ep01 - 3 Things Personal Brands Need Before Trying to Grow On Social Media
Jan 13, 2021Welcome to the first episode of Megan’s Social Media Marketing Show.
In this episode, I'll be sharing three things every personal brand or entrepreneur needs before trying to grow their social media following.
If you ever thought to yourself, I'll just start posting stuff on social media and once I get big enough, I'll start selling things or making money, this episode is for you!
That is often the mindset, and it's one way of doing things, but in my opinion, it's the most challenging way, mentally and emotionally.
Watch to find out exactly what you need to avoid those challenges before you grow your social media following.
Mentioned in this episode
Experience this episode in your favorite format
- Watch on YouTube.
- Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.
- Read the transcript below.
Let’s connect on social
Transcript
Hello. Hello. Hello. Today, today I'll be sharing three things. Every personal brand or entrepreneur needs before trying to grow their social media following. Have you ever thought to yourself, I'll just start posting stuff on social media and once I get big enough, I'll start selling things or making money.
You may not have this struggle if you sell physical items, but if you have an e-product or you're a service based business, this is often the mindset. Yes. It's one way of doing things, but in my opinion, it's the most challenging way mentally and emotionally. It's like inviting people to your new home before it has walls.
Have you been to a construction site? Sure. People can visit, but they may not understand what those framing two by fours will eventually hold up and it's not comfortable yet. There was no place to sit down. Don't make your online world like that as well.
Here's how making sales online works. Think of your social posts as the top of a funnel. One of those kitchen funnels, the sales funnel is a common analogy used in online marketing to illustrate how to get your audience from observers to purchasers. There are a bunch of different terms used for these phases, and it's not always a linear path, but there's a basic structure. Here it is. The sales funnel starts with social media at the mouth of the funnel being the largest part.
There are many more people at this stage and your goal here is to peak their interest and lead them further down the funnel. You're inviting them into a deeper relationship with you. This is what I do day in and day out on social media. Social media is the online dating of customer acquisition, where you strive to present your best and most charming self.
As with most first dates, though, this is a very shallow encounter. You're going to break the ice with some jokes, tell some great stories. You'll scare them off. If you leave with a pricing sheet and a list of all your services. Or take advantage of this deal now in all caps, slow down and get to know each other first from the social media stage, you invite them onto your website, newsletter or podcast to give them information that serves them well.
You've told them you have the knowledge to help solve a pain point. They're experiencing, they have a headache. And you happen to have some Advil in your purse now, while you're digging the Advil out, they may decide. Yeah. I like this person and asked to see you more regularly. They may sign up for your email list or request a free download that you're offering.
This is the connection phase. They may hang out here for a while, dating can take a long time. But when the timing is just right, you'll get down on one knee and offer something sparkly. They cannot refuse. They'll say yes to your offer and become a customer. This is a lovely, and the most loyal phase.
You both have stars in your eyes and customers who have made one commitment or most likely to keep buying what you're selling. Notice that we've traveled all the way down the funnel. You have to kiss many frogs to find your Prince among men, and you have to court a lot of interested persons to find the few who are willing to commit.
The general ratio is from a hundred percent of your social media followers. About 10% will follow you to your website or newsletter. And about 1% of those people will become customers. You may be thinking, okay, Megan, I asked what to post on social media and you just went on and on about the difficulty of the dating world.
Right now, get back to the point. I told you all about the sales funnel, because if you're a personal brand, trying to make a living online, you have three things in place. First, a product to sell a website or online store and a content generation vehicle to drive people to the first two. This is your house, this sales funnel.
Are there people who can get away with not having any of these things and make money being an influencer? Yes, but I don't think being Insta famous is why you got into this game. This is why you started your business. So let's not make that the goal of our social media following let's dive into each of these three things.
Shall we. Number one, you need a product to sell. If you make physical products, this part is easy. You probably don't struggle with this point. If you're a blogger, this may make you break out into a cold sweat bloggers writers, DIYers. These types of businesses may not even consider themselves businesses and have a hard time figuring out what their product is or they're going about it all the wrong way.
They may think if I keep publishing these blog posts and enough people find me, I'm going to get sponsorship deals and affiliate partnerships that may happen, but it's not a consistent means of income. And you have little control over when and how those deals come about. way to start generating income is to create a product.
A product could be a physical thing. You sell a merge shop on your website or a downloadable ebook, for example, or it could be a service you provide such as coaching or marketing in my case. Next you need a place to sell that thing. This may sound obvious, but having a website or online store is sometimes a major hurdle for personal brands.
Maybe they're doing a brisk business with their personal contacts and don't see the need to create one, or they don't have the technical ability and talk themselves out of even trying. Trust me, there are many plug and play inexpensive options out there. Even the least tech savvy person among us can sell something online.
There are even services that allow you to create a sales page. No website required. Some examples are Squarespace or Click Funnels is an easy sales page option. If that's still too challenging for you phone a friend or ask your teenage daughter, I bet you. There's someone, you know, who would be ecstatic at the chance to help you succeed.
Our third thing, every personal brand needs before they start growing their social media is a content generation vehicle. You need a blog, a podcast or YouTube channel on which to publish your expert advice. You may be wondering if you could use Instagram as a micro-blogging platform or do weekly Facebook live interviews.
Those are fantastic ways to generate content. However, there's one huge risk you're taking. You don't own those platforms. You are essentially renting space for free on all social media platforms. You have zero control over how long that platform sticks around and if they decide to ditch your favorite streaming feature, you could lose your audience and all your lead generation efforts overnight.
Always a business best practice to diversify your revenue streams. So if one major client decides to jump ship your whole businesses and sunk, this is the same for lead generation. If your social media fails you, you still have a home base you own, you can rebuild on another platform because you still have all your assets.
Saved on your website and hopefully you've built up an email list. So you don't lose all your leads in one fell swoop.
Do you have to have all three of these things in place before you start building your social media presence. No. However, why are you building it? If you don't have anywhere to send them you're in the shallows. And it will probably feel that way shallow and pointless. Being on social media isn't for the faint of heart.
I don't know if you've watched the documentary, the social dilemma, but social media is designed to be addictive and can be corrosive to your mental health. You need to have your goals and mission for being there clearly fixed before you expose yourself to the shallow, you will know your deeper purpose and others will be attracted to it because self-confidence is sexy.
Yes. If there's anything I want you to take away from this episode, folks, it's that having a product website and podcast is sexy. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
