Hollie Clere, Author at The Social Media Advisor

November 8, 2020
Social Media Marketing

Do You Find Social Media Marketing Overwhelming?

If you’ve never built out a social media channel, it can be overwhelming. Where do you start? How does it work? What should you post and when should you post it? How do you reach the right people online with your social media posts? What if you fail? These are all great questions to ask and it’s where every business owner starts when creating a social media marketing strategy.

Where to Begin

The downside of all those questions is that there is a process that needs to happen before you set up your social profiles. Are you confident in your brand messaging and your company’s culture and story? If that question makes you pause, let me encourage you to begin the work here. If your message is in alignment with your values and culture, you will attract the people who are seeking out that vibe. If you aren’t certain what those things are, then people will be confused and they won’t resonate with your content.

Being of Service

The next step is understanding that while social media marketing exists to help you sell your products or services, it is not a sales platform. The way you build out your social media channels should not feel like it’s 100% promotional or sales or that you are only there to pad your pocketbook. Social media is meant to be social. A commitment to social media marketing, if you want to successful, is showing up generously – from a place of service. You want to attract your ideal clients, not repel them. You want to build an online community around the way you serve. It’s a different mindset than simply selling and it’s vital to be successful on social.

Providing a Safe Space

One of the subtle aspects of growing your online community on social media is that you earn the trust of your audience. You are creating a safe space for people who are like you, think like you, and dig what you like. Your ideal client will look and behave much as you do. You are creating a safe space for your people. That trust will encourage them to convert from followers to clients.

Are you looking for social media training you can participate in from the comfort of your home? Join other small businesses, at your own pace, currently benefiting from the 40+ video training series included in the Social Power Program. We have a Private Facebook Support Group, Monthly Ask the Expert Mastermind Sessions, a FREE Ebook, and regularly uploaded new videos to support your marketing efforts. Become a social media expert by learning everything involved in social media marketing from creating the editorial calendar, to creating custom branded images, to use of hashtags, to paid ads and reporting and so much more. Find out more about the Social Power Program here.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

November 1, 2020
Social Media Marketing

What Are You Grateful for With Your Online Marketing?

Online marketing is challenging because it is always changing and evolving. As technology advances and new tools and platforms are created, small business owners may feel like they are scrambling just to stay on top of the latest marketing trends. With all the noise comes frustration and overwhelm.

Instead of spending your time doing the work you set out to accomplish, you are chasing your tail trying to figure out whether or not Facebook is the place for you, how often to post to Instagram, what hashtags you should be using, and what the heck is a chatbot?

We hear you. As marketing experts, we know just how much information (and misinformation) is being shared on a regular basis and we want to tell you to turn off the noise. You don’t need to know all that stuff to be successful at marketing your business. In fact, if you develop a plan for incorporating and using simpler systems for your online marketing efforts – this process can even be fun!

You just need an experienced guide to show you the way. One who can recommend which tools to use, show you, step by step, how to use those tools to create content in an easy way, and someone who can explain working strategies to grow your business online.

Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, there is so much to be grateful for when it comes to your online marketing. Here are some of our thoughts:

Be Grateful for Your Vision

No marketing expert can help you grow your business online if you aren’t clear and passionate about your company’s vision. Knowing the big picture of what you want your work to accomplish and what you want your company’s legacy to be is where all the great storytelling begins. Knowing this information makes marketing so much easier so pat yourself on the back for creating something bigger than yourself and sharing it with the world!

Be Grateful for Your Service

Businesses exist to solve problems. In fact, if what you offer isn’t a solution to your audience’s problems, then they’ll have no reason to pay attention to you at all. This problem-solving is providing a service for people who need your skills and expertise. Take a moment to feel gratitude for this service you provide to your community.

Be Grateful for Your Brand

How people feel about your company is what branding is all about. All the work that you do, and every time you show up, people will feel an emotion related to what you do. If that emotion is what you want them to feel, you win!

Take a moment this month to sit in gratitude for your big vision for making the world better, for the drive to help your audience solve their pain points and problems, and for making people feel better in a world filled with uncertainty and chaos. That combination is a worthy legacy.

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October 18, 2020
Social Media Marketing

Evaluating Your Competition’s Social Media Marketing

I can’t say it enough, no one is like you and your business. You serve clients in a unique way and your company culture automatically sets it apart from others in your industry. However, everyone has competition – other businesses that do something similar to you and target an audience that looks like yours.

