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5 Ways Charity Events Can Benefit from Social Media

November 2, 2016 by Jessy Troy 1 Comment

5 Ways Charity Events Can Benefit from Social Media

The world can be cruel, with natural disasters destroying cities, famines facing whole countries, wars killing parents or taking away their livelihood, or just social and economic issues that create a set of difficult challenges. It is through a sense of responsibility in the welfare of our fellow man that we do something to change lives, hopefully for future generations.

Social media and networking have changed the way charities are handled, and especially how they gain support from potential donation pools, company sponsors and even government agencies. On a basic level this is done just by getting the name of an event out onto the Internet where people can see it and share it. This will usually bring people to the event itself, and sometimes alert the press that it will be going on.

But there are other ways that large charity events can be benefited through social media marketing.

1. Expanding the Role of Local Volunteers Within Networks

Any mega event is going to have to have a wider base than just a single city. If you are hosting one, you probably have volunteers in various cities, some major, as well as connections with philanthropists and activists either nationally or internationally. These people can have an incredible impact on your campaign, and through social media they can all assist in spreading the word from where they are.

Giving them free reign to develop their own method of social media for the event will give you an impressive workforce that can be brought together and harnessed for maximum efficiency. This method can also be used outside of the event for your organization year round, keeping people informed in their specific region of events, and just keeping up with current issues and needs.

Tip: Use local hashtags to find and enroll volunteers as well as to keep them engaged.

2. Connect with the Community, Not the Cash

It can be easy to feel yourself falling into the trap of focusing on donations from an event or cause more than the cause itself and the people who support it. With a non-profit that is struggling to remain active while giving significant help to whatever need, this is understandable. But if you lose focus of your community, you will lose momentum and eventually fall flat.

Make the effort to stay tuned in to what your supporters are saying. Communicate with them and keep them up on the goings-on of both your organization and the wider effort itself. Include them and they will return the favor. If you lose that connection, you will lose everything.

Tip: Use Slack to keep engaging with your community and team. Alternatively you can use a self-hosted alternative MatterMost (a cloud hosting would be an affordable option to host a community)

3. Inspire and Empower Through Networks

Don’t think of your social media work for your event as the end-all. What you are trying to do is not create a one-stop place for information, but to inspire people to share, and empower them to get involved in their own way. Your campaign is a spark that will light a fuse, which will then cause sparks all the way down the line in other networks.

Create a passionate network with people who are dedicated to your cause. Then, use your ingenuity to light their interest further, empowering them to get really involved with spreading the word. Watch them do so, giving that same spark to others, who give it to others and continue to pass it on. You might even be inspiring their own events.

4. Communicate With Personal Connections

Never forget the importance of one-on-one contact with people involved in your community. Maintaining personal connections, keeping the lines of communication open and staying directly linked is extremely important. Even with a mega event, you should have a way for people at any level of participation to contact you and receive a response. You also have to regularly communicate with those who are more heavily involved, such as running specific campaigns or smaller events in other areas.

Social media makes this easier. Regular emails, social networking pages like Facebook and Twitter, and even Youtube videos are all ways to keep that line going. Having local branch pages of your non-profit from larger cities you are involved might also help to keep it from becoming too overwhelming from a single source.

Tip: Use Hootsuite to use most of your social media accounts from one place.

5. Use All Your Tools

Relying on one single social media tool can be dangerous. Simply because you are trying to mobilize a greater force using a paltry arsenal. You have to take into account all that you have at your disposal in order to best reach people.

For example, email lists are extremely helpful for long term communication. It allows you to regularlyu update your entire community, and gives them a chance to learn about what is going on in their own time. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are good for real-time updates and regular communication one on one with users. Blogs are good for in depth explanations of events, coming changes or press associated with your cause.

Tip: Sharing programs like Google Drive or Zoho can be a simple way to give access to projects by group members without having to rely on constant email attachments.

Adapting to Technology to Make a Difference

Over the coming years we are sure to see further changes in social media, networking and sharing that will further expand out ability to connect with causes and events. But for now, there are plenty of ways that you can mobilize long and short term support using these methods.

Post image by Stefano Mazzone under Creative Commons

Filed Under: Marketing, Motivation

GetResponse: More Than Just an Email Marketing Tool

September 27, 2016 by Jessy Troy 3 Comments

getresponse-reviewBeing a marketer in the age of the internet makes me one of the luckiest people in the world. I get to reach audiences across the world from right at home, and I can do it with a limited budget, based on the merits of my brand and my creativity. I love my job… usually.

