Don't Panic Over Social Media Shifts - Focus on Creating Great Content

Many coaches and influencers are panicking as Instagram, Meta, TikTok, and other platforms implement major changes. But the solution isn't complaining - it's adapting your strategy and doubling down on creating exceptional content that truly connects with your audience..."

Let's address the elephant on the social streets- where people are losing their minds over the Instagram Algorithm changes, the meta-verified shenanigans, and the eventual demise of TikTok. 

As with all big changes, it highlights and separates the business, marketing, and coaches based on their reactions. What you're seeing right now is how long these people have been in business.  

I could go off on a tangent here, but I promise I'm not going to. I'm going to make this helpful for you.

The bitching and complaining come directly from people who are “newer” and have put all of their marketing efforts into one basket. That basket could be Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or whatever your social platform of choice is here.

I'm seeing how business owners understand marketing and social media as a whole. Here's what I mean….

Since the beginning of the Facebook business page in November 2007, we have been incredibly blessed as business owners. We've had a place for our business to connect with others on social media for FREE. And then, when Instagram went from iPhone only to all other phones in April 2012, we were extra blessed with an additional FREE void to shout into about our businesses. 

So, it's fascinating that most people are shocked to learn that they might need to pay to play- because it seems a bit overdue.

When I took my first marketing classes, Facebook was for college students only, and businesses needed to pay physical and expensive marketing and advertising expenses. E-commerce—wtf was that? To "succeed," a business needed signage, advertising in newspapers, radio, TV, and direct mail to gain traction. All of that with no real way to test and track its return on investment.

It was expensive back in the 1900’s to reach people because you had to do actual advertising. To understand this better, in this day and age, do you know what 10M views on TikTok are worth in paid media? Based on Tok's $10 CPM (Cost Per Mille), aka Impressions average, it's about $100,000, and there are people who are getting that for FREE. 

I'm sorry to jump platform talk, but I need to give you an idea of how this exactly plays out in the paid world today.

Because my next point is that organic content is still alive. With this new Instagram algorithm update and the Meta updates that are expanding to other countries, and eventually the US, people are freaking out that to be seen; they are going to have to pay. I don't believe this to be true as of right now, and here's why- I don't believe that organic is going anywhere. The primary goal of social media platforms is for many people to disassociate and spend lots of time on the platform to keep their advertisers happy.

If there aren't people on the platforms, scrolling along and wasting their days, there are no advertisers.

If the platforms only showed paid content from mediocre creators, people would abandon them in mass, which would lead to less revenue for the platform.

Because once again remember, you are running a business on another business. 

Your feeds won't be overrun with junk ads, as that wouldn't be in the users' best interest. So, the rules essentially stay the same: the best content wins.

The Meta Verified isn't going to change that once it gets to the US. 

Producing great organic content will gain exposure.  I get that it feels like sometimes you have to create 100 shitty pieces of content before something sticks but you do have the luxury of figuring out by looking at your analytics monthly what content your community wants from you. 

But with all of these changes and "challenges" happening, it's more important than ever to figure out what is working. Be in more than one place. Build your email list. Focus on the following you already have. Provide exceptional service.

The most important thing of them all is to connect with human beings. 

Keep Learning. Stay Consistent and get creative.

The Entertainer’s Advantage: Winning The Social Media Battle For Attention

Each spring, I teach a four-part social media series for business owners through the SBDC I also consult at. Almost every time, a similar question is asked when we begin to discuss what kind of content to produce: “Does content need to be entertaining to get the scroll stopped?”

Before I share my perspective on this, let's consider a thought-provoking question: What underlying motivations lead someone to open their favorite social media app and begin to scroll?

1. Connection and Belonging: Humans crave connection and a sense of belonging at our core. Social media provides a virtual space where we can interact with others, share our thoughts and experiences, and feel part of a community. Whether reconnecting with old friends, joining interest-based groups, or simply feeling heard and validated by others, social media fulfills our innate need for social connection.

2. Self-Expression and Identity: Social media platforms offer a canvas for self-expression and identity exploration. We carefully curate our profiles, share glimpses of our lives, and express our opinions and beliefs. This ability to craft our online personas and present ourselves to the world in a specific way can be empowering and addictive.

