Last month brought around a lot of change here at STOMP HQ. I am on a temporary assignment with Joanne Sweeney - just for three months and she's a spectacular person to work with and for. I'm learning loads and this will only help my clients in 2024.
I was at Maker Faire Rome again last month, what an event! So many fascinating and progressive people! Go check out my articles on Irish Tech News. I also spoke at the Freelance Forum mid month and had a great time there. Finally I worked with Hanna McDonnell and we spoke to a national charity called Together for Hospice and did a full day of training with them. We had never met such a passionate bunch before!
This month is going to be a little more sedate thankfully! It does kick off with a fun event though. I'm off to the Mullingar Chamber awards this Friday. It's usually a formal and glittering event. It's nice to make it to finalist, I'll let you know if I win anything of course. Other than that one event, I am pretty much doing Local Enterprise training all month, here and there - some in person and online. Then towards the end of the month I am scheduled to be at Samantha Kelly's Social Media Fest. Are you going? If so, I'd love to see you there? I'm down for 2 nights so hope to meet and network with you there.
This will impact both Facebook and Instagram and will only be available in the EU, EEA and Switzerland initially. It does sound enticing BUT (of course there's a but) it's dependent on where you're looking at it. So you can get this for either your laptop, or your phone. (I guess you could do this for both but that's double the price then). If you do this as of now it will cover every profile you're currently on BUT from March 2024 you need to pay a further fee per additional profile to stop seeing ads on those.
Meta rolled out personal verification earlier this year on your personal profile, now Meta is testing this elsewhere to soon add this capability to your business profile as well. This will mean you can get the verified tick, so people are assured they are communicating with the right person, Meta will then monitor that you're not being impersonated, you'll get help troubleshooting Account issues and you'll be put at the top of Verified searches on their platform.
I can one positive with this. The troubleshooting with Accounts. The amount of people who are getting hacked is enormous, so this would help protect your hard work. However, if your Meta profile isn't instrumental in keeping your business open, then it may not be worth paying for like this. It will definitely be disruptive and annoying if you lose access to your Meta account - but hopefully you have a website, email marketing, maybe a shop or a stand that would keep your business open? Treat this decision objectively, to see if you could afford to lose permanent access to your business on Meta. Could that happen and you'd still be in business? Read the blog from Meta here.
Talking of Meta Verified, I took the plunge myself on the 2nd of November and got verified on both my PERSONAL (Professional Mode) Facebook and (Business BUT in my NAME) Instagram. It costs me €23.00 per month as I'm doing them together. I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about and obviously it's only early days right now but each month I'll give you my latest opinion each month.
It was announced mid October that they are spreading Broadcast channels from Instagram to the other two platforms in the coming weeks and months. This is a one to many way to chat to your Followers and build a deeper rapport with them. You can conduct Polls/market research and do some great behind-the-scenes chats direct to an audience that already knows you. There is a waitlist you can hop on today and you'll be notified when it's available, read more about this update here.
Adam Mosseri recently confirmed that they are trialling this capability to help encourage more engagement. This will only be allowed to friends and you will have the final say-so as to what photos and videos go up. It sounds pretty good actually. If you go to an event, conference or even holiday with friends and family, each person can add their own experience of it to the post. Learn more here.
No shock here that everyone is doing this of course. This came out towards the end of last month and offers you a way to stop seeing all Ads on X. I have to be completely honest with you, I barely notice ads on X as it is, maybe they're just happening a lot in my region of the world, or maybe they're just that good at hiding them? Would this be of interest to you? Or perhaps this is all a little too late because...well see below:
I have enjoyed a VERY slow journey over to Bluesky and have found a few familiar faces over there. It's a work in progress for me and it's kinda nice to be there without all the trolling (well I haven't seen any yet anyway).
I have also found a free app that you can schedule content on that has free and paid for options for scheduling to this Bluesky and to the other frequent fliers called Fedica. I came across this blog post and it's actually pretty good. I'd love to know where you're heading if you're looking elsewhere?
If you're looking for a more one on one style of training 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.
Are you on track for your goals and targets so far? If not, then maybe you should contact me. I have set aside some 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 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.
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From January 2023 I started running a monthly subscription of 30 minute per week Business Strategy Pods. These pods are one on one and are strategy and accountability weekly sessions that are pre booked by you at times that work around your own schedule.
You will first complete a pre qualifying form so I know where you're starting from and we shall then speak weekly and have a private 1:1 Facebook Group that keeps you pushing forward and getting stuff done.
How they work:
Episode 196 - Things to Stop Doing Today in Your Marketing
Episode 197 - 6 Reasons to Freshen Up Your Brand
Episode 198 - TikTok with Penelope Walker
Episode 199 - How to Avoid the Digital Rabbit Hole
Episode 200 - Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway!
Esther and I are delighted to announce that we have now opened a Etsy Store and you can pick up merchandise and useful downloads that will help you learn and better understand your marketing!
Visit the shop today and every month for new downloads!
I hope you find this months round up useful and look forward to bringing you more updates in a few weeks time. If you need anything in the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me.
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
