Do you often find yourself scrambling for content ideas when you log on to Instagram in the morning? Or maybe your last launch didn’t have the results you expected on social media. 

Planning out content doesn’t have to be confusing or time intensive, you just need to know where to start. First, let’s break down things that can go wrong with content planning. 

The Three Biggest Mistakes of Content Plans for Social Media

1. Not having a plan at all. The most common mistake that business owners make is posting on the fly on social media. Being inspired by local events and trends can play a part, but you need an overarching plan to know where you’re headed with your content. 
2. Not enough lead time. If you have a launch or promotion coming up, you want to start warming up your audience about 6 weeks prior on both social media and email marketing. Before you even start talking about the offer, you want to plant seeds inside your target audience’s mind about working with you or trying your products, and start to remove any barriers they might have. This way when you launch they are ready to say YES!
3. Not enough repetition! On average, it takes 8 touchpoints with a follower or potential customer before your message even starts to sink in. This means your content on social media needs to repeat the same message over and over again for your audience to really understand your core offers. 

Ready to make a quick and easy content plan you can repeat every month?

Try this 4X3 Social Media Content Planning Method

First break down your content into 3 pillars:

Pillar #1: Awareness – High-level getting to know you and/or your products with light and fun content. 

Pillar #2: Deeper understanding – Learning more about the behind-the-scenes of your business, or going deeper with education. 

Pillar #3: Sales or consults – It’s time to get hired and make sales!

Now make a list of 4 common frequently asked questions about your business. (If you have some already on your website, you can use those!) 

Put those together in a grid like this:

Now the idea is to answer each of the FAQ’s for each of your content pillars, moving your audience along the path to conversion. Here’s an example for a mortgage broker with some sample ideas:

Now you’ve got 12 posts mapped out for the month! You can always add a few more in spur of the moment for events or as needed. 

This might seem repetitive when it comes to content planning—but remember that 8 touchpoint number to get you started. 

Watch the WeBC live replay where I share a few more details about the content plan and answer live Q&A from our audience along with WeBC. 

The post How to Plan Your Social Media Content Fast for Busy Entrepreneurs  appeared first on WeBC.

One of the biggest mistakes that new businesses make is setting up social media handles on each of the major platforms and then trying to create content for all of them at once. Unless you have a team of content creators supporting you with daily content creation, this strategy is likely to lead you to burnout fast.

A more realistic approach is to niche down and commit to one or two main social media channels to connect with your audience. How do you decide on which ones you should choose?

Here’s three questions you can ask yourself to get started: 

1. Where is your target audience hanging out online? 

Before you start posting on SnapChat, you want to make sure that the people you are trying to reach are active in that space. Every channel taps into slightly different demographics and reaches people in different ways. Research the demographics of each channel before you decide which one is best for you. 

You should also consider how your audience likes to consume content. Are they browsing Pinterest already for recipes, or do they prefer to keep things professional online and connect on LinkedIn? 

For example, if you sell highly specialized photography equipment to individuals who want to learn more about taking better photos, you might decide to launch a YouTube channel, where you create long form videos about different aspects of your equipment each week and how to use it. You know your audience is looking to learn more, and YouTube provides a powerful search engine to help you be discovered. 

If you are a service provider like a business consultant or a wellness professional where the services you sell depend on making a personal connection with other women between the ages of 40-50, Instagram is likely the place for you. You can connect with your audience 1:1, show off your behind-the-scenes, and be in a visual space with other women business owners. 

2. What kind of content can YOU create? 

There is going to be some overlap between your target audience and the channels they hang out on. To narrow down your focus further, ask yourself, “What kind of content can I commit to creating each and every single week?”

TikTok might be a great channel to tap into your audience, but if you’re not able to create daily videos, it’s unlikely to be an effective marketing strategy. Here’s a quick list of the best channels and types of content for each:

• TikTok: Short form video 
• LinkedIn: Long form writing, articles and B2B content for videos and images 
• Facebook: Video, images and articles 
• Instagram: Video and images, moving into more into short from video (Reels) 
• Pinterest: Link based posts shared from a blog 
• YouTube: Long form video 

Choose a channel (or two) that best aligns with the type of content you want to create for your business. 

