Social media. Love it or hate it, it’s a BIG part of our lives these days.
And I don’t know about you, but I am super skeptical of the dramatic Cinderella stories people share about how they unlocked wealth and clients through a simple Facebook post or Instagram story.
Now, I know I’m not Gary Vaynerchuk but I’ve never EVER had people rushing to my virtual business because of any one thing I’ve done on social media.
I HAVE had many, many clients over the years who got to know me over time through social media, and eventually reached out when they felt there was trust built up.
What I know without a doubt is that social media WORKS. But I also know from my own experience AND the experience I’ve seen from my clients that it DOESN’T work as a one-off lottery ticket. There’s no such thing as a magical post that fills your bank account.
My social media philosophy actually comes from Gary Vaynerchuk’s 2013 book — Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. The whole premise is that connecting, engaging and finding clients online is all about one big thing: CONSISTENTLY BEING OF SERVICE.
It’s definitely not sexy. It’s not a lottery ticket to instant riches and fame. Instead, it’s slow work to engage and serve your audience.
But the payoff is worth it.
Back in 2013, Gary V’s premise in this book was really different than how most people were approaching social media. His main point is that you’ve got to consistently deliver great content, that’s custom-tailored to the platform, before asking your audience for something in return.
Basically, each jab you land is value. Then you follow the jab with a right hook which is an offer.
So jab, jab, jab = three pieces of value for every offer.
Now, you may be thinking that you’ve tried. Or that you’ve tried for years to be of service but getting clients from social media just isn’t working.
I hear you. I used to spend hours scrolling through Facebook Groups, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more searching and searching and searching for ways to ‘connect’ with people.
But my connection strategies were off and it would turn off my potential customers.
I want to break this down, because if social media isn’t working for you yet it’s probably because you’re doing it wrong too.
Biggest Show Takeaways:
- #1: Where’s Your Audience?
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- The first thing I always do with clients and students is help them identify where their audience is hanging out on social media. Many times it’s Facebook, but not always. It could be any number of other places instead of Facebook or in addition to Facebook.
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- Here’s what I know — it doesn’t matter how amazing you are on social media if your audience never sees your efforts!
- #2: What’s Your Goal with Your Audience?
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- It’s important to know your goal because far too often I see people trying to copy a well-known influencer’s social media presence and it doesn’t work. Know why? The influencer is already WELL KNOWN. When we’re not yet well known, we have to have a different strategy.
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- Know what your goal with your audience is. Are you trying to get them familiar with you and warming them up to what you stand for? Are you trying to position yourself as a thought leader? Expert? Or maybe as a rebel? Are you an innovator or do you want people to know you as creating systems that are tried and proven?
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- When you know your goal it’s a lot easier to create a strategy to establish yourself and your audience engagement strategy on social media.
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- Your audience uses social media by rapidly scrolling through their feeds at 1,000 mph, especially while on their phones on the go. Your goal is to stop the scroll!
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- To really stand out you need to share something that is different, eye-catching and compelling enough to quickly grab people’s attention. Plus, it needs to be UNIQUELY you and your message. This is hard. It takes focus and commitment to STOP following trends.
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- The way you do it is with micro-content — small, easy to understand and read ideas that people can consume on the fly.
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- This means creating simple, concise copy that gets right to the point and clearly points out its purpose, links or calls to action, making it as easy as possible for followers to engage.
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- When you warm up your audience on social media in a way that’s relevant, interesting and intriguing, they’re going to want to know more. This is the perfect time to invite them to read a blog post, listen to a podcast or watch a video where you can deliver even more value.
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- This is why I’m so committed to the power of marketing funnels because when you do this right you have a journey you’re taking your audience on and it feels super relevant to them.
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- Doing it this way may mean that you rarely have to ‘sell’ on social media because you’ll only have sales conversations in your marketing funnels with people who actually want to have that conversation.
- Bottom line here: you and I may be on social media to sell stuff… but our audience isn’t there to be sold to. They’re there for value, entertainment, education and engagement.
- To turn things around for yourself on social media I recommend the following three steps:
- Create a messaging strategy for your business. Know your core message, know your core strengths, know your core audience. If you don’t have these nailed, I suggest you work with someone. I worked with Dr. Michelle Mazur on this to come up with Profit Without Worry and I highly recommend her book called The 3 Word Rebellion available on Amazon.
- Know your goal for social media and stick to it. The worst thing you can do is be random and desperate. Aim to be strategic and focused about attracting and engaging your audience while establishing your reputation.
- Create a marketing funnel that further draws your audience into your marketing circle. This will help you avoid feeling desperate and pushy on social media because you know all you need to do is engage.
Create Profit Without Worry – one system at a time. I’ll show you how to attract a steady flow of buyers without all the hustle with this free download → 5 Steps To Profit Without Worry.
Links mentioned in this episode:
