To me, it means understanding that for your business to succeed this year, you should have an effective presence on at least one social media network. My favorite isLinkedIn.
Knowing that these strategies can help you generate more leads. Seeing everyone else benefiting from using social media, but feeling stuck because you feel like you just don’t have enough time to do the same.
We’re going to show you a tool that lets you put your social media efforts on autopilot, so you can reap the benefits without having to worry about giving up more of your time to manage your different profiles.
CoSchedule is perfect for the busy entrepreneur who realizes the importance of staying active on their blog and social media.
Check out this step-by-step guide to using CoSchedule to take advantage of what social media can do for your business without all the overwhelm.
What does CoSchedule do?
CoSchedule is a social media and content editorial calendar that allows you to work collaboratively with your team and see what’s ahead for your marketing efforts all in one place.
In CoSchedule, you can manage, create and publish your blogs and content to all your social media platforms content in one place, all in one calendar. Its drag and drop function also lets you easily reschedule your content.
If you use WordPress, you can also create blog inside and schedule them directly to your website from within the CoSchedule app and see this content alongside your social media schedule to ensure that your marketing is cohesive and coherent.
A headline analyzer which tells you how well your headline is likely to do both in terms of SEO and social shares …
Social sharing stats, so that you can see which types of content tend to perform the best ..
Google Calendar integration, so that you can view upcoming posts and content within a tool that you already use ..
Bit.ly integration, so that you can track link clicks from specific posts, and …
Google Analytics integration, so that you can track the behavior of those who land on your site through your social media posts, and address any glaring issues you may come across (like high bounce rates).
CoSchedule is a huge time saver while making it easy to master social media. Its ReQueue function lets you recycle social media posts if you have empty slots in your calendar that need filling.
Simply put, CoSchedule lets me put my social media efforts on autopilot. Of course I have to go back and tweak my settings once in awhile, but it’s worlds better than logging into each individual account and posting every day, and then trying to scramble to put something new together when there’s a hole in my social media calendar.
Who else should be using CoSchedule
If you are a solopreneur who does all/most of your own marketing you should switch to CoSchedule.
If you have your own in house marketing person or team, you don’t need to be paying people to manually plan and post your social media content. You should have your team learn how to use CoSchedule.
CoSchedule helps you regularly promote the content that you’ve worked so hard to write and publish on your website, because “if you build it, they will come” is a flawed principle.
Here’s how to start using CoSchedule to put your social media efforts on autopilot.
2. Connect your social media accounts by clicking the gear button in the lower left-hand corner of your screen, and then selecting the name of your account.
3. On the next screen, click “Social Profiles”.
4. Then, click “Connect a Social Profile”. You will have to go through a brief verification process to connect your profiles.
Note that because of Instagram’s restrictions on third-party apps, CoSchedule will not actually post to Instagram for you but will remind you to post at the specified times.
5. To publish a social media campaign, navigate back to your Marketing Calendar.
6. Click the + button that appears when you hover over a date on the calendar.
7. Click the option applicable to your campaign – for this tutorial, we’ll choose Social Media Campaign to promote a blog we recently published.
8. The Social Media Campaign tool will help you automatically publish messages on your preferred social media channels at specified intervals such as the day of publication, three days after, one week after, and one month after the publish date. Within this module, click the plus signs to create a new message at the specified interval. This is the best way to promote a new lead magnet or piece of content within CoSchedule.
9. Add Title and Create your own labels.
Creating color coded labels can help you distinguish which type of content when you view your calendar.
  10. Set your custom date and time. You can choose “Best time” to publish the content on the peak time of the day when your subscribers are most active on the given social media network. 11. Click “Add Message” to add it to your queue.
A preview of how your post will appear on the selected social media network will be available at the bottom.
This is how your social media campaign messages will look when populated.
This is how your calendar will look when populated, giving you an overarching view of what’s going on across your social media channels over the next few weeks. 12. Follow up with your efforts using CoSchedule’s Analytics dashboard. View your top content report, social engagement report, and more.
