TOVANI DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHY

Brand & Stock Photography for Businesses, Brands, and Bloggers

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Don’t Ignore Your Website In Favor of Social Media

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You may be new to blogging and posting content on social media. Perhaps you’re now in a job or an organization that requires you to be a contributor on their website and Facebook or Instagram account, and you have no idea where to begin, or what to say. It can feel overwhelming, and it’s normal. What’s not okay, is ignoring your website. Fear is part of growth and something we all have to face. Don’t let it hinder you.

Mostly, be yourself. I feel that people will be more accepting and forgiving when we have the courage to step into the arena.

Getting comfortable posting content takes some practice, and I’ll explain the difference between writing content for a blog and posting content on social media channels. And, why your blog is more valuable than any social media channel.

Your ultimate goal should be to write interesting and informative articles or stories about your business or organization on your website/blog and share them on social media. It’s easier for your blog posts to get shared over and over while linked to the website.

Social Media

When you’re at a live event, you’ll want to post real-time updates with photos and video to your social media channels as it’s happening. You can also post recaps to Instagram and Facebook with photo captions. You can use #hashtags with a name for your event so that when someone does a search for that hashtag, they see all of the posts related to that hashtag.

Blog Articles

Blog posts take more forethought and time to organize content, while a Facebook or Instagram post can be a caption to a photo or a quick short paragraph.

Decide Who Your Audience Is

When you’re writing an article for your blog, think of the audience. Decide on your tone of voice. I like to write as if I’m talking to a friend. I find it more personal and friendly. I write for small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs who need help with their websites, social media, and design. My work is very social and engaging. If you meet me in person, I’m very social and approachable. The tone in my writing fits with my audience and my personality.

Set Your Tone

You have to decide who you are talking to when you write for your business or organization and how they speak. What are they seeking when they arrive at your website? How did you attract them in the first place? What are their expectations? Communication can be difficult if you’re not tuned into the people you want to engage. Some organizations, for example, speak in a formal tone while the audience they wish to engage with is turned off by such formality and would warm up to a more conventional approach.

“It has been brought to our attention that donuts are being served in the dining room.”

OR

“Donuts are being served in the dining room. Enjoy!”

You have to decide how you’re going to talk to your readers.

Ask Readers to Share Content From Your Website. Make It Easy To Share.

Blog posts have a longer life. You want your website to be the center of all of your marketing efforts. Every social media post should lead back to your website. Content that your audience wants to read and engage with should be on your website.

Content posted directly to social media has its purpose, it’s quick and draws attention while showing you engaging and sharing activities at the moment. The downside is that it has a short life. The content on your website is evergreen and can continue to be seen and shared over and over through the years.

Save These Resources

  • Check the site canva.com. The site makes it easy for non-designers to create cool info graphics.
  • Use Compressor.io to optimize and reduce large images before publishing them on your blog.
  • UnSplash and Death to the Stock Photo, have free stock images.
  • With Pablo, you can create images with quotes and titles to make your posts pop.

For a more in-depth perspective of blog posts, visit Kevan Lee’s article on  How to Write a Blog Post.

Find, Focus, Leverage, and Fail – Secrets of Great Achievers

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It feels natural to wear many hats as an entrepreneur or small business owner. I find myself getting pulled in many directions or FOMO (fear of missing out) with so many shiny new things!

In Secrets of Great Achievers talk, Darren Hardy says that deciding what to do is as important as deciding what not to do.

People try to be good at too many things and they don’t master anything. They become mediocre at many things instead of world class at one or two things. People try to be a jack of all trades and it doesn’t help them be successful.

It’s more cost effective to outsource things to people who are better at it and not waste your time (which has value) doing something that is not that good.

Your time costs you money. You can’t afford to spend major time on minor activities. Don’t try to get better or more efficient at things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

We need to stop doing things that don’t matter so we can clear the way for the stuff that will make us successful. Say no to any new shiney object and stay focused on your priorities. Stay the course.

Find, focus, leverage the vital few!

Too many choices creates paralysis.

With too many priorities you become like a deer in the headlights – you don’t move on any of them.

What are you willing to give up so you can become world class?

If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.

Buffet Method:

  • Write your priorities.
  • Narrow down to your top three
  • Throw away the rest of the list.

Information Overload

People spend most of their days reacting and responding, doing too many things yet not accomplishing anything. We’re over stimulated, overwhlmed, unproductive, and addicted to distractions. It takes 11 minutes to regain concentrated when we’re interrupted.

Getting more done isn’t about doing more.

Shield yourself from responding and reacting to everyone else’s agenda so that you can remain focused. Over tasking, over training, is deminishing.  You need to rest and recover.

Rest and recover – to operate at your highest level using 90 minute jam sessions.

If you can control your focus you can control your life.

Constant Growth and Development – the best investment you can make.

I can’t cover every topic discussed in the video without making this article too long, so I highly reccomend you watch the entire talk. It’s worth it!

Principles of Success:

  1. STOP Doing too much (what fools do)
  2. Master the FEW
  3. Out FOCUS (YOUR competition)
  4. Out LAST (Consistency)
  5. MEASURE Progress
  6. Out FAIL your competition

Web Experience Shapes What People Think About Your Brand

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Your website is likely the first place potential customers will go to learn about you and your business. Today’s consumers can find out all about your business before they decide to contact you.

