What Would Your Business Do If Social Media Ended Tomorrow?

Sometimes a thought comes into my brain "What If Social Media Got Turned Off Tomorrow?" how would some people continue to market their businesses- how would all of our lives change?

In the scenario of social media disappearing tomorrow, how would you stay in contact with your community and customers? In case you forgot, there were a few days back in 2022 when Facebook didn't work for extended hours, and the masses went to Twitter to vent their frustrations. Then there was the time that one of my favorite influencers on Tik Tok got locked out of her account for an entire weekend!

 We all understand how unlikely it is that one day we will wake up, and social media will not exist, but as your neighborhood social media consultant, here are some unique and unlikely suggestions that could help businesses reform their digital strategies to stop relying so much on social media for your marketing endeavors:

1. Prioritize Email Marketing:

Email marketing might seem old-fashioned compared to sexy social media platforms. Still, it remains an effective way of reaching targeted audiences directly without algorithmic limitations. 

A person sharing their email address with you means that they want to hear from you. You are doing a disservice by not sending them email marketing materials to stay top of mind.

Business owners please focus on building robust email lists by providing valuable content incentives that encourage website visitors or customers to subscribe. Social media and email marketing work in collaboration, not competition. 

Here are a few suggestions to begin building your email list:

Add an opt-in pop-up to your website. 

Ensure you gather email addresses when people request to join your Facebook Group. 

Keep your email spreadsheet updated regularly. 

Sprinkle in Social Posts where the call to action is to sign up for your email list. 

As we wrap up 2023 and think about 2024, I want to challenge you to become more conscious of building out your list. 

I do not want to watch you have a complete mental crying breakdown on a Sunday morning on your Instagram Stories ever. :o) 

2. Revive Traditional Advertising Channels:

With fewer options available in the digital realm post-social-media-apocalypse era, digital advertising channels should be remembered. Billboards, magazine ads, and radio commercials might not sound as glamorous as hashtags, filters, and likes, but they play a crucial role. Potential customers drive by billboards and stumble upon magazine ads in waiting rooms; these traditional advertising methods continue influencing consumer behaviors. I once had a client who I advised to create postcards with a unique coupon code to set in local hotel lobbies within walking distance of their shop. These marketing methods might seem like dinosaurs, but I assure you they are not extinct. 

One big problem with relying solely on social media platforms to grow your business is that you don't actually own that account or your community.

If social media did disappear or change beyond recognition tomorrow, you would have no claim to that online following you had worked so hard to build.

Your business community could disappear overnight.

That is why you must diversify your marketing across multiple platforms to where the people are.

Multiple marketing methods protect your business from external influences outside your control and can help with brand awareness and relationship-building across platforms.

To put it simply, the more a potential customer interacts with your brand and keeping it top of mind (for example, by seeing an Instagram post, then stumbling across an ad for your website, and then receiving emails from your newsletter,) the more likely it is that you will get their attention and they will then become a customer.

Even though social media platforms aren't going anywhere, social media users are.

With people becoming more mental health conscious, the way we use social media is changing.

Many people prioritize their health and well-being by introducing prolonged detoxes or platform deletions to improve productivity and sleep cycles.

Other users are experiencing severe brand and advertising fatigue thanks to the rise in influencer marketing. Nowadays, it often feels like everyone wants to sell you something online, and issues surrounding lack of trust, privacy, and fake news are causing people to reject or be wary of influencers online.

Moving forward, people will continue to understand the value of their privacy, and as a result, the way they share content and updates online will likely change.

None of this means that social media marketing won't work anymore or that soon, no one will be on the platforms. It means that people are more conscious about how they spend their time online; therefore, how you approach promoting your business online must be intentional instead of just adding to the noise. 

I see you working hard on your digital marketing; I am encouraging you to find a way to build your email list. Even if you don't send out a single email, you will always have somewhere to begin if you get locked out of one of your social accounts. 

