This morning, while walking the Fresh Brew Hound along an old unadopted dirt track that the King once travelled from London to Cornwall by carriage, the unmistakable scent of wild garlic hit me like a pair of dirty socks that you’ve somehow managed to forget about, but instantly know it’s there.
For the past month, I’ve had the pleasure to talk to a number of small business owners and learn to understand their core restraints holding them back from developing their business into something bigger, louder, grander. (Note: I did not say “better”). From most of them came 1 consistent restraint that, if they had the means, they would invest in: more marketing.
I understand, we want to be known, and we want more business. But there is only so much we can do with the money we have available to us. So what do we do if we simply don’t have the cash to do what we need to.
Simple.
We use what we’ve got.
Back to the wild garlic metaphor. Since moving to this Green and Pleasant land 6 years ago, I’d always threatened to forage for my own wild garlic, and produce my own batch of the most beautiful wild garlic pesto that my Kenwood mixer would allow. (Other brands are available, BBC).
So, as the breeze gently whispered this morning, I knew that today was the day. Off I headed with Pup, lead, poo bags, and an extra supermarket-special carrier bag. Wild garlic grows abundantly in Dorset – and the rest of Europe. Also known as “Bear’s Garlic”, this particular ‘weed’ as Mr Fresh Brew calls it, is loved by wild boar and other animals that furiously dig up the bulbs. (Scene straight out of Asterix & Obelix).
Anyway – back to the garlic. It didn’t take long before I was armed with a bag full of deliciously stinking garlic leaves.
The pesto turned out beautifully – after adding some lemon juice, glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and roasted pine nuts – perfectly delivering 2 and a half jars full of wonderfully fresh garlic pesto.
And as I sat at the kitchen counter, chewing on my morning toast and wild garlic pesto – I realised. Sometimes, you don’t have to have what the Jones’ have. Sometimes you don’t need the massive budget because someone tells you that you do – sometimes, all you need to do is look at what you’ve got and find a way to make THAT work for you.
Need a little help to look at what you’ve got, and how to use it? Then give me a call. As long as you put the kettle on, of course.
“You give away too many of your secrets”, was what my husband told me this week.
And, he’s probably right.
Introduction of next lesson to learn. Where’s the fine line between simply “being friendly”, and “running a business”.
Case in point – people often ask me for “tips” to improve their social media followers, or for some thoughts on how to drive more traffic to their website.
The old Katy (and current one, in fact, that I’m trying to train out of my brain) would probably without a second breath, have launched into tips, ideas, suggestions – and even offering to do it all for them – spending countless evening hours studying, analysing, interrogating – coming out with a raft of ideas and suggestions – that most marketing companies would charge a small fortune for.
But that’s not what I’m going to do.
What I am going to do is train you how to do all of this yourself. And THAT I will charge for.
So, I’m pleased to introduce a new string to my cello, blossom to my bouquet and dribble to my wine glass (ok, that last one didn’t make sense).
If you’re looking to understand more about social media: How it works, how to use it, how to get more followers, how to be more effective etc etc etc – then why not book my time for a couple of hours, and I’ll share all that I know, with you.
“But everyone offers this… what’s the point?” – I’ll tell you what the point is… they probably don’t spend any time doing their homework on your business, on your position within the Social atmosphere – they probably read off of a sheet of crib notes and generic To Dos. I aim to personalise. I will look at what you need, what you want to achieve – and then form a training package around what you need.
Besides – there’s absolutely NOTHING to be scared of. We’ll figure it out together – and find a solution that suits your business, and more importantly, your personality, perfectly.
Sound good?
Great!
Book me. I’d love to have a cup of tea with you and twitter!
This subject has probably been blogged to death. So excuse me if I re-hash something you may have already heard before. Perhaps this time, someone who hasn’t quite caught the penny that dropped, will finally… just… get it.
Your aim: You want people to know about you.
Ok – so let’s start there. Chances are, you probably already have a website. (Let’s not talk about Facebook pages at the moment – although they may serve the same purpose as a website – they need to be treated in a somewhat different light).
So – you want people to come to your website, to learn about what you do. Because that’s where you tell them about yourself, your services, your products, your thoughts, and it gives them a way to get in touch with you. But how do you get people to voluntarily visit your website without you tricking, paying, begging, blackmailing them to do so?
Simple.
(it is, really).
You give them a reason to.
And that’s done through CONTENT.
Here are a few ideas of content generation that may get you started:
Keep a look out for Part 2 of this blog – which will equip you with HOW to use content to get traffic up.
In the meantime, happy creating.
I have a little bit of a stationery obsession. I just love stationery. Pens – different colours, ink viscosity, nib widths, rollerball vs felt-tip, markers, files, binders, paper clips. And my favourite thing to do is to arrange it beautifully on my desk so that I always have what I need, when I need it – and I’m not one of those people who frantically start looking for a pair of scissors on the day that I need it – when I haven’t needed a pair in over a month.