3. How does this content repurpose into other places for your marketing? 

One of the most efficient ways to stay on top of content creation, is to repurpose the same content in other places. When choosing social media channels for your business, look for ones that help you in other areas of your marketing. 

Here’s a few examples:

• If you have a monthly newsletter, use the caption from your best Instagram or LinkedIn post that month as the copy for the newsletter.
• Have a company blog? Share those articles easily each week on Facebook and LinkedIn. 
• If you have a gallery on your website of images or videos, or events that you have captured, share those directly to YouTube to be found more easily. 

If you’re just starting out on social media, or looking to dive back into it, pick one channel you’re excited about and get that up and running, before you add in additional social media connections. 

The post How to Choose the Right Social Media Channel for Your Business appeared first on WeBC.

Love them or hate them, when used properly hashtags can be a great tool to help your content be discovered by more people on Instagram.

As a social media coach, I often spend part of a session going over a hashtag strategy so that they can start to work effectively for that small businesses. Here are some of the common misconceptions around hashtags explained.

Using larger hashtags is better.

Using hashtags that have over a million uses, means that there is little to no chance that your content will be discovered in that stream. You want to pick smaller, more niche hashtags that are directly related to your content and your business so that your photos and videos will show up in one of the top squares and be discovered by more people who are following that hashtag. It’s good to have a variety of sizes, but overall, keep the huge hashtags off the list.

You should use the same 30 hashtags on each post.

Having more variety in your hashtags means that you have more ways to reach people. While some of the core hashtags in your posts might overlap, it’s better to treat each post as a fresh opportunity to reach new people.

Not using relevant hashtags to your post.

Just because something is trending or cool in the moment, doesn’t mean you should include that hashtag on your post. If you’re unsure of whether to use it or not, take a look at the top 9 posts for that hashtag and see if yours would fit in there. If the answer is no, then it’s better to skip it.

With all of these misconceptions and more around hashtags, it can be hard to know where to begin. This is why I created the hashtag workbook and webinar that launched in early November.

The 30-minute webinar covers all of these misconceptions and more including:

• Where to find hashtags for your business
• What the 5 hashtag buckets are that you need to include on each post
• What size of hashtag to use for your brand

The included workbook is an easy-to-use Google Sheet that will give you a system to keep your hashtags organized both by bucket, and by size. This will help to save you time when planning out your hashtags for each post.

If you’re tired of thinking up hashtags on the fly, this quick webinar and workbook is for you. I’ve extended my launch price of $9 CAD to Women Enterprise members. Feel free to share with a small business owner who wants to reach more people on Instagram!

The post Grow your Business on Instagram with Hashtags appeared first on WeBC.

The longer answer is that it depends on your marketing objectives, your target audience, and how much time and money you’re willing to invest.

There are dozens of free social media channels you can promote your services on from Instagram to TikTok, Facebook to Snapchat. You can spend all day creating content for an audience and reaching new people without spending a dime.

But just because something doesn’t have an upfront cost, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a trade-off. Every minute you spend posting something on Facebook is a minute you’re not spending on another aspect of your business. The time you spend creating content, learning a new system, and responding to comments, is time not spent responding to emails, working with clients, or shipping your products.

Social media is just one marketing tool that can be used to reach your audience. It works best in conjunction with an effective website, email marketing, and Google AdWords. Social media is not a replacement for these pieces, but an addition to this suite.

Often, I hear from people that they are not, “seeing results” from social media. What this usually this translates to when I dive a bit deeper is:

• Not having a content strategy for what to post (and what not to post)
• Not knowing how to use the platform(s) effectively
• Not spending enough time managing their social media channels each week
• Expecting instant results each time a piece of content is posted

Social media only works if you’re ready and willing to invest the time AND money into it, just like you would an effective website, AdWords campaign, or print ad.

