Hello Everyone 

Today’s Post is about using SnapChat for business. For anyone who doesn’t know me. I’ve run my own salon in Castlebar since 2007. Platinumhairdressing.ie is my small business and in this post I’m going to go through how I have gotten some great results with my SnapChat account. SnapChat is fairly gaining popularity on the social media circus these days. To some folk it’s baffling. However millions of us are totally hooked. Anyway I hope you enjoy the post. Let me know what You think, and please share this with anyone who you think may find it helpful.

Credit to Joanne Sweeney Burke of Digitaltraininginstitute.ie for planting yet another idea in my head from her recent podcast series. If You are doing social media for business You need to follow this lady. 

Enjoy 

Love Maria 

Xx

So I’m a self confessed social media slut, I know I know I really can’t help myself. I’m the over sharer who hashtags like a maniac. I’m the #instahun who has to photograph every meal and I’m geo tag crazy. (By the way I’m highly insulted that there’s no Mayo geotag on Snapchat yet) I feel a campaign brewing. Ive been content creating since 2010 and using Digital platforms to showcase my work and market my business. Of course I had to jump on the SnapChat bandwagon as soon as it appeared. I’ve had my snapchat account for about two years now. ?mrspdilly2b?

Snapchat is a series of ten second videos or photos that tell the story of Your day. As a small business owner Snapchat is like advertising gold dust. Once You have built Your following You get to reach those people directly from Your smartphone to theirs every day. You get to personally speak to Your followers. You can put out whatever type of content You wish. For me personally as a SnapChat user I love to watch people who are giving me information. So as a business owner, I offer my knowledge and skills to my #SnapFam. Having been highly trained as a hairdresser in all aspects of Colouring cutting styling and chemical processes on hair. I’m very knowledgeable on the subject. As a lot of my followers tend to have hair of their own. ?? I offer advice on all types of “hair mares” be it styling, product reccomendation, or colour queries. I get a great response from my video content. I get loads of great feedback and interesting questions from my lovely followers. 

As a hobby I write about my healthy lifestyle here on this blog. I show healthy recipes on SnapChat and I show my food prep. Some meals and how I motivate myself to get to the gym when I’m feeling lazy. I love sharing this as it motivates me and I feel like I have accountability. I love to cook Im a real foodie and I have great fun showing this on SnapChat. All of this personal interaction has really helped to raise my profile and create awareness about my salon. Although I started off using my Snapchat as a hobby the two really compliment each other. I guess I stubbed upon this little gem accidentally. The more people that get to know me through Snapchat, the more people talk about my business and that’s how this works. 

All too often I see social media outlets being used for the hard sell. It’s all about special offers, discounts and deals. How about giving some information away for free??? Sharing some interesting tips that might actually help someone can really benefit Your business in the long term. If someone is having difficulty with a particular problem and You are able to advise and help them with a few sentences, why not? It will make You and them feel great. They in turn will talk positively about Your business and so You have great publicity. SnapChat allows You to do this. 

Building Your own online following is a smart move business wise. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are brilliant So is Instagram. However there can be so much content out there on the feed that Yours can get lost. It can be difficult to reach the correct audience at the right time.I think it’s important to keep a consistent presence across all platforms. All Social accounts need to compliment each other. I think at this moment SnapChat and Facebook live are galloping ahead because of the personal touch. People love to watch and listen to People. It’s up close and personal and it’s fast. There’s also no editing required apart from a filter. 

So there’s my thoughts on SnapChat for business. Snapchat lets Your followers into Your life a little bit. Takes them behind the scenes and builds personal relationships. It’s also considerably less time consuming than typing up posts. A two to three minute snapstory that happens in real time is all it takes. Easy peasy content created. I found talking to the camera a little crazy at first but I love it now. So my top SnapTips are;

• Give helpful information 
• Answer questions 
• Teach a skill
• Show a little humour
• Be truthful 
• Keep it simple and to the point. 
• Keep Your selfie game strong
• Enjoy and have a bit of fun & keep it natural. 
• Don’t forget to add me on SnapChat 

