The mistake we are focusing in on today is assuming people will just find you.

On this series of posts I am identifying social media mistakes business owners make and I am offering a recommended fix. I am not going to link to each of the previous posts here at the top because I know there will be at least 10 posts (probably more) and that will get very messy very quickly. Scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning.

Mistake - You think if you build it they will come (quickly).
I mentioned this as one of the mistakes in my overall marketing series. What does it mean for social media? This mistake piggybacks on the magic pill problem from the last post.

Many business owners think they can create their pages, add a few hashtags and the followers will flock to their social feeds. Why do you believe it? Because almost every person who sells a social media product tells you that is the way it is.

Is it possible to attract a few thousand followers simply by creating good content and promoting your content and events without making much effort to gain followers? Yes it is, however it takes a while. I started a Twitter feed for a membership organization. We only followed members (who were geographically contained) so we never searched for followers. We put the link in our signatures, on our website and posted signs when we had display tables at events. Not much recruiting effort. We posted almost every day and it took us three years to hit 1,000 followers, it only took another year to hit 1,500.

Last year I started a Twitter feed for another membership organization that is also geographically contained. My goal was to reach 500 target-market followers within six months. We had decided for this group that I would actively target businesses in the Colorado Springs metro area. I spent many hours for about three months looking for business Twitter accounts in Colorado Springs and I followed them. Some of them followed us back. We did get 500 area followers in that six-month period. I no longer search for followers on that account and we did hit 730 at one year (last week). Most of those followers are still local because we only follow back in the state of Colorado. Yes, someone from California might come to one of our events, but it is not likely and that person is going to follow us because they are interested in our group, not because we follow them.

Both of these examples produced pretty good numbers for a business that is very geographically constrained. Yes, one million followers would be awesome. We do not even have one million people in these service areas including children so a number like that does not define success for these organizations.

Do you have an hour a day to troll for followers on LinkedIn or Twitter for a month or two? Do you have a budget to pay for targeted ads? Take a few minutes and set some realistic goals for your social media accounts. Then create an action plan to get there that you can manage. 

Come back again next time. I will have another mistake; and another solution.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne


Social media is confusing; I simplify it. Learn how you can effectively integrate a social media campaign into your marketing plan. Sign up for Stop the Social Media Madness online training today.

Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 1
Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 2
Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 3

On this series of posts I am identifying social media mistakes business owners make and I am offering a recommended fix. I am not going to link to each of the previous posts here at the top because I know there will be at least 10 posts (probably more) and that will get very messy very quickly. Scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning.

The mistake we are focusing in on today is your unrealistic expectations.

Mistake - You think social media is a magic pill.
If running a successful business was easy, everyone would do it. I am happy to be the bearer of bad news. Building a business is never as easy as it looks from the outside. Getting 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 followers on your Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest page is not the final answer for your client-attraction woes.

As with every other form of marketing, if you can not convert any of your leads into paying customers you are wasting your time and money. Social media will not save your business if you are failing. So how do you succeed?

You will succeed because you have created a sound business strategy that includes other mediums than social media, and you have implemented and adapted that strategy. I have fewer followers on my business Twitter account than those accounts I manage for clients. Why? (It is not like the barefoot kids of the shoemaker) It is because I experiment on my account. I have tried one new strategy that failed miserably, another one that was lukewarm at best and I have just started experiment number three.

I know some strategy basics that work and those are the tips I teach my clients. But there is more than one way to get to Paris and I am willing to take detours so when my clients ask, What if I do it this way? I can answer with confidence. Perhaps I will win the social media lottery and experiment 18 will be a game changer and a magic pill for me.

If it took me 17 previous tries to get there, is it really a magic pill?

Come back again next time. I will have another mistake; and another solution.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

Do you feel you are in an Endless Cycle of social media? Learn how you can effectively integrate a social media campaign into your marketing plan. Sign up for Stop the Social Media Madness online training today.

Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 1
Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 2

For this series of posts I am identifying social media mistakes business owners make and I am offering a recommended fix for each one. I am not going to link to each of the previous posts here at the top because I know there will be at least 10 posts (probably more) and that will get very messy very quickly. Scroll to the bottom to start at the beginning.

The mistake we are focusing in on today is your platform.

