Success Unscrambled Podcast

The Hashtag Holidays You Need to Increase Engagement on your Social Media Posts

Have you ever tried using social media holidays as a way to increase engagement on your social media accounts?

You may be thinking that none of them seems to resonate with your business at all.

Or maybe, you just need a few ideas on how you can incorporate them into your content calendar.

It is quite possible that you don't have a way to track these hashtag holidays before they occur.

Therefore, you find it difficult to really plan your social media posts in advance.

In this post, you will learn about all the important national holidays coming up in the next 12 months.

As well as the best way to use them for your business and how you can get your hands on an entire 365 days of social media holidays that you can use.

What are Social Media Holidays?

In case, you are reading this with a huge frown on your face, let you go into a little bit of detail.

Social media holidays are basically those national holidays, observances and awareness days that occur every year.

A well known example of this is Labour Day which happens every September during the back to school period.

One day that isn't well known or people tend to forget is International Women's Day.

Depending on your business you can piggy back on these national and international holidays to gain visibility for your business.

The cool thing about these social media holidays is that many of them come with predefined hashtags.

What is crucial about these holidays for any business is that they help you to resonate with your audience even more.

How to Use Social Media Holidays in your Content Plan?

At this point, you're probably thinking that you have a very obscure business with a very picky audience.

Or you are probably thinking that this will never work for you as you don't have the time.

Whatever your situation I will give you a few ideas how you can easily incorporate this into your content planning session.

Here are a few things you need to know before looking at the list of social media holidays.

* Who is your ideal client?* What do they like to do in their spare time?* Where do they live?* What are their intrinsic values?* What charities do they support?* Are they fur parents?* What's their family situation?

It is important for you to remember that your potential clients are humans with fears, needs, challenges, likes and dislikes.

Once you approach this with a very open mindset you will be surprised by what you can uncover about them.

101+ Best Social Media Holidays

Now that you have a fair idea of how this can be useful for your business and your audience.

Let's spend some time looking at the top social media holidays for the 2021 calendar year.

January 2021

While January tends to be classed as one of the most depressing months of the year because people are broke after Christmas and it is quite dark and dreary in the Northern hemisphere.

Here are a list of holidays that can help you lighten things up for your business.

* New Year's Day (January 1st) - #NewYearsDay* National Keto Day (January 5th) - NationalKetoDay* National Dress Up ...

Easily Start Valuable Conversations on Social Media Using These

You have decided that you need to get your hands on a stack of social media prompts.

Because you have made the commitment to post consistently between 3-5 times a week for the next 12 months.

The decision came after you learned about how social media can impact your business in a positive way.

Let me know if you can relate to this.

Social media is not a new concept to you at all. In fact, you've had accounts on 2-3 platforms for a few years.

However, each time you tried posting on social media in the past you will run out of ideas in a few weeks.

What you need is a consistent flow of ideas to last you for a good 90 days or even a year.

If only you can get your hands on a resource that not only give you social media ideas but also a good list of fill-in-the-blank options too.

In this post, you will learn more about what to post on social media and how to get access to 365 days of social media captions for your business.

All you need to do now is decide which two social media platforms you want to master.

Why Social Media is Good for Business

In case you never really took social media seriously or if you are not clear about how to get results for your business this is for you.

Looking at social media's history you will see that the first social media site was called sixdegrees.com.

It was born way back in 1997 that is over 20 years ago which is amazing when you think of the age of social media.

However, the first social media site to hit one million monthly active users was MySpace and that was back in 2004.

Social media allows you the ability to make connections and even grow a network with like-minded people.

When you think about what it takes to grow a business from an idea to a multi-million dollar company it is all about connections.

"It takes a village to raise a child" is a very famous African proverb that makes a ton of sense.

John Maxwell said, "It takes teamwork to make the dreamwork" and he is so right.

Putting this into the context of social media and business, you will find the team you need to make your dream business work using social media.

Collaboration is the Secret

In recent times, I wanted to put the concept of collaboration into practice to see if it works.

If you are one of my regular readers you know I enjoy scientific experiments, at least the fun ones. Lol!!

I wanted to write a collaborative piece on content marketing so I reached out to 50+ people on social media asking for their input.

One of these people was the Chief Marketing Executive of a very popular company.

Would you believe that he responded to my request positively?

He even gave me the name and contact person in his organisation who I should collaborate with to get their input.

Since then I have managed to build up collaborative relationships with over 20 people who I never knew existed before my experiment.

