Lessons

Lesson Info

Basics of Social Media Practices

So let's dive into online promotion of your business because social media really is a rubik's cube of a revenue potential no, I could not say that ten times fast and I was so tickled when I came up with that and I do love the animation on this because that really is what it feels like a lot of times now to share the cartoon that's here we have a man at his desk in front of his laptop with a woman who's just walked in and he says to her as soon as I text I am tweet and update my status to getting right down to it I'll get right down to it and that is a lot of times what it feels like on social media you can feel a bit buried and if you are not managing your time well you will wind up wasting it as I mentioned earlier there is no reason for you to be on any network that your ideal clients are not on unless you are keenly aware that it is there for grins and giggles and grins and giggles is not a great use of your business time will stop the spinning cube and we'll go with what sixty seco...

nds online looks like um it's intense it's really intense um forty one thousand posts every second on facebook that is pretty extraordinary and of those forty one thousand I would say thirty nine thousand are completely irrelevant they don't even need to have been made ok the biggest thing about social media and what I like to share is a little bit of history's about why this advantage it didn't just spring forth from mark zuckerberg sitting and harvard doing his thing okay it came about because of the world we live in today the reality is that we as a nation and a globe have been through a lot in the last decade and that's when these things add vented we've been through the worldcoms and the end runs in the bernie madoffs and the financial crisis and the banking collapse apps and the foreclosures and the auto bailout and we were desperately needing away too trust more and leverage technology to do so so it's about becoming high trust and high touch while using high tech and when you look at it that way it's not just about yammering online instead it's about creating your points of connection and leading with that gold mine of unique one of a kind combination of your history your education, your experience, your expertise, your personality, your hobbies and your interests and not leaving that buried never to be discovered that's an integral part of who you are and you want to bring that to every relationship to every opportunity to connect, engage and become tuned in turned on engaged and connected it every moment this is not about transactions ok, this is about building relationships so it could be a very crowded noisy place you want to be extremely selective on the networks you choose if you on ly chose to if your clients are linked in clients linked in users I would say linked in and facebook now the reason I say facebook is strategic not random because almost everyone in some capacity is on it even if they aren't on it maybe their spouse is on it their kids are on it you can find out things about them if not that I love twitter um I'm a big twitter fan however not everybody's market is on twitter so if your markets not on twitter don't spend your time on twitter doesn't make any sense it truly doesn't this is really an actually all about you you have got to be at the core of this all of your branding all of your social interaction comes back to you and what you're about that's what'll make it different okay so this is about creating your personal brand brilliance ok so we discuss a little bit of how this came to be but why you want to be online the whole point is to get people to move offline into either voice to voice or face to face now I know there's going to be comments from the gallery about that because there's a few people going no I leave him out there because I do all my business online most people don't ok and that's really rare for creatives because they're usually doing some level of face to face or voice to voice so I promised not to ignore that I am cognizant habit you have solely in online business I totally respect and admire that this might not apply to you okay? Generally speaking the point of online is to move him to offline to movement your database as long as you leave them out there and this is super super important you have been warned when you leave your people out online they're not yours those networks can shut you down randomly at any moment there have been some scary stories there was somebody in real estate you had something like fifty thousand fans and facebook shut him down I can't remember the reason why doesn't matter facebook can be very arbitrary now I have knock wood never been booted off of twitter we ascertained earlier that I've been booted off a lincoln at least five times in the very early days not for a very long time by the way I did learn my lesson sometimes it takes me a couple times I did get shut down off of facebook for two weeks at one point and it was because I am eighty words a minute on a keyboard I was sending into individual invites and my cap was twenty five but because I was so darn fast on the keyboard they thought I was what they bought their run by an algorithm it took two weeks and all of my friends from facebook, of which there are very many and I'm very, very blessed sending letters to facebook support saying let her back up, you screwed up what have you done in facebook actually sent an apology and then put me back up and this was a number of years ago, so I do know all the nuances I know how you get booted off now to get back on. I don't recommend getting booted off randomly because it could be very, very hard to get back on again. So do pay attention to the terms of service, which include technically speaking, according to facebook, you should not be doing business from your personal page. You should not be promoting things from your personal page. I let people know what I'm doing, but I don't actually promote on my personal page that should be saved for your business page or should be saved for when