Using social helpers to streamline your posts
Helpers are custom social media templates you can use. They can automatically fill in certain aspects of the content that you’re sharing, so you don’t have to type it out every time. You can create your own custom text, image, and video helpers for content that you reuse regularly and would like to easily insert into your content.
To create a helper, click the “New Helper” button within your social media publishing module. 2. Click “Text Helper” to create a section of text that you can easily recycle. 3. Fill out image helpers for images that you regularly use within your social media posts.4. Use video helpers for the same, but with video.
Using the ReQueue function to fill holes in your content calendar automatically
Step 1: From your Marketing Calendar view, click the ReQueue button in the sidebar. Step 2: Select the days of the week and times when you would like your ReQueue messages to populate your feeds. Step 3: Click the “ReQueue Groups” button in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Step 4: Click “Add Message” to create and save your ReQueue messages. You’ll never miss a social media post again!
In conclusion, it’s worth investing the initial time to learn how to use this new tool. Start using CoSchedule to help you promote your content more consistently, so you can build a bigger presence on social media.
QUESTION: Share your question or best tip that helps you grow your social media presence without the overwhelm.
Are you struggling with entrepreneurial overwhelm? It’s a wall that most, if not all, business owners face at some point. Did you know that you can achieve greater success and business efficiency by actually doing less? The secret is to identify the tasks that result in the highest-value results for your business, focusing the majority of your attention on those tasks while finding a way to focus less on the other tasks.
Here’s a five-step system to working less while achieving more growth in your business.
Step 1: Identify your “20%”. The Pareto principle (AKA “80/20 principle”) states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our efforts. So the first step is to identify those 20% of tasks that drive the 80% of revenue for your business. Which of the tasks you complete on a daily basis result in the most revenue? It might be making sales calls or meeting with prospects. It might be focusing more of your energy on the 20% of clients who pay you the most money or attracting more clients like them.
In order to identify this 20%, you might have to take stock of your day with a time tracker like TogglLook through your tracked time and see which tasks are those that truly drove results for your business that week.
Alternatively, you can also download a free productivity templatethat I’ve created and still use myself to stay focused on my 20%.
Step 2: Eliminate unnecessary tasks.
As business owners, we face constant interruptions like questions from staff, emails, and texts that often does very little in terms of growing your business. How much of this is really necessary?
The truth is, certain tasks do nothing at all for your business except take your attention away from high-value tasks.
Take stock of your daily routine and identify which of these tasks can be completely eliminated from your schedule––tasks which bring no value to your business.
For things like checking emails or your business’s social media pages for new comments or inquiries, instead of jumping to your phone every time a notification comes up, it’s best to block off one or two chunks in a day to complete these tasks or delegate the responsibility to an assistant. This can help you stay focused on the task at hand, so you can become more effective.
If the problem is that your staff or clients seem to ask you the same questions again and again, focus on creating a more effective onboarding system, like recording short videos demonstrating the answers or processes they’re asking about.
You can also have your team create a document with frequently asked questions and answers which will eliminate the time you spend answering these redundant questions.
Step 3: Automate tasks.
There are many tools that you can use to automate redundant tasks, like lead capture and automatic followups with leads and clients.
One example of this would be automatically following up with leads when they submit a contact form or inquiry form on your website.
You want to use an email marketing software that allow you to create a response that is sent automatically to any lead who submits a form on your website. You can use basic email service providers (ESP) like SendGrid, aWeber and MailChimp or you can choose intelligent marketing automation like Active Campaign.
What won me over to Active Campaign is it lets you send follow-up emails that adapts to your customers’ behavior, so you send the perfect message at the perfect time. You’ll have happier customers and higher lead conversions. And it doesn’t require a huge learning curve like some other platforms.
The automatic, immediate response helps to convert more leads into clients (studies show that the more quickly you respond to a lead, the more likely they are to convert)––but it takes care of this process instantly and automatically!
If you’d like to receive a free marketing automation assessment sign up for a 30-minute discovery coaching callwith me.
