1. Get a great profile image

Put yourself in a good light – literally. Your face is how you make connections with people. You can use your photo to showcase your personality, your style, what makes you you. 

You don’t have to spend a fortune on professional photographers or PhotoShop. Just follow these tips:

• Make sure your profile image is well framed.
• Make sure your face fills at least 60% of the frame. But break the rules if you are being creative! Mary Portas
• Choose your outfit and background carefully. Do you want the colours to match your brand for example? Check out Debbie Wosskow’s profile image.
• Consider showing yourself in action/at work. Harriet Green
• Use Canva to adjust the brightness, colours and get the right scale.

2. Get a great background image

Your background image can help show your brand, your values or examples of your work – so don’t leave it on the default blue image of lines and dots – please. It can also help tell your company story. 

Here are our top tips for crafting a great background image:

• Choose something that reflects what your customer wants or needs. 
• Use an image that is relevant to your geography. Carl Ratcliff
• Choose an image of your employees or place of work. Azheem Azhar
• Choose something abstract linked to your brand image. Jaimes Leggett
• Choose something that showcases your product. Melinda Gates, David Furlong
• Use graphics to display your brand messages. Emily Forbes, David Benigson, Chris Hickey, Liza Collard 
• Or simply use images that shows more of your personality. Prof. Jonathan A.J. Wilson PhD
• Use Pixabay or Unsplash to find free images to use
• Use Canva to create your image and add text, graphics and images. 
• Correctly size your LinkedIn header image to 1584×396 pixels, but remember its going to look different on mobile or smaller screens.
• Upload, preview and re-jig. You may need to move elements about to make sure they are visible behind your profile image.

3. Get an attention grabbing headline

Just stating your job title is a waste of prime advertising space. Use these 10 words to explain what you offer to your customer, a potential employer or prospective employees. You want people to connect with you because of what you can do, or what you can offer – so use this space wisely. If you are a sales manager – think about what problem are you solving for the customer. If you are a recruiter – what can you offer a candidate. What is your speciality?

• Look at colleagues, peers and influencer’s headlines for inspiration.
• Try to use adjectives.
• Consider who you want to connect with and use words that would attract them.
• Avoid corporate speak – make it personal and authentic.

4. Write an effective profile

This section is harder. Try not to use this as a space to list all your past achievements or job roles. Remember to include good keywords, keep it personal and show your passion. You’ve only got 2,000 characters so make them count. This is where you can sell yourself or your company and give more information that just a list of your job roles. Humanise your LinkedIn profile and make it more than just a CV.  

You can read more about how to write a good linkedin summary here.

Above all make sure you avoid these buzzwords!

We find that answering these questions can help formulate an effective LinkedIn profile:

• What do you do?
• Why do you do it?
• What problems do you solve and for what group of people? 
• How can you make people’s lives better?

If you need some ideas, have a look at these extremely well crafted profile summaries, but remember these are specific for their industry and have a tone of voice suited to their geographies.

5. Don’t forget to fill in your job descriptions

When looking to connect with people you often look through previous experiences. So many people, however, leave these blank or with very little detail. 

• Make sure you enter details about your job role, your responsibilities and your achievements.
• Make it quantifiable to show the scale or range of your role.
• Use the STAR approach to explain your job roles. S-ituation; T-ask; A-ction; R-esults.

6. Get recommendations

If you are lacking some American bravado then this bit can be hard. We find that giving recommendations can be the best way of earning some recommendation pay back. 

Its a great way of adding to your profile and showcasing your personality and services even further.

7. Add your skills

Make sure you add in what your skills are. That night shift at the supermarket will show your demonstrable team skills…don’t forget to mention them. Just make sure you tailor them and make them relevant to whatever your goals are.

If you think this section needs a boost – try up-skilling with some online courses. 

LinkedIn is an underutilised resource for UK businesses. If you want help or advice to boost your company’s profile, create custom graphic or plan your marketing strategy then, get in touch with Phil on 0151 268 0382.

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The post Top Tips for Making Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out appeared first on HeyStrategy.

I’ve read hundreds of blogs and overloaded on infographics telling me to exercise my creative muscles, read widely, engage more etc. But at the start of a working week, I haven’t got time to read the top 100 most inspirational books or hang out with poets in the local cafe.

Just tell me what the secret ingredient is please

Having pondered this question for a while I have started to notice a recurring period when I am at my most creative. For me, it is usually when I am lying in bed, half awake, half asleep. A semi-doze where my mind wanders in and out of consciousness, putting half-remembered thoughts together. Somehow, somewhere, a new idea forms, a picture emerges out of the ether and a concept is crystallised. Aha!

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep” The Tempest, Shakespeare

Once you shut your eyes, you have shut off the bombardment of information to your brain. The adverts, the noise from the radio, the view of the washing on the floor or the dust on the cabinet. Now you can fully process your day. Your brain is now in a world of its own and is able – to think. This stage is known as ‘hypnagogic’. However, the risk is you fall into a deep sleep and when you wake up, you are too groggy to remember any creative genius you had at the start of sleep.

