Back to basics with your social media

Today’s episode of the podcast is a gentle reminder of the basics that we should all be getting right with our social media.

There is no judgement or shame in this episode, I know that we all get wrapped up in the day to day of our business, and we get like pulled into different directions that need our attention.

But sometimes you need a reminder to get something done, and this is yours for social media.

Once you've given it a listen, please share it with every business that you know - because what I talk about in this episode still blows my mind that that people aren't doing!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

What consistency should look like in an ideal world
How to proactively engage on your social media
What a call to action is and why it's important

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Check out the Growth Path and Content Hours in my Dream Business Club Membership

Connect with Becci on Instagram or LinkedIn

Connect with Sooz on Instagram or LinkedIn

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Your Dream Business podcast with me, Teresa Heath-Wareing. How are you doing this week? So just a quick reminder, I have changed how I'm doing the podcast. There's no intro and outro. There's no fancy editing clips at the beginning. There's basically just me hitting record on my computer, sat in front of my mic and talking, and I did this purely as a way to simplify the process and my business.

And sometimes I think we need to have lots of processes and systems and people, and sometimes I think it's just good to simplify stuff. So, This is episode 294. Like, wow. Actually, while I'm on that, like I always do something special for like, Episodes a hundred and episode 200, and obviously we are just seven episodes.

That is right. No, six episodes. Can't do maths, off episode 300. And I haven't yet decided what I'm doing. So what would you have for me do on episode 300? Let me know. Drop me a DM, come and find me on your favorite social media platform and let me know what you would like me to do on episode 300. As a heads up episode 100, I was interviewed with my husband with the, by the lovely BizPaul, so he interviewed both of us.

That was quite funny. I enjoyed that episode. Episode 200. Me and my husband...

Today’s episode of the podcast is a gentle reminder of the basics that we should all be getting right with our social media.

There is no judgement or shame in this episode, I know that we all get wrapped up in the day to day of our business, and we get like pulled into different directions that need our attention.

But sometimes you need a reminder to get something done, and this is yours for social media.

Once you've given it a listen, please share it with every business that you know - because what I talk about in this episode still blows my mind that that people aren't doing!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

What consistency should look like in an ideal world
How to proactively engage on your social media
What a call to action is and why it's important

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Check out the Growth Path and Content Hours in my Dream Business Club Membership

Connect with Becci on Instagram or LinkedIn

Connect with Sooz on Instagram or LinkedIn

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Your Dream Business podcast with me, Teresa Heath-Wareing. How are you doing this week? So just a quick reminder, I have changed how I'm doing the podcast. There's no intro and outro. There's no fancy editing clips at the beginning. There's basically just me hitting record on my computer, sat in front of my mic and talking, and I did this purely as a way to simplify the process and my business.

And sometimes I think we need to have lots of processes and systems and people, and sometimes I think it's just good to simplify stuff. So, This is episode 294. Like, wow. Actually, while I'm on that, like I always do something special for like, Episodes a hundred and episode 200, and obviously we are just seven episodes.

That is right. No, six episodes. Can't do maths, off episode 300. And I haven't yet decided what I'm doing. So what would you have for me do on episode 300? Let me know. Drop me a DM, come and find me on your favorite social media platform and let me know what you would like me to do on episode 300. As a heads up episode 100, I was interviewed with my husband with the, by the lovely BizPaul, so he interviewed both of us.

That was quite funny. I enjoyed that episode. Episode 200. Me and my husband just chatted. Um, and it's funny, right, because no offense to my husband, I love him dearly, but back in the day he was in my business a whole lot more. And when he was in the military and then he retired from the military, so he basically worked in my business, whereas now he has a real job.

Not that the military wasn't a real job, it was more than a real job. But he now has a job that he works 9 to 5, 5 days a week type thing, and then he goes away and like, so actually he does very little in the business anymore. So no offense to my husband, but I don't think he'll have much to add if I invite him on for episode 300.

Anyway, let me know. I'd love to hear, uh, your thoughts in terms of what could make an interesting and different episode. Okay. This week is gonna be a good one. It's a very simple one. It's one that I want you to share with every business that you know, because what I'm gonna talk about still blows my mind that people aren't doing. Okay.

So we're gonna be talking about social media and I know what's gonna happen the minute I say this. Becci, who does my show notes, who also does our social media and is my content expert in the club, she's multi-talented. She's just basically excellent around all things content, is gonna listen to this thinking, hang on a minute, like you have me come and help you with social media.

So I am not sat here pretending I am the social media queen. Maybe I used to be, and I did. I used to spend, in fact, when I first started out, it was all social media and all I spoke on was social media. And now I, uh, have moved into the business and mindset side, but there is still a fair bit I know, although I would say Becci knows way more than me, so I'm gonna make sure Becci tags herself and puts her own links into the show notes.

But I wanna talk about some basics because it still blows me away that sometimes people aren't doing the basics and it's not through any judgment, right? I'm not sat here going, oh God, I can't believe you lot haven't got this already. That is not the case. The case is, we are so busy doing our thing that sometimes we need reminding.

