socialmediapodcast

IT’S A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT

Yesterday was #londonmarathon day. I take my hat off to all those who managed to get around the 26.2 mile course. As a former athlete, this isn’t an event I ever considered doing, 1500m in the decathlon was quite enough for me. However, the London Marathon has a lot of similarities to building a social media channel.

Yes I know we all want that amazing audience for our social media channels, however, we can’t always get what we want. When it comes to building an audience of value who’ll interact with your content it takes consistency and a whole lot of patience, it takes tome, just like training for a marathon.

More and more people are using social media every single day for their brands and businesses. However, in connection to this, a lot of these people are also thinking that a single social media post will be the answer to their prayers and bring them lots and lots of business.

Social media is not a place to sell, it is however and excellent place to build brand, to build confidence in what you do, and most importantly build a group of raving fans who’ll not only be potential customers in the future but will also share your amazing value driven content when you put it out.

So, when you’re putting together your social content remember that consistency is key, and there’s no point in putting out one piece of content on Tuesday and the next one going out in a months time. You wouldn’t go into a gym and lift weights for one hour and expect to walk out looking like Arnie in Predator, so why would you expect to put in one days work on your social and it bring a return for you.

Patience and consistency, I cannot reiterate these words enough for you to digest.

If you want to chat through this at all with me and chat about your social content, I’m more than happy to jump on a Skype call or over a brew 😃

When it comes to creating content, it's far to easy to approach it in a scattergun style, which is why planning is so important for any brand and business, and will help you overcome the 5p's (Preparation prevents piss poor performance).

I JUST WANT TO SEE YOU START

How much content are you currently creating?

I’ve been speaking about the need for perfection quite a lot lately. The reason being is, I’ve been speaking to a huge amount of people and businesses that are 100% hung up on putting out the perfect piece of content.

The biggest issue with this is…….they never quite achieve the perfect piece of content and so therefor procrastinate the days away trying to make what they’ve created right in their eyes. What they forget is that if they’re not communicating at all, nobody can hear or see the value you’ve got to give to them.

Now, this isn’t an easy thing to overcome, but, you have to get to a point where you’re happy to put out content taken from your weekly blogs.

The idea of perfection is also a good reason why I direct people to doing Live video content over and above recording it. If you sit constantly recording on your mobile phone, then the chances are you’ll never actually put any content out as you’ll just keep recording it and deleting it. However, if you sit down and do a live piece of content, you’ve got no opportunity to press stop and start again…..you’re in the middle of a live broadcast with a possible audience watching that content, so you crack on. You stumble over something you’re saying, you repeat it clearly and move on. It’s a fantastic way to overcome the fear of perfect content when it comes to video.

So, stop worrying about perfect, certainly don’t worry about what others may or may not be saying. Do worry about the value you’re giving, the story you’re telling and trust me, your audience will love you for it. I just want to see you start making content for your brand and business.

If you want to chat to me more about the hints and tips I have for going live and really making your content stand out from your competitions, drop me a line (link in my profile).

LANDSCAPE OR PORTRAIT

And so the debate continues, should you be shooting your videos in landscape or portrait. The honest answer is…….it depends.

For a very long time, content was always best shot in landscape so you didn’t end up with those two horrible black lines either side of your lovely video on platforms like youtube, facebook etc. and this is still the case. When you go live, make sure your phone is in landscape, when you’re capturing video for your brand / business make sure it’s in landscape.

However, times are changing and when it comes to paid content it’s time to consider portrait content. Many brands now are using platforms like instagram stories, snapchat and even youtube mobile advertising and using vertical video.

A lot of platforms are now starting to make good use of vertical video, and it’s all about understanding what you can achieve with your content on those platforms where you’re like to spend money.

To find out more about portrait content, drop me a line, my email is my profile and we can book a chat.

ARE YOU USING INSTASTORIES?

If you’ve ever thought about using Instagram Stories for business, now is the time!

Not only are Instagram Stories fun and creative, but they’re great for growing your engagement, building brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and even making ecommerce sales!

We’ve all at some point watched a form of reality tv, be it back when Big brother was actually a social experiment, or the more recent series of Love Island and everything in between. We live in a voyeuristic age, where people love to see behind the scenes, real life stuff.

