So here we are, finally into the last quarter of the year and the kids are back at school (for now). As I tidy up the house for the 4th time this week and pick up the last minute debris thrown to the side as the kids scrambled out to school this morning - I feel grateful for being self employed and being able to spend these weeks and months with them around my commitments.
I have noticed a very strong shift in my workload from usual this Summer, traditionally - well basically up until Summer 2020 - I was normally not busy at all but that all changed last year and was as, if not more mental this year.
Let's both get our minds back into work mode and see what the social media powers have descended upon us this month. Time to grab that cuppa folks...
OK, so this isn't really business pertinent but I thought a little fun. Last month Messenger was 10 and they got out a few wee fun tools to share on the app. Not sure if you've seen them but they are as follows:
> Poll "Most Likely Too" game to share with friends
> Birthday Cash Gifting (Currently US only)
> Birthday expression tools, like AR blowing out candles
> Birthday song Soundmoji
It's all a bit of fun. Learn more by reading the Facebook article here.
Facebook spent most of last year complaining about the iPhone update that came out earlier this year and they seem to have reached a level of acceptance about it now. I see the scenario "if you can't beat them, join them" may have happened. So do you think was a little bit too late or can Facebook be redeemed? Read on here to learn more.
I watched this chat earlier on last month and if you're interested you might find it very useful. I have followed, chatted and trained under both these fine people and it's very beneficial! Watch the just under hour long interview / workshop to learn the following:
Instagram has had to pull up its socks considerably since the TikTok explosion. Now that they have pretty much nailed search, it's something they have decided to sort as well. So in the coming months they are going to be improving the search terms within the app to match or indeed perhaps surpass their competitors. Want to hear more about this then visit this article from The Verge.
I'm sure it comes as no shock that its the most downloaded to you fair reader, it wasn't to me either. What does it mean though? I personally think its being viewed by more people than gaining more creators. It's one of the easiest platforms to watch and its versatility is to its credit. Learn a little more about TikTok in this post.
There's a lot of things you can do on TikTok but now you can create and develop your own tune or sound and upload it for sharing on the app itself. If this is something you want to do then check out this article giving you a step-by-step process for doing it.
This latest innovation is currently only being rolled out in a few countries (not yet in Ireland) and could serve to raise a profile so much faster! This made such a significant change to Instagram a while back that shopping through it for a time made the difference to keeping a business open in 2020. Personally I think this a great move by TikTok, what say you? Read more about it here.
They are being busy birds at Twitter this last month. They're looking at doing stuff like recording Spaces, doing special tweets for super followers and creating profile category labels for business accounts (whatever that is??).
How on earth did we manage without these changes? If you would like to learn more then just check these out in the this article.
Weird - I thought this was done a while ago BUT apparently I was mistaken. So here's an article about how Google are now looking at not just the title of the page but the HTML title as well. This means we have a couple of areas to generate SEO and means business owners must ensure that the HTML title is accurate.
In fairness I do see the importance of this. On ITN we use usually a ridiculously long, yet descriptive title for SEO and the human eyes but then the HTML title is shortened in order to keep it in the constraints that Google look for (ya know - shorter...). To this end we make good use of the metadata as well. Learn more about it in this article.
Well that didn't last long now did it? Yep the end of this month - this barely one year old story - shuts its pages for good at the end of September. Apparently people are looking for less Instagram but want YouTube on LinkedIn (wow). I actually never used the stories - ever on LinkedIn, maybe I missed a trick but at least I won't be missing it. Will this change your final quarter marketing strategy much? Let me know! Read on this more here.
If you're a strategy nerd like me then you'll appreciate this. None other than the Head of Social Media Marketing at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions has written a very useful guide on how to use both of these mediums in a strategy! Take out the guess work and use this as a Framework for your brand. Gotta say its relevance won't remain forever of course but if you're using LinkedIn as a primary then you need to take advantage soon as. View the 45 page guide here.
I guess now a lot of the kids are back at school now there may be less need for this but for those of you who are parents you may find this useful. Last month, YouTube set s default that anyone who has an account and are under 18 are now completely private and when they upload any videos only the owners (and anyone they add) will have access to the videos. It's even adding break and bedtime reminders (for parents lol)
You may also find this of interest - Google Image Search have now made it much easier to have images removed for kids (and parent/guardians of such) under 18 years old too! Want to learn more? Then check out the post here.
If you're looking to create a strategy for your social media and overall digital marketing and would like to know how to do this by yourself for your own business or for the company you work for, then you maybe interested in doing this training that I offer.
I help you create it at a pace you set, filling in the gaps in your knowledge along the way. You'll be given work to do between the sessions that you can manage and that won't be overly disruptive to your everyday workload.
This will give you accountability and you can contact me anytime during the training if you have any questions that crop up between sessions.
Now that September is here - I now have had a good few more enquiries and I have been fortunate enough to convert several these passed few weeks to start this month. I do however have regular time slots to offer this training and it can run either in 1 month, 6 weeks or even 12 weeks if you prefer! I can give you the dates to fit around both our schedules from day one so you know this in advance. If you would like to learn more about what this covers, then visit this page.
This course has been currently been accepted by 5 Local Enterprise Office Areas as suitable for the Trading Online Voucher but you can also get this training directly. Check out all the lovely testimonials I have received regarding this course in the link provided.
Podcast 83 - ChatBots with Sasha Liddiard
Podcast 84 - Interview with Melanie Boylan
Podcast 85 - Christine Gritmon talks Branding
Podcast 86 - Interview with Esther Ocampo
It's back to school and work now compadre's! Remember to put your final quarter strategies in place, make sure you do your reporting for August and record it some where safe.
Take care and I'll bring you up to speed again in September. Please contact me if you need anything!
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
