I recently did a webinar called
Managing.
One of the things that continually happens to small business owners is they get very excited about social media and the possibilities and then stop posting. They get excited again and stop posting again. Social media needs consistency to work. If you put out great content but only do it sporadically – it makes it hard to build that relationship. What follows is a process that allows you to continually post during the holidays while still managing your business. The process is simple but leads you to the outcome of more time.
1. Write 2 blog posts (1 series post)
2. Breakdown the blog posts in bite size pieces
3. Schedule throughout the month
In creating your holiday content you have to look at the intersection of your business, topics people currently care about and your business goals. For example, during Christmas that would be family, deals, stress, travel, renews, gifts, etc. During Valentine’s Day it would be love, relationships, dates, proposals, family, etc.
- So where does your business lie in these topics?
- What can you contribute your expertise to?
- How can you make sure your business goals are supported?
Using this information you can brainstorm appropriate topics for your blog posts.
After you have created the blog post and series post you will take this long form content and break it down. You will repurpose it to use for your social media posts. Each blog post can now be multiple FB posts. You can also create a Pinterst board. You can also do a Tips or Did you know post or tweet. You can create pull out quotes from your article and create a meme. Breaking down your content is a great way to repurpose your content without creating something new. (If you want to see this in action click here)
However, none of this would make your life easier if you did not schedule it. You can use tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer. How often and when you post on each platform depends on your audience.
When you are scheduling, keep in mind replying. It is important to take the time to respond if people take the time to comment. That is why you are on social media – to create a connections.
Promoting.
Promoting is an important part of social media. While you’re sharing valuable and great content – you also want people to take certain actions, such as buying your products or services.
A general rule of thumb is the 80/20 rule. This rules states that your posts on social media should be 80% value and 20% promotion. (This is value to your ideal client – not the things you find interesting) This is a great guideline to keep in mind that allows you to build a relationship on trust and value. While you consider this also think of your customer sales cycle. When they are looking at your social media what part of the sales cycle is your customer in? What kind of information do they want to hear?
When you are promoting your program or services you have to also look at the type of event. The more people have to do, i.e. travel , the more time they need to plan and the longer you need to promote and talk about it. Also, knowing your conversion rate will let you know how many people you need to reach to get to your overall target goals. An example of a conversion rate for newsletter sign ups is below but it can be used for a variety of things.
#of subscribers from website/# of website visits = conversion rate (how effective is your call to action?)
OR
# of event attendees/ # of total invitations sent = conversation rate (how effective was the invite?)
Knowing your conversion rates and goals will allow you to effectively plan and promote your events. Having interesting and relevant content to share makes sure people keep coming back to you. Social media is an on going process that’s never done. But it can have a great impact on your business.
What take away will you implement today? Share below!