I hope you enjoy this collection of the latest and greatest articles I’ve been reading.

Social Media & Marketing

Seth Godin cracked 5,000 posts on his Typepad blog recently. I dip in and out of his stuff, but in honour of his latest milestone, here’s The 5,000th Post, A Handful of Tools, and a cool riff about understanding our habits, called Angry is a Habit.

A guest-post on Beth Kanter’s blog by bestselling author Jonah Berger on The Science of Going Viral. We all want to know more about that, don’t we?

Over at SocialBrite, they’re talking on How to Turn Email Content Into Blog Posts. Read it for greater blogging effectiveness.

Problogger highlighted how Google Hangouts are turning bloggers into broadcasters. And I’m all for it. Read the full article here.

Book Publishing

An honest piece by literary agent Rachelle Gardner about what to do when you are tested, called When The Rubber Meets The Road. Check out how short the post is, and how many comments she got!

The Creative Penn puts out solid content on latest publishing and marketing trends. This post by David Gaughran promotes his latest book, Lets Get Visible. Easy-to-apply learnings in the book might get your Amazon rankings moving on up too. Read his guest post here.

Just Because

Gwyneth Paltrow lives an impossibly cool life. Those legs, working with Robert Downey Jnr, cooking vegan and enjoying it, sophisticated holidays in exotic locations, and endless designer clothes (in that order). I also like the way she has turned an exclusive piece of her into an online magazine and community. Here’s goop mag #4.

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Want to stay in touch? Subscribe to my email list here. I don’t bite.

“Sarah’s full of great ideas and her commitment and passion is to be admired.” - Anna Rodanski, Marketing Manager, Kolling Foundation

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Next time on the Queen of Social blog, we’ll chat to Alexie O’Brien, Lululemon Australia’s vivacious, likeable GM about how we can manage the familiar feeling of overwhelm.

Why? A previous ‘Three Things’ series helped me profile some of the great people I am lucky to work alongside. And having a series of blogs (not unlike the infamous ‘Good Social Time Linky Dinks’ series) holds one to account.

And because just recently I went to a once-in-a-lifetime event, and then forgot to blog about it.

It was a busy time of year. But aren’t we all busy?

Yes, my kids / business needed me. But don’t they always?

Fact was, a contact and friend kindly offered tickets to go and see a special production of Opera Australia’s Carmen on Sydney Harbour. We went, and I sat in awe of the city we live in – the spectacular music – the performance and staging – and I sat imagining myself in the unbelievably glamorous costumes that appeared on the stage.

It was a night full of many moments, and with full intentions to get a sparkling blog post up about the event and my experience, what the hell happened? I just forgot.

A few weeks after I realised my folly, I’m wondering what to do…

I should have called to apologise, but I had thought I’d get around to it in time. Which I did not.

Once realising I’d really forgotten about it, I could have blogged, but in retrospect I was full of ‘What ifs’. Like, what if I don’t have time to do it properly and do it justice? What if I’ve missed the boat (correct – Carmen only ran on Sydney Harbour for a couple of weeks)? What if my friend who offered me the tickets thinks I’m ungrateful?

I put a few ‘Likes’ up on my friend’s Facebook photos in the attempt that she might see them and understand I was feeling bad about not getting around to blog. She’s not psychic, and besides, that’s hardly good enough.

For as many ‘What ifs’ that pass through our minds in the course of the day – whether family or friend related, or you wish you’d done something to look after yourself better, there’s a small slice of energy that could be devoted elsewhere. And all that energy adds up.

Instead, when something passes our mind, is there a way to scrounge together even a few minutes to sit down, attack that item and get it happening?

It’s good in theory, but a blog post takes longer than a few minutes, usually an hour. Whatever that needs doing would be more than a three-minute job (about six months of ironing also comes to mind). My way of thinking is finding a way to get it started, and then it’s not so hard when the time comes to complete the task.

The topic of doing things we don’t always feel like is something I talk to my three year old about, and crikey if it doesn’t highlight better ways of doing things for me too!

Here’s some suggested ways to help get on with a tricky task:

If you don’t want to do something, find a way to motivate yourself to do it. Even if that involves chocolate.

If you would prefer you don’t have to think about something, write it down on a list enough times so that there’s nothing else to think about than that. And then start on it.

