I have been working with many business owners and doing marketing for them and I have seen a lot of common things I should bring to everyone’s attention. This is meant to teach people what to do and not to do in order to succeed in the social media world.

1. Boost Posts

There is no particular order to this list but this is the #1 mistake I see people making in there business is that they think they are advertising there business by boosting there posts. This is a false way of advertising your business because

For those of you who don’t know what boosting a post vs a Facebook ad… Here it is!!

Facebook ads tend to have a bigger immediate impact and translate directly to campaign goals, like lead captures, app installations, and sales.

Boosted posts will allow you to build your brand’s reach and fan base, while ads can help you translate your brand’s presence into tangible outcomes.

Just to be clear, one is not better than the other. There is a time and a place for each use, like using a different tool for the job… You don’t always want to use a hammer, sometimes you will need a wrench.

2. Sticking to ONE MEDIA

A lot of talk is going on about how video is “King” and it is. How often do you find yourself on a webpage just searching for the video to explain what the website is all about? The only problem is that people forget about everything else, especially on social media and they only post videos. On the contrary, there are people afraid of posting/making video and need to post more video.

Where do you fall in?

Everyone should cover basis on the media they post video, pictures, meme’s, and write. Start doing a podcast for your business, you have so many options for your business.

3. Posting About One Subject

All they post about is selling there product/service. This is something I see people doing who have really small businesses/MLM business who manage there own social media and business at the same time!

Social Media is a commitment and can be a time waster if you get distracted on it. When all you do is focus on sales then that will be the LAST thing you will get.

Post variety in your social media that you choose, try something fun like hosting a party and create an event for people to subscribe to. Even try inviting people to see what you do on a daily basis and how your product helps without being too sales-y.

4. Boring Content

Just like posting about the same subject which is very annoying and comes across as spam posting boring content is useless!

What is boring content? Boring content is when there is no purpose to your post. For example, when people talk about themselves and why they are the best or why there product/service is the best. Nobody cares until you care about them, show your audience you care.

Another example is when you re-post content from other sources. It’s okay to share something you saw on another website that you thought was great or helpful, but if that’s a majority of what your page does then you probably won’t get too far with your marketing.

A hint that your content might be boring is if no one is liking or sharing what you post about.

5 Tips to how can you make a topic interesting… 

1. Open with a question that will pull readers in
2. Catch them off guard or make them think
3. Tell a story
4. Connect your topic to current events or trends
5. Inject humor
6. Add controversy

5. Facebook Live

Many people get nervous when going Facebook live because it’s not like a video you can delete it if you mess up or can’t think of what to say. It’s intimidating!!! So most don’t do it, but I guarantee you that if you do Facebook Live 10 times within 2 weeks then you will get better at it.

The advantage here is if you start doing it you will get better, it’s not about doing Facebook Live perfectly and being an expert at it. No one is, it’s mainly about being entertaining and engaging to your audience. People will stick along no matter how long your Live video is as long as it entertains them.

6. No Sales Funnel

If you are selling any product (physical/information) or a service then you need to have a sales funnel. You may be asking “why?” or saying “Your Wrong” but the truth is sales funnels help you find that perfect customer/client that you are looking for while getting them to believe in what you do or what your selling.

The trick is finding a small audience and being an expert to that group and you need to niche down on who your audience is. For example, if you are a dentist who specializes in doing teeth implants for senior citizens. Another example, if you are a coffee shop that sells coffee to college students who like rock music in your local city.

Once you become the expert or “go to” person in your market for your product/service then you can grow, but it starts with picking a niche. When you collect leads you need to capture a name, email, and cell phone number. Those are extremely important no matter what niche you are going after.

7. Website is NOT Mobile Optimized

There is a lot of talk of mobile friendly website, mobile optimized, and mobile responsive designs. Let’s define them before getting started…

Mobile friendly – Refers to a site that displays accurately between your desktop/laptop computer and a mobile device such as a handheld phone or tablets. While it will appear smaller on a phone and may not work perfectly on a touchscreen tablet, a mobile friendly website will be perfectly functional. Many developers view mobile friendly as a “best practice” for all website developments. Which is not good for the end user, it’s just plain laziness.

Mobile optimized – This is a more advanced website. Mobile optimized means that the site will reformat itself for a list of handheld or tablet devices. Larger navigation buttons, reformatted content, and differently optimized images appear when the user is on an iPhone or other device.

