Getting started with SEO with Tim Cameron Kitchen from Exposure Ninja

 

Getting started with SEO with Tim Cameron Kitchen from Exposure NinjaSearch Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be seen as a bit of a dark art, but as Tim Cameron Kitchen, the chief ninja over at Exposure Ninja explains, at its heart, it’s something we can all do.

Getting started with SEO with Tim Cameron Kitchen from Exposure Ninja

Tim started his career as a drummer, and found his way to where he is now in a less than conventional way, having learnt everything from on the ground up on the job!

On this episode of the Small & Supercharged Podcast, Tim talks  about SEO, busting myths, simplifying jargon, and sharing some great tips that anyone can use to make it easier for your potential customers or readers to find you when they visit their favourite search engine and put in those all important words.

As I mentioned (a few times!) in this episode, in addition to being the chief ninja at Exposure Ninja, Tim has also written a fab book called How To Get To The Top Of Google. If you want to explore all of this a bit more, I’d definitely recommend having a look at that too!

I have more than a passing interest in SEO- in fact, I put a fair amount of time into learning about it and trying to implement it on my own site. And what’s great, is that even though you do have to put a fair amount of work in when you start doing your own SEO, it then works away in the background for you without constant work on each individual piece of content. And it still brings me more joy that it should when I look at how people found my site and see that old posts on this very blog are still bring people my way.

If you want to find out more about Tim’s book, check out the link above or search for it on Amazon/Audible. If you want to find out more about Tim’s business, Exposure Ninja, see the website here.

Five social media posts all equestrians can use this week

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Influencers behaving badly

This article – Influencers behaving badly- first appeared in Absolute Horse Magazine – view this fabulous publication online and all previous issues of Absolute Horse on the website- and they’re all FREE to view too!

Influencers behaving badly

For many riders, it’s a dream to bag themselves a sponsor. Being aligned with brands that you love working with, whose products you adore, who can help support you in your equestrian dreams is huge. But that’s really just the start. Bagging yourself a sponsor isn’t the easy bit as such, but with it comes a responsibility to promote the brand correctly and well, ensure that you remain the kind of person that brand wants to be associated with, and so much more. So here we are going to look at a few things NOT to do if you want to keep the brands you’re working with happy…

Absolute Horse Equestrian Influencers

  1. Promote other conflicting brands. There are few brands that would expect you to only talk about them, because most brands tend to specialise in one area. But, let’s say your sponsor sells supplements, it wouldn’t be a great idea to actively promote a product from a competitor of theirs when they do an equivalent. If, for whatever reason, you need/want/are advised to use a product that could be a conflict, SPEAK TO THE BRAND. They may understand, they may ask you not to actively promote it on your socials, they may suggest their version and give you a good reason why.
  2. Disregard what they have asked for. If you’re sponsored or even working with someone on a one off basis, you’ll know what they expect from you in terms of what kind of coverage that are hoping to gain. If you’re not sure, ask. But when you know, please deliver on what has been agreed. If you’re struggling to do this for whatever reason, speak to them. Explain the situation and work on a solution.
  3. Prevent them using your content. Let’s say you’ve taken a pic of you in their kit, looking amazing, and posted it on your social. The brand asks to use it. You say no. Now, if you had the image taken by a professional photographer, you will need to get their permission of course, but unless there’s a good reason, I would advise being as obliging as you can be. Quality imagery that brands can use has a real value, and this can help to make you even more valuable as a brand ambassador or sponsored rider.
  4. Have no knowledge of their products. It’s worth doing the work and making sure you really do understand what makes their products special. You don’t need to be an expert, but knowing enough so you can produce valuable content will really help.
  5. Don’t communicate with them, don’t think of any ideas around the promotion of the brand or products. Keep in touch. Think of things you can do that help them and will appeal to your audience.
  6. Start swearing, being rude, breaking the law, and behaving in a way that’s very different to how you were when you started working together. Now, if you were swearing before, don’t worry too much(!), but when brands assess brand ambassadors, they usually look to see how that ambassador will fit with their audience, brand ethos, and a lot of other values too. If you’ve gone from quiet and collected to swearing and drunken vomiting in ditches overnight, that will (quite rightly!) unnerve a brand.
  7. Be controversial, just because. If you believe in something wholeheartedly, then that’s different, but if you’re a bit bored one day and decide to pick a fight with someone on social, be aware that this could really backfire.
  8. Don’t label things. It is REALLY important that you label any sponsored content correctly so you don’t mislead your audience. The ASA and CMA have rules around this (search ASA Influencer Guidelines for more on this). It’s important for you and the brand.

Of course, there are other ways you can upset a brand(!), but communication is key, in all things, to ensure you’re happy, the brand is happy, and that the audience is too. You’ve got this!

Read the article and see Absolute Horse Magazine here.

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Have you lost your social media mojo?

Have you lost your social media mojo? You’re not alone, so many people are feeling fatigued with social media. And it’s hardly surprising when you think about it!

Have you lost your social media mojo?

Over the last year, we have all endured the craziest events that have led many of us to social media to connect. Whether from a business perspective or a personal perspective, social media has, in many cases, provided a way of connecting to friends, family, customers and people who get us and are facing the same challenges and difficulties as we are. But there’s also a dark side to it that ranges from negativity and misinformation to a whole lot worse.

In this episode of the podcast, I chat about some ways to help your find your social media mojo again, or, at the very least, see the positive benefits it can have for you as a person or for your business, with just a few important adjustments and tweaks.

The way I see it, social media is a hugely valuable asset to any business or brand, particularly smaller ones with limited marketing budgets. It provides brands with the opportunity to market themselves to their target audience, on their terms, for free, and that’s something that I don’t think can be overlooked from a business perspective.

However, this does not mean you need to be on it 24/7. Consuming everything that people post online. Having your mood negatively impacted by the things you see. Getting dragged into arguments/debates/discussions that make you feel down.

The good news is, you don’t need to do any of this, if you don’t want; we often think we have to to get the maximum benefit.

You can still enjoy social media and make it work really hard for your brand or business and maintain boundaries in terms of the content you consume, the people you engage with, and how long you’re spending on the platforms that work so well for your business (but, perhaps, not so well for you).

Tune into the podcast- let me know if it helps you find your social media mojo again!

Small & Supercharged Mastermind

 

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Being an influencer and being kind with Beth Sen

Beth SenWith over 100k followers, Beth Sen is a popular equestrian influencer who’s well known for her stunning images, beautiful horses, gorgeous outfits, and her passion for being kind.

 

 

During the time since Beth started her account, she has grown a following of over 100k loyal followers, worked with numerous equestrian brands, supported her followers, and she’s even grown her own photography business too!

In this episode of the podcast, Beth openly talks about how she grew her account, the kind of content she likes to create, working with brands, if influencers should get paid, and why she’s so passionate about being kind to each other on social media. We also talk about Beth’s own experiences she’s had with social media. Although her experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, I was pretty shocked to hear about some of the treatment she’s received, at the hands of brands. It was definitely quite eye opening…

If you follow Beth, you’ll know that through her account she covers a range of subjects, including sexual assault and racism. And these subjects are very briefly mentioned here too.

To find out more about Beth, you can find her on Instagram

Beth Sen Equestrian

Beth Sen Photography

Or have a look at her beautiful website here

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What is social media engagement, and how to get more of it.

What is social media engagement and how to get more of it

Engagement is something that most social media users think about- well, more than think about, some obsess over it. How to nurture it, how to increase it, and how to create content that users want to engage with.

 

But what is engagement? What’s an engagement rate? Why does it even matter?

On this episode of the Small & Supercharged podcast, I talk all about engagement and what it means, how we can nurture and develop engagement, and how we can actually help to grow our own social media engagement by being what we want to attract on social media. It might sound a little out there, but as you’ll hear in this podcast, it really does work. I’ll show you why, too.

What does engagement mean? In social media terms, engagement is any action taken on your post, such as a like, comment, share, save, etc. And if you’re working out an engagement rate, you take all these interactions together to do it. But (in my opinion), different engagements should be weighted differently as it takes a lot longer to type a reply than to ‘Like’ a comment.

How do you nurture engagement? There are a few ways to do this (and definitely listen to the podcast for all this info!). If you want people to engage, give them the chance to do it. Ask questions, make it about them, and when people do comment please do comment back.

Be what you want to see too. If you would like people to comment on what you’re saying, why not comment on other people’s content too? You can use hashtag searches to find people taking about subjects that interest you and add value to their posts too. In doing this, you’re actively engaging with people interested in what you want to talk about.

Engagement matters a lot. And, actually, I think it’s a more valuable gauge of what’s working on your social media than the number underneath/next to your name. And as I said, the type matters too.

Realistically, whatever reason you’re using social media for, you don’t want to feel like you’re shouting into an empty void, and by making your content more ‘friendly’ and likely to encourage what you want, showing the behaviour you want to see, and also responding to those who do what you want, your engagement should improve no end…

Small & Supercharged Mastermind

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