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New Feature in Canva

There is a cool new feature in Canva and I can’t wait to share it with you!

It really is fun and easy to do. You can now add borders to shapes. Plus, you can change the style border and the color of the border. In my video, I use a circle, but you can use any of the shapes in Canva.

Upgrade to Canva Pro to get all of these amazing features!! Let me know what you think about this new feature. Are you going to try it out ASAP!?!?

 

Content Creator Internship

We are excited to announce an opening for a Content Creator Intern!

This part-time paid internship will assist with social media content, blog posts as well as video content.

Intern Should Be:

  • Reliable and able to meet deadlines
  • Proactive, organized and detail oriented
  • Creative!
  • Familiar with all main social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube) and eager to learn about how to update and manage a website
  • Have a basic understanding of marketing and content creation as well as graphic design
  • An idea generator – we would love our intern to bring ideas about how we can better serve our clients
  • High School Senior or College Student with an interest in pursuing a career in social media marketing
We Will:
  • Provide necessary training and mentoring
  • 5-10 hours a week for approximately 4 months
  • $15/hr
  • Open to virtual work environment

To Apply:

Send resume highlighting any applicable experience to cindy@cindyrowemarketing.com

What Does a Great Instagram Bio Consist Of?

Tips for Instagram Bio

What Does a Great Instagram Bio Consist Of?

A good bio does a few things: it lets your potential followers know a little bit more about you, showcase your personality, and (hopefully) make people want to follow you. Creating a bio can be a lot of work, and needs some creativity, so it’s important to make sure you know what you need to create your profile.
Your username is a key part of your brand, because it’s the absolute first thing people will see about you. It should be descriptive and clear. Your photo, too, should connect to your username. Both of these elements should connect well with your bio.
You’ll also want to think about your name – not your handle, but the words that are directly under your profile photo. This is one of the searchable parts of your bio, so think about whether you want to include just your name or your business as well.
LINK!! If you have a business profile, Instagram lets you include a single link in your profile. This is one of the best ways to further your brand message, so make sure you include a good one.
BIO DESCRIPTION!! You can be informative or funny, you can talk about yourself or your business. You can make a joke or be serious. The most important thing here is to stick with what’s natural for you and your business. Your description should fit with the theme of your whole profile. It can be a good idea to use hashtags in your description if they fit. Your description can only be about 150 characters, so space is limited. Add emojis if you need to save space or to break up the text.

Lessons From Instagram Top Posts

There are a few lessons we can all learn from these posts with massive engagement, whether you’re a big business or just starting out.
Share your big moments. Several of the top posts of all time are people sharing big moments from their real lives. Big moments like weddings, babies, or engagements are proven to be popular posts, and this will likely prove true on your account as well.
Share your exciting moments. Moments of personal victory or change may seem too personal to share – after all, will your audience be as excited as you about things that don’t affect them? If the top posts are any indication, they will love seeing these posts.
Share your happy moments. There’s a fine line between bragging posts and sharing authentically happy moments. Happiness is contagious, and your posts that take a moment to celebrate both mundane and exceptional happiness can catch fire on your followers’ feeds.
Share your sad moments. Several of the top posts have to do with deaths that impacted a lot of people. It can seem like the difficult moments of our lives are better kept tucked away, but the reality is, most people can relate to these almost more than happy posts. When you share difficult news with your audience including the loss of a loved one, a lost job, the diagnosis of an illness, or personal difficulty, your audience engages with the reality of your life. It’s important to always keep a boundary between things you share and things you want to keep private, and it can be damaging to expose personal information for the sake of audience engagement. But when you find it useful to share difficult news with your audience, the outcome could be that they feel even closer to you.
Which one are you going to try to share more of?

Why You Need an Instagram Audit

Tips for Instagram Audit
An audit of your IG account can help you assess whether your account is meeting the goals you have for it, who your followers are, and whether your content is the quality it should be.
Running an audit of your account may seem daunting, but here are a couple of simple steps to make it quick and painless:
Take a Fresh Look at Your Content. Take a comprehensive look at how your posts are doing and who is engaging. You can also create a quick checklist for each post, and read through your captions. Does each post have a call to action? Are your hashtags relevant and engaging without trying too hard? Are your captions engaging and interesting?
Go Back to the Basics. You might take a fresh look and ask yourself if your profile picture is still fresh and relevant. If your branding has changed, or if your look has changed, it might be time to freshen that up. Check and make sure your bio is still accurate and reflects the branding on your account, and of course make sure the website linked is not out of date.
Running an audit on your account may seem like a daunting task but these simple actions can keep your account fresh and relevant, and can assure that you’re gaining new followers for a long time to come!
This is something I recommend doing at least once a year–so why not start the year with this on your calendar!?!

