What is an algorithm, and how do social media algorithms work? If you are using social media to market your small business, you need to understand social media algorithms. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, this episode will teach you what you need to know.

SHOW NOTES: www.JillWFox.com/podcast

 

https://DarkHorseSchooling.com

In this episode, host Tracy Brinkmann discusses the importance of social media for digital entrepreneurs. He highlights the billions of users worldwide, providing unique opportunities to reach target audiences, build brand awareness, and drive engagement. Tracy offers tips and strategies for creating engaging content, building a following, and measuring results.

Tracy emphasizes the crucial role social media marketing plays in a successful digital marketing strategy and provides helpful insights for beginners. Overall, the conversation aims to help entrepreneurs, coaches, and course creators build a business online by leveraging the power of social media.

Tracy discusses the importance of social media marketing in a digital marketing strategy. He advises listeners to choose the right platforms based on their target audience and the type of content they need to create, and to create engaging content that adds value to their audience. Leveraging the power of influencers is another key point, as it can help businesses reach new audiences and drive traffic to their website. Paid social media advertising is also recommended as an effective way to generate leads and sales, and engaging with the audience is essential for building a loyal following. The host emphasizes the importance of measuring the results of social media marketing campaigns and making adjustments as needed. By implementing a strategic approach that includes these key points, businesses can create a powerful social media strategy that promotes their brand and drives engagement. 

 

Choosing the right social media platform is essential for reaching a target audience and promoting a brand effectively. Factors to consider when selecting a platform include the target audience, type of content, business goals, and competition. Different platforms attract different age groups, demographics, and interests. Instagram is popular amongst younger audiences, while LinkedIn is popular amongst more professional folks. Certain platforms are more visually focused on images and videos, while others are more text-based. Businesses should also consider their competition when it comes to choosing social media platforms. Facebook is great for building a loyal following and promoting a brand through targeted ads, while Instagram is ideal for showcasing products or services through images and videos. Ultimately, picking the right platform for a business's target audience will make building an audience a whole lot easier.

 

The importance of choosing the right social media platform and creating engaging content for businesses was discussed in a recent podcast. Twitter was identified as a more tech-savvy platform, popular among professionals and journalists, while LinkedIn is a professional networking platform used by job seekers and sales professionals to promote their brand. Choosing the right platform can be critical to reaching the target audience and achieving business goals. It is also important to consider the type of content that the target audience wants to see and ensure that it is engaging to drive engagement on social media. Once engagement is established, more people will be exposed to the content. The speakers emphasized that while TikTok is a popular platform, it may not be the best choice for all businesses, and it is important to consider the target audience and their reasons for using a particular platform. Overall, businesses can benefit from considering their target audience, the type of content they want to create, and their competition when choosing the right social media platform and creating engaging content.

By choosing the right platforms, by creating engaging content, by leveraging the power of influencers, by using paid advertising, by engaging with your audience and measuring your results, you can create a successful social media campaign that will drive engagement, promote your brand, and drive up sales we all want. At the end of the day, of course it is. But wait, don't leave me just yet. In our next episode, we're going to be discussing the importance of SEO yeah. Search engine optimization.

Now, a B and test involves having two versions of a campaign and testing them against each other to determine which one of the two performs better, right? This can include testing different ad formats, different headlines, different call to actions. Some folks call them Ctas and determine which one is the best. And once you have figure out which one's the best, then you make that one your primary. And then you add another one. And then you change one thing.

Okay? So before launching any digital marketing campaign of any type, it's important to set clear Achievable goals and objectives. Now, whether you're looking to generate leads, whether you're looking to increase sales, whether you're looking to build your following, build your email list, or drive more traffic to your website, have a clear goal in mind. This is going to help you determine the best approach in your campaign.. Grab your analytics tools. Make sure they're set up. Maybe it's Google Analytics. Maybe it's Facebook Insights. Twitter analytics. All of these can help you drive, track what's going on, track your website traffic, track your engagement rates, or any other key metrics that you need to monitor to reach the goal that you've set right. Use any of these tools. Use all of these tools to monitor the success of your campaign.

Respond. Yeah. When they leave a comment, respond. Right. When they message you and messenger respond. Responding to comments and messages on social media is essential for showing your audience that you give a damn. Right. That you value their feedback and their opinions. Respond as promptly as possible and as thoughtfully as possible to the comments and the messages. Right? That's don't just copy and paste bullshit. How does that not aim to provide helpful information and helpful and heart centered responses?