Because the truth is Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook, all platforms, don't owe you anything. They are businesses. They own your followers. If you go against the Terms and Conditions, that thing you've signed without reading, they can shut you down, and no amount of petitioning could get you turned back on. The only quick and direct way to own the right to communicate with anyone is to have them in your database and email list. 

If you’ve now got the spark to diversify your digital marketing efforts but need help figuring out where to get started? I offer comprehensive copywriting services across all key digital marketing platforms, including email marketing blog/article creation and even social media post content to help your business get scroll stopped and noticed. Fill out the contact form and let’s get a conversation started.  

Ten Cyber Weekend Promotions That Don't Involve Discounts

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday promotions do NOT need to involve discounts. Again, for the people in the nose bleeds, Cyber Weekend promotions DO NOT need to involve discounts.

If you’ve been here a while, you know I have a love/hate relationship with discounts. Discounts are great once in a bit, but when your product is constantly discounted, people will never pay full price for it, and you’ll have a hard time raising your prices. 

My product clients offer a once-a-year killer Cyber weekend promotion, AND our customers know that we only offer this deal once a year. This means weeks before we get emails and DM’s asking how and when the discount code will be released. 

With all this said, here are a few Cyber Weekend Promotion ideas that DO NOT involve discounting anything you offer; instead, consider promoting what you already have instead of spending time you do not have to create something new. 

The point is to re-create something shiny and irresistible that your audience can’t get enough of. 

Here we go….

1. Promote an offering that already exists, which you do not promote much. 

2. Discount to a Future Event. Create a one-day workshop for Q1 2023 and use Cyber Weekend as an opportunity for pre-registration.

3. Include a FREE product with a determined monetary value; this should be something you already have. A service example would be an old digital download that is valuable but not getting as much traction (including what this product usually sells for). A product example would be creating a “mystery grab bag” of products that aren’t moving, but you don’t want to throw away with a $100 purchase.

4. Offer a gift certificate w/min the purchase amount, encouraging people to return and make another purchase.

5. *Product Seller* Offer a return coupon code for FREE SHIPPING because no one enjoys paying for shipping.

6. Add an extra coaching or accountability session with you.

7. Create a new bundle of content that already exists. Look at the content you’ve already created which has never been bundled together. 

8. Add bonus download for a class. This could include a checklist, mantras, or whatever is relatable to your business.

9. Consider offering a different weekend promotion to keep people engaged. (Include this news in your Cyber Weekend email, but only give away what the promotions are on social media)

10. If time allows, create a new digital download, service, or special edition product available for Cyber Weekend only. 

We are being conditioned that for social media marketing success, we constantly need to be coming up with and creating “new” content all the time, but sometimes especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we can repackage what already exists without having to create some NEW or offer a deep discount.

Good luck this Cyber Weekend!

The Psychology of Social Media: A Personal Story

I fell into the social media comparison trap, me the professional woman who runs multiple businesses social media channels. Me, the woman who knows what happens behind the scenes of that ideally put together photo. Me, the woman who goes through multiple images to choose the perfect one to convey the message that needs to be told.

Over the holidays, the comparison took hold of my professional brain and swallowed me up. I’ve been trying my best to dig myself out of it. I meditated and saged, I drank all the water, and finally, I went to acupuncture to get my energy re-aligned.

Meanwhile, amid my social media mind fuck somewhere in Los Angeles, watching influencers in their wild habitat, I realized something that deep down I already knew. Successful digital marketing on social media comes down to selling one of two things, a lifestyle or a feeling. And reader, these two things are not the same. Assuming these two things are part of the formula on how successful marketing is achieved.

Social media can be an emotionally manipulative son of a bitch. I learned this early on, and I’ll admit that more often then not, I tend to use it to my advantage. Please hear me out, I don’t use these powers for evil or anything, but I do understand how the brain, photos, and words work.

As a business, you are not just selling a product; you are selling either a lifestyle or a feeling. Yes, you can sell both a lifestyle and a feeling, but psychologically you are not selling both to the same person in one post.

