Instagram Content Focus

Instagram Content Focus

This post could be titled, “Begin with the End in Mind”,  or “Establish Your Avatar”.

Decide on a topic or two for your Instagram account.

I can tell you from personal experience, that when I deviate from the general “topic” of my various Instagram accounts, I lose followers.

For example, I recently posted about how I grow my own greens in limited space on an Instagram profile that is generally motivational and business tip, and social media marketing tip, related — and with that one post, I lost followers, engagement was down and clicks through to my website in my bio, were practically non existent.  

All because the post wasn’t really pertinent to what i usually post about and my followers are not necessarily interested in gardening tips.

 

 

On the other hand when I keep the posts on that account targeted to the topics I generally cover, and I properly use hashtags – I’ve gained thousands of followers with a single post.  

If you have a wide variety of interests or more than one business…  you can easily have up to 5 different Instagram accounts.  

Do I suggest that you start 5 all at once?  

No.  Most of us have a hard enough time being focused and consistent with posting and engagement with one account.  

Oh, and Instagram rewards consistency.  So don’t overwhelm yourself.  It’s better to do one account well, than multiple accounts in a so so manner.  

So you have an account, and you’ve not been very focused with content, you’ve been all over the place with what you are posting and you are ready to switch it up a bit and get more focused on  different content —  should you start a new account or revamp an old account?  

Great question. 

If you have a well established account, with say 10K or more followers, then you might want to revamp an existing account, yes, as stated above you’ll probably lose some followers, but if the account is not working for you and you are changing or creating a focus for that account,  it’s not going to matter because you are likely not monetizing it as it stands.  Again, yes, you will lose some of your followers, but you are not going to lose all your followers, a percentage will stick, and the ones who do will be focused on your new, more targeted direction.

Sometimes more is not more.  What do I mean by that?  

First, social proof is extremely valuable and a huge factor in monetizing your Instagram account.  

What’s social proof?   Social proof is a decent number of followers, a high enough number that people sit up and take notice when they see your account.  But even more important is having followers who are interested and engaging with what it is that you are offering or promoting. So if you lose a percentage of your followers by changing, or  creating a focus, it’s generally short term pain for long term gain. Having a slightly smaller following of those who are interested in what you are focused on, is why I stated, sometimes more is not more.  

On the other hand if you have an account with a minimal following and no real engagement, then in some ways the same still holds true.  You might as well make the switch, change your topics, even change your username, AND by all means keep tweaking your bio, and even if you were to lose most of your following, it really won’t make a difference, because it was small to start with and chances are good you were not already monetizing your account..  

Start posting content that is more narrowly targeted, transition your current account or accounts, and generally within a few days or a week or two you’ll stop losing followers and start gaining again, which of course means new and targeted eyeballs on your marketing messages which is the ultimate goal.

FAQ’s:

Avatar?  Marie, at the beginning of this post, what did you mean by that?  

Developing an “avatar”, and then targeting that avatar simply means figuring out who it is, that you want to attract to your business, and what are topics that are of interest to them?  What topics fill their needs?  Then designing your content around what your ideal client or “avatar” is looking for, and interested in.  

Business account and personal pictures or not?  

There is NOTHING wrong with mixing in personal pictures on your Instagram “business” account.  

People like to feel like they know, like and trust those they are doing business with, and sharing personal pictures helps establish that bond.  So mix in pictures that are, other than, purely business related.  

TEST and test again, tweak and tweak again.  Convert your Instagram to a business account so that you have statistics and analytics available to you, so you can check on a daily basis to see what reaction your posts and captions are receiving.  Are people clicking through to the website link in your bio?  If not, tweak and tweak again till you find content that works for your avatar.  

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Help End Horse Slaughter

Help End Horse Slaughter

I hate to admit this but until I moved back to Canada from Southern California, I had no idea that horses were regularly slaughtered for human consumption.

Seriously, I thought I must be hearing things.

People eat horse meat?

People send their horses to auction, their pets, their companions,  without setting a minimum bid?  Meat buyers bid, win and haul them off to slaughter?  How is it possible that horse slaughter exists?

Fit, young, completely sound horses, including pregnant mares, are regularly slaughtered in Canada to be eaten by humans, and in addition, some are shipped to Japan from Canada, crammed in crates,  to be slaughtered there?

If you are like me, you are appalled to find this out.

Horses of all shapes and sizes, including well bred, well trained, “registered”, expensive horses are routinely slaughtered to be eaten by humans.  Healthy horses, young horses, and yes, again, even pregnant mares.

Horses like Jack, a handsome, dark, 16.2 HH percheron, likely crossed with a thoroughbred, who is light and responsive under saddle and who was on the door step of a slaughter plant in Alberta, but who was mercifully brought back to British Columbia to live out his days as a beloved riding horse.  A horse you can jump on bareback, ride with or without a bridle, who will go any where, through anything, and all day long.

Horses like 16.2 HH thoroughbred DJ who raced in British Columbia and in California, who was then re-trained to successfully 3 day event. A horse who made any one who rode him look not just good, but great.  A horse who would bring a big silly grin to the face of my favorite riding instructor, while she would repeat again and again, “He’s so lovely”.

Horses like 17.2 HH Puff, registered as a North American Spotted Draft (see the picture at the top of this post) who began his life in Alberta where he was trained to drive, double and single before he was 3 and who was sold at 3 for $10,000.  A horse it turns out who later also had professional training by a well known driving instructor, and as a result was featured in a magazine article.

A horse who loads like a dream, travels like a dream, who loves to be bathed, and to swim. A horse who has impeccable ground manners and loves to work.

A horse who through no fault of  his own ended up passed between a few hands and who on two separate occasions almost went to slaughter.

He came to me at about 8 years of age, for a song. 8 is young for a horse, not even considered middle aged.  I did not at first know his background, but it didn’t take me long to figure out that someone had trained him well,  and it seemed to me that he knew how to drive — a few tests and yes, it turned out that he did — and then he took to the saddle, he looked to pick up contact, and he loves to go, but if you say “WHOA” at any gait, you best be ready to stop, which is of course a very good thing!

Horses like Moose, 17.2 HH, Clyde x Thoroughbred.  It turns out that he too came to me, direct from a meat buyer at 8 years of age.  At the time I didn’t know about his background, but it was obvious he’d been well handled.  Tested from the ground and then from the saddle,  and when the jumps came out, he not only knew exactly what to do, it turns out he loves to jump!

How could a horse, that I came to learn originally came from a breeding program where horses regularly sold for $60,000 or more, a horse who is the bravest horse you’ll find any where, a perfectly sound, young horse, who again loves to jump, end up almost slaughtered for human consumption?

It happens every single day in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  EVERY SINGLE DAY.  The USA has banned the slaughter of horses within U.S. borders but horses are routinely shipped from The U.S. to Canada and Mexico…

Amazing horses, young horses, sound horses, of every color, size, breed and of both sexes end up, again through no fault of their own,  slaughtered for human consumption.  Horses that are blank slates and horses who are well trained. Take your pick.

Yes, unbelievably, in Canada, a country we all consider to be a first world country, this barbaric practice exists.  To make matters worse horses are transported in ways that are not humane, slaughtered in ways that are meant for other species, and not only that, there are NOT any enforceable, accountable guidelines in place to protect those eating horse meat.

One of my neighbors asked why eating horse meat is any different than eating beef or other commonly consumed meat, and that’s a great question.

I want to go on the record and state that I don’t eat any meat but if I did, I would be concerned for a couple reasons including the fact that horse meat has ended up being sold as beef.

http://www.internationalhorseregistry.com/advertised-beef-pork-actually-horse-meat/

Even if you are okay with eating horse, you should be concerned.  It is up to those who are delivering horses to slaughter to declare, on an honor system, as to whether the horses they are delivering have been treated with drugs that are not intended to enter the food chain.  Veterinary drugs like wormers and pain killers such as phenylbutazone AKA “bute”,  are regularly given to horses, drugs that are clearly marked as NOT being meant for ANY animal that is to enter the human food chain.

One would think, that surely in Canada there are fool proof protocols in place to prevent horses treated with drugs not meant for human consumption from ending up on dinner plates.

You would think that horses that have been pets or working animals, and regularly treated with drugs that are common place in horse care, would not be slaughtered for human consumption,  BUT as you watch documentaries including “The Kill Pen“, you’ll find that the so called protocols are worthless.

