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Content at your finger tips

Are you tired of going through hundreds of websites each week to find content to share or write about? These two free tools will help you get your industry new at your fingertips!

Feedly

The content you need to accelerate your research, marketing, and sales.Feedly allows you to become a smart reader with less noise!

Google Alerts

Monitor the web for interesting new content. How often. As-it-happens. At most once a day. At most once a week. Sources. Automatic. News. Blogs. Web. Video. Books. Discussions.  And much more!

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How To Work SMART In 2018

I don’t know about you, but my mind has been consumed with planning for 2018!  Specifically, I have been asking myself “how I can grow my business in the new year?”  The biggest question I have been asking myself is “What are the activities that I need to be involved in to grow the business and how can I tell if those activities will work and are working?”  Almost like kismet, I stumbled over the SMART acronym while surfing social media.  While it is not a new idea, it is definitely a timely one!

If you are not familiar with the SMART acronym, here is how it breaks down as it applies to business and goal setting:

S – Specific (make your goal is clear and not ambiguous) 

M – Measurable (how will you measure your results to ensure you have reached your goal?)

A – Attainable (make sure the goal is something realistic, something you can achieve)

R – Relevant (does the goal make sense for your business and your business plan?)

T – Time-Bound (how long will it take you to achieve your goal or what deadline did you assign to this goal?)

This acronym is a favorite as it reminds me to be laser focused when planning my goals for 2018.  Each goal I set for 2018 will need to be SMART.  Each letter of the acronym will be filled out in order for it to be considered a serious goal for 2018.  To do that, I created a 2018 SMART planner that I am excited to share with you!  You can download the planner and complete SMART for each goal you plan to achieve in 2018.

To get your SMART planner, click HERE.

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Using Canva to Create Beautiful Images

Canva is a great tool for business owners to use, to create those eye-grabbing images for social media. It is an easy to use platform, that allows you to be super creative and make amazing images without being a graphic designer and having to pay a fortune for images. Canva is great for creating your branded images, marketing materials, presentations, menus and so much more! Sometimes you will see an image as you scroll through social media and say WOW that is an awesome image! You may think to yourself “how did they do that?” Now you know! Create images that STOP THE SCROLL as we say! Enjoy!

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Twitter Tactics

How can you get the most out of Twitter for your business?  We get that question A LOT!  Twitter can be confusing and some may be stumped on how to use Twitter.  When getting started with Twitter, it’s best to take baby steps and then grow from there.  Once you get your feet wet and splash around a little you can’t help but take a swim in the deep end.

Starting Out…

When first with Twitter, use it for two things:

  1. Gather information
  2. Share information

Gathering Information:

Twitter can be extremely valuable for gathering information on a number of topics.  To do this effectively you will want to follow these steps:

  • Follow credible sources who deliver valuable content about the topic you are interested in.  Topics can range anywhere from sports scores, business trends, world news, marketing tactics, etc.
  • As you identify the sources you want to follow, add them to lists in order to sort the feeds by category or topic.  Using lists will help you keep all of the topics you want to follow organized
  • To create a list, follow these steps:
    • Visit your “Lists” section of Twitter by clicking the gear icon drop-down menu or by clicking Lists on your profile page.
    • Click Create List.
    • Name the List & create a description.
    • Mark the List as Public or Private.
    • Save the List.
  • Now that you have your list created, you can easily add sources to the list by:
    • Click on a Twitter user’s profile
    • Click on the person icon drop-down menu on the profile.
    • Choose add or remove from Lists.
    • Choose the List you would like to add the person to or uncheck the List the person was already a member of.
  • Add as many people to your various lists as you would like
  • Check your lists often to get the latest news from your trusted sources

Sharing Information:

Twitter is a great way for you to position yourself as an authority on a certain topic, field or industry.  The trick is to share “tweet-able” information, share it often and on a consistent basis.  A good rule of thumb is to share 21-70 Tweets a week.  That is a minimum of 3 Tweets a day or a maximum of 10 Tweets.  It seems like a lot, but there are a couple of things to remember:  

  1. You are Tweeting sound bites of information that link back to a bigger story (your website, blog, landing page, or another social platform that has more detailed info).
  2. There is only room to Tweet up to 280 characters which is not a very large amount of content.
  3. If you do not maintain a constant flow of information, a single message will get lost in the Twitter-sphere minimizing your opportunity to be found by others.

