Callous Cactus

Callous Cactus Callous Cactus is a social media consultancy for small/medium businesses. We are here to help you to

This would be funny, if it wasnt true (or is that why it is funny???)People dont seem to read social media posts with an...
25/10/2021

This would be funny, if it wasnt true (or is that why it is funny???)

People dont seem to read social media posts with any great comprehension - even when it is spelt out to them.

Im sure you have posted something and have then had people looking for answers to questions that were answered by the actual post itself.

It doesnt matter what the industry is, or what the subject matter is....its just happens.

So what's the answer? Accept it.
🌵Accept that people wont read your post in great detail.
🌵Accept that people will still ask questions.
🌵Accept that while people keep asking, they are helping with your engagement rate which is signifying to the algorithm that this is of interest so will "push" it out to more people.
🌵Accept that at the very least you have tweaked someone's interest in your post.

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I was recently invited by the Flight Centre Travel Academy to talk about Branding, both Personal and Business, as well a...
07/09/2021

I was recently invited by the Flight Centre Travel Academy to talk about Branding, both Personal and Business, as well as my business "journey" as part of their Branding modules.

I really enjoyed it... and I think I even sounded credible!!

What I did notice was the clothes we were wearing highlighted the difference between winter in Adelaide to winter in Brisbane.... I'm in a puffer jacket and Trish is wearing a t-shirt!!!




The sound of the till ringing is sweeter music to your ears, and wallet, than the ping of a "Like"Don't fall into the m...
26/08/2021

The sound of the till ringing is sweeter music to your ears, and wallet, than the ping of a "Like"

Don't fall into the misconception that success is the number of likes you get from a post (unless that' is your goal) the success should always be the overall growth of your business.

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Check your vanity at the door. 🌵 The number of followers you have is irrelevant and is called a 'vanity metric'. It doe...
18/07/2021

Check your vanity at the door.

🌵 The number of followers you have is irrelevant and is called a 'vanity metric'. It doesn't tell you much

🌵 Don't get caught up in the number of followers you have, focus on how engaged they are and if your sales or enquiries are increasing.

🌵 Check your analytics to see which posts garner more engagement and keep delivering this style and your numbers will increase organically.

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It's important to build trust if you want to build your business on social media Like in real life, you can build trust...
15/07/2021

It's important to build trust if you want to build your business on social media

Like in real life, you can build trust by:

🌵 Showing up regularly. Our can't be a one sided relationship
🌵 Show your face. Let people know that there is a real human behind the business.... and don't be afraid to show your personality.
🌵 Stop selling and engage. No one likes being sold to all the time
🌵 Offer value. Give your customers a reason to follow you. Offer tips or different ways too use your product or services.

Just remember, people but from people.

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10/07/2021

Everybody is looking for the magic formula to grow their followers quickly...but there isn't one except to produce good content that your followers want to see.

And have a go at Reels.

Reels are a short form video entertainment platform and Instagram is putting a lot into growing Reels to combat Tik Tok's growing popularity.

The benefit of Reels is that
🌵they don't disappear after 24 hours.
🌵they show up in on your feed
🌵You can use hashtags
🌵Instagram are pushing them out to more people so they are easily discoverable

🎥 It is time to embrace video! The boss of Instagram went on to say that Instagram will reward those that use Reels, IGT...
10/07/2021

🎥 It is time to embrace video!

The boss of Instagram went on to say that Instagram will reward those that use Reels, IGTV, Live and Stories because these formats drive more engagement, for longer on the platform.

No-one likes the sound of their own voice, and most people dont like their look on camera but video is a great way to:
🌵 Express your personality,
🌵 Product demonstrations
🌵 BTS (behind the scenes)
🌵 Destinations
🌵 the mood of a person or place
🌵 collaborate with a complimentary business or product

🎬 You will hate the first few that you do (but your followers won't) but you'll get used to it.... So lights, camera, action.
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Super Simple Hashtag Strategy 🚨⁣⁣New-comers get scared of hashtags, but don't as they are a great way to increase your ...
08/07/2021

Super Simple Hashtag Strategy 🚨⁣
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New-comers get scared of hashtags, but don't as they are a great way to increase your reach and find new customers.

