RRVA
Those of you who follow me on twitter and facebook have (hopefully!) seen my question asking you what your biggest social media headache is. There have been some amusing answers so far…seriously, if I could knit time would I be running RRVA not selling said knitted time?!… but a couple of comments have made me think. Particularly about all the changes recently on Facebook.
One of the main remarks I’ve had have been along the lines of “my biggest headache is that Facebook keeps changing the rules or how things work before I’ve got my head around the last lot! How am I meant to keep up?!”. And, do you know what, I fall into that camp too.
FB keep moving the goal posts with what we can (and can’t) do on our newly timelined business pages, particularly with regard to promotions, and we know that there are more changes on the way. Of course it’s part of what I do to keep up with what is happening and changing on the social media I use the most and keep my clients informed and advised correctly, but it still doesn’t stop it being annoying sometimes! It can get a bit down heartening BUT we have to get on with it! Whatever the motives of FB are – which I am not going to get into here- we, the users, have to adapt to the changes and in the end, if we think a little creatively we can work the changes to our advantage. We’re creative people after all, non linear thinking comes more naturally to us apparently.
I can recommend that you follow a few of the online magazines that update you on any changes when they happen, like mashable for example, and there are a few good pages on FB itself to like to get the latest information. I particularly like Mari Smith’s page, FB guru that she is, as she always gets the information out to her fans as soon as anything changes and always has a positive spin on things. I like positive! We have to accept the changes so why moan away rather than spending our energy more effectively on working out how to turn it to our advantage?
So is this your Social Media Headache too? Or do you still want me to get out my knitting needles…
Some Right Brain Planning in action
I’m certain you all know the importance of planning. But I bet the prospect of sitting down and working out how to do a certain task or where you want your business to go this year fills you with the sort of dread that means you put it off until you really, really have to do it or it will all go wrong.
Do you think that planning is writing lots and lots of lists and writing big long documents with forecasts and chapters and sections in it? Well the good news for us non linear thinkers is that it doesn’t have to be like that!! Right Brain Business Planning can be and should be a lot more fun and also, most importantly, productive. Get a big piece of paper, some post it notes, lots of coloured pens and even some magazine pictures if they are relevant to what you are planning. You will also need a bigish wall or space on the floor. Now write what your goal is or the thing that needs planning out in the middle of your paper.
Now what are the key points, write them down round the edges of that goal, mind mapping style. Using your post it notes, magazine ripped out pictures and coloured pens splurge every idea that comes into your head about how to reach that goal/task that needs doing to achieve it onto lots of different post it notes. DO NOT self censor yourself. It may sound ridiculous but don’t discount it yet.
Now you should have lots of ideas that you can organise into groups of tasks that need to be done, small steps to take or ways to make your original idea or thing even better! You can arrange them and stick them down to your piece of paper in a way that makes sense to you – this is important! It doesn’t matter if your bank manager wont understand it, you’re not working this out to show lots of other people but to help you achieve something or work out a problem.
You should end up wit a clear plan of action with the bonus of something visual stimulating you can turn to when you need to refer back to what you need to do next. Stick it up somewhere and keep yourself motivated and on track at a glance!!
And a special thank you to Jen Gash of Craft Your Life for so ably demonstrating this brilliant way of working things through to me. Let me know how you get on!
Do they know what they're doing or will you get burned??
If you are thinking of working with someone (like myself) to manage your social media for you here are some questions that I think it is essential that you should ask about them, both before working with them and also at regular intervals in your relationship.
1. What is their social media presence like?
Are they on the platforms that you want them to manage for you? Is their presence good, knowledgeable and are they up to date with the latest platforms? There is really little comfort in employing someone to work on your Facebook page when theirs has virtually no likes, isn’t updated regularly and doesn’t have different kinds of media on it.
2. Are they passionate about your business sector?
This may sound a bit of an odd one but if they really can’t get their passion going about feathered hats and have no millinery or fashion knowledge how are they going to sell your business interests online?? They may be brilliant at talking about plumbing but are they in the right sector for you? Social Media for business is all about being social, caring about what you do and getting that across to other people who also might like similar things to you and, therefore, want to buy from you. You need to consider if they have a specialist sector that is right for you. I do caveat this as there are some people who can write with passion about any subject but they are few and far between!! I, for example, am more than happy to be on the teams of people who are creative, artistic, like dogs are into vintage or who are based in places that I love but I have said no to people who I just think I don’t know enough about to enable me to do them justice online.
