Are you ready to ignite your passion?

What Are You Waiting For?

Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So… get on your way.”

 Dr. Seuss

Are you ready to ignite your passion?

There are so many times I hear about people waiting for the perfect time to ignite their passion and live their dreams…waiting for the right job, the right partner, the right bank balance, you get my drift.  My question is simply this…What are you waiting for?  Life is not perfect, we are not perfect, therefore, if we wait for the perfect time to ignite our passions, we will continue to delay our dreams in search of perfection.

If I Had Waited.
If I had waited for the perfect time to go to beauty school, I would have never started.  If I had waited for the perfect education to work with one of the greatest hair care companies in the world, I would have never had the incredible experiences and career I was blessed to have.  If I had waited to follow my bliss and pursue my passion, Passion Squared would not exist, and I would not be here today writing this blog post for you.

We Move Towards What We Focus On.
Instead of waiting for the perfect time to follow your bliss and pursue your passion, it’s time to put your energy into crafting your vision and getting clear on the steps you need to take to bring your vision to life.  Here’s the deal, we move towards what we focus on. That is a universal truth.  What are you focusing on?  Are you focusing on your passions and dreams or all the reasons you believe they will not work?  Are you taking steps everyday to get closer to what you want for your career, business, life?  So, I ask again, what are you waiting for?

If you are looking for help igniting your passion and bringing your ideas to life, we offer one-on-one coaching for those ready to step into their dreams.  If you are serious about growing and ready to get started, click here.  I look forward to dreaming with you.

PS: A special shout out to my biz soul mate Gordon Miller for helping me pursue my passion by making the awesome decision to co-create Passion Squared.  I heart you infinity and beyond.

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)

Are you discoverable?

Claim Your Name, Claim Your Name

“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.”

Frank Herbert

Are you discoverable?

In the world of social + digital, one super important thing to remember is search + discovery.  This is when people looking for your salon can easily DISCOVER you on the web.  A big part of search + discovery on the web is the URL (uniform resource locator) or your personalized web address.

With social platforms, we have an opportunity to choose our username, if it’s not already taken.  We highly recommend for branding, marketing and easy discovery, that you stick with the name of your brand (salon, company, product).  By doing this, you can add your Facebook Page username to your marketing materials, business cards, etc.

Here is a simple step-by-step on how to claim your personalized Facebook username (URL).

Unclaimed Username URL
www.facebook.com/pages/passion-squared/1234567890

Claimed Username URL (this is what we want it to look like)
Facebook Pages

 

1. Go into your Admin Panel on Facebook, Click on Edit Page then Click on Update Info.

Facebook Page

 

2. You will now be in the Basic Information Section, and will see Username.  Click on Change Username.

Facebook Pages

 

3. Now you can type in your desired Page username.  We recommend you try first for the name of your actual Facebook Page. Click on Check Availability.  If your first choice is not available, you can try to add another word that still connects with your Facebook page name.

Example: Your Page name is Passion Squared.  You type that in and see that it is taken.  So try Passion Squared Salon, or Passion Squared Hair Salon, etc. (NOTE: Once you claim a username for your page, you can ONLY change it one more time)

Facebook Page

 

 

 

 

4. Time to celebrate. You did it!

To learn more about how to expand your social beauty intelligence and craft the ultimate social + digital plan to better engage and build word of mouth and referrals, click here.  We would love to hear from you.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

Do You Like Me?

They Like Me, They Really Like Me

“Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards.”

Jay Baer

Do You Like Me?

So Two Hairdressers Walk Into A Bar
In the social + digital world, one BIG thing many of us have forgotten is that the online world is no different than the offline world, it’s still all about the people.  It’s one big cocktail party, just instead of hanging at the bar, we are hanging at a new “virtual bar”.

Asking for likes over and over, spamming other peoples pages, collecting likes like baseball cards is kind of missing the point of community building.

To have an effective community online, you need your community engaged.  The real purpose of these platforms are to help us listen, engage authentically, build relationships, have meaningful two way conversations, deliver value, to become discoverable on the web and ultimately grow our businesses through word of mouth and referrals.

Give Them Something To Talk About
What you need is right likes which are the people you are targeting and marketing your services and products to.

The most important number to be mindful of is your engagement rate, on Facebook, that’s the “talking about this” number.  That is the number which represents your real community, meaning people are liking, commenting, sharing, checking-in at your salon or RSVP’ing to an event.  In order to increase engagement, you need to provide content worth sharing (posts, tweets, blogs, pins, etc.) A good “talking about this” percentage on Facebook is between 10-30%. Anything above that is awesome, anything below that just says you need to revise your content and posting plan.

Here is some simple math, we promise…
Talking About This Number (divided by) Total Page Likes = Real Engagement Percentage

So, instead of “collecting likes” like baseball cards, remember first that each like represents a REAL person who has chosen to engage your page and your business.  People want to be loved and recognized and have come to your page to see if there is something of value to them.  If you give them something compelling, relevant, interesting and cool to share, like or comment on, believe us, they will.

For more information on how to craft an authentic, engaging and effective social + digital plan to become more discoverable on the social web, give us a shout on Facebook, Twitter or click here.

PS: We like you, we really like you.  Thank you for being here with us.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

 

 

Awesome Facebook Photo Cheat Sheet

“The simplest things are often the truest.”

 Richard Bach

Seriously one of the most awesome discoveries on the web recently.  And while Facebook likes to change things up on us often, this is a great foundation for us all to ensure our images look their best; a super important part of building our brand image on the social web. Yay!

Facebook Photo Size Dimensions Infographic by Louise Myers

Courtesy of: Louise Myers Graphic Design

Thank you Louise Myers for creating this simple, yet incredibly useful tool.

(discovered on Google and shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

5 Steps to Updating Your Twitter Page

“The only thing constant in life is change”

François de la Rochefoucauld

So Twitter surprised the social web yesterday when they changed their page layout.
If you are up for an adventure and love change, here is a simple step-by-step.

1. Log into your Twitter account

2. Go to Settings

3. Click on Design

4. Click on Change header to upload a header image (you can preview it and play around a bit with different photos to see what looks the best)

5. Click Save

Ta-Da! You did it!  Awesome!

Do you like the “new” Twitter?  Do you use Twitter for business, fun or both? Lets play on Twitter, you can follow us @passionsquared2

(shared with LOVE from your tweeting passionistas Nina + Gordon)