Just Starting Out: Social Media Magic

errrbody knows that social media is a must do on their business checklist.

But why? And how do you do it well?

And what if you’re just figuring this out or HATE social media?

What then?

Today we’re going to dive into the four key things to focus on (and ONLY focus on) when you’re using social media to market yourself, for the first time, or are giving it a real try.

1. Brand Consistency - Social media channels are visual platforms which means what people can see is almost more improtant than what they read.

So what do they see when they see you show up online?

Could they tell what you do? Can they recognize your colors/branding/logo? Do you have any of those things?

Does it look like you went crazy in Canva and started doing one of everything?

The visual cohesiveness of your brand matters on social media, so make sure you pay attention to what yours is.

This can be as simple as sticking to two-three brand colors, using the same logos and picking two fonts to use when creating graphics.

If you are a perosnal brand, use your face in your social. If you’re not a personal brand, get more personal and put someoe’s face — that is not stock photos — in your social. It will make a huge difference on how people perceive you.

2. Messaging - this is the heart of anything marketing. How do you talk about what you do and how you do it in a way that compells others to pay you money?

That sums it up quite nicely.

Messaging on social comes down to three things: What do you do? How do you do it? And who do you do it for?

If you are consistently saying the same answer to these questions in your social media posting/graphics/lives/interviews/stories, etc. — then people will start to understand exactly if and why they’d need or refer you.

Which means social isn’t just about attracting dreamy clients. It’s also about being so memorable for what you do that others can easily tag you and send clients your way.

3. Audience — To build an audience when you are just starting out, you must engage with others. This is where people easily drop off on social media. Here are valid, yet excuses that I hear all the time for not being active on social media

- I don’t know what to post. - I don’t want to get sucked in. - There’s too much drama on social. - I don’t understand how it works. - I don’t know what to post on someone else’s content - I don’t see how this could get me more clients

These are totally understandable — but also excuses for why you aren’t showing up online.

First rule of engagement: Follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others on social as you would have them do to you.

When you break this rule, you’ll know it immediately.

Second rule: separate personal from business

I hate social media (personally). But when I only engage with people in my business space, magically, that’s all that shows up in my feed.

I have in-real-life friends who get annoyed I never “comment or like” their posts — and I tell them all the time, it’s because I literalyl don’t see it. Facebooks shows you who you engage with.

If your feed is filled with drama, personal family, friends and things that distract you, then you’re engaging on it for your life, not your business.

Does that mean I never comment on something from a friend? No, but it does mean I quickly cull out anything that is distracting me from doing what I need to do on social.

When you engage with others, they naturally engage with you and start to see your content, and it begins to snowball.

It also takes time.

4. Be engaging. That last tip was for YOU to engage. But social media only works as a growth and visibility tool when you, yourself are engaging.

To summarize — you can’t be a lurker and grow a business on social.

Think about the things that...