Lots of “gurus” and “experts” will give you advice on Social Media, but MANY are missing a few key strategies that will make (or break!) your success online if you want to use social media channels to market your business and win new clients.
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiebrinkley/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hey there. This is Katie Brinkley and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Hello, and thank you for joining me on the Rocky Mountain Marketing podcast. I’m your host, Katie Brinkley, and we are going to discuss different ways that small business owners can take their marketing to new heights. Now, as a social media strategist, I see a lot of tips and tricks out there from different experts. Well, today I’m going to talk about what the quote unquote experts and gurus aren’t telling you about using social media effectively. Now before we dive into today’s topic, this is probably the very first time you listen to this podcast. And if it is great, you’re listening to the very first podcast of Rocky Mountain Marketing. My name is Katie Brinkley, and I’m based in Denver, Colorado. I own a digital marketing company. We’re a boutique agency that focuses a lot on helping small businesses throughout the Denver Metro area. Next up social communications specializes in helping small businesses with social media strategy, social media advertising, brand design, and website design. I’ve been specializing in social media for three and a half years. But this is not my first rodeo, not to date myself too much. But I’ve been doing social media since the days of MySpace. So that’s 15 years of seeing how social media has changed the way that we interact with our friends, neighbors and businesses online. About three and a half years ago, I had the opportunity to sit down think about what mattered most to me and what I was most passionate about. And it was social media. I took my dream and I started next step social communications to help small businesses in Denver and throughout the United States grow their social media presence. Now, over the years, I’ve heard a lot of different tips and tricks from so called gurus and a lot of the tips that you might find when you’re just out there googling or researching different, best social media tricks, and tips are really not going to be the best way to go about it. I hear over and over and over again about, oh, you got to be on social media, and you got to be posting every day, every day, every day. The biggest thing that I can tell you is it’s not quantity, its quality. If you have posts out there every single day, but they’re lousy posts, you might as well not be posting at all. And that’s one of the things that I’ve discovered being in this industry for as long as I have now. I started back when MySpace was the big social platform, a lot of bands were out there trying to get their music out. And it was a completely different way of being social. And then Facebook really took over when they went outside of just being for college students only. I remember that it was so frustrating for me when I was in college because Facebook didn’t recognize my school as a college. And I went to a small division to school in southwest Colorado. And I wouldn’t change it for anything I love where I went to school, I was able to play on the softball team there, I was able to work at the radio station, I was the music director, I was the news director, I was able to give tours, anything and everything that I wanted to do, I was able to do because I went to this school, so I wouldn’t change it for anything. However, Facebook didn’t seem to recognize my dream college as a legit University. And you had to have a registered college email address to sign up for Facebook. So I was very, very active on MySpace, I worked for the college radio station. And I got to know a lot of bands. While I was at that college radio station. I loved that on MySpace, I could reach out to these different bands and talk to the actual band. I could hear about new bands before they had even hit the big music scene yet. And that was the beginning of social media, MySpace, Facebook, that was the beginning of realizing that you have a way of connecting with people you never would dream about and be social with them. You can listen to their music, you can ask celebrities, your questions. I mean, social media has given us a way to engage and interact with people that we never thought was possible. And that’s when I truly fell in love with social media was when I was back in college and realizing there was this whole other world out there that I wouldn’t have had access to if it wasn’t for social media. So if that hasn’t dated me a little bit too much.
