Author Archives: Jessica Granish

The Ultimate List of Delegation Do’s and Don’ts

Delegation is another one of those entrepreneur buzzwords that people love or hate. Those who mastered the delicate art of delegation sing its praises. Others shudder when they think of delegation, either because of a terrible experience or because they can’t imagine it actually working for them.

Here’s the thing. Delegation is great for anyone in any situation. Delegation is a powerful tool for freeing up your time and energy, finding someone better suited for the task at hand, and using your company’s limited resources better. It is often the first step in major growth for your business.

Of course, delegating for the first time can be nerve wracking. But, you have a lot of control over the end result with how you delegate. Follow these delegation do’s and don’ts for a positive (and quite possibly life-changing) delegation experience.

Delegation Do’s

Do Articulate Priorities. If your employee must choose between making the deadline or taking a bit more time to submit a quality project, which do they choose? Is the underlying goal of the delegation to train the employee to take over the task (so they should bring any questions to you to learn the correct process the first time around)? Or is it to free up your time (so they should work on trying to fix the problem on their own first)? Your employee will need to make decisions regarding communication, time commitment, etc. Making sure they understand your priorities will help them work for you better.
Do Create Guidelines. Be sure the employee knows their expected time and effort commitment. You don’t want to be caught off guard discovering the employee spent several hours on a task you expected to take thirty minutes. Establish clear boundaries for how long they should work on this project in relation to their other normal duties. Set guidelines as well on the line of communication. If your employee has questions, do they go directly to you? Is there a chain of command they should follow? When (if ever) is it appropriate to contact you outside of office hours regarding the project? Communicate expectations clearly from the start to avoid misunderstandings or lost time.
Do Provide Support. The sink or swim strategy is not a great leadership approach. Do what you can to empower your employee to succeed. Provide examples of the task or comparable work. Gather up all the login information into one place. Check in at certain points to see how they are doing and provide opportunity for them to ask you questions. Giving this support helps set up the employee for success.
Do Let the Employee Feel Comfortable Saying No. We may think the employee is ready for greater responsibility. But, if they genuinely do not feel ready it may be a bad experience for them. Try to build up their confidence and remind them that you feel they are ready. If that fails and they still are uncomfortable at the thought of the project, find a new employee. It is not worth the anxiety it will cause your original pick.
Do Discuss the Experience After They Finish. Take a few minutes to talk with the employee about how things went. See if there is anything you could have done differently to make the experience better. Ask if they are comfortable doing the task again. If the employee made mistakes, use this time as a learning opportunity to gently guide them. Finally, thank them for their work and find something to praise about their output.

Delegation Don’ts

Don’t Micromanage. The purpose of delegation is for you to no longer deal with the project! Even if this assignment is a training opportunity, you still need to provide your employee with enough space to learn on their own. Employees know when their boss does not trust them, which can really undermine their confidence in their own ability. Showcase your belief in your employee by taking your hands off the reins, and keeping them off.
Don’t Underestimate the Project’s Timeline. When giving your employee a deadline, be cautious about underestimating the length of time the project will take. It may only take you a week, but your employee may need to do outside research adding a day or two. Or maybe your employee hits some unexpected roadblocks, requiring you to take the time to provide guidance or assistance. Always estimate more time to provide a buffer in case things don’t go as smoothly as planned.
Don’t Delegate What You Should Be Doing. Yes, everyone can and should delegate tasks. But not every task can and should be delegated. Some tasks do require your expertise or insight. Be selective in what you delegate, keeping the important tasks on your to-do list.
Don’t Delegate Because You Hate the Project. No one likes the boss who uses delegation to avoid doing unpleasant tasks. Good leadership means being willing to do the menial, the unappealing, and aggravating tasks for the good of the business. Delegation is about making your company more efficient. Passing off tasks because you hate them, not because someone else should be doing them, is a bad management strategy. It’s tempting, but your employees will lose respect for you if you do it.

You can make or break your delegation experience. Implementing the “dos” and avoiding the “don’ts” prepares you and your employee for a mutually beneficial experience. Your employee can learn or hone their skills while you get to remove something from your plate. If you are new to delegating, you can start off small. You will be surprised at how useful a tactic it can be in managing your business!

How to Set Work Hours Working From Home

The ability to design your own work schedule is a double-edged sword. It’s great not feeling chained to your desk for the arbitrary 9-5 grind.

But it’s also easy to avoid ever setting a schedule. Before you know it, you’re always either working or thinking about work. It’s increasingly difficult to leave work at work. Projects that could be done in an hour end up taking longer.

The irony of the “I don’t need to abide by a set schedule” life is that we often function better when we create a schedule.

The Benefit of Setting Work Hours

Many work-from-home individuals resist setting work hours like the plague. One huge appeal of being your own boss is the freedom that comes with control over your schedule right?

But the reality of failing to set work hours tells a different story. Not sticking to a work schedule ends up hurting you in the long wrong in different ways.