Anyway. So today, I took on 2 new customers. And, as is customary, I colour-coordinate (yes, I’m that sad) the colour of the notebooks, to my client’s brand – and today, I needed a blue and a green notebook. So, off I trundle to the local supermarket to see what I can find.
Living in a beautifully (albeit slightly sleepy at times) town in Dorset – we are not spoilt for choice. If there’s a notebook or a fancy pen, you take it. The closest Staples store is miles away – and simply wouldn’t warrant a ginormous trip for just a blue and green notebook. So the supermarket will have to do.
I’m lucky this time – and the last two on the shelf, are exactly the colours I’m after. I grab them up, along with a copy of Country Life and trundle back home.
It’s not until I get home over a cup of tea, that I notice the barcode sticker on the back of each of the notebooks. You know the stickers I’m talking about…. the ones with the barcode – that you scan when you check-out, and then never give another fleeting glance to.
Sitting neatly under the barcoded, on this sticker – are 3 little icons.
A Twitter icon
A Facebook icon
A QR code.
On a straight-forward, no funny-business, hardcover A4 notebook.
When was the last time you looked up a social profile on piece of non-descript stationery?
So on this occasion, slightly intrigued – I went online, and checked out just who Nuco-International (the producers of the notebook in question) are.
Here’s what I learn:
Interesting.
So – it did work.
Adding a little social information to a barcode sticker on the back of a notebook sold in a major Supermarket chain.
Not quite sure about the QR code though – but I guess there must be someone else like me out there that may find that useful.
Nice to meet you, Nuco. And thanks for my notebooks.
Working in the Social World, I am privy to thousands and thousands of social profiles, all the time, every day. People connect with me. I connect with people.
And most of the time, the people I’m connecting with, are social-savvy, marketing-gurus who are certainly not new to the social environment.
However. (and there’s always a however, right?)
Now, I’m not the type of person to name and shame, publicly, except when it is meant to be constructive. So I don’t intend to do that here. But I did feel the (albeit slightly passive aggressive) need to highlight a few key faux pas that social people still make, to this day.
The dodgy profile picture:
It still astounds me how people seem to forget the importance of a profile picture. Selecting the image that will set your first impression alight, is probably one of the most important decisions you’ll make on social. It needs to be professional, but not too stiff, it needs to be branded – but not without personality. It needs to be appropriate for the forums you’ll be joining, but still stand out. So what do you do? Well, what you don’t do is choose something that you think is hilarious, and will catch people’s attentions… something that stands out… something that broadcasts a message etc etc… but completely ruins the first impression most people will have of you.
Stick to a head shot – something natural, something un-forced. Something that shows who you are. Get your peers to review it – take the criticism on the chin, and go with what is best. You never know when your profile picture may need to speak for you, first.
Case in point: Someone recently approached me to sell me SEO services – their profile picture? A duck, swimming in a pond, upside down. NEXT…
And while we’re on the profile picture subject – remember… when you set yourself a profile picture on G+… and you send an email through that same account, within Gmail – that profile picture will show up in your recipient’s mailbox.
Case in point: Received an email from a business who wanted to sell advertising space in major event catalogue: Profile picture? Some guy, beer in hand, cig hanging out of his mouth, on the beach with a number of semi-clad females hanging about. NEXT…
Your automated social reply
I’m sure you’re really thankful that I followed you. And appreciative etc, but the days of automated replies are done. It’s not the reply that stands out. It’s the personality behind it. I realise, that for many brands, it is somewhat tricky to keep up with the increasing follower rate, on a daily basis, and resource just means that you cannot possibly compose a personalised message to every single person – and I’m ok with that. An option may be to choose to highlight just a few new followers that you’d like to thank – be personal, find a talking point, promote them – make them feel part of your mission.
Your bio
Social is social. Think about that for a second. Social Media… is social. So, make sure that your bio (if you have one… which, if you don’t, is a completely different blog topic) demonstrates who you are, what you do, what you believe in, and what drives you.
I personally like a bio that is filled with so much character and diversity that immediately makes me want to follow them, because that’s the type of content that I hope to hear from them. But that’s just me. Other bios are beautifully suited to the individual bio type (Mark Schaefer wrote a great blog about his favourite twitter bios) – all the types of things that capture someone’s attention and makes them want to follow you.
Just like your profile picture, your bio often speaks for you before someone has read your first tweet.
Remember – your bio is searchable, so for SEO purposes, think about what you’ve put in there. If you want people to find you, be sure to have a bio that wants to be found.
We could go on, for quite a bit more, about the do’s and don’ts of Social – but that will give me a good reason to write another post.
In the meantime – need some help? Give me a shout.