Are you on social media? Of course you are! Who isn’t! Do you remember your very first exposure to social media? Oh my gosh, for me it was Classmates.com! Haha. But for many of you, it may have been MySpace! Do you remember what it felt like to, for the very first time, have unlimited reach? You could make friends and connect with anyone in the entire world. Communication was the way of the future. That was the promise of social media in the late 90s. But no one could have predicted what it would become in the 2010s! Facebook,…
Read MoreWant to know an online business secret? Content equals growth! It’s true! Content creation has been the core of everything I’ve done with my businesses for the past 20 years. However, when I took my content creation to the next level that is when my business really took off. Take my green lifestyle blog, Sweet Greens. Haha! Are you thinking, What? She has a green lifestyle blog too? Sweet Greens was born of my passion for environmental causes and green products. It started as a simple blog (I thought it would be a fun way to document the fun eco-friendly…
Read MoreSo let me ask, how many years have you been building your email list? Time and time again on consultation calls, I hear from potential clients who want to focus ALL of their marketing efforts on social media. But here’s the thing: you don’t “own” your social media followers. I’ve tragically seen clients’ accounts closed down by Facebook & Instagram (sometimes for no reason, just a simple mistake), meaning that they lose those followers forever or at least until they can get a hold of someone who can help! Plus, as you know, Facebook likes to choose who sees your…
Read MoreDo you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? That’s usually what I hear from most small business owners. They start the day ready to blow through their to-do lists, but still have half the list left at the end of hours. That’s usually because their time gets used up by small, time-consuming tasks like creating and scheduling social media as part of their digital marketing strategy. Personally, I write/design/schedule a month’s worth of social media content on Saturday or Sunday morning. I’ve developed a system over the years where I get up early and have it…
Read MoreDo you feel like you’re getting a little less “bang for your buck” from your marketing strategy plan lately? Digital marketing is one of the fastest moving targets on the internet. Things are constantly shifting and changing. New services appear and old ones disappear constantly. Google+, for example, was a “must” just a few years ago. Today? Uh, what’s Google+? This rapidly changing digital landscape means that you need to update your marketing plan every year (if not more often). If you’re basically doing the same thing you did in 2017, your digital marketing strategy is beyond ancient. But that’s…
Read MoreWant to know the worst feeling in the world when you’re a small business owner creating a sense of emergency? It’s when you feel the first inklings that you’re getting sick. You know the signs. Sleep the night before may not happen. Your energy is running dry, or you get a tickle in the back of your throat. You think, “I’m getting sick. I can’t afford to get sick! I have too much to do this week!!!” As a small business owner, it’s not unusual that everything is on your shoulders. Your customer service, marketing, daily tasks, sales, EVERYTHING goes…
Read MoreHow much time do you spend on Facebook every day? I’m not just talking about your personal account, but also your professional one. If you’re a small business owner, then you should absolutely have a significant professional presence on Facebook (and other social media networks). Facebook is one of the most popular social media channels in the world, with over 2.4 billion users and over 1.56 billion daily users. There are 9.3 million in Florida alone! That’s a lot of horn honking Floridians! Those kinds of numbers can give you a massive reach to connect with both current and potential…
Read MoreDo you remember MySpace? How about Friendster? Or a more recent example, Google Plus? These were some major players in the social media scene but today? They’re gone, replaced with newer, better social networks. It’s incredible how even giants can be worn down by time and innovation. Perhaps even… Facebook? Facebook is still the king of social media and should be a key component of every small business’s social media strategy, but it isn’t the only one out there. Other social media networks are popping up every year, looking to dethrone the king. As a marketer, I need to be…
Read MoreCross-country marketing can be a fascinating thing. Companies can take the exact same product but market it entirely differently depending on the country they are in. For example, there might be completely different advertising campaigns for a product like Pepsi in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. This is despite the fact that they’re all located on the same continent, two of them primarily speak English, and it’s the same product. It all has to do with local conventions of the media, cultural differences, and values when it comes to marketing. Marketing on social media is a little bit like…
Read MoreDo me a favor. Go onto your Instagram or Facebook account and see how long it takes you to find a picture of a cat or dog. Don’t worry; I’ll wait. My guess is that it happened WAY faster than you expected. Pets have taken over the social media world. We might be torn apart by world events, pop culture, and trolling on social media, but there is one thing that brings us all together: Cute pictures of animals. So, the big question is, how can you harness the awesome power of pets to put a spotlight on your small…
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