Rolling Sands Consulting

Social Media can be scary!

There is such a dazzling array options that many small business owners feel overwhelmed (as do I at times). Several have asked me, “Should I be on social media?”

My answer is always, “It depends.”

Reason #1 – A social media (SM) account can function as a home page in the absence of a website. A popular choice for small businesses short on cash and time. Quick & easy!

Reason #2 – Expand your reach with SM marketing. To do this, you must be willing to allocate resources. If no one is tasked with creating and responding to posts, the SM ball will be dropped. Followers can be hard won and easily lost. Celebrate the small wins. Building a following can be slow at first. Be persistent, consistent, and respond in a timely manner and your efforts will bear fruit.

To attract and keep followers you must also add value. Give your prospects / customers a reason to follow your SM feed. For example:

Once-a-month Q&A with your Technical team
Discounts available via your social platform only
Tips and tricks of your trade

BEST PRACTICE – Create a calendar for your upcoming SM posts and keep it up to date. I like having a 3-month rolling schedule (minimum) of content creation and/or publication. I also write down and keep a list of content ideas that come to me at random so I have a source of inspiration to fall back on.

Any words of advice for fellow small and scaling business owners? Please share in the comments!

Job Searching in the Time of Covid-19

Job searching is a stressful endeavour at the best of times, and these are not those. Today, I found out that I didn’t get a job that I was excited about. I needed some extra self-care and positive self-talk after getting the news.

How do I…

…stay motivated? – I know what I want to do…marketing! I love strategy, collaboration, creating, mentoring, and trying new things.

…stay hopeful? – I’m deciding that the roles I’ve applied for so far must not have been right for me. The right one at the right company will come along.

…stay confident? – I’m a unique, well-rounded, and experienced marketing professional with great references (and awards) to prove it!

…stay on my game? – I read articles, chat with friends and colleagues, watch webinars, and take online courses…and I decided to build a website. 😀

…deal with being in shared spaces again? – I stay home 95% of the time. Wear a double mask, wash my hands, and keep my distance when I absolutely have to go to the grocery store. That’s all any of us can and should do.

What keeps you motivated and moving forward in these strange times?

Perfectionism vs. Excellence

We’re only human.
No one is perfect.
Live and Learn.

Platitudes we often repeat but do we really believe them? For me, these phrases only applied to other people for many years. As a perfectionist, I did not give myself the consideration that I granted others.

Several years ago, I ran a PPC campaign for a manager. It was part of the launch plan for a new product. He hadn’t yet tried this tactic and was ready for something new. We carefully chose keywords and bid amounts and then pressed the proverbial “GO” button with great excitement!

It soon became obvious that we weren’t connecting with the right people. Lots of clicks, very few leads.

Our keywords were simply too generic. We struggled to find more specific language relevant to the product…to no avail. It was time to redirect our efforts and resources.

I was disappointed and apologised for the failure, but the manager viewed our campaign as a successful experiment. It gave us a much better idea as to which of his products were suited to PPC campaigns.

That day, my focus began shifting from a goal of perfection to that of excellence. It has been a bumpy but much more rewarding road.