Lessons

Lesson Info

Why Facebook Still Is a Powerful Platform

Now, if you happen to be part of the crew who are like, Jasmine, Facebook is like no-mans-land, and it needs to be resuscitated, it names a miracle, it needs some divine intervention, I get it, because the question I get asked a lot by people is Jasmine, does Facebook work anymore? From your professional opinion, does it work anymore? And the answer is, it works phenomenally well still. And, it's going to require a little bit of a mindset shift as a result to see it that way. So, let's have a chat about how to revive your Facebook page. Now, if you're sitting here, and your first thought is, that's not for me, then we're not gonna get anywhere in this. So, just humor me in this point of the conversation to say Facebook is gonna work for me. Because what we say actually comes to fruition. So, why am I still growing my Facebook page? Well, number one, it still gets results. And I have come to believe that the organization itself is paying so much careful attention to how people are navig...

ating the app, that even if it's funky right now, it has a way to make a boomerang back. So, just because something doesn't work as well as it did once before, doesn't mean that that it doesn't have the propensity to go back where it once was. That's what I'm gonna choose to believe, and whatever is working right now for me, for free, I'm still gonna take it. So, lets geek out on stats for a little bit. Because, I want everybody here to be here, here, to be very clear. I only make decision out of quant. I take my feelings, I take my opinions, and I throw them out the window because they don't matter. The market matters and numbers matter. And on Facebook, there are two point four billion people on the app, that is billion with a B. Okay, so what you're telling me, is that an app of two point four billion people's not gonna work for you I've got to say, huh, maybe we can think about this a little bit different. Because, statistically 53% of Americans say that they use Facebook several times a day. Now, one out of every American uses Facebook several times a day. 15 people in this room are on Facebook several times a day. You're like, hey Jasmine, what's several? Well, study went in, eight times a day, more than half of America is on Facebook eight times a day. 57% of consumers say that social media influences their shopping. One out of every two American is on Facebook eight times a day. And 57% of them say that social media influences their shopping. The study was led by Facebook at 44%. 44% of people on Facebook are leading the shopping charge and they say that Facebook affected their shopping decision. So, what can we deduce from these basic stats? Facebook is the most used social platform and it is also the place where users are spending most of their time. Collectively. There are other platforms like Istagram. There are other platforms like Snapchat that the engagement might be higher, but where Facebook is still continuously winning is that it has people en masse. We mustn't forget what that means and we have to take out our personal feelings. Because I don't know how you feel about Facebook, but it feels like, you know, where our moms hang out. You know, it's like, are my dad is on Facebook and I was like, oh, man. But I know my people and stay and hang out there. And how do I know this? I run ads, I have tags, I do the math. So, this is the wake up call for anybody whose like, I'm not sure it' for me. Karen says I officially launched my all video, me solo in front of a camera PR course! And hosted four Facebook lives. Social curators turned me into a video vixen! But in a good way. Aisling, I was open, honest, and vulnerable on a Facebook live and because of this I had the biggest customer weekend ever. Cristy, I did my first, never done before, first official Facebook ad this week to promote a workshop I'm teaching and the class is sold out. We could sit here and say it doesn't work, but these are all business owners exactly like you. So, the question then becomes, are you leveraging Facebook for your business? If the answer is no, then the next question is, are you ready? Because the thing that people say, well how do I stick out in the algorithm? Because Facebook is out to get me, it's this big, boogyman of co, of a monster, and I am so tired of them not showing my stuff the way that they did anymore because I am showing up and they've given me a platform of two point four billion people and they refuse to show my stuff for free. How rude! (people giggle) Hmmm. Okay. So, here's the four considerations Facebook uses to rank your content. If you think the algorithm is out to get you, lets understand the boogyman so we know who we're dancing with. Number one, Facebook explained the algorithm has a formula or a set of stems for solving a particular problem and broke the algorithm down into four considerations. Number one: inventory. What is new content that can be shown to users at any given time? Facebook says what do we have to show? Number two: signals. This is a guess at how interested a user will be at a certain point, and in a certain post. Signals. This is their guess, do you wanna see this cat meme? Do you wanna see this baking video? Do you wanna see this wedding portfolio? Based on your previous behaviors, that's called a signal. They're gonna guess what you wanna see based on your previous