If you get most of your business through in-person meetings, networking events, cold calling, or print campaigns, you might not need to add social media to your to-do list.

However, one big learning lesson that has impacted many businesses right now – if you’re a business that has relied on only in-person ways to promote your product, the pandemic has likely had a major impact on how you’re able to secure new business. Having your brand online allows you to future-proof many of the ways you find clients. As demographics shift between platforms, you may find your target demographic is now on social media. In-person meetings are a wonderful way to conduct business, but we don’t know when we will be able to resume those, and what they are going to look like in the future.

In short – do you need to have a social media presence? The better question to ask is, “Are you committed to showing up on social media to serve a purpose every day for your audience?” If the answer is YES, then everything else can be figured out.

The first step to success is creating a plan, start making your social media plan today.

The post Do I Need to Have My Brand on Social Media? appeared first on WeBC.

Social media is serious business. Remember if you treat social media like a hobby, you’ll get hobby like results.

How do you stand out on your social media channels?  You have to be creative with your headlines and content to get noticed. 

Your content should tell a story. It should intrigue people to go to your website and learn about your business. Below are some writing ideas to get you started.

• Behind-the-scenes: Show people the “making of” your product or service. What is it really like?
• Something you don’t agree with in your industry: Do you have a different take or perspective on the norm? Share how you’re different and why that makes you unique.
• Book or Podcast inspiration – What are you reading or listening to? How does it motivate you or keep you learning? Who are some of your favourite authors?
• Mini-interview with someone you work with or in your industry. You can both promote the interview to gain new followers on your channels.
• Defining Success – what does that look like? What impact would you have when you help your clients or customers be successful?
• “New” Product/Service  – Don’t forget to tell people what you sell! Can be new, value add or improved upon. 
• Hardship or struggle: Relate to your audience with what you’ve had to work through and how you accomplished it. 
• Myth Busting – Break down those stereotypes! What is something that is not true in your industry but many people think that it is.
• Idea to let go of  – What did you have to do differently to grow your business?
• Business win for the year or the quarter – share your success stories
• How you got started – share what some of your first steps were on your business journey? Did you quit a job, change career paths, go back to school or move across the country? Share your WHY for starting your business.
• Overcoming fear – everyone has fear about something, what was yours with your business and how did you work through it?

Visuals are powerful. When matched with good text content, they can create a strong connection with your customers and boost your business. Below are a few tools to help you with photos and editing

• Canva – free tool for editing and creating graphics for social media
• Pexels & Unsplash – Free stock photography
• Haute Stock Photography & Styled Stock Photography – paid membership sites with Instagram style photography

I use Google Drive to create my content calendar. I am delighted to share my content calendar template. You can get a copy here

The post Let’s Chat About Writing Prompts! appeared first on WeBC.

Just as social media can represent a huge opportunity to connect with your customers; it also has the potential to eat up a lot of your time

A social media content calendar can help you deliver content that engages your followers while saving time in the process.

Here are 4 reasons to use a content calendar to manage your social media channels:

• Social Media Strategy. A content calendar can help you plan well. What’s the purpose behind your social media channel(s)? Decide what kind of content you need to share.
• Consistency –Stay top of mind with your audience. Plan to show up 4-5 days/week for each of your channels to build an engaged following.
• Time Management:  Used effectively, a content calendar will save you time as you can plan & schedule your content in advance, letting you better focus on the day-to-day responsibilities of your business. 
• Results, Results, Results – Get the right results from your social media channels.Consistent, quality, content leads to an engaged audience!

How to set up your Content Calendar for Success.

Step 1: Look at the month ahead and plot out:

• Holidays/events/launches/sales etc. anything tied to a specific date on the calendar
• Do a work back from important launches/sales etc. Ex. One week sale on your offer
  • Last day of promotion – final offer
  • Day before – let people know it’s 24 hours the offer is over, last chance to get it
  • 3 days before – remind people why this offer will help them/change their lives
  • One week before  – announce the offer
• Create content from your business story, inspirational quotes, blog posts,  and customer testimonials
• Gather/create necessary images tied to events and launches
• Write your captions at one time in a batch.

