One of the most common questions I am asked is simply, “What should I post on social media for my business?”.  And while it’s a simple question, the answer differs depending on a wide variety of factors.

Facebook post types can vary depending on the industry of business and the nature of that business’ Facebook page.  If you have a lot going on in the near future, it’s easy to post about what’s upcoming.  But what if you don’t have a special upcoming event, or a new product launching?  How do you stay connected to your audience, without becoming a nuisance or ultimately losing followers?

Here are two types of posts that any business can do on a frequent basis to engage with your audience while still offering value: educational and positive.

1. EDUCATIONAL

Educational posts are a win-win for everyone; the poster and followers.  The poster interacts with followers and the followers could possibly learn something new.  There are tons of articles and blogs written daily on topics that may be relevant to your business that you can then share or link to.  Make sure you include a brief description of WHY you found this important enough to share.

For example, you’re in the clothing industry and a new type of fabric has been created.  Or, you’ve found a neat, short video with an innovative way to fold t-shirts.  You can share those items and it should provide some value to your followers.

The main goal of sharing educational posts is to PROVIDE VALUE and in-turn associate that value with your brand.

2. POSITIVE

Positive posts can be anything ranging from a beautiful landscape, to a positive quote.  These are quick and easy to view.  Try to avoid anything political that could cause too much of a backlash.  If you’re going to be radical, make sure you’re ready to deal with damage control (see my previous blog on Damage Control here).

For example, try to balance out positive quotes with a bit of humour and a bit of beautiful photography. Mix it all together and spread it out and you’ll be making positive impacts on your followers.

The main goal of sharing positive posts is to spread positivity and associate said positivity with your brand.

You’re ready to share positivity with your followers

Next time you’re running out of things to post, reach for something with educational or positive content.  You can even keep a few saved on your computer as backup when you’re in a pinch.  While there are many different types of posts, these two types are great for frequent impact and will leave a positive impression on your followers while also building your brand.

If you are looking for help building your online presence and awareness through social media marketing, I invite you to contact me by telephone or email, or through FacebookTwitter, or LinkedIn.  I look forward to helping you help our community!

Until next time,

Deanna

As a Virtual Admin, I help my clients save time by handling some of their day to day virtual admin tasks.  As such, I’ve come across a trick or two for saving time myself.  As we all know, time is money.  Here are my top 5 simple time-saving tech tips that I swear by!

My Top 5 Simple Time-Saving Tech Tips

1. Keyboard shortcuts

If you’re not using keyboard shortcuts, you could be saving so much more time. The most common keyboard shortcuts include:

    1. Ctrl + C = Copy
    2. Ctrl + V = Paste
    3. Ctrl + Z = Undo
    4. Ctrl + X = Cut
    5. Ctrl + S = Save
    6. Ctrl + P = Print
    7. Ctrl + N = New (Page)
    8. Atl + Tab = Lets you switch between open pages/documents/programs (My absolute favourite!)

2. Organize your email inbox

Previously I was an account manager to over 30 companies and 300 contacts at my previous position. As such I HAD to find a way to organize all those emails.  The #1 rule I followed was to never allow my inbox over 10 emails.  How did I do this?  I created folders for EVERYTHING.

Example:

Inbox: Immediately received items only (max 10)

Folders:

  • Working: Emails that I was currently working on or would get to within 15 mins
  • Follow Up: Emails that I would be working on within that day
  • Client General Folders: i.e. Tim Hortons
    • Client Specific Folders: Support Requests, Projects, Customer Service, etc.
    • General Contact Folders: Contained emails from single-time senders from the company
    • Main Contact Folders: Contacts who I dealt with on a regular basis had their own folders

3. Declutter your desktop icons

Your desktop should be the gateway to the important documents on your computer.  It should only show the main folders/programs you use the most frequently for easy access.

How to set-up a shortcut:

If you use a document frequently, you can set up a shortcut right on your desktop to avoid searching through your folders each time.

  1. Right click the windows start button
  2. Select “Open Windows Explorer”
  3. Locate the document you want to create a shortcut for
  4. Right click on that document and select “Create Shortcut”
  5. You will see a new document called “Filename – Shortcut”
  6. Drag and drop this folder to desired location on your desktop
  7. Now when you open it via your desktop, it will bring you to that document

And don’t worry, anytime you open the document through the shortcut all your changes that you save will be saved to the shortcut linked document as well.

4. Organize Folders

Part of decluttering your desktop can include organizing your folders as well. Windows has a great folder hierarchy system that is easy to use.  You can create limitless folders so that you spend less time searching for a specific document.  Break it down by General Heading, and then into specific headings.  If you find you’re putting a lot of documents into one folder, see if you can further break it down.

5. Recall a sent email

Did you know that you can do this? If you have sent an email and it has not yet been seen/opened by the recipient, you can recall that email to remove it from the recipients inbox.  How cool is that?  This only works with Microsoft Outlook and may depend on your email service provider.

  1. Go to your sent folder
  2. Double click to open the sent email
  3. In the top panel, select the drop down for “Actions”
  4. Click “Recall This Message”
  5. It will ask if you want to just delete the message, or if you want to delete it and replace with a new message.
  6. Select, click “OK” and that’s it!

Just think of what you can do with all that time on your hands!  If you’re finding that you still wish you had more free time, I invite you to contact me to discuss how a Virtual Admin can lift some of those day-to-day tedious tasks from your workload.  It’s my specialty to save you time so you can concentrate on your business!

Hopefully I was able to save you some time.  If you’re still looking for help for day to day virtual tasks, or if you are looking for help building your online presence and awareness through social media marketing, I invite you to contact me by telephone or email, or through FacebookTwitter, or LinkedIn.  I look forward to helping you help our community!

Until next time,

Deanna

The busy entrepreneur is usually a jack of all trades.  They are the face, brains and brawn of their business; making sales, balancing the books, and providing exceptional goods and/or services to the community.

Now, with technology playing such a role in personal and business affairs, the entrepreneur is expected to also be a social media marketing specialist.

If you’re an entrepreneur finding yourself in this position, here are 5 tips to help make social media marketing a little easier so you have more time to focus on your business.

5 Social Media Tips for the Busy Entrepreneur

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