It's my last working Monday for 2018 and I thought I'd make this post a little bit more personal to MBC. I'm not doing it to brag or because I ran out of topics for business, but because I learned that evaluation is key to success. So, aside from serving as report on MBC's performance during 2018, I hope this post inspires you to sit down and go through every little win and every little failure (or big ones 🤷) that happened to you this year. What did you achieve in 2018? The time you spend thinking about this, will help you realise how amazing you actually are, even though you don't feel like it sometimes or even most of the time. It will motivate you, it will stimulate a rush of new ideas and most importantly, it will give you a base and a plan to grow.
MBC's Website
Back in January 2018, MBC's website ended up on the first page of Google for related keyword. Woohoo! Unbelievable start of the year, isn't it? Little did I know that this was just the beginning of incredible development. In fact, 2018 was a year of progress and acceleration!
By May 2018, the blog started getting noticed around the world and some publications were getting over 100 views. In June, I wrote a post about IGTV, right after it was officially launched by Instagram. That publication got featured in several other blogs and YouTube videos. It kept consistent traffic coming to the website, which of course, strengthened our position on the search engine results.
Every month had a specific theme on the MBC blog and that certainly increased the interest towards upcoming articles. People could see that we actually have a plan and do just write chaotic posts for the sake of fresh content and more SEO points.
In September, we ran a blog series on upcoming trends for 2019 - digital marketing, website design and logo design. The last one is currently the most read article we have ever published with 1222 views to date. It ranks on the first page of Google when you search Branding Ideas 2019 and is the first picture shown on Google Images too.
Since January till today, MBC's website has been visited by people from 123 of the 195 countries in the world. We've gone global, haven't we?
For the past 3 months, there isn't a single hour throughout any week, in which the website has not received a visitor. And it seams, people are actually reading the content because the average time spent on our pages since May is 3 min 30 sec. That, indeed, makes me very proud!
December just broke all records. We are just a little over 2 weeks in, and we have 1200+ visits on the website this month alone. Acceleration at its best.
MBC's Social Media Presence
Our strongest presence on social media is on Facebook and Pinterest. MBC doesn't have a business account on Instagram, but I use my personal one to spread the word about new blog posts and other exciting news about MBC. Ever since, I started sharing my professional life on my personal account, it increased its followers and tripled the engagement rate. Funny enough, in some cases, it works brilliantly if you apply this vice versa.
Our Facebook has almost 1200 likes/followers from all over the world. It's a business page, but whenever I allow a sneak peek into my personal life on there, I witness a surge in engagement. Hmmm, it does seem people like knowing there's an actual human behind the business logo, just like I said in my digital marketing trends for 2019 and 2020 blog post.
Magic happens in December and it did happen to our Pinterest account. We are getting new followers and repins every day for the past 2 weeks! This is also the main reason behind the huge increase of traffic to the website. Pinterest is a serious SEO weapon, so don't put it on the shelf because you "don't have time for it". You'll regret it.
MBC's Projects and Development
Oh, 2018 has been exciting in so many ways! We've had new customers, we introduced new services and we also gave birth to a whole new baby brand of ours - Teach Me How to Biz! This is an educational platform for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners who want to learn how to grow their business. We offer practical workshops and digital courses on a variety of topics (many more to come in 2019).
Our first workshop was on 17th November in London and covered Facebook and Instagram for Business. It was a beyond amazing experience and I as the presenter felt absolutely chuffed when we received the feedback from the attendees. The first digital courses have also been launched, just last week!
Teach Me How to Biz also offers a fast-track startup programme, where people with big business ideas get coached over the period of 12 weeks on how to establish and develop their venture. Oh yes, and they also get professionally designed website, a full branding package, business plan to follow or use for a loan application, social media management hours and more! We already have a few enquiries for the January start of the programme, which can only take 2 entrepreneurs!
And to finish off this non-intended-to-be brag with some fireworks, I need to say that I have accepted a formal invitation to become an ambassador for the first Bulgarian Business Awards in the UK and that MBC has been nominated in several categories!
MBC's Failures
No, we aren't perfect and we have not just room, but a whole field to improve in the future.
One of the goals for 2018 was to move in to an office in the City of London. That didn't happen, but I did move into a new home where I created a lovely home office, which receives clients and serves its purpose more than well for now.
I didn't listen to my own advice and left some of the social media channels on the backseat. Next year I must spend more time and efforts growing MBC's Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube/IGTV accounts.
We had to turn away more than 5 clients who wanted us to manage their social media accounts, just because we didn't have the capacity to cope with the high demand. 2019 is MBC's year of expansion!
Before I leave you to enjoy your Monday morning, I just want to say how much I appreciate you being part of MBC's journey in 2018. Thank you for your support and if you are coming to these pages for the first time ever, I hope you'll find enough value to come back frequently.
MBC may be going on holiday on Wednesday, but there are two more blog posts coming before the year officially ends, so stay tuned!
