Hazel Smith The Social Witch

Never not in my phone 💁🏻‍♀️
Because I use it to capture memories 🤍

Get on top of your social media! It's the perfect time ESPECIALLY for seasonal & summer destination businesses!

Get it all taken care of for the season with Capture & Conjure.
Get an outsider's (that's me) look at your digital footprint.
Get those summer students selling your business on social media.
Take my Content Compass Workshop.

Calling all Entrepreneurs & Business Owners

When it comes to social media, do you know how to post but not what to post? You want to know how to make every post count. Clarify who you’re hoping to resonate with when you show up online. And leave the workshop with a solid 30 day content plan that works for YOU!

Join me for Content Compass.

Come with your favourite writing utensil and notebook (I know you have them!) and come energized!

https://www.pure-lotus.ca/book-online?category=a428e62f-7cd5-4c06-8df9-14707e546365

I'm pro blocking people on social media. Just because your account is "public" doesn't mean anyone and everyone gets access to you and your space.

Blocking can be temporary.
Blocking is an expression of boundaries.
Blocking can give you a sense of safety.
Blocking gives you control of what you consume on social media.

When does Christmas "start?"

As business owners, Christmas is likely one of the most important times of year for you to make revenue. But in Canada, we have Thanksgiving early in October, then Halloween, then Remembrance Day. So when do you introduce Christmas?

Is it appropriate to do hard switch from fall season to Christmas season before Remembrance Day? Is a Christmas explosion on Nov 1 too soon? Is it a bad look for businesses? Is it disrespectful to veterans?

Here’s my perspective, it depends what you and your customers value. Make decisions based on what feels right for you, and you’ll attract like-minded customers. I used to live in a military community, and for small businesses especially, it was frowned upon to even play Christmas music before Nov 11th, but that may not be the case for you and your business.

If your audience is makers and crafters, you’ve likely had Christmas items available in September and October. Or maybe you're happy with Christmas trickling into your business throughout the fall months, and respecting Remembrance Day for the morning of Nov. 11th.

Thoughts?

Things that scare business owners and marketing professionals 💀

💀Spam comments
💀Typos
💀Glitches
💀Forgotten attachments 🤦‍♀️
💀Messages and email that might be Spam, but you're not sure
💀That feeling when you see the email about a new google review, and you're not confident it's going to be positive

What's in your haunted house?

💥New Service: VIP Day💥
There's only 9 weeks left in 2023. It's crunch time!

What do you and your business need to do to hit those end of year targets? A digital marketing plan? Capture and schedule your social media posts and reels? How the heck do you even do that?! A VIP Day could be the answer.

8 hours of focussed time and work. It's a mini think tank. It's a whole day getting 💩 done for your business, lifting a huge weight off your shoulders.

Message me to get your VIP Day in the schedule 📩

Marketing trends are just like fashion trends, they’re not all for everyone.

It really frustrates me when professionals share advice simply because it’s trendy. I know you’ve heard it “don’t use hashtags, use keywords instead” You’ll also see a trend “comment the word LEMONS below and I’ll send you a free _____.” That’s a chatbot trend… which I may or may not share my opinion on later.

IMO, hashtags are still relevant. Do you need 30 of them? No. You probably don’t need more than 6-9. In 2023, hashtags can still be used to identify 4 things

1- your product or service
2- who your product or service is for, communities of people
3- what problem does your product or service solve
4- location, if applicable

So say I own a wellness business in Ottawa, here’s some hashtags I could use:
1- - specific to whatever I’m talking about in the content
2- - who you want to see your content
3-
4-

As for keywords, words of phrases someone might search on the platform, you can work them into your caption and text in your reels, you’ll hear “keywords rich caption” thrown around. However, this can be intimidating to business owners who aren’t confident writers, and honestly learning copywriting can see overwhelming, especially to business owners who already do it all. So alternatively, you can list them under your caption:

Keyword | keyword | Phrase

Keyword
Keyword
Phrase

What trend are you seeing in marketing these days?

✨I LOVE celebrating!✨ So when I saw the community awards nominations, I nominated all my Ottawa area clients and business owners I know! And today I saw so many of us on the Winners list!!! 🙌🙌 Including myself 💗. I won a "top pick" in the Social Media Marketing category!