And then finally, and I've done this one before, brand ambassadors. Now, brand ambassadors are the influencers who kind of represent the brand on an ongoing basis. They attend events, they participate in product launches, they help create content on your behalf for your brand, or they act almost as this spokesperson of the brand. You see a lot of that out there, folks wearing other folks'gear and what have you. That helps show that influencer marketing is a powerful way to reach new audiences and promote your brand on social media. By choosing the right influencers and collaborating on content using and remember to use those micro influencers too. Don't always have to be the big guys. Measure results and build those relationships. You can create a super successful influencer campaign, drive engagement, and promote your brand. Now, we got two more here, right?

Again, some of the metrics you want to look at are engagement rates, follower growth and website traffic to determine whether or not these folks are working or not. And then finally build relationships. Man, a relationship is going to build your sales a lot faster than anything else. So build relationships with influencers to create a long term success. Engaging with influencers by liking and commenting on their posts, sharing their content, and then inviting them into events or product launches that you have going on.

 

[Quotes]

When choosing influencers, it's really important to consider their audience, their engagement rate, and their alignment with your brands. Looking for influencers that have a genuine connection with their audience and aligned with your brand's value. And messaging is something you really want to look for. Before you say, hey, do you want to partner together with something because you might be getting folks into your following that really just end up being dead weight and end up leaving later on. Collaborate on Content collaborating with influencers on content is a great way to showcase your products and your services and again reach those new audiences. This could include some sponsored posts, some sponsored videos or stories that showcase your brands or products.

There you go. And give folks a behind the scene peak. Use that in your content. Behind the scenes content gives your audience kind of this peek behind the curtain into your brand, into your mind, into your world. This is a great way to showcase your personality, your brand's personality, and really connect with your audience on a whole nother level. All right, so what are we talking about? Creating this engaging content again, is essential for building your following, driving your engagement on social media. So by knowing your audience and using visuals, keeping it short and sweet, providing value, using storytelling, and being consistent, you can create content that resonates with your audience that will help you drive that engagement.

 

This includes providing tips, providing advice, giving industry insights, showcasing your customers success stories, showcasing their problems, showcasing some potential solutions, showcasing that, you know what, the pain points that they're having out there. And here's some ways to solve it. Give them the farm. Give it all away for free. Here's the thing. If you give it all away for free, 99.8% of the people are not going to take action.. They're going to need you to step in and help them. It's just facts and tell you what it is. Now, there is a small percentage of folks that will take your advice and integrate it into their life and go, oh, my God, it worked. Thank you so much. Which almost provide you with proof, social proof right there. Use storytelling. Storytelling is a powerful way to connect with your audience and create this emotional content, right? This emotional connection with them. They're like, even if they don't relate directly to the story, I'm leaning into the microphone so you'll hear me better.

 

Talk about Facebook. With their 2.8 billion active monthly users, facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms out there. It's a great platform for businesses that want to build a loyal following and promote their brand more often through targeted ads. Right? Again, they don't have to be very expensive. We can talk Instagram, as I mentioned earlier, very visual platform, popular amongst a younger crowd, and I say younger than me. You can see the gray beard here, right? It's a great platform for businesses that want to showcase their products or services through images and videos.

 

[CHAPTERS]
[0:00:00] "Maximizing Social Media for Your Business: Tips and Strategies for Creating Engaging Content and Measuring Results"
[0:02:58] "Maximizing Your Social Media Marketing Strategy: Key Points to Consider"
[0:07:17] Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business: Factors to Consider and Examples
[0:11:24] Choosing the Right Social Media Platform and Creating Engaging Content for Business Success
[0:13:21] Tips for Creating Content that Resonates with Your Audience: A Conversation with a Professional Writer
[0:15:23] Tips for Creating Engaging Content: A Conversation with Joe Graham
[0:19:04] Tips for Creating Engaging Content and Leveraging Influencer Marketing on Social Media
[0:20:33] Tips for Successful Influencer Marketing and Paid Advertising on Social Media
[0:26:10] Steps to Follow for a Successful Paid Advertising Campaign
[0:28:16] Tips for Creating and Measuring the Effectiveness of Paid Advertising Campaigns and Engaging with Your Audience
[0:29:55] Tips for Engaging with Your Audience on Social Media
[0:33:25] Tips for Effective Social Media Marketing and Measuring Results
[0:35:27] Tips for Monitoring and Improving the Success of Your Marketing Campaigns
[0:36:56] Podcast Episode: Leveraging the Power of Social Media Marketing for Business Growth

 

#digitalmarketing #digitalmarketingagency #digitalmarketingtips #digitalmarketingtraining #digitalmarketingcourse #socialmediamarketing #socialmediamarketingcourse #socialmedia marketingstrategy #howtodosocialmediamarketing #socialmediamarketingforbeginners #socialmedia

In this episode, Jill lays out a step by step plan for you to successfully market your small B2B business.

