This week marked 3 years since I left my job as a communications specialist and started working on Hot Pepper Communications full-time. Last month marked my passing 20,000 followers on Twitter, a far cry from the 50 I had when I converted my side business into a full-time business. Growing my follower count by 20,000 in 3 years has taken… Continue reading 10 ways to get more Twitter followers for free
Author: Kim Siever
I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business.
Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.
7 examples of sexist language to avoid in your writing
Sexist stereotyping, despite efforts spanning decades to change it, still exists, and it’s pervasive in how we communicate. Sexist stereotyping—well, stereotyping in general—is a poor way to communicate because it relies on assumptions and generalizations that often don’t apply to the situation at hand. Here are 7 ways to avoid sexism in your own writing, but this… Continue reading 7 examples of sexist language to avoid in your writing
Hot Pepper Hot Picks: 4 March 2016
Here are the 20 most popular (listed from most popular to least) social media and writing articles I shared this week, based on the number of likes, comments, and reshares they received.
The key to boosting blog traffic: publish a newsletter
Last December marked 15 years since I started blogging. I started with the now defunct site Themestream, and shortly after it went down, I moved to Blogger. Actually, in a sense, I’ve been blogging longer than that. For 3 years prior, I was writing articles for a weekly ezine. Anyhow, over the years, I’ve learned a… Continue reading The key to boosting blog traffic: publish a newsletter
5 tricky areas of subject–verb agreement
One of the most popular edits I have to make is subject–verb agreement. When writing, you must ensure that the subject of the sentence agrees with the verb in the sentence regarding numbering. “My sister loves hot peppers”, not “My sister love hot peppers” “They are quiet tonight”, not “They is quiet tonight” When you’re using… Continue reading 5 tricky areas of subject–verb agreement
How to switch between multiple Instagram accounts
Instagram recently released multiple account support. This is a much welcome feature for social media managers. Previously, it was an awkward, multi-step process to manage a client’s account as well as your personal one. Here is a quick tutorial showing you 2 easy ways to switch between your accounts on Instagram. Let me know your thoughts… Continue reading How to switch between multiple Instagram accounts
How to make a degree symbol on a Chromebook
Last year, I purchased a Chromebook, and one of the first things I realized at the time was that I had no idea how to type special characters with it, such as the degree symbol (°). I did a bit of research, and I discovered that the trick is using the Unicode for each character. Just… Continue reading How to make a degree symbol on a Chromebook
Hot Pepper Hot Picks: 19 February 2016
Here are the 20 most popular (listed from most popular to least) social media and writing articles I shared this week, based on the number of likes, comments, and reshares they received.
20 reasons to convert my Facebook profile to a page
Every so often, I get a friend request from a business. Facebook created Pages specifically as a way for businesses to connect with people, so there’s no reason to have to set up a personal profile for your business. Not only is there no reason to use a personal profile instead of a Facebook page,… Continue reading 20 reasons to convert my Facebook profile to a page
How to fix faulty parallelism
One of the most common grammatical errors I see on the web is faulty parallelism. I assume most writers aren’t even aware of the error. Faulty parallelism exists when two potentially related actions differ in structure. Let me illustrate.