BUSINESS SERIES | GET YOUR BUSINESS BUTT ONLINE

Okay business buddies, grab a cup of tea & a spoon full of Nutella ahem, a healthy snack like hummus and buckle up!

I’ve been wanting to start a little business series on my blog for quite some time now but I’ve had the usual reservations:

I am NOT.ONE.BIT an expert on this stuff / my business is still so “new” (4 years in, yikes!) / Where do I even begin? (There is SO much that goes into running a business, and even while drafting this post I was like, eeek, there is so much I should be covering first!)/ I want to help alllll small businesses and not just photographers (because I am a HUGE believer in following your dreams even when it’s hard and full of stuff you never knew you would have to manage!)/ I’m constantly learning & growing and changing, so I’ll only be able to share it all when I know it all.

Even just writing these things makes me realize how silly it is to wait and how much I want to share this journey that is working from home in slippers, creating a life that I love (but also sometimes question) and just how much I want to share and build other business buddies up in the process.

So I’m not entirely sure if this series will have any sort of coherent flow, I’ll probably hop in and out with excitement here and there, sharing bits and pieces (that you might already know and wonder if I live under a rock!) But the point is that I would like to help point you  build your business in “a” direction (I’m neither confirming nor denying it’s the right one), and I’d love to start having more conversations with you around this solo-preneurship/girl boss/business-owning-trying-to-figure-things-out journey that we’re on.

Ready? Me too!

Here’s step #1 to kick off this series:

GET (THAT GORGEOUS) BUSINESS BUTT OF YOURS ONLINE!

If you are running a small business, you’ll probably (hopefully) already have set up a website for your business and a Facebook business page. You know that you need to be visible online to attract customers, advertise yourself and generate potential leads. I know, it can all seem really really overwhelming with so many platforms to choose from and it can take SO.MUCH.TIME away from what you actually DO in your business, but we know you’ve got to be present so here’s a little more about how I manage my online world.

While I’m absolutely no SEO expert (seriously, still trying to figure all that stuff out), I have managed to create a neat little system for myself when it comes to online management (because I was spending far too much of my precious moola-making time playing on Pinterest and pretending it was work!) There are many ways of managing your social media marketing for your business on a daily scale, my way is just one way, implement it to your heart’s content!

Most of you will have the foundations of a functional website, a Facebook business page, a Pinterest business page, a twitter account and an Instagram account set up. I know it sounds like a lot but I’ll go through these each in the coming weeks, for now here’s an overview of what I do, the apps I use and the structures I’m trying to put into place to make my online life a little more streamlined (so I have more time to blog exciting stuff, sort out my taxes and take long hot bubble baths!)

MY SOCIAL MEDIA STRUCTURE 

1. Monthly Calendar Printout

(I love this free download from Scattred Squirrel.com mostly because of the blogs’ seriously cute name (makes me giggle every time!) and because her designs are so cute & colourful! But these A4 monthly calendars also have big enough blocks and a note section I can write my three big goals for the month in (more on goal setting next week!)

Note: I also have a daily agenda (you know, the old school pen and paper type) that my daily to-do’s and appointments go in. This printed calendar is used purely for my social media and marketing campaign.

HOW DO I USE IT?

I print out three months at a time for the front of my A4 tabbed diary. I run my photography business, but I also have a few other projects on the go so keeping all my brainstorming/planning/scribbles and notes in one place has become essential.

(Note: In my A4 planner I also have a section that is for me: work-out goals/affirmations/journal snippets. I’ll tell you more about how this has transformed my business life in the coming weeks!) But back to the calendar…

 – I write my three big goals in the lined note section on each month according to where I want my business to be in the first 1/4 of the year. It can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be.

 – I then schedule in the big deadlines/launches/holiday themes I need to work around for the coming three months.

 – Next, at the start of the month I sit down and work out what blog series/online “stories” I’ll be telling that month and I begin to plot them into the month’s blocks. For example: Monday: sharing a recent image, Tuesday: Talking more with my ideal clients, Wednesday: something about marketing/advertising. Thursday: I do a “Thankful Thursday” post and Friday has become my fun day where I share different series of things (more about me/what I’m up to with other businesses etc).

 – My month at a glance! On this calendar I can see at a glance when I need to post and what I’ll post, and when I need to plan those posts. I usually design anything that needs prepping during the week in one hour allocated time slots during my days and then sit in front of Grey’s Anatomy/The Bachelor/Love it or List it on a Sunday night (while hubby is having a computer game evening) and sit and schedule all my posts for the week.

Yes, it probably sounds like I’ve been living under a rock BUT these scheduling tools below are “app”solutely (see what i did there!) rocking my world!

2. Start with your website content

Bit.ly.com. Set up an account right.this.second. It’s easy and free and you can customise your links to look less like this: https://www.christinewphotography.com/a-bit-about-you/collections/collections-elopements-intimate-weddings/ and more like this: http://bit.ly/elopementcollections. This makes for MUCH better sharing when it comes to all the social media platforms I’m about to dive into (brieftly – more in depth coming soon!) Also, it allows you to track your clicks and shares and a bunch of other cool stuff, check it out!