It’s hard to leave work at work. When work stops at 5, it’s easier to stop thinking about work at 5. When there is no firm end to the work day, it’s so much harder to transition from “work mode” to “living your life mode.” You feel guilty watching TV and wonder if you should go get that one article done. You daydream thinking of your to-do list. You always feel “on,” making it difficult to give yourself the rest you need.
You waste precious mental energy. Each day you wake up without a firm schedule. Each day, you waste time and energy deciding how much you will work and when. It’s the element of decision fatigue. The more decisions we make each day, the more drained we become. It’s why superstars like Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day. One less decision to make meant a bit more energy for more important matters.
Tasks take longer than they should. Parkinson’s Law basically states however long a task can take is usually how long it will. Maybe you wake up and know, if needed, you could log a 10-hour day today to get that big project done. What ends up happening? You tend to work that 10-hour day. The beauty of the set work schedule is work is only allowed to fill those hours. Usually, everything always gets done.

These problems can be tackled (or at least minimized) by setting a consistent work schedule. The initial constraint of work hours ends up giving you more free time and freedom to enjoy your time outside work guilt free.

Setting an Optimized Work Schedule

Here is where you get to enjoy the freedom of being your own boss. Maybe your peak creativity hours are early morning and early evening. In the middle of the day, you suffer from the afternoon slump. So work in the peak hours and go workout or run errands when your brain power dips.

A work schedule does not mean you must bow down at the altar of the 9-5 work week. Those hours are not ideal anyway! In fact, with the right productivity tactics you may get 8 hours of work done in 7 or 6. All a work schedule means is setting strict work hours and strict non-work hours. If you can accomplish you work between 10-4, that’s great!

You can even set a different work schedule for different days of the week. Maybe you are a work-from-home parent taking advantage of a babysitting co-op. On Tuesday mornings, you get to wrangle the group’s kiddos to the library activity. So on Tuesdays, your work day starts a few hours later.

It doesn’t matter what type of schedule you make. What matters is knowing going into the day which hours you work. Designated work hours protect your “non-work” time.

Once you create a schedule, protect it fiercely. Don’t check your email outside of work hours. Let your clients know what hours they can expect to reach you by phone…and don’t pick up if it’s outside of those (or work into your contract it’s a $75 fee every time they do). When you are done for the day, be done. Don’t fall into the trap of well I could get one more thing done. Allow yourself to rest and relax!

Working from home can be the ideal set up. Setting optimized work hours helps you be the ideal worker and live a balanced life. It’s a win-win!

If you want assistance on setting hours that work for you or need help getting all your work done in the allotted time, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Just give us a call or shoot us an email to get started.

7 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make Every Day

Today is the most important day for your business. Why? What you achieve today impacts what you can accomplish tomorrow, next month, five years from now. In our fast-paced business world, it’s easy for our days to blur together. Too often we cultivate bad daily habits without even realizing it. But these little bad habits add up to impactful shifts in our success down the road.

Many of us are guilty of the following daily mistakes of small business owners. Taking the time to identify, and then correct, these mistakes helps empower you to achieve your full potential. And what business owner doesn’t want that?

Not Prioritizing Your Own Health

Notice I didn’t say “value your own health” or “take care of your own health.” You need to prioritize your health because it is the best way to prioritize your business!

Your body is remarkably like a machine. Optimal performance requires quality fuel, proper maintenance, and adequate rest. Skimp out on one of these areas and the performance suffers.

Many of us buy into this workaholic American mentality. You slaved away at the office for 60 hours this week? Gold star for you! You worked through lunch? Gold star for you! You stayed up all night working on a presentation and gulped down four coffees to make it through the day? Gold star for you!

Stop it with these gold stars. The best entrepreneurs know your health should be a bigger priority than your business. Taking care of your health leads to being more effective and efficient as you work, maintaining better work-life balance, and being all around happier. Think of it as the ultimate productivity hack. Hit the gym, bring healthy lunches to work, and turn off the screens an hour before bed. A few weeks of healthy habits and you’ll be amazed at your increased work output.

Not Posting to Social Media Daily

Social media for businesses is not a spectator sport. Either you are all in. Or you don’t enter the game at all.

Granted, all in does not need to mean several hours a day online or a disproportionate chunk of your marketing budget. But posting to Facebook once a week and never keeping up with the always changing marketing trends is not going to cut it.

Take some time to choose the best one to three platforms for your business (more if you are a large business with more marketing resources). Dedicate the necessary time to get these platforms thriving. While most businesses opt for the traditional Facebook and Twitter platforms, consider alternatives like Google+ and Facebook and LinkedIn Groups. These offer unique marketing benefits most marketers fail to take advantage of.

Failing to Organize

Is your desktop scattered with documents and folders? Is your desk overrun with papers and packets? Does it take you more than 15 seconds to locate any given document?

It’s time for improved organization. To many entrepreneurs, organization can seem like a luxury. Who has time to look for (and then implement) the best organizational system? But the longer you go without one, the more time you waste searching for that one filed buried under desktop folder after desktop folder.

Take some time to actually implement a thorough organizational system. Then be sure to stick to it every day. Always put digital or physical files in their correct location with the correct labeling. Deal with any papers dropped on your desk right away. Don’t save to your desk drive or let stacks pile up on your desk. Every day be sure to keep things organized.

