Your Dream Business

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 mindset 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 – 02:25
• Misconception #1: You need a physical office to gain trust – 05:14
• Misconception #2: You have to do it all by yourself – 06:53
• 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

Transcript below

 

Hey there, and a really, warm welcome to today's episode. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing, and I'm super glad you've decided to join me for what is hopefully going to be a really exciting episode. Now usually I like to do tools and tactics and strategies all around your social media and how you can use it for business. But every so often, I like to through in a different type of podcast episode that might be around running a business, or some of the mindset tools I've used, and this week I wanted to record on one those types of episodes.

Because I've just come back from social day 18, which is the UK's largest social media conference down in London. And I have met lots of entrepreneurs and social media marketing managers who have set up their own social media agency. So I wanted to do an episode today around me running a social media marketing agency. And the five things that I thought had to be done, or the common misconceptions that I had when I started, that now I know just aren't true and actually would have enabled me to got on with my business and developed and grown a lot quicker if I had realised these things.

So that's why I wanted to come on today and record this episode so if you are a social media marketing manager, if you have an agency, if your thinking about having an agency or if you just offer social media to businesses where you manage their accounts, then I think you're going to find this episode really, really useful. And I would love to hear your feedback, please. Find me on social media, obviously I'm everywhere. Teresa Heath-Wareing and let me know your thoughts.

And if you're not a social media manager, then don't worry about it. I think this is still going to be a great episode, as some of these points that I'm going to go through are just as valuable for people in other industries as they are in the social media world.

 

Teresa’s path into social media management

 

So for those of you that don't know, let me start by just explaining the set up I have and the business I have currently. I started my business back in 2014, and I guess the first thing I should say, was that I never, ever intended to have my own business. I loved being an employee and I joke that I was great one. I am really risk averse, and like I said, I just had no thoughts. It never entered my head for one second, that I would become my own boss, and have my own business.

Then a few fairly life changing things happened, and it set me on a path that maybe I wasn't expecting, but boy am I glad it did. And I am happy that I'm here today. Now I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of how I got to start my own business, although that might be a later podcast episode. However, when I first started the business, I thought I was going to be a social media and marketing manager for businesses that didn't want to employ a full time person within their office. So I had visions that I would consult for them, or I would work a day a week for them, and they would have access to a marketing manager with lots and lots of years experience, without the cost.

However, over time, that's changed, and I started to realise that, one that limited my time. And therefore, I could only sell out my time that I had available and obviously, there is a finite amount of that. The other thing I realised was that I could only help so many people. If I only had so much time, I could only work with so many businesses, and therefore I wanted to find a way in which I could grow the business and allow myself to work with more people.

Now, over the last four years, I have grown my business from me on my own, working with businesses and helping them do their social media where I did everything. Literally everything. And now I am up to a team of six people where we offer a range of services and I have them help me deliver all of those services. And some of the things I'm going to talk you through today are actually really crucial in that development.

Now you may not want to be growing the business that you have. You may just want to be getting more structured, you may just want to find ways in which to make your life easier so you don't have to work as hard. I hear you. So I'm really hoping that these five points that I'm going to go over, will make you speed up your process a little bit and also, give you some confidence in your abilities and your ability to sell your service. So let's dive in.

 

Misconception #1: You need a physical office to gain trust

 

Misconception number one. I firmly believed, that when I first started, the thing I needed the most for people to trust and believe in me was a physical office. I know this sounds like a really small thing to start with, but I promise you, I wasted money and not only that, I had a negative opinion of me an my business because I didn't have this big amazing office. I thought to myself that if people couldn't come to an office, if I didn't have a big space, if I didn't have a work environment, that businesses would look at me and think that I was not real. That I was not to be trusted because I wasn't in an office. Because I worked from home. And like I said, I wasted money finding these offices and paying for them, when I had no need for them. Ii would go in everyday ... and don't get me wrong, there is a mindset thing here. At the time I started my business, I was on my own, with my daughter, and I was living on my own. And working all day from home and not potentially going out at all, was really hard work.

And I don't think it was necessarily the most productive for me. However, I didn't need that office to be good. I didn't need that office to prove to clients that I could do what I said I could do. So if you sat there thinking people aren't going to take me seriously because I work from home, then get that thought out of your head. If honestly, the client is particularly bothered about that, then they are probably not the client for you.

 

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

 

Misconception number two. In the early days, I thought I had to do it all myself. And I mean everything. So from all the accounts, to all the marketing activities I was offering, to all the social media management, the content creation, writing the blogs and I don't like writing, as I told you before. So this was not something that came easy to me. And I used to think that in some way, I was cheating the customer if I didn't physically do it myself. I remember having a conversation when I first started. Talking to a, I guess a competitor at the time, although we shared an office. And he was telling me that he got someone else to write blog posts for a client. And I remember being really shocked, like this sounds so stupid now, I can't believe I'm sharing this with you. But I honestly remember being really really shocked thinking, "Well that's really deceiving. The client thinks it's you writing them, and you're getting someone else to do it." And I think I must have been so naive, I had worked in employment for such a long time, that actually when I was given a task, it obviously meant that I had to do it.

However, that isn't the case. When your running a business, if you're given a task, then as long as that task gets done and to the level that the client is expecting, then it doesn't have to necessarily have to be you that does it. And therefore, I wasted so much time on projects and tasks that, you know, just weren't my forte. So for me to write a blog post for a client, it would take hours because that's not my thing. That's not where I excel. And therefore, I would have wasted so much time and ultimately, when you're running a business and you're just starting out and you are the business, your time directly equals your money. So obviously, I was wasting so much money by me trying to do all of these tasks.

I also know that in the early days, you are going to have to do a lot of the tasks, because there's only you. And I get that. Although it's tough, I think it is helpful, because when you then get into a position when you can ask other people tot start to do things, or bring on other people, then you are going to know exactly what you do. You're going to know how long it takes to get done, and the considerations that you have to think about in order to get those things done.

So like I said, it's not that I think there's anything wrong in doing thing yourself, , I think it was the fact that I thought you had to do everything yourself. And then when I started to get other people in, to begin with I did feel like I was cheating, and then I realised that it didn't matter. The client was happy because they got something that they were expecting, and that was good. I was happy because I wasn't having to do it. And the person that I was asking to the work was happy because they were being given some work.

So don't sit there and think, "I've got to do everything myself." Also, just on a quick side note, some of the tasks, like the admin tasks, and the finance tasks, they were some of the first things that I actually shifted off my desk. Because those really don't have to be done by you. And again, I was finding that when I was thinking about my time as money, IE, if I'm doing my accounts on an afternoon, and not doing client work, or not selling myself back out, or trying to get new clients I am wasting my own time and money. My time is far more valuable than that.

So wherever I can, I now look to see is the work I'm doing meant for me? Am I the most efficient person to do it? And is there an alternative?

 

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

 

Number three is less of a misconception, and more of a bit of mistake that I made when I started. And it kind of links really well into the last point. Because one of the mistakes I made was not spending money on tools and systems that would have made my life a whole lot easier. Now, obviously, I completely understand when I started my business, I was on my own, as I mentioned and I had a house, a mortgage I had to pay. I had a four year old that I had to feed and clothe and make sure that she was okay. And I had no other income. I had no husband, no rich parents, and the money that I was making was the money I was living off. So I get it, when you're first starting out it's tough. Not only to bring in clients, but also, the money that's coming in, you've got to spend really wisely. You can' waste any, there's not lots of it, and therefore you've go to think really carefully where that money's going.

But I think one of the mistakes I made when I first started was I never invested in tools that were actually going to make my life easier. I think it's really interesting, because when you first start, you're kind of living day to day. You're literally thinking, "Okay, if I can get this done, let me see if I can find another client. If I've got that client, what if I lose them? Where is there another client?" Or, you know "How long this project is going to be for?" And you're very much managing your money like that from a day to day point of view.

But the minute you get that confidence that actually you have got a regular income, or you've got some people on a retained level, IE, they are agreeing to pay you every single month, then think about some of the amazing tools and systems out there that are going to make your life a whole lot easier.

And I'm not necessarily talking about, you know, big work place systems that manage to this and all that sort of thing, although we do have that now. I'm more talking about tools like paying for Buffer or Content Cow or one of the scheduling systems. I'm talking about reporting tools. One of the things I hate doing the most in my business, is reports. Which is silly, because I love numbers and I love seeing the results. However, I just really struggle putting together reports. It's like I have a real block on doing the report itself. And I've never for whatever reason given this to someone else. Which again, is odd. And you know what? Literally just a few months ago, I found an amazing tool called Dash this. I'll link to it in the show notes, and it enables you to pull in all these feeds from every social media, from google analytics, google ad words, Facebook ads. And, it enables you to build a report that you literally just need to hit rerun on every single month. How amazing.

Now this reporting system is, well I think the lowest you can pay is $39 a month. Which, when money is tight things like that are going to be an expense that you may or may not need. However, don't be afraid to pay for these things, because again, back to my other point, is that the most best use of your time? If you are spending, which I was, a day messing around trying to do these reports, surely $39 is so much more worth your money then necessarily spending an entire day of you doing it.