Or if you’ve promised something, and then don’t get to it, then eventually it’s time to face the music and apologise, try and make amends.

When you think something is embarrassing, and would rather not talk about it to (say) a fiercely independent three-year-old, rather than just ignore what is wedged up his nose, mention it. Even if it’s in a supermarket and that finger is now touching the grapes in the trolley adjoining us you.

Turns out, that hard thing to do isn’t so bad once you’re in it. It can be annoying, make you blush, take some time to figure out, or it may be dang hard work, but mentally aren’t we happier knowing we’re onto that thing than having it on the eternal dance card, and ignoring it?

These words are but a whisper of atonement for my forgetfulness. Carmen was an amazing opera, the best I’ve seen, and the staging and immense effort that goes into taking people out of their comfort zone to experience a performance on Sydney Harbour blew us away. I had an experience that will be in my heart for years, and then I simply forgot to act and the days few by.

What I also mean to say is: if you have to do something you’ve forgotten to do, don’t make like Nike and ‘just do it’. Be creative, find a way to make it enjoyable, and be open about what you probably should have done. It’s real, it’s authentic, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what makes you different, and you, well – you. (hint: this also works for brands active in social marketing!)

All images courtesy of Opera Australia website.

You can watch their exclusive two minute time-lapse photography video of opening night performance of Carmen on Sydney Harbour - magic!

Please leave a comment on what you do when you forget something important…

Related posts:
Autumn-clean your life!
Finding Community
Lululemon & Leadership

For the record, Autumn is by far my favourite time of year, with it’s crisp mornings and clear-nighted, star-brighted evenings. The love affair probably started with this poem by Keats. Oh, it’s also the season I married my Gorgeous five years ago.

Autumn-Cleaning List

Let’s start with some personal pointers, and then we’ll deal with ways to keep your social media channels warm during these cooler times.

Clear our the closets and junk drawers –> Why should Spring cleaning be relegated to spring? There never seems time to do this properly, let alone at the start of one season, so do it in halves, one closet or junk drawer at a time. Deeply satisfying work.

Change your clothes, change your life –> Change over your wardrobe to layering, transeasonal and – dare one suggest it -even your warmer winter gear. Au revoir, bare legs. Sayonara, razor.

Make like Mr Bean –> Stock up on legumes like canned chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans to enjoy beautiful soups and a healthy spag bol in zero to 30 minutes. 

Herbalicious, much? –> Spring is for flowers in bloom, sure, but what about planting a herb garden that brings your soups and stews to life? Rosemary, coriander, parsley and mint provide a plethora of fresh flavours. 

Stop, Tommy Time –> Today’s vegie garden becomes tomorrow’s dinners. Now’s the time to turn all those tomatoes from summer into a lovely spicy chutney. Like this one.

I Like To Move It Move It –> That’s right, move your tootsies. Autumn and winter are great for exercise. Summer just seems so.. showoffy. And besides, you’ll usually find me attached to a wine glass when the sun is going down late, not taking on a jog. 

Hello, Sunshine –> Start taking Vitamin D supplements – there’s even drops you can put into your juice each morning. Get some sunlight too – it’s not as damaging this time of year and Vitamin D supplements are activated by the sun’s rays.

Once you’re through that list, here’s how to get your social media nuts prepped.

Make a Batch –> Create a batch of fresh timeline photos for your Facebook brand page to keep them updated – just remember Facebook’s 20% rule of text to image. Get the specs here.

Get SMART –> Look at your social media stats iand set some SMART goals for growing reach and engagement on your social channels in 2013 – so they’re Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Find out more from the Get Organized Wizard here.

Different Content = Cut-through –> Brainstorm creative content ideas that will set you out from the crowd – like this post, which takes an evergreen date (Spring) happening in the Northern Hemisphere and makes it relevant to our local market. What would you do with Easter for example, blog about living in a chocolate-free zone? I mean, as if.

Say G’day –> Start conversations on Twitter with journalists, opinion leaders and organisations you’d like to build relationships with throughout the year. They won’t want to talk to you if you just ask them for something outright. Make a list of who you want to know, follow them, and start listening to their interests. Respond to their tweets in clever, thought-provoking ways and they might just follow you back. Rinse and repeat.

