Kym O'Gorman - Marketing Solutions

I'm excited to join the SBMAQ Conference this week leading one of their breakout sessions.

Join Kym O'Gorman from Sponsorship Ready in Breakout Room 8 for a comprehensive guide on enhancing school community engagement through social media.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a leading social media strategist and discover practical strategies for empowering student involvement, facilitating collaboration among stakeholders, and strengthening digital connections.

Gain insights into best practices for social media marketing, including content strategy, creating brand templates, and maintaining brand consistency.

Is your school, social media ready?

A very happy 22nd birthday to Brisbane retail favourite

Leanne and the team bring so much colour and joy to their neighbourhood (Paddington) and to their customers with an incredible collection of accessories and gifts.

Leanne is also a huge supporter of other small businesses, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with her on a few occasions. She’s truly one of the good ones.

So happy, happy birthday Thousand Island Paddington.

✏️by

If you or anyone you know is going through a separation (especially on the Sunshine Coast), let me point you in the direction of my lovely client Integrated Family Law.

Kathryn is whip-smart, measured in her approach, and really knows her stuff!! You can see her in action over at their Family Law page where she shares a lot of information in bite-sized chunks (that was filmed by yours truly).

I've worked with Kathryn and her team for over a year now, and towards the end of last year we sent their new website live.

It has a lot of great information that introduces you to their team, and their process.

For anyone going through (or contemplating) a separation, they also have a great value free download that starts you asking the questions and collecting the information you'll need to make the process go smoothly.

A good reminder as we head back into work for the new year.⁠
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Keep an eye out for a new resource I'll be sharing tomorrow that will help you plan your actions for the year ahead.

These were the last 4 books (out of 50) that I read in 2023.

This number was definitely helped by the fact that the last 4 days of the year were spent camping (with a couple of those days in crappy weather), and so I got through 3.5 books in 4 days. And the first 14 days of last year were also spent travelling, so I read a LOT on planes, trains and in our down time.

I love reading and here’s how I keep it in my daily routines:

* I need to read before I go to sleep - it’s the only way my thoughts will slow down and I can wind down enough to go to sleep. Sometimes it’s just a few pages, other times the book will suck me in and I go to sleep much later than I’d planned.

* I keep track of my books in Goodreads - mainly because setting a reading challenge each year keeps me motivated to keep reading. (If you’re on Goodreads, let’s connect, I love to see what other people are reading.) It also stops me from reading the same book twice!

* I get book recommendations from Goodreads, podcasts and friends. And I get most of my books from the library. I love that Brisbane City Council libraries let you put books on hold and then collect them from your chosen library - at no cost! There’s a library right where I pick up my daughter from school, so I’m in there at least once a week.

* I’m in one in-person book club, and one online book club. I have loved the opportunity to chat (or watch chats) with authors to learn about their process and how they create the stories that we love.

My fave books of the year (in no particular order) were:

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton.
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne
The Angry Women’s Choir by Meg Bignell

Did you have a favourite book this year? I’m always on the lookout for recommendations!

Strengthen….

* my muscles
* my relationships
* my business brand
* my systems
* my habits

The foundations are all in place, and it’s all about building from there, so my word for 2024 is STRENGTHEN.

Wanna see one of the projects I've been working on lately?

Burke Constructions provide Brisbane's highest quality plumbing services to developers, project managers, and construction companies, working on industrial, commercial and residential projects.

They're business, now over 20 years old, has been built on relationships and referrals, but Cameron contacted me this year aware that it was time to get a website to make the referral process easier, and to attract new team members.

The website is now live, and you can check it out at burkeconstructions.com.au

Happy International Dog Day to our favourite pup!! 🐶 🐾

🖥 Website Tip: Test your website forms and buttons regularly to make sure you’re not missing out on clients. 💡

Your website’s forms and call-to-action buttons are an important way for potential customers and clients to get in touch with you. But are you certain they’re working all of the time?

Website and plugin updates can cause glitches, and sometimes email services can send important notification emails to spam. Protect your leads by regularly testing your website’s most important forms and calls-to-action to make sure they’re working properly and you’re receiving the leads.

I recommend scheduling a recurring task in your task manager or calendar, so that you don’t forget to perform the test. It only needs to take a few minutes, but can make a lot of difference to your lead generation efforts.

To perform a test - fill out the forms (ideally using an email address not associated with the website) and make sure everything works smoothly. And if it doesn’t, get in touch with your web developer to see where the issue lies.

You put a lot of effort and investment into your marketing - and this easy-to-perform check makes sure it’s not wasted because of broken forms and links.

✨ FACT: Your social media success depends on your offline and online foundations! ⚡️

Social media marketing evangelists often promise untold business success if you get your content marketing strategy right and your social media profiles firing.