So don't be afraid to look at systems and tools that will help your life become easier. And again, think about some of the tools that aren't just social media lead, so I use things like Cash Flow. We use Teamwork now that we have a team to help manage online to do lists. So just think about those tools that are available out there to you. And ask advice. Again, I have wasted way more money than I care to share with you on tools that ended up being rubbish.

So if it is something that you're thinking about, and you want to know if I have used a particular tool, either go check out the resources section on my website, or just drop me a message and I will happily let you know.

 

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

 

Three down, two to go. We're on to number four. So my fourth mistake that I thought I made in my business, was not focusing enough on my own social media. And this is kind of laughable when you think about it, but it goes back to that old adage, Cobbler's shoes, or the Cobbler's shoes. I can't remember, but you know what I mean. IE, if you do something as a job, you don't tend to do much of it in your personal life, or for your own business. And this was so true about my social media when I first started. I tried, don't get me wrong, I tried super hard to manage my own on top of managing other people's and doing all the other stuff I had to do.

But I wasn't consistent and I wasn't structured. And sometimes I'd be brilliant, and sometimes I'd be terrible. And it would be really, really inconsistent. What's really funny is as a marketeer, I go into businesses, or businesses that I speak to and I tell them it's all about consistency. Not only would social media where it is very important, but also in marketing in general. And what I would find would happen is I would keep going through this cycle where I would be quite quiet, or I wouldn't have as many clients as I wanted and because of that I would start going into panic mode. And I would start tweeting and putting stuff on Facebook and really working hard on my own social media, getting into conversations on Twitter and that sort of thing.

And then I would start to get busy, because people would start to notice me or I'd start to get some additional clients and then of course, it would just disappear. Because I was busy. And it wasn't really through a kind of arrogance of, "Oh I don't need that anymore." But that would just be crazy. It was definitely from a, "I've got no time to do this anymore." But then of course, no surprise, what would happen is I would finish projects, client's agreements would come towards and end and I would start panicking gain and I would start thinking, "Oh my gosh I need more clients." You know, "That project is about to finish." Or, "I've only got a contract with them for six months." And I would start to panic and I would start to lift my social media again, and I'd go through that entire process again.

And I found that even though I was growing, it was really hard work because I was only growing a little bit each time. The minute it got better for me, was the minute I decided that my own social media had to be right. And it had to be consistent. And there was a couple of things that I did at the time to help. One I decided to view myself as a client. That I had to schedule my things alongside scheduling other people's. That I had to take my own social media as seriously. The other thing that helped was I got into a position where I started to bring on people in the business. And do you know what? Do this very day, the THW accounts, so the Instagram and the Twitter and the Facebook, are manged by one of the team. So that they can consistently look after those accounts and consistently post on them. I tend to do my own stuff, because I am a bit of a control freak, and I like my own things, which means my Teresa staff isn't as consistent.

However, I noticed a big difference when we started doing that. I noticed that those dips were less and less and the consistency of clients and inquiries maintained. I know it's difficult do to your own social media, and I know, do you know what? Sometimes you get a bit sick of it. And I think we can all secretly admit that. However It I super important not only from a visibility marketing point of view, but...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Twitter is still growing and has a considerable number of followers. It has 300 million active monthly users worldwide.

Twitter offers a variety of media for your content. You can write posts, put up images, use GIFs and videos. You can also stream live using Twitter.

Bots and spammers are no longer able to contribute using Twitter due to new rules on the platform. This creates a better stage for your content.

Hashtags are used on Twitter to organize conversations. Trending hashtags can be followed by viewers.

Following, retweeting and commenting on your follower’s updates creates notifications for them. This helps you get the conversation started between you and your audience.

Do you have 100 Twitter followers? You could be retweeted by someone with 500 or more followers. This creates a larger audience for you!

Always respond when someone starts a conversation with you. This is critical for keeping the conversation going between you and your audience.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Social media is just as personal as face-to-face contact. Don’t discount social media as being just another tool to learn on a computer screen. Instead, use social media to create relationships with those who you may not have met otherwise. And lean into Twitter, which I firmly believe is the best tool to use to make connections and start conversations.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

Reason #1: Twitter is still growing! – 4:34

Reason #2: Twitter is more than just words – 5:35

Reason #3: Twitter is a trend-setter – 7:40

Reason #4: Twitter is the one of the most powerful engagement tools available – 8:39

Reason #5: You can get in front of a large audience via Twitter! – 11:55

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KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Twitter is still growing and has a considerable number of followers. It has 300 million active monthly users worldwide.
• Twitter offers a variety of media for your content. You can write posts, put up images, use GIFs and videos. You can also stream live using Twitter.
• Bots and spammers are no longer able to contribute using Twitter due to new rules on the platform. This creates a better stage for your content.
• Hashtags are used on Twitter to organize conversations. Trending hashtags can be followed by viewers.
• Following, retweeting and commenting on your follower’s updates creates notifications for them. This helps you get the conversation started between you and your audience.
• Do you have 100 Twitter followers? You could be retweeted by someone with 500 or more followers. This creates a larger audience for you!
• Always respond when someone starts a conversation with you. This is critical for keeping the conversation going between you and your audience.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Social media is just as personal as face-to-face contact. Don’t discount social media as being just another tool to learn on a computer screen. Instead, use social media to create relationships with those who you may not have met otherwise. And lean into Twitter, which I firmly believe is the best tool to use to make connections and start conversations.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Reason #1: Twitter is still growing! – 04:34
• Reason #2: Twitter is more than just words – 05:35
• Reason #3: Twitter is a trend-setter – 07:40
• Reason #4: Twitter is the one of the most powerful engagement tools available – 08:39
• Reason #5: You can get in front of a large audience via Twitter! – 11:55

Transcript below

 

Hello there and thank you for joining me for episode number 15 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. And I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing.

As always, I am ready to share some tips, tools, tricks, strategies with you on how you can improve your social media marketing for your business. So whether you are a business owner, entrepreneur or a social media marketing person and you are looking for more some more tips and tricks in order to get more engagement, drive more traffic and ultimately to use social media to help you sell your products or service, then you are in the right place, my friend, and I am here to help you.

One of the things I love about social media more than anything is the fact that it can bring you together with people that you may not have known, or they may not know about your products or service. And you're able to have conversations with them.

I think I've mentioned before that I started marketing 14 years ago. And when I was doing marketing then, there was no two-way conversation. If we wanted to find out about a customer or what they liked or what they didn't like, it was a huge effort. It would be using things like focus groups, questionnaires, picking up the phone and speaking to people. Things that were a lot of hard work and also cost a lot of money, just to find out about your customer.

Now, the way the world has gone with social media and with everything being so digital, is that people think the world has become more and more distant. That we're just talking to screens. Just looking at phones. Just doing everything on our computer. And you're losing the personal side of marketing and selling. But actually, that's not the case at all. If you look at the really successful marketers, they are the people who are getting to know their customers. And not just getting to know them, i.e., what age they are, whether they're male or female. I mean getting really under the skin of these people. Asking them what they like, what they don't like. Listening to the words they use and being able to take that information and market directly to the same sort of people.

Also, as a business owner, I love the way that it got me in touch with other people. People that knew what I was going through. People that could help me with certain things. I've been able to make some connections that I still have today that I made purely through social media. It's really funny when you say, "How did you meet?" "We met via Twitter." It sounds a little bit odd. Or, I know them from Instagram. It sounds like they're not real people, but actually these connections are just as strong and just as powerful as the ones I met over a breakfast meeting in the early days.

So today I wanted to talk you through one of my favourite tools for connecting with people and engaging with people. Now, when I mention Twitter, people are gonna be like, "Oh, really?" So the reaction I get with Twitter every time is either they don't get it. They really don't get it. They've tried it, they don't understand it, they don't know how to make it work for them. Or, they think that this is an old social media platform that no one's using and actually it's going to die off tomorrow. Which isn't the case at all.

So today I am here to tell you how wonderful Twitter is and why you should still consider it as one of the profiles that you use to market your business. Twitter is entirely about engagement. If you're going to use Twitter to literally post and shout at the world, then absolutely it's not gonna do anything and it's gonna be a big waste of your time. But, if you are in the business to business arena ... Now, it's not to say that business to consumer doesn't work. However, it's particularly effective for business to business people. Then if you're in that arena and you want to make real connections and speak to real people and start to build up a relationship with people, then actually Twitter is a fantastic way to go about it.

And one of the great things about Twitter is it's so uninvasive. It's so relaxed as an approach that it doesn't feel salesy whatsoever. As long as you treat it that way. But I'm here today to tell you the five things that I love about Twitter and why you should use it.

 

Reason #1: Twitter is still growing!

 

Reason one. Now this is gonna surprise you, I'm sure, but Twitter is still growing. It still continues to grow and has done for a long time. So even though it might not grow at the speed of the others and it might not have as many users or followers as the others, it is still growing and it still has a considerable amount of followers. Worldwide, Twitter has on average 300 million monthly active users. Now that's a fairly big pond of people to go at if you're looking to connect with people.

Also, the other thing that you might not know about Twitter is often they come out with the really cool ideas first. But I think, personally, this is my opinion, but I think that as a company they probably don't have the money that Facebook has. Therefore, Facebook will see something inventive that Twitter's done, like the fact that they did live streaming first. Then, they do it so much better. And that's why Twitter sometimes gets left in the dust when you look at how good some of the platforms are.

 

Reason #2: Twitter is more than just words

 

Reason two. You can use a range of medias on Twitter. So obviously all the different social medias have their own kind of thing. i.e., Instagram is all about images. YouTube is all video. Twitter actually offers a range of medias in which you can put out your content. So, they've obviously now increased the word count so you can have a lot more words, which helps. But unless you're going to write really long posts, then Twitter can be perfect for you. You can write posts. You can put up images. You can use GIFs. In fact, they were one of the first to bring in GIFs. Like I said, another first for Twitter. And you can use videos and upload native videos to Twitter.

The other thing that you can also do is you can stream live from Twitter and straight into the platform. The other cool feature that it has on the app on your phone is that there's a recording element where you can record yourself making a video and you can almost edit that video by chopping bits out or changing the order of certain things. So Twitter from a media point of view is great. It really is an all-rounder, like Facebook, where you can really use lots of different ways in which to promote your content.

Also, I know that one of the downsides of Twitter is that it moved so fast. There was so much content on there that your post would barely be shown for minutes before it disappeared into the timeline. And therefore, it was a really crowded place to be. Now recently, Twitter have changed their rules around posting and you can no longer post the same post with the same image multiple times, which you could do previously. And I think what this has done for Twitter is it's cleaned up a bit. And it's also given a little bit of air to breathe so that all those bots and spammers that were out there literally chucking out the same content every five seconds, so it felt, are now no longer on there. And therefore, you are able to be heard a little bit more.

 

Reason #3: Twitter is a trend-setter

 

Reason three is that Twitter is often at the forefront of any breaking news. It trends new stories and things get put out on Twitter before they get seen pretty much anywhere else. And they still have this today. Even though the other social media platforms have grown, it still appears that Twitter has this kind of hold on the news and its world when something big goes on. Which means they are still really powerful when it comes to trending hashtags. So obviously, just in case you aren't sure about hashtags and what they mean, all it means is when you're having a conversation about a particular subject, if you use the hashtag, then other people having that same conversation are going to be able to see what you say and also get involved in that conversation with you. So what happens on Twitter is when lots of people are talking about a particular subject using a hashtag, they then start trending. And people then start following that trending news.

 

Reason #4: Twitter is the one of the most powerful engagement tools available

 

Reason four. Twitter was probably the original and still one of the most powerful engagement tools that there are out there. One of the things that frustrates me about Facebook is that it's so hard to build a connection with people. You can't go out and reach out to people and have conversations with them. As a business page, you can't just go and comment on a personal profile or someone's status update. So it's really difficult to start those conversations and to make those connections.

However, on Twitter, it is exactly what it's built for. What we tend to do is if we want to make a connection with someone over Twitter, is we'll start by following that account. So every time you connect with them, like following them, you appear in their notifications. And that is one place that shouldn't be really, really noisy. They should be able to see their notifications and it's not like you're in a timeline with all the other content. You will appear. They will get notified that you've done something.

So like I said, the first thing we would do is we go and follow them. The second thing we might do is we might retweet some of their things or we might like some of their posts or we might comment on some of their posts. And that way, every single time we do one of those things, again, they get notified. This certain account has gone and liked or retweeted or commented on their post.

Now because obviously the whole idea of social media is that you want to get your message heard, you want people to respond, you want people to comment, people are normally pretty positive about the fact of you doing it. As long as you're again, not trying to be salesy or be really direct with them, then people are normally really positive and really happy to receive that interaction and engagement.

So, like I said, every time we do something like that, every time we retweet them, we are a, not only helping them because we are getting their message out to more and more people, but b, we are appearing in their notifications.

And then, what's best of all, is that if we want to talk directly to them, we can literally tag their account into a tweet. So we can use their Twitter handle, which is their name that they use on Twitter. We can use their Twitter handle and we can actually say something to them. So we can start off by just having an average conversation.

And funnily enough, when I was in San Diego back in February for Social Media Marketing World and Traffic & Conversion, this was the main thing. It was all about conversations and starting conversations with customers. Not trying to sell to them. Not trying to get anything from them. Just starting a conversation. And then, you can use that conversation as an opportunity, and that opportunity can then possibly create a conversion.

The other good thing about this engagement side of Twitter is that if you're thinking you have to do so many posts a day, well actually conversations are posts as well. Every time you reply to someone, every time you talk to someone, every time you have any type of conversation with someone, you are going to appear back in the news feed for people to see your logo or your profile or whatever it might be. So these conversations can be really useful in terms of you building your profile on Twitter as well.

 

Reason #5: You can get in front of a large audience via Twitter!

 

Reason five. The opportunity to get in front of a large audience is really high with Twitter. One of the things that I love about Twitter is the fact that if you, say, have 100 people that follow you and one of your followers sees your tweet and retweets it but they have 500 followers, then you've suddenly gone from having a potential of 100 people seeing it to a potential of 600 people seeing it.

And then let's say someone else sees it and they retweet it and they have 10,000 followers, then every time this happens, it's like it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the opportunity to have your tweet put in front of people is massive.

Also, the Twitter community are a really lovely community. Certainly the ones that are in my community. And they're so kind, that if you ask them to retweet something, they often will retweet it. So calls to action on Twitter are really, really effective. If you ask people to follow you, if you ask people to retweet your tweet, then they are very helpful and they will usually do that.

I know that this was a really quick whistle-stop tour around some of the things that I love about Twitter. But I really am quite passionate about it. Even though I am investing a huge amount of time at the moment on Instagram, and I do love Instagram because I love all the images, but for me Twitter is where I know I can go back to and have a conversation and people will start a conversation back with you. I know that they are loyal and interested in what you have to say. As long as that is that you are the same back to them.

One of the really crucial things about Twitter is that if someone goes to the effort to speak to you, like with any social media, you really, really, really must respond. And when people know that you respond and that you have conversations with them, they will continue those conversations. And therefore, the next time you post something out, suddenly you'll find lots of people start retweeting that. Because they have become part of your community and are willing to help you where they can.

Also, I know that Twitter can seem a little bit strange in terms of how you manage it, how you keep up with what's happening. So some people can get a bit frustrated with it or just take one look and think, "This isn't for me." But I urge you to try again and I urge you to take a look and see if you can just start connecting with some people, even in the local area. Just start commenting on some of their things and just wait for the responses to come in. Because I promise you, they will come.

Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. And of course, if you are on Twitter, then please type in Teresa Heath-Wareing and you will find me. I would love it if you could come and tweet me and say hi. And I will definitely say hi back. Have a great week. And until next time, take care.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Algorithms are rules that social media platforms use to determine who sees your posts.

Facebook serves up content to you based on other posts you “like”, share, comment on, etc.

These days, only 1-2% of your Facebook Page’s followers will see your posts.

Engagement is key to “beating” Facebook’s algorithms!

Facebook wants to see conversations! Think about how you can get people to comment on your posts.

For Facebook, you only need to post once a day—at most! Two or three posts a week is a great amount.

The one thing that breaks through the algorithm every time—live video! If you go live, you will get better reach and more engagement.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

As users of social media, we are bombarded with content. Every day, hundreds of thousands of posts are vying for our attention. Facebook uses its algorithms to determine how to show you the content that you enjoy the most; it culls through all the noise to deliver what it thinks you would want to see. Take smart steps to build conversation and community to feed into Facebook’s latest algorithm updates.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

What does “algorithm” mean, anyway? – 1:31

What Facebook does with the information it gets through its algorithms – 5:12

Facebook algorithms and advertising – 6:02

Why you need to care about Facebook’s algorithms – 6:20

How the algorithm can affect your posts – 8:20

Facebook’s focus on conversation – 11:28

Less is more! – 12:35

Steps you can take to break through the algorithm – 13:28

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Ep001 – How to Use and Leverage Live Video for Your Business

Review this podcast on iTunes!

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Algorithms are rules that social media platforms use to determine who sees your posts.
• Facebook serves up content to you based on other posts you “like”, share, comment on, etc.
• These days, only 1-2% of your Facebook Page’s followers will see your posts.
• Engagement is key to “beating” Facebook’s algorithms!
• Facebook wants to see conversations! Think about how you can get people to comment on your posts.
• For Facebook, you only need to post once a day—at most! Two or three posts a week is a great amount.
• The one thing that breaks through the algorithm every time—live video!
• If you go live, you will get better reach and more engagement.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…As users of social media, we are bombarded with content. Every day, hundreds of thousands of posts are vying for our attention. Facebook uses its algorithms to determine how to show you the content that you enjoy the most; it culls through all the noise to deliver what it thinks you would want to see. Take smart steps to build conversation and community to feed into Facebook’s latest algorithm updates.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• What does “algorithm” mean, anyway? – 01:28
• What Facebook does with the information it gets through its algorithms – 05:12
• Facebook algorithms and advertising – 06:04
• Why you need to care about Facebook’s algorithms – 06:20
• How the algorithm can affect your posts – 08:20
• Facebook’s focus on conversation – 11:28
• Less is more! – 12:35
• Steps you can take to break through the algorithm – 13:28

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Ep001 – How to Use & Leverage Live Video for Your Business
• Review this podcast on iTunes!

