Featured Business: Social & Creative

Featured Business: Social & Creative

Check out Social & Creative at: 

INTRODUCING …

Social & Creative Styled Stock Photography Logo

Social & Creative Headshot
Lets get personal. Tell us about you.
Do you have kids? Where are you from? What is your career history? What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?  

Social & Creative is co-owned by myself (Erin) and my business partner (Ania) – we actually attended college together about 10 years ago – we both studied Journalism, we joined Facebook together, ate the greasiest foods daily and basically carried each other through college. Then life happened! We lost touch. Over that time we both got married and had kids. Ania has twin 2 year old boys and I have a 6 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. Ania and I are Canadians living just outside of Toronto.

 

What inspired you to go into your line of business?
Is there an interesting story behind how you ended up where you are?

There isn’t really this big story or super interesting event that caused us to go into business. Ania and I reconnected on Facebook and then met for coffee. I had wanted to start a second business doing styled stock photography. However, I am NOT a photographer. I was excited to learn that Ania had been pursuing a career as a family and newborn photographer, so I asked her about doing it. She was on board and the rest is history.

 

Tell us about your business.
How long have you been in business? What do you sell/offer? What makes you unique?

We are fresh into our business! We started the planning process for Social & Creative back in February of this year (2017). Then we started our social media channels a couple weeks later and secured some great marketing plans – we were featured in the March box of Sparkle Hustle Grow and will be doing some guest posts. Social & Creative offically launched on May 1st, 2017.

Social & Creative offers styled stock photography for small business owners and bloggers through a membership site! What makes us unique is that all our photos are super feminine i.e. not all pink which I find most of them are.

 

Tell us about your product.
What excites you the most about your item? What are the benefits of your product? What makes it unique? What is your favorite feature?

I am super excited about our product! As someone who works in social media I know I can create images for my clients that I will not find on other stock photography websites. Social & Creative also offers custom stock photos, which makes us different. If you have a specific brand colour or product we are able to set up a custom photo shoot for you. We will deliver your images via dropbox and they will be completely branded to your business.

Describe what your brand stands for.
Ex: honesty, quirky, adaptable, smart …

At Social & Creative we stand for visual awareness if that even makes sense. We want our photos to speak to your brand, business and readers so we strive to make our photos different and offer the option of a custom shoot.

 

What was/is your biggest struggle in business?
We all know running a business is NOT a bed of roses. What was/is your biggest thorn in the side? …

In our experience the biggest struggle is managing expectations. It is easy to get ahead of yourself and start thinking of all your future plans. Ania and I have learned to live in the moment. Motherhood taught us that! We need to take this business one day at a time, one photo at a time and one sale at a time.

 

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Could be reaching a sales goal, working with a particular company, business growth, etc…

To date our biggest achievement would be being featured in the March box of Sparkle Hustle Grow which is a monthly subscription box for female entrepreneurs.

 

How did you figure out how to price your items?
Did you research or do you have a calculation?

Ania and I did a lot of research and noticed a gap in the marketplace – there were no (or very little) stock photography sites in Canadian dollars so we are using that to our advantage!

 

How do you market your products?
Do you use any Social Media Platforms? Do you promote your products locally? 

We use Facebook and Instagram to market and will be launching our Pinterest shortly. Our other avenues of marketing are participating in giveaways and guest posts! Attending conferences and networking in our area are also things we plan to do.

 

Did you have any doubts when you started your business?
How did you overcome them?

At the beginning when we took our first photos the doubt was, “Are these good enough?” We quickly turned that around by posting them to social media and recieving such an amazing response!

 

If you were to start all over again, would you do anything differently?
If so, what advice can you offer to others?

Not at all!

Social & Creative Headshot

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Our goal is to help inspire, teach and learn from other entrepreneurs. If you feel you can share some insights that have made you successful and are interested in your business being featured, please fill out our Feature Business Questionnaire.

It will be up to our discretion if we use your business in a post.

