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January 20, 2024

What’s Next? An Insight into 2024 Job Trends

A new year means new trends, and working with hundreds of companies across the United States, we have noticed a few patterns that seem to be emerging for 2024. From the more obvious ones such as an increase in remote work to those that you might not be aware of such as pre-made materials for the screening process, let’s break down what we see coming in the new year:

The Continuing Surge of Remote Work and Uptick in Scams

The phenomenon of remote work has been a game-changer in the employment arena, a trend predicted to continue. An increasing number of organizations are tapping into the merits of remote employment, including amplified productivity and reduced overheads. However, I am seeing companies move more towards a hybrid schedule versus completely remote; some companies do not like giving up that control and wish to keep an eye on employees in the office. We expect to see more jobs that are hybrid with a certain amount of time spent in the office and a certain amount of time allotted to spend at home. Don’t worry, though, many companies are increasing the jobs they offer for completely remote workers.

But as with any significant shift, there’s another side to consider. This rise in remote work opportunities has opened the door to a concerning escalation in job-related scams. These scams typically come cloaked as ‘dream job’ remote offers that seem too appealing to refuse. These so-called opportunities can leave unsuspecting job seekers vulnerable to identity theft, financial loss, and even legal trouble. 

These scams are becoming so sophisticated; in the past, you could look at a vague job post with lots of misspellings and immediately recognize it as fake. However, scammers are now creating entire websites to try to convince job seekers to hand over their information. I recommend doing thorough research on a company before applying; does their website have typos? Does it have filler text? Are the photos of staff members real people or stock photos? Is the website extensive and user friendly? Does the company have social media they keep up to date? At the end of the day, trust your gut. If something seems too good to be true, then it most likely is.

Increasing Emphasis on Pre-Made Application Materials for Screening

As we head into the new year, expect to see a stronger emphasis on the use of pre-made application materials in the job search process. With technology becoming more integrated into every aspect of our lives, it’s no surprise that it’s seeping into the recruitment realm as well. To start with the basics, many companies are now turning to AI to sift through the hundreds of applications they receive. This artificial intelligence is looking for keywords in your résumé and cover letter that match keywords in the job description to determine who is qualified and who is not to move onto the next round of the hiring process; be sure to use some of the wording from the job post in your application materials.

Once you make it past the first round, I am now seeing lots of companies ask for videos to be recorded and sent in for review. Instead of jumping straight from your cover letter to a phone interview, this video allows employers to see you and hear your responses to written questions they send over. It looks like it will be harder in the future to connect with a real person over a job application, simply due to the multitude of people applying for each position. Treat this video like an in-person interview: find a quiet place, use a neutral background, and practice answering the questions a few times before recording.

The Growing Importance of Transparency with Salaries and Social Media

2024 will see the workplace moving towards more transparency and fairness, particularly with salaries. There are many companies where you can look up salaries ahead of time, and workers are being encouraged to talk amongst themselves and discuss their pay rates. Be sure to base pay on experience in order to offer fair rates. Remember, employees are openly sharing what they make so your decision to offer one salary over another should be easy to defend and not be prejudiced in any way.

On the flipside of this, companies are looking for more transparency from employees in their social media. We have seen several people post on their personal social media pages, only to be let go by companies soon thereafter because of how that post might reflect back on the company. When applying for a job, think of your social media just like your cover letter. If your pages are private, then that should be acceptable. If your pages are public, be sure to review what you have posted ahead of time. Sometimes it even helps to have a private personal page for family and friends then a public page you use to show off your talents and skills which can help you land a job.

These are just a few of the emerging trends we are seeing within our own work of helping companies find and hire remote help. 2024 is sure to bring even more to the table, but these are a few key things to keep in mind when posting and applying for jobs.

 

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November 1, 2021

How a Social Media Manager Can Help Reduce Your Stress and Make Your Online Presence Soar

As a business owner, you have a full plate. Chances are some of the things on that plate include managing your social media accounts and conducting promotions. Social media promotions are the lifeblood of many businesses. They also require time and expertise and may not be your strongest suit or even an area of interest.

You can’t quit social media. But, you can hire a social media manager to make your life easier and increase the quality and effectiveness of your social media presence. If you think that sounds expensive or like a lot of work, hear us out about how bringing a social media manager onto your team can reduce your stress and workload while changing your online presence for the better and creating meaningful results for your business.

The Basics

There are four main steps to running a social media promotion. At a high level that includes:

  • Setting goals for the promotion.
  • Creating an offer and making a plan.
  • Communicating the offer.
  • Assessing your results.

Let’s look at how a social media manager can enhance each of these areas for better results.

