Author Archives: Laurel Lindsay

About Laurel Lindsay

Laurel Stark née Lindsay has helped thousands of businesses get better results from their online marketing since she began her career as a web marketer in 2003. As a speaker, author and CEO of The New Media Group, she’s been featured on CNN, Entrepreneur.com, CTV and ShawTV.

How to run a blog that makes money (Case Study)

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Did you know there are entrepreneurs who are making money and getting free stuff from their blogs?

Learn exactly what these successful bloggers are doing to generate revenue & get free stuff. Check out the interview below.

BLOG THAT MAKES MONEY

CTV news reports on how to run a successful fashion blog, interviewing 2 successful bloggers and CEO of The New Media Group, Laurel Lindsay.

Check out the video clip & transcript below.

 

Transcription below:
Joe: Look who’s back tonight. Lisa Perry back from Greece with Luis Hart. Trip was good?
Lisa: It was fantastic. I highly recommend Greece.
Joe: Our style has fallen apart in the last couple of weeks. We’re going to get that back on track tonight with a couple of local fashion bloggers.
Lisa: That’s right. I’m back with blogging. Joe, according to the business development bank of Canada, over 70% of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. That means there’s business to be had in personal style blogging. Take a look.
Narrator: Laura Mitbrodt has just been blogging for over a year.
Laura: I have 12,000 followers on Instagram but I work up to 60 hours a week.
Narrator: She blogs Monday through Friday and links through multiple social media platforms, sharing tidbits from her life always connecting them to an outfit of the day.
Laura: I kind of look at the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s for inspiration.
Narrator: Her efforts are paying off. In fact, she has never approached a sponsor—only they have approached her.
Laura: I have a company based in San Francisco that works with me. They get companies going to them and if they find brands or products that suit me, they will send them my way and I photograph them, kind of talk about them and review them.
Narrator: While blogging is Laura’s full-time job, it’s more of a hobby for Kai Mundigler.
Kai: A lot of the time, too, it’s for trade. Like I get my nails done in town and I just do some posts.
Narrator: Her blog was voted one of Victoria’s best through Best of the City 2013. She posts once or twice a week about local fashion finds.
Kai: I have quite a few people emailing me, “Where could I find such a type of dress or sandal?”
Narrator: Laura’s audience is wider.
Laura: Most of my followers are from the States. I have followers in Europe, Australia and South America.
Narrator: But she still maintains that connection.
Laura: I’m replying to their comments on the feed. And if they have a blog, I go back and comment on their blog.
Narrator: Web marketer Laurel Lindsay says that’s rule number 1 in successful blogging.
Laurel:

You have to give to get. That invokes the law of reciprocity where folks start to pay attention to you.

Narrator: She also says video is huge.
Laura: And then I got this really cute sunglass case from Michael.
Laurel: It’s the number 1 activity in mobile devices right now so if you can summarize some of your blog points in a video, that ups the points for share-ability.
Narrator: And lastly, consistency is key.
Laurel: People want to trust the websites that they’re going back to frequently—so consistency in tone and the amount of blog posts that you post per day, per week or per month.
Narrator: Laura follows these rules to a tee.
Laura: Actually going into it, I didn’t realize how much work it is to actually sustain something and create an audience.
Narrator: While the amount of effort going into their blogs differs, both Laura and Kai say you have to love it to do it.
Kai: I just like being out and about—being out there and I definitely learn new things along the way.
Laura: I just love that I am independent and it’s for me, not anyone else.
Lisa: Web Marketer, Laurel Lindsay says blogs with 1000 to 2000 words and about 15 images typically get shared the most, which then attracts the sponsors.
Joe: A lot of people blogging these days. Travelling. People love to blog travelling. So there you go. Some tips that could probably transferred over.

The New Instagram Desktop Experience – Three Strategies For Your Business

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Recently, Instagram added search to its desktop experience. This update is not just great for finding the best cat and puppy photos, it’s AMAZING for helping you market your business on Instagram. The following three strategies take advantage of the new update and will generate new and engaged followers of your business which could lead to new leads and sales.