Sometimes we need someone to go back to the basics and go "Don't forget to do this." Like I said, there is never any judgment here. There is no shame. I know you. I know you listening to this beat yourself around the head enough, more than anybody else needs to. So you are not gonna have me come and beat you around the head for something that you haven't done.

I'm gonna come here as your friend and give you a gentle reminder that sometimes it's good to just remind ourselves of the basics and make sure we're doing them, because in the day-to-day things, we get wrapped up and we get like pulled into different directions that sometimes this, sometimes you need a reminder and this is yours.

And like I said, I want you to share this with your friends, with your business friends, cuz maybe they need this reminder too. I think everyone needs to listen to this, everyone who has a business. So the first thing I wanna say about social media, this is where my, uh, lovely Becci holds a breath. Like, what's she gonna say?

So, We have a pathway in the club and it's an excellent pathway, even if I do say so myself. And it's something that the club members can work on on their own time, in their own speed. But basically, I took the last eight years that I was in business, I've now been in about 9, almost 10 years.

And I worked out the steps that I took to go from just starting with no one and earning no money to where I am today in terms of, or maybe you know, specifically where I was when I had the agency. I don't know actually where I am today, but taking my business from zero to six figures and taking my team from zero to what would've been, I think six of us at the most, no, seven of us at at the most.

And then we've slimmed down again for various reasons, but. It's basically taking you through all those steps and it takes you through different subject areas. So social media is one of them, content is another, um, community, which we look at as kind of audience is another, um, team is another, I'm trying to think off the top of my head now.

Sales obviously very important and emails, so I kind of picked the six main areas of business and I very carefully and slowly take you through those steps. And when you get that step done, you move on to the next step. And when you get that step done, you move on to the next step. So basically, I'm teaching you to do the things that you need to do before you move on to the next thing.

So for instance, if someone comes to me and they say, Teresa, should I be doing reels for my business? And reels are obviously those short form videos in Instagram. Well, first off, I shouldn't just answer that yes or no. I would come back with many questions, but one of the main things I'd want to know is are you showing up consistently at all?

Are you doing anything on Instagram? Because if you are not yet able to post consistently on Instagram, then why am I going to try and give you something else to do that the likelihood is you're not going to do because you haven't been able to do those other things first. So that's where it's come into the business, and that's where I've learned that actually, again, there's no point in me saying have a sales funnel in your emails if you haven't got an email list.

So even though I am absolutely all about, there is not a one size fits all, there is a natural progression to certain things. So what I'm talking to you about today is, Basically step one of social media in the pathway. So one of the things I talk about is consistency over constantly. Okay. Social media is not about constantly posting.

It's not about showing up every single day and putting a post up every single day. I want you to be consistent. I don't want you to be constantly posting. So consistency for me looks like in an ideal world, and I say ideal world cuz I know this isn't the case for everybody and that's fine. In an ideal world, I'd like you to be posting three to four times a week.

And in order to do that, I give you three to four things up to post a week. I give you three to four suggestions, and I will go through those in a second. But the other thing I talk about here is one showing up consistently. And if consistently looks like twice a week for you, then that's fine. Just make sure you do it twice a week.

What I don't want and what the algorithm doesn't want, and what you don't want are your audience watching you don't want is suddenly one week, five posts, two weeks, nothing. I want that slow consistency. That's what I want. And then it's like a muscle. It's like we're building it up. When you get used to posting two to three times a week, three to four times a week, then you can start to build it up when you are confident creating content that is maybe just an image and some text.

Then you can start to build up to maybe chucking a video or maybe throwing a gif. So that's the other point. I don't want you trying to do all the things. Now I know. And. I feel like I should have Becci on talking about this, but I feel like the episode would be about two hours long, if not longer. Um, but if you are in my club, then come and join Becci on a a content hour cuz she's brilliant and she will give you all the information.

But we know that reels are good. We know that going live helps. We know that interesting video content is good. However, again, if you can't post consistently two or three times a week, then, there's no way with all the love in the world that you are going to check out a reel every week. I don't do a reel.

I hate doing reels. I am on, on camera pretty much most days. I am on stories most days, but for some reason I can't do my head, I can't get my head around the reel thing. I know what to do, I just don't wanna do it. Um, there's a real mindset thing somewhere, and we probably need to journal it out, as my husband would say.

Um, but there's no point asking you to do something huge if we can't get some of these basic things in in place. So, This is all I'm asking you to do. If you are not posting consistently, and this is what I say in step one of the pathway, if you are not posting consistently, I want you to attempt to post three to four times a week.

And the three to four things that you post a week are I want you to educate someone, okay? So I want you to show someone how you are the expert, because we need to know, you know, what you're talking about. The next thing I want you to do is I want you to think about how you can entertain someone. Now, the entertain point is really important because we're on social media.

Now I've seen social media posts, and actually, let me just go back a minute and tell you what spurred this. I was doing some proactive work in my Instagram, which I do, which we should all do unless you're massive like Jasmine Starr, and I think you're probably fine. But I do some proactive work where I go and look at other people's accounts.

