Facebook Basics Part 1 – Understanding the business benefits of Facebook

Introduction to Facebook pages for business

Facebook is the king of social networks and as such, almost doesn’t need an introduction.  It is likely that you are already familiar with Facebook and probably have your own Facebook profile. With over a billion users, it’s the biggest social network with a user base that is still growing.

As with other social media platforms, Facebook allows businesses to build a community with the potential of turning a proportion of those community members into customers. By clearly showcasing a combination of the attractiveness of your goods and services, your customer service and your brands personality and/or USPs, you can use Facebook to attract new customers to you and foster brand loyalty in your existing customers.  Just like on your website, your aim is to make people stick around long enough that you get the opportunity to persuade them to buy in to your brand  and become a customer.

Don’t make the mistake of using Facebook like a one-way sales channel. Bombard your Facebook fans with offer after offer, and you’ll find this is the quickest way to lose potential customers (unless you have a deal based business model such as Groupon or Wowcher).  As a rule, no one wants constant hard sell filling up their timeline. The key to successful use of Facebook for businesses lies in your ability to engage followers, listen to them and to balance the content you are publishing.

What’s the point of Facebook?

Facebook provides businesses with the ability to create and grow an engaged community of customers and potential sales leads.

Building communities and individual relationships

Facebook provides an excellent means by which a company can not only demonstrate their expertise in any given area, but they can actively create a brand personality, in keeping with brand values and marketing strategy and promote their unique selling points.

Facebook is all about engagement and adding value. As a result of reaching out to your customers, you’ll obtain highly valuable insights that will shape your communications (extending to other social networks and even transferable to your traditional marketing channels), making them even more effective.

Successful use of Facebook relies upon effective engagement and in your ability publish fresh and interesting content.

Building a community doesn’t come easily and it certainly won’t happen overnight.  You will need to commit to and invest in a long-term strategy that will underpin all of your social media activities.  If you are after a quick win or instant results, then social media is not going to provide that, unless you are using paid advertising.

Whilst this introduction to Facebook deals primarily with the free page all businesses can set up, you do have the option of enhancing your presence further by taking advantage of promoted posts and Facebook ads. Similarly enhancing your page with free or paid-for Facebook apps, can help to improve the quality of your content and help you to attract more visitors.

Facebook pitfalls to avoid

Ignore your Facebook wall at your own peril

Checking your social media pages every now and again just isn’t enough, and for any page with more than a few hundred Likes or followers, it is critical that you are regularly monitoring interactions.

Consider this scenario.  An irate customer posts on your Facebook wall complaining about a customer service issue.  Respond to such a post quickly, providing an apology, reason and resolution and you can effectively turn the situation into a positive PR opportunity.  Consider that same irate post on your Facebook wall left un-answered for several days.  This makes it look like you don’t care about customer service and also shows that you don’t pay attention to your Facebook wall, sending a very negative message to anyone visiting your page and it certainly won’t help you convert new customers.

Once set up, the single most important thing to remember is to monitor your Facebook wall.  Whilst daily monitoring is acceptable, for active Facebook communities, then you are going to want to check your wall for any mentions, pre-sales questions or customer service issues several times a day.  Read more about the perils of not monitoring your Facebook wall in the article Keep track to avoid social media fail.

Fake likes are largely worthless to you

You are likely to come across companies offering to sell you ‘Likes’ and for a new page, this can certainly be tempting.  Consider this though – why do you want to buy likes?  What benefit do you get from appearing to have more likes? The real value of Facebook comes in the form of genuine fans, which should largely be made up of existing and potential customers – these fans are receptive sales leads and so have an intrinsic value, making it worthwhile to invest your time into engaging them.

Buy likes and your new fans will have no real interest in your brand and as such can’t be categorised as potential sales leads, in which case they are of little or no value to you.

Failing to engage sends out negative signals

To make Facebook work you need to give people a reason to come to your Facebook page; when they are on your page, your goal is to ensure that they see something they are interested in, resulting in a desirable action, such as clicking through to your website.  If you rarely update your wall you aren’t giving people a reason to come back.  If however your content is interesting and fresh, then people will like your page and will keep coming back.