4 Unexpected Reasons to Choose Ivory Mix vs Styled Stock Society as Your Styled Stock Photo Membership

Are you on the brink of choosing between Ivory Mix vs Styled Stock Society for your stock photo and marketing template requirements?

As a small business owner you know how important it is to give your potential clients a great experience with your brand.

If you are like me, photography and graphic design is not part of your wheelhouse so you prefer to get someone else to do this job.

However, outsourcing to a Graphic Designer can be cost prohibitive at this stage in your business.

So, it would make more sense to get access to a constant source of fresh marketing templates and photos to keep your brand attractive.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You've had a look at several styled stocked photo websites including Haute Stock, Pixistock, OhTilly, Ivory Mix and Styled Stock Society.

Only to realise that choosing one of these is going to be a lot harder than you expected as they all have gorgeous photos and templates.

Ever wanted to get an insiders look of at least two of these memberships to understand what makes them different?

In this post, you will get a first-hand review of what it's like to be a member of two of Ivory Mix and Styled Stock Society.

You will also be able to understand the similarities and differences enabling you to make the best choice for your business.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What is a Styled Stock Photo Membership?

A styled stock photo membership is a place where you can find photos for your brand or business.

These photos are basically styled in such a way that allows its members to use it to enhance their brand or business.

Not only are the photos beautifully styled but many of them come themed by category, season and/or colour scheme.

For example, photos can represent one of the four seasons of the year including Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

Others represent different social media holidays like New Years Day, Cinco de Mayo, 4th of July and even Christmas.

The fact that it is a membership means that you can get access to 1,000s of images that come in different sizes with some horizontal and others vertical.

One really cool feature that is offered is the fact that the photos represent people from various ethnic backgrounds.

Also, they take into consideration the different types of businesses and styles of working from very relaxed all the way to creative home office.

Other Perks of a Feminine Stock Photo Membership

Many of the stock photography membership sites offer features and perks other than the standard styled stock photos.

It means that creative female entrepreneurs can get most of their marketing and promotional needs met in one location.

These additional features and perks come in a wide range but here is a brief list to help you to understand what to expect.

* Product mockups templates* Workbook templates* Checklist templates* Cheatsheet templates* Ebook templates* Fill in the blank social media capt...

3 Features That's Not Available with PicMonkey When Compared to Canva

If you won the Lotto today and as part of your winnings you had to make a decision between Canva vs PicMonkey, which one will you choose?

Was your answer, "choose anyone and give the license to a friend?"

Or maybe like some of my peers in the blogging world your answer was, "choose PicMonkey and use some of the winnings to purchase a Canva license?"

Whatever your decision there are so many other things to worry about if you won the Lotto, right? Lol!!

You see there are so many people who are Canva enthusiasts, PicMonkey fans and still others who use both platforms.

For anyone new to the world of online graphic design software there can be a bit of confusion over which one to choose.

I have experience using both applications and I can tell you that the improvements that Canva has made over the years are awesome.

In this post, you will learn about the similarities and differences between Canva and PicMonkey to help you make the best decision for your business.

You will also get a few tips and tricks on how to create amazing designs that will allow you to generate more visitors, leads and sales.

Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links which means that if you buy one of my recommended products I get paid a commission for sharing the link at no additional cost to you.  I only recommend products that I have tried myself and have experienced success.

What is Online Graphic Design Software?

If you are new to online marketing or you never thought of creating your own images before let me pause here and explain further.

Whenever you want to promote a business, wedding, party, sale, engagement, an event or send a card you would use software to create the announcement.

Depending on your age or affinity you might have used Microsoft Publisher to create flyers, business cards, logos, party invitations, thank you cards and banners.

However, since many services are now available online there is a plethora of applications available to create these items on the Internet.

The reason for this is because there is a huge need to collaborate with others on your team or group.

When you are planning a big event there are so many other people involved in creating content and graphics.

Online graphic design software gives you the ability to seamlessly create your design from scratch.

If you are like me and graphic design is not your wheelhouse you will probably customise an existing template instead.

What Else Can You Do With Graphic Design Software?

At this point, you are probably thinking that the benefits of using this kind of software are not compelling enough for you.

Can I tell you about the other advantages of using this software?

First here's a list of things that come as standard with some online graphic design applications.

Pre-designed templates to make the following

* Social media graphics* Instagram Story* Instagram posts* LinkedIn post* Facebook posts* LinkedIn cover* Youtube Channel Art* Business collateral* Website templates* Presentation* Business card* Invoice* Logo (inspiration only)* Education* Lesson plan* Worksheet* Storyboard* Certificate* Class schedule* Marketing* Poster* Infographic* Flyer* Newsletter* Brochure* Small business* Workb...

