Anita KirkbrideAnita Kirkbride

Anita Kirkbride helps business owners stop performing for the algorithm and start making intentional choices about their marketing. Her company, Twirp Communications Inc, is for entrepreneurs who know social media matters, but are done with random posting, borrowed tactics, and advice that never fits real life. Through strategic training, no-nonsense education, and the Social Media Strategy for Anti-Heroes approach, Anita teaches people how to run their own social media with clarity, confidence, and a plan they’ll actually use. No hacks. No hustle culture. Just smart strategy for people who want their marketing to feel human and work on purpose.
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Why You Are The Best Person To Manage Your Social Media Marketing

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A few weeks ago I received a text message from a small business owner I had met a few times, but didn’t know all that well. She was feeling overwhelmed and under-educated about social media and wanted to know if I would take her on as a management client. She has an amazing line of natural, locally made beauty products and was in the process of scaling up her business. However, she had a backlog of products she was feeling pressured to sell and because her time was being spent on the scaling of the business, she hadn’t had anyone looking after the social media marketing for a while. Her content would be easy…she has goats! Goats are the new cats on social media.

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Top Social Media Trends to Watch in the Last Quarter of 2018

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School is in and the last quarter of the year is bearing down on us at lightning speed! Are you on your way to meeting your business goals for 2018, or are you struggling to keep up? Whether you have time to look into something new, or you NEED to find something new, it’s important to keep an eye on how things are changing in the social media space. And things are changing quickly. Here are three social media trends every small business should be watching as we head towards 2019.

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Ep 2 101 Ways to Use Social Media to Do Good with Frances Leary

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Episode 2 of HaliBlab: A Halifax Small Business Podcast with guest Frances Leary of Wired Flare. We chat about her new book and the #101Days4Good challenge. Can social media have a positive impact on our lives? You bet it can…and we talk about how to do more positive work on social media. Links: Frances’ website: … Read more

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Ep. 1: SEO Chat with Michael Macmillan

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HaliBlab returns! Join host Anita Kirkbride as she learns about the small business community in Halifax and how they use social media to further their business goals. Her first guest is Micheal MacMillan, SEO expert from SEO Brunch. They rant a little about bad SEO companies and practices, and give you a few tips and … Read more

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How To Decide if You Should DIY or Outsource Your Social Media Marketing

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Every week I talk to small business owners who are struggling to manage their own social media and some of them are thinking it would be better to outsource it. Sometimes there is a lot of pressure from those outsourced managers for everyone and their dog to outsource social media marketing. And sometimes experts and mentors are big fans of outsourcing. But, the question remains, is outsourcing your social media right for you?

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How to Brand Your Instagram Stories Highlights

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Have you noticed some Instagram profiles have a funky row of circles just under their bios, and if you click on them, they look an awful lot like Instagram Stories? Well, that’s because they ARE Instagram Stories that have been saved to Stories Highlights. Unfortunately not everyone has access to the Instagram Stories Highlights feature yet (June 2018). But, when you are granted the feature, here’s what you need to get ready.

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Ways to Be Creative with Text-Only Tweets

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They say Twitter is alllllll about the pictures, but some people just won’t give up their ASCII look! I’ve been collecting fun, no picture tweets for a while to inspire me to think outside the box when it comes to using my 280 characters. For example, did you know you could actually put one character per line? Yeah…some people actually did that when they changed Twitter to 280. Here are a few of my favourite, creative, text-only tweets.

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Top 10 Apps for DIY Social Media Video (Android edition)

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Are you one of the 87% of online marketers who is already using video as part of your social media marketing strategy? If not, it’s time to get on the bandwagon…and make a video about it! There are so many amazing apps and programs out there to help you on this journey, you’re sure to find at least one to help you create your video content. Here are a few programs I’ve found to be fairly user friendly for those who are new to social media video production.

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The No B.S. Guide to Building a Social Media Strategy (Infographic)

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Building a social media strategy for your business isn’t rocket science. It’s actually quite simple. But, just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it’s easy! The “meat” of your social media strategy is a content calendar–a plan for what and when you will post your content. Before you get to that point, however, you need to think about a few other things: what type of content your audience wants, who your audience is, and what type of content you can reliably produce.

If you take a bit of time to work through each of the steps you can build a social media strategy you can handle on your own.

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How to Use and Remove Instagram Photo Tags

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Attention seekers on Instagram, listen up. STOP using Instagram photo tags to get my attention! You got my attention alright…but it’s not good attention. You’re annoying me. This unwanted advance makes me want to bury your quite legitimate efforts rather than repost them, or call you to work with us. There is a right way, and a VERY wrong way to use Instagram photo tags. If you’re new to the platform, I’ve got some pretty pointed thoughts for you.