What we set out to help you with in this episode, is to eliminate the feeling of feeling behind the eight ball with your posts. Business owners have enough going on and feeling frazzled over what to post and when to post. It really sucks. She helps us know where to start, how to make your organic content serve your set goals, and how to make your organic content speak to who your customer is, so that when they see and read your posts, they feel like, "Yeah, that's me," and they want to see more.
Whitney also stresses consistency and how consistency is necessary for both the algorithm and to building the relationship with people online.
Carey Sperry: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to episode three of All Social Y'all Podcast. Today, we have Whitney Stovall here with us to speak about organic social, and how to get the game on ahead of posting content. Basically, how to get ahead of it, how to not feel frazzled.
Carey Sperry: Did you guys feel like I did on a daily basis, where you're just trying to figure out what you're going to post today, or later today, or even tomorrow morning, and feeling like it's a stressor? That's what we want to address today. We have Whitney Stovall here today. You want to say hello Whitney?
Whitney Stovall: Hey, how are you? Thanks for having me.
Carey Sperry: Yes, yes. Thanks for being here. I met Whitney, it's been about seven or eight months. Is that how long we've been working together?
Whitney Stovall: Yeah.
Carey Sperry: About that long.
Whitney Stovall: Yeah, something like that, about seven months.
Carey Sperry: Yes, where I was needing help in our business, and for our direct posting, and ... Hell, I just couldn't keep up with it myself because I'm serving our clients, and I'm launching this podcast, and I'm doing a million things as a business owner, and I really wanted someone ... I'm CEO, business owner, founder, and I know social media and how to do content myself, and all of that. But I was like, "I really feel like our business could be better if I had someone that was dedicated to it, and could really help us plan ahead, and not feel like we were last. Like our clients are first and I was putting us last."
Carey Sperry: And so, I found Whitney, and she has done an amazing job of brand consistency, calendaring, thinking of different ideas and reminding me of content that I need to collect when we're in life, and when we're in the business, and even on the weekends, things that I can capture and share, where she can beautify up, as I say.
Carey Sperry: That's what we're going to talk about today. I guess I'd start with a question, Whitney, is where do you recommend a business owner start with planning ahead and not feeling frazzled in last minute with their content, their organic?
Whitney Stovall: I believe the number one thing or the first thing you should do, is decide what your goal is or what your goals are, and link those goals, your social media goals to your overall business goals.
Whitney Stovall: If your goal is to grow your brand overall, and to just get in front of more potential customers, then you need to ensure that on the social media end, you're amping up the content that engages with your customers or your potential customers, and really gets your message and your mission out there. And once you have a goal, then you have an idea of who your customer is or at least you should begin to think about who your customer is. And then from there, begin to develop your content.
Whitney Stovall: As most people start with the content ... And don't get me wrong, content is very, very important. But in the process of it all, it's more so like the third step because you really have to start thinking about what it is that you want to do. A lot of times, and I'll speak from experience, if I get in front of my screen, and I just want to post something that day, I get stuck because I don't know what I want to post. There's a thousand things I can post. There's so many things going on.
Whitney Stovall: But if I have a plan, even if I deviate from that plan for whatever reason, at least it's there, and I can always have it to reference, and go back to. You have, like you mentioned earlier, consistency. Versus it's kind of a one off situation or a tone that isn't carried throughout all of your posts.
Carey Sperry: Yeah. You go to some handles or whatever, some brand's presence, whether it's a personal brand, someone that's in the fitness space, or it's actually a big business, and their posts don't have any aesthetic is what they call it. You know, where it has some consistency and expectation, like you just don't know what you're going to get when you go to their presence.
Whitney Stovall: Right, right. And that's the one thing you don't want because you want to cultivate a community and create an experience for your ... And actually, I was discussing that today with someone. You want to create an experience that really connects with your customers. And you can't do that if it's not consistent because they don't know what to expect, and they don't know who you're talking to. They're like, "Are you talking to me? Well, maybe this isn't for me. This has to be for someone else or a different customer segment of their customer base."
Whitney Stovall: You want to definitely, when someone goes to your social media or clicks on a post, for them to know, "Okay, they're talking to me, they're solving my problem, they're speaking in a way that I understand, that relates to me as a full person." And so, your content that in a lot of different ways.
Whitney Stovall: For instance, if you have an older base, you might discover that they aren't necessarily into all the frills and the thrills. They really just want the facts, or they really like videos, and so on, and so forth. And so, you can cater toward that, and develop content based off of what they want and what they need.
Carey Sperry: Good point. When you say create an experience for them, do you mean within the specific post, or do you mean within a series of posts, or both?
