I returned from Peru last Saturday night (in May 2019) and have been in catch-up mode this past week. I feel like I’m constantly jumping from one thing to the next as I think of people who I need to get in touch with and projects I need to handle. I do have a task list, yet there’s always something else that comes up that’s not on the list!

I probably need to follow Connie Green’s productivity challenge to get a better handle on my time!

Here are 5 things I have been reading, watching and checking out:

1. If you’re a foodie, then you’ll love this article in Bon Appetit called Where Potatoes Pass From the Ice to the Sun, about having lunch at MIL restaurant outside of Cusco. I read this article two days before leaving for Peru and immediately texted my friend and guide, Silver Ballon to see if he could get our group in for lunch after our 5-day trek. He was successful and we enjoyed an amazing 5-hour, 8-course lunch. You can see some of my pictures here.

2. I didn’t get much reading done while in Peru which means I’m still working my way through The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran for our book club discussion next week in the Marketing Trailblazers Community.

3. You may know that I’ve been practicing Intermittent Fasting for nearly 10 months, inspired by my colleague, Dr. Ellen Britt. If you’re curious, here’s a TEDx talk that does a nice job of laying out the benefits of fasting. I’ve lost 37 lbs and feel fabulous!

4. Video creation and marketing take up a lot of my brain space as it does with my clients: what are the best tools, what platform to use; square vs. portrait vs. landscape video… This announcement from Instagram caught my eye yesterday. They will no longer only require portrait (vertical) videos on IGTV. You can now upload landscape videos as well. If you have a ton of landscape videos (under 10 min) languishing on YouTube, why not give them new life on Instagram TV?

5. And finally, a recommendation for a tool I use a lot: Rev. It’s a transcription service that costs $1 per recorded minute. Transcribing your videos, whether they’re 1 minute or 30 minutes, is a cost-effective way to create repurposed content from audio and video. Whenever I’m interviewed on a podcast or video program, I almost always transcribe the video so I can pull out the best parts to create new blog posts, social media posts, and emails. It’s well worth the investment to save time and energy and create new content. You can get a $10 coupon for Rev here.

What have you been reading in the last few weeks? Please let me know in the comments, below. And, feel free to share the post with your friends and colleagues!

Denise
You Guide To Better Visibility on the Web

This post was originally published as an email on May 24, 2019.

Click here to catch up on previously published 5 Things emails.

Photo by Reinis Birznieks on Unsplash

The post 5 Things…Eating, Fasting, Reading, and Transcribing appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Throughout the course of every day, I use the Google Keep app on my phone and on the web, to save and make notes about what I want to share, review, read, and remember. I tag the notes liberally since there’s a lot of crossover between my interests and my work.

This morning I was perusing the notes that I had recently tagged “Content to Curate” and “Travel.”

Here are 4 things I have been reading…

1. Ann Handley: WHY WE NEED SMALLER STORIES IN CONTENT MARKETING. Ann makes the case for honing in on the specific, detailed stories that we’re telling to create content that helps our audience relate to our message.

2. Peru: take the high road to Inca glory – I’m obsessed with Peru (as you might know). I love the country and I went back recently for two weeks to share my love of the Andes with a group of women and their daughters. We trekked to Machu Picchu. This article reveals how much more there is to Peru, beyond MP.

3.   I read A LOT. And I read many genres, including world literature. Yesterday, I found out that Amazon is giving away 9 Kindle books by authors from around the world, to celebrate World Book Day. You can download any or all of the books here. I downloaded 8 of the books since I had already read one of them.

4.  In the Marketing Trailblazers Book Club, we’re reading The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months* by Brian P. Moran. The book was recommended by my colleague, Sue Painter of Confident Marketer.

What I’m Checking Out

5. The geek in me loves trying out new marketing tools. In fact, when I did my taxes, I discovered software was one of my biggest expenses last year! I justify it by telling myself that it’s my job to experiment with tools and software in order to make the best recommendations to my clients so that they can be more productive and efficient with their time and energy.

I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz about the launch of a tool called iTaggz*, software that helps you find the best, trending hashtags on Instagram. I bought it yesterday and logged in this morning to give it a test.

Impressive. Hashtags are the secret sauce of Instagram. It’s how your content gets found and seen by a wider audience. It’s how you find influencers and grow your following.

The iTaggz software is easy to use to research what hashtags brands and niche businesses are using and the amount of engagement they’re getting. You can save and categorize your research and even have daily emails sent to you with the top recent posts and hashtags in your niche. Make a list of the top hashtags and use them in your IG posts (make sure they make sense for YOUR content). The tutorial videos are short and simple to understand and implement. iTaggz is currently $49.

What have you enjoyed reading and experimenting with in the last few weeks? Please let me know in the comments, below. And, feel free to share the post with your friends and colleagues!

Denise
You Guide To Better Visibility on the Web

This post was originally published as an email on April 19, 2019.

Click here to catch up on previously published 5 Things emails.

Photo by Reinis Birznieks on Unsplash

The post 5 Things… Peru, Smaller Content and Hashtags appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.