Monday, 29 June 2015
Using Social Media As It Should Be

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 15 June 2015
Social Video - what you need to know
What are your options?
YouTube has been around forever -you create videos and you upload it. People visit You Tube to find things, it is part of the Google family, it has high usage in terms of searches and uploads. It has had no competition....
Then Twitter launched Vine, an app that allows you to record and share short play videos -like video tweets. Check it out here
Then Pinterest allowed gifs (moving images) shortly followed by video - linking to You Tube.
Facebook has recently added auto play in their news feed (where the video is playing without you pressing play) and featured video on business pages.
Enter Twitter again and the introduction of Meerkat and Periscope - both apps enabling users to create and then upload to Twitter videos straight from their phone. The difference between the two is that Periscope is live streams.
Technology is enabling us to connect with each other and customers in brand new ways every day - your smart phone and an app are allowing you to create and share what could have cost you hundreds of dollars, for next to nothing.
How will you use these channels to promote your business?

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 1 June 2015
Pinterest surpasses Instagram beating Google
- · Sell anything online
- · Blogger
- · Have many images of your work, locations etc
- · Have an app
- · Recipes
- · In the movie/film industry
- · Ideas / Imaginatikn / Creative space
- · Events/weddings/parties
- · Travel/tourism industry
Would you like more on Pinterest:

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 25 May 2015
So You Want To Be 1st Page On Google?

Craig has been working in the Information Technology and eBusiness marketing domains since 2000 and also draws from a wide range of commercial experience over the past 27 years within the academic, hospitality, retail and traditional marketing sectors.
Over the years his skills and expertise have been retained by such well known firms as Myer Stores, Novotel, Telstra, IBM and Federation University. As a Global Marketing Manager of an award winning Australian software company Craig was responsible for developing strategies to expand into several key markets, including North America, Europe and Asia; resulting in a four-fold increase in sales over a 3 year period.
An intimate knowledge of eBusiness, Internet marketing and marketing strategy has been attained from industry experience and also graduating from tertiary study with a Bachelor of Information Technology and also a Bachelor of Business (eBusiness) (Honours) from one of Australia's leading regional institutions, Federation University.
Craig has also lectured and coordinated a number of IT management and eBusiness subjects, as well as presenting several seminars and workshops in the field of marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimisation and eBusiness.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Who Will Do Your Next Task?

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 23 March 2015
Google Algorithm April 21 Update Confirms Importance of SOcial, LOcal & MObile (SOLOMO)
- Flash based sites marked down - not supported on many mobile devices (thanks Adobe!)
- Sufficiently readable text for mobile devices with need to zoom on screen
- Resizes and relocates content so user does not have to zoom or scroll horizontally, such as used in Gantry style templates
- Links that are easy to use on devices, preferably graphic based but more importantly with white space surrounds
Social, Local, Mobile (SOLOMO) now ‘front and center’ of Googles search parameters... we've been monitoring and discussing this movement for the past 18 months… no surprise to us!
- Keyword research - Precise keywords and long-tail keywords ever more important
- don't focus on generalised, industry related keywords - brute force approach penalty
- spend time crafting keywords through quality research tools, create effective funnels for conversion, don't focus on just 'the sale'
- Performance of websites:
- Higher performing sites will be given better rankings by Google
- Considerations for Page Load speed, bounce rates and time on site
- Indication for quality user engagement
- Content above the fold:
- Focus on immediacy of relevant content open page loading
- While Bing indexes first 100k - Google does whole pages but also indications of emphasis for first 100k
- High Quality Content a Priority
- What web users want AND where it can be found
- Humanising the web, focus back on the consumer

Craig has been working in the Information Technology and eBusiness marketing domains since 2000 and also draws from a wide range of commercial experience over the past 27 years within the academic, hospitality, retail and traditional marketing sectors.
Over the years his skills and expertise have been retained by such well known firms as Myer Stores, Novotel, Telstra, IBM and Federation University. As a Global Marketing Manager of an award winning Australian software company Craig was responsible for developing strategies to expand into several key markets, including North America, Europe and Asia; resulting in a four-fold increase in sales over a 3 year period.
An intimate knowledge of eBusiness, Internet marketing and marketing strategy has been attained from industry experience and also graduating from tertiary study with a Bachelor of Information Technology and also a Bachelor of Business (eBusiness) (Honours) from one of Australia's leading regional institutions, Federation University.
Craig has also lectured and coordinated a number of IT management and eBusiness subjects, as well as presenting several seminars and workshops in the field of marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimisation and eBusiness.
Friday, 6 March 2015
Why You Absolutely Still Need A Business Website!
Over the years, every now and then when attending networking events, we hear a familiar remark - ‘I don’t need a website’... we respond by saying ‘Good luck with that!’
'An operator of a truly sustainable business will recognise the value of securing and maximising the effectiveness of their digital space.'

