As business owners, we’re just trying to figure out what it’s going to take to be successful and profitable in the most effective way possible, which is why I’m going to break down how you can build a successful and profitable business with social media.
I have been in this game since 2009, being a social media marketer in 2009 wasn’t even a job that really existed. So I think I’ve got some years and a whole crap ton of experience to help make this dream possible for you. I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses and have been able to figure out what’s going to work for you so that you can find success.
Getting Started
When you’re getting started, you’re actually going to dive into what your objectives and goals are with your social media. It can’t be something as lame as like, “Oh, I want to get sales.” Sales is the objective of everything, making money as our bottom line. So let’s just assume that that’s everyone’s goal. And what we’re going to figure out is, what are the other goals that you want to attach to your social media? Do you want to make a hundred thousand dollars a month? Do you want to build your list to 10,000 people? Are you trying to promote yourself as an expert in your industry? What are the very specific goals that you want to set and how do you want to accomplish them on social media?
By having those very clearly defined, it’s going to make everything that you’re going to create, produce, and funnel make sense for you because your bottom line, which is the goal and the objective is all that truly matters. Social media is just a really fun way to get to that goal.
Know Your Audience
Now you need to study and know your audience. This goes into knowing who your perfect customer is, who would you sell to? Who would you love to work with? By knowing exactly who this person is, you’re going to be able to, again, get those goals and objectives met sooner. And you’re also going to be able to funnel in a lot of these other things that we’re going to talk about.
You have to know who you’re talking to. That’s how this whole marketing thing works. You have to know who you’re talking to. So you know exactly how to phrase things where you should be, what you need to offer them and how you’re going to do that. I know that you are here because you want to build your business profitably and how you’re going to do that is because I’m relating to you, because I too am a business owner. I have lots of experience and you definitely came for the information, but stay for the sassiness. That is what we’re here to do. I know you. You don’t know me. I know your objectives. I know your struggle, which is why you are here reading this blog. Now, once you know who you’re talking to, you’re going to be able to figure out where it is that they spend their time online.
Finding Your Audience
Not everybody’s social media habits are the same. Some demographics really like Facebook. Some demographics like Instagram. Some people are really into Twitter. Some people are really into Clubhouse. Some people are really into YouTube. You have to pick the platform that’s going to talk to the greatest portion of your audience. I know mine, a platform for talking to people is on YouTube. But I also know that my secondary platform is actually going to be on Instagram because that’s where I can connect with people in a totally new, fun way versus like what I do here, which is inform you and educate you in long article form. Over there, I’m having fun, maintaining, informing and inspiring. So I know where you like to spend your time, which is why you’re here. You need to figure out where your people spend most of their time and you usually can dive into it by those demographics. Now, once you pick the platform, you need to study the kind of content that performs best on that platform.
How to post on the best platform
For the most part, you can probably bank on the fact that video of some kind is going to be in a really important part of what you’re going to create. If it’s Instagram, doing stories and reels is really vital to your success. If you’re on YouTube, long form content is going to be successful. If you’re doing something on Facebook or Twitter, you’re going to probably want short form video content. Whatever the mediums are that performed best on those platforms, you need to figure out what those are and study them and analyze them so that you’re going to be able to create content that’s going to be effective for your audience to accomplish your objectives and goals. Do you like how I like it brought that all back around?
Can you do what is needed or do you need help
With the studying of what kind of content you should be creating and what’s going to perform best. You’re also going to need to tap into the like, “Am I skilled enough to make this happen?” So a little story about your girl Desiree from day one, day one of being on YouTube, I have had an editor. That’s right. I knew it was so important for me to be here to help you, that I needed to remove any barrier I had that as a mom, as a military wife and an entrepreneur running a business, and this amount of time to do it and trying to add in this other thing of doing video editing was not a skill I was willing to develop or something I was willing to sacrifice that time for. So by hiring an editor, I was able to take out that barrier and in turn, get accomplished what I need to get accomplished.