SHOW NOTES: www.JillWFox.com/podcast

Adapt to the New Way of Selling

Addressing the new challenges and opportunities in sales

 

COVID and the lockdowns and everything that happened has catapulted to change the sales industry faster than it was happening before. And what we're seeing now is those changes aren't going away. They weren't temporary. Many of them are sticking. 

 

So we have to learn how to take advantage of them. And the best way to do that is by listening to the stories of the people who were succeeding in real-time when things were very difficult.

 

Challenges of traditional selling

The reality is that buyers are still so pressed for time for several reasons. Like worker shortages, companies who are trying to reclaim profits that they’ve lost, supply chain issues, etc. They’re busy and also new because we're facing a biodynamic right now where we've got a whole boatload of new buyers in the marketplace who have never bought before, and they don't have mentors because their seniors have retired. The great escape, if we want to call it that.

 

So what's happening is, to manage the risk associated with too much work, too much not enough time, and not knowing what they're doing, they tend to work with people that they have a relationship with, as opposed to people that are brand new.

 

That's what improves their confidence in the buying cycle.

 

So what we're seeing, is people learning how to build relationships before they make that phone call. Learning how to populate the marketplace with seeds of knowledge and insights and relationships so that people know and recognize you when you make that first call or make that first email.

 

And that's what's driving performance because that sort of traditional cold call has switched to such a small percentage of success (about .3%.) So this means we have to pivot and adapt to the new technology, way of selling, and things that are going to be relevant to today's consumer.

 

Establishing relationships authentically

Before, buyers didn't know who we were until we pick up the phone and called. But now we don't know who buyers are until they put up their hands and say, ‘I'm ready.’ 

 

So we have to look at the marketplace. Buyers now are communities, not committees.

 

We never really know who in that buyers' community is listening. They could be people sitting next to you, colleagues, influencers, family, friends, anonymous online reviews, or other people we will never meet. So what we have to do as salespeople is embrace that and create a…

 

Critical mass influence

This means influencing this community in the marketplace by delivering insights and value and becoming an object of interest. Then you take the value that you deliver in the form of case studies, tips, sheets, videos, and audios, and you publish it everywhere. Everywhere your customers are hanging out. Whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Tiktok, industry forum, your website, open houses, etc. so that everybody sees you everywhere.

 

What you just laid out establishes that thought leadership as a sales professional.

 

Mistakes in today’s selling

The common mistake sellers make is that they’re pitching all the time. They go to LinkedIn, find a connection they want and they immediately say, hey, can I talk to you about helping you?

 

Instead, think about curating. If you think that you’re not a thought leader, then just use the thought leadership that your company is creating. The marketing materials, case studies, examples, and voices of your customers, and then post that.

 

Tempo Triad

This process takes only 15 minutes a day. Pick three types of media that your customers are consuming, then do three things three times a week. Post something unique and original. (If you say you don't want to be on social media, but if your customers are there, then you're missing out.)

 

Approach to social media

In proper networking skills, you would talk to someone at an event, and then if the conversation seemed to be positive, you might say to them, ‘hey, can I give you a call next week?’ 

 

Do the same thing on social media. Engage back and forth with someone, and at a certain point, you say, ‘hey, can I call you?’

 

Managing Pipeline

Sales reps, even the best enterprise sales professionals that have multi-step processes, are now finding challenges in managing pipelines because of the modern consumers who know what they want. This leaves a small wiggle room for error for the salesperson. How do we ensure we're managing our pipeline to its fullest potential?

 

Constantly looking to create opportunities with current clients and also do some outbound when you've got this relationship built on social media. It's a mistake to think that just because buyers don't know you, that doesn’t mean you can't make outbound inquiries. But we're making them with warmer leads. So you still should be reaching out but at the same time, you should also be reaching out to your existing customers to spot opportunities. Salespeople have a huge blind spot there, and it's amazing how many of your customers are buying things that you sell from other people because they don't know that you sell those things. 

 

Another is that salespeople have to take back control of their pipeline and be brave. Find a way to help a customer reframe their thinking so that they're thinking about the problem differently, and that we provide them some education or insights on better solutions. It's like uncovering little bits of pieces of information from your customer so you can give them something valuable. But remember to face those uncomfortable conversations. You're not going to excel in a career in sales if you're going to sugarcoat and make everyone happy all the time.

 

Retaining salesforce in a time of uncertainty

 

Create Bespoke Programs

You have to get clear as a sales leader about what motivates your sales team. Money is not a universal motivator, but it is a universal demotivator if there's a lack of it.

 

So you have to truly understand what that sales rep is interested in. Is it working from home? More vacation? Only wanting to work with existing customers? Have bespoke programs for each sales rep depending on their needs, what they value, and what they're good at.

