Building Influence: What All Social Media Influencers Do

In the world of social media, becoming an influencer is more sought-after than ever. Harnessing this unique power doesn't come easy – it involves building trust, connecting with your audience, carefully crafting messages, and much more. From crafting compelling testimonials to being aware of the ins and outs of algorithms, becoming a stand-out social media influencer is no easy feat. Read on to learn more about what it takes to be a successful influencer!

Why has becoming a social media influencer become more important than ever?

Becoming a social media influencer has become more important than ever in today's digital age. As our lives increasingly revolve around social media and online interactions, having a strong presence on these platforms can greatly impact one's personal or professional brand.

But what exactly does a social media influencer do? At its core, an influencer is someone who has built up a following on various social media channels and uses their platform to promote products or services. They are typically seen as experts in their niche market, whether it be fashion, beauty, fitness or any other area of interest.

In addition to promoting brands and products through sponsored posts or collaborations with companies, influencers also have the ability to shape public opinion and drive trends within their community. They can inspire others through their content by sharing personal experiences or offering advice on topics relevant to their audience.

But being an influencer is not just about amassing followers - it takes hard work and dedication to create engaging content that resonates with your audience. From taking high quality photos to crafting witty captions that capture attention, there is much more involved than simply posting pretty pictures online.

Despite the challenges of building a successful brand as an influence in modern times--from navigating the ever-changing algorithms of various platforms--the rewards can be significant for those who put in the effort. Not only are influencers able to earn money from collaborations with brands but they also have opportunities for growth into other areas such as coaching programs teaching others how they got started.

Overall, becoming active on social media may seem like jumping onto another bandwagon until you realize how important these virtual spaces are. The benefits, however, far outweigh this minor inconvenience. If you haven’t started becoming a social influencer yet, then today is the second best time to start. 

Building Trust as a Social Media Influencer

As a social media influencer, building trust with your audience is essential to success in the industry. While many may see influencers solely as product pushers and self-promoters, the reality is that genuine influence requires authenticity and connection with followers.

To build trust, it's crucial to understand your audience's needs and interests. This means engaging with them through comments and messages, understanding their pain points or desires, and tailoring your content accordingly.

Transparency also plays a significant role in building trust. Being honest about sponsored posts or partnerships can actually increase credibility rather than detract from it – audiences appreciate honesty over deception any day of the week.

Pro tip: don't be afraid to show some personality! Your brand should reflect who you are authentically – quirks included – so that your content stands out from others who may be simply recycling trends or ideas without adding anything unique to the mix.

In conclusion: being a successful social media influencer means establishing yourself not just as someone people follow but as someone they genuinely trust for guidance or inspiration. By prioritizing transparency, consistency in messaging/posting frequency, understanding what resonates most deeply amongst community members (and adapting accordingly), and showing off some personality traits when appropriate- there’s no reason why one can’t establish themselves firmly within this burgeoning field!

Posting Schedule for a Social Media Influencer

Social media influencers are taking the world by the digital age. But what exactly. But what exactly do they do on the day-to-day?

These influencers can be found across multiple industries, from fashion to food to fitness, but at the core of their profession is the ability to influence others through their online presence. They use various tools, such as sponsored posts and endorsements, to promote products and services while also sharing insights into their lives with followers.

One of the key ways that these influencers build trust with their audiences is through consistent posting. By regularly sharing thoughtful content that resonates with viewers on a personal level, they cultivate strong relationships based on mutual interests and values. This helps them stand out from other voices in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.

For anyone looking to become a social media influencer themselves, this means committing fully to creating quality content that connects with your target audience. It’s important to post frequently and actively respond interactively with those who follow you.

By consistently producing fresh ideas for original visual concepts alongside well-written captions, which should reflect as much about yourself as possible – your humor, quirks, virtues, and passions –it becomes more accessible for people outside your immediate network circle to know you better, therefore connecting wholesomely.

Consistently Delivering Value As a Social Influencer

Being a successful social media influencer goes beyond just promoting products. It's about building authentic relationships with your followers and providing them value through your content. This can take many forms, such as entertainment, education, inspiration, or simply connecting with others who share similar interests.

In order to be successful as an influencer, it’s important to understand the needs of your audience and tailor your content accordingly. Influencers often spend countless hours researching trends in their field of expertise to create high-quality posts that bring quality thoughtfulness to their followers.

