What you need for social media – based on the level of business you’re at.
If you’re new to business, if you’re more established or if you’re already an expert and amazing at what you do in real life, but you’re starting to move that into the online space.
This blog will be broken into three sections so that you can establish some micro steps, some small things that you can do and check off your list so that you can feel that momentum going.
Here’s the thing, social media is a beast. I’ve been in the game for eight years. I have done things right. I have done things way wrong. I have failed. I have succeeded. I have embarrassing content. You scroll way back on my Instagram, I’m kissing shake boxes.
I’ve done it all. The truth is, when it comes to social media, there’s no quick fix. There’s no overnight success. It isn’t, boom, I’m magically making a million dollars!
1. For New Business: Taking The First Step
*Choosing A Platform and Finding Consistency
If you’re new, if you are just starting a network marketing or you’re just starting a business online, here are my checkboxes for you to follow. First and foremost, you want to pick one platform.
That could be Instagram, TikTok, or if you’re old school on Facebook, you want to just pick and focus on one platform and commit to being consistent.
Now, consistent doesn’t mean posting every day. Consistency means something different to every single person. I teach that very passionately in my signature course, Content Consistency Code.
For whatever reason – we feel like consistency means showing up on every platform, in every feature every day and that just isn’t sustainable for anyone’s life – especially if you don’t have a team helping you!
Let’s talk about Instagram for example- being consistent there might look like 3 posts a week, 1 live a week and showing up in stories 5 days a week.
Pick a consistency level that works for your life and stick with it!
*Content Creation & Collaboration
Then, you want to pick three to five topics that at least one would be personal and the rest would relate directly to your business and your expertise. You want to create content and posts within those three to five topics regularly. These are the things that you are going to become known for, the things that people come to your profile page and know that this is what you’re sharing about.
Another really important piece is spending time doing collaborations like, Instagram lives, story swaps, podcast interviews with accounts and people that have a similar audience as you do, but you’re selling different things. You also want to make sure you’re engaging with similar accounts to you.
For example, I work with a lot of mid level business owners. So I search out other accounts that are similar audience sizes and focus, but they don’t sell the same things that I do. They sell something completely different. I engage with their content, I look at their followers, and I work to grow my following as well.
*Quality Over Quantity
Quality over quantity is important. But, when you’re first finding your voice online, sometimes quantity is important because you need to start collecting data and paying attention to what content lands.
What content do people engage with? What content that you post do people like? You want to improve on that content and repeat that type of content.
What I was posting when I first started this iteration of my business three years ago is very different from what I post now because I’ve learned what hits over the last three years. The more you post, the more you’re consistent, the more you can learn about what resonates with your audience. Then relate it back to those three to five topics, you’re going to start to establish your content pillars and your themes, the things that you’re going to be known for.
You might have one theme that does really well that people start to come to you to ask you questions about. You’re going to establish that as one of your content pillars and continue to create content around that.
*Some Extra Advice
Now, two miscellaneous pieces of advice. This is a really important piece for everybody on social media, but especially when you’re first starting out, is to drop perfectionism.
Drop perfectionism and just show up.
It’s okay to throw spaghetti at the wall mentality in those early stages of your business to see what works. It’s okay to show up without makeup.
It’s okay to have a spelling error in your caption.
We are just trying to get comfortable with showing up, not necessarily being perfect and corporate level vibes. We don’t want that.
The other thing that is okay when you’re new to the online space is to use prompts and content calendars that are general. You can download those from just about any content creator or content coach. Those prompts will help you get your wheels turning. It will help get you to think as a business that’s showing up online.
2. For More Established Businesses: Building Authority & Community
I’m going to categorize a more established business as you post consistently, you feel like you’ve mastered one platform.
This is what I mean by mastered:
- You understand how the platform works
- You know how to connect with your audience there
- You have a community of followers and people that you engage with on a regular basis
- You’ve made some sales from people that have started off as strangers and found you online
*Building an Email List & Establishing Content Pillars
You have to have an email list. You have to have some type of opt-in, whether it’s just a sign up for my newsletter or some type of free offer that gets people to opt-in.
As you become more established, an email list is non-negotiable. You’ve probably heard it before, but I’m going to say it again. You do not own your followers on social media. You can get hacked. Instagram can change its mind about something. You have to have an email list.
Plus, the repetition of people seeing your message over and over again in email and on Instagram just helps develop your authority and people’s trust in you.
Now, you also want to continue to refine your content pillars and your messaging within those topics. A common thing that can happen, and I know so many business owners hate this, is you’re going to get bored with your content to some extent. You are going to have these 20 different posts and messages that you wash, rinse, repeat over and over again to really get that message to hit home.
