Nicola Balkind

Freelance Writer & Content Specialist

  • Services
  • Work
  • Projects
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Contact

Notebook: November Links

By Nicola Balkind

November

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m not American, but I am married to one, and I am incredibly thankful to all of you who read this blog. Thank you.

This month I had a lovely holiday, followed by some frustrating news, both of which sparked the blog posts linked below and the advice contained within. I hope you find them helpful!

As always, I’ve also picked out some of the best topical links of the month. Enjoy – and I’ll see you again before the year is out!

In Glasgow? ‘tivity is on 5 December – it’s a Christmas party for small businesses, freelancers, artists and musicians and it’ll be my freelancer night out! See you there?

 

On the Site

Revisit: How to Sell in the Off-Season – Whether yours is now or at the other side of the year, you should always make time for off-season activity. Here’s why.

Freelance Finance – When you work as a freelance contractor, lots of things can go wrong, so I shared my tips on how to handle your finances as a freelancer. The rest of you might learn something too!

 

Blogs & Social

Small Social Is Here: Why Groups Are Finally Finding A Home Online. The many-to-many model makes so much sense today. Smart digital marketers could really work some community magic with this. | Buzzfeed

Twitter users got a bit angry when the platform changed its favourite-and-star for a like-and-heart. If you don’t like it, you can replace it with the emoji of your choice. | Gizmodo

How To Do Outstanding Marketing On A Limited Budget, including an end-of-year content edit. | CoSchedule

Essena O’Neill, a professional Instagrammer and model, publicly quit social media early this month, citing the emotional damage caused by social media and the validation it made her seek. I enjoyed these thoughtful responses from Dodie Clark [VIDEO, 10 minutes] and Rosianna Halse Rojas [VIDEO, 20 minutes].

 

Business

My friend Candace was getting frustrated by productivity posts that didn’t take a day job into account, so she decided to write the blog post she wanted to read. And it’s great! Lunch Breaks: Finding balance between full-time work and part-time art. | Candace Hare

One of the trickiest things about running a business can be figuring out what to focus on. CGP Grey wrote about some of the things he’s giving up or streamlining in this post, Dialing Down. | CGP Grey

Here’s a fantastic resource 8 Essential Elements of an Unbeatable Freelance Contract + a Free Template. | CreativeLive

How Creating a Workplace Reading Culture Can Benefit Businesses (even if that business is just you!) | Scottish Book Trust

 

––

 

Fancy receiving a free monthly newsletter from nicolabalkind.com? Sign up here.

What is the most useful posts you’ve read this month? Shoot me a link on Twitter @robotnic.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Notebook Tagged With: business, content, microbusiness, social media

Subscribe to my newsletter

You must log in to post a comment.

Follow Me

Sign up for my newsletter

Contact Me

Email: nicola@nicolabalkind.com

Subscribe to my newsletter

Categories

  • Archive
  • Client Work
  • Microbusiness
  • Notebook
  • Projects
  • Social Media & Content
  • Writing Portfolio

Testimonials

We’ve employed Nicola’s services several times at Yomego and every time she has been absolutely fantastic in both outputs and attitude. Supporting our community management team, Nicola has added invaluable expertise in creating customer focused strategies for our clients and helping to draft truly compelling content plans. I have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Nicola’s services for anyone that places important on ensuring outputs are consistently exemplary.
Sam Macleod
Nicola was an important member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival Marketing Department and was key in the communication delivery of the Festival. In such a dynamic and demanding environment, Nicola delivered great content and was dependable throughout, an invaluable asset to the Festival.
Ross PerthEdinburgh International Film Festival
Nicola has been my number one go-to for freelance community management and social media… She is incredibly efficient, she is clear with costs, time estimates and invoicing and completely reliable. She is a breath of fresh air in an industry which is plagued by self-promoting “social media gurus”: her range of skills and experience is broad and authentic. I really appreciate the way Nicola is uncomplicated to work with: she asks quick, straightforward questions about what’s required then sits down and gets the job done without fuss. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Nicola and would certainly work with her again.
Annie MacfarlaneTOMS Europe
Nicola was a pleasure to work with. She managed a number of our clients social media and content strategy with a brilliant flair to adapt her creative skills for each of their brands guidelines. She also provided social media training which was highly informative and engaging. Nicola is highly knowledgeable and is constantly in touch with the forefront of all social media developments. She provides all her work in a professional and timely manner. Nicola is comfortable presenting and talking to clients. I would have no hesitation in recommending Nicola. Great person to work with!
Lorraine WaddellSERPS Invaders
Nicola has worked with Purplefeather on various social media and copywriting campaigns. She is creative, reliable and professional and can be completely trusted with the voice of your brand – rare qualities indeed!
Andrea GardnerPurplefeather
Nicola is an experienced creative copywriter, with a great ability to produce quality pieces quickly and at short-notice. She has a great knowledge of social platforms and ability to apply this knowledge. Nicola is an absolute pleasure to work with and brings her creativity and personality to everything she does.
Kaye SymingtonMint Digital & Stickygram
Nicola and I worked together across several projects in the Yomgeo community management team. Nicola is great to work with, her attitude towards projects is always amazing and she is incredibly efficient, Her work is always of the highest quality, and I’ve learned a lot from working with her.
Catherine CarriganYomego
Nicola helped transform EIFF’s web vision at a time of change. She is assured and confident with her tactics in an ever-evolving industry and, more importantly, generates great content with results. Allied to Nicola’s strategic savvy, it’s a winning combination.
Colan MehaffeyEdinburgh International Film Festival
Nicola’s contributions to our projects for Channel 4 were invaluable: her huge knowledge of social media developments and online trends, together with her editorial flair and excellent writing skills made her invaluable in roles that encompassed community management, social media marketing, content strategy and product development. Her dedication, creativity, forward-thinking and attention to detail made her a major factor in the success of these projects. It was a pleasure to work with her, and I hope to work with her again!
Laura GraceMint Digital
Nicola is crazy talented, knowledgeable and efficient when it comes to Social Media and Copywriting. I had the pleasure to work with Nicola on several online marketing projects over the course of almost two years. Not only is she a fountain of knowledge regarding latest trends and best practices for both Social Media and online writing – she is also able to put abstract ideas into action. Any team looking to improve their online presence would be lucky to get their hands on Nicola.
Eva MartinSERPS Invaders

Copyright © 2019 · Modern Studio Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.