behaviors. Predictions. How likely will a user engage with the content? Because, it's not enough to show you what you want to see, what Facebook wants to do is show you want to see and then engage with it so we have a better measurement of how good that content is. And number four: score. A number given based on predictions listed in considerations one through three. So, when we are dealing with our considerations one through three, signals, predictions, and score the only thing we can concur, control, wow, remix c-c-c-c-control. Wow! (people laugh) Wow! Ah, the only thing we can control is inventory. If the only thing we can control is inventory, we choose how much content to share, when to share and how. So people can look at this and say, I'm out of control, I can't do it, I give up. And then some people say, okay, I can control one out of the three things (Jasmine snaps) I'm controller. My question to you is, are you willing to revive the inventory? So, how can we create inventory to increase our page to be seen? That's what we're gonna be focusing on right now. So I have to be in full disclosure, I actually am just a data nerd. This is what I like to do. Because, the history predicts the future and if anything I'm good at, it's pattern spotting. So, what I love to do is host free challenges to the public so that I can see what's working, what's not. Then, for the people on the inside of my membership, I was like this is the data, this is how we're going, what are we going to do with it? Data aggregation. I have a vision for social curating to be data mining of our users, of hopping and hot, fabulous entrepreneurs where other business owners on the outside want to come to social secure and say what's working for them, how do we build products for them? Hey, yes, I got a vision. A vision of love. (people laugh) And it's always there to me, come on that just came to me, that just came to me! Okay, so we had this 30 day challenge. We put this out into the public and we're like, what you get right now is 30 days to show up every single day, we give you no excuse, whose down? People join. I have 800, and people say, it's not gonna work Jasmine, my page has been dead. Okay. Somebody like Lori, I have 850 followers, within two hours, yes that's right, two hours, I received a PM from somebody contacting me that she and her sister who want to schedule hypnotherapy session with me. So I am getting two new clients from one post. Oooh, okay. You do hypnotherapy, your page was dead, you have 850 people and within two hours you probably got hundreds of dollars. Doesn't Facebook suck? That algorithm, it's so out to get you. Gunilla, We have people who find reasons for success, in eight years of business I never had a sale from social media, photographer) is it just me. Cassie Grantm once I started posting consistently every single day, I have gotten seven to eight bookings over the last month and a half. And they're referring to Facebook. Consistency. If you can change one thing about your Facebook page, what would it be? This is what I ask. I went into a free popup group, why? Data mining. I want to know, what's your pressure point? How can my business facilitate that. So I said, if you could change one thing about your Facebook page, what would it be? Engagement. Everybody, hands down, said I want people talking to me. What is wrong? I need to stop day drinking. That vodka at lunch. God! (people laugh) Kimberly Dillon, engagement. Julie Murphy, people who engage. Karyn I want content that results in more engagement and followers. Cheryl, I want a storefront of engagement followers. Anita, engagement. Jennifer Lee, engagement. So, What happens in this 30 day Facebook challenge is I went inside of the social curator Facebook group and I was like, we're gonna do critique. Because, I'm seeing patterns and now how do we go back and how do we fix this pattern? So, the critique began with a beautiful member by the name of Faith. Now Faith is making beautiful humans right now, okay, so she is busy popping out babies. I reach out to her, I'm like, Faith, can I show this publicly on creative live? Because, we did it on the inside of our private group and I'm not gonna share anything that's on the outside because that's how I roll and she said yes. (Jasmine snaps) But, be sure to tell people that I'm having babies right now, so it's not. I was like, I got it, girl. Cause when you're ready, we're ready, we're gonna come back. But I loved what she did! So, you can find faith, uh Facebook.com at at go simply fit. And I said, because where do we start all the time with social curators? Who are you talking to? I can't help you unless I know who you're talking to? She says my dream customer is a busy mom looking to take back her health and fitness around her schedule. I said, Faith, what is your struggle? Engagement. Well, what do you know? A lot of other people too. I said, Faith, How can I help you? I need to know when you're going to be happy. I will be happy with Facebook when she says, I get my audience talking and sharing. Cool! Let's dive in. At the time when I went through to critique her page, at the time this is what it looked like. She had 1,957 people who liked this page. You see her logo in the upper left hand corner. And you see tow people with their faces down on a mat. The first post I saw at the time was already a week old. We've all said it, I'll just start on Monday, but why Monday? She has no comments and two shares based on the quote. Okay. That was on August 16th. Already a week old. August 9th, what are we looking at here? Another week. Uh, a turn around, a transformation process, this one did really well, she had eight comments and one share. She had 37 likes, she had people in here, and she wasn't talking back to them. Okay. Next post, August sixth. Three days. July 31st, seven days. She is averaging one post a week. I'm just doing this analytically. What we see here is that there wasn't any engagement. And there was three comments and two shares. One more. A week before, a recipe. 