3. Information and Entertainment: Social media is a vast repository of information and entertainment. From breaking news and viral trends to memes and funny videos, these platforms provide constant content that keeps us engaged and informed. The fear of missing out (FOMO) on the latest updates or viral sensations can be a powerful motivator to stay connected.

4. Validation and Approval: Social media has become a source of validation and approval in the digital age. We measure our self-worth by the number of likes, comments, and followers we accumulate. The dopamine hit we experience when our content receives positive engagement can be highly addictive, driving us to seek more and more validation from our online peers.

5. Distraction: Some people use social media to avoid or escape negative emotions like sadness, anxiety, loneliness, etc. Immersing themselves in the online world provides a temporary distraction from confronting difficult internal feelings.

Understanding why people tap into their social media app of choice is the first hurdle in creating content that will get your community to pay attention to what you are putting out there.

User Attention Is A Precious Commodity

Mastering the art of creating attention-grabbing posts is crucial for any brand or individual looking to stand out, and where the question “Does all content need to be entertaining?” is a YES.

Scroll back up and re-read numbers 1, 3, and 5. Social media is a form of escapism for the user, who logs on to be entertained and distracted from dealing with whatever is happening in their real life. This could be waiting in the waiting room of the doctor's office, in the pickup line at their child's school, or dealing with some emotional news they just received.

Here are some practical tips to help you craft content that stops the scroll and commands audience engagement:

1. Know Your Audience: Before embarking on any content creation journey, it's essential to have a deep understanding of your target audience. What are their interests, pain points, and preferences? Tailoring your content to resonate with your audience will significantly increase its effectiveness.

2. Use Visuals Wisely: Visual content is more likely to capture attention than plain text. Incorporate eye-catching images, videos, and infographics to make your posts visually appealing and engaging. Ensure that your visuals are high-quality and relevant to your message.

3. Spark Emotions: Emotions have a powerful impact on human behavior. To connect with your audience on a deeper level, try content that evokes emotions such as joy, surprise, humor, or inspiration. Emotional posts are more likely to be shared and resonate with users- an example of this is dog videos.

4. Ask Questions and Encourage Interaction: Encourage audience interaction by asking questions in your posts. People love to share their opinions and experiences, so prompting them to engage with your content through comments, likes, or shares can boost your post's visibility and reach.

5. Keep It Concise and Scannable: We are dealing with a 3.5-second attention span, and users have short attention spans. Keep your posts concise, clear, and scannable to make it easy for users to consume your content quickly. Use bullet points, subheadings, and short paragraphs to make your posts visually appealing and easy to read.

6. Stay Consistent: Consistency is key to maintaining audience engagement on social media. Develop a content calendar and schedule posts regularly to keep your audience interested and coming back for more. Experiment with different content formats and track the performance of your posts to refine your strategy over time.

You can effectively command their attention amidst the endless scroll by prioritizing entertaining and emotionally resonant content tailored to your specific audience's preferences. Remember, social media is often an escape or a source of connection for users, so crafting content that fulfills those core desires is key.

Continuously experiment and analyze what resonates most with your community. Embrace visuals, spark emotions, encourage interactions, and maintain consistency. Success on social media requires a delicate balance of strategic planning and an innate understanding of what truly captivates your audience.

Ultimately, the ability to stop the scroll lies in your capacity to create content that entertains, informs, and resonates on a profound level. Master this art; you'll unlock a powerful connection with your audience, fortifying your brand's online presence and driving meaningful engagement. In the realm of social media, the scroll never stops, but with the right approach, you can become the highlight they pause for.

Let's chat if you need help on how exactly your business can achieve entertaining online.

Why You Want To Focus Your Marketing On Where The People Are

Imagine Ariel from the Little Mermaid Singing, “I want to be where the people are…”  That song right now has so much context as we are sheltering in our homes.  

As humans, in general, we are programmed to be around people not isolated in our homes, and as business owners, most of us earn our living through in-person human interactions. 

In the last few weeks, we have been asked to shelter in place, practice social distancing, and modify our business to survive in a digital, little or zero actual human contact world.  I can see companies working hard to adapt to the future of a digital world. However, it can be frustrating when you work so hard on crafting the perfect social media posts, complete with a scroll stopping photo, and the catchy caption only to look at your analytics and see that it hasn’t reached anyone. Let alone the intended party of whom you posted to get in front of.