Facebook and all social media, is about crafting two-way conversations.  Engaging fans isn’t about constantly pushing out content; it’s about publishing content and then pausing to listen to your fans responses.  This way you will learn what they like and will be more able to understand how to reach your target audience.  When a fan is actively engaging via activities on your wall, they are highly receptive.  Give them what they want and engaged fans can turn into customers.

Controversy can increase the viral potential of content but is unlikely to win you customers

Some believe that posting controversial content will help that content spread and go viral.  Whilst this can be an effective strategy for achieving viral spread, it isn’t recommended.  Controversy often stirs up strong emotions which can have very negative implications.

Stay away from being too controversial, you don’t want to polarise or alienate people; you might have strong political or personally held views, your business’s Facebook wall however is not the right place for you to express them.

To read about viral marketing and controversy see the article Trust me i’m a marketing ‘expert’.

Beware of the Facebook Troll

Lurking online is a special breed of person, known as a Troll.  Simply put, a Troll is someone who is purposely antagonistic, argumentative and/or offensive.  They will often respond to posts just to create an argument or cause a reaction and will frequently use abusive or offensive language.

Depending on your point of view, you might see them as a harmless nuisance or you might see them as anarchistic trouble makers.  Once identified as a Troll, my own stance is to block the offender from posting.  Blocking or banning should not be taken lightly though – if someone has a real customer service issue or complaint to air, it is always advisable to deal with it rather than simply removing the post and banning the user.

Don’t be tempted to deal with the potential threat of the Troll by locking your profile down and stopping people from posting on your wall altogether though. If you do that, you will no longer see any of the true benefit that social media provides, as you will no longer be inviting two-way conversation, turning Facebook into just another one-way marketing channel.

Part two of this introduction to Facebook will be published later this week and will provide you with some facts and tips that will help you get the most out of your Facebook activities, as well as some suggestions for engagement activities that you can take away and implement.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Beware of bad marketing advice from self proclaimed ‘experts’

I read an article the other day called “How to manipulate people for fun and profit”.  I’m not going to link to it because in my opinion, the advice it provided was utter garbage, highlighting the ease with which one can tout themselves as an ‘expert’ but in reality, prove they are anything but by giving not just poor, but potentially damaging advice.

The article states that action occurs as a result of inducing a high arousal state – a well known concept in Psychology and absolutely correct. My issue however is with how the author recommended you induce a high state of arousal – by outraging people.  The author stated that marketing strategy should focus on writing content that is purposely divisive and intentionally controversial.  So lets get this straight, to go viral you have to become a troll?

According to the author, viral marketing  rests
on your ability to become an Internet troll

The article went on to highlight instances of when highly controversial or outrageous content had been spread and gone viral. I am not disputing the fact that controversy spreads, my issue however is that if your marketing activities purposely manipulate people into feeling angry or outraged, both of these are negative emotions.  For the majority of businesses, i guarantee you, that negative sentiment does not convert customers (unless you are a charity or ethical company wanting to highlight injustices or galvanise action for example). On the whole though, it’s a fundamental fact that negative sentiment doesnt win customers, something any sales or marketing professional would be fully aware of.

The really scary thing, is the massive number of positive comments the author received from other, so-called marketing professionals, who agreed and thought the advice was great! I also found it strange that my very concise and polite response to the article didn’t get published.  Whilst i’m at it, the fact that no dates are included on the blog also rings alarm bells – best practice changes as social media and content marketing evolves.  A lot of advice provided a year ago could now be massively out of date and of little value to a reader – avoiding transparency by hiding publish dates in this way just isn’t the sort of tactic a reputable professional would need to use.

Does manipulating potential customers into feeling strong negative
emotions sound like good business sense to you?

If I am outraged by the comments or tactics of a company, yes, I might go and read about them, I might talk about (as I currently am doing), but I sure as hell won’t shop with them or spread positive word of mouth, in which case, the activity has successfully turned a potential customer into someone who would never, ever be a customer. Which is, of course, is the polar opposite of what any marketing activity would hope to achieve.

In advising people to be purposely antagonistic and controversial in their marketing efforts, this author is essentially telling you how to loose customers. High share rates of such an article might make it go viral, but if that virality spreads and inspires nothing but negative sentiment and drives customers away, how is that effective marketing?

Does any business really want controversy instead
of customer conversions?  Of course not!

