Our panel of WordPress experts discusses social media, and what role it plays in our own businesses. We examine some news stories circulating through the WordPress ecosystem.

Our panel this week: Kim Shivler, Sallie Goetch, Jackie D'Elia, John Locke.

We record our round table episodes on FireTalk every Saturday at 10am PST.

Our news stories this week:

1 - Teaching you isn’t free development time
https://www.thewpcrowd.com/wordpress/teaching-isnt-free-development/

2 - Why You Want to Get WordPress Plugin Support Licenses
https://maintainn.com/2016/06/wordpress-plugin-support-licenses/

3 - Zerif Lite theme: Make WordPress Themes
https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35906

Main Topic: Social Media, what role does it play in your WordPress business?

0:00 Intros

2:15 News Story 1: Teaching You Doesn't Mean Free Development Time

4:07 Meetup Groups and boundary lines

7:20 If you hire a cheap developer, we can't train them for free

7:50 The difference between pointing people at an answer and doing all the heavy lifting for them

9:24 List of resources where you can learn web development

9:50 Buying a theme doesn't make you a web developer

10:40 Clients aren't the issue; it's web professionals selling client services

12:10 Be willing to invest in yourself to further your education

13:04 News Story 2: Why You Want to Get Plugin Support Licenses

13:30 Clients need to control their plugin licenses

14:14 When developer-only licenses are okay

15:39 The "What if I got hit by a bus tomorrow?" contingency

16:38 Why piggybacking off your developer's plugin licenses is a bad idea

17:19 News Story 3: Zerif LIte theme compliance issues on the WP themes repo

17:50 Why do themes on the free repo try to bend the rules?

20:10 Moving data in 200k theme installs is problematic

21:09 Why custom post types should always be in a plugin

21:55 A free listing in the theme repo means you have to follow the rules

23:20 Backwards compatibility when you've already built stuff out in a different direction

24:55 The logic of separating theme and plugin data so sites don't break

26:05 The fear of backlash when making large-scale theme changes

26:35 Main topic: Social media and WordPress

26:45 The ROI of social media

27:45 Using Twitter cards for lead generation

29:22 The social side of social media

30:15 LinkedIn Groups can have a ROI

31:24 Social media can lead to business...indirectly

32:26 Social media for networking in your industry

33:37 Finding where your clients are hanging out

34:08 Social media can build your authority and brand

35:34 Curating content instead of blasting out your own content

36:36 Certain businesses only hang out on LinkedIn

37:23 Reposting blog content on Medium and Linkedin Plus

37:49 Curating content on social

38:45 You have to have enough content to share

39:10 Developing relationships through sharing content on social media

40:08 Defining your brand by what you share and curate

41:08 GaggleAMP for spreading content through social

42:19 Instead of retweeting, add your own quote or commentary

44:46 How do businesses use social media?

45:19 Focus on your audience; don't try to do everything

46:18 Read what you're retweeting

48:05 Only have links to social feeds you are using

49:19 Time is the big issue

50:31 Focus on the social media channel where you feel comfortable and where your audience is

51:29 Add value without doing promotional posts 24/7

52:19 Having an informational hub on social

52:50 Social media is a community and a two-way street

53:38 Don't use social as another e-blast

54:20 Using social media as an educational platform and value add

56:08 "Engage me on the platform I'm on."

56:54 Our favorite social plugins for WordPress

1:00:26 The danger of using a social profile as your de facto website

1:01:12 It comes down to ownership; you need your own platform

1:02:59 Don't bank your future on the future of a particular social platform

1:04:42 Own your core. Own, don't rent.

1:06:40 Podcast outros

Read the article on the WP-Tonic website:

https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast/123-wp-tonic-round-table-social-media-wordpress-business/

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Remember WP-Tonic is not only a WordPress maintenance and support service, but we publish a twice weekly WordPress podcast where we talk with some of the smartest people in WordPress development and online marketing.

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