Starting the Day With an Email Check

This can be one of THE hardest bad habits to break. We are all guilty of logging onto our computer and going right for the email.

But nearly every business productivity expert gives the same advice: don’t!

When we start with an email check, it puts our brain in reactive mode rather than a proactive or creative mode. When we arrive to work, we are often at a peak mental state (assuming we didn’t suffer from a horrid commute and got our cup of Joe). This precious optimal mental state should be used tackling the hardest projects of the day, not scanning through emails.

It’s best to get a project or two done before checking your email. As a business owner, you often are bombarded with questions and comments from clients and employees. Set aside dedicated time to check your email, say at 11am, 2pm, and 4pm to deal with these emails. This allows you to really focus on your work and use email as a slight brain break during your natural energy dips.

Not Taking Breaks

This is another difficult mistake to stop engaging in. It’s all too easy to sit down at your desk in the morning…and never get up again. We falsely believe the best way to maximize our work is to maximize our hours working. In reality, our brains are much more efficient when we take breaks. Even just a few minutes every hour getting up and stretching can help your brain feel refreshed and ready to tackle whatever problem awaits you.

Try this Navy SEAL trick. Every hour, set an alarm on your phone for a SLLS break: stop, look around your surroundings, listen and try to name as many sounds as you can, and smell and try to name as many smells as you can. Soldiers use this when they are trudging through the worst environment possible for days on end. You can use it when you need a break from the hours staring at a computer.

Failing to Look Long Term

In the daily hustle and bustle of work, it’s easy to get a narrow focus. There are so many tasks needing to be done now. But each day, you need to be preparing for the future. Spend time working on moving your business forward a few months from now. Send your current clients a little gift to strengthen that relationship. Attend a networking event or conference to build up your prospective client list. Take an online class to hone your skills. Try out new tools. Do something daily to prepare for the future. When the future comes, you’ll be ahead of your competition.

Not Delegating or Outsourcing

This is a mantra all small business owners need to hear. Just because you can does not mean you should.

All too often we take on tasks that can and should be handled by someone else. We do this for many reasons. Maybe our team is so small we feel guilty passing along the task. Maybe we struggle with relinquishing control over our passion project. Maybe we worry it’ll take more time managing the employee than just doing it ourselves.

The reality is delegating is a powerful tool to maximize your business. Every small business owner should be delegating in some regard. You can delegate to your own employee or rely on the strength of a virtual assistant. Whatever approach you take, you can free up your valuable time to projects more pressing for your attention. It’s painful letting go, but you will be so glad you did!

14 Opportunities and Ideas to Help Add Additional Income During the Pandemic

Hello loves! I wanted to share some information that may be helpful for those that recently were laid off and/or you are looking to supplement your income during and beyond the Convid-19 Pandemic. Like many online business owners, I have a unique birdseye view because of the work that I do and the business I run. None of it is a secret or a ninja trick, and much of it you already have likely heard about, so most of it is just a re-iteration.

I have compiled a list of 14 opportunities and ideas to help add additional income during the pandemic for yourself and your family in these times of uncertainty.

As we start to do more and more delivery and curbside shopping, eating and etc… we will see that we simply do not have the force to support it. Here are places that you can look into if you are looking for work.

1) Grocery stores are hiring and their services are in high demand. Check into Clicklist and Instacart shoppers particularly

2) Doordash and Uber Eat Drivers – Even Pizza Delivery as well

3) Talk to your local marijuana dispensers and liquor stores – See about helping them with their curbside services…and in some cases delivery options

4) Amazon warehouses are hiring as well as drivers and customer service agents. Amazon alone is providing over 100k jobs

5) Become a secret shopper. I know that times are different right now, but there are many online secret shopping opportunities, for instance, customer service secret shopping with Expedia. The restaurant and retail store options won’t be available (unless they pivot) is my guess, but there are other opportunities. Let me preface that this is NOT a huge moneymaker, but it is great for supplemental income. https://www.bestmark.com/ I always had fun with secret shopping and I think you could too.

If you are looking at making some extra money in the online sphere here are some pretty great options.

6) For online work look into https://jobs.sykes.com/ , these are customer service jobs that you can do from home. You must have a dedicated phone line (not a cell phone) and highspeed internet.

7) Working Solutions is another home-based customer service opportunity as well – www.workingsolutions.com/

8) United Health Care for those that work in more of a medical field, they are hiring to help with the influx of calls that are coming in.

9) If you have a special craft, like content writing, graphic design, etc… you can look into www.upwork.com or www.guru.com and if you make and sell your own goods, look at facebook market place, www.etsy.com and www.ebay.com.

