Archives for October 2014
Do Wacky Photos have a Place in Your Social Media Plan?
No doubt, wacky photos get plenty of likes, shares, and comments, making it tempting to post them on your social media pages. While silly pictures are great for engagement, theyâre not necessarily relevant to your business or your audience. So, how can you use them to your advantage?
Use Wacky Photos in Context
One of the keys to using silly photos successfully is to use them in context. For example, if youâre a beauty consultant, your followers might be mystified if you suddenly began posting random images of babies,
cats, and cartoons that have nothing to do with makeup, hairstyles, or fashion. On the other hand, if you come across a funny photo thatâs related to any of your areas of expertise, sharing it would make more sense.
Add Your Own Twist
Using wacky photos can certainly capture your followersâ attention. However, you may want to squeeze more mileage out of the image by adding your own twist. For example, you could use a silly photo to illustrate one of your blog posts on the subject. By all means, use the silly photo, but add a link to your blog post as well as a descriptive introduction to it. This provides even more context and relevance to the image, and your status update could generate more likes, shares, and click-throughs. Whatâs not to love about that? That said, if your goal is primarily to drive traffic to your blog posts, a funny photo may distract from that goal. Your followers may respond only to the photo by liking it.
Use Wacky Photos Sparingly
Unless your brand is quirky, youâll want to use silly photos sparingly. After all, your followers are following you for a reason and it may not necessarily involve comedy. As 
with any form of humor, use wacky photos with care. The last thing you want to do is offend your audience.
Using the occasional funny photo â in good taste, of course â can show that you have a sense of humor. You might start by using relevant funny photos on either Mondays or Fridays as a way to ease into or end the work week. Use Facebook Insights to gauge the response. If your posts prove to be wildly popular, then consider using them more often.
Do wacky photos have a place in your social media plan? A lot depends on your brand and its voice. Some business pages have made sharing silly photos a prominent part of their strategies to good effect. Others do well using more serene images. When used in context and sparingly, the occasional silly photo could elicit a positive response from followers. The key is to have a goal in mind, just as you do with all of your posts, and pay attention to the response. If it works, incorporate it into your plan. If it doesnât, move on.
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.
Anatomy of an Engaging Facebook Post
When you post a status update on Facebook, you do so hoping it will make an impression on your followers, right? While you may want them to smile, click through to your website, or leave a comment, thereâs more involved than crossing your fingers and hoping theyâll like it. The elements below make up the anatomy of an engaging Facebook post.
The Mind of the Update: A Goal
All status updates should have a goal. In fact, you should identify the goal before you craft your post. After all, if you donât know what you want your followers to do with a given update, how can you expect them
to follow through and do it? Below are a few common social media goals:
- Like a post
- Comment on a post
- Drive traffic to your website, blog, or a landing page
- Enter a social media contest
- Share a post
- Listen to a linked podcast
- Offer an exclusive discount / drive traffic to site
Once you know what your goal is, you can then create a post thatâs likely to elicit the desired response. For example, if you want to get a lot of likes to boost your engagement level, posting a funny photo will usually do the trick. Likewise, if your goal is to attract highly targeted new followers, you might run a social media contest and offer an enticing but relevant prize.
As you stare at Facebookâs status update screen, youâll notice that Facebook asks you, âWhatâs on your mind?â Letâs rephrase this question to, âWhat do you have in mind?â Answer that question before you start writing and youâll be well on your way to achieving your goal for the post.
The Face of the Update: A Great Photo
Photos tend to get a lot of engagement, making it smart to use photos liberally throughout your social media campaigns. Use royalty-free stock photography sites such as Morgue File, Creative Commons, and Every Stock Photo to find free images that you can legally use. Pay attention to the photoâs license and follow its terms appropriately. You may even want to add a text link back to your main website so that others can find you should your photo go viral.
The Body of the Update: The Status
Whether youâre posting a photo update or a text-based update, the actual body of your update should never be empty. For photo updates, add a quick summary or question related to the photo and to your goal. For example, if you want people to comment on the photo, ask a related question about it. If you want them to share or like it, a witty statement could do the trick.
Text-based updates obviously rely heavily on the content you place in the status update box. Keep your goal in mind and craft your update accordingly. End with a call to action or question that prompts your followers to do exactly what you originally intended for them to do. For instance, if your goal is to start a conversation, end with a call to action along the lines of âTell us what you thinkâ or âWhat do you think?â
If you are linking to an external site or blog post, Facebook will pre-populate your status update with the pageâs title, description, and photo. While helpful and usually attractive, this doesnât mean you get to skip writing an update. Your update can be short and sweet, but make sure to write it. Doing so gives your link context, and it can help to generate enough interest to convince your followers to actually click through and perhaps even return to leave a comment.
The body of the update is also where you can slide in a hashtag or two. Donât put more than two hashtags in your post, though. Doing so tends to decrease engagement and clutter the update.
