Tag: time management

Working Facebook for your Business

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

If you have decided that you are only going to use Facebook to build your business, then it is important to invest the time into it.

When I first started using Facebook, over 10 years ago, I would be on there 6 hours a day, YES, 6 hours per day. It wasn’t just about popping in and doing a post, then logging off, it was about having a plan and working it. I also recommend that you use your desktop/laptop to do the work as the Facebook App isn’t as user friendly plus it will save you time than working off of a phone.

The Daily Plan

  1. Work your personal timeline/profile to get your messages out there.
    • Post a status telling people what you are up to, what your tasks are, what you want to accomplish, what your successes are, BUT don’t sell to them.
    • Share some personal elements that you are comfortable about sharing.
    • What you don’t want to do is push your family and friends away by having them hide you in their news feeds.
  2. Go through your news feed and interact on other people’s posts, either by liking or commenting. You will want to do this numerous times throughout the day.
  3. Go to the “pages feed” tab (found on your ‘home’ tab, then down the left under the ‘explore’ tab) and scroll through and interact on other Business Pages’ posts. I like to do this once in the morning and once in the evening.
  4. Find 3-5 groups that have more of a networking element to them, and interact DAILY within these groups.
    • Ask questions, post inspiration, share ideas, share tips, post humour, promote your products/services.
    • Take the time to scroll through the Group wall and interact on other people’s post with a like and/or comment.
    • Participate in any online events the group offers, like Dance Cards, Coffee Dates, Split Lives, as this is an opportunity for you to meet more people.
    • Check the same groups at the end of the day and do more interactions.
  5. Post on your Business Page
    • There are many different opinions on how often you should post on your Business Page in one day.  For me, personally, I only post once per day, at 8 am.  I have found that this works very, very well for me, as it allows my post to be seen throughout the day.
    • If you want to post more than once per day, then I recommend you space out the posts, don’t do a whole bunch at once as you will drive your audience away.  Think about posting between 8-9 am, between 4-5 pm and after 9 pm.
    • Mix up your posts so you are not always trying to sell to people.  Post questions, inspiration, some personal elements that reflect your business, tips, humour, ideas on how to use your products/services, and of course promote.
    • Use pictures of yourself where you can, people love pictures of us.
    • Do videos to get more visibility as Facebook is a huge supporter of the video platform.
    • Keep on top of your Business Page notifications and make sure to either like/comment when people interact with your stuff.
    • You want to make sure you are also checking your messages regularly and quickly, as Facebook tracks how quick we are to answer messages and actually posts this on our pages to let the public know what our response rate is.
    • Share your posts into a variety of groups and randomly (but strategically) on your personal timeline. Facebook considers ‘shares’ as interaction, so you can help push up your reach.  Don’t do more than 7-8 shares per post as Facebook will consider it as spam and you could end up in Facebook jail for 7-10 days.

I hope this helps in giving you a daily plan to work Facebook and build your business.  Again, it is important that if you are only going to use online to build, that you work it.

I do have a free ‘daily checklist’ that you can print off that will help keep you organized, download it HERE.

 

Are you committed to Social Media?

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Having structure, being organized, is key to keeping on top of your Social Media work.  In order to build a presence, to being consistent, you need to put together an actual plan of how you are going to work your Social Media on a daily basis.

I wish I could tell you that you can just “pop” in and out but it is not going to bring you the return you are looking for.  With competition being so high in Social Media, people need to see you, hear from you, learn from you, talk to you, on a daily basis.  I am not saying you have to bombard them, but you need to be present daily.

For me, personally, we know that I am very active, and I am sure that people unfollow me, but I have reached a point in my presence and building my business, that I am okay with that.  It is a mental thing that you have to get past.

When you are starting to make this list, you need to understand what your end game is.  Are you looking to build a following, looking to get new customers, looking to build a referral based business?  What is your ultimate goal?

Are you looking to work all Social Media sites or just focusing on one/two?

Where is your target market sitting?

What information will benefit them?

What are the reasons why someone would want to use/buy your product/services?

Answering these questions will start to help you formulate your Social Media plan.  It will guide you as to where your focus needs to be as well as what parts of specific Social Media you need to focus on (for example:  Facebook Business Pages, Videos whether recorded or live, Groups, etc.)

Once you decide on which Social Media sites answer all your questions, you then need to do some research to find out what works best in each of these sites.  What time of day is best to work it?  Where do you need to focus for that site?  How often do you need to post?  (For example:  Twitter you would need to tweet at least 5-7 times per day).  What are some of the key elements you can take advantage of that is popular in that site?