Because once those things are in place, your customers can become your brand advocates and spread the word about your business.

But there's a blunt question that needs to be answered - is your business good enough for customers to spread the word?

The simple fact is, all the engaging posts and inspiring images you can muster won't lead to business riches unless your business delivers on it promises.

So while you're developing and growing your social media presence, take a step back and look at your business fundamentals and how they will contribute to, or detract from, your business success.

Every time a customer interacts with your business or brand - from the first impression to after the sale - is it a positive experience?

Can they easily and quickly find the information they need to buy your product or service?

Does your customer service leave them feeling special and looked after?

Do you make it easy and enjoyable for them to do business with you, or are there too many rules, restrictions and barriers in place?

Once they have bought from you, do you present the product or information in an appealing, easily accessible way?

Are the products, services and communication presented in a way that reinforces your brand?

If there are issues, do you provide a professional and quick response?

Once the sale is finished, do you follow up in an appropriate way to make sure the customer is happy - and hopefully pave the way for future sales and referrals?

If any of these areas aren't quite up to scratch, you risk losing your brand advocate or, in the worst-case scenario, facing negative comments on social media.

But get these foundations right, you will have a band of satisfied customers and your social media efforts will have a much greater chance of success.

🔒🌟 WEBSITE TIP: Check your plugins so your website stays speedy and secure 🌟🔒
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WordPress plugins are a great way to add new features and functionality to your website, but they can also slow down your site if you're not careful, and make it less secure. That's why it's important to regularly review your plugins and remove any that you're not using or that are no longer relevant to your site.

Here are a few tips for assessing whether a plugin is still relevant to your site:
* Check the plugin's last update date. If a plugin hasn't been updated in a long time, it's possible that it's no longer compatible with the latest version of WordPress or that it has security vulnerabilities.
* Look at the plugin's ratings and reviews. If a plugin has a lot of negative reviews, it's probably not a good choice for your site.
* Consider your business needs. If you're not using a plugin's features, there's no need to keep it installed.

Once you've identified any plugins that you can remove, you can deactivate them from your WordPress dashboard. Deactivating a plugin won't delete it, so you can always reactivate it if you need to in the future.

Regularly reviewing your WordPress plugins is a simple way to improve your site's speed and performance. By taking a few minutes each month to check your plugins, you can help to ensure that your site is always running at its best.

Need help reviewing your WordPress plugins? Get in touch today for a free consultation. I'll help you identify any plugins that could be slowing down your site and recommend the best ways to optimise your performance.

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While it feels like we're slaves to the Facebook algorithm, did you know there are ways to influence your feed and the content you see?

Within Facebook you can browse different feeds (Favourites, Friends, Groups and Pages) to see the content you want to see.

You can also Unfollow or Snooze people and pages to avoid the content you don't want to see.

And there's even a Manage Your Feed section.

If you'd like to learn more about how to improve your Facebook experience (and other social media platforms), check out my latest blog:

https://kymogorman.com.au/social-media-experience/

What do you love about social media, and what do you hate?

It's Social Media Day today and what a great time to celebrate (or maybe commiserate) all that social media has done for us (especially as small business owners).

❤️ I'll go first...

🫶 CONNECTION - I love that social media makes it easy to connect with (and build or maintain relationships with) people from all around the world including customers and potential customers.

💡 OPPORTUNITY - I love the opportunity social media offers us as business owners to share our brand and message far and wide. (Maybe not as far and wide as it used to, but still, way further than we could before its arrival). It levelled the playing field (to some extent) and let small businesses reach our customers.

⚡️ CREATIVITY - I love the incredible creativity we can see on social media.

😡 On the other hand...

🤪 DISTRACTION - I don't like the effect it has on our attention and focus (especially for our kids who are growing up with it as their brains develop and habits are formed...but let's face it, it's an issue for us all).

😣 TROLLING - I don't like the behaviour and trolling, lack of tolerance for different opinions and generally combative attitude that lots of people take up on social media.

⚖️ ETHICS - I question the ethics and behaviours of many of the social media companies - and what that will mean for our privacy.

✨ CONSTANT CHANGES - It can be challenging to keep up to date with the changes and evolution of the platform and the industry as a whole (although for me, this one is not such a negative, because I love learning and keeping up with the changes and sharing this with my clients.)

Now it's your turn - what do you love and hate about social media?

I completely understand when people feel anxious about creating their website - not knowing where to start; wanting to get the information just right; not wanting to muck it up.

But there are a couple of things to remember:

* Everything can be changed - these days websites can be built in such a way that, as your business evolves, it is easy to update the site. Unlike when we were stuck with printing our marketing materials, your website should be dynamic and updated regularly - and it can be set up so that this is really easy to do.

