Can you see what is happening in those Twitter Profile Cards above? …You can click on the link to My Website, but you can’t on the other two twitter profile cards – Such a simple advantage!
Yeah, I’m sure you need to read my latest beginners Article: Tweak Your Salon’s Twitter Profile! It is step-by-step walk-through of your twitter profile, I’ll show you something to make you change your mind – well, I’ll make at least one thing better for you. More…
Malala Yousafzai addressing the UN
As I don’t work in a salon, here’s a question I often get asked, “How do you keep up with fashion?”
The same way as I always have done; I keep a beady eye out for what is going on around me, and I read as many Online fashion magazines as possible!
A current favourite being Elle UK. Elle has a special place in my heart because at the start of my hairdressing career I did a session with Alexandra Bastedo (19 September 1974) for She magazine (Christmas issue. Photographer Chris Simpson)! Yeah I know She isn’t Elle, but in those days we used to say, She was the English version of Elle (French) – it wasn’t, actually Elle was always better, it didn’t just reflect fashion, Elle decreed it! And I’ve been an avid reader for too many years.
Okay, so I’m reading Elle UK, and I’m reading The feminist hashtags that matter in 2015 by Kenya Hunt (@KenyaNHunt). Kenya writes eloquently about seven Twitter hashtags that actually affect you: #PeriodsAreNotAnInsult, #TheEmptyChair, #SayHerName, #GirlsWithToys, #NotGuilty, #EffYourBeautyStandards and #HeforShe.
However the big feminist hashtag, that I believe effects Everyone, #GirlsEducation was very sadly missing – Every girl needs access to education.
Anyway, it was a good read Kenya
Salon Blogging – 101 Beginners Tips
I’ve written an article for @thephorestword: Salon Blogging – 101 Beginners Tips, partly as a thank you for a brilliant video answer to a question, and partly as an add-on to their blog post: Is It Time You Started A Salon Blog?
If you are thinking about getting yourselves a salon blog, Start off by having a gander at: Salon Blogging – 101 Beginners Tips
I didn’t have the time on Thursday to answer @MadalynSklar‘s #TwitterSmarter questions because I was working. I hope you don’t mind Madalyn, but I’ve answered them here; I thought it’d be clearer for you?
Q1: Where should small biz owners start focusing their attention on networking with content marketing?
# It’s got to start with the small business owners understanding what their target audience’s requirements are, and then being where they hang out! It all depends on the type of business, and what the audience’s needs are: Typically, it might be in a problem solving capacity (customer services) within a specialist forum!!!
Q2: Why should professionals use content marketing to build relationships with others in their industry?
# Building relationships with others in the hairdressing industry opens doors at one end of the spectrum and educates at the other. Obviously it’s very worthwhile – Everyone usually benefits.
Q3: What are some key similarities between content marketing and networking?
# The lines are blurred, but when I write a blog post or share an image it starts a conversation, reminds my clients I’m still breathing and that maybe the should give me a call, for me the key word is conversation. And they are both ‘on message.’ [by-the-way, I liked the business card metaphor]
Q4: What are a few tactics for networking with content marketing?
# Collaborate with others who use/share Your content to add value to Their related product or output.
Q5: Is content marketing a cost-effective solution to expanding a Professional’s network?
# Content Marketing, IMHO, is the simple, free, organic method of pointing people to YOUR hub on the internet. And like all organic methods on the internet (they are usually free) the cost-effectiveness must be measured by what one is aiming to achieve – Free may end up as being V.expensive as there are many pitfalls!
Q6: How does content published online impact networking offline?
# It may act as a foot in the door, or give one the opportunity to shake someone’s hand and say, “thank you very much, here’s a box of chocs.” It may act as a catalyst to a conversation between a client/reader and a third party – Hairdressers rely on recommendations for new clients.
Q7: What are the biggest content marketing mistakes that negatively impact a professional network?
# In my opinion the biggest content marketing mistakes that negatively impact on a professional network are: not having a comprehensive marketing plan and not understanding one’s target audience – Spamming selfish bollocks comes in at a very close second!
Q8: What are 3 resources that a small business can use to learn more about networking with content?
# My two are: my dear departed friend, author and all round marketing guru Ray Willsmer; and Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, who oddly taught me about being honest about everything – not just about usability!
Q9: How should content be designed to appeal to the individuals you’re trying to connect with?
# Start off by understanding one’s target audience’s needs and marry that with one’s goal. Look at one’s business competition, then, surprisingly, ask one’s target audience for input. Of course Madalyn, this is the golden ticket question!
Q10: How do you measure if content marketing is working to develop your professional network?
# By having a defined goal and by looking at the multifarious results! But actually this may be almost impossible! Within hairdressing content marketing may be used to maintain clients, following the premise that it is more cost effective to keep clients than it is to find new clients!
John Edward Robson, Aircraftman 1st Class, 84 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, died 29th November 1943, aged 31
On this day when the world is remembering Hiroshima and commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped; I will be remembering my father’s brother (my uncle!) John Edward Robson, (Aircraftman 1st Class, 84 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve) who died on 29th November 1943, aged 31. He was the son of James Byers Robson and Lily Agnes Robson; husband of Elsie Robson, of Ambleside, Westmorland and father to Kathleen.
John Edward Robson was a Japanese POW, he died on the ‘Hell Ship’ Suez Maru:
In 1943, the Japanese decided to ship the sick back to Java. A total of 640 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometres east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds, many managed to escape the holds and swam away from the sinking ship. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 picked up the Japanese survivors, leaving between 200 and 250 men in the sea. At 14.50, the minesweeper, W-12, under orders from Captain Kawano, opened fire, using a machine gun and rifles. Rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The firing did not cease till all the prisoners were killed, the minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta) at 16.30 hours.
Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack, 93 Japanese soldiers and 205 Japanese sick patients were rescued by the Japanese. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there is reported to be one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat, this has not been confirmed. Via Suez Maru Roll of Honour
Remembering John Edward Robson who is commemorated on Column 428 of the Singapore Memorial and the Atomic Bomb, Lest We Forget