10) I realize that the stock market is a pretty scary place right now, but it also offers a lot of opportunities. Stocks are at a record low right now. The market will not be this unstable forever and it is guaranteed that there will be a boom (just don’t know when). The beauty of that is if you can get in at a cheap buy-in, like now, it could provide a huge return in 6-months. Only look into this if you feel empowered to do so. You can start up through Robinhood, which is a free platform for buying and selling stocks in the stock market. It is pretty intuitive and if you use this link you can earn free stock to start your journey with. Truly investing in stock (if you have the means) now might set you up for life. It could be like buying Amazon in 1997 if you get my drift! For Robinhood, though, it doesn’t require any investment right now, just sign up, get your free stock and start dabbling. Use this link to get your free stock >>> https://bit.ly/freerobinhoodstock-jg

11) For those that are toying with taking their business or ideas to Facebook, I have a free mini-training “8 Ways to Revive your Facebook Business Page Organic Reach” that you can take. It is a tiny bit outdated, but the content is still very relevant. www.va.alpinesbsolutions.com

12) If you are looking to take your vision into an online setting and getting serious about taking this time to pivot instead of panic, I would like to offer up some of my time to help you brainstorm. While I do have limited time, I still would like to offer up my own time as a resource. I am offering free 30 minute consults for a limited amount of folks (no strings attached, just value, value, value) the rest of the month. Private message me if you are interested.

13) I am also working on some additional free training and webinars to help people with making supplemental income online or to finally start your own online business journey. If you have a topic you would like me to touch on or have someone in the community talk about, please private message me or put your request below.

14) Lastly (for now), I would love to create a container for those interested to network together and join in on the opportunity to join think tanks, masterminds, engagement circles, and other self-promotion threads so we can all build each other up, stay connected, and love one another.

Do you have things to share or add to my list, please do? The more the merrier. The more information we can put out there the better. I will continue to harvest more ideas around this as the days and weeks unfold.

For those that are in a position to help, please help people, offer your time and what resources you can. This is a time to band together, practice impeccable hygiene, be compassionate and remember we are all in this together. Do not lead in fear…keep being amazing and I am rooting for those that are having a hard time. Please share with someone that you think might benefit from this information as well. I love you!

Soft vs. Hard Launch

When you want to market a new product, there are two approaches you can take: a soft launch or a hard launch. Each one offers unique benefits, and each one can be a great approach depending on the product, organization, and marketing goals. Understanding the differences between the marketing approaches allows you to be informed to choose the best fit for you given marketing strategy.

Soft Launch

A soft launch is a marketing effort that intentionally limits its scope to a smaller percentage of the target audience. The goal is to test the product among the small audience and tweak it as necessary before the product is available to everyone. The audience can be a small group within your target audience or a small group whose demographics are similar to your target audience (such as product testing in Canada, New Zealand, or Australia).

Hard Launch

A hard launch is a full force marketing effort that aims to reach your entire target audience. The goal is to persuade as many people as possible to try (and, if relevant, purchase) your product.

Differences Between a Soft Launch and a Hard Launch

1. The main focus: The purpose of a soft launch is to gather data to improve the product before it’s released to everyone. Staff members can really focus on finding changes that need to be made because they won’t be spending as much time focused on various marketing efforts. This is really still a testing phase. It allows you to work out some of the kinks before you go big!

The purpose of a hard launch is to spread awareness of the product to as many people as possible, ideally resulting in their trying and purchasing the product. While sales conversions are great benefits to reap during a soft launch, they are not the main focus.

2. Amount of time Since a soft launch is primarily focused on testing the product on a smaller scale, in the short term, it will take less time to complete than a hard launch targeting a larger audience. Usually a few weeks is all it takes to gather the data necessary from a soft launch.

An effective campaign for a hard launch, in contrast, could take several weeks or even months. On the flip side, the amount of time it takes to see results comes in much quicker with a hard launch due to the expanded marketing efforts. Of course, in the long run, a soft launch does take longer because it’s followed by a hard launch. But when comparing a soft launch to a hard launch, a soft launch is much shorter.

3. Amount of money: The amount of marketing funds needed for a soft launch is naturally less than the marketing funds needed for a hard launch due to the smaller audience. On the flip side, the amount of money gained is naturally higher in a hard launch due to the expanded marketing efforts. The effectiveness of money spent can be high in either marketing strategy. With a soft launch you may gain valuable insight on necessary changes, making the product more appealing once you do a hard launch which can translate into more sales. With a hard launch, you are maximizing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign by promoting across various strategies and various geographic areas.

4. Ease of making changes: While you can make changes to your product with either launch, changes are easier to make in a soft launch for two reasons. First, your primary focus during a soft launch is to find changes that need to be made (in contrast to the primary focus during a hard launch, which is to effectively reach as many people in your target audience as possible). Second, with a soft launch you can make changes before the majority of your target audience sees the product. You won’t need to spend marketing resources informing audiences of the changes like you would if you made the changes after a hard launch.

Which one should you use?

Different marketing needs will call for different strategies. For newer products, you will likely want to do a soft launch. This will allow you to gather valuable information on your target audience to better tailor the marketing efforts when you introduce the product. For products you are less confident in, a soft launch also works well. You’ll gain confidence after seeing how the product performed in the smaller audience and know you made the changes needed for it to be ready for a full audience launch. For a product that will be launched in a more competitive market, a hard launch will be better since it allows for a wide marketing effort.

