social media planning

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#46 - Managing your social media while on vacation

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How do you manage your social media when you’re on vacation? Blogger and content curator, Rebecca Stanisic, joins me to discuss how you can create a viable social media plan to keep you covered while you are disconnected and away from the office.

rebecca stanisic

Many business owners intend to have a plan for their social media while they are away, but don’t follow through and instead let their social media channels go dark. This is not always ideal.

While vacations are important—disconnecting can be rejuvenating!—it does not have to be detrimental to your business. Think of a vacation as a chance to recharge your batteries, and when you plan ahead it can be stress-free.

So, how can you prevent your social channels from going dark while you're away?

Use a calendar

The first place to start is with a calendar. Have and use an editorial calendar of some sort—it does not have to be day-to-day, but you should still have a calendar you can refer to on a daily basis, even though it may be a calendar that breaks down your content schedule monthly.

Use this calendar to plan out what content you want to post and when you want to post it. When you use and consistently refer to this calendar you get a bigger picture and can see the blocks of time you have devoted to vacation. This will help you plan in advance and work with the goal of meeting deadlines way before your vacation as opposed to last minute. This will reduce stress and allow you to focus.

You need to plan and prepare yourself for the transitional time following a vacation as well—allow time to check email, prepare for meetings, etc. This should all be incorporated into your planning in the weeks (and months) leading up to a vacation.

What this means is that you should prepare and schedule your social media content for before, during and after your vacation to allow for some much needed buffer time.

Schedule Content

While some business owners do not schedule content and prefer to post live, if you know you are going to be unplugged while away then you need to create quality content and schedule it to publish while you are on vacation. 

This could be a timely evergreen piece that relates to the time of year, i.e. if it is over March break, do you have something that relates to this?  The same goes for Christmas and other holidays.

If you are planning on running a special event or sale sometime after you get back from vacation, then you need to think ahead about this as well; and create and schedule content that will build up to this so you are not frantically promoting last minute upon returning from vacation.

Plan your blog posts

If you have a small business blog then you might not need to publish a new blog post on your week away, however if you do need new content or if you owe someone a new post(s) then you need to plan ahead and make sure it is edited and ready to publish while you are away.

When it comes to all online content, the important thing is to be consistent—if your audience expects a blog post or newsletter while you are away then you need to stay consistent. Your content schedule depends on your business as well as your audience.

If you do not want to have your own material publish while you are away, then you can ask guest bloggers to guest post on your blog. Again you will need to plan this in advance and reach out and let them know your expectations, deadlines, etc. 

Let your clients know you will be away

If you regularly take appointments then you need to let your audience know that you will not be taking appointments the week you are away. The sooner you let our audience know, the better. You can do this via your email signature, out of office as well as Facebook messenger and on your website. You do not necessarily have to let your audience know that you are leaving town, just let them know you are unavailable, and if you will or will not be responding to emails.

Get help and set expectations

If you work with a social media manager or virtual assistant then you need to work with them and make sure they are aware of whether or not you are still responding to email or if you are completely off the grid while you are on vacation.

You should also let them know clear deadlines and have clear communication regarding expectations on them while you are away as well as leading up to your vacation.

You should always have someone available to put out your fires while you are away. For example, if you cannot get on your Facebook Page while away, then you should have someone who has the role of Page Admin to access your Page to answer queries, etc. The same applies to your website—have someone who can log in and address any malware issues or other problems.

Logging off and stepping away from your computer is healthy—allow yourself the time to enjoy it! With the proper amount of planning and preparation a week away is not only possible, it can easily become a regular part of your business planning.

How will you get ready for your next time away from your business? Leave a comment and let me know!

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#43 Planning for 2017

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Can you believe it's almost 2017? Tomorrow is December 1st and I'll admit that yet again, another year has flown by faster than I could have imagined!

