Tag Archives: communication

Tips on Tuesday

A handy little 3-point checklist for all your social media posts: –

Checklist and pen
  1. Have you checked your spelling and grammar?

There’s nothing designed to fill potential customers with a sense of dread than poorly spelled communications, littered with grammatical errors. After all, if you can’t get your postings right, who says you can get the job right!

2.  Have you checked your links work?

Imagine the scenario. You’ve hooked a customer; they’re interested in what you say and follow the link to your website…except it doesn’t work. It is unlikely they will bother again!

3.  Are your images clear?

Images are great – we all love pictures, and they definitely make social media posts more interesting. Do make sure they’re clear on all devices and that the image is relevant to the post!

Tips on Tuesday

How do you feel about yourself?!

As Ellen DeGeneres wisely said “sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others.”

Yep, you’ve guessed it; today’s tip is about feedback!  Feedback is food and drink to any small business – word of mouth is such a great way of reaching new customers.  Don’t be afraid to ask your customers to leave you an online review (whether that’s on your website, via a search engine or on your social media channels) and certainly don’t be afraid to share that review!

If you receive more traditional thank you cards/letters etc, don’t be afraid to take a picture and share, or indeed choose a relevant image and share a pertinent quote from the review.  #FeedbackFriday is big news – make sure you tap into that free market.  Sharing reviews is also an easy way of creating content for your page; we love a multi-functional post!

Tips on Tuesday

Something for nothing, a freebie, donation, giveaway, present. Whatever you call it, we all like the idea of getting something without paying! How many of us choose where to have a coffee because the cafe offers free WiFi?!

You can apply the same to your business! Don’t be afraid to offer something free to your online followers.  Whether that’s a tip, a resource they can download, a link to something useful there are so many ways you can offer your customers something for nothing.

Remember you’re not giving your expertise away for free; rather you’re showing your followers they matter, you’re showing your expertise in your field and your confidence in sharing that expertise.  All a great recipe for encouraging people to use you for more!! 

Who will people remember; the person who charges for all their advice or the person who you can pop on their social media channels and get regular bite-size information for free? 

Tips on Tuesday

We’ve often spoken about the important of good quality content on social media, ensuring that your timeline isn’t simply a hard sell.

That isn’t to say that if you have something in particular to sell you shouldn’t announce it! Make sure anything that could be of interest to potential customers; events, new products, courses etc. are shared on your social media feeds.

If you’ve already created a following with high-interest content, you have a good audience to share your offering to; with the ultimate goal converting leads to sales.

We like to work towards the 80/20 rule with making 80% of your content interesting, creative or informative whilst devoting 20% to sales.

Give it a try!

Tips on Tuesday

We always think this time of year is a great time to practise some self-care and that goes for your social media channels too!

An easy way to ensure you’re looking your best online is to check your bios! Make sure they’re up to date and if not, update with any new or important information. 

Make sure you include a link to your website (and please ensure it’s working; there’s nothing more likely to turn a potential customer off than a broken link!) and keep your bios consistent across all platforms.

Are you looking your best?

Tips on Tuesday

Safer Internet Day 2022

Did you know that Tuesday 8th February 2022 is the 19th Safer Internet Day?

We’re passionate about empowering people, especially young people to be online!  So today we’re sharing our top tips on how to stay safe whilst using the internet.

  1.  Never reveal your passwords to other people.  Choose a password that is really strong by using a mix of letters and numbers.  Make sure you change them regularly.
  2. Make sure you think before you post.   Never post anything you wouldn’t want your parents or teachers to read.  As soon as you press send, the information/image is no longer private.
  3. Be kind.  If you think your post could upset someone, don’t post it.
  4. Be really careful about what you share online.  Don’t give clues about where you live in either the information or the images you post. 
  5. Make sure you check your privacy settings regularly.  Bear in mind that you might think you’re only sharing something amongst close friends, but that isn’t always the case.
  6. Be careful who you talk to online.  If someone you don’t know tries to add you as a friend, ignore them and block them.   Don’t give people online your address and phone number.

Social media platforms have an age limit for a reason.  It is to keep young people safe.  There’s some great advice on UK Safer Internet Centre on how we can all work towards making the internet a place of mutual respect and safety!

Tips on Tuesday

Consistency really is key when it comes to your social media performance.

Were you posting consistently in 2021 across your social media channels? If not, that should be your number one goal within your social media plan for 2022.  If you want to see tangible results, you need to post regularly.  This will help your followers stay engaged and connected and help your content show up in your followers feeds.

As a minimum, we recommend posting on your channels at least three times a week.

Tips on Tuesday

By now you should have your social media strategy for the coming year well and truly in place.

Remember your strategy should cover the following: –

  1. Online presence – where will you send prospective customers to find out more?
  2. Content strategy – where are your target audience and what sort of content do they look for?
  3. Social media – which social media channels you will use and what content you will share
  4. Brand – this should be in place before you venture into the online word and should cover a name, a logo, and a voice.
  5. Analytics/insights – use the tools provided to collate data on your online performance which will help you improve your performance.
  6. Content management – keeping track of all the information you share including planning future posts.

How do you like to plan?

Tips on Tuesday

Remember social media is your online shop window, so every business with social media channels is putting themselves out there to be visible.

With such a wealth of information out there, don’t be afraid to take a look at what your competitors are doing social media wise! Obviously we aren’t advocating plagiarizing and we emphasise the importance of creating your own content, however market analysis can be useful to monitor established accounts within your sector to get an idea of what sort of posts work well, what timing works and even which channels are most successful for businesses like yours.

There are so many examples out there and freely available – make use of them! Just don’t get so bogged down in comparison you spend more time on their channels than your own!

Tips on Tuesday

Whilst creating content is key across your social media platforms, there are of course those days when inspiration simply doesn’t strike.

A really great way to help you out on those days when you’re suffering a bout of writer’s block is to create a social media calendar.  Quite simply pull together a list of dates that mixes key dates that are important to your business (maybe a sale, a new product launch, the anniversary of your opening) and more national dates you can have fun with e.g. National Cup of Tea Day, National Biscuit Day.

Dates like these give an immediate way to create content and have fun when you might be struggling for something to say.  Followers like to see the people they follow have fun, so don’t be afraid to let loose and create some great new content for dry spells!

Let us know what your favourite social media day to celebrate is, the more unusual the better!