In today’s Clubhouse room (Friday 5th March 2021), we discussed all things Sizzling Social Media. We answered a lot of questions from the audience and it seems as though Social Media is a hot topic for Small Business Owners, and one of the big things that causes the most frustration, confusion and overwhelm.
Thank you to all of you who came up on “stage” and asked questions or shared your own valuable knowledge and insights.
As promised here are the notes from that session for you to reflect upon, I hope you find them useful.
Our No.1 Top Tip for Social Media: Post Consistently
This serves you in a number of ways:
Algorithms (Social Media Robots)
The social media algorithms are sifting through an ENORMOUS amount of content constantly.
They decide using a variety of criteria, what content will be shown and who it will be shown to.
Not only will the algorithms marry your content with social media users on the basis of what content they show specific interest in and spend their time on, they will also give you points (for want of a better word) on things like:
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How engaging your posts are and how much interaction you get per post and on your pages as a whole (we’re talking, likes, comments, views, shares, mentions etc).
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The times of day you post.
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The hashtags you use.
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The format of content you use (i.e video)
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Whether you send the viewer off platform too frequently with links to other sites and/or social media platforms
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Whether you post your content natively or through scheduling tools
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And of course, how consistently you post.
The algorithms need to know that you are showing up regularly to engage your audience and they need to learn about you, so that they know who to show your content too.
Building Awareness and Trust in You/Your Brand.
If you don’t show up consistently on social media, you are not giving your audience enough opportunity to get to know you and buy into you.
Remember, not everyone sees everything you share on social media (because of the algorithms), so sporadic posting is not going to lessen the chances of you being discovered and making an impact even further.
Posting Content That Your Audience Wants to Consume
Understanding your customer’s needs, wants, desires, pains and challenges, is the key to producing great content your they will love you for.
Asking yourself these questions or even ask them directly will help you massively. Do a deep dive of your STAR Customer so that you understand everything about them and craft your content with them in mind.
Remember also that the name of the game is value value value! We call it at All Star Marketing Club, giving without expectation. If you give away content and value that someone would expect to be paying for, then you’re on to a winner! In giving such amazing value for free, you will be sewing the seed in their minds of the value they would be getting if they actually paid for it! Why wouldn’t they want to go there with you?
Preparing to ‘come out’ on social media but holding back until everything is perfect.
There’s nothing wrong in being prepared, but the whole time you hold back on getting yourself out there on social media, the longer you’re are delaying building your audience of potential customers and risking them going to someone else to service their needs.
You may not have a website ready to go yet which you can point them to, you might not have any gated content to help you grow your database and you might want to have other things in place before putting yourself out there, but I urge you not to let that stop you. You have your knowledge and expertise which is ripe and ready to share and that is enough to get you going.
Marketing works in funnel format and social media is no different. You need to develop:
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Awareness of who you are and what you do.
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Interest in what your offer.
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Desire to get closer to you and learn more.
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Action; that all important next logical step in the journey to becoming a customer (and this is not always a sale).
You might not have all of the assets in place to achieve points 2, 3 and/or 4, but you can most certainly get out there and start revving up in the awareness stakes.
One of our favourite sayings at All Star is, “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be done.” And this is so relevant if you’re at this stage in your business and social media journey. Plus, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (I hate that saying, but you get my point). For example, if you don’t yet have a website you house your blog content, set up a landing page in Mailchimp. You can do this without even having to subscribe to one of their paid levels. Maybe you’ve got a podcast on the horizon which isn’t ready for release, so instead, set up a YouTube account and vlog on there until you’re ready to get your podcast out there.
Repurpose Your Content
STOP creating brand new content each and every day, it’s totally unnecessary. Remember I said that not everyone sees everything you post? Well, this is just one of the reasons you don’t need to re-invent the wheel where content is concerned. You don’t want those nuggets of value going to waste, so re-hash them into multiple posts that are worded differently but share the same message. Also experiment with sharing one piece of content in multiple formats, i.e written form, video form, infographic. Remember, “Repetition builds reputation”. (more on this here)
Another great tip is something we call ‘splintering’. Let’s say you have written an amazing blog. Within that blog there is likely to be a variety of subject matter and important points or anecdotes. Each of these can be listed out and created as a separate social media post which links back to your original blog post each time. This will help you ensure you get as many eyeballs on your valuable content as possible, plus drive traffic to your website, in turn supporting your SEO efforts and also maximising the number of people on your website who may take time to explore and learn more about you.