3. How is it going to work??
Some people want a totally hands off a approach (which I would never advise myself – it’s your company and you need to direct the tone of your brand online so it is consistent with your presence offline) but others only really want some input. Also Social Media Managers are all individuals and work with clients in different ways. Find out what their way is and then decide if it’s for you. For example I always encourage my clients to still post on their Twitter & Facebook (coz they’re the 2 I tend to manage for people most) because it is their presence. Having me on board as part of their team – note that please, team member not ‘pretending to be them online’ – just relieves the pressure from them of having to update regularly. I still have catch up meetings to discuss content, tone, things that are happening this month and get relevant photos or videos and then post on their behalf.
So there you go, if you’re looking for someone to help you manage your social media, orchestrate your next online marketing campaign or you just really don’t want to be spending your time on twitter (even though you know you should!) then do your research on the social media managers you have found and ask them these things. And if you’re a small creative business and you’d like to talk to me about how I can help you with this then email me here 
As you should be aware by now Facebook has introduced Timeline for your business page and if you have a business page, you will have to use it from 30th March whether you like it or not!! I actually think it’s a great thing, the cover image is really striking and there are some rather cool admin tools and insights coming our way soon too. As with all changes it can be hard to accept and there are some bad things about it too so I thought I’d share a few bits of information to help you understand what is good and bad about Timeline for your business.
Firstly there are the basics of your cover image and your profile photo. They are different sizes to what we have been used to, so you may well have to re-size images or find new ones. The dimensions you need to know are;
- Cover Photo – it’s 851 x 315 pixels and you need to make it visually interesting and about your brand
- Profile Photo – it is now 180 x 180 pixels. So it’s square now! I’d recommend this be your logo as t nests nicely into the cover image and the About you bit at the head of the timeline.
- App pictures – they are 111 x 74 pixels and you can add your own images to make them more calls to action than just random image.
There is a really handy (and cool) infographic of the sizes here.
Now for the negatives – lets get them out of the way!
- - You can no longer make people like your page before seeing the wall. So that nice fan gate you have installed is a bit redundant!! However, that page does still have it’s own url so you can use that in your other social media and direct people to that page first yourself.
- - You CANNOT have any of the following in your Cover Image; Any promotions, your contact details, requests to like your page or arrows pointing to the like button, any form of call to action (which is a bit harsh in my book but hey ho!)
- - You also CANNOT have any contact information in there either, that’s for your ‘about’ section
BUT
On the positive side
- - It’s an awful lot prettier to look at! And easier to update the cover image if you change your mind. Some companies are even running regular competitions and using their likers photos on their cover every month – so who has taken a great photo of themselves in their product etc.
- - It is a lot more social. Which is the point really! The interface means its more about the people behind the company, the pictures get more prominence, you can highlight certain stories and make them bigger, tell your story through the milestones and generally get more of your personality as a business owner – or of your company- to people who interact with you.
- - The insights are also much more informative and easier to understand. You can export the data really easily to analyse which are your most popular kinds of posts, if you;re hitting your target demographic etc
- - It delivers a more personal experience to people who view your page too as they can see if any of their friends like or have visited your page too.
There are lots of other sneaky little things you can do with it too. A lot more prominence is given to the About section and it now appears underneath the profile picture and is one of the first things seen by people on your page. Depending on what business category you have selected dictates whether it is your contact information or your written statement about what you do that appears here. Play around and see which you prefer.
There are some excellent guidelines on Facebook here and also this is a great post from Mari Smith about how you can use it to market yourself still here. Also please don’t worry if you don’t get round to setting it up before the 30t March – your page is not going to disappear into the ether if you do nothing! It will just not look that great is all, plus if you don’t like what you have done it isn’t set in stone either – you can keep on editing it infinitum after the 30th March too.
If you’re still struggling with getting it to look how you want or with how to pin posts or add images to your milestones then I am offering 1 hour sessions on the phone/skype or in person if you’re local to me for £25. Then you should be all set to rock your page and keep it working hard for you! Email me here to book your slot!
My business vision board for 2012
Last night I attended our regular Women in Rural Enterprise meeting, which I am the leader of for Oswestry & Borders, and we were making vision boards. Now I love anything to do with cutting and sticking so I knew I would really enjoy it BUT what I wasn’t quite expecting was how reflective it was going to make me.