Step 4: Delegate the rest.
Delegation might seem like a scary step to take if you’re a solopreneur, but hiring staff is necessary to scale your business and take your income to the next level. Identify the low-value tasks that keep your business running and cannot be eliminated or automated. Some examples might be data entry, responding to simple emails, and answering questions that come through your business’s social media pages. Then find a way to outsource these tasks, even if only for 5 to 10 hours per week to start off.
You don’t have to start off with a full-timer. An affordable virtual assistant can help you with certain tasks that will free you up to make a greater impact on the 20% of activities that generates 80% of your business.
Step 5: Observe and adjust.
Going through this process involves a lot of growth, evaluation, and reevaluation. What works and what doesn’t?
For best results, evaluate your business efficiency and revenue four weeks after implementing this system and see where you stand. Making incremental progress each week can add up to transformative change at the end of each quarter and year.
QUESTION: What is your best tip that has helped you work less and achieve more in your business? Share your comments and questions below:
If you’re planning to launch to new product, a brand new program or a new service offering in your business you need to have a written launch plan to follow.
But, how do you know you have the right actions plans or the best strategies in your launch plan?
Reality is … [bctt tweet=”#bizgrowth tip: you won’t know what you don’t know until you ask someone else who does know. ” username=”yooncannon”]
So, wouldn’t you like to know whether you’re on the right path in developing your launch plan?
That’s what we are going to dive into in today’s Q&A episode.
Last week I shared 4 tips in Part 1 to the question submitted by one of my listeners Stacy, who asked … “how do you know whether you have the right action plans to achieve your goals?“
I invited Stacy to share her launch action plan with me, so I could provide a laser coaching episode that would address discoveries I made on her specific launch plan.
And, as I suspected, what I found from reviewing Stacy’s launch plan is the same feedback would benefit many of you who are in the similar stage in your business launching a new program or service.
So, click the play button below and listen to
Part 2 – How to Create the Right Action Plans to Achieve Your Goals
Then, join the conversation.
QUESTION: What is the biggest lesson you learned when you launched a new program or service? Share your comments and questions below.
How do you know whether or not you created the right action plans that will help you achieve your business goals most effectively? That’s this week’s question submitted by Stacy from Atlanta, GA.
Reality is, if you’re pursuing a new goal that you’ve never achieved before, you just won’t know what you don’t know.
You could certainly move forward on pure intuition while trying to piece together bits of tips from various free content you’ve found. However, I don’t recommend doing that.
Trial and error always ends up being way more time consuming. And for most people, it usually leads to making costly mistakes. It’s an age old truth.
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
The risk of prolonged lack of progress and costly mistakes, for many people leads them to give up which means the death of their dreams.
I don’t want to see “death of a dream” happen to you. So, let’s dive right into this week’s episode to help you:
Create Right Action Plans to Achieve Your Business Goals
Do not let important emails get lost in spam. Follow the instructions below on how you can whitelist email addresses on different platforms:
