July always feels like the mid-point for summer…the home for vacations, cook-outs, and many more outdoor activities (especially here in the Pacific Northwest…) than the rest of the year! There’s still the constant tsunami of articles and tips online, though, holiday or not! July’s compilation is weighted towards engagement online, assessing the right platform and service for your digital marketing efforts, video tools, and taking a bit of that “sunshine time” to practice thinking for the benefit of your business and your life.

How frequently you post, how relevant your posts are to your audience (based on you research…), how many clicks and likes you get….it’s all empty until you can really “engage” with you audience. That’s the point of a lot of social media content and your presence…so how do you DO that? Here are some great tips, delivered in a very helpful infographic, to help you!

Even more actionable advice on generating more engagement, especially aimed at those of us who, due our drive for business, have to have focused activity and can’t spend a lot of time (although doing anything worthwhile will take resources….) online.

Perhaps you’ve already joined one or two other social channels and now you’re wondering about Twitter. Is it worth the effort for your brand? If you’re unsure whether the “Twitterverse” is for you, consider these five questions about your business…

2018 has been a really tough year for Facebook, and things don’t look like they are going to get any easier for the platform and service. Many people are disgusted with the level of conversation that takes place (or doesn’t…) there, and with the constantly evolving algorithm and rules changes, it can make it difficult to make sure you are on top of things as a business, and maybe even wonder if it’s worth the effort. This great article looks at Facebook and confronts some hard truths….

Taking the time to think about your business (or any other complex problem, including how much pepperoni to get on your pizza and whether to go with stuffed crust or not….) is a seeming luxury for most small business owners. But you need to be able to think clearly before you can communicate clearly, and you have to communicate clearly if you want to get your value proposition across to your audience. So how can you actually “practice thinking” and get better at this foundational process? This article suggest a couple of useful ways to do this….

“Affordable” for any kind of service or tool is something that always draws my attention!  This goes double for video tools…not only am I looking for something affordable, but I shouldn’t need to hire a professional videographer to put together a simple 60-second clip with intro, outro and some background music….and if it has options for working on either my PC, tablet or phone, so much the better! These tools can be extremely helpful….