Setting goals

Ideally, your social media promotions will drive more business, reach new customers, and cement loyalty with your base. Because it’s essential to identify what you want to achieve at the outset of any communication activity, goal setting is the first step for online promotions.

As you embark on a promotion, your goals may vary. For example, your goal could be expansive–like attracting 500 new followers. Or, it may be specific, like selling a certain number of products within a particular time frame. Either way, setting clear goals for the promotion is the first step.

When you work with a social media manager, the goal-setting process grows and is more expansive. You’ll work together to take a broader look at your social media presence and think about where you want to go in the short- and long term.

The social media manager can create an overall social media strategy that broadly supports you based on your business and growth goals. Often, the strategy will include promotions with specific goals aimed at particular audiences and in distinct timeframes. 

For example, a social media strategy may span six months and have four promotions across three different platforms. One of the promotions may be aimed at attracting new followers and one may seek to reward your best customers with a special offer. Each requires a different approach, which the social media manager can identify.  

As part of goal setting, the social media manager will set specific desired metrics for each promotion. The metrics serve two purposes. 

  • Helping the social media manager develop the right tactics to share the message and refine her approach over time. 
  • Providing a view into how different promotions perform. This knowledge can drive decisions on future promotions and provide important insight into what matters to your customers.

Creating an Offer and Making a Plan

The next step in social media promotion is to create an offer. Many business owners have a feel for the types of promotions that move their business forward and often return to the same well when creating new promotions. While this approach can be practical for a while, in the fast-moving environment of social media, these promotions can fall flat and stop delivering.

When you work with a social media manager, she will include your preferences and historical offerings into the planning process. But, she also has the skill set to create new and different types of promotions that can help keep your content fresh.

With insight into the types of social media campaigns that other companies are doing and knowing more about how those efforts are working, a social media manager can identify the promotions that make the most sense based on your objectives. She can also explain the ins and outs of the process based on her experience.

In addition, she will bring you new promotional ideas–some of which may push the envelope beyond your comfort level. But, it’s still helpful to have a sense of the universe of promotional opportunities and see where the market is going.

Once the two of you agree on a strategy and goals, your social media manager will create a calendar of promotions and posts aimed at realizing your goals. 

Part of this process includes selecting the right platform for your message. Social media managers understand the nuances of different social media sites. So, they can conduct detailed audience analysis to determine which social platforms are most attractive to your customers while creating plans to develop new audiences. 

The calendar will include plans for optimizing your posts with keywords and the right hashtags so people can find your company and see your promotions. 

The calendar may also include opportunities for paid posts to boost your exposure at crucial inflection points and with specific audiences. In some cases, your social media manager may recommend a partnership with a key influencer.

Your social media manager will look across the plan to ensure brand consistency across platforms to ensure your promotion consistently reflects the right tone. And, she will make sure that the timing of each promotion makes sense and fits into the broader plan.

Communicating the Offer

When communicating the offer, a good social media manager does the heavy lifting. She will move into creative mode to produce the media used to share your message and the specifics of your offer. This can include:

  • Developing social media content, such as writing posts, taking photos, making graphs, creating memes, and developing infographics.
  • Creating video scripts, sourcing talent, and producing video work.
  • Finding related content that can be cross-promoted through your sites.
  • Updating your company’s profile pages to reflect the latest information about your promotions.
  • Responding to comments and posts on your behalf. This includes answering questions and sharing regular updates with you in a summary.
  • Integrating customer data from other platforms and other social media sites and using email and website traffic to ensure that your promotion and message find the right audience.

 

Assessing Your Results

At the end of each promotion, your social media manager can analyze engagement across platforms. She will determine how each post performed and tie that work back to the goals established at the beginning of the project. 

If posts or promotions are falling short of goals–or if something is taking off–she can adjust the plan and the calendar to keep you moving in the right direction.

At specific time increments, your social media manager will sit down with you to discuss progress and help set new goals.

Finding a Social Media Manager

Working with a social media manager doesn’t have to be expensive. Many excellent social media managers work as contractors and find clients through niche sites such as HireMyMom. 

If you can offer flexibility and a remote job opportunity, you are well-positioned to find an experienced resource who can help your business grow and make your social media content sing.

When you use HireMyMom, you have access to a dedicated pool of professionals looking for remote work. Because HireMyMom charges job seekers a fee to access job listings, all our job seekers are serious about finding work. And, the volume of resumes that flow in is more manageable than the numbers that arrive when jobs are advertised on free job sites.

Tell us About Your Experience

We’d love to hear about your experience working with a social media manager. Please drop us a line and let us know how the partnership changed your social media presence and helped you realize your goals. 

