Your Dream Business

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Your organic reach on Facebook is decreasing rapidly. If you post regularly, your audience won’t see your posts. Facebook prioritizes content from friends and family over pages. You should be using Facebook Ads to combat this new algorithm.
• Instagram is the second largest platform behind Facebook with 1 billion monthly active users. You can create content for Instagram daily without having something that photographs well each time.
• Twitter is the best platform available for communicating and engaging with your audience. It is great for building community, but it does take a lot of work due to the new algorithm change.
• LinkedIn isn’t as noisy and fast moving as the other platforms. Posts and content hang around a lot longer there than on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, making it great for engaging with B2B companies.
• Pinterest isn’t only for pinning home décor and recipes. Instead, it is a great tool for business use by driving traffic. The whole point of Pinterest is finding content outside of the platform. Use it for things like blog posts, checklists and tools for your audience.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…When you are marketing on social media, you are on borrowed ground. If the platform makes a change and you have pinned your marketing on one platform, it will negatively impact your success. Think about how to move your social media followers to your own email list.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Platform #1. Facebook – 02:58
• Reap the benefits of using Facebook groups – 05:43
• Platform #2. Instagram – 07:26
• You may be surprised to know who uses Instagram – 12:02
• Platform #3. Twitter – 13:02
• Don’t repeat your content on Twitter – 15:06
• Platform #4. LinkedIn – 18:14
• Platform #5. Pinterest – 22:07

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode 2: How Lead Magnets Help You Build Your List & Stay Connected With Your Followers
• Episode 6: 5 Tried & Tested Strategies to Build Your Email List
• Episode 8: InstaStories: How to Use Instagram Stories to Elevate Your Business
• Episode 14: Facebook Algorithms Explained: How to Post Better, Get More Engagement & Improve Your Reach
• Episode 15: 5 Reasons to Use Twitter to Market Your Business
• Episode 20: 4 Social Media Mistakes That Businesses Should Stop Making NOW

Transcript below

 

Hello and a super warm welcome to this week's episode of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I hope that wherever you are in the world you're having a great day and that you're getting ready for summer. I suspect that because we've had such lovely weather in the UK that actually our summer's been gone. However, we have got the children summer holidays coming up and then breaking from school. My daughter actually broke up last Friday. So if you're a parent, you've got that tricky time of year where you've got to work out what to do with them for the six or eight weeks they're off while you carry on working. As a business owner, that is just as difficult. I am very lucky that I work from home so my daughter can certainly hang around here while we're working, but it doesn't make it any easier I can assure you.

Anyway, I want to jump straight in and get on with today's podcast episode because it's going to be a good one. Today I am going to take you back through the main five platforms of social media. We're going to be looking at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, and I'm just going to give you a quick overview and a very quick update and how am I feeling about these platforms today, because one thing that I talk about when I train is whatever I tell you today, in two, three weeks', months' time could be completely different because social media is one of the fastest moving industries in the world. If you are on any of the apps personally, you know you will go to your phone today and it will look a little bit different to how it was yesterday, which means it's constantly changing and evolving in terms of how we use these platforms for business, which means that my advice and my content constantly changes as well.

I was really aware that we're 21 episodes in and I haven't done a kind of back to basics overview. So that's what we're going to cover today, and I hope it's going to be really helpful to help you think actually, is my strategy still correct? I didn't know that that change happened and actually now that makes a change as to how I use it, or should I consider a platform that I haven't considered before? Let's dive straight in.

The way this episode is going to work is I am literally going to talk you through those five different platforms, each one at a time, and then I'm going to kind of give you a quick overview and a little bit of what's good and what's bad and what strategy I'm using right now.

 

Platform #1. Facebook

 

Let's get started with the biggest, Facebook.

Facebook has 2.19 billion monthly active users, which means it is far and away bigger than every other platform out there. Although over recent months Facebook hasn't shone itself in glory and has had a few problems in terms of data breaches and the way they're using data in Facebook, however, they are still huge and they still have loads of monthly active users.

My strategy on Facebook has changed because of the facts that the algorithm, we've talked about this before. In fact, if you go back to episode 14, I do a whole podcast just about the algorithm. But basically your organic reach on Facebook is declining even more than it has already done, which was huge anyway, to the point where hardly anybody is seeing your post.

One of the downsides of Facebook is that if you're posting regularly people are not going to be seeing your post, because Facebook want to make their users happy and in doing that they want to show them content that they're interested in, so they are going to prioritise content from people's friends and family over content from pages. As I said, it's a huge platform, but organically i.e., without paying, you are struggling for people to see your posts.

At the moment I am putting a lot less effort into posting on Facebook as I am in some of the others because it's getting much harder to see my posts because that algorithm is getting even stricter. However, on the plus side the one reason I will always continue to use Facebook for my business, not just because it's huge, but because it has an amazing advertising platform. So for me if you're using Facebook, you really, really should be advertising because without the advertising it's kind of pointless.

Now I say this. If you're using Facebook today and you're getting engagement and it's working for you, then obviously I am not saying to you stop, don't it use anymore. But I'm just saying go back and have a look at your last few posts, think about how much time and effort you're spending on Facebook and is it really reaping those awards. Don't necessarily just think of, "Right, that's it. I'm going to come off," but have you looked at the advertising tool? Are you doing anything on that side? Because like I said, the advertising tool on Facebook is amazing.

 

Reap the benefits of using Facebook groups

 

The other thing that Facebook is really good for is groups, and community is becoming even bigger in marketing. If you can create a community or a tribe around you, your product, your service, then this is a fantastic way to start marketing to people, adding that value, creating a group where you provide people value around what you do and that will help start to increase that following.

Notifications are different on a group. If you do put someone in a group or someone chooses to be in your group ... Actually on a side note there, please don't just add people to groups. It's a horrible tactic. In fact, my episode last week where I said the four things I really didn't like about social media or four things that businesses do that I didn't like, I should've added adding people to your groups. Anyway, other than adding people randomly to your group, groups are really effective tool within Facebook. Also, things like Facebook Lives are still really good.

The other good thing about Facebook is it has a real mix of demographics. So even though on the outside looking in lots of people think that they don't have a very young demographic because they're choosing to use things like Snapchat and Instagram, actually Facebook have the widest demographic. They really are still attracting people of all ages. But as I said, unless you're advertising, getting any kind of reach or any kind of interaction is really difficult. For that reason, like I said, I am not working as hard on it as I have been but I am still using it to advertise.

 

Platform #2. Instagram

 

Okay, onto social media platform number two and now we're going to be talking about Instagram. If you didn't know, Facebook owns Instagram and it's now the second largest platform behind Facebook and has just announced it has one billion monthly active users, which is huge. In fact, the last updated date was back in September and it was 800 million, so it's growing really rapidly and it's certainly growing in popularity really rapidly as well.

Now I have to say I am putting a huge amount of my attention to Instagram at the moment. I love it. My attitude changed about it because I used to talk about Instagram and say that I only posted when I had something interesting to post, or I could take a good photo of something. For me and my business that wasn't very often. In fact, I used to say to people, I told you things change all the time. If you had heard me probably six months ago, I probably said to people, "Actually Instagram isn't for a business like mine."

Then back in February I went at Social Media Marketing World which is the whole point to learn about these platforms and get trained by the best in the world, and Jasmine Star was there and I did a few sessions with her and she changed my mind completely. I realised that I wasn't working hard enough on the platform and being considered enough. I was just posting photos when I thought I had something interesting to post. When actually you can be creating content for the platform. It doesn't have to be a really natural thing. Also, I used to have the belief that Instagram was only for businesses that had attractive products or services, i.e., something that photographed really well, and that just isn't the case anymore.

Instagram for me is a platform that I'm working super hard on and it is hard work. I'm not going to lie to you. I think sometimes when I go and train people or when I speak, people think there is some secret tool or tip or tactic that they haven't used that makes social media so easy. And yeah, don't get me wrong, I've got load of different tools and tips that can help, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it actually takes effort. Every day I'm having to think really hard about why I'm posting, I have to think really hard about my captions, and I am purposefully taking photos or having photos taken in order to use on Instagram.

However, the hard work on Instagram really does pay off. From February, well, by the time I got back it was March, so from March I vowed to post on Instagram every single day and work harder at it. I try and have a similar theme and look. If you head over to Teresa Heath-Wareing on Instagram, you will see that I have a fairly curated page, i.e., I work hard to make it look nice, and I have managed to grow my followers, it was a new page that I created. I started off with something like 300 followers and I managed to grow it from 300 to now I'm just short of 1,000, and that is purely through posting and being active on the platform every single day.

Actually one of the great things about Instagram is organically you can grow a following, you can interact with people easier, and it's a much easier platform to do that on than say Facebook. It still has an algorithm. Don't get me wrong. You will still struggle at times for people to see your post. In fact, Instagram started off by being historic, i.e., it would literally go back in time as to what post happened when and if you went back far enough you would see everything. Whereas that's not the case now.

The other thing about Instagram that I love is Instagram Stories, these snippets of a world which you can show yourself in or that you can give people an idea of that helps them kind of connect with you and engage with you. In fact, if you go back to episode eight of my podcast, you will find an episode all about Instagram Stories and how you can use them to elevate your business.

A few other things to note about Instagram. You are able to advertise on Instagram through the Facebook advertising tool, which basically means the amazing tool that's on Facebook also gets included on Instagram. That is obviously another big advantage.