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a super warm welcome to this week's episode of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I hope you are having a really lovely week wherever you are in the world, and that the sun is shining, because it always makes me feel better when the sun is shining. This week I am going to be talking about Facebook algorithm. I know what you're thinking, "Teresa, why do you want to bore us with stories about Facebook algorithm," a word that in itself sounds boring, and dull, and confusing. I know, I really do, but I promise you this episode is going to be a good one. I find the subject, personally, really fascinating. Maybe I need to go out more, but I really do find it fascinating and, actually, it's something that people think they know about, and then they find out what it means to them and their Social Media, and they realise that, actually, they didn't realise they knew all that there was to know about the algorithm, and it's going to help you.

It's going to help you post better, get more engagement, and know what you can do to help improve your reach of your Social Media, so please stick with me, because I really think this is going to be a good one.

 

What does “algorithm” mean, anyway?

 

Let's start by telling you what the word algorithm means. In very layman's terms, it's just basically a word that explains a set of rules that Social Media platforms use that determines who gets to see your post, or not. Let me break that down a bit. So, pretty much every Social Media platform has an algorithm of some sort or other. Obviously, Facebook owns Instagram, so you imagine theirs is a fairly similar algorithm that they have. Now, it's made up by some very, very smart people, and they set up some rules, and the rules dictate the content that you see. So, let me explain, and I'll use Facebook as the example.

Let's say my husband and I followed exactly the same pages on Facebook and we had exactly the same friends. We could come to our timeline, so the feed, the thing that you see that has the posts on it, and we could literally have our phones next to each other, and we could see entirely different content, even though we have the same friends and we follow the same pages. The reason for this is Facebook will look at how you use your specific profile. They will look at the types of things that you engage with i.e. do you like posts that are videos, or posts that get you to click somewhere, what pages, or what people do you interact with mostly?

For instance, there are some friends that I have on my profile that I like lots of their things, because either it makes me laugh, or I particularly engage with it, or whatever the reason is, but what that is going to mean is that Facebook will keep showing me their content, because by me affirming that I like it by either watching it, engaging with it, giving it a like, commenting on it, sharing the post, that's how Facebook knows that I like that post. What they will do, or what the algorithm does is it will say, "Okay, so if you like those sorts of posts we're going to show you more of those sorts of posts.

Like I said, let's go back to the example, husband and I exactly the same friends, exactly the same pages, but we can see entirely different content, because of the way we interact with our page. So, why do the Social Media platforms put so much time and effort into an algorithm. Why do they even bother. Well, this has changed over the last few years, and it is constantly changing. The algorithm never stops changing, or so it seems. But, one of the reasons they've done this is as users of Social Media we are now getting absolutely bombarded with content. Every single day hundreds and thousands of posts are trying to get into our timeline, trying to get put in front of us. Again, think back just a few years ago as to how many Facebook friends you had.

I remember, I did a cull quite a few years back, I decided to get rid of a load of people's profiles that, actually, if I didn't know them or if I wasn't really good friends with them then I just didn't need them as friends on my Facebook account, and I got down to something like 40 people that I decided to keep on there. And now, gosh, I can't even remember the last time I looked, but I pretty much accept friend requests from most people, because it's changed, it's changed the way you are. It's more about having those connections, that actually you don't mind so much connecting with more people. But, of course, more people means more content. More people posting every single day; therefore, more things in your timeline, and there's just too much.

 

What Facebook does with the information it gets through its algorithms

 

So, Facebook wants to decide what it wants to show you. It wants to know what do you like, and it wants to show you more of it. So, it's now just down to there's too much stuff to show and, therefore, they've got to reduce it. It's also down to your enjoyment of the platform. Social Media platforms are super aware that we are being bombarded and our time is being sucked up everywhere we go. Every single Social Media platform, and at any point we could go, "Do you know what, I haven't got time for this. I haven't got time to scroll through loads of content that I'm not interested in," and that's why they put the algorithm in place. They want you to love what you see. They want you to enjoy taking in that content, for you to find it engaging, and also find it appropriate.

That's where kind of the advertising bit slips in, as well.

 

Facebook algorithms and advertising

 

The algorithm will help them place adverts in your feed that are much more appropriate to you and what you like to do, or what you like to engage with, so when you see an advert it should be something that you're interested in.

 

Why you need to care about Facebook’s algorithms

 

You might be sitting there thinking, "Well, why should I care what people see in their feeds, or what the algorithm does?" It's obviously something that we can't control, it's there whether we like it or not.

But, the reason we should care is because it controls whether people see your posts from your business page or not. Now, years ago before, I suppose, social media got as popular as it was now, or maybe before there was as much advertising as there is now, the organic reach, which is the reach that you get on a post that you haven't paid for. So, if I put up a post today, the organic reach would show me how many people had seen that post without me putting any money behind it. Years ago the organic reach used to be really, really, good, and people loved social media for that reason. Over the years it's got worse, and worse, and worse and, basically, not that this is ever publicly come out and been proved by someone like Facebook. If we take Facebook as an example, if you put a post out today roughly between 1% and 2% of people who follow your page are going to see that post.

Let me say that again, if you have a Facebook page with 100 people on it and you put a post out today, the chances are Facebook are going to show that post to only one to two people who follow that page, which is a huge impact on how much interaction and engagement you could get from that post. Often people think that if you have 100 people that like your page, every time you do a post every one of those hundred are going to see it, and that's just not the case. That's why the algorithm is important.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, I'm doomed. No one's ever going to see a post again. I promise that's not the case and, although you can't beat the algorithm, there are certainly some things that you can do to help improve it.

 

How the algorithm can affect your posts

 

But, before I share that let me just give you a couple more pointers as to how the algorithm can affect your posts. Now, one of the first things that you want to know is that the algorithm is, and isn't, affected by time. Confusing I know. Let's start with the time of day you post. The algorithm doesn't really care what time of day you post, because the way it works is on engagement, so if you put out a post today and someone likes it, or shares it, or comments on it, and that could be you from your own personal page, then Facebook are going to think, "Oh, okay, this is a good post because someone's interacted with it," because they take interaction as a sign of a good post or some good content. Obviously, if it's terrible no one will interact with that.

Let's say someone interacts with that, Facebook will then go, "Okay, if this person likes it then maybe we might show a couple more people," and they will start extending that reach. The more people that like the post the more people will see it. When I say it's not affected by time, the example I've got is, I put a picture out on my personal page of me when I got married and someone came and saw my profile that, obviously, hadn't been for some time, even though this picture had been on there for at least a year, and they liked the picture and commented on it, and that kind of kick started that post again, because then suddenly a couple of other people started liking and commenting on it, and then a couple more. This post just picked itself back up because of the fact of the engagement. It doesn't matter whether the post was done yesterday, within the last couple of hours, or within the last sort of 12 months, if people start interacting with it Facebook will start sharing it more and more and more.

The reason I said that the algorithm is, and isn't, affected by time is because the other element of this is, if you post something the quicker and sooner people interact with it the better, the more people it will show. So, for instance on Instagram if I put up a post and suddenly 10, 15 people, even more, jump straight on that post and like it within the first minute or so, then I am gonna get a much better reach on that post than if those same 10 or 15 people liked it but over a certain length of time. Even though it's not affected by when you post it, if you know you get better interaction quicker at certain times of the day, then make sure you post at those times.

For instance, for me I find that in the morning around 9 and 10 Instagram works quite well for me, and I tend to get more people liking the photo straight away, whereas if I left it sort of 8 or 9 in the evening I don't tend to get as much interaction as I would if I did it in the morning. Following on from this, hopefully you can see that engagement is really key to beating that algorithm. If people engage with the post, then you are going to have that post shown to more people than you would have previously.

 

Facebook’s focus on conversation

 

One of the things that Facebook really talked about in their latest algorithm changes is that they like the sense of conversation. They want people to have full-on conversations on your post. So, now you want to start thinking about how can you actually get people to have a conversation, and one of the ways that you can do that is, obviously, by posting questions, asking people's opinion, and it kind of all comes back to this community thing, which funnily enough I talked about last week on my episode on Facebook Groups versus Facebook pages, but it does come back to that community thing. It comes back to the conversation and that people are interested in what you're posting because they're having a conversation.

Now, one of the things that I've done on my posts is if I put up a post and I think there are particular people that will be interested in it, or that they will have an opinion on it, I have then gone in as myself, as my personal profile and I have said a question on the comments like, "What do you think?" And then I will tag in those people, and that really helps to get the conversation going, and that's what you want that will definitely help your reach and help slightly beat the algorithm.

 

Less is more!

