Diane Laney Fitzpatrick

writer, blogger, author and internet socialite

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Business or Pleasure? Separating Your Company From Your Personal Social Media

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Anyone who has a company social media account knows the dilemma: How can I make my business personal without being too personal? And what is too personal, anyway?

First, it’s almost always a good idea to have separate social media accounts for your business and your personal life. Purely personal posts belong on your personal pages; and serious business posts belong on your business pages.

But then there’s that big old area in between. Things about your personal life that you want your customers and clients to know about: Your involvement in your community, how you balance work and play, your hobbies and your pets. All of that has its place on your business social media, and it in fact can go a long way to humanize and personalize your company, as well as connect with people.

People like to know that there’s a person or people behind a business. And social media allows you to show off your business’s personal side. Spotlighting members of your team, showing appreciation for customers, and showing that there are real people behind your business’s personality.

Small business consultant Kedm Ought says that social media is always personal. “You need to convey your persona.”

But there is a balance to be had. [Read more…] about Business or Pleasure? Separating Your Company From Your Personal Social Media

Should You Be on Pinterest? Here’s a List of Lists

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Don’t you just love a list? I do. So when I started to look into fodder for this blog post, I ended up with three different lists and I couldn’t decide which one to focus on. So I decided to make … um … well, I decided to make a list.

  1. Reasons why your small business should be on Pinterest
  2. Ways to use Pinterest for your small business
  3. Companies who are successfully using Pinterest to grow their businesses

Let’s tackle all three. [Read more…] about Should You Be on Pinterest? Here’s a List of Lists

There Was This Massage Chair

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I was getting what was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill pedicure recently and long story short, I got intimate with a massage chair.

We’re pre-long-engaged.

The whole whirlwind romance almost didn’t happen. I had never had a manicure/pedicure at this salon, so I was just meeting the nail tech, Jackie. Naturally I told her my entire life story and all fingernail and toenail related experiences, just to catch her up to speed. The fact that I got my first manicure when I was 40. My daughter’s criticism that I have an unhealthy attachment to the same shade of sheer, pale pink polish. My friend Robin’s infection-for-life from going to a bad salon in Florida. That time I got Black Plum on my toenails and wore it with orange sandals and it worked; it worked so hard. My disappointment in my last mani-pedi, in which the nail tech complained that I wasn’t “holding my hands right” until I seriously thought she was going to slap them with a ruler. And, of course, the time I went to a salon in Dallas for a simple pedicure and ended up getting an unsolicited neck massage from a creepy, small man.

“And, you know, I don’t let just anyone massage my neck,” I told Jackie. She needed to know this about me. “I have enough back and neck issues. I just don’t want some stranger creeping up on me touching me. I mean, seriously, dude, hashtag me too. Just paint my toenails and let me get the hell out of here.” [Read more…] about There Was This Massage Chair

Let’s Slam Each Other and Call It Middle School

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I couldn’t find hide nor hair about personality books on the Internet, so I was almost sure I had dreamed them. It wouldn’t have been the first time I was the only one to be so sure that something was a thing, only to find that I was overruled by reality. But I distinctly remembered personality books, these homemade booklets we used to put together in middle school and pass around for our friends (and frenemies) to sign.

“Do you remember personality books?” I texted my friend The Other Diane. “Because I think I dreamed them. Remember, they were made out of stapled notebook paper and each page had a question to answer and then there would be a kid’s name on the top of the page and we’d have to write what we thought of them.”

“I do,” she wrote back. “We got comments like funny or smart. But the popular girls were tuff. Sometimes they were called slam books, I think. What a bad idea.”

So I googled slam books and sweet Mary mother of Jesus they actually were a thing. And it was a bad idea alright.  Slam books, personality books, whatever you want to call them were everything that is wrong with tweens, public schools and paper waste all bound up with i’s dotted with hearts and obnoxiously round loopy handwriting.

The fact that they weren’t in Mean Girls makes me wonder what’s going on in Hollywood these days. I mean, I know Tina Fey is younger than me, but did she grow up after the ’90s? Even my mind, sick with having watched too many British psychological thrillers, would be hard pressed to make up this stuff. [Read more…] about Let’s Slam Each Other and Call It Middle School

What I Don’t Know About Cars

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It’s been pointed out to me that what I know about cars can fit into my bellybutton.

I hate to admit defeat, so I probably should learn, but I just have no interest.

And I’m interested in almost everything else other people have to say. I’ll strike up a conversation with every person sitting next to me on an airplane and come up with 25 custom questions about their profession, whether it’s software sales or speech therapy or training guide dogs for the blind. But when my seatmate was the owner of an auto repair shop, I prayed for turbulence. A heart attack — even my own — and a conversation-stopping call for a doctor on board. Anything but an upcoming conversation about transmissions.

“So, what do you drive?” he asked me.

“Me? A car.”

“What kind of car?”

“Oh! Right. Sorry. A gray one.” [Read more…] about What I Don’t Know About Cars

Hire me. Or not. Whatever. OK

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I’m starting a new little side business venture and once again am reminded that there is no place for someone like me in a regular business world.

I’ve decided to help solo and small businesses with digital and social media.  It’s a good idea, a good fit for me. I love organizational work and I love writing, plus I have a short attention span, which has made book writing reeeeaaally hard lately. Writing a 280-character tweet is about my speed these days. So yeah. Good idea.

The problem started when I had to take it off the drawing board and allow it to travel across the room to a conversation with real people.

This happened last week:

My writer friend: “I know I have to do more social media, I just don’t know where to start.”

My husband: “Diane can help you with that. She’s written a guide book and is ready to take on some clients.”

My writer friend: “Really? Diane, that’s great!”

Me: “Wellll . . . I don’t know. It’s not really a guide book. I mean other people can do a much better job than me. I don’t know anything about analytics. Or the law. But I won’t charge much. So . . .” {picks up wine glass and gulps it like I just failed the SAT} [Read more…] about Hire me. Or not. Whatever. OK