• 

Hi Folks,

Hope You are all Well, I’ve been busy lately getting ready for December. On Sunday I had a lovely day in Dublin at  the Blogger Conference. This is my idea of heaven a great day out with like minded people. I just love going to these meet ups and I always get loads of inspiration and ideas for my blog. It’s lovely to spend time with others that have the same interests as myself. It can be hard at times because some people can’t understand what the “blogging bug” is all about. I often get asked why do you blog?? Isn’t it a lot of work?? Social media addicts like myself don’t see it as work though. We blog because we love it. We document our lives and loves for many different reasons. Some do it to grow their business, or to self motivate, some do it for their love of fashion, food , photography etc. There’s no real rules, if your passionate about it you can blog about it. Either you have the “blogging bug” or You don’t. That’s my view anyway. I certainly have it. So a day of listening to inspiring talks on all things blogging and social media related is pure bliss. 

 

 
The Blogger Conference was held in The Marker Hotel in Dublin. This is a fabulous part of the city and a perfectly apt location. As far as I know this is the social media hub of Ireland. Google and Facebook have offices in the locality. The Marker Hotel is a super cool venue with a great atmosphere. It was a great choice for the event organised by the lovely Emma o Farrell from EOF media in Dublin. 

  
I met up with my lovely friends Amy from Floralesque blog and Sarah  from Siren and Soul. We are all members of Into the west blogger network based in Galway. We also ran into our friends from The creative yoke, blog and Mags style. 

There wereloads of amazing speakers on the day. It was a lot of information but great fun too. I learned loads but it felt like we were all there having the craic. I love when learning and good fun roll in together like that. The day absolutely flew. The hillarious James Butler was MC for the day. If you are not already following him on Snapchat add him ASAP the man is actually hilarious. 

  

We heard from Rachel Dalton who is a PR guru. Jenny Taffe from Izest marketing and got some great tips on personal branding. Jenny and her team look after Pippa O Conner, I often wondered who handled Pippas PR as she has achieved so much and has a following most of us could only dream of. So I was very interested in Jenny’s tips and advice. 

   

 

We also got some legal advice on how to mind ourselves online. This really opened my eyes to the legality of posting online. It’s not just about not writing anything negative about anyone. In a world where we over share all the time, things could get messy. Definitely one to think about. We also heard from Laura Haugh who writes for Mummypages.ie her hints and tips for getting noticed as a writer were very helpful.  The info on Google Adsense was great as I had been a bit baffled by it before. It was great to get an insight. 

 

 Soon it was time to break for lunch as we were all starving after all that heavy concentration. The Marker Hotel looked after us in style with a fabulous spread of yummy sandwiches and treats.

   

 
Barbra Scully was one of my favourites from the day. She was so charming and full of wit. Her talk was very inspiring. Barbra hosts a radio show which is something I’m quite interested in pursuing myself at some stage. I’ve done a few small bits on local radio and I’ve always really enjoyed it. 

We were treated to a Canon camera masterclass with Simeon Quarry this was hillarious  and just brilliant fun. Simeon’s approach to delivering the information to us was so energetic and full of life I didn’t even feel like I was learning at the time. I will definitely remember his tips on lighting and video.

    
  
  
Samantha Kelly otherwise known As tweeting goddess gave us a lovely talk on Twitter. I’m a big fan of Samantha so I was delighted to see her there. I think she’s a brilliant business lady and so down to earth and helpful too.  Later on We heard some great You tube advise. We also heard from the panel of Lifestyle, fitness and travel bloggers. Last speaker of the day was fashion blogger Anouska who was great fun. Her Instagram is to die for. We heard a few of her photography tips. 

  

All in all the day was great fun. I met some lovely people including Karen from Declare Ireland. It was lovely to see Freida from Athlone town Centre again too. Our goodybags were packed full of treats for us to try. As a hairdresser I’m very interested in the Viviscal products from Life’s too good. 

  
   
 
Blogger conference 22/11 was a brilliant day I really enjoyed it and I’m already looking forward to the 2016 event. 

Thank You all for reading and remember Sharing is caring.