 

The last point is that less is more. Hurray. I couldn't be more happy with this one. There used to be a time where people thought you had to post several times a day on something like Facebook or Instagram but, actually, it turns out that less is more, so for Facebook and Instagram I would post roughly once a day. On Facebook I actually post far less than that. Now, part of that is due to the fact that I don't get organised enough to do my own Social Media because we're doing so much other Social Media, but if I was organised I would still only do probably two or three posts a week on Facebook. I wouldn't do more than that, but each post would be really well thought out. It would probably have a fairly sizable amount of text in it, and it would be really trying to encourage that conversation element.

 

Steps you can take to break through the algorithm

 

What can you do to help improve that all important organic reach, that will help not break the algorithm but certainly try and push through it a little bit? Well, I've put together a freebie for you, so if you go to www.teresaheathwareing.com/14 then you are going to find a freebie that talks you through the five things that you can do to help improve your organic reach. So, please head along to there and download it, but I'm not going to make you wait. I'm going to share with you one of those things now, and that's something that you're probably not going to want to hear, because whenever I talk about it, it fills the world with dread, and that is live video.

I am so sorry, because I know you don't like doing them, and if I'm totally honest I don't always like doing them either. It's one of those things that I say to myself every single week, "You must do a live video this week, Teresa," and then for whatever reason I get distracted, or hair doesn't look quite right, or I can't quite think of the things to say, I don't do it, but I promise you the one thing that breaks through the algorithm is live video. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, they all do it. So, if you go live you are going to get a much better reach, more engagement, and more people seeing that post than anything else, so I really would encourage you to do live video. For the foreseeable future I think that's still gonna be the thing that you're gonna have to do. Luckily for you, that was the very first podcast that I recorded. So, please go and check out episode number one How To Use and Leverage Live Video for Your Business for some tips and advice on how to do it.

As always, it's been an absolute pleasure, and I really, really do appreciate you listening. If you're enjoying the podcast then could I ask a massive favour? Could you either go to iTunes and give me a review, five stars would be lovely, thanks very much, or would you happily share the podcast on Social Media so that I can get the reach out even further. I really do appreciate you listening and I appreciate your help on this. Thank you so much and until next time, have a great week and take care.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Facebook’s algorithm updates are making it even more difficult to connect with your audience via Facebook Page posts.
• A Facebook Page is a public-facing page that anyone can view. It is ranked with Google Search.
• A Facebook Group is more exclusive—you can decide whether it’s open, closed or secret. The goal is to bring together a sense of community and support around a specific topic.
• The biggest reasons you would want a Facebook Page: You want to run Facebook ads, you want to gain greater insight into the analytics of your posts, and you want to drive traffic to your website (or take some other action).
• The biggest reasons you would want a Facebook Group: You want to be part of a community, you want to have greater collaboration with your audience, you want to choose who is part of your community, and you want your audience to see your posts more often.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Not all Facebook Pages can be turned into Facebook Groups. Realize that Pages and Groups have different purposes and offer different opportunities.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• A primer on Facebook Pages – 02:11
• Insight on Facebook Groups – 03:21
• Tips on how to invite people to a Facebook Group the right way – 04:14
• Pros and cons of having a Facebook Page – 05:38
• Pros and cons of having a Facebook Group – 08:40
• A parting word about numbers – 13:23

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Facebook’s tips on setting up a Facebook Page
• Facebook’s tips on setting up a Facebook Group

Transcript below

 

Well, hello there and a really warm welcome to episode 13 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I'm your host Teresa. As always, I am here and ready to share with you some great social media and marketing tips, tools and tricks. A few weeks ago, I asked my followers on Twitter to give me some suggestions about what they might want me to talk about on the podcast. Actually coming up with content can be really, really difficult.

I know that social media is a huge subject and maybe that's half the problem because there is so much I can talk about and so much that I can deep delve into that sometimes like a lot of things in business it gets completely overwhelming and you think to yourself, "I don't even know where to start." Like I said, I went to some followers on Twitter and I asked them, "What would you like me to talk about?" One of my followers, Sam Warner, came back to me and said that she would like me to look at Facebook groups versus Facebook pages. For you, Sam, and my other listeners, that's what I'm doing this week.

Let's dive in. After another recent algorithm change and by algorithm I basically mean the set of rules that Facebook use to decide who sees your post, it's becoming even more increasingly difficult in order to get people to see your post from a Facebook page. Business owners, entrepreneurs, marketers have been left wondering is it worth doing a page at all or should I really look at moving our page over to a group.

If that's you, then don't worry, I've got you. Today I'm going to walk you through what a Facebook page is, what a Facebook group is, the main differences, and then what the benefits are of both of those things, so that at the end of this podcast you can decide whether you think you need a Facebook group or a Facebook page or both.

 

A primer on Facebook Pages

 

Let's start by quickly explaining what a Facebook page is. This is probably the thing you're most familiar with. As most businesses either have or expected to have a Facebook page, this is a public facing open page that anybody can view. If people want to engage with a page, they tend to like or follow it.

It tends to be the page owner just post out content. There's less of a discussion on a Facebook page as there might be in a Facebook group. That isn't to say that we don't have discussion on a Facebook page. It just means that the post tend to be pushed out rather than an open discussion within the page. Also, if someone other than the page owner was to post a comment or a picture or whatever to the page, then it doesn't show up in the timeline like it would on a group. Another thing to note is that your Facebook page is ranked with Google search.

If someone was to put your business name into Google, then you might appear in the search from your Facebook page rather than just your websites.

 

Insight on Facebook Groups

 

Let's have a look at what a Facebook group is. Now not all businesses have a Facebook group. In fact, probably lots of them don't have one. A group tends to be more of a community discussion. It's where people who have a common interest or a theme in something come together to discuss it. It's much more open in communication. When someone posts to the group, it appears in the timeline so that everybody else can comment on it as well. Your groups can either be open, closed or secret.

Often people put together groups to support maybe a product you might have bought or a course you might be in or something like that. It really is to bring together a sense of community and support. If I think about some of the groups that I'm in, they tend to be groups around courses that I've bought. You're in these groups so that you can ask further questions.

 

Tips on how to invite people to a Facebook Group the right way

 

When you set up a group, you can either invite people straight away. Personally I'm not a massive fan of this and actually I don't like it when I see on my own personal Facebook that I've just been put in a group. If anything, I would tend to invite people to come and join the group.

Obviously if there's a purchase required, then you're not going to just want to invite anybody. It's going to be part of that purchase. The difference really in terms of content is it's created by everybody. The group owner is obviously going to provide a level of content, but this content's going to be different to what you would put on a page for instance. This content is going to be different to what you would put on a page. Rather than just sort of pushing out information, the content you put on a group is going to be a lot more around discussion and questions and trying to get the group involved with something. Groups have really grown in popularity recently.

This is a lot to do with these constant algorithm changes that Facebook are bringing in because it is getting so difficult for people to see your actual posts if you have a page. Whereas if you're in a group, you receive notifications much more. Personally you can edit what notifications you get so you don't have to be notified every single time that someone posts in the group, but you do tend to get more notifications and definitely see more posts than you would if it was a Facebook page.

 

Pros and cons of having a Facebook Page

 

Let's have a look at the pros and cons of having a Facebook page versus a Facebook group. We're going to start with a page again.

Reason number one that you would have a Facebook page is that you can do Facebook advertising. As you know if you've listened to my podcast before or seen any of my content, I am a big advocate for the Facebook advertising tool because it's excellent. It's great at targeting people, and it's great at putting your business in front of people that may not have seen it. However, without the advertising, your Facebook page is not going to do a whole lot of stuff, but you can only advertise if you have a page. For me, that would be reason alone to have a Facebook page. You can get more insights from a page than you can from a group.

When I talk about insights, I mean the analytics that go alongside that page, the details around who's clicked on what, what type of person they are, where they are, what time they did it, whether they're male or female, which posts are most popular, all that kind of information which again from a marketing and ongoing point of view is great because you want to know things like that so you know how to maximise your page. The other good thing about a Facebook page is that you can bring in third party apps to support your page and enhance it.

For instance, you could bring in something like a Twitter feed or if you're with MailChimp, then you could have a sign up directly in the Facebook page rather than having to go over to MailChimp, which can be really helpful. The other thing that a page has that a group doesn't is the call to action button which is right under your banner photo. This call to action button can be really useful in terms of driving traffic to your website or getting people to sign up or watch a video or whatever it is that you choose you want them to do. Obviously the big downside of a Facebook page is that hardly anybody sees your posts.

As I said at the beginning, if you're not advertising, then a page can seem very frustrating. You could spend a lot of time coming up with lots of lovely content that you're posting that no one sees. That can be so disheartening and a big waste of time. Now if I'm being completely honest about how I'm using my Facebook page at the moment, we have a couple of different pages. I have the THW page and I have a Teresa page. We are using those pages not as often as we used to.

We used to produce content daily where we'd put content out every single day and now we don't put as much content out because of the fact that although I want people to go to the page and see that it's a real page and that we're active, I don't want to spend hours producing content that no one's going to see. Having a Facebook page is a bit like a catch 22. You kind of need to have one, however, it's not going to do a whole lot for you. Okay.

 

Pros and cons of having a Facebook Group

 

Now let's look at the groups. In a Facebook group, it's all about community. When I was at Social Media Marketing World this year, that was the buzz word. Everybody was talking about community.