 

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November 16, 2020

Business Promotions Made Easy with These 4 Simple Steps

Social media is an inescapable force. It appears on your phone, it can drive a news cycle, and it is the basis for many conversations between friends and neighbors. Love it or hate it, social media is an efficient, low-cost way to reach a broad audience to promote your business and grow your brand. More and more, small businesses are using social media to interact with customers and potential customers. (Check out our prior posts on creating a stand-out social media presence.) One of the key ways social media can grow your business is through promotions. Here’s a step-by-step guide for finding and running the right social media promotion for your business. 

 

Determine the Goals for your Promotion

In addition to generating buzz about your business, promotions are great tools to achieve specific objectives. So, as you consider a promotion, think about your purpose. Because there’s a vast universe of promotions, there’s not a one-size-fits-all prescription for promotional goals. Some potential options include:

  • Gaining followers
  • Growing engagement
  • Finding referrals
  • Promoting loyalty
  • Sales of a particular item or over a specific time frame

Once you know your goal, it’s easier to choose the right promotion and create an offer meaningful to your followers.

 

Craft Your Offer

Crafting the offer’s specifics is often the most fun (and challenging) aspect of the process. In general, the offering should be unique to your business and feel special for your followers. Consider your overall value proposition and how your offering could drive engagement. Make sure the promotion offers something that your followers will find desirable.

Specific promotional options are endless. Here are some ideas to help get you started:

  • Contests, including scavenger hunts, talent or art competitions, kid writing or coloring contests, product raffles, or prize drawings, often generate a lot of participation.
  • Free items, like a gift with purchase or a small free item during certain hours/days, can drive business during slower times.
  • Discounts and coupons available to anyone who shares your promotion or earned with specific interactions, such as tagging friends or starting to follow your social media accounts, are popular options.
  • Swag giveaways of premium items, such as mugs, hats, pens, and branded water bottles, can really bring out your fans. Many business owners like to give away promotional items because it results in free advertising as customers use them.
  • Exclusive access opportunities are a great option to drive traffic to shops, restaurants, and events. Social media followers can gain exclusive access to your business/product based on the steps you outline in your promotion or by using your website or other online processes to make a reservation.

As you consider your offer, keep the potential prize proportional to the entrant’s investment to participate. For example, don’t give away a high-value item to everyone who shares your link. Likewise, if you ask your followers to make a significant investment in your promotion, such as creating a meme that shows why they love your product, the pay-off should be more exclusive. If you conduct a contest, you may need a panel of judges (such as employees or other superfans) to pick a winner for your prize. Discounts in exchange for link sharing are generally a good trade-off in this area. 

You also want to make sure that the graphics that you have for this campaign shows your business logo, too. This helps familiarize your audience with your logo and improve your brand awareness. Designing a professional logo is easy with the use of logo makers such as BrandCrowd or working with graphic designers.

Next, develop a timeline for your promotion. Include plenty of time to do any pre-work and build in some time for follow up and assessment.

 

Draft a Communication Plan

With your offer and timeline in hand, it’s time to consider your communication plan. Communication is the key to a successful promotion. Look at any existing communication plans you maintain and see if opportunities exist to take an upcoming communication or advertisement and add information about your promotion. Depending on your goals, consider a mix of social media and traditional vehicles for reaching your audience.  

Then, prepare your posts and other media well in advance of your start date. Be sure to:

  • Clearly outline how the promotion works, including any exclusions or deadlines.
  • Include plans to publicly share the name of your promotion winners, if appropriate. 
  • Thank everyone who participates. 
  • Share your appreciation for the enthusiasm your followers show around the promotion.

When the launch day arrives, deploy your communication materials and monitor the feedback you are getting on your posts. Posting comments and making updates based on questions or comments that appear will let your audience know that you are engaged in the promotion. To help keep your promotion top-of-mind, regularly share information about it with your followers.

 

Assess Your Results

When the promotion ends, take a look at how it went. Consider:

  • Did you meet your goals?
  • Did managing the promotion take the time you expected? Less time? More time? (If the answer is more time, you might want to hire a Virtual Assistant to help in the future.)
  • What feedback did you hear from those who participated? How about those that mentioned the promotion to you but didn’t participate?
  • What did you learn in the process?

Answers to these questions will help you craft even more successful promotions in the future.

 

What’s Working for You?

Promotions are a fun way to drive business. We’d love to hear about your experiences–the good, the bad, and the ugly. Drop me a line and let me know what promotions you’ve tried.