Whitney Stovall: Within a series of posts. Your one post would be a moment in this experience. I would say if somebody are the most successful or biggest brands that are known, on particularly Instagram, are really great at doing this visually. You might click on their page, and you just see everything is like this. You feel like you're on the beach or you feel like you're about to go to this really great restaurant, from the moment that you click on that handle.
Whitney Stovall: And so, every post is a lead in to that. And the same fashion with blogs, right? When someone clicks on one blog post, it's usually in connection to a bunch of different topics that relate to one overall topic. And so, your social media is very much like that. You have one overall goal, one overall mission, brand experience you're trying to cultivate, and then each one of your posts are a piece of that.
Carey Sperry: Back to goals because you mentioned that again, that's important because that brings through your purpose. Is a goal ... Let's say I want to get appointments, or if you're a hairdresser, "I want to get people to schedule with me online." Or if you're a school, you want to get students, is that what you mean by goal?
Whitney Stovall: Those are more like your business goals, right? And those are great. Let's use that as an example. If you are a hairstylist and you want to get appointments online, then that's your ... Or you want to get appointments, right? You want to increase your revenue by X amount of dollars. Then your social goal will look something like you're looking to convert X amount of people, in order to reach X amount of dollars. And so, your social goals are based upon conversion, engagement, reach, things of that sort. And your business goals are usually based on where you look to take your business in the next quarter or the next year.
Whitney Stovall: And so, relating those or connecting those I should say, can really, really make the difference in your business. Because I would say, for instance, I have a nonprofit, and 75% of the people who visit our website come through our Instagram page. And so, that is a huge converter for our organization.
Carey Sperry: Ah! They find you on Instagram, and then they want to learn more, and they want to be connected more, and so then in your bio they click to your website, and it's driving traffic to your website, where you can then get them to volunteer, or you can have them read your blog, and do all kinds of stuff, right?
Whitney Stovall: Yes, correct. Exactly. Exactly what that does. And so, it's very important that each of our posts conveys something about our brand or our mission. And so, we do a lot of a mix of user engagement or user generated post I should say, as well as branded posts, to keep people feeling like everyone's a part of the community. No matter if you click on whatever I like, dancing kid posts or something about books in the community, it all relates to our overall mission of supporting men and boys, and us wanting to get people to support that mission as well.
Carey Sperry: I get it, yes. With that, you mentioned ... With your goal being getting a certain number of people to follow or like, and the reach, reaching because the algorithm, Facebook decides, and so Facebook owns Instagram, they decide who they're going to put your posts in front of, your organic post, and that's why it's become ever increasingly over the course of 2019, to get to be successful strictly with organic. It's possible but it is very, very hard, and it's become close to impossible without paid ads. But you have to do both. You have to do both organic and and paid ads to really succeed on social.
Carey Sperry: And so, if people are looking at the number of likes and people that are following them and then, ultimately converting, wherever that means, to a landing page where they can sign up for something, or making an appointment, or going to your website, whatever metric is, how long should people expect that those things are going to take? How do you gauge some sort of expectation or do you just need to do it and do it consistently every day to figure out how long it's going to take your brand?
Whitney Stovall: This is the key because really, you can honestly have a really successful post right out the gate, right? But if that isn't carried through, it really won't matter. Or if you don't have a plan to carry it through, it really won't matter because you won't have the next steps.
Whitney Stovall: Just having the process in place, in order to carry you through longterm, is really how you generate growth. Because social media, as you mentioned, algorithms change daily. And social media platforms pop up, they die down, and so if you have your systems in place, it ensures that you are not always giving in to the tide or to every change, you're being affected greatly by it.
Whitney Stovall: I would say definitely, longterm is better. I would say different analytical tools will give you a report, from a week all the way to a monthly basis. I prefer to look on a three week to four week basis, to really determine if something is having an impact. Only because like I said, things can fluctuate and they can change. If I have 30 days in front of me, I say, "Okay, consistently for 30 days." And usually, when we make our calendar as well, we do it for a minimum of 30 days. I can say, "Okay, this has worked. This hasn't worked. This is what people are responding to. This is what people are saying," and make changes accordingly.
Whitney Stovall: As long as you consistently ... Let me also add. Having a longterm plan doesn't mean that you just put it into place and you never look at it. You definitely have to continuously check on it, track changes, monitor your different platforms, and your different engagements, to ensure that with all the changes, that you're still staying the course. And if your goal is growth, that you're growing as well.
Carey Sperry: I have a Facebook, let's say I'm just Joe, Joe or Sally, business owner, and I have a Facebook page. I've had it for three or four years, and I have barely posted on it. And if I post, I'll post once in July, and then I won't post again until October. I have very few followers. But then I want help, someone professional like we are, to help become successful. Is that something that through organic posts, that I can expect success in a month or two?
