Social Media Advisors

We are Social Media Advisors, a Social Media Speaker, & Custom WordPress Site design.

Archives for 2011

How to Install a WordPress Plugin

Custom WordPress Sites, Social Media Advisors, WordPress Tutorials

Keeping up with my recent series of WordPress tutorials, today I bring a very simple tutorial on how to install a WordPress Plugin.  I get asked this question a lot by my clients that I have built a custom WordPress site for when they may want to add something else after we have finished the build and design.

How to Install a WordPress PluginThere are multiple ways in which you can install a WordPress plugin, and in this tutorial I cover the two most common ways.  The first is by visiting the WordPress plugin directory search while logged into your site.  This way is probably the easiest way and quickest.  You simply find the plugin you want and click install.  After installing and a quick click of the activate button, you are off to the races of setting up the specifics of the plugin.

The second way I talk about is if you find a plugin somewhere outside the directory, or have already downloaded it from the WordPress plugin directory.  When you do this, you will have a .zip file of the plugin saved to your hard drive.  In this instance, you need to go to your plugin screen and click the upload.  You will actually upload the .zip file, so don’t open the zip file and try installing that.  If you do, it will not work.

Here’s a simple screencast that walks you through how to install a WordPress plugin either of these ways:

Two Important Reminders

Always remember before you start installing any new plugins to your site to first backup your custom WordPress Site!  The last thing you want to do is have your entire site go down because of a bad plugin that you install that destroys everything.  If you have a backup done before installation, you just need to restore to the older version.   The second thing to remember, is the importance of keeping all of your WordPress plugins up to date on your custom WordPress site.  By not keeping these up to date you can open yourself to a whole lot of other problems and issues.

If you have questions about how to install a WordPress plugin onto your custom WordPress site, feel free to ask in the comments below!

How To Backup Your Custom WordPress Site

Custom WordPress Sites, Social Media Advisors, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tutorials

Keeping your custom WordPress site backed up is a crucial item.  The last thing we ever want to happen is to have our site crash or get hacked and we have no backup in place of the content.  Unfortunately, every day someone has this happen to them.  I shared the other day about the importance of keeping your custom WordPress site up to date, and one of the things I mentioned there was to backup before you begin the process.

WordPress BackupIn the comments it was asked by one of the readers to do a video discussing how you can backup your WordPress site.  So, here is how I handle mine.  I run a plugin called WordPress Database Backup or WP-DB Backup for short.  This plugin can be set to automatically back up your site each day and email you a copy.  When I originally set mine up, I had it going to my main inbox for all of my WordPress Sites.  But, since I currently have about 10 different sites I run for various things, it was clogging my inbox quickly!

So, I then set up a dummy email account on my server to which my backups for all of my sites are sent daily.  I never open this inbox except to delete the copies that are a few months old when it fills up.  Since it is connected to a Google account it takes a while to fill it up.  But now I never have to worry about losing any of my sites. Here is a quick tutorial showing you how to set up the WordPress Database Backup:

This is one of the many plugins I install on every one of my clients sites.  That way they receive a backup in case of emergency. If you do not have some sort of backup set up on your Custom WordPress Site I highly suggest doing it today.  Go do it right now!

How to Keep Your Custom WordPress Site Up To Date

Custom WordPress Sites, Social Media Advisors, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tutorials

Whenever I build a Custom WordPress Site for one of my clients I always show them how to keep all their plugins, theme, and version of WordPress up to date.  It is actually very easy to do, just many don’t take the time to actually do it.  Before I show how you to keep things up to date, I thought I should first explain why it is important to do so.

PlugWhy Update Your Custom WordPress Site?

You may be asking “what does it matter if I keep my plugins, theme & version of WordPress up to date?  The site is running perfectly fine.” Well, there are two main reasons why you need to keep your custom WordPress site up to date.

1.  New Features– By keeping things up to date you are adding new features & functions that the plugin has implemented.  Sometimes this may mean connections to new social networks, or other great features.

2.  Secure & Bug Free- Most of the updates that take place to plugins, themes, & WordPress are done to either fix a bug in the previous version that was discovered or to implement a security patch to keep your custom WordPress site secure from hackers.  While you may think that nobody would want to hack your simple website, they love to prey on anyone they can.

Before Updating Your WordPress Site

Before you even think of beginning the updating process let me give you a few tips.  First and foremost BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!  Did I say it enough?  Backup your site before even looking at the updates available to your site.  The last thing you want to have happen is for you to update a plugin and have your entire site crash.  If you have no backup, you could possibly lose everything you have worked on.

The second tip I would give is look at the update version.  If it is something minor going from like a version 3.1.08 to version 3.1.09 then go ahead & do the update immediately.  It’s a minor change that is fixing that bug or loophole.  But, if it is a major version update like going from version 3.1.09 to 4.0, then you may want to give it a week or so before installing the update.  The reason I make this suggestion is that sometimes when a major update takes place there are some bugs that do not get discovered until thousands of people are using it.  Usually though, the developer gets notified quickly and a patch is sent to fix the problem.  That is why normally when you see a new version of something come out, there is normally new updates that follow fairly quickly fixing any other issues.

How to Update Your Custom WordPress Site

Here’s a quick tutorial walking you through how to update the plugins, theme, and version of your custom WordPress site:

I hope this helps keep your custom WordPress site up to date with the latest!  If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comment section below.

How to Build an Online Following

Social Media Advisors, Social Media Speaker

I was honored this year to be asked to come present at the Florida REALTORS® Conference as a social media speaker on how to build an online following. I shared with the group 9 tips to building an online following properly.  You can view the entire presentation at the end, but first here are the main points:

Social Media Speaker1.  Don’t buy fans– The only place you should ever consider buying any type of fan online is at amazon and it should only be the type needed to cool you down on a hot summer day.

2.  Build a good mousetrap- Being on all these social networks & connected with thousands of people is pointless if you do not have a good home base blog/website to direct that traffic to.  In real estate, consumers are mainly looking for three things when visiting your site.  You need to have clear call to action buttons in place to allow the viewer to search homes, find out what’s my home worth, and learn easily how’s the market.

3.  Be yourself-  It’s ok to be genuine & open with your audience online.  When you share the real you it makes it easier for them to connect with you as a person.  Share some humor and have fun.  The consumer will like you more for it.

4.  STOP selling-  Social networks were not created as selling platforms.  If all you are doing is broadcasting that over & over you are not using the platforms properly.  Remember, the first part of the phrase is “social.”

5.  Talk about others rather than yourself-  If you spend more time communicating with others and talking to them your business will be much more successful online and you will build a much larger online following.

6.  Ask questions-  Instead of just making statements, try asking questions.  By doing so you are encouraging those connected to you to get more involved and want to interact.

7.  Ask people to join-  Add call to action buttons to your site, to your email signature and other various tools to give people the ability to connect with you.  What you do NOT want to do is start begging them to join constantly as that becomes annoying and will push people away.

8.  Stop automation- I’ve written on the concerns with automating everything, so I don’t really need to get into it that deep.  Just realize that each & every network runs and acts differently.

9.  Learn how the tools work before using-   Before you begin using a new techy tool you just found, it is really important that you take the time to learn how it works and also some best practices so that you do not make yourself look bad in the eyes of those who are using the platform already.

You can view the full presentation below on building an online following:

Building an online following

If you would like to book me as a social media speaker at your next event, simply contact me.