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If you have a social media account, then you have one of these, but you may be using it the wrong way. Yes, we are talking all about profile pictures. I’m going to teach you the wrong and right way to create a killer profile picture.

If you've listened to Episode 69 “Create an Instagram Bio That Converts” or Episode 70 “3 Reasons to Stop Using LinkTree Right Now”, you know that I’ve been doing a series regarding getting your instagram up to snuff. 

I had a discussion with one of my business girlfriends about picture profiles. She said, “Brittany….my biggest pet peeve is people’s picture profiles. Most businesses’ picture profiles are terrible. There’s got to be something that we can do.”

It sparked a conversation that I hadn’t really thought of before. In fact, many business owners don’t pay too much attention to it, but it’s super important to do.

So how can you up-level your picture profile?

1. Understand the Platform

You have to understand the platform that you’re working with and the device that people are viewing your image on. Did you know that a whopping 83% of all social media content is viewed from a mobile device.  

You need to recognize that you are working with very little real estate. So that should be a driving factor for you when determining your photo for your profile picture. It is vital for you to make sure that your image fills the frame. 

2. Show your Face

No more logos or photos of your cat or favorite social cause or children or anything else. When you are creating a personal brand, people need to connect with you. And that connection happens when you can look into someone’s eyes. 

3. Have a Pleasant Look

Make sure that you look pleasant in your photo. You will come off as more approachable. A pleasant look on your face is sure to build connection that much faster.

*Now let me throw in a caveat. If your personal brand is 100% moody, artistic, or emotional, then you 100% need to have a photo like that. If you showed up with a super clean, perky, smiley photo….that would backfire on you. So please, make sure that it’s in line with your work and personal brand.

4. Look the Way Your Normally Look

Make sure that you look like your picture profile. This may mean that it’s time to update your photo. If someone were to sit down with you for a cup of coffee and then look you up on instagram, would you look the same or would they be confused? Remember, my favorite saying? A confused customer doesn’t buy.

5. Careful with the Filters

If you don’t know my honest opinion on filters, I’d like to invite you to listen to Episode 46: Should I Use Photo Filters. In a nutshell….steady….steady on the filters. They are usually hurting you more than helping you. And if you definitely want to use them, that’s okay. Just do it lightly...okay?

6. Stay Consistent Across All Platforms

Stay consistent with your picture profiles across all platforms. You need to understand how people are using social media. Most of the time, users will platform hop. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to find you no matter where you are. So keep your picture profiles consistent. 

I’m excited to see what you end up doing with your picture profiles. Shoot me a DM on Instagram to show me what you've done!

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Branding and marketing is more than just understanding your client and having the right colors. In fact, none of that matters if you aren’t consistently working on this one thing. Join me and my special guest, Stefanie Edward, as we dive into what is really holding you back in your business.

When you’re building a business, you can focus on so many things. From marketing, to product development, to collaborations and more. But it doesn’t matter if you have the best strategy or marketing team in place. If you don’t have the right mindset, you’re not going to go anywhere.

Mindset is what drives everything that you do in business and you have to take care of that brain space. Because ultimately, you are the one in the driver’s seat of your business. You are what sets your company apart from everyone else. If you are focused on negative or overwhelming thoughts, you won’t be in the place that you need to be to take action.

And everyone who owns a business deals with this. Don’t think for one moment that you are the only one who gets paralized by fear of going live or discouraged by a “failed” launch. Even the biggest and greatest out there have to take the time to manage their mindset.

Whatever you’re thinking about becomes your guiding compass. If you start off the day frustrated, tired, and angry, that will lead into the rest of your day and business. If you start off the day with gratitude and happiness, you will have a very different day. There isn’t anything wrong with either way. It’s just important that you are simply aware that you are in charge of your brain, rather than letting your brain drive you.