If you can foster a sense of community around your product or brand or service, then your engagement is going to be so much better. People are going to want to buy from you and they're going to want to be part of that community. I think that comes from a few different things. People want to be heard and interacted with. We don't just want to be shouted at with marketing messages. We want to know that you're listening as a business and you take onboard what we say. That's exactly what a community and a Facebook group is able to do for you. You have a much better collaboration with your audience. You are right there with them.

Now I've probably said it before, but I've been in marketing now for almost I think 14 years. I remember doing my degree 14 years ago and having to put on focus groups and put surveys together and do telephone interviews. It was a big, big task when you wanted to do some research. Now social media has just changed that forever and it's amazing. If you want to know something, you go and ask. You go and put it in your group and you say to them, "What do you think of this or what do you think of that?" I had a client recently that couldn't decide between two logos. She put it into her Facebook group and asked people what they preferred.

It's a great way of finding out what your community wants from you and what they think of the various things that you offer. Another really good point about a group is that you can decide who can join that group or not. This can be really helpful. Obviously your page is open to the world. One thing that is a modern day issue that we now have is we have internet trolls and people who like to say not nice things on the internet for no good reason. If you have an open page, then obviously anybody can comment or get involved with that page. Whereas with a group, they can't. If you decide to have that group closed, you get to approve who comes into that group or not.

Another good thing about having a group is when someone requests to join, you can actually get them to answer specific questions. For instance, if I bought a product, so I bought a course from Jasmine Star and I'm part of her Facebook group because I bought this course. In able for me to get accepted into the group, I have to give them the email in which I used to register for the course so they could check that I should be in there. Like I said, you can manage the people in there much better. Also, if need be, you can remove people from the group and obviously they can't see the content or interact anymore.

When you create a group, you're creating a community, a following or a tribe if you like. You're encouraging people to be part of that community, to be heard, to have a conversation with. People like that. They like the idea of a group in which they are able to discuss things. Also as I said before with the algorithm changes, you are not likely to see posts that are put on a page, but if you're getting notifications from a group, you're likely to see that. One of the other lovely things about a group is it doesn't just have to be the page owner that is answering the questions or promoting the discussion. Everybody tends to come together to help each other.

For instance, I am in the Social Media Marketing Society group, which is part of Social Media Examiner. I go in that page occasionally and ask questions about has anybody done this and found this or have you used an app that does this or how do I create this. The community come together to answer those questions. In terms of the management of the page, you don't have to necessarily be the one who answers all the questions. Again in bigger groups and as they start to get bigger, you will find that other members jump in and help with answering those questions for you.

I really hope I've given you a little bit of an insight between the differences in a Facebook page and a Facebook group. I don't necessarily want you all leaving pages to open groups because not all pages can be turned into a group. If you have a page for your business, you've got to think why would someone want to join a group? What benefits can I give them? What reason would they want to be in that group? If it's just to promote your business, then the chances are that's not going to be a very engaging group, but if you have something that is supporting people, helping people, adding value, then a group might well be worth it.

 

A parting word about numbers

 

Also, as one last final point, but quite an important point, I wouldn't worry about numbers. I wouldn't think okay, I want a group and I want 5,000 people in there. In fact, some of the groups that I'm in that are really big are really unworldly. It's so hard to keep up with the content, to find a post, to communicate with people on a level because they're so, so big. Also, the notification are coming thick and fast, so I often will end up muting them or reducing the amount of notifications I see because I don't want to see them all the time.

For me, I would rather have a smaller group where everybody feels like they can be heard, everybody gets an answer, and they feel like they can get some real value from it rather than just being bombarded with content. I really hope that that's given you a good idea of the differences between a Facebook group and a Facebook page and made it a little bit clearer as to what the benefits and the downfalls are of each. Like I said, for me, the main thing is if you have a page, you can advertise. If you're going to be using Facebook, then one of the main reasons I use Facebook is for the advertising platform.

If you're not going to be advertising, then a group might be perfect for you. Anyway, until next time, have a great week and I will see you soon.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Facebook’s algorithm updates are making it even more difficult to connect with your audience via Facebook Page posts.

A Facebook Page is a public-facing page that anyone can view. It is ranked with Google Search.

A Facebook Group is more exclusive—you can decide whether it’s open, closed or secret. The goal is to bring together a sense of community and support around a specific topic.

The biggest reasons you would want a Facebook Page: You want to run Facebook ads, you want to gain greater insight into the analytics of your posts, and you want to drive traffic to your website (or take some other action).

The biggest reasons you would want a Facebook Group: You want to be part of a community, you want to have greater collaboration with your audience, you want to choose who is part of your community, and you want your audience to see your posts more often.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Not all Facebook Pages can be turned into Facebook Groups. Realize that Pages and Groups have different purposes and offer different opportunities.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

A primer on Facebook Pages – 2:11

Insight on Facebook Groups – 3:20

Tips on how to invite people to a Facebook Group the right way – 4:14

Pros and cons of having a Facebook Page – 5:38

Pros and cons of having a Facebook Group – 8:40

A parting word about numbers – 13:23

Links to Helpful Resources

Facebook’s tips on setting up a Facebook Page

Facebook’s tips on setting up a Facebook Group

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• "Like and share" competitions are against Facebook Terms and Conditions! You cannot ask users to share your content during your competition. However, you can ask them to like your content.
• "Tag a friend" competitions are popular and currently legal according to social media Terms and Conditions. These competitions give you double the exposure!
• The effort each user must put forth needs to be worth the prize they will receive.
• Put your followers first. Give them what they want, not what you want to give away.
• You MUST have terms and conditions with your competitions. It isn’t worth the risk not to have them.
• Market your competition to your email list, post it on your other social media accounts and advertise in all other outlets to maximize your exposure.
• After you choose a winner, consider offering a discount for your products or services to those who were not chosen. Have the individuals that are interested send you a private message for the code!

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…No matter how many followers you have or the size of your social media presence, competitions will benefit you! You can leverage your current social media presence by running a competition that increases views and engagement.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• What competitions to run and which ones to leave alone - 02:42
• Things to think about when running competitions on social media - 06:53
• How to maximize your social media competitions - 12:02

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a really warm welcome. Thank you so much for joining me on episode 12 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple podcast, and I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I hope you are well and have had a great day so far. Although if you're like me, you might listen to your podcast first thing in the morning. That's when I tend to listen to my podcasts or my audiobooks. When I'm getting ready, it sits in my bathroom with me, and the hour it takes me to put my makeup on and sort myself out is the time that I listen to them. You may have just woken up, and if you have, good morning.

As usual, I am really excited about today's episode and the subject of it, because I think that today's episode is something that every business can benefit from, and they can use. No matter what you sell, whether it's a product or a service, how big your business is or how many followers you might have, I think today's subject will apply to everyone.

On today's episode, we're going to be looking at how you can use competitions on social media to grow your audience and to increase engagement. I love competitions on social media. They go together so, so well, and as I've said, no matter what size your business is, what product or service your business sells, or how many followers you might have on social media, I know that if you do a competition tomorrow, it's not only going to help to improve your social media, but also your business.

In the agency we run, we have had lots of experience of competitions and done lots of different ones for lots of different types of clients. That's why I am so confident that you can see great results, regardless of your business. Today I'm going to be talking you through some key areas that are going to make your competition successful. Firstly, I'm going to be sharing with you some ideas around what type of competitions you can do, what competitions work well on what platforms, and what competitions you absolutely shouldn't do because they're against terms and conditions.

Then we're going to have a look at some of the key points that you need to consider if you're going to be running a competition.

And how you can maximise that competition, make sure that you get the biggest and the best results. And these results can include things like brand awareness, gain followers, increasing in engagement, the potential for huge reach, and ultimately some sales. So let's get started.

 

What competitions to run and which ones to leave alone

 

The first thing we're going to look at is the types of competitions that you can actually do. One of the first things you need to think about is which platform do you want to run your competition on, because not every platform is going to be suitable for every competition, and some competitions work better on some platforms than others. I'm going to run through some of my favourites, some of the ones that I like to do.

Now one of the most simplest competitions that you have probably seen a million times over is a like and share competition, and most often you will see these on Facebook. Now the first thing I need to kick off and say is that like and share competitions are against Facebook's terms and conditions, and it drives me crazy. Every time I see one, I am tempted just for a millisecond, to contact them and go you know you're not meant to be doing these. But for lots of various reasons, I don't.

Anyway, it's not the like bit that is against their terms and conditions. It's the share bit. By all means, running like competitions can be great for your page and for getting exposure, but you can ask them to share that post in order to enter the competition. But like I said, like competitions can be really good and they're simple to set up and they're quick and easy, and also people are very used to them on social media. The chances are if you do do a like competition, and you stick by their terms and conditions, you don't mention the word share, lots of people are going to share your post anyway, and you are going to reach more people. That's one of the most simplest ones you can do.

If you are in Twitter, you can do a retweet competition. That's okay. That's not against their terms and conditions, so you can ask people to retweet a post in order to enter the competition, and again, Instagram, follow the page, Twitter, follow our profile, so you can encourage people to follow your accounts by running a like competition.