As an example, let’s use a candle manufacturer. You might think by trolling the 1000’s of candle manufacturers on social media that they are selling a lifestyle. Based on the initial views of their photos, it would appear that they are indeed selling a lifestyle. A lifestyle that includes a well lit, immaculately clean yet cozy, well-behaved children’s and hairless pet’s home.

The photo has caught your attention, and you want to feel like your home has it all together. You want to feel when you light this candle, your children will magically out of nowhere, put their toys away without you asking them. You want to feel when you light this candle like you are not vacuuming enough dog hair off of that chair by the window to create another dog, the hair is just magically going not to be there. You want to feel that your home is bright, sterilely clean, yet cozy and overall has it’s shit together. The only obstacle in the way of this fantasy home happening for you is you need to purchase this magical candle.

The magic candle is a similar trap that I found myself in. However, I feel deep into all those smiling families around the dinner table and captions talking about how amazingly close and perfect their family is. When in actuality, the chances that perfect family photo I couldn’t stop looking at, came right before or after some family dispute. Someone is most likely annoyed, and there’s probably a broken wine glass on the other side of the camera.

We have all inadvertently learned to be very good at posting the incredible and perfect to us photos and things happening in our lives, but what I want to see as a consumer and challenge my clients is a brand that posts their product in real life, not perfect social media approved scenarios once in a while. Our individual psychology needs that.

Spring Cleaning Your Content: When To Recycle Vs. When To Create

The spring equinox has happened which means that it’s time for all of the spring cleaning to happen. Spring cleaning your house, your car and even your social media feed. Today we’ll talk about reducing your time spent creating new content by reusing and recycling what you already have working for you.

The old Earth Day saying goes “Reduce Reuse Recycle” and spring is the perfect time to put this plan into motion for the content on your social media feeds so you can enjoy the incredible weather that I know you’re itching to get out from behind your computer to go and enjoy.

REDUCE the time that you spend creating content, meaning glance back through your feed to see what posts performed well and REUSE them. Decide what people liked, the message or the photo and reuse that. People are afraid to reuse content which I don’t completely understand, especially if that content is at least 100 days old. I’ll be the first one to tell you that most of your ideal clients are not going to remember if they saw that same photo on your feed previously.

If the post has a message that you want to bring back to your target copy and paste the caption and add a different photo. Remember that the marketing buzz is people need to hear or read something SEVEN different times before they will act on it.

When you are RECYCLING content just be conscious of changing up something about it up. I’m sure that you have learned or experienced something in the time since it originally posted to update the caption and always update the hashtags. No need to have the exact same photo attached to the exact same hashtags.

There is an excellent app that I use to “regram” because I am all about reducing time. What I enjoy about this app is you don’t get that icky looking transparent gray box with the original posters screen name on it. However, with that being said if you are EVER reposting someone else's content make sure to credit the original poster in the caption with “Regram: @Insert_User_Name”.

Spring is also an excellent time to create new content. The spring light is way better than that harsh winter light and I don’t know about you but my creativity feels more inspired with the sunshine. It’s probably all of the vitamin D. Block off time to style and create new product photos, or grab a coffee, get outside and walk around a different neighborhood with your phone or camera and take photos of things that are relevant to your brand that you can use later on in your marketing efforts down the road.

To wrap, reduce your valuable time by reusing and recycling previous well-performing content especially the messages that you want to stick in your ideal client/customers brain. They need to hear/read these messages seven times before they will act.

The Social Media Apocalypse What's Your Digital Marketing Back Up Plan

The social media apocalypse of Facebook and Instagram being down is happening. It’s March 13, 2019, Mercury in retrograde and we’ve been experiencing the biggest meltdown in social media history.

Since 8am PST people around the globe have been unable to get into both Facebook and Instagram. At the coffee shop today the world seemed a bit quieter, people are having these things called conversations with each other instead of being preoccupied with snapping a quick picture of their latte to put on their Instagram story. (Ahem I am guilty of this as well, sometimes.) I don’t know if this is because we are all secretly freaking out just a little bit.

I will say that I have enjoyed the silence of only having to focus on other digital marketing platforms for my clients that do not include a member of the “Facebook Family” for one day.

