Why Isn’t Social Media Working for You?

Your Dream Business

English - March 09, 2020 00:00 - 28 minutes - 53.1 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: The Power of Starting a Podcast with Mark Asquith

Next Episode: How LinkedIn Can Benefit You As A Business with John Espirian

This week’s episode is a solo episode, focussing on why social media isn’t working for you. Having worked in the crazy world of social media for a number of years, I have seen so many tips and tricks being passed around that may not necessarily help your business grow. Social media is something everyone feels like they have to do it and as the results are often disappointing, it’s important to know where you might be going wrong.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCASTWhen it comes to networking, the chances of getting a customer on day one is pretty slim. You have to build a relationship and nurture it before they may come to you for your services. With social media, you skip this ‘relationship building’ section. You post and instantly expect customers.At some point, someone will start listening to you and wanting to see more. It will take time, so have patience.You need to know your customer avatar before you can think about posting on social media. If you’re targeting the wrong people with your posts, you’re not going to attract the right customer.Using your social media to sell, sell, sell is a bad idea. You also need to entertain and add value.Ensuring you’re not posting dull content is important, yet difficult. If someone comes to your account and sees terrible photos and lazy captions, they’re probably not going to follow you.You need to think about whether you’re posting what your customers want to see or what you want to say.Sometimes you do have to post ‘tick in the box’ content.Only do what you can manage and build your consistency level for yourself.Don’t sign up to every platform. You need to choose the platforms your customers as most likely going to be on.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Although you may feel as though people are much further ahead of you when it comes to social media, it’s important to think about where you are and how important it is to you. For some, it comes easier and much more naturally and that’s okay.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISSReason #1: People Expect Results Too Fast – 09:00Reason #2: You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking Too – 14:40Reason #3: Don’t Continually Use Social Media to Sell - 17:58Reason #4: Your Social Media Might Not Be That Interested - 20:30Reason #5: You’re Not Being Consistent – 25:09
Transcript below

Hello. Hello. Welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you? You know it's funny when I do the intros because when Biz Paul interviewed Paul and I for episode 100, he said that he wanted to get a hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode cause apparently I say that all the time. So I think basically now unconsciously I try really hard not to say it but anyway, so today started off weird cause I was pretty conscious of it and doing a full few hours of podcast batching today and I'm having real trouble speaking. Do you ever get like that where your brain just does not kick into gear with your mouth, which is really difficult for someone like me who basically has my whole business based on the fact that I talk so much. So yeah, it's a bit kind of like awkward and I keep them to stop the podcast recording to delete something stupid that I've just said or delete a kind of massive gap of, I don't know what I'm talking about right now.

So anyway, fingers crossed the eyes start getting into the flow a little bit cause it does take time. It takes, I don't know, probably a good sort of 20 minutes to get into the habit of recording a podcast. So I tend to do like an intro and outro to a guest one and then I record a solo one. Then if I get chance I do another guest one and another solar one and there's kind of four in the bag at once, which is ACE. But like I said, it takes a little while to get into it and it's a certain way of thinking and a way of not being. That sounds a bit deep, but it's, um, I don't know. It's just, it's just like a skill that you have to get used to is, I guess it's like writing, if you write that, you might take a little while to get into, but once you're into it, it's like absolutely easy.

So that does tend to happen. So fingers crossed that's the case. And I managed to sort out my brain fog and inability to speak, which obviously it doesn't sound like I've managed it yet anyway. So today's episode is a solo one. We had a lovely episode last week with Mark Asquith, which is great. When he enjoyed that, he was good fun. This week we're talking about why isn't social media working for you now? I work in this crazy world of social media and digital marketing and marketing and I see so much stuff like that. I see so much, I don't know, tips and tools and advice and strategy and absolute rubbish around social media about what it can do for your business and how you can make money. So I don't know about you, but I tend to listen to a fair bit of music on YouTube and I get served ads all the time and these ads are constantly like find out how I just earned 10 million in two minutes on Facebook ads.

And it's like, it's no wonder, but we look at social media and think, am I doing something wrong? Is there some magic trick that no one's ever told me about? That means it works brilliantly for my business or am I doing it right? In fact, I was at a conference a little while back and this guy who was speaking on stage put this quote up, which I thought was the best thing I've ever heard to describe how business owners feel about social media or how social media feels. Okay. So the quote is, social media is like teen sex. Stay with me. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. And when it's finally done, there's a surprise. It's not better. I mean, I just thought that was absolutely brilliant and so true. Like, honestly, we were all like, we have to do it, we have to do it, we do it. We're not sure. You know, we fumbled our way through it. We're talking about the social media and not the teen sex. Um, and then basically we do it and we're like, is that it? Like where's all the amazing stuff? Where's my massive business? Because I've done a Facebook Live or I did an ad or I do Insta stories. So I want to talk a bit about why it might not be working for you and just as always give you kind of some honest truths about this world and managing social media for yourself and your business. Because the other thing is, like I said, I see one side of the world that is very much based of teaching and training and experts and social media is amazing and everyone should be doing it. And this is how you do it. And then through the Academy, I work with business owners all the time who are trying to manage social media, but they're trying to manage a million other things.

