Those of you that know me will know that I have complained of shoulder pain for a while now.

Sometimes it can be so painful that I’ve had to take time off work, because some days it’s so bad that I struggle to brush my teeth, reach for the TV remote or take off my jumper.

But before I go into that, I have to take you back to November 2018 and tell you a little story.

In November 2018 I flew to Ireland to see my niece and nephews. Messing around, and showing off my fancy yoga moves (I’m also a trained yoga teacher), I decided to balance my six year old nephew on my back while carrying out a very tricky arm balance – crow pose.

Immediately after, I felt something wasn’t right and over the course of the next few days I noticed increased pain, swelling and discolouring in my right arm and hand. By Sunday evening (two days after the arm balance) all the veins across the front of my right shoulder were very visibly showing – like someone was shining a light through my back, my arm was really swollen – but I was convinced I’d just sprained it and took some pain killers.

Two days, after returning to the UK, the pain and the swelling continued to worsen and on Tuesday morning (now 72 hours into my deep vein thrombosis) I went to the doctor. I was immediately rushed in for an ultrasound and they confirmed that I had deep vein thrombosis and was by this point ‘lucky to be alive’.

I was prescribed six months of blood thinners and was then referred to the hospital.

To determine the cause, over the next few weeks and months I underwent a series of tests including: 11 blood tests, two more ultrasounds and an X-Ray, and was eventually signed off from the hospital with what I now know was a misdiagnosis in January 2019.

The cause of the clot they said, was the contraceptive pill, in addition to ‘excessive weight bearing on the arms’ from yoga.

Relieved to have a diagnosis, I didn’t ask any further questions and was happy to continue my course of blood thinners until May, draw a line under this horribly scary incident and return to my yoga practice.

Once off the blood thinners my right arm was still larger than the left, still discoloured and I was still in a lot of pain, and by October 2019 the pain was so bad I began injury rehabilitation and strength training to try and relieve it.

Although this training helped hugely, strengthening my back muscles to support my front muscles and stretching out my pec major, it was around this time that I began to notice that my arm was feeling swollen and tight after I went for a run, or after any vigorous physical activity. I had noticed other triggers too – like the position I slept in, and spending too much time on my mobile phone (triggers I now know for a fact will have been impacting on my condition). And so, I started to track this shift with a tape measure.

Documenting up to an inch difference in size, and seeking advice from a sports injury specialist, I returned to the doctor in February 2020 and was referred back to the hospital – this time with a different haematologist. An over the phone (thanks to COVID) appointment in April 2020 diagnosed me with suspected Subclavian Vein Thrombosis or Paget-Schroetter Syndrome.

Subclavian vein thrombosis, or effort thrombosis as it is also known, is a relatively uncommon condition that affects young, active, otherwise healthy individuals.

Listening to the evidence I had given around my very serious yoga practice (weight bearing on the arms), and how it was swelling after repetitive motions of the arm with activities like running, or spending too long scrolling on social media, the haematologist concluded this was a strong contender for the diagnosis. Could this mean what I was told in November 2018 was wrong? In part, yes.

I was told I would need an MRI with contrast to determine this, but because to COVID I would be waiting at least six months to get it.

Six months later in August 2020 I finally got my MRI scan, and after four months of tears, phone calls, unanswered messages, letters and changed appointments (thanks COVID), that December I was told the most distressing news: that the hospital had given me the wrong scan.

Although it showed some interesting evidence around my shoulder (again, that I now know is all evidence to support the diagnosis I have) it wasn’t what they were looking for – you see I was meant to have contrast in my veins so they could see more of the inner workings of what was going on.

In January 2021, after more tears and upset that I was no clearer on my condition and now with still no right MRI scan in sight (again, thanks COVID), I was referred to a cardio vascular specialist and was now under his observation as well as the haematology department. The reason being, they felt the cardio vascular consultant could maybe rule out this suspected condition before I needed the MRI scan, and then I wouldn’t need to wait any more.

They were wrong.

In February 2021 I had my first cardio vascular appointment and at the end of March 2021, I had two further ultrasounds and the MRI with contrast.

Still not armed with enough evidence I had one final test in May 2021 – a Venogram (X-Ray with contrast where my veins show up on the images).

This is the test that finally led to the proper diagnosis that I had been waiting for since November 2018.

I had Subclavian Vein Thrombosis.

This was the cause of my DVT in 2018 and this was what was still causing me all this trouble after all this time. The contraceptive pill (in my case) had nothing to do with it.

The venogram showed that when my arm was in an upright position, my first rib and collarbone moved together so tightly that they pinched the Subclavian Vein that ran through them and literally shut off the blood supply in the vein – meaning no blood was flowing through that section of the vein when my arm was upright or in isometric contraction (when undoing a bra, taking off a jumper, holding a mobile phone, driving, sleeping, running, lifting weights, doing crow pose, downward dog, headstand… the list goes on.)