The Spirit of the Update: Your Brandâs Voice
Finally, stay true to your brandâs voice and spirit with all updates. Even if youâre feeling cranky or snarky, if your brandâs voice is supposed to be calm, cool, and collected, your posts will need to reflect that at all times.
Pay attention to the mind, face, body, and spirit of each Facebook status update you make and your updates are sure to become more engaging.
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.
How is Your Business Limiting Creativity?
If you hope to have success as an entrepreneur, youâll need to be able to consistently come up with new ideas or new spins on old ideas to keep your business on the cutting edge.
 âI already know this problem.â
âI already know the solution.âÂ
skip straight to the solution then youâre missing the point.âIâm a realist.âÂ
âIâm an expert in ___.âÂ
Even the most educated people occasionally let their knowledge or expertise get in the way of finding solutions. Never assume that you know everything there is to know about a given situation or problem.
âI prefer to just see things as they are.âÂ
Copyright Viral Solutions llc © 2014. All Rights Reserved
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Tips to Keep In Touch with Your Customers
Much has been made about the importance of creating a good relationship with your customers or clients. But once youâve established that relationship, how can you make sure that youâre maintaining it in an effective, healthy way?
The best way to do this is to keep in touch with them on a consistent basis. Here are some tips for how you can do exactly that:
- Use alerts to remind you to stay in touch. There are a lot of web and mobile apps available to help you to keep track of your customers. Simply pick one of these tools and set up an alert for the name, company and a few topics of interest for the person youâd like to stay in touch with. You can establish alerts at regular time intervals to remind you to check in with this person and see how theyâre doing.
- Write recommendations. Write reviews or testimonials on a customer or clientâs web site or on Google Reviews, or consider jumping in and completing a LinkedIn recommendation on behalf of the
person. It will show them that you are thinking about them and that you value them as a customer or client.
- Share their content. If you do a lot of B2B work, consider sharing content from your business customers on social media. It will give them a little extra boost in their exposure and will make them more likely to return the favor. It will also show them that you appreciate their work and their patronage.
- Give gifts. Do something nice for your customers. Send them a gift or a card on their birthday, offer them special promotions or establish a loyalty program. Thereâs an endless list of things that you can give to show your appreciation and let your customers know that youâre thinking about them.
- Ask for input. Feel free to ask your customers how you can improve your products or services, and ask them to give reviews of your company on review sites or to write a testimonial for your website. If you have succeeded in maintaining a strong relationship, your customers will be more likely to oblige.
Remember: maintaining great business relationships is every bit as important to creating them. Keep in touch with your customers and continue to build brand loyalty.
Copyright 2014 Viral Solutions LLC
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.
Steps to Cure Your Procrastination Habits
I recently heard a definition of procrastination that really made me think: âprocrastination is the fear of success.â If you subscribe to this theory, then you believe that the real reason that people procrastinate is because they're afraid of the success that could result, and the responsibility that comes with it. Itâs a really unique concept on a characteristic that many people simply associate with laziness, and it makes a whole lot of sense.
Therefore, if our procrastination is the only thing thatâs standing in the way of our success, itâs important that we do everything that we can to cure ourselves of our procrastination habits.
With that in mind, here are some tips for how you can stop procrastinating and plug ahead to find new levels of success in your endeavors:
- Focus on the joy of the success rather than the responsibility. Attitude really is everything, and if you put more of an emphasis on how much you stand to gain from potential successes and the
We have become Infusionsoft experts, by building our business with this amazing tool, our certifications only reinforce it. Infusionsoft is a type of sales and marketing software that helps owners of small businesses to track their leads and stay organized. We work with you to help you develop the best plan with your business and help you get set up with these services, optimize them to fit your needs and give you any other assistance you need to get started. You can either have us help you implement your Infusionsoft strategy or let us take the keys and do it for you.
joy you'll feel at having achieved some major goals, you'll find it easier to avoid procrastination.
- Break your task down into small steps. Itâs easy to be overwhelmed when you have a huge project in front of you, but breaking that project down into smaller, easily digestible steps will go a long way toward improving your efficiency and helping you to avoid your procrastination.
- Think of the consequences you'll face if you don't complete the task. As we mentioned earlier, thereâs a natural fear of success should you succeed. But what would happen if you donât even try, or donât complete the task at all? What would the consequences be? This could serve as motivation o help you get the task done.
- Ask for help. Thereâs no shame in seeking the assistance of colleagues, employees or friends when you have a big task ahead of you. Knowing that youâll have someone working alongside you can be a great help to avoid putting off a particular task.
- Hold yourself accountable. Tell other people about your goals, or make them public. This will give you much more motivation to keep yourself accountable. When you say that youâre going to do something and do so publicly, itâs important that you follow through.
Remember: success comes with action. When you rid yourself of your procrastination habits, you'll open yourself to a world of greater potential than you've ever had.
Copyright 2014 Viral Solutions LLC
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.