How To Respect Nature And Get The Photo

In honor of Smokey The Bears 75th Birthday, I want to chat about an article that I recently read that stuck with me. There’s an article written by a photographer on the amount of disrespect people were racking in the lavender fields of Provence to get that perfect Instagram selfie. Visitors were doing this with next to no acknowledgment for the destruction that they were causing to the farmer's fields, and virtually their lively hood.

The article brought to mind also warnings and chatter I had heard about the impending destruction of the super bloom of poppies in California and the bluebonnet super bloom in Texas.

If you have been following around here for a while, you know that I spend a pretty decent amount of time outside, hiking or camping in some secluded spots of the wilderness. The amount of human trace that I see in these spots is pretty incredible. From the green plastic straws, the broken glass of beer bottles, empty plastic water bottles, and fallen plastic wrappers. Each time I go for a hike, I bring a trash bag and remove almost always an entire bag full of other peoples trash.

I have to admit that sometimes I do hike or stop at a location for either current or future content creation. Therefore I am not lost, and fully aware of the irony of this discussion.

While I was visiting Banff, I started to think more about the conservancy aspect of using these pristine natural jewels as our backdrops in content, while maintaining their beauty for the next person. While enjoying the sunrise at Peyote lake with waist-deep snow, two young women hiked in with a few outfit changes in tow. They were asking us if we knew how to walk to the bottom and get next to the frozen lake because they couldn't find a trail on the map. We answered that we didn't since there wasn't a trail listed on the map, and again there was waist-deep snow the level of danger with that was apparent. They shrugged their shoulders at us and proceeded to trounce through the snow in efforts to get to the lakes shore. If you haven't been to Peyote Lake, the overlook is the famous place that every Instagrammer who goes to Banff has taken a photo from. This distance from this point to the lakeshore is at least a two-mile hike. We saw the women come through the trees into a clearing and they were hanging onto pine boughs for support in navigating the snow. It was at that point that they changed into their first outfit and began taking photos of each other. When they started walking and broke off a large pine bough, it was time for me to leave.

I have seen furniture being carried out to beautiful grassy wildflower-filled fields and set upon rare blooms of wildflowers. I have seen people stand at the edge of a cliff with their back to the drop off and their selfie stick out. I have seen people have a campfire for a photoshoot during a burn ban in a state forest because they didn't want to reschedule. I have witnessed people pulling over on the side of the road to "dance" in a private farmers field of sunflowers, proceed to pick them and drive off.

I am not writing this out of criticism, only to bring attention moving forward to the fact that beautiful locations in nature do present themselves as incredible backdrops for content photoshoots. But are also beautiful for people who could care less about leaving with a photo and only want to enjoy the views.

To maintain & conserve their natural appeal, consider these seven things:

Sticking to established trails.

Leave no trace that you were there.

Dispose of waste properly.

Leave what you find.

Be considerate of other visitors.

Asking permission ahead of time to access private land.

If it is a fee property, pay the fee.

By being careless, we are inevitably ruining beautiful landscapes by going "off-trail" and messing with the lively hood of farmers and their crops. Please be just be aware and respectful.

Why Your Product or Service Needs To Be Blogging

This one goes out with the intent to all of the product and service sellers out there. You really do need to start a blog and maintain writing on that blog! I know I know this sounds like a complete hassle for two big reasons:

1. I know that you do not have the time.

2. You have no idea what parts of your products or business to write and share.

Here’s the thing; blogging helps your audience connect with you differently. Sharing your stories will help them relate to you and develop a different level of a relationship than you have on social media. Not only does blogging mean that your audience feels a connection with you it also means that Google loves you because you are showing the Google algorithm that you are a current website and this, in turn, helps boost your SEO and ranking.

As a product seller and any business, you need to have the mindset that the purpose of your content marketing strategy is building that “know, like, and trust factor” because the more ways you are pumping content out there that content is working for you to turn into a connection and connection turns into currency.

We all want to sell all of the things right away off of our website, but in the times that we are in, we have to work harder because chances are there are more people out there offering the same thing that we have to offer.  We need to set ourselves apart, with the goal of getting these potential customers to subscribe to your email list or directing them to another platform that you would like them to learn more about you and follow you. The road to the intent to buy or book can be painfully long these days, and the only way to shorten the distance between marketing to the point where a wallet comes out is to build an actual relationship.

Now you’re thinking, “But I’m already using social media as a sort of microblog for my products and services.” To this, I say fantastic, however, using social media as a blog for your business is handing over the rights of your content to social media and it’s not doing any SEO favors to the website which customers can buy or book you from. Blogging on your platform provides an SEO boost to your site, while also providing value to your audience. Building and focusing your core content out via Instagram or any other social media source is not going to offer that same or any return on the time investment. Look at Instagram or any other social platform as creating a lead for your audience to connect with you another way. Work on creating lead generating content there that triggers a response from a user to click your website to learn more about you and your products.  By having current blog posts on your site that your audience can stumble upon and read is going to help you create a connection which will in time lead to the exchange of currency.

Having your content on your site also helps when people are searching for you on Google. Having your content current and living someplace on the internet gives your SEO a massive boost, which will cultivate long term growth because your content isn’t on a death march to die in an algorithm 72 hours after you post it.

So how do you do it?

Blogging today is much different than it was when it first came out.  In its popularity, which btw lead to influencer marketing, we used to sit in front of our computers with our cups of coffee and read the latest post on whatever lifestyle blogger we were following. Much like how the generations before us would sit at the kitchen table and read the morning paper over their coffee or breakfast.  While both these ways of consuming content are pretty much extinct writing and maintaining a blog puts searchable words to what you do out onto the world wide web. These words are what your target is searching for and the key to getting your target of potential customers to find you and learn more about you.