You see Subclavian Vein Thrombosis is a rare form of thrombosis common to athletes (baseball players, weight lifters) and in my case, it happened as a consequence of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome: where blood vessels, veins in the body (for me it was the subclavian vein) are compressed by the rib, collarbone or neck muscles at the top of the thoracic outlet (top of the shoulder and neck).

Compression caused by an anatomical defect (again in my case my first rib and collarbone are too close) coupled with vigorous use of my arms in repetitive overhead positions and heavy lifting through yoga and mobile phone use (RSI) and anything else listed above, created a repetitive injury of the subclavian vein and friction – which led to my blood clot.

So that crow pose with Larry on my back? Quite possibly the final nail in my thrombosis coffin.

Now don’t misinterpret me – this isn’t me saying yoga isn’t safe – there were many factors that played into this condition for me, and none of it would have happened if I didn’t have this anatomical defect. It’s because I have that, and because on top of that I was doing arm balances that my entire muscle network wasn’t strong enough to do, and because I did them repeatedly – I overdid them, and because I’ve spent half my life on a mobile phone for the other part of my career, and the long distance running where my arm was held in a position for two hours at a time, it’s because of all of this that the thrombosis happened.

And I’m not a doctor, by any means, so I’m not going to try to explain this any better than this article already does – if you want to know more about this condition, or you are worried you may suffer from it, please I urge you to read this fantastic article: Comprehensive Management of Subclavian Vein Effort Thrombosis.

This diagram (taken from researchgate.net) is also a great representation of what is going on with my arm.

So what now?

Today (14th May 2021) I had a call with the Cardio Vascular Specialist at East Surrey Hospital who has advised me that the best treatment for this condition is a small operation to remove part of my first rib – to create space around the vein. Plus a nerve conduction study to make sure there’s no nerve damage too.

He said because my conditions were “fairly marked and significant” and my venogram showed a “very obvious case of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome”, and because it was impacting on my daily life he thinks surgery would be the right option.

On Tuesday he will discuss this with a specialist at St George’s hospital, and I now await another call, so watch this space.

I’ve waited to write this blog until I actually had the answers about my condition that I have been suspecting, really all along, and I wanted to write about it not only to raise awareness but to send a message to you.

And this is my message to you:

If I’ve said it before, I have said it a million times: don’t ignore chronic pain.

As a yoga teacher I am fortunate enough to be extremely in tune with my body, ok so I didn’t listen to all the warning signs the first time around, but I’ve damn well listened to it since.

After my misdiagnosis I knew something wasn’t right, and I persisted, pestered, badgered and pleaded with the NHS to help me find the answers I needed – and it paid off.

Chronic pain is something, for some reason, that we just deal with – we get used to it, it’s like an old pair of shoes that we know we really should replace but we don’t. We ignore it, or even worse we acknowledge it and do absolutely nothing about it. I have been in chronic pain with my shoulder for years – long before the DVT – and I now know why, this condition was spending all that time building up in there, but it took a near death experience for me to say “oh hang on a minute”.

So I urge you, if you are in pain, seek specialist help – from a doctor, and then once you have the answers seek help from a physio, or a sports rehabilitation coach.

And now I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my story.

Subclavian Vein Thrombosis is a rare condition, and because it’s so rare, this condition and ones like it are extremely hard to diagnose.

I can’t count the number of hours I have spent, worrying, stressing, and not knowing what is wrong with me, the number of hours I’ve spent scouring google to find answers and advice – and this is the reason I felt it appropriate to share my story.

I hope that by sharing my experience, I can help other people with this condition, so that they don’t have to go through the pain, torment and stress that I have been through the last two and half years.

Help educate others by sharing this article with your friends and raising awareness of Subclavian Vein Thrombosis.

If you’d like to support someone who has suffered from a form of thrombosis you can donate to the Thrombosis UK charity here.

I’d also like to say a special thank you to my Injury Rehabilitation Coach David Richardson – without you I would not have gone back to the doctor in February 2020, and without you I would still be in severe chronic pain. You have done so much for my shoulder, my strength, my physical health helping me manage this condition and as a result my emotional health too.

David Richardson trains in Godstone and is an Injury and Rehabilitation specialist who has experience training professional world class athletes and olympic medal winners, and now has experience dealing with Subclavian Vein Thrombosis sufferers (haha!) his website can be found here.

UPDATE – 30th June 2021

So I went to St George’s Hospital and had a great meeting with Professor Loftus – an expert in this type of thrombosis and he had all the answers for me, he said:

Yes I had been misdiagnosed.

Yes the doctors at my surgery and East Surrey Hospital did not know enough (and in some cases anything) about my condition and that was common for many doctors, haematologists and specialist across the country.

Why? Because my condition is so rare.

He said he travels the country doing talks on my condition – raising awareness and that any awareness I can raise too could only be a good thing.

He said because I have only had the one DVT, because I am not currently in persistent daily and chronic pain and am managing my symptoms, he would rather I didn’t have the operation – as I am young, and the operation is big, and as I am in a good place he doesn’t want to make anything worse for me.

He said however – if symptoms worsen then the operation may still be needed and I have a follow up call with him in September.