Check Your Social Calendar –> Create a blog calendar, or at least a content bank (in it’s simplest form, a word document) with a list of blog ideas and blogs in varying states of progress. That way, you can add to it when inspiration strikes, develop blogs when there’s time, and you’ll almost never be stuck for content.

Who Killed the Radio Star? –> Learn something new. For instance, play around with the idea of creating a video channel, learning how to vlog or even just audioblog. Test the waters and see what the opinion leaders are doing in this space and google how you can master the channel, or find an app that can help you do it with your mobile phone.

Be At One –> Most importantly, make sure you take some time for yourself. Disconnect from the social channels and technology and just be. In an increasingly connected and fast-paced, frenetic world, I can’t stress how important this is.

Enjoy Autumn everyone! Feel free to leave your favourite seasonal activities in the comments section below.

Online communities like planbig.com.au, on which I was an Advisory Board member between 2010 – 2012, can play a huge role in facilitating real-world outcomes for your dream project or new business idea. 

The year was 2009. I was heavily pregnant, Gorgeous was finishing his first action thriller, we were living in Kurrajong with a couple of darstardly scapegoats, and I had good memories of many a full night’s sleep.

Once said thriller was complete, having seen our fair share of ‘it’s not quite what we’re looking for’ demoralising letters from the big Aussie publishers, it was hard to know where to turn. So I did what I do, and turned to the great, all-knowing Interweb.

I’d already spent the year revitalising my love for all things marketing through connecting with the latest developments on what real-time conversations meant for brands and organisations, so I figured: if there’s some new stuff happening in publishing, surely I can learn about it on Twitter and in the blogosphere?

Too right.

Soon I was neck-deep in the publishing revolution, seeing how digital technologies like eBooks and print-on-demand had democratised the act of publishing stories. Then, I found something new that put my newfound knowledge into action.

I found PlanBig, and connected into an online community of doers, helpers and – importantly – dreamers.

This place with its entrepreneurs and writers and designers, people who look after the small stuff and those who are big thinkers and the ones that dare to put their crazy idea out there – it made me realise something important about this book that Gorgeous wrote.

(Of course, book has a real name, and so does Gorgeous, but that’s another story).

Here was the light bulb moment: it was time to give the book publishing biz a red hot go ourselves, and not wait for someone to anoint us the chosen ones.

We threw caution to the wind and invested in the project – self publishing the first book before being picked up by Momentum Books, re-releasing the first and launching the second, hitting the best-seller list on iTunes, getting the third and fourth underway, building a strong team, brokering a burgeoning film deal, and many more exciting things that mean we are close to making writing and publishing books the thing that sustains us, not just the thing we do in every spare moment.

The fuel to sustain all this energy stems from Gorgeous’s immense talent for creating classic but contemporary thriller stories with heart-stoppingly good action scenes borne of his life experiences.

But it’s no good writing a book if it doesn’t get into the hands of readers. And PlanBig was my Dutch courage, the gut-warming tequila shot I took any time I was unsure or a bit scared or down on the craziness of it all.

PlanBig’s simple action steps for setting up a plan showed me that you do, indeed, just have to start somewhere. The goals I had to fill in were a stark reminder that we needed to think big, but also find something measurable that we could achieve. One of my tricks was to start with a goal (our first was to reach 100,000 readers) and edit it as the days wore on, and our end vision became clearer.

I realised that by telling a compelling story, people wanted to come along for the ride and to help in extraordinary ways. They shared excerpts in forums, had conversations online, spread the word, became passionate advocates for Gorgeous’s thriller writing, chose a cover design they loved, came to the launch, purchased and reviewed the books. In short: they moved mountains.

When things didn’t go as we planned – as it never does – PlanBig’s other planners were an example of how to adapt and keep going. 365 Cups showed skill in promoting their efforts and documenting their rise. Open Shed showed how they would change up their lifestyle and house-sit around Australia to support their dream. Soften the Fck Up held a launch event that moved everyone to tears. Scores of instances where small, savvy operators made an impact and achieved their goals with grit and determination and a bucketload of creativity.

Contributing to other plans with advice, time and support was personally and professionally enriching. The social entrepreneur and local community scene was especially vibrant, so it was amazing to link in with those sorts, but the business operators who were bootstrapping their way to success were just as inspiring. Ultimately the people we met, online and at events, are now friends – all of us getting our ideas to shine like crazy diamonds.