You get to choose what happens in your life by how you think about it. That doesn’t mean that everything is happy and roses. There are many times that we should feel challenged and frustrated. It’s okay. But having that awareness of what your brain is thinking is key. Being aware of the thoughts that you’re having and why you want to have it will change everything. 

Check out the episode to hear Stefanie’s 3 tips to have you gain that awareness of your mindset.

www.britbennion.com/episode72

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Content isn’t just content. If you are a business owner, you’re not an influence. Your content is your marketing. 

Looking at creating content from an internal point of view may build connection, but it doesn’t build a business. It’s not marketing.

Your biggest form of marketing is your content. Your content needs to not only attract people, but repel them.

If you are struggling to attract your ideal audience, it’s probably because you are afraid to repel the people who aren’t. To create captivating content, you need to get over that fear of repelling people. 

You do this by being polarizing and taking a stand against the status quo in your industry. 

Ask yourself: What is the status quo in my industry norm that I totally don’t agree with?

When you take a stand against this, it shows people who are struggling with this issue that YOU are the person for them. That’s what creates this magnetism, because you actually know what they are going through. You are showing that you are taking a stand against it.

CONTENT IS MARKETING

# 1 Have a polarizing Message

#2 Create the content that builds you as the go to authority

 Content Buckets for your content to fall into:

#1 Connection -  Find a point of connection through focusing on them, not you. Connection content builds true rapport. It allows people to think that you get them and know them. When sharing connection content, ask yourself, “What do I want to make them feel and how can I build connection, based on that feeling, through a shared experience?”

#2 What To Do - A lot think that they are doing this, but you may be missing the mark. This is not “HOW TO” content. What ends up happening, is your content becomes a commodity. Instead, create “What to do”. You don’t need to show people that you know the steps, you need to show them that you have the authority to teach them the steps. When you give people the “What to Do” content, you are more likely to get them to where they want to go.

#3 Belief Busting Content - There’s nothing that will build your authority more than helping people change their mind. This type of content helps remove the roadblocks that people are having. It points out the mistakes, misbeliefs, and misconceptions that are keeping them stuck and showing them the other side.

The Launch Fix Podcast

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Jess O’Connell

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Are you using Linktree in your Instagram Profile or anywhere else? It’s time for you to understand why that is hurting your business and brand. In today’s episode, I will teach you what’s wrong with doing this, and what you should be doing instead.

What is Linktree?

Linktree is a social website that allows you to easily create clickable links from a single page for your social media. 

Linktree, or any other third party linking app, does a really good job of making it easy to send your audience to a single link and then let them explore a lot of offers or options. It’s the link that keeps giving.

So why should you stop using it?

Because it’s not helping you as much as you think it does and here are 3 reasons why:

Why it’s not helping you

1. Traffic is directed to Linktree, not your website

When you have potential clients going to a linktree address you are missing out on valuable hits to your website. This affects your SEO rankings and so much more. Plus, you don’t have the chance to entice your audience to stay on your website and explore more.

In the free version of Linktree, you only have access to 5 different themes. And chances are, they don't align with your branding. At the end of the day, when you have been busting your tail off to have a curated look, brand, feel, and vibe, why would you throw that all away using the most important link on your instagram profile to direct people to some place other than your website?

     2. You don’t have access to in depth analytics

Unless you’re willing to pay a monthly fee, you lose all of that valuable information that you would normally get if they had landed on your website. A website that you’re already paying for. 

Linktree will only let you see the number of times someone clicked on your links. And they don’t even tell you which ones. That means you have no way of knowing which links are performing well unless you pay for the premium version.

     3. Instagram views Linktree as spam

Yes, you heard that right. Instagram doesn’t recognize lintree links as anything other than spam. This means that your links aren’t google searchable, but more importantly, if Instagram decides to shut down a linktree link, they can do it. Without your permission, without notice, anytime, anywhere. And if you’re like me, you’re not checking on the status of your IG bio link every day. Who knows when the link may have gone down or how many leads you might have lost because of this.

In fact, this happened just a few months ago. Linktree was involved in a data breach and instagram instantly shut down those links in people’s profiles. Trying to protect their own users, Instagram gave no warning, and many accounts were completely shut down. Not just that the link in their bio no longer worked, but that the entire instagram account and profile were flagged as compromised and shut down. 

If your business is heavily dependent on your social media, why would you risk having everything you’ve worked for get taken away just because you wanted to use a linktree account? Now, I always advise my clients in Brand Builder’s Bootcamp that you shouldn’t build your entire business on IG, because you don’t own the users, followers, or app. And that means you have no control. It’s like building your business on a glass foundation. Something that I definitely wouldn’t recommend. 

What you can do instead?

So what do you do instead? You can create your own social link page on your website. The premise behind what linktree does is fairly simple. It’s just a webpage that houses a bunch of clickable buttons. 

And

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Your instagram bio is like a free billboard for your business. So if you just randomly put some stuff on there, you are missing out on an amazing opportunity to invite your ideal community into your circle. This episode is all about creating an instagram bio that converts. 

Your instagram bio should serve 3 purposes:

1. Tell people who you are
2. What you offer
3. Why someone should follow you

If you don’t master your IG header, people will click away from your profile. If you try to jam in too much, viewers will get confused and then click away from your profile. We want to find that sweet spot where people can instantly get your vibe and have a desire to get to know you even more.

Profile Picture

The great debate that so many people are dealing with is what they should put as their profile picture. Do you do a logo or a photo of you? It’s an excellent question, and here’s my thoughts on this. If you are selling a product or have a storefront, I would suggest using your logo. If you are a personal brand, which most of you probably are, then you should use a photo of yourself. And not just any old photo. There’s a whole science to choosing a profile picture, and GUESS WHAT?! I’m doing a whole episode on this in a few weeks. But to give you the quick and dirty on this, use a photo of your face that makes you easily recognizable. Also, remember the devices that people use to view your profile picture. It’s tiny, and your profile picture isn’t clickable to enlarge, so you want to use an image that shows a good portion of your face.

Name

This seems like it would be a simple field to complete, but there is definitely some strategy that goes into what to put for your name. To start, make sure to include YOUR NAME, or if you’re a product brand, the name of that. But you also want to include a few niche keywords that describe who you are or what you do. Location is an important part to include if you are location dependent, so this is where you should include that. But remember, you only have 30 character spaces in order to do this, so make sure that you are using those characters wisely. It really helps you to think creatively and get super specific on who it is that you are serving. 

So why is the name space so important? Because this field is part of a powerful search engine that is housed inside of instagram. And the more specific you can get, the better people can find you. Don’t gloss over crafting a name that helps you get found by your ideal clients. For example, if you are a photographer in Boston, you’ll want to have your name say something like: Anna|Boston Newborn Photographer

Or if you are a coach, you can put, Jill Smith, OH Financial Coach

Main Bio

The key to crafting your main bio is to keep it short and snappy. Meaning 3 lines only. Why? Because that’s all you get for space. There used to be a time when instagram would let you have a huge bio, but your bio would get hidden behind that dreaded “more” button. But because no one really ever clicks that button in order to read more, IG decided to get rid of that option. So now you are limited to 150 characters or 3 lines.

The main bio is meant to help people easily connect with you, see what you have to offer, and easily decide if they want to be in your inner circle. 

Keeping it to three lines doesn’t mean that you need to jam a ton of information in there. It also doesn’t mean that you should waste space with a bunch of emojis. If you want to include an emoji, make sure to use it to your advantage, where it will easily convey a word or a message using only one of your precious character count and show your personality

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Do the words content marketing plan make you want to run the other way? Whether you love it, hate it, or don’t know what I’m talking about, stay with me. Because while it’s not the sexiest of topics, it should be a vital part of your business. I’m going to demystify what a content plan is and help you get on the way to saving time, money, and stress in your business. 