The research is important for you to understand how you are going to move forward and how much time you need to commit, on a daily basis, to build the presence you are looking for.  Once you have established this, you NEED to commit, you NEED to schedule the time on your calendar, and you need to STICK with it!!

Building a presence, getting attention, is work.  Remember way back when, people walked hours and hours, going door to door to sell their products/services, because they were determined to make a living, build a successful business.  Well, we are fortunate that we are able to do this from the comfort of our homes, in a relaxed environment and behind a computer.  It doesn’t get any easier than that 😉

P.S.  If you decide that Facebook is one of the sites you are going to be focusing on, download my FREE Daily Checklist HERE!!

 

 

How are you “creating your presence”?

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

My tagline is “Creating your Presence” and what this means is that YOU need to be seen on Social Media, YOU need to sell YOU!

When we have made the decision to start using Social Media to build our business, there are many aspects that you need to consider:

  • How do I want to be seen?
  • How do I want my business to be seen?
  • What are my values?
  • Who am I?
  • Who are my potential clients?
  • Which Social Media platforms are they using?
  • What is my marketing strategy?
  • What message am I sending?

You need to take the time and answer these questions, in great detail, so that you can determine which Social Media sites you are going to focus on, what is the content you will be providing and how much time do you need to dedicate to it.

The mistake that many people make is that they believe they need to be working ALL Social Media sites and it is leading to being very time consuming.  Which in turn, causes people to give up or not get the growth they expected.

I encourage you to find your primary and secondary Social Media sites to focus on (based on where your target market is sitting) and make a marketing plan for both based on the above questions you answered.  From there, you need to schedule time on your calendar to focus on these platforms DAILY.  You can’t build a presence, you can’t build a business, without committing to it every single day.  Popping in and out will not help you to reach the goals you have set out to obtain.  It is a HUGE commitment and don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t.

There are more elements that need to be considered when building your online presence.  You need to look at blogging, free opt-ins, networking on and off the computer, doing speaking engagements.  We live in a very competitive online world and you have to stand out above the rest.  This is why it is important to understand the value of selling yourself.  People buy/support because of the like/know/trust factor.  It is NOT going to happen overnight, I wish I could tell you that, BUT the reality is that it will take time, lots of time, to build your presence and see a return in your hard work.

When thinking about your marketing plan, I want you to go beyond your business.  I want you to look at the other elements that are available on these platforms and take advantage of them.  Look at groups, look at your personal profiles, how can you use them to create your presence?  Schedule the time needed to focus on the other elements that are available to you and go a step beyond in creating your presence.

When you commit the time to creating your presence, you will see a growth in your business BUT it takes time, don’t expect it to happen overnight and don’t fall into the trap of the “get rich quick schemes”.

Go out there and “sell you”!

 

Consistency!!

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Social Media

If you know me in person or even follow me around on Facebook, you will know that I talk about routines and consistency.  If we want to build a business, we have to always be doing things to bring our business attention.

You can’t just randomly work your business if you want to see growth, it is doing it every single day.  I know we are all busy, because we are the type of people who just keep on taking things on lol BUT you have to decide what your priorities are.

  • What must get done?
  • What am I good at?
  • How can I get my message out there?
  • Can I handle it or do I need to hire someone?

These are questions you need to ask yourself and seriously look at.  You have to determine where you can focus your time and COMMIT to it.

I have a TON of elements to my business and I schedule them into my calendar so they do get done.  I also will choose specific tasks that I can send to a VA to complete for me.  These are tasks that yes need to be done, but not by me.

Why is consistency so important?  Let me give you a couple of examples based on my stats:

These are my Facebook Stats for my Business Page within the last 7 days

page stats

What you see here is growth, which is regular for my business page and it is because I am consistent!  I post every day, Monday to Friday, one post (no need to do more); I share my posts into a variety of groups throughout the week; I mix up my content so I am always providing value.  I am consistent!

These are my stats for my website, for the month of January

web

So far this is my biggest month BUT for February, to date, I am sitting at 671 views.  Notice where most of my visibility is coming from?  Facebook!!!

If I can drive traffic to my website, based on what I am posting on Facebook, then it opens up the opportunity for people to look at what else I have to offer on my website.

The KEY for me here, is the blogging I do because I then do a post on my Facebook Business Page driving them to my website to read the blog (as you can see in the number 1 page listed for views).

I try to do a blog a week BUT when I am running out of content to write about, I reach out to other business owners (that compliment my business) and have them be Guest Bloggers.  The BONUS here is that it is a free service, brings visibility to both them and myself, and opens us up to potential new clients.

