Erin Rawlings Social Media: February 2015

Monday, February 16, 2015

Using Bitly

Making sure your content is shareable is one of the most important parts of using social media. Think about it – you take the time to craft a meaningful, relevant blog post, and it is frustrating when you see little traction.

Using Bitly is an effective tool to ensure your blog posts can be easily shared, especially on Twitter. Since you only have 140 characters to work with, you don’t want to use them all on your blog URL.

Bitly shortens the links so that you have more room to add engaging context to your tweets.

Remember, you will also be required to share your bitly stats in your Personal Branding Project.

If you haven’t already signed up for a bitly account as directed in your weekly packets, sign up here and follow the directions. (I would use either the email you have designated for your blog or the Twitter account you use with your blog).

Also, be sure that you are sharing the SPECIFIC post, not your home page.

Looking forward to reading your blog posts!

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Have questions? Feel free to tweet me at @rawlingserin.

You can also email me at my Walsh account.

Monday, February 2, 2015

How to Install the Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your Blog

Hi, class! Technology is awesome – I love it! But it changes so fast, and it is impossible to recreate a new class video for every change.

Here are the updated directions on how to install the Google Analytics Tracking Code to your blog.

1. Go to http://www.google.com/analytics

2. Click Sign Up in the upper right hand corner

3. Fill out the information:

Account name – blog name (ex. Mommy on the Spot)

Website name – blog name (ex. Mommy on the Spot)

Blog URL – blog address (http://mommyonthespot.blogspot.com/)

4. Fill out category

5. Agree to conditions

6. See tracking ID code (it should start with AU. This is NOT the html code)

7. Copy tracking code

8. Go to Blogger dashboard

9. Go to paper drop down menu next to the orange pencil

10. Go to Settings

11. Go to Other

12. Scroll down to Analytics Web Property ID

13. Paste in code

14. SAVE SETTINGS

Remember, it takes about 24-48 hours for information to show up. Be sure to check in on your analytics page to ensure the code was installed correctly. If not, let me know so I can help.

Remember, the stats in your Blogger dashboard are NOT Google Analytics. Every time you want to check your Google Analytics, go to this here: http://www.google.com/analytics/

How to Turn in a Blog Post for Class

Reading and writing blog posts are one of my favorites parts of social media. I love them because regardless of the content, I have an opportunity to get a real sense of the brand’s or blogger’s personality. I also love it as a teacher, especially teaching an online class, because it gives me a chance to know students in a unique way.

However, if you do not upload your post to Moodle, I will not see them which means you will not receive credit. Even if the post is uploaded on time to your blog, you must upload it to Moodle on time in order for me to grade it.

Follow these steps to make sure you are turning your work in correctly.

After you publish your blog post, the screen looks like this (or you can login and use the drop down menu).