Whitney Stovall: I would say on the smaller level, yes. For instance, if you're doing something locally, and you are using local, very niche hashtags, and you're engaging with local influencers, or people who have a following in these different communities. Because the great thing about social media, is that every social media can develop some type of hub or community of other pages of people that you interact with, so you can expect modest growth. But I would say not to expect very grand growth until later on down, once you've built those little footsteps and created that traffic.
Whitney Stovall: Because right out the gate, you have to start somewhere. I think honestly, the thing about social media is that it gives you this persona, that you blow up overnight. And there a few of those success stories but for the most part, people really work daily to build these pages.
Whitney Stovall: With Hello, My Name is KING, and that's my nonprofit I mentioned earlier, we have been building our page for almost six years, at this point. Every year things change. We aren't as consistent as a lot of people in our little community and hub, who literally post four, five, six times a day. They're on every trending topic. And so, I can definitely see my growth, how we've grown, compared to how they've grown because the different cookies, as you can say in a way, through social media they've created.
Whitney Stovall: Yeah, I would say just expect modest growth in the beginning. When you're setting goals, you want your goals to be smart goals. You want to be realistic about what you can achieve in the time that you're given. If you only have a little time and your network isn't the largest, be realistic about that but also, use that as a foundation to build upon because you definitely can get there, it just takes time.
Whitney Stovall: The more that you put in, actually in the planning and the foundation of it in the beginning, it will be so much more helpful because trust and believe, you don't want to jump in and create a page that blows up and then you don't even have the system in place to support it. I've heard a lot of people say that, like, "Oh, we really wasn't expecting this to take off. And now, I feel like I have to post every day." And they feel really pressured and rushed, and they don't really understand where they want to go or what to do because it's a lot with social media to keep up. And so if you start small and slow, it actually is beneficial to you in the long run.
Carey Sperry: Yes. I explain to people that it's similar to having any kind of a big goal, physical or maybe you start a new career, you become a nurse, you want to go into that midway through your life. It's really anything you can think of that's a big goal, it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't even happen in a month or two. It takes time and it takes consistency. This sounds cliche, but anything that's hard is worth it.
Carey Sperry: If you were to start that when you were younger or if you take a physical goal ... Let's say you haven't lifted weights for five years, you're not suddenly going to become a competitor in a month. It takes time. And so ...
Whitney Stovall: Exactly.
Carey Sperry: Yeah. Let's say you then make a plan and you think you know what your goals are, at least what you think your goals are before you really get started and start listening, what are some of the indicators that you look at Whitney, that can help pivot maybe? You and I have pivoted a little bit a couple times on a few things, and I like how we do it quickly. We're like, "Okay, this is working great. Let's do more of that. How can we do more of that?" What are some other considerations and things that you look at as you're getting going in couple of few months with a plan?
Whitney Stovall: Yeah, so social media has gotten really advanced, particularly Facebook, and the insights that they have on Instagram, and then with Facebook business manager. If your business has a business page, you definitely need Facebook business manager because the insights not only can make a great difference in your presence on the platform, but in your overall business goals because of all the different ways you can segment your audience, and re-target, and track, and so on, and so forth.
Whitney Stovall: But yeah, so these social media platforms have great insight tools that literally let you know what your audience is responding to. And you can look at it over the course of that day, the course of that week, month, year, lifetime, so on and so forth. And it really gives you insight as to over time, what it is that people are responding to. And it also can let you know if you're deviating from your goals.
Whitney Stovall: If you're looking to target a certain demographic and they're not ... With most social media insights, you can at least look at age, and gender, and location, and things of that sort. And if you're not targeting those demographics, then you know that you need to reshape and restructure the way that you're going about your social media plan and direction.
Whitney Stovall: Definitely, take a look close insights, and also the numbers because I definitely believe in numbers. But beyond the numbers, look at what the people are saying, what people are literally commenting, who's commenting, and then in which ways that people are engaging with you. Are they sharing your posts? Are they using your hashtag? Because that's very important in just the overall growth. Because like I said, those little pieces is what helped to build your reputation and your brand online over the course of time.
Carey Sperry: Exactly. And there are definitely some types of brands that are easier to market on and get engagement, than other brands. People don't really like engaging with content, marketing content. Marketing content, it's normal. But if it's something new, and more sexy, or something trending, or if it's something where there's a huge, huge need out there for most people, so some people have a lot easier time with it. Or if it's just aesthetically pleasing. With some brands B2Bs have a harder time.
