5 STEPS TO END YOUR HATRED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

[5 minute read]

For most business owners, the words “social media” makes them cringe since it takes so much time to manage and it’s just too tough to keep up with the latest trends, but you never want to get left behind either. I want to simplify social media for you today and put your mind at ease. Here’s the skinny on how to make social media work for your business, all in 5 easy steps.
 
1. Change Your Mindset

• First and foremost, go into airplane mode and block out 2 hours to devote to mapping out a top-line view of your annual social media program, this practice will help provide clarity and get those strategically-creative juices flowing.
• Internalize that social media is the news ticker that gives your loyal followers up-to-the-minute updates on why they need to keep you on their radar.

2. Get Back to Basics

• What is your top business goal? Maybe it’s promoting your summer season services & products or launching a new product line.
• Completely place yourself in your customers’ shoes, what is actually going to make them read, watch, share, like and help promote you?
• What are the words/images that will “click” for them? If you were them, would a boring vendor photo with 10% off, “come by and save” post work OR would a video of you showing how it works out in the real world and how this product will simplify their lives and make them happier be the golden ticket?
• Think of what would provide the WOW factor in getting you as a customer to pay attention. Determine what actually will make you say “I NEED THAT!” Go back to your observations of customers’ comments, actions, wishes, habits, and conversations with family and friends they're visiting your business with. All of this information is telling you how you can make their lives easier and happier (check out these corporate-GoPro & local-Pour Tap Room examples to give you an idea of what's possible). Time-strapped soccer mom? Just think how you can make their trip to see you more efficient and showcase that extra perk!

3. Map It Out

• Based on your business goal(s), create a “campaign” or theme that embodies that month or season that all your marketing tactics, from décor to social media can correlate with.
• Create a calendar of events that impact both you and your customers for each month and use those as inspiration for your social media posts.
• Determine how you can multi-purpose your content. So if you take a “how-to” video, you can now integrate that into content to submit to your Chamber’s e-newsletter, your e-newsletter, a social media post, content for your website, a quick reply email to a customer that calls asking if you have that product, Facebook/Instagram ad, and I’m guessing you can come up with a few more ways to use it too.

4. Automation on the Cheap

• If your customers use Facebook or Instagram and you come up with a great video or photo shoot, you can use this content to create an ad that automatically gets placed in your fans and customers’ feeds to keep you on their radars and to remind them to come and see you. As people visit your website, provide their email, and/or sign up for your newsletter, they can begin to be regularly exposed to what you’re up to. Here’s what’s possible:  
• Did you know that for $1/day (watch video), you can run a Facebook & Instagram ad that is sent directly to: 1) Your website visitors (including specific pages they’ve visited & not visited) within the last month, 90 days or more; 2) people whose email you have; 3) an entire new set of people that match the lifestyles of the first two people mentioned (Facebook creates a “lookalike” audience); 4) people that sign up for your email newsletter (link ad to a specific MailChimp distribution list in Facebook ad manager). All of this can run on autopilot.
• On the posting front, utilize a service like Hootsuite.com or BufferApp.com (both have FREE options) to schedule your posts days, weeks or even months ahead of time during the times and days that your customers are most active on social media (just use the analytics built into each platform to see your stats). Plus, they have apps and browser tools that allow you to “clip and share” things as you browse the internet.

5. Quality over Quantity, Use Your Phone & Don’t Be Salesy

• Remember, people want to see and hear about what you’re up to, so post quality content that isn’t just about you making money. But be sure to not just put out “fluff” to fulfill posting something every day. It’s time to entertain, educate and take them behind the scenes to show why your different. So if you’re not posting everyday, that’ ok, just make sure that what you put out is quality.
• Never forget that you have a video crew in your back pocket, aka your phone. Take your customers behind the scenes, so if you’re on a road trip to source ingredients or putting the finishing touches on your hand-made products, show your customers what goes into making yours different. If your brand is all about organic, handcrafted goodness, then take them in the kitchen or into the fields with your go-to farmer.
• Look through your feed of previous posts, if it’s all the same and you’re always talking about a sale, do you think that’ll be very captivating? Probably not, so be sure to mix it up and use your month’s or season’s theme to come up with cool content you know your customers would love to see and profile how it could fit into their lifestyle.