about you all, but I had a great year! For me, 2014 was the year of the Infographic. Earlier in the year, I started experimenting, to see if people might be interested in infographics. I’d source a good one, then publish it on my blog, with my own little commentary. I even made up a few of my own! People love infographics, because they are easy, and they are really useful. I’m pretty sure that’s a trend I’ll continue in 2015.
I also did several series this year–you’ll find a few of those, along with a few infographics, in this Top Posts of 2014 list.
Blogging-wise, here’s how the year broke down:
Number of visits: 53,000 (up slightly from 2013, where I had 50K of views)
Number of posts: 129 (again, up just slightly from 2013)
You can view WordPress’ year in review (for my blog) here.
I’m Not Playing Your Social Media Game Anymore: I am not one of those bloggers that puts their personal life in many posts. I really rely heavily on how-tos and value-adds. This post, however, was pretty personal, and it just goes to show you that authenticity and transparency actually make for really popular, well-read posts. It’s a good lesson–maybe I should do more of that nature in the new year.
#BuildYrBrand 6: Getting Out on the Speaking Circuit: This was an interview I did with Carla Reiger for a series I wrote on how to use social media to build your personal brand.
Social Media Best Practices [Infographic]: We are 10 years+ into Social Media, but it seems like good “best practices” posts are still in deep demand. Maybe even more so now, because there are so many of them, and there is a lot more confusion.
New E-Mail Spam Regulations: What You Need to Know: On July 1, 2014, CASL came into effect. There was quite a bit of concern around that time about what you should do with your email list to come into compliance, hence the popularity of this post.
Understanding Analytics #3: Facebook Insights: Understanding Analytics was another series I did this year, where I broke down each of the different social media analytic, and showed you what you should be looking for in each one to make your posts better. Facebook has one of the best analytics out there, but it’s also quite detailed, so this post proved to be a popular how-to.
Your Daily Social Media Checklist [Infographic]: This post was both pretty comprehensive, but a bit controversial, as well. I found this great checklist online, that outlined what you should be doing every day to keep all your feeds running. However, it’s a lot of work, and that was part of the controversy. In truth, I don’t do exactly what this checklist says every day, but I do a similar version of it–and yes–it is a lot of work!
Ello! First Impressions: This post garnered the most views in one day of all the posts I published this year. Ello is a new social network that launched this year, purporting to be the “anti-Facebook.” It had a very explosive start out the gate, but since then, hasn’t had much of an impact on the social media landscape.
How to Schedule and Backdate FB Posts [Updated]: I use the Facebook scheduler every single day. It’s a great tool, and FB updated it this year to make it better. This post shows you how to schedule (for the future) or backdate your FB posts.
Should You Use Hootsuite to Post to Facebook? The number one post on my blog, bar none, that drives more traffic to this site more than any other, is this one: Why You Shouldn’t Use Hootsuite to Post to Your Facebook Page. It was based on an experiment I did, where I tried posting to FB via Hootsuite. What I found was, I got less reach on the FB posts that were scheduled through Hootsuite, than I did by posting directly to FB, or using the FB scheduler. I should say for the record that I believe this to be true for all third-party apps posting to FB–I think FB recognizes this some way, and does not like it, so they punish you with lower views for those posts.
That’s it! That was 2014! I’m off on vacation for a bit, but I will see you early in the new year.