My goal for 2023 was to start writing blogs... but why wait?
I recently attended a goal setting session with a new networking group for women called The Reignite Club (which I co-founded) for small business owners across Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire, and had one of those fantastic light bulb moments. Natt Summers was the guest speaker and she challenged us to think about which goals are really important to us and more importantly WHY. Once we had done this she challenged us to motivate ourselves to just get on with it, stop the procrastination and excuses and just DO IT! So here I am, starting this blog as it is time to make some changes...
What was holding me back?
Fear - I have never regarded myself as a writer so worried people would think poorly of me
Time - focused elsewhere!
Interest - who will be interested in what I have to say?
Worried it won't be perfect!
It's ironic really, as I spend most of my week helping others overcome many of these types challenges with my clients when talking about Instagram!
'The wheels are falling off the bus!'
As a marketeer I should have know better than to just rely on one marketing channel, but I just wanted to build a small business around the children that allowed me to help people in small businesses with their social media. And it worked up until now!
As so much of my time is taken up creating content on social media, I have let this take over, and it has been working so far. I've always know it was risky, that Instagram could suspend my account, I could get hacked or people just not see my content, but I haven't had a strong enough reason to invest time doing anything else for my business. But can I tell you a secret? I can start to see the wheels falling off the bus! I am am far too reliant on the Instagram algorithm and haven't built and nurtured my own community directly and that is starting to hold my business back. Why? People are just not seeing all of my Instagram content and they don't know about my events, my brand is falling off their radar and competitors are coming in and mopping up. Sounds brutal and harsh but I can see this happening. The good news of course, it now I have a strong WHY to make some changes in my marketing and blogging is one of them!
So why blogging?
There are 5 mean reasons why I want to take up tapping onto my keyboard each month:
It will help my optimise my website so I get found organically in Google searches.
Creating valuable content in written form will mean I can then create visual .content on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn and link back to this page. It will not only offer value to my target audience, but will further optimise my website.
We all know we have a short attention span on social media, so quite often it is all about the headlines, hooks and strong visuals. Blogs offer the opportunity to express yourself and offer more in-depth insights open up and and again, offer VALUE to your audience. If they like what they read they are more likely to convert.
Not everyone you are trying to target are even on social media so marketing yourself in different ways is always a great idea to broaden your reach.
You can share your blogs across more platforms. Once you have done the hard work (write it) you can then share and repurpose this on LinkedIn, Facebook. Pinterest and take highlights for a Instagram post or Reel. Fiona @bossyourpr is a huge fan of repurposing content in this way as you never know who might read it.
I challenge you...
If you are still reading this, thank you! I might not be perfect, there may be a few typos or mistakes and I might not have used all the correct heading, metatags or keywords. But I have done it, I have reached a goal in November and I am really pleased with myself. I don't have time for a social media post today but I am going to share this on LinkedIn and Facebook now as that is simple!
It is your turn next.... what goal have you been sitting on recently? How important is it for you (business or personal) and what's holding you back from just taking that first step to just go for it?!
If you are local to Berkshire I can definitely recommend 'All in with Natt Summers' Accountability Coaching and Training at Accomplish Fitness. She really is an inspiration both personally and professionally.
Do email me to let me know some of your business goals. I'd love to hear them.