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How To Manage Your Time During the Holidays

How To Manage Your Time During the Holidays

time management tips for less stressful holiday

Does it seem that you spend every Christmas fighting to get your business in order for the next year that you forget to enjoy the holidays? It’s easy to want to focus all of our energy on our businesses, but spending time with family is just as, if not more important.

To help you this holiday season, let me introduce you to my favorite friend: time management. For most bloggers and creative entrepreneurs, the holidays can be stressful. There are so many things you have to do to get your business ready for the next year. And on top of all of this, you have family gatherings and holiday parties. Sometimes you can get so caught up in all that needs to be done, that you forget to enjoy yourself and you end up missing out on the most romantic and cheery season of the year. If this resonated with you in any way, here are a few strategies to implement this holiday season.

 

MAKE LISTS FOR EVERYTHING.

Santa uses his trusty lists and so can you. Making lists enable you to see what you have to do all in one place. Instead of having to switch from your Google calendar to that sticky note every five minutes you can create a couple lists with different tasks that you need to get done.

 

SET ASIDE TIME FOR SELF-CARE.

Most people forget to take care of themselves during the Christmas season, which usually leads to being unproductive in the beginning of the new year. Take a day off, or two, hell, even three to relax. Go to the spa, spend some “me time” reading that book you have been wanting to all year. Whatever it is, spend that much needed quiet time before the new year begins.

 

WAKE UP EARLIER.

Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean that you can sleep in. Wake up earlier and start your day on a productive note. You’ll be surprised by the amount of time you save each day with this simple step.

 

OUTSOURCE.

Outsourcing the tasks that you can’t do properly or just don’t have the time to can save you a lot of money. Picture this, you don’t have the eye for the design but you insist on doing your own graphics for social media only to end up with no likes or conversions. While the other guy, who’s in the same boat as you, hired someone to do it and is, in turn, getting hundreds of likes and conversions from his smoking hot social media graphics. Outsourcing for your business can save you time, money, and stress.

PRIORITIZE.

Prioritizing is simple and doesn’t take more than ten minutes to do if you use this easy method. Every night before going to bed, create a list of 6 to 10 things both personal and business related that needs to be done tomorrow. When you’re finished, prioritize in order the three most important tasks from that list. When you do this, your task list will never be as daunting as it used to because, you my friend, have a plan and you know exactly which tasks need to be completed first.

 

BE FUSSY.

Pick and choose what you have to do this season. You don’t have to spend hours writing and sending Christmas cards. Instead go online and purchase your cards from Vistaprint or a similar site. What if you don’t really like spending ten hours cooking your family meal? Hire a caterer instead. Pick the tasks you enjoy doing. You’ll be grateful for the extra free time to enjoy the company of your family or catch up on those last minute projects.

 

SHOP ONLINE.

Instead of wasting an entire day to go in search of discounts and deals, visit the online stores. They have discounts and coupons too and you’ll probably find exactly what you’re looking for. The best thing about shopping online, is the amount of time you save. If you have a list and know what you are getting, all of your shopping can be done in half an hour without moving from your desk.

Author Bio:

Shamariah Orr​, Owner, Her Blog Empire
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/herblogempire/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/herblogempire.com/

The 5 Step Plan to Killing It On Your Blog Post

The 5 Step Plan to Killing It On Your Blog Post

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Okay.

You finally started your blog, and you’re ready to use that to help you land some clients.

Or, maybe you just want to blog to grow your email list or traffic. Whatever the case is, creating a blog post is more than just your writing.

Just take a look at the popular sites out there and read their posts. What makes them different from your blog posts? Let’s look at five key elements to having a killer blog post.

1. Your Writing Must Solve a Problem

One of my side projects is my Twins Mommy blog. I created it around eight months ago with the idea of writing about working from home.

I know many work at home moms find it difficult to work and take care of their family.

Although my blog’s focus moved to helping moms become mompreneurs, my content is still trying to solve a problem.

Figure out your audience and see what their problems are. You can go on Facebook, type in your niche or keyword and see what issues crop up in various Facebook groups.