Since our plan became a success, we’ve relaunched the books, had another baby, and with time at a premium, my PlanBig presence has gone quiet. I miss PlanBig, the same way I missed Twitter when my account got hacked and I no longer had my own voice to tweet with. It’s like missing a part of myself that has gone underground, but we’ve had to focus on getting these damn books into the marketplace.

I hope to get back when there is more time to meander amongst the plans, meet the people, have those old connections revitalised and new connections created.

PlanBig enriches lives. Yours and those of people you may not have met yet, all connected by an invisible string, the feeling that we are about community, no matter where it is, and we like the things both big and small to have meaning. And for me, that will always feel a little bit like coming home.

As well as serving on the PlanBig Community Advisory Board, I had a number of plans on the site between 2009 and 2012, including one for launching my former Paratrooping husband’s first action thriller, Defender, to the widest possible appreciative audience (nb. former applies to the paratrooping part, not the husband part!). See intrepidallen.com for the buzz on the latest thrillers. 

5 iPhone Apps for Better Time Management

When I started running a business I really began to notice that there wasn’t enough time in the day. It’s not like working for an employer and checking out at 5pm every night; there is so much to do. You have to think about the work you are providing and then then all the other jobs that help a business tick over and become successful. Jobs like accounting, marketing and advertising, collaborating with clients, design and IT, sales, the list is endless.

iPhone Apps that Make a Difference

There are some great apps out there that do help you to save time. While you may not think that an app will help they really do thanks to clever ideas, smart organisation and the ability to work on the go. There is no need to be tied to the office all hours of the day and night. You can relax thanks to small programs that have been designed to help you, and that work.

Top Five Apps that Will Save You Time

Here are my top five apps that I use, all of which help me manage my time so much better than before.

Weave. Weave is free and will make sure that your entire life is organised. You can use it to plan projects and set tasks and even share that information with anyone you wish. By recording the information in the app you will know exactly what needs doing and when. It helps you to avoid over booking yourself and will ensure all those jobs are done on time. Another benefit of Weave is the ability to manage your expenses on the go, ideal for when you buy an item for the business.

Google Tasks is an app that is a must if you use Gmail and Tasks. Adding tasks is easy, simply click on your email, add it to the task manager and set the due date. The task is then stored on your calendar. If you download Google Tasks onto your iPhone it is then possible to have access to your complete task calendar.

Evernote isn’t a time management app but it will save you a lot of time. When browsing on your laptop, computer or phone you can send links and images to your Evernote account with one click. You can then access that data from any other online device so you always have access to all sorts of information you save no matter where you are sitting. It saves you time and is the ideal way to send yourself reminders quickly even if you are sat on a train.

Awesome Note isn’t free but it’s well worth the $3.99 that is costs. You can auto-sync your information and data on Evernote and sync your calendar and keep an eye on your to do list. Make notes and special dates in your diary and even plan out projects all on your handset. The password protection is also useful as you can protect all that information about your business quickly.

Flipboard is a must for anyone that uses social media for business. This app transforms all of those social media accounts you have into an easy to read, and easy to share magazine on your iPhone. Save time signing into multiple accounts and simply become a more valuable social media user by sharing the information your followers and fans will enjoy while flicking through the latest updates. Works with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and many websites too.

Save time and manage time with those excellent apps and you will feel more freedom to leave the office. They help you to stay in control and on top of your work and avoid those headaches that come with disorganisation.

One of the latest ways to save time is by using cloud accounting apps. Keep control of your paperwork and stay on top of your expenses wherever you may be.

About the author:

Carlo Pandian is a freelance blogger on business, technology and tax tips and writes tutorials on Intuit software packages. He loves his iPhone and couldn’t survive without it on a deserted island.

Luckily, then, I was offered the opportunity to have a chat to Alexie O’Brien, General Manager of Lululemon, the Vancouver based athletic apparel company with a cult following, to mark their launching an online shopping experience for Australia / New Zealand. It’s a place with a life manifesto that loosely resembles my own, with simple but important stuff like ‘Get the right amount of sunshine’, ‘Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to’ and ‘This is not your practice life. This is all there is’.