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September 21, 2020

How to Create Top Notch Social Media Content

Social media is everywhere and if you aren’t already using it to promote your business, you are likely considering it. But, good quality social media takes more than a few Facebook posts. If you’re thinking about dipping your toe into the water (or if you are already fully swimming), these tips can help you make the most of your social media presence.

Find Your Why

The first rule of social media is that you should treat it like all other content. It should be:

  • Authentic to your brand.
  • Relevant to your mission and goals.
  • Strategically focused on helping you meet your goals.

The best way to make sure your social media meets this criteria is to identify what you want readers to know, feel, and do after engaging with your content. Asking this question at the beginning of your journey can help direct you, as you map out your social media strategy and start posting.

The best way to do this is to think about what you’re trying to achieve. For example, do you want your social media accounts to:

  • Create awareness of your business?
  • Build your brand?
  • Increase sales leads?
  • Lead to more engaged customers?
  • Serve as a supplement to your website? Replace your website?

 

Identify Your Base Level of Engagement

Knowing your social media starting place makes it easier to track success. Here’s a quick and easy way to assess engagement:

  • Take an inventory of all your social media accounts.
  • Identify your number of followers for each platform. Keep a tally by platform. (For example, 80 Facebook followers, 91 Instagram followers.)
  • Review all your posts on each platform in the last 45 days.
  • Look at each post and count reactions from followers. If a post has 47 likes and three comments, count that as 50 reactions.  
  • Calculate an average engagement score over all of your content for each platform.

Based on your number of followers and overall engagement score, you now have a quantifiable social media baseline. 

 

Set Goals

With a good sense of your current engagement level in hand, it’s easier to define what success means to you and identify the time period in which you hope to grow. Here are some sample goals:

  • Attract 50 new Facebook followers by January 15, 2021.
  • Grow engagement by 20 percent by March 1, 2021.

It takes time and commitment to nurture a social media presence. Set a realistic time frame to achieve your goals.

Also, this is a good time to check in with your own gut and consider how engaged you want to be in the process. Hire a social media manager if you desire a level of engagement beyond your time availability. HireMyMom is a great resource for finding someone to help with this.

 

Find Your People

Like all communication, understanding your audience is key. Think about what interests them, what drives them, and what moves them to act/buy. You may find it helpful to create an avatar of your typical customer/follower and use that person to guide your work. Determine if you want to spend some advertising or promotion dollars to help find your followers. A social media consultant can help with this.

 

Find Your Platforms

Next, determine the platforms most relevant to your audience. Check your competitors to see which platforms they are using. Look at influencers in your industry to see what they are posting and where. Observe how your competitors and influencers engage with their audience. Note what hashtags are trending. A few hours with a social media consultant can make this process easier. 

 A few tips:

  • Develop a strategy for each platform. What works for Facebook is different from what works on LinkedIn.
  • Get the right tools for each platform. For example, high quality photos make a big difference on certain platforms. Professional quality videos are key on others.

 

Find Your Voice

It’s time to start posting! Find the best way to enter the conversation and start executing on your strategy. Here are a few final tips:

  • Create a monthly or quarterly editorial plan for each platform to help you stay organized and manage your online presence more easily. Monitor trends so you can add or remove content, as needed.
  • Develop a blog to help you tell your story authentically. This is another area where a freelancer can make life easier for you.
  • Be prepared to engage with your audience. Successful social media is about conversations and your audience expects connection through engagement and comments. Identify a staff member to take point on responses or hire a virtual specialist to help. 

 

Share Your Story With Us

Social media is a great way to grow your presence and your brand online. We’d love to hear about your experiences. Join the HireMyMom Facebook community or send a note sharing what’s worked for you.

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August 20, 2019

Complete Guide To Creating A Client Attracting Facebook Business Page

Social media can feel overwhelming and while it’s easy to get discouraged with things like algorithm changes, there is great value to be found in leveraging these platforms as a business owner.

A Facebook business page is one of them and yes the organic reach can be low but the reality is that as business owners, we must embrace the professional way of marketing: having an advertising budget and providing strong, consistent content. 