4 Reasons Not to Use Kajabi When Contrasted with Kartra

You are ready to launch your online course but comparing Kartra vs Kajabi is a struggle.

Are you confused about which one will be suitable for your long list of requirements?

Creating an online course has to be one of the most exciting things to do as an entrepreneur.

As an expert in your field, you cannot wait to help other entrepreneurs like yourself to get the results that they need in their business and life.

Does this sound familiar?

One day, you woke up with a bright idea to start your own online business.

Everyone knows that being an entrepreneur can be quite challenging with so many things to get done.

Ensuring that you are signed up legally as a business, putting the best operations procedure in place, building a website.

Of course, you need people to buy your products or services so there's also marketing, sales and even bookkeeping.

However, you never realised the amount of technology involved to get an online course running smoothly.

If only there was a way to at least make choosing an online course platform easier for you, the busy entrepreneur.

In the post, you will learn the differences between Kartra and Kajabi as well as the best one to choose for your particular business requirements.

What is an Online Course Platform?

For many teachers, professors and course creators the reality of delivering their courses online has become a harsh reality.

My father has been a teacher since he was a teenager and he turned 77 recently and he still teaches.

I wouldn't be surprised that it has been 50 years of teaching. Can you believe that he uses Zoom to teach online?

Basically, an online course platform allows many course creators and/or teachers to deliver their courses virtually.

Many of these platforms give them the opportunity to record the course material one time and deliver it over a lifetime.

The beauty of this is that they don't have to spend hours on their feet 5 days a week where they teach for 9 months of the year.

In fact, it can be a set it and forget it type of scenario where they teach and generate an income while they sleep.

There are some cases where the teachers will need to mark and grade the assignments due to industry regulations.

However, this can all be done virtually.

7 Course Platforms Must-Haves

It is a fact that not all course platforms are created equal.

There are some features that should be available on a course platform to be considered as standard for course creators.

These items include:

* Media storage facilities* Great layout for modules and lessons* Ability to track progress* Support for the different learning styles* Payment gateway* Customisation* Content protection

1. Media Storage Facilities

It is already so difficult to be an entrepreneur. This is why online course platforms should make course creation and management as simple as possible.

You are probably thinking that all providers in this space come standard with media storage but I can tell you for a fact that this is not the case.

The ability to host content such as video, audio, PDF,

This Review of Agorapulse Will Change Your Perception of Social Engagement

So you know that you need to be more engaging on social media but you are not quite sure if Agorapulse is the right fit.

Maybe an Agorapulse review can help.

In the last number of months I became aware of the Agorapulse social media scheduler but didn't think much of it.

I read an article where a business owner claimed that it did so much to help get visibility on his article.

Is it really possible that a piece of software can be that good? I thought.

Picture this...

You have between 1-5 social media accounts across LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Experts say that you need to engage with potential clients on 1-2 platforms.

However, you are finding it impossible to be everywhere at once and the navigation is awkward anyway.

If only there was a way to easily engage for 20 minutes a day and give your audience the attention they need.

In this post, you will learn how you can effectively fulfil your 20-minute social media engagement requirements and still have quality time for loved ones.

Why Use Social Media for Business

When you decide to create a social media account for business on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

There are a few reasons why you decide to be there as a business.

These reasons include:

* To drive business awareness* Meet your potential clients or customers* Showcase your offering* Develop relationships* Generate leads

Keeping these reasons in mind it is also important to take into consideration the process involved to accomplish these goals.

1. Drive Awareness

For example, driving awareness does involve you publishing content to these platforms on a regular basis.

Publishing one time is just not going to get any results at all.

To get results you need to show up regularly and consistently for 90-days.

2. Meet Potential Clients/Customers

How does one meet potential clients online? Well, you never know who exactly will make a purchase today.

However, you do know the type of words your potential clients will use to find your offers.

The best way to meet them is using profiling. Creating a client avatar will help you know who you serve and you can join in their conversation.

3. Showcase Your Offering

Depending on the platform you can showcase your offers using images, testimonials or videos.

Gone are the days when posting text-only will get attention. Except in rare cases where you are famous, a celebrity or an influencer.

Using good quality media will help you get the attention that you need. If humour is part of your brand messaging why not use it.

4. Develop Relationships

The process of getting clients to know, like and trust you does require you to develop a relationship.

It is very unlikely that someone will purchase from you the first time they meet you unless they have a great need or they are in pain.