 

You want that person who's going to retire in the next few years to stay with you because they have that body of knowledge. On the other hand, you need those younger salespeople or newer salespeople to love what they're doing and succeed quickly so that they stay with you. So see if there’s an opportunity to build some kind of bespoke program that caters to each sales rep.

 

Coaching

Coaching has always been important, yet underutilized from the sales management perspective. If you hire a natural talent, then they would have the ability to move the bar even higher. And they all need coaching at the top end, the medium end, and the low end. Sales managers who don't coach and who then don't get performance out of their team are responsible for that.

 

Sales coaching: what it is and is not

Coaching is affecting behavior change, simple as that. And it is done on a regular schedule (the ideal being one on one every other week.) For example, dedicate 30 minutes at a time in the office or over a video where you cover core metrics in your pipeline, whether you're ahead or behind and what you're going to do about it. There should always be action steps and follow-ups.

 

Coaching should never be something that the sales rep can apply just to that one opportunity and then have to keep coming back to you over and over again. Make coaching a space to expand and learn.

 

There are also regular group sales meetings that are a form of coaching if people are sharing best practices and applying them.

 

Another kind of coaching is ride-along coaching. And this is where a lot of sales managers make a mistake. They love to ride along with their sales reps to save the day and win the business. And they still base their worth to the company on their ability to close and be the best salesperson. But your job is not to be the best salesperson. Your job is to make every single person on your team better than you ever were. That is how you accelerate your commission as a sales leader.

 

About Colleen Francis

Colleen is driven by a passion for sales – and results. A successful sales leader for over 20 years, she understands the particular challenges of selling in today’s competitive market, and that business leaders can no longer rely on approaches to sales based on techniques from decades ago—or even last year.

 

Whether maximizing revenue from sales teams or seizing new market opportunities, Colleen works with businesses to develop the right sales strategies for success and delivers practical approaches to ensure it sticks. Colleen’s results have attracted clients such as Chevron, John Deere, NCR, Trend Micro, Merck, Abbott, Experian, Royal Bank, Dow, and hundreds of other industry-leading companies.

 

Time and time again, clients who work with Colleen note her frank, no-nonsense approach to accelerating sales while reducing effort and increasing profits. Colleen’s practical strategies deliver immediate and lasting results.

 

A recognized thought leader in sales leadership, she is an inductee into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame and has been named the #1 sales influencer to follow by LinkedIn.

 

Website: engageselling.com

Get her latest book: Right on the Money

 

It really is as easy as 1-2-3-4-5. Your social media posts can absolutely transform your social media followers into paid clients and customers! 

 “ Your Call to Action needs to be clear. It’s got to be easy and it's got to be valuable”

-Bonnie L. Frank 

In today’s episode, I give you 5 simple steps to follow to convert your social media followers into clients and customers. Many online business marketers spend a lot of time on social media without actually growing their business. The purpose of social media is to be social. It's about connecting with your ideal client where they are and getting to know them.  It’s about showing up as a valuable resource for them. If you're having trouble finding or converting your followers to clients, these 5 steps can really help.  

Show Notes 

In this episode I share these 5 simple to get more sales from social media

• Why it's important for you to engage with your followers? [4:36]
• How do you know if you are on the right platforms? [6:49]
• How knowing the demographics of a platform can increase your sales? [7:24]
• Why am I spending most of my time on Clubhouse? [8:58]
• What can analytics tell you about how to spend your time? [10:10]
• What is your call to action and is it working? [15:40]

Are you on Clubhouse? If you are and you'd like to learn more about growing your business there, (and everywhere!) join my clubs on Clubhouse:  

Business Fabulous for Female Entrepreneurs (Over 48,000 in there!)

Fabulous Female Bosses  (This one will have closed club events)      and      

Kajabi Business Fabulous (it's all about creating courses and membership sites!)

Are you in the Cafe?? The Social Media Marketing Cafe has answers to your how-to questions! Gain access to hundreds of tutorials, step-by-step guides and downloadable pdfs, for help with social media, online marketing, livestreaming, podcasting, and much more! Anyone in the Cafe can suggest a topic/tutorial and I'll create it!

Have you joined my free Facebook group yet? If you want free, proven strategies to get your audience finding you online and buying from you and really grow your business by leaps and bounds, you want to be here! 

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I hope you'll listen in and then hop on over and join our Facebook Group here where the discussion continues.

In this episode, Jill goes over the four steps to determining which social media platform is best for your small business. This is one of the first steps to take to set-up an effective social media marketing strategy for your small business.

SHOW NOTES: www.JillWFox.com/podcast