you move them into your subscriber list your community, I don't like to use the word list I prefer subscriber these are people, these are not mere numbers to me now if you have mere numbers and that your tribe is made up of numbers, wow, I I don't know what kind of tried that is because I got a tribe of people so and I want to see you have a tribe of people too when you start treating people like the human beings they are instead of numbers in your subscriber system or in your list you're going to get a much greater response so you want to move them off line as quickly as possible. You could do that with opt ins, goodies, checklists all sorts of ways to do it but let's walk through some of the major networks really quickly and see what they each offer so facebook is really what I like to call your backyard barbecue this is where you're hanging I will share and I did in the last couple of nights because I met some really instant cocktail since I've been in san francisco, I will share a pretty picture of a cocktail I shared one a couple of nights ago it was an avocado margarita I'd never heard of such a thing it was a fabulous cocktail and I got a lot of responses on that one um night after that I had ah, some sort of ah what do they call I dream and lavender is what it was called oh divine vanilla lavender infused syrup and some lavender sugar crystals around the rim and no, I only had one cocktail each time I'm not a less but I find them creative and interesting and fun and something that you could go I could make that guy just take margarita frozen or it was actually wasn't frozen it was more of the liquid margarita throw a dollop of avocado when they're blended up really well and voila you have an avocado margarita how cool is that? You've got a recipe and here we are social media I'm sure brilliant. Ok, so facebook is the more casual place where you're hanging out you might talk about what you're having for dinner but more importantly if you're gonna do that tell me where you had it give me the recipe make it relevant meaningful give me some value. Okay this is truly important to kind of like the whole thing about breakfast we don't really care that you had oatmeal for breakfast cause that's mainly what I mean for breakfast he stays we don't care that she had oatmeal we want to know what the recipe wass did it have raisins in it and at the clift hotel they have prey leaned pecans they put in it which is really working for may him did you have some brown sugar? You know what was the recipe where the special ingredients what were the circumstances? So what is it? Who did you have it with me? I don't have a good story there because I had breakfast by myself who did you have it with? What did you have who did you have with could be somebody newsworthy a notable you might have had it with a local celebrity could be a supplier you hadn't seen a really long time they're telling you about a new product coming out or a new service um could also be something to do with, um maybe somebody you haven't seen in ages that's a personal friend and it's about catching up with them and what they're up to so there's some cool ways you can do that but you want to make it who what where you had it in atlanta we have something called flying biscuit which is a really a place that serves breakfast like yeah twelve fifteen hours a day and I like the original flying biscuit because they have these fabulous murals on the wall so if I'm going to talk about flying biscuit, I must say I had breakfast at flying biscuit and here's a picture because of me with the murals behind me on the wall that makes it relevant, meaningful and valuable so I learned very early on on twitter as well um I learned that if I tweeted hand going for a walk, I lose followers like, oh god, I want to run for lock but if instead I tweeted a picture of where I went on my walk or I said, oh, I'm going to you know glen falls and gonna hang out for a little while and have you ever been there too it was engaging so it's about creating a conversation you're not broadcasting or just updating okay? It is about creating a conversation that really makes a big difference and facebook is big on that now we will dive in two hours and shortcuts and things like that, but facebook is your casual backyard barbecue don't go shouting and broadcasting on facebook it's not appreciated and they want to see your more colorful side they want to see your more personal side stay out of the intimate details and overall in social media you really want to keep it positive and upbeat. Now there is an unreal ality to this life is just not that polly anna I totally get it and sometimes you're better served when you can let people know that you're having a tough day just don't do it on a chronic basis and don't do it to be fishing for support and sympathy, but doing hey, I'm a little frustrated by this anybody be able to help or something of that nature and you'll find people are very friendly want to support you through the challenges so some people will bear their souls on their I'm not a fan of that I have a private life and I want to keep it private, but other people don't want to have a private life, so you got to do what works for you but please be human and colorful when you're up there hey, so share pieces about your life beyond business don't just be that professional one hundred eighty degree you need the three hundred sixty degrees to make it on facebook, right? Twitter I love I think twitter is phenomenal special fewer writer of speaker because it really hones your ability to create meaningful sound bites and I think that's incredibly important for anyone um it is more of a virtual cocktail party or virtual starbucks take your pick if you're not into cocktails your morning starbucks I don't drink coffee I don't need the caffeine you could imagine me on caffeine it's a frightening idea, isn't it? Yes, it isthe so it's quick it's fast you can jump in, you can jump out. You can interrupt somebody's conversation with a comment it's easy for me. Facebook requires a lot more effort on my part