The real question we should be asking is, “ Will Facebook and Instagram be back tomorrow?” Honestly, that could happen. We could wake up tomorrow with the same messages on our pages, or they could be erased forever. As of this posting Facebook, reps are saying, “Facebook is down for required maintenance. We will be back soon.” Historically when huge expansive platforms such as Facebook and Youtube have done an update it’s only been 1-3 hours, as of this writing we are going into hour number 12.

If this outage has taught us anything it should be to not put all of your eggs in one basket. I’ve been saying it in talks and to clients since the first Zuckerberg Senate hearings, start thinking about your digital marketing backup plan.

If these platforms do not exist tomorrow, do you have access to your customers? Do you know your customer's email addresses and how to get in touch with them? The only real channels that are guaranteed for you to directly communicate with your customers or clients are your blogs and your email campaigns. I know these are such a pain in the ass to do. These digital marketing campaigns actually take a bit of time, I get that. You can’t post a pretty picture and write an emotionally touching caption to get your message out there. But you should start considering a plan B.

There are other great platforms to build a presence on as well Youtube and Pinterest are two that if you are not already tinkering around on you should at least begin investigating.

Lately, I’ve been pushing current clients toward my Pinterest management package because it is a powerful search engine that as of right now I don’t see going anywhere but up. The power of brand awareness that Pinterest offers is incredible if you know how to use it. Start here, you already have amazing photo content of your products which is half the battle, because you have been posting those awesome images to Instagram. Just start posting them with a good description to Pinterest as well.

Consider blogging as well, if you are a service based business or a product based business you have things to say, things that your target market IS searching for.

I am really thinking positive that the “Facebook Family” figures it out and that we are back in action soon but then again if they don’t we’ll figure it out. We are in this together.

Why Your Business Needs a Digital Marketing Strategy

This week the lovely Jamie Teasdale of Propel Business Works  is sharing why having a digital marketing strategy is extremely important to really reach your target market and put more money in your bank account. Jamie’s expertise is creating digital marketing strategies and plans for businesses. This post has some seriously great information! Be sure to follow Jamie on social media using the links at the bottom of the post!

Social media and blogs aren’t just for personal connection any more. Online communication is where the masses are. It’s where people are spending their time. That’s why your business needs a digital marketing strategy. According to the 2015 census 78% of U.S. households have a desktop or laptop computer, and over 74% have a mobile device. That’s an incredible statistic and it makes sense knowing how quickly we have adopted online communities as our new normal place to connect, interact, and find services and products we need.

It also means your audience, your clientele, your target market is there. Whether they are searching for an answer, clicking through ads that caught their attention, visiting an application to catch-up on relationships, shopping for something, leaving a review, or a plethora of other reasons, I guarantee your customer is online. It might be via a mobile, tablet or desktop device, but they ARE congregating with the masses – and they’re coming in hourly droves, sometimes even more frequently.

So, marketing to them where they are makes sense, right? That’s where digital marketing comes in. Digital marketing is different from physical marketing like print materials, signs, brochures, handouts, flyers and other pieces of collateral you have designed and printed. Digital marketing is virtual. It is marketing via communication to your target customer digitally where they are showing up online.

Having A Strategy Is Vital

Marketing in general can’t be done with a half-baked strategy or it will fall short or even fail completely. Spending money and time on marketing materials or support without first knowing who you’re talking to, what they need to hear, how often they should hear it, and how it should be presented is just a waste of valuable resources. (Tweet This)

Do you realize there are different demographics on different online sites? The people who show up on Facebook aren’t necessarily on Twitter or Snapchat. There is a specific and substantial reason for certain businesses to have a presence on Pinterest or on Instagram. Is your business one of them?

What A Strategy Should Include

A solid, researched, and customized-to-your-business digital marketing plan will tell you who you should be targeting and where you should be showing up in order to reach them. 

It will map out the types of emails you should be sending and how often, not to mention what posts you should be sharing, whether on your blog or on a social platform or directory. 

