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The Scroll Hole ~ Building Social Strategy
Last week we spoke about how to create your social media content. This week, we look at utilizing your scroll time to move your business forward.
Welcome to the podcast, everybody. This is Episode 21. And I can't believe we're here already. Thank you so much for your support, it means so much to me. Please continue to share the podcast with your friends in the industry. And please subscribe where you're listening so you don't miss out on an episode. If you listen through the website, scroll to the bottom to sign-up and I will email you the link each week. As I said last week, we often fall into the scroll hole and while there is time for that, this isn't going to move the needle forward in your business. You need to be looking at social media as a tool and when you're on it. It needs to be focusing on moving a business forward, scrolling isn't going to help and it's not a social strategy. So it's time to get focused.
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Block you time
So first of all, you need to book time on your calendar for engagement. So engagement time, I'd recommend 30 minutes a day, if you can, you can do it in two 15 minute blocks. So hop on for 15 minutes in the morning when you're drinking your morning cuppa and 15 minutes after dinner, just check in on these things. This shouldn't be taking up time during your workday, it's 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there, it wouldn't take long to do in your personal time. Build it in to your social strategy.
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#Tip 1 ~ Join Groups
So my first tip is to join groups get into the bride groups, the supplier and bride groups, you know, follow the rules, of course, at all times, don't be in there just publicising yourself because you will get removed. Something you can do and I don't know whether you've realized this, but you can actually join groups as your page now. So this works really well if your name is in your business and you can have your profile picture as a picture of yourself because, in these groups, you want to make it personal. You want them to connect with you as a person, you want them to see that you are approachable, friendly, informative and that you're going to be the best person to provide this service for their wedding.
So what you need to do is if your business is something completely separate from your name, I would suggest that for the purposes of these groups that you actually would join as yourself, not as your business page. Make sure that you have got your business listed in your about section and visible on your personal page. If people like you, like what you're saying and you are coming to them as a person of authority, as a business person in the wedding industry, they may well click through to your personal page to find out more about you. If they can't find information on your business, then you've wasted your time. So make sure that your business and your business page are linked in your bio on your about section of your personal page.
The easy way to just shortcut this is to add yourself into the group as your business page. But this really only works if your name is in the business name and you can have your profile picture set as yourself. So once you are in those groups, go in, answer questions, give advice, give ideas, give tips, become the go-to person. Create a reputation for yourself in these groups and as brides swap in and out as they do, you know, it's a rotation, the older brides in the group will remember you to the newer brides and the newer brides will get to know you. So this is a long game is not a quick turnaround, it doesn't mean that you're suddenly going to have you know, 30 requests in your inbox from people wanting to know more about you. This is about building your reputation. So the first thing to do for your social strategy is to write down and copy the URLs for the groups that you are adding yourself to so that you can make sure you can get to them quickly and go in there daily and start engaging with the brides.
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#Tip 2 ~ Extend your Network
Now tip number two is something that I am quite passionate about and I've spoken to you guys about on many occasions, and that is extending your network. Find colleagues in different fields in the wedding industry and follow them. This is usually easier on Instagram, I would say that for tip one that's based on Facebook, tip two is based more on Instagram but you can do it on Facebook. So if you're not on Instagram, you can do this on Facebook.
So find colleagues, find their pages like them, start commenting on their walls and start engaging with their copy. We are curious as people, it's how we are. So if your name pops up enough, the person you're connected with is going to start to think ‘oh, they've commented several times on my stuff, who are they’ and they're going to go to your page to find out who you are. So again, it's really important to have listed your workplace, your business, in your bio so that they can see, oh, they're a wedding photographer, they're in wedding transport, they have a mobile bar. So they can see the connection and why they might want to get to know you more.
People say it is not what you know, it is who you know. So start to build out your extended network because you never know who you might connect with, and how that might impact your business going forward. This is a vital part of your Social Strategy.
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# Tip 3 ~ Build Relationships
Tip three is an extension of the building your network tip, and that is to go deep. So we are very surface on social media. You like something, you might put a heart, you might put an emoji, you might put a GIF, but that is really surface level. What we want to do is build connections and build relationships with people. So look at five people you've been following for a while and reach out, connect to them. Simply send them a DM say, Hey, you know, I've been following your content for a while I really loved this post or that post. I really like what you're doing here, make it personal, connect to them on a personal level and start a conversation.
Get a conversation going backwards and forwards. It doesn't have to be this great big long stream of things. You might have that initial conversation and they come back and say, Oh, hi, yeah, great to meet you. Yeah, I loved that doing that wedding or I loved whatever, and connect to what you've said to them, that might be the end of the conversation there. Go back to them at another time. Oh, I just saw this post by so and so and I thought it might interest you because it related to something you said the other week, you know, just start building that connection.
Then once you've had a few connections like that with the person reach out to them and say, Hey, I'd really love to hop on a call and see what we can do to help each other reach more of our potential clients. You could do things like guest blogging on each other's blog posts. You could do a takeover Tuesday on each other's Facebook pages, you could do a post dedicated to the other person. There are many ways you could collaborate to reach each other's audiences. So you know, offer that to them, I'm going to offer up my audience, if you give me access to your audience, let's help each other out.
The power of your network is incredible, if you engage with it, so you really need to get your strategy down. It is no good having 500 people on your friends list on Facebook and your business isn't doing anything. You know, it is much better to have 10 or 20 people that you know really, really well that are making a difference and you're helping them make a difference in their business too.
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The Stop the Scroll Plan your Social Strategy
So those are my three tips. Once you have got those things down, it is time to build out your plan. So make sure as I said, write down those groups that you're going to engage with so that you can come back to them and get in there and you'll start recognizing different brides as always there are ones that are very, very vocal in these groups. So you'll start to remember who they are and what they like and what they're doing. So you'll be able to connect on a more personal level when you're responding to them.
Start with five new accounts that you're going to follow from colleagues. Write down those five accounts or write down who they are, what you know about them to start with, and then start engaging with them on their social and then write down five accounts that you're going to start building that deeper relationship with over the next month. Who are they? What do they do? What have you really enjoyed from their account so far? What could you connect with on a personal level with them? And how are you going to reach out in that first instance?
Okay, so I have a free social strategy sheet for you that you can download HERE and helps you set up this social plan to get you started. Obviously, you can adapt it to what you want to do.
And don't forget, we have the social media content calendar creation workshop happening on the 14th of September. JOIN HERE. It's just £29 and I am going to help you plan out an entire year's worth of content. And the best thing about this is that once it is done, you have a framework that is repeatable every year. So I would love to see you there, Thank you so much for listening/reading Episode 21. It is done woo hoo I will see you guys next week. Have a great week. Bye for now.