So, this is what I suggest using stories for at first. Give people an insight into your life, almost like a daily vlog, but, it’ll only last for 24 hours in peoples streams, it’s also a chance to really put vertical video to excellent use, but, we’ll discuss landscape v’s portrait tomorrow.

Until then, start putting instagram stories to good use in your business, give that behind the scenes look as well as giving value in a way that removes yet another level of friction.

If you want to chat more about stories, and content to use on there, let’s have a chat

DON’T GET SHADOW BANNED

The term shadowban is used to refer to instances where your posts are not appearing in the hashtag search results.

This can directly impact the ability for non-followers to discover your profile and content resulting in lower engagement. In such cases, your posts may still be seen by existing followers, but not to anyone else.

How do I avoid being shadowbanned?

Avoid overstuffing posts with hashtags.

Do not use bots.

Do not buy followers (real or fake).

Be cool, and use Instagram like a human being.

Don't try to game the platform, instead focus on posting high-quality, engaging content.

Don’t swear, this is one I’ve recently found causes problems.

To chat more about your instagram feed for your brand and business, just drop me a line, I’m always happy to chat (link in my profile)

.

IT’S THE WEEKEND AGAIN

Let me know in the comments what you’re going to do on your social media this weekend.

So, if you’ve been consuming my content for a little while now, you’ll know I think weekends are a huge missed opportunity for many businesses to really connect with their current group of raving fans and potential future audience as well.

So, today and tomorrow I want you to think about what content you could be creating this weekend. Does it have to be your usual style of content? Or maybe it could be fun videos, it could be a quiz, it could be a competition, whatever you decide to do, the most important thing is, you’re doing it so people can consume your value all weekend.

Let me know in the comments, what’re you going to be doing on your social media channels this weekend to really speak to your potential audience in a different way?

SELLING ISN’T A DIRTY WORD

So, as you know with my content, I regularly speak about the importance of being social on social media. We all know the fact that people buy on emotions, so the question is, how much of an emotional connection are you creating between you and your audience.

Social media is an excellent opportunity for you to create a connection with your audience, especially those people you may never have a chance to actually meet.

It’s also not the most terrible thing in the world now and again to actually sell on your content……this isn’t an OK to go ahead and sell in every single piece of content, and in fact hard selling is right out, but, when you give so much value with your regular social media content, putting in an ask now and again isn’t awful.

I.E. You’re an accountant, you’ve given hints and tips as to how to do your own accounts, what you can claim for and can’t etc. etc. and then in tax season, you drop in the ask, if you’re still struggling, we’d be happy to help…..NOT……Hey, it’s tax season and we want to do your taxes for you in every single post.

If you want to know how often you should be dropping in the ask, chuck me a mail, I’d be happy to have a chat (link in my profile)

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR CONTENT TO ACHIEVE?

I was at a session this week, and the question how do I get more shares on my content was asked. It prompted me to speak more about the idea of thinking about what you want your content to achieve.

So, how often do you think about what you want your content to achieve? It's great to always give value, and speak passionately about what you do. However, what do you want to achieve.....

do you want to create a debate,

do you want it shared,

do you want both of those things?

You need to think carefully about what you want from your content and then structure it to receive exactly that.

i.e. 250-word blog - comments

500 - 1000 word blog - shares

1000+ (data and information driven) - More website traffic

If you want to chat more about things, drop me a line (link in my profile)

APRIL FOOLS DAY

So, it’s that date yet again where everyone is telling you to check your zip is done up on your trousers, or saying your shoe laces are untied, or as some brands do, take it totally to the next level and use it in their marketing.

So, how much have you thought about how you could use dates like today in your marketing. There have been some incredibly clever, and viral April fools from big brands and businesses over the years, and one of my personal favourites this year is from Travelodge who’re suggesting they are going to offer bed sharing with customers only booking in on their own to try and save money.

This is why planning your content has been such an important message for me to people. There are so many amazing dates in the year you can tie your content and marketing back into that will really draw in your raving fans, and if it’s fun enough there’s a huge chance of it being shared and that increases that opportunity of viral content. It doesn’t ensure it, but, hell, what’s stopping you giving it a try?

If you’d like to sit and chat with someone about how you can do this, drop me a line (link in my profile)