Alexie is not your run-of-the-mill General Manager. The eldest of four girls growing up, she was the School Captain, a girl guide-type who became a Chartered Accountant with a goal to become a General Manager or CEO of a company. And at the same time she’s passionate about her large family, she’s self aware, believes in goal-setting, and is right into Yoga.

Looks too fresh-faced to be both a busy mum of five and too fit to be a Chartered Accountant, you think? Not quite.

Alexie became the first financial controller of Lululemon Australia when they were just starting to expand down under, working in the Head Office upstairs of their Chapel St office in Victoria. In a way, she came in at the ground level, back when the brand were bringing people out from Canada and the USA to help foster the Lululemon culture.

We talk a lot these days about living the brand, why it’s important to have staff that are ambassadors for what you do, and why looking after your people is the way to get the best results for your company.

Maybe, then, Alexie was a great fit for Lululemon from the outset, or maybe they grew together – it doesn’t really matter. Recognising her spark, they helped her grow from being a financial controller into a General Manager role for a company where personal development, the concept of community and goal setting are as important as the clothes they produce for our lithe, sometimes sweaty backs.

Talking with Alexie about her leadership philosophies was simple as well as life-affirming: about making the most of our true potential, creating a life we love, about looking at the big picture and finding ways to get there.

We both firmly believe in the power of being yourself. During our chat Alexie mentioned one of her favourite quotes, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” That reminded me of a much-loved Dr Seuss phrase that hangs framed in my son’s room, “Today you are you, that is truer than true, there is no one alive who is youer than you.”

So I wondered, how does one cultivate this kind of life philosophy? The feeling that we want to create opportunities for others rather than shut them down, foster a supportive culture at work and home, even not to worry too much about what others think?

Turns out Alexie had positive role models in the form of her Nanna, who worked until she was 70, was a mum of four who enjoyed fun and jokes and had a positive attitude towards life. Similarly she has taken advantage of having some great mentors to empower her and help shape her – something that’s so important to pay forward when there’s the opportunity.

It’s a good fit, then, to find a place to work where their philosophy is akin to your own – where you can have integrity, be yourself, be authentic, and vulnerable and good at what you do, all at the same time.

That’s the kind of space I’d like to carve out at Sarah Allen Consulting, albeit at the moment it’s a consultancy with an operating staff of one whose main key result area is in feeding an 8-week-old baby!

Takeaways: Lose the guilt, it’s a waste of time. Believe in the power of now. And be the best version of yourself.

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BLATANT PROMO

Check out Lululemon’s online retail store (free shipping to AUS & NZ), their online community page, their Facebook page, their life blog, and my absolute fave product, the ta ta tamer.

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What’s the most treasured life philosophy you have? Leave me a comment below.

His name? Rhett Malcolm – after Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, and his middle name after my darling clever dad.

I’ve been ensconced by another new treasure, that of the apple variety: the iPhone 5 which was put in my hot hands last week. We got to know each other during an intensive first day where I struggled backing up and transferring my thousands of photos and millions of apps, to the point that the shiny new device almost ended up catching the light at the bottom of the pool until the end of eternity.

But I digress. Here’s some fresh Good Social Time Linky Dinks to load up on, unless you’d prefer I share a whole lotta help articles from the Apple website, or demonstrate my ‘oversharenting’ skills with yet another photo of said scrumptious newborn.

Anyone?

Fine. Let’s get into it.

Social Marketing

Why Do Customers Use Social Networks for Customer Service? Because they can… so says Brian Solis, and I agree. If you’ve got an avenue to make your voice heard as a consumer, then why wouldn’t you?

Are You Wasting Time Guest Posting? Each blog post can take a couple of hours, so you want to see some return on your investment. So, on the Problogger site here’s how to make the most out of each guest blogging opportunity.

The good people at Hubspot regularly release useful resources on inbound marketing, social media and the like in return for providing some basic information and joining their mailing list. Take advantage of their latest free eBook: 8 Google Tools to Improve Marketing Effectiveness.

Book Publishing

Looking for an injection of creativity? Everyone may have a book in them, but I tip my hat to those who can actually get their story from inside their busy mind and onto the page. Here’s 90 Inspiring Author Videos for Aspiring Writers.

Behind-the-Scenes at the Hunter shoot. Pictures of my gorgeous @IntrepidAllen drinking whiskey in the bathroom while Alex Morgan hangs from a Clovelly cliff – all for a good cause.