New Instagram Story Sticker

HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH THIS NEW STORY STICKER??

The way it works is by creating a thread of Instagram Stories, starting with the new sticker being added to a Story alongside a text input field. Underneath this, the sticker prompts viewers of the stories to respond back with their own Instagram Story, which is then automatically added to your Story, and every Story account that participates in the thread!
It’s an exciting way to collect user-generated content, create challenges, drive a ton of engagement to your Instagram account, and get discovered by new accounts!

HOW TO USE THE INSTAGRAM STORIES ADD YOURS STICKER

  1. To get started, log into Instagram on your phone app.
  2. Create an Instagram Story using either images or video content.
  3. Open the Sticker Tray, and tap on the ‘ADD YOURS’ sticker to add to your media.
  4. Type in a Prompt – either by manually typing in, or click on the dice icon underneath to shuffle through random topics that might inspire you!
  5. Click ‘Done’ to add to your story, and reposition on your story by dragging and/or pinching the sticker into place.
  6. Add any other stickers and design elements to your Instagram Story, and then post!
When your Stories viewers click on the sticker, they’re prompted to create their own Instagram story, which includes your original prompt, posted to their audience. Any replies added from each audience add to the thread of stories, and rapidly extend the possibility of new account discovery and engagement.
It’s important to note that at this stage, there is no way to remove a response story link, so you can’t control what type of content is shown in your replies.

What do you think??? Are you going to give it a try?

Major Changes Happening on Instagram

upgrades on Instagram

MAJOR CHANGES HAPPENING ON INSTAGRAM!!!

Instagram has confirmed three new feed options will soon be available in the app: Home, Favorites, and a chronological Following feed.
The main Instagram feed will be split into three tabs: Home, Favorites, and Following:
Home: Home feed will be similar to the “experience you know today.” Expect to see more suggested content populating this feed over time.
Favorites: This feed will consist of content from a curated list of accounts. This will be a feed to capture all the posts from people “you don’t want to miss things from.” It is still unconfirmed how this list will be set, but it could be an extension of Instagram’s Close Friends feature.
Following: And finally, this feed will be a chronological list of all the accounts that you follow. YAY– the chronological feed is back.
This creates more opportunities for Instagram to deliver suggested content through the main landing-page feed, while still having a following feed available.
Stay tuned as these will be rolled out soon.

5 Obstacles I’ve Overcome in the 5 Years I’ve been in Business

Cindy Rowe Marketing Celebrates 5 Years
Hey. I’m back.
 
Thought I would continue my sharing this week with 5 obstacles I’ve overcome in the 5 years since launching my business.
 
This post is vulnerable and personal–so please be kind when reading, commenting or reacting.
 
1. Shortly after starting my business, my marriage ended. Divorce sucks. But it’s scary to consider living alone on a small income of a newly started consulting business. It was a humbling experience. I secretly got a part-time job so I could firmly grasp my new reality and figure shit out. I had that job for a year when I decided it was time to fly. Once I left, my business blossomed. It was incredible.
 
2. I had a client drop me. It was early on in my business and I took it incredibly personal. I thought we were on target to meeting (even exceeding) their goals, but they thought otherwise. I felt like everyone knew I just got fired from a client. I felt like I had to justify everything. I almost considered refunding them the money they paid me. I needed this experience to grow from. Clear expectations from both parties is crucial. And I realized that sometimes, people don’t mesh–and that’s okay.
 
3. At the end of 2018, I was in a terrible car accident. After weeks of going undiagnosed, I learned that I suffered a brain injury. This was a critical time in my business cycle where I typically secure clients for the upcoming year and I couldn’t even function. I was alone. I was scared. I was honest with my clients and told them I would do my best, but understood if they needed to move on. I wasn’t sure when I would be back to “normal”. Not one of my current clients dropped me. That’s when I realized that I built my company with integrity. My clients wanted ME to get better. I was so grateful for their understanding.
 
4. COVID happened. I know we all have felt the pains of this pandemic that never seems to end. But I had to pivot (like everyone else) and I had to reassure my clients that they still needed me and their marketing efforts. It was a busy time. It was stressful. But, my business made it through successfully.
 
5. FINALLY–Not thinking I’m good enough–I still battle with this. There are 20-somethings out there that OWN it better than I ever will and I have 20+ years of experience under my belt. Even after all of that, I still occasionally doubt my abilities. Not something I am proud to admit, but it’s the reality I face. I continue my education, read blogs, attend conferences, etc…all of these allow me to stay on top of trends and keep things fresh but man, those feelings still creep up from time to time.
 
Wow–that was more difficult that I thought it was going to be. Hopefully you can relate on some level. Thanks for reading and supporting me! Cheers!
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