* You will never be 100% ready, and it will never be 100% perfect. It's tempting to feel like you have to have everything completely decided and perfect before you build the website - but that's not a realistic expectation. Get as much as you can together, keeping in mind what your target audience needs to know (and the most common questions they have, so that they can be answered). Start with these simple questions (1) Who you work with, (2) The problem/challenge you solve, (3) How you solve it. You'll have enough to get started on building your website strategy and creating the foundations of your site (remembering that you'll be able to add and update it whenever you need).

* I'm here to help - if we work together to create your website, I help with the content writing and editing, and guide you through the whole process - and together we turn your knowledge and information into a website that works for you and your audience.

If you'd like to chat about creating or updating your website, shoot me a DM or get in touch via my website at https://kymogorman.com.au/web-strategy-and-design/

Is there any cooler feeling than when you get to meet and work with amazing people, and meet and work with other incredible people, and then get to introduce them to each other, and then get to listen to magic that comes from that meeting.

I had a long commute this morning to go to a client strategy workshop, and I listened to interviewed on the Mel and Tricia] podcast.

Kirsty is an acupuncturist and women’s health expert (and has one of the most calming energies you’ll ever experience.) We first met when our kids were at school together, and I had the pleasure of working with her last year. She’s so full of knowledge and wisdom and I cannot recommend her highly enough.

And the Mel and Tricia] girls are the breath of fresh air that you need to listen to if you’re 50-ish and navigating all that this era brings to our lives.

Today’s podcast was a match made in heaven. 💫

Have a listen!!

And boy, can they tell each other quickly, easily and at scale these days.

If we leave our brand to chance, it is built on each individual customer interaction - from advertising to email, from phone calls to in-person experiences.

If we have a clear strategy, we can make sure that each of these interactions are consistent (because we can communicate them to our team, and we can check all our activity against the strategy).

Don't have a brand strategy? Don't worry - it doesn't have to be difficult. You can download a free workbook to guide you through the process over on my website at kymogorman.com.au/brand-strategy-workbook (or check out my Free Resources Highlight for a link).

We all have that friend we recognise from behind, even in a crowd. We know them so well, we see their hair/clothes and recognise them straight away. That’s how we want our customers to feel about our brand. Whether they’re scrolling social media, going through their email inbox, looking at our website or seeing/hearing our ads – we want them to instantly recognise our branded content among the noise and clutter.

With a consistent brand identity, your customers don’t have to use their valuable energy to figure out who the message is from – so they can use it to absorb your message and take action.

The secret to being memorable and recognisable is a clear brand strategy, and in my latest blog post over on my website, I break down what a brand strategy is and why every business needs one.

Check it out here: https://kymogorman.com.au/why-every-business-needs-brand-strategy/

If you're planning ahead (and hint: you should be) this calendar from Twitter captures a lot of key events and awareness days throughout the year. You can filter as Global, or by a specific country.

It's useful in creating your own content, but in also being aware of upcoming events - especially those that create a lot of online buzz - so you can time your content to get the best results.

2023 Twitter marketing calendar Connect with your audience and plan your 2023 global marketing campaigns with Twitter. Discover opportunities with the 2023 global Twitter marketing calendar.

One for the "interesting information you didn't now you needed" file.

Google released a snapshot of search trends for 2022 - and Wordle was the most popular search globally! Are you still playing?

Check out what Australians searched for most in 2022:

Google's Year in Search Explore the searches that shaped 2022, from Google Trends.

Is 2023 your year? Are you ready and eager to get into the New Year with its clean slate and fresh possibilities?

I have another free resource for you (on the back of the Marketing Health Check I shared earlier in the week).

Grab your 2023 Marketing Planning workbook to start identifying opportunities, capturing ideas and creating your plan.

Grab your free copy here: https://kymogorman.com.au/2023-planning-workbook/

Today I got to do one of my favourite things - one on one training with a client!

This gorgeous lady is Leanne from , and we spent the morning workshopping Reels for her upcoming launch. Three hours of training, brainstorming then hands-on creation with her amazing team member Melody.

All this on the morning after Melbourne Cup … a fine effort by any standards.

Keep an eye out on the Liv & Milly Instagram account because there are some gorgeous new products being launched over the next little while. If you love colour, you’ll love these.

I recorded a podcast yesterday with the lovely talking about the importance of having a marketing strategy and the steps to creating one.

The stars aligned and even the threats of noisy neighbourhood construction and potential Dymocks deliveries didn’t distract us from the task at hand.

I could have talked for hours, but we covered a fair bit in 30 minutes.

The episode will be coming out in January - so keep an eye/ear out.

I love podcasts so much - as a listener and being on other people’s podcasts. Maybe I should finally start the one I’ve been dreaming of for a while. A 2023 goal, perhaps??!!??