1. Like and Comment on Keyword Hashtags

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Hashtags are widely used on Instagram so users can easily find similar or themed content. Consider keywords that relate to your business or that represent the target demographic of your product or service. Once you start searching, Instagram will show you how many posts have been tagged with a specific keyword and this can help you narrow down which keywords are more popular than others. Now it’s time for favouriting and commenting. I recommend a minimum of 100 outgoing favourites and 25 comments per day in order to achieve maximum effectiveness with engagement. Don’t over think your comments, keep it simple, for example “Great photo!” or “Love this!” and consider adding some emoji! Remember that this activity needs to be daily as Instagram users are always posting new photos (over 70M per day).

2. Like and Comment on Posts in a Specific Geographic Location

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This feature is undoubtedly the most beneficial for businesses. Now you can easily see photos in a specific geographic location. Simply type in the City name and the search box will suggest that location. Interacting with customers in your area will be the most effective way to generate leads and sales. Try to engage with local posts in a fun and friendly way and don’t hesitate to add a local flare to your comments. You should start to build relationships with local Instagram’ers and this in turn will help you gain a loyal following.

3. Research Competitors and Industry Influencers

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With the new update it’s now even easier to research competitors and industry influencers. In order to stay on top of your industry, you need to know whats working and not working for your competitors. Some things to consider would be which of their photos are receiving the most engagement and why? Are videos performing better than photos? Considering how many people are following them, are they receiving a high, medium or low level of engagement? Are there any promotions going on that you could match or beat? These questions will help you focus your strategy on Instagram and start leading the pack. Another way to get inspiration and for ideas on how great businesses use the platform, try researching some relevant industry influencers. These brands have larger marketing budgets for Instagram and can show you the most effective way to engage with your unique audience.

Now Hiring! Office Ninja

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office-ninjaYou’re the type of person that organizes their soup cans with the labels facing out, because you simply can’t have it any other way.

You really love, and are actually kind of obsessed with order, simplicity & effectiveness.

But you’re not off-putting about it. Rather, you’re the good natured, big hearted, likeable ambassador of organizational goodness. Your specialty is creating order out of chaos.

Because of this wonderful gift you have, many different overlapping tasks with short deadlines don’t intimidate you in the slightest. In fact, you laugh in the face of long to do lists; knowing at the end of the day you will have won; you will have conquered the shit out of each and every detail. And! You will have made an easy to follow, optimized process for it so the task will flow smoother next time. Cuz that’s just how you roll.

You like having people depend on you; knowing your masterful execution of all things admin really make a difference in people’s lives. You prefer to work with people who give a shit- because you do too. You like to leave things better than you found them, and you’re inspired by this principle.

You don’t mind hard work for fair pay. You’re excited about the idea of learning more and earning more in an organization that has lots of room for growth. You’re a quick learner and adaptable to change.

You also like the idea of being master of your professional domain; where you have the autonomy & authority to do things the way you were born to do them.

As our organizational ninja: you’ll be part executive assistant, part client services manager, part financial records management. But more importantly, you’ll be a hero. To the president of the company that really needs your help. To the clients of the company that need their orders filled promptly and correctly, and to the existing team members who need your support.

The businesses are in the realm of digital media, so an understanding of, or willingness to learn digital media will required.

And as a bonus, you’ll be working remotely in a location of your choosing; free from fluorescent lights and tasteless cubicles. In fact, anywhere with cell & internet service is fair game. However, if you’re in Victoria BC or Calgary AB, expect to meet face to face at least quarterly.

The skinny on the day to day:

Executive Assistance: approx. 15 hours a week: (during business hours)

  • Presiding over the President’s email, and schedule; managing appointment requests.
  • General organizational/media related help
  • Finessing of/compiling documents
  • Other duties as required to support the President

Client Service: 5-10 hours a week: (during business hours)

  • Happily serving incoming client requests promptly and pleasantly:
  • Processing new orders
  • Answering random customer service questions, providing all manner of documents and files as requested.
  • Using your sharp eye for quality control
  • Liaising with team & vendors on the client’s behalf- getting them what they need, when they need it.
  • Presiding over Data/Records Management
  • Random Web Research/Reporting as needed
  • Project Scheduling/Coordination: launch, date, assign monthly and weekly tasks to keep everyone organized and on track to meet their deadlines.