You’ll also find as you go through http://banhorseslaughter.com and as you “Google” information about horse slaughter, that horse meat is knowingly and unknowingly eaten by humans in the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and Italy.  YES, you read that correctly, horse meat ends up in food products that are labeled as beef, so people are eating horse meat without realizing it.

If like me you are appalled at what is happening, I hope you’ll consider rescuing your next horse instead of buying.

I also hope that you’ll consider donating to organizations like Canadian Horse Defense Coalition, so that work to prevent the unnecessary slaughter of horses can continue, and so that horses being rescued can be properly cared for, and so that fewer will end up being slaughtered.

Surely by working together we can, once and for all, ban the slaughter of horses in Canada, Mexico and beyond.

THANK YOU for not just reading, but for taking action.

If you are not in a position to adopt, or donate, and even if you are, please also consider a phone call to your provincial and national politicians to demand that the slaughter of horses in Canada be stopped, and please share this site far and wide, use YOUR social media accounts to do good!

If you are Canadian…

A recent Canadian Government sponsored petition has come to a close. The government has 45 days after the close date (October 11, 2018) to respond.

YOUR help on the matter is still required.

PLEASE take a few minutes to call your Member of Parliament, if at all possible ask for a meeting with your member, at the very least leave them a message telling them that you oppose the slaughter of horses within Canada and the shipping of horses outside of Canada to be slaughtered for human consumption in other markets.

Don’t be surprised if they don’t know anything about this matter.

Please also take the time to write a note, and please reach out to the Minister of Agriculture and let him know that you are opposed to horse slaughter in any form.

Find your Member of Parliament by clicking here.

You can find the Minister of Agriculture (Federal Government) by clicking here. (Lawrence MacAulay, Cardigan, Prince Edward Island)

AND before you think that ALL YOU CAN DO IS WRITE AND USE SOCIAL MEDIA. PLEASE do NOT underestimate YOUR power. Share information about the slaughter of horses in Canada (and beyond), and how even though the USA has banned the slaughter of horses, horses from America are being shipped to Canada to be slaughtered here.

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Grow Your Own Greens & More

Grow Your Own Greens & More

Almost 20 years ago, while living in California I read a book, Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, by Elliot Coleman. Today I own 3 or 4 of his books and another couple on the same subject.

This subject is a departure from what I usually cover here, but I think with so many stories surfacing about E Coli and “greens” and “cucumbers” that it’s time i share a little bit about how I grow my own vegetables 8 months of the year, even though I live in British Columbia, Canada about 4 hours north of the United States and Canadian border, a region that most think is too cold to grow anything outside of the end of May through the first of September.

Look at the map, chances are really good that if you are in North America and reading this you are further south than I am. Oh, and did I mention that we’re on the side of a mountain, so at a much higher elevation than most others, which means even colder temperatures, and we get 7 to 11 feet of snow.

[If you are in Nova Scotia, and even further north, don’t despair, the warming of the Atlantic Ocean gives you an edge. I have many friends there, and in other parts of the Maritimes, doing the same thing I am, extending their growing season and picking early and well into December.]

Neighbours and friends have asked me for years to document what I do, and how I do it, including many, who at first, tried to tell me that living in Canada there was no point planting any thing till the 24th of May, or even later in the season. Many who had fabulous vegetable gardens in the heat of the summer and early fall, but who harvested most, if not all, and gave up growing the first part of September, and who didn’t harvest much of anything, until well into June or July.

After reading one of Elliot Coleman’s books and realizing that he was growing vegetables in the late winter, and early spring, and very late into the fall, even into the winter, and that he was in Maine — when I moved back to Canada from Southern California, I thought it was worth a try. After all, I’ve been to Maine in the winter when it was so cold that the ski hills were closed, if he could do it, I figured, so could I. Look at the map above and note how far north Maine is.

At risk? A few packages of seeds, if it didn’t work, oh well. I’m not a gambler and I don’t buy lotto tickets, but I was willing to risk purchasing seed packages and planting them earlier than those around me, earlier than the nay sayers.