 

You may be surprised to know who uses Instagram

 

Also, people believe that Instagram have a very young following. When I went to find stats for this, it actually proved that point. It actually said that 90% of their followers are under 35. However, that was back in 2017. Obviously I'm recording this podcast as of July '18 and I think that's probably not the case so much now. My gut feeling is that the age bracket is moving up and my gut feeling is that it will continue to do so. So if you're thinking, "Well, my customers are in their 40s, they're not going to be on Instagram," I would probably think again.

The other really good thing about Instagram is that it's stated that 53% of people follow brands. I think there is a much more natural mix between following brands and businesses as opposed to also following friends and celebrities on Instagram as well. I think if you were to ask me what's my favourite platform right now, I'd probably say Instagram. Don't tell the others though.

 

Platform #3. Twitter

 

Okay, onto platform number three and we're talking about Twitter. This was previously my favourite, and I still love Twitter and I feel like it gets a bit of a bad rap because people think that it's dying or is dead or it's no good. But actually Twitter is still an amazing platform, especially if you're using social media for business. In fact, episode 15 of this podcast I talked about the five ways in which you should be using Twitter for your business because I'm such a big fan.

But let's quickly go over Twitter. 37% of Twitter users are aged 18 to 29 and 25% of Twitter users are aged 30 to 49, which I thought was really interesting because I expected that to be a much older age bracket. I don't know why. They currently have 336 million monthly active users. Just quickly recapping, you've gone from 2.19 billion monthly active for Facebook, 1 billion for Instagram, so Twitter is lagging quite far behind. However, they are still growing not at the rate of the others granted, but they are still growing.

The other thing I find funny about Twitter is often they come up with the ideas first but Facebook seems to have more money and better tech guys maybe, I'm not sure, but they seem to do it better than Twitter. It's like Twitter come up with an idea and then Facebook take it and do it even better.

I love Twitter for connecting with people. There is no platform out there that does it like this. You are able to speak to people so easily and connect with them, include them in your tweets, have conversations with them. From a community building point of view, Twitter really is fantastic. Also, if you're trying to connect and reach out to people, again, it's a great platform to use, far better than Facebook. With Facebook you can't connect to people like that, whereas on Twitter you can.

 

Don’t repeat your content on Twitter

 

A few months back now Twitter did an update to their algorithm and basically made a fairly hefty change, which meant that you could no longer repeat content. Let me explain. Because Twitter is so fast-moving, people used to repeat content. And I didn't mind that so much. If I was going to repeat content, I would make sure that we had over 100 bits of content to schedule and therefore once it got ranked repeating it, it wouldn't be a problem because the chances of you seeing that content again or recognising it would be slim to none.

However, people used to really take the Mickey out of this if you like because people would repeat content all the time and they wouldn't have 100 bits of content, they'd have five and they would post it five times a day, which meant every single day they're repeating the same content. And it was getting so clogged up of bots and spam and rubbish that Twitter wanted to put a stop to it. So they basically said that they were going to penalise you i.e., either shut your account or ban you for a bit if you repeated content. All the systems that had been built that worked with Twitter were made to stop doing this.

It made it fairly big difference to a) the amount of stuff that was getting posted, and b) how people used Twitter. And it certainly made a difference to our world because like I said, we had spent a long time creating what we would call evergreen content, i.e., it doesn't matter if it goes out today or in three months' time, it's still relevant. And we used to post this on Twitter. Whereas now of course we can't. You can't even post the same picture. You need to amend that. You can't put the same text. You need to amend that.

Actually in terms of creating enough content for Twitter it actually makes that job quite hard. Because I've talked before in the past that if you're going to be posting to Twitter, then I try and do or in the past I've tried to do sort of four to five tweets minimum a day and now that is just being made a whole lot harder. That has changed things somewhat.

Also, the other kind of downside to Twitter is it takes work. Again, I've built a fairly big following on Twitter. I'm at to about 12,000 I think last look. But it took really hard work and took me posting all the time, following people, commenting on stuff, so again, wasn't just a kind of case of easy access to those people and I got lots of followers. It took that time and effort. Since my focus has moved over to Instagram, I've noticed that those followers are slowing down. I'm still getting followers, but not at the rate I used to.

I love Twitter and I think if you get it, it's a great tool, but lots of people don't get it. But it might be one to go back and...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

No one ever minds a comment on their post, after all, that’s the whole point of sharing on social media.However, make those comments conversational instead of spam. Don’t sell your services or products where

it doesn’t make sense.

When commenting on social media, always try to remain relevant to the picture or post. Don’t just leave a thumbs-up or a heart. Instead, say something about the post that you enjoyed. This way, you don’t sound like a spam account.

Social media is about building relationships and getting to know your customers. Auto direct messages are impersonal and bad form. Instead, start a conversation with someone by being genuine.

On Facebook, like competitions are okay. Share competitions are against the regulations. Don’t get put into Facebook prison with a locked account by creating a share competition.

When your audience posts on your social media, you should try your absolute best to respond. As a business, if someone posts about you or shares your content, you are receiving free exposure. Say thank you!

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

The main goal of social media is to start a conversation with your audience. You are spending a lot of time creating content and sharing it in hopes of receiving a response. When your audience reaches out, reach back! Start that conversation and engage them. If someone tweets about your business, retweet it. If someone comments on your post saying how much they enjoyed it, say thank you. It’s all about relationship!

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

A quick update on Instagram’s IGTV – 1:44

Mistake #1: Selling on other people’s posts – 3:45

How to comment properly and not to sound like spam – 5:52

Mistake #2: Auto DM’s – 6:41

Mistake #3: Like and share competitions – 8:16

Mistake #4: Posting on social media and not responding – 10:03

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

IGTV Blog Post

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• No one ever minds a comment on their post, after all, that’s the whole point of sharing on social media. However, make those comments conversational instead of spam. Don’t sell your services or products where it doesn’t make sense.
• When commenting on social media, always try to remain relevant to the picture or post. Don’t just leave a thumbs-up or a heart. Instead, say something about the post that you enjoyed. This way, you don’t sound like a spam account.
• Social media is about building relationships and getting to know your customers. Auto direct messages are impersonal and bad form. Instead, start a conversation with someone by being genuine.
• On Facebook, like competitions are okay. Share competitions are against the regulations. Don’t get put into Facebook prison with a locked account by creating a share competition.
• When your audience posts on your social media, you should try your absolute best to respond. As a business, if someone posts about you or shares your content, you are receiving free exposure. Say thank you!

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…The main goal of social media is to start a conversation with your audience. You are spending a lot of time creating content and sharing it in hopes of receiving a response. When your audience reaches out, reach back! Start that conversation and engage them. If someone tweets about your business, retweet it. If someone comments on your post saying how much they enjoyed it, say thank you. It’s all about relationship!HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• A quick update on Instagram’s IGTV – 01:44
• Mistake #1: Selling on other people’s posts – 03:48
• How to comment properly and not to sound like spam – 05:52
• Mistake #2: Auto DM’s – 06:41
• Mistake #3: Like and share competitions – 08:16
• Mistake #4: Posting on social media and not responding – 10:03

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• IGTV Blog Post

Transcript below

 

Hello, and welcome to episode 20 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple podcast. I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. Wow. I can't believe we have got to 20 already. I know in the scheme of podcast, it doesn't seem very big. When I listen to James Wedmore or Amy Porterfield, they're on like hundreds; however, 20 weeks have gone by, which I've had the podcast, 20 weeks have gone by that I've consistently put out content, and I am super proud of myself. Maybe I should be prouder when it's a hundred, but I am still really proud that I've got to 20.

As I've mentioned on previous podcast, I decided that when I was going to take this on, I was going to run it for an entire year before I decided whether it was a success and to leave it or not because I wanted to prove to myself and everybody else that consistency works, that if you are consistent and you come out every single week with some kind of content, doesn't have to be a podcast, it could be a video, a live, a blog, but if you are doing it consistently, and you're helping market it, then people will want to listen and want to read and want to sign up to make sure they get those updates, so I'm super pleased that we've got to episode 20 already.

Before I jump into today's episode, I just thought I would give you a very quick update on the latest changes on Instagram.

 

A quick update on Instagram’s IGTV

 

Now, it's been a couple of weeks that IGTV has been released, but if you've not had chance to look at it or set up your account or are unsure about what it's about, then I have put out a blog post on the teresaheathwareing.com website, and the blog post goes into detail what Instagram TV is all about, why I think they're possibly doing it, and then why you should be using it for your business.

If you do want to know a bit more about Instagram TV and some of the features like the fact that you can have a video for up to an hour, like there is a swipe-up feature that has been around, but then it goes, and it comes back, so whether it's staying we'll see, but there are a few other things that the blog goes into detail about, so if you do want to see that blog, head over to teresaheathwareing.com, and click on Blog.

But today, we're not going to be talking about Instagram. Well, we are kind of. We're going to be talking about lots of different platforms because in today's episode, I'm going to be talking you through four things that drive me crazy on social media, four things that I see on all the time that businesses do that literally wind me up. I know, I should learn to calm down, I should maybe get out more, not let it get to me, but these things do wind me up. If there was a Room 101 for social media, and I'm not sure whether if you're over in the States, you'll know what I mean by Room 101, but basically, it's this programme in the UK where people get to put things in this Room 101 that they hate or things that they don't like, and they disappear forever. These are my four things that I would put into Social Media Room 101 if we had one. Let's get started.