So What’s “Tweetable?”

We are glad you asked!  Below is a list of some generic ideas to get you started:

  • Industry trends
  • Tips
  • Events
  • Statistics
  • Recommendations
  • Best tools for your industry
  • Links to your blog post
  • Pose questions (this is a great way to encourage engagement)
  • Attention-grabbing graphics
  • Video
  • Quote
  • Poll
  • Follow appreciation post
  • Short and sweet “how-to”
  • Data
  • Something funny

Now that you get the idea of what types of things you should post, it’s time to put a plan into action.  An efficient way of releasing multiple Tweets a day is to use a bulk scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer.  Visit this blog post to get more information about bulk schedulers.

Happy Tweeting!

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Utilizing Scheduling Tools

Hootsuite:

HootSuite is a social media communications dashboard used for online brand management. It publishes to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and WordPress. It also publishes to Flickr, Tumblr, and YouTube via HootSuite Apps. It is also a Twitter client. We LOVE Hootsuite mostly because of the Twitter management, it keeps everything super organized and easy to manage.

Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008.[6] The system’s user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and much more.[7]

Buffer:

Buffer is an easy way to share content to your Social Media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and will send you a notification for Instagram. Buffer is a strong tool to utilize in your social media marketing strategy.


What it does is simple. Posts in your queue will be sent out automatically by Buffer, according to the posting schedule that you put in place. You can create a custom schedule if you would like, you can upload manually like we do and choose the days and times you would like your posts to go out to certain platforms.

All you need to do is select the social media platform you’d like to customize the posting schedule for, select the Settings tab at the top, and then select Posting Schedule. From here, you can choose which timezone is best for this account and customize the days and times your posts should go out. Select the days you’d like to include and add the individual times you’d like your content to be shared.

It’s like your magic box you can use anytime to fill with great Tweets, Facebook stories or LinkedIn updates. Just drop them in and you don’t have to ever worry about when it will be posted, it’s all taken care of by Buffer for you. Buffer is FREE up to 3 social media platforms and then VERY affordable after that.

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3 Steps to a STRONG Personal Brand

What is a personal brand?  

A personal brand is a feeling, an emotion and an expectation about who you are as a person and and a professional.  Your personal brand tells people what your character is and what they can expect to experience when working with you.  

How Do You Build A Strong Personal Brand?

Our 3-Step process will help you identify what your personal brand looks like.  Once you identify what your personal brand is, it will be your job to nurture, grow and tweak it along the way.

STEP 1:  WHO YOU ARE

Identify 3-6 core values that describe you.  Core values are those things that drive you and make you who your are.  They can be anything from trustworthy, respectful, innovative, leader, etc.

  1. _____________________________________
  2. _____________________________________
  3. _____________________________________
  4. _____________________________________
  5. _____________________________________
  6. _____________________________________

Power Tip:  

Need help?  Use Google to do some research!  Type “List of core values” into the Google search engine and see what comes up.  Select core values that really describe who you are and how you want people to perceive you.

STEP 2:  WHAT YOU DO

Write out a descriptive statement of what problem you are able to provide a solution to.  

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The point of this descriptive is to illustrate how you think and want people to perceive you.

STEP 3:  THE VALUE YOU PROVIDE

Strong personal brands deliver value ALL THE TIME!  With everything they do, there is always a piece of value available.  Two value-focused brands that quickly come to mind are:

Facebook:  Provides people the opportunity to connect with friends, family, and businesses everyday!

Google:  Delivers information instantaneously!  It costs you nothing to do research from the comfort of your own home!

