Archives for August 2014
Using a To-Do App to Stay on Top of Your Social Media Tasks
Managing social media is a demanding, time-consuming job â and it never seems to end. Just when you cross one to-do off your list, two or three more are added. Whether you work alone or on a team, a number of tools are readily available to help you stay on top of your social media tasks. Below are a few apps we love.
The Hit List – The Hit List is a $50 task management app for Mac users with a free demo version to try. Use The Hit List to breakdown your workload into projects and tasks. Though itâs primarily designed for managing tasks, itâs also up to the task of creating a 
content calendar. For example, each task can have numerous subtasks, and all tasks can be assigned both a start date and an end date. The app integrates with Reminders, ensuring that you never forget whatâs coming up next. You can also tag each task, time your tasks, organize your tasks in standard and smart folders, and much more. The built-in timer is particularly useful as you can keep track of exactly how much time each project actually consumes.
HubSpotâs Editorial Calendar â Willing to give up your contact information in exchange for an editorial calendar spreadsheet template? HubSpotâs editorial calendar is a free Excel spreadsheet. Use this as a template to get your blog post ideas on paper and on the schedule. If you work on a team, upload your completed content calendar to your favorite collaboration tool so that everyone is on the same page. This spreadsheet contains fields for everything from blog post titles, content type, keywords, and due dates. Itâs a good choice for individuals and small teams. However, as your content strategy grows, you may want a more robust solution.
Asana â Asana is an online project management app thatâs free for up to 15 users. If you work on a social media team, this app is a good online collaboration tool with robust calendar and social tools. It even has a built-in editorial calendar template. Granted, the template is quite basic with its âGoing live this week,â âUpcoming Posts,â and âIdeasâ fields, but itâs a good start. The beauty here is that once you create an editorial calendar project and fill it with all of your tasks and subtasks, you can assign tasks to each team member as you see fit. From there, everyone will be aware of what everyone else is doing. You can also attach files to tasks, comment on tasks, and sync your Asana calendars with your Google or iCal calendars.
WorkFlowy â Intuitive, simple, and free (for up to 500 lists), WorkFlowy is an online app for making collaborative lists. If you want somewhere to store your ideas or brainstorm with others without a lot of fuss, WorkFlowy is it. The philosophy of WorkFlowy is simplicity. Each list is easily collapsible, yet it can contain dozens, if not hundreds, of related sublists, and sublists. For example, you might start with two lists: Work and Personal. Under Work, you might have 5 lists such as: Meetings, Social Media, Training, Print Media, and Administration. Under Social Media, you might have: Blogging, Contests and Promotions, Whitepapers, Market Research, and Analytics. Under Blogging, you might have: Keywords, Ideas, Editorial Calendar, Guest Blog Sources, and so on. Once you have a hierarchy set in WorkFlowy, your ideas, outlines, tasks, and information are just a few clicks away. WorkFlowy supports tags, too. In fact, it works best with a good tagging strategy in place. For example, you could set up tags such as Urgent, Later, and Someday to prioritize your social media tasks in WorkFlowy. Finally, you can share specific sections of WorkFlowy with others, making it an interactive organizational tool.
These are but a few examples of the many tools available to help you manage your social media workload. Start with one of the free versions and start working more productively.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Popular Social Media Topics for Your Facebook Mix
Managing a social media page for a business doesnât necessarily mean that every single post you make must be business related. In fact, adding a little personality to your posts makes you more human, more likeable, more memorable. Besides, Facebook is a social network. Just as youâd discuss other interesting topics at a business cocktail party, the same is true of social media pages. But what to post?
Popular Social Media Topics
To get the most traction, itâs smart to stick with popular topics. After all, if theyâre popular, theyâre more likely to strike a chord with the masses. Thus, you can expect more comments, likes, and shares.
According to Klout, the most popular topics on Facebook are:
- Music
- TV
- Holidays
- Software
- Religion
- Celebrities
- Film
- Books
- Business
- Food
This doesnât mean randomly choosing a popular topic on social media and then talking about it. Think of how the topic ties into your business. For example, if you are in the wedding planning industry, celebrity weddings would be a natural fit as would food and music. You could also focus on holiday weddings, various religious and non-religious traditions, and memorable weddings in books, TV, and film. As far as software goes, you could highlight useful apps for brides and grooms.