Today on the podcast I'm sharing tips on how to start planning for 2017. I think planning is SO important - I run a planning day every year for other business owners and I also make sure I plan out my own year.  In addition to sharing my own tips, I also asked some fellow female entrepreneurs how they prepare for the new year.

Susan Murphy, Jester Creative

planning for 2017

Susan Murphy has co-run a digital media production company, Jester Creative, for many years. She believes wrapping up the previous year is just as important as preparing for the new year; including getting caught up on expenses, closing your books and cleaning up your electronic files. She believes making sure things are organized and cleaned up make it easier to start with a clean slate in the new year.

The other thing Susan does to plan for the new year is to think about her three words for the next year. Chris Brogan started the idea of coming up with three defining words for the new year. Susan believes this is important because it helps you align yourself and your goals for the next year.

Gini Dietrich, Arment Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a digital marketing communications firm based in Chicago. She plans ahead for her business by reserving one day a week to work on her business rather than in it. People wonder how she is able to accomplish so much – and setting aside a day a week is how she does it. When she tells people this they often wonder how she is able to do that and come up with excuses as to why they could never take a day off to work on their business! Gini believes, "either you can make excuses or you can move your business forward quickly."

Her company also use the EOS model outlined in the book Traction. This plan makes it easy for businesses to set for their big plan and then break it down to smaller rocks for easier execution. Gini started this in 2014 and continues to out sell and out profit the previous year. For Gini, "planning success for the following year is ridiculously fun!"

Maggie Patterson, Scoop Industries

Maggie Patterson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Scoop Industries and she believes on getting clear on what your goals are before planning anything. Maggie believes if you work on a business where you are getting external inputs all the time it can be easy to lose sight of your own goals, so getting clear on your personal and professional goals and what is important to you and your business is necessary.

Maggie's second tip is to not feel pressured to do everything right away. Remember it is a whole year process, so break it down into 12 week chunks. Why? Because things change and this adds a more dynamic and flexible way of reaching your goals and also helps with procrastination. Maggie also thinks business owners need to write it down and make it real – and not just in a Google Doc. Write it down where you can see it and track it.

Lara Wellman

I believe it is really important for you to know what you want your life to look like. What kind of hours do you want to work and not work? How much time do you want to take off for vacations, etc.? How much money do you want to make? Once you are clear on these questions you can then plan your business goals around them. What is it you value? How can you can incorporate those into your business?

And finally, make sure to do regular brain dumps! Every time you have an idea write it down – in a journal or on a Post-It note! This will help you to sort your ideas and prioritize them where you're doing the detailed planning and putting things into your calendar.

How do you plan for the new year? Have you considered participating in a planning day with other determined entrepreneurs and business owners?

#36 – Social Media in 23 minutes

Dan McCue of Grinnell Mutual has worked with multi-channel marketing campaigns for over a decade. He uses social media to help businesses be successful, break down roadblocks, and build relationships.

Dan recognizes that there is a fear of 'missing out' among businesses when it comes to social media. They know they have to use it, but either don’t understand it or fear it because they don’t think they have the time needed to be successful with it. Businesses have to overcome this fear and be willing to be in the same online space as their audience. They need to also understand their clientele and understand what it is they need. The better you know the objectives of your business, the more you will be able to tell your story online.

Dan shares the strategy he figured out for himself and to help his clients in this episode - a strategy that is manageable and doable.

Make a plan

In order to have a solid social media plan, you must first know who your audience is and where they are online. For example, Dan’s customers sell peace of mind and risk management. To help them understand their audience he works with messaging that will help build on their relationships with their audience. The idea is to effectively reach your niche audience by using what you already know about them.

As part of Dan’s work he keeps an ear to best practices as it pertains to the insurance industry (his niche market). He encourages people to look for the white papers within a person’s industry and research what they are doing and who their audience is.

Break it down

Social media is already there and waiting for us, we are not responsible for the algorithm behind it; we just have to play to its preferences.