12 comments, two shares. What am I seeing right now? She's posting once a week, her quotes aren't doing all that great on her page. So now we're seeing what's working, what's not working. Transformation posts and good eats posts. Okay, now we're there. July 20th July 16th, August sixth. On her page, I'm scrolling down same photo, two of the, two of the three have the same copy. And then you wonder why people aren't talking back to you? This is what we're seeing. But, how many of us just simply regurgitate something going out there? So then I went to her videos page. I said, I want to know what people are popping with. So, uh, she did a video, had 27 hundred views, if you're headed to the beach this summer, enjoy this sand workout. Uh, two point seven. Eight point seven of summer full body hiit workout. But if you notice, 11,000 views for a mommy and me full body circuit. There were no other videos on her page and Faith will tell you very similarly, she put up her computer and recorded it. So, I look at 11,000 views on a mommy and me workout, and I say is, mommy and me every day. This is what people wanna see, and yet you stopped for a reason I don't understand. The market tells you what they want. Then you have the objective or not of whether you want to listen to it. So, I got on, so there are are in the group I'm doing live coaching, I said Faith, this is what you gotta do and I said Faith, this is what you have to improve: Consistency, you can't post once a week. You're not giving Facebook the inventory to show you stuff. Number two: please set up a professional photo shoot, because you're using the same photo again, and again, and again. Number four, your video tutorials are so good and you just stopped doing them. I don't understand why. Number four, can you please use a social curator captions to prompt questions? Because all she was doing was making statements. This is your summer workout. This is your recipe. If I went to you and I held out a pizza and I said nom, nom, nom, pepperoni's my favorite. You don't say anything back. And yet we do this in our captions. If I want you to say margarita pizza is my absolute favorite and yes I do cauliflower crust, is that weird? Many of you, if you're not from California, would think that that's really weird. But, us, and the California folk cauliflower pizza crust is where it's at. (people chuckle) Uh, so! I asked you a question, it's up to you to respond. But If I go to you and not give you a way to respond, I say, come on, come on, Faith, you have the tools. You're not using them. So, some time passed, two days. After we have this critique, two days later she comes in the group and says, Not only did I realize my Facebook needed an overhaul, but that my whole company did. Why am I not selling myself on the business platform too? I changed my profile photo on both my Instagram and my Facebook from my logo to me. Hello, engagement! Two days later, she said enough is enough, I'm making a change. And then some time passed. Two weeks, so two weeks, and two days, after we had a live critique in class, she shares this I went from posting once a week max, to posting an average of three times a week. I gained seven clients from making this post yesterday and a ton of leads. Thanks J Star and the amazing group for showing me that Facebook is in fact alive and well! 47 comments and four shares. She got seven new clients in sixteen days. When people say, Jasmine, Facebook's not there for me, maybe you're not there for Facebook. Just real talk. So, if we know that this was possible for a person who had a moderately sized page. She had less than 2,000 people, was not showing up at all and then within two weeks did this, I was like hey, I know that I called you out in the group with love, can I hop on a zoom chat with you? Like real quick. Can I, can I have a chat, cause I think that people think that I talk trash and that people think that only special people can do this. Can we have a conversation? I'm gonna show you 30 seconds of this live, not this live video, it's a recorded video but it's in my presentation. I'm just saying this to production because they need to know they need to cue it up. So in three, two, one, So, now what, now you have this fire under your bum. Now, you have new clients. Now, people are, are, are getting to know you. What do you want to do next? Specifically, how are you gonna leverage what you have on Facebook? So we definitely have things that I really wanna do and I feel like this is just giving me that momentum to just keep pushing forward. I have always been the type of person, my to-do list is a thousand miles long, but I'm finally starting to, like, cross things off instead of adding and adding and adding and maybe just, it's such, it's such a relief to actually be able to see the things I