Social Media Marketing is not the only service I offer, but it is what I do most of, and what I get the most inquiries for, and I love it!

Someone copied you. It sucks. I've seen it happen. It's happened to me. It's annoying. It's disheartening. It feel like someone stole from you.

In the fall I had a first meeting with a client, and she was concerned about me working with others in the same industry, because "people copy me." And I do get it, but I also think it's negligible. Let me unpack. I'm know for my humour in reels. So when another business in the same field as me did the same trending sound as me, using the same joke, I was not happy. And we did actually call over and ask their social media person to not do that again. But people also saw it and reached out to me and asked if I had seen my copy cat. Your audience will notice and it says more about the copycat than it dies about you. No one is going to do what you do the way you do it. So when they do, it's suspect.

It generally takes 7 touches four your audience to make a purchase. So it's unlikely that a one off copycat scenario will confuse your audience. Just keep doing your thing!

What are your thoughts on copycats?

It's Mother's Day Weekend, and this is your seasonal reminder to be kind to your florists. This is likely the busiest day of the year for them.

I know because that's me last year, grabbing a snack, a drink, and putting my feet up before one more push to get all the arrangements out the door.

I went 'viral' so you don't have to.

It's been two weeks since the snowplows did the snow removal on my street, and I threw it on tiktok because I'm a nerd like that (I like planes, trains and snowplows; I have three brothers, ok 🤷‍♀️) and one week since Narcity Canada shared it across their platforms.

It was cool, but not super beneficial. I did gain some followers, but mostly men whose feeds are full of tractors, trucks, and pitbulls, and while I love me some cool vehicles and dogs, I don't think they're going to super relate to most of the things I share. I'm much more relatable to women who are fitness conscious and living their best badass life.

I did spend time monitoring the comments, because there are certain things I don't allow in my space, and I will not hesitate to block and report people. That's part of my values and integrity as a person and business owner. We only speak nicely to and about each other here. On this particular video everyone was pretty well behaved, but still this was time that I could have spent on social media that makes me money.

I couldn't recreate it. And I tried, for the science of it all. So the first video, was one side of the street. Then I posted with the same audio and a different snowplow I saw another day, no one cared. And thirdly I posted a video from the other side of my street, with a new audio, with 10% of the success of the original video. So why did people care so much about the first video? I can't say for sure.

The best thing to come from being 'viral' was a community connection that was made in in the comments with some city workers and families that appreciated that I captured their work and appreciated them, and the neighbour's child waving at the trucks 🤩 (that was totally me as a child, waving at cargo trains as they went by)

All this to say, actively trying to go viral is not my thing. If it's your thing cool, but I have a different approach, to create more meaningful and nurtured relationships on social media. Some social media providers will promise you # # # # # followers in a short amount of time. That's just not me.

Let me know what you think about 'going viral' in the comments ⬇️

Comments like these that make my blood boil.

"little project"
"small business"
"side hustle"
"hobby"
I can't.

So often I've heard comments like these about women and their businesses. Whether you're a maker at a market, a rep for an MLM, have a storefront or an online business, or are a subcontractor, I'm sure you can relate.

Experiencing the world as a business woman is tough. Ideas like these towards women in business are historical and culturally and socially engrained in us. We exit in a system that was built to support men in power, men in business, men and money, etc. (I studies social sciences, I could go one forever 😆) So what are we going to do about it?

Women can build each other up.
Women can inspire and support one another.
Women can speak kindly about one another.
Women can spend their money in meaningful ways in meaningful places.
Women can make changes from within the system.

Everyone can do these things. We can do it. I know we can.

Be kind to your florists! It's Valentine's Day! 💐💕

Take it from a former florist, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and your florist has been working hard for days and weeks to organize for the "big day." So by the time Valentine's Day is here, they're tired. So be kind and have patience, tomorrow.

And dear florists, it's ok to not be perfect and have a perfect day. A higher volume of orders means a higher chance of error. It's math, not you 😘

Recession!😱 Inflation!😬 Interest Rates!😳 These are scary words, especially if you run a small business! I've done some research, because I'm a nerd like that, 🤓and despite these scary words being thrown around, Christmas sales were up over last year in many industries, averaging a 7% increase across the board. (forbes)

The most prominent spending trends though, are a shift to intentional gift giving, and to experience-based spending. What does that mean? It means for businesses like florists, with Valentine's Day around the corner, you may want to think about how you can make your flowers part of an experience. Same with any product or service.