This means always fact-checking yourself, being prepared for pushback and how you would respond, and conducting quality assurance to make sure your posts are perfected and in line with your brand.

What Social Influencers Who Pay the Bills Do:

A social media influencer can sway their followers' purchasing decisions organically and authentically. By showcasing products or services that they genuinely believe in, influencers can provide valuable insights to their audience, helping them make informed decisions about what to buy.

An authentic influencer understands the importance of building a solid relationship with their followers based on trust and credibility. They know how to create engaging content that resonates with their target audience while staying true to who they are as individuals.

Whether it's through compelling visuals or relatable stories, influencers can connect with people on a personal level. This connection makes them powerful advocates for brands looking to expand their reach and increase sales. And social media influencers get paid to do this!

In today's digital age, where consumers are bombarded by advertising at every turn, having someone they trust endorses a product can make all the difference when it comes time for them to make purchasing decisions. And that's where social media influencers come into play – by sharing genuine experiences and recommendations with millions of followers worldwide.

Contact Maven and Muse Media to Learn More.

Did you know that many influencers do not make their journey alone? Running social media accounts can take countless hours to achieve success. 

If you're ready to be a social media influencer, you can contact Maven and Muse Media to learn more about how we can partner with you to grow your accounts effectively. 

Showcase Your Creative Talent: How to Leverage Social Media as a Portfolio

Striking the perfect balance between a savvy social media presence and creative portfolio showcases can be tricky. But by tapping into the power of social media platforms, you can present yourself as a dynamic, multi-dimensional artist without breaking a sweat. Discover the limitless potential of invigorated portfolio exposure and read on to learn how to use social media as a creative portfolio.

An Overview of Creative Portfolios and Social Media Platforms

As a creative entrepreneur, having an online portfolio is crucial. It showcases your work and allows potential clients to see what you can create. However, simply having a website or traditional portfolio may not be enough in today's digital age. That's where social media platforms come into play.

Social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest allow creatives to display their work visually appealingly while reaching a larger audience. These platforms offer unique features that can enhance the presentation of your work, such as hashtags, tagging others in your posts, and using geotags for location-based searches.

But it's important to remember that social media shouldn't solely be used as an advertising platform for self-promotion. Instead, view it as an opportunity to connect with other creatives within your industry through collaborations or sharing content from other artists you admire.

When using social media as part of your creative portfolio strategy, it's important to maintain consistency across all platforms by utilizing the same handle/profile name and maintaining cohesive branding throughout all posts.

Overall, leveraging social media effectively can greatly benefit creative entrepreneurs by expanding their reach globally and providing inspiration through connection with fellow artists in their field.

2. Strategies for Showcasing Your Creative Work on Social Media

Social media has become a powerful tool for creative entrepreneurs to showcase their work and connect with potential clients. However, simply posting your creative work online is not enough to grab audience engagement.

One strategy for showcasing your creative work on social media is to create a consistent brand image across all platforms. Use the same fonts, color schemes, and tone of voice in all posts to make it easily recognizable as belonging to you or your brand.

Another effective strategy is by utilizing behind-the-scenes content that shows the process behind creating the finished product. This gives followers a glimpse into how much effort goes into each project and can create an emotional connection between them and your brand.

Collaborating with other creatives can also help amplify your reach on social media platforms. By partnering up with fellow artists or designers in similar niches as you, you could cross-promote each other's brands while introducing new audiences who share similar interests.

Lastly, engaging directly through comments sections contributes positively towards improving productivity and should be considered when planning content creation calendars, which make it easier for collaborators to grasp what areas are efficient rather than repeatable inefficiencies week-to-week; this will benefit both parties involved.

While these strategies may seem obvious at first glance yet, applying them consistently while keeping track of various metrics, such as engagement rate, etc., will definitely result in the successful use of Social Media Platforms as Creative Portfolios.

3. Utilizing Analytics to Perfect Your Content Strategy

Analytics is not just a buzzword in the world of social media marketing. It plays a crucial role in perfecting your content strategy and maximizing engagement with your audience. As creative entrepreneurs, it's important to use analytics to evaluate the performance of your social media platforms and adjust your content accordingly.

Analytics can help you identify which posts resonate with your audience and drive engagement. This data can give you insight into what type of content works best for them, such as images or videos, educational or entertaining posts, or humorous versus serious tones.

