by Karen Petrauskas | Nov 10, 2017
Whatever type of industry you are in, a large majority of your customers are going to be on social media – so that’s where you need to be too if you are wanting to grow your business.
Many businesses set up Facebook pages or open a Twitter account but are then not sure of how to move forward in using these effectively for their business. This is where the help of a social media manager or agency comes in.
As with any part of your business, for it to be successful, it needs to be done correctly. Skipping parts of a project to make it easier often comes with a price. This is just the same for your marketing budget and strategy and online marketing is an important part of this.
How can social media benefit your business?
A huge amount of people use one or more social media networks.
- Facebook: 2.07 billion users
- Twitter: 330 million users
- Instagram: 100 million users
- LinkedIn: 500 million users
These figures speak for themselves and can’t be ignored when it comes to your marketing strategy! Social media has so many benefits when reaching out to potential clients and creating solutions for the problems they are trying to solve, for reaching out to people who are looking for YOUR product, for reaching out to people who want YOUR services. Your business needs to be put in the forefront of people’s minds and with the fast-paced environment that we live in, being online is the best way to achieve that.
Which social media platforms should you be using for your business?
Each social media platform has its benefits and are effective in different ways. We believe that being competent in one or two platforms is much more effective than spreading yourself thin and trying to manage too may all in one go. If you’re not sure on what you’re doing you may well end up giving a bad impression of your business rather than the positive vibe that you intended to, meaning that your efforts have a negative effect on your business growth.
Facebook
Facebook is a great way to be able to offer excellent customer service along with personalised 1-2-1 interaction with your customers or potential clients in a professional manner. You’re able to show the human behind the online screen where engagement can take place and people can ask questions or know that you are interested in what they are looking for.
With Facebook being the biggest social media network, with over 2 billion users worldwide, it certainly is not a platform that you want to miss! People are searching and researching their chosen products all day long and often they will seek out a Facebook page to see what kind of service you are offering and if it is engaging for them.
There are over 50 million businesses who have a Facebook business page and nearly one third of Facebook users engage with brands regularly. That’s a large number of people that could be engaging with your business if you gave it the proper chances!
Twitter
Twitter is used more for informational purposes and to give opinions and share views. It moves very quickly and to be effective on Twitter you must keep up with the pace. You could place the same 5 posts throughout a day and reach a different audience each time. People want ‘now’ when it comes to Twitter and like to jump on top of trends and find the latest news or happenings.
Businesses use Twitter to inform people about their services which then links the reader to their website or product. The business needs to capture a reader with only a few characters and therefore copy writing needs to be a skill to make it engaging.
With visuals being a big part of social media – the more visuals you use, the better. GIFs and short videos are becoming even more popular and this is definitely something that you should consider if you’re looking to stand out from the crowd.
Instagram
Businesses are presented with a real opportunity when it comes to Instagram to be able to market their product to a more targeted and unique audience. Instagram is a way to get creative. Focus on what your branding is about rather than your actual products. You are able to create an image that highlights your business in a different light and use hashtags and keywords to attract the exact audience you want to engage with.
Choose hashtags that relate to your niche and your location. You don’t want to go mad with hashtags but you want your images to be noticed. Choose one that is unique to your business which people can use when they mention your product or company. If you’re running a campaign, create a hashtag that you can use throughout this time and will get noticed across the board.
Use the Instagram Stories function to be able to show a human side of the business. These stories will be visible for 24 hours and then disappear! (although you can save them so you can use them again at a later date). These stores can capture behind-the-scenes content. You can use these to experiment and try out new ideas – knowing they can be deleted or that they will disappear anyway.
Tag in other accounts for people to notice you, i.e. if you’re looking to work with influencer marketing. Not everyone monitors the hashtags on social media so tagging a collaborator is a good way to get noticed.
Conclusion
Whichever platform you decide to work with, ensure that they are presented well and are appealing for the audience you are targeting. Another tip is to ensure that all your company information and bios are up to date and are clearly branded to show continuity from your website through to your social media networks.
KJP Creative is here to help at the click of a button for anyone wanting any further advice or would like to move forward in working with a social media manager. Knowing that your social media is in good hands is one weight taken away from you. If you want to grow your business, focus on the parts of your business that you enjoy doing – and leave the rest to the experts!
Get in touch today for your FREE consultation.
by Karen Petrauskas | Sep 1, 2017
Do you have a hobby ? In this busy day and age we don’t have much ‘spare’ time – but what time we do have, it’s great to have a hobby isn’t it? It’s great to be able to let our hair down, relax and concentrate on nothing but something we really enjoy.