A unique plan will outline the best frequencies for communicating and will lay out your company’s style of communication so you and your team have a reference point every time something is sent out across the wifi waves.

Your plan should be easy to trust and should get your marketing ball rolling in the right direction so you begin increasing awareness, fans, and sales. But be sure to keep your eye on analytics, too. Monitoring what is working and what isn’t will propel your communication to improve.

Where To Start

I always tell clients to just start. All the research and planning can be an activity you pursue during your business planning sessions, or monthly strategy meetings. It isn’t rocket science and tools are available to us nowadays that were never more accessible or affordable.

If you already know who you are and where you need to be, start with one social site. Learn it. Become consistent on it. If you can blog, even once a month, that activity will fuel your social communication and get your creative juices flowing. How to layer on one marketing approach after another will depend on your business and industry, but don’t feel like you need to jump on all platforms or tackle all of the communication opportunities available to you all at once.

When you find yourself too busy with orders or doing the thing you do that you can’t handle all the planning and management that goes along with a digital marketing strategy, we’re here, ready, and eager to help. After all, this is OUR juice. It’s what we love to do and we happen to do it well!

Cheers to a strategic future ahead!

Jamie Teasdale

Propel Businessworks

---

Jamie’s professional experiences have instilled exceptional customer service and high standards into everything she does. A music and art enthusiast and animal lover, she has been a marketing junkie since before she can remember. For 10 years her passion for developing and energizing the visions of small business owners was ignited and she hasn’t looked back since.

What The Actual Eff Is A Target Market And How Do You Find Yours?

When I have a virtual or in-person consultation about someone’s digital marketing needs, one of the first questions that I ask that potential client is, “Who is your target?”

A lot of the times the answer is, “ Well everyone and anyone that would want this yadda yadda product. “

Doh!

The internet is a big place Y'all and I’m sorry but not everyone and anyone is your target. Those are just the cold hard facts.

I know what you’re thinking right now, “Well Jade, what the actual eff is a Target Market and how do I figure out who my market actually is?”

The dictionary definition of Target Market is as follows "A particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed."

What a generic and simple thing right? It must just involve figuring out some simple demographics about the people I want to consume this product or use this service.

A target market is so much more than some simple demographics of 22-36-year-olds, dual income, no kids, in the city where you’re located. You need to actually figure out, what these people like to do, where are they hanging out, do they read or listen to podcasts, what makes them tick? Answering each of these questions plus a few more will help you create actual depth to the group of people you are trying to reach.

Once you’ve identified this group of people you can begin to talk to them through your posting and engaging by using the language they are actually using. You can begin paying attention to the trends that they are following and portray your content in a way that appeals to them and causes them to stop their scroll and read what you are actually talking about under your photo. Taking the time to research how your target moves, thinks and speaks through the world is going to help you sell more and sell it faster.

Identifying your target will also help when you are ready to outsource to someone like me by being able to tell me who we are talking too because I don’t want to cost you more money by talking to the people that we aren’t even targeting.

My homegirl Courtney of Creative Homeroom is a Jedi master of identifying your target market. This post of hers about the difference between Target Market and Ideal Client is a very quick and insightful read. Courtney and I are teaming up and teaching a three-part series of webinars on this actual topic and how to build your digital marketing strategy to reach them. The class is launching at the end of February. Please make sure that you are subscribed to the Maven Movement emails to be the first to know about the launch date and a discount!

Unlock The Power Of The Link In Your Social Media Profile

What would you do if you woke up one morning to a notification on your social media that your profile contained a link that is not allowed? Because well it can happen. Instagram and all of the other social media platforms can reserve the right to restrict specific content that it feels is going against their community standards.

However, I will reiterate again that, any social media platform can do whatever they want. They exist because at the end of the day the platforms are business’ too. Just like you as a user that is on social media as part of your marketing plan to get your name out there to make money.

I’m not trying to hate on linktr.ee, in fact, the premise of it is excellent. You only get one link in your social profiles, but you have multiple things going on. I totally get it. But link tree is a 3rd party service, and we already know how Instagram feels about 3rd party services.  