He confirmed that use of my mobile phone, building too many of the front muscles through yoga and also the types of arm balances, including the incident with my nephew on the back were all the contributing factors to this.

And I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally hear a professional confirm all my thoughts that other specialists have laughed in my face about over the last few years – yeah, ok I feel pretty smug about it to be honest.

And my message still stands: you know your body better than any doctor – so don’t take their word for it if it doesn’t FEEL right to you.

UPDATE – 7th January 2022

My follow up call with Professor Loftus confirmed that for now I am fine, and I can continue to manage my condition through sports rehabilitation.

The risk is still there – if I ever have another DVT I will need to probably have the operation, if I start to suffer chronic irreversible pain, I may need to have an operation – but I may also be able to just simply manage the condition myself as I am now doing.

The nerve conduction study that was requested in May 2021 and (finally) was given in November 2021 by Kingston Hospital, confirmed no nerve damage.

I hate the term ‘digital marketing strategy’ – in fact I hate a lot of terms used in the marketing world – it’s all unnecessary jargon, because what’s wrong with calling it a plan?

Essentially, that’s exactly what a marketing strategy is – a plan – and it doesn’t have to be as daunting and as complex as it sounds.

Ask yourself: what exactly do you want to get out of your social media? Do you want to encourage sales from your following? Or do you want to grow your brand to reach a new audience?

For social media goals to be useful, they need to be realistic and trackable, as well as tied to clear objectives that are going to make your business progress.

Not sure what your goals are, how to set them or track them? Here’s a few ideas that should help…

Increase brand awareness

Telling your story, reaching new audiences and building your image, so that they get to know you, what you’re doing and what your unique selling point is.

Drive traffic to your website

Turn those likes into clicks and set a goal for how much more web traffic you’d like to gain this year.

Increase sign ups

Got a mailing list? Try and increase the number of people that receive your newsletter / subscribe to your blog, podcast or YouTube channel, or just follow your feeds.

Effective customer service

Got an idea of typically how soon you’d like to respond? Set a target and see if you can meet it!

Grow an engaged audience

Through regular and consistent posting of engaging content, using hashtags, interacting with your followers via their own posts and encouraging engagement by hosting competitions, giveaways and tagging other accounts and pages you can work to grow a more engaged audience – one that interacts with all your posts, from likes to comments and shares.

Increase conversions and sales

Whilst increasing brand awareness is an important long term marketing goal, having more direct objectives in your social media marketing plan helps prove its worth. What are your targets for this?

Create engaging social content

The content you create is likely going to be the backbone of your social strategy so you need to ensure that your content plan is focussed directly around the goals of your company.

Increase mentions in the press

Check your PR game and target some local publications – remember start small, and work your way up to the BBC!

Win awards

With much of this done online through online submissions, and many announcements shared on social media – this is great goal to set for your business – it’s great kudos and creates a fantastic buzz on social streams.

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When it comes to digital marketing it’s very easy to get lazy… especially when marketing isn’t your thing and it’s just ‘something you have to do’ to promote your business.

But there’s a few common mistakes that we make, which could be easily avoided if we just spent an extra five minutes thinking about them, this short blog explains more…

Incomplete profiles

This is probably the most common thing I see when I take on a client, and to me it’s like handing in an incomplete CV at a job interview, or only filling in half your exam paper.

In my opinion, this is one of the worst things a brand can do on social media – taking the time to fill out all the relevant information on your page shows potential customers you are taking your business seriously… look at it this way, would you eat at a restaurant with half a menu?

Blanket sharing across all platforms

Guilty! I get it – some days we just need to get stuff out there, and we don’t have time to think of the different functionalities that each platform offers, but treating each social media platform in the same way is a common mistake that can easily be avoided.

Every social media platform has its own set of guidelines that need to be considered when posting, additionally, each algorithm is unique to each platform, so if you post the same thing across the board, each platform isn’t being used to its full potential.

Neglecting engagement

Many people will think that posting on social media is enough, but it isn’t. Social media is all about community and Facebook takes a lot of steps to protect it’s community so naturally, it favours those accounts that build and nurture them.

The more active an account is, and the more they are engaging with others, the more likely their posts will perform well. It’s also good practice to talk to and engage with your customers – it’s called social media for a reason, right?

Only sharing your own content

So you want to link back to your website and increase your own brand awareness – yes – but once again we need to think about the bigger picture here: the sense of community.

When you share someone else’s content you can tag, you have the potential to reach new audiences if they repay the favour by tagging you back, social media is all about collaboration and connection, not competition.

Lack of planning

A marketing plan doesn’t need to be a big fancy power point presentation – and nor does it need to be full of words you don’t understand.

Setting simple goals for your social media like ‘reach new audiences’, or ‘gain 100 followers by the end of the year’ can help you move forward with your marketing and begin to create some meaningful content that your customers will really start engaging with.

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Lockdown. We might be here for a while longer, and who really knows how long?

A crippling thought for small businesses, but there is an advantage to all of this – with everyone stuck at home more people are online – which means now is the time to really make the most of this digital spike and focus on your marketing.