 

Mistake #1: Selling on other people’s posts

 

Number one, and I think you're all going to love this because I think you're going to agree with me, or I really hope you do: selling on other people's posts. This drives me crazy. No one ever minds someone commenting on your post. That's the whole point. We put posts out on social media. It doesn't matter which platform. We put pictures on Instagram. We send out a tweet, and of course we want you to respond. That's the whole point. We want people to comment and like and share and have a discussion on our posts. We don't mind that in the slightest. What I mind is things like this. I've got a great example for you.

I love Instagram. I am probably more active on Instagram now than I have been on anything else recently. The other day, it was my wedding anniversary, my second wedding anniversary, and I decided, because Instagram, I do post a bit more personal stuff, I decided to put a picture up of my husband and I and our friends who were at the wedding. We got married in Vegas. There was only four of us. It was pretty amazing. No, I'm sorry to disappoint. Elvis didn't marry us, but it was still amazing.

I decided to put a post up to say that it was my wedding anniversary and how lovely it was to be married to my husband, blah, blah, blah. Quite a sentimental post. Anyway, I got some comments back on this post. One of them was, "Hey, I'm trying to hit my goal of 4K. Would really appreciate if you could help me, maybe drop a follow. All follows will be returned. Thanks." Oh, okay. That's obviously a lot to do with my picture of my wedding in Vegas.

Then someone else, this was even better, put, "We aim to give you peace of mind with taxes for your business and other tax concerns." I just look at those things, and I just think, "What are you talking about?" You obviously are just putting those posts out on every single photo that you find, but do you honestly think that's an effective strategy, because it isn't, because I look at that and think, are you crazy? That's just a really stupid thing to put up on a post.

I've talked before, and I'm sure I'll talk again, that social media is a way of connecting with people, with networking with people.

 

How to comment properly and not to sound like spam

 

If you're going to put a comment on someone's post, then probably I would just do conversations. I would literally just talk to them, if I'm going to comment on someone's Instagram post, I'd make sure that it doesn't sound like it's spam, so I don't just do a thumbs up or a heart or I don't just do a "great post, best post ever." Had that before.

I try and find something in that image and comment on why I actually like it. Is it the nice colours? Is it the great location? Is it the creativeness of the quote, or is it a quote? Whatever it is, I try and make sure I'm commenting and talking specifically about that post. But yeah, no one is going to buy from you if you just literally spam them and say, "Hey, I do great taxes," when I'm talking about my second wedding anniversary.

 

Mistake #2: Auto DM’s

 

Onto number two: auto DMs. Now, again, I'm hoping you're all sat there going, "Hell, yes, Teresa. I am with you on this one." I have seen one exception to the rule where I quite liked their auto DM, but other than that, most auto DMs are awful. They send them out willy-nilly, as in completely doesn't matter who has followed them or what action's been taken. They make no sense. They are often selling social media services to me, thank you very much, I might need them, but they are paying no attention to the person at the other end. Again, let's go back to some of the key things we can do on social media. It's about building those relationships. It's about getting to know your customer. It's about having a conversation. An auto DM saying, "Will you follow me?" "Here's a great blog post," "These are the services we offer," whatever they might be, it's not going to be the best way to engage someone.

Now, I know that some people I've spoken to do do auto DMs, and they do work quite well for them, but me, personally, I'm not a big fan. If I wanted to start a conversation with someone, then I would do exactly that. I would go into the DM, and I'd find them, and I would start talking to them. I wouldn't just send them out the same DM over and over, which, again, I've had on my Twitter account. We see someone, every time you respond, they send the same DM as well, and it just is bad form. No auto DMs please.

 

Mistake #3: Like and share competitions

 

Onto number three and four. I am rattling through these. I think when I'm more passionate about something, I talk even faster than I talk normally, and therefore, I've probably just talked the speed of light through those last two, but these do get me really wound up and very passionate about it.

Number three. I'm a little bit more lenient on this one because some people just don't know that this against a Term and Condition, but I said it enough times that I really hope that people listen: "like and share" competitions on Facebook. Like I said, lots of people do admit they had no idea that these are against their Terms and Conditions, but they are.

To be clear, the part that is against the Terms and Conditions is the share element. You can run "like" competitions. That's fine, i.e., "You must like this page in order to win," whatever it is you're giving away, but the share element you're not allowed to do. That's the bit that Facebook doesn't like. I've said a million times, and I guess I will keep saying, but obviously, you shouldn't be doing "like and share" competitions.

The one thing I should mention is, even if you do a "like" competition, and you don't even mention the word share, people are so ingrained into doing likes and shares that the chances are they'll share it anyway, but you haven't broken the Terms and Condition. That's entirely up to them. Like I said, "like and share" competitions are against Terms and Conditions, and not only can be a bit frustrating when I see them, but also if Facebook see you doing it, they can get you put into Facebook prison, which basically means they lock your account down for a set length of time, or worst-case scenario, they could just close your page, and all that hard work you've done to build up your page is then just gone to waste.

 

Mistake #4: Posting on social media and not responding

 

On to the final one. I think this is the most simplest and one of the most important: posting on social media, and then never responding, never being a human being behind it, and people commenting on your things, liking your post, and yet you never say anything back. That drives me crazy. The whole point of social media is to start that conversation.

I'll give you an example of where this really drives me crazy. When I first started my business, I used to go to lots of coffee shops where I live, in the local time where I live because it got a bit tiresome being at home when on your own, and as it was, I was on my own with my daughter at the time. It just got a whole too much of sat there on my own.

I used to go out to coffee shops, and I used to sit there for the day. I would buy stuff, let me just tell you, because I'm sure it drives them crazy, people sitting there all day, but I would literally make sure that every sort of half an hour, I was buying something. I would buy stuff all day, and I would sit there and work away. Inevitably, at some point during that day when they bought me at my third Flat Lay coffee, I would take a photo. I would post it on Twitter, and I would tag in the location that I was sat at, and I would say something like, "Enjoying a lovely day at," and I would type them in, "working away," whatever the post was.

The amount of businesses that didn't then respond or didn't even like the tweet or retweet the tweet used to absolutely baffle me because, at the end of the day, whoever does that, whoever puts that picture up and tags you into a post is promoting your business and your service. They are telling the world, "Look at this person," and I think in my instances, I was actually saying, "What a nice place. What great coffee. What great food," whatever it was, so you are going out of your way to market their business. At the time, I didn't have as many Twitter followers as I have now, but I still probably had a good 5,000 or 6,000.

I just thought that if that was me in that business, I would be super grateful, and I would probably reply and say, "Great, thanks." I have had it when they've replied. Fun thing is, it's from big businesses. There's a chain in the UK. I think it might be obviously in other places, but I'm not sure if it's in the states, called Carluccio's. It's an Italian chain. It's a really big one. I took a picture of my daughter and I in Carluccio's, mentioned that it was a nice lunch or whatever it. They retweeted it. They thanked me. They replied saying, "I hope you've had a nice time." I just think, really, it's not that hard to just respond and have a conversation.

Again, like I said, you're putting all this content out there where you want people to react to it so that they share it and like it and comment on it, but if you're not responding, if you're not getting back to them, then they're never going to do that. They're going to think, "I wouldn't bother again because I did it the once, and they never got back to me to say, 'Thanks very much for the tweet,' or, 'So glad you enjoyed your coffee,' or whatever it was."

If you are running any account on any platform, and someone messages you, responds to you, replies to one of your posts or tweets or pictures, then unless it's spam, like I mentioned earlier on this podcast, I would 100% tell you that you must respond to them, even if it's just a thanks, a thumbs up, a like of the post, whatever it is, a response of some sort is a must.

I have rattled through those, and it's a been a really quick podcast. I'm glad to say that I've recorded it just as quick as hopefully you're listening, which means I must be getting better, which is great because as I mentioned last week, I have some guests coming, and oh boy, am I excited to share these with you. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to tell you who is going to be coming on the podcast, and hopefully, if I'm getting better at recording it myself, then I should be all right interviewing people. We will see. It could be a disaster and could be hilarious. We'll find out.

But thank you so much for joining me this week. Again, I am so very grateful. I mean every single word of it. I know I say it all the time, but I really do mean it. I love seeing those numbers on the podcast going up, so I'm really glad that you've decided to spend your time with me and join me on this podcast.

As always, if there is anybody that you think might benefit from this or anybody that you can share this with, then I would love it if you could do that, but until next time, have a great week, and I'll see you soon.

How to Create Your Own Podcast From Start to Finish

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Your “why” and “who” are fundamental to your podcast. Know these before you go any further.

You need a name for your podcast. Consider your audience and your content above all. Your audience should be able to tell what your podcast is about by looking at your name.

You should have an intro and an outro for your podcast. You can use services such as Fiverr to find someone who can record one for you!

Plan your content ahead of time, so you know exactly what you’re going to talk about. This will help you stay organized and allow you to gather information ahead of time.

Once you start recording your podcast, you won’t want to stop to stay on track. It is best to edit at the end of the show, so you don’t lose your train of thought.

Transcribing is great for SEO and doesn’t cost much. There are plenty of services online to get a text version of your podcast.

When your podcast is ready to go, make sure you share it with your audience. Write blog posts about it and share it on your social media for maximum exposure.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Take a little while to sit down and brainstorm what you want to include in your podcast. What will your podcast be about? What will your audience look like? You will want a vision going into the process to keep you on track! Plus, everything you do from here on out comes down to your “why.”