You will never meet someone for the first or 2nd time and ask them to marry you so the same applies to social media.

5. Generate Leads

The 20+ Must-Have Chrome Extensions That'll Boost Your Productivity This Week

Are you suffering from overwhelm? Not enough time in the day? These Chrome extensions for productivity will clear your back log in double-quick time.

Recently I was struggling with a dilemma where I needed to move over 1,000 records from Google Sheets to Trello.

While this may initially sound like a simple copy and paste job it wasn't at all.

You see some of the data needed to go into the description section on Trello.

If you ever used Trello you will know that to place data into the description box will require the user to click on each individual card and enter the data.

Imagine having to do this over 300 times. How long do you think it will take?

It will easily take a few days and I will end up with a sore wrist, neck and back.

Anyway, I found a cool piece of software that gets this done in minutes instead of hours or days and I was ecstatic.

In this post, you will learn about the best Chrome extensions that will shave hours of work off your day so you can get back to doing the things you love.

Are Chrome Extensions Safe?

For the most part, Chrome extensions are above board but it is important that you as a user take the necessary steps to protect your data.

Here are 5 things that you can do to take cautious steps to ensure that each extension you install is not malicious.

* Check the website of the provider* Take a look at the reviews* Read the description carefully* Pay attention to the terms and conditions* Google the extension name + 'scam' or 'reviews'

Check the website provider

Always have a look at the provider's website before you decide to download the extension. In some instances, they don't have a website.

Just because everyone else is using it does not make it safe. So, always double-check to be sure.

Take a look at the reviews

The most reputable plugins that have a great track record will have 4 and even 5 star reviews.

Think about if you found a piece of software that enhanced your life wouldn't you tell everyone about it?

I know I did.

Read the description carefully

Any Chrome extension that is worth their salt will be careful to give a good write up about what is on offer.

Take the time to read the description and if anything does not sit right with you then check other options.

Pay attention to the terms and conditions

Another area that you should really spend time reading is the terms and conditions for using the plugin.

I have over 20 Chrome extensions on my browser and I must say that I did not read all of the terms on every one of them.

Sometimes you have to trust your gut or ask other people in your business circles or friends for their feedback.

Google extension name + 'scam' or 'review'

A big red flag that may pop up is when you do a Google search for the Chrome extension name plus 'scam' or 'review'.

If the extension is over 10 years old and you find some dirt on them then you may want to dig deeper.

Best Chrome Extensions for Productivity

The best Chrome extensions for productivity are the ones that save y...

If you ever wondered how to track clicks for free using Google Analytics you've come to the right place.

She looked at me squarely in the face and said, "I didn't touch the skittles cookies at all." So, I asked her to stretch out her tongue.

A few seconds went by and it seems as if the wheels in her head started turning rapidly.

What happened next I'll explain in a bit...

Have you ever had a situation where you wished that you had sufficient evidence as to exactly what brought you success in your business?

If you've struggled with tracking clicks using Google Analytics then you'll love this.

Many years ago when I first started in the online world I was told that success depended on my ability to track everything.

Does hearing that make you feel lazy? Lol!!

I know that I felt super lazy to put tracking in place for everything.

However, I have learned that if I cannot track it I might as well not be in business at all.

Ever wondered how to set up an effective system to track potential buyers in your business for free?

In this post, you will learn how to use free tools to set a system or even several systems that will enable you to track your successes effectively.

What is Google Analytics?

There are effectively two systems set up by Google to track organic traffic to your website.

One is called Google Search Console and the other is Google Analytics.

The main difference between the two systems is that Google Search Console tracks the traffic from search engines.

Whereas Google Analytics tracks search engines, social media, email, direct and referral traffic.

Sometimes you may see one segment called 'Other' because Google has not yet determined a name for the source of that traffic.

Google Analytics may not be 100% accurate.

However, it is the only free tool that offers traffic statistics that is almost correct and it is trusted by everyone in the industry.

Because Google is the number one search engine platform in the world it would be difficult to trust another provider.

How to Set Up Google Analytics

For the purposes of this blog post I will only be focusing on setting up Google Analytics on a WordPress.org website.

These same instructions would apply to a WordPress.com environment as well as I set one up for a client in the last few weeks.

Step 1

Head over to your WordPress dashboard and click on 'Plugins' then go to 'Add new'.

Step 2

Search for the 'GA Google Analytics' plugin by typing in the name. You will notice that there are several plugins on the market that can do this job.

However, this plugin by Jeff Star has been proven to be very lightweight and it would not slow down your website or blog.