Here’s a few ways you can…

Stay connected

You might have already been doing this, but now is the time to really focus on your community management. Start a Facebook group and use it to connect with your audience. Really focus on what you share on your feeds and how you say it, and make sure you are listening to the audience, pay attention to what they are thinking and feeling and tailor your content to meet their needs. Keep in touch with other small business owners too, support comes full circle, and you never know – you might get a new lead out of it!

Get ready to make some changes

But don’t make knee jerk reactions out of panic… during this time, it’s a good idea to identify which of your services can remain operational and give them a really big push in your marketing strategy. You might consider adapting to these changes in your operations and updating your website to take the light off the services you can longer provide, and throw focus onto those you can still offer at this time.

Adapt your offers to the circumstances

Doorstep photography, YouTube tutorials, Facebook lives – anything you can offer digitally or at a distance will help keep your business thriving. You may also want to offer discounts for key workers, adapt your times to fit around people’s new work schedules, or try competitions to get new customers on board.

Keep nimble, and keep on top of things

The situation is evolving, it changes every day – so keep track of your statistics, your marketing metrics – and know when you need to adapt and move with the flow. Now is the time to really get to know your business, spend time running audience profiles and surveys, drill into your statistics to see what performs well and what doesn’t.

And finally… book a free training session with a professional

We’re all adapting, including me, which is why I am offering free 20 minute sessions for new clients to have a quick chat and a catch up, to brainstorm ideas and see if there’s a way that I can help.

Get in touch with me for more information if you’d like to book yours!

Let me start by asking you a few questions…

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed when it comes to social media marketing?

Do you find a lack of focus, irritability, and maybe even anxiety when it comes to updating your social media?

Do you find that sometimes you can as a result spend too much time scrolling?

Do you find you can get frustrated by either a lack of followers or likes on your posts?

And finally…

Do you compare yourself to others? Either through your business or even just personally – do you see what they are doing and does it make you feel like you aren’t doing enough?

If in your head you answered yes to any one of those questions, then this blog is for you.

But why am I qualified to deliver a talk on social media anxiety?

Well, because it’s been my life for the last decade, so first, a bit of background on me…

I’ve worked as a journalist and digital marketing consultant for almost fifteen years now – when I was 21, Facebook made its way to the UK and as a result, near enough my whole career has been digital:

From setting up the first ever live stream website and Facebook page for my old newsroom, to working through the night from midnight until 8am running the website and social media for Good Morning Britain, to running digital campaigns with big brands like adidas, aviva, Barratt Homes and more…

I’ve photographed more grumpy celebrities at 5am than I choose to remember, am a Huffington Post published author, and even spent part of my career being the social media voice of a celebrity dog.

Essentially – digital media has been my entire career – and by default a huge part of my life.

Such a huge part in fact, that almost four years ago, I started to notice what an impact the digital world was having on my life:

My desperate need for instant gratification, my sudden obsession with the way I looked, my constant scrolling, my addiction, not to mention my posture, and a constant dull pain that had begun to form in my right shoulder from too much one handed scrolling.

Social media was starting to consume me – and it was only when I first discovered yoga that I began to realise this.

Yoga taught me to be more mindful, it made me aware of the occupational impact that my job had on my body, it gave me time away from the screen, it enabled me to switch off, and all of a sudden, something inside me started to change for the better – and I had to find out more, so I trained to be a yoga teacher.

Fast forward to where we are now and I’ve been self employed for a year and a half as a Digital Marketing Consultant under EmPower media and I’ve been teaching yoga under EmPower yoga for almost two years.

And I really feel the yoga is the yin to my digital yang – which is why I use a lot of my yoga teachings to influence the way I coach my clients digitally.

Social media shouldn’t be a stress, it should sit comfortably with you, it should be a natural part of what you do and what your business does.

But to many of us it might not feel that way, it might not sit right with you ‘putting yourself out there’, it might take up way too much of your time, it might make you feel inadequate when you compare yourselves to others and it might at times lead to anxiety and acute stress.

Plus there’s the added pressure of the ever conflicting advice: 

Scheduling Content Ahead of Time is the Gold Standard

More Content = Better

Post [insert recommended number here] times a day

You NEED to do Video

Post multiple images to beat algorithms

You must be on every platform 

Geotag

Hashtag

The list goes on…

And with all this information we find a challenging paradox: the digital tools we need to complete our work are often our biggest source of distraction.

And there’s science to prove this, the Addiction Centre has reported:

According to a study by Harvard University, self-disclosure on social networking sites lights up the same part of the brain that also ignites when taking an addictive substance. The reward area in the brain and its chemical messenger pathways affect decisions and sensations. When someone experiences something rewarding, or uses an addictive substance, neurons in the principal dopamine-producing areas in the brain are activated, causing dopamine levels to rise. Therefore, the brain receives a “reward” and associates the drug or activity with positive reinforcement.