They're trying to manage their actual business. You know the thing they physically do. So whether it's making something, whether it's producing something, whether it's, you know, coming up with an idea or whether it's a service and then they're trying to do the finance, they're trying to do the marketing, they're trying to get good on social media, they're trying to schedule their content every week. They're trying to work out their SEO or their Facebook ads or whatever it might be. And then that's within the hours that they have for their business. And then what they're trying to do is run a haze, look after children, be a husband, be a wife, take the flipping dogs for a walk the other morning. And I don't want to turn this into a moaning session, but the other morning as you know, I'd get up and I do a morning routine. I get up very early, non-bank, five o'clock in the morning and because I have a busy day and I have children and dogs and whatever, whatever.

So to make sure that I can do my morning routine. I get up early in order to do it before I then have to get else up and my husband works away. So obviously it's down to me and I get up there in the morning to do my morning routine and start my day to make it all super positive and lovely. And I go downstairs and then I know just be the dogs burst and then I will get on with my day. My first two hours were hijacked with an ill dog. I swear to goodness I can cope. I used to be a nurse nurse many, many, many, many years ago and obviously I've had children so I've cleaned up second poo in my time, but Oh my goodness. Like I'm not built for looking after dogs. I was not very well doing this. It was not very nice.

Anyway, I didn't mean to come on here talking about that, but it's just the fact that we've got other things going on all the time. So I know social media is one tiny part of it and therefore I want to be realistic with you. And I want to be honest with you because I think sometimes what we do, we give ourselves such a hard time about, I've got to be better. I've got to do this, I've got to do that. And then you've got, let's take an Instagram expert telling you that you've got to do Instagram and it's becomes the way to go and this is how you should do it and should do stories and you should post every day and whatever. And then they're just running a business, telling people how to use Instagram. So do you know what if that's your business and you just talk about Instagram or one ACE, great, but two, of course you can put all that stuff into Instagram.

Of course you can post everyday. Of course you can do stories. Of course you can come up with creative ideas every day and amazing captions and all this sort of thing. So I want you to know that I hear you. I hear what it's like to do this because I've done it and I'm doing it. You know, I run my business, I do my own social media. Granted it can, I don't know, maybe come a lot easier to me cause this is what I do all day every day. And obviously this is part of my business, Burt, I run a home, I look at a talk, I look after children, I have to cook them dinner, I have to do the school run, I have to do all those things and we're busy. So I just wanted to say that to say I try and be so realistic with you.

I'd try and give you such a, an honest and straightforward approach to it. And this is what this episode is about really so that you're not sat there feeling like you're doing something wrong or beating yourself up for not succeeding at this magical thing that is social media. But to kind of just give you a bit of grace and just give you a few reasons why a, it might not be working for you as well as you would like and be to kind of realise the, the reality of it, if you like. So anyway, I hope that didn't sound too negative. It's, this episode is certainly not meant to be negative. It's just, like I said, sometimes I feel like we sit there and think, what are we doing wrong? Why is everybody else succeeding at this? And we're not. And that's not the case at all.

Reason #1: People Expect Results Too Fast

Okay, so let's get started. So the first reason why I think that social media doesn't work for some people or isn't working as well for some people is that they expect results too fast. Okay. So what I want to do is take you back to when you started your business and maybe you started your business before social media was a really big thing. Or maybe that wasn't the first thing you did and you went business networking. I'm sure we've all done it. Those horrible bacon sandwiches and a really early morning meeting where everyone's looking like they could just have done with an extra hour in bed and you're forced in a room to talk to people. So you go to networking and let's say I walk in and, and I start chatting to someone and get introduced. This is Jeff. I say, hi Jeff. Hey dude. And we start chatting.

Jeff, what do you do? And he tells me and I, and Jeff says, what do you do? And I tell him, and he said, well, that sounds good, you know, to come here often. Wow, it's my first time, blah blah blah blah blah. And you start having this conversation, you and Jeff, and then what happens is you will start the networking and you stand up and do your 60 seconds and tell everybody why you're amazing. Jeff stands up and does his 60 seconds and then we go home. Okay. And that's it. We've met Jeff for the first time and he knows what we do and I know what he does. So then we go again the following week and we see Jeff, Hey Jeff, how's your week been? You know, did you manage to, you know, sort whatever it was from whatever the conversation was before you remembered something about him.

And you're having this conversation with Jeff and his that has worked. Yeah, good. I've been doing this new thing. I, you know, just find out this, I've done this. And you start chatting to him and then over time, you know, you and Jeff get on really well and you're having these conversations at networking. And then one day Jeff goes hard. You know what? I have trouble with my social media. You know, I'm not, I wasn't sure whether to do this or this. And I might say, Oh Jeff, Janine, what? I wrote a blog post on it, or I did a podcast on it. If you go here, it'll tell you what you need to know. And he might be like, Oh, amazing man stories. That's awesome. Anyway, so then a couple more weeks go by and then Jeff might say, I'm still having that problem. And then I might say, because now I know Jeff, I know his business, I know what he does, I know where his kids go to school, what he does on a weekend.

