cre8you Online Blog

“WHAT AM I GOING TO SAY?”

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:26:00 GMT

...this is one of the most common question that cre8you is asked when we speak to people about creating original content for their page.

ANSWER: Research the internet and find out what calendar events may be happening in the year.

These might be charity events, cultural or religious events, International days, weeks, months, years or even events in your own business or organisation such as anniversaries.

Think about which events are most timely and relevant before you decide to support, donate, participate or help raise awareness for it.

Make sure you can sincerely relate to it or link it to your business. Don’t go spamming your wall with every cause that is coming up that month just because you think it will make your business look good.....cause it won’t.

Tips and Tricks

Start having conversations with your audience and networks a few weeks before the event. This will give anyone interested time to share their ideas, support and spread the news to their networks and community.

Go directly to the cause or events facebook page and post how your business is helping or participating.

Remember to add photos and videos of the how you have supported the cause or event.

Go onto people’s and page’s walls who also supported the cause or event and thank them.

Also don't forget to personally thank those who directly acknowledged or supported your event or cause by going onto their page and posting a thank you comment.

One wall, two ears

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:36:00 GMT

One of the biggest mistakes that business owners seem to make when starting to use social media is they start to create content that is all about them. They place content onto their wall that is about their business and their products. It just seems like the logical thing, right? Wrong...It's about learning how to listen.

Yep, fundamentally, the most important thing to do is to respond to people on your wall, because it increases the engagement and that is one of the key factors Facebook looks at when they decide what content gets through. So you should respond first and talk about yourself later.

But I know I can hear you saying...”then what the heck should I talk about if I’m not going to be talking about my business and products?” It becomes a chicken or the egg thing!!!

Try this..... go to your wall and ask your customers “just wondering what cool stuff you guys got up to this weekend?” Be careful though it may take a while for people to believe that you really care about the answer. If you have already set yourself up as a faceless business this post won’t help you. Instead you will need to put in a bit more effort. I know it sucks right (when life isn’t about you).

You’ll need to do some research on a couple of key people in your audience. Find the ones that looooooove to chat....then have a one on one interaction with them. Within this conversation again remember....It’s not about you. Get to know something about them and start on conversation around a topic that you would BOTH be interested in....try it and see what results you get. Then let me know...

How to leverage your existing promotional graphics via Facebook

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:40:00 GMT

.. and why not....you have already invested the time and money into producing it? This way it keeps both your offline customers and your online fans informed of up coming specials/promotions.. The trick is to make it a conversation not a post. I suggest you look at the products in your promotion and make a suggestion that creates conversation.

Below is an example of text you could use.

EXAMPLE:

"I saw this same bowl in a friend's place <hyperlink friend> the other day and asked her where she got it from, she said Bali and went on to explain how difficult it was to get it back in the country. She almost died when I said we import and stock them in our local store just down the road...... Got me thinking of so many other importing horror stories I have heard of over the years.....would love you to share one.

Remember facebook is not a marketer's platform; facebook is a social Media platform, so make it social: including a friend or fan, transfer the information as a conversation, experience or thought ...and don't sell.

Do you know how to upload your promotional graphics onto your page?

Lookers or Leads

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 03:04:00 GMT

One of our Bush Business Online participants recently asked “I see business pages popping up all over the place for places like Sunshine Coast & Noosa. I got into a panic and continued creating pages for the different areas my business covers, not wanting to miss out, but it appears there can be hundreds of pages for the same place. I was thinking it would be a marketing strategy for us, as people that want to camp on Fraser Island aren't interested in Teewah or Noosa North Shore. Is there a place for this, multiple pages? I look forward to your comments.”

Our opinion is that generally you should have 1 core page that concentrates on the overall values/ products/ services of your business and, if necessary, 1 to 2 additional pages that breakdown into your key market segments. Anymore than that and you run the risk confusing your followers and creating a moderation, engagement and content nightmare for yourself.

