Almost every business I work with is an SME, and every one of those clients are always wearing many hats. It makes perfect sense that social media is left firmly at the bottom of the totem pole. I wouldn't expect much else to be fair. However, it’s still expected of business owners to have some presence on the correct platforms, and that’s what I'll be addressing in this blog post.
Alongside all the other jobs of speaking to clients, answering emails, and managing invoices, you need to also manage your online visibility with consistency and ideally a wee bit of strategy too.
I hear a lot of the time that people feel they should post every day, and in truth there are some platforms that you should do that for. Not everyone, though!
Publishing with purpose is the key.
What do you want your content to do?
Some posts should help people, others should answer questions, and a couple should just be a way of connecting with your audience. It might be worth mentioning every now and then how you work and a smatter of testimonials as well.
You may want to start with a monthly theme? Think about what product or service does well this time of year and start building a funnel (awareness, consideration, and conversion) to build it up.
I find a theme comes in handy for various reasons. It gives you a starting point that helps you repurpose everything under it. I normally start with a blog, just like this. Then I can break it down into a video for YouTube, Shorts, Reels, an opinion piece in a journal, a podcast, and even into a workshop or in-person guest speaking event and thenbreak it down into even smaller parts for carousels and then reshare the content throughout the year. I typically use Missinglettr for this dissemination (when it works, it’s going a bit mental right now).
I remember years ago struggling to think about what to create; now I’ve reached a point where I have too much!
Batching and Topics
Now you’ve got some idea of your seasonality; list the topics you need to cover over the next couple of weeks or months. Consider the FAQs related to these topics as well.
Now write out the captions for each of these posts. Can you repurpose any of these into Shorts or Reels? If so, then create short scripts for these and record them. Make sure to add your brand (where possible) and always include a call to action.
Please include the funnel mentioned above. The wording for each part will be different. Awareness posts are usually where you're voicing a pain point or problem your audience is experiencing. Your consideration posts should be talking about your solution, answering any possible objections, and maybe even demonstrating how your product or service works. Finally, your conversion posts, etc., will explain how you work and what the next steps are. The wording goes from “Hello” to “Did you know...” to “Buy now!”
Sell, Sell, Sell!
Actually no… Please don’t always sell. Your audience hates being nagged at and they will just simply switch off and stop following you. I tend to use Serve, Share, and Sell instead. More on that another time.
Like most things in life, balance is essential. Talking about your funnel every time you post isn’t necessary. Think about other things that matter to your audience as well. Completing your customer avatar is so important. It’s something I have to remind myself and my clients; it’s called socialmedia for a reason. You’re meant to be social first!
What Platforms do I need to be on?
Only the platforms that you find your audience on. Not your favorite one, not all of them. Just where you’ll find them is important. You are welcome to post the same core message; I give you that permission. What may change, though, is the featured image (size and wording), the time of day, and maybe the caption as well. You also get more wording space on certain platforms than others.
This blog post only covers your social media, which is your online presence, but as part of your overall marketing, you’ll need to still work on building your offline marketing as well. All of your online presence will support this alongside it.
Still need help?
If you feel you’re still struggling with building up and maintaining your social media, then my Supported Digital Marketing Strategy training program is ideal for you. You’ll learn to work within your business, its goals and objectives, your own level of ability, your own time management (trust me, you’ll build it!) and so much more.
I can provide training for businesses, sole traders, and teams and give you the skills and greater confidence you need to manage this for yourself.
Learn more about the course here: https://www.stomp.ie/services/digital-marketing-strategies
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