Analyzing metrics like click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates can help you understand how effectively specific campaigns perform on each platform. For example, if a particular Instagram ad has a low CTR but a high conversion rate on Facebook ads may demonstrate that there is an opportunity for improvement regarding targeting audiences within Instagram.

Utilizing these insights from data analysis allows one to incorporate strategies that will best suit their consumer base through honing distinctions between trends vs. lasting preferences from 'one-hit wonders', demonstrating an awareness towards long-term growth by developing relevant relationships.

Incorporating analytics into any brand's marketing efforts will improve advertising quality and ultimately provide more meaningful experiences both online & offline - making it a worthwhile investment!

4. Mastering Visual Elements to Engage Followers

Visual elements are essential in engaging followers on social media, especially for creative entrepreneurs who use online platforms as their portfolios. Mastering the art of using visual elements can take a social media account from ordinary to extraordinary.

Several techniques can be used to create visually appealing content that stands out on social media. One effective method is creating a consistent aesthetic for all posts by using similar color schemes, font styles and image filters. This helps create brand recognition and a cohesive look across all channels.

Another way to engage followers through visuals is by utilizing storytelling techniques such as creating graphics or videos that tell a story about the offered product or service. Images and videos should be high-quality, well-lit, and shot from interesting perspectives to grab viewers’ attention.

Using hashtags such as #throwbackthursday or #flashbackfriday as inspiration can also help engage followers through nostalgia-based content, creating an emotional connection with the audience.

It’s crucial not only to focus on aesthetics but also to convey important information via visuals like infographics so audiences walk away with something valuable after viewing your post while learning something useful about your brand.

Overall, mastering visual element basics are key component of any successful communication effort; whether it’s building awareness around new products/services - keeping up engagement with loyal customers- creatives need great design skills just like they need good copywriting abilities if they hope keep gaining more traction within their target market space!

5. Promoting Your Work Through Paid Advertising and Collaborations

Paid advertising and collaborations can be powerful tools for promoting your creative work on social media platforms. As a marketing expert, here are some tips to help you effectively leverage these tactics:

1. Use targeted paid advertising: Instead of blindly running ads to everyone, use targeting options such as location, age, interests or behaviors to reach the people who are most likely to appreciate and buy your product or service.

2. Collaborate with influencers: Partnering with relevant influencers in your industry can help you reach a wider audience while also adding credibility to your brand through association with their trusted voice.

3. Create engaging content: Paid advertising is only effective if it's promoting content that captures attention and resonates emotionally with potential customers or fans. Make sure the images, videos or copy used in ads aligns well with what makes your brand unique.

4. Track and optimize results: The beautiful thing about digital marketing is that everything is measurable! Make sure you're tracking which campaigns generate the most engagement (likes/comments/shares), clicks-throughs on links back to website/storefront pages etc so that you can refine future campaigns based on data insights

5. Be authentic in partnerships: Ensure influencer partnerships align completely with company values while being organic for optimal success.

By strategically combining paid promotion methods like targeted Facebook Ads in conjunction

with collaborative strategies such as sponsored posts, you will be able to take advantage of both worlds; driving traffic from paid ad sources but also creating an environment where people feel inclined

to learn more about what they've seen - naturally leading them to consume more of your amazing creative portfolio pieces!

What is a Social Media Campaign and Why It Matters for Small Business Owners?

As a small business owner, you're always looking for new ways to attract customers and grow your business. With the rise of social media, it's essential to understand what a social media campaign is and how it can help you land new business and make more money.

At Maven and Muse Media, we specialize in social media management services. We know that a well-planned and executed social media campaign can make all the difference for small businesses. In this article, we'll explore a social media campaign's types, key components, steps to create one, measuring its effectiveness, case studies, challenges, and risks.

Definition of a Social Media Campaign

A social media campaign is a coordinated marketing effort to achieve specific business goals through social media platforms. It's a strategic approach to leverage your online presence and reach your target audience on various social media channels.

Types of Social Media Campaigns

Social media campaigns can have different objectives: awareness, engagement, acquisition, conversion, and advocacy. An awareness campaign aims to increase brand recognition and reach, while an engagement campaign targets interaction and conversation with your followers. An acquisition campaign seeks to attract new customers or subscribers, and a conversion campaign focuses on sales or lead generation. Finally, an advocacy campaign aims to mobilize your audience to promote your brand or cause.