We suggest you start with 1 to 2 pages and grow from there. This way you know your capacity to administrate and moderate and supply valuable content. Smaller numbers of pages also allow you to answer questions and provide meaningful quality conversation that solves your customer’s problems or inspires their desire.

Tabs are another way that you could breakdown your product or service offerings without the hassle of making another page.

Don’t get caught up in the hype of trying to grab names for names sake. If someone is on Facebook and they are looking for products or services, they are more likely to type in “Where should I go camping this Easter?” onto their wall or on their friends wall then go to the search bar and type in camping.

Also remember that, people trust their friend’s opinions 90% of the time over a Google search. So instead of focusing on searchability on Facebook I would concentrate on encouraging existing customers to 'like' your page and share their comments, experiences and photos on your page (maybe even create a competition around sharing a photo to encourage this).

There is a big difference between getting leads and getting a lookers. If a person lands on a page that has shallow content coupled with spam and boring one way conversations they are more likely not to convert to a lead. Alternatively, if a person lands on a page that has engaging photos, good conversation that solves their problems then your leads will increase. Couple this with original content around topics related to your business and your looker to lead ratio will surely increase.

To be able to find out which pages to keep and which to drop we suggest that you start analysing and tabling your pages data. I suggest you start to pull some reports from all pages by going into your ‘edit page’ going to ‘insights’ then going to ‘export’.

So there are definite advantages to having more than one page but equally so there are many disadvantages to have too many fb pages, it is about finding the balance and what is most effective at converting lookers into leads.

Some examples of topics you could write on that might capture your target’s eye - ‘eg Top 10 tips on how to get the girlfriend to like camping? How to go camping without any gear, or how to stop the wife whinging about the set up during camping?’ .

We are not your people.

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:46:00 GMT

I think it is about time we explained why we train social media and why our company vision seems a little squeif to online marketing.

Fundamentally we are developing a platform to share knowledge. It is about creating a personal learning environment for individuals to change their lives by reflecting on their own unique life lessons.

Cre8you was originally Lisa’s idea and I was brave enough to jump on the bus and help drive it, not to mention, stay on it through all the turns, bumps and breakdowns.

But what made me take the ride in the first place was Lisa and my common interest as trainers, and the experience of training someone something new that could change their lives.

At the time we decided to work fulltime on cre8you we were both living in a rural town of Queensland Australia. It had 2 small grocery stores, 2 pubs and 2 police officers, my husband being one of them and lots of farmers (of which Lisa’s husband was one) and not much else. So finding the resources to develop an online product was going to be friggin hard right from the get go.

So we turned to the internet itself to help us to find the knowledge and resources we needed to get started. This is when we found the power of the web and how it could negate the issue of physical distance to reach experts and industry specialist, through the use of skype, clouds and social media.

The solutions that we created we discovered where needed by so many other small business owners that we spoke to. So when the Small Business Online grant came to our awareness we focused on writing the grant in just 4 days and 3 nights of which we only had a few hours sleep throughout. We knew how important it was for other small business owners to learn how to use these tools.

We also knew it would be the perfect project to test our platform and refine our model.

So, and I want to make this clear, it wasn’t about jumping on a bandwagon and making a quick buck. God knows it has actually cost us money to deliver this program. It was about the core of why we started cre8you which was to connect people who want to learn stuff with people who are passionate about teaching it.

Our training is about practical applications of social media and cloud computing that solve problems in your business and not about creating followings for followings sake. We don’t intend on making it our core business but we do intend on continuing to share what we are learning, both success and failures, and how they apply it small business.

We are not experts or gurus and cringe at the thought of being labelled as one. We don’t think it is possible to be an expert in such an organic and ever changing market. What you know today you may have to relearn tomorrow because things in the industry change overnight.

So if you are looking for a social media expert that will teach you how to get 5000 friends on facebook and 10’s of 1000’s of followers on twitter we are not your people. We don’t train social media broadcasting! It doesn’t sit well within our ethos to broadcast “surface level stuff” to the masses. Instead we train viral marketing that teaches 'say something of value to an audience of interested listeners/customers and solve one or many of their problems'.