The key is to be relevant. No point having a hashtag about cars when your post is about gardening.

Here's an easy way to come up with hashtags for your business. Try this…⁣
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🌵 Write out your 5 big topics in your niche⁣
🌵 Next, write out 3 relevant words or short phrases (hashtags) per topic⁣
🌵 Then select 10 hashtags that are specific to what you’re posting about⁣
🌵 This will give you 25 hashtags you can use for your post⁣
🌵 Develop 3 hashtags that are specific to your own branding (ie or )
🌵 Keep the "big generic hashtags" to a minimum (such as etc) as it will be hard to show up in someone's feed when there are millions of people using these hashtags. Aim for hashtags in the 10k-100k range (these figures should show up when you go to add your hashtags or there are apps you can get)
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Now you can just reuse those 15 core hashtags and the 3 specific branding hashtags and only have to pick 10 new hashtags when you create a new post⁣, and the last 2 can be the generic, but still relevant, hashtags. This will give you the maximum of 30 that Instagram allows.
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This will help you with discovery and also let Instagram know that you want to be associated with those niche hashtags when you use them repeatedly.⁣
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Hope this helps!⁣ You've got this.
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Let me know below what your favorite hashtag strategy is⁣.
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Dont smother your socials.In traditional marketing we talk about the 4 pillars: Product, Price, Place & Promotion, which...
27/06/2021

Dont smother your socials.

In traditional marketing we talk about the 4 pillars: Product, Price, Place & Promotion, which in a nutshell is: what are you making/selling & for whom, how much will they pay, where are they & how will you tell them about it.

The 4 Pillars should be applied to your social media strategy, but you need to be aware of the 4 Pillows – as they can kill your strategy. ☠️

🌵 Pillow #1: Not understanding your audience. You need know to know everything about your customer. Who are they? Where are they? Why do they buy? Who else do they buy? How often? How much do they spend? What are their pain points? Etc. Build a customer profile.

If you don’t understand your customer, how can you properly communicate with them?

🌵 Pillow #2: Not understanding your own product and offerings. What problem does your product solve for your customers? How are you different from your competitors?

You must understand what your customers are really buying & the psychological reasons behind it & promote that.

🌵 Pillow #3: Not looking at the analytics. Every social media platform gives you data. Analyse it. It tells you who is looking at your posts, which posts work better than others, & how long they look at your videos, among other things.

Use the data to tell you what’s resonating with your customers, then give your audience more of it.

🌵 Pillow #4: Being beige. Social media allows businesses to communicate directly with their customers with greater access than ever before. This means that your customers are bombarded with images & videos thousands of times a day. You have to stand out to stop the scroll.

Dont be boring. Use high impact visuals & language.

Dont get these right, & your socials will continue to be a snooze-fest with nothing but crickets chirping in the deafening silence.

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Turn your employees into ambassadors of your brand. Content shared by an employee has a greater engagement rate.On avera...
25/06/2021

Turn your employees into ambassadors of your brand.

Content shared by an employee has a greater engagement rate.

On average your employees have a network 10x larger than your business' follower base - try and tap into it.

To keep some control of the messaging it helps to set up some guidelines:
🌵 Define a social media policy
🌵 Create a distribution plan
🌵Train your employees on how to promote your brand
🌵 Make it easy for them to share content
🌵 Encourage employees to create content
🌵 Build an incentive/recognition program for your employees to encourage them to share company posts

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♻ Reuse. Recycle. Repurpose. ♻Like a used water bottle, don't throw away good content after just one use. Think about ne...
23/06/2021

♻ Reuse. Recycle. Repurpose. ♻

Like a used water bottle, don't throw away good content after just one use.

Think about new ways you can use it over your different social media platforms. If the idea is strong enough you might be able to reuse on the same platform.

Turn that cool photo into a meme or write about it and turn it into a blog piece. You might be able to use it as a story on Instagram or add music and turn it into a Tik Tok post.

Not only will this extend the life of the idea, it can actually add new life to the original piece and it will help reach more people over your different socials.

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You need to be where your customers are. It seems pretty obvious, but sometimes we get caught up with what we want rathe...
21/06/2021

You need to be where your customers are. It seems pretty obvious, but sometimes we get caught up with what we want rather than what our customers want.

There are so many social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tik Tok, WhatsApp just to name a few, but this is only scratching the surface, and there are new ones popping up every day.

You cant be on all of them. Well, you can, but you cant be effective if you are trying to be on all of them.

There is no point being on Facebook if your customer base is a Tween, or alternatively if your customers are thinking more about accessing their "super", then possibly they will think Tik Tok is a mode of transport in Thailand rather than a new social media platform (although this may change as the platform develops), then this may not be the best place to focus all your efforts.

Find out from your customers which social media they use regularly and focus on the main ones...and do them well.

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"How often should I post?" is the most often asked question. While there is no hard and fast rule, being consistent and ...
17/06/2021

"How often should I post?" is the most often asked question. While there is no hard and fast rule, being consistent and regular is the key.

Decide on a posting schedule and stick to it.

Things that might influence your schedule are:
🌵 how active are your followers?
🌵 is your business a regular purchase or a one off?
🌵 how well known is your business?
🌵 are you trying to build awareness/sales/brand?
🌵 is your business seasonal?
🌵 do you have a lot to tell - ie regular new products or services?
🌵 have you got the time and systems in place to commit to the schedule?

🎲 Social media is not random...it takes a well thought out strategy.

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I know 50, 100, 200 or even 1000 followers may not seem like a lot to you, especially when comparing yourself with comp...
16/06/2021

I know 50, 100, 200 or even 1000 followers may not seem like a lot to you, especially when comparing yourself with companies, or people with 100,000's of followers.

But just remember....

Followers are not just numbers, they are real people.

When you start picturing them as real people in a real setting, such as in your store, or buying your product, you will start to see your "small number" is not as insignificant as you may have first thought.

You are having more of an impact than you think.

There's no point comparing yourself with other companies as every business is different, and the size of your followers is just an "ego metric".

You are better off having regular meaningful engagement with a small number of people that care about your business/product than a massive number of followers who do not engage with your business.

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As your business is unique (hopefully you've worked out your Unique Selling Proposition?) your social media content sho...
03/06/2021

As your business is unique (hopefully you've worked out your Unique Selling Proposition?) your social media content should also be unique...As it should:
🌵 reflect your business' personality
🌵 be consistent in its "tone of voice"
🌵 have it's own consistent style...whether that is in look, location, content etc

📣 Your social media should scream "THIS IS OBVIOUSLY ###XX BUSINESS"

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02/06/2021

Video didn't kill the radio star!

Unlike the song, video probably helped, and you have to get used to using video to help build engagement for your business.
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A recent survey shows that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support!*

Not only are your consumers wanting to see more of you and your business, all the reports are suggesting that the social media platforms also love video, as they see it as engaging content, and therefore push it out to more people.

It doesn't have to be to the exacting standards of a Steven Spielberg production, but here are some simple ideas:
🌵 "piece to camera"
🌵 Behind The Scenes
🌵 Introducing the team
🌵Unboxing new products
🌵 Product reviews
🌵 Tips
+ more

*Video Marketing Statistics 2020 – Wyzowl

If you know about the "Penske File"*, then chances are, you have no idea what hashtags are and why they are important. H...
01/06/2021

If you know about the "Penske File"*, then chances are, you have no idea what hashtags are and why they are important.

Hashtags are a way to file your posts on social media. They are also used to search for topics that you want to see posts about. They are widely used on Instagram (not so much on Facebook) who allow you to use up to 30 hashtags in each post.

By placing the Octothorpe or "number symbol" # before a word turns it into a hashtag ie . If someone is looking for posts about social media in Adelaide, then this post will show up. Where you show up in that list is another topic for another time. 😀

The best way to use hashtags is to think of words, or short common phrases (no spaces) that best describe your specific product, service, ideal customers and industry - and use them.

* For those too young to remember the sitcom Seinfeld, The Penske File is a fake folder of documents on which the Seinfeld character, George Costanza, pretends to work.

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+61881186341

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