Financial Record Management: approx. 5 hours a week (any time you want to work)

  • Help the bookkeeper, accountant & CFO get timely & accurate records. Yay!
  • Enjoying the immaculate and frankly beautiful state of your financial record keeping
  • Creating and sending reports that are not only accurate, but on time!
  • Correspondence with bookkeeper and accountant to help them, help you, help me, help everyone get paid on time and implement a profit sharing system. Double yay!
  • Arrange direct deposit processing: Yes, you pay the people- so the people will love you. Seriously.
  • Invoicing clients/credit card processing- so we all don’t end up eating Ichiban
  • Accounts receivable/payable

Details:

  • This position begins Aug 1 and after a 90 day trial period graduates to full time.
  • Work from anywhere! telecommuting is a bonus.
  • Fast growing organization with huge growth potential
  • Unique and fun corporate culture.

If this sounds like your dream job …You’re the Robin to my Batman. The Ying to my Yang. The Sherlock to my Holmes. I am very interested in hearing from you.

Please apply with:

  • Your resume
  • A funny picture of a cat
  • A 4 sentence description of why you think you’re perfect for this gig
  • Answer: What did you want to be when you grow up?
  • List: 2 of your pet peeves
  • Provide: 2 references that can attest to your superhero like abilities.

Please email laurel (at) lalindsay (dot) ca to apply

How to get Facebook to Show Your Posts to More People

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Today we are going to answer a question from Anne Kelly, who posted on Facebook.

“Is there any way to get Facebook to show your posts to more people without paying them again? I already paid them for clicks—people who were interested in my page, they told me. And then they want me to pay again to let the same people see my posts.”

That’s a fantastic question Ann. And I’m so glad you asked!

So as many of you know, Facebook has changed their algorithm to reduce the amount of organic reach that pages can get. So there’s a couple of things that you can do.

The first is to pay attention to the types of posts you are posting on your Facebook page.

Definitely focus on multimedia, using photos at a bare minimum. They take up much more space in the newsfeed and get higher ranking.

Another thing you can do is upload videos to your Facebook page.

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That’s not the same as posting the YouTube link. Actually uploading to Facebook will get you more exposure to the folks, who like your page.

Engage your community.

Ask your friends to share your posts, comment on your posts, and like your posts.

Whether it’s just your friends and family, the more people and the more activity on each of your posts, again, increases the likelihood it will get shown on the newsfeed.

And the third thing is paying attention to what you’re doing in terms of networking.

Network.

By invoking the law of reciprocity, giving to get, you’ll get people to comment and share and like on your posts.

If you’re visiting like-minded pages, businesses, and other pages that have a similar target market, and commenting, posting, and sharing from their pages, what that does is create some notifications that you’re active on their page.

They’ll come and visit your page and start acting on your page as well. So that will get you, again, more sort of that viral feel.

The more activity, again, on each post, the better.

Also pay attention to what types of content you’re posting. Again, bear in mind the multimedia role.

Make sure that your posts are inspiring, engaging, and informative.

Also you can promote others and tag them in your posts to get them to look at your page.

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That’s your One Minute Marketing Tip. Thanks so much for asking the question, Anne. And I hope you have a great day!

If you like this, please consider sharing with your network. Never miss a tip! – subscribe to my channel and get a new tip each week!

Thank you!

Anywhere with WIFI

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Imagine if you could work anywhere with wifi. Your office could be your local coffee shop, a favourite park or even a new city each week. This general concept is exactly how The New Media Group operates. Every single team member is ENCOURAGED to work anywhere with wifi. Now you’re probably wondering, how is it possible for a team of people to accomplish this while also fulfilling clients needs and actively collaborating on projects? The answer is very simple and in this blog post, I’m going to explain the three main ways.

1. Project Management and Collaboration Tool

Holding team members accountable and meeting deadlines is so important for every single business. Without a robust cloud software for project management and collaboration we would never be able to achieve our mobile work goals. Our team’s software of choice is Basecamp! We love the ease of use when it comes to creating and assigning projects and tasks as well as the ability for team members to communicate within the software, lessoning our daily email intake and allowing us to focus more time on our amazing clients.

