Welcome to June!
I've found May has flown by personally. I think I've reached the point where this "new world" actually started to feel kinda normal. The initial shock is over and I have had to adapt just like everyone else. It's not been as hard for me as possibly others maybe? Purely because in live in the "remote" space already. Please let me know how you you've got on?
A bit of a whopper this month in updates, apologies. If you missed Instagram updates then please check out the Useful Blogs at the bottom of this article. Honestly, all these people at home have left social media brands and businesses feeling freshly inspired. Maybe they should leave all they're staff at home all the time if they're gonna go this mad with the updates? But first this:
You can apply as an Irish SME to Virgin to be given some free promotion on the telly! They have set aside a budget to help the SME side of the Irish economy get back on its feet. If you would like to be considered, check out this article.
Twitter recently said that if you want to stay at home, you can. The powers that be have stated that they've actually seen an improvement in the workload and have decided to let anyone that wants to to stay there. Think of the savings in overheads for them!
Personally I can't function without an office and I work on my own. But that's me...
If like me, you hate change, then you'll hate this update too. Twitter have decided to change the reply format again and have somehow thought doing Threaded Replies would be a good idea(?) Due to the overwhelming feedback so far of "Please, no, don't do it!"! let's hope they rethink this and go back to a much more sensible way.
Nearly at the end of May, Twitter announced that they have now made it possible to schedule your tweets via the web app, as you can see below:
This means you can add images, links, GIFs and text and schedule as many as you want for as long as you want! For the marketer out there, this could be dead handy for any extra accounts that they have to manage out there, as this is entirely FREE! So no excuses now, get on your computer / laptop and get scheduling!
Mid way through the month LinkedIn announced that they would be adding a several new Live features. With the merge of its events and LinkedIn Live it will make it much easier for business to hold Live events online. It certainly doesn't hurt that the image that LinkedIn has is overall much more professional than Facebook and little more professional than Google or YouTube. Read the above link for the full press release.
What a brilliant tool from LinkedIn! I'm offering high praise for this thoughtful and genuinely excellent concept. An awful lot of businesses are unfortunately closing doors or perhaps furloughing their staff for a long time. Right now and people from various industries are not being forced to look elsewhere for work. It may have been some time since you last attended an interview so this AI tool can give you instant feedback its interview preparation tools.
Quite a claim eh? Well, actually anythings possible when you devote your time to it. The most I got in a day was 72, after doing a Live Q & A about a year ago. But I don't put as much emphasis as I should on my Instagram. This article has some excellent suggestions that hone your skills and helps direct your strategy. It will take an awful lot of time though to match 200 followers daily and a particularly attractive service or product! Do you have what it takes? If so, check out this article and please tag my Instagram account @melanie_boylan and share your progress!
Now personal opinion here but when I heard it, it made an awful lot of sense! When you do ads on Facebook (depending on what you're promoting) your audience may not be very "decisive" on mobile.
Your decision makers maybe people who would rather click the learn more button before buying. A lot of people don't appear to have the time to do that on mobile, they want to scroll on to something more interesting. If nothing else, why not try a sample Ad next time and see if makes more financial sense to throw all your budget at a Desktop Ad only a couple of times and see if the uptake is better? It was also suggested those over 35 (both genders) were better at deciding faster.
You may have noticed recently that in Facebook and Instagram stories you can "support small business" by tagging them and giving them a shout out. Well you can now do the same on your business page. It's called Tag Unpaid Promotion. This was recently shared by Mari Smith and it's well worth using to share your favourite local, small business. It's all about giving folks! Read the article below for more details.
https://www.facebook.com/marismith/posts/10157091117890009
It was only a matter of time before Facebook muscled into Etsy and Pinterest and got the Facebook Shop off the ground. Last month, Mr Zuckerberg himself made the announcement here and it only seemed to make sense especially as many businesses are placing themselves online due to COVID19. If you missed the announcement and want to learn more about this new capability then check out the post and watch your shop being shared throughout all of the Facebook related apps.
Facebook have been very busy this month haven't they? SO yes, Messenger Rooms are a thing too now! To compete with Zoom, Crowdcast and Microsoft teams you can have up to 50 people in a Messenger Room. It's a glorified Messenger I guess but formatted to look like Zoom. You can share links of the meeting to people directly or open it up publicly if you want. Check out their website to learn more.
With everyone at home at the moment - video has become the largest and fastest growing medium to consume content. This was always going to happen, but no one suspected it would happen this fast. So put your videos to good use and set up a proper YouTube channel. Getting the detail and design right from the get-go means you gain subscribers and loyalty faster. Check this article from Guest author, Kassiani Cheirogergou on Jeff Bullas' website.
My Entrepreneurial Mindset - By Barbara Edwards, BeCoached Fabulous post on LinkedIn from Barbara about the right type of mindset to have whilst overcoming roadblocks in your business.
6 Reasons you need a Different Strategy for Instagram and Facebook - By Sharon Creedon, Sceal Digital
This blog makes a lot of sense, so many people share their content at the same time to social platforms and yet the audience and when they are there are different. One to print and keep.
Instagram Tips and Advice with Ben Duffy of Portview Digital - Shared by Sarah Wenman of SoverySarah.com This blog goes into a deep dive on how to get the best out of Instagram. Love the combination of video and imagery through the blog.
Canva Tips and Tricks - By Nicky Pasquier, Virtuosoassistant.co.uk If you find creating the perfect photo or graphic for your posts or website baffling, then you need to get familiar with Canva. Nicky takes you through all the shiny, exciting parts of this FREE tool in easy to understand blogs. (OK, sometimes you want to pay but you don't have to!).
I hope you've enjoy this months round up and feel freshly inspired to fire up your social media. We're really fortunate to have so many people out there that can show us how to better use these tools!
If you would like any assistance with your social media via online training or management then please do not hesitate to contact me. See you next month!
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