I’m assuming that the sole purpose of this article was to spew utter rubbish to get people talking.  Yep, it’s got me talking, even telling my readers about the article, but it’s also put the author and the website on my negative radar, meaning all future content I’m exposed to from them will be aggressively filtered out and ignored. Is that really what any company would want to happen as a direct result of their marketing activities?  Of course not.

No one is infallible, and whilst reputable writers will endeavour to fact check and identify multiple sources before publishing information, we don’t always get it right.  In relation to social media marketing and theory, there often isn’t a right or wrong way to do things, only best practice.

As social media proliferates and it becomes ever easier for people to self-publish, so the threat of misinformation increases. Don’t believe all of the advice that you read just because it is published on a popular blog or is written by someone calling themselves an expert.  At worst some articles are based on nothing more than opinion, at best, on tried and tested techniques which have been proven to work, but that doesn’t mean it will work for your particular customer base or business sector.

Never lose your objectivity and question the authors
professional credentials if necessary

Remain objective, if you aren’t convinced then ask the author a question by leaving a comment on their blog and if you really have your suspicions, see if you can find other sources providing the same advice or do a bit of snooping to uncover the real credentials of the author.

By doing this you will avoid the charlatans out there and won’t end up alienating or loosing customers as a result of executing misguided marketing activities.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Understanding the business benefits of Pinterest

An introduction to Pinterest

If you are familiar with mood boards, then Pinterest won’t be too difficult to get your head around.  It’s essentially a digital pin board, a place where you can collate and categorise anything visually appealing that you come across online.

You can take a look at my own Pinterest here as an example – you’ll see a wide range of different board topics.  Whilst most of them are related to web design and my profession, I also have a number of other boards that are more personal. As with all social networks, one of the benefits of using Pinterest is that it gives you the ability to define not only a brand, but to expose the person or people behind that brand. This makes it much easier for people to relate to your brand and showcasing your passion, interests and areas of expertise is a great way of connecting with potential customers.

There is more to Pinterest than cupcakes, craft and cats

Whilst Pinterest is very well suited to visual imagery, it is increasingly being used as a way of collecting primarily text based content, such as recipes and blog articles.  A decent blog article will have at least one picture, so posting this picture along with the blog article title and pinning it on a relevant board, can be  great way of utilising Pinterest to promote non graphical content; in particular for service based businesses who don’t have products to promote or attractive lifestyle shots to pin.

Some Pinteresting stats

• Pinterest is now either the 2nd or 3rd biggest social network, depending on which statistics you read, and is currently showing the fastest rate of growth
• There is no vertical size limit on pins, providing a great deal of scope for creativity
• Approximately 58% of Pinterest users are females
• Product pictures pinned with a price are more effective (that is to say they will generate a better CTR) than product pins with no price shown
• Click through and sales conversion rates are better on Pinterest than on either Twitter or Facebook
• Pinterest users tend to have a higher than average disposable income
• Some of the most popular Pinterest topics are interiors, DIY, cookery, fashion, hobbies and crafts
• Shoppers referred to a website via Pinterest spend 10% more than those referred by other sources

Example of a fully optimised Pinterest board

What’s the point of Pinterest?

Pinterest provides the opportunity for businesses to demonstrate expertise and credibility in any given area.  For example, when an interior design brand puts together a board featuring a large number of inspirational room themes, potential customers will often be inspired by such a board and will not only trust that brand, but will also look to it for ideas – you can effectively use Pinterest to add value, which is a great way of attracting new customers and increasing your appeal to existing customers.

Pinterest will not only provide you with more backlinks to your website, a crucial SEO ranking signal, but it will also increase your visibility.  Instead of people finding your website, being visible on Pinterest gives you additional potential touch points.

Pinterest lets you source and post appealing content that others will find interesting and will want to like and share

Pinterest is an excellent way of showcasing your products and of demonstrating your passion and expertise in a particular area, and when your content engages people, they will like and share (repin) it, helping your content spread virally.  This ensures that your brand reaches additional would-be customers, who might not otherwise have been exposed to your existing or usual marketing channels.