Salvador Dali  used to nap in a chair while holding a key. When the key dropped, sometimes just a second after he had dropped off, he would wake up. Refreshed and full of creativity.

“ The hypnagogic is the ultimate paradigm-busting tool. As your brain slips into an associative, impressionistic state, it is no longer bound by conventional wisdom. Saucy ideas – impossible within a certain rational framework – clamour for attention. Images become metaphors for concepts, and suddenly everyone is a poet.” Jeff Warren, 2009

What if you haven’t got time to take a nap at 9.30 in the morning?

According to neuroscientist, Alice Flaherty, our brains are the most creative when flooded with dopamine. Brilliant! Can I put this in a smoothie?

No, but you can help the body manufacture it. Usually by doing something relaxing like having a shower, driving or some simple sitting and doing nothing. But, you also need some distraction. By focusing on something else, our subconscious mind can roam about, make new connections and overcome problems. So wash the dishes – urgh, or do some gardening. Doing something very mundane may help you come up with something truly amazing.

Back in the days when I used to write for television, I would dread the Monday meetings where we were asked to present our latest specialist factual programme ideas. I would have spent the weekend reading National Geographic, Scientific American, The Economist, Shortlist and The Week desperately looking for inspiration.

Nothing.

I would then sit in my favourite seat on the packed Edinburgh to Glasgow train and stare into the houses that whizzed by. And suddenly, while half imagining myself making-over the person next to me, there it was.

An idea.

Thank [insert swearword] for that.

Now, I know that it was the commute, not the articles that were the key to my creativity. Part slumber, part relaxed distraction were the secret ingredients. Well it all makes sense now. Thank goodness for the clarity of MRI brain scanning neuroscience.

“I’ve created what my friends call my ‘fake commute,’ and I get up an hour early before I’m supposed to go to Spanx and I drive around aimlessly in Atlanta with my commute so that I can have my thoughts come to me.” Sara Blakeley, CEO of Spanx

There you go, Plankton, just have a quick nap or a shower and chill out. The secret formula will come to you. That’s probably ruined series 99 of SpongeBob, but it has definitely made planning my working day easier.

Now comes the crunch. Is what I have come up with original?

A Google search quickly solves that problem.

Urrgh.

Someone has done it before.

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely, but they are the same old pieces of coloured glass that have been in use through all the ages.” (Mark Twain)

Oh, thank-you Mark Twain. But that’s not going to help me come up with the next great blog post. Or is it.

Use your kaleidoscope

While your idea might not be new, you can make it new, by reversing it, taking the opposing view, looking at it in microscopic detail or from a macro viewpoint. Use your kaleidoscope to keep turning and making new combinations.

And if this isn’t working, then go back to sleep and relax…perchance to dream.

The post The Secret Formula to Creating Incredible Content appeared first on HeyStrategy.

You’ve started the new year with a fresh optimism for growing your business. You know that you need to get better at promoting your products or services and engaging more with your customers, but you just aren’t sure where to start.

We’ve put together a list of books that can help you understand, refine and implement your marketing goals this year*

*if you don’t have time or inclination to read them all, rest assured that we already have, and you can get us on your team to do your marketing for you!

Youtility: Why smart marketing is about help, not hype

https://www.youtilitybook.com/

Jay Baer’s great little book from 2013 is an ideal place to start thinking about marketing your SME. The basic principle is that the best marketing doesn’t shout about why you should buy a particular product, it provides helpful information to help the consumer make up their mind, and then positions itself so that it’s the obvious choice when it comes to the purchase.

Everybody Writes: Your Go-to guide for creating ridiculously good content

Ann Handley is the content writing guru. By now you’ll have heard how crucial “Content Marketing” is, but you might not know what “content” is or how to generate it. Handley reminds us that everybody writes – all the time (emails, letters, notes, Instagram captions) – and it’s easier than you think to start writing. The book also includes plenty of examples of common grammatical missteps and ways to communicate clearly and effectively.

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World 

Gary Vaynerchuck (or Gary Vee as he’s known) is not everyone’s cup of tea, but he knows his stuff and has been very successful in building his own businesses. This book (buy the hardback if you can) is a comprehensive visual guide to using marketing and social media to tell your story in the most effective way, providing loads of full colour examples, each annotated and examined to rate its effectiveness. If you can cope with his full on, enthusiastic writing style, his original marketing guide Crushing It is also worth investing in.

New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, Newsjacking, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly

Now in its 6th edition, David Meerman Scott’s bestseller covers the fundamentals of marketing and PR in our brave new technological world. The old rules of print advertising and hard selling no longer apply and this book explains why, and what you can do now to reach your audience.

Digital Marketing for Dummies

You’re probably familiar with the Dummies format – yellow cover, thin paper and lots of bullet points – and Ryan Deiss’s Digital Marketing installment doesn’t disappoint. If you’re completely new to the concept to marketing then there are worse places to start. You might skip some of the more technical chapters initially but there are useful explanations of different channels, concepts and ideas which you can quickly turn into practical tools for your business.