We are small business owners who are passionate about using the endless potential of the internet to solve problems both professionally (and eventually) personally....or something close to that anyway.

You're never too old, OR YOUNG, to learn about social media.

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:35:00 GMT

I recently read an article in the Gympie Times about Barry Bull whose latest book “How to evolve your business” talks about how the key to surviving in business is being adaptable. We recently witnessed this mindset in Trevor, 73 years and Lakkana Jones 68 years old, who attended our our Bush Business Online – Social Media 4 Business 2 day workshop in Gympie on the 15^th & 16^th of February 2011.

Lakkana is a world class 3 dimensional sewing sculptor who decided to take action and start to learn how Social Media could help her to find new clients and set up Sewing Art workshops to ensure the survival of her business.

Many small business owners we have spoken to have the same frustration as Lakkana, watching her competitors business take off on social media while she was being left behind.

On the flip side we have also become aware of how the younger generation today know how to use social media for talking to their friends or playing games but few understand how to set it up in a business capacity.
Mason Anderson, who is only 18 years old, also attended to learn how to adapt his social media experience to suit his new business as a Gaming Coach.

It seems there is a growing need for small business owners of all ages to update and up-skill themselves on the ways of online marketing. The Bush Business Online program is a government funded program under the Small Business Online program and was developed to help small business owners to get a simple web presence using low cost online tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The next workshop will be held in Gympie at the Old Bank Building on the cnr of Channon & Nash Street on 29^th & 30^thof March 2011. As this is a hands on workshop with laptops supplied attendance is restricted to 15 people. For further information or to enrol please go to www.cre8you.com or contact Jakki Goodall on 0406 460 351 or Lisa Wain on 0427 654 909.

This is an Australian Government funded initiative under the small Business Online Program.

Social Media Week - what is it Anyway?

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:23:00 GMT

When I heard of social media week I got excited. How can you not when it showcases over 500 events in 11 cities with 20,000 attendees all discussing where Social Media has come, where Social Media is going and its power and relevance in our world today.

Social Media should be celebrated in order to encourage inclusion throughout the generations.

Throughout my dealings with small business owners, and even in my own home environment, I am noticing more and more the divide that is occurring between the ways and methods of our communication.

My mother and I recently had a debate about the evolution of communication after she discovered that her Grandchildren could not read the message she had written in their Christmas card because she had used cursive hand-writing. Much to her utter disbelief, I explained that the school’s today no longer pushed the learning of cursive or “hand writing”.

To her, it was ridiculous! Something so fundamental in her world of communication couldn’t suddenly expire?! Now I should know better than to question my Mother, but on this day I forgot.... and proceeded to ask why it should remain relevant? Wouldn't time be better spent on learning keyboard or texting skills, as this would aid them more in their future? Needless to say she stuck to her guns and the conversation continued.

Carefully (hehe) I offered an explanation as to why it was now considered a defunct skill and consolidating a 1½ hour conversation into two sentences I stumbled upon a scary revelation.

With the evolution of technology moving so fast and our methods of communication progressing accordingly, if I didn't recognise the need to stay current with communication technology, the potential of ME waking up in 30 years time and pining for a text message or email suddenly became quite real.

I offered her the chance to witness how silly it can appear when we observe people talking about technologies that are considered standard today. It was only after she saw this youtube video that she realised how easy it was to forget how far we have come since the first email was sent in 1971.

So celebrate Social Media week and embrace the change or you may wake up one morning and find that your message can’t be read.

There are many workshops and courses on offer these days to help you keep up to date, why not search for some in your local area.

Social Media Week

It started 2 years ago in 2009 and now showcases 500 events in over 11 cities with 20,000 attendees.
The event is designed to focus on societies, cultures and economies that are becoming more reliant on social media as a means of communication.
In true social media fashion it is free, simultaneous, open and inclusive.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SocialMediaWeek

ABC Wide Bay Radio Interview - Getting Businesses in the Bush On Line

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:01:00 GMT

If you are interested in finding out a little more about the Bush Business Online Program have a listen to this radio interview on ABC Wide Bay recorded late last year prior to our Gympie Workshops.

Cheers

Lisa wain :)

BBO Radio Interview

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:11:00 GMT

This item has no description. Follow link to view item.

How Much Cleavage is Acceptable?

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:32:00 GMT

When I joined ‘The facebook’ over 4 years ago I took the name literally and immediately added my face to my profile. Since then I have never changed my profile picture. This was not because I was lazy or technically challenged, it actually took a lot of discipline NOT to jump on board the many ‘change your profile pic to support such and such’ campaigns, it was because I wanted to see how long it would be before I really HAD to change my profile picture.

Well four years on and that time has come. The trigger to knowing this was when I received yet another comment from one of my participants stating “you look nothing like you profile picture?” Let’s face it, I am 4 years older than my picture and when you’re in your 30’s that can mean a big difference.

But my age was not what they had an issue with, it was my sunglasses. Apparently it gave me a ‘Biker Chick’ appearance. Which made me consider if people hesitated in joining my training because of my appearance and how much of an influence does my profile pic have on my business?

So what should I consider before I choose my next profile pic?

I did some research and found some useful tools and helpful advice.

I learnt that there are 3 main issues that influence a person.

Facial Expression (do I smile? don’t I smile? do I pull a face?)
Photo Context (am I in a pub? In the bathroom? In the sun?)
Skin exposure (how much cleavage is acceptable? Are my abs worthy?)

During my research I came across some great tools that I thought would be good to share with you.

mypictr.com provides a free picture resizing service, which allows you to create a custom profile avatar for your favourite social network. You don't need to install any programs, plug-ins or any other software, just upload your picture, resize it online and download it from their server.

www.wishafriend.com is where you can find backgrounds for your photo to create a fun and great-looking profile pic.

mybestface Have the world pick your best photo. Upload a few photos of yourself and they will send you a detailed report showing you which is best.

Stay tuned for my profile pic change www.facebook.com/jakkigoodall. Feel free to leave your comments, advice and opinions on my wall or here.

Cheers

JakkiG

Keeping afloat after the floods

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:03:00 GMT

It is always a hard thing to know, as a trainer, if the knowledge that you are sharing with your participants is what they wanted when they signed up for your course or workshop. So it is reassuring when you receive feedback acknowledging that this has been achieved.

One of our very first Bush Business Online participants, whom we trained back in July 2010, emailed us explaining how she hadn’t implemented any of the social media marketing for her retail store , instead deciding to stay focused on her farming business. Unfortunately, with the devastating floods her farm was not spared and although all her family and friends are safe her orchard was not.

In the email she also mentioned that she was now going to focus on putting her retail store online and to quote her “Looking back the BBO workshop series has really prepared us to take this step and helped us immensely in choosing the path to take with setting it up. Thanks so much again". It reminded me of a few key points I had recently absorbed from listening to an audio book and an online video.

The first one was from 'The One minute Millionaire' by Mark Victor Hansen who recommends that everyone should look at ways to diversify their income and the second was from a Ted video featuring Seth Godin who was talking about how to embrace change, find what you are passionate about, stand out with your choices and lead your tribe to make that change positive. Our participant is an awesome example of how these principles actually do work when you put them into practice.

She found something she was passionate about and made it her second source of income. Her willingness to embracing new technology has allowed her to keep some cash flow going during the devastating aftermath of the Queensland floods.

Lisa and I (JakkiG) are passionate about helping small business recover from the 2011 QLD floods. We have teamed up with Nicola Pitt and created a campaign called “Buy Queensland” to encourage people around Australia and the world to buy from flood affected small business. We hope to help small business learn how to use new technology and social media to support these businesses by keeping their cash flow going while they rebuild their business.

If you would like to stay up to date with the campaign please join the facebook group “Buy Queensland” and follow the campaign on twitter @buyqld. If you would to show your support by adding the logo to your website please email buyqld@cre8you.com

The Internet Revolution – Where Is It Taking Us?