The thing you have to bear in mind, though, is that lots of people enter lots of competitions, and therefore you might get people liking your page just because they want to win a prize. The good thing about a like competition is that the prize doesn't have to be massive. You're asking a very low engagement from them, literally just liking a page takes no effort at all, and therefore you can get away with giving them something very small in return.

The other thing that is really popular and it currently is okay to do ... personally, I think that Facebook might change their view on this ... but one of the competitions that is really good to do is tag a friend. An example of this might be it's running up to Mother's Day and you might do something where you're giving away a gift, but you say to the entrants take your mom who deserves this thing. Or another idea might be tag a loved one when it's running up to Valentine's Day.

The benefits in using a tag a friend competition is that the ability to grow that competition doubles every single time someone enters, because not only are they entering, they're tagging someone else in, which is doubling the amount of people seeing it every single time. So they can be really effective in terms of reach and exposure.

If you want people to go to a little bit more effort, using a photo competition would be great. These can be super effective on Instagram, as you would imagine, and the way you would do it is you would either ask them to include a hashtag that you've created for that competition or to tag you in. You could also have them do both. Some of the examples for Instagram competitions would be purchase one of our products and take a photo of yourself with it. Or you could ask people to take a photo of them doing something in particular, take a photo of their pet, take a photo of their favourite place. The options are endless, and the more creative the better. And I guess it goes without saying that if it can relate to the business and what you sell or the product or the service you offer, then great.

There are obviously loads of other competition ideas out there, and if you literally just google competition ideas for social media, then you're going to find loads of them. But I wanted to give you a couple of ideas.

 

Things to think about when running competitions on social media

 

Now, the next part of this podcast is going to be talking about some of the things that you need to think about if you're going to be running competitions on social media. My first thing is, the effort that someone has to go to has to be worth the prize. If you want someone to go to a lot of effort, i.e., on a photo competition or hand over their email address, then you've got to give them a prize worth having. If you want someone to do a like competition, then you can get away with giving them a smaller prize.

But let's, for instance, you sell gin, and you wanted to run a competition. If I was doing a like competition, then I would probably give away a bottle of gin to one person who liked the page. But if I wanted them to go to the effort of doing a photograph or filling in some details that we could them onto our mailing list, then I really need to be thinking about offering something bigger.

Which brings me onto my next point, that you don't necessarily have to just give your product or service away. You can use complementing products and services, as well. Go back to our gin example. If I wanted someone to go to a bit more effort, then what could I possibly do if all we do is sell gin? Can I give them two bottles, three bottles, a lifetime supply of bottles, or should I pick other products that go with gin and create say a hamper? I could include in there things like glasses and stirrers and tonic that goes with the gin, just so that it's more of a prize than just the gin.

Expanding on that further, you could even go to the level where you give away a prize that actually isn't your product or service. I know you're probably thinking well, that's ridiculous. Why would I do that? But hear me out. Let's say, for instance, you're an estate agent or a solicitor or someone that has a product or a service that isn't very easy to give away. Or you sell a very high-end product, and therefore you're not going to want to give something worth 1,000 pounds on a like competition. Then you're going to have think more creatively and think about how can you give a prize away that isn't part of your product or service?

One of the things we did with a previous client was we did a competition for an estate agent where instead of giving away free estate agency fees or something that quite frankly people don't want necessarily, we decided that because obviously the whole service was based around buying a new house and being in a new home, we decided that the thing we were giving away would be something for the new home, and it would be something exciting. We teamed up with another local company and we gave away some surround sound equipment. Something that you wouldn't necessarily be buying yourself when you first moved into a new home. It's not the top of your list of things, along with utensils and plates and cups. It's something that's a little bit more luxurious that obviously would be great if you were moving into a new home. Like I said, it doesn't necessarily have to be your product or service that you're giving away if it's not realistic to give away what you sell.

Point number four is try and be seasonal. This could be a really good one. Think about putting competitions on when particular events are happening throughout the year. Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, Easter. There's obviously lots of different occasions as to when you can possibly do a competition. Also, think about your product. If you sell swimwear, then you're going to want to do a competition running up to summer.

Point number five, and my last prize-related point, is think about what your audience wants, not necessarily what you want to give away. If you don't have the sexiest product or service in the world, then you might want to think about giving away something that people will actually want. Let's say, for instance, you sell medical supplies for the pet industry for dogs, people aren't necessarily going to want those particular tablets or medicine or whatever it might be. However, if you were giving away some really lovely dog toys or a handful of things for your dog, then people are going to want to join that competition. They're going to want to share it. They're going to want to engage with it. And obviously, the fact that you're running the competition is going to be helping your brand awareness, so people who do need your product are going to see it and therefore hopefully buy it.

Point number six, you need to have terms and conditions. I am obviously no lawyer, and cannot advise you in any particular way. All I know is that you do need to have some terms and conditions. On a side note, I will say that every single competition I've ever done, we have had terms and conditions, and no one has ever asked to see them. But you know what? It's probably not worth the risk. Definitely look into these and get some written up.

 

How to maximize your social media competitions

 

My last few points are now all about how you can maximise this competition and make sure as many people see it as possible and as many people engage as possible. One of the first things I do when I'm doing a competition on social media, I think about the artwork that is going to accompany that competition, and I have it designed probably by a designer so that it looks really good. Then once you've got some nice artwork, think about how you're going to launch and how you're going to close the competition.

Now when I launch competitions, ideally we do it with a live video or something that goes with a real bang. You might even want to tease the fact that a competition's coming. You might want to put it on Instagram stories or Facebook stories, but when you actually go out and say the competition is live, then doing it through something like a live video can be great. Also, when you choose your winner, think about doing that on a live video, and doing it where you have loads of names in a hat and you physically pull out a name from a hat and you read it out live. Tell people you're going to be on. Tell people that the competition is going to be drawn at a certain time and that they should join you live to watch the competition.

Then you need to think about how else can you get it out there. Now you know full well I am a huge advocate for Facebook advertising and putting a little bit of money behind a competition can make a big difference. Naturally, the competition is going to go fairly well, hopefully, because people are going to want to enter. And the more people interact with your post, the more people see it. By its own nature, a competition should be able to get a much bigger reach than a normal post that you would do. However, like I said, putting a bit of money behind, and it doesn't have to be a lot, just means that you start reaching new and different audiences.

Also, don't just think about social media. Think about everywhere else that you can market yourself and your business, and tell everybody we're doing a competition on social media. Please head over to the page and enter it. Put it on your email signature, put it on your website, send an email out to your list. Try and put it everywhere that you can think of.

Then finally, obviously there are going to be losers. There's going to be a lot of people that haven't won the competition. Try and maximise on these people and the fact that they entered. Why not go back and offer them something like a discount of a product or service. Now one of the ways in which you could do this is if you collect their email addresses which you could do through either a landing page or you could do through a system called Woobox, which is specifically for competitions on social media and enables you to collect people's data.

But let's say you haven't collected data and you've literally have just asked them to comment on a post or tag a friend in a post. Then if you wanted to the effort, and it is a bit of an effort, but if you wanted to go to it, you could reply to those people and say to them so sorry you didn't win. Because you didn't win, here is 10% off, 20% off, whatever it might be, but here is a gesture of goodwill because you entered the competition.

I wouldn't necessarily give them that discount code as a comment on the post. I would say to them, if you want to receive this 10 or 20% off, please DM us and then we will respond with the code. Like I said, a little bit more work, but it just helps you maximise on the people who entered the competition.

I really hope that I have given you some ideas and thoughts around how you can run successful competitions on social media. Like I said, I'm a huge fan of them and I think they can really work for so many businesses. I would really love to hear your thoughts and your ideas on what competitions you've done on social media and what worked really well. Please feel free to contact me through any of the social medias that I'm on, which is obviously a lot. So Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Or you can head over to the website teresaheathwareing.com and drop me a message. As always, thank you so, so much for joining me for this podcast. I really, really do appreciate it, and I will see you next time.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

"Like and share" competitions are against Facebook Terms and Conditions! You cannot ask users to share

your content during your competition. However, you can ask them to like your content.

"Tag a friend" competitions are popular and currently legal according to social media Terms and Conditions. These competitions give you double the exposure!

The effort each user must put forth needs to be worth the prize they will receive.

Put your followers first. Give them what they want, not what you want to give away.

You MUST have terms and conditions with your competitions. It isn’t worth the risk not to have them.

Market your competition to your email list, post it on your other social media accounts and advertise in all other outlets to maximize your exposure.

After you choose a winner, consider offering a discount for your products or services to those who were not chosen. Have the individuals that are interested send you a private message for the code!