Key Components of a Successful Social Media Campaign

A triumphant social media campaign relies on a variety of essential factors. These critical components encompass:

1. Clear Objectives and Goals: 

Establishing well-defined objectives and goals is crucial for measuring the success of any social media campaign. This helps in designing a strategic plan and evaluating its performance.

2. Target Audience Identification:

 Knowing your target audience is vital in crafting content that resonates with them. Understanding their demographics, preferences, and behaviors will enable you to tailor your campaign to their needs and interests.

3. Platform Selection: 

Selecting appropriate social media platforms is essential to reach your target audience effectively. Each platform has its unique user base, engagement patterns, and content formats, making it crucial to choose the right platforms for your campaign.

4. Content Strategy: 

A well-thought-out content strategy is key to engaging your audience and achieving your campaign goals. This includes planning the type of content, formats, themes, and messaging that will be used throughout the campaign.

1. Visual and Creative Elements: 

Incorporating compelling visuals and creative elements can significantly enhance the appeal of your campaign. High-quality images, graphics, videos, and other multimedia can engage and captivate your audience, increasing the likelihood of achieving your objectives.

2. Scheduling and Consistency: 

Maintaining a consistent posting schedule is essential for keeping your audience engaged and building a strong online presence. Utilizing social media management tools and creating a content calendar can help ensure regular posting and optimal engagement.

3. Monitoring and Analytics: 

Monitoring your campaign's performance and analyzing the data allows you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your strategy. This includes tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), engagement metrics, and other relevant data to evaluate the success of your campaign and make adjustments as needed.

By focusing on these key components, you can create and execute a successful social media campaign that achieves your objectives and effectively engages your target audience.

Challenges and Risks in Social Media Campaigns

Social media campaigns can pose several challenges and risks for small business owners. Maintaining authenticity and transparency, protecting user privacy and data security, navigating platform algorithms and policies, and balancing promotional content with value-added content are among the most significant risks and challenges.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with common social courtesy and platform rules before ever taking your business onto social media. 

Contact Maven and Muse Media for Help Developing a Social Media Campaign

A well-planned and executed social media campaign can significantly impact brand growth and business success for small businesses. At Maven and Muse Media, we provide social media management services that help our clients achieve their social media goals and grow their businesses. 

Contact us today to get started! 

Social Media Management for Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, you know that getting new business is vital to your company's success. In today's digital age, social media can be a powerful tool to help you land new clients and expand your reach. However, managing your social media accounts can be time-consuming and overwhelming. That's where Maven and Muse Media can help. Our social media management services provide small business owners with a cost-effective solution to boost their business growth and visibility.

Benefits of Social Media Management for Small Business Owners

Social media management offers numerous benefits for small business owners, including cost-effective marketing, increased brand awareness, and visibility, improved customer engagement and loyalty, higher conversion rates, better search engine rankings, access to valuable customer insights, and easier competitor analysis. By utilizing social media management services, small business owners can save time and effort while maximizing the benefits of social media.

Essential Social Media Platforms for Small Businesses

There are several social media platforms that small business owners should consider utilizing, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube. Each platform offers unique opportunities to reach and engage with your target audience.

Developing a Social Media Strategy

To effectively utilize social media, it's essential to develop a clear strategy. This includes defining your target audience, setting clear and measurable goals, choosing the right social media platforms, creating engaging and relevant content, developing a consistent posting schedule, utilizing hashtags and keywords, and monitoring and analyzing performance metrics.

Content Creation and Curation

Creating and curating the right content is crucial to the success of your social media strategy. This includes various types of content such as images, videos, articles and blog posts, infographics, user-generated content, and live streams. There are several tools available to help you create and curate content, such as Canva, Buffer, Hootsuite, Feedly, and Adobe Spark.

Social Media Advertising

Paid social media advertising can be an effective way to increase your reach and engagement with your target audience. There are several ad formats to choose from, including sponsored posts, carousel ads, video ads, stories ads, and collection ads. Ad targeting options include demographics, interests, behaviors, custom audiences, and lookalike audiences.

Social Media Monitoring and Analytics

Monitoring and analyzing your social media performance is essential to determining the effectiveness of your strategy. Key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure include reach, engagement, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and return on investment (ROI). There are several tools available to help you monitor and analyze your social media performance, such as Google Analytics, Sprout Social, among many others.