Break down your industry’s best practices and see where like-minded businesses are spending their time online. For example, with insurance it is Facebook, LinkedIn and then Email marketing. Dan then looked at how much staff insurance companies are using and how much time they spend on social media compared to other marketing channels. 

Once you know how much time and money is spent on social media, you may come to realize that you don’t need a person to work on social media marketing full time and that in fact, it may only take 23 minutes a day (in his industry that's what the successful businesses were doing broken down into a daily amount)! It could be done by you throughout the day in five to ten minute chunks – morning, noon and evening. 

Stay on task

The key is to avoid the rabbit hole and stay on task. Have your game plan and check list and as you do those things check them off and then sign off. For insurance agents, the goal is to publish every day. So to make content posting easier, Dan took a look at other insurance carriers to see what content they were posting. The idea is to look for content that matches your story that you could perhaps share on your social channels. This will also reinforce a sense of community between like-minded businesses.

How can you find content on a regular basis that will speak to your audience?

Maintain relationships

Who is talking to you?

Respond to comments and private messages and continue those dialogues as much as possible. The expectation in the U.S. dictates that people will respond to online messages within an hour, but in reality it is closer to one day and 40% of those posts or messages never receive a reply, but if you break up your time to 5 minutes, three times a day you are allowing yourself the time to read and respond as needed and within a reasonable amount of time.

By creating a plan and following it you can eliminate overwhelm and find success with social media. Instead of feeling like you don't know where to start, you have an action plan that helps you know that you will be putting aside short blocks of time three times a day to share, engage and build relationships with the key audiences you want to work with.

How would you break down the time you spend online to make it feel more manageable? Leave a comment or come and share in the Biz Studio! 

Resources & Links

Connect with Dan McCue on LinkedIn

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe on Stitcher

#25 - Simple Digital Marketing Tips with Rebecca Stanisic

Planning, blogging, email marketing, Facebook, Instagram and content creation –these are topics familiar to myself and this week’s guest, Rebecca Stanisic from A Little Bit of Momsense. You may remember Becky from episode 19 where we discussed how to create engaging online content for your community. It was through this discussion as well as many coffee dates that Becky and I decided to put together a one day live Digital Content Framework Planning Day on May 5th in Ottawa, Ontario.

Create Digital Content: A Framework Planning Day

The Framework Planning Day will focus on blogging, Facebook, Instagram and content creation – with the idea that attendees will leave with the ability to create a digital content plan and with content ideas and a plan they can put into action right away.

Here is some of what we will be discussing:

Planning Tips

One of Becky’s biggest planning tips is to utilize any common planning tools available – for her it is a Google calendar and physical planner. She uses her Google Calendar to input and keep track of deadlines. She also inputs fake deadlines that act as a reminder i.e., if she has not started a project by such-and-such a date, she is reminded by a pop-up reminder on her smartphone, computer or tablet that she needs to start now. This allows her to effectively plan her work days.

Another planning tool Becky uses is a physical planner in which she also inputs daily deadlines and events in a way that shows her what her week looks like. This allows her to easily say yes or no to last minute opportunities as they arise.

I use goals – and not just the goal to make more money. I write out specific goals in my planners and calendars. Think about what your specific goals are. These goals could be growing your mailing list by a certain number by a specific date or getting a certain number of likes on your Facebook page by a specific date. By writing these specific goals out or inputting them in a digital calendar, it will keep you accountable. These goals can then help with what content you want to share and create online.

Blogging Tips

Becky built her business around her blog. One of her blogging tips is to write in drafts. This helps get content out there even on days when your creative inspiration is at a minimum. Write out your ideas in drafts and then they will always be there for you when you need them.

My blogging tip has to do with format. Make sure your blog posts can be easily skimmed. Readers are often overwhelmed at the amount of online content available to them, so sometimes a quick read is what they are looking for. You can make your blog 'skimmable' by adding an image, and using headings and subheadings. The use of headings gives readers the outline of your blog and they can then decide whether or not they want to read further. Images and headings also increase your search engine optimization (SEO).