In summary, if you are doing what you need to do, consistently, then how does your business grow?  I am not saying that Social Media is what you need to be doing consistently BUT I would strongly encourage you to look at how it could potentially affect the growth of your business.

 

P.S.  Download my FREE Daily Checklist for Facebook, it just might help create consistency for you.

 

GUEST BLOGGER: Finding the work/life balance when starting a business

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Uncategorized

Creating a business from scratch is not easy. It takes a lot of drive, goal-setting and most importantly: TIME. When you’re seeing your business grow from the ground up, it makes you want to say yes to everything. Soon, however, all the hours in the day disappear, and you lose precious family time or even just personal leisure time.

At first, it might feel like you have unlimited stores of energy that you can dedicate to your business (the excitement is real!) but if you’re not careful, too much work will start to wear on you.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind while creating a work/life balance:

  1. Know When The Work Day is Over

We are so connected to our devices! If you’re starting a new business, it’s seems natural to be your own 24-hour network. But shutting things off for the night is essential. In order to be more productive in the future, it’s best to set a time where you switch off business and focus on winding down. Not only will this help you sleep better, it will give you an opportunity to build discipline in finding the work/life balance we all crave.

  1. What are Your Time-Wasters?

What do you do in the day that is productive towards your goals? It can be little things, like posting a brand-relevant message on Facebook, or sending out a few introductory emails. Social media is PIVOTAL for business (I know a thing or two about that…), but are you using it for too much leisure time? How much time do you spend scrolling down your Facebook feed during your precious “working hours”? Sometimes old habits die hard!

We all need to re-evaluate what is important in order to make sure our time is used to grow the business and spend quality time with people we love.

  1. Social Self Care is Very Important

Speaking of people we love: when you’re running a business, you often forget to take care of yourself! Simple things like diet and exercise are obvious – but what about social health? Don’t abandon your friends! Try your best to make plans and stick to them. It will help you stop focusing on work 24/7, and actually leave your office every now and then. Friends can be great supporters of your vision, by the way, and that support comes from building strong bonds.

  1. Make Small Achievable Steps

A brand new business is like having a new baby! You have to nurture it and give it plenty of attention. But you can’t do everything all at once and expect it to run smoothly. Are you spending 12 hours a day glued to the screen when you’re only aiming for 4? Quitting cold turkey will backfire. Try weaning yourself off, hour by hour, until you find the right workflow that fits for your blossoming company. You’ve probably heard the phrase “Work smarter, not harder.” Keep an eye out for efficient solutions that help you get your business off the ground without taking up all your time to do it.

There isn’t a formula for the perfect work/life balance. Everyone has different lifestyles, workflows and circumstances that create their own unique challenges. However, once you find that golden balance that works for you, your new business and your home life will thrive!

This is a guest post by Josh Elkin, founder of Best Coast Marketing a marketing agency that helps increase our clients’ traffic through organic link building. Josh enjoys writing about entrepreneurship, marketing, productivity and self-improvement.

Connect via email:  josh@bestcoastmarketing.com

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GUEST BLOGGER: Balance Hacks by Lynn Pelzer

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Uncategorized

Do you feel like you could accomplish more YET, you might just go crazy to do more? Ever see other Women doing IT and wonder, how the heck does she do IT?

Apparently, I am one of those women. I’m a mother of two, wife to a husband that has his own busy career, I volunteer, I am active at my church, I run two businesses and somehow everyday I show up (and manage to put my face on and do my hair). Well, it’s not by accident, in fact it’s purely and intentional. I’ll share with you my top three business and top three personal hacks that keep it altogether.

My top three business hacks that keep me sane and producing

  1. GOAL SETTING

How can we get where want to go if we don’t know where it is that we are trying to get to? December is a great time to set up 2018.
Here is what I do. I take some quiet time in Q4 to reflect on where my current year goals ended up, review what I did well, and where I fell short. Block off a couple hours of uninterupted time. I personally use a spiral notebook to break down my goals. I create an annual goal, quarterly goals, and monthly goals. The goals need to be clear they need to be specific and they need to be attainable. The next thing I do is breakdown what action steps will need to take place to achieve those goals. You can see that when I have the action steps written down and I come back to review what I have achieved, I can look at the action steps and know whether I did them or not. Accountability will keep you on track!

  1. SUNDAY PREP

This is a game changer! Part of this is just me and how I am wired and part I learned from a coach that I had. Make a checklist to go through on Sunday. Take an hour and get it done, you will be happy you did and when it becomes a habit, life will change!
Do you want to my checklist? Here it is.

