Creative Living

  • Three Must-haves in an Instagram Post, Darling

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    Sweet, short and to the point. That’s what we are going for today. Instagram is THE place to be in terms of social media. Don’t get me wrong. I still love Facebook but Instagram is fun, and a heck of a place for a business to show up.

    So, as a business owner, you want to craft the perfect post. A good image is a must, obviously. It is Instagram and it’s all about the pictures. But there are three other things that your post must include if you want to maximize your marketing potential.

     

    Numero Uno is hashtags. You want to grow your audience and one of the best ways to do so is to include hashtags. You are invisible on Instagram if you don’t get seen, obviously, and one of the best ways to be seen is through hashtags.

    Best place to include them? Don’t put them in the caption. That just looks like you’re an amateur. Put them in the first comment. Even better put them in the comment like this:

    Why are we doing it this way? Well, when you post it this way in the first comment, the hashtags are tucked neatly within the post and not showing up like some annoying little sister (not that I have one of those. Melissa, I meant someone else’s sister. Not you. Stop crying.)

     

    The second thing you must include on a post is a call to action. What is the point of posting if you don’t want a little action from your audience? If you aren’t looking for action, you might as well be on a personal account posting about your children or your cat. So, include your call to action to get your audience to click on over to your website, leave a comment, tag a friend in the comments, etc.

    I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a t-shirt on Instagram and all it was was a post of a cute shirt a business was selling – but didn’t have any directions on how to buy the shirt. I always think – what are you bragging that you have this shirt and we can’t?! How rude. No, I don’t think that in real life. I just think how sad that this business is losing out on money and the chance for me to buy that shirt.  And I guarantee you – your customer is not going to go out of his or her way to hunt this shirt down. There are a million distractions online. Make it easy for your customer to buy what you are selling. Post your shirt. Post a short description and tell them to click on the link in profile to buy the shirt. Sold!

     

    Which brings me to another point – the ever so important link in profile. One time I found this cute shirt on Instagram and the business was on their game and told me to click the link in profile. So, I did. I went to their profile and easily found the website I was supposed to go to so I could easily buy this shirt. But I went to the website, and the shirt was nowhere to be found. They had a TON of products. A ton. I clicked on the ‘shirt’ category and I swear every shirt that was in America was on this website. I did a few searches and then I left. It was just too much. Want to know how it could have been really simple even with every shirt in America on their site? Ok. Let me take a sip of water because this is a good story.  Once upon a time, I started using this awesome tool called ‘Link in Profile’. It is a life saver for me because I have three websites for my business. And that means a lot of links. So each time I post an image on Instagram – I can say in my caption ‘click on the link in the profile’ and then when people go to my link and click it they are taken to a site that holds all of my Instagram images. And then they can easily click on the image and it whisks them away straight to where I want them to land on my website. If I wanted to post an image about this blog post on Instagram, then tell my audience to click on the link in profile to read it, they would click on the link and see the image and then click that and end up right on the blog post on my website. I have been using it for about 5 months and it has made my Instagram so much easier to manage, and it has made my traffic increase and my audience ends up in the right place on my website.

    ***UPDATED: While Link in Profile is a great, reliable service, I have started using linktr.ee because it’s free and I like it.  

    So if that business owner would have had Link in Profile – I would have ended up right on that shirt listing on their website instead of lost. And they would have made the sell. And we would have lived happily ever after.  (And, yes, I pay something like $9.99 a month for Link in Profile, but it has made sells for me so it has been worth it).

    Want to try Link in Profile free? Click here and get a trial. You don’t have to enter your credit card information so if you don’t like it just walk away. Yes, that leads to an affiliate link but I wouldn’t promote it unless I used it and loved it. 

    Do you use Instagram? I am assuming that if you got to the end of this article, you do. You can find me on Instagram here. Let’s be friends. And if you want some of my Instagram business secrets, download my free guide here.

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  • The Quick and Easy Way to Proofread

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    If you are short on time and attention span but know proofreading is a must then let me share my quick hack on proofing the quick and easy way.

    Once I write out my blog post, or other lengthy write-up, I then copy the entire text.

    Then I hop on over to  Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/) where I paste my text into the left side box. Then press the speaker icon and listen to your story. Sweet and simple!

     

    As I was publishing this little post, my 15-year-old son walked by and told me about Grammarly. It’s a free Chrome extension and is very easy to use and install. I just installed it and used it on this post. I’m impressed. So there are now TWO Quick and Easy hacks to proofreading. Is the word ‘hack’ overused? I bet it is but ‘tip and trick’ is old too. I’m leaving as is because I think you will understand.

    Have any tricks you want to share? Let me know in the comments and/or follow me over on Instagram or Facebook.

     

     

    Never miss a post, tip, freebie or sale. Sign up below! We would love to have you join us.

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  • The Three Mistakes You Might be Making with Your Business.