Email Newsletter Tips

As an avid newsletter reader, Becky prefers nuggets of information with links and images she can click that redirects her if she wants more information. Doing this drives traffic back to your website, which is your ultimate goal.

Many businesses and bloggers have a tendency to think they don’t need to send newsletters frequently and then when they do send them, their newsletter is jam packed with too many articles, images and news. Newsletters should be as brief, therefore instead of sending your newsletter quarterly, try sending bits of information once a week or even bi-weekly; send less information more frequently versus sending a lengthy email every three months.

Social Media Tips

According to Becky, businesses and bloggers need to pay attention to Facebook and Instagram for sales conversions. Curate your content based on your followers or who you follow. Constantly paying attention to your followers and those who follow people similar to you, helps you find potential new relationships and find new people you may be interested in learning more about. Doing this creates a rich feed that will tie into quality content that you can then share with your readers. 

Facebook, and soon Instagram, rely on engagement in order to show more people what you post. A common question I get is how to get people to engage with content. My main piece of advice is to ask simple questions. Keep your questions simple so that people can answer without thinking. Your goal is to get people talking and simple questions are the most effective way to do that. Once people get used to engaging with your content they may be more inclined to consistently engage.

Content Curation Tips

Finding good content does not mean finding and sharing viral content because there is no guarantee that it will do well on your page. Instead find content that is equally or more interesting and share that – become a leader in sharing things that are new and different.

Look for content by looking at your stats; where are people coming from? Are there certain social media posts that were popular and drove people to your website? Find similar content to those posts and share them.

Think about what you want people to know. Keep your content in line with what you want people to know about you and your business.

 

Becky and I will be digging deeper into these tips and sharing much more in our live one day Content Planning Framework Day on May 5th. If you’re in the Ottawa area we hope to see you there! 

#16 Online Marketing Strategies for 2016

It's 2016! I love a fresh new year with all of the possibilities it brings and all of the enthusiasm everyone has for their businesses. 

I'm back after a hiatus and have a lot of great content planned for this year on the podcast. Please leave me a comment if there's anything in particular you would like to see. 

In Episode 16 I share five tips to get your online marketing in order for a prosperous 2016.

Set goals and key messages

What do you want to achieve this year? What do you want people to know about you or your business? 

Are you looking to fill particular programs? Do you want to grow a new branch of your business? Or do you want to make sure people realize that you offer certain services? Write out all those pieces so that you can create content that speak to them. This is what will make the difference between content that is interesting and content that makes you more money.

Create content that supports your goals & key messages

Spend time with your goals and key messages - What can you write about them that supports them? What tidbits can you share? What basic information describes the programs, products or courses you're trying to sell? What topics set you up as an expert and lead to the next step of buying from you? Write a list of content that you can start creating.

Create themes

Spend time theming your months for the next three months. What topics can you talk about that will help you achieve your goals? Break it down and put it on your calendar.

Create daily themes for types of content you can share on social channels. For example, Monday: share tips, Tuesday: links from other experts, Wednesday: something from your website, etc. This will help you come up with types of content faster.

Pre-write

Don't waste your time trying to write something every day. Take an hour and pre-write a lot of social content. Commit a half day to writing blog posts for the month. Once you get a on a roll content starts flowing much faster.

Keep records

Don't just post your content directly online without saving it somewhere. When you come up with great tips, promotional phrases, etc., save them in a Word document so you can easily find them again later. You don't want to have to start from scratch every time you want to post online, and now you won't have to because you've already done the work. By creating files and saving your work you are creating processes that make sharing content regularly easier for you - and that's always the goal!

Resources & Links

Setting social media goals (blog post)

Key messages for your business (blog post)

Social Media Simplified on iTunes

Subscribe on Stitcher