You are not alone in this. In the last few weeks, social media engagement for most industries on Facebook and Instagram has been down. When I first began to notice the dip, I deep dove into client analytics to see where if any traffic was coming from. The first steady stream of conversion was from their Pinterest accounts.

If your business hasn’t leveraged Pinterest yet or even has a presence, you are missing out on crucial conversion right now.  The migration of time spent off of Facebook has been happening for a few years now, but people are also spending less time on Instagram these days. There are a plethora of psychological hypotheses on this one, which is a topic for another time.

The other digital migration that has happened is people have been downloading the Tik Tok app like crazy.  Tik Tok is a great way to escape and watch short, somewhat mindless entertainment. If your business can maintain it entertainingly’s brand on Tik Tok, this is absolutely the time to download the app, create some content, and, if it’s well-received, begin to build a presence there. 

The point of all of this is to keep an eye on your website back end analytics because that golden nugget of data will tell you where exactly your people are.  And where your people are showing up is also where your business needs to be continuously digitally showing up. 

The Struggle To Write A Social Media Caption

Every time I meet one-on-one with a business owner, a consistent struggle comes up one way or another, the effort to write a caption for social media.  

Many times I have heard, "I write something I hate it, I delete it, I write again and delete it. Get frustrated and don't post at all." OR "I'm afraid that whatever I post is going to screw everything up."

I get it; I'm right there with you, and I want you to realize that you are not alone in this. Somedays I also struggle with what to write on my social media because I'm so inundated in the updates on social media that somedays it is the last thing that I want to talk about. I realize that you are all here for those tidbits that you otherwise don't know and how to make those platforms work for you and not against you. Just like your clientele does not know everything about your industry or your product, they are looking to you to educate them on what you have to offer. 

You aren't going to screw everything up unless you write something hurtful to another person that gets shared and goes viral. Does anyone remember the tweet that blew up Justine Sacco's life? Writing things like that is what is going to screw everything up for you. 

Here are a few tips to help you through the captioning anxiety:

1. Remember that people read your captions in their tone, not yours. The tone confusion can happen if you are not posting a video, or they have never interacted with you in person to get a grasp on how you communicate IRL.

2. Learn how your target market communicates both on and offline and work on ways to communicate with them that way.

3. Findings have found that our attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. Get to the point quickly or risk getting scrolled past. Write what you want then go back to edit to make sure you've gotten to the point.

4. Tweet how you want to be tweeted at or about. Every post you put up and comment response is a reflection of you and your business's customer service culture.

5. Be yourself. Write in a way to the person that if you meet a follower or customer IRL, they feel like they already know you once you begin talking.

Finding your business's voice takes some time, effort, trial and error, but I am confident that you can do it. 

How To Effectively Pay To Play On Facebook

The other day listened to a podcast that said that the 2020 presidential candidates were spending on average $75 on a Facebook ad to get 1 $1 donation. All of this information leads my brain astray with googling thoughts. 

Since all I’ve been obnoxiously reading and seeing these days are complaints about “how you have to pay to play”. I would fill you in on some data.  

I began by researching what the average cost per click was for a Facebook ad these days. 

The following Cost Per Click data is via Sprout Social:

Apparel: $0.45

B2B: $2.52

Customer Services: $3.08

Real Estate: $1.81

Retail: $0.70

Travel & Hospitality: $0.63

Remember the cost per click is to get someone to click on your ad and get to where you are sending them. There are other objectives that you can set up on your ad, such as getting Likes or having them complete an action ie, downloading and installing an app. 

I want you to keep in mind; however, also that the time of year that you are running an ad is incredibly important. For example, if you are a retail business and are planning out your Q4 advertising campaigns realize that your costs will be higher because you are going to be competing with so many other ads, and your ad is going to get lost. 

It was difficult for me to understand while I was listening to this podcast how candidates had to spend $75 to get one $1 donation, but then it’s the time of year. We are still over a year away from the election, and the masses aren’t fully paying attention yet. By this time next year, if the metrics and studies are correct, a $75 ad should be getting them more than one $1 donation.