We’d love to create audiobook recordings of the Intrepid series, and have had various meetings to discuss this possibility. There’s great demand for audiobooks at the moment… Read 5 Reasons to Consider Audiobooks on the Rachelle Gardner blog.

Just Because

I’m yet to meet someone who doesn’t appreciate a good TED talk, and here’s one I watched at 3am while feeding the cutie-patootie. By Brené Brown, it was appropriately on the power of vulnerability – and how it contributes to our sense of well-being and self worth.

I’ve been playing on Zazzle, wishing more and more that I possessed graphic design skills… Zazzle enables you to put your designs on tees, gifts, canvases, iPhone covers, cards, posters and sell them. It’s all print-on-demand and they have an Australian presence, so no huge fees to post a single t-shirt from the US.

Out of the house for a couple of hours, I attended a gallery opening for my talented school-days friend, artist Michael Herford, otherwise known as Herf. His latest works feature happy-inducing blocks of colour and I’d rearrange our home to put one on the wall. Time to sell a few thousand books, methinks… Check out ‘Formal Abstractions and Colour Compositions’ at Global Gallery (5 Comber St Paddington) until 21 October.

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Want to stay in touch? Subscribe to my email list here. I don’t bite.

“Sarah’s full of great ideas and her commitment and passion is to be admired.” - Anna Rodanski, Marketing Manager, Kolling Foundation

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Next time on the Queen of Social blog, we’ll chat to Alexie from Lululemon about yoga and fitness, leadership, the power of goal setting and the many good things that come with having real passion for your work.

Social Marketing

The Big List of Tools Tips n Tricks to Work More Efficiently Online.Plenty of amazeballs tools in here you’ll want to check out, especially that by the blogger’s own company, Buffer. Via Buffer blog.

How to Promote Posts on Your Facebook Page. Pretty much what the title says – just remember to test and analyse your results. On SocialBrite.

How to Use Pinterest for Business. Download this little sucker from Hubspot and devour it’s meaty goodness. Says it better than I could myself. Pin! On Hubspot website.

Book Publishing

What Makes a Book a Bestseller? We’re happy to hear that this blogger reckons when a film version comes out, book sales skyrocket. Casting Alex Morgan… Via Omnivoracious.

From Blog to Book: Building an Online Platform. A guest blogger talks about an author grew a national presence by blogging daily, with purpose, and communicating with her audience. On Rachelle Gardener blog.

Our 99c Experiment. Discounted eBooks are all the rage, because they help you connect with a wider audience, fast. But this authoring duo explain why selling their book at a discounted price won’t pay their bills. On 90 Days Novel.

Why I Signed With a New York Literary Agent. Joanna Penn, self-publishing and marketing novelist on her aspirations to take her fiction novels to a wider, global market. The girl can certainly write about writing! On The Creative Penn.

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Want to stay in touch? Subscribe to my email list here. I don’t bite.

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Book Me Before Baby Arrives Sale!

On the final countdown till baby #2 arrives, but being invigorated by some great Social Roadmap and Hour of Power sessions I’m throwing open final bookings during August.

Social Roadmap = intensive learning & tailored suggestions for a new social presence @ $99
Hour of Power = detailed social analysis and strategy brainstorm for your brand @ $149

(that’s $50 off the full price of each product!)

To find out more, click on the product links above. To book, email me.

“Sarah’s full of great ideas and her commitment and passion is to be admired. I highly recommend this session if you’re planning to enter into social media.”

- Anna Rodanski, Marketing Manager, Kolling Foundation

Driving from Sydney to Lismore and back, we experienced first-hand most of the playgrounds in the region and took many a tourist coastal drive in a car packed with all manner of child-friendly items. Child-friendly items that were mostly unused, as I observed with less humour each day. This was in fact a godsend, as we saved money on stopping shopping for antiquey cool stuff, one of my favourite hobbies (aside from pottering).

While away, I had to note down some of my favourite roadsigns. Here they are.

On a primary school noticeboard:
School resumes after the holidays

On the Pacific Highway:
Caravans 50m, nice and quite

Country town:
Sum Sushi
Why not try sum today!  

