7 Blogs You Should Read on the Reg – Friendors Consultancy

Hi, Friendors!

We love blogs – we love the community they create, the knowledge given so freely on them, and how darn easy they are to read on your cell phone while on the go. So, we’re here to share 7 of our favorite blogs, ranging from business, weddings, and all the way to just good ol’ motivation, that you should be reading as an entrepreneur. We’re also going to share with you how you can keep up with all of them easily! Enjoy!

WeddingWire EDU

If you can’t go to Wedding Wire EDU in DC, you at least have to frequent their Pro Blog. Seriously, do yourself a favor. We personally think WeddingWire is one of the most innovative wedding industry businesses out there, always on the cutting edge. This is THE blog for wedding industry professionals.

Click here to explore WeddingWire EDU Pro Blog.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite, as you probably know from our past post about social scheduling, is a social management tool. They also run this super helpful blog, where their byline is “Social media strategy, advice, and tips you can use—baked fresh, several times a day”. If that doesn’t catch you, we don’t know what will.

Click here to explore Hootsuite’s blog.

Contently

Contently, as you can probably guess, is all about content – but not just any content, content for freelancers. They actually sell software and services, but blog simply to help, with a “mission to build a better media world”. They have three publications that you can read about on their site, but our favorite two are The Freelancer and The Content Strategist.

Click here to explore The Freelancer.

Click here to explore The Content Strategist.

Harvard Business Review

Everyone knows the smartest of the smart go to Harvard. Brilliant minds blogging about business? We don’t think there needs much more convincing to visit this blog.

Click here to explore the Harvard Business Review.

LinkedIn

Where is the one place online that all professionals are, whether they actually use the social site or not? Linked in. So, as a professional, why not be a follower of their blog and not just a a silent social profile? They’ve got some great content, like articles on how to manage your team, communication, and more.

Click here to explore Linkedin’s blog.

Alan Berg

If you haven’t heard of Alan, he’s a speaker who frequents wedding and event conferences to share his business advice. He’s attentive and intelligent, two things we should all strive to be more of. If you can’t make it out to one of his speaking events, you’ve always got his blog! (We’ve heard him speak more than once and can testify!)

Click here to explore Alan Berg’s blog.

Wonderlass

Wonderlass is a colorful, straight forward blog by Allison all about how to “embrace your inner weird to grow your blog and business”. Don’t you want to let loose your inner weirdo?

Click here to explore Wonderlass.

Now that we’ve got 7 of our favorite resources down, let’s chat about how you can easily read them (and Friendors.com!) on the reg.

SpecificFeeds is an easy to use tool that allows you to search for your favorite sites, follow them, then sit back and relax while newsletters arrive in your inbox full of all your favorite blogs in one place. Every time your favorite blog puts up a new post, it’ll be sent directly to you for easy access. Don’t worry, you can tailor your news sources to your needs so you don’t receive a bajillion emails. We’re still adding to our collection of SpecificFeeds, so join us. 🙂

Click here to get started with SpecificFeeds.

We hope you enjoy these blogs and come back to visit ours! 😉 If you visit any blogs we didn’t mention, share them with us!! Email us at hello @ friendors . com (without the spaces). We’d love to check them out!!

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy

5 Email Marketing Softwares – Friendors Consultancy

Some of you may or may not know, but we send out monthly newsletters in collaboration with Far Out Galaxy. Those of you that know have asked for advice on the best way to go about email marketing – campaigns, templates, etc. So, we’re here to open the door and to share some email marketing sites/systems that are out there.

Here are 5:

Let us know what specific questions you have about email marketing (or anything else industry related) and we just might blog about it!

Want to be blasted in one of our emails?

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy

Social Media Scheduling Tools – Friendors Consultancy

Hiiii! We know lots of you, including us, struggle with the overwhelming task of Social Media. It’s this weird ground that’s really time consuming and often times confusing. We all try to find ways to simplify the process, and one of those ways is scheduling.