So when an individual gets a notification, such as a like or mention, the brain receives a rush of dopamine and sends it along reward pathways, causing him or her to feel pleasure. Social media provides an endless amount of immediate rewards in the form of attention from others for relatively minimal effort. Therefore, the brain rewires itself through this positive reinforcement, making people desire likes, retweets, and emoticon reactions.

Another perpetuating factor of social media addiction is the fact that the reward centres of the brain are most active when people are talking about themselves. In real life, it’s estimated that people talk about themselves around 30 to 40% of the time; however, social media is all about showing off one’s life and accomplishments, so people talk about themselves a staggering 80% of the time. When a person posts a picture and gets positive social feedback, it stimulates the brain to release dopamine, which again rewards that behaviour and perpetuates the social media habit.

As a digital marketing consultant I can tell my clients a million and one things they need to know about how to get the best results from their marketing, and if they want that, I will… but as a yoga teacher and more importantly a human being that cares about the health and welfare of others – I would rather work with a client to find a way to run their digital marketing mindfully, so that it doesn’t impact on their mental health and it doesn’t add to the already stressful position of being a manager of your own business. 

And let’s face it, when you run your own cooking business, or face painting business or beauty business, you are more than just a chef, face painter, or beautician – you are receptionist, accounts, HR, and more, marketing is just one more stress to add to the list.

So… that said – what are my top tips for being more mindful with your digital marketing?

We have to FEAR Less about it and we have to become fearless in our approach towards it: in other words, you have to #FindYourFearless…

F ind time

The easiest way to stay mindful with any part of your business is to reserve time for this task. Even if that is simply fifteen minutes a day dedicated to your small business marketing, it’s fifteen minutes well spent if it is a designated time slot. A section out of your day given to replying to messages, crafting some content, or maybe idea planning – and don’t just make it part of your lunch break, or on your morning walk – sit down, at your computer and take some time to just focus on that one task.

E mbrace creativity

It is good to do things with your hands and step away from the phone, the computer or any other media device. So when you are planning digital content – how about using a sketchbook, a diary or a moodboard to plan what you want your digital content to look like? Sometimes a little break away from the screen can help you focus on creating. You may find you are much more able to trust your own instinct when you are not online constantly doubting yourself or comparing yourself to others. 

A uthenticity is key

What we see on social media can be a persona that people adopt – and we have to remind ourselves that a lot of the things we read and see online aren’t always true. The thing that speaks the loudest volume on social media is TRUST, so when you post, interact and engage with social media, be yourself. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, don’t build a persona based on what people think of you – be the person that you are, because like attracts like and it’s a lot easier being authentic on social media than being something you’re not – don’t forget you’re speaking to the Twitter voice of a celebrity dog right now.

R eel life vs real life

Why do we compare ourselves so much to someone else’s highlight reel? We see someone who has better graphics, logo, brand image and we put ourselves down – we do it personally probably a hell of a lot more! Do you know the single most important statement I have ever heard in my life, that literally turned my entire outlook on life around? “Comparison is the thief of joy.” – THANK YOU Theodore Roosevelt (it wasn’t him that told me, he was just the first person to say it). Social media is the window to FOMO – fear of missing out – if you’re not on it, you’re missing out, if you are on it, you’re seeing what you’re missing out on – you are constantly comparing yourself to others, to their standards, their practices, and all this can become one huge added stress. So never compare yourself to the snippets of someone else’s highlights real.

L ess is more

It is not important to post 3-4 times a day to beat the algorithm. Post when you have something to say. Posting many times a day could lead to undue pressure, but also a loss in the quality of content. I don’t know about you, but I struggle to find that much to say every day. Just reflecting on why I am posting, why I am choosing to share something with everyone out there, and why I am putting something out in the public domain is often quite a useful practice to me. 

E valuate

It is ok to take a break. The world doesn’t end, nor does the business go kaput. Step away, re-evaluate, and come back to it. Don’t think that you can’t disappear from social media. There are other ways of connecting with people who matter, your customers, and perhaps use this time to focus on the creative side of the business. People who like your work and want to connect would stay with you. People who leave weren’t that interested anyway.

S tay present

It is impossible to manage all the various channels and get informative and useful content out, at the right time, all the time. If you have a particular preference for a particular channel, why not focus on it for a while and try and make meaningful connections! There are bound to be people who have similar interests and want to connect. Focusing our energies on one or maybe two can ease off the pressure and reduce the feeling of dread and overwhelm. 

S hift and change

FOLLOW YOUR HEART – you might start doing something and suddenly it doesn’t sit right with you, it isn’t working for you, so change it – don’t get stuck with that just because it was your strategy – or just because it was what your digital marketing adviser told you. Life changes, we grow up, we have kids, we get a new job, we meet new people – why should your social media strategy be any different for you? And on top of that, the world changes – new laws, new policies, new planets, new ideas… the social media world is part of that and it is changing all the time, so if Mark Zuckerberg can change his algorithms more times than you change your socks, it’s ok to change tact on your social media marketing.

