Unplugging From Technology to Take a Breather

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I recently saw an infographic in this article, “6 Myths of Social Sharing” by John Koetsier (@johnkoetsier) in my Twitter feed and I found a very interesting myth debunked.  Before I started posting more frequently on Twitter and was focusing more on my Facebook social media efforts, I operated under the assumption that people were more active on social media on the weekends.  The assumption being that people frequented Facebook more during their free time.  At the time all of the social media princesses, gurus and ninjas hailed this to be true and it probably was then.  Times have changed and apparently this is no longer true.

According to this infographic/article, 49% of people engage with shared content during the weekday.  When I really think about it, I myself fall into that 49%.  My weekdays are full of work, which is on a computer; marketing myself in the digital realm online; and an obsessive habit of checking my phone or tablet to make sure I have not missed an important email or some other notification.  I seem to have an endless stream of chimes, dings and chirps sounding off at my desk all week long.  When the weekend comes, I try to turn it all off.  I truly need a break breather to stay sane agreeable.

Not only have I been unplugging during the weekends, but I have also found myself spending a couple of evenings during the weekday to unplug, listen to music and do nothing at all.  I will not even watch television and the only sound is of my music choice for the evening.  I think we are becoming so bombarded with noise in the form of technology that people are choosing to take time to take a break from it.  You can be in the moment with constant updates on social media, content streaming, etc, but I do not think we can also be in the “physical” moment at the same time.  I think that is what people are yearning for, leading them to take a bit of time off to unplug.  I know that plays a role in why I do it.

Are you a part of the 49% of people that engage more with shared content during the weekday?  Do you take time off on the weekends to unplug?  How do you spend that time?  Share in the comments section!

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Do This, Not That When Automating Blog Posts, Social Media and Email Marketing

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One of the great digital marketing debates is on whether or not you should use automation.  It has been debated ad nauseam and I am going to add my voice and opinion to the mix.  As long as digital marketing strategies exist, this debate will continue to exist.  I believe that to be true because a part of the advances in technology, have been to make life easier in some way.  Automating tasks related to digital marketing strategies makes life easier.

I believe automation to be a great asset when used properly.  The problem is that a lot of people do not use it properly and take a set it and forget it approach.

Automating Blog Postings

Why it’s Great:  You can write at times when it is more convenient for you and schedule the blogs to post at times when it is more convenient for your audience.  If you are the sole author of your blog or the content editor, scheduling blogs to posts allows you to go on vacation without missing a beat with your blog.

When it’s Bad:  If the content you have previously scheduled to post becomes irrelevant prior to its post date, that would be bad.  If you write tips on Google’s algorithm, set it to post 2 months in the future and Google releases an update a month prior; you will be disseminating bad information and risk looking like a non-authority on the topic.

Automating Social Media Postings

Why it’s Great:  It’s a lot of work to find, read and share great content with your audience.  Add to that the time it takes to monitor campaigns, respond to commenters and participate in discussions.  It’s a lot of work and we have limited time.  It’s the one thing we cannot create more of; we can only free some of it up by maximizing our productivity.  Scheduling allows you to use time that might not be ideal to post, to find and craft your messages.  You can then schedule them to go out when it is convenient for your audience.

When it’s Bad:  Just like with blog postings, it is bad if you schedule more than you can remember, content wise.  It is also bad if you only schedule and you are not monitoring and engaging with your audience.  Periodically check to see what you have scheduled and review it.  Not only will it help you remember what you have scheduled to go out, but it will also ensure that future postings are still relevant.

Automating Email Marketing

Why it’s Great:  Many of the email marketing providers have ways that you can aggregate RSS feeds into your email campaigns.  Do you post daily deals to your site?  Use an RSS feed to trigger an email to go out with the information to your list.  Using RSS feeds and scheduling emails to go out similar to what you do with blog postings can save you a ton of time.

When it’s Bad:  Again, it’s just like blog postings and social media postings in that you do not want to set it and forget it.  You need to review your reports to make sure that what you’re sending is something that your list wants to receive, open and read.  If you are getting a lot of unsubscribes for a particular campaign, you need to review it.  It does not make sense to keep auto-generating something that no one wants.

Did you notice a theme with when it’s bad?  Setting it and forgetting about it.  Use automation to plan ahead, increase your productivity and ease the strain of doing everything in real time.  However, stay present and on top of what is going out.  If you cannot keep up with and remember what you scheduled to go out 2 months ago, then you should not schedule that far out.  You want to be able to engage with people through your digital channels.  You can end up spending more time trying to remember or re-read something that is being commented on by your audience if you schedule too far out.