If you want to utilize either a hard launch or a soft launch, Alpine Small Business Solutions can help! We are ready to help you with any aspect of business building, simply call or email us and we will help you implement a marketing strategy.

Start Now! 9 Holiday Marketing Tactics

With barely a fall crisp in the air, it may seem odd to be thinking about winter holidays months away. But with up to 30% of sales occurring in the holiday season, it’s not an opportunity to take lightly. Effective holiday marketing requires months of planning, and you can begin now with these tactics.

Check the speed of your website. Slow loading pages frustrate customers, and can result in a loss of a sale. Plug your url into https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ to see your speed, and how you can improve it.
Ensure your website is mobile friendly. Busy shoppers purchase on their phone. A difficult to use app will lose you customers faster than people lose their diet resolutions at the company holiday party. Plug your url into https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ to gauge its mobile friendliness.
See what worked previously. Go over marketing and sales data from previous holiday campaigns. Identify what resonated with your audience, what marketing channels saw the highest ROI, etc. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; you can build on your previous success and learn from previous mistakes.
Make a creative holiday campaign. You want your company to be remembered by frazzled shoppers as they dart around the city searching for gifts. A memorable campaign can keep you on their minds, and get you on their shopping destinations list. Check out these holiday marketing campaigns (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/holiday-marketing-campaign-examples#sm.00007s6law3dnda8x8c1f2gas6ea9 ) for creative inspiration.
Pick a season’s greetings. Some audiences are offended with the use of “Merry Christmas” while others are equally offended by the lack of “Merry Christmas.” Know which greetings best suit your brand and your target audience. “Happy Holidays” is a safe bet since it recognizes the numerous celebrations.
Create holiday specific designs. Your holiday marketing strategy is different than your typical sales strategy, and your images should reflect that. Canva is a great free site allowing you to design stunning holiday themed graphics.
Clearly communicate shipping and order-by dates. No one buys a present thinking “I sure hope this comes after Christmas!” Clearly communicate on your site when customers need to order by for guaranteed arrival by Christmas.
Host a holiday event. A bookstore can host a holiday children’s book reading with Santa. An art supply store can organize a holiday card decorating workshop. Any store can throw a holiday party with a tree lighting and carol singing. Make a fun event, ideally connected to your business, to draw people to your store. They’ll be reminded of your great selection, which hopefully will get them thinking about crossing items off their shopping list with your products.
Design a gift catalogue. Suggest products/services for everyone on your customers list (grandma will love…what kid wouldn’t love…and so on). Sometimes a tailored suggestion is the simple push a customer needs to make the purchase. It’s an effective email marketing tactic that appears less promotional to customers.

Holiday marketing is a crucial sales strategy for small businesses. If you’d like help creating or managing a marketing campaign, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We’re ready to assist with this or any aspect of business building. Reach out with an email or phone call today.

And better yet, if you have some great ideas, make sure you comment on what has worked and hasn’t worked to share with others.

The Best Practices to Ace Your Pinterest Marketing

In the world of social media marketing, Pinterest is an odd duck. Sure, it’s a social platform. Sure, it’s a marketing tool. But Pinterest works differently than the platforms we’ve come to know and love (or, at the very least, begrudgingly use because we know it’s important).

The algorithm is different. The way audiences use the tool is different. The approach you need to take as a marketer needs to be different. Follow these best practices for a stellar Pinterest marketing strategy.

Do Optimize Your Pins.

Strategic keyword integration helps optimize your pins. Scatter keywords throughout the image file names, pin descriptions, board names, and board descriptions.

Do Conduct Regular Analysis.

Pinterest offers a great amount of data within its site for free. Every month or so look over to see your numbers. Pinpoint top performing pins, underperforming pins, and site traffic. Use this to tweak your strategy for the next month.

Do Integrate With Your Other Social Tools.

Let your social tools play off each other. Help your current followers find your account more easily by cross linking them. Every so often, tweet about one of your Pinterest boards to direct traffic to your page. Leverage the audience of one platform to build the audience on another.

Do Showcase Your Products.

Skip the highly promotional “buy this item” pins. These won’t perform well since using sales-y words like buy and sale anger the algorithm.

Take an indirect approach instead. Show ways customers can use your products in their lives. If you sell organic cage free eggs, make a board of all types of recipes using eggs. If you operate a microbrewery, make a board of DIY projects that recycle beer bottles.

Provide knowledge and value like you do with other pins, just integrate your product subtly into the mix.

Don’t Forget to Engage.

Remember the “social” part of “social media!” Make sure you pin posts from other accounts rather than only uploading your own links. It gives your boards the crucial variety and helps you get on the radar of other pages. Who knows, they may return the favor and follow you back.

Don’t Neglect It.

Pinterest requires you to “feed the beast.” The algorithm rewards consistency. It’s better to regularly pin rather than go on a one hour straight pinning spree. Aim for between 5-30 pins a day.

Don’t Use Hashtags.

These not only offer no search engine benefit, they can actually hurt your pin ranking.

Don’t Neglect the Images.

Pinterest is a highly visual platform. Paying attention to your images helps make the difference between a viral pin and an ignore pin.