Do flowers become part of a dinner? Does dinner become ingredients to take home and cook together? Do beauty products become a spa day experience?

Want to brainstorm specifics for your business? DM me!
And don't be scared of Valentine's Day. I can help you organize that too!

Hey wedding vendors! 🌸📷⛪️🏫🤍🎶

Is there a part of your process that you could outsource to a virtual assistant?
Something that has to be done, but that you hate doing?
Something that takes you a long time because you don't want to do it?
Something you're not passionate about?
Something your missing because you don't have time to do?

You can outsource that "something!" Maybe it's something I'm good at, and can do in a shorter amount of time!

I'm a former florist. I know the industry. 💐

If this resonates with you? DM me to chat about how I can help!

The internet made me do it! 🤷🏻‍♀️ Eat 12 grapes under the table on New Years. One grape for good luck each month.

So I took all the grape things in the house under there, because I want ALL the luck coming my way 😆 taught me to over manifest and dream bigger than I can imagine 🤍

What are your business dreams for 2023?

Hey Florists, Photographers and Wedding Creatives! There's a ton of newly engaged couple out there this week! If they are your potential customers, how are you going to get in touch with them? Enter Wedding Shows!

If weddings are part of your business model, Wedding Shows can be a great place to find clients! But are you Wedding Show ready? Here are some ideas⬇️

💍 Do your marketing materials stand out?
💍 How will you attract people to your booth, and to you?
💍 What is your follow up plan afterwards?

Looking for a more individualized plan? DM me 💌

📸

Ahhhhhh! I’m Engaged!!! 💍 Jk, I have a few steps in between my current situation and being engaged (I’m single as a Pringle)🤦🏻‍♀️ 😅 but keep reading ⬇️

You’re going to see an increase in engagement announcement posts this week 🙌🏼 It’s the most popular week of the year to get engaged! Why? 🤔 Families are gathered, many people have extra holidays, and it’s a magical winter wonderland outside (when it’s not storming)

So my question to you fellow business owners is, ✨how can you target recently engaged customers in your marketing? ✨What service or product can you offer that a couple planning their wedding might need? ✨

I’m a former florist, I know all about weddings etc. DM me to brainstorm your ideas 💭

✨New Year! Who Dis?✨

Many industries slow down in January (some exceptions are auto repair, snow removal, gyms, coffee shops and sporting goods) which gives us time to plan for 2023!

What changes are you thinking to implement this year? New offers/products? New procedures? New staffing? Take some time to flesh things out now, because before you know it, business will be back and better than ever!

Some things I'm doing are:
✨ Taking courses! I want to know more about google ads and how to optimize them. 🧐
✨ Continuing education on industry specific knowledge such as the psychology of retail merchandising and menu engineering 🤓
✨ Attracting a couple more dream clients, and being fully booked! 👩‍💻

What are some of your New ideas for the New Year? Let's brainstorm in the comments ⬇️

🔥Hazel's Hot Takes🔥 Florists, do them now!

My prediction, the warmer than usual weather we've had is going to shorten the Christmas rush. That means that consumers' Christmas shopping will be squished into fewer days, closer to Christmas. So take care of these 3 things now! ❄️❄️❄️

1. Update your website. 👩‍💻Put your holiday offers front and centre. Do you need to change your delivery fees? If you are planning to close over the holidays, are orders disabled for those days? 📅

2. Visit your marketing strategy. 🧐What content has been your most successful in the last 30 days? Use that as inspiration. Engage with your audience. Tell them about your holiday offers now. What posts can you schedule ahead of time?

3. Check your window display. Does your window display make people stop and look? Is it eye catching? Will it make someone want to walk into your shop? Use light. Use colour. Use texture. Use a felt letter board!

What steps are you taking in your holiday prep?

t’s true, I used to work as a florist. For 5 years, I helped make floral dreams come true in the Ottawa Valley 🌸

And now I’m here supporting other florists. There are lots of jobs that florists can outsource to someone like me, so you have more time to do what you love, and be with the flowers 💐