Where to Find Popular Topics
Once you have a plan for posting interesting but relevant content around these popular topics, you may need to do a little research and/or brainstorming. Start by listing the popular topics youâre most interested in focusing on and then jot down ideas for finding topical information. For instance, the Internet Movie Database (IMBD) is an excellent starting point for finding information about movies.
Another idea is to set up RSS feeds for your popular topics, ideally narrowed down to reflect your niche. For example, you could create individual RSS feeds that pull in the latest headlines, articles, and blog posts around the keywords âwedding movies,â âcelebrity weddings,â and âwedding quotes.â
Make it Your Own
Sharing links and posts is part of the social landscape. This is what helps posts go viral. Add your own description to encourage your followers to engage with you. Decide what you want them to do (like, comment, or share), and then ask them to do exactly that at the end of your description.
If youâre creating an original post around a popular topic on Facebook, turn it into an image that includes your company name, URL, or Facebook page address. For example, if you want to post an inspirational quote, posting it as a photo emblazoned with your information ensures that your name is associated with the photo should it go viral. Numerous online image editing services are available. You could also use Photoshop, Paint.net. Pixelmator, or any other image editing program you have installed on your computer to do this.
Whether youâre a wedding planner, office manager, florist, business consultant, real estate agent, or any other business professional, creating and sharing content built around popular topics can humanize your business page while making it more engaging for your audience.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Networking Tips for Introverts
The stereotype of an entrepreneur or business owner is a larger than life figure who easily fills up a room with her or her personality. However, there are all kinds of people and personalities that start their own businesses, including entrepreneurs. Many of the articles you see listing off networking tips are written with extroverts in mind. But how can introverts build their network and obtain the connections they need to be successful in the business world without having to pretend to be something they're not?
Here are some networking tips for introverts:
- Plan ahead. Many introverts have difficulties with off-the-cuff, extemporaneous conversation, so plan ahead and prepare some icebreakers to use in networking sessions. Have a list of open-ended questions that you can ask people you meet. Keep in mind that people love to
talk about themselves, their hobbies, their work, etc.
- Find common connections. If there's someone you'd like to connect with, find a common acquaintance and ask for an introduction. This will help to take away some of the anxiety of making the introduction yourself out of the blue.
- Be a great listener. Introverts are usually outstanding listeners. At many networking sessions you attend, you'll run into many people who are better talkers than listeners, so being a great listener will instantly make you stand out as valuing the ideas and opinions of others.
- Practice. Put yourself into low risk or no risk situations where you can attempt to get out of your shell a bit and make new connections. This could be networking events in other towns that you wouldn't normally search for connections in, or smaller gatherings even outside of the work world.
- Share personal stories. It's easy to fall into the habit of only asking questions about others without sharing anything about yourself. When it's your turn to talk, see if you can connect the conversation to something from your own life. It's easy to talk about yourself, and having an easy topic to discuss will help you to get more comfortable in the situation.
Whether you have a touch of social anxiety or just don't consider yourself to be a big talker, you can still find success in networking situations with tips like these. All stereotypes aside, many introverts have built extremely successful businesses, and you can too!
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
15 Mindful Minutes now, Leads to Better Decisions all DAY!
The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and research team at INSEAD have concluded that 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation help individuals, teams, management, and executives make better decisions throughout the day. The art of focus is continued more with the concept of mindful meditation. The art of mindfulness has grown outside of the yoga and meditation clinics, and into the hearts of individuals and organizations. Companies, like Google, Aetna Health Care, General Mills, and McKinsey & Co., Coca-Cola, Yahoo, Zappos provide structured trainings to aid employees with mindfulness development through meditation.
- Meditation. Meditation is simply the activity of being engaged, aligned, and in the present moment. There are hundreds of different types of meditation practices, however, the objective of meditation is to be still, aware, calm, and in-tune. It requires the unique ability to be still
and to concentrate. To prevent distractions from taking you out of the moment. This ability to focus carries an abundance of value to your mind, body, spirit and your productivity and creativity within the workplace. Meditation is the type can be misunderstood or overcomplicated. It simply is a practice of focus, clarity, and refocus.