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The Reason Why Your Social Media Sales Pitch Never Had a Chance

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A lot of us digital marketers use social media as a means to market, generate leads, network, advertise, etc. I lump myself into this because although digital marketing services are not what I am selling, I use digital marketing as a way to grow my business. Everyone has a different strategy for how they approach these channels and what they use them for. For me, Twitter is my online version of attending a networking event or group. It is my professional water cooler break and happy hour. It is where I go to rub shoulders with other business professionals within my industry and outside of it. Recently, I have been noticing more and more overly aggressive or too eager salesmen types at the water cooler.

You know the type, in real life they come across as pushy, pseudo genuine and somewhat too invasive. You can feel the sales pitch in every carefully crafted phrase and question. I often find myself thinking, “You’re not really interested in what I am saying. You are just looking for the golden nugget you can spin into your sales pitch.” Well, they exist in the digital realm too. They are lurking around the water cooler and hanging out at happy hour behind their keyboards. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against salespeople in general, but I do against those that make me feel like I am being sold to.

If You Are An Online Salesman, Do NOT Do The Following:

Do not use a “canned” direct message/private message like, “It’s great to connect with you here – do you use social media for business or pleasure?”Your mentor, social media guru that you follow, etc may have told you this was a great way to get the conversation started and that you could also automate a task to send this response, but it sucks. Why does it suck? Because a quick glance through the person’s timeline/posts and a read through their bio would give you this answer. It is a task that would take about 5 to 10 minutes and is a red flag to me that you are not really interested in having a conversation with me. I’m just a “potential” buyer that you do not care enough about to answer your own question before approaching me. Also, if the person you are asking is following more than a few hundred people and has a similar number or higher of followers, they have probably already received that same exact message verbatim before.

Do not ask personal or invasive questions in a public setting. If their answer might not be something they would want to shout across a crowded room, do not ask it in a crowd. Take the conversation private and use direct messaging (Twitter) or some other private messaging channel. If that line of questioning is what you typically start with straight out of the gate, stop. You are a stranger; a stranger behind an avatar with a keyboard. It’s creepy; like pedophile in a van hanging out at a playground creepy. Talk to them first, without an obvious angle or spin involved. Make them feel comfortable with you. It’s kind of like being on a first date. It may take a little more work and effort, but it’s more likely to turn into an actual lead, sale or referral. That’s much better than a “block.”

If you want to appear genuine, do not ask questions that can be answered in their bio. It will be obvious that you did not read it. For instance, do not ask someone what their occupation is if that is the first thing they disclose in their bio. If they list a website, visit it. Find out a little background information about them so that you can intelligently engage with them. They will respect that you took the time to do so and will be more open and willing to listen to what you really want to tell them. This will also keep you from trying to pitch someone that would be an utter waste of your time because a) they have no use for your product/service or b) are selling what you are selling. Time is money; why waste it?

I admire and respect those that can sell something to me before I realize that is what is happening. I also respect those that have enough respect to make me feel like they are being genuine with their words. The key word today is “relationship.” It is important to try to build a relationship, even if it is short, with someone. Online we are avatars, logos and profile pictures attached to a keyboard. To be successful marketing and selling online, you have to humanize it. Engage. Build a relationship. Do the very basics of research…like reading a person’s short profile/bio. If you cannot do that, you should not be selling online…or do not expect a lot of success.

Have you received that same exact “canned” message as a lead-in to a sales pitch before? How did it make you feel?

 

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6 Unconventional Ways to Save Money as a Freelancer/Sole Proprietor

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If you are a freelancer or a sole proprietor like me, you are always looking for ways to save money and cut costs.  Most people tend to look for ways to shave business expenses to reduce overhead.  I take things a step further and try to reduce my living expenses as well.  My thought process is that if I need less to live on, I can free up more money to invest into my business or reduce the amount of panic that sets in during “lean” months.  As a creative, I find it fun to see how I can apply my creativity to save money.

Cable Television – “Cut the Cord”

Before I decided to freelance full-time, I kept all of my receipts in a shoebox for a month.  At the end of the month, I went through it to see where my money had really gone.  One of my biggest bills, next to my rent and car note (at the time), was the cable bill.  I’m not going to say how much it was, but I was spending way too much money to primarily watch networks that are free over the air (NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.).  There were a few shows that I liked that were cable only channels, but the bulk of my TV watching was spent on “free” channels.  So that is the first bill I cut.  I let go of my cable TV subscription and bought a set-top device, a Roku.