Pinterest tips

• Make sure you write an interesting profile, make it informative and try to give it a bit of personality
• Research your competition before you set up your own boards, see what topics your competitors cover so you can create boards that will be popular and interesting
• Add your main website address and be sure to follow the Pinterest verification process
• Give each board an informative name and make sure you include a compelling, keyword focused board description
• Optimise all the images that you upload – make sure the file names contain descriptive keywords.  Once uploaded, edit your pin to include a link back to the original source or related content on your website.
• Keep the width of Pinterest images to around 540px and make the most of the fact there is no vertical size constraint.  Narrow, long pins are much more eye catching than short images
• Write a number of ‘how to’ guides that deal with common problems your customers encounter, providing them with real value
• Create a board to showcase your latest, best selling or favourite products
• Don’t forget to include calls to action on your boards and in pin descriptions
• Make sure you add the Pinterest share button to all of your product and content pages on your website and blog
• Comment on, like, share and follow other relevant boards

To find out more about Pinterest and how it can help your business, take a look at this great article from Econsultancy Pinterest: nine best practice tips for brands.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

How to write great website content

In previous posts I’ve looked at why paying attention to your content makes sense, so this time i’m going to discuss all of the basics you will need to be aware of in order to write effective website content.

Don’t just write, lay your foundations and plan

Before you can write your content you need to plan it.  Start by thinking about each of the individual content pages you want to have on your website and list them all, a basic bullet pointed list is generally sufficient for this if you don’t already have a fancy site map. If you are re-writing content for an existing website you just need to make a list of the pages you already have.

Plan key messaging and write around that

Next, you need to think about the information that people will need to enable them to make an informed decision about buying your services or products. As well as deciding what key information you need to get across, you’ll need to start thinking about the best way to present this information.

Nothing is quite as dull or off-putting as paragraph after paragraph of text

Hard facts and technical data are often entirely necessary but to present your service or products in a compelling way, it takes more than dry facts and text and this can be a tough one to get right.  Too informal and familiar and you risk sounding unprofessional, too formal and factual and you risk boring your readers and losing potential leads.

Ooh pictures, we love a good picture!

Pictures are good, use them frequently to break up text and add interest, but keep them relevant.  The pictures that you use need to add and not detract from your core messaging.  Read more about the importance of images in web design here.

Quotes are a great way of highlighting key information and breaking up text; tables and graphs are a good way to display complex or comparison data and headlines are essential to the structure of your page. Using a mixture of content will ensure your content is fresh meaning that website visitors stay engaged, buying you more time to win them over.

Be clever, be intriguing and invite curiosity

Not only do headlines break up vast blocks of text, but they offer readers a quick, at-a-glance clue to what the following content is all about.  A good headline is informative, relevant and entices a website visitor to continue reading, so it is critical to get this part right as strong headlines will help to elevate your copy, impacting on everything from your websites search engine ranking through to your conversion rates.

Information and facts are all well and good, but great copy needs to be engaging

The art of website copy writing rests upon the ability to present important information in a way that is interesting and engaging. Personality counts for a lot but that doesn’t mean you need to lapse into informal speech or become a hipster.  You can still be entirely human, likeable and interesting whilst maintaining professional credibility.

Copy writing tips you can take away

• Highlight all of the benefits and/or problems your service or products can solve
• Include information on how to use your service or products
• Be sure to highlight your USPs, this will help give people a reason to choose you over your competitors
• Mix up your content so that you use pictures, graphics, text, quotes and headlines
• Include strong calls to action e.g. ‘contact us now for a free quote’
• Include detailed service and/or delivery information
• The point of all your copy is to inform, persuade and convert so keep those goals in mind
• Use attractive, high quality pictures wherever possible or video content which is even better

For more information on content marketing and how to produce strong content, see the blog post 10 crucial content marketing questions.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

The importance of images in web design

Most of us are aware that the use of images in social media communications increases engagement, but does this visual approach also translate through to your web site?

Web users are bored easily. Why wouldn’t they be when they know that another quick click and they can get something better? It’s no longer enough to just put the information on the page – you have to engage your readers with some visual attraction too. The number one way to do this? Using effectively chosen images to increase the clarity of your message, look more attractive, and convey your personality.

Engaging images – making your point in a millisecond

The cliché is true; a picture says a thousand words. They capture moments and feelings which evoke and draw the reader in, providing clarity on your message and your values. The perfect image will engage and entertain the user – which is exactly what you want your website to do. You want it to be a place where your user wants to come back.