On the back of a combi van:
Adventure before dementia

On a telegraph pole:
bullsnuts.com.au

I love the simplicity of these roadsigns, their Aussie humour as well as the lack of spellcheck on the handwritten ones! It takes marketing right back to basics, as well as creating a cut-though moment for those of us on a roadtrip.

Now, if only someone could give the oversized billboards in the countryside a makeover – I’m thinking some solar panels and electric screens could make them pop…

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Want to stay in touch? Subscribe to my email list here. The content is usually worth reading, and I don’t bite.

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Introducing the Social Marketing Roadmap

Launch into your new social media presence with a one hour blockbuster with the Queen of Social. In your Social Marketing Roadmap session, we’ll talk about how to get started in social media, from understanding social strategy, evaluating channels to be present in, understanding how to create compelling content and measure return on investment.

Cost? This $99 special offer includes detailed advice for your social presence based on your marketing and organisational objectives, specialised troubleshooting to assist with launch plus additional resources post-session like a content calendar, to help incorporate social into your busy day. Book your Social Marketing Roadmap right here.

“Sarah’s full of great ideas and her commitment and passion is to be admired. I highly recommend this session if you’re planning to enter into social media.”

- Anna Rodanski, Marketing Manager, Kolling Foundation

You’ve had a few weeks now to digest Part One on Social Media 101 for Freelancers, which was all about the importance of seeing social media as a conversation, finding out how to set objectives for brands participating in the social marketing landscape, ways to visualise and find your audience, and choosing your social channel strategy with style and confidence.

Maybe you’ve gone full steam ahead and completed your social media set up by now, or maybe you’re still thinking about it. Either way, it’s time to make your next move.

Read on to learn more about the all-important C-bomb: that is, how to plan, produce and deliver great Content that engages your audience and positions you as an opinion leader; as well as other vital stuff like how to Find Your Voice online; Measuring Return on Investment; and that age-old ditty: What To Do When Things Go Pear Shaped.

Essentially, this second part of the blog is geared around giving you the skills to participate in the conversation without having a d-bag moment. Brands don’t want to come off looking second-rate – and this is an opportunity to stand head and shoulders above the competition, after all!

Find Your Voice

So we’re talking about YOUR voice here, not THE Voice, which has been inescapable over past months. Instead, to find your voice online it’s about finding a way of typing, speaking, talking, showing what you do in social media, essentially storytelling in a way that encapsulates your brand and importantly, makes it real.

After all, a brand is represented by a name and a logo, otherwise known as a sign. In semiotics, the study of signs in popular culture is all about understanding the meanings underpinning signs.

Attached to your brand will be marketing collateral and a website – which is generally a pretty static thing we use as a reference point to gather information. But behind your brand there are a whole host of values and important qualities that shape our amazing business products and services.

Social media is a great way of bringing your brand to life, by using footage, imagery and language that your target audience can relate to (even have conversations with).  It’s about finding a unique voice for your brand. Don’t try to emulate your competition; we all have a point of difference and the idea is to bring your unique brand personality into being.

Please also note, with the explosion of Pinterest and Facebook becoming more image-centric, this is not just about words but finding or capturing images that reinforce your brand aesthetic.

Your online voice will come with practice and it will be tied to your brand personality – tease out whether your brand is calm, joyful, careful, wacky, knowledgeable, spirited, fun, serious or off-beat and the right tone of voice will follow.

Remember: Use social media to bring your brand to life, as we are human beans after all, and prefer to be spoken with rather than spoken at. So… avoid jargon, acronyms, corporate speak and other weasel words – be conversational in tone.

Deliver Great Content

Content is king, say all the bloggers and social media guru swamis. And they’re right. You do need to deliver great content to your audience in a way that cuts through the noise, rather than adding to it. You also need to find what is your value proposition – what do people want to know from you?

Hint: it may not be what you think you want to talk about. Often, it’s harder to tease out than that.

But if you can test out different types of content, ask people what they want, and check levels of engagement against what you’re posting online, then you’ll be on your way to finding your target audience’s sweet spot. That means you’ll find it easier to reach a wider audience, get new sign ups to your email list, likes on your fan page, retweets, repins, hits to your website and customers.

With great content though, you need structure. I talk about working with chunks, banks and scheduling to help people understand how to achieve great social media content in minimum time. Here’s how it works.