Step 2: Schedule your Content

There are many tools (both free and paid) that will allow you to schedule to your social media platform(s) of choice. Here are a few great options to get you started:

Later – my personal choice for Instagram and other social media channels to schedule on.
Buffer  – does not have a free plan, but can integrate with every channel on social media.
Hootsuite – free and paid plans available.

Scheduling Tips:

• Post a minimum of every other day – every day is ideal!
• Check your post within one hour of it going live (when possible).
  • Respond to all comments within the first hour, this helps the algorithm to boost your post.
• Schedule your content at least one week in advance, but check in daily

I get asked frequently about the best times to post on Instagram for Photos? Based on my experience, I suggest:

• Monday and Thursday as the best days to post
• Weekdays typically perform better than weekends
• Posts do well during commute hours, lunch time and late afternoon
• Videos perform best later at night, outside of office hours

I use Google Drive to create my content calendar. I am delighted to share my content calendar template. You can get a copy here.

The post Set Up Your Content Calendar for Success appeared first on WeBC.

Whether your small business is your full-time income or your growing side hustle, many of us have to figure out how to keep the lights on for the next several weeks or months as this pandemic runs its course.

The good news is that there’s never been a better or easier time to pivot your business to continue to serve your customers in new ways. Here are seven ideas you can implement to come out the other side of this crisis with your business intact.

Switch to Online Service Offerings

If there is any part of your business that you can do online, now is the time to do it! Take your yoga classes to Instagram Live, and turn your in-person coaching sessions into virtual sessions.

People still want to fill their days ahead with learning, exercise, eating, and working, so finding a way to meet that need is now in more demand than ever.

You might have to get a bit creative with how you deliver your service virtually, but the technology for most businesses exists – it’s just a matter of Googling it!

Gain Exposure If You Can’t Gain Clients

There are some businesses that will have a harder time switching to an online model, or perhaps you’re in an industry or area that has been hit hard financially. If you’re having a tough time getting new paying clients, use this time to gain exposure instead.

• How can you increase your reach right now to new future customers?
• If you’re a restaurant that has had to close – can your head Chef do a daily live stream cooking one of his favourite dishes from the menu?
• Can you offer your services for free temporarily, in exchange for testimonials and more experience?
• If your store is closed, can you go behind the scenes to show the making of your product?
• Can you interview other experts virtually in your field and share that content?

Position yourself as an expert in your niche and when the market rebounds, hopefully, you’ll have more paying customers than before!

Look to Partner with Other Businesses

Almost all businesses are looking to get creative right now with how they can remain viable. Is there a product or service that is compatible or congruent with what you offer that would make sense to offer a partnership with?

Business owners who may have been too busy before to consider joining forces would probably be glad to have a helping hand in getting their message out. Look to your contacts in your outer circle and see what unique offerings you could put together.

Tick Off That One Project That’s Been Nagging You

Many of us are stuck at home with extra idle time on our hands. (Except for those of us without childcare perhaps!)

If your business has closed or is operating in a reduced capacity, now is the time to start working on, or finishing off, that dream project.

Always wanted to do a brand refresh? Do it now. Want to learn how to create more video content, or take an online course? Sign up. Many online learning tools are offering free or discounted access to make the decision even easier. Use this time as a gift to create what you’ve always wanted to create.

Continue to Communicate

The pandemic crisis is changing almost daily with new updates and restrictions in place depending on where you go. If your business has changing hours, staffing updates, or other social distancing measures that have been put into place, continue to update your customers and fans on how they can reach you or purchase your product.

If you expect major delays or staffing impacts, be honest and share updates as you can across your platforms, social media especially.