I go and like their posts, I go and comment on them, and it's all very genuine. It's not spammy. I'm not doing the follow on follow thing. I am genuinely looking for people who fit with my world or businesses that I'm interested in. And then I go and comment on this stuff and I like their stuff. And basically I was looking at some small business accounts and it flipping blew me away, like.

That they hadn't posted for ages or the posts that they put were all sales posts and not even like disguised sales posts, i e a picture of something, a conversation. And then, oh, and by the way, they were like, boom, here's what I do. Buy it. Boom. Here's what I do. Buy it. Boom. Here's what I do. Buy it. And then you had the complete opposite where it was like, here's a picture of me walking a dog.

Here's a picture of a cup of coffee. Here's a picture of me like, I don't know what, and they didn't, I didn't know what they did. Like I literally then had to like do a bit of digging to try and get an idea of what their business was. So the idea of these things is, like I said, that we cover off the basics.

So like I said, let me go back to my points. I just wanna say this is what split this whole episode. So educate them, prove to me you know what you're talking about. Prove to me that you can do the job that you do. So this could be a tip, this could be sharing a blog post you've written. This could be sharing for me my podcast, cuz again, I can't do my job if, you know, like, doing this many episodes of the podcast would have to be a hell of a fluke if I didn't know what I was talking about.

So more than a fluke. Um, so I obviously you can be the decider of this, but I obviously know what I'm talking about cuz I can do this many episodes of the podcast. So the educate piece needs to show me that you know what you're talking about and that you're an expert in your field. The entertain piece is because it's social media, it's not me looking at your website.

You are being mixed with all my personal stuff. You are being mixed with the funny reels of dogs doing things. Fyi. That's all my husband ever sends me. Golden retrievers. We love golden retrievers. We don't have one. And I have said to him, you've gotta stop sending me videos of beautiful golden retrievers, or we're gonna have to get one.

Um, but like that's the whole point. It's meant to entertain us. It's social media, and then we have the call to action. Okay, so the call to action is like the who you are, what you do, and how someone can buy from you. So again, Becci was having a conversation the other day with one of my members and, and she said, with love, with all due respect, you've not told me on your social media what you do.

I don't know what services you offer or how I work with you, and in all, Respect to my amazing member. Uh, she went off and did it straight off the bat. In fact, I'm just gonna call her out because she's ace and she won't mind. Um, but her name is Sooz and she's a copywriter, and Becci will make sure she links up to her in the show notes.

So, The amazing Sooz has done some beautiful content, and to be fair, she, she's had a new business. So like I said, it is all with respect that I bring her her example up. But the minute Becci said, you need a post that says this. She put the most amazing post up and it literally said, this is how you can work with me.

So sometimes we just need that reminder of, oh, we haven't done that and I need that reminder. And Becci needs that reminder. It's not that we're sat here up on our throne going. Like you fools, you dunno what you're doing. That's not the case. It's just a reminder. So we need that call to action. We need to tell people what we actually do and how they can buy from us.

So you will see posts that have gone up in the last few weeks from me about come and join my event, which by the time you're listening to this has already happened. Uh, no it's not, it's happening this week. Uh, so if you listen to this on Monday, there might still be a chance to get a ticket, but like, You know, come and join my event.

Come and join the insider experience. I have a club. Come and join my club because I have to tell you, this is how you can work with me because you might be listening to this thinking, Teresa, I love you. You're amazing. How do I get more of you? Um, you might go, this is quite enough. Thanks. Um, but either way, I need to make sure I tell you, you will see us in the future talking more and more about the one-to-one work I do and more about the coaching stuff I do.

So we need to make sure we say that, but we can't just go, this is how you buy from me. This is what I do. We need that mix of entertainment, education and a call to action. And then the fourth thing is asking a question. And the reason we check in asking, or the reason I've checked in asking a question there is because you need that all important engagement.

You need people responding. You need conversations happening or otherwise people aren't going to see your stuff. The algorithm works in a way that basically the more someone interacts with your account and your posts, the more it'll show your stuff. So if no one is commenting and no one is liking and no one is doing anything on your posts, that's going to be difficult.

So asking questions, encouraging that interaction is super, super important. Now, if I was smart, I'd have come up with like a really nice kind of, what's the word? Um, not analogy, no, not euphemism. What is it called? You're shouting at me now telling me what it's called. Like when you have a word that covers these all off.

Anyway, I can't think of what it's called right now. Um, but yeah, but I haven't, so we're just gonna go with, educate them, entertain them, call them to action and ask them a question. So those are my points. Firstly, consistency over constantly. Secondly, I feel like I've stole that from somewhere, fyi. Um, probably Becci.

Um, second one is you don't need to do everything. So if you're not even putting an image up, then why try and do a reel or a live or something like that. That might be even more out of your comfort zone. If it's not, if you feel like actually lives would be so much easier for me, then great. Do lives, but start small.

Don't feel like you have to do the big stuff. And then, The third thing is when you're posting those three to four things a week, try and educate them in one, try and entertain them in another. And when I say entertain, I mean things like, you know, could be a funny quote, could be something personal, could be a story.

And then that call to action. So educate, entertain, call to action where you tell people who you are and what you do. And then that final one of a question. Trying to get that one important engagement. Now obviously if...