For example, here are some Pinterest questions on Facebook that you can use for inspiration on your next blog post.

solve-problem

See what the most common problem is – or a unique problem – and answer that in your blog post.

By fine-tuning your blog content, you can reach a targeted audience that will follow you, read your blog and eventually buy from you.

If you have no clue who your target audience is, check out my ridiculously easy way to find your readers.

2. Create a Click-Worthy Headline

Your headline is what will stop scrollers from scrolling, passer-bys from passing by and simmers to stop skimming.

It’s what will get people to click your Pin or post and want to know more about it. But, what headlines are the best to use?

While you can use headline templates, try using these tried and true headline ideas for your next post.

Secrets

Everyone loves to gossip and tell secrets, right? And for anyone online scrolling through the Pinterest feed, if they see a pin with the word secret in it, you bet they will stop.

I mean, wouldn’t you?

Look at this pin from Brilliant Business Moms:

secret-headline

After reading this, I WANT to find out what this 10-minute secret is for planning my perfect day.

Using secret in your headline compels people to find out the actual secret.

So, give it a try for your next blog post.

Mistakes or Fears

Another way to drive clicks to your post is to capitalize on people’s fears and mistakes.

I know.

It sounds kind of sleazy, but if you can phrase it in a way that will help your readers, then it can be a very powerful headline.

My blog post on blogging mistakes has over 200 shares and 52 comments.

blogging-mistakes-pin

Personalize Your Headline

As a freelance writer, I’ve learned that to write a post I shouldn’t use I or me. Readers don’t want to know about the writer; they want to learn about tips or learn from influencers.

But, you know what?

After starting Twins Mommy, I realized that people were coming to my blog to learn from me! This gave me the idea to create content around personal stories.

This resulted in my most popular blog post on my site with over 11k shares and 43 comments.

So, when you create a blog post, use I in your headline instead of You.

3. Format Your Blog Post for Easy Reading

Remember when I mentioned that your blog post is more than just words?

A big element to your blog writing is formatting. If you want more people to read your post and share your post, format it in a way that they can!

How?

One way is to use subheadings in your blog post. These are H1 tags and not only helps with breaking up your post and organizing it, but it also is great for SEO.

Another way is to create white space in your writing. This means making your paragraphs shorter and using images and lists to break up your text.

4. Use a CTA in Your Post

What is a CTA?

It’s a call-to-action. This means directing your audience to your post to do something.

What do you want them to do? Share your post? Subscribe? Answer a question?

Figure out your goals for your blog posts and at the end of your posts create a CTA.

For example, email marketing strategist Meera Kothand often uses a question for her CTA as a way to engage her readers.

cta

Another way to use a CTA is to ask your readers to subscribe to your email list. Creative designer Krista Rae offers a design course at the end of all her blog posts for her CTA.

krista-cta

5. Create Pinnable Images

For a lot of bloggers, Pinterest is the number one source of traffic for them. It is for me at least!

You can get started by using a free image editing tool like Canva to create your pins. Pick a template or create your own – my pin size is 800px by 1422px – and start thinking about your pin image.

If you don’t know where to look for stock photos, check out my post on 18+ places to find feminine stock images.

One way to make your pins stand out is to use bright, warm colors like reds, oranges, peaches, and pinks.

These seem to do well on Pinterest. Creating a border around your text box or image is another way to stand out in the Pinterest feed.

Finally, make sure to use your Pin image on your blog to encourage pinning!

Ready to Write Your Killer Blog Post?

The best blog posts incorporate most or all of these five key elements. From solving a problem a reader has to creating an irresistible headline to having the perfect Pin image, you can create killer posts too.

Over to you – what do you do to make a killer blog post?

 

Author Bio:

Elna Cain is a first-time mom to twins. Once she was able to get uninterrupted sleep, coffee and a few minutes to herself, she started freelance writing and never looked back. When she’s not writing for her clients or when her twins are sleeping, she’s helping other moms become mompreneurs at Twins Mommy. Follow her on Pinterest!

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