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

How Teresa started her podcast – 6:39

Ask yourself why you are starting a podcast – 7:22

How to name your podcast – 8:40

Additional things you need to get started – 9:17

The importance of planning your episodes – 14:04

What to do when it’s time to record and edit – 15:36

Now, launch your podcast – 21:01

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Fiverr

Audacity

Adobe Auditions

Libsyn

Rev.com

Wave

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Your “why” and “who” are fundamental to your podcast. Know these before you go any further.
• You need a name for your podcast. Consider your audience and your content above all. Your audience should be able to tell what your podcast is about by looking at your name.
• You should have an intro and an outro for your podcast. You can use services such as Fiverr to find someone who can record one for you!
• Plan your content ahead of time, so you know exactly what you’re going to talk about. This will help you stay organized and allow you to gather information ahead of time.
• Once you start recording your podcast, you won’t want to stop to stay on track. It is best to edit at the end of the show, so you don’t lose your train of thought.
• Transcribing is great for SEO and doesn’t cost much. There are plenty of services online to get a text version of your podcast.
• When your podcast is ready to go, make sure you share it with your audience. Write blog posts about it and share it on your social media for maximum exposure.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Take a little while to sit down and brainstorm what you want to include in your podcast. What will your podcast be about? What will your audience look like? You will want a vision going into the process to keep you on track! Plus, everything you do from here on out comes down to your “why.”HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• How Teresa started her podcast – 06:39
• Ask yourself why you are starting a podcast – 07:22
• How to name your podcast – 08:40
• Additional things you need to get started – 09:17
• The importance of planning your episodes – 14:04
• What to do when it’s time to record and edit – 15:38
• Now, launch your podcast – 21:03

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Fiverr
• Audacity
• Adobe Auditions
• Libsyn
• Rev.com

Transcript below

 

Hello and a super warm welcome to the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast, and I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. When I say warm, I mean literally. For once in the UK it is a super warm day, and do you know what? We really don't cope very well. We beg for nice weather all the time, and when we get it, it's always too hot, there's not enough air, and we really don't manage. It's been a really warm day in the office today, but boy, am I glad to see the sun out, because I love it, and having not long come back from California and Vegas, I should be more acclimatised to it than maybe I actually am.

Today I am recording the podcast in the evening, which I've not done before. I'm just mixing it up to see how I get on. I'm trying to find the quietest spot in the day, and today it's now ... it's 20 to 7:00 in the evening and I'm on my own because my husband, I think I've probably mentioned before, is in the military and he spends time away from home. And my daughter is with her dad and my stepdaughter is currently on holiday in LA and my stepson is at his girlfriend's, so very strangely, from a very busy house, it's very quiet this evening. It's just me and my dog, Charlie, who occasionally keeps walking around on the floor behind me, which is wooden, and making some tip-tapping sounds. So I'm hoping he's now gone to sleep and I will get some peace. Anyway, enough of my ramblings and let's get on with today's podcast.

If you have been listening from the very beginning ... which if you have, wow, thank you so very much. I am so appreciative of anybody listing to the podcast, let alone the people that have been listening from the very beginning, but if you have been listening from the beginning you probably would have heard me tell you at some point, I think fairly early on, that I was starting the podcast because I wanted another way to put content out there in a way that I found easier, because I much prefer to talk than write. I find talking much easier than I do putting together a blog post.

I decided that if I was going to start a podcast, I would be dedicated to that podcast for at least 12 months because I knew it would take some time to get off the ground. Obviously, when you start anything new, no one knows you do it, no one knows it exists, and therefore you're going to need some time to really get it going. The other reason I wanted to give it 12 months is because, again, as I say all the time, consistency is key, so I knew that people would need to know that I was turning up every single Monday without fail with a new podcast.

Now, although I've said I'm doing this test for 12 months, I'm not necessarily going to stop it at 12 months. It was just the case of, if it wasn't working for me, I was going to keep it going that long, and do you know what? I've been loving it. The podcast is great. I really enjoy doing it. It's not the easiest thing to do in the world, and it isn't the cheapest thing I do in my business either, or it isn't the cheapest way I get my content out there. However, as an avid fan — gosh, that was hard to say — of podcasts, I decided that because I love them so much and I got so much from them, and I love multitasking and the ability to learn while I'm putting my makeup on in the morning, is just amazing me. So as I said, because I got so much from them, I thought it would be a great thing to start myself.

Now, up until now all my podcasts have been solo, and this was very intentional. I went to a conference back in February, called Traffic and Conversion, in San Diego, and I got the chance to ask a question to John Lee Dumas, who is a very successful podcaster with several different podcasts, including Entrepreneurs on Fire. I asked him, "How do I get brilliant people on my podcast?" He basically said to me, "You wait. You wait until you A, are very comfortable doing them, and B, have got some followership so that you can go to someone and say, 'Here's my podcast, this is why I want you to be on it, and these are the kind of followers I've got.'" Now, great advice from John Lee Dumas, and I spoke to Pat Flynn, who again, is a very successful podcaster, and he said something similar.

I've been waiting on purpose and doing all these episodes on my own because I quite like the training element of them. However, I have recently just discussed with two people for them to be my first two interviews on the podcast. Now, it's not going to be for a few weeks yet, but I am so excited about this, I can't tell you. I have got some rock stars of my world, social media, digital marketing, online selling, and they are going to be coming on to the podcast, so I am super excited about that.

Anyway, let me get to the content of this episode, but I promise you all this talk of the podcast has been relevant because that's what today's episode is all about. Have you ever thought of setting up your own podcast? Do you listen to them and think, "I could do that"? Well, if you do, then today's episode is going to be great for you because I'm going to talk you through what you need to get started. Now, it's really going to be a whistle-stop tour, but it's certainly going to outline some of the things that you'll need to get started, and then what it takes to record a podcast weekly and get it out.

I'm going to run you through some of the tools I use and some of the systems we go though, and then like I said, a kind of breakdown from starting to record all the way through to actually publishing an episode, what the process is that we go through. Now, because this is an overview, it's obviously just going to give you the highlighted areas, and I'm not going to go into each one in real in depth. However, if you've not started or if you're thinking about starting, it's definitely going to give you a idea of what it takes to put together a podcast and the things that you need to think about.

 

How Teresa started her podcast

 

Let's get started with getting set up. What is it that you need to even get organised before you think about recording your episode? Well, I have to say I kind of did it a bit off-the-cuff. Normally I'm one of these people who will go and buy a course and read a bit and watch some webinars and watch some YouTube and do loads of research into it, and for some reason, with podcasting I didn't do that this time. I think in hindsight there are definitely some things that I wish I knew more about, or I wish that I'd spent some time researching because maybe I found out the hard way.

 

Ask yourself why you are starting a podcast

 

But at the very basic level, the very first thing that I think you need to think about is why you're having a podcast. What is it you're going to talk about, and who is it you're going to target? Now, it's not to say that this can't move. In fact, I feel like the initial reasons I set up the podcast ... I actually enjoy doing different podcasts around different subjects. I.e., business in general. I really love mindset stuff, so I'd love to do some podcasts around that. So I feel like it's changing even though, when I first set it up, it was initially to teach and train on social media marketing, hence the name Social Media Marketing Made Simple.

That brings me to the next point. Once you know who you're going to be targeting and roughly what you're going to be covering in the actual podcast, then you need to think of a name. Okay, so I know it might seem like I've really skipped over the fact of find out who your podcast is for, know your audience, know your content, and they are obviously massive things. So even though I've given them just a name drop as it were, they are really important, but I know throughout all my podcasts I talk about the importance of knowing your target audience, so even though I went throughout super quick, that is probably a really big bit of this process. Anyway, I'll continue.

 

How to name your podcast

 

The next thing you need to think about is a name. What are you going to call your podcast? Now, obviously you need to consider again your audience and consider your content, because you're going to want to make it fairly explicit. Or I wanted to do that and I think it's helpful if you do that, but you're going to have to make it fairly explicit so that people what the podcast is about, because if they're looking in iTunes or Stitcher, at podcasts on certain subjects, then yours comes up and your title is exactly what they've been looking for. Then obviously they're going to be more inclined to click on you.

 

Additional things you need to get started

 

And you need some artwork, and your artwork needs to be, again, like an album cover size so it sits in iTunes and Stitcher and various places, and you've got to think about what are you going to put on that artwork. You need the title of the podcast. Are you going to put a picture of you? Are you not going to put a picture of you? So again there's a few small things to think about once you've decided you're actually going to have a podcast.

Then some of the more practical stuff. You need a good mic. I went through a few different mics before I've found one that I particularly liked. I tried a few different setups. I sat here, I think with cushions, I told you once, which I did for a long while, and then I got a ... I'm not even sure what it's called, actually, but I think it's like a pop filter, which I now have over the mic, which helps suck up some of that sound. And you need to think where are you going to record the podcast? Because, as I've talked about many a time, specifically over the last few episodes, you need a good quiet place, and you need to think, when can you get it recorded when no one is going to be disturbing you?

The other thing you need in setup phase, when you're thinking about getting set up, and you've thought of your name and your artwork and your audience, is I like to have an intro and outro. That's the bit of the podcast when it first starts and there's a guy talking and there's music behind him. I have to say I just went on to Fiverr. Some people might get a big cross about that because I know some people aren't fans of Fiverr, but for something like this, when it was a one-off project and I could be very descriptive in terms of, "This is what I want," then do you know what? It was brilliant. Obviously it didn't cost me a fiver. It was more than that, but it wasn't a huge amount of money in order for me to get an intro and outro that makes the whole thing sound a lot more professional.

