I've recently been deep diving into digital marketing to try to understand what I need to do to sell more of my products. I quite like writing these blogs as it helps me bring my thoughts together.
In my previous post here I explained about the pillars of INSPIRE, EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN and OFFER. This post is really about what you should be doing whilst in the social media platform of choice. I'm going to make the leap you know the different type of social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter etc), my clients hang out really on Instagram predominantly so this post will be Instagram biased. Here's goes...
The first up is to BE OPEN + CONNECT.
As the name suggests, social media is all about the "social" side of things. You are meant to connect and by connecting you will reach further - it's what the platforms want. If you read through the Instagram website it explains they want you to "connect with more people, build influence, and create compelling content that's distinctly yours." Pretty straight forward - we can do that, right?
To connect with more people, you need to reach them, the platforms want you to do this by being social i.e. like, share, reply and save things. The easiest way around this is to reply to comments on your posts (even the "Promote on..." ones that drive me crazy!), always like a post back when you are liked and also comment on someone else's post if they comment on yours (be reciprocal). I know when you've grown to thousands of users you probably will not do this but if you're at the early stage of growth, like me, it can work.
I've followed quite a few social media advisors, one of my favourites is Becky from be_super_social. I like her approach. She advises to put your name as well as your business name on your profile and I believe this is works, people do connect with me. Becky also advises explaining what you do and why someone should follow you - I agree! Plenty of times I've looked at pages and thought I can't remember what this page does.
I have a shop on Folksy and occasionally pull together an Instagram "Folksy Friday" post. I like doing it, it's enjoyable and you get to connect with other shops. Clicking through from Folksy to Instagram I've found often the shops don't have a website link to connect their audience to their products - that's crazy! Also a brand name or logo doesn't match up making you wonder if it's the same shop - if you want people to buy stuff BE CLEAR and, if possible, have the same profile name for everything.
Next ups - Be Yourself...
Well, it does seem obvious - but it's not easy is it? That line between being "authentic" and then at the same time not giving every last ounce of yourself away. I really, really don't like putting my photo out there, I know my kids don't want me to talk about them but at the same time I want to be honest, open and real. Authentic is very much a buzz word but I think authenticity can be many things, and a way for a small business like mine to achieve it is through my tone, ensuring the same me is showing up for all the things on social media and talking in the same way. I've decided whilst I don't know much in the grand scheme of things, I can happily share what I do know and that can be valuable for someone, somewhere (maybe you?!). So be yourself is important; share YOUR value with YOUR content and be proud of it. Don't compare yourself to others (comparison being the thief of joy etc) but share what you think others would be interested to know, they worst that could happen is that they already know it, but I bet someone doesn't.
Be here and there...
Wouldn't it be great to be everywhere - it's just not possible! But you can make a start, always firstly hang out where you believe your clients are. Then add to it. Absolutely don't make it hard for yourself. Connect your instagram to your Facebook to share automatically. Use your instagram reels in your TikTok account (but use your originals not the ones with the instagram logo, TikTok doesn't like that and vice versa). I really like Twitter but don't do very well on it although I do use it to follow all of the journalists to see if there's ever an opportunity for free PR!
Be within reach...
Social Media is, in my opinion, all about reach. I don't know if you've ever looked at your insights, but you can click through and see how far your posts have reached, how many saves, profile visits, interactions etc. Reach is the name of the social media game and the type of metric Instagram breaks down will give you an indicator of the what it favours. For instance, saves: I know I like saves! I also know the more saves I gain from a post, the further Instagram will push it. I recently had 60 saves on my "what on earth to post about" piece here and it reached over 2,000 accounts, I also received 20 new followers. In my world that's really what I'm looking for - this tells me to push these type of posts if I want to reach a larger audience and grow my business further.
The last thing to add is to be honest with accounts, explain why you are asking them to do something, people appreciate that - I know I do (my example below!).
Thanks for your time and if you think I could clarify something please do let me know.
Queenie
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