Recently, a friend told me they had just been hired to work for a local business -running their social media on Instagram. They wanted to know: What do you need to do in order to be successful marketing on social media? There are so many places you could start. From IG bios to profile pictures, IGTV, Stories, Reels, Rooms, Hashtags, and more. The list goes on and on. 

Where do you think is the best place to start if you want to build a solid business on social media?

Let's take it back to how you might be using social media in your business. Where are you spending the majority of your time? Are you:

1. Scrolling your feed. Looking at other people’s accounts for inspiration and finding yourself getting sucked into the time-space continuum and never coming up for a breath of fresh air?
2. Hyper focusing on one aspect of the platform, trying to master it before moving to the next?
3. Getting stuck in indecision because you don’t know where to start and not ending up doing anything at all?
4. Posting here and there? Sometimes it’s about what you ate for breakfast, sometimes it’s reposting a pretty graphic you saw, sometimes it’s the random thoughts in your head. You get that post out but there’s no purpose or intention behind it.

Did any of those sound like you? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. My advice to this person wasn’t to sharpen their dance skills or make sure their grid made some intricate pattern. It was that they needed to have a content marketing plan in place.

If you’ve ever identified with one of those scenarios I just talked about, it’s probably because you didn’t have a content marketing plan.

What is a content marketing plan? It's a plan for the content that you create that allows you to have intention, purpose, and clarity. It makes it so that you can lead your customer on a journey and move from influencer to business.

Followers and likes won’t pay the bills. If you are spending time creating content for your social media and posting, then that costs you money. And if you don’t have a plan when it comes to your content, besides just making sure you post every now and then, you’re like a ship that has a bunch of holes in it. You don’t have a plan to make it from point A to point B and you’re doomed to sink somewhere in the middle.

Your content marketing plan is what will plug those holes in your social media plan so that you can stay afloat. 

Content marketing is not a new thing. It’s been around for decades and is supposed to triple in the next 5 years. With over 94% of businesses implementing some form of social media use to try and increase their sales, it’s more important than ever to be intentional in the content that you create. Creating for creation’s sake isn’t good enough anymore.

Implementing a core strategy is what will set you apart in the sea of other people trying to sell, offer, or serve the same thing you do.

If you’re interested in learning how all of this works, including getting a sneak peek into my personal content workflow, then register for my free Content Marketing Plan Challenge.

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Ever wonder how to get gorgeous photos from your smart phone? I mean, your phone was not cheap, and the majority of that cost is due to the awesome camera inside. So how do you get your pictures to turn out how you want them? That’s exactly what you’ll learn in this episode.

When it comes to editing, you can’t rely on it to fix your photos. It’s so much more important to get them right in camera. I teach all about this in Brand Builder’s Bootcamp, but for now, just know that it’s best to get a nice clean shot and then work from there. 

When editing a photo on your phone use an editing app. The native apps are actually quite good, so if you are comfortable with that, everything that I’m going to tell you is available there. But if you want a little more versatility, try out one of these apps.

Lightroom

• This app is focused more to the amateur photographers who love taking a bunch of photos and want to edit them on-the-go. I love this app because you can use RAW images (more on that later) and the slider system is so simple.

VSCO

• VSCO has a great selection of presets, it gives you great control of changing the look and feel of any image. However, only the basic features of this app are completely free, you have to make purchases within the app to do more complicated editing.

Snapseed

• Google’s Snapseed is one of the best ways to make edits to your photos and is available for both Android and iOS. It uses an intuitive technology where you do most editing by hand if that suits your needs better.

There are a million other editors out there, so play around until you find out what you like best. 

Here are the 5 steps to my editing workflow...

1. Crop and Align
2. Adjust the exposure and contrast.
3. Fix color balance, Temperature and Tint
4. Adjust Shadows, Highlights
5. Saturation / Vibrancy

Check out the podcast for all the details on how these work.