Social Media Management Best Practices

To ensure the success of your social media strategy, it's essential to follow best practices such as responding to customer inquiries and feedback, encouraging user-generated content, collaborating with micro-influencers and brand ambassadors, staying updated with social media trends, and implementing social listening.

Outsourcing Social Media Management

Outsourcing your social media management can be a great way to save time and effort while maximizing the benefits of social media. When choosing a social media management agency or freelancer, it's essential to consider factors such as their experience, expertise, pricing, and communication channels.

Contact Maven and Muse Media for More Information

Social media management plays a vital role in the success of small businesses in today's digital age. By utilizing social media platforms effectively and following best practices, small business owners can expand their reach and land new business. It's essential to stay proactive and adaptive in the ever-changing social media landscape to ensure your business remains competitive. 

At Maven and Muse Media, we provide social media management services to help small business owners achieve their goals and succeed in the digital age. Hire us to help - contact today!

Brand Awareness Metrics on Social Media: The Key to Growing Your Small Business

As a small business owner, you know that getting new business is essential for growth and success. In today's digital age, social media can be a game-changer for increasing your visibility and attracting new customers. However, to truly harness the power of social media, you need to track your brand awareness metrics. That's where we come in - at Maven and Muse Media, we specialize in social media management services that can help you grow your business and stand out in your industry.

The importance of brand awareness on social media cannot be overstated. It's not just about having a presence on various platforms - it's about creating meaningful connections with your target audience and establishing your brand as a go-to in your industry. To do this, you need to track your brand awareness metrics to see what's working and what's not.

Key Brand Awareness Metrics

There are several key metrics that you should be tracking to measure your brand awareness on social media. Here are the most important ones:

Reach

Reach refers to the number of people who see your content. The more people you reach, the more awareness you'll generate for your brand. To increase your reach, you can try tactics like posting at optimal times, using hashtags, and collaborating with influencers.

Impressions

Impressions refer to the number of times your content is displayed. Unlike reach, impressions can count multiple views from the same user. It's important to understand the difference between reach and impressions, as both metrics can provide valuable insights into your social media performance.

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate measures the level of interaction that users have with your content. This includes likes, shares, comments, and other forms of engagement. A high engagement rate indicates that your content is resonating with your audience and can help boost your brand awareness.

Follower Growth

Follower growth refers to the number of new followers you gain over a period of time. This metric is a good indicator of how well your brand is resonating with your target audience. To grow your followers, you can try tactics like running contests, using paid ads, and cross-promoting on other platforms.

Share of Voice

Share of voice measures the percentage of conversations about your brand compared to your competitors. This metric can help you understand how your brand stacks up against others in your industry and identify areas for improvement.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic measures the amount of traffic that comes to your website from social media platforms. By analyzing your referral traffic, you can see which platforms are driving the most traffic and adjust your social media strategy accordingly.

Social Media Platform Specific Metrics

Each social media platform has its own set of metrics that you should be tracking. Here are some of the key metrics for the most popular platforms:

Facebook

• Page Likes

• Post Reach

• Engagement (reactions, comments, shares)

Twitter

• Follower count

• Retweets

• Mentions

Instagram

• Follower count

• Engagement (likes, comments, saves)

• Instagram Stories metrics

LinkedIn

• Company followers

• Engagement (likes, comments, shares)

• Profile Clicks

Utilizing Analytics Tools

There are several social media analytics tools that you can use to track your brand awareness metrics. Some examples include native platform analytics, Google Analytics, and third-party tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social. It's important to use these tools consistently and analyze the data to see what's working and what's not.

Setting Goals and Creating a Strategy

To truly harness the power of social media, you need to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for building your brand awareness. This could include goals like increasing your reach by a certain percentage or growing your followers by a specific number. Once you have your goals in place, you can develop a content strategy that supports them.

Contact Maven and Muse Media

Tracking your brand awareness metrics on social media is essential for growing your small business and standing out in your industry. 

At Maven and Muse Media, we provide social media management services to help you achieve your goals and take your business to the next level. Focusing on key metrics and utilizing analytics tools can create a social media strategy that drives results and generates buzz for your brand. Contact us today or sign up for our newsletter to learn more! 

Is Social Media Good for Small Businesses?

As a small business owner, you're always looking for ways to grow your business and increase your visibility. In today's world, social media can be a powerful tool to help you achieve those goals. 

But is social media good for small businesses in particular? Let’s dive in.

