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Episode #71
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Social media was one of the main things I had to get my head around when I started creating my business back when I was still in my full-time day job. Up to then, I had not done much with it. It wasn’t really was not a world I was used to spending much time in except for the usual mindless scrolling we all do.
That was until when I realised that if I wanted to build a business, especially an online business, then getting up to speed with social media was part of the deal. And even though I had some experience with social channels, I did not have a clue how to use them for marketing my new business.
My question at the time was where do I even start!?
And that’s a question I’ve heard a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs ask since then. So using my experience of getting started in social media marketing while working full time, plus what I’ve learnt since then, I’m giving my take on the common questions I have heard. Because you can make it as easy or as complicated as you like but you can’t really run from it completely.
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?
It’s the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, encourage sales, and drive people to your website. You do this by posting great content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging your followers, analyzing your results, and running social media advertisements if needed.
DO I REALLY NEED SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MY NEW SIDE HUSTLE OR FULL-TIME BUSINESS?
The short answer is yes you do need it, but you can decide how into it you actually get. About 90% of businesses today use social networking as an essential part of their marketing strategy. That’s not just online businesses, it includes bricks and mortar too. So you don’t want to miss out on this great tool if possible. Done right it will help your business or freelance venture get seen and attract your ideal clients to work with you. But, imagine it’s like a swimming pool, and you can either paddle about in the shallow end, swim strongly in the middle or dive in the deep end. Start small, learn as much as you can before you start and then just get out there.
DO I NEED TO BE ON ALL THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS?
Things move very quickly in the online marketing world. At one point you were told you needed to be on all platforms, but now the view is that you should be more selective and only focus on two or three platforms. Particularly if you are a small business and it’s just you managing your social media.
In my view, when you have little time, have a busy day job and are just starting out you should just focus on learning about and posting on one platform. Get to know that really well so you are comfortable with it and only when you have the time and headspace you could introduce one more.
WHAT PLATFORM(S) SHOULD I USE?
What platform you decide to focus on depends on your business and what types of customers you want to attract. You need to think about what platforms would they likely be active on most. All the platforms have slightly different demographics. Really though you will know where your potential customers might hang out, as they are probably the platforms you are already on yourself.
SHOULD I GET A BUSINESS ACCOUNT OR USE MY PERSONAL ONE?
Most of the social platforms offer personal and business accounts to choose from. A lot of people use their personal pages to talk about their businesses which, to be honest, kind of annoys me, particularly if I followed them as a friend, not a business contact. But if you have a lot of people already following you on say Facebook, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers if you set up a new business account.
The rules are on Facebook and Instagram that you can’t use a personal page solely for business purposes. That said, you can use your personal page to help your followers to learn more about your business, showcase your expertise, grow your brand, and share posts that show your personal, totally unique, and awesome side.
If you don’t have a personal account and are setting one up from scratch or only have a few ‘friends’ or followers on it then it's worth using this approach. If you have a bigger following on a platform you will need to decide if you want to share everything about your business plans with them.
HOW DO I USE SOCIA MEDIA FOR MY BUSINESS WHEN I’M STILL WORKING IN MY DAY JOB?
In order to build awareness of your brand-new business you need to talk about it and but you don't want to get in trouble with your employer. This will especially apply if you work in corporate companies like banks or other financial institutions.
So the first thing you need to check out is your current employer's company policy about additional work outside of your role. I know it’s super boring and not something you want to think about when you want to tell everyone about your new business. But this is essential. You don’t want to put your main job at risk (well, not until you are ready to leave) so look at your employee handbook, and check with the HR or Compliance team what you can and can’t do. Once that’s done, you’re good to go. As part of that conversation also get the ok to promote your business on social media.
If you can’t promote your business or freelancing work as a business yet, ie you can’t market to sell anything, you can still build up interest in you by sharing content they will be interested in so that when you do leave and can finally offer them something to buy from you, they are already fans because of all the free ideas and tips you have already given them.
Even if you have the ok to market your business before you post anything, think “If this post went viral would it have a negative impact on me in my day job role or on the company I work for”. If the answer is no then go ahead, if yes then you may need to re-think it.
HOW MUCH OF MY PRIVATE LIFE DO I NEED TO SHARE
The truth is that you are in control. You can show as much or as little about yourself and your life as you want. But I say that with a caveat because if you hold too much back, and people don't get to know you or feel like they know you, they are less likely to choose you to work with or buy from. People buy from people or companies they know, like and trust. So on your social media, you are building up trust and rapport with your audience. To do that they need to know that you are like them in some way. So if you share nothing with them, they won't know that you are like them. So decide upfront what you want to share on social media. How much of yourself do you want to put out there? Often it’s the reason behind your business, the story of why you set it up, which will connect with your audience and bring them that much closer to becoming customers.
HOW DO I GET STARTED USING IT FOR MY BUSINESS?
Don't even think about marketing until you are used to how social media works and are comfortable using it.
If I was to go back to start again here’s what I would do…
- Make sure you are clear on what you will be offering in your business or as a freelancer and who that offer is for, in other words who your ideal customer is.
- Decide on the one platform you are going to focus on. Or 2 if you have already left your 9 to 5. If you already have a personal account on that platform, focus on that first.
- Get more active there. The idea is to stimulate conversation and to get people interacting with you. This is all practice to see how you can get a conversation going and you can also use it to check if your business idea is resonating. You can hone how you talk about it.
- When you are more confident you could then set up a business account, if the platform offers it. On Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest you need business accounts to run ads in the future. So even if you plan to use your personal account to talk about your business you have the business account ready.
- Decide on your boundaries, what parts of your private life you will share and what you will hold back. From the start let people know what kind of posts you will be sharing.
- Choose the 3 to 5 content pillars you will base what you post on
- Then start posting regularly. It doesn’t need to be every day, it could be once a week, whatever works for you just make sure it’s consistent.
But the main thing is to get comfortable with social media before you start using it to market your business. Have fun with it. Play with the different features and learn how they work. Then decide if you want to use them or not in your social media strategy.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS…
Don’t let social media overwhelm you. Start to dip your toes in it, learn as much as you can and then start to post content and to build audience engagement. While you are in your day job is a great time to experiment and play to see what works.
Before you know it you will wonder why you were so worried about social media and it will have become something that is just another part of your business.
