☀️ The party season is on 🍹.
Launches, races, Christmas, end of year. You name it, we’re all celebrating; however 2019 has been tough for many. Election year. Retail down. Real estate halted. Bushfires. Civil protests.
It makes it hard to celebrate with so much uncertainty and unrest.
As you wind-down for the year’s end, I hope you can find a little inner-party to celebrate your wins on reflection. Hold on to each other for support 👫. We’re in it together.
Valentina xxx
Google’s BERT Is A Good Thing
Google introduced the BERT update to its search ranking system earlier this month. The addition of this new algorithm, designed to better understand what’s important in natural language queries, is a significant change. Google said it impacts 1 in 10 queries. As the machines ⚙️ are coming, many of them are driven by Google. BERT was around understanding “longer, more conversational queries, or searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning, Search will be able to understand the context of the words in your query. You can search in a way that feels natural for you.”
This is a good thing, because it’s based on our natural language. Check out the image above to explain this easily. With better results, the machines are learning, and we, the end user, receive a more accurate answer in record time = happy humans 😀.
Social Media Do’s and Don’ts For Business Owners
There’s a lot of noise 🗣️ out there about social media concerns for businesses and individuals and what you can, could, should or wouldn’t say in personal and business pages.
Most of the time there’s a fine line between good, bad and indifferent; but some things are certain – apply common sense, be human and be respectful.
With my role as an advisor for the International Social Media Association, these questions come up often. The Fold Southern Highlands asked me to outline what you can and can’t do on social as a business owner, and more importantly, how to stay on the right side of the law ⚖️.
Email Marketing for Financial Advisors: Best Practices for 2019
Email may not have the cutting edge, high-tech appeal of some of the other marketing tactics (social, I’m looking at you), however, when done right, email marketing can be remarkably effective. It also has the highest return on investment after SEO.
On the blog, we look at all the steps required to deliver an exceptional email marketing experience for financial advisors. The good news is that YOU CAN APPLY THIS TO ANY INDUSTRY.
In order to build a productive email campaign, begin by examining the needs of your audience. A broad-based “spray and pray” approach is the quickest way to burn through your hard-earned email list. On the other hand, highly targeted value-add communications will help you build trust, drive referrals, and stay connected to your prospects and clients.
Sembrano Design
Paulo Sembrano is no new kid on the block. The Sembrano Design team is an experienced design and town planning business that specialises in sustainable designs and aims to deliver projects that represent a win for the property owner, the local community and the environment.
If you’re looking for someone to make your next home a sustainable design choice, give Paulo a call on 0420 384 958.
The team has decades of experience working in Australia and multiple parts of Asia, including the Philippines and the Middle East, on a range of residential 🏘️ and commercial 🏗️ projects. They can provide an end-to-end service, from idea generation right through to planning approval and support, throughout the building process.
Paulo’s distinguished career includes having most recently worked for design and planning businesses, including Ormsby Design Group in Sydney, Dobsonei Constructions in Mittagong and Inspiration Homes in Parramatta, before launching his own building design and town planning business in 2014.
Paulo has a Bachelor of Science degree 🎓 in Architecture from Mapua University in the Philippines. He was awarded The Margot and Neville Guzman Award in 2012 for Urban Design in Architecture by the University of NSW for his work in the Masters of Sustainable Built Environment. He is a Member of the Planning Institute of Australia and the Building Designers’ Association of Australia.✌️
Banter’s job? Bring Paulo’s outstanding story to life 👊 in a new website that speaks volumes about his design work. #yougotthis
Recent chats and upcoming stuff
Looking To Buy A Local Business?
Plank and Trestle are a stunning custom-designed, functional and classic trestle timber tables company, and they’re up for sale. The local owners have invested heavily in redesigning the website (yep, claiming credit!) and streamlining the production processes. If you’re interested and would like a prospectus, 📧 Vanessa today.
Sharing Brand Stories
My Brand Journey showcases brand success journeys through the promotion of founders and how they did it, whilst educating the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. I was humbled to be approached by them to tell the Banter story, and yet confronting to document it and then share it with the world. Inspiration comes from many places and people and perhaps my own story can inspire you in some way.
Celebrating Excellence in Real Estate
I’m fortunate to have been a judge for the second year running for the realestate.com.au AREAs, celebrating success and achievements 🥂 of real estate agents and agencies across Residential, Commercial and Property Management. I was tasked with 5 categories spanning Innovation, Service and Marketing Excellence, and Community with the difficult job of shortlisting and rating each of the significant entries. The Awards 🎉 are always fun, and The Timber Yard in Melbourne was a great location. Congratulations to all the entrants and winners!
Bee An Influencer
Anyone can be an influencer, right? All they have to do is influence decision making.
Meet B, 🐝 the world’s first bee influencer.
This high-flying bee Insta-posts from across the 🌏, flaunting her figure, doing yoga in pretty places, and answers queries about her favorite musicians (Beethoven, the Bee Gees, Beeyonce). B’s captions are a blend of educational and quippy—a “photo” of her rowing is captioned “I have only one flaw… (LOL) I don’t know how to swim!”
All fun and games aside, this bee is actually raising funds for lifesaving 💐 pollinator research.
If a brand feels they can identify and align with B, they can pay B to promote their products in the same way that a #vanlife influencer might pose with a brand of potato chips or shampoo. The fees that a company pays for exposure with B go directly to Fondation de France’s BEE FUND, which the 50 year-old foundation created “to fund the actions considered as the most fundamental and urgent in the protection of all species of bees.”
With 228k followers on Insta, this influencer can literally help to save the world 🌺.
Until next time, enjoy!