I will admit that there are times when I get frustrated. Sometimes I feel so annoyed with the tedious, never ending tasks of promotion that I feel like selling my computer, moving to the Appalachian Mountains and starting a llama farm, never to see another piece of analytics data again.

Given my endless search for ways to fob off those pesky to-do tasks, and my inability to do so on my team without them wishing me dead, I am slightly obsessed with marketing tools. I have been signing up for free trials in the search for the perfect one, and so far I have found a number that I like.

This is my latest attempt at seeking marketing platform perfection, and I am happy with what I have so far found.

What Is GetResponse?

GetResponse is, at the heart of it, an email marketing platform. You use their email creator to apply templated (of which there are many), and launch campaigns that are targeted to segmented email lists you can upload from your hard drive backups. Pretty straightforward, right?

Actually, no. I went into signing up for GetResponse thinking I would be using a MailChimp clone, like so many others on the web these days. What I ended up with was a unique, helpful marketing tool that covers a number of tasks that I normally hate doing, and makes them easy. And emails are only a part of it.

An Expansive Features List

Email Creator and Templates – There are a lot of templates available, as well as their email creator for your own designs. What I love most about these – other than how simple they are – is that they are responsive. So no matter where the customer is viewing them, they will look the way I intended.

Marketing Automation – In order to create automated tasks, you make a workflow chart using drag and drop. Each connects to different commands, triggered by the behavior of the customer. These automated tasks are a quick way to improve conversions, without having to manually draft messages.

Landing Pages – A solid landing page is a great tool to turn those leads into sales. But making them can be time consuming, and using services that make fast ones cost a lot of cash. Having such a feature available to users built in with the price of their other tools is a great move by GetResponse.

Form Generator – Want to get some feedback on your site or products? You need a form, and they happen to have a generator for you to use. You select the type (scroll, popup, ect), and fill in the different areas. Then they do the rest, hosting the form on your site where it will hopefully catch some interest.

A/B Testing – You have to be regularly A/B testing your materials if you want to make sure you are getting the best possible results. I love that this dashboard has a tester right there for you to use, alongside past campaigns that might offer clues for future success.

Webinars – You have so much to teach and give. Why not host a webinar? You can get this feature with the second tier and above account, and it is worth it.

Auto Responder – Whether it is a message stating that support will be in touch, or a happy birthday message to your customers, you can set up an auto response quickly.

Multi-Source List Import – Build your lists by importing from your hard drive, or pulling them from services like Gmail and MSN. Segment them quickly and easily.

Analytics – Get solid data on your performance with their analytics charts and insights. Make smarter decisions moving forward by seeing the real time successes and failures of your campaigns.

My Experience With GetResponse

I signed up for their second tier plan, for $49 per month. My plan was just to try it for a month and consider the cost an investment that I may possibly lose. I am happy to say that didn’t happen, as I have been loving GetResponse all month.

The email creation is surprisingly easy to use. I am not a designer, which anyone who has seen my attempt at building even simple sites can attest to. Emails are no different, and I have had trouble getting templates to work for me as I customize them on other platforms. Here, I had no trouble at all. Knowing that the emails were responsive also really helped, as I knew they would look good no matter the device.

I had a bit of a tough time figuring out the automation feature at first. But with some tinkering I managed to work the drag and drop automation lines, and created some cool little tasks that I could run in the background. I mostly focused on ecommerce messages, such as if they put things in their cart but didn’t go through with a purchase. They would get a message reminding them of the item.

I also created several landing pages, and A/B tested them to see which led to a greater subscription rate on our newsletter (the biggest source of marketing success for our campaign to date has been through email outreach).

My Rating: Five Stars

I really like GetResponse so far. I haven’t had time yet to try all of their features; webinars has had to wait, but I am eager to give it a shot. Everything else has been awesome, and I couldn’t be happier with how their features have improved the time I have spent on marketing tasks.

All in all, this is a five star product.

Filed Under: Tools

How To Get Paid For Sharing Your Travel Stories

August 9, 2016 by Jessy Troy Leave a Comment

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about the realistic expectations of travel writing and blogging. For many travelers it is a dream to eventually get paid to traverse the globe. Some people manage that goal, and blogs everywhere claim that anyone can do it and have their trips covered entirely. But is this true?