For an optimized pin, focus on

Making a tall image with a 2:3 or 4:5 ratio
Using red/orange colors over blue ones
Using medium light
Using more than one dominant color

Don’t Pin Just to Pin.

It’s great to pin often and curate large boards bursting with pins. But it’s only great if these pins are worth pinning by your target audience. It’s easy to pin everything in sight in hopes of building up a Pinterest presence. But this sacrifices quality for quantity, which is not what your business is about.

Pinterest is a valuable asset to your marketing strategy. Using these best practices can help make your Pinterest presence stellar and improve your company’s marketing. If you lack the time to implement these strategies, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! We are happy to offer social media management services for Pinterest (or any other platform). Give us a call or sign up for a free consultation today.

7 Success Benefits of Adding Facebook and LinkedIn Group to your Social Media Strategy

Social media groups are an untapped goldmine of potential for marketers, which is why I’m shocked when people reveal they seldom (or never) utilize them. Think about it — groups are a free avenue for people with similar interests to share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. The last part of the sentence is huge. Make sure you hear it again. Share relevant information to a hypertailored audience without newsfeed algorithms minimizing their reach. It’s the content marketers dream!

The benefit of groups extend far beyond more efficient content marketing. Below are some benefits of consistent group involvement, followed by tips to finding the best groups and utilizing group engagement to your advantage.

Benefits of Social Media Groups

Establish yourself as an industry leader. By regularly posting insights and great content, you’ll be seen by your peers as an industry leader. And industry leaders see their business thrive.
Reach new audiences. Posting in groups can spread your company’s name and content to an audience otherwise unfamiliar with you.
Find new professionals to network with. With professional groups, you’ll be exposed to a wide range of professionals you otherwise might not come into contact with. When they interact with your post, you can send them a friendly message to connect and discuss the topic further. It’s a more personable way to acquire new connections across cyberspace.
Drive traffic to your website. You can post (relevant) pieces of content in groups. Members who click on the post will be directed to your website, giving you the opportunity to grow website visits.
Audience insight. Join groups tailored to your target audience and get a glimpse into their interests, needs, and common questions.
Learn from your experienced peers. Group members share insights, and you can learn a lot by reading through fellow members’ posts.
Access to job postings. In many LinkedIn groups, members post job openings relevant to the group’s demographics. These posting may not be highly visible elsewhere and the job poster may remember you from your insightful posts.

Finding Social Media Groups

When it comes to group engagement, quality is more important than quantity. It’s better to engage consistently with five or so groups than infrequently with several. You can find groups in several ways:

Use the discover function. For LinkedIn, click “interests” then “groups” then “discover” to bring up suggested groups. For Facebook, go to this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/ and click “discover”. You’ll see groups joined by your friends, local groups, and groups centered around a topic.
Search based on industry related keywords (like “social media marketing”).
Search based on groups you’re a part of in the offline world (university alumni organizations, professional organizations, etc.)
Search based on location (“small business groups in Seattle”).
Search based on your job position (“small business owners,” “graphic designers,” etc.).
Search for audience tailored groups. If you sell baby products, join parenting groups. If you sell backpacking tours, join backpacking enthusiast groups. Think about where your audience is, and make sure you are there too.
Search for post-event groups. After a large networking event, it’s common for a social media group to be created to connect participants together.
Ask your connections which groups they are a part of that they’d recommend.
Sort through the Linkedin group directory https://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/

Group Best Practices

Before you post, get to know the group’s tone. Do people post in a formal or casual style? Are successful posts often questions or pieces of advice? Are post lengths typically short, medium, or long?
When posting in audience tailored groups, provide how-to articles, guides, and other pieces of information packed content. That’s the information they are looking for in these groups, and it will build your reputation in the groups as a leader.
Focus on providing value rather than self-promotion and sales. Strive to meet the needs of those in the group, which will translate into quality connections and awareness of your organization that can lead to sales.
If someone comments on your post, you can send them a message stating you appreciated their insight and would like to discuss the subject more. It’s a more personable way to network.
Ask thought-provoking questions and reply to people’s answers.
Once you get the feel of group posting, consider starting your own group. It’ll really show off your position as industry leader.

Engagement in groups is just one of the many tactics employed in successful social media marketing. If you want an engaged social media presence, but lack the time or expertise to make that a reality, reach out to Alpine Small Business Solutions today! We’d love to assist you with social media marketing or any aspect of small business building.

Facebook Chatbots: What Are They and Why You Need Them

Customer service is a crucial component of your business. Quality customer service can generate new sales (after all, it’s cheaper to maintain current clients than to obtain new ones). Plus, an unhappy customer can take to Yelp and other online services to destroy your reputation among your target audience.

The customer service industry was recently revolutionized with the introduction of Chatbots. More specifically, the Facebook Chatbot.

What the Facebook Chatbot Is

The Facebook Chatbot allows you to essentially outsource your customer service interaction to a personalized-to-your-business technological tool. Your company can interact with numerous customers around the world without paying a cent of a customer service representative’s salary. Save big bucks. Make lots of happy customers. It’s a great set-up.