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    I bet you would agree with me when I say ‘running a business is NOT easy”. I have been in the game long enough now that I can spot mistakes other businesses are making. And my first reaction is to want to help them because I sure wished for help for my own little business way back when.
    So, I want to share with you three mistakes that you can easily fix if you are making them in your own business. I’m sure if you are reading this you aren’t happy with where you are right now in your business so read on for ways to stop limiting your business and get growing!
    Not knowing something in your business so you just let frustration win. 
    I see and hear this so many times from my own clients and other business owners. Sometimes they feel challenged in some way by something in their business and instead of digging in and figuring it out they head for the hills. For example, I was on a coaching call with a client a few weeks ago and they were frustrated because they felt ‘technically challenged’ so instead of going with their plan of taking their brick and mortar store online and starting a website, they just made excuses and continued to be frustrated. That is one approach. However, it’s not the best approach considering they are leaving a lot of money on the table by not selling online. Being technically challenged or not knowing all the ins and outs of online business is frustrating. But there are so many resources online these days it’s not an acceptable excuse to not do something in your business just because you don’t know how. So, get in there. Hire a coach. Read business articles on Pinterest. Don’t be afraid to invest in your business. You can’t know it all and you are not alone. Learn from other businesses. Investing in courses for my own business and learning what I could about running a business online was vital to my success. Did I want to part with the $500 for that particular e-course that taught me how to run ads on Facebook? Heck no. Did I really have the extra cash at the time? Uh no. I have three kids and I am a single mom. But I figured it out because I knew I was worth it, I knew my business was worth it, and I knew my family would reap the benefits of me being a smarter business owner. Being a business owner means getting in there and figuring it out and doing what it takes to build upon your skills. Bottom line: If you don’t invest in learning how to run your business, you are going to stay stuck or grow very slowly.
     Not setting yourself up for success by adopting the right mindset and goals.

    This one took a little while for me to get. My first few years in business I didn’t set goals and I didn’t know anything about the “right mindset”. But I was able to learn it through e-courses, business books, watching business videos on YouTube, etc.

    You have to believe enough in your business that it will provide for you. I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that success is owning a business and watching God pay the bills. Small business is BIG time scary at some points. You don’t know if that sale is going to come in to cover the water bill, or if you are ever going to make enough to leave your full-time job. It’s also hard when you put so much effort in only to see so little return. So I will let you in on a little secret – trust that your business will provide. Trust that if you are following your dreams, that God will make this work out. Some way. Somehow. And not only trust that it will happen but thank Him even before it does happen. You know something along the lines of ‘thank you God for making a way for this to work out even when I have NO idea how it will’.

    And set goals for goodness sake. If you don’t set goals and have a plan of how to reach them you are blindly leading your business in the dark. How will you know when success arrives if you aren’t working toward a goal? What do you want out of your business? What do you want your life to look like in one year? Five years? Take time to think about this and make a plan. Then break it down. What is your goal for your business this year ? How are you going to work toward that over the next 12 months? And then break down each month. And then break it down again into each week.

    Having a goal, a positive mindset, and a grateful heart helps in making  an unstoppable business plan!

     Not investing in a good website. 
    Now this one kind of goes along with Mistake #1. But also ties into Mistake #2 as well in not having a goal. If you are selling online and you are selling off Facebook or another social media then I urge you to make the jump and find an official ‘home’ for your business online. There are MANY reasons to have a website and one reason is because it’s hard to take a business seriously if it doesn’t have a website. Are you running a hobby or a business? If it’s just a hobby and you don’t really have plans to reach a significant level and make some cash then keep your corner on social media. But if you are chasing a dream that is big enough that you are wanting to build something substantial and lasting, do whatever it takes to get a website by all means. I could probably write a whole book on just this topic alone. Social media is a great place to get the attention of your customers but if you want to get into the pockets of your customers (that might sound tacky but that kind of is the point of having a business afterall) then you need a website. And having a firm presence on the web (i.e. a real website) is a way to connect with customers – not just their pockets but connect with them as people. A website can showcase your business and you -the business owner- as well as what the business stands for. You can’t convey that across social media in 140 characters or less or a post that might not even be seen. Small business owners are at an advantage of being able to connect with their customers. Having a website is a great place to show them how awesome your business and you are.
    3 mistakes and 3 easy solutions. If you are thinking it’s not easy to get a website up and going I am going to show you it is. If you are needing a website, how about ‘try before you buy’? Click here to sign up for a free Shopify trial. (You don’t need to enter a credit card. If you don’t like it, there is nothing lost. You walk away and you don’t even have to cancel your account because there is no obligation.)
    But maybe you want one on one help to set up your Shopify site the right way. The easy way. I am more than happy to help you out with that, as well. My FREE Shopify for Success video course is the easiest way to go in starting up a Shopify site. Plus you get a FREE Shopify trial. You can’t beat that!

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