Before I dive into how to create a client attracting Facebook business page, let’s first address why it’s important:

  1. As with most social media platforms, a Facebook business page and the content on it, is indexed by Google where as your personal profile page is not. When someone searches for you or your business, your fan page will appear in Google search engine results. 
  2. While it’s tempting to use your personal page to market your business, it’s also a violation of Facebook’s terms to use your personal profile page for commercial gain. Some have even lost their accounts for this practice so it’s just not worth the risk. 
  3. Your business is seen as more professional with a business page. Consumers are becoming more savvy and want to research people and brands before doing business with them. Running a business from your personal profile can look sloppy and overwhelm your personal network, many of them are not even your ideal client.
  4. Facebook Insights. As a business owner, it’s important to analyze the data for the content you are creating on a regular basis. A Facebook business page provides detailed analytics for every post. How many people are seeing the posts on your personal profile page? Without Facebook insights you have no clue and therefore can’t measure what kind of content gets better reach in the feed. 
  5. Sponsored Ads. I know it can seem unfair as a small business owner to have to pay to have your content seen, but the reality is you are a business and if you want to market it the right way and reach the right audience you will need to have a budget for advertising. The beauty of a business page is you can target your ideal client for a very minimal budget (I will get into more of that later in this post) and grow a following of people who need and want your services, something your personal profile simply can’t do.  

So now that we have covered the reasons why it makes sense to grow a Facebook business page, let’s jump into the how!  

 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO CREATING A CLIENT ATTRACTING FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

Your Facebook business page is tied to your personal account so you don’t need to create a whole new Facebook account for this (it actually goes against Facebook’s terms to have two accounts). Here is a step by step guide from Social Media Examiner on how to create a business page.

The focus of this article is how to properly brand your business page and strategies to market it so be sure to read this post in its entirety before setting up your page. 

 

Business Page Name. Ensure you are creating a page that makes sense for your business. Are you branding yourself personally or under a business name? Once you have determined that you can name your page. Take your time and keep in mind that Facebook is like a search engine and it will be indexed by Google, so think about keywords that need to go into your page name. 

For example, are you a graphic designer, virtual assistant or design websites? Include keywords into your page name – “Whitney Smith, Virtual Assistant” (if you are branding yourself personally) or “Twisted Vines Website Designs” (if you are branding under a business name)  

An important element to mention here is if you are creating a business page centered around your personal brand, to ensure you have your name in the page name. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people not including their name into their page name. 

For example, if someone searches for you they will most likely search for you by how they know you, your name, right? Without this piece of information in your Facebook page name people will not find you because they have no idea that you have branded yourself as the “Holistic Virtual Assistant” so ensure that the business page name includes how people know you “Tina Jones, Holistic Virtual Assistant” so you will pull up in the search results.

 

Complete Page Information. Take the time to complete all of the info related to your business page: upload a professional photo, create a cover photo for your page (you can easily do this for free with done-for-you templates in Canva), about section, hours, website, etc. It’s important to share your story, what drives your passion, your experiences and expertise. 

Spend time on this and put some thought into it. This is like meeting someone for the first time so make that first virtual impression count!

 

Creating Content. The content on your business page should be 80% value based that will resonate with your ideal client and 20% about your products and/or services. Create blog content regularly to share valuable information that positions you as an expert in your niche, create free offers to help you build an email list, share quote graphics your audience would resonate with, helpful tutorials, etc.

Creating content for your business page shouldn’t be a stressful so don’t over think it trying to come up with perfect posts, just share from your heart with the goal of serving others.

 

Facebook Ads. As you create content for your business page, you can boost those posts to target followers who will find the information useful and attract the right people to your page. 

For example, share a helpful blog post and boost it once a week for $10-$15. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on ads for it to be effective. By driving traffic to your blog, you can grow your email list while getting new eyes on your business page at the same time to attract new followers. 

Of course the more you spend on the ad the more people you can reach and the more results you will have but test this strategy out with a low budget first to ensure that you like the results before spending more. A post that does well you can always boost over and over to spend more. 

Here’s a tip: Stretch your sponsored post out over 14-21 days v. boosting it for only 1 day. Facebook will actually show it to more people when it’s stretched out over a period of time, meaning you will get more bang for your buck. 

 

Consistency. While experts like to say how many times per day is ideal when posting, I find that quality definitely rules over quantity so find what works for you. If you can commit to posting once per day with good quality content, great but if you find that overwhelming, at the very least try to be consistent 3 times per week. 

Here are some tips to help you create consistent content for your business page:

  • Facebook has a separate app to manage business pages, Facebook Pages Manager. You can view your insights, boost posts and schedule content. Find what works for you to sit down for 30 minutes on Monday mornings and schedule out your content for the entire week. That way it’s done and you don’t have to think about it for the rest of the week except to check on your posts for comments, likes and shares so you can respond. 

You can find the Facebook Pages Manager app in your iTunes or Google Play Store.

 

Create A Marketing Plan. Write down all your favorite resources, blogs, etc. to pull relevant content from while you work to create your own. For example, if you are a logo designer you can pull articles from some of your favorite bloggers about why having a logo for a business is important or why branding is an important aspect of logo creation. Relevant articles like this help to edify what you do as a logo designer.  

