Author: Michelle Troutman

1. Not posting often enough – I’ve been guilty of this social media mistake. If you’re coasting on organic reach rather than paid traffic, it might not make a difference. Even if you don’t get a lot of interest in your posts because of the push toward paid traffic, posting regularly makes your business look current and reminds people that you’re still open.

2. Not asking questions – It helps to ask questions to not only increase your reach but “engage” with your audience — yes, it’s that “hip” buzzword again. If you want to talk to your customers, this is a good way to get a response.

3. No “personality” – Showing some emotion — in a positive way — is a great way to get attention. But, if you don’t show any personality, your posts can come across as bland, and they’re less likely to help your reach.

4. Not “checking in” – On Facebook, you can “check-in” to show people where you are (or where you’ve been) recently. If it will help your business, take advantage of this and make it a focal point of your post to get more interest from others who follow the site connected to where you were.

5. Not referencing other people or pages – One of my most popular organic Facebook posts received more than 200 views and “likes,” mostly because I named the people involved in an article I wrote for a local paper. This is all organic traffic — I didn’t pay for the post. So, sometimes, it takes a little creativity to get a boost.

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Quotes

“You are what you share.” ~ Charles Leadbeater, We Think: The Power of Mass Creativity

“How different would people act if they couldn’t show off on social media? Would they still do it?” ~ Donna Lynn Hope

Comments? Suggestions? Need help? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
Classy Writing
classywriting.com

1. Remember that not every “s” needs an apostrophe. Don’t add them to every noun in plural form. Use apostrophes only when the “s” in an object is in a possessive form or shows ownership.

Example: “John’s notebook.”

Personal pronouns, such as “its,” are an exception to this rule.

Example: “The cat cleaned itself with its paws.”

2. Use apostrophes in contractions. Besides words in the possessive form, apostrophes are used in words that form contractions to show missing letters.

Example: “it’s,” but not “its,” for “it is.”

Another way to remember is through the phrase, “It’s an apostrophe.”

3. Apostrophe style. How we use apostrophes is sometimes a matter of style, such as when writing letters or numerals in plural form.

Examples: 1900’s, ABC’s

To avoid confusion or doubt about issues of ownership or possessiveness, however, it can be best to leave them out: 1900s, ABCs

4. Watch for possessive plural nouns. Nouns in the plural form (more than one) can be trickier. You add an apostrophe after the “s.”

Example: The boys’ locker room is closed.

5. Don’t get possessive with pronouns. You don’t need to place apostrophes in these possessive pronouns: hers, his, yours, ours, theirs, its, or whose.

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Quotes

“There was never a golden age in which the rules for the use of the possessive apostrophe in English were clear-cut and known, understood, and followed by most educated people.” ~ Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language

“To those who care about punctuation, a sentence such as ‘Thank God its Friday’ (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence. The confusion of the possessive ‘its’ (no apostrophe) with the contractive ‘it’s’ (with apostrophe) is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy and sets off a Pavlovian ‘kill’ response in the average stickler.” ~ Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Comments? Suggestions? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com