Make a list of all of the pieces of value you offer to your target market:

    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________
    • _______________________________________________________________

 

 

Putting it ALL Together

Now that you have a clear picture of:

  • What makes you who you are
  • The solution you provide
  • The value that you offer…

You begin to see what your brand looks like.  From here, you can go anywhere!  With every piece of marketing you do, the product you deliver or conversation you have, you can design it all to reflect how you want people to perceive you, your business, and the product or service you deliver.

Take It One Step Further…

Put your brand to the test.  Work with a trusted colleague, mentor, or friend, someone who will give feedback, and tell you what you NEED to hear, not what you WANT to hear.  Ask them how they honestly see your brand and the product you deliver.  If they are unable to identify the problem you solve, how valuable your product or service is or if they are unable to identify any of the 6 core values you listed above to describe you and your business, you have some work to do.  You must either change one or all of the steps above or you must change yourself.  

Personal branding is a marathon, not a sprint, and, it is definitely a journey.  You will need to constantly work at it and improve it each and every day.

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Personal Brand or Personal Image. What’s The Difference?

Many times people use the terms personal brand and personal image interchangeably but, they shouldn’t.  There is a BIG difference between the two!  Once you understand the difference between them, it will make a difference in your business.

Let’s dive in…

Personal Image:  

Everyone has one!  It what helps people form a mental picture of you.  Here are some characteristics of a Personal Image:

  • Sense of humor
  • How you talk, the language you use, the accent you have
  • Sense of style
  • Favorite color
  • Your overall preferences of what you like and what you do not like

Personal Brand:  

A personal brand is how people perceive you and it sets the expectation of how you will conduct business with another professional.  Your personal brand:

  • Sets you apart from others in your industry
  • Broadcasts your skill set
  • Describes your work ethic is
  • Provides insight into your character and values
  • Illustrates the expected level value you provide

Think of your personal brand as your professional reputation on steroids.  Your personal brand is the emotion, thought and an idea that is conjured up each and every time your name and business name are mentioned in your target market.   What do you want that thought or idea to be for you and your business?

Now that you know how important your personal brand is, you must protect it at all costs by delivering a consistent message each and every time you interact with your target market whether it be on social media, through a marketing program, during a meeting, consultation or a deliverable product.

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Picking out your brand colors

Picking your brand colors

Do colors really mean anything for your brand? I mean it’s just colors, right?

WRONG! There is a whole lot of research done behind the meaning of colors!

When you think of your ‘Brand Identity’ what does that mean to you?

Personality is the emotional, and human, association to a brand. Identity is the image created and used by a company to relate to consumers. An identity can include all forms of communication and visuals such as logos, colors or fonts. But the two are symbiotic. A brand’s identity should be part of its personality.

This is one of our favorite color meaning charts: Attribution http://blog.visme.co/color-psychology-in-marketing-and-brand-identity-part-2/  

When you talk about creating a brand it all starts with the colors, fonts,  and styles.

Here are a few steps to get you started

  1. Mood Board Inspiration
    *Types of things that inspire you: Colors, Styles, Textures, Images, Fonts. Pinterest is a great free resource to look at types of brands you like.
  2. Color Palette & Fonts
     – What color makes you happy? What’s your favorite color?
    – Which colors and fonts are you naturally drawn towards?
    – Are there certain colors that can represent your design niche the best?– Which colors would you prefer to avoid?
    -Are there certain colors that can represent your design niche the best?
    -What do I want the identity of your business to say to my clients?
  3. Primary Logo
    Primary Logo is: Do you have one? Do you have a stacked logo for social media?
  4. Social Media & Marketing Graphics
    What social media platforms do you have, that you need to make sure your graphics are correct?
  5. Website & Consistency – Keep your brand’s tone and personality consistent across channels

Is your brand identity unique?
Does it have passion behind it?
Is it consistent?

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Do colors really mean anything for your brand? I mean it’s just colors, right?

What are brand colors

WRONG! There’s a whole lot of research done behind the meaning of colors!

When you think of your ‘Brand Identity’ what does that mean to you?