Offer new payment plans or deferment options

Find ways to keep your paying customers paying you. Can you offer a monthly payment plan option? Can you offer deferred payments? Can you offer a buy-it-now and pay-later option?

It’s easier to keep your current customers on board paying whatever they can than to have to start from scratch again later. Be kind and generous where possible.

Evaluate Your Tools

Depending on how long you’ve been in business you might have dozens of different subscriptions, tools, and resources that you pay for on a monthly or annual basis.

When your business is running at full steam, these costs may not have a large impact on the bottom line. However, now that things have potentially slowed down, it’s a good time to review your own subscriptions and see if there are any products or services you don’t need anymore or any ones that you can scale back on.

It’s a tough road ahead for many of us. Businesses that continue to add value in any way they can for their clients will continue to grow and thrive in the long term.

Stay safe, and stay healthy!

The post 7 Ideas to Keep Your Small Business Going During the Pandemic appeared first on WeBC.

If you run or manage a brand feed for any social media platform, it can be easy to get stuck in the same old habits. If you’re on the resolution bandwagon, then here are a few more ideas to kick around for your social feeds for 2020.

What changes are you hoping to make to your social media strategy for 2020? Let me know in the comments which ones you’ll commit to for the year!

#1 – Start showing your face

Let’s make 2020 the year of more of YOU in your social feeds for your business. Images with faces in them perform up to 40% better on Instagram.

If you’re a small business owner, think about connecting more directly with your audience by showing them who runs the shop. It can be scary at first if you’re not used to being in front of the camera, but with the right photographer and practice, everything gets easier.

#2 – Show up consistently

Once you’ve decided to get your face into your feed, it’s time to show up consistently for your friends. No one likes a friend who never shows up for their coffee date. And no one will be interested in a brand that only shows up occasionally on social media.

Pick a set number of days you can commit to (I recommend Monday through Friday) and start being there for your fans and followers.

#3 – Stop being spammy

Maybe you’re already showing up, a little too much. Don’t be that friend who is constantly trying to sell you her latest essential oil (or insert other MLM here).

You can use social media as a sales tool, just don’t promote yourself 100% of the time. Add value for your customers first and foremost.

#4 – Start being authentic

Do you actually drink coffee out of that fancy mug? Is your home always clean? Are your children perfectly poised? I didn’t think so.

Having some staged brand photos is definitely ok, but don’t be shy in letting your followers get to know the real you and your business. Instagram Stories are a great place to go behind the scenes and share your real everyday chaos.

#5 – Experiment with new types of content

Never gone live? Shared a video? Posted to TikTok? Make 2020 the year you try out a new type of content. You may find you love doing live video, or maybe it’s not for you. Either way, learning how to use a new tool gives you more options for sharing your content.

#6 – Stop ghosting

No one likes when a friend suddenly stops returning our text messages. Make 2020 the year you stop leaving your followers hanging. Answer those DM’s and comments that come in. Let them know you value their feedback. Too many to handle on your own? Consider hiring a VA to help!

#7 – Batch schedule your content

If you’re sitting down and posting live every day, today is the day to stop. Typing out posts one by one is a time suck and a great way to be pulled into other social media feeds.

Use a tool like Later or Buffer to plan out your content, ideally once a week or even every other week to get ahead of your feed.

#8 – Stop worrying about vanity metrics

We know that Instagram has removed likes already for many countries. Make 2020 the year you stop posting just for the likes as well. Post because you have something valuable to say. Post because you want to help others. Post because you want to make someone laugh. Make that your metric for 2020.

#9 – Find your niche

This can be a hard one. The more you start sharing your “Why” as in why you love to do what you do, the more you’ll find your niche.

Double down on how you show up differently, and why your unique background experiences are what makes your offer different than what is out there.

#10 – Start using hashtags – correctly

Hashtags are everywhere, but are you using them correctly? If you’re using them on Facebook – stop. If you’re using them on Instagram, don’t copy and paste the same 30 every time.

Do some research on what your audience is connecting with and posting and change yours up to reflect that.