Advantages of Social Media for Small Businesses

Social media offers several advantages for small businesses looking to grow their brand and reach new customers.

Cost-effective Marketing

One of the biggest advantages of social media is that it provides cost-effective marketing options. With low-cost advertising options and the potential for organic reach through content sharing, small businesses can maximize their marketing efforts without breaking the bank.

Increased Brand Awareness

Social media also offers the potential for increased brand awareness. Viral content has the potential to reach millions of people, and social media makes it easy to share promotional materials and reach a wider audience.

Improved customer engagement and relationship building

Social media allows small businesses to engage directly with customers, provide real-time feedback and customer service, and build stronger relationships. This can lead to increased loyalty and repeat business.

Networking and Partnership Opportunities

Finally, social media provides networking and partnership opportunities, allowing small businesses to connect with other businesses, collaborate on projects and events, and build valuable relationships.

Potential Drawbacks of Social Media for Small Businesses

While social media offers many benefits, there are also potential drawbacks that small businesses should be aware of.

Time Investment

Managing multiple social media platforms can be time-consuming, especially if you're trying to keep up with trends and algorithms. Small businesses may need to invest significant time and resources to make the most of social media.

Negative Publicity

Social media also has the potential to generate negative publicity, whether it's through negative reviews and comments or public relations issues. Small businesses need to be prepared to handle these situations and respond appropriately.

Security and Privacy Concerns

Finally, social media raises security and privacy concerns, with the risk of hacking and data breaches. Small businesses need to take steps to protect sensitive information and safeguard their online presence, such as two-factor authentication.

Strategies for Maximizing the Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses

To maximize the benefits of social media for your small business, there are several strategies you can employ.

Selecting the Right Platforms

Start by identifying your target audience and evaluating the demographics and features of different social media platforms. This will help you choose the right platforms to focus on.

Creating a Social Media Plan

Develop a social media plan that sets clear goals and objectives, and includes a content calendar to help you stay on track.

Utilizing Analytics and Insights

Use analytics and insights to track your performance metrics and adjust your strategies based on data. This will help you make the most of your social media efforts and achieve your business goals.

Contact Maven and Muse Media to Take Your Small Business Social to the Next Level

So, is social media good for small businesses? The answer is yes but with some important caveats. By weighing social media's pros and cons, assessing your business needs and capabilities, and developing a strategic approach to social media marketing, you can leverage this powerful tool to grow your business and achieve your goals.

As a social media management service provider, we are dedicated to helping small businesses make the most of social media. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve success on social media.

There Isn't A One Size Fits All Social Media Strategy

I’ve been doing a lot of teaching lately, and a question that gets asked me in many different ways is, “How often do I need to post to be effective at this whole social media marketing thing?”  And unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size fits all strategy for each business.  There isn’t a plug-and-play method that is effective because what works for one business most likely won’t work for another business because the community of the account is different.  But here are a few things I do share that I consider the bare minimum part of a social media marketing strategy: posting three times a week to your feed is the bare minimum, checking in with your community on stories once a day a few times a week, I would encourage you to daily check in but know that this isn’t always feasible for business owners. When you are sharing a post to your feed a quick and easy way to share your story is to send the post to your story via the paper airplane at the bottom of the post. 

A few ideas for your story are anything behind the scenes, packing orders, setting up for an event, unboxing new merchandise, and asking your community questions. 

I also advise and use as part of my stories strategies with clients using the stories for market research. If you are trying to decide between an offering, packaging, or anything like that, ask your community. Humans are very good at giving their opinions and usually always seek opportunities to give them. 

I have tried to offer “one size fits all” social media templates, which fall flat because the voice is lost. When ’ is lost. When the post templates are done for everyone, they don’t feel like they need to contribute to the post, and the connection to the community isn’t there.  It all comes down to the intention of putting up the post in the first place. If you don’t know the intention behind sharing the post, your audience won’t know what to do with it. When you are posting to post because an expert told you that for social media success, you should be posting seven times a week between these times, and then you need to throw in a 6.2-second reel, not a 6.5-second but specifically a 6.2-second reel with trending audio that has less than 900 videos attached to them every other day.  How exhausting! 

Ok, there are many things wrong with this approach; first of all, the definition of “success” qualifies as a successful post to one business owner but most likely isn’t the same as “success” to another business owner.  You don’t know what the account owner's definition of success means. 