Chunks: Devote a period of time, say an hour, to brainstorming, researching and writing content for your social channels. An hour a week or two hours a fortnight should be enough. A short blog post can be written and uploaded in 30 minutes, once you’re proficient at the task. Other time can be spent coming up with fresh topics, finding ways to wrap your business around evergreen dates, researching facts, requesting quotes or endorsements about what you do, even searching out images and videos that you can post online.

Banks: Set up an image folder and a word document to save content into. Divide it up into rough headings or themes for your content. Half-baked ideas, blog post suggestions, quotes and trivia all end up in this document. You can refine them as time allows.

Scheduling: I don’t recommend scheduling Facebook posts as I’ve not found a tool that makes it look like you’ve posted the picture as when you post direct from Facebook. However, Twitter has a range of offshoots like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite that you can use to schedule a couple of tweets a day. That way, you can supplement with real-time tweeting if given the chance, and you can respond to tweets coming via mobile alerts, while knowing that there’s content scheduled to go out regularly.

A final clever trick we use for posting is to create a mood board of pictures, words, even colours to help get you in the zone when it’s THAT time – we all know how the day can get very busy and so a visual cue can jolt you into remembering the tone of voice you need to consistently use.

Remember: Create a mood board, develop an editorial calendar and set up a schedule for posting on your social channels, to make it easier to incorporate social into the working day.

Measuring Return on Investment

Honestly, who’s great at finding time each month to measure my own social activity? I’m not. Instead, practice what I preach (and what I practice on behalf of clients) and you’ll see whether the time you’re putting into developing great content for your social channels and participating in conversations is paying off.

With measurement you want to achieve two things. You want to set up a system where you can see if you’re achieving your social media objectives, seeing whether you’re hitting your targets. But you want to do this in a way that is easy to capture, so that they actually get done.

Set up a spreadsheet to measure against the objectives you have set up. For each objective, find a metric you can check against. For an objective to reach a wider market, track your reach (number of fans, followers). For an objective to start and continue conversations with customers and opinion leaders, track engagement (number and type of mentions in social media). If you want to grow the number of customers that come to you through social channels, track your referrals (survey customers, check google analytic referring sites, set up social shopping on Facebook, provide a social shopper code to receive 5% off your purchase). And so on.

In terms of frequency, measure monthly. Aim to capture your information in an hour to start, and then whittle it down to 30-45 mins. That way you aren’t measuring information you don’t necessarily need and you can capture and review your results in a snap.

Remember: Sign up to blogs like Social Media Examiner, SocialBrite, and Beth Kanter to ensure you learn about the free and paid measurement tools out there, and are reminded of the importance of regularly measuring your return on investment.

What To Do If Things Go Pear-Shaped

Social media has a lot to do with losing control. Where we once (thought) we controlled the conversation about our brand, now we participate in existing conversations being had about our organisation, product or industry.

So what happens if someone from your company or brand says something or responds to something in a way that you wish hadn’t happened?

First of all, ignore the impulse to reach for the delete button and pretend it never happened. Just as you can’t take back something unsavoury that has been said, if you tweet, Pin or Facebook and then delete it, once people have started talking about it, the issue will just get bigger.

Better instead to deal with it head on. We are all human beans, and brands have people behind them managing them. So mistakes happen.

Seeing that social media often has a customer service function underpinning it – that is, the ability for people to leave feedback about your brand, product or service – it’s best to see issues as requiring a customer service approach. That is, don’t take it personally, acknowledge there is a problem, work speedily to ensure the problem is resolved and triple check that any stakeholders or customers affected are satisfied with the process you’ve taken to fix it as well as the result.

Remember: Be authentic and transparent in your approach if things go off-track, as a sincere apology and a real attempt to turn the situation around will always go a long way.

That’s it folks! Thanks for reading to the end and I look forward to any questions or comments you may have on how this two-part series on Social Media 101 has helped give your brand social marketing power.

Special offer: Pick up an hour’s one-on-one session with Sarah Allen to find your Social Marketing Roadmap (for beginners), charge up with an Hour of Social Marketing Power (for established users wanting to take their presence to the next level) or get a Social Media Healthcheck (a new product for socialites wanting to brainstorm fresh ideas and fill in gaps in learning). Check out these special offers (from $99 – $149) on the Courses page.