So one final thought for today:

Social media for small businesses does not fit within a one-size-fits-all strategy, and I believe we need to re-evaluate the business model that puts social media right at the center of everything, because in reality, we need to not blindly follow the crowd but find a way forward that works just right for us – by following our hearts and not just the data.

We’ve looked at what was big in 2019, but now it’s time to see what’s in store for 2020.

Social media changes and evolves every day, but if you don’t have time to keep on top of the daily trends, you can at least take a look at what’s in store for the year ahead…

Striking a balance between private and public engagement

Privacy has been a huge talking point over the last few years with anything on social media largely being anyone’s business due to its public nature, but this year we should see a shift in brands and the way they engage with customers, with a higher demand for more intimate social experiences.

The key in 2020 will be finding balance between driving a broad reach across the public feed, while taking to private channels to focus on one-to-one engagement and nurturing deeper relationships with their customers.

The rise and rise of influencer marketing

Micro and mega influencers play a huge part here: we are still, as consumers, wary of ads in our feeds and we want reviews from people we trust when making purchasing decisions.

The social media influencer plays a key part in building that trust and acting as the bridge between the consumer and the product.

And with many small businesses not having the budget for “named” influencers, this may be a good year for the micro influencers.

Shopping on social media

I know we already have it, but this year, this functionality could really come into fruition and continue to grow.

With just a few clicks, you can go from seeing something you like while scrolling Instagram to sharing your credit card information and making a purchase right then and there, and I can only see more brands going in this direction in 2020.

Storytelling in your stories

Trust me – this is the KEY to social media success at the moment, especially with posts in your feed being hidden away among the algorithms that Facebook and Instagram impose.

Stories can provide viewers with more authentic insight, as the videos are often created on the spot.

It’s a glimpse behind the scenes, it’s relevant and timely, and there’s also a huge range of opportunities to format these Stories.

It is also the perfect space for marketers to capitalise on fear of missing out (FOMO) and to offer flash sales and deals.

Chatbots

They are hella useful if you deal with a lot of customer requests, although getting it right and making them feel ‘human’ ain’t easy!

Thankfully, algorithms are improving chatbots’ effectiveness by “understanding” what users are writing to them, meaning they are now becoming to sound more ‘human’.

Of course, they can’t answer every single question, but a lot of time can be saved for the customer service workers by handing over the common questions to the bots.

Instagram stories are a weapon you need to have in your social media arsenal.

They enable you to build relationships with fans, connect with other influencers, and most importantly tell your own brand story.

Because, as I’ve said before, if you don’t decide your brand story, someone else will decide it for you.

So what’s it all about and what do you need to do with your storytelling?

Here’s a few tips to help you out…

Promote your content from your feed

Possibly the simplest way to get the content on your feed seen is to share it in your Instagram stories.

Due to the change in Instagram algorithms earlier this year, this is worth doing as it may mean that more of your followers are likely to see your post.

“But if they see my post on my story, why would they bother going to my feed?”, you might ask…

Well there’s lots of functionalities you can use, like stickers and GIFs to ‘cover up’ or ‘hide’ the content, directing users to your feed if they really wanna see what’s behind there.

Engage with your audience

The different functionalities in your Instagram stories offer a variety of ways for you to encourage engagement with your followers.

With features like geographical location tagging, hashtags, polls, gifs, stickers, and more, growing your following and facilitating brand engagement is simple. You just need a little creativity.

Polls are great for customer feedback, as are questions, they all encourage responses which boost engagement around your stories.

Geotagging is HUGELY important for small businesses, making you more searchable to the local area.

Hashtags too – especially if you are at a big event which is using a branded hashtag.

Stickers, emojis and GIFs add more colour to your story but can also say things that you don’t even need to say with words.

Connect with other influencers

Do you have 1,000 followers or more? Well done you’re a micro-influencer!*

(*up to 100,000 that is, after that you’re simply an influencer).

Know any friends that have this level of followers? Perhaps you’re collaborating with them on something? If you are then tag them – they will (hopefully) repost your content to their feed.

Have you seen something relevant to a friend you were chatting to the other day? Tag them!

Any tags or mentions may lead to a wider reach for your content – in the hopes that said tagged person shares your post!

Use stories to show what makes your brand fun and relatable

All marketers know that social media engagement is important. It’s one of the best ways to develop trust from prospects, and features like Instagram Stories make it easy for brands to show themselves in a fun and interesting light.

Meaning it’s easier than ever to humanise a brand.

Tell a story, track your day, share content from other people that relate to what you do – Inspirational posts, or hilarious memes.

Use your stories to build your brand, your personality, and gain trust from your followers in doing so.

Go behind the scenes

Draw out the story on your feed – show people the work you are putting into the finished product.

Involve them in your story and give them insight into your world – it’s interesting for them to see!

Use highlights to your advantage

You can save Instagram stories to your page, and can use these to collate information, created highlighted subject related snippets, promotions and offers – the list is endless!

Be authentic

Lastly – and a point I make every single time – be authentic and true to yourself and your brand.

If it doesn’t feel right, don’t post it.

Don’t nick people’s ideas, but by all means share it and credit it, but use it to collaborate.

