Digital Bread Crumbs

On Friday March 27, I attended the Driving Your Digital Traffic Webinar Hosted by the WE CAN Project at Queens University featuring speaker Claire Bouvier, of FEiST (Female Entrepreneurs in Small Towns) and her brother Thomas Bouvier.

One of the teachings that really hit home is that we have to create our own content, using our own voice, to help people understand who we are, and what we stand for.

Claire used the image of leaving digital bread crumbs to help people find their way to our businesses.  She reinforced that while digital traffic is important, it’s most effective when it’s used to enhance relationships between those buying and selling.

Claire and Thomas both shared how important it was to create credibility at the local level first, to help grow your online presence. They suggested creating a listing in Google My Business. Thomas explained that we could do this on our own, or hire someone to do it for us. I’ve heard this advice before, from at least two other people, Penny from Build Marketing and Dionne from Shop Boss Secrets. Staying home with lots of time for reflection allowed me to finally understand and act on their advice.

The Google My Business portal is pretty easy to navigate, so I decided to create my own listing for Empowered Path Inc.  I learned that I’ll have to wait for 12 days or more to receive my Google postcard with the verification code. A Google My Business listing isn’t complete and has limited functionality until you use the verification code. Once the Empowered Path Inc. listing is complete, it will be one more digital bread crumb leading people to my services.

I’m still struggling with the idea of restricting the content I share online to stuff I’ve created.  Mostly because one of things I like to do, as a micro-influencer, is to amplify the voices of others. For now, my goal is to write one blog a week. Some are going to talk about the world I’d like to see after COVID-19, others are going to share lessons I’ve learned, giving credit to those who taught me.

One of the things that I’ll continue to do using my Twitter account and my personal Facebook account is to share the posts of others, particularly those that are sharing ideas about how we can create a more equitable new normal. On my Business Facebook account and LinkedIn, I’ll continue to share posts from others, including sharing free resources available in my online and local communities. This should lead to more digital bread crumbs...
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I’m grateful that I have the privilege of sharing a safe home, with potable water, food, and electricity with my immediate family. I’m grateful to have the time to reflect on the world I want to help create where everyone has similar privileges. I’m grateful that the lessons I share may help others who I may never meet.  I’m also grateful for those who respond and let me know how I’m doing.