Tuesday 28 February 2017

6. Instagram

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 6th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Enjoy, and Happy New Year 2017.

Instagram is “Facebook for 2016 and people born after 1990, oh and all iPhone, iPad and apple adherents”.   Its mostly pictures, very few words, and easy to post in.    This appeals to the young.  

It can be the visual identity of your business on the internet and definitely at minimum a visual presence for your business.  

If you run a consumer based business, it is an excellent forum to post photos of charity events that your company sponsors, pictures of your product and brand, and raise awareness of your business services.   

If you have the resources to create a major campaign, Instagram is an excellent place to do so.  

Consider a contest where the prize would be $5,000 to a charity of choice based on the number of likes that a proposal or charity were to garner.  
Think of the incredibly successful movember campaigns or ice bucket challenges. 
These types of campaigns are ideal for a photo/video based social network such as Instagram.  





Monday 20 February 2017

5. Blogging

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 5th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the professional independent consumer based business.    Enjoy, and Happy New Year 2017.
#FinancialServices #Mortgage #Insurance #Appraisers #BloggingForBusiness

Blogs are articles where you discuss your industry, current issues and events in your business and marketplace, and occasionally, offer up your product as a solution to one or more of the issues that face your industry. The intent is to share the useful bits of your expertise.  

Great places to blog and tools to use include blogspot.com and wordpress.com

How to:

  • Create your spot to blog (blogspot.com, haha…get it!).   Include some information about yourself and your area of expertise.   Add a background and some colour .
  • Post articles weekly.   These articles are meant to share information, invite comment and introspection and become and essential service for the reader.   This will keep them coming back.  Stymied on what to write?   Please refer to an earlier blog:  What to write? What to right? 
  • Add tags to each blog to describe the content.   This is how you will be found.


  • Publish the blog.


  • Publish links to the blog on all your other social media.


  • And your website.   Don’t forget to link your website into this publishing frenzy.  



Friday 10 February 2017

4. YouTube

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 4th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for t 
for #FinancialServices #Mortgage #Insurance #Appraisers – professional independent consumer based businesses.    Enjoy, and Happy New Year 2017.

Who doesn’t search on YouTube when you need information?  
Is there a better place to share your expertise, establish your brand, and market your product (also known as “solve your customer’s very specific problems with your offering”)?

YouTube videos can be slides, lectures, notes with voice over, actual videos.   Convert all of the above into videos, add tags and publish.   The tags should contain your intended audience.  


  • Post weekly.   These videos are meant to share information, invite comment and introspection and become and essential service for the reader.    


  • Add tags to each blog to describe the content.   This is how you will be found.


  • Publish links to the video on all your other social media.


  • And your website.   Don’t forget to link your website into this publishing frenzy.  

YouTube is a great good!   Remember, Justin Beiber was discovered via YouTube.  





Thursday 2 February 2017

3. Twitter

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the third in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Enjoy, and Happy New Year 2017.

How can anyone communicate any useful ideas in 140 characters? Let me count the ways:
  1. Comment quickly
  2. Be clever
  3. Retweet someone else’s genius
  4. Add a photo or video link
  5. Add a link to a blog or a useful article


Comment quickly:
Commenting on current events and opinions is a great way to come up with tweets.   As you read news or listen to current affairs, issues that everyone is aware of will come up.   Commenting on these is easy because most people will background information. 

Be clever :
#beclever  is one of the many easier-said-than-done ‘isms.   It is in great company with 1. To lose weight, eat less, exercise more and   2. To win the game, we need to score more goals.  

Retweet someone else’s genius:
The lazy man’s guide to life includes this advice on twitter:   to appear clever when you are not, retweet someone else’s clever. 

Add a photo or video link:
Finding a great photo that is seasonal, or topical (not tropical… although tropical is probably trending in this northern winter) or a video and tweet that.  Create a longwinded video with your brand and marketing message and tweet a link to that video.

Add a link to a blog or a useful article:
What is ever so useful on twitter is the ability to link to a blog, or useful article.   The article should be informative and contain your essential marketing message:  the problem that you solve.   It can also reflect your brand.   This is advertising in its best form.   You are providing useful information to the reader.  Twitter gives you a place to hook the reader and the ability to link to your article. 


Footnote: Twitter is not expected to live past 2017 by many experts.