#11 – Promote your social accounts

You’ve finally taken the steps to create a business Instagram account or Facebook page. Now you have to let people know where to follow you.

Spread the word every way you can – in person, on your website, on business cards, at trade shows and events, in your newsletter. Don’t be shy – people can’t engage with you if they can’t find your account!

#12 – Stop forcing the same content across all channels

Hashtags on Facebook? Incorrectly sized videos on Instagram? Let’s make 2020 the year we all take the time to share the correctly sized and correctly worded content on each channel.

While most content can (and should) be repurposed across channels, make sure that you’re following best practices for each channel before you post.

#13 – Start creating a community

How can your social channels bring people together online or in person? What cause or mission can you rally behind?

Social media is meant to be social. How can you use your channels to create rapport, support, or share the wisdom of others?

#14 – Stop over-editing

There’s nothing wrong with a little photo editing to fix the lighting or brighten up a dark background. With the removal of likes, Instagram is trying to get back to how it started – as a channel to share authentic, in-the-moment photos.

Branded photos still have their place, but ask your photographer to only do minimal edits to let the real you shine through.

#15 – Re-use your best content

Unless 2020 is year one for your business, you potentially have one, two, three or more years of social content that you’ve already shared.

Use the first part of the year to reflect on what content worked best and then re-share that with your audience again, making any tweaks necessary as per the above suggestions.

The memory span of your audience is shorter than you think, and people need to see content multiple times before it sticks in your mind.

Pick out your Top 10 pieces of content (at least) and start by sharing those again this year.

#16 – Repurpose your content

In addition to re-using your content, make 2020 the year you find ways to repurpose the content you already have.

Could you turn a written blog post into a short video explaining the tips and share that on social media? Could you take the same topic you’ve written and share it as a guest article on another site? Could you do an Instagram story of a longer video chopped up in shorter segments?

Don’t let your hard work go to waste, find more ways to reach more people with the same content.

#17 – Commit to building an email list

This probably seems like a weird suggestion for social media tips. Social media is a great place to find your tribe. But to keep that conversation going in a way that you can control, without ever-changing algorithms, you need to build your own network. This is the power of an email list.

#18 – Give back

If you’ve worked hard on developing a following, how could you give back to your community? How could you partner with another account, brand, or non-profit to make a bigger impact?

With so many opportunities to help in so many ways today, is there one cause you could pick to support at strategic times throughout the year?

#19 – Follow awesome content creators

Whatever channel you’re on, find the best of the best for what you do and follow them. Learn from them. Interact with them, and ask them questions.

The only way to keep getting better at social is to learn from those who are delivering the best content.

#20 – Have fun!

Let’s make social media fun again. If there are accounts you follow that make you feel terrible about yourself or the world, it’s time to unfollow them.

Find accounts that make you laugh. Post your outtakes. Post your behind-the-scenes. Have fun with your accounts – and maybe it will help you grow a more meaningful, engaged audience for 2020 and beyond.

The post 20 Things to Start & Stop Doing on Social Media in 2020 appeared first on WeBC.

I previously shared the Four C’s of Standing Out on Instagram.

Now, here are three reasons why Instagram Stories should be at the top of your list for your social media promotions in 2019.

#1 – Free Eyeballs on Your Content

Organic reach has been declining over the past several years across both Facebook and Instagram.

One place that hasn’t seen a decline in reach (yet) is Instagram Stories.

Brands report getting as much as 37% of their total Instagram impressions from Stories. Yet, only 50% of businesses are making one Story a month or more.

Don’t miss out on those free eyeballs looking for new content, make sure your company is on board before more businesses take advantage of these free impressions.

#2 – More Authenticity

Instagram feeds are typically full of picture-perfect moments that show photoshopped products, airbrushed models, and ideal lighting.

Since Instagram Stories expire after 24 hours, it’s a great opportunity to show off the more authentic side of your product or service.

