How to Create a Template on PowerPoint

How to, videos0 comments

By having a customised template for your PowerPoint slides, you can professionally promote your business whenever you are giving a presentation to a group of people. This will help to build a relationship between your audience and your brand and they are more likely to remember you after the event.

So if you use PowerPoint to showcase your services or products and want to customise your slides with your company branding then watch the video below on how to create a template on PowerPoint. By the end of this video you will know how to create your own personalised template using your colour scheme and logo.

So click the image below to watch the video – How to Create a Template on PowerPoint.

 
If you want more tips on how to use PowerPoint to create presentations that will wow your audience, then check out our free guide “How to Create Impressive PowerPoint Presentations“. This guide is packed full of useful information including how to create a template formatted with your branding to how to format slides with dynamic content such as videos and animations. Click on the link here to download the guide >>> How to Create Impressive PowerPoint Presentations
 

When is the best time to tweet?

Social media, videos2 comments

If you’re using Twitter to promote your business, then you will want to ensure that your updates are reaching as wide an audience as possible.  However, you probably don’t know when the majority of your followers are online.  You can have a fair idea that people in business may not be on Twitter over the weekend or late at night, but that will be the extent of your knowledge.

So if you want to know when is the best time to tweet so that you can connect with a wider audience and maximise the chance of getting your messages retweeted by your followers, read the blog below or click on the image to watch the video.

        

First of all, Go to tweriod.com and sign up on their website using your Twitter account.

Click on the ‘Request free analysis’ button and then click on ‘Analyse my account’.

Tweriod will generate a report that will tell you the times and days when the majority of your followers are online.  This can be sent to you via direct message on Twitter or via email.

Alternatively, you can refresh the page and then click on the ‘My Analysis’ button to see your reports.  There are two main reports: ‘Most exposure when tweeted between’ and ‘Most followers are online between’.

The most exposure report will tell you when you are likely to get the most retweets and the most followers online report obviously tells you the times when the majority of your followers are using Twitter.  There are also other reports which you can use to analyse your followers such as hourly graphs and when you get most replies.

The great thing about Tweriod is that it integrates with an app called Bufferapp which is a tool that you can use to schedule updates to Twitter.  This means that you can use Buffer to schedule tweets at the optimal times suggested by Tweriod.

If you want to integrate Tweriod with Buffer then click on the ‘Sign up for Buffer’ button at the bottom of the page.  If you already have a Buffer account, click on the ‘Connect with Buffer’ button.  Once you’ve allowed it to access your Twitter account, you will get a list of timings suggested by Tweriod which you can either keep or change as appropriate.  Once everything is set up, just click on ‘Send to Buffer’.

Now whenever you use Buffer to schedule tweets, you know that any messages, promotions and special offers that you send out are reaching as wide an audience as possible and maximising the number of retweets and responses.   It’s a good idea to run a Tweriod analysis every month so you can be confident that you are always tweeting at the most optimal time.

Now you know when is the best time to tweet and if you want to find out more about how you can use Twitter to effectively promote your business then download a copy of our free guide, How to Use Twitter for Business.  This guide will take you through all you need to know from how to set up an account on Twitter to the top 10 Twitter tools to help you manage your account.  Click here to download the guide >> How to Use Twitter for Business.

How to Maintain an Online Presence Even When You’re Away

How to, Online marketing, videos1 comment

If you run your own business then you’ll know that it’s essential to have an effective profile online, whether that’s via your website, newsletter, blog, and/or social media profiles. However, what happens when you decide to take a break from your business? Just because you’re on holiday, it doesn’t mean that your online presence has to take a holiday too. Let’s face it, you don’t want to lose that traffic to your website or damage your search engine ranking.

So here’s how to maintain an online presence even when you’re away from your business. Click the image to watch the video or read the blog below.

Schedule autoresponders. As I mentioned in my previous blog “3 Ways to Use Autoresponders for Your Business“, autoresponders are a great way of staying in touch with contacts. You can schedule a series of emails to go out while you’re away. Make sure that these emails contain links to your blog posts, article and special offers so that they help to drive traffic to your website.