Responsive design – This is a method of developing a website that is completely adaptable regardless of the device you are using. Rather than detecting a specific browser type or device type, the website automatically orientates itself based on the screen size of the device. A combination of reformatting and re-optimizing the site in order to give the best user experience.

Now that you know there is a difference, let’s face the facts; more and more people everyday are using a cell phone. With that being said you need to make sure your website looks good on a mobile device! People are browsing the internet more on a tablet/cell phone more than a computer.

If someone visits your website and it is NOT mobile responsive then people may not choose to do business with you or think you’re out of business.

8. Direct Messaging People

Warning, you need to have a plan before you DM someone. If you are not direct messaging people to get your name out to someone with a much large audience than you then you are not using social media to your advantage. I am not saying to go out there and try to spam everyone or get them to buy your product, that’s a good way to get blocked because you’re going about it the wrong way.

If you’re looking to market your product, then find an influencer. Someone who has an audience of minimum of 5,000 followers. Let him/her know that you love there social media page and that you will give them your product/service for free. Do that to 10 influencers a day and you will find that 1-2 will post about the freebie you gave them and there audience will see it and visit your page!

Don’t demand for them to post about your product, simply ASK them to share and reward them. Don’t do a “this for that” “share for a share” it looks like some kind of contract or agreement you had, that looks fake.

9. They Don’t Have a Database of Contacts

This is an absolute MUST in today’s world! If you are a business owner, you should have some type of database of prospects/customers in your contacts. With that database I hope you are communicating with them on a daily basis and reminding them who you are. Yes you need to email/communicate with them on a daily basis because we live in a world with too many “shiny” objects and companies saying they have the hottest new hack out there.

If you have earned that customers trust and business in the past then make sure you stay in front of your customers mind. Make sure you are cleaver and make your email fun to read, tell your customers something silly like “Hello my fine feathered friend” something that gets their attention away from what they are presently doing which is checking there emails so they do have a minute to look at what you sent them.

I can dive really deep into this one, I would say that emailing your customers is the least utilized tool by most small business owners. Don’t try it once and say “it didn’t work for me” try it atleast 10 times in the next 2 weeks, average about 1 per day.

10. They Don’t Know / Track Who There Audience Is

This is a learning course in this topic alone, there is a lot that goes into finding your audience. If you are just beginning to find your audience or starting over then write your content or market like you are speaking to one person. Create an avatar in your mind of who you are looking for and be very specific on gender, relationship status, age, kids/no kids, favorite sport, pets, home life, job, finances, and that avatars life.

If you have an audience already then you can tract them in one of many ways…

Google Analytics: All users remain anonymous and contribute to the collective data. Any demographic or socioeconomic data around those users comes from what Google knows about them.

Facebook Audience Insights: Similar to Google, all users remain anonymous and contribute to the collective data. Also, any demographic or socioeconomic data around those users comes from what Facebook knows about them. Facebook knows everyone’s interests, groups they like, music, movies, and so much more.

Marketing automation: When users fill out a form on your website, that individuals information goes directly into your marketing automation funnel. It puts there name with social profiles and possibly a face with your database. Now, you can track how this individual interacts with every aspect of your marketing from first to last touch, which are primarily top-of-funnel activities. In addition, marketing automation platforms go beyond your website to incorporate your emails and social media content, too.

CRM: This software typically is connected to the sales team. It also is used to track the individual prospect through the sales process but typically focuses on activity in the middle and bottom of the funnel.

Lastly, you can connect your marketing automation tools to the most popular CRMs. Some of the popular CRMs are Salesforce, hubspot, and insightly. Integrating the two enables sales and marketing teams to better communicate. They can see all the data available that helps complete a sale, which helps them understand which leads are good (and why).

*Bonus Tip! – Creating a second personal profile for there business

DO NOT create a second Facebook personal account for your business. I repeat. DO NOT create a second Facebook personal account for your business. This is because there is a “business page” designed specifically for your business on Facebook. I see this way too many times and they think it’s a better way because you can request many people to be your friend rather than getting someone to “Like” your page (although the concept is still the same)

Friend vs Like. The only difference is that Facebook limits (limit at 5,000) how many friends you can have on your personal Facebook, a business page can have unlimited “Likes”

Having 2 personal Facebook accounts that either have your name or are linked back to you is way too confusing and the 2nd Facebook account usually looks like a fraud or spam account.

 

Thank you for reading,

Justin Larson

Green Forest Marketing