Gmail
1. Open an email from the sender that you want to whitelist.
2. Click on the little down-pointing-triangle-arrow next to “reply.”
3. Click Add [wlemail] to contacts list to finish.
Outlook 2007
1. Right-click on the email you received (in the list of emails).
2. Click Junk E-mail.
3. Click Add Sender to Safe Senders List to finish.
Outlook 2010
1. Click the Home tab.
2. Click Junk.
3. Click Junk E-mail Options.
4. Click Safe Senders.
5. Click Add.
6. Enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish.
7. Click OK to finish.
Mac Mail
1. Click Address Book .
2. Click File.
3. Click New Card.
4. Enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish. .
5. Click Edit to finish
AOL Mail
1. Click Contacts in the right toolbar.
2. Click Add Contact.
3. Enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish.
4. Click Add Contact button in the popup to finish.
IOS Devices – iPad, iPhone, & iPod Touch
1. On any message, tap the sender and add to either a new contact or an existing contact.
Android Devices – Samsung, Google Nexus, & Others
1. In the default email client, touch the picture of the sender.
2. Click OK to add to contacts
Yahoo! Mail
1. Open the email message from the sender you want to add to your address book.
2. Click Add to contacts next to [wlemail].
3. On the Add Contact popup, add additional information if needed.
4. Click Save to finish.
Mozilla Thunderbird for PC
1. Click Address Book.
2. Make sure Personal Address Book is highlighted.
3. Click New Card. This will launch a New Card window that has 3 tabs: Contact, Address & Other.
4. Under Contact, enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish.
5. Click OK to finish.
Mozilla Thunderbird for Mac
1. Click Address Book.
2. Make sure Personal Address Book is highlighted.
3. Click New Card. This will launch a New Card window that has 3 tabs: Contact, Address & Other.
4. Under Contact, enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish.
5. Click OK to finish
Comcast Email
1. Click Preferences from the menu.
2. Click Restrict Incoming Email.
3. Click Yes to Enable Email Controls.
4. Click Allow email from addresses listed below.
5. Enter [wlemail] you want to whitelist.
6. Click Add.
7. Click Update to finish.
Earthlink
1. Click Address Book.
2. Click Add Contact.
3. Type in the contact details
4. Click save.
Windows Live Hotmail
1. Open an email from the sender that you want to whitelist.
2. Click Add to contacts next to [wlemail] to finish.
Apple Mail
1. Click [wlemail] in the header of the message you’re viewing.
2. Click Add to finish.
NetZero
1. Click the Address Book tab on the top menu bar.
2. Click Contacts.
3. Click Add Contact.
4. Enter [wlemail] and additional information if you wish.
5. Click Save to finish.
In this week’s blog article I wanted to share a recent interview I gave with John Mattone, best selling author of Cultural Transformations. I was honored to have the opportunity to answer John’s questions on the importance of business coaching, especially for entrepreneurs and how to find a business coach. After you read our interview below, please share your thoughts in the comment section. Success & Blessings~
This blog article below is a reprint originally published here.
Expert Interview Series: Yoon Cannon on the Importance of Business Coaches
Yoon Cannon is a seasoned entrepreneur. Since 1992 she’s started, grown and sold three businesses. Her first business was in the direct sales industry where she had the opportunity to hire, train and develop managers to open and run six new branch locations and leadership coaching was a big part of being able to make that happen.
“You can’t retain people or have any kind of talent development without having a constant focus on leadership coaching,” she says.
Today Yoon is a business coach expert and the founder of Paramount Business Coach. We recently asked her for some of her professional insight on the importance of business coaching. Here’s what she had to say:
Why do you think coaching can be so beneficial to small business owners and entrepreneurs?
As a small business owner, you feel like you’re isolated on an island, trying to grow your business all alone. Whether you’re an entrepreneur flying solo or you have many employees on your payroll you still have hundreds of important decisions you need to make every day. It is dangerous to navigate through every decision by yourself. It’s like being a pilot trying to land a plane without getting any guidance from the people in the control tower who have a 360-degree view of where you are and where you want to be.
Choosing to not have a coach is like a pilot choosing to fly blindly without their control tower. That’s not to belittle an entrepreneur’s competency. Not at all. It’s just a fact that as people we all have blind spots. The right business coach can help you make timely course corrections in your business which will save you from making costly mistakes while speeding your success.
Working with a business coach also pulls you away from working “in” the business, so you can work “on” the business. This alone is worth double the return on your investment because this is a common success habit that so many small business owners skip right over.
What types of insight do business coaches offer small business owners and entrepreneurs?
That depends on the specific areas of expertise the individual business coach has.
Business coaches are similar to lawyers in that you should choose someone whose expertise (practice area) is in the area you need the most guidance.
Some business coaches have one specialty while others may have multiple areas of expertise. For me, as a business growth expert I specialize in helping entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies to:
Increase your sales (grow externally) and to increase your people assets (grow internally).
When should professionals seek the help of a business coach?
I firmly believe the sooner the better. You’re never too beginner, nor too advanced to benefit from working with a business coach.