I go on about Flow a lot but making this really pulled me up about what I want my business to provide for my lifestyle and how I like to work and with whom. The what it is that allows me to step into flow. Today is our extra day of the year, one we only get every 4 years and it has something of an ephemeral feel to it. I have been urging everyone – myself included – to not just treat it as another working day. I’ve taken the time to sick up my vision board above my desk and to reflect properly on what the exercise has remind me of and what it will keep inspiring me to believe for the rest of the year. Reflection is not something we are given to letting ourselves have time to do properly in business.
So today, please give yourself some headspace. Just for a little while. Allow yourself some time to sit still and think about things, to properly reflect on a problem or a project or simply to refresh your head.
You won’t get another chance for an extra day again until 2016.
This usually helps me write blogs!!!
This is the one people always get stuck on. The answer is very simple really – if you were your customer what would you want to read about.
By the way, simple does not mean easy!!
Ask yourself these questions and then draft out some titles for posts and get writing!
1. What do people ask me about what I do when I meet them at events?? Could I answer those questions.
2. If I wanted to buy from me, what would I want to know first?
3. Do I have expertise that people would like me to share?
4. Is there something happening in my industry currently that I could write about, for example changes in legislation that could effect my clients or new developments they may like to try out.
Of course it does depend on what industry you are in, for example if you are a photographer people tend to go to your blog to see examples of your work or if you are a social media bod then people want to see that you know what you are talking about. Blogs also don’t have to all be the written word either, in fact they are more interesting if they aren’t! Recording a short video can be quicker and is easy to post and also simply gives people a flavour of who you are as a person. Even if you decide to use a ghost blogger, because you know you just don’t have the time but want your blog to work for you, you will still need to know what content you want to appear! At least in outline form so please do still ask yourself these questions.
One thing I like to do that really helps me is to keep a list of topics I can write about, when I think of them, written in the back of my diary. When I get stuck it’s like a little resource to go to and get inspired. Yes, it is written in lots of different coloured pens depending on whether its to do with social media support or small business support but that’s just how my mind works!
So what are you waiting for?? Get yourself going!
It’s a common question and one that worries business owners when they start to realise they really don’t have enough time to keep their blog up to date but are worried about handing it over to someone external to their company. Hiring someone to blog for you is not as scary as people may think and is usually referred to as ghost blogging, i.e someone else blogs as you.
So how does ghost blogging work?
- Well for a start it helps take the stress out of coming up with regular content that is appropriate and interesting to your target audience. Your blogger can research and draft posts for you to review and publish or schedule them all in to be spread across a week/month.
- They can interview you about a topic which they write up for you, so your voice is the one that still comes across.
- They can also help you get your key words into your posts in a sensible way that still reads well.
And much more!!
It is important to remember that a ghost blogger will always be trying to write in your style, conveying your opinions and not in their own style or pushing their opinions. AND it keeps your blog regularly updated, encourages interaction with your clients, helps your SEO and is easily spread through social media, driving up your web traffic.
Your ghost blogger will also be able to coach you if you want to improve your own skills or you could do one of the Nikki Pilkington’s 30 Day Challenges if you prefer to work through on your own. Ghost blogging can be a short term arrangement to get the blog off the ground and build a foundation for the future, you may want to mix writing your own posts when you have time with using a ghost blogger (the service I like to encourage with my clients!) or rely solely on your ghost blogger for all the content. It’s up to you really. Because it’s your blog.
If you would like to find out more about the ghost blogging service I offer at RRVA then click here.
I said I would try and make the blog have a bit more of my personality so here is another video offering of mine. I’m thinking about ways we can be a bit happier this year and achieve what we want from life. Hope you like it! And apologies if I ramble a bit much – I’ll get better at these I’m sure
We all make them in some way or another, either in an organised in December “I am all planning and organised for next year already” kind of way or a beginning of January “I’ve finally got round to thinking about what I want to do differently this year” kind of way. It’s New Year’s Resolutions for your business in 2012. I shared some of mine with you in my last post too. But then it’s all of a sudden the middle of January and we haven’t managed to stick to our guns for a couple of weeks let alone 12 months! Or is that just me??? I have, however, pulled myself together and got myself back on track, so here are my top tips to help you be likely to succeed in the first place and help sticking to them:
1. Keep your resolutions simple
Complicated makes it hard to achieve and frustrating if you don’t.
