Whether you are new in business or an old hand - everyone can get "out of the habit" of being social. It pays you to exercise this muscle no matter what stage you are in todays climate of being memorable for the right reasons. Are you doing this now?

There are many reasons to hire a Social Media Consultant (also known as a Social Media Manager, Social Media Curator among other things), but here are the top 5, in my opinion.

Every business has it's time. Managing your business better with a bit of planning and analysis provides better cashflow and being there at the right time for your customer makes you memorable for the right reasons. Learn more about how to manage your business seasonally in this post.

Telling stories isn’t a new concept of course. We have been listening to others stories since we were children. We have had our imagination captured in all sorts of ways in books and comics and daydreams. We have listened to the thrills and spills of imaginary characters, who have overcome gripping daring-do to become victorious! (Spoiler – good always defeats bad in these kind of books!).

I have watched in the dedicated Women’s Inspire Facebook forum the growth of businesses and women overcoming all sorts of issues and problems. The problems have ranged from unsupportive partners to problem with suppliers. With well over 6,000 women and a few men in the group now, you can draw from a huge wealth of experience and knowledge.

Part two in a series by PR consultant Tara Gilleece on leveraging PR to support brand and corporate marketing.

These are all fears that have been told to me through my Women’s Inspire Network. I created the network because I knew there were others out there just like me. So here are some tips to help you keep going when you feel like all of the above.

We have to do this thing called living – why a f€&@ off attitude is essential to achieving your goals

I felt like a little kid when the plane landed. I was about to step onto Irish soil for the first time in my life! Just the previous year, I set up my first vision board, and in plain view, I glued “I-R-E-L-A-N-D” in big red letters. So I wouldn’t miss it.

Do you believe thoughts become things? There is so much about it in on social media now “thoughts become things”, “be careful what you wish for”, “manifest what you want”, “dream it believe it”. I believe dreams do come true.

At times, you can lose touch with why you do what you do in your business. You may have set stringent goals and timelines in January because you felt you had to. However, you may find that these goals and timelines don’t really fit into your life.

A Story of Social Day to speaking moment It’s not every day a white-knuckle ride through the streets of Birmingham leads to an International Speaking invitation!

"Each time you interact with someone, you have the opportunity to reflect what is special and precious about this person, to heal a wound, to co-create closeness, possibilities, and magic" - Mavis Tsai We all agree with what Mavis is saying here and we are all reading the top companies tips for everything and anything that will helps us in business (I am not alone in this right?) but how do we bridge this skills gap between our personal and professional interactions?

You have had the best idea ever but a friend you haven't seen in 2 years suddenly calls you and it's gone?? Over the years I have had to adapt and make sure the moment doesn't pass me by.

Education is key with every aspect of life. The same can be said for using ethically produced cosmetics.

I gatecrashed a Twitterparty ...and discovered a wonderful world of new friends and serendipity!

Although the large, sprightly hare held the advantage, the slow and steady tortoise crossed the line in first place. It struck me recently that this well-known fable provides a simple analogy for comparing traditional marketing approaches with the more recent turn to content marketing. I’m a big fan of the underdog or, in this race, the tortoise. In this post, I want to examine the advantages that content marketing holds over traditional marketing techniques. I’ll look at how adopting this strategy can give your business a fighting chance to beat out larger competitors and achieve the success of the tortoise.

Did you know that we live and die at cellular level so taking care of one’s self is of the utmost importance for everyone. As we age our bodies become slow and sluggish sending cellular messages to us that we need to help protect ourselves from the ravages of ill health.

Some people make the mistake that I have my life sorted because I am a coach and what was even worse was that I thought I had to keep up that pretence for the exact same reason.

I’m often asked by people, how they can be more productive, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share learning's on the subject of consistency. Ever have off days, where you just can’t focus? Consistency is key to maximum productivity yet most of us have days where we just can’t summon the oomph to be at our very best. In the past I’ve struggled with being consistent. There have been days when I did the work of three people and there also have been many days, when unfortunately, I just didn’t make any worthwhile progress on my to do list. I needed to find a more consistent way of working.

This is a piece I wrote last year, on my experience as a busy mother to two wonderful young girls. I regularly forget and just don't have the time to do anything for 'me', which I'm sure a lot of mums can relate to!!

Most of us are aware at this stage of the importance and benefits of using video as a means to share your brand message. We all love to view videos; whether we are searching Google, YouTube or checking our social media channels. There are lots of surveys and statistics out there that illustrate how video works (and I will share a few of these in the post).

Google Analytics is the backbone to online campaigns as it gives the knowledge and insights of what clients and potential clients desire. This post highlights the importance of utilising Google Analytics within a small business owners digital marketing strategy.

Often we have a great product or a great service but for some reason we can't get our story out there about it. Perhaps it is based on fear of being judged; fear of no-one wanting us, rather than what we have to offer; an inability to say what we need or any other reason. We might also be telling our story to the wrong audience. When I say wrong what I mean is that those people are not people who are likely to buy from us as they either do not need what we have OR already have something similar. We may share with them because we feel they are a safe audience with whom to share our story. I like to help people find their real story and to voice it in a way that will attract their right people!

It is well accepted that listening is crucial for connection, be it to as a leader, manager, parent or friend. Interestingly, while we learn lots about how to speak well, read well, and write well, we don’t typically learn how to listen well. In this blog post, I’d like to share with you my thoughts about the importance of listening, how women are particularly skilled at this, and to share seven tips to help you to listen better.

There are some that say email marketing is dead, but last year alone, 100 billion business emails were sent/received EVERY DAY! That’s doesn’t look like it’s dying to me. So, how can your business tap into this marketing strategy? It’s simple, really.

I’ve put together some tips for you to help you understand that first of all it’s not all about high numbers of followers. It’s more about having followers who are relevant and who will become your own little army of marketeers. You see, people buy from people. And Twitter is all about being authentic and building up trust with your audience. Why should they follow you anyway? Do this check list first

Have YOU looked at the gaps in your knowledge? Can you list them? How do you plug these gaps?

It’s that time of the year, where we promise ourselves to do things differently. We want to make our business grow, we want to enjoy what we do – but then you have that sinking realisation that you haven’t had a new lead or customer for weeks.Then the panic kicks in.

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire / hire / pay influencers to get out the word for you.

Email marketing has been around since the dawn of the digital age but email is, by far, the most effective way of directly affecting your bottom line and actually growing your business.

In a two-part series, ‘Understanding PR’ exclusively for the Women’s Inspire Network, PR consultant Tara Gilleece explains PR in layman’s terms and outlines how it works, and what the options are with regard to engaging a consultant or agency or attempting some DIY PR for your business or social enterprise.

Working as a couple comes with some great advantages and occasionally a few challenges, but on the whole its been really positive and we’re still married so that must count for something.

Firstly, let me say, my knowledge of social media has been gained primarily from experience, reading articles, a few workshops, and following those who are savvy in this business. I wasn’t extremely fond of Twitter when I started out but I listened to the advice of those around me and they all said the same thing, ‘engage!’

So what is Visual Marketing online? It’s quite simply everything you do to represent your business visually whether that be images and graphics, animated GIFs, slideshows, video or live streaming. In half an hour we could only cover a limited amount, so I decided to keep it to mostly still images and graphics for this workshop. Below are the tips I shared, plus the bonus one.

Follow these 10 top tips for using Twitter for your business and you'll never look back.