It got me thinking recently that there are many hobbies out there that actually could bring in a little extra income if we did something with them and put them to good use. How handy that would be if we were able to spend our spare time enjoying our hobbies but actually that hobby was bringing in the extra pocket money or extra cash that we needed, just to pay the bills or give ourselves a well deserved treat!
We’re so busy in our lives and we live in a non-stop environment where everything is on the go and to hand that actually it’s good to stop – relax – and enjoy a hobby.
So what hobbies do you enjoy doing?
- Photography
- Card making
- Cake baking
- Cake decorating
- Flower arranging
- Jewellery making
- Writing
- Website building
- Leaflet designing
These are but a few things that we like to do in our relaxing time but if we think about all these on the list above and many many more of the hobbies that we enjoy, these offer us the possibility to earn extra money if we do something with them.
So with our hobbies in mind, how can we earn money from them?
Party Planning
You could you set up a party system (party planning) like Avon, Phoenix Cards, or The Body Shop and companies like that who offer an incentive for the host to have the party in their home. It’s very simple; you find a host and supply the items to sell. The host finds the guests and all show up on the day!
When I’ve done party planning in the past – actually I still do around Christmas and summer time, I always offer an incentive to the host. It gives them a little something extra – sometimes it may be a free gift, or perhaps a percentage off their purchases . It’s totally up to you but when you host the party and give your little ‘welcome speech’ at the beginning – make sure you mention that if anyone is interested in hosting another party, they will receive the incentive also.
In theory one party should lead to another party through word of mouth. If this happens and word spreads, it’ll give you a little extra income to work towards.
Car Boot Sales
One option is to sell your hobby at car boot sales or fairs or church fetes. There are always places to have a stall and to be able to set up for people to see your talents! Whatever time of year it is, you will find somewhere offering a stall: Christmas, Easter, Summer and there are car boot sales everywhere, just have a look on the internet to find the nearest one to you!
Ebay
You can sell your hobby on Ebay. It’s always good to research what similar items are being sold and what prices they are selling for. Always a good idea to just undercut the competition if you can afford to do so but if not, you don’t want to loose profit – people will always pay for quality. So many people use Ebay and a very large percentage of people in the world are looking.
Thousands of people search through Ebay every day so there is bound to be someone just looking for that special something you have to sell.
Create your own website
Why don’t you think about creating your own website to promote and sell your hobby? Many people have websites just to advertise their hobbies. It shouldn’t cost too much if you start off small and build up – if things take off then you increase your advertising and put money back into marketing but to start with all you need is an online presence. It shouldn’t take a great deal of time to set up and it’s not somewhere you have to go to do it so that saves time on your part, you can build it in the evenings or step by step when you get spare time (we can even help you with this this). You can list your hobbies on other blog sites and give advice to other people doing the same thing – you too will then receive feedback from others and pointers and tips on their hobbies and the way they do things.
What a great way to network with people who have the same interests and hobby as you.
Social network sites are a great place to start building networks and relationships with people who have the same interests as you. Facebook gives you an option to create a group or a page – the difference is just preference. You can update these daily or weekly with what you’re doing and engage with others to see how others are getting on. You’ll be able to promote and advertise any fairs or events you’re attending and ask others to come along and support you. You can do the same on Twitter and connect with like minded people, offering advice and services to others. You can create lists of your own to divide your hobbies or crafts into different categories and update each list accordingly. If you already have a Twitter account then just reach out to more people – or if you’re starting fresh, search for people that are doing the same as you and can give you inspiration.
…
The list is endless of what you could do – there is so much you could do if you put your mind to it and realise the potential of what you’re sitting on. You might think of it as ‘just a hobby’ but why not show it off and earn a profit from it? Show the world what you can do! And at the same time use it to build that little extra income for you and your family – what do they say… “every little helps” and how true that is!
Thank you so much for reading and I would love to hear your stories of how you’ve reached out with your hobby and what you’ve done, in the comments below.
by Karen Petrauskas | Aug 6, 2017
A few weeks ago I went to watch my daughter’s sports day. It was a brilliant afternoon, the sun was shining and the atmosphere was great. It was different from other sports days we’d been to and instead of sitting down and watching each race in turn, we followed our class around a circuit while they all did their individual class races in their team colours.
What struck me most was the enthusiasm and commitment from both participants and the parents on the side lines.
The children were so focused and dedicated to winning their race with the finish line in sight and the parents were great sports at cheering their teams on.
Even at the end of the day when they announced which team had won, all the children and parents were supportive of every team and every person who had taken part.
All the races and the enthusiasm got me thinking…
How can we apply this to our lives and our business?
Questions we need to ask ourselves:
- Are we REALLY focused on winning the race?
