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International Women's Day 2015 - things I will admit today (mostly marketing)

Admitting some things I normally wouldn't – on International Women’s Day

It’s my annual tradition to write a blog against all odds on International Women’s Day – no matter where I am or what I am doing. To show the portability of publishing – and accomplishing something extra on any given day. The first year I was in Austria on a skiing trip, and last year I was in Singapore and wrote about achieving #Inbox Zero.
International Women’s Day celebrates successful and inspirational women who have done amazing things.The theme this year is “Make It Happen” – equality, growth of women owned businesses, and increased financial independence for women. I would add that to me it’s about keeping things honest, and sharing your true feelings once in a while – letting people in a little isn’t as scary as you think. To show you, I will share / admit a few things I don’t normally admit on my blog or on social media. I am keeping the general theme marketing related, so I can still be helpful – I hope!

My enthusiasm for marketing is tinged with a lot of cynicism.

I am always evangelising about the merits of being on social media and creating and sharing good content. Content marketing is the way forward thinking, dedicated, and strongly branded businesses market these days.
I do admit that not “everyone can do it”. To make a difference you have to do a lot. There is a steep learning curve, because to learn, you have to publish – and put yourself out there. If you represent your business then that’s scary.
It can become second nature if you put it high up in your values. But I have seen people fail many times – not spending the time practicing, not immersing themselves in it enough to build up the habit.
That’s why I like to work with teams – the collective energy of the group means there is a higher likelihood of a shift within the business to build up their marketing skills and activities. But it’s not always enough and it therefore doesn’t always “work”.

Even I think “no one will read this” (well – someone will but not enough people)

I sometimes spend a lot of time crafting blog posts, videos and images, then posting and sharing -as well as curating content – knowing that in proportion to this time, relatively few people will be reading things I share.
There is a lot of noise on social media, so anything you share will be buried in seconds with the posts of others. So, while people may be interested and may know who I am, if they follow me or are connected, only a small percentage (2-8% I would say) of them may notice the post, and an even smaller percentage will read properly. But I still keep doing it – there are more pros than cons (I wrote a post about all the benefits of blogging – read it here).

I am motivated by even small amounts of encouragement.

It doesn’t take much to make me do things for you, I am a sucker for compliments and enthusiasm. With regular online marketing activity, for me, I still think it’s worth putting all the effort in, because often I get a message or enquiry for a project, and I ask how they found us, I often get the answer: it started with them reading one post or seeing me speak somewhere, and they occasionally noticed me online – and then something will have prompted them to get in touch.
I am still surprised and grateful to learn when people have been quietly following us online, and paying attention to more than I thought.

I don’t like to let go

This is true many aspects of my personal life – saying goodbye to people is hard – like if someone leaves my company, or a friend moves across the world, or a client isn’t fitting the ideal client mould and it’s inevitable that parting ways is the only option. The hardest is when someone dies. While anyone else can re-enter your life – death is permanent and that’s the saddest thing.

Sometimes I question my own motives for spending time on one thing or another

Like this post, which is a bit off the mark (in honour of International’s Women’s Day) –it’s not my usual reporting style, case study, or educational post. So I ask, why reveal so much in this? Or am I revealing enough? Am I boring you? Am I doing this to prove something to myself – ie that I am being productive? To see if anyone really notices? Or to prove to others, that I can write a spontaneous post? All of that and more I guess.

Ed Sheeran’s music makes me stop and listen and feel good.

I appreciate talent, hard work, and letting people see the real you. Ed consistently impresses me with these things. He wasn’t much on my radar until middle of last year when he was on Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton Show. I love his personality. People have mixed reactions when I express my love for what I see and here about him – they put him in the “cheesy” and “commercial” category. Both those genres are perfectly fine with me but musical intellectuals tend to scoff.
It’s up to you to find his shows on YouTube and watch a few – I hope you will realise this guy is ultra special.

Now that you have learned these things about me, I would love if you got in touch and tell me what you think. Comment below or just email me – here is my email address: keren[at]topleftdesign.com
Thanks for reading!

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