Author: Akiko Design

When you think about content marketing, video may not be the first thing that leaps to mind, but it is a hugely important marketing channel for businesses, and it’s on the rise.

A 2018 report by Cisco* has predicted that global video traffic will grow four times between 2017 and 2022, and video will make up 82% of internet traffic by 2022. Video has a very bright future, then, and the beauty of it is that it works for all businesses, of any size.

There are all sorts of video-making resources out there for business owners wanting to make greater use of video in their marketing. To help you narrow it down, we asked our VAs to tell us about their favourites. Here’s what they chose!

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Hashtags didn’t exist more than a decade ago. Now, they’re everywhere.

Social tech expert, Chris Messina, is said to have created the very first hashtag on Twitter. He posted #barcamp in August 2007 in this Tweet:

‘How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]??’

Interestingly, Chris’ hashtag recommendation was turned down by Twitter amid claims they would never catch on…

Fast forward to today and hashtags are pretty much everywhere on social media, and not just on Twitter where they originated either.

But for all their popularity, there are still some common mistakes that often catch people out, which can impact the effectiveness of their hashtags. Here are three of them:

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Email is at the heart of every business – for keeping in touch with clients, managing projects and marketing to customers – but it is so easy for your email inbox to get out of hand.

According to research,* the average office worker receives about 90 emails per day, and sends about 40. That’s a staggering number of emails zipping back and forth and taking up space in your inbox. Of course, because it’s all online, it’s tempting to let the backlog build up, but if your inbox is so overflowing that you lose track of important emails, or you just feel overwhelmed every time you open it, then it’s time to do something about it.

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Do you collect data about your business? It might seem like an obvious thing to do, but for many small business owners the answer is ‘no’, even though harnessing the power of data can help you to increase your revenues, reach more customers and grow your business.

In the modern world, the most effective way to gather data is through a website. However, according to research published in 2017,* nearly two million SMEs don’t have a website, even though they stand to gain the most growth in revenue by having one. So what’s so important about gathering data, and if you don’t do it already, where should you begin?

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Get Ahead VA offers a wide range of business and marketing services. In our Service Spotlight, we take a closer look at one of these and show you how our virtual assistants can help you and your business. This month, with the aim of getting organised for the new year, we’re looking at administration.

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Happy new year, and welcome to 2019! Here at Get Ahead VA we love a new year – it’s the perfect time to look ahead and make plans, and what better plan for your business than to make sure it grows this year?

If you want to see your small business blossom, here are three tried-and-tested methods which can help to make 2019 a great year for your business.

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If you’re a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to turn off, even over the Christmas holidays. And in that awkward period between Christmas and New Year, it can be all too easy to find yourself working again, without having taken a proper break.

But this is an important time of year for entrepreneurs to rest and recover, so if you’re finding it difficult to take time off before the new year, read on for our top R&R tips for business owners.

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As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to look back on all you’ve achieved and acknowledge the hard work of the people who helped to get you there. If you’re a business owner, this will include your employees – that dedicated team of people who keep things running smoothly all year round.

But how can you show your appreciation for your employees in a meaningful way? Read on to discover some of our favourite ways to say thank you.

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At this busy time of year, all sorts of jobs can fall to the bottom of your to-do list – and staying active on LinkedIn can easily be one of them. But there are a number of benefits to keeping up your online efforts over the festive season (although, of course, you must take a proper break too!).

For many businesses, LinkedIn is one of the most valuable platforms out there. With over 40% of its 500 million members using the site daily,1 it’s worth keeping up with LinkedIn during December if you can.

Want to know more? Here’s our advice about using LinkedIn over the festive season. (more…)

Some of us have significant people in our lives whose words have helped us immeasurably in difficult situations.  And mostly, those people have no idea how much their pearls of wisdom have stuck with us: for me, that person is my dad.  He’s not that old, my dad.  Whilst he doesn’t have much hair left, and he’s old enough to qualify for a free bus pass, he’s certainly no wizened old sage who sits cross-legged atop a mountain.  He just has a way with words, and as I’ve grown older, I’ve realised that half the things he says aren’t even his own words, so perhaps his real skill is knowing the right thing to say at the right time.

Why on earth was he asking me about elephants?

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