The next thing you need to think about is what system are you going to record in? Now, I did tell you this is a bit whistle-stop, so I apologise if I'm literally rattling through these, but again, like the mics, I have gone through a few of these. I'm now using Adobe Auditions, and one of the reason I'm using this is because I used the Adobe suite anyway and it was part of the suite. Now, before that I used to use Audacity, which I'm sure I didn't pay for, and if I did pay for it, it wasn't a lot of money, because it doesn't stick in my mind, and Audacity was fine. However, every time I recorded, it made this click sound, and when you got to the editing process, sometimes it was really hard to remove the click sound without ruining what I'd said. So for me Auditions was better, and they say it works better on a Mac, whereas Audacity sometimes works better on a PC, and I work off a Mac.

Then you have to think where are you actually going to put the podcast itself? My podcast is in several different places. One, it's on my website, so we obviously had to create a new page and we had to instal Smart Podcast Player, which is what we used to host it on the site, which is great system. Then we obviously put it on iTunes, we put it on Stitcher, and now the podcast is up and running we're reviewing other places that we think we might put it as well.

Like I said, a little bit of a whistle-stop talk just to give you an idea of some of the things you might want to think about when setting up the podcast. Now, as I've mentioned before, you know that I have a team. I was very lucky that the tech guy in my team was able to do the iTunes setup, the putting the podcast on my website, so I am probably not the best person to tell you about that, but just so you know, I had some help with that. That wasn't something I did myself.

We also use a system called Libsyn, which is to do with uploading the podcast. Look, obviously I'm not that technical, so I apologise. Also, it gives you my stats, so I can see every single day, if I wanted to look, how many downloads I've had at the podcast, and how many listens I've had and things like that.

That kind of gives you an idea of the kind of setup we do before we got started, and because I flew through it like the speed of light, I have put together a list of the things that you need to consider before getting started, with links to the system that we use and a little bit of information about they do, because obviously I didn't give you the best information about it. So if you head over to the show notes, which you can find at teresaheathwareing.com/19 — that's 19 in numbers, not words — then you'll be able to get your free download there.

 

The importance of planning your episodes

 

Let's get on to the next part of this episode where I talk you through what goes into making each episode and the kind of list of things that we do between first recording and then promoting it out to you guys.

Obviously the first thing we do is come up with ideas for the podcast, and I have say sometimes this is planned. Sometimes this is literally I sit down to record, I think, "What am I going to talk about?" which I know is really bad and I don't recommend to any of you when you're putting together content. As I've mentioned earlier, I'm going to be having guests speaking on the podcast, so actually I've got to get organised. I'm trying to do that not only for that reason, but also my team are ready to kill me right now because every single week I send them the podcast late, and I apologise. Again, I'm going to publicly apologise to my team members that help me out. I am sorry I've been so rubbish, and I promise I will get better.

Okay, so like I said, you plan your content, you decide what you're going to be talking about, and I do actually have the next sort of four to five minimum episodes planned out, so I know what we're going to be talking about. Unless something comes up — i.e., there's a big change or something in the news or whatever that I need to comment on — then I will pretty much try and stick to that structure. Once you've decided what you're going to talk about, I obviously do some research. I check some stats if I want to use stats. If there are certain things that I need to double check, I make sure I've got all of them in place.

 

What to do when it’s time to record and edit

 

Then it comes to actually recording the podcast, and as I've mentioned, this can be a challenge in itself. You've got to find a quiet spot where you can really devote your time because not only do you need no background noise so it doesn't get picked up and become distracting for the listener, but you also need to try and do it in not one whole go, as in, obviously I stop and start, but I couldn't do half a podcast now, go and have lunch, do some work, and then come back to it. I need to know that once I start, I keep going until I finish, so that's the first challenge.

Once you've actually recorded your podcast, it then goes through editing. I started off doing my own editing. In fact, I used to edit as I go along. This isn't great, because it used to take me two hours to record a 15-minute episode because of the fact that, as I said, when your brain is in that flow of talking, to then stop and edit, you're using a different part of your brain, so now I try my utmost not to do any editing. I just record. If I mess it up, I will stop and start again, but I won't edit out the section that I've just messed out. I will just keep talking.

Then when it goes through the editing section, that tends to be now done by one of the team. The sort of things that they're doing is they are taking out errors, and believe me, if you could hear these podcasts without the editing, I don't think you'd last five minutes because I do mess up. I do stumble on my words, and although I try and make it as natural as possible and not edit everything out to be completely perfect, I obviously do need to edit out some mistakes. Also, there are some filler words that I say quite a bit, things like so, and, um, and obviously I want to edit them out of the podcast as well.

The other thing we do in the editing process is we add the intro and outro, which like I said earlier, can help it sound just that bit more professional and really isn't that difficult to do, just to add those extra audio files.

Once the podcast is edited and the final version is approved, we then send it to two different places. It first off goes to a website called Rev, rev.com, and they transcribe it. They are super...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Once a year, you should requalify the subscribers on your list. You can do this through offering a lead magnet such as an eBook, checklist, guide, etc. This will help you sift through your email list to find your true audience—those who want to be there.

Ask your email list members questions about what they are struggling with and how you can help! The key is learning to understand your audience. You can then address these concerns—using their own

words—directly in your marketing efforts, including your webinar!

Remember to market to your email list everywhere they can find you.

You want those who sign up for the webinar to sign up to attend live, instead of just the playback. Try using a bonus if they show up or the opportunity to ask questions. Those who are there for your live webinar are more likely to buy.

Ready to take it to the next level? It’s time to use Messenger. Messages have an 80% open rate compared to traditional email at 30%. For example, you can use Messenger to send an ad to all those audience members who have viewed your sales page.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Although you are using your email to drive sign-ups, it is important to market to your audience on all your other platforms. Use your social media to let followers know about your upcoming webinar. Write a blog post that includes information about your webinar. You can repurpose your email content quickly into other content to use where the rest of your audience hangs out, including on social media posts and ads.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

Phase 1: Warm up your email list – 2:24

Phase 2: Pre-Webinar Phase – 8:12/li>

How to create your email marketing series – 8:54

How to use advertising and social media – 10:44

Phase 3: Webinar Go Live – 13:25

Phase 4: Post Webinar Phase – 14:29

How to pull in those who didn’t buy or those who didn’t attend – 15:09

Now, take it to the next level with Messenger – 21:46

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Listen to our episode on lead magnets

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Once a year, you should requalify the subscribers on your list. You can do this through offering a lead magnet such as an eBook, checklist, guide, etc. This will help you sift through your email list to find your true audience—those who want to be there.
• Ask your email list members questions about what they are struggling with and how you can help! The key is learning to understand your audience. You can then address these concerns—using their own
• words—directly in your marketing efforts, including your webinar!
• Remember to market to your email list everywhere they can find you.
• You want those who sign up for the webinar to sign up to attend live, instead of just the playback. Try using a bonus if they show up or the opportunity to ask questions. Those who are there for your live webinar are more likely to buy.
• Ready to take it to the next level? It’s time to use Messenger. Messages have an 80% open rate compared to traditional email at 30%. For example, you can use Messenger to send an ad to all those audience members who have viewed your sales page.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Although you are using your email to drive sign-ups, it is important to market to your audience on all your other platforms. Use your social media to let followers know about your upcoming webinar. Write a blog post that includes information about your webinar. You can repurpose your email content quickly into other content to use where the rest of your audience hangs out, including on social media posts and ads.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Phase 1: Warm up your email list – 02:24
• Phase 2: Pre-Webinar Phase – 08:12
• How to create your email marketing series – 08:54
• How to use advertising and social media – 10:44
• Phase 3: Webinar Go Live – 13:25
• Phase 4: Post Webinar Phase – 14:29
• How to pull in those who didn’t buy or those who didn’t attend – 15:09
• Now, take it to the next level with Messenger – 21:46

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of The Social Media Made Simple Podcast, and I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. I'm back in the UK, and back in my office, which means, hopefully, we won't get lots of background noise like we did last week, after my fantastic trip to the States.

The trip was a bit of a work trip, and a bit of a pleasure thing, which was nice, and I got to meet up, like I said last week, with some amazing people, both Pat Flynn and Amy Porterfield, who in my industry, are complete rocks stars, so to spend some time with them was fantastic. If you don't know who these people are, then please got and check them out, because they really are phenomenal.

This week, I'm going to talk about something that I did a talk on, in October of last year, when I spoke at Converted, which was in Minneapolis. And I've decided that I'm gonna do it for this week's podcast because I'm super passionate about it, and it's a process that I'm actually gonna be using soon myself, so it's really good to refresh myself on the process and what it's like.

So, this week, I'm gonna be talk about how you can use a four stage process and webinar, in order to take someone from an email address, right the way through, to a paying customer. Like, I said, it's something that I'm super passionate about, not only have I used it for clients, but I'm also using it for myself. Not quite where I need to be yet, but I promise you, it's coming soon.

So, let me explain the four stages of how we take someone from just being someone in our email list, right the way through, to actually purchasing from us.

So, the first thing we do, is start by warming up the list. I never ask people how big your list is, I ask them how warm it is. The next thing we do, is we'll look at a pre-webinar phase. Then the third step is the webinar go live. And then step four, is how you make the most of the post-webinar phase. So, let's get started.