I like twitter for the reason that it's fast easy now with all of these you are far more impactful and you will see far better results. If you go beyond the surface chatter and you dive into in twitter, be a tweet, chat on facebook and be a facebook group because then you really get to have conversations it's like the chat room that creative lives set up and that you all are participating in you're having fun because you're chatting with other members in the group and it's not just wide open it's you all have one thing in common you're here with us today and I'm honored for that and I appreciate you thank you so you really want to be cognizant of that and look at the opportunities where you can connect with like minded people whether they're your colleagues and peers or whether they're your ideal clients you could go either way on this I love to jump into designer chat is one of my favorites on tuesday night at six eastern standard time no I'm not plugging them because I'm not even sure when they're going to re launch I think it might not even be till january but there's a lot of fun we connect with colleagues around the globe and then go to events like design blogger where I got to meet a lot of them okay so the idea is that I'm going to meet these people in real time which is why it's so important be honest in your image please don't make this like online dating where you're lying it's ugly alright linked in lincoln is exactly like a virtual professional business networking event you should have a professional had shot up there it should not have stuff in the background okay yeah color's great you could do a black and white if you prefer that needs to be close enough that we can see the whites of your eyes so to speak more often than not, people are putting weird things up in their photos. I don't understand this. Please don't put a logo, you're not at and t or ibm, we don't know you that well, I'm not going to business with the lug. Why do business with people? I also don't do business with cars or pets or babies, so eliminate those from your avatar collection if you get stuck there's an easy way to do an avatar that will populate across all networks and that's called gravitas are dot com love gravitas. You do need to update it. I as a female update my shots usually every six months that's a lie a lot because my hair style changes I'm a female, I'm fickle. If your hair style changes or your weight fluctuates more than ten to fifteen pounds, you need a new photo for those of you who are over the age of forty five and you are thinking or excuse me, not age wisdom, the wisdom of forty five if you are thinking you haven't changed in the last two to five years, you are wrong. You have improved let's see the new improved you. Please don't try and fly by on high school imagery or on images that we would never recognize you. The most uncomfortable I've ever been was when I have been to a lot a lot of live events, and I've had somebody run up to me and they start chattering at me and I'm look look at them like, who is this creature? And I said, I'm so sorry I didn't catch your name and they go, oh, it's, suzy from twitter and I'm like, look, we're going no it's, not e I don't let susie know that I know that's not season, but I don't let things you know their pictures at least seven years old, but it's very uncomfortable because it creates an immediate betrayal, an immediate this sense of distrust and an immediate feeling of what else you lying about, suzie, you're not willing to put yourself fourth honestly that's not fair, so I'm really a stickler about that that's like a big pet peeve of mine lincoln's your virtual business network. I recommend if you want high end clients who are well educated, either in the corporate world or the entrepreneurial world you get on linked in, because that's, where they're hanging out instagram, I have to confess. I don't want to be kind ally here I have one or two photos up on instagram I'm a little embarrassed about this I had high plans to do a lot better than that before this event but you know the reality is I'm already on so many networks I didn't feel that that was when I needed to add some of you are probably going to crucify me for this my being crucified wait have our own special places to be and for those of us who are photo fools it's a divine yeah you know I rather be in the experience and photographing it that's just kind of the way I look at life and I also find that photos without people are often not that interesting unless it's of something aren't c or something like that so I'm by myself a lot even at events I go to and I'm not usually one who's going to say here take a picture of me that's often felt a little awkward to me so you know obviously my cocktails or by themselves but people all know I mean on the other side of the glass it's about works I look instagram as a virtual moments repository does anybody want to correct me on that that's what it feels like to me it's it's not at all that it's not all that okay shell so tell me what it is instagram is it all about being able to present your products and your lifestyle and how your product spent into your lifestyle and into other people's lifestyles. But it is photos all taken in the moment, correct, because you can't pull them from archives. Oh, yes, you can. You can. Absolutely. You can. Yes. Ok. And you can touch them up there. All kinds of effects. You can get it. I can't touch them up because I hired that out. No, but there are aps on your phone that you can do it. And it's austin? Yeah, I didn't want to go down that path of learning all that extra stuff. But for somebody like you, it's. Perfect. Because a you have an amazing product. B you have an extraordinary brand and see your wizard with photography. So for me, it's, I get in trouble all the time for using it. But it's a divine it's, a divine place for me to be because I have a huge following there and I get so much love every day and like every day I post my toenails someplace on the street, so I love it. So people are looking for that. So people