Next head over to the settings area of this Google Analytics plugin and you should see these options.

If you don't already have your Google Analytics (GA) tracking ID then you will need to get one.

Step 3

Is finding specific landing page examples proving difficult?

Your business or blog needs a landing page to grow your email list but you are not sure how to get started.

I still remember many years ago when I wanted to create my very first landing page.

There weren't a lot of options available on the market at the time like landing page builders.

Lucky for me I learned sufficient html to be able to figure my way through the process.

Does this sound familiar?

You spotted a pretty landing page somewhere online and you are wondering how to get one like that to match your business or brand.

The fact that you are not technically gifted does not help so it can take you weeks to figure it out.

If only there was a way to create a new landing page for your business within 24 hours without the need to learn to code that would really help.

In this post, you will learn where to find the best landing page templates and how you can get one customized to suit your business requirements.

What is a Landing Page?

Did you know that all web pages are not created equal? There are many people who are still confused about what is a landing page.

A landing page is a web page that is designed to accomplish a specific purpose or goal.

Some examples of goals include to sell something, join your email list, watch a video, encourage social sharing and much, much more.

Landing pages tend to focus on a single goal when compared to other types of web pages.

If a landing page is not achieving the intended goal then it would need to be tweaked until it does.

Other names for a landing page include:

* Squeeze page* Lead capture page* Opt-in page* Lead magnet page* Free offer page

As you can see the list can be endless when it comes to naming a landing page.

So, what are the key elements that make a landing page different from any other page?

Well, let's spend some time looking at the anatomy of a high converting landing page in more detail.

The Anatomy of a Landing Page

If there is one thing you need to remember when creating a landing page is the fact that less is more.

In other words, the less things you have on a landing page is the more it has a chance of achieving its goal.

The most popular kind of landing page that is used by a small business is a squeeze page or opt-in page.

It is mainly used to offer a freebie or lead magnet in order to grow your email list.

Here's an example of a landing page I created over 3 years ago. What do you notice about it?

In case you are wondering if that is everything on the page the answer is yes.

What is the goal of this landing page? Can you guess?

The main goal is to get the user to sign up for the mini eCourse. There isn't anything else for them to do.

Yes, they can decide not to sign up but there are only two options available to them.

There are 6 key elements of this landing page and these are:

* Who* What* When* Where* Why* How

Who

It is for anyone interested in learning more about Facebook marketing and they need to have an email address to get acce...

So, you need to use a project management tool but comparing Asana vs ClickUp leaves you confused.

If you are one of my regular readers you will know that project management makes me alive.

Join me on this journey to learn what you need to know when looking at ClickUp vs Asana.

It is possible that you have heard a lot about project management and you want to get started but you are not sure how.

Let me know if this sounds familiar.

You are currently managing several aspects of your business but every week things slip through the cracks.

There is a longing in your heart to have a single view of everything in your business.

However, it is not possible to put everything on your to do list as it makes things overwhelming.

If only there was a way to set up all the relevant tasks each quarter and have the most important ones revealed week by week.

In this post, you will learn how you can use a project management tool to get things done efficiently.

You will also see a side by side comparison of Asana vs ClickUp as well as which one is more suitable for your requirements.

What is Project Management Software?

If you have been an entrepreneur for a while you'll know that being responsible for everything is normal.

By this I mean that you are the CEO, accountant, visionary, salesperson, customer service and you even do your marketing.

Because there is so much to do and so little time the need to automate as much as possible is normal.

This is where using project management software to streamline your business makes sense.

By nature, a project management tool can really help you to manage all your projects by department efficiently.

What I enjoy about using a tool to set up all your projects is that as you grow you can add team members easily.

Since everything is already set up in a systematic way adding team members can be a simple process.

Project Management Software vs Pen and Paper

Some small business owners may argue that they prefer using pen and paper or even their notes application quite easily.

While this may sound fine initially when your business begins to grow and even explode it means that you cannot add team members to the notes app.

In fact, it will be a struggle since you will be onboarding new team members and setting up systems at the same time.

However, if these systems have been set up in advance then it would be just a matter of adding new team members to systems that already exist.

Also, using pen and paper or a notes app does not give you the overall visibility you need to make strategic decisions.

As your business grows every team member should be given access to the project management software.

So they know what tasks needs to be completed to move the business forward each day.

Your business will run efficiently and it reduces the chance of a client or customer query or order falling through the cracks.

What do you Need to Get Started?

One of the things that prevent small business owners from getting started with project management software is that they feel they need to know everything.

The truth is that this type of software really hel...