- Need. There are hundreds of types of meditation practices, but for simplicity purposes, lets aim this art to fit the beginner. The person who has never done or only tried meditation a couple of times. Relax, you donât need much to get started, a timer and something comfy to sit on (but, you really donât even need that). You just need to be able to sit in an upright, comfortable position. A chair, pillow, or meditation cushion would work just fine. In terms of a timer, it can be a simple stopwatch to a Meditation timer app, such as Meditate.
- How. Sit with your back straight, hands in a comfortable position, your eyes can be closed or open (thatâs up to you – do what feels good), legs crossed or pretzel (sit in a way that youâre comfortable and upright), and start your guided meditation. Your guided meditation may vary depending on what youâre trying to achieve. You can research a ton of different visuals and guides online and find a few that fit your needs. You can also start with meditation of simply focusing on your breath and still your wandering mind. To do this, sit and focus on your breath. Paying particular attention to how the air flows, fills your lungs, and the release of your exhale. If your mind wanders, recognize that, and move your focus back to your breathe. Continue this until your timer goes off – try 10-15 minutes. Once youâve completed your session, give yourself 5 minutes to adjust back into your day. Embrace the peace and stillness of your mind, and apply that rejuvenation to the remainder of your day.
- When. When it works best for you. This could be in the morning, afternoon, or evening. The frequency of your meditation is another guiding factor up to you. Research suggests at least 20 minutes a day.
- Where. A calm place, free distractions. This means turn off the cell phone, notifications, or other interruptions. This could be an office or at home. You may even want to check to see if your firm offerâs a session for employees already. If so, try that out. If not, the suggestion above will work just fine.
- Why. Decrease stress, increase focus, increase self-awareness, emotional intelligence, increase compassion and empathy, lowers depression, helps you sleep better, more in-tune leadership, dis-attachment / forgiveness of negative experiences, and more informed decision making practices. All of which will contribute to a healthier, more productive, and aligned actions to support your day to day and strategic business objectives.
Great Mindfulness ReadsâŠ
Chan, A. (2014). Mindfulness Meditation Benefits: 20 Reasons Why it is Good for your Mental and Psychical Health. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/mindfulness-meditation-benefits-health_n_3016045.html.
INSEAD (2014). How Meditation can Make You a Better Leader. Forbes. Retrieved http://www.forbes.com/sites/insead/2014/01/28/how-meditation-can-make-you-a-better-leader/.
Tabaka, M. (2014). How to Make Smarter Decisions in Just 15 Minutes a Day. Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/how-to-make-smarter-decisions-in-just-15-minutes-a-day.html.
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved.
by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.
Chief Visionary  | Viral Solutions LLC
Biggest Marketing Mistakes for Startups
Launching your business is an exciting time, but it's important to keep perspective on what's important in the early phases of your business. While you need to get the word out about your new company, remember that your marketing efforts can just as easily prevent growth as they could inspire it if you aren't careful about the strategies you use.
With that in mind, here are some of the biggest marketing mistakes that start-ups can make early on in their existence:
- Hiring a PR team too early. When your business is just getting started, you should be more focused on creating a solid customer base as organically and personally as possible. Interact with your customers through social media yourself, and be open about everything that's
happening with your business. Give people insight to how your business is growing and all of the exciting news that's happening behind the scenes. PR teams are great for larger, more established companies that need help in scaling up their marketing efforts, but when you're just getting started you should do everything you can to establish your company's own unique personality.
- Copying the marketing efforts of competitors. Every company is different, and your competitors have been around longer and have already fine-tuned their marketing efforts to perfectly fit their business. While you might find inspiration in some of the tactics they use, you should never simply lift their entire strategy and try to force it to fit your company.
- Avoiding technology. You need to be able to stay ahead of the technological curve so that you're constantly using all of the latest technology to reach out to your customers. And it's not just enough that you use it; you need to know how to use it effectively so that it's actually a good tool for your company.
- Being afraid of advertising. Marketing can be intimidating because it's deceptively difficult to do it very well. However, marketing is absolutely essential to start-ups, because you need to be able to reach out to your first customers. Be sure to invest a reasonable percent of your budget in your marketing efforts and get creative with your messages.
Avoid these mistakes, and put an appropriate focus on your marketing efforts early on in the life of your business. You'll be much more likely to find early success that way!
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100âs of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.