Two of my neighbours immediately embraced the concept. One who was raising livestock, keeping bees and growing vegetables organically, and is constantly reading and experimenting, and the other a cancer survivor, with a huge and wonderful organic vegetable garden, who as she thought about what i was doing, realized that her Russian immigrant mother and grandmother had used techniques to extend the growing season on both ends, both in Russia and here in Canada. Both encouraged me and experimented in their gardens.

I was always hesitant to show my first “operation” near the U.S. and Canadian border because it become, very quickly, quite large and included 2 extremely large in the ground gardens, 3 big wooden “boxes” that were the whole width of our very oversized garage, plus above ground boxes with glass frames on top, and what I called my “greenhouse”, which is an unheated greenhouse, also known as a cold frame.

My cold frame, with raised beds inside that could be covered by grow cloth and/or glass, allowed me to create “micro climates” on the property, BUT the main focus of this blog post is how to grow without any “special” tools.

I was hesitant to share, because my gardens there were NOT something that others could easily duplicate, many would say to me “That’s fine for you Marie, because you have so much room and…”, my large gardens and specialized “tools” were testing grounds for what worked and didn’t work, and for all but 4 months of the year, we picked (and shared) a wide variety of vegetables.

In our new location, with out any special coverings, any “extra” techniques, with the simplest of raised beds we’re picking greens well into December.

Our salads by the first week in April generally had, and will have again, at least 35 ingredients, all from our garden. We did that, even before I had a cold frame there, we’re doing that again here, where we don’t have a cold frame.

There we ate from the gardens until the temperatures dropped to below minus 20 celsius (- 4 Fahrenheit), even after it snowed, and again, even before we had an unheated green house. (Again, we’re doing the same here, with our raised garden bed.)

I’m writing this at the end of the first week in December and we are still picking greens for huge salads, to juice and to sauté. We’ve had extremely heavy frost, nights well below freezing, a couple snow falls (that did not stick), but even after we have snow, as long as it doesn’t hit 20 below celsius, we’ll be able to knock, the snow back and still pick things like arugula and kale.

Yes, production slows down, we only have about 8 hours of daylight this time of the year, and my bed is tucked in behind a garage with large trees nearby, so it doesn’t get full light all day — and again we’re on the side of a mountain, not ideal conditions, but even still we’re still picking.

Our home and the property flooded out this spring, so our first directly seeded in the ground, and in raised beds, in our cold frame were completely flooded by multiple feet of ice cold water.

We moved and got a late start on putting together a vegetable producing “bed” at our new home so we didn’t have our usual early spring greens and vegetables.

Usually we seed cool weather “crops” as soon as we can work the soil, in March, but this year after flooding we moved so it was the third week in July before we took some, I believe 8″ x 2″ boards, set them out and created the sides of a box, on a rough, scraggly, drought ridden patch of “wanna be” grass with south east exposure, behind a garage, and very close to several large trees.

You can do a little digging (Googling) and see how people use bricks, cement blocks, straw bales, mounds, all kinds of simple techniques to create small areas to grow their own vegetables.

On a property dedicated to horses, where virtually every inch of every acre is optimized for horses, the area behind the garage, was the only spot that made sense, and again, it’s not really a great spot, it was the only flat spot not being utilized. Chances are good you’ll have a better spot in your back, front or side yard, one with better light than our “garden” spot.

We’re on acreage but you do NOT need acreage to do what we’re doing.

I also want to add that here we have local government imposed water restrictions. We have certain days we can water, certain hours we can water, yet we still made it work.

My slightly raised beds are only 3 feet wide, and can be any length. Mine here are about 18 feet long. BUT you’ll be amazed, when densely planted and thinned and picked as baby, or young greens, “come again” greens, how much you can grow, in even, 6 feet by 3 feet.

3 feet wide is easy to reach across even from just one side, and if you have access from both sides, super simple. PLUS if you decide to cover your crops with hoops and grow cloth, 3 feet wide is an ideal width. (I haven’t covered this year, I wanted to show how simple and productive the process can be, with the simplest of techniques.)

The first layer added to the open “bottom” of the wooden “box” was a couple inches of horse manure. Some of it well composted, some of it not, but it will completely compost by next spring, and will be turned over to amend the soil above and while composting it will give off “heat from below”. Heat from below is especially helpful in the early spring.