Craig has been working in the Information Technology and eBusiness marketing domains since 2000 and also draws from a wide range of commercial experience over the past 27 years within the academic, hospitality, retail and traditional marketing sectors.
Over the years his skills and expertise have been retained by such well known firms as Myer Stores, Novotel, Telstra, IBM and Federation University. As a Global Marketing Manager of an award winning Australian software company Craig was responsible for developing strategies to expand into several key markets, including North America, Europe and Asia; resulting in a four-fold increase in sales over a 3 year period.
An intimate knowledge of eBusiness, Internet marketing and marketing strategy has been attained from industry experience and also graduating from tertiary study with a Bachelor of Information Technology and also a Bachelor of Business (eBusiness) (Honours) from one of Australia's leading regional institutions, Federation University.
Craig has also lectured and coordinated a number of IT management and eBusiness subjects, as well as presenting several seminars and workshops in the field of marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimisation and eBusiness.
Monday, 2 March 2015
What Do I Want From Networking?
So what do I want from networking? I want to be able to meet enough people to ensure that my time has not been wasted. I want to be able to re-connect with those who I think there might be opportunity of working together. I want to see value in the number of qualified and warm leads I can leave the room with.
If a networking event has done those 3 simple things, then for me it is of value. These for me are the highest priority events to attend, This is why I will always put speed networking at the top of my priority list for events to attend and be part of.
Come along to Speednet Ballarat's next event - follow this link to their website for more information

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 23 February 2015
Three M's to a competitive website
Maintained: This includes keeping content up-to-date, links working, uptime and speed of your website, security (against hackers and viruses) to name a few. Your host should be able to provide some of these services.
Managed: It is very easy for a website to get either out of control through too many people accessing and updating it or at the other end of spectrum for it to become redundant because it hasn't been updated.
We recommend regular updates and also if you have multiple people as content editors or web masters, to ensure that website guidelines document is adopted.
Marketed: As with anything else that you produce for your business, your website should be appealing to your ideal client, it should tell your story and inform about your products and/or services. Colours, fonts and images should be consistent with your style guide.
Once you have a well designed and functional website then you need to tell people about it. There are many ways to tell people about your site, at this point many people get focused on purely gaining high google rankings (that is appearing on the 1st page). While this is important it is not the only way of getting people onto your website - this is where your digital strategy comes into play.
If you are looking for a new website, take the guesswork out of it by completing our website requirements form and receiving a detailed report to help with development (or redevelopment)
or
If you would like a free report on your digtal footprint then request it here.

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 16 February 2015
My website is a waste of time, I don't need it
The world wide web has become a very confusing place to be part of - and it is possible to sink lot's of money in without seeing any return. You need to understand how it works, or partner with someone who understands. It is not a fad and it is not going away - it is growing - and if your business is to survive you need a website.
You have a Facebook page - that is enough right? Here is the thing - you do not own your Facebook page, the content or the likers. You have no control over Facebook changing (improving?) the rules. You can have 2000 likers but only getting an engagement of 30. It is the same with all of the social media platforms - they are important - but your website gives you 100% control - all the time. Or it should.
If you have a website and not sure who owns your domain name, where it is hosted or at minimum how to do content updates - then ask questions and learn. Websites can be a mere page with basic information - or they can be gigantic with complete e-commerce systems built into them - the size depends on your businesses needs.
Website developers have been creating websites since forever - many of them have used code to create and update sites - these guys (and gals) understand about widgets, components, modules and code - so some things are best left to the pros. With great CMS available today there is no reason you can't learn how to do content updates yourself - for many it is not much harder than using word.
Your website presence does not need to be huge, it does need to work for your business however, check out your competitors and what they are doing and review your site regularly. Ensure you have google analytics on your site so you can track visits to your site - how else are you going to determine what works and what doesn't?
Before you say you do not need a website, look at what your competitors are doing and have a think about how a website could help you 'do' your business. It should be working with you. A website will at the end of the day build trust with the people that you meet - if they don't do business with you, they may just refer someone to you who will.
Let Visionary help you with a Digital Review for your business (FREE) - follow this link

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Why you can't reach your customer.
Paid advertising on television, radio and print are increasingly providing a lower return on investment. Interestingly outdoor advertising (bill boards, buses etc) are providing better return on investments over longer periods of times.
Visionary is hosting a Marketing 101 workshop in Ballarat - to register follow this link or visit our 2015 workshop program information here.

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Monday, 2 February 2015
Good Headshots Will Sell More

Rachel is a co-managing director of Visionary Group - a company she formed in 2007. With expertise in the areas of Integrated Marketing and Digital Strategy - including Social Media, branding and communication.
Rachel is also co-founder of Nomadness | Making Camping Simple and author to soon to be published "When Business Meets Baby: Practical tips and tools to achieve balance.
Together with her life partner, Rachel has an increasing investment property portfolio and property development is also influencing their future situation.
Business and investment together with an active and spirited 5.5 year old daughter keeps life interesting and full.
Wednesday, 28 January 2015
Facebook Ads: Maturing product worth a look... potential threat to Google AdWords for business?

Craig has been working in the Information Technology and eBusiness marketing domains since 2000 and also draws from a wide range of commercial experience over the past 27 years within the academic, hospitality, retail and traditional marketing sectors.
Over the years his skills and expertise have been retained by such well known firms as Myer Stores, Novotel, Telstra, IBM and Federation University. As a Global Marketing Manager of an award winning Australian software company Craig was responsible for developing strategies to expand into several key markets, including North America, Europe and Asia; resulting in a four-fold increase in sales over a 3 year period.
An intimate knowledge of eBusiness, Internet marketing and marketing strategy has been attained from industry experience and also graduating from tertiary study with a Bachelor of Information Technology and also a Bachelor of Business (eBusiness) (Honours) from one of Australia's leading regional institutions, Federation University.
Craig has also lectured and coordinated a number of IT management and eBusiness subjects, as well as presenting several seminars and workshops in the field of marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimisation and eBusiness.