How to Improve Social Media For Your Business: 5 Things You Can Do Now!

When business owners ask us what we do, we tell them that we are business coaches.  We also tell them that we get our clients focused on the four things that entrepreneurs have the most difficult time with: Sales, Public Speaking, Human Resources and Marketing. It’s that MARKETING tag that perks most of them up.

“So what kind of marketing do you do?  Social Media and online?” is what we hear 4 out of 5 times.

The answer is Yes, and Yes.

But it goes a little deeper than that and we have to explain why.

You see, most of you business owners have been at some networking event or seminar, or received a phone call from someone who claims to be a social media expert and says she can generate a lot of business for you online. That’s before they have any idea what you do, how you do it or for whom.

For ANY marketing tactic, if you hear this, you should be skeptical. Marketing sales people are taught to tell you that they sell the MAGIC BULLET for your marketing needs. And they want a commission check, so they learn how to create that sales pitch.

This is not to say that social media and online marketing is bad. NO! It can be awesome. You MUST be online or you seem to not exist. And how you create your online world is the difference between those awesome results and miserable failures.

If you want it to be awesome, you have to have a plan and it must begin a lot further back than most sales people want to take you.

It all begins with how you decide who your most desirable clients are and then figuring out where their eyeballs are watching the world. Then you want to show up there.

With that in mind, here are 5 things you can do that will make your social media more effective.

1. Remember that social media is not the Silver Bullet. You MUST market your business in many more ways than just posting on 1, 3 or 5 social media platforms.
2. Post in the right places. We suggest (today anyway since this could change down the road) you learn and post on Facebook first because it is the hugest elephant in the room. Despite their challenges, people are staying on the platform. We have seen quite a few others come and go in less time than Facebook has been around. Remember MySpace?  Or Friendster?  Or Blab (we LOVED Blab)? Heck, even Google + is not succeeding. After you successfully figure out how to use Facebook to attract and hold your audience, then spread to one or two other platforms where your people are hanging out.  Is your target market women under 35?  Head to Instagram.
3. Post Consistently. How often? More if you can. We can show you how to use your analytics to find when your audience is watching the most. We have a couple of suggestions to make it easier to post all the time:
4. Live with your phone in your hand. This is the hardest one.
5. Use the “schedule your post for later” capabilities that most platforms have. OK we’re having too much fun so here are some bonus ones:
6. There are a few APPS that allow you to post later. We use one that lets us not only set the schedule once, but have it post over and over and over again. THAT is a great way to save time. Our favorites are in our 10 Easy Marketing Tools pdf which you can get on our home page.
7. Post the right things. Here are 5 things NOT to post about:  Sex (who you are having it with or what kind), Religion, Politics, Sports (unless it’s your kid playing little league or some other sport), and Negativity. What does that leave? There is a lot more left than cat videos, your lunch and memes. Try a daily question – check out #OKLNFB on Facebook and you will see what we do each night at 8:30 pm.  Give tips to make life better. There are tons of things to post.
8. You Can’t Take LIKES to the Bank – You must get them OFF Social Media, get them to your website and make a sale. Remember that all of these platforms are free to use so that you and me and our clients are fed a steady stream of ads. And we do not own our profiles. You can be shut off at any time, for any reason, without much recourse. One of the best examples of ways to get your followers off of social media to your website is to share your blog posts from your website to your social media sites. This gets them to your website where they can learn a lot more about you and how incredible it is to work with you. What? You are not blogging? Oh dear. Start! But that is another discussion. Come to The Small Business Marketing Plan Bootcamp and we will show you how to get that done easily.

With most types of advertising and marketing, we can tell right away if it works or not.  With print and direct mail ads, people walk in the door with the coupon. With online ads, we need them to show us their phone, which is, for many people (Not Sharyn – she is on top of that stuff) difficult.  We have one client, 360 Coffee, that just says ‘The first 5 people who show us this facebook post on their phone get a free bagel with any large drink.’ That is couponing at its easiest.

With online ads, it is generally harder to get the customer focused because all they say is “I found you online.” Here is the tip to help with that: Use different specials on different platforms.

Would you like more assistance in getting online in the easiest and fastest and most effective way?  We offer four suggestions:

First is to come to our The Small Business Marketing Plan Bootcamp and we will hold you by the hand and teach you how.  We also put your marketing plan together, in a small group setting, during a 2 ½ day master class.

Second is to buy our social media book: The Hows and Whys of Social Media – The Marketing Checklist 3. It includes a year’s worth of social media content and a link to a video social media class we taught recently. Get your copy at MarketingMarketingMarketing.com. That is a VERY inexpensive way to get on the right track!

Third is to go to Free Marketing Consultation .com and get us on the phone so we can give you some Specific-to-You ideas. This is what a lot of people do after they have gone through our marketing books.

Fourth is to hire us to put your entire marketing plan together including creating your social media path to success. We work with you for a year, becoming your marketing-department-down-the-hall. We teach you how to do all the things you need to do to market your business.

Now go post something (heck, you could share this blog)!