Ignite What You Write

3 Instagram tips to boost your audience

Instagram continues to be a solid platform for promoting images and connecting with potential customers by letting them find out a little about you. This free platform is growing in size and not many people see there are tools and techniques you can use for no charge to optimise the size of the audience you reach.

This post shows you three tips to take away to get the most from your Instagram account by overcoming mistakes many people make when promoting their business online.

Iconsquare is a free tool that can be used to find out when your users are most online and engaging with content. It maybe a Sunday when they are away from their desks is a good time for you to post. The chart Iconosquare gives you will show large circles at times in the week on their graph for when they are online.
Another tool to help you overcome the obstacles of focussing on what posts work best for you is Gramfeed. Along with other web based Instagram programmes you can easily look at your feed on a bigger screen and find out which are your top five posts for likes and top five posts for comments. See if a style or message stands you amongst these most popular posts.
Go back and study the hashtags you were using see how this content would resonate with your audience to get better results with your audience.

Experiment with different images to see what content works best for you. Go with what works and find your brand getting stronger. Here’s to your success.

Free marketing through telling a story check list here

Finding your Twitter Audience

The life of a tweet is short. If you post your tweet at a time most of your followers are online they will get full value from your content.

Look for the everyday moments that create spikes on twitter. This is available in your account advertising data or sites such as Tweriod can help.

When planning your routine of posting content look ahead at the week and see if there are any local community events or national holidays that will create high volume social media activity. You can create your own buzz or join in the commentary by creating your own story inspired by for example National Women’s Day or a health awareness event. Stories make audience care.

Timing is everything!

Look for when your customers are engaged to post but 2-4pm EST is a busy time for Twitter.You may want to engage with UK and US audiences on a similar campaign and send the same tweet out a few times to match the time zones. You can use a tweetdeck to send tweets during the lunch hour of other time zones.

Keep the readers you have

By creating content that is customer lead you will attract more readers. It shows what people who are searching for a solution need. It can help you let the right people know why your product is the best choice for them means you will attract loyal customers.

Look at the top key words people search for before finding your site by using analytics. This indicates what people want in your blog and may be themes you want to develop further.

One last tip… Make it easier for people to find your blog and stay longer on it. Find your most popular posts with analytics and add links at the bottom to other posts on your site.

3 Tips to get more clicks

Latest stats from heyo show that posts with 80 characters or less get around 60% higher engagement.

This has also been true of email subject lines. So keep your subject line short to maximise your emails being opened.

When crafting your email subject line act like you are emailing your mother.

If you are boring people will stop clicking on your email so provoke curiosity in your reader.

Hold their attention by building in the idea of scarcity in your email content.

Remember to use this same concept of short is sweet in your social media tool

Over 500 million people per day only use Facebook from their mobile each day so optimising your ads for your list for mobile to get the biggest success.

Podcast Content Checklist

Use great audio on your podcasts to draw your audience closer.

There is an intimacy with audio that can connect you to the listener.

Podcasts also let your tribe multi task and achieve more things while they take in your latest broadcast.

Podcast players that can make the recordings easily available to you include smart podcast player and podbean.

If you are looking for ideas to jazz up your podcasts try looking at events in your day to day life that would be useful to share.

If you have had a barbecue or celebration party recently and have the shopping list with all items you needed to buy on it this can be the start of a check list for your listener.

It may not take as long as you think to put together useful content.

If you live near a major city and follow the cultural events you can do a top ten of your favourite exhibitions or theatre performances.

If you maintain a thriving garden you can share lists of what needs to be done with each season arriving to help fellow gardening lovers plan ahead.

Whatever your passion is, there will be a unique way you can share this in a meaningful way through audio.

If there are things that help you meditate and experience a calm feeling this may assist others.

Now you have read this list you may approach your next podcast differently.

To your success.

Regain Control over your Day!

Enjoy a big burst of New Year Productivity today.

Regain control over your day!

Feel like you have too many things to do?

Bust your In Tray with this new year productivity guide

Check back over your list to find the things that are not important or can be automated quickly or can be done instantly.

Hopefully your list is a little smaller?

Observe how often you are responding to other people’s requests during your work time. Note how often you are checking email and feeling distracted from a task by other people’s incoming mail.

Schedule your work each day. Block off time for each task. Where possible, don’t stop until you have completed it.

Focus on one important goal every day. Try having a theme for each day, for example Monday can be planning or catching up with the statistics, progress or status of projects. Wednesday may be creating the new content for your social media or marketing tools.

Now you have checked out these ideas you may have a new approach to getting your own stuff completed. Here’s to a job done.

Two steps to Systems Thinking

Someone told me once you should always have a choice.

Chocolate or Vanilla.

Leave a steady job to go solo or stay and earn a fixed salary for the foreseeable future.

Stay to maintain ownership of a flooded building or run to save your life but lose all your belongings.

Adult life has taught me one thing.

Not all choices are desirable. Some decisions are for pleasure others are the best of a bad lot.

Like time or money.

Time is the one thing we cannot make more. The balance between gaining money for the time we surrender and the time we need to have an enjoyable meaningful life is a fine one.

Relax.

You no longer have to choose.

One simple approach will help you free up your time and increase your profit.

If there is a task you do in your business more than once there are two reasons for you to choose to read this article.

After reading the information listed below, you will be able to automate a part of your business to make it go better or faster.

There are three great reason why using a protocol works. Sticking to a system simplifies everything so it is easier to do tasks, it can be measured and so it can be improved.

Systems let you accomplish things with the least amount of resources, which means you can use best practice so you get the best results for your company leaving you free to offer the best service for your customers.

BOTTOM LINE: If something can be measured it can be improved.

All sorts of processes spring to mind that could benefit, look at things you do as a routine like –

Structuring your blog >
Writing your blog posts >
Filing your customer feedback with tags to process later >
Retargeting your leads >

GOLDEN: To design your processes for this, think about a system as being an organised method

What you need to capture for the task is a set of procedures by which something is done.

The steps you decide to follow enables you to put best practice into use so that things work faster and better and in a style that has proven to accomplish the highest outcome with the least resources.

Now you know these tips you may approach your blogging routine to ensure you get the best result. Every time.

To create your system –

Ask how is the best way to do this task?

Now make a checklist out of your answers so you do not forget the order of the process.

Use a checklist for your system as it stops anyone forgetting things.

Watch someone do it following your instructions after training to test this.

The guide could be a video or screenshots.

GOLDEN TIP A system lets all this be documented and saves you time.

Just think of those occasions where you can’t remember each time where the button to link to an earlier posts and time is lost.

This system could be for a task you do once in a blue moon or it could be for using software that covers a great function but is not intuitive to use.

The time this frees up for you will help you your company to the next level. Another advantage of having a system means you can pass the task on to someone else so they can do it without explanation.

TAKE AWAY: The second time you do something document it.

Now you have read this article about making systems you may approach repeating activities in a different way. If you know you are going to do something more than once flag the task for needing a system built for it and get out your notepad or screen shot camera and record it. The next time you repeat an activity for your business you can save yourself time in the long term with just a few moves.

Enjoy designing your next system and the benefits it brings to you, your loved ones and your business.

Systems Thinking

How people feel like new year (love or loathe it) seems to be how people feel about resolutions.

They can make or break a year and here is why.

One of the reasons we don’t set goals is because we are afraid of failing.

It doesn’t have to be like that if your goal is purpose lead.

After reading this post you will have a plan to take you to where you need to be.

Look into your heart to see closely what you want. This may not feel easy at first but odds are you already know the answer. Be aware of this question when you are in the middle of calm, serene situations. Reflect on who you are and what makes you happy.

Focus on the true aim of your activities.

Be open to what you want shifting and changing. Let the goal be what it is.

In order to step into a win win goal setting scenario, find a goal that is grounded in your day to day activity. If you are improving your blogging skills your goal could be more visitors to your site.

Write down you goal so it is crystal clear. Picture the outcome. Feel it in your bones and on the surface of your skin and through your breath.

Next you need to build in a few factors to your goal. These are the three steps that will take you there.

Be courageous about the path required. There is no ladder to the top, claim the high ground you need to make your goal real. Act like you got it already.
You have to do this. It is unlikely to just land in your lap. Be realistic about the effort you need to put in. Separate the process of achieving your goal with the actual process of working for it or preparing it. Write down the exact path you need to achieve it, however short or long. Revisit this and fine tune it as you get further down the road.
Look back at the words and image you had at the point of writing down your goal. Stay crystal clear about the details.

Now you have understood how these three action points can make a big difference you may want to change how you go for your big prize.

Let go of your expectations and put one foot in front of the other.

Be the brightest version of yourself.

The world needs your magic.

Now that you realise your uniqueness and how much the planet needs your message you may find it easier to dive in with your best work.

Here’s to your success.

Twitter Pins

Clicking on the three grey dots on your tweet means you can pin the content to the top of your feed. You get to choose the first thing your clients see on your twitter feed.

You have a number of choices. Making the wrong choice can shift you out of line with the picture future clients have of the perfect person they want to do business with. Aligning yourself with your audiences expectations mean they will pay attention to your tweets as a future go to business.

If a tweet has been shared several times this shows you are getting attention and shows a sense of popularity
Tweets that have your latest offer with an up to date link in it can be useful during a launch
Exciting content in the form of an attention grabbing headline for a blog post can direct traffic to your site
Any free give away that is set up to deliver automatically to people who sign up can be a good choice especially if you want to build your email list and do not check your twitter account often

The above gives you ideas to select the best from your tweets. Deciding on what you want to focus on in attracting new clients will give you the best result. Discover what works best for you by trying different pins and stick to the one that works.

Here’s to the journey ahead. For some fresh marketing tips to enjoy today click here