Category: Small Business
Why You Need an Instagram Audit
New Instagram Story Sticker
HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH THIS NEW STORY STICKER??
HOW TO USE THE INSTAGRAM STORIES ADD YOURS STICKER
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To get started, log into Instagram on your phone app.
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Create an Instagram Story using either images or video content.
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Open the Sticker Tray, and tap on the ‘ADD YOURS’ sticker to add to your media.
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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!
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Click ‘Done’ to add to your story, and reposition on your story by dragging and/or pinching the sticker into place.
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Add any other stickers and design elements to your Instagram Story, and then post!
What do you think??? Are you going to give it a try?
Free Content Ideas for November
5 Obstacles I’ve Overcome in the 5 Years I’ve been in Business
5 Things I’ve Learned in Business Over the Past 5 Years
My 5 BIG WINS in 5 Years of Business
Hooray for 5 Years!!
Social Media Content Ideas for July
Where does the time go? We are sitting at the beginning of yet another month. It’s been such a quick summer already. Here’s a quick guide to get you thinking about social media post ideas for the month! No excuses–I’ve made it super easy for you!
July 1 – Create a FLASH Sale…make this a hot offer, limited time only
July 2 – Feel Good Friday – share a picture of something that makes you happy and ask your audience to share what makes them happy
July 3 – Small Business Shoutout – share (tag) a favorite local small business you want your fans to know about
July 4 – 4th of July – share a pic of a local flag display and comment what freedom means to you
July 5 – It’s National Work-aholic Day – encourage everyone to create balance in their life.
July 6 – Tuesday Tip – provide a valuable tip that your audience can use right away.
July 7 – Wednesday Wisdom- share a meaningful quote or thought
July 8 – Share a blog post from an industry leader
July 9 – Friday Introductions – give a few things about yourself and ask your fans to share something about themselves
July 10 – What’s your current VIBE? Share a favorite song
July 11 – Sunday Funday – share a selfie of something fun you did or are doing over the weekend
July 12 – Customer Review – share and tag (with permission)
July 13 – Share a stat about your industry
July 14 – Work it Wednesday – show your work desk, share behind the scenes or give a hint on your current projects
July 15 – Get to Know Your Customer Day – ask them what their favorite item of yours is
July 16 – Ask for advice on what to cook for dinner–share your favorite grilling recipe
July 17 – World Emoji Day – ask fans to share their most used emoji with you in the comments
July 18 – Video–share a quick 3 min or less video on why you are in business
July 19 – Promote a product or service
July 20 – Ask for advice or a referral (could be anything!)
July 21 – #wcw, share a woman that inspires you
July 22 – Invite fans to join your email/newsletter
July 23 – Answer a FAQ
July 24 – Share a weekend gif and ask fans to share their plans for the weekend with a gif
July 25 – Gratitude post – share something you are grateful for in your business
July 26 – Monday Motivation – share a motivational quote
July 27 – Highlight a local vendor
July 28 – Share the story behind your name/logo
July 29 – #tbt Throwback Thursday – dig into your archives and find an old post or something from when you just started
July 30 – International Day of Friendship – highlight a friendship you’ve created by owning your business
July 31 – Month end wrap-up – share a story of a success from the month
Marketing After Covid-19
Business as usual has changed and will keep changing. The way your business responds will determine if you’ll move forward or get stuck. The way a business utilizes its marketing will be a tell tale sign on how they will recover or keep up after Covid-19.
This is the time to get strategic and leverage your business and resources to nurture leads and increase revenue. The marketing that emerges after Covid-19 will be a product of shifts in the industry as well as a changed consumer. It needs to be more personal and more digital—filling every screen/device of your life.
Here are some of the strategies your small business should consider:
- ENGAGE – Focus on boosting lifetime value and the customer experience as well as delivering a purpose driven and meaningful brand. People buy from people—people want to be engaged, not sold to.
- EMPATHY – Show genuine empathy, promote engagement that will unravel the shifting attitudes and consumer behaviors. Understand your customers changing needs. Don’t think like a business owner or marketer, think like the customer.
- BE AUTHENTIC – Give back—provide as much value to customer and communities—this will help drive a long term customer loyalty. Bring back the human touch even though we are in the digital age. Make everything about people. Consumers want to know where their money is going and that those companies are doing the right thing.
- RETHINK – Covid-19 will leave lasting changes to the consumer landscape. Businesses can’t pick up where they left off—everything is still evolving. Businesses need to monitor their communication and messaging. Businesses need to be agile enough to pivot quickly. Product offerings need to be relevant. Find technologies that can help save money, reassess the ones you actually need and which ones can help transform your business.
- COMMUNITY – Community is king. Engage with your audience that already exists. Spend more time having conversations that posting content by participating in your community.
Considering the strategies listed above, here is a roadmap to put them into place in your business to help catapult your success.
- INBOUND MARKETING – This task is more important than ever. It helps businesses to build relationships online and is simply the best way to convert leads into loyal customers. With lead nurturing through inbound marketing you need to listen to the needs of your audience and provide information that helps solve their problems. Examples: Blogs, social media posts, ebooks, videos, webinars.
- LEAD GENERATION – Priorities of consumers have shifted and your marketing strategies should reflect that. Using quality content to create powerful online connections is key—humanizing your brand and speaking to customers concerns will nurture an ongoing conversation. Quarantine has taught us that online conversations can be just as meaningful as face-to-face. Brands have a wealth of resources and opportunities to connect with their communities. Online consumption is at an all-time high and its not likely to change. Businesses need to double down on engagement efforts and revisit your approach to organic traffic. The easiest/fastest way to boost organic traffic is to provide relevant content. Trying to sell your old offerings to the customers you had is a recipe for disaster. Instead create/deliver/communicate new offerings—starting with the consumers needs/hopes and desires.
- RUN A SWOT – Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats – take a hard look at internal strengths and weaknesses while you scan the new world for opportunities and threats. Crossing your internal strengths and external opportunities could produce key leverage points. Crossing internal weaknesses with external threats could highlight business issues. Start by understanding the changes in the world and then figure out how you can best adapt. What trends are you seeing that can help transform your business?
At the end of the day, when things return to “normal”, the big key for businesses is to have a start-up mindset. Be quick to change. And if we learned anything from this Covid-19 crisis, it’s to make everything about the people. When you put people first and focus on the community you have already created, you will see things turn around.