2. Keep them small
Grand overal goals are brilliant for motivating you but break your resolutions down into small, more achievable steps. You get to tick them off then when you’ve done them (something I completely LOVE doing, preferably in multi-coloured pens) and you can even allocate them out over the months so it’s only 1 thing to do each month to keep you on track.
3. Go with a theme
I find this helps me loads. Rather than a “I will turnover X amount and the business will be in the top 10 most influential in the Creative Industries in the UK by the end of the year”, it makes it more achievable to say “This year is about growth and getting RRVA recognised nationally”. It gives me something to hang my smaller steps on and to check against when opportunities come in – will it help me achieve my theme??
4. Tell People!
Accountablity is great for making you check back to see what you wanted to achieve. Blog it, share it will a group of like minded people at a networking event and arrange points in the year to get together and see how each of you are doing and support each other to go the next step. Start to work with and hire people who will help you make those changes and hold you to account each month, be it a business coach, a personal trainer or a mentor from within your field.
5. Write it down and stick it up!
Following on from the above, you need to have them somewhere you will see them all the time to remind you what you want out of the year. And also to see how many you’ve managed to cross off your steps already. Hold yourself to account.
This month I’m thinking a lot about resolutions, how to make and keep them effectively and how much better my business will be if I stick to them. These are my suggestions, I’d love to know how you go about making and keeping yours – or maybe you think resolutions are a waste of time! – so please share your thoughts below in the comments.
Posted in Tips | 2012 Resolutions, Business Planning, Goal Setting, New Year's Resolutions | Leave a comment
New horizons
This time last year I wrote down my goals for the year and stuck them to my wall to inspire me. I tried to be specific and measurable and make sure I had down personal aims as well as business ones. So why did I take it down and how did I do?
Well to answer my first question I took them down coz they were getting in the way and then I moved house to stay with my Mum whilst my purchase went through and they kinda got lost. I kept them digitally however so I can remind myself what I have achieved and base this year’s goals on what I learned last year.
The main thing I learned is that setting a turnover goal does not motivate me. No, not at all, in fact it has the opposite effective of making me worry stupidly about not reaching it. But I will be doing something similar again because it really is the best way to measure if my business is turning over more than I need it to – which is my goal. I have, at least, managed to get it up to what I need and learned that it is important to work with the right people to keep me on track and that they are worth paying for even if I think I can’t afford them.
I STILL have not revised my business plan so I do REALLY need to do that as things move in a slightly different direction. I actually need to write it down and face the thing I fear – the financial forecasting!
I did run my workshops and speak at an event and I will be running another workshop or 2 this year in my role as the Women in Rural Enterprise group leader for the Oswestry and Borders area. If you want me to come and talk about using social media effectively for your business or how to make your work flow more efficient then let me know!
My blogging has got more consistent which is brilliant but the personal blog idea never really took off. Ah well, there is always this year. I plan to be more disciplined and set aside a speicifc time each week for my own blogs updating.
And my Marketing plan was implemented with some success and lots to learn from. This year’s will be more focused and I have help to keep me on track and to assess what works and what doesn’t.
As for my personal goals I manged them all, yeah me!! BUT I have had to loose my cleaner in the move but that will be rectified very soon. Well, once the builders have finished anyway.
But this year is really all about balance. Yes I want to grow my income to the next stage and to be as consistent as I can get it but I want to do it in a way that I am comfortable with. A way that is much more me. I also have recognised that in order to be at my best for my clients I need to be happy as a person. I have not been doing anything creative for a good 6 to 8 months due to workload and the move etc and I have suffered and my work has suffered as a consequence. I will be taking time to draw and photograph regularly with the goal of a small, local exhibition in the summer to work towards. It will do me good to let my flow, well flow.
In case you are wondering here are a few of my goals;
- to add more of my personality back into my blog – it was getting a bit boring in my opinion
- to earn a bit more than I actually need every month
- to re-engage a cleaner once the building work is finished!
- to really focus on what I do and do it better – particularly with regards to Social Media (I need to get my head round Google+ better!) and to running WiRE
- To be stricter with myself about how I structure my working week and when I don’t work!
- To make time to create – its the best stress relief and centreing of myself I can do, which is good for everyone
So will I be sticking my goals up on my wall again in 2012?? Hell yeah! Let’s hope I keep them there for the whole year this time! I’d love to know one or two of your goals too, to help us be realistic and celebrate our successes. I want to let people know if I or you achieve them on here! So please share your goals in the comments below.
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