Give people the behind-the-scenes walkthrough of an event, show them the making of your next product, or what a day is really like in your business, without all the photoshopping.

Develop a more genuine connection with your followers by giving them the real deal with your business.

#3 – Drive Link Clicks

Instagram Stories offers the feature we had all been waiting for since Instagram rolled out – the ability to drive traffic to your website with a simple swipe up.

While scrolling through the main feed is a more passive activity, brands can now actively engage their users in Stories by inviting them to learn more.

You do need to have 10,000 followers to enable the swipe-up feature. However, even if your brand isn’t quite there yet, you can still invite users to take action by clicking the link in your bio.

Use a service like LinkTree to offer multiple URL destinations from the link in your Instagram profile.

If you haven’t started creating Instagram Stories for your business, there’s no time like the present.

Even if you don’t quite get it right the first, second or third time, it’s only 24 hours until the slate is wiped clean and you can try again.

The post 3 Reasons You Need to Create Instagram Stories for Your Business appeared first on WeBC.

Content

Instagram engagement comes from stand out photos and visuals. This is the place to let your brand shine and share your best work. If you’re wondering how to find or generate great visuals daily consider:

• Taking a course on photography through an affordable workshop on Skillshare
• Hiring a photography student looking to grow their portfolio
• Using tools like Canva to source backgrounds and add text
• Sharing photos generated from your community

Create a Content Calendar

One of the keys to success of Instagram is showing up regularly. Creating a Google doc that plans out your content for each week will help to ensure that you don’t disappear for days (or weeks) at a time. Spend one evening each week mapping out your plan for the week ahead looking at what is coming up (sales, promotions, events) and what content you have to work with around that. Then use a tool like Hootsuite or Later to schedule your content out for the week.

Captions

If the photos are the hook, the captions are what reel your audience in. Every caption should connect with your audience in some way. Make them laugh, educate or inform them, ask for feedback or a recommendation, or find a way to surprise and delight your audience. Give them a reason to follow you and keep coming back to your account.

Community

Once people start showing up by liking or commenting on your content, be sure to share the love! Thank people for commenting, respond back to questions, and take the time to like and comment on related products or services in your industry. Community is a two-way street and it takes time to build trust with brands. Check in on your posts daily, ideally within the first hour of it going live to respond to your audience in a timely manner.
 
 

The post The Four C’s of Standing Out on Instagram appeared first on WeBC.

Flexibility

Many employers today are working hard at being more flexible, but for most you are still expected to sit at a desk roughly between 9 to 5. Running your own business means that you can (somewhat) be in control of your hours. From sick days to doctor’s appointments, after school sports to parent-teacher meetings, flexibility is the number one factor moms cite for leaving the 9 to 5 world.

Time Management

“Babies are little efficiency makers,” says mompreneur Marie Hunter. “I spent so much time before I was mom thinking that I was “working” when I really wasn’t. When Jayden showed up I really had to double down and focus and do the uncomfortable things that would make the most impact on the business.”
When you work in the 9 to 5 world you are often judged on the hours you put in, not just your outputs. When you work for yourself, you decide how long that project needs to take and what hours you need to get it done.

Finding Meaning in Your Work

“When I went back to work after my first maternity leave, everything was different. I couldn’t work late anymore and I hated constantly being in meetings. It made me wonder, “What’s the point?” shares mompreneur Jacqueline Fisch.
For many moms, having your first baby makes you question what’s important in your life. You may have been toughing it out in a job for a while waiting for that next promotion, but now it may not be worth the wait anymore.

Setting an Example for your Children

There’s no better way to instil a good work ethic in your children then by demonstrating it first hand for them. “My daughter has given me so much inspiration” says mompreneur Patrice Mousseau. “She sees her mom out there doing it and wants to be an entrepreneur now herself.”
If you’ve been toying with the idea of starting your own business and have recently welcomed a child into your life, let it be the kick you need to take the first steps. Just like you’re never 100% ready to be a parent, you’ll never be 100% ready to start your own business either.

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