So what if I’ve just scared you off from editing your photos and you are saying, “But Brittany...what If I just want to use a filter?” Well here’s the quick and dirty...

Filters can be awesome, but they’re easy to get wrong. When people use them, they tend to be the first and only stop in most people’s process. Which doesn’t really work. The problem is they aren’t smart, so they can’t read if your exposure is off, what the subject is, or what you want to accomplish. 

For example, Instagram’s Juno filter will increase the contrast and vividness in your photo whether or not it needs it. If your photo already started out with high contrast, it’s going to look really bad. If you want to make a filter like that work for you, you need to hand edit the photo first and then apply the filter, compensating for the effects the filter is going to put on. And that all sounds like a lot of extra work to me. 

Speaking of all of this work...why even edit your photos in the first place? Well because it can really do wonders for the image that you took. Editing is like putting the icing on the cake. It’s that final piece that pulls everything together, enhances the emotion, and creates a finished product.

But here’s the thing. Don’t over do it! While today’s phones are super powerful and truly amazing, the sensors are still a lot smaller than a full sized digital camera. It can only capture so much light and information when taking photos. The more you alter a smartphone image, the more the quality disintegrates. Remember my very first tip. Try to get it right in camera. You can’t save a bad photo with editing. 

Don’t forget to join us for the Content Marketing Plan Challenge. Going on Ri

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Flatlays are the biggest thing to hit visual marketing. Top brands in every industry are using them to promote their message and offers and you should too! In this episode I’m going to teach you how to create a unique, on brand flat lay so that you can stop using the same cliche stock photos everyone else is.

A flatlay is simply a photo of objects arranged on a flat surface, captured from directly above. Like a bird’s eye view. It’s a great way to showcase everything from the latest product you’re selling to what you had for breakfast.

Flatlays are powerful, eye-catching, and very trendy. While they are simple, don’t let them fool you. There are some things that you need to know before creating one. They need to tell a story, enhance your brand, or showcase an item. Before you grab your camera and start shooting, you’ll need to do a little prep.

Here are five questions to consider when planning out your flatlay:

1. What is the intention behind the photo? You want to know where and how you’ll be using the image before you start creating so that you don’t miss a thing.
2. What mood do you want your flatlay to have? What’s the vibe? A lot of this has to do with the color palette that you choose. I recommend sticking to items that enhance your brand colors. Not everything in the photo needs to be the same color, but if you never use the color red in your brand and then start creating a flatlay with a bright red coffee cup in it, you are probably going to regret it. 
3. What will you use to light your photo? Remember, lighting is everything. I recommend natural light, so don’t start putting your flatlay together at 10 o'clock at night. But we’ll dive more into that later. 
4. What will your background be? There are so many choices and the sky’s the limit. This could be your hardwood floor, desk, piece of fabric, foam core board, countertop. Whatever aesthetic best fits your business. Just make sure that your surface is clean and flat. I mean, that’s why they call it a flatlay.
5. Where will you stand to take your photo? Or what will you stand on? The key to getting a great looking flat lay is to make sure that you are shooting directly from above. This may mean grabbing a stool, chair, or ladder. Or keep it simply by designing on the floor and standing right above it.

So now that you’ve mapped out some of the details let’s get started!

Gather Your Props - Start out with the item that will be the main focus of your photo. This could be a product you are featuring, an upcoming new release, or something that you’ll be talking about on social media or your website. 

Next you’ll want to find some props that will enhance your main subject. These additional props should help tell the story about what you are trying to create. Think about adding texture, movement, shadows, dimension, height, and more to create visual interest. 

Finding The Right Background

Start by making sure your surface is clean and clutter free. Your background is an important part of the flatlay, so don’t neglect it. I recommend trying to stay away from reflective surfaces when you are first starting out. They are a little more tricky to work with. My favorite hack is a simple piece of white foam core. You can also spruce up what you already have by adding fabric or blankets. Just make sure they are nice and wrinkle-free. You’d be surprised how well a camera can pick up wrinkles! And once again, remember, you want your surface to be flat for the best results. 