  • Fill up the car with gas
  • Wash car and tidy inside
  • Review this weeks schedule, find any discrepancies of overlap
  • Review goals for the week
  • Prepare social media, meaning, prepare images, ideas, post plan
  • Create to do list of who to call or things to do
  • Tidy office/Desk
  1. SOCIAL MEDIA

Do any of you ever feel overwhelmed by social media? It is an incredible tool to use for networking, sales, branding, general visibility and it’s free, well mostly free. It can cost you a lot of time and disturb your balance. So, since we are talking about balance and keeping your sanity here are a few things I do create a lot of success and still not be a slave to it.

Know and accept that if you want to use social media for business, it does take daily consistent effort.

Create a checklist and live by it! Want to know mine? Here it is.

  • Check messages
  • Check notifications
  • Post on personal timeline
  • Go to my support list (people who like/comment my posts) and support them.
  • Go to the groups I manage and check activity and post
  • Handle friend requests in or out
  • Repeat in the evening

Have a content creation/post plan time either monthly or weekly. I use Buffer to plan but there are many other

Hire help when needed! If it takes you forever to do, you are best served to hire!

Top 3 Personal Hacks

  1. EXERCISE
    Brendan Burchard who wrote to book, High Performance Habits, interviewed the highest achievers all across the world and all of them did this one thing, exercise 5x per week or more. It doesn’t mean you need to be super buff, it means you need to move your body, pay attention to your health and it will help you be better focused. We all know we feel better when we do!
  2. BOUNDARIES
    Often people are surprised to hear the boundaries that I set for business. My boundaries allow me to be out of my home one night per week away from my family and one weekend or part of a weekend per month. Happy Lynn is a productive Lynn. For us women entrepreneurs that have husbands and family running our business can wear out it’s welcome if our family is feeling like they are second place. When you have boundaries around your time you will choose the most important items that will move your business forward only. Certainly you have heard this but have you lived it? NO is a complete sentence, use it more.
  3. GET ORGANIZED
    I think we would all agree that clutter around you will also clutter your mind. Sort it out, junk it out, donate, dump it. Get help if needed, this area untouched can weigh you down faster than anything. I learned from a mentor years ago to choose the number one monkey on your back that is the daily disruption, that thing the makes you go frantic more than you’d like to admit. Tackle it get that one thing done whether you have to hire somebody or ask a friend to come help you for taking evening away from social activity to get it done.

These points all seem simple and like something we all should know that we need to do. But are you doing them?

Which one of those six could you improve on that would benefit you the most? What if you lock it in your mind right now. Which one you go to work on and if you need help with it where are you going to get that help?

My passion is helping other Women to create a life of freedom. I hope that this will help you in some way.

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Follow Lynn Pelzer on Facebook:  Lynn’s Personal Profile

Owner | Life Freedom Project
Lifestyle and Residual Income Specialist
Email – lynn@lifefreedomproject.ca

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Time to realize…….

by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook

I am mighty.  I am strong.  I can do it all by myself!  Ummmmmm……pause…..think.  No, Tammy you can’t!!

lol okay so this is how most of us think when we are entrepreneurs, that we can do it all, we don’t need help.  Mostly we think this because we believe that we can’t afford to hire people to help us.  This was me for the last 5 years.  BUT NOT ANYMORE!!

I am here to tell you that you have to seriously look at this.  You have to understand what your strengths and weaknesses are and determine how it is affecting your business and you on a personal level.

I cram my weeks, Monday to Friday, with as much work as I can so that I can take weekends off.  However, sometimes I was working non-stop all day and into the late evenings, just to keep on top of things.  We find it hard to say “no” (which is something I have been working on as well) and we continue to take on more, more and more!!

Do you know how this is ultimately going to affect your business?  Do you realize that you open yourself up to burnout?  That you may want to just run away and give up on everything because you don’t believe you can ever reach your goals?

I recently hired a VA who helps me with different elements (like updating my website, adding captions to my YouTube videos) and I hired my daughter to help with some of my social media work.  WOW, all I can say, is what a difference it has made for me (and it has only been a couple of weeks).  I can now focus on what I am truly good at, can focus on building more relationships, taking on more clients, providing valuable information.  I can breathe, I can relax, I can reduce the hours into the evenings, I can eliminate the frustration.  AND guess what?  I do have the money BECAUSE when you hire others to help, you can bring in additional income from focusing on building the business, the clients.

So take some time, make a list of all the elements that make up what you do in your business and determine where you can hire someone to help.  AND just breathe……