Images of credibility

Real pictures increase your credibility. It is an assertion to the world that you are willing to represent your brand authentically, that you are proud of who you are and that you are transparent about it. People love to see who they will be dealing with, and being able to put faces to names makes you far more approachable too. Did you know that users spend, on average, three times as long looking at a person’s picture than their biography even though the biography takes up more room on the page?

It is especially important to think about using real images on your About Us page

Creating a professional image

Professional imagery and professional design creates an image of a professional company. Custom design and imagery will always be the best way of supporting and broadcasting your brand image and clarifying your message in a memorable and engaging way.

Balancing your design – contrast and whitespace

Let’s face it – a web page with no images on it looks pretty boring. On a very basic level, images bring contrast to a design which actually helps to emphasise your content by giving it the space to breathe. I’ve written before about how vital effective use of whitespace is in web design, and one of the main ways that the right balance is reached is by effectively changing the sizes and placement of images to complement and contrast the text.

The flip side – bad stock imagery and bland graphics

While great images make a great impression and clarify your message you do have to be aware that bad images can actually make things worse by sending conflicting messages. It’s all too easy to make mistakes with cheesy stock images. Stock imagery makes money because their messages are broad and ultimately generic, which means they aren’t in the best position to emphasise your point. Sometimes you can stumble on something perfect, but don’t run the risk of confusing your reader
with a poor choice!

We’re visual creatures

At the end of the day, we do judge books by their cover and make snap decisions based on what something looks like. When it only takes one click for your user to leave your website you have to do everything in your power to make them stay – and your website images are paramount to achieving that goal.

With thanks to guest blogger, Simon Bonello of British Design Experts.

Simon Bonello is the Director of British Design Experts, a design agency which specialises in creating professional and affordable logo design and digital work for start-ups and small businesses in the UK. He has helped thousands of start-ups to get a professional identity online and is an expert on developing a company logo and brand, creating an optimised online presence with SEO and social media, and is always happy to share his knowledge and give advice to start-ups.

Free social media icon image

Here is a free social media icon image that you are welcome to use! As with all of my icons and graphics, if you use it, all I ask is that you post a comment on my blog with a link through to where you’ve used it!

Free social media icons image by Ubersocialmedia.co.uk – click here to download

If you are looking for a social media image or logo set then you are welcome to download and use this free image i’ve designed.

Go ahead, download, use, share, enjoy!  If you are looking for social media icon sets, then take a look at this great selection 50 Killer Free Social Media Icon Sets from Hubspots blog.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

Who should handle your social media?

Social media is important, through it you present an image of your company or brand, with the goal of positively influencing brand perception in order to attract and convert. The image you present in social media should therefore be just as well thought out as the image you present in any of your other marketing activities.

Would you invest resources into a major trade show and turn up with a trestle table and some flyers? Would you place a press advert without including a call to action, your web address or your company logo?

It might  sound crazy, but an awful lot of businesses get on the social bandwagon simply because their competitors are doing it or because they think they should, with little or no regard at all to what they want to achieve from it, let alone anything resembling a clear strategy.

When it comes to social media you can’t afford to get it wrong and increasingly, you can’t afford to simply choose not do it at all. As with any job, if you plan to appoint someone internally, you need to find the person or people with the relevant skills and experience.  Don’t trust your social media activities to a junior member of staff simply because they have time on their hands and don’t choose the employee who declares an interest because they use Facebook a lot.

An employee using social media for personal purposes is entirely different to that same employee speaking for your brand and using  social for business purposes.  Having more than a passing familiarity with social doesn’t mean they are the right person for the job.

The most capable candidate to handle your social media will often come from within the marketing department.  If you have an existing community manager then they are also a good bet.  My advice is to steer away from allocating social to members of the sales team and whoever you do choose, make sure they understand your goals, have good people skills (being friendly and approachable is a must in social media as is having a passion for customer service) and make sure that they have creativity with regards to coming up with ideas on how to engage followers.

Effective social media takes creativity, great interpersonal skills plus a strong grasp of business objectives.