 

Phase 1: Warm up your email list

 

The list warm up phase, like I said, when did you last think, how warm is your list? It may sound like a very stupid question, but actually in recent light of the GDPR, I would say, now is probably where people have the warmest list, because the people who wanted to say on, hopefully, are the people who love you, like you, want to buy from you.

But what I would do is, the first thing I would look at doing is, re qualifying their emails. So, if you do have a big list, and you're perhaps over in the States, and you didn't do the GDPR, then it's always great, and is standard, probably, once a year, at least, going back through your emails, and re qualifying them, is a great way to keep your data nice and warm. And ensure, that people that are takin up space on your list, are people that want to be there.

And the way that you could re qualify them, is by doing something like sending them another lead magnet. Now, in episode two of the podcast, you will find, an episode all about lead magnets, so if you're not sure what a lead magnet is, or your not sure how to come up with one, then please go and check out that episode, and I will link in the show notes.

But basically, we will create a lead magnet, something that you're giving away for free, that the customer or prospect would want. So, it could be things like, cheat sheets, checklists, video training, how-to guides, swipe files, tool kits, eBooks, reports; loads of different things. But basically, you're gonna offer them something, in order to check their interest. So you can obviously use lead magnets to build your email list, but in this particular use, we're gonna do it, just to make sure that they're interested.

Also, if you offer different types of service, then it's possible that you could ask them whether they want this type of lead magnet or this type of lead magnet, so you can try to understand a bit more about what's important to them.

Then, once we re qualify, we're gonna start to ask them questions. We're going to want to try and get to know them. So, in your emails, on your re qualifying emails, and general emails, ask them: what are they struggling with, what do they need help with, how can you help me. And really try to get to know them, get to understand them, and as I've mentioned before, lots of times, I'm sure, then you want to know who it is you're talking to. Because, if you know who you're talking to and what they need, then you know what you're going to be able to offer them, that they will then, hopefully, purchase from you.

And, like I said, listen to what they have to say, use their own words, sort of back to them. So, if they say, I'm really struggling, I feel overwhelmed, I feel like this that and the other, then when you're talking to them in your emails, say those words. Say, "If you're anything like me, you might feel overwhelmed."

The other thing that you can do in this re qualifying bit or warming up bit is, give them amazing, consistent content. So it could be a blog, it could be a podcast, it could be Facebook live, whatever it is, make sure it's consistent, and make sure that you are doing it every single week, or every months or every other day, whichever level you sort of want to pitch, and make sure that you're putting it out there; and tell them about it. Making sure it adds value and make sure you email them every time you do something.

Of course, the other thing you want to do is make sure that you're including it on your social media, because who here, gets a 100% open rate on their emails? No one. So you wanna be using other platforms, don't just rely on the fact that they're gonna open an email. I think, sometimes, our goal in marketing, is to get people on an email list, that once they're on, we forget to market to them anywhere else.

So one of the things that I would be doing, to make sure they see the content I'm putting out there, is I would be sharing it on social media, I might be advertising it on social media. And the other thing I might do, is, I might upload my email list direct to Facebook and create a custom audience. Now, you might not know what this is, but basically, you can upload your data, create an audience, and Facebook will look and see, off your list, how they know, and they'll say, we know, 70% of those people, let's say, and you will be able to send adverts direct to people that are currently on your list. And like I said, it's just another way to make sure that they're seeing the content that you're putting out there.

Also, one sort of side note to mention here, Facebook do like, really, really big lists. So if you have a smaller email list, this might now work as well for you, just so you're aware.

Okay, so you're gonna connect through other platforms, you're gonna look at things like uploading the data, do some advertising, even using things like, Insta stories to say, hey I'm got a new blog post, or hey, if you follow me on Instagram, you'll see that I often do it for the podcast.

So, once you've warmed that list up nicely, and this phase needs to take as long as possible, and I know that can be frustrating, because if we're wanting to launch something, we want to do it tomorrow, but for me and my experience, I've found that the longer you can warm up that list, the longer that they know you're credible and you know what you're talking about, the more success you're have when you do ultimately launch.

 

Phase 2: Pre-Webinar Phase

 

So, let's move on to phase two: pre-webinar phase. This is where we give them what they want, bit of a stupid statement, Teresa, but what we're basically doing is, in the first phase, we're asking them what they want. So, when it comes to creating the webinar for them, give them what they want. Give them the answers to the problems that they had in phase one. So, whatever their biggest concern was, that's the thing you want to address in your webinar.

So during the webinar phase, the launch phase of your webinar, we're gonna do several things. We're gonna look at email series we can offer to those people to get them to sign up, we're gonna be looking at advertising, and again, social media.

 

How to create your email marketing series

 

So let's start with the emails. First off, you're going to have a series of emails that you send out to your list, telling them that you're going to do a webinar. You're going to do it, obviously, more than once. You're probably gonna give yourself a window of two or three weeks. I probably wouldn't go any more than three weeks out.

So, once you've done your promotional emails that you're sending out to people, saying, please sign up for my webinar, and again, like I said, you're space at least two, three, four emails over the time that you're doing.

Once someone's actually singed up, the next trick is to make sure that they attend live, because the stats that are involved for people attending live and then buying something from you, while you're live on the webinar are really high. So you really wanna get those people onto the webinar and watching alive. And also, if you're running a webinar, it's so much nicer when there's interaction.

So your next set of emails are going to be encouraging them to come and join the webinar live. There are a few things that you could you. You could tell people that they'll get a bonus of they turn up live, that won't be available on the replay, you can just remind them of the fact that you're going to be on live and therefore, you will be available to answer questions, so they really do want to make sure that they turn up.

And the other things you're going to do within these emails is just remind them. I don't know about you, but you sign up for a webinar here, you sign up for a webinar there, and then you forget where they were, and you might miss them. So, I would normally do several emails, again, depending on how far out you're going to start promoting this. But I would definitely do one two days before, and then an hour before, to remind them to come on and watch the webinar live.

 

How to use advertising and social media

 

Okay, as before, within the warm up phase, we're also going to be using advertising and social media. Again, just because they have the emails, doesn't mean they're gonna open it and see that webinar. Again, custom audiences are great if you can use them, but if not, you might just have to do some general advertising. And of course, there's no reason why someone isn't on your list, might want to attend the webinar as well.

Using video is a great way to advertise a webinar. So, doing a very short, 30 second clip, around, this is what the webinar is going to be about, this is why you wanna come on it and sign up here, and then, you can use that video to advertise.

Another reason you want to use video to advertise, is because of the opportunity to re-market to those people. So, one of the great things about Facebook advertising is, if you're advertising a video, you're able to create, again, a custom audience based on the people that have already watched the video. So, obviously, if they've watched 50% of a video, they're going to be fairly interested in the subject that you're talking about. No one is going to sit and watch a video for any length of time, if it doesn't apply to them, or interest them.

And then what you can do, is you can re-advertise the webinar in a different way, where you can basically then send it back to those people and say, make sure you sign up, don't forget to sign up or something like that. So, like I said, advertising and videos on social media work perfectly together.

Also, if you can do a live video, then even better. I know that when I talk about live videos, people literally look terrified and run the other way, but I promise you, lives are fantastic, in fact, they are watching three times longer, than a standard video. So, if you can bring yourself to do a live, then place try that as well.

And then of course, the next thing that we can do, is advertise it anywhere else that you can think about. Think about pushing the webinar on your email signature, why not change up your cover photos on Twitter and Linkedin and Facebook, do Ista stories about it, why not tease the content on Insta stories, that it's coming up. If you have a website pop up, why not change the pop up, so it's a sign up to your webinar.

And, obviously, if you are doing the sing ups and you are getting people to sign up and they go to a thank you page, why not, on that thank you page, have a social share button, so that they can share it with their friends as well.

 

Phase 3: Webinar Go Live

 

Okay, so, the third phase, we're really cracking through them now. So, webinar go live, this office is a fairly short one, because it's while you're on the webinar, but try and encourage hashtags, conversations and questions. Why not create a particular hashtag for the webinar that people can use when they're tweeting out about it, or putting it on Instagram. Encourage them to do this, and encourage them to join in the conversation.

Encourage them to ask questions, because again, even though at this point, you're in, almost sales mode, it doesn't mean that you don't wanna still learn. And, obviously, you're going to have a recording of this webinar, where you can go back and view what people where saying, and obviously, can go back on social media and see what they were saying. Also, it's going to really interest other people looking in. So if they did miss the webinar, but they suddenly see loads of hashtags or some comments or whatever, then they might be more, inspired, if you like, to go back and watch the replay.

 

Phase 4: Post Webinar Phase

 

Okay, on to the final phase, phase four, post webinar phase. Now, it doesn't stop there. Once you've done the webinar, and at the end of the webinar you've sold your thing, your product, your service; you can't then put your feet up as the sales roll in, wouldn't it be lovely. In fact, this phase is almost as important, if not more important, than the previous phases. And in this phase, we're gonna look at three areas: we're gonna look at email series again, re-marketing the replays, and then some really cool next level stuff.

 

How to pull in those who didn’t buy or those who didn’t attend

 

Now, when it comes to post webinar, you're going to have two audiences that you're focusing on. You're going to have those that attended the webinar, that signed up and attended, and then you're going to have those that signed up, but didn't attend. And obvious, like I said, at the end of the webinar is where you're going to sell the thing.