You have the opportunity to shape how people think about your brand, from what they experience when they arrive on your website. Even if your website looks good and functions properly, it may not attract the correct audience or help you connect with your visitors to get leads and grow your business.

Essentially, all of your online, print and other marketing strategies should pave a way to your website. We believe in crafting strategy-focused websites from the start. Social media is important, but it’s not more important than your branded website.

Our websites are built using WordPress and the Genesis framework. WordPress is the top choice of the internet powering 28% of all websites, that is a content management system market share of 59.0%.

Our process will walk you through the steps needed to achieve your goals through your online presence. We will work together to create a website that is not only stunning but also a powerhouse for your business.

Why Website Maintenance is Key to a Successful Website

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We all know that if we don’t take care of our car, it will break down. It’s the same for almost everything. Especially software programs that keep our websites running efficiently. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Your site is always open, greeting new visitors.

Preventative care can keep your site healthy so that it represents your business at its finest.

Websites Are Not a “Set and Forget”

Some business owners believe that their website doesn’t require any work once it’s launched, and forget about it. They don’t check to see if it’s functioning properly or update the core and plugins. When it goes down or gets hacked, they spend hours or days trying to figure out how to fix it. Downtime is stressful and means losing potential customers.

Many people don’t realize the benefits of site maintenance:

The website performance, how fast it loads, downtime, and uptime are all dependent on the WordPress software and the plugins functioning as they should.

Monitoring analytics, keeping content fresh, making sure all WordPress and plugin updates to the website are error-free are dependent on having someone regularly performing the task to keep your site healthy and working smoothly.

Maintenance Workflow

At Tovani Design we take great care to first backup the website and check the website for our updates for any issues. Our software keeps a record of plugins we update so if there is ever an issue we see what plugin version was changed and revert back. Also included in our monthly maintenance report are the performance and security scans. If in the event we ever catch a plugin issue, it becomes a support ticket and we address it before you ever know there’s a problem.

Dangers of Do It Yourself Maintenance

It could cost you more to maintain your website than you think. The required skill set and quality of work come with experience using WordPress. You might spend more time than you realize learning and be making rookie mistakes. If you don’t have any background using WordPress and plugins, when something breaks, you won’t know where to begin to fix it and will spend more money hiring a developer than if you hired someone to keep your site efficient and healthy in the first place.

It Costs More to Fix Than to Maintain

Inexperience and neglect can damage the look and functionality of your website causing people to leave as soon as they get there. You could be losing potential customers.

Trying to fix it yourself is stressful and can do more harm, digging yourself deeper into a hole of frustration and wanting to pull your hair out. Spending hours on hold with your hosting company only to be even more confused. They might be able to explain what you need to do (in developer speak) or send you to some videos, but when your site gets broken, they will charge a hefty price to fix it.

Just like car maintenance, regular oil changes and tune-ups cost less than replacing your car’s engine. Regular site maintenance helps your website run smoothly.

Call in a Professional

Why not deal with what you know best and let us deal with what we know best? Would you represent yourself in a court case? Would you cut your hair instead of going to a great stylist? Trying to manage your website if you’re not a web professional is risky. As a business owner, you need your website to work efficiently. By securing an experienced web professional to update and maintain your site properly you are saving potential lost sales and visitors.

You’ll get better results with an experienced web professional to update and maintain your site for you.

If you’re interested in securing a maintenance contract for your website, contact us to learn how we can keep your site in working order.

Design Thinking for Innovation

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An innovative approach that incorporates human behavior into design. Design thinking is empathetic. Trying to understand what people value and coming up with a solution. Design thinking is a tool for innovation, not just for designers, but for all types of fields such as law, engineering, business, and the arts. It’s a collaborative effort to solve problems collaboratively and creatively.

Design

Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups

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I get asked about whether brands should have a Facebook page or a Facebook group a lot so I want to discuss that topic here.

Facebook Pages (Business Page)

If you’re looking to establish a brand and promote your business to a large number of people, a Facebook Page is great for sharing promotional material and interacting with followers.

Brands are expected to have a Facebook page. This helps strengthen the credibility and reach as Facebook pages show up in Google search. You can also target a specific audience, pay for ads (boost posts) and measure performance/results.

There are tools that allow you to find relevant content to share, manage and schedule your posts. You can set calls to action on your page as well.  The more consistent you are with posting content that people will like and share, the more reach you have that increases your chances of reaching your target goals. Do you want more visits to your website? Are you looking for people to join your club or organization? Are you looking for people to collaborate with you? Are you looking for clients or customers?

Facebook Pages give you more options than personal pages. Most of us want to keep our personal Facebook for our friends and family anyway.

Note: Keep your branding consistent on all of your business social media channels. Use your organization’s logo so that it stands out and is recognizable when people scroll through their news feeds. I’ve seen people change images and it only makes your page blend in and look like a personal profile.

Facebook Groups

Unlike Facebook pages, Facebook groups are more collaborative. This is where people in the group can come together to share ideas, discuss topics and talk to each other privately. The only people who see these posts are group members. There’s no organic reach.

The conversations are not being broadcast on the brand page.