I have ride or die followers that have followed me for three years, and I will post something that I have posted seven times before, and they will slide in my DMs and say, “oh my gosh, I needed to hear this today”. Or “this resonated so much.”
I know they’ve seen other content very similar to that before, but you never know what is going to hit somebody when, and that’s why repetition and really refining your content pillars is incredibly important.
*Showing Your Expertise & Understanding Problem Awareness
The next thing that you want to focus on is your authority, your experience, your expertise. So that you start to set yourself apart from the people doing the same thing you do online.
Sharing your experience, sharing case studies and social proof into your messaging, so people that start to see you as the go-to person.
You also want to continue to get clear on problem awareness. This is understanding where your ideal client is in her problem phase.
Does she know she has a problem and what that problem is?
Does she just need to know that you’re the solution?
Does she just know that she’s struggling in some way, but she can’t pinpoint exactly what the problem is?
It’s important that you start to understand that and then create content around that.This is where you may need to do some market research, whether it’s getting on a call with somebody, a survey or doing polls in your stories. You have to understand where your audience is at because when you create problem awareness content, people recognize themselves in what you’re saying.
They know that you can help them with where they’re at. Then. as you present opportunities to buy from you, they will be ready to buy from you.
*Invest in Specialized Support
I have done this for my entire online business career, it’s important to invest in specialized support in the areas that you need.
We’re staying away from general prompts.
We’re staying away from really large groups or super big memberships that have 2,000 people in it, 500 people in it.
You want individualized support or to be in a group where there is an individualized factor in it so that you can get somebody’s eyes on your content. You can get a better understanding of where you’re at because you don’t necessarily need general knowledge. You have a lot of that already.
So this is the point in your business where you really want to think about.:
What do I need help with? Do I know how to start an email list? Do I really need to check in with somebody that can help me figure that out?
3. Established Business in Real Life Moving to the Online Space
Several of my clients over the last year have been people that have established businesses in real life. Whether that’s network marketing that they have not brought online, it’s organization in people’s homes, or I’ve even worked with a therapist that has brought her expertise online.
To start in the online space, you have to do many of the things that I mentioned above in this blog, but we have to go a little bit further also.
When you’re coming online as a business that’s already established in real life, it can be frustrating because you’re this:
I know I’m amazing at what I do in real life, and now I feel like a newbie and I’m starting from ground zero when I come on to Instagram.
The truth is you ARE starting from ground zero. Below are some things that can help catapult you a lot further.
*Niche Down & Showcase Expertise
You don’t want to go on Instagram and act like an influencer.
You don’t want to go on Instagram and act like somebody in network marketing that’s just starting their business.
You have established yourself as an expert in real life and you need to show up with that same type of BDE in the online world.
What will really help you is to niche down to one specific thing that you can help with. One specific thing that you’re going to sell.
You can grow more once you become known for that one thing and you can do other things. I’m not putting you in a box forever. But to begin, you want to niche down to help with one specific thing.
You want to share tons of client testimonials, case studies, social proof that from the jump sets you up as the expert. I might only have 302 followers or only have nine posts. But you all, I’ve been doing this in the real world for the last 12 years. That’s the energy that you want to bring into your Instagram or to your online profile.
You want to share your experience right out of the gate. You want to avoid how-to type content. You want to avoid too much educational content that people can find elsewhere anyway.
It’s about your experience and what you have done and what you have helped your clients do in the real world right out of the gate.
*Invest in Support
The biggest thing that I can say, which I will always say, is to hire an expert from day one. Like I said, you’re an expert at what you do. If it takes you two years to figure out the social media thing, you’re going to get frustrated and it’s going to be hard for you not to just lean back on what you had. Like go back to what you’re doing in the real world and just say, forget the online space. It’s taking too long.
The truth is, it does take time to establish yourself in the online space. No matter how good at what you are doing in real life, it does take time to translate. Hiring an expert that can help you shorten the learning curve of the online space, can be huge.
I see so many people get caught up when they bring their real-life business into the online space because they don’t know how to transfer that expertise and communicate it clearly to people on social media. If you can’t do that, your content, your expertise is just going to fall down the hole of Instagram and the right people that need you are not going to be able to find you. So keep that in mind.
Your Path to Success on Social Media
Come back and refer to this blog as your business progresses over time. Take some notes, create that checklist and start going through those things one at a time.
If you need support, I offer support at each level.
I have an authority building masterclass that’s free.
My Content Consistency Code signature course helps people that are new in business and are more established to really set up their business and the foundations of their brand messaging and who they are online.
I always have one on one support options available as well. Everything is linked below. If you are ready to really invest in yourself, shorten the learning curve and take your business to the next level, then let’s find a way to do that together.
Helpful links:
Purchase my signature course, Content Consistency Code HERE
Follow me on Instagram HERE
Listen to this podcast episode HERE