There are several set-top devices on the market that use apps to stream content to your TV.  Amazon just recently released one, the Fire TV here.  Apple makes an Apple TV and Google has the Chromecast that you can plug into your TV.  I have been rocking with a Roku, two actually, for years now and I love it.  I have a subscription to Netflix, which I use to binge watch “older” seasons of shows, documentaries and movies.  I also have a HuluPlus subscription that I use kind of like a DVR to watch shows that come on after my bedtime (ahem, Scandal) at my leisure.

Recently, I started having problems receiving my over the air channels; but never fear, Aereo is here!  Aereo is not available in all TV markets yet and they are currently in a court battle with the cable networks.  However, it has been a great way for me to watch the free over the air channels that my antenna is unable to pick up through my Roku.  I pay for these three subscriptions, but the three of them together come out to less than $25 a month.  That is much, much lower than what I was paying the cable company for channels/content I was barely watching.

Set-top devices are not just limited to those Apps; there is a plethora of apps and content that you can stream.  The biggest hurdle for me was learning to be ok living without “The Housewives of…”

Telephone – “Death to the Landline”

I have not had a landline since I was in college, more than a decade ago.  When I was in undergrad, I had a cell phone with an unlimited in-coming calls and unlimited text messaging plan.  I cut off my landline and would call people, ask them to call me back, and hang up.  That was the beginning of the end of landlines for me.  I currently have a smartphone with an unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls and unlimited text messaging plan.  I actually do not talk on the phone very much and I am usually on a wifi network when I am checking email, browsing the internet or doing anything else that requires a data plan.  Because of this, I have the smallest data plan and minute plan available.  Since I do not talk on the phone very much, I have a TON of roll over minutes if I ever needed to use them.

I’ve had my phone for a few years now and I am no longer under a contract.  I am looking at purchasing a new or used smartphone outright and taking it to another carrier with a no-contract, flat rate plan.  From what I have seen in my area, most of the no-contract, flat rate carriers are piggy backing off of the major carrier’s cell phone towers and the coverage is the same, but cheaper.  Purchasing a smartphone outright will be a bit expensive, but an investment that will allow me the flexibility to not be tied down to a carrier for years and save money in the long run.

Grocery Shopping – “Off the Beaten Path”

During the time that I was looking to slim down my living expenses, I decided I also needed to slim down something else – myself.  Going through my receipts made me realize that I spent entirely too much money eating out and it was showing on my height challenged frame.  I decided that I needed to start eating at home and eating better as well.  However, eating healthy is expensive, right?

While I cannot say that it is cheaper to eat healthy at home vs. eating fast food, I can say that I have found ways to cut down on that cost.  The first is in the way that you eat.  I primarily eat “seasonally,” meaning I eat what is in season at the time.  The reason for this is that it’s cheaper.  Seasonal produce is cheaper when it is in season for your area because the store does not have extra expenses to import the item in.  Creativity comes into play for me to find different ways to fix that produce so that it does not feel like I am eating the same thing over and over.

Another cost saver for me is meat.  I do not eat a lot of it.  It’s cheaper not to do so.  I do eat it occasionally, but it is not an item that appears often on my weekly grocery-shopping list.  I also shop off of the beaten path.  I tend to stay away from the larger grocery store chains and shop at local farmer’s markets or in “ethnic” or international stores.  I find the produce to be cheaper there and the meat as well.  I can also find good prices on healthier oils like olive, grapeseed or coconut oil; and on grains and legumes.

Gym Memberships – “The World is my Playground”

I have had gym memberships that I sometimes used or didn’t use over the past decade.  When I decided to make a lifestyle change to get healthier, I renewed my membership and worked with a trainer for a while.  When I decided to freelance full-time, that was an expense that I decided to cut and I took up running.  Thanks to my handy-dandy smartphone, I can track my time, distance, and listen to music as I run.  I also use abandoned parking lots, playgrounds and school campuses to run stairs, jump rope and perform exercises using my body weight.  The world has become my playground and I have fun surveying the landscape to see what I can come up with for a workout.