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

No matter how many followers you have or the size of your social media presence, competitions will benefit you! You

can leverage your current social media presence by running a competition that increases views and engagement.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

What competitions to run and which ones to leave alone - 2:42

Things to think about when running competitions on social media - 6:53

How to maximize your social media competitions - 12:02

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• GDPR is new legislation for businesses from the EU that gives specifics on the collection and storing of customer data.
• The deadline for GDPR compliance is May 25th , 2018.
• Customers must agree to receive marketing communication from you. This means that customers will need to sign-up again to be on your email list.
• You shouldn’t use personal email for your email list. Instead, you can use a bulk email product such as Mailchimp.
• Use a subject line that captures their attention. Don’t be afraid to be different! It is important that they open it.
• Use systems such as Drip and Leadpages to set up a seamless email campaign and process for each option. This means the yes or no answer that your subscriber will give you through email in response to staying on your list.
• The emails you send should explain the value of being a subscriber. What makes your newsletter or communication great for your subscribers? You will want to remind them of that.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…You may lose a large chunk of your email subscribers. But be positive! Those customers who are going to opt-in are the customers that value your services and will engage. They want to hear from you. The quality of your email list will improve overnight.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• What is the GDPR? – 02:31
• How to use email systems for your email campaigns – 06:24
• Why you shouldn’t worry about losing email subscribers – 09:34

Transcript below

 

Hello and really warm welcome to episode 11 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast, and I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. Thank you so much for downloading this week's episode, I know I say it a lot but I really truly mean it. I have this website that I use to go on and look at what downloads I'm getting, and I get so excited every week when I go in and see how many people are listening.

Also on my vision board which is to the right of me in my office, I have a goal for how many people I want to listen to the podcast. Every single month I write down how many downloads we've had. I am really excited to think that you're out there listening and I really, really do appreciate it.

Obviously, if there is anybody that you know that you think might benefit from the podcast, then I would love it if you would share it with them. Of course, being a big social media person, I would also really appreciate it if you wanted to share it on social media as well. Anyway, that's enough of my please, let's get on with today's podcast.

Today I've decided to talk about something that I didn't think I would talk about because if I'm honest, I was being a bit of a scaredy-cat. I'm going to talk GDPR. This subject is a really big subject at the moment because it's just about to come upon us. I decided that I wasn't going to do a podcast about it because of the fact that it's a fairly heavy going subject, it's a subject that unless you're a solicitor you probably shouldn't give advice on.

I'm going to start this podcast with a caveat that I am not advising you what to do, I am merely giving you my take on it and the kind of things that I'm going to do to help me with GDPR. Like I said, this isn't a podcast where I'm saying, "Do this, do that", I'm just merely being really open about how I'm going to be managing GDPR going forward, and some of the tools and techniques and strategies that I might be using.

The main area that I'm going to talk about is the re-qualification area.

 

What is the GDPR?

 

Let me go back a little bit and first of all just mention what GDPR is if you haven't heard of it. Basically, it's some legislation brought in by the European Union for businesses, and this legislation lays out how you should collect and hold data from people. If you are collecting data for marketing reasons, IE, you're going to email them, then this law basically now has an impact on how you collect them and how you store it.

One of the main parts of the legislation is that by May 25th, the data that you currently hold in your business has to be compliant, which means you have to be able to prove that the people on that list, on your email list have agreed for you to send them the emails that you are wanting to send them. This means that lots of businesses are now going through a re-qualification phase where they are emailing out their entire list to ask them if they still want to stay on their list and receive future marketing communication from them.

You may have already had a few of these emails sent to yourself where they're asking you if want to still receive their emails and asking you to re opt-in or confirm that you wanted to be opted-in in the first place. This is the area that I wanted to focus on. I just want to let you know how I'm going to manage this and how I'm going to use some of the smart systems I use in order to help me manage this process.

The first thing you need to do is you're going to need to send an email to that list. Now, you should be using something like MailChimp, or Drip, of Infusionsoft, some of these automated systems, and any emails you send should be going from a bulk system like that. You shouldn't be sending bulk emails, IE, emails to lots of people from your [inaudible 00:04:23] or your Gmail.

When you send your emails, one of the first considerations you need to take is how can you get their attention to open the email, that is always the trickiest bits. Open rates on emails are relatively low, anywhere between 20% and 30% as an average, you might get a bit more, you might get a bit less. But you've got to think, if you've got a database of a thousand people let's say, only 20% to 30% of these people are actually going to open your email. First task, think of an exciting subject line.

The next thing I'm going to think about is how many emails I might actually going to send because as I just mentioned, open rates can be really low and therefore you don't want to reduce the number of people who can sign up by just sending one email, you want to give them as many opportunities as you can. I've decided that I am going to send three emails to my list, maybe four, see how I feel, but those three emails are going to be sent over a time period now and the 25th of May.

The next thing I'm going to think about is the text inside the email, and I'm going to try and have a bit of fun with it or I'm going to try and be a bit different, and I'm going to try and encourage people to sign up by reminding them why they might have signed up in the first place or what value I add to them.

My email list for instance when I do email out, I only ever email my content, I very rarely email anything that isn't a notification about a blog post or some free content that I'm giving away, or my latest podcast. I'm going to put in the email, remember this is why you want to receive emails from me. Like I said, I'm going to try and have a bit of fun with it and try and stand out from the crowd a little.

The next part of this process is how are you actually going to record when someone says yes, they want to stay and and someone wants to actually be removed from your list. One of the ways in which I'm going to do this is through some of the systems that I use. I apologise if I'm going to get a little bit techy.

 

How to use email systems for your email campaigns

 

I hope I don't lose you, but I think it's really important for you to understand what's out there and the capability of some of these systems.

I use a system called Drip which is a email automation system and it can do some really smart stuff. The email that I'm going to be sending out in the email when it tries to encourage you to stay on my list, it's going to ask you to do one of two things, it's either going to ask you to click yes, that you want to stay in, or no, that you want to be removed. When you click either one of those buttons within the system, I have the ability to apply a tag which is basically a bit of information about that customer or that prospect that's on my database.

What I'm going to be able to do is when someone clicks yes, I'm going to be able to use the system to apply a tag to say that they want to stay on my list. When they click that button they're going to expect to go somewhere because they've clicked a button in a email, so I'm also going to set up some thank you pages. I'm going to use lead pages, and if you have heard me talk about them before you know I'm a huge fan of them.

The lead page or the thank you page is just going to say, "Yay, thank you so much for signing up to my emails, I'm super glad that you decided to stay", or something like that. If they click the button no, then I will still apply the tag that says they don't want to be on my list anymore, and the thank you page that they will go through to will say, "That's a shame, nevermind", something like that, "you have now been removed from the list."

At this point I'm also going to give them the opportunity top change their mind, and I might try and be a bit funny and sort of say, "Did you do that by accident? I'm sure you don't wanna miss out on all these brilliant things", and then have an opt-in on that page where they can put their name in the email and get popped back in to my list. The way that this is done is lead pages is connected to Drip, lots of these systems talk to each other so if you use lead pages to create landing pages, then that will also connect with Infusionsoft and ConvertKit and various other email systems including MailChimp. Therefore, once they re opt-in they will automatically go into the system.

Just a recap, I'm going to send an email with a yes and a no, and when they click those buttons my email system is going to tag them with whether it's a yes or a no, and then when they go to the thank you pages they will then on the no page get an opportunity to resubscribe in. I just want to explain why I'm not using an unsubscribe button because it would be very easy for me just to say click and subscribe at the unsubscribe button at the button of the email.

The reason I'm not doing this is because one of the crucial things about having data in one of these third-party systems is that they rely that your data is quality data. If suddenly they start seeing loads of unsubscribes, then they're going to start [inaudible 00:09:25] your data is and they might reduce your deliverable rate, which basically means the number of people who receive your email.

 

Why you shouldn’t worry about losing email subscribers

 

The other thing I really need to mention about this whole process is that you are very likely to lose an awful lot of your database. We just need to go back and think about the figures that I gave for open rates. If you, again, have a thousand people on your list and you send out an email, and you have a 20% to 30% open rate, then 200 to 300 people are going to open that email. Immediately, there is a whole chunk of people who haven't even opened the email. If we think about click through rate, IE, people who actually take action once they've opened the email, then this can be anything as low as 2% to 4%.

You're talking a really small handful of people that might respond, and of course, some of them might respond no. My advice to you would be try not to worry about it. I know it seems easy for me to say because it's not my database, or you might rely heavily on your database, however, think about the people who actually go to the effort to click your response and say, "Yes, I want to stay on your list", they are going to love you, they are going to be people that will be your customers, that will buy your product, will engage in your services or your content, and therefore, they're the people you want on your list.

If you think about how you use your list currently, there is probably a huge percent of people who aren't interacting with you and they could be taking up valuable space on your list. If you use a system like me where you are paying for a system that is based on the number of people that are in your database, then of course you're paying for them when they might not ever be a customer and might not be that interested. They might have wanted to download one thing and then never want to hear anything again.

I'm looking at this as a very positive thing, that even though my database might reduce hugely overnight, the people who are going to say yes to my emails are going to want to hear from me, and therefore the quality of my data is going to improve drastically over night. I really hope that this episode has given you just a little bit of insight as to how you can possibly get ready for the changes we're going to have to make in our businesses in order for us to be compliant for GDPR. As I mentioned, I am no lawyer and can give no legal advice, but I just wanted to give you a little insight as to what I might be doing in my business in order to get ready for it.

As always, thank you so much for listening, I really do appreciate it. Until next time, have a great week.