Mistake - You have not researched the demographics of platform users.
You have identified your ideal customer so you now know who you are really talking to. But you have limited time and money and you need to know which social media platforms deserve your concentration. Is your market most likely to engage with you on Twitter, Pinterest or LinkedIn? Or are they on Facebook, Instagram or Google+?

I have an easy solution for this. Google it! Demographic research is updated and published on a very regular basis and a search engine can be your best friend to get current data. Have you noticed a down-turn on one of your accounts? Maybe the demographic has shifted (unless it is Facebook and that is a topic for another post). Type “social media demographics” for a generic search or be more specific for each platform: “Twitter demographics” or “LinkedIn demographics”.

If your ideal customer is men between the ages of 25 and 45 and they have the strongest presence on Google+, that is where you should start or expand next.

If you already have an established presence on another platform that is not the best fit for your ideal client, do not abandon it. Scale it back if it is taking a lot of time or money instead. If you are currently logging in multiple times each day on that platform, log in once a day or every other day.

Come back again next time. I will have another mistake; and another solution (I added three more mistakes to my already-long list writing this post. I wish I could back up my brain the way I back up my computer.)

​Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

Do you feel you are in an Endless Cycle of social media? Learn how you can effectively integrate a social media campaign into your marketing plan. Sign up for Stop the Social Media Madness online training today.

Biggest Social Media Mistakes Business Owners Make - Part 1

I recently posted a series of blogs about the common marketing mistakes business owners make and I have been asked to revisit that idea for social media. Social media - you either love it or hate it (or both... at the same time). With so much conflicting advice out there where is an already-too-busy business owner supposed to start?

Start with me, of course. I am going to identify several social media mistakes business owners make and, just like with the marketing mistakes, I am going to offer a recommended fix. After all, what good does it do for me to tell you what you are doing wrong if I am not going to help you fix it?

The mistake we are focusing in on today is your audience.

Mistake - You have not identified your ideal client.
I actually should have included this with the marketing mistake series, but I spaced it so we are going to tackle it now. This really is THE most important step for any marketing campaign of any kind. Your products or services or social media posts are not for anyone that has a pulse; they are for the people with whom you want to do business and who want to do business with you.

My products and services are not for everyone. They are for business owners, non-profits and people considering starting a business. My products and services are not for everyone in those three categories. My products and services are for business owners, non-profits and people considering starting a business who want to simplify their marketing efforts by learning how to do more with less by planning their marketing strategies and implementing them.

Did you notice what I did with that last sentence? I not only identified who I want to work with, I disqualified the people I really am not looking to work with. Are you looking for a magic pill to solve your marketing woes? I am not your woman. Are you looking for someone to tell you what to do and then you do nothing? I am not your woman. Are you looking to find out how to build and implement a marketing strategy focused around your business and schedule? I AM your woman!

That is what you need to do with your business. Grab your paper and pen and think about which of your customers benefit the most from your products and services. NOT the ones that would benefit the most if . . . if they bought your vitamins, if they actually took them, if they reordered, and etc. Write down the characteristics of the people getting the most benefit and that is your Ideal Client Persona.

What do you do with that Ideal Client Persona? That is a post for another day. (I have to keep you coming back somehow.) I have a million thoughts in my head right now so we may still be on social media mistakes when it is time for Christmas.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
​Susanne

Do you feel you are in an Endless Cycle of Social Media? Learn how you can effectively integrate a social media campaign into your marketing plan. Sign up for Stop the Social Media Madness online training today.

I had a training class scheduled and nobody came. I know; it is every business owner's worst nightmare.

I did a lot of the right marketing steps.

• I set a reasonable price point.
• People told me they were interested in my topic.
• I started promoting it almost two months in advance.
• I posted it on my website and other online calendars.
• I talked about it at 8-10 networking events.
• I promoted it several times on my social media accounts.

Crickets.

A couple of days before the event I told a friend I would most likely be cancelling the class and he told me to stay strong.

I told him Strong was my middle name. Feel free to call me Susanne Strong Whited. This is why. I found it disappointing that nobody came but not discouraging. This is why.

As I mentioned in my last post, it is important to have multiple streams of income in your business. Live workshops are not my only source of revenue. I have online training, strategy sessions and done-for-you services to fall back on.

I have been in business for myself a total of six months. If it takes a few more tries to get this revenue stream going, so be it. I am willing to keep putting myself out there until somebody shows me the love.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

I offer brainstorming sessions to help you find ways to create multiple streams of income. Click here to find out more.