Because collaboration is key to brand trust, authenticity and building long lasting relationships.

Still think you might need some help with your Instagram stories?

Why not drop me a message or email me at emily@empowermedia.live and book in a two hour training session with me!

A lot went on in 2019, more than just Instagram changing its algorithms (shock, horror and despair!)

But what were the biggest trends this year? Well, I’ve got a few ideas…

Rebuilding trust

There’s been a lot of data leaks, a lot of automated bots and a lot of consumers losing faith in big brands recently, and according to Hootsuite, 60% of people say they no longer trust social media and for good reason.

From fake news to password leaks, it’s safe to say that trust building has been a big trend of this last year, and it won’t be stopping any time soon.

Storifying social

Stories are now growing 15 x faster than feed-based sharing.

According to Facebook, 68% of people say they use stories on at least three apps regularly, and 63% plan to use stories more in the future.

This shift in users’ content viewing preference from text-based to visual-based is the driving factor in the rapid rise of Stories, funnily enough this feature was the initial appeal of Snapchat which made it a huge success.

Linking back to trend one, this is fast becoming the norm in a big way due to privacy concerns playing a big role.

Closing the ads gap

With more advertisers jumping into social advertising, reaching users newsfeeds is becoming increasingly more competitive, meaning campaign efficiency will play a bigger role than ever before.

The pay to play environment of all platforms has led to the decline in reach for organic content – which could also be causing the rise in storyfying – directing punters back to the main feed.

Either way it’s making it harder for small businesses to make a splash.

Making it vintage

From light plashes to grainy film, content wise everyone went a little vintage in 2019.

Why? Well, we don’t really know, it just seems to be one of those things.

Subtitles and text

More and more we have less time to watch something, let alone something with sound on.

The benefit of subtitles? It tells you what you are watching, it’s quiet so you don’t need headphones, and it does the hard work for you.

Subtitles on video, stories, and even quote posts have become the new way to connect through social.

If your video isn’t subbed, it’s less likely to be watched, so be warned!

Keep your photos simple

A busy scene makes it hard to create a beautiful composition so one interesting subject is all you need to take great pictures.

Don’t worry if most of your photo is empty space. In photography, we call this negative space and it’s a great way to make your subject stand out.

Before you take the shot, always check the scene for any distracting elements. Move closer, or change your viewpoint, to remove unwanted objects from your photo.

Consider your angle

Learning how to take a good photo involves thinking outside the box!

Automatically we take a photo from chest height, but it’s amazing what taking a photo from ground level will do for your photo composition.

Consider setting the phone down low, or trying from a bird’s eye view, don’t be afraid to play around with angles.

It’s like looking at the world from a new perspective – literally!

Show depth

This helps draw the viewer’s eye into the scene and is especially important in landscape photography.

Consider the use of leading lines – and by this I mean roads, paths, railway tracks, rivers and fences – or at the beach, use the water’s edge or ripples in the sand.

Allow the line to lead from the foreground into the distance. This draws the viewer through the scene, creating depth.

Capture close-up detail

Get close, like really, really close. Close-up patterns, textures and colours will bring your photos to life – think flowers, leaves, water droplets and other textured subjects.

Keep in mind that your iPhone won’t be able to focus if the lens is too close to your subject though – portrait mode is great for this, but again it worn’t work if too close.

Focus your screen

Leading on from this – always tap the screen to get focus on the object you are taking a photo of.

On an iPhone a yellow box will appear – click and hold and this box will lock into position, keeping focus on the object should your hand move out of position.

Take silhouettes

All you need is an interesting subject. Then shoot towards the light.

Ensure your silhouette appears nice and dark – in the Camera app, tap to set the iPhone focus and then swipe down to darken the exposure.

Silhouette photography works best during the golden hours of sunrise and sunset.

Create visual harmony through alignment

Photographing against an amazing backdrop? Think of the frame, and alignment – do you want your subject to be front and centre? Or off to the side?

Consider the symmetry but also the diagonal alignment – it encourages the viewer’s gaze to flow through the scene.

If everything is on one side of the frame, your photo can look unbalanced.

Consider the rule of thirds

Easiest way to explain this is a sunset over the beach: one third is the sky, another is the sea, the other is the sand. Do you want two thirds sky and one third sea and sand?

iPhones already work to a grid of thirds (in fact you can select this in your camera settings to include the gridlines when you take a photo) so that you can line up your shot to work with this rule.

The rule of thirds states that the important compositional elements or subjects should reside along the lines or at the intersections of the lines.

It makes a much more interesting composition when you follow this simple rule!

Use natural light

It’s the best light you’ll ever find, and where possible, avoid the iPhone flash – it’s not great and your photo is worth more than that…

Use your phone’s shortcuts

Did you know about the iPhone volume down trick to take a selfie? Have you tried portrait mode? HDR mode? Or even pano?

Have a play with the features and go and look at your camera settings to see what else you can discover.

Edit your photos

While I’m not an advocate of editing images for beauty reasons, sometimes there’s a person in your sunset shot that hadn’t seen at the time of taking your photo, and now that six second sunset window is gone, and you’ve missed your chance to take another.