Having a marketing plan you can refer to allows you to sit down and schedule out your content more quickly because you don’t have to think about where to find good content to share.

It’s important to be consistent so don’t go days without posting to your business page. It requires hard work and consistency but it’s all worth it to share your God given talents and grow your business for the long term. 

 

Ask questions. With the more recent Facebook updates, they are favoring posts that ask questions to promote engagement and spark conversations so think about how you can get your audience talking. 

People love to give their opinions so for example, maybe you are working on a new logo design for your Etsy shop and you have two variations you are trying to decide on. Put it to a vote on your business page! This is a subtle way of showing off your skills while valuing the thoughts of your followers.

 

Quote Cards. Quote graphics are very popular on social media and can be a great way to brand yourself and your business. The key is to be consistent with your design and to create graphics that resonate with your followers. 

At HireMyMom.com, our audience is primarily moms so the quote graphics we create are faith inspired or poking fun at motherhood as that is what resonates with our followers. 

So think about what kind of quote graphics you can create that will set your brand apart on not only your Facebook business page but Instagram and Pinterest as content like this can be used on multiple platforms. 

 

Go Live. Facebook is giving live video 6x’s the organic reach than regular posts so this can be a great strategy for your business when you focus on how you can give value that centers on how to solve a problem for your audience. 

For example, if you are a virtual assistant, think about how you could create value around something that your ideal client struggles with. Maybe they are having a hard time learning MailChimp. Give them a quick tutorial on how to create a list and send a newsletter. 

This shows your followers that you know what you are doing and yes, some will watch your tutorial and feel empowered to do it themselves and that’s okay. You were a blessing to that person while others will watch your video and say to themselves “Yeah, okay, I totally do not have the time to do all of that so I really need to reach out to her and find out what her pricing is to do it for me” and that right there is why giving value regularly on social media is so important. It’s one thing to tell people you are a great virtual assistant but it’s much more powerful to show them!

Were these tips helpful in creating a client attracting Facebook business page? Be sure to share it with other hard working mompreneurs and I would love to hear from you so please contact me with comments or questions. 

Need a word of encouragement to help you in your business building journey? I pray you take these words to heart today for God truly does want to see you prosper! “Submit to God and be at peace with Him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22:21

Looking for a community that can give you support, training and more job leads or even help you set up your own Facebook Business Page? Check out more of what HireMyMom.com has to offer. Click HERE. 

 

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May 28, 2019

5 Practical Tips To Leverage Instagram As A Freelancing Mompreneur

I don’t know about you but Instagram has been one of the most challenging social media platforms to navigate as a mompreneur and like most platforms, it’s constantly evolving and changing. I find that just about the time I find a good rhythm and create a strategy that works for the HireMyMom Instagram account, it all changes.  

Well, you know what they say, you either have to beat them or join them, right?

As a freelancing mompreneur Instagram can be a great tool in reaching potential clients but it requires consistency and having a strategic social media marketing plan.

In this post we are going to break down 5 practical tips you can implement today to help you get more out of your Instagram marketing. Before we dive in, I want to offer you some encouragement: any social media platform takes time to grow and that is especially true for Instagram.

You aren’t going to post to Instagram for a week and have thousands of new followers. It will take showing up daily even when you don’t feel like it. It will require consistency even when you don’t feel like you have a clue about what you are doing and you will have to keep showing up even when it feels like no one cares or is even listening.

Give yourself some grace while you are learning, everyone starts out a beginner. Even the accounts you drool over with 30K+ followers at one time started with that first post and only 5 followers. Try to focus on having fun with the journey while letting go of the outcome or you will drive yourself straight to the bottom of the pit of comparison.

So take a deep breath and focus on taking this one day at a time remembering that Martha Stewart did not build an empire in one day.

 

1. YOUR BIO

When potential clients land on your Instagram account, what are they going to see first? Your bio, right. It’s that first impression when someone steps into your online space. Take the time to create a bio that really showcases your personality.

Instagram bios have a 150 character limit so make your words clear, powerful and compelling to convey what you do and the problem you solve. Be creative and use emojis if that fits your personality but stick to the few that best represent your brand. Too many emojis can look messy and be more distracting than helpful.

Ensure you have a good profile photo. If you are leading with your personal brand use a clear crisp fun photo of yourself or if you are leading with a business brand, a good clean logo or graphic is crucial.

You can have one clickable link in your profile so it’s important to leverage it wisely. If you have multiple places you want to drive your Instagram traffic to you can use Linktree to do that. It’s a pretty awesome tool.