It’s common, especially in SMEs, for social media to be handled by a number of different employees.  Whilst this can help spread the load and can help to keep content fresh, it can also mean that your communications suffer from a lack of coherence. My personal preference is to give responsibility to no more than a couple of individuals, though it will depend on the number of social media platforms you are active on and the scope of activities you plan to carry out.

For many SMEs, handling social media activity internally isn’t an option as they don’t have either the time or expertise to do it themselves, in which case calling in the services of an experienced agency or freelancer is the way to go.  The following list details all of the main considerations you will need to make before deciding on who to appoint to look after your social media activities.

Who should handle your social media? key insights to take away…

1. Handling social media in-house is still an investment

If you appoint someone internally, ensure that you are realistic in both what you expect them to achieve and in how long it will take; monitoring social daily takes time and even more time to do it effectively.  If you are only investing an hour or two a week into social, then the results you get will reflect that.

2. Don’t be afraid to outsource social

Good digital agencies will have extensive experience of working with clients across multiple sectors and will be able to use tried and tested techniques that will work for you.  Arm them with additional insight into who your target audience is and what it is you want to achieve and outsourcing social to the experts will pay off.

3. Limit potential social fallout

Limit access to the corporate social media accounts and ensure that login information is centrally held by a senior manager, as in the case of the recent HMV rogue Tweeter, you need a fail safe.

4. It’s social media, not a sales channel

Don’t make your activities all about selling, of course people love a great sales promotion or competition and will equally be keen to hear news from you, but don’t bombard them.  Do not use social like a sales channel because if you do you’ll turn people off and lose them.

5. Be flexible to aid creativity

Maintain flexibility, don’t be too regimented in tone and frequency; this stifles creativity and will do exactly the opposite of what you want it to achieve.

6. Set social guidelines

Consider implementing a social policy or provide guidelines for employees to follow so they understand all communications need to fit your brand and work to achieve business objectives.

7. Keep it consistent

If you use Bitly to shorten your URLs then use it all the time, using different tools and styles of communication leads to your activities appearing haphazard and should be avoided.

8. Be realistic

Carrying out even small-scale social marketing activities takes a considerable time investment; don’t leap into it until you understand the extent of the investment you’ll need to make.

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

Free desktop PC computer illustration icon

I’ve done a super simple, totally free desktop PC illustration – the screen is really easy to overlay with your choice of graphic or website over the top to give it a bit of personalisation.  Ideal for anyone wanting a free PC Icon, or a free illustrated PC to use in an infographic, report, on a website or in a presentation document.

Free Desktop PC computer illustration icon from ubersocialmedia.co.uk

As mentioned previously, this is completely free, but if you do download and use it, please write a comment with a link, as It’s always nice to see my design work being used!

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

The freelance and home workers guide to productivity

When you talk to friends or acquaintances about working freelance or being home based, you invariably get the same responses.  Envy, shortly followed by incredulity that you don’t simply stay in bed and sleep all day/watch TV/play golf.

“I find the ability to work from home whilst wearing my ridiculous giraffe onesie, a particularly liberating experience.”

After working from home for more than 8 year, I rarely get the chance to work from home these days so when I do, I know exactly how to make the most of my time to ensure I am super-productive.  My alarm still goes off at roughly the same time, I get up and get dressed and am ready for a full working day well before i’d normally arrive at the office, so straight away i’m off to a head start.

To be honest, it’s now such a rarity that the novelty of working from home these days means I want to make the most of it, and it’s not uncommon for me to be dealing with clients in a highly professional manner (of course) whilst wearing my ridiculous giraffe onesie. By doing this, I have proven my working hypothesis; that liberating your clothing choices helps to spark creativity; I’m not advocating spending all day in your pajamas or fancy dress, but the relaxed dress code afforded by working at home, does in my experience have a very positive effect on my creativity.

No naughty sofa man! Stop smiling and go and get dressed!

Get up and get dressed

Discipline is critical when you are working from home, as is the ability to manage your own time.  A lie in is tempting, and of course, one of the benefits of freelance work is that you can do things at a time that works for you, but don’t forget your clients will be up and working, largely between the hours of 9am and 6pm and will expect you to be around then too.

If you work collaboratively, your co-workers who are perhaps office based, will expect you to be accessible during normal working hours too. It might feel like you are on holiday, but you are not.  Set the alarm at a decent time, get up, get dressed, grab a coffee and make sure you are ready to go by 9am.