Using a photo editing app you can erase obscure objects out of shot, as well as making tweaks and changes to your images, such as lightning and brighting them.

While there are many out there to download – I highly recommend Snapseed as a personal favourite!

Not getting as many likes on Instagram as you used to? Don’t worry, you are not alone.

Instagram has recently changed the way in which its algorithms work, which means best practices that have worked in the past, aren’t as affective anymore.

Why? Well, it’s down to money.

This way Instagram hopes you will eventually spend more money to stay with them.

But if you’re a small business using social media for the free marketing aspect, then you may want to know all the ways you can change your game organically, without stretching the wallet.

So to help you out with your Instagram marketing, here’s a few things you can do to get your content seen…

Keep your hashtags relevant

Since Instagram allowed you to follow hashtags, they made them an even bigger deal.

This is because users now have the power to mark your hashtagged content as something they don’t want to see by selecting the “Don’t Show for This Hashtag” option – to mark the content not interesting or not relevant.

Which means having too many of your posts marked in this manner could potentially raise a red flag on your account and negatively affect all of your other content as well.

So keep all your hashtags relevant, and don’t try to trick the algorithms by hashtagging something that is not relevant to your post.

Avoid spammy behaviour and switch up your hashtags

Copying and pasting the exact same list of Instagram hashtags into every single post won’t just impact your engagement, but it can also make you look spammy!

The most important thing to keep in mind when deciding what hashtags to use is that you’re being intentional – using hashtags that your target audience is actually searching for and following!

And avoid gimmicky hashtags, and ones that have been used over 1M times – while they might get you a few extra likes, they aren’t going to help you grow a highly engaged, targeted following.

Instead, try looking for niche community hashtags that are specifically relevant to the content you post – and don’t forget to use your branded hashtag whenever it makes sense!

Use third-party tools to find the right hashtags for your business

There are many (paid and free) third party tools that offer help with your hashtags – these platforms can also help with scheduling and other ways to format your posts.

Here’s a few examples of third party tools that you can look to:

• Hashtagify
• Hashtag Expert for IG
• All Hashtags
• Seekmetrics
• AutoHash
• Webstagram
• Display Purposes
• Sked Social

Use the right amount of hashtags

The age old debate about how many is exactly the right amount… essentially, the jury is still out!

Some people recommend using the maximum number of hashtags allowed by Instagram, which is thirty, others would say use five key hashtags to punctuate your post – quantity not quality.

Personally? I think it’s a game of trial and error until you find the sweet spot.

The most important thing is that they are relevant.

Follow hashtags on Instagram

Following a hashtag works just like following a user’s profile.

When you find a hashtag you’d like to follow you simply open the hashtag page and tap on the follow button.

For brands and businesses, this opens up a great opportunity to regularly appear in a follower’s feed.

You can also use this new feature to keep a close eye on competitors and even discover potential partners by choosing to follow industry-specific hashtags.

Add hashtags into your Instagram stories

Adding hashtags to your story is a great way to give your content an added chance to be discovered by new audiences. When people search for a hashtag on Instagram, if it’s popular enough, they’ll be able to view active, real-time stories on that hashtag’s page — including your own.

And if they like what they see, they might even tap follow on your profile!

Add hashtags into your bio

Including your branded hashtag in your Instagram bio is a fantastic way to drive engagement on your posts!

Including your branded hashtag in your bio is also a great way to get your followers in the habit of posting with it.

Be more active

Instagram wants to see that people are using its platform, and will (sadly) favour those that are using it more.

This means you need to get to grips with not only posting in your feed but also Instagram stories and Instagram lives and TV.

Keep your publishing to stories consistent – not only do they make you more visible in the home feed (appearing at the top of the page) but they are also a way to create engagement with your followers.

More engagement = more active = Instagram likes you.

Play around with your content

Use Instagram’s third party apps like Hyperlapse, Boomerang and even just plain old video content to show that you are using all their platforms, and posting a variety of content to keep your audience interested.

Post regularly

One post a day is a good way to get seen – with the change in algorithms, only 10% of your audience is actually seeing your posts in their feed.

Therefore posting regularly and consistently gives people more options and chances to see your posts – meaning more options for engagement, and puts you more in Instagram’s favour.

Post at the right time of day

Instagram will favour a post that gets a lot of likes once it is first posted – therefore if your post is a hit from the word go, it has more of a chance of getting bigger – and being seen by more people.

For this reason your really need to think about when you are posting – pick the times of day when people are most active on social media to give your post more of a chance to be seen.

Keep up with your community management

If someone comments on your post, Instagram likes it if you reply to it straight away.

Facebook is building a community – so it wants to see that all its platforms act that way, and remember they want to see you are ACTIVE.

Turning notifications for your app ON will alert you when someone has commented and allow you to reply as soon as you can.

The quicker you respond, the more instagram will like you, the more your post gets favoured by its algorithms… and the more it will get seen.

You get the point, right?