The Truth about Social Media from a Social Media Manager
Social media can be overwhelming for most everyone. There are so many platforms and changing algorithms and pay-to-play strategies starting up, oh and don’t forget everyone else telling you what you should be doing. #allthethings are loud and out of control. But it doesn’t have to control you or stress you out. In this post, I’m giving you my 4 key points to growing your social media in an organic and comfortable way. Notice I didn’t say easy. It won’t be. But that’s okay.
Before I give you my thoughts, do any of these questions resonate with your own questions about social media?
Which platform is right for me?
How do you get people to respond to and engage with you?
What do you to if the algorithm changes?
These are the questions I hear the most and hopefully at the end of this post, you’ll feel more confident in using social media to grow your business.
I’ll be honest. There is no quick formula for overnight success. The only thing that works overnight is oats, yep, overnight oats...oh, and cold brew coffee. So let’s dive into my 4 tips for social media.
Pick a platform.
I’m giving you permission to pick any platform that you want. It really doesn’t matter to me, or your business, which one you pick. I’ve talked about this before in my Start Small post, but it’s worth repeating over and over again. Pick the platform YOU want to spend your time one. Is Facebook too busy for you? Stay on Instagram. Do you love writing blogs, but don’t love images and graphics, head back over to Facebook? The great thing about running YOUR business is that YOU MAKE THE DECISIONS. So make a decision, pick your platform, and get started.
Show Up and Be Consistent.
Once you pick your platform it’s time to put in the work to grow it. If you’re on Facebook, make sure you cycle through your content and schedule to your business page. Dive in and learn Facebook ads, post a few times a day, respond to comments. Spend time here each day. If you’re choosing Instagram but posting every day feels overwhelming, post 3x a week. Create mini categories for yourself (Motivation Monday, Tips of Tuesday, Friday Feature, etc) and stick with just those for a few weeks as you build your content and learn to be consistent.
Stay and Engage.
Don’t up and leave the platform after you post something. For Instagram, don’t just post your photo, caption, and tags and then just leave. Go and comment on posts under the tags you use. As far as Facebook goes, get involved in groups, follow others’ pages, be helpful. Give, Give, Give, Get.
Stay Patient and Do the Work.
I said it before, but it doesn’t just change overnight. You have got to stay the course. Your course, not someone else’s. I use the 3 month rule for everything, so I’ll challenge you here put in the work for three months and come back and tell me what’s happening with your social media.
BONUS TIP: Have a Goal for Your Social Media.
One of the biggest reasons that people have trouble coming up with content or having engaging content is that they have no plan and no goal for their social media. They’re just posting to post because that’s what they’re supposed to do. Are you educating, encouraging, selling something - what are you trying to accomplish. Don’t just be noise on social media, be worth following. Make it worth your business’ time (yep, your time you spend on social media is either making you money or costing you money) and energy to be active on social media.
3 Month Social Media Challenge:
Pick a platform.
Create your posting schedule/themes.
Set your amount of engagement time. I recommend 2-3x a day (morning coffee time, lunch break, and either end of office hours or late night wine session).
Add this to your Daily Business Hour checklist!
Do you want to join me in this challenge? Grab your challenge download today and join the Social Society on Facebook.