3. Head onto your social media platforms. 

First up – Facebook!

Yes, I know, all the algorithm, advertising blah, blah, blah. (When I figure out the best solution to this problem I’ll let you know – I’m still analysing my paid adverts and their response etc). SO, I’m just keeping on keeping on with Facebook. If you have social media buttons activated on your website, sharing on Facebook is a way to link directly to your specific posts (once they are customized with Bit.ly) and you can also upload a specific image to go with your posts. ANNNND, you can schedule your posts (you probably know this, but for any of you who don’t), here’s how:

(Being able to schedule according to time zones has really made balancing business in South Africa while I’m in Canada much easier because it’s authentic, intentional posts, but they pop up while I’m asleep!)

Next, let’s talk about Twitter

Guys, I am SO no expert on Twitter. I didn’t tweet anything for like over a year! Haha, but! I’m getting back into it and making it an intentional part of my social media management for my business with the terrific help of the Bufferapp.com. Check it out. It’s another great tool to use for scheduling your tweets. So just like I adapt my website content for my Facebook posts, according to my monthly calendar, I do the same for Twitter. NOTE: It’s important to adapt your content so it’s similar but not the same on all platforms. Make sure you use a specific voice/posting “recipe” on the various platforms to keep your brand consistent. Again, I’m no expert and I definitely don’t have it down right just yet but I’m trying!

Along with scheduled posts letting the Twitter-verse know what I’m up to in my business, I also try to take time to intentionally tweet other awesome, general life stuff and connecting more authentically on Twitter. It’s not as scary as it sounds and can all be done on your smartphone while sitting on a train/waiting for a meeting/waiting for your bubble bath. While I schedule a lot on twitter, I also hop and off throughout the week for more spontaneous tweets. Do what works for you and your business.

PLEASE can I play on Pinterest? 

It’s work right? Okay, okay, I can’t seem to justify too much time on this (apart from client inspo boards & weekend decor & DIY ideas), but I have made a concerted effort this year to schedule time to work on my profile, update my boards and keep things moving on Pinterest. It’s important that you set up a business Pinterest board to track your analytics if you are into that and I’m learning more about this platform more and more every week (which I’ll share soon). But personally, Pinterest is a bit of fun and pretty for me and not necessarily where I focus my social media marketing and lead generating (Note: I’ll probably read this post in a couple of months time and have a good chuckle at myself but I’ll keep you posted!)

I LURVE Insta-G! 

This is SO where I have all my fun. So much so that I have three accounts…crazy I know. Maybe don’t listen to my advice on that but I love it so it works for me.

I have one personal – that’s locked and private and where I share most of my selfies/family snaps etc. I do share some personal stuff on my other accounts but not as much and it’s more curated and not as open. On my personal account I can over-share and over-post and just keep a general personal visual diary without worrying too much about curation etc. Two accounts isn’t for everyone but I like having the option.

I then have my photography business account – that’s really focused on my work and my marketing launches and sharing my BEA.Utiful clients and their proposals/engagements/boudoir & weddings (with some cute baby bumps and mini munchkins here) and a sprinkling of my personal life.

I have a third account that I manage for my other blog (paperplanesandpeaches.com) which is my new little baby & space for all things pretty and positive and personal growth. I made the decision to launch this last year because I wanted a corner of the internet I could grow my other dimensions of business into. It’s a lot to manage but it’s all on my calendar and I’ve got it (semi) covered so for now it’s working!

There are some scheduling apps available for Instagram but I prefer this to be my outlet for (planned) but current content sharing. Again, do it according to what works for you and your business.

All in all, I (generally) spend the following time on getting my business butt online each week:

Sundays: one – two hours (while planted in front of my cheesy girl shows) scheduling all posts for the coming week.

 Monday – Friday: one hour/day spent designing anything for posts (using illustrator/photoshop). I often run over an hour but I’m trying to focus and be intentional with my time.

 Daily: 6am – 8am. During this time I’m up and I’m making breakfast/being inspired by all the fitness accounts I follow on Instagram/do a quick 30 min workout session/catch up on any notifications from my scheduled posts. I’m finding having posts scheduled gives me this time to start the days on a more focused and calm level, no matter where I’m working from that day.

8am – 9am: Morning mails/replying to comments (thanks to timezones)/checking all posts are up and active/checking diary and getting focussed on goals and intentions for the day (coming next week!)

 1pm: Quick lunch hour catch up on twitter/instagram

 4pm: my “slump”time where I take a breather and browse the internet for awesome life content/doodle designs/print quotes because I have a crazy obsession/read bookmarked business blogs or watch inspirational Ted talks.

6pm: Wrap up for the day and make sure my posts/content is all correctly scheduled for the week/change anything that needs to be updated to stay current. Dinner/evening/yoga etc. (NOTE: I am a terrible “work at all hours” person, so I’m really trying hard to implement this 6pm curfew! Sometimes easier said than done!)

 10pm: Bubble bath, doodle time, reading/journaling/& PINTEREST!

Wow! If you are still here at the bottom of this post, thank you for sticking with me, you are awesome!

Lots more business buddy tips, tricks and general talk coming your way in the next few installments of this online series.

See you soon!

xx