The Facebook Chatbot allows companies to create responses with video, audio, GIFs, files, and text. This variety allows for a high amount of personalization to your company’s brand. The bot can be built by you or by Facebook’s bot creating partners. The bots are designed to learn as they go. The more they are used, the smarter they become.

The Prevalence of Chatbots

In today’s digital world, more customers are turning online to seek help. We saw this rise with Twitter and Facebook. Customers didn’t want to be put on hold when they called the customer help line.

So, instead they turned to social media, where their requests were public and companies had an increased incentive to reply quickly and effectively. Companies who dropped the ball in customer service replies were ridiculed online. Companies who excelled were praised (and often gained new followers and customers).

Customers adapted to this quick reply system, turning less and less to calling in and instead typing in their requests. This set the stage for Chatbots to take off. Customers already turn to the web for assistance. What’s changed is the company’s ability to reply with intelligent, pre-crafted responses.

The Chatbot world is growing, with over 11,500 bots developed and many more in the works. More and more big-name companies are jumping on board and using Facebook Chatbots to revolutionize their customer service. It might be time for your company to get on board too!

Using the Facebook Chatbot for Your Business

The Facebook Chatbot is pretty versatile with the right programing. Take advantage of the many features they offer.

Let customers make a purchase. Customers can place orders within the bot itself, which is especially great for highly mobile target audiences. Pizza Hut, for example, allows customers to place orders through the bot (and reminds them of current promotions).
Let customers get updated information. Send out updates on your business or your industry. The Wall Street Journal, for example, gives users live stock quotes when they text a set code.
Connect customers to your products. Some industries, like tech industries, lend themselves well to this integration. HP allows people to print through messenger to an HP printer.
Help customers make appointments. If you provide a service, the bot can handle appointment times. Sephora noticed an 11% increase in bookings through the bot compared to their other booking methods.
Provide personalized content. The bot can help customers find relevant articles and information on your site. The Whole Foods bot helps customers find a great recipe by typing in words like “lunch” and “turkey dish”
Let customers keep a record of the information. The beauty of bot conversations is they are recorded. Some customers can benefit from keeping this information handy. No more frustrating calling a company for assistance, writing down the instructions, then losing the instructions a few days later. Now customers can just pull up the app to refresh their memory.
Conduct customer analysis. These bots provide a wealth of information and insight into your customers. Go over frequently asked questions. See what customers are struggling with. Find out what they are curious about. It’s like market analysis for much, much cheaper.

The Facebook bot will take time (and, in turn, money) to create and implement. But for many businesses, it can be a valuable investment. Maybe your customer service department is overflowing with the same types of questions. Maybe you want to offer more convenient ways to order products or make appointments. Maybe your target demographic is often online. These are a few reasons to jump on board the Facebook Bot train. If you want assistance with developing a solid Facebook bot marketing strategy, Alpine Small Business Solutions is here for you! Give us a call or shoot us an email today for more information.

10 Leadership Lessons from Celebrities

Celebrities can (sometimes) do more than entertain. Occasionally, their stories and struggles can offer us insight as we work to build our own dynasties in our niche. Looking at their shortfalls and success can help us gain valuable insight on what it truly means to be a leader.

Oprah Winfrey – Leaders need patience

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful rags-to-riches stories of our time. Born into poverty, she overcame personal challenges and found her first media job at age 19. It took several years before she launched her talk show, and several more before her own network found success. When she created her network, everything was in place for immense and rather immediate success. She had the masses of fans. She had the industry experience. She was highly networked. She could afford to help finance it. But the network took years to take off. Even Oprah Winfrey, a queen in her industry, needed time to make things happen.

As you lead your organization, try not to get too discouraged over setbacks. Perseverance is important to getting your company where you need to go. Your staff looks to you for guidance and encouragement. Lead the way with a determined enthusiasm and dedication to working to get your company where it needs to go.

Bear Grylls – Leaders encourage risk taking

Bear Grylls is a well-known adventurer, writer, and TV personality. In his show “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” he takes a new celebrity on an adventure, encountering obstacles from crocodile infested waters to repelling down cliffs. As he coaches celebrities, he encourages them to take calculated risks. It’s not a throw caution to the wind and be reckless strategy, but rather a “nothing risked nothing gained” perspective. He works with the celebrity, understanding their strengths and limitations, and then encourages them to push their boundaries. He serves as their safety net, ready to step in as needed. But, his focus in on getting them to stretch their limits.

Good leaders empower their workers to grow and go beyond their limits. Along the way, they serve as a valuable resource, of course. Good leaders train their employees with all the information they need before giving them the gentle nudge to go off on their own to take calculated risks. Whether you are helping someone survive crocodiles or pitch an unconventional idea, good leaders encourage risk tasking.

Emma Watson – Leaders manage their own imposter syndrome

Emma Watson is a famous actress, model, and activist. She is wildly successful and talented, but even she is not immune to self-doubts. Watson is one of the many celebrities vocal about their own struggles with imposter syndrome, a frustrating challenge where a highly capable individual doubts their own ability. Often, people with imposter syndrome feel as if they are faking their way through their work or life, just waiting for others to realize they are incompetent. Ironically, it’s those who should be the most confident that struggle with imposter syndrome. Emma Watson speaks often about her own struggles and how she works to manage them.