I analyzed my skills and realized that in order for me to accomplish my goal, I had to fill in the void in that way. So when you’re really analyzing the kind of content you need to create for specific platforms, look at the skills that you have in that can allow for you to create that content.
Capture Your Leads
Next when you figure out what your lead capture is, now a lead capture is going to be how people can continue to connect with you via email. The money is in the list. So you need to make sure that you have a way to offer someone extra value through a lead capture. And in turn, you’re going to be able to communicate with them on the regular, through that email list. So figure out what ‘too good to be free’ thing can you offer to people to get them to give you their email list?
You know how to piggyback off of someone else’s success. You need to figure out what that is for you. But having a lead capture is going to be the pillar of how we’re going to make all of this work to accomplish that goal and objective. In order for social media to work for you, you need to have a plan. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about this. If you do not know what you need to create with the message and when it needs to go out, you’re going to be drowning and squandering this amazing online opportunity.
Create Your Plan
The vast majority of people that don’t find success on social media that I have worked with is because they’re not consistent. They don’t have a plan and they haven’t done all these other things that we’ve talked about. Some guru told me I needed to be on Facebook or Twitter. And so I just started randomly posting stuff where I was pushing my message and trying to sell them crap. And it didn’t work. And therefore, I don’t think it works. In fact, they were just doing it wrong. They weren’t creating a plan based on the content that supports the platform that their target audience is on to help them meet their objectives and goals. Are you seeing how I keep bringing this all together? We really just need to make sure that whatever you’re doing, you’re planning out very specifically. How you’re going to break down your plan is going to include what content you need to create, what days it needs to go out and how you’re going to tie it back to your lead capture to accomplish your goal and objective.
These are our four big pieces that we need to think through on a plan. So let’s say you’re going to create a long form video content piece to put up on Youtube. And you know that you’re publishing day is going to be the first Thursday of the month. By knowing what you need to create and when it needs to go out and how it’s going to funnel back to your lead capture to accomplish your goal and objective, that’s what the plan is for. You don’t want to willy nilly be creating things. You don’t just want to post just to post. You want to make sure everything comes back to the goal, the objective, the lead gen, the audience that you’re talking to. Now that you have a plan, you have a lead capture, know who you’re talking to, you know where you’re going to do all this, it’s time to create the goodness.
Time to Create
It’s time to pull it out camera, it’s time to pull out Canva, Photoshop, get the team together, posts out the selfies, whatever that tends to be. You’ve got to figure out what you need to create so that you can put into the plan. And then once you have everything created and you know it’s supposed to go somewhere, you need to schedule it, right? So the point of what we’re trying to do is a little bit of set it and forget it. Again, I’m a true believer in create smart, not hard. And so this is how we’re funneling this all down the path. I want you to make sure that everything that you’re doing is purposeful and also going to allow for you never to miss a beat when it comes to that calendar. So take the plan, create the content and then schedule it out.
Build Relationships
Now, once you’ve done this, once you did the meat of the work, next we need to build relationships. We build relationships online by being present and being active while your staff is posting, you need to be engaging in other pieces of content. I love using tools like a Dollar Eighty to track different hashtags. I like going into different groups around my industry or my desired target demographic and answering questions and just being present and praising people and celebrating and answering questions that I can, whether it’s something that is related to my business or something personal, something supportive that I can do, you have to be present. You have to engage. You have to be a part of the conversations. If you’re not going to find a way to build a relationship, why is anyone going to care about you?
You cannot have a one-way conversation with people on the internet, right? You don’t have one way conversations with people face to face. You don’t go to networking events and talk to them and you don’t hop on a Zoom and just talk at people, right? You need to participate in the conversations. And that is how you’re going to build relationships, build credibility, and drive people back to your social media, which is set up to do the thing which gets you leads and helps you reach your goals and objectives.
Test it Out
Now we have to make sure that we’re testing and adapting. Testing is something everyone hates because sometimes the things that we do fail. Sometimes things that we do suck. And sometimes the things that we do are going to flourish and we’re going to have major amounts of success, but we’re not going to know what any of those things are until we test them out.
Till next time.
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