For business growth, no matter what size business, the most important investment to make is in your people. As a small business owner that starts with investing in yourself. The decision to invest in a business coach for yourself as an entrepreneur is no different than an athlete who decides to hire a sports performance coach. For professional athletes working with a specialized coach is pretty standard practice. Similarly, working with a business coach is standard practice for entrepreneurs who are serious about their businesses.
How can business professionals make the most of their relationship with a business/leadership coach?
Like anything else, what you get out is in direct proportion to what you put in. So, the way to gain the biggest ROI from your investment in hiring a business coach is to decide you will commit to take action on those ideas and decisions you collaborated with your coach to do.
A coach can help hold you accountable, but in the end it is you who needs to actually do what you said you would do.
Also, be honest and practice direct communication with your coach. You need to be clear what specific outcome result you’d like to achieve from working with your business coach. You need to tell him or her how you like to be coached. Do you want more collaboration or more direct guidance and feedback? Some discussions you may want your business coach to just listen to you or brainstorm with you while other conversations you want to get their advice.
What are the most common mistakes business owners make when working with a coach?
The first common mistake is hiring the wrong business coach. The classic trap where I find shortcomings most apparent is hiring a business coach who may have gone through a coaching certification course, but never had firsthand experience starting and growing their own successful businesses. Textbook knowledge without proven experience just doesn’t produce the same level of insight and results.
The second biggest mistake is lack of commitment. You won’t be able to build any momentum or make significant progress if you cancel or reschedule your coaching appointments every time you have a fire to put out in your business or you’re feeling like you have too many urgent tasks you’ve got to get to. The greatest transformations that happen from working with a business coach occurs as a result of consistently working on the business together. It may seem counter intuitive, but, taking even 30 minutes to talk to your business coach is often the fastest way to resolve those fires and conquer overwhelm more effectively.
What advice do you have for business professionals on finding a reputable coach who will not only help grow business, but who’s also a good fit personality-wise?
Asking other small business owners who they liked working with is a good way to start. Searching on LinkedIn is also a great way to find business coaches. Especially, since LinkedIn makes it easy to check out their recommendations and the profiles of real people who wrote them.
Then talk to a potential candidates asking each the same list of questions. Talking to each business coach directly will be the easiest way to see who you click with.
What are some red flags that a potential coach might not have the experience or expertise necessary to help a business owner?
Ask your coach whether he or she has ever faced the same challenge(s) you are looking to overcome and/or successfully helped others overcome your specific challenge(s). If their answer is no, this is a red flag.
Share what your goals are with the coach. Ask them to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 how confident they are in knowing exactly how to help you achieve your goal(s). Of course, a low score will tell you this is a red flag.
Third, use common sense. If you’re looking to hire a business coach mainly to help you get more clients from your website, but their own website is lacking, this is a clear red flag.
Fourth, look for client testimonials on their website and LinkedIn profile. If they only have one or two or none, that is another red flag.
How long does the typical coaching relationship last?
What is typical for me is one year. But, it all depends on the nature of the goal and the gap between where you are and where you want to be. My initial free discovery session is where I can better estimate of how long it may take to achieve the result each client is looking for based on their unique business and situation.
On the short end, I recently coached another coach who simply wanted me to diagnose why her marketing wasn’t getting results. It only took three sessions for her to feel equipped to be able to take it from there.
On the longer end, another client continued to work with me for four years. He was thrilled that in those four years of having me coach him and his team their sales increased by $6 million.
What advice do you find yourself repeating to clients over and over again?
“If you want to sell more you’ve got to serve more. How can your business better serve your customers, your team, your community?”
Which type of entrepreneur are you?
1 – You’re ready to start working with a business coach, then sign up for a complimentary discovery session with me here.
2 – You’re not yet ready for a business coach, but you’d like to get plugged into a mastermind group, then learn more here.
3 – You want to keep working by yourself in isolation. What is holding you back from investing in yourself to grow your business? Please share your comments below.
4. Use video helpers for the same, but with video.