Consider this next part your hall pass/permission slip from a social media expert to do whatever the fuck you want on your social media feed. The rules for marketing your business is there are no rules.  Only want to connect with your community once a week or whenever it feels authentic to you to connect with them when you have something to say. Do that.  

You love making short-form videos and want to do that daily with voiceovers instead of trending audio great; you do you.

Here’s the thing, if you’re reading this, the chances are that you are a business owner who is running a business and is also operating as their business’s marketing director, content creator, and social media manager. This is your hall pass/permission slip to post in the hallways of social media, whatever feels good to you whenever you have the time to schedule and post to social media. 

I want you to know that your priority is to keep your business running. The secondary is to keep people in the know about your business. The minimum posting suggestion of 3 times a week helps your account to stay top of mind for people IF social media is your one marketing avenue because, at the time of this writing, the Instagram algorithm can have a delay of up to 72 hours for people in your community that are not interacting with your content regularly. 

My other recommendation is to become best friends with your social media analytics and frequently check in to see what content people enjoy and interact with. When you get in your analytics and see what and where your community is hanging out on social media and measure if that is similar to where you like to hang out and what you enjoy posting, it becomes easier to identify how often and where to post your content—removing this pressure to be creating more and more fresh content constantly.  Recycling content is totally ok- hardly anyone is going to even know.

Running a business is tough; please come back to this post when you need a hall pass/permission slip to do your digital marketing YOUR way, not necessarily an “experts” way who has an entire social team behind them.  You are a small business doing what you can marketing wise is better than doing nothing at all. 

Is Posting At A Certain Time On Instagram Relevant For Success

FAQ: What time should I be posting to Instagram?

Answer: Whenever you have the time.

I'd like you to hear me out.

The time you posted actually USED to be a thing, but then a significant world event happened, and we were scrolling at all times.

So...

The time that you POST is NOT more important than

👉 Showing up consistently

👉 Taking the time to create SCROLL-STOPPING Content

👉 Taking care of your IRL priorities

i.e.:

❣️ Running your actual business

❣️ Spending time with loved ones

❣️ Your health <mental & physical>

⏰ The posting time is the tiniest really irrelevant detail in this whole social media marketing thing. ⏰

Sure there are better times, but it's not universal. But you've gotta get down and dirty with your insights and analytics because accounts, like humans, are different.

If you're consistently showing up with good content, which happens when you're taking care of yourself <I've got an honorary Ph.D. in this category because when I don’t take care of myself, it shows in the content>, your audience will show up.

People can smell the burnout of inauthentic posts to post and appease the algorithm through their phone screens. Just so you know. 🤭

But if this answer isn't enough for you, post as early as you can in the day. If you're in a committed relationship with your analytics and insights, find the largest number of your followers> look at the time> and schedule posts 30 minutes to an hour before that.

Bottom line- if you're running your social while wearing all your other business hats, create a posting schedule that aligns with your REAL TIME LIFE because done is better than perfect, and you gotta show up if you wanna be seen.

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!

Social Media And Digital Marketing Work Together; It's Not An Either Or Situation

On Sunday morning, while scrolling through my social feeds, an influencer I follow with 4 million followers on Tik Tok was locked out of her account. I watched her full mental breakdown play out on her Instagram stories on how she will communicate with her audience. “Tik Tok is how I pay my bills.” Is something that she kept saying over and over through her tears. Watching her mental breakdown was heartbreaking and reassuring that when it comes to your business marketing, YOU CAN NOT continue putting all of your “eggs in one basket.”

She gets many bookings and collaborations through her Tik Tok account. TikTok is actually how she made a name for herself, to begin with. Then, go in one Sunday morning to post content and be locked out. It is literally my worst nightmare as a Social Media Manager.

 In one of the final slides of her story, she was begging her followers to say something to Tik Tok and asking for any contacts at Tik Tok to try and make the situation right or at least petition them to turn her account back on.

 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 way you can own the right to communicate with anyone is to have them in your database and email list. I have been encouraging clients and non-clients with any following to build out an opt-in for an email database. Even if they never send a single email (a tale for another time), at least you have a way to communicate with your audience/following should something like this ever happen to you.

 I see you working really 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 if you get locked out of one of your social accounts, you will always have somewhere to begin. 

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 begin to wrap up 2022 and think about 2023, I want to offer a challenge to 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) 

P.S. She did get full access and allowed back into her account, a happy denouement to an emotional conflict.