Optimise Your Profiles
Spending time creating a fantastic profile on your chosen social media platform(s) is often overlooked, yet on all platforms, they are immensely important and here’s why.
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Discoverability.
To varying degrees, your profiles are searchable and therefore you need make sure you weave in the right sorts of keywords, so that you return when someone seeks out accounts to follow and interact with, just like you.One of the biggies is LinkedIn. Not only does Google index LinkedIn, meaning your profile is more more likely to return in a relevant Google search, but the search function on LinkedIn also uses your profile content to categorise you and make you discoverable by potential new connections. You also have something called a Social Selling Index (SSI) ranking on LinkedIn, which, in a nutshell, measures out of 100, how effective you are using the platform to sell yourself in a social way. Having a completely optimised profile helps you to rank higher in this metric.
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Make a good first impression
A good profile introduces your audience to you and brings your business to life by sharing your values and credentials. If there is synergy between you and the viewer that they can easily identify, they are more likely to follow and engage with you. -
Familiarity
You can use your social media profiles to re-enforce your brand persona and core brand messages. Congruence is key so that no matter what platform you are found on, you are recognised and that your persona is not diluted, therefore make sure you use the same core messaging, tone of voice, headshots and style of imagery. -
The algorithms like it
You’ve gotta play the social media game, right?
Hashtags and Captions on Instagram Stories and Reels
Hashtags are commonly used across social media and although they started life on Twitter, it’s Instagram that has monopolised their use over the years. Yet, it would seem something is a-miss when it comes to IG Stories. By all accounts they aren’t doing their job as they should be, so if you’re not getting the traction with your IG Story posts when using hashtags, this is likely to be why. Recommendation: Use mentions in your Stories and encourage those who you mention to share your Stories on.
The other question we received was to do with Instagram Reels. If you’ve not used them yet, they are like TikTok and by all accounts, where it’s happening on IG right now. We were asked whether captioning Reels videos is the right thing to do and right now, my answer is yes. Here’s why:
85% of video is watched on social media without sound. Although this might be slightly lower on Reels, given the nature of the feature, it’s not a bad shout to caption your videos, even in part, and especially if they are explainer. You might use them sparingly to call out key points you are making, or simply as part of your creative vibe. The one caveat I have here is avoid putting them too far to the top and bottom of the video, as they are likely to be hidden by Instagram buttons and such.
Video Content
If you aren’t doing video, then you need to be. With the average person watching 100 minutes of online video a day and 70% of the population being more visual by nature, video is an obvious content format choice. Additionally, you can expect to see between 6 and 10 x more reach on average when it comes to placing video on social media, so as a tactical “social media game playing” measure, of course it’s worth bringing video into your content strategy.
There’s a whole lot of why’s and wherefores when it comes to video, not least overcoming the fear many have of doing it in the first place, as well as things like how long your videos should be, and how video is consumed by the viewer. Therefore, I’ve created a fantastic little guide which will tell you all you need to know when it comes to bossing it in the video marketing stakes, and I’ve attached it to the email.
In Summary
Social media is a confusing beast and an ever-changing environment, but you don’t need to be an expert and understand platform feature or algorithm quirk. What you do need to know is all about your ideal customer, where they hang out and what they want to learn from you in the ways of content. Simply, make sure you follow these steps over and above anything and go from there:
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Publish content consistently that your ideal customer wants and needs.
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Pick one or two platforms and do them well
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Repurpose your content
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Optimise your profiles
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Do more video
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Gradually improve your social media knowledge: Learn something, implement it, perfect it, and then repeat.
If you need some help with creating attention grabbing, engagement worthy content for your social media. Join our free Content Creation Bootcamp starting on 29th March to 1st April and nail 90 days of amazing content for you business.
Sign Up to our Content Creation Bootcamp here