2. Google Hangouts

Technically, you don’t have to wear pants to our team meetings. Not only because pants are over rated but because every meeting is conducted online through Google Hangouts. This allows team members to create their own space for meeting, in the comfort of their own office. We begin by sharing how our week has been and then briefly share updates about our current projects or any information that clients have passed along. Once everyone has shared their updates, we generally talk briefly about the unique cool things we will be doing that weekend in the city where we live. This may be one of the coolest parts of working for The New Media Group, always hearing about the exciting things going on in and around Western Canada.

3. A Progressive Leader

The only way ANY of this mobile work environment would be possible, is with a progressive leader. President Laurel Lindsay always encourages a work life balance that is rare to find anywhere but at the most progressive tech companies in a place such as Silicon Valley. Having worked at Hootsuite in Vancouver (equipped with nap rooms, quiet working spaces, and a full gym) it did not seem possible to find another work environment that whole heartedly supported team members work-life balance, that was until my New Media Group position. Another thing to consider is that Laurel can hire anyone, from any city, allowing her to optimize her talent level and ensure she’s working with the experts she most admires. We feel that more businesses should embrace this progressive mobile work concept and consider some of the benefits for their business. For tips on how your business can become more mobile work friendly, don’t hesitate to ping Laurel today.

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The 7 Step Guide to Managing Negative Customer Feedback: A case study in consumer fraud, social media & the power of reviews.

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If you’ve ever been the recipient of a bad online review of your business, you may find yourself frustrated by the apparent lack of control we as entrepreneurs have over things being said about our business – especially if they’re not true.

What proactive steps can you take to protect your business, and how do you best handle a peer review gone wrong?

1. Adapt your mindset.

The worst thing you can do is tell yourself this article isn’t relevant to your business and click away.

Seriously.

We need to adapt in order to survive and thrive, and today’s consumers have more power than they’ve ever had to affect our success.
70%  of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. (BDC, 2013)
Negative sentiment can go viral, quickly – as exemplified by the Applebee’s social media nightmare – and can be very difficult to manage.
Understanding the change in buyer behaviour and accepting that it’s not going away, frees you up to take in the following information to help protect your business.

2. Get informed:

Increasingly Canadian consumers such as you and I, rely on the web to make our purchasing decisions.

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1. Canadians spend on average 2.5 hours a day online; on social media, watching videos, & researching products and services. ComScore, 2014
2. Nine out of 10 consumers claim to use their smartphone for pre-shopping activities BDC 2013
3. 70% of Canadians online trust consumer reviews. (BDC, 2013)
None of this is particularly surprising.
The widespread adoption of web connected smartphones is not a new phenomenon.
In fact many older and wiser of us lament the pervasive nature of these devices and their impact on social connection –  and more practically – our ability to walk down the street without literally running into people distracted by their smartphones.

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Beyond being a mildly irritating obstacle to efficient walking, this change in how we as a culture interact has widespread implications for today’s business owner.

The constantly connected state of today’s consumer – specifically – your customers – means your customers shape your brand’s reputation.

Customers and the public at large (reasonable and otherwise) can seriously impact your ability to acquire new customers and maintain your reputation.

3. Know that negative sentiment goes far beyond review sites:

You may have heard of “reputation management” in the context of managing reviews of your business, or even been approached by a less than integrity based business offering you positive reviews of your business, for a price.

But beyond the formal review channels, people can leave negative sentiments on your Facebook page, in response to a post on social media…and almost anywhere else on the web.

4. Start listening:

Google your business name to see what comes up. You may be surprised at the places it’s listed and what people are saying about your company.

If you are surprised, it’s a sign to implement some practices internally to start monitoring your company’s reputation.

You can either manually conduct a search regularly or implement an automated solution to alert you immediately of any new conversations about your business.

Here’s a handy list of 5 tools to help you monitor your online reputation from Social Media Examiner.

5. Address any and all reviews.

You may be tempted to ignore bad reviews or complaints, but believe it or not it makes you look worse if you don’t reply publicly.