Personality is the emotional, and human, association to a brand. Identity is the image created and used by a company to relate to consumers. An identity can include all forms of communication and visuals such as logos, colors or fonts. But the two are symbiotic. A brand’s identity should be part of its personality.

This is one of our favorite color meaning charts: Attribution http://blog.visme.co/color-psychology-in-marketing-and-brand-identity-part-2/  

When you talk about creating a brand it all starts with the colors, fonts,  and styles.

Here are a few steps to get you started:

1. Mood Board Inspiration


What’s a mood board?

It’s a collection of different items that can help you get a feel of what your brand is all about. It can contain images, textures, patterns, typefaces, and other design elements. You may even put together a mood board with logos, website, images that you like the feel of to maybe replicate.

How to make an effective mood board:

Don’t set limits.

The moment you start making a mood board, understand that this is not a place for you to hold back. Put as many elements into it as possible. Remember that it’s always easier for you to take out elements that do not work out in the end. But if you hold back, you might miss out on things that you could have added, but thought twice about

Be detailed and specific.

Sometimes, you would add an image that struck you because of a specific element. A screenshot of a webpage perhaps, or a poster you found online. You may like the font used, or the color scheme applied. In these cases, make sure you add notes that specify what you liked about the image. This way, you can remember which element you should be zooming in on when you encounter the image in your board.

2. Color Palette & Fonts

Your brand identity is not just a logo of your business, but a reflection of your personality. When it comes to creating your brand, color plays a vital role in the process. People choose brands, make buying decisions, change their actions, choose what stores to go into, all because of COLOR, and they may not know they even do it!  

Think of a stop light, you always know Red means stop, Green means Go and Yellow means caution or slow down, right? This changes the way we think about colors and what they mean to us as individuals. At the end of the day, Color is EVERYTHING! These colors will be in your logo, website, social media, print materials, publications, promotional items and so much more, it’s important you take your time and really think about this.

– What color makes you happy? What’s your favorite color?
– Which colors and fonts are you naturally drawn towards?
– Are there certain colors that can represent your design niche the best?– Which colors would you prefer to avoid?

-Are there certain colors that can represent your design niche the best?

-What do I want the identity of your business to say to my clients?

3. Logos

  • Primary Logo—Size and Scaling The logos are all saved to paths—which means they are rendered as vector art and can be continuously scaled. When changing the size it is important to do this proportionally and not stretch the art or change the original proportions. The logo shall not be used below the minimum size shown below
  • Primary Logo—Color Usage The primary logo may be used in four different color combinations as shown below. The logo should never be used in any other color combinations other than those specified below.
  • Secondary Logo The secondary logo was created for situations where Highline is more of an endorsement or equal party. It can be used in situations where there is limited space or where the full name is not necessary. It may also be interchanged with the main logo if the name Highline Community College is stated elsewhere.
  • Secondary Logo—Size and Scaling Like the primary logo, the secondary logo is saved to paths—which means they are rendered as vector art and can be continuously scaled. When changing the size it is important to do this proportionally and not stretch the art or change the original proportions. 

Do you have one? Do you have a stacked logo for social media?

4. Social Media & Marketing Graphics

When you are creating all these graphics, it’s so important to make sure you have the right size for each social media platform, cheat sheet here http://www.visualistan.com/2016/12/the-2017-social-media-image-sizes-cheat.html


What social media platforms do you have, that you need to make sure your graphics are correct?

5. Website & Consistency 

When communicating as the brand offline or via your website, social media profiles, or other online channels, it’s important to keep a consistent tone and personality. If your brand is fun and friendly on Twitter, it should have a similar flavor on Facebook and LinkedIn. Your messaging on LinkedIn may be less casual or more professional, but it shouldn’t sound like it’s coming from a different brand altogether. Think about it this way: there is the “at work” you and the “at home or with friends” you. Your personality is the same, but your mannerisms adjust to the context. The same goes for your brand personality and selected communication channels.

Is your brand identity unique?
Does it have passion behind it?
Is it consistent?

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