Love Maria xx

   
    

Hi Everyone 

Well it’s the start of a new week and We are back to reality again. It’s back to healthy eating, walks and hydration for me. I had to face the reality of the scales today and holy mother of god I gained 7lbs!! I’m not surprised really considering the gluttony of An all inclusive holiday. This made me feel ugghhhhhhh!!! I’m Just absolutely sickened, but hey it’s done now. I’ve faced it head on and accepted it. Shur it happens to us all, right? The important thing is not to dwell on it. Move on get back on track and lose it again. There’s a huge difference between gaining a few lbs because you were living it up on holidays and weight gain from comfort eating. I know because I struggled to break my bad habits. It was a long road and it was really tough but I did it. Believe me I know better than anyone that weight management is a constant struggle. Even after maintaining my weight loss for over a year, it still takes a lot of work not to fall off the wagon. 

 

I use a few little mind tricks to pull myself back to reality after a big blow out. Progress photos really motivate me. Looking at how far I’ve come really makes me realise how much I need to keep going for my own happiness. I never hated myself when I was three stone heavier, but I didn’t feel like me. I know I’ll never be skinny and I’m fine with that. I love my curves, I just don’t want to be excessively overweight for my body shape. Size 14 is normal for me and I’m really happy at that size I really feel like myself in it. 

  
I’m a great fan of writing lists, writing down the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining my weight is a favourite of mine. Looking at it on paper helps to set my mind straight and stop me from losing my willpower. Clothes shopping is also a huge motivator for me. I love to shop especially in River Island and the thoughts of my lovely clothes not fitting anymore puts the fear of God into me. 

   

So my next step in getting back on the bandwagon is to do my shopping list, meal plan, head to Aldi and get all my supplies. I’m a great believer in the old saying “fail to prepare, prepare to fail” Having healthy food close at hand is half the battle. Getting back to exercise with a brisk walk in the fresh air will help to lift any holiday blues and give me a good energy boost for the day. 

  

  
So it’s back to UNislim on Wednesday for me. I hear they have a new recipe booklet out for autum. I’m looking forward to trying out some new meals over the coming weeks. I’m dying to make some pumpkin soup also. I made some last year with cinnamon and it was just gorgeous. A perfect autumnal warming meal. Il post the recipe soon, it’s really delicious. 
  

Thank You for reading this post, I hope it brings you some Monday motivation. Please hit the Facebook or Twitter icon under this post to share it on Your social media account. I appreciate all your support.

Chat soon, Maria xx

  

Hi Everyone 

Hope all Is going good at home. We are indulging in pure luxury here in Mexico. We are eating and drinking and relaxing in the sunshine. There’s loads of tours and activities but we are too lazy to do them. After a hectic few months at home We are delighted to be able to unwind and have some down time.

  

    

     
We would happily recommend this resort to anyone for a honeymoon or even just a holiday. All inclusive is a great option as there are so many different options in the resort to chose from. We have had some Mexican food which was just fabulous. I definitely intend to try a few Mexican recipes once I return home. I’m sure I can modify them to make them healthier. There’s  A lot of steak strips, guacamole, spicy veg and tortilla wraps etc etc

 

      

We have tried some french food and last night we went to an Asian restaurant. This was super tasty and we really enjoyed it. It was fairly simple food but done really well. Here’s a few snaps of what we wolfed into. They look almost the same, it was just the sauces that were different really. 

 

   
For Dessert we had banana spring roll this was very similar to banana fritters. Battered banana deep fried with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yummers! 

 
The breakfast buffet is absolutely huge and has everything from fruit, porridge, omelette, pancakes, bacon , sausage, all kinds of bread, waffles. There’s cold meats, cheeses, bagels, as well as traditional Mexican food. There is loads to choose from, & everything is delicious. I’ve been sampling a tiny bit of everything. Isn’t that what holidays are for experiencing new things. Plenty time for healthy eating once we return home. I will take some photos tomorrow to share with you all.

Tonight we are going for Oriental again as its on special here tonight. So may aswell embrace it. I will keep you guys posted tomorrow on how we get on. 

Thank you for reading folks, We absolutely love it here and are enjoying every bite of the delicious food. Chat soon,

Love Maria xx