We’re here to share with you some tools that are for scheduling your Social Media so you can get off that smart phone and computer of yours and get to living your life, all while still maintaining an online presence. You’re welcome. 😉

There are soooo many scheduling systems, it seems, and these are just the ones we’ve used before or heard good things about.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the leading social media management system, in the form of a dashboard. It seems to have the widest reach across all platforms within one management system: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, MySpace, WordPress, TrendSpottr and Mixi. You can have multiple users, social profiles, etc. There are free as well as paid plans.

Buffer

Buffer is used by Fortune 500 companies, like Fortune (get it? hahaha, punny), Business Insider, and other big names. It allows posting to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. They bank on “Schedule As You Discover”, with browser extensions and apps. As far as we know, there are no free accounts, only paid. But, you can get a free trial. (note that this one includes Pinterest while Hootsuite does not)

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a Scheduling System for Twitter, by Twitter.

Facebook

Facebook allows you to schedule posts within their platform now, for free – so why wouldn’t you? (If you don’t know how to schedule posts on your Facebook page, let us know and we’ll write about it.)

(note that none of these include Instagram)

Publish

Publish is a mobile app for posting to Instagram (although Instagram doesn’t allow scheduled automatic posts, you can go ahead and set your posts up and manually post them) and it’s actually our favorite. Not only does it let you schedule your Instagram posts, but it also chooses when you should be uploading them for you – you know, the best times. It will just pop up on your phone and say it’s go time. You can override that with your own times but we just suggest sticking to their word. There are free as well as paid plans.

Latergramme

Latergramme is another mobile app for Instagram posts. It doesn’t have the feature that Publish has where it chooses the best time for you, but it’s super easy to use. And free.

(note that Instagram also allows your posts to push to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and some other social sites that most of us don’t use. This means Publish and Latergramme are really like scheduling tools for these sites as well. Wham Bam!)

IFTTT

IFTTT is a site we talked about in our 3 Apps You Need post. It’s a recipe creating system that allows you to create ‘If This Then That’ formulas between your social sites. It’s not technically a scheduling tool but it helps. Example: if you post to Facebook, then automatically push the post to Twitter as well, or whatever other formulas your mind can come up with. Just connect all your social sites and get to it. It’s free!

When choosing how to manage your social media, we think it’s mainly a matter of how much, if any, money you want to spend, whether you want to knock out all your platforms in one system or not, which social sites are the most important to you, and, you know, everything else. Good luck choosing!

Let us know if you need any help and what you’d like us to write about next!! 🙂

3 Apps You Need – Friendors Consultancy

Hello, Friendors! We took a look at our phones and are sharing 3 apps that we find helpful. Learn about and download them noooowwww.

1. VSCO

VSCO stands for Visual Supply Co. and is a photo editing app (designed for photographers and artists) that’s ruling Instagram right now. It’s super user friendly and professional looking. Why aren’t you spiffing up your images now?

2. Google Drive

Google Drive is exactly what it is on your computer, except on your phone. Can you imagine how easy it would be to have everything in the Google cloud on your phone and computer to access anywhere?

3. IFTTT

Connecting our favorite apps together, IFTTT is an app that creates recipes to streamline your social media. IFTTT stands for If this then this. An example recipe: If you post to Facebook then it will automatically post to Twitter as well. Easy peezy lemon squeezey online life for ya now.

Do you use any Apps you find helpful? Share them with us! Comment below or email Hello @ Friendors .com

How to Tag People on Your Facebook Page

Friendors, Facebook has this new thing goin’ on with Pages where you cannot tag People – in statuses, in images, in anything – as the page itself.

We know it bothers you, Page Admins, cause it bothers us too.

We had to find a way to tag. Tag, tag, tag.

So, here is a step by step on how we work our way around this nonsense. AKA, we’re trickin’ the system like the little baddies we are and teaching you our rebel ways. For the greater good.

