When social media is hard work, you know you’re doing it right. I should know, as I not only run SocialNicole’s social media marketing, but I also coach, advise and sometimes run the programs of other businesses too. It is a day-in and day-out process, and it’s hard work. If you don’t love your audience, your channels and your business, you may find it difficult to put in the time it takes, especially if you are trying to do it yourself. The most effective social media marketing glows with purpose and passion. I stand by this. Why? Because when you have purpose, passion and excitement, people see that energy in how you communicate with them and others on your page, and they know you are real, trustworthy and someone with whom they want to work. This is the biggest advantage you have over larger competitors who don’t take the time to make individual connections and why social media marketing can actually be very powerful for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
You need to be in love with your channels that connect you to others. OK, you don’t have to LOVE Facebook in general, but you do need to LOVE your Facebook page–seriously love it. You have to want to nurture the page, build the community and really hit your audience with content they want to receive. And sorry, but if you are going to be successful in your Facebook marketing–especially in the beginning–you will need to strategically spend some money to reach your audience.
Falling in love with Facebook
I am in an all-out love affair with my Facebook page right now. It has not always been this way. I originally felt that Twitter was my place and Facebook was just not where I wanted to invest my time. Sure, I had a page, posted stuff there and built up about 700 fans, but I didn’t really work it; it was just something I did for appearance. But then, I decided it was time to fall in love. It’s so different than Twitter, my first love, and while I still love love love Twitter, I was ready to take on more. In 3 months I have grown my page 150%. Yes, that’s over 1000 new fans in 3 months. However, just having a new fan doesn’t do much to increase lead generation and bring me new clients. I have to jump in and figure out how to engage these new fans and get them to take an active interest in my page. Every post is created with love–love for my page, love for my community and love for my business. How do I know it’s effective? I have had 4 new coaching clients who have come directly through Facebook leads in the past few months. That’s 4 new clients because I am doing what I love, and great people see that and want to work with me because of it! And this is with absolutely no selling on my page, just posting great content that is useful to my community.
Facebook promoted posts–a small investment with big results
Results start with great posted content and improve with strategic promotion of posts (you got it, I pay to get some of my posts in front of my people). I am spending about $25 per week on post promotion and about $50 per month on carefully targeted “Like” ads. I don