Yes, and no. It is possible to get paid for an entire trip as a writer, but it is incredibly rare. Most people will be experienced journalists, or bloggers who have managed to score deals with companies that sponsor their traveling. The truth is, this isn’t a feasible expectation for the average writer, especially not in the beginning.

That doesn’t mean you can’t earn money with travel stories. Actually, there are plenty of places that are willing to pay for that. Plus, you can earn more cash by dipping into other niches in your freelancing, which can help to recoup costs or fund the smaller expenses of your travels.

I have done this myself, and have often worked while away traveling in order to pay for things along the way. A friend of mine traveled through Europe, relying on his travel stories for everything from food to hostel fees. Which should show you the more realistic side of travel writing: it can be a good way to make some money while you are traveling anyway.

Selling Your Travel Stories

How do you do this? There are quite a few options, such as finding individual clients who are looking for travel writers on their blogs on in their magazines. They usually pay per word, and are a good option for more steady work.

Marketing your photos through stock photos sites is another option: You can get very popular there quite easily but don’t expect too much from that.

You can also go to travel sites that pay per story. Most travel blogs have this option, but the more popular are established sites like the Matador Network or Lonely Planet. These will usually get you around $25 per story, which isn’t great but also not terrible for occasional work.

This Writer’s Opinion

If you want an opinion from someone who has been doing this kind of thing for a living for awhile now, branch out. Write your travel stories and sell them where you can, under your byline. Use those to help push you into other avenues, padding your resume and portfolio for higher paying positions in other industries. This blog has a huge lists of ways you can make money with your blog!

There is a ton of freelance work out there for every niche. If you can be adaptable and show your worth in various areas, you can get a lot more work. I wouldn’t suggest working while traveling in these areas, because you run the risk of not enjoying your trip. But before and after you go off on your adventure, it can provide a much more stable income or even fund your next escapade.

Have you been lucky enough to sell your travel stories? Let us know how, and where, in the comments.

Filed Under: Blogging Tips

Seven Signs That You Need a Life Coach

July 21, 2016 by Jessy Troy 1 Comment

The idea of getting a life coach is, in some circles, may be unpopular. The whole concept of employing a professional to help you improve your life tends to get resigned to something only celebrities, the over-zealous and the deeply-troubled do. Simply admitting you’re considering seeking some ‘life-help’ is seen as admitting you can’t cope.

But the truth is, there is nothing shameful in trying to improve yourself. Whether it’s your mind-set, your self-belief or your approach to life in general – the gentle push of a life coach is something most of us could benefit from; whether or not we’d ever admit it.

Do you think you need a life coach? Read on for seven sure signs that you do!

You’re ‘Lost’

Perhaps you’ve just left school or university and don’t know where to turn next. Maybe you know you need a career change but don’t know what industry appeals. Perhaps you’re being pressured to settle down and aren’t sure if family life is for you.

A life coach can help you to establish what it is you really want from life and give you the push needed to go and get it.

You’re Living for Other People

Many of us stroll through life making the mistake of trying to make everyone around us happy, while forgetting to do what makes us happy. In fact, one of the number one life-regrets cited by those on their death beds is ‘not being true to themselves’.

It’s understandable why so many of us spend our lives pleasing others; we’re brought up in a world of social rules and restrictions that emphasise ‘thinking about others’, and of course, we should always try not to ‘do unto others as you would have them do to you’.

Yet at the same time, we have to, within reason, do what makes us truly happy. A life coach can help you figure out what this is and instill in you the confidence to stop shying behind social restraints and start living for yourself.

You’re Afraid

We all have our fears, whether it’s of spiders, clowns or even cotton wool (bambakophobia – in case you were wondering). However if ‘fear’ is affecting your day-to-day life or holding you back from living your dreams, it’s time you did something about it.

Scared to leave a relationship? Fearful of quitting a job? Maybe the thought of moving somewhere new fills you with anxiety? Life coaches can help you to face up to your fears and conquer them.

You Want to Change Yourself

Whether on the inside or the outside, a life coach can help give you the tools to change yourself for the better.

Regardless of if you want more confidence, to lose weight or to become a better role model for your children, a life coach can help.

You Want to Improve Your Relationships

Perhaps you struggle to see eye-to-eye with your parents or maybe you find it difficult to hold down friendships. Maybe you even find yourself having brief fling after fling and want to nurture a relationship that’s more meaningful.

A life coach can help you uncover why you’re having issues building and maintaining strong connections, while altering your mind-set and attitude so that you can finally enjoy the human bond so many take for granted.