The link on any of your social media is prime real estate and  SHOULD list your website. Say it with me now, “the link on any of my business profiles should be my website, not http://linktr.ee/yadayadayada. “ 
You want your business to become known, and the best way to do that is to have your business’ name in as many places as possible.  Plus when you have control of YOUR link, you have the power of the branding.

I know you’re thinking, “But Jade, what should I do instead?” Well, you should create your own optimized landing page. Since my team offers Squarespace sites and not Wordpress, Wix or Weebly I only know that you can do this in Squarespace because that’s the link that is sitting on all of my personal and my website clients social media profiles.  However, with a quick Google search, I have found that is, in fact, possible to also create an optimized landing page on Wordpress.

If you have a Squarespace site already up and running but are using linktr.ee on your social profiles let a girl help you out and create an optimized landing page for you to link on your social profiles.  If you are pondering a website overhaul or update and flipping between which platform is best, I’ll say Squarespace any time. Especially if you aren’t super tech savvy.
 

How To Use Instagram Stories For Business

As a business owner, we all know that we should be using Instagram stories more to show off the behind scenes and real life of our brands. Are you struggling with WHAT to show in your stories? HOW often should you add to your stories? And WHY your business should be using Instagram stories? In this one hour workshop, we will discuss all of this and more. Instagram Stories For Business is geared towards, e-commerce sellers, brick and mortar stores, and service providers. You will leave with a link to the digital playbook of ideas to help your business succeed instead of getting skipped over on Instagram stories. 

This is an in-person workshop in Portland, but not to worry if you don't live in Portland I have a plan for you as well. Stay tuned. 

For more information and to register click HERE.

E-commerce Brick & Mortar Holiday Social Media Strategy Sessions

Wanna kickass this in your social media marketing this upcoming holiday season? Well, it is that time of year when I open up social media strategy sessions so you can have a kickass holiday season. I understand it is June, and you have plenty of other things on your mind like all the summer things. Nevertheless, you need to start your marketing efforts as early as September 1 to kickass this upcoming holiday season.

I know what you are thinking; I can hardly rock my regular time social media marketing campaign, do you think I can change it for the holiday season? Yes, and absolutely yes, I know that you can change your social media mindset for the holiday season because the holiday season is approximately six weeks where people actually want to be sold to. It is approximately six weeks where people are going to be spending money. Six weeks where those people that have no idea of what to get for so and so on their lists are looking to any place for inspiration. Why shouldn’t they be looking at your social media feed for their much-needed inspiration?

This program is written with both the e-commerce seller and the brick and mortar store owner in mind because both businesses have the same common denominator; to make some damn money from doing what they love. We are going to talk about your holiday marketing efforts on the big three: Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Typically, I meet in July or August with clients for tropical cocktails and to talk about all things holiday marketing. It is fun and productive at the same time. Strategy Sessions are two hours long and can be split up between two different meetings. Sessions can be virtual or in person. However, if it is virtual, you will have to provide your own tropical cocktail.

One on one social media support from me for the entire holiday season, roughly November 1st- January 2nd is included in your kickass social media strategy. You see, this means I am that girl in your corner, cheering you on and available for any social media question that might arise. I will be one email or phone call away. We will begin our efforts with the two-hour strategy planning and implementation meeting in July or August, and your strategy will be ready to launch on September 1st. You will receive the Kickass Holiday Social Media workbook which is full of tips and tricks for each specific platform along with a place to write your goals. Other benefits you will get include a personalized listing of industry-specific hashtags, a personalized calendar of your business’ holiday events, promotions and time frame of when exactly your postings will achieve the best reach and start turning those likes into dollars. The Kickass Social Media Strategy will focus on content for your business’ Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest accounts. Therefore, these accounts must be set up and in working order prior to our first strategy meeting.

The early bird rate is $450 for this entire package if you book it before June 20th. After June 20th, the price will increase to $575.

For specific questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I know you want your business to kickass this holiday season, and that is exactly what I want to help you achieve!