by Deborah Jackson | Marketing
If your business includes aspects like…
- special events
- behind the scenes moments
- prominent people
- attractive or practical merchandise
- travel landmarks or beautiful places
- nature
- employees who are good at what they do
- animals
- anything that looks good on camera
…then it might be a good idea to use Instagram for business purposes and show it all off!
Instagram is the easiest way to show people what you’re about, and how good you really are at not only your job, but relating to the world, and consequently THEM.
If people enjoy your pictures, subconscious logic tells them that they’re going to like you and that you’re an above-board sort of person because you live life in the open.
Isn’t psychology a beautiful thing?
Here’s how to make Instagram for business a part of your everyday.
- Download the Instagram app from your cell phone’s app store
- Visit this page on your computer for some quick tips to get started
- Click ‘register with email’ – registering with Facebook will link it to your personal account, and you probably want to keep your personal and business page posts separate.
- Fill in your work email, company name as username, and password fields, bypassing the stuff underneath it. Hit the big blue checkmark.
- Click yes when it asks you to find your Facebook friends, you need a base audience after all! Follow all the people you like, and then hit the blue arrow again.
- You may either search for more contacts now or choose ‘not now’ to skip this step. You can always do it later.
- It will now show you suggested people to follow, based on absolutely nothing! This is a completely random list. Click ‘DONE’ unless you see some people that interest you.
- Click the people icon on the far right, and edit your profile to include a photo, a URL and a 150 character description of your business. Copy it from Twitter or Facebook for easy set-up.
And you’re up! To make your first post Instagram post:
- Click the centre square – the camera icon.
- Hit the big blue button to take your first picture and scroll through the various filters to enhance the picture, and then hit the blue arrow.
- If you want to post the picture to your public stream, do nothing. If you want to send it privately, choose ‘Direct’.
- Enter a quick caption, and hit the blue arrow to make your first post!
Now, it’s always best for Facebook algorithm’s purposes to post original posts instead of importing posts from a third party. This means if you’re using Instagram for business, you probably want your pictures reaching as far as possible, so it’s ideal to just go to your gallery, click on the photo, and share it on Facebook instead.
However, if you still want to post your company’s Instagram feed to Facebook or Twitter:
- From the main bar along the bottom, click the people icon. Your profile will show up, and now you can see the three dots along the top. Click those.
- Choose ‘Linked Accounts’. Click ‘Facebook’ and authorize it. The process is the same for Twitter.
Remember, people love a good inside scoop. Whether it’s you accountant running payroll or a new product launch, if you let people in just a little, it’ll break your business wide open.
What to read next: LinkedIn: 5 Little Steps to Free Lead Generation and/or Eternal Glory!
Success always
Deborah x
by Deborah Jackson | Marketing
A steady stream of what’s relevant, audience members, and career connections with savvy, money, and businesses of their own – is it a dream or is it simply…LinkedIn?
The potential LinkedIn holds for business owners is often underplayed, but make no mistake. Serious people are searching for you there, and if they aren’t finding you, your credibility and your lead generation abilities are taking a hit.
Whether you use it as a static virtual business card, or as an active lead generation channel, setting up a profile is just good business. You’re not in the game if you’re not on LinkedIn.
So let’s get you there, and looking like a natural.
LinkedIn Setup: Opening the free lead generation floodgates with finesse
Before you make any changes to your profile, go to your LinkedIn account’s Privacy & Settings, and turn off your activity broadcasts and your activity feed.
You’re going to be making a lot of changes and spamming people through an over-active stream is the # 1 LinkedIn no-no. This is a social media account that plays by different rules. More is not better.
If you’re new to LinkedIn, click here to join, sign up with your favourite email and password, and skip adding contacts until you’ve run through the 5 steps below.
5 Steps to LinkedIn Lead Generation and/or Eternal Glory!
- Define ‘You’So, before we go crazy bombarding you with LinkedIn how-tos, we need to ask you one very important question: What do you want to be known for?This is the most important step, so don’t skip it! Write down 4-5 key words or phrases that describe you and your skill set.If you own a bakery, you should use words like ‘baker’, ‘pastry chef’, or ‘boulanger’ to describe yourself.You’ll also want to describe your skills and job duties like ‘cupcake creator’, ‘wedding cake decorator’, ‘sugar sculptor’ and other skills potential customers and colleagues might search for – don’t forget, your LinkedIn account is searchable through Google too!
TIP: Opt for keywords that sound like titles instead of ‘ing’ words – for instance if your main skill is baking, choose ‘baker’ as the keyword. People tend to search roles on LinkedIn more than anything else because of the business mindset.