2. IMAGERY IS KEY

Instagram is a platform driven by photography and imagery so it’s important to use photos that are creative, high quality, cohesive and aligned with your brand and personality style. If you are more extroverted and don’t mind being in front of the camera, you can use that to your advantage just ensure you stay on message visually.

If you are more introverted, don’t fret. It doesn’t mean Instagram is not for you, it just means you have to think outside the box and find a strategy that works for your business. You can curate photos from free accounts like Unplash or from other Instagram accounts BUT I want to stress the importance of always giving photo credit to the sources you are using. Don’t be the person who tries to pass off someone else’s work as your own. It’s icky and won’t earn the trust of your followers.  

Here is an example of how you can properly credit photos you curate from another account. We gave credit to @lemons.for.days for this cute photo and you will find that when you market properly, the accounts you credit will often comment on your post thanking you and even follow your account as a result.

If you love photography and can take your own photos, that’s awesome. Ensure that your Instagram feed has a theme to keep it consistent and cohesive. Think of your Instagram feed like a magazine. The photos should all work together and compliment one another.

The HireMyMom brand has an orange and turquoise color scheme so therefore I look for photos that compliment this theme to create a visually interesting feed.

This may take you some practice to get a theme down for your account and that’s okay. Practice makes perfect when you strive for progress over perfection. You can use apps like Snapseed to help you edit your photos and brighten them up so each photo has the same look and feel to it.

 

3. TELL A STORY AND GIVE VALUE

Instagram is no different than any other platform in how you use it will determine the kind of results you get. If you are going to throw something up just to post with little thought or you use every post to try to sell something you won’t attract many followers so you have to not only think about the image you are posting (will it work with the image you posted before it?) but you have to take the time to think about how you will use the image to give or share something of value.

There is nothing worse than an Instagram post that has nothing but hashtags in the caption. Your followers are on your account for them, not you so it’s important to choose quality over quantity and give your reader a reason to keep following along.

Pair a how-to tip with your image, share a story that will lead to a conversation with your followers and give your followers an insight into what you believe. Instagram has quickly become a very conversational platform so take the time to think about what and how you will share. Marketing requires intentionality.

 

4. #FRIDAYINTRODUCTIONS

Are you participating in Friday Introductions? It’s a great way to connect with others and build community. Every Friday the #FridayIntroductions hashtag is trending and here are some tips to make the most of it:

  1. Post a picture of yourself. I know if you are introverted this is hard to do, I get it. I cringe at the thought of taking a selfie much less posting one.
  2. Use #FridayIntroductions in your post so you will pull up in that hashtag feed.
  3. Share a story about yourself, a fun fact, the why behind what you to do, etc. Focus on sharing something personal so your followers can learn more about you. The more they feel like they know you the more they will want to stick around.
  4. Share, Don’t Sell. This is an opportunity to share and connect with others without an agenda so if you want to make the most out of this let go of the need to try to sell anything or drive traffic to your website when participating in #FridayIntroductions.
  5. Follow the #FridayIntroductions feed and connect with others. Take the time to follow accounts that really speak to you. Like and spend time leaving genuine comments on their posts.
  6. Make this a part of your weekly social media plan, I promise the consistency will pay off.

5. LEVERAGE STORIES

Instagram stories are seen 10x more than regular posts so they are pretty important to your marketing strategy. They are perfect for those less than polished photos and behind the scenes type of content that aren’t appropriate for your regular feed.

You can let your followers know about a new post you have and why they should care, a new blog post that you have up on your website, a product sneak peek you are working on to build excitement and share a word of encouragement.

And here is an awesome bonus tip: use popular hashtag that is relevant to your business when you share to give them a boost. For example, you can use #mompreneur, #graphicdesign, #ontheblog, #fashionblogger, etc.

Spend some time researching popular hashtags that your target audience would be following for stories and test them out. Stick to 1-2 hashtags for stories and try to minimize them so they don’t overpower the other info you are trying to share. You can make the text small and place them in the upper corners or cover them with a sticker.

Here is an example of how to let your followers know through an Instagram story to check out a recent post. You can see the #mompreneur hashtag at the top. By using hashtags in stories, people following the hashtags you use have a good chance of seeing your content even if they aren’t following you because they are following that hashtag.

I hope you found these tips and examples helpful in getting started with Instagram as a freelancing mompreneur. There will be a learning curve with it like anything new. Give yourself permission to be okay with being a beginner knowing you will have it mastered in no time with patience and consistency.

Looking for more social media tips, training and support? Why not check out more of what HireMyMom has to offer! We have been supporting mompreneurs like you since 2007. Click HERE to learn more.