wanted to do for my company. Since it's started actually come to light and people love it! Like, it's not even just, like, of course I love my own stuff, but, like, to see other people love it and think it's great, and get all the feedback is amazing. So, she says, that she loves it and now other people love it. So, I was like, that's a really big business shift! Can you tell me, Faith, what you think your secret to success was? Because people ain't gonna hear it from me, but they might hear it from you, and this is what she said. I just had to do it. I had to show up, I had to do it, and I'll be honest, I was giving up on Facebook, I would go on Instagram, I would push a post to Facebook, and just let it be ad I'd be fine with my likes, if it, if they even got that. One being my own self liking it, like, it was sad. Um, and I just really felt like people weren't seeing me on Facebook. And the truth was, I wasn't showing up on Facebook. So, if you want people to see you, you gotta show up. That's basic. If you want people to see you, you gotta show up. Deep thoughts from Faith, a real talk from Faith. So, what did she actually boil all of this down to? Consistency. And she didn't come out and say, Jasmine I'm posting on Facebook four times a day. She went from once a week to three to four times a week, but she went and used strategy. And when I got started thinking about this I was like, okay, here I go, data mining nerd again. I was like, let me ask some questions. I put out a poll and asked, how many times do you post on your Facebook page? 30% of the people said one to two times per week. That is not really showing up, at all. Inventory is the only thing that we can control within the Facebook algorithm, so, what are you doing? So, why should I be consistent when nobody seems my post, Jasmine? Sorry, still not there. Good for faith, good for you, I'm tired of being consistent and nobody seeing my post. And, I will hear, I want you to hear me first, say it that I'm not some delusional little girl walking through, like, a field of poppys, saying like, it's totally gonna work. It sucks. It sucks that you do the same amount of work and less people see what you do. A month ago, uh, 12 months ago, on a random Facebook live, you can get around 15,000 views. Nine months ago, we're getting around 9,000 views. So, in a matter of three months, I'm watching the viewership cut down, and cut down, and cut down. Cause six months ago, I'm getting 65,000 views. 4,000 views. So what is really happening along the way? Organic reach is shrinking. More people are on the app and more people are paying to run ads. And, any content that is paid, gets priority over free content. But guess what, you're driving on a freeway that Mark Zuckerburg paid. Paved. And then he said, you could pay for the toll road, or you could sit in traffic. You want to complain that you're on this free paved road? Go right ahead. But the people who want to be seen can pay the toll or they can sit and be happy in their car. I have chosen to sit and be happy and occasionally I also use a toll road, because the toll road works. So, what is required for a Facebook mindset shift? Well, I think when I focus on the positive, and when I'm consistent, and when I engage, my business still continues to grow. Is it growing as fast as it once did? No. Am I going to complain that I have a free platform with two point four billion people on it? And the, like, the world is my oyster? The better the content I create, the more I'm rewarded both free and paved? I choose that. I choose growth. This is what I want for you, but, I understand that consistency is hard. So, I'm not gonna bs you and say, come on, guys, you got this. I'm just gonna tell you straight out that consistency is key. And you're gonna need the tools to show up every day. You're going to need the resources to show up every day. And that's okay if you don't want that. But then you also can't complain that you're not growing. Right? So, you say I'm not gonna show up and you say good I'm not gonna show up and I'm okay that I'm not seen. I'm okay that my business isn't growing. If you're complaining you gotta do something about it. So, Genee, I did a live video after a challenge, after a challenge post, and sold out of what I was selling. Ilyana, the engagement I actually got out of one of my current clients to comment again on my page and she gave me a great mini review. Michelle, they have been working great for me and yesterday's post got me $300 in sales. Are they saying, hey guys, I had a viral video? Hey guys, I did a four part video series. Hey guys, I did 27 live. They just said, I showed up. Shawn, I'm blown away from two to over that it reached in organic engagement. Why? You showed up, you had a plan, and you had a strategy and when you have a plan and when you have a strategy, and when you have the resources consistency, then becomes no longer your arch nemesis. This person becomes your ally. So, this now leads us to a hot seat and some Q and A. Because, what I just laid out for you may it please the court, your honor, is why I'm presenting a case for Facebook. And let me tell you, the shiesty part of me doesn't want to tell you to use it. The people people who use it, the more people compete with me. It is in my best interest to tell you, boy oh boy does it still suck, don't go waste your time. But I won't. I want you to win. Cause when you win, I win.