Learn more at www.britbennion.com/episode66

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Building a business comes with loads of challenges, but that doesn’t mean you have to be roadblocked by them. In this episode, I’m going to show you 10 Problems that Personal Branding will Solve.

1. Saves you time - no more digging around looking for content on your phone. Stops the problem of not knowing what to post because you have personalized content at your fingertips

2. Saves you the stress of taking your own photos and looking good in them

3. Don’t get overlooked as an amateur - Elevates the perceived value of your offering

4. Build your unique look - don’t use the same images as your competitor 

5. You show up better in the algorithm because FB and IG loves faces. The algorithm loves unique photos and can tell the difference between a stock and unique photo. It rewards the unique photo.

6. Shows that you are a professional and take your business seriously 10.Builds credibility and consistency

7. Shows that you are in the long term game and you are worth investing in

8. Shine over your competition. Differentiates you from others in your field

9. Saves you struggle and headache to constant create new content

10. Builds trust with future clients. Helps you make more money and get more clients. Builds your know, like, trust factor

If you know all of the things that you should be doing with your brand, but aren’t....you need to have a good, hard look at your excuses. Because that’s the only thing that’s holding you back. No, I don’t believe that we need to guilt ourselves over what we should or shouldn’t do. You can stop “shoulding” on yourself, but you do need to examine your excuses as to why you haven’t taken your personal brand seriously or what you need to do so that your brand starts working for you rather than being a drain on you. 

And if you’re ready to learn more or you just want some accountability, then please join us for my FREE 3-day Challenge on creating a marketing plan starting March 22nd. Head on over to www.britbennion.com/plan for all of the details!

Or learn more at www.britbennion.com/episode65

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When you have your own business, it’s crucial to make sure that you are profitable! That means bringing in more clients. If you don’t have a clear personal brand, then listen up. 

So what are the four ways that a clear personal brand will bring you more clients?

• People trust other people MORE than they trust brands.

Think about when you go to make a purchase -dDo you trust everything that a product brand tells you? Perhaps if you have had a good experience with them, but otherwise you are more than likely going to ask a friend or a family member. When you have personal influence, people trust you more than anything else. 

• People connect with stories more than they connect with facts. 

By nature, we as humans learn through story telling. Just think about children. We read them story books to teach them we aren’t reading them the encyclopedia. 

So you want to make sure to include stories in such a way that invites your audience into your world. Whether that’s a challenge that you’ve overcome or a lesson you’ve learned, stories are the best way for you to connect with someone on a deeper level. 

• Personal connection is competition proof.

Do I need to repeat that? Who doesn’t want to competition proof their business? When you don’t have a personal brand to market yourself, then you are stuck competing on things price. And no wants to do that. You don’t want to be known as the person with the lowest prices. 

Instead, create a personal brand and leverage your message so that you are speaking to your audience’s heart.

• A personal brand is fail-proof.

Now, I’m all about failure. I have embraced failure in my business because I see it as a tool for learning, growing, and challenging yourself. HOWEVER, I’m talking about your ability to pivot. This past year, we saw a MILLION different businesses having to pivot in order to stay afloat. But those types of things happen even without a once in a lifetime pandemic. 

The ability to continue your personal journey even if your business changes or transforms is crucial. When you build a personal brand you have the luxury to be flexible and follow where your energy is taking you.

You’re using that momentum from everything that you’ve learned and putting it into something new or enhanced. What would it be like if every time you wanted to try something new, you had to stop your current business, close the doors, and restart from the beginning? That would be exhausting! Instead, a personal brand allows you to move and transition as your life needs to.  Just make sure that you are still staying true to yourself and brand message for that pivot to be seamless. 

Learn more about personal branding by joining  us in the free Posed for Success Facebook group. 

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