You’re Unhappy

This is perhaps the number one sign, since it covers so many of the above points and so many more.

If you’re simply not happy, whether or not you know why, a life coach can help you to take the steps needed to turn your life around and start seeing the joy in living again.

One of the reasons a life coach can be so valuable in this instance is that we often think we understand the root of our sadness, yet we’re often wrong. A life coach can help establish the real cause of your unhappiness, which is undeniably the first step on the road to happiness.

You’re Happy!

Yes, you heard me right – even if you just love your life and wouldn’t change it for the world you can still benefit from the help and support of a life coach.

When you’re happy, you’re far more open to growth and will absorb advice much more easily. Happy people are the perfect candidates for life coaching! If you’re happy now, why not aim for ecstatic?!

Elise Carr, MA of StellaMuse Life Coaching puts it very well:

…your MIRACLE, which comes from living your highest potential, emerges through life circumstances and events. These events demand more of you than you think possible at the time. These life events do not make you what you are; they are an invitation calling you, asking your to journey and reveal what you truly are to yourself. And it is in these deeply challenging  times that you need to merge the power of the Divine with the power of your spirit and your character. This is the alchemy that awakens and unleashes your highest potential, and this is what I guide Stella Souls just like you to awaken to.

Image Credits: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Filed Under: Personal Development

Nurturing Business Relationships: Interview with Tej Kohli

May 27, 2016 by Jessy Troy Leave a Comment

Business relationship building is art, one you cannot really do without if you are interested in career building, building an effective team, managing your brand, and discovering new growth opportunities for your business.

Blogging is all about relation building too: In fact, it’s more about being social than about creating content, so mastering digital business relationship building is the key to blogging success.

Tej KohliI was lucky enough to catch up with one of the best-known global entrepreneurs Tej Kohli, Chairman of Kohli Ventures, and ask him a few questions about relationship building. I have also added my own tips on how to apply this advice to blogging and the digital world:

Why are good relationships important in business?

Without a good relationship between trading partners, the business will not prosper.

Just like a strong  marriage , integrity and expectations of the other party in business are key to a successful and long lasting relationship.

How to develop business relationships? What are the basic principles?

In business, it is important to build up a relationship over time and not  jumping straight into the deep end.

Basic principles are to agree on each others expectations and a code of conduct and communication between the parties. Be clear on the financial terms between the parties from the very start, to avoid confusion later.

This is very important in the digital world too: Relationship building should not be measured in numbers and months. It’s a long-term process where, obviously, the rich gets richer. It’s hard to start but it’s well worth it!

How and why to develop global business relationships?

Any start up businesses always has the potential to grow globally whatever the product. If it is run with financial discipline, entrepreneurial flair and vision and a strong work ethic is how to make it globally.

Global growth can give the business a stronger back bone in terms of negotiation power.

Should the team be involved in developing off-company business relationships. If so, how?

For sure, as these relationships lead to creating new business contacts.

The best way of building a strong business is through referrals coming from satisfied customers and partnerships.

There’s has been a lot of debate about intra-company social media policies and I am always saying: If you want your employees or team members to be your company ambassadors, allow them to be on social media!

How can Internet technologies improve business relationships?

With dematrialisation, demorcitaisation and digitilisation we are now able to reach the masses with a click of a button.

Social media, business reputation profiling and marketing with a targeted approach to selected audiences, can all be done through the Internet – it saves time, money and manpower.

We live in the exciting times: We can build global business and international partnerships and events from home. Not leveraging those opportunities means missing out! I want to thank Mr Kohli for setting such a great role model for us all. I hope you are inspired!

Image source

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: blogger-relationships, business-relationships

10 Mac Apps for Blogging Productivity

April 6, 2016 by Jessy Troy 1 Comment

mac-apps-bloggingRunning a blog is so much more work than people assume. The assumption is the bigger it gets, the more work is involved. But that isn’t close to being true; building it to a point where people are regularly visiting is just as much work as maintaining it once it gets there.

For some people it becomes a full time job, and one that doesn’t pay nearly enough for the first couple of years.

You have to squeeze everything you can out of every single moment spent working on your blog. Not just on the content, but general management such as social, reader engagement, research, outreach, SEO, marketing, hosting issues, backups, and more. For Mac users, these tools can help make the process of running a blog infinitely easier to handle, and save a lot of time.

