Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.
So let me set the scene. It’s a Tuesday morning. I am just returning home from my early morning Pilates class. I see cops. A crew of them, in the lobby of my building.
Nothing seems strange, so I go about my morning. Walk the dogs, make myself another Americano, and catch up on Facebook and Instagram.
Having just hired Ashely, my newest awesomeness creator, she was to meet me at the Passion Squared Loft at 9am. I get a text at 8:50 (love people who are on time, and by on time I mean early) saying “I am here, but the cops just escorted me out of the lobby.” OMG I said, I will be right down. Thinking we can grab a quick ice tea at Coffee Bean (yes, I am cheating on Starbucks cause I am obsessed with Coffee Bean’s ice and their straws match my hair color). But to my surprise, as I walked out to get her, I saw cops, and my street being closed down. The cop said, “you can go to Coffee Bean, but you will not be able to come back.” So we headed back upstairs and got to work.
This is when things got nuts. We heard siren after siren, and started looking out the window of my 9th floor loft. Still having NO idea WTF was happening in my building.
So what did we do? What everyone does today, we took to Twitter. And Instagram. And sure enough, we found out exactly what was happening. There was an alleged felony fugitive on the 5th floor. A resident. Who may or may not have been armed. Who was served with a warrant and refused to surrender. So for 8 hours, we waited, with the SWAT team, Bomb Squad, LAPD and LAFD. It was a real life standoff. Like on TV. IN MY BUILDING!
But that is not the point of this blog. The point is where we went for information. How much we relied on the social web, and not news stations (online or off), no, they knew pretty much noting.
It was Twitter, and Instagram, connecting with both official and unofficial tweets and Instagrams. It was about finding and sharing experiences using hashtags such as #DTLA and #LAPD. That’s how it works now. We have access to 24/7 LIVE information, as it happens, thanks to the social web.
So what does that mean for your business? A few things. You can continue to have a “standoff” with the social + digital web. Choosing not to engage on YELP because there are crazy’s on there, or choosing not to engage with an online booking platform like Schedulicity because of fear of losing control of your schedule (which you don’t BTW), or choosing not to find time to Instagram, or Facebook for your business. You can choose to not do any of those things, just as long as you know, each day you wait is a day closer to becoming an irrelevant, un-discoverable business.
Johnny_snips is booked a month out, he’s young and just getting started. AndrewDoesHair delivers a ton of awesome education and launched an awesome product ADH Dry. Larisadoll is passionate about sharing her beautiful, creative colors and can’t take a new client until August 2015. These are just three of several examples of incredibly talented & focused hairdressers who are passionate about building community and engaging on Instagram. They create a ton of value. They care.
The world has changed. Business has changed. The choice you need to make is if you will change too. The choice, as always, is yours.
PS: A BIG shout out of thanks to the LAPD and LAFD, they were amazing. The suspect surrendered peacefully and all is well in the world. And to my new awesomeness creator at Passion Squared, Ashley, thank you for being so amazing on your first day. You rock!
“You can’t have style if you don’t have substance.”
Ozwald Boateng
Love these beautiful humans so much: (pictured from left to right)
Winn Claybaugh Ashley Conrad, Aura May, Brenda Bilodeau Amaral, Keri Davis, Brenton Lee, The Hair Nerds, Sugar Skulls, DC The Barber
Oh Facebook, why you gotta keep changing? While many get frustrated with all the changes over at Facebook, one of my jobs is to help you keep up with the biggest changes, the ones that may have the most impact on your biz and brand. With the new Biz page re-design, a few things have changed when it comes to image sizing.
The picture above is just a snapshot of some of the beautiful humans I have had the opportunity to hang out with recently, so I created a collage (with my fave new tool Canva) for the Passion Squared Cover image. As you can see, I left the far left side blank, that’s where the profile pic goes. A minor detail, but in my opinion, a major detail when it comes to how we present our brand.
Cut off logos, cut off words, blurry images are all big NO-NO’s if you want to present a professional and powerful image to your community.
Here are the new sizes for Facebook images.
Cover Image Event Image
Link Image (this is when you are posting a link on Facebook)
Tab Image
Post Images are still SQUARES. The best size is 400X400 and larger. My daily quote posts on Passion Squared are 800X800, the largest recommended is 1200X1200.
As always, I highly encourage you to work with a designer to create graphics and templates that you can use to create your Facebook content. As I have shared in my post 4 Awesome Content Creation Tools a few weeks ago….. I love PicMonkey and Canva to create content.
No matter what you do today, or this week, please take a look at your current Profile image on your biz page (it needs to be your logo sized properly) and your Cover Image. Are they as awesome as they could be? You have all the tools you need to create awesome images, so now it’s just a matter of deciding how important it is to you. HINT: If you are trying to grow your biz and attract new clients, your brand image needs to be important to you.
Love + Awesomeness-
Nina
PS: This post does not currently have audio due to some major tech issues, I will add audio when I can sort everything out. Hello Monday!
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Dr. Seuss
Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.
One of the most common questions I get asked about Instagram is about how to share your beautiful images to your Facebook biz page. The question came up again on a recent webinar along with a request for a step by step. So a BIG shout out to Brenda and Dawnette for inspiring this post.
Here we go….
Step One
Log in to Instagram, go to your profile page and click on the little wheel thing in the upper right hand side of the page.
Step Two
Click on Share Settings
Step Three
Click on your name. It should show the name of your Personal Page that is connected to your Business Page. If you have not yet connected your Instagram to your Facebook personal page, it will ask you if you want to connect, etc. Do that. Then click on your name.
Step Four
If you manage one business page, that page name will appear and you simply select that page. If you manage more than one business page, select the business you want to SHARE your Instagrams to. Step Five
Start sharing your awesomeness!
Thank you again to Brenda and Dawnette for inspiring this post. Are you sharing your awesomeness on Instagram? Let’s connect! You can follow me @passionsquared
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
Herman Melville
Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.
This is a story about social good. And about a beautiful hairdresser I know named Molly. And how some awesome heroes, and Facebook, saved her life.
We have become so jaded it seems, complaining about the platforms we choose to be on, about the ugliness that is shared, about the political rants. But while all of that is going on, something awesome happened. A life was saved.
Molly decided to follow her heart and travel the world. Something many dream of, but she had the courage to do it. I have been following her adventures via Facebook, as her family and friends had been too. To watch her have so much joy and freedom, so much adventure and happiness was so inspiring.
Then something happened. She had an accident. In Laos. She had no ID on her. She was going to die.
You see, the social web is what we make it. Just like anything. We can find it empowering, for ourselves, our communities and our businesses, or we can be mad at it. We can choose to add value to the conversation, or muddy it up with ugliness and TMI. We can choose to let it connect us, or push us away. It’s a choice. I am so grateful Molly, her family, her friends and the heroes that saved her life chose to use Facebook as a way to connect and share. As a way to stay in touch. A way in which it is meant to be used.
Molly has a long road to recovery ahead of her. If you feel inspired to share this story, share. If you feel inspired to donate to Molly’s recovery, click here Molly Deimeke GoFundMe.
To learn more about Molly’s story and the heroes who saved her life, click here. And bring the tissues. You will need it.
Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.
This is not a story about my beautiful new eyelash extensions, but one of how word of mouth and referrals happen when you truly become a social business. It does not get any more simple (not easy) than this. Here is how the story goes…
I follow larisadoll on Instagram. She is one of the most insanely talented colorists I have seen and has truly mastered the art of content creation, sharing and engagement on Instagram. She is so in demand, she is not even taking new clients. OMG, how many people can say that?
So as you can see in the pic above, she posted about her new lashes she got from the amazing Claudia Rod, miss_c_rod26 at Sinful Lashes. Now let me get something real clear, I had no intention of getting eyelash extensions. In fact, anything on or in my eyes makes me crazy. But I am a student of the social + digital web, and had to see what the fuss was all about, why did Larisa love her lashes so much?
So I quickly clicked on the Sinful Lashes page, and saw that a promotion was happening with Claudia. (I found out later Claudia was just beginning her career as an eyelash extension artist and is working hard on building her biz).
The Sinful Lashes page had a link to their website which allowed me to book online. Immediately. It was SO EASY. Just as it should be in 2014. A simple and seamless user experience. Is your booking process simple and seamless?
I was so excited for my new lash experience and to meet Claudia. She was so professional, sweet and insanely talented. She also, as professionals do, educated me on caring for my new lashes and recommended all the Sinful Lashes products I needed to care for them. Did I invest in the products she recommended? You bet I did. I just invested time and money into my new lashes and want to be sure they stay awesome in between visits. And yes, there will be more visits. Every three weeks to get a touch up.
But the story does not end there. Of course I had to share my experience on Instagram with all my beautiful followers and now I am writing a blog about my experience.
This is how word of mouth and referrals work in 2014.
It will never replace offline word of mouth, it only amplifies it. This is as simple as it gets. But it takes commitment, time, energy and consistency. It takes creating an awesome offline experience. It takes engaging on the platforms your clients (and potential future clients) engage on. It takes making it easy for clients to talk about you.
Thank you to Sinful Lashes, Larisa Love, and Claudia Rod for the experience and for creating awesome on my lashes. If you are in or around LA or planning on visiting, well, you know what I am going to say… book a reservation with Claudia at Sinful Lashes.
Here is the audio version of this post. Thank you so much for listening.