Comparison can be dangerous. A business owner that spends all their time comparing their work to their competition, and adjusting their strategy or goals to match, will 100% of the time miss out on what makes their brand special and unique. Comparison can kill your creativity, your innovation, and can make your brand feel like a copycat instead of a leader in your field.

That being said, there are benefits to paying attention to your competition:

Online Presence

First, check out your top three competitors online. Do they have a website? Is it attractive? Easy to use and navigate? Does it tell their brand story in a compelling way? How do they appeal to their audience? It’s much easier to evaluate another person’s website and brand than it is to be objective about our own. This process will reveal a couple of things: 1) what you are doing well with your own website and 2) where there is potential to do better than your competition in areas where they aren’t currently ranking well. The second, in particular, can reveal opportunities that exist that your competition is not currently focusing on.

Then do this again by searching for your competition’s brand using a search engine. How do they rank in the search engine results for their brand? Where do they rank in search in regards to industry or location-specific keywords? How often do they appear in the results? Are multiple websites talking about their brand? How much of a presence do they have? How much authority or credibility do they appear to have? Then do the same for your company and make improving your own searchability a priority based on the results.

Social Media Marketing

Let’s repeat this process with your competition’s social media marketing. While we would never encourage you to copy or plagiarize their content, paying attention to what gets good engagement on their social media marketing channels can be revealing. If your audience is similar, they may also respond well to that type of content. This is true for content that’s not performing well. Does your target audience like articles or videos? Do they respond to motivational quotes? Are they willing to engage in conversation when content is shared? This effort can be a process of elimination of what you should or shouldn’t share on your own social media channels and may inspire you to create something new or different that is better suited for your audience.

If you can approach evaluating your competitors from the viewpoint of learning what you can do better, where the opportunities may be that your industry isn’t taking advantage of, and inspiring you to build a better online presence for your audience – then this practice can be a positive tool used to become more successful. If you find yourself trapped in comparison or you use this practice to mirror what someone else is doing, forget I ever mentioned it! No one needs a copy of someone or something else. They need you to show up authentically and do your thing because that’s how you resonate with people.

Are you looking for a social media company to train your staff on online marketing strategies and equip them with the tools to maintain engagement, spark interest through Linkedin and other social media platforms, and build a solid foundation company-wide? Contact us to set up a training session for your sales team to improve your online marketing efforts.

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Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

October 11, 2020
Blog, Social Media Training

3 Things Your Team Should Do to Support Your Social Media Marketing

Once you have a handle on consistently sharing your brand story on social media, it’s time to brainstorm how to encourage and incorporate every member of your team in supporting your social media marketing efforts. Marketing doesn’t have to be done in a silo. Everyone in your company can like, comment, share, and engage in online conversations around your brand.

Here are some ways you can encourage your team to support your social media efforts:

Social Media Training

The best support you can give your team is to set up policies and guidelines for social media marketing for your brand and then provide education to your team on not only the proper way to interact with your audience online, but also providing training to help them understand concepts like algorithms and engagement so they understand how social media works and how best to utilize it. This encourages brand ownership and motivates your team to spend more time online, growing and interacting with your audience and customers.

Engage with Your Brand Online

You may have an individual on your team that is responsible for monitoring social media and engaging with followers. If you don’t, you certainly should. However, by giving the rest of your team a bit of ownership when it comes to interacting with your audience online – you can increase your reach and impact, earning even more trust from your followers. The key is to train your team first, to ensure everyone is on the same page about what is or isn’t okay, and then regularly encourage your team to spend time online engaging with your audience.

Become a Brand Advocate

The first two tips will amplify this one. Once your team is confident in their ability to interact with your audience online and is excited about taking some ownership in social media engagement, they very well may become some of your strongest brand advocates. You’ll know it’s successful if your team shares your information on their own feeds and doesn’t just spend their online time on your brand channels.

While you can’t force someone to become a brand advocate for you, encouragement and regular practice using social media on your behalf may, naturally, unfold into creating more advocates for your company online. These advocates for your company will be excited about sharing positive messaging and stories about your brand and will have more empowered ownership in their role at your business.

Many companies either don’t consider or don’t take the time to expand their social media efforts outside their marketing department. It’s a safe bet to have a trusted, experienced marketing professional or someone in leadership exclusively handle social media. However, even more potential exists to make your social media marketing mean more than just an online marketing effort when you train and encourage your team to participate as well.

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Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

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Author: Hollie Clere

Learn how to use social media to grow your business online with our video series!

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