1. Instead of a status, post an image to your Facebook page. (Images do better than text anyways)

2. Share the image to your Personal Profile from your Page.

3. Go to your Timeline and right click on the image and click ‘Open link in new tab’.

4. Once you have the new tab open, (you’ll see that it’s the old way of Facebook image viewing, not in a pop up like it is now) make sure you are ‘liking and commenting as’ yourself and not the page.

5. Tag away!

We’re not sure why our Page rights are so wack but we’re sure this will work. At least for us. 😉

If you have any questions about specifics on the steps, let us know and we’re totally here. Comment below or email hello @ friendors.com.

We were able to tag people in statuses not long ago but something else changed and it’s a mystery to us again. Maybe we’ll be back with Part II of Facebook tagging. 😉

4 Wedding Industry Events You Don’t Want to Miss – Atlanta

Hey there, Friendors. We heard about these four events and thought you should hear about them too. Three professional workshops and one open house. Learn more below!

The Knot + Two Bright Lights

Getting Published

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Click Here to Learn More

Wedding Network USA

Thankful for Technology!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Click Here to Learn More

Wedding Network USA

Paperless + Productivity = Profit

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Click Here to Learn More

Foxhall Resort and Sporting Club

Fall Open House

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Click Here to Learn More

3 Topics We Learned About at Wedding MBA

Hey there!

We here at Friendors Consultancy are firm believers in soaking up knowledge and making learning fun. ? When there’s a conference in Las Vegas for our industry, there’s a pretty high chance you’re gonna find us there. Naturally.

We recently made our way from Atlanta, GA out to Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual Wedding MBA (Merchants Business Academy) conference.

Chocked full of big names and speakers like Wedding Wire, The Knot, Perfect Wedding Guide, Alan Berg, Jason Hennessey, and more, we’re reporting back to say this may be our new favorite conference. Don’t tell the others. ?

We returned with bazillions of notes we took on our iPhones (we’re paperless!) and are here to share just 3 topics we learned about and who we learned em from so you can give the topic a closer look yourself.

1⃣ SEO

Even if you don’t know everything about it, we’ve all heard of SEO, the magical Internet concept we’re all dying to conquer. (Google, Google, I want you to notice me as bad as I wanted my 7th grade crush to.) SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is pretty much the key to the future and your success. ??

So, here are a few things we learned:
? The longer your blog posts, the better.

Now, you’re probably thinking ‘but who even reads long articles on the internet anymore?

Google, that’s who. And your mom. Seriously, probably a lot of people. ? The more content you have related to your field (florals, wedding planning, etc), not some off topic shizz, the more content the Bots have available to pick up and recognize you as someone who should be on their search query pages, someone who knows what they’re talking about and is credible.

We hear around 1,500 words per post should do the trick. No bullshit, just raw helpful content. Rack your brains for quality, Friendors!

If you need help coming up with blogging ideas, we’re here to help you!

Email us at Hello @ Friendors . com
? Use Page Speed Insights to see how your website is performing.

You’re not the only one that hates slow sites. Google and your client do too. PageSpeed Insights will show you exactly what’s wrong with your page that’s preventing it from performing properly. You just copy and paste your sites url for the review.

We probably won’t know how to fix the issues, and you probably won’t know how to either, so you should probably find a coder to help you after you run the site. Send them over the list – you’ll know whether they fixed it correctly or not after you run your site again and see if the list gets shorter or disappears.

We learned these tips from Jason Hennessey. To learn more about SEO, we can help you, but he’s probably the go to guy.
? OUR TIP for this section:

Remember that you can do all this poolside!

2⃣ Website Viewing + Tracking

? Do you know how people’s eyes view your website and so you can properly design your first impression?

Meghan of OFD Consulting reports that we view pages on the Internet in the shape of an uppercase F and Z. Shape your site this way – sidebars, blog titles, image placement, etc. Places important information or image in the right place means user interaction is sure to increase due to the easiness on the eyes.

Before some tips from Wedding Wire, here’s a video clip of us at their annual party at the conference.