want to see where I am in my day. And then there's a there's a consistent persistent that's the real big take away from that is the consistent persistent that people look forward to on a scheduled basis they know I need to look for rochelle's toes today and where are they and I do my food throughout the day last night when I was making your gluten free which more amazing is amazing I want a package there was a picture of your eggs being beaten and so back like posted because people who are wooden free or our celiac don't realize that they're really fabulous products that can know that I'll buy those from you mean really without that amazing so it's really important to have that visual out there when I make my jams I take from the moment I'm taking the fruit through every step so they see every step of the process that's amazing for me so it's a great venue for me to be on and I do it on twitter is weather products again it works extremely well for products it's less easy for service based because there's less imagery attached to it right? Yeah right so it's so it's for that everybody has their niche every place has to focus more on the service based so that's that's why but yeah I appreciate that I still it still feels very much to me like what I see up there tends to be strategic of the moment but of the moment still and it even creating from past moments into the forward now that you can pull them into a stream together yeah, and there are a lot of things you can do you can do collages, you can do all kinds of things, but a lot of people deceived found like they used facebook so there's a whole marketing, we're talking, we're talking business use yeah, I'm talking about the business use right now, not just the random hey, I want to let everybody know what I'm hanging out, you have professional, you have a professional account or you can have a personal account, but you can't have both oh, interesting, and I'm kind of this you can have a professional count or a personal account, but you can't have both high above oh, the nest, ok, that's how they knew that I'm no, I've had it for a long time. Well, just like a lot of people have multiple facebook accounts and you're not supposed to mean, well, I have a facebook personal account that I have multiple pages, something really simple facebook accounts, so I don't mention violating the terms of service, I'm usually a rule breaker when it comes to that there's, so many options already out there for may. So, there's no reason for me to program, I'm going to put a call to action upon instagram I mean, everything we said we didn't put a guard is away on instagram that you can actually sell your products. Thank you for sharing that about instagram. Michela really do appreciate that. Um, I'm now wiser. I don't know that I'll use it anymore, but I'm wiser, okay? Youtube is a fabulous place is to be I actually need to do a lot more with youtube as a speaker particularly, um, but youtube does not limited to speakers by a margin. You could do a ton with product on youtube, and youtube has such a massive search engine responsiveness, especially when you tag and keyword richer descriptions and know how to do the best kind of ceo on youtube, which is not what we're here to discuss. But it's something you want to be aware of, so youtube has a morality quality to it. You cannot force morality, by the way, it's very rare that you can predict that anything will go viral unless it's a cute cat video, maybe I'm not sure some of you may be videos. But you can hope for the best and you know, sometimes things went viral that you're like, why on earth did that go viral or you know, something doesn't go viral that you're like? Well, I can't believe everybody the world hasn't seen that yet, so there's just it's not predictable and nobody can guarantee you placement and morality of that nature, but if you're going to choose one of these paths, you want to be consistent and persistent on it pinterest is an amazing place and the cool thing about pinterest is pinterest works also for writers and if you've got images in your block was like I always put two images and every log post and so all my block post can beep interested there was four thought too, that a lot of video goes up on pinterest very, very effectively, so hey again you gotta pick your channels. Where is your ideal client hanging out? Yes, lisa notoriously avoided youtube. I put all my videos on video because I was a snob and someone let me know well, google now old youtube yeah, so if they do a google search, they're not gonna look prevent me oh, so that was a lie opening experience for me, so I just wanna mention that yeah, you're you're not going to show up if you're not on youtube, your urine visit well it's unfortunate but it's true you know pinterest is your virtual buffet of visual delights it truly is so what I would like to know is based on the work that we did yesterday or if you already knew who your ideal client wass or is what social networks are your favorites and why but more importantly, what social networks are they on if you have a favorite network and your ideal clients aren't there and you're not going to give that up that's totally cool just please no I want you to really understand the time spent there is not time invested in your business it's playtime playtime's totally cool got no problem with that just don't want you confusing it with your playground for profit, which is what your business is ok really important anybody telling me what their favorite network is? It seems pretty overwhelming. Most of the people here are talking about twitter right now a lot of twitter users but I want to read a comment from indigo and she kind of breaks down he or she breaks down their social media use they say I like facebook groups for business and pinterest for buying stuff from other businesses who make products pinterest is great for promoting products and you can absolutely have both a business and personal account within their terms of service oh yeah yeah easily said thank you very much fat really appreciate the share