Schedule blog posts. Don’t forget that you can schedule blog posts too. Just write them before you go and then set a date and time that you want them to be posted. If you’ve automatically linked your blogs to your Twitter profile and Facebook page, then your online contacts will be notified as soon as the blog is posted. You can also set up your email marketing program to send out an email to your contacts whenever you post a new blog.

Use guest bloggers. And if you don’t have the time to write blogs, then use guest bloggers. They not only save you the stress of having to write and schedule content before you go away, but they will share their blogs with their own online audience which will generate additional traffic back to your website.

Schedule your social media updates. Keep your social media profiles up to date by schedules updates using tools such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. However, keep an eye on your profiles in case anyone responds to one of your updates – you can easily do this on your smartphone or tablet device. Alternatively hire a virtual assistant to maintain and monitor your social media profiles while you’re away.

Maintain website. If you use your website to generate leads, communicate with prospects or sell products and services directly, then you will need someone to maintain it during your absence. Many virtual assistants nowadays have the skills to manage and update websites, whether they are ecommerce or membership sites. So hire someone before you go on holiday to ensure that your website users are being looked after.

So now you know how to maintain an online presence while you’re away with a bit of planning and thought. This means that you can continue to promote your business and keep the traffic flowing to your website, no matter where you are in the world.

If you want to maintain an online presence when you’re away from your business, then click on the arrow button to find out more about our online marketing services. We will help you to set up and manage your online marketing activities so that you can raise your profile and credibility with your network.
 

How to Create a Google Calendar

How to, videos0 comments

 
One of the advantages of creating a calendar in Google is that you can access it from any computer or phone.  You can also create multiple calendars on your account which enables you to manage both your personal and business appointments from one place but keep them separate at the same time.  This enables you to keep track of upcoming appointments so you can plan your workload more effectively.

So if you want to know how to create a Google calendar, read the following instructions or watch the video by clicking on the image below.

If you have a Google account already then sign in to it and choose Calendar from the options.  Otherwise, you can sign up for an account at google.com/accounts.

To create a new calendar, click on the down arrow next to where it says “My calendars” and then click on the Create new calendar link in the menu that appears.

This will open up the Create new calendar window and this is where you can put in details such as the name of the calendar, a description if you want one, and also the location and time zone.  Just a warning, only select the check box next to where it says Make this calendar public if you want to share it on the internet and have it appear in search results.

Once you’ve filled in the details, click on the Create calendar button and the calendar will appear in the left hand sidebar.

Now the calendar is created, click on the down arrow that appears next to its name to display or hide it, change settings, or create an event.  You can also colour code the calendars and this is really useful if you’re displaying several at the same time.

To quickly create an appointment, you click inside the grid on the appropriate day, complete the details and select which calendar you want to add it to. Alternatively, you can click on the down arrow next to the appropriate calendar and select Create event on this calendar.

When you create an appointment, it will appear on the calendar in the same colour as the one you chose for the calendar itself.  So if you selected red as the colour code for your business calendar then any appointments added to that calendar will appear in red.

If you want to hide or display appointments, just click on the relevant calendar name.

Now you know how to create a Google calendar, you can create as many calendars as you wish and if you are going to do this, then it’s a good idea to colour code them so you know which appointment relates to which calendar.

 
If you want more tips on how work effectively in your business, then download a copy of our guide “How to organise your workload so there’s more time for you“. This guide is packed full of time management tips as well as 10 online tools to help you work more productively. Click on the link to download the guide >> How to organise your workload
 

Tackling the Time Thieves: Time Management Tips

How to, Time management, videos0 comments

Recently I’ve been giving talks at my local networking groups on how to tackle the time thieves – a series of time management tips to help people work more effectively and get more done.  I’ve got some great feedback from the talk as time management is a daily struggle for most of us, especially if you are running a business on your own.

I’ve set out the key points from the talk in a Slideshare presentation which you can view below.  The 2 tips that have received the most feedback are to have a vision and plan for the year so you know where you’re going, and to stop saying yes to every request and demand.

It’s actually amazed me how many people don’t have a plan.  But as the saying goes, if you don’t know what you want to achieve, you won’t know what to do to get there!

You can watch the Slideshare presentation by clicking on the image below.


 
I’d love to hear your comments on what time management tips you use to manage your workload and get more done.