? Do you know what type of device most of your website traffic is taking place on?

According to Wedding Wire, around 60% of potential clients are viewing your website on their mobile device before, if ever, on a desktop.

You should have a mobile friendly website. Don’t know if you’re mobile friendly? Go to Google.com on your mobile device and search for your company. Before the site description will be ‘Mobile Friendly’ in a lighter shade of gray if your site is mobile. Photo example below.

If you’re not mobile friendly, Google is taking the liberty of dis-including you from all mobile searches. That’s most of your market. Get a mobile site! Most themes have mobile settings built in, or you can custom code one. However you do it, do it soon. Like, right now. New tab. Immediately.

? Do you know how to track your site visits?

You can find out the specifics of how people are viewing your site by using Google Analytics. It’s super easy and if you’re not using it, get to it. Not only can you view what type of device most of your users are visiting your site on, you can also see where they are coming from – what websites are leading them to you, your top site referrers, how long they spend on each page, and more.
3⃣ Reviews

Now, more than ever, consumers are trusting online reviews to make their purchase decisions. Sometimes they trust these reviews more than personal referrals. According to Wedding Wire, 95% of couples are using online reviews when shopping.

A few websites you can get reviews on are as follows:

? The Knot
? Wedding Wire
? Perfect Wedding Guide
? Google
? Facebook

and more.

All of these sites are free and if you don’t have a company listing for each one, you’re doing this whole wedding thing wrong.

Reviews should be in the double digits. Eleven or more. Wedding Wire reports that your traffic will increase 123% when you have double digit reviews.

How do you get reviews? Ask! You’ll be surprised how willing your adoring clients are. An alternative form is moral bribery – offer gift cards for completing 5 review sites. However you do it, online reviews are becoming increasingly important to have.
Anyways, those are our 3 topics we’ve brought back for ya… in this post 😉 Now just enjoy some of our photos!

xoxo

A FREE Graphic Tool You Should Be Using

Hello, Friendors!

We’re here to share with you an easy (and FREEEEEEE!) tool to help get your graphic design game on without spending buttloads of money on a professional.

Don’t get us wrong, we do strongly urge you to hire a professional for your branding, logo, and website design (a total must), but when it comes to ads, Instagram posts, blog headers, Facebook cover photos, and other simple things, we know a site that will have you busting em out like it’s nobody’s business.

Canva (they’re not paying us for this post – but they should be. Hahaha!) is an easy to use tool where graphic designers have pre built designs and you can customize them to your liking with a few simple clicks. Full of typography, color palettes, and more, we know you’ll get sucked in.

Head as to Canva.com and give it a go. If you need any help, email us at hello @ Friendors .com and we will be there for you!

XOXO, Friendors Consultancy

3 Rules of Photography to Improve Your Online Presence

Hey there, wedding and event industry peeps!

Want to increase your sales and your brands coolness factor?

One substantial way to do this is by improving your brands online presence with imagery that is professionally done or at least aesthetically pleasing. When your blog and social sites are filled with well done photos, this leaves an impression on clients and other vendors that you are a professional and competent vendor to work with, creating a level of trust-ability before you even speak with them.

Don’t have a Photographer you can you collaborate with (We can help you there! Just email us at Hello @ Friendors.com) or want to learn yourself?

We’ve got the good ol folks from Far Out Galaxy here to share The 3 Basic Rules of Photography with you and some Instagram examples of them executed well.

These 3 rules are all over the internet and in many books – these are just our explanations.

If you enjoy this post, let us know and we will continue the series. Have knowledge you want to share with your fellow professionals? Submit Here.

Follow these basic rules and we promise it will improve your brands online presence.

1. Know your Subject

Do you know what you’re photographing? Would the viewer know what you’re photographing? Ask yourself these simple questions before taking a photo. If you cannot answer them, put your camera down until you decide your subject.

2. Draw Attention to your subject.

This goes hand in hand with actually knowing your subject – it’s about making sure your subject isn’t competing with another subject and that the viewer knows as well.