- Are we REALLY set on achieving the end game in what we set out to do?
Solutions we need to realise:
- Winning comes with hard work and determination.
- Winning requires a goal and ambition in place in order to achieve.
But also we need to know where the start line is and how to get on the right running track and to stay on the right path.
Having a mentor, leader or coach can really and truly help you succeed. Keeping you going along the right path and showing you which directions to go that have been proven time and time again – having that mentor and a team around you is a key to success.
Perhaps you’re a marketer already, perhaps you’ve been trying so long to find that one true system that will work for you – or perhaps you’re just starting out in this field and need a little guidance in what you’re doing. Whichever person you are, you’ve come to the right place to get on track.
It really is great to see people working together, to have a community and a support group to lean on. On your own it can very lonely and you might lose sight of the winning line, you might end up on different paths of the running track and run into troubles. I’m here to give you comfort that you’ve got a team, you’ve got support and you’ve got a mentor to go alongside you. And in time you can turn the tables and be a mentor to others.
I’d love to hear from you if you’re looking for a mentor or coach and you’d like to be part of a community where you can learn from each other and build a winning business that you can be proud of, that will give you financial freedom and that you can really say “Yes, I’ve passed the finish line… AND WON”. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you can replace your day to day income, you can live a lifestyle of dreams and achievements and you’re totally open to new and exciting opportunities?
by Karen Petrauskas | Jul 24, 2017
I have been reminiscing recently of when I used to walk my little girl to nursery and about the blanket that she carried around with her everywhere…and I mean everywhere! We had lots of different blankets, most of which looked the same, but she KNEW exactly which one was her favourite and if went missing! The ‘favourite’ blanket was covered in holes, was tatty and really had seen better days. So, often as we walked down the road I used to think to myself “is it time to get rid of the blanket and let her move on?”
So true is this of things in our lives and also our dreams. Lots of times we hang on to things that really don’t matter and they’re just habits or ‘that’s just what we do’ things and we’re holding ourselves back and not stepping up and moving on. Following our dreams and achieving our ambitions and goals means that we sometimes need to let go of the norm and come out of our comfort zone. We need to work out what we really need to do to achieve our dreams, lay out a plan of what needs to be done to get there….and go do it.
How many of us dream of having a life of luxury or even just being comfortable, not worrying about the struggles of life and being able to go and do the things we never thought we’d be able to? Not to be tied down to a normal, regular 9-5 job, earning the money for the big bosses at the top and not really gaining anything for ourselves? Wouldn’t it be great to be fully functional in our own businesses, high flying and on our way to being the best? To know that you’ve achieved everything you’ve set out to achieve and there’s only bigger and better things to come?
Taking time to think about what you really want to do, finding a solution in your chosen market / niche and putting 100% effort in to achieve that dream will give the best foundation and push to get you going.
Finding a mentor or network group who can motivate and inspire you can also give you that edge and motivation to keep going when you think you’re ready to give in, they can give you a boost and lift that you’re looking for to get you on your way – and not only ‘on your way’ but help you succeed, achieve those goals and dreams and help you become financially independent and not worry about where the next penny is going to come from!
I know this sounds too good to be true but it’s been proven. There are so many people that can testify to this happening for them and by believing in what you can do and pushing yourself to achieve, they have literally turned their lives around, giving them the best in life and helping them to fulfill their ambitions.
My challenge to you today is to think about what you REALLY want out of life and to plan and map out how you will be able to achieve it. By letting go of your blanket and going for something new, it could be the start of something amazing, not just for you but for your family and those around you and also for the people that you will meet along the way and impact. Just what could be around the corner for you?
Thanks for reading, would love your comments below 
by Karen Petrauskas | Jul 18, 2017
Today I’ve been thinking about how snowed under we can get in our day to day lives, but also when we’re in the office or our place of work. Do you often feel like you’ve got too much to do and that you’ll never get round to finishing all the things that need doing?
Either in the office or at home, everyone gets to the point at some time, where there is too much to do and not enough time!
Well… we need to think about prioritising, managing our time well and getting help if we need it.
In another of our posts, we had been thinking and reflecting on the same thing. This post is geared more towards people in the office but it can be applied to any situation.
On the flip side, you may think that you’re not in need of an assistant…. but you could BE the assistant?
Helping others out is such a rewarding experience and can teach us lessons too.
Is there someone around you that looks to be struggling, someone that may need assistance in one way or another?
Offer your help or guidance, it might make their day!
We’d love to hear your comments if you’ve been in this situation and have been able to help someone else out. How did this make you feel? And more importantly, how did it make the person you were helping feel?