I get crazy looks sometimes and I almost jump into traffic every time someone honks a “greeting” as they drive by, but it’s all free and you cannot beat free.  When it is too cold or wet outside for me to get a workout in, I turn to my Roku and HuluPlus or Amazon Prime.  Yoga, Aerobics, Dance, Jillian Michaels; they are all on there for the choosing and right in my living room.

Shopping – “The Online Frugalista”

I consider myself to be a “frugalista” and I like to find the best deal for the things I need to buy.  I find that the best deal is often online.  It took me a little while to get used to buying something and not having it right now in this moment to use.  However, getting a deal and saving some money makes up for that.  If you need it, there is probably someone online selling it.  They’re probably also on Amazon or eBay.

I tend to buy more things from Amazon because I am a Prime member,which gives me free 2-day shipping and access to their Prime streaming library, which has an app on my Roku.  Bonus!  The prime membership recently went up from $79 per year to $99, but they have also added a few perks to the membership with a streaming, ad-free music service.  The first year I had the Prime membership, I did an evaluation to see if I was really saving money, and I was.  I’ve also found items that I am not able to find “on the ground” in a brick and mortar store on Amazon, at a low price, and with my free 2-day shipping.  Since I am into healthy living, I can make cheaper purchases than I could at a store dubbed as “Whole Paycheck,” or Whole Foods.

Wardrobe – “Let’s Get Thrifty”

2014-06-05 21.15.02I used to be a lot bigger than I am now and the healthy lifestyle I currently live has the side effect of weight loss.  Needless to say, over the past several years, I have needed to buy a whole new wardrobe at various stages of that weight loss.  Enter the thrift store…and a sewing machine.  I am not a seamstress, but I am short, like every pair of pants that I have ever bought in my entire life need to be hemmed, short.  “Petites” or pants made for short people, are too short on me, go figure.  So I have to buy regular length pants and get them hemmed.

That is initially what I bought the sewing machine for, to hem my pants.  At $8-$10 a pair it was getting quite expensive when you need to replace your entire wardrobe.  Once I started buying my clothes from the thrift store, hemming a pair of pants cost more than the pants themselves!  Shopping at the thrift store is a bit of a process and not as easy as shopping in a regular retail store.  It requires a bit of patience to pick through racks of clothes to find that one nugget of gold.  That is, if you do not want to look like you shopped at the thrift store.  My patience is rewarded when someone pays me a compliment on my outfit and I know the entire getup probably only cost me $5-10.  Talk about a “Look for Less!”

I’ve been doing the majority of these things for almost 4 years and an unexpected result in addition to the money savings, is that I feel happier and not deprived.  I actually feel that I have become less materialistic and have a greater appreciation for the little things in life that I may have taken for granted previously.  While I may not have seen the latest movie or the season finale of a popular show when it happened, I do not fret.  As hokey as it sounds, while that was happening, I turned a pair of shorts into a skirt!  Cha-ching!

Do you have some tips or ways to save money as a freelancer/sole proprietor that you would like to share?

 

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“Your Price is Your Price, but That’s Just Too High!”

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Today I am on a bit of a rant.  No, scratch that.  This is a public service announcement.  If you are contemplating hiring someone to perform a service but their price is out of your budget, politely thank them and move on.  If they are a professional, they will not be offended (you can’t win them all).  If they are well established and/or have a lot of experience, they are used to falling outside of the realms of some people’s budgets.  If you would like to offend them, tell them their price is too high.

You may have quotes from other sources that are lower.  You may feel that the work that needs to be done is not a lot, or hard, and can be easily completed.  However, the statement “your price is your price” does not infer respect for their pricing if you follow it with, “but that’s just too high!”  If the price falls outside of your budget, that just makes it too high for you.  Unless the quotes are a true apples to apples comparison of everything from depth of experience to the final deliverables, the “high” quote may actually be on par with industry standards, or even considered “cheap” by industry standards.

If you have another quote and you would like an explanation on why their quote differs in price, ask them.  I know I have no problem explaining the price breakdown on a quote or pointing out why and where mine differs.  However, do not tell me the work is easy, that it will not take long, etc.  You do not know that.  If you did, you would probably do it yourself to save money or the hassle of looking for someone to do the work.

I don’t think people mean to be offensive when they make the statement “your price is your price” and follow it with a “but,” but it is.  Especially to those of us that take great pride in the work we do and our commitment to our clients.  I put a lot into the work I do for my clients and I am very passionate about it.  I am worth more than $5.

Has some made the statement, “Your price is your price, but…?”  Tell me about it in the comments below!

 

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