So, for the people that attended, they obviously saw the webinar and if they then didn't buy, the emails that you're going to be sending them is obviously, sending them the replay, but you're then going to be focusing on the sale, because they were on the webinar, they saw it, but they didn't buy. When you're focusing on a sale in these emails, I would do it more about addressing concerns, asking questions, reassuring them why they might do it. Because if they've gone though the effort to watch your webinar, then there's obviously something that's stopping them from buying. Even encourage them to reply to email, answer questions, tell you why they didn't buy.

Then the people who signed up to the webinar, but didn't attend live, they obviously don't know that, at the end of the webinar, you launched a product or a service or a sale. And therefore, when you email those people, you should really focus on the webinar first and probably a good half of your email, why they should watch the replay, what was so brilliant about the webinar, and then you want to mentioned the sale. Because, like I said, they don't know that the sale existed, so you need to be a little bit softer in terms of telling them about the product or service that you've just launched. And like I said, you're going to send out a series of emails aimed at these people.

So, once you've understood the two audiences, you're going to send out emails to those two different types of audiences. Also don't forget your full email list as well, just because they didn't sign up for the webinar, doesn't mean they won't be interested in the thing that you're selling, the service or product. So obviously you've got a third email in this, where it's just a general sales email to the rest of your list.

Okay, so let's focus on what we want to include in those emails. One of the great sales tactics is the fear of missing out. So, in the emails you could talk about the number of people that already signed up, and maybe how excited they are, that sort of thing.

The next thing that I've mentioned already, is that you should address their concerns. Because addressing their concerns is a really big one. Most people try and shy away from this, because they almost don't want to make people realise some of the reasons why you wouldn't want to sign it, i.e. do I have the time, is it too expensive, but by addressing them, you can squash some of those fears. Because you might have someone thinking it's too expensive, but yet you know that your service could save them loads of money in the long run. So, by addressing them, you are able to hopefully convert a few more sales.

Another things that really good to include is social...

Looking to create a LinkedIn profile listen to this weeks episode.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

LinkedIn is the best platform to show professionalism. Air on the side of caution when it comes to your content such as your profile picture. A professional headshot is perfect.

Remember to use your keywords on all social media, including your headline on your profile. For example, “content marketing” or “social media marketing.”

For a killer “About” section, use this statement:

o I work with [insert type of audience] who want to [what your audience wants to achieve]. I do this by [how you help them] and this means [the outcome for your audience].

Use your profile to explain as much about you as possible as it pertains to your business. Have you published any work? If so, add it. Have you volunteered with any organizations? If so, add it!

Don’t forget to post on LinkedIn regularly just as you do with other platforms. You can post your blog posts, your podcasts and any other content about your business. Use your resources!

Be sure to remain professional, even in how you write what you post. Do not use abbreviations. Explain yourself more.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

LinkedIn is the perfect place to explain what you do in detail. Your audience wants to resonate with you. Your profile should relate to your audience to build connections by speaking to how you can help them achieve their goals.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

Tip #1: Make sure you have a really great profile picture – 6:24

Tip #2: Use your headline to sell yourself and what you do – 8:48/li>

Tip #3: Your “About” section should speak directly to your audience – 11:21

Tip #4: Fill in as many details as possible on your profile – 16:54

Tip #5: Post, post, post! – 18:57

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• LinkedIn is the best platform to show professionalism. Air on the side of caution when it comes to your content such as your profile picture. A professional headshot is perfect.
• Remember to use your keywords on all social media, including your headline on your profile. For example, “content marketing” or “social media marketing.”
• For a killer “About” section, use this statement:
• o I work with [insert type of audience] who want to [what your audience wants to achieve]. I do this by [how you help them] and this means [the outcome for your audience].
• Use your profile to explain as much about you as possible as it pertains to your business. Have you published any work? If so, add it. Have you volunteered with any organizations? If so, add it!
• Don’t forget to post on LinkedIn regularly just as you do with other platforms. You can post your blog posts, your podcasts and any other content about your business. Use your resources!
• Be sure to remain professional, even in how you write what you post. Do not use abbreviations. Explain yourself more.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…LinkedIn is the perfect place to explain what you do in detail. Your audience wants to resonate with you. Your profile should relate to your audience to build connections by speaking to how you can help them achieve their goals.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Tip #1: Make sure you have a really great profile picture – 06:24
• Tip #2: Use your headline to sell yourself and what you do – 08:48
• Tip #3: Your “About” section should speak directly to your audience – 11:18
• Tip #4: Fill in as many details as possible on your profile – 16:54
• Tip #5: Post, post, post! – 18:57

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a really, really warm welcome from over here in California. That's right, I am recording the podcast currently, sat in LA, having an amazing time on a business slash maybe a little bit of holiday trip. I am sat outside. If you could see me you would laugh, but I am sat outside on the deck of our friend's house where we're staying, and I'm recording this podcast so you might hear some outside noises. The birds are singing away. It's about 5:30a.m. and the sun is coming up in the distance. Of course I'm sat here currently in a vest top, and although it's not super warm, it's not freezing cold either.

If you follow me on social media, then you might know that I come out here fairly often, and by fairly often I probably mean three to four times a year. Most years it's been four times, and what's interesting is prior to about four years ago, I'd never really travelled at all. In fact, I could probably count on one hand how many times I'd been to other countries.

Then, two things happened. I met my husband, who is in the RAF. He's a military man, and he does a job that takes him all over the world, that literally he will fly in and out of more countries than I've had hot dinners, and I started the business. One of the things that I discovered is that there's a real hub of social media experts and online digital marketing experts over here in California, and specifically around the San Diego area. Also, San Diego is where Social Media Marketing World is held every single year, and trafficking inversion, and some really big conferences.

Like I said, those two things together have certainly then geared up my travels and my trips and I'm over here quite a lot, and I love it. I would move to California in a heartbeat. The sun is always shining. It's a beautiful part of the world. Not only is it aesthetically really beautiful, but when you go to things like malls or generally around, everywhere is stunning. It's a really, really amazing place to be. The best food, the best drink. Obviously I will be seeing it this way because we're here often as guests and on trips rather than I don't have to go out to work everyday. I'm sure it's not this stunning if you live here permanently.

The one downside to California though is the traffic. Oh, my word. You've never seen anything like it. Over in the UK, I would used to drive on the M6 quite regularly, and I used to think that was pretty awful because of the traffic. LA is on another scale. It can take hours to drive what is something like 30 miles. It really is one of the downsides to California, but I think it's one of the only ones, so they're not doing too bad.

Why am I rabbiting on about the fact that I'm sat in California? I promise I'm not doing it to make you jealous, but one of the things that I was thinking about when I'm over here is I was looking at how people are marketing themselves, and that's one of the things that I love about the American market, is they're not afraid to tell the world, this is what I'm good at and this is why you should hire me. I think often it's something that in the UK we find quite difficult. We are not very good at shouting about ourselves, telling the world we're brilliant, and when we do do it, we either A, feel like we're showing off, or other people, and I've heard it said and very possibly about me, "Who does she think she is?"

They get quite, I don't know whether jealous is the right word, but they are definitely not as happy for you to promote yourself, whereas here, in the States, it really feels like they cheerleader each other on. If someone is saying, "I am awesome at this," then their friends and their colleagues are saying, "You absolutely are."

While I've been over here, it's been really interesting because I've been seeing both Amy Posefield and Pat Flynn, and also, while I've been seeing them, at the same time, James Webmore has been launching his Digital CEO, which is amazing by the way. Fantastic videos, and it looks like he is going on to sell a great product, but of course, when I've been talking to Amy and Pat, they have done nothing but be happy and praise him and be positive for the work he's doing, whereas sometimes, perhaps in the UK, people wouldn't necessarily be as positive, or they would feel really threatened by the fact that a person in your industry has come out with a new product or done a new thing.

Like I said, over here, that is just not the case. In today's episode, I want to teach you to celebrate yourself, and I am going to use a very practical way in which you can do this and link this to LinkedIn. Great segway, Teresa, that was smooth ass. Today we're going to be talking about LinkedIn and how good it is for shouting about how brilliant you are and promoting how brilliant you are without feeling like you are there going, "Yay, high five myself, I am awesome."

Today, I'm going to talk you through the five things that you should make sure you do in order to have a killer profile on LinkedIn so that you can promote yourself to the world without feeling like some sleazy salesman.

 

Tip #1: Make sure you have a really great profile picture

 

The first thing is very simple, but oh, so very important. Make sure that you have a really good profile picture. Now, I have seen some really funny ones on LinkedIn, I have to say. I once had someone try to connect with me who had a picture with them with their top off. I could understand if that was part of their business, if they were a model, then maybe I could make an excuse for it. However, absolutely not, that is not the kind of thing you want to be doing on LinkedIn.

Then I have pictures of selfies or people on nights out, and one thing that you have to know about LinkedIn straight away is that it's professional. That's the whole point of the platform, so by all means, go and put those kind of pictures on Twitter or Instagram or anywhere else that you'd like to, however, on LinkedIn, I would err on the side of caution, and I would possibly look at putting a photo up that was much more professional.

Now, ideally you would get a professional photo taken, especially if you are your business or if you are a personal brand. If you're a personal brand then it's seriously more important. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to have a professional photo taken, and you're going to make sure it's of your head and shoulders. No more, no less. You want the entire space to be filled with your face so that people can see and recognise you.

Obviously, it needs to be fairly recent. I know that we all prefer our photos when we were maybe younger or thinner or whatever it might be, but people need to recognise you. People need to see your LinkedIn, and then possibly be at an event and think, "Oh, that's that person I'm LinkedIn with." Make sure it's a really good likeness, great professional photo, and ideally, nothing behind you if possible. Only because sometimes backgrounds can be really distracting, and you don't want someone focusing on where you had the photo taken rather than the person in the photo.