If you don’t have a ready source of manure of some kind, it’s not expensive to buy, you can find it in big plastic bags at any garden centre. That first layer can also be organic material such as leaves or grass cuttings. You don’t need much depth of soil to grow greens and that first layer of organic material serves multiple purposes including keeping your costs down.

The rest of the box we created was filled with top soil, including some organic soil we purchased in “bales”. Again, almost every inch of the acreage here is optimized for horses, and there wasn’t much “spare” top soil to be found on the side of this mountain.

I planted “cool” weather crops, things that will grow and do well in the summer, but that are also cool tolerant. Elliot Coleman does a great job of listing and organizing these in his books.

Examples of cool weather crops include but are certainly not limited to, spinach, carrots, lettuces, including arugula, Swiss chard, kale, mustards and Chinese greens, including bok choi. (Anson pulled the last of the carrots the first of December after pouring warm water around them to thaw the ground which at that point was still freezing at night and thawing out some days.)

Peas fall into the category of cool weather “crops”, and here we usually plant them by St. Patrick’s Day. I always plant some peas specifically to pick the shoots for salads, as well as others for their pods.

Oh, and before you say you don’t like kale, most of what we pick, including 4 types of chard and 4 types of kale is picked as baby greens and is “pick and come again”, so we have baby greens for 8 months of the year, greens that are sweet and tender.

Even those who swear they don’t like chard or kale like them when picked as baby greens, in salads mixed with lettuces of all sorts. People who don’t usually “love” salad, love our huge oversized salads of tender, sweet, baby greens.

Oh, and before you say you don’t have time to “weed”, I’m not a great weeder. Business, horses, and other outdoor activities, take precedent over weeding.

I kind of weed as I go, as I pick greens and veggies to eat each day, I pull a few here and there, and because I plant so densely once I pull the first set of weeds of the season, the lettuces and greens (and peas and carrots and other veggies) take over and squeeze out the weeds, so my daily pull a few here and there method works well for me.

Having said that look carefully at my pictures, there are plenty of weeds in between.

Again, I plant extremely densely, I pull some of the plants, thin them as they “mature” and we eat them as the season progresses, but people are still always surprised how densely and closely together I seed, so we get a lot of sweet, tender, baby greens out of an area that is not very big.

Some of the plants I resist picking and let them get a bit bigger with more mature leaves, but the vast majority I pick and pick and pick again, as baby greens, until it gets so cold that I give up for the season.

The point here is that you don’t need a huge space or anything that is too fancy to produce your own, ready supply of “greens” for a good chunk of the year.

As you look at Elliot Colmenan’s website or Instagram page, don’t be intimidated, you can do what he and others do on a small scale.

Think “cool weather” plants, Google, go through You Tube, dig around, read a book or two of Elliot’s and be sure to reach out and let me know what you’ve grown and where. Are you growing earlier than what would be considered the norm? How late in the season are you still producing? In what size space? If you’ve not yet, if this inspires you, I’d like to hear from you too.

TrueTwit or NOT?

TrueTwit or NOT?

When asked if I think TrueTwit is a valuable tool, I suggest people think about what it does.

It’s an anti spam tool that spams those wanting to follow you.

Why do you want to “validate” your followers?

If it were the other way around, if it gave you an opportunity to tell if those you are following are “real” accounts, that might be a reason to use it, but it doesn’t.

Almost no one fills out the captcha that TrueTwit sends via a Direct Message  to those wanting to follow you, those wanting to see your content, so you are going to lose potential followers.

TrueTwit can be hacked. All you need is a de-captcha tool and voila, you can follow anyone and use your OWN bot to fill out TrueTwit captcha. Funny isn’t it, that you can use a bot to circumvent a bot whose purpose is to prevent bots?

 

Ready to get rid of TrueTwit?

1.  Login to your Twitter account. 

2.  Click the “GEAR” in the right hand corner.

3.  Click “SETTINGS”.

4.  Click “APPS” and look through the list of APPS that have access to your Twitter account.

5.  Click “REVOKE APP” and while you’re there take a look for anything else that you’re not using!  

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VIDEO: How to Start a Speech

VIDEO: How to Start a Speech

Some how this popped up on YouTube, over 4 MILLION views, 8 minutes long — and it applies to networking events, public speaking, sales conversations, 3 way calls, dinner parties and so much more.

Enjoy!

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