I think it goes without saying that when something is your area of expertise, that doesn’t mean you have it all sorted. So, with some trepidation, I will admit I’ve made my share of social media mistakes. Although I work on strategy for startups and SMEs across content, social media, SEO and marketing, I’m sure that my own set up lacks a few of the ingredients I talk to clients...
When I first started out freelancing I organised coffees with some of my friends who I knew worked in the kind of industries and sectors I was interested in. I felt a bit nervous and thought that just having a chat with some people I already knew about something work-related would be a good place to start. And it was. I met up with a friend of mine who is a CTO. He was really encouraging, stating...
A while ago I started leaving out things for my kids to do when they got home from school. To get from our back door – our main entry point to the house – to the TV they have to go past the dining room table. If I leave out something that looks inviting then I can often tempt them to stop on the way. After a few times I’d done this, I was setting up the table before I left for...
I’ve always loved this picture explaining social media through the medium of doughnuts. As you can see it is a little out of date – FourSquare has since pivoted its business model – but I’ve often thought that adding ‘doughnut eating’ as a skill on LinkedIn is a sure fire winner! For a long time Instagram was, to me, just a load of vintage/filtered pictures. It...
One of the things that I’ve consciously done since I started freelancing is to build my own virtual watercooler. As you can see from my previous posts, I was never the natural networker. In fact, I now often describe my networking at previous office-based jobs as ‘whatever events were offering free cake and time out of the office.’ As you can probably tell, I didn’t see...
I love a good productivity read. Whether it’s a book or a blog, I’m there. 5 tips for a better morning routine. Yep. 5 tips to stop you checking your phone every 10 seconds. Click. 10 things all those people you want to be do before 5am. Check. I know that it is click bait, but I can’t help it, I’ll click every time. I don’t know what it is. I think I know myself pretty well, I think I’m self...
Listening to the radio this morning I heard a segment about the #thisgirlcan campaign run by Sport England. This campaign has been running for a while now. It is reaching out to women and encouraging them to be more active. Research showed that one of the main reasons that women don’t exercise is that they are worried about judgement and how they look when they do. This campaign aims to...
I read this article from Independents United about salary transparency with interest. I will fully admit that I have always been someone who never really wanted to talk about salary. I’m nosy enough to want to know what someone else earns but if that means I have to say how much I earn, suddenly I’m not so interested. However, having just started out as a freelancer, I’m also realising that...
Late in December I saw that my online friend and all-round nice guy Paul Thomson had challenged himself to do #365daysofvideo in 2017. His aim is to record video of some kind every day in 2017. My first thought on this was — eek! That’s a lot of video! But as with the best ideas, after that it got me thinking. I’ve recently launched my own video podcast; Follow Me: Social Media Perspectives and I...
In the last two weeks I’ve recorded my first video podcast and vlog. Here are 6 things that I learnt. I wanted to pass them on here so you don’t end up with outtakes like this — although to be fair I’ve warmed to the outtakes since I recorded them. 1. What Can Everyone See Behind You? I recorded my first video where I have all my video calls — from my dining room table with the window behind me...