The other thing within this tip that I'm going to give is the cover photo, which is the photo above your profile picture. That is also a great opportunity to put some kind of image with some text on it. On my LinkedIn profile there is a picture of me within that as well, so try and make the most of these, but like I said, good, clear, professional images so that I can see who you are straight away.

Tip #2: Use your headline to sell yourself and what you do

 

On to tip number two. There is something on LinkedIn called a headline. When you are looking at who to be LinkedIn with, you will often see their name, their picture, and their headline. Most often this defaults to who you work for and your job title. Let's say for instance I was head of marketing for ABC agency. Then, it might say Head of Marketing for ABC agency, which wouldn't be the worst thing. It might say marketing director, or it might just say director of ABC whatever it is, and the problem is that doesn't really sell you. That doesn't really let people know within a really quick amount of time, because as on all social media you've got to be quick to get people's attention. But it doesn't really give you a good impression of what it is you do or who it is you are.

Also, don't forget these key words. Make sure that you're putting in your key words into all of your text on social media. If you are a marketing and social media consultant, then make sure you put those in your headline. Make sure you use your headline to sell what it is you do, not necessarily the actual physical job title. For instance, mine says, "Social Media Marketing Consultant Trainer and Speaker."

If you saw my name and my picture and that headline, you would be in no doubt at all as to what it is I did. Go back and have a look at your headline. Whereas if I just said that it said "Director of THW Marketing," which is the agency that I run, then who knows what that is? Who knows what THW marketing is, or what services we provide. That doesn't say that I'm a speaker. That doesn't say that I do the various other things I do. It literally just says that I'm a director of an agency.

Like I said, go back and have a look at your headline, see what it says about you, and see if you can tweak it up so that it's more explicit of the things that you actually do. Also, sometimes people like to have a bit of fun with it, so if you can be a bit different and quirky, then maybe that can help you stand out. Like I said, though, LinkedIn is more professional, and although I'm saying you don't want to come over all corporate, I'm just sort of saying that maybe some of the crazier stuff you might want to leave for other platforms.

 

Tip #3: Your “About” section should speak directly to your audience

 

On to tip number three is look at your "About" section. One of the great misconceptions about LinkedIn is that it's only any good if you want to get a job, which, don't get me wrong, I have to say, I've done trainings for sales teams in big companies on how to use LinkedIn for their business, and they've ended up then getting jobs afterwards when they've made their profile look amazing. I'm not saying that it isn't helpful if you're looking for a job, but that's not the only reason to use LinkedIn, but the reason I've brought this up is because often when you think about the about section, people treat the text that they're putting in as a CV. They are using it to describe the jobs they've had or the roles they have or what would make them a good employee.

If you do run your own business, then obviously people don't want to read that. They don't want to see it, and you're not talking to them, you're listing the stuff that you are good at, and that's not really that interesting written in that way. One of the things that I do when I am talking about how to write your summary or your "About Us" section, is I want you to think of it differently. I want you to talk to your audience, but set them up in a way that they know you are talking directly to them. This is also really useful if you don't want a certain type of customer, because in a very nice way, again you can set it up so they understand that your services aren't for them.

For instance, let's say you only deal with blue chip companies, so you don't want some man on the street thinking, "Great, I'm going to come and buy my product from you, or use your service," when actually you're not set up to provide that product or service for them. It's not necessarily saying, "I don't want your business," but that's not what your company does.

Let's put all this together and hopefully make sense of what I just said. In the summary, one of the first things I would write is, "I work with ..." and then tell the world who you work with. For instance, if it was blue chip companies, or FTSE 500 companies, then put that in there. If I'm coming to your profile and I am not a FTSE 500 company and I read your summary and you've started it by saying, "I work with FTSE 500 companies," then nicely I'm going to think, "Do you know what? This isn't for me." Rather than wasting my time and phoning you up, having you have to say to me, we don't deal with your type of companies, or you're not big enough, or you're not small enough, or whatever it is.

Set them up by telling them who is it you work with. That's the first thing. For instance, mine might say, for the agency side, "I work with directors, senior managers, of small to medium businesses, who ..." and then this is the next step. Who what? What is it that these customers come to you for? What is it that they want to achieve? I don't mean what is it that you physically do at this point. I mean, what is the outcome that they want to get?

The beginning of this statement would say, "I work with," you say the type of business you work with, "who want to," and the next statement is, "who want to grow their sales," "drive traffic to their website," "who want to work with a yoga teacher who does this," or whatever it is that you do, that's where you say what you are providing those people as a service.

Then I go on to do another couple of points where I bullet point these out. First of all, I tell them how or what it is I do, so I would list out, so, this is who I work with, this is what I bring them, and I bring them that by providing these things, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, and then what that means to them is they get dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.

Let me just talk you through that again. You open it up with, "I work with," you put who you work with, "who want to," and you put what they want. What is the thing that drives them to come to see someone like you, and then you basically put, "I do this by," and that's the bit where you put it a little bit more practical in terms of what you actually do. Then the last section is, "and this means that," and what it means is that the client or your customer will get what results? What is it going to give to them in their business.

This is where you might overlap in what you said in the first section, however in this section you might bullet point it. You might say "You will get more sales, you'll feel more relaxed, you will ..." Whatever your outcomes are for a customer, that's where you put those things. When I'm coming to it as a potential customer or if I'm reading that summary, it's going to tell me really quickly whether A, I am the person you're talking to, B, I can relate to those things that I'm trying to achieve, or that I would use your service for, how you're doing it and what those outcomes provide me. This is a really nice way of summarising who it is you are and what you do for your customers.

 

Tip #4: Fill in as many details as possible on your profile

 

On to tip number four. I want you to go through the rest of LinkedIn's profile and I want you to try and fill in as much as possible. Okay, I'm not talking list all your schools from when you were seven. I'm talking, list as many different details as you can as possible. For instance, there is a section in LinkedIn that says, "Have you published anything?" If you've written a book, then make sure you put it in there. There's a section for have you volunteered somewhere? Make sure you fill that in.

Obviously, go back and fill in the jobs that serve what you do today. It doesn't mean if you had a slight career change that you basically just forget every other job you ever had, but don't spend hours filling in every single detail. Me, like lots of other people, I used to work at McDonald's when I first started at college, and I said it back then, it was character building, and I think it was, so I'm not going to list that I worked at McDonald's because that has no relevance on me today and what I do. However, the stuff that does, I am going to list it. Like I said, go through and try and make your profile as rich in content as possible.

The other nice thing about LinkedIn now is that you can add medias, you can add videos, and you can even do that within each job that you had, and try and make sure that you use those kind of elements to make it more interesting and make it stand out. Because when someone goes to see your profile, you want to make sure you've got something to show them, and something that will be interesting that they can resonate with. Again, you might want to drop in a couple of personal details on your summary about what you like to do on the weekend or whatever, but on the whole it does tend to be more professional.

My last tip which is a super simple one and you're going to think, really? But I think it's important to say because I am guilty of this myself.

 

Tip #5: Post, post, post!

 

The last thing that I recommend you do in order to help your profile is post. Now, again, you're going to think, "What are you talking about?" But when was the last time you actually posted on LinkedIn. We all know to regularly post on Twitter and Instagram, I am like a ninja when it comes to Instagram.

I literally make sure I post every single day. I spend a long time looking at the photos, deciding which to use. I do very chatty captions where I write quite personal stuff, is probably the wrong word, but I am much more honest and I ask questions and I spend a lot of time curating that content.

Whereas LinkedIn, I am not as good at. I do not post as often. But the thing with LinkedIn, is it's not as busy as the other platforms. It's not as noisy. The content isn't as fast moving. They do have quite a good algorithm where things will hang around for quite some time, so it doesn't matter that it was done yesterday or the day before, you'll find...

The Business of Social Media Management: 5 Common Misconceptions and Tips

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

A physical office isn’t required to be in this business. People will take you seriously even though you work from home.

You don’t have to do business all by yourself. This includes social media management, content creation, blog writing and more. It isn’t deceiving to outsource work when you’re running a business if the project is completed and the quality is there.

Spending money on tools and systems for your business is smart. Don’t make the mistake of letting them pass by. Invest in what will make your life easier.

You must focus on your own social media, too. It must be right, and it must be consistent.

Marketing is all about consistency. Going from completely quiet to loud is not the best option. Schedule your social media alongside your client’s social media.

Pay attention to your mindset. Your business is entirely dependent on you, so stay motivated!

You must stop thinking like an employee.

Keep a positive, productive and motivated mindset to keep driving your business forward.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Your time is valuable! Build in efficiencies to help you, spend money wisely to make your life easier, and reach out to others to support you. Yes, when you are first starting out, times are often tough. But failing to invest in yourself, your mindest and the right tools puts you at a disadvantage from the outset.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

Teresa’s path into social media management – 2:25

Misconception #1: You need a physical office to gain trust – 5:14/li>

Misconception #2: You have to do it all by yourself – 6:53

Misconception #3: You shouldn’t spend money on tools and systems – 10:50

Misconception #4: You don’t have time to manage your own social media – 15:18

Misconception #5: Mindset doesn’t matter; business is just hard – 19:52

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

DashThis

Teresa’s business resources

James Wedmore’s Mind Your Business podcast

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!