Carey Sperry: And while we're speaking of that, not to get off track, because I do want to talk a little bit about the calendaring. With B2Bs, you mentioned user generated content. I think a lot of our listeners might not know what that is. I think it's a great way for B2Bs to capitalize on bringing their customer to contribute to contents. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Whitney Stovall: I definitely agree with you 100% there. User generated content is content that your customers basically post. Maybe it's a product, maybe they post a testimonial, or a picture of you in action giving them a service, so on, and so forth. But it's something that they post themselves, in support of your brand, and your mission, and your product. Maybe they use your hashtag. Either way, they basically, shout you out. And that is, I would say one of the number one ways to be successful on social media, mainly because it adds to your social proof, so people don't have to question whether your product works or if it doesn't work because someone's validating it right here that it works.
Whitney Stovall: Another great thing about user generated content, is that it saves you time, right? So you don't have to consistently develop content all the time because you have a unofficial partner on, who's on your team, your customers, who are almost like your brand ambassadors, right? They are out there, in the space, on your behalf, yelling from the mountain tops how great you are. And so, that is invaluable for your business in so, so many ways.
Whitney Stovall: Definitely, if you have a product or a service, encourage people to use your hashtag. If you do a giveaway, a contest, that's another great way to get user generated content. I supported a lighting company one time, and they were a huge manufacturing international company, and one way they got user generated content, was they would have people take pictures of their light, spot their products out in the street or something, and submit the best photo, and then they would give a prize away every month or something. It was a really cool way to get ... And it helped them get content for inspirational photos and things like that. They never told anybody. But that was another way they actually got photos and stuff, without having to go out to every company in every city to take a picture, right? It was a really, really good tool that we used in so many ways.
Carey Sperry: I love that idea. Yeah. And on the flip side of that, don't be afraid to ask your customers because nine times out of 10, if not 10 out of 10, they'll be like, "Yes. I would love to." And whether it's a text, and you can just erase their name out of the post because really, all people need to see is the authentic words, and that it's coming from a customer. And the little nuances that they put in their words, are things that you wouldn't think to say quite like that, you know? That's such a great way. I agree with you. It's really the best way to do it right now.
Carey Sperry: Okay, in calendaring, I just think this is so important. That's why I want to close without missing this for our listeners. The calendar is so helpful to actually think ahead about the month. What's coming up in the business, what events do we have, what are we really trying to drive to our customers this month, what new products or offering services do we have coming out?
Carey Sperry: And then, we put it into a calendar with specific posts, certain times of day. And by the way, everyone asks, "Well when should I post? Are there best times of day to post?" The answer is yes but it's also what your customers, what your audiences like, so you have to listen to that as well. There's no just blanket answer for that. But how do you go about putting together a calendar, Whitney, and what do you think is an idea or two about what a great calendar offers?
Whitney Stovall: I love a 30 day calendar. Some content managers and creators will swear by a six month calendar. I personally like a 30 day calendar because I feel like it gives you wiggle room, while still having, like I said, that foundation and that structure. That's one. I like a 30 day.
Whitney Stovall: And then, I like to go buy theme and quarter those things off. If our overall goal is to increase engagement, and we know that people engage with this type of content, and they're looking to have this problem to solve, then for the first quarter I might focus on one sub topic of that, and then the next quarter another sub topic, and so on, and so forth.
Whitney Stovall: That helps me to breakdown my plan, I should say. And then from there, I legit go day by day, and then determining based on how many posts I want to post that day, include content for that, as well as graphics, and media, and so on, and so forth.
Whitney Stovall: And so I think the important piece about this, is that it really just gives you a visual, not only a ... I'm thinking of Instagram, the layout visual. Not only that type of visual but it gives you a content visual of what it is that you're going to be saying that month, what it is that you're conveying to people that month. It's a really, really great way, like I said, to help to bring it all together.
Carey Sperry: Yes. I love it, and the clients that we've done that for, they just sing accolades, like, "Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything like this, and this is so helpful." And I just feel so good when we hear that, so it's a great idea everyone. Take the time to sit down and do that or let us know if we can help you. Whitney, you're on LinkedIn. It's W-H-I-T-N-E-Y Stovall, S-T-O-V-A-L-L, and everyone check out Hello, My Name is KING. We hope this was helpful. If so, give us a subscribe, like, write us a review, and we will see you next time. Thank you so much, Whitney.
Whitney Stovall: Thank you again. I had a great time.
Carey Sperry: Thanks for listening to the All Social Y'all Podcast. For free resources and materials, head over to allsocialyall.com. that's allsocialyall.com. Also, we'd love to hear from you, what subject areas would you like to hear about in future episodes? You can share that with us by dropping me a comment on our website or in Instagram at allsocialyall.