Stay on task and stay focused

Unlike being at the office, when you nip into the kitchen for a coffee, you’ll also notice the washing machine light blinking at you to say its cycle is complete.  You’ll notice the crumbs on the work counter, the bin that needs emptying, the rug that need vacuuming.  Strike them from your mind (unless you are having a lunch break) and try to ignore them.  They are not a priority right now.  In general, I will happily do any minor chores in the time it takes for the kettle to boil – anything house related that would take longer simply waits until after 5.30pm.

Minimise distractions

I read an article recently that suggested having the TV on as company/background noise was a good idea.  Not so!  TV is designed to grab your attention – don’t do it!  If you don’t end up slumped and slack-jawed in front of it, you’ll end up getting drawn in to what is going on, meaning your attention won’t be on your work.  The last thing you want is for the quality of work you produce at home to differ from the usual quality of your work.

Build a strong work ethic

Let’s face it, we all have days when we aren’t as productive as we could be.  Perhaps we are distracted, creativity is not flowing or we have a problem we need to find a solution to.  Don’t beat yourself up over down time.  I find I get more done when I work from home and that’s because I do what I want to do, when I want to do it.  I don’t have colleagues distracting me and I don’t have (as many) clients on the phone demanding my attention and taking my mind off whatever I was in the middle of doing. That said, having worked freelance for so long, I knew that if I wasn’t working, I wasn’t earning – simple as that, and knowing that was always more than sufficient motivation for me to maintain a strong work ethic.

Enjoy the freedom

I’ll often find I’ve done everything I wanted to do well before of 5.30pm or sometimes i’ll take a long lunch and use the time to recharge my brain and get a bit of creative fizz back. If my mind is continually wandering, it generally means I need to take a break and whilst at work you can feel guilty and it is frowned upon to simply take a break when you feel like it, working from home gives you that freedom and is probably what I love most about it.

Oh hai little guy. Mr squashy face needs a cuddle, yes he does!

Even when you do finish at 5.30pm, you get the added benefit of no ghastly commute.  There’s an extra hour (or however long your usual commute is) right there that is all yours!  It’s amazing what a difference the extra time can have and really helps to influence your work/life balance in a positive way.

Working from home?  Watch out for these sneaky productivity zappers!

• Loveable pets are dastardly at thwarting attempts to work and will do all manner of cute and endearing things to drag your attention away from work.  A quick few minutes of fussing is fine and a great way to give your brain a quick rest or relieve stress; just don’t let that few minutes of petting turn into playing in the garden or going for a walk – wait until lunch time or after work for that.

• Friends and family are often just the worst at demanding time and attention when you’re working from home.  Be strict, don’t let chatty phone-calls distract you and when there is a knock at the door and a friend turns up for coffee make sure you are very clear in letting them know you work from home.  Just because you are at home it doesn’t mean you don’t still have to be working.

• TV.  Do not turn the tv on, for anything, ever, during work hours.

• Wearing your PJs might be tempting, but isn’t conducive to a professional mindset.  Get up, take a shower as usual and get dressed and your head with be in the right place for work.  Stay in your PJs and you’ll feel like you have the day off.

• Don’t sign in to any instant chat services.  If you use them for work, that’s fine, but make your status ‘busy’ or similar to stop friends popping up wanting to chat.

• Stay away from social media.  Again, if you use this for work fine, but don’t even look at your Facebook wall or Twitter stream because you WILL see several things you just have to read and comment on.

• The cup of tea or mid morning 5 minute break can be a real killer of productivity – if you must venture into the kitchen, either ignore the carnage from last nights dinner or set aside time during your usual lunch break to deal with it.  Don’t let it draw you in and break your work flow.

Do you work from home regularly?  Do you have any tips to share?

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!

 

 

Crucial Content Marketing Checklist – 10 questions to ask yourself before you publish new content

With strategic content creation, (the creation of content with a specific business goal in mind), it is critical that you take a systematic approach to ensure the quality and clarity of your content. As a result, I’ve put together this list of 10 questions to help ensure that the quality of all content you produce and publish is consistently high.  I’m often guilty myself of only having a cursory read over articles before I hit the ‘publish’ button.  The excitement of new content always leaves me eager to get it live and share it with people, but haste is not conducive to great quality content.