In a world where consumers being fed content every day, you will need to be more strategic, creative and mindful about how and what you are blogging. The goal here again is to thoughtfully gain the attention of your target market and convert them to your email list, to speak directly to them, earn their trust and eventually have them make a purchase. Some ideas on what to actually write include: talking about yourself, how you got started, educate them on a part of your business, talk about what you are currently working on or what is inspiring you.

Stop stressing, you do not need to be blogging every day, because that is craziness and I know that you do not need one more marketing thing to add into your daily mix. You could start with a few basic posts that are full of crucial relevant search words for your product and continue to post twice a month or even a monthly post about new products, services or what you have been up to.

Remember, whatever content you are putting out there, it creates a connection that will eventually create currency.  Content creation doesn't have to be hard, but it's just going to be time-consuming. The overall goal of your content should be getting eyes on your products and offerings enhancing your site's SEO and triggering your target to signup for your email list so you can connect and talk directly with them, if they happen to purchase at first look then that’s even more amazing!

If you need help with this, I offer one-on-one coaching sessions as well as a FREE monthly 20-minute speed session where you can ask me anything related to your business's content marketing plan and management.

Creating Scroll Stopping Content Takes Practice And Commitment

I have a membership to the Japanese Garden here in Portland, and I find myself there pretty much once a week. The thing that inspires me the most somedays isn’t the garden it’s self, it’s when I see young children with their cameras. I was there early one morning, and this family was beginning to walk through the gate when the young boy of probably 5 or 6 yelled at them all to stop and turn around to look at him in front of the entrance. I stayed behind him because I didn’t want to ruin his shot and watched as he brought his blue v-tech twist camera up to his eye and took the photo of them. He turned to me and said thank you and who I’m assuming was his mom smiled and said thank you as well.

My heartfelt light because this is the future practicing and honing in on their photography skills.

For as long as I can remember I have had a camera on me. I by no means consider myself a photographer, but I’ve always been documenting my memories by taking photos of landscapes and objects. There’s a photo that my grandma took of me, and I have to be about three years old in my uncles' bedroom at their house with his camera around my neck, a baseball hat on backward and I had arranged all of my stuffed animals on his bed to take photos of them.

The biggest joy that I got when I had my vintage business was arranging and styling the products showing how they could be worn or used in today’s world. I would spend hours creating the perfect flat lay or hiring a model for an afternoon and styling them in different looks and locations around the neighborhood. I would say that becoming a content creator was in my DNA since I was basically doing it since before the world even knew what a content creator actually was.

The key to creating good social media content like anything else is practice. Creating scroll stopping content doesn’t just happen in one click of the shutter or typing one narrative of your brand. Scroll stopping involves practice styling objects and assessing the light and angles when taking the photos. Good content means writing run on captions, then re-reading them and trying to get to the point faster. Remember you have 3-7 seconds to capture a users attention to get them to stop and read what you have written.

After you have posted your work, let it sit for 72 hours then go back to it and evaluate what part of the post got the most engagement. Was it the photo itself or was it that you wrote something extremely personal or was it that you let your sarcasm out?

Excelling at content marketing involves so much practice, testing, tweaking and then testing again. You really do need to know what it is that your target market is wanting to see or hear from you. The only way to clearly identify this is through committing to practice creating and evaluating your great content.

Let's Go On A Social Media Adventure

Hello 2017. A new year with 12 new chapters, 365 blank pages and endless amounts of business social media adventure opportunity awaits.

If you are a business owner and made a goal to have a bigger or more consistent social media presence this year my one big question for you is, "Have you filled out your monthly content calendar yet?" If you are going at this whole social media promoting thing alone as well as running your business then you definitely need a social media content calendar. 

Content marketing is the only kind of marketing that is left. People stream and dvr shows from network tv and watch original Netflix and Amazon series.  Commercials are now obsolete, you will get lucky with a product placement deal in a show.  For the rest of us all that is left is content marketing on Instagram, Facebook, Periscope and Youtube.  You need to start planning your posts. Sounds easy right? Sounds like you can just sit in a coffeeshop for an hour over a latte and crank out a months worth of content, well you can start there.

Content creation and organization is the biggest and most time consuming part of my job. You would think that it would be easy to come up with blog and newsletter topics, Facebook posts, and eye catching Instagram posts, but the fact is people run out of ideas. We are human and ain't nobody that's  trying to build a business and strong social media presence got time to run out of ideas. 

The most valuable thing you can do for yourself and your bottom line is have an up to date content calendar. It helps plan, organize and schedule every single piece of content you publish online.

It’s the place where all of your social media posts,  blogs,  newsletters,  videos, podcasts and  graphics strategically come together to grow your business. Content marketing takes up so much time and if you're not squeezing your content for all you've got then you are missing out on traffic, post engagement, leads and money. 

Overwhelmed, my apologies, but start small. Plan out a week at a time. Every Sunday morning I sit in a coffee shop and look over the weeks plan for both mine and clients feeds for the week and tweak as necessary when things pop up in real time. 

Need more advice or want a personalized quote on your content management, let's chat. 

Responsibilities

When someone hear's the term "Social Media VA" I'm convinced the first thing that comes to their mind is that all that person does is sit and scroll Instagram then pin a bunch of items the rest of the day on Pinterest.  

Yes, scrolling Instagram is part of the job responsibilities, but what not very many people know however is that being a social media manager requires a TON of content planning in advance.

Think Instagram is really instant? Think again, quite a few of those feeds you love and follow, chances are they carefully thought out, weeks and even months in advance. 

Here are the top 8 of my responsibilities as a Social Media VA

• Planning
• Styling
• Researching
• Scheduling
• Posting
• Analyzing
• Responding
• Engaging