As a leader, you may experience crippling self-doubt. As an entrepreneur, you get an extra helping of insecurity. So many people are counting on you and at times it can feel like you are beyond your depths. Letting these fears stop you from acting or affect how you work can be damaging to your business and your employees. Proactively managing imposter syndrome helps you be a better leader.

Vince Lombardi – Leaders show, not shout

Vince Lombardi is one of the greatest professional football coaches of all time, leading the Green Bay Packers to victory time and time again. You can get lost reading through a collection of his quotes, as each one is an inspirational landmine. When talking about coaching, he famously said “they call it coaching, but it is teaching. You do not just tell them…you show them the reasons.” Lombardi took the time to explain to his players the reasoning behind his choices and strategies, rather than simply yelling orders. This, arguably, helped improve the coach-player relationship, team cohesion, and the players’ motivation (especially when things got rough).

Lana Del Rey – If It’s Not Working, Reinvent Your Brand

Before she found fame as a 1960s-inspired sultry throwback singer, Lana Del Rey was a prep-school graduate from upstate New York named Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant. She started her career with her given name, blonde hair, no shtick and an acoustic, folksy vibe. But, that wasn’t working. So, she reinvented her career under the stage name Lana Del Rey, dyed her hair, adopted the 1960s makeup and deep voice and had a breakthrough.

If your business isn’t standing out, consider going from Lizzy to Lana — give your location, products or services a makeover and use a bold, high-styled appeal to set yourself apart in a crowded marketplace.

Miley Cyrus – Love Your Customers and They Will Love You

Miley Cyrus loves her fans so much that she has nicknamed them “Smilers” and makes sure to acknowledge them often, whether on tour or on social media. This is a great strategy for your business — it is much easier to market more products and services to your existing customers that are already raving fans than to try to find new ones.

So, make sure your customers know that they are loved and keep telling them. Doing this will create customers who will buy more from you and advocate for you — loyalty is the way to go.

Justin Bieber – Go Niche

Many of us don’t understand the appeal of Justin Bieber (make that really don’t understand the appeal…), but it doesn’t matter because we aren’t his niche. He appeals to tween and teen girls. They love him and he knows how to leverage that, without worrying what everyone else thinks of him.

Your business can borrow from the Biebs by focusing on a very distinct target market and knowing what that market cares about. I remember a very successful shoe store in Chicago that employed a similar strategy. They had only really attractive young men working there, who flattered every female customer incessantly as they tried on shoes. That store did very well. Once you are solid in knowing your target market, find a hook that has a strong appeal to them.

The Kardashians – Strike While the Iron Is Hot

To say that the Kardashians have not been shy about exploiting their brands is like saying that fire is kind of hot. The Kardashian girls endorse clothing, makeup, perfume and more. What they know is that no business cycle lasts forever, so they are not shy about maximizing their potential while they can.

The same goes for your company. Business cycles are shortening, so don’t be afraid to make the most of your opportunities while you are hot.

Lindsay Lohan (And Some Other New Celebrity Just About Every Day) – Even a Good Brand Can Become Tarnished

Even if you have something valuable to offer, if you are a jerk, eventually folks won’t want to do business with you. Alec Baldwin, Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan are just some of the celebrities that have learned this the hard way.

Geraldo Rivera – Future success cannot be built on past accomplishments.

Watching Geraldo Rivera bomb five tasks in a row was amusing and sad. Frankly, Geraldo’s ideas were good — 10 years ago, but did not resonate with company executives who were looking for forward thinking, innovative ideas that appeal to today’s consumers. Not to detract from his achievements, but Mr. Rivera thought that his past journalistic success would lead his team to winning each challenge; it did not. In fact, many younger people do not even know who he is. Geraldo is a forceful, strong-willed personality who does not take “no” for an answer. Maybe that’s the reason behind his success; however, when working with or leading a t-e-a-m, there has to be collaboration. Most of Geraldo’s contributions focused on “I am an award winning journalist,” “I’m Geraldo Rivera.” “I should be the one in front of the camera.” The recurring theme was “I,” a terrible mistake for a leader, manager, or anyone in authority to focus all the attention on himself or herself without having any regard for team members’ input.

You can’t get complacent in your business — you need to continually work to earn the trust and respect of your vendors, clients and employees. If you don’t, you may find opportunities drying up, or altogether disappearing.

Good leaders do more than order their employees around. Taking the time to explain the mindset behind your decisions can leave an impression on your employees. It shows you value their opinion and understanding enough that you would spend the time talking to them. It helps them understand the values behind your decisions (i.e. I really value this client relationship, so I want to go overboard in correcting their customer service issue). It opens up dialogue so employees can feel free to express their confusion or differing perspective. Showing your employees the reasons behind what you are asking them to do or the reasons for your choices can help strengthen your business.

Not all celebrities are good leaders. But some stand above the crowd, offering unique ways to lead that translate well into business. As you lead your organization, think about ways you can implement these tactics to be a more effective leader.