Rushing to share new content is tempting, but it won’t do you any favours

Even with good attention to detail, proof reading can be difficult, especially when you are the author and as such are highly familiar with the content. When reading the brain makes a number of inferences and educated guesses; instead of reading entire words the brain often picks up a few letter cues and based on those cues will fill in the blanks.  This means that when we read, without realising it, we often skip individual letters which makes it difficult to spot the odd typo.

Once you start writing about a subject it’s easy to veer off topic or end up with content that is unbalanced or even a bit waffly.  To make sure that your content is as good as it can be, considering the following questions will help. This list serves me well and I now have a quick run through it before I post any new content; I hope you will find it useful too.

10 questions to ask yourself before you publish new content

1. How clear is your messaging?

What is the point of your article?  Do you say everything you need to say in a clear and easy to follow way?  Do you waffle on and become irrelevant anywhere down the line? Content can often be edited down to improve the focus and clarity of the piece, but don’t strip it down ruthlessly.  Bare can be just as unappealing as long waffly content is.

2. Are you using relevant keywords?

Does your content contain useful keywords that reinforce the subject matter of your article?  For SEO purposes, ensuring that the keywords people will use to search for your content, are included in the headline and body is important in determining how well your content will rank.

Don’t forget that many commercial blogging platforms also allow you to choose keyword tags and categories for your content to be published under; making effective use of keyword tagging can be an effective way to reach new readers.

3. Have you looked at your content with fresh eyes?

Get a colleague, friend our family member to proof read your content before you post, just to be absolutely certain.  Failing that, leave your content for 24 hours before goming back to it gor a final read through.  You are much more likely to spot any errors you might have missed whilst writing and during your first few read-throughs.

4. Have you included calls to action?

Do you provide clear, useful calls to action in your content?  Actions range from asking people to register for a seminar, picking up the phone and calling your company to find out more or leaving their own comments on the article.

5. Is your headline winning?

A good headline can make or break your content and will seriously determine the levels of engagement you are able to achieve.  A good headline needs to be attention grabbing and should clearly summarise the nature of the content.

6. Does your content pop?

It’s a fact that people respond better to posts that are visual.  Have you broken up your text by using sub headings, lists, quotes and images?  This will ensure you achieve maximum engagement levels.

7. Have you included an Author link?

Link all of your content to you by using the Google+ rel=”author” link.  This will ensure that your content stands out in search results and helps increase your credibility and exposure.  It’s super easy to implement too so is definitely worth doing.

8. Do your links work?

Have you included useful links in your content?  If so, make sure they all work and pay attention to how they open.  Taking a reader away from your page might not be a great idea, in which case you might want to open a new window with your link.

Likewise, deep linking through to relevant content on your website, news or blog page plays an important role in SEO.  Finally, make sure all pictures included in your post are showing correctly and don’t have broken paths or links.

9. When are you going to publish?

The time of day and actual day of the week that you choose to post content on will help to determine how well it is received.

There are universally accepted best times and days to post content. For example, currently, content posted on a Monday morning is reported to achieve the highest levels of engagement but find what works for your audience.

Try posting on various different days at different times and track what happens to find out which day and time work best for you.

Remember though, you can publish your content at pretty much any time you want and simply hold off promoting until an optimal time/day.

10. How are you going to promote your content?

Once you’ve published your new content you need to tell people about it.  It can take Google anything from a few hours to many days before it will pick up and list your new content, so search engines alone should not be relied upon for sending you traffic.

Use all the channels available to you from your clients or companies news page through to social media.  Social is the ideal way to promote your article so make sure you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc to publicise your new content. Digg, Reddit and Stumble Upon can also generate traffic to your blog but in my experience traffic from these sources is prone to suffer from high bounce rates.

I hope these 10 questions prove useful to you and as always, i’d love to hear your thoughts on this post!

Shell Robshaw-Bryan is a marketing consultant at Surefire Media, the Cheshire based web design, eCommerce and marketing company. Shell specialises in organic search, content strategy and social media engagement for both B2C and B2B companies.

If you’d like to find out how Surefire Media can help your business, get in touch!