If you are in need or wondering if your business needs a digital marketing strategy, know that it does.

For more information on how to effectively run a Facebook ad read THIS.

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.

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.
 

Social Media Terms Of Service

Y'all I fucked up. I went outside of the terms of service of a social media platform. I did it unknowingly.  I got called out and immediately deleted the post. Terms of service, how many of you actually read them in detail before you accept the terms? 

Yeah I didn't think that very many of you did.  I am here to tell you that you should at least give those good ol' terms and conditions a once over or at least Google the Cliffs Notes version of them after you accept them. 

All of this brings up the question, who legally owns your photos on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest? Let's get educated, shall we?

Instagram

The answer from Instagram, “People in the Instagram community own their photos, period. On the platform, if someone feels that their copyright has been violated, they can report it to us and we will take appropriate action. Off the platform, content owners can enforce their legal rights.”  

Ok that makes sense, Instagram has your back by what anyone does with your photo on Instagram, offline you are on your own. But did you know that reposting is actually in violation of Instagram Terms? Yeah I didn't know that either, but given the platform and how it works, a majority of users are cool with you reposting as long as you are linking back to their account. However, always ask before assuming that it's alright.  This is what the terms of service statement says, 

"You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Service or otherwise have the right to grant the rights and licenses set forth in these Terms of Use; (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Service does not violate, misappropriate or infringe on the rights of any third party, including, without limitation, privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademark and/or other intellectual property rights; (iii) you agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owed by reason of Content you post on or through the Service; and (iv) you have the legal right and capacity to enter into these Terms of Use in your jurisdiction."

Facebook

Ok cool that's Instagram terms, now let's talk Facebook. Does Facebook own your photos once you load them onto your account?  No, the photos are still your photos, not Facebooks. In fact, it’s right in Facebook’s terms of service: “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook.“  However, let's address what rights Facebook does have with your photos once you've uploaded them. 

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

Basically, Facebook can use your photo "royalty free" however they feel without asking for your permission or paying you any money they may get from using your photo. 

Pinterest

Great, we've got the big two out of the way now let's focus on Pinterest. Are you using photos from Pinterest as almost a form of a stock photography site? Do you think that just because it's on Pinterest you can borrow it? Well here's the deal unless you are repinning it, that content needs to live on Pinterest. If you do this it's considered copyright infringement. Yeah, buzz kill huh?

Here's what Pinterest actually says,

"If you post your content on Pinterest, it still belongs to you but we can show it to people and others can re-pin it."  You can refresh yourself with Pinterest's Terms and Conditions here. 

In conclusion, is it okay to repin images on Pinterest? Maybe. Is it ok to repost on Instagram? Sometimes. Using other peoples photos on the internet these days is tricky business.  All you can do is refresh yourself with the particular terms of service. How are you feeling about all of this information, are you going to go back and read the terms and conditions? 

Converting Your Social Media Following To Dollars

If you are an online business, a service provider or a brick and mortar the number of followers that you have on social media really doesn't matter. Your business is not online to win a popularity contest, your business is online to gain exposure and put money in your bank account. 

Are the people following you even your ideal client? Are you getting into the feeds, and in front of your ideal client?  In this workshop, we will answer these questions as well as learn the basics of how to start converting your social media following from Facebook and Instagram into dollars. You are spending your valuable time on social media, let's start returning that investment into paying customers, and payment notifications instead of just "like" notifications. 

I am teaching an in person workshop in Portland on this topic

Thursday, October 5, 2017, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

You can sign up HERE hurry seats are limited.

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

A Huffington Post contributor had decided to write an article about the lives of Social Media Managers.  He wanted to showcase that there was more to this type of work than just picking out a pretty photo and posting it to a businesses social media channel.

One morning I sat down with my coffee and began to fill out the questionnaire that he had emailed over. Six experts were going to be chosen for the article. Well, he had 100's of responses, so many good ones that he decided to increase the number of experts to 26.  I am happy to announce that I am one of the included experts.

The article is full of great information from 25 of my peers. I highly recommend the read, especially if you were ever looking to learn more about social media management, or better yet, looking to hire someone to help you with your social media. You can find the entire article HERE