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:22:00 GMT

“Australian business is heading to a technology crunch. Business is evolving and if you can’t keep up, you’ll be left behind ...” Well, no. In reality, Australia’s workforce is rapidly ageing and there are simply not enough young people coming through the business ranks quickly enough. It’s not going to be you that will be left behind by the tech crunch ... it’s going to be your business. It’s this modern digital divide – a new-fashioned generation gap currently demonstrated by the take up of social media - which is posing a threat to business as Australia’s population ages.

It’s real and it’s happening, now! We are in the midst of an evolution in communication which is shaking up traditional ways of doing business but the majority of Australian workers and management are simply not “getting it”.

A few businesses are rushing to embrace change - creating a real risk that the knowledge and skills of the past will be lost forever – but many businesses seem to be steadfastly hoping that the online explosion is another fad which will soon disappear.

Both ways are full of risk.

What is certain is that the future is going to be more technical – not less. Even today, teenagers view email as old-fashioned as snail mail.

Unless managers make an effort to bridge this digital divide, to build a “continuum of knowledge” within the workplace, Australia runs the real risk of being left behind on the world stage.

Life-Long Learning – Knowledge Management

The solution to the above problem is obvious ... life-long learning.

Ironically, however, these days the problem can be choosing what to study, what to skim and what simply to discard.

he Internet has brought with it a new phenomenon that no manager since the Industrial Age began has ever faced ... information overload.

Successful self-directed learning requires knowledge management techniques to avoid overload and to control stress.

Here’s a simple example which introduces a different angle to the concept of knowledge gathering: Ask yourself ... What did you learn today? This could have been something from the Internet (a technical skill, a fact) or from a conversation you had (face-to-face or on social media). How could this fact affect your business future?

Who Do You Believe?

Word-of-mouth has always been the most valued way of marketing.

If your friend tells you a restaurant is good, there’s a good chance you’ll believe them. Obviously, your friend’s recommendation carries far more weight than a simple advertisement.

Likewise, if your friend tells you the food is terrible ... well, you get the idea.

The social media phenomenon has created a huge online arena for marketers – and also disgruntled customers – to stumble around.

“Stumble” because a deft touch is required for advertisers to nurture online advocates for their products. And this is not easy!

Marketing a product in social media requires a two-way conversation with potential customers and an honesty and openness to engage online that is foreign to simple advertising.

Put simply, if you are not willing to engage with your potential customers online ... if you only talk “at” them, not “with” them ... you may as well just have a website.

Yellow pages vs Google.....funny

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:26:00 GMT

Lisa and I were reviewing our campaign message "Why are telephone directories like nursing homes?.....because they're insanely expensive and few people under 70 use them and those that do are a little out of it". Apparently it is too hard for some people to work out what we are saying.... so here it is in plain english. Yellow pages vs Google....Google wins!

So the next question is are you on google?

This funny video asks another question "Do the young people use the yellow pages or do they use google?"

>

Social Media Revolution

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:30:00 GMT

cre8you is delivering a program that helps small business to get online. This program will introduce you to popular social media sights and show you how you can use these free tools to get your business online. The following YouTube video is a great introduction to why social media is so important to small business.

Social Media Revolution 2 is a refresh of the original video with new and updated social media & mobile statistics that are hard to ignore. Based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman, this video will open your eyes to the power of social media and how small business can use this compelling tool to reach new customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones.

If you want to know more about how you can use social media for your small business click here to find out about our Bush Business Online Program and enrol today, it'll be the best investment of your time you'll made this year!

Social Media ROI

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:40:00 GMT

Here is another great YouTube video by Socialnomics highlighting the great return on investment that can be gained by using social media in your business. cre8you's Bush Business Online Program will take you through some basic steps on how to get started so be sure to check it out.

This video showcases several Social Media ROI examples along with other effective Social Media Strategies. Music is by Bob Sinclair ("Tennessee")

If you want to know more about how you can use social media for your small business click here to find out about our Bush Business Online Program and enrol today, it'll be the best investment of your time you'll made this year!