Here are 5 tips to responding to reviews from Google My Business.

Tips for responding to reviews

Business owner responses allow you to build relationships with customers, but they’re also public. When replying to your customers, keep the following guidelines in mind:

  • Be nice and don’t get personal. This isn’t just a guideline–it’s also a good idea as a business owner. It’s difficult to win an argument with a frustrated customer, and you want to avoid burning bridges. Keep your responses useful, readable, and courteous. In addition, responses should comply with our local content policy.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Users are looking for useful and genuine responses, but they can easily be overwhelmed by a long response.
  • Thank your reviewers. Respond to happy reviewers when you have new or relevant information to share. You don’t need to thank every reviewer publicly, since each response reaches lots of customers, not just one.
  • Be a friend, not a salesperson. Your reviewers are already customers, so there’s no need to offer incentives or advertisements. Tell reviewers something new about your business, or share something they might not know from their first visit.

6. Go above & beyond:

The tone and speed of your response to a bad review is where you can really make or break your reputation.
In this CTV news clip, I was asked to comment on what appears to be a fraudulent sale of goods by a household brand.


This would never have become a news story if the response to the customer’s complaint on their facebook page hadn’t been a canned response to call their 1 800 number – where the customer didn’t get a response.
In the case studies above, with Winners & Applebees, both responses to the negative sentiment were woefully inadequate and appeared completely disingenuous.

Because customer sentiment can so powerfully and permanently affect your reputation, if you are in the wrong (like I believe Winners was ) you need to go above and beyond-
1.Get the customer’s information
2. Make an effort to get in touch with them right away.
3. Work to resolve the issue to their satisfaction
4. Once you get agreement on a solution, ask if the customer will then update their post with details on how you came through for them.
5. Going forward – work with your social media manager to create a policy for addressing unhappy customers in a way that shows you actually care.

7. Be proactive

By actively soliciting positive reviews- and incentivising your customers to do so, you can combat any negative and unfair reviews with a steady stream of positive reviews.

Copy and paste this templated email and send out to all your happy customers;  ( just replace the links with your Facebook & Google Plus page links before you send )

Dear customer,

Thank you so much for your business.

Please- tell us how we did!

Would you be so kind as to post a review for me on my Facebook page or my Google page?

I really appreciate you taking the time to give me your feedback!

Find your ideal customers on social media with these 3 tips

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social media marketingToday we are going to answer Jeff’s question, who writes, “What are three tips for finding the right customers on social media?”

That’s a great question. And if you are wondering that yourself, keep reading for the answer.

Identify your ideal customers:

If you know who your right customers are, you’re two steps ahead of many of your competitors.

The next step is to typify them in an archetype or in a demographic.
So for example, maybe your customers are typically affluent women in their thirties and forties.

Now you have concrete data you can use to research what social networks that particular demographic uses the most.

In this case of our example, that would be Pinterest. Doing a little bit of market research in the beginning will help you create the bare bones of a social media strategy and save you a lot of hassle and time making mistakes through trial and error.

Identify target location:

The second thing to do to find your ideal customers on social media, is narrowing your target down to a geographic area. Again, this provides you with a concrete benchmark, from which you can conduct more market research.

Specifically, there are hashtags that are used for each specific geographic area. Do a little bit of research and find out which are the most popular ones for both your geographic location, as well as the interests of your demographic so you can capitalize on their interests by getting involved in conversations about trending topics and more.

Pay for it:

Another thing you can do to get in front of your ideal networks is advertise.
The social media networks we participate in have amazing data collected on all of us. Thus, they’ve got very specific demographic information available for you to advertise and get in front of an audience that maybe isn’t part of your existing community.

Solicit Reviews:

The last thing that you can do is solicit referrals and recommendations on all your social media properties by having people endorse you. Endorsements not only provide new customers with a level of trust that you’re a reputable business, but this activity also provides exposure to your recommender’s network, who are much more likely to buy from you than a total stranger.

How have you found your ideal customers on social media? Share with me in the comments below.

And, if you found this valuable, please consider sharing with your network!

You can also watch this one minute tip as well as others on our Youtube page!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8uCMBTCKZ8