There are many ways you can do this – composition rules, diagonal lines, simple backgrounds, zooming in, filling your frame with the subject, frames within frames, etc.

Trying to photograph the table number? Zoom in, rather than getting a lot of the table in the photo. Trying to draw attention to the brides shoes? Place her on a circular stepping stone or on a single tile and photograph her frames within frames style.

We have a few examples of these tactics in use below.

Here are 3 examples of Lines working to lead the viewers eyes to the subject.

In the left image above, the diagonal lines of the barn ceiling help to frame this shot up and lead the viewers to the subject. On the right, the lines of the fabric aisle draw your eye to the girl in the center.

Here, you have several lines leading into the subject. There are lines coming from the top left leading in, the single line from the bottom leading in, even the lines of their elongated legs lead into them, as well as the lines of her finger tips. Everything in this photo is there to work to the subjects advantage.

Here are 4 examples of Frames within Frames to show the viewer the subject.

Here are two examples of zooming in to draw attention to the subject.

The photo of the boutonniere above could have been taken at a farther distance to include the grooms face, tie, and pocket square – but then your subject could be the groom himself for all your viewer knows, entirely changing the photo.

The idea behind the boutonniere photo is the same for the photo strips – our subject isn’t the photo strips themselves but the graphic designs at the bottom strategically shown.

Zooming in helps identify the subject more precisely to the viewer.

These different attention drawing tactics can transform the subject of your photo in a miraculous way.

3. Simplify

Make it simple. No one likes a photo full of clutter. Simplifying will help your images to look like they are straight out of the pages of a magazine or off a prestigious blog.

There are many ways to do accomplish this. The first two rules of photography, knowing your subject and drawing attention to your subject, almost have you entirely there.

Removing distracting background elements is a simplifying tactic.

The water bottle in the window sill of your shot of the bride? Remove it. The stranger walking in the corner of your ceremony shot to share on Insta? Wait five seconds for them to move or politely ask. These things, and many more, can work against you in a photograph to distract the viewer – we want to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Depending on what you are photographing, if it’s something you could lay down – your photo strips from the event, the bouquet you’re about to hand off to the bride, etc – an easy way to simplify would be to use fabrics, papers, etc, as simple backgrounds, making your subject the only thing in the photo. This will make the ultimate simplified photo.

For people, instead of photographing them in the middle of the venue with tons of other people in the background, miscellaneous items popping out of their heads, and tons of distracting elements, take them to the nice simple wall that’s probably only a few steps away.

Here are a few examples of the two above ideas.

The use of all three rules above makes the subject is precise. We know our subject and drew attention to it with the diagonal lines leading in from the sides, the circular design and triangle framing the strips up, and we simplified by making this printed background we chose fill the frame, making it the only thing in the photo.

Some may say the background we chose is too busy – we may agree, but we like to keep our images a lil weird when we can and this vinyl record case met that criteria. 😉

Here’s an example of using fabric to make your background simple for your subject.

Here are two examples of using a simple wall as a background for portraits instead of just snapping the photo wherever you happen to be standing. This simple simplifying trick will make you like your photo better – guarantee.

Put these tactics to use in real life! Follow these simple rules in your everyday photography ventures and your online trustworthiness and coolness factor will rise exponentially – promise. 😉

If you enjoyed this post, let us know and we will continue the series.

To make sure you don’t miss anything: ‘Like’ us on Facebook and Follow us on Instagram.

Have knowledge you want to share with your fellow professionals? Submit Here.

xoxo,

Friendors Consultancy

How to Clear Your Email Clutter with One Easy Tool

People, there is a Website that has saved our email inbox (and soul) from being overwhelmingly full of junk and we’re here to save your sanity too.

This seemingly magical site, Unroll.me, lets you view all of your email subscriptions in one place and easily unsubscribe from whichever ones you want with one quick click.

Had to share this little gold nugget with you.

Click here to get your email game together.

xoxo