Are you a small business owner who has a less than rosy relationship with Social Media? You’re not alone! This 2 part series will help you figure out what you’re missing if you are NOT engaging through social media, and will help you see what you can do to make the most of a very powerful referral tool. If you are trying to engage, but feel like you’re not making useful connections with your ideal clients, keep reading to find some simple ideas to get yourself on track to becoming- and remaining- relevant to your consumers on social media.
There are a lot of things about social media that can be frustrating to entrepreneurs. I empathize because I have DEFINITELY been there. But I have also been able to successfully collaborate with business owners to help their social media work for them— in a way that brings in new leads and networking opportunities and helps them work smarter, not harder.
They say success does not come without struggle. But your social media engagement should NOT be one of those struggles. Below are some common mistakes and misconceptions that I have helped walk clients through so they can use social media as the effective, automatic, and automated tool it should be.
Here are some issues my clients have had with social media. Do any resonate with you?
“I posted and nothing happened. It feels like a waste of valuable time”
Okay, first off. It doesn’t matter how amazing your product or service is. If you are just randomly posting without a plan. NOBODY IS GOING TO SEE IT. At least nobody that could foreseeably become a hot lead in the future.
So how can you plan better? You have to have a variety of types of posts. The kind that highlights important things about your business, but also the kind that sets you apart as the authority in your space, and the kind that presents you ( or more specifically, your brand) authentically. That might sound like a lot of work… but it doesn’t have to be.
There are all kinds of creative entrepreneurs you can delegate this task out to depending on how much engagement you personally want to have on social media. BUT, if you really want to be authentic, you are going to have to be the one to set the tone and make sure it actually sounds like you.– Which brings me to my next client issue:
“It is so hard to put myself out there because I can’t get the graphic/caption/content to be just PERFECT!”
I totally get you! This was a battle for me too. In Kindergarten, my teacher wrote a note to my mom that I was afraid to try if I wasn’t sure it was going to be perfect. But I got over it… I mean, not until i was in my early 30s, but still….
You know how I got over it? By trying, failing and LEARNING how to do it better next time. If you aren’t putting imperfect stuff out there, you probably aren’t putting much out there, and you just aren’t going to be seen. People can’t interact with something that isn’t there.
To this DAY, I still have to struggle to put myself out there- That is why I ghost-write for other people. I am way less critical of others, and guess what- EVERYBODY is. And people gravitate toward REAL. Not Perfect. My first two retainer clients came from a Facebook post that I almost didn’t put out there because I was so self critical. Again, this might be another great reason to delegate. But get over perfect, because perfect is boring. People want relatable, real, authentic, real life content. And real life can be messy.
If you are consistently posting and engaging, you are going to get better and better. And the world moves at breakneck speed. People are not going to remember what you posted three weeks ago. And your content will become more pro-level with each post. Eventually You will start showing up on people’s feeds semi-consistently… because you dared to engage. And THEN, because they are seeing your stuff everywhere, they are suddenly connecting YOU as the authority in your space. And those people are likely to refer you to others. And suddenly, you are making MONEY off of FREE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT!!
There is a time investment, but you have to invest in yourself to get others to invest in you.- And that brings us to the final client misconception:
“There is no way I can even think of enough of the kind of content I need to become visible!”
So, aside from social media, have you been engaging with your clients in any digital space? Absolutely, Right? Then I PROMISE you do have enough content! Seriously. If you have a webinar, an email sequence, a landing page, a newsletter, a brochure, an ebook, a podcast, a blog, an article or almost ANY DIGITAL CONTENT that is already created. We can repurpose that SEVERAL different ways in order to engage your audience and convert leads to sales.
People get really weird about putting “too much content” out there and bugging their followers. I’m going to need you to STOP THAT There is simply no such thing. Nobody is going to see everything you put out there.You are not going to overwhelm people with your own content if it is hitting their pain points. And if people are following you enough that they ARE seeing all of your content in all of the places, it’s likely because they already love you, are following you in all the places and they want it all!!
You want superfans like these because they will spread the word. But more importantly– people you haven’t reached yet are likely to see SOMETHING you have put out there, if you are consistently repurposing that content and getting it out everywhere.
You are hitting your consumer pain points in any digital content you have produced, so why not spread it around like confetti to make sure you can reach your market?
Ready to get your social media game on point? Need some help? Click this link to schedule a call. Or you can email me at mbeerswrites@gmail.com. And follow me on Instagram and Facebook.
