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Managing your Workload
Managing your Workload
There are always going to be times when your work load suddenly escalates. We’ve recently had a very busy time at Red Desk which made us think about the best ways to manage things when your workload is out to get you!
- Start the day with a plan
We always start with a plan particularly if there is more than one of us working on the project. We briefly outline for ourselves and for each other, our targets for the day. This simple task first thing in the morning is the underpinning of being organised.
- Break your workload into manageable tasks
By breaking down your workload into smaller tasks you take your focus away from the bigger picture, allowing you time to concentrate on each task in turn. You’ll obviously have to prioritise and make sure things happen in the right order but just the fact of getting tasks done will build your momentum and make you feel you are achieving goals and move you closer to completion.
- Step back & prioritise
It’s impossible to get everything done at once so don’t try! Those moments when you take the time to step back and assess what you’ve done are so important to doing a good job, ploughing on without stopping will get you to the end but you might have missed important ideas or considerations on the way.
- Set realistic deadlines & achievable goals
Due to the nature of our work we have many virtual clients and therefore have tasks and projects coming in from many different places that are not related. We have to be realistic with each request and not promise deadlines we can’t meet. The better you are at scoping exactly what needs doing and by when it will be achievable, will give your clients confidence in you.
- Take Breaks
Taking breaks is essential to good productivity; it reduces boredom, helps the mind focus and allows us to re-evaluate our goals. Peppering your day with short breaks between tasks allows you to have a fresh mind and enhance work life.
- Turn off notifications?
Not sure if you dare? We rarely turn off our notifications as we want to reply to clients as soon as possible, but sometimes it’s necessary. Give yourself 30 minutes to work on a task undisturbed, to give yourself a head start. We all live in such a fast paced world it’s important to sometimes allow ourselves to fully concentrate.
- Have a support network or mentor
We’re very lucky at Red Desk that we have a great team that support each other. Having a colleague or mentor that you can turn to in crazy times is going to keep you sane. If you’re a freelancer maybe there’s another freelancer that you could turn to and support each other? It’s always going to help to have someone to talk things through with or in our case who can step in to help with a heavy workload.
Of course you could always employ a Virtual Assistant to through the busy times!
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When to Change your Social Media Strategy
When to Change your Social Media Strategy
At Red Desk we know that social media strategies are flexible and should be changed to reflect current trends and algorithms on the various social media platforms. In reality what does this mean? We give two examples of where we have changed social media strategy for clients and what you should be on the look out for.
LinkedIn
A while ago we were working with a company on their LinkedIn strategy. After some research, we set up Showcase Pages for them as they had a number of products which had completely different audiences. Showcase pages are extensions of the Company Page. You can share company updates and sponsored content with LinkedIn members who follow your relevant Showcase Pages. Take a look at Adobe as they have 5 Showcase Pages (Adobe Creative Cloud for example) set up.
When we came to review how our strategy was going, we realised that we were getting low engagements. We have since changed tactic, deactivating the Showcase Pages and started posting the content directly onto the Company page. This has seen a direct increase in interactions.
Instagram
For many small businesses Instagram can be a very effective platform, with higher engagement than organic Facebook posting, however, the company/industry/product does have to lend itself to the visual nature of this platform. Recently even though our research showed that Instagram could potentially be a good platform for our client, we quickly discovered that it was not the right for them. If your business is very much about product sales rather than brand awareness then Instagram is probably not the platform for you. We therefore pushed our efforts to Facebook, Twitter and their Google Entry which work better for this product and industry. Monitoring your statistics and insights is an integral part of managing your social media, then you can make change and reassess your strategy quickly.
For more tips on Instagram, you can read our article on Instagram for Business.
Other Red Desk Tips
Here are a few more things that we have learnt over the years:
• In 2014 Pinterest was the fastest social media platform and we set many of our creative clients up on it. However over time, Instagram has become the more popular visual platform and one that we use with our clients today. Pinterest still has it’s place in the market so don’t discount it entirely
• When a new social media platform emerges, you need to decide whether to ignore it or embrace it. Since Google+ was part of the Google family, we decided to embrace it, even running our own workshops. Google+ never really took off so we soon stopped using it for our clients. Google has now closed all the Google+ accounts
• One good thing that came out of Google+ was Google Local (now Google Business). This is often where potential customers find your information so it is important to claim your account and keep it updated. The social media function of Google+ has now been moved here and you can post updates onto your Google Local account which are visible for a week
• Our quarterly social media reports not only provide our clients information on how well their campaigns are doing but also valuable insights for us on when to post to gain the maximum audience and the types of content which performs best
• Finally, our research that we carry out for new clients often gives us ideas on how we can tweak the social media strategy of existing clients
If you are about to launch a product or need help with your social media strategy then get in touch with mel@reddesk.co.uk
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