Episode 365: Text Replacement
In this episode, Fiona talks about the importance of a text replacement tool. She also shares how this tool can revolutionize your workflow. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Importance of text replacement tool
Accessing and setting up text replacement on a phone
Exploring various applications
Benefits for social media management and customer service
Emphasizing efficiency and time-saving for businesses
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 365 of the My Daily Business podcast. Today is a quick tip episode and that's where I share a tip tool or tactic that you can implement immediately. This one is going to save you so much time if you don't already have it in place for your business. Before we get stuck into that, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which I record this podcast and share these tips. That is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
I am somebody who loves a bit of a hack. I know that sometimes hacks can be seen as veering into the kind of hustle territory, and I have always been anti-hustle from day one. I think you should create a business and a life that you love and do that in a way where you're not burning out and overwhelming yourself. One of the things I like to do is always find quicker ways of doing things or ways that are just smarter ways to work. I've read many books on this. Over time I have researched and found different apps and different things that can help, and it's something that I help businesses with all the time, like looking at their systems and processes and ways that they could work a bit smarter to get more time back to do other things in their life outside of working.
One of the things that has helped me since day one. I've been using this tool for years and I actually was showing it to people in Group Coaching or in the Marketing for Your Small Business coaching program recently. I'm sure I've done a podcast on that and realized I have not done a podcast on it. What I want to talk about today is the Text Replacement Tool. This is something a lot of people don't realize you have on your phone. I'm going to talk from an iPhone perspective because I have an iPhone. I've never had any other smartphone, but I am sure that it works in a very similar fashion on an Android. If you are an Android user, I would read today's podcast and then Google what I'm telling you. But for Android, and I'm sure you'll find instructions on how to do it.
Your text replacement tool, firstly, what is it? Text replacement is a tool that allows you to use a short form, like a short way of saying something. Then when you put those words in or those letters in a particular order, a whole lot of text comes out. You don't have to type that text every single time. If you think about it from a journalist perspective, back in the day, I studied journalism at uni and I worked for a time as a journalist, you would have shorthand. Journalists would be trained in being able to write. But now we all have phones and Dictaphones and things to record, but back in the day you'd have a short form, which would allow you to kind of create smaller passages of writing that then meant something longer, but you didn't have the time to write it all out.
It very much works in the same way. Text replacement, you have this on your iPhone, if you have an iPhone, you literally go to settings, general, keyboard, and then text replacement. Settings, general, keyboard, text replacement. Once you're in there, there is a little plus sign at the top right-hand corner. All you're doing is putting in whatever phrase or amount of text that you want to use frequently. Then you just put a shortcut. For example, when I started my business, I used hashtags a lot. I had a lot of different hashtag banks that I would use for Instagram. Instead of having to remember them or even go to my notes app and copy and paste them, which a lot of people still do, you can just make a text replacement. You would put in all of the captions where it says a phrase, and you would put in your 25 or 30 hashtags.
Then hashtags, not captions. You'd put in your hashtags. Then the shortcut, you would put in a word or a phrase that tells you what those hashtag banks are about. When I looked back at mine, which was pretty funny to look at, I had ones like founder one, all I had to write was founder 1 and 30 hashtags would appear that had to do with founders, business founders. I also had thanks 123, which I still occasionally use. If I type that into my phone, it will then write a whole paragraph, that says going to something like, thank you so much for getting in touch. Here are some options for business coaching. You can just go here or we can email you directly if you let me know what your best email is. Thanks so much from Fiona and I don't have to type that out every time somebody asks for the same sort of information.
Text replacements can be amazing. I also just have one OMW, which is on my way. I send that to friends or family or my partner if I'm running to get somewhere because I could just type on my way. But I find the text replacement tool so handy. If you are somebody who doesn't necessarily have the resources currently to employ somebody for your admin or customer service, the text replacement tool can be super handy. I know now you can kind of have canned responses and automatic responses through social media DMs, but I just find the text replacement tool still such an incredible thing to utilize. As I said at the start of my business, I used it all the time.
Before I had hired a virtual assistant or an online business manager, I also had things like Workshop Melb and Workshop Syd. That gave people information because I used to run a lot more public workshops than I do now. Who knows, in 2024, I might bring them back. If you think that I should bring them back and you live in Melbourne or Sydney or any part of Australia, please let me know because I miss doing those. It was lovely to have that energy from people in the room and connect in that way. Coming back to what I'm talking about, I used to have the text replacement workshop Melb and that would have all the information about my workshops. I also had a workshop Melb with an actual pound or hashtag symbol. Then that would be all the hashtags around whenever I'd posted things about them, all the different hashtags that helped with that.
There are many ways that you can use the text replacement tool, but if you find yourself doing things over and over on your phone, particularly when it comes to social media, customer service social media, which is huge. I saw a study the other day that said as of October 2023 65% of people will use Instagram for customer service. The highest is 69% will use Facebook for customer service. A lot of the time people will think, “They can still email us or they can call our customer service line.” People are using these platforms for those things and you have to get on board. One way that can help you get on there in a way that's efficient is to use things like text replacement tools. That is it for today's quick tip episode, to look at things like text replacement.
I've talked about it on my iPhone. Again, to get there, you just go to settings, general, keyboard, and text replacement. I'm sure it's very similar on an Android, but I don't have experience using Androids. I just think these things can save you so much time. Also just make it consistent. If you have people working for you, you might have the same text replacements on all of your phones so that everyone is kind of saying things in the same way, in the same tone of voice, in the same brand messaging and just create that consistency. It's so many different ways that it can be used, but I hope you find that helpful and useful. We'll have this in text format over at mydailybusiness.com/podcast/365. Just a reminder, if you're looking for a present for the end of the year or Christmas or any kind of gifting Hanukkah that you want to give to a small business owner, we do have a bunch of options available and you can find them all at My Daily Business Shop. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.