- Put a Twist on your TitleThe LinkedIn headline. So many people lose an opportunity to make an impression here by sticking to LinkedIn’s default filler – your current title and place of work. Boring.Instead, use this space to tell people who and what you are: “Baker. Boulanger. Cronut Pastry King.”Doesn’t that sound better than ‘Baker at Sweet and Salty Cupcake Boutique’? Ok, well, maybe not. That sounds a lot more delicious than most businesses, but you get the point. Choose your main keyword, and build around it.
- Do Right By Your ReadersIn your summary section, write a quick bio that includes your keywords, and make it personal. People want a bit of insight, so charm them with a story or tell them what makes you get up in the morning. This is NOT your resume, so talk in first person: “I’m a baker, a boulanger, and I wouldn’t trade my apron for the world.”Write a few lines to describe each job you’re listing as well. It doesn’t have to be long, but this is a good place to stack those key phrases again. Bullets are acceptable, but don’t use more than 5.
- Stack Your SkillsScroll down to LinkedIn’s skill section and add your keywords in verb form if you have to, keyword form if you can.Also, add anything here you might want people to say you can do – LinkedIn lets people endorse your skills, so take advantage of it! Just make sure your mom isn’t the only one plus one-ing your skill set. Ask a couple of friends to stack the deck for you as well.
- Connect with Your ContactsIt’s time to announce your arrival!Go to Connections>>Add Connections and let LinkedIn access your email accounts to scan your contacts.From the list that appears, select everyone you’re comfortable adding, and hit the ‘Invite’ button for your moment of glory!Whether it’s 20 or 200, it’s a great start, and you’re now a relevant part of the biggest business related social media site on earth. Congratulations!
Your life of free lead generation and/or eternal glory has officially begun. Ok, you got me…there are other strategies! And we will discuss those in our next article.
What to read next: Social Media Content Creation: 2 ridiculously simple tips for insanely successful posts
Success always
Deborah x
by Deborah Jackson | Marketing
Have you ever looked at your list of things to do and just wanted to run away? Procrastination sometimes does get the best of us self-employed people. Everything seems to be a priority therefore we tend to put some things on the back burner. The point is, if the items on your to-do list have to do with marketing your business to attract clients then you don’t want to ignore them otherwise your pipeline of prospects will be empty in 6 months or less.
Every now and then Procrastination rears its ugly head into my business. Sometimes I think that the to-do list is so overwhelming that I tend to go into an avoidance mode rather than a mode of just dealing with it. Does this happen to you? Realistically, you can’t ignore marketing yourself. You’ll have to just bite the bullet and do what it takes.
Let me share with you my personal action checklist that takes me from procrastination to action:
- Prioritise: The best way to get moving is first sort out what your return on investment either financially, time-wise or resource-wise is for each item. Secondly, sort them in order of what will reap you the most benefits i.e. clients and revenue from the littlest output on your part and thirdly, start with that one and work down your list.
- What’s getting in your way? Sometimes, procrastination is about something getting in the way. It could be you don’t have every piece of the puzzle enabling you to move forward and accomplish something. It could be that you don’t know how to do one aspect but is it absolutely necessary to your success? Whatever’s holding you back, just get clear of it.
- How long will it really take? I sometimes find that I delay on a marketing task because I anticipate it taking longer than it really will. To get past this, look at the task and ask yourself realistically how long will it really take. Then, take out the to-do list and write down the time it will take you to complete it next to each item i.e. 30 minutes, 1 hour etc.
- Schedule it! Open your calendar and find time slots that correspond to the time allotted for each task on your list. Schedule them as if they were client appointments you are unable to cancel.
- Just do it! Once you’ve got the task appointments schedule in your diary, just do them. You’ll power through them like you’ve never done before. It’s actually pretty cool.
When marketing yourself, take notice of when you start slipping into procrastination mode – it happens to everyone, believe me. Prioritise the tasks on your to-do list and focus on the ones that’ll get you the highest return on investment. Make note of what’s getting in the way or what piece is missing and solve the issue accordingly. Establish how long it will take to get each task done and then schedule tasks into your diary. At this point you’ll have no excuses for not doing it.
Remember with marketing there is never a point at which you can say, “I’m successful now so I don’t have to market any longer.” You’ll notice that every successful entrepreneur never stops marketing. In fact, they are always adding new things to their existing marketing plans. Do the same. Always be marketing and you’ll always have clients.
For help to facilitate your strategic planning, please contact me.
What to read next: Set Up Instagram for Business in 10 Easy Minutes
Success always
Deborah x