I’ve seen social media evolve and seen. You know how it went from really just an online kind of yearbook online way to listen to music. Everyone remembers Napster. And, you know, it’s really changed a lot over these past 15 years now. And it’s become a completely different way of one engaging with our friends but engaging with our businesses. And as a business, it’s great because social media allows you to reach your audience on a whole different level. I mean, you can pick and choose who you want to engage with, you can give your customers, your clients, your, your employees, a way to engage with the company in ways that they never could before in ways that, you know, a commercial on television can’t. Now social media is a way for people to engage and learn more from your company. And that’s what people go on social media for. They’re not following your business page, because they want to be sold to, they want to follow your page because you provide valuable insight, or something of value to them, that they can’t get just from turning on the television, or from listening to the radio. And that’s what you need to keep in mind when you’re making your social media posts. Don’t just put more ads out there and try and sell to people all the time, because nobody wants to get sold to all the time. Alright, so do I have your excitement? Are you pumped to learn what kind of social media you need to be putting out there for your customers, your clients and your employees? Those are the three categories that you need to be thinking about, every time that you go into Facebook, you’re not just going into Facebook, you’re not just going on to Instagram or Twitter, LinkedIn, just to have something because, believe it or not, something is not better than just nothing. If you have bad content, a lot of copy and paste a lot of content that’s boring, no one’s going to want to engage with it. Now, a recent statistic that I saw was that between two and 5%, of your audience on Facebook sees your content to earn 5%. Now, that’s as a business, not on your personal page, your personal page gets a higher ranking in the Facebook algorithm. So if you have 100 followers, only between two and five people are gonna see that if your content is bad. So that’s why you got to make sure that you’re putting out the best content possible. Because of that, too, and 5% sees it, and they like it, they share it, they comment it, that’s going to increase it in the Facebook algorithm. So if you’re having someone just copy and paste, copy from your website and put it out there without any pictures, without any videos, that’s just a waste of your time and effort. A lot of people get it in their mind that something is better than nothing. So if you’re one of those people, and you need to hear it, again, quality over quantity, and this goes on every single social platform, what is a quality post, you ask? Well, having something that people can see. So a picture a video, not just text out there, if you can find some sort of picture to add to all of your posts, that’s gonna make people stop the scroll. And stopping the scroll is huge, because it means that people are spending more time on your content and are more likely to engage, they’re more likely to engage, more people are going to see it. And when you’re creating your business’s social media posts, you have to look at it as the consumer, what do you enjoy seeing when you’re on social media, everyone’s on social media, at least some platform, whether it’s LinkedIn, or Facebook, or Instagram, or Snapchat, there’s so many out there, and you’re bound to be on one of them. Even if it’s just to look through the feed. Maybe you don’t post something every day, but you’re on there looking at it. You want to see what your friends are doing. You want to see what’s the latest with the news, you want to follow your sports teams. And social media has provided us a way to engage and interact with these things that are most important to us in a whole new way. And when you’re on social media, think about what made you stop scrolling, what made you decide that you wanted to hit like, now, of course, we’re all going to be engaging with you know, your mom, or your sisters or your best friend’s picture of their cute dog.
That’s not the type of posts I’m talking about. It’s the stuff that stops your attention from the businesses. If you see a really funny picture for a business and you stop and hit like, maybe you’ve never purchased from this company before, maybe it’s a sponsored ad in your feed. Or maybe it is a company that you’ve already purchased from in the past. Seeing them in your feed, gave them the opportunity to put their brand back in front of you and hey, maybe we’ll think about purchasing from them for that next birthday gift. You have to think about social media as social. You can’t just post something and then walk away from it. You need to give your employees and your customers and your clients and your future customers a reason that they want to engage with you. The biggest thing that I can tell you is you want to have pictures. You want to have some visual. Now, video is king, if you can provide amazing video content. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be amazing. If you can provide video in some way for your clients and your customers for social media, you are going to get higher engagement than any of your competitors. Now a lot of you are saying, I don’t want to, I don’t know how to produce a video, I don’t need to get in front of the camera, I don’t have stop with the excuses. If you can get out there and do a selfie people are used to seeing selfies now, people are used to seeing people holding their phone as the camera. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If you take your clients, or your restaurant customers through a tour of your restaurant holding your phone, people are going to watch that and think, Wow, this is so cool. I got to see the kitchen of my favorite restaurant. Oh, look, there’s some of the cooks. You’ve provided them with a site that they typically don’t get to see from when they go into your store, or your restaurant or your business. Another way that you can engage your customers with video is that your staff, take over the video account, let every person have a chance to take a tour around the office. Let the people see on social media. Let your people see who they’re dealing with. Who is the person making the food, bring the social back to social media, don’t just try and sell or Don’t just post random, happy birthday, Joe. Happy birthday, Joe is great, but not if that’s the only thing that you’re posting, and there’s no picture to go with it. Post a picture of Joe, give a little bio about him. How long has he been with the company? What are some of his favorite things? These are all ways that you can make your social media more engaging, and more social. And you’re gonna have a better engagement rate with your followers. Now, are you ready to really take on all of this, as a business owner? Do you have the time and the energy and the creativity to be doing this every day. So many small business owners have so much on their plate, from hiring, to inventory, to running the shop to accounting, there’s so many hats, why make social media another one of those hats you need to wear, there are all sorts of social media managers, social media strategist out there, you need to make sure that you hire the right one, hire somebody that knows the type of content that’s going to engage the best with your audience with your target audience. Now, you don’t need to be going out there and spending $10,000 a month to get your Facebook post in front of your target audience. You can do it organically. And you can just make sure that you have the right type of content that people are going to want to engage with and give you their business when they’re ready to make that next purchase. So make sure that you hire somebody that understands the strategies behind good quality content over just quantity content