Because I've got to know all this stuff about Jeffers. I've been networking. And then eventually I might say, do you know what Jeff, you know, if you want me to help, we can, I can do this or this or this and given my services. And then Jeff might go, yeah, do you know what? That's awesome. Could you come and help? And there we go. I've got a customer. So that's old school networking. That's how that happened because none of us walked into networking on day one and suddenly got a customer like that, did we? So then we get to social media and basically we skip like pretty much every single step that I've just talked through. We put up a post saying by our staff and we're amazed that no one wants to buy it. And it's like, well they don't know who you are for starters.

And then they haven't built a relationship with you. And then they don't know that you know them and then they don't know anything personal about your something to have a conversation that isn't necessarily just word. And then they haven't just been reminded of something, a way in which you can be helpful through maybe a lead magnet or adding value or a recommendation of a blog post or a podcast. And then they haven't had the conversation where you've identified a need and how you meet that need and then you make an offer. So people are skipping that whole middle section and then not sure how to manage that. They're not sure how to do that. So what's happening is people are going onto social media, they're posting stuff and going, why aren't people buying my stuff? Why aren't people clicking on it? Well, it's because they don't know who you are and you don't know who they are and you haven't built that relationship so often.

I find that people, especially when we have the agency and clients and things, you know, they would very much kind of say when we manage their social media, you know, Oh, after a month it's not working. And it's like in my head I used to sit there and think come back in 12 months and tell me it's not working cause it takes time. And I know it feels like I'm exhausted with trying to do that and I haven't got the time, energy or money or whatever to put into that. And, and that set decision that we have to think about. That's the decision that we have to make. Personally for me, I would say that social media is a great opportunity for businesses cause there is, you know, you can do it for free. It is barely accessible. You don't necessarily need to know about copywriting or design or whatever it might be.

And you can interact with your audience. But like I said, I think what we do is we forget that there's a whole section in between about nurturing and loving and whatever. And again, there's another great quote that was something like, Oh God, I can't remember it now, but it's something like we don't pick the fruit the day we plant the seed. And I think that's the thing. We, we feel like we're not doing anything or we feel like it's not doing anything because we're putting the content out there, tumbleweed content out there, tumbleweed content, they're tumbleweed. But at some point, and I can't tell you whether that's in two weeks, two months or two years, I'm afraid because no one can, but at some point someone will start listening and they will start following you and wanting to see more. But it takes time. So don't beat yourself up if you're thinking, I haven't done this and I haven't, you know, done it very long or doesn't seem to be getting a reaction and people don't seem to be following my page or liking my stuff.

It does take time. And obviously the other thing that you can do is, you know, ask, ask someone like me, you know, come and join the Academy. Come on a coaching call and say, Theresa, this is my social media. What am I doing wrong? Because I'm not getting that interaction. And I might look at it and go, do you know what? It's great. Just keep doing it. It just hasn't quite hit home yet. Or here's some proactive stuff you can do to reach out or I might say Genoa, you'll probably want to tweak this, this and this and this. So obviously try and get some good advice where you can, but in all honesty it might just be time. Okay.

Reason #2: You Don’t Know Who You’re Talking Too

Next reason why it might not be working is you don't know who you're talking to. Now I know I go on about this a lot.

Avatar is so very important, but if you're sat there thinking I think my customers, this customer and your, so I'm going to use a really extreme example. Let's say I think my customer is a 40 year old mum, married and therefore I create all my content aimed at a 40 year old woman who's married with children and I talk about, you know what it's like to try and clean the dog poo up while the kids are coming in and wanting the breakfast and I've got to do the school run and all these kinds of things that those women might relate to me about or I might put stuff up about. Like I said, managing children, managing a house, doing things. And actually what if my customers are a 20 year old young lad? Like I told you extreme one extreme to the other. But what if it was, what if that was my customer and all my content is going, Oh what's it like doing a school run?

Hey and these lads are like, I would have no idea or you know, talking about that, how your product or service fits in with the active, you know, saves your time so you can get dinner on the table or whatever. Got that sense of really stereotypical, um, that all the mums just do this and that. Dads don't, and I don't mean to sound like that unfortunately that the case in my house currently. But um, cause my children want to be fed, it's really irritating. Like every day I don't even like not even a day goes by where they don't want to be fed. It's really odd. So where if they could just like maybe go every other dad get a lot more done joking. I do feed my children every day, even under duress. Okay. He's so, like I said, if I was aiming all my content at mums and children and running houses and juggling life and being busy and what it's like to be a 40 year old woman than my, you know, young lad type audience will not relate with it in the slightest.

So even if I have the best design, the best copywriting, the best beautiful