 

 

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November 20, 2017 0 Comments

4 Tips for a Successful Facebook Business Page

Facebook business pages are almost a necessity if you own any type of business.  If you’re not super social media savvy, you might have a lot of questions.  What should I be posting? How often? Should I just constantly push my products and services?

There are many ways to be successful online, but there are some things you can do to create a valuable presence on your Facebook business page.

Be consistent

If you’re going to have a Facebook business page, you need to be consistent in posting! It doesn’t mean you have to post daily, but it means you have to stay on a normal posting schedule.

If you know you can’t post daily, don’t post daily; this isn’t necessary. If you know you can commit to 2-3 times per week, go for it.  It’s whatever you can do to provide quality content on a consistent basis that matters.

Don’t sell

This might be counterintuitive, but you should refrain from selling most of the time.  Your Facebook business page should be a place where you show your expert status and provide valuable and inspiring information.

While it’s fine to mention your products and services once in awhile, it shouldn’t be the main focus of your posts.

Show your human side

Your business page should be kept professional, but not always business related.  Which means, it’s fun to show some behind the scenes items and share a bit about yourself.

Obviously, this depends on the type of business you’re in, but especially if you’re a small business, people want to know YOU.  People do business with those they know, like and trust, so it’s fine to share some personal details or the behind the scenes parts of your business.

Be valuable

After all of this, what should you be posting?  Anything valuable! What does your audience want to know about? Establish yourself as the expert.  Share fun information, helpful information, tips and advice that can be actionable for your readers.

When you provide value, stay away from selling most of the time, and develop a consistent presence, your page will begin to grow, leading to greater exposure for your business.

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October 16, 2017 0 Comments

5 Tips for Instagram for Business

As Instagram continues to be one of the biggest players in social media, it only makes sense that you’d use it for business.  According to Wordstream.com, 6 in 10 adults have Instagram accounts, while there are 15 million registered businesses using Instagram business profiles.

It’s an important place to be, and there are many things you can do to improve your presence on the platform to reach more people and share your knowledge.

Use Stories

We’ve all heard of Instagram Stories by now, which is Instagram’s answer to Snapchat.  According to Techcrunch, Instagram Stories are now doing better than Snapchat, with Instagram Stories at 250 million daily users compared to Snapchat’s 166 million.

Stories are a way to share behind the scenes content, everyday life, and more of a personal look at yourself and your business.  People do business with those they know, like, and trust, and stories are a fun, unfiltered way to show this off.  Give your followers a day in the life of your business, show them your favorite things, or some of your top tips and tools in doing business.  If you have employees, allow them access to post about their days in the business as well.

Another great thing about Stories is that it keeps you at the top of the page as you post content, so you stay on the minds of your customers and prospects.

Connect with Others

It’s great to utilize Instagram for posting, but it’s also important to interact with others! Take some time everyday to seek out other users and posts, adding thoughtful likes and comments as you see fit.

Go outside of your industry as well, since you’re more likely to find customers this way.  You can simply spend 10 minutes per day liking, following, and building up network on Instagram; this will make a big difference in your follower count and engagement.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are important ways to be found on Instagram.  You can – and should – use hashtags on your own Instagram Stories and Instagram posts, but you can also use them to find others.

In your own posts, it’s best to post your normal post and caption, then include hashtags in a separate comment.  You can use up to 30 hashtags, and they should be a mix of generic tags (i.e. “#success”), more specific tags (“#hiremymom”), and location-based terms.  Location-based tags (i.e. “#palmbeacheventplanner”) are especially important if your business is local or brick and mortar.

Search hashtags daily to find others that are posting similar things to you, or seeking your services.  Offering a simple like or comment can lead them back to your profile, increasing the likelihood of a connection – or a sale.

Be Consistent

As with all social media sites, consistency is king!  Think beyond business posts too – your audience wants to get to know you.  Participate in #FollowFriday, a fun Friday event on Instagram where you introduce yourself to your followers.  You can include little-known facts and other information about how you got your start in business.  These types of posts keep you relevant while providing content.

Do your best to post on a consistent schedule in a way that’s feasible for you and your schedule.

Keep an Eye on Quality

Instagram is still a visual platform, so quality photos are a must on your main Instagram feed.  Instagram Stories can be much more informal, but do your best to edit your regular photos to be as nice as possible.

People like to look at beautiful images, so do your best to keep your feed looking good.  Also, the top 9 images on your Instagram feed are the most viewed, so always ensure that they’re reflecting you, your business, and your brand as well as possible.

To succeed as a business on Instagram, include some items that aren’t simply business, connect with your audience, and be consistent!

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