WriteRoom

WriteRoom

Writing is easy. Writing without distractions if you are like me is next to impossible without help. There is so much waiting just in a browser window to pull our attention away, and before long a post that should have taken thirty minutes is verging on ninety. WriteRoom creates a fullscreen writing page that is sparse, simple, and made to force your brain to behave.

It has a black screen with green text to reduce eye strain, and nothing else that might cause you to look away from the words you are writing. It costs $9.99, but it practically pays for itself with the time you save. And time is money, as they say.

First Site Guide lists more writing tools you can find handy! That list is pretty impressive!

Writer

Want something a bit more thorough? Writer is another MacOS application that is also compatible with Apple and Android mobile and tablet devices.

It creates a clean, white page with black text, and has additional features like Night Mode and an integrated document library. It costs more as a consequence, at $19.99. But if you want Swipe Preview controls and device syncing on their own cloud, it is a great deal.

Blogo

Blogo

If you have WordPress and want to knock a few bucks off the price, Blogo is $14.99 and has many of the same features. You can moderate, reply to and delete comments, create shortcuts, and manage multiple blogs at once.

Plus the post scheduling, and image resizing/editing that could give it a real edge over other apps. It might still be a little too basic for some, but if you want a clean blogging platform that has plenty of functions, this should fit the bill nicely.

Todoist

Todoist is the tool I use most in both my personal and professional life. At first sight it is a basic to do list. But if you look deeper, it is a whole organizational system. Create projects and build task lists, giving them deadline, recurring dates, and priority. Set reminders, and sync across all devices.

I have a project set for content ideas, and build my editorial calendar right in the app so I can keep it organized with all other tasks. It is a real lifesaver, and the premium cost annually is peanuts.

SnagIt

SnagIt

This is one of my new favorite tools, even if it comes with a bit more of a price tag than I am used to paying. SnagIt is a screenshot and screencast capture app that lets you effortlessly create visual content to share with your readers. I make screencaps, infographics and tutorial videos, which can be edited and enhanced right there in the app.

It costs $49.95, with additional S&H if you choose to get a boxed copy as well as the digital download. But it is more advanced than free to cheaper screencapture tools, and more appropriate if you want to keep content at a pro level.

You can backup all your screenshots and screencasts either locally or in the cloud. The latter option is recommended by me personally because I am a fan of storing all my work in the cloud and access the database from my business trips, home, work, etc. You can learn more about cloud storage here.

Canva

Infographics are amazing, and they to this day provide me with the greatest traffic and social engagement of any other form of visual content I use. But man are they time consuming to create! I can spend literally weeks trying to create a thorough and high quality infographic with a lot of information, especially when presenting case studies alongside statistics.

At least it used to take that long, until I gave in and tried Canva. Originally I had thought all generator tools were pointless because they made cookie cutter content that would be less effective. But I was wrong; Canva is a fantastic tool that makes infographic creation faster and the results even higher quality.

You can even use it to create posters to decorate your workplace for more motivation and inspiration.

Toggl

Toggl

Finally, the most important way to remain productive is to properly manage your time. That means managing your breaks, as well. Toggl is a super simple time tracking tool that works on the Pomodoro technique.

You work for a stretch, then take a break. Work for another stretch, then take another break. It will make you more productive, and keep you from burning out.

Leechblock

If you need to write in a browser but want to block distracting websites, Leechblock is a pretty good option. It provides customizable controls that let you either block sites like Facebook and YouTube during times you should be working, or blocks them after you have spent a certain amount of time there.

As a self confessed addict who can get lost down the Reddit and YouTube rabbit holes on a daily basis, this has been an important productivity tool in my own life. It is available as a Firefox addon

StayFocusd

Similar to Leechblock, this is an extension for Chrome that works in much the same way. What makes it handy on its own is the ability to set the “Nuclear Option”. This will block all sites you have listed as restricted for a period of one or more hours, depending on your preferences.

You can also set it to not allow you to switch it off until the end of the block time, by not letting you access the extensions menu in your settings.

Desk PM

Desk PM won the Best App of 2014 award, and for good reason. You can write from the first note taking process to the publishing and monitoring step right from the app, with compatibility with several blogging platforms.

They have basic tools like word and character count that you would expect from any word processing tool, but with greater features such as post scheduling. At $19.99 it is a really impressive blogging tool. Especially given the high price tag for platforms dealing with high volume blogs.

Any tools to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!

Filed Under: Blogging Tips, Business Life, management

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