if you only put out one post a week, but man, it was a great video that you did. That is way more valuable to your social media, than having five social media posts go out in one day, just to make sure that you had five posts go out. Never ever post five posts in one day for your account, because you’re confusing the Facebook algorithm, it doesn’t know which one of those posts it should be putting out in front of your audience. Now I know I’ve spent a lot of time on this podcast, talking about Facebook, Facebook is the original social network. So whatever Facebook does, it’s typically on the forefront of what’s to come from some of the other platforms. Also, if you didn’t know, Instagram is owned by Facebook. So if you’re doing ads on Facebook, you can make those ads transfer over to Instagram very easily. Now, just because Facebook owns Instagram does not mean that they are the same thing at all, you should make sure that you have the right type of messaging for each of these platforms. Now one thing that I recommend for all of my clients is having a separate message for each platform. You can use the same creative, you can have the same photo or same video, but try and make the copy unique for each platform, make it have its own voice. You’re going to talk to somebody different at work than you would at home. Try and think of Facebook as more of like your family. And LinkedIn is more of your coworkers. change up the copy for that day’s post to match the platform you’re
talking on. Now back to where I was on Instagram. Instagram is only visual. Now I know that I’ve said to make sure that you have visual component for every one of your Facebook posts and you should. Making sure that you have something visual is super important for Facebook. It’s super important for Instagram. But there are different types of posts that do better on each platform. You’re going to want to have the Instagram grid look like the best of the best for your product. The Instagram grid is different from Instagram stories. And that’s the way that you should treat both of them. Stories on Instagram can be fun, they can be unique, they can be spur the moment, and they can be off brand. Because people on Instagram stories are expecting to see more selfie type videos more. This is what I’m doing right now. This is me lip singing. This is a poll on what color socks I should wear today. That is Instagram stories. The Instagram grid is your opportunity to give your best nine photos to your potential audience every day. Is Instagram like Facebook? Should you post every day on Instagram? No, unless it’s on topic with your brand. And you make sure that that grid looks professional every time. One of the ways that I recommend doing Instagram successfully is by having a set schedule for certain pictures on your Instagram grid. Instagram Stories can be every day. But you want to put the best of the best at the most opportune times for your audience to engage with them on the Instagram grid. I know I’m throwing a lot of information your way right now. And there’s a lot of different things that I hope you’re taking away from this podcast. The biggest thing that you need to take away from today’s episode is that you don’t need to do at all as a small business owner, you can have someone that knows what they’re doing. And if they do know what they’re doing, they’re going to do it this way. Make sure that you have someone on your team that can help make your social media social, again, make it not just a tool for sales, the sales will come up their social media is good. But if you’re not putting the right type of social media out there, for your audience, no one’s going to want to be social with it. The last tip I’m going to talk about today is the social aspect. And I get it you might be saying, I feel like all you’ve said today is social, social, social. But believe it or not, I’m going to talk about how you can make your social media even more social. So many times I see businesses that all post out there, and then walk away. Alright, my post for Wednesday is done. I’ll pop back on on Friday, there’s no reason that that’s how you should be treating your businesses, social media. Just because it’s for a business page doesn’t mean that you can’t be social with it, you need to answer those questions that come through in the comments. Like if someone says, Hey, I just bought this product. And it’s been amazing. reply back and say so happy that you love your product. And like it. This is the number one way that your clients, your potential customers, your current customers, and your employees are going to want to engage with your page, because they see that there’s someone behind the scenes that hears them, you want to make sure that your audience knows that they’re heard. Now, having someone that’s going in there and being social on the platform. And listening is also great for when you get the not so great reviews. If someone leaves a comment on your Facebook page and says, I just ate here and it was horrible. You don’t want to leave that up there. As any good business owner, you’re going to want to reach out to that client or that past customer and say, I’m so sorry that you had that experience. Just give them a voice. Let them know that they were heard. Anyone that is successful in customer relations and customer service will tell you that people just want to be heard. And whether it’s on the phone, in person or on a Facebook post on social media. If they know that they were heard, they’re going to feel better about potentially giving you their business again. And that’s the type of social engagement you want to have with your social media followers. Make sure that your social media followers get quality content, there’s a reason for them to follow your page. And they know that they’re
hurt this, this is what a lot of experts and so called gurus have wrong. They’re telling you to post every day, keep reminding yourself. It is quality over quantity. I hope that these tips have been extremely helpful for you, whether you’re going to be taking on the social media for your business page. Or if you’re looking to get someone on your team that’s ready to tackle the social media for you. Make sure that they’re doing it the right way. Make sure that they’re being social on social media, make sure they’re not just spamming people’s feeds, make sure that they’re engaging back with the customers. And you’re gonna have a quality page that not only your current customers are gonna like, but potential customers too. And they’ll be coming back for more business from you. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review on your favorite podcasting app. And also feel free to learn more about myself and how I can help you out online. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my Our Website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com or connect with me on LinkedIn just look for Katie Brinkley let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights