Digital & Social Media Life - Quick Update!

Last month, I started my new journey to becoming the big shot, social media and digital marketing goddess which I long to be, I started my Digital Marketing & Social Media apprenticeship! I actually can't believe a month has gone by already to be totally honest, we're half way through 2014 already?! Can we just slow down please?  So, what have I been getting up to I hear you ask? Well the process is slightly slower than originally expected, however that is not to say that i'm bored and not doing anything. I am just getting into the swing of things!  The company I work for have no social media presence at all at the moment so I am literally the person my whole office is relying on to get things off the ground so all eyes are on me!  I have started putting a little SEO (search engine optimisation) & SMO (social media optimisation) techniques into all of our platforms so this means that more people who are wanting something from our industry are more likely to find us. Things which can help do this are keywords, update your social media platforms regularly because the more Google can see that you're keeping updated and your relevant to the search, the higher you're company will get when somebody searches your industry. Anyway, less of the boring stuff! I'm loving basically being a twitter busy body in the office and I can spend dayss on Pinterest if i'm not careful! I'm not doing too much tweeting at the moment as I'm just settling in but it's great keeping up to date with whats going on and having a nosy at our competitors! One of the most exciting moments was obviously sending out my first tweet! It's a really weird feeling knowing it's going to a totally different audience and whether they're going to accept you or not - although it's not like people even know that its me writing behind that screen so it's like a whole new way of re-inventing myself! Basically that's me in a nut shell, it's been a really great journey so far and i'm really looking forward to taking my company further, I think we're going to try and put an architecture blog together for our website which would be really exciting, if you have any thoughts on that, please let me know as I'm not sure how accepted it would be out there!  Look out for more updates coming soon, hopefully when we get our blog up and running! I wouldn't be having half the fun i'm having at the moment if it wasn't for my blog. I am loving being on this journey and following a dream I didn't even realise I had until recently so thank you everyone who has supported me this far and will continue doing so in the future!

Love,

Tips From A Beginner, To A Beginner!

Happy Wednesday lovelies. Today is a landmark day in the world of Trixybelle, a very tiny landmark, but a landmark all the same!    So this is my 10th post *little cheer* my first very small scale blogging achievement. And even though in the blogging world it is a small achievement, it's an achievement to me! 

So to celebrate my little achievement, I thought I would share some tips of what I have learnt so far being a beginner in the blogging world, to anyone out there who is just starting out as well!    1. Go For it!  When I first started out I wasn't really sure if blogging was the thing for me, I didn't really have a niche or a set topic so I thought I would just be trying to write about things but people wouldn't care and no one would read. However I was totally wrong. Although sometimes I do get worried that I am going slightly under the radar, it's all about getting yourself out there, social media will become your best friend! If I do get slightly down about not getting noticed, I remember how much I love blogging. I love being able to be me and people read about things I love and getting good feedback on a post you've written is a really encouraging feeling! If you're reading this thinking about blogging but are not sure it is something for you, just do it, go for it! It's the best thing I have ever done and when I look back to the beginning of my journey I really wouldn't change anything. Be who you are, blog about what you want and readers will enjoy anything. You will be surprised at what people actually want to read about on the internet! 

Or Guy...

2. Get Glipho

One of the best tips I have received so far is to join Glipho. It is a social site where you can promote your blog and get it noticed more. You can choose a category which best suits your blog post so it gets trending more on the site. All you have to do is import your posts on to the site. It's a really easy site to use and a great way to connect with other bloggers like you and also do some great self promoting! Also if you share your post on twitter through Glipho, the team are great at promoting your blog for you so they will retweet your tweet or do a tweet for you, promoting your new post. Really easy to use and it has kept me blogging, otherwise I really would feel like I was slipping under the radar. There are other sites like Glipho, for example Bloglovin' which I have signed up for but don't actually use as I feel it's slightly over complicated and Glipho is a lot easier to use in my opinion, but for more views I would recommend having both as the more sights you share your blog on, the more you'll get noticed. 

3. Don't be scared of being you.

Something which really shocked me being a blogger was how much people actually like to read something which seems more personal. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there, if you have an idea of a post which you think you would like to read - majority of the time, this means that someone else will want to read it too!  Obviously I'm not saying throw your whole life out there but I know that I love reading blog posts which are a little bit personal to someone, it's great feeling like you're getting to know the writer without even talking to them. So if you are thinking of doing a personal blog but you're worried that people wont want to read it, don't be, referring back to my first point - Go for it! 

4. Twitter

Twitter is really really useful for bloggers. The use of the # is really key for getting your blog noticed for example #fbloggers #bbloggers #lbloggers are the main tags to use for fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers, I know that I follow what goes on so other people definitely will be. It's great to get your blog out there. Also twitter communities are great, there are a couple of chats which you can follow through the week for example - #fblchat, #bloggerspace  are a couple of chats which go on during the week, you can follow these on twitter and get chatting. I've met loads of new people through the chats and again - a great way to get your blog out there and noticed. Also people on twitter are lovely so any questions which you have about the blogging world, I have always found the answer through asking these chats, everyone is always glad to help and you can learn loads of cool tips and tricks of the trade! Take a look, #fblchat every Tuesday night 8pm - 9pm. #bloggerspace every Thursday night 7pm - 8pm. 

Images Images Images! 

The best blogs to read in my opinion are the ones which have lots of images. They are a great way of breaking up text so that people don't get put of my large amounts of essay like text when they log onto your blog! And they can make your blog look great and also add a sense of humour, everybody loves a good meme right?! Google is your oyster, have a look at anything you like, I could spend hours looking at Google images collecting funny little images for my blog, it's great. Not just Google either, images can be used to make your blog seem more personal by adding a quick selfie or a picture of something you've recently done/somewhere you've been! 

I hope my tips have been helpful to you and if you are thinking of blogging but not sure, go for it, it's the best thing you'll ever do! 

I hope the next 10 posts of mine will keep me going strong as a blogger and I'm sure there will be many stories to come, you can follow my journey to becoming a successful blogger right here! See you soon!

 

Thoughts From A Digital Marketing & Social Media Apprentice!

Hello dear internetters, readers, bloggers, whoever you are, hello! I hope you have all had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed a lovely bank holiday weekend to do well... nothing - I know that's exactly what I did anyway. The weather was lovely for a couple of the days here in England so I did try to get out and enjoy some of that. Anyway, I am coming to you today to tell you about some really exciting news which was given to me just before the bank holiday Easter weekend. Trust me, all I have wanted to do since I was given the news is get onto my blog and share it with all of you, however Gossip Girl has seriously taken over my life at the moment so I apologise for that.
Back to the news...

So as I have previously mentioned I have just completed my Level 2 Business Administration course at my current office which I am glad I had the opportunity to do. I have recently established however, that what I really longed to do is Digital Marketing and Social Media. I thought that if I wanted to pursue my dream I was going to have to leave my current employer and look for somewhere that would let me do the apprenticeship course as this is the only way I was going to be able to get into this sort of career as I didn't go to college etc. So anyway my career coach, which I got as part of my previous apprenticeship course, came in to my office to see me and she knows how much I would love to be given the opportunity to do the Digital Marketing & Social Media course which they offer. At first my coach didn't think that she would be able to help because my current office doesn't really have the capacity and they are not really into all of the social media side of marketing and the academy weren't allowed to move me to a different employer offering the course with more capacity as this was ultimately against their 'rules'. As you can imagine this was heartbreaking as I do love my job at the moment and I would have loved to be the one able to introduce the company into social media. Anyway, after a long morning of talking to my boss and my career coach, it was finally decided that it was exactly what the business needed and it would be a great opportunity for me to get the qualification for me to progress into the industry. I think my heart might have skipped a beat as I tried to contain my excitement so as not to look like a total loony in the middle of the office!

This is what I was imagining in my head... 

So you are now looking at... Trixybelle, the new Digital Marketing & Social Media apprentice for Architect CT! (Every time I call myself that I can't stop smiling!) 

I am so lucky to be given this opportunity and I will be counting myself lucky the entire year I am doing the course for. My boss is amazing for giving me this exciting chance and I cannot wait to get started and stuck into something new!

If you are 16-18 and are looking for an opportunity like this or you are interested in a different apprenticeship course, get in touch with The Apprentice Academy, Manchester. I know that I am 19 but I did become an apprentice when I was 18 so that doesn't matter. After doing one course, there are loads of courses to choose from to progress to once your first level is complete - look at me, I was a business admin apprentice and now I'm doing something totally different! 

A really old photo of an excited me, I was so excited because I knew this day would come!

Stick around to follow my journey being a Digital Marketing & Social Media Apprentice, who knows where I could end up next?

Love,

Trixybelle xoxo