At HeyStrategy we’re firm believers in continuous learning, and love sharing our knowledge with our clients, helping them to learn how to tackle their own marketing or choosing the best time to engage with a consultant to take care of some of the most important elements. If you want to get your year off to the best start, or just want to talk about an interesting concept that you’ve read about, drop me a line: sarah@heystrategy.com

The post Top Marketing books to read appeared first on HeyStrategy.

Well I’m pleased to report that after the first year, nothing bad happened. In fact loads of good has happened, including a tiny bundle of four-pawed fun. But more of that in a later post…

Let’s go back to 2017 and those first few weeks adapting to a completely new way of working and learning loads of new technical stuff (no mean feat for a 33 year old!).

Part One – the day to day:

Leaving the routine and discipline of a 9-5 job in an office was daunting. I knew I’d miss the interaction with my colleagues, the comfort of a schedule, the clearly defined objectives and goals. But what I actually missed most was the tiny things – having someone to share a problem with and chat ideas through over a coffee. As it turned out, chatting my new HeyStrategy team on Slack came very naturally (I was a teenager during the MSN Messenger craze!) and being away from the constant bustle and chatter of an open plan office made me feel much calmer and a lot more productive.

Getting motivated to start work was tricky too. Not known for my morning energy, I warm up by mid-morning and am most effective in the afternoon. Needing to report for duty in an office by 8.30am in an office was an obvious motivator to get up and doing, but not expressly having to get up and go anywhere other than the next room was a bit of a challenge!

Here’s how I got started working from home:

Step one: get out the paintbrushes and smarten up our box room to create a lovely office that I wanted to spend time in and create a quiet, organised space to get things done.

Step two: steal my boyfriend’s routine and get up while he gets ready for work. Behave exactly as if preparing to leave the house – get dressed, brush hair, get snacks and drinks ready. Then when he leaves, make a coffee to take for the commute (up the stairs) and shut the office door behind you.

Step three: embrace the opportunity to take a break to go out for a walk at 10.30am (or any time) if you want to. Because we’re clocking our billable hours with Harvest, I can manage my schedule to fit around when I work best. If my mind drifts mid-morning and I’m not achieving anything, it’s in everyone’s best interest (particularly the clients!) if I stop the clock and start again later when I’m super-focussed and productive. This means I can often be found at my desk in the evenings but that’s when I do some of my best thinking.

Step four: draw the line between “home” and “work”. It’s hard to switch off when you’re on a roll with a project or your head is full of ideas. Create a clear boundary between work stopping and play starting. Decide what time you want to finish working and then schedule something like a call with a friend or heading out to pick up some food, pack up your desk and close the door of the office behind you. Try to turn off phone notifications if you can and remember that almost everything can wait until the morning.

With the ideal work environment set up, I was now ready to get stuck into the slightly more daunting aspect – learning how to design and update websites (spoiler: it’s loads easier than I thought and really fulfilling!)

Find out more next month in the next instalment!

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Here are our quick tips for SMEs to kick-start your marketing this year:

1)     Update your business plan

Before you even think about spending time on marketing and PR, you need to decide what direction you want your business to take this year. You need to know what your business goals are and how effective marketing can help you get there. If you try to start building a website or posting on social media without clear goals in mind, you’re wasting your precious time.

2)     Create your marketing strategy

Now you know what outcomes you need for your business and what products/services you want to promote, you need to figure out what marketing tools can help to achieve it. Plan out milestones, major events and targets on a calendar for the year. If you have the budget, working with a Marketing Consultant will help to clarify what’s possible and work out an effective marketing strategy.

3)     Establish your brand, tone and message

A really strong brand identity which carries across your website, logo, print and social media accounts will help your audience to quickly recognise who you are and anything associated with your brand.

4)     Decide on your tone and key messages

To establish credibility and drive engagement, your audience need to know who you are, what you do and why you do it (your message). The way you talk about yourself (tone) is key to helping your audience decide if what you do is right for them.

5)     Start marketing

The key to effective marketing is planning, and by now you’re fully prepared to start putting your plans into action. Decide how much time you can afford to spend (or afford to pay someone to do it for you), and ensure that your activities are focussed, high quality and consistent.

6)     Review, tweak, repeat (or bin)

With a couple of weeks’ marketing activity under your belt, you will start to see what’s working and what’s not. Repeat the activities that are helping to achieve your goals and either bin or refine the ones that aren’t. Tools like analytics and customer feedback will help you to identify this.

Our team of marketing consultants can help at any stage of this process (although sooner is usually better!), putting together a strategic plan or carrying out the day to day implementation of actions.

With a range of packages to suit any budget, there’s no reason that your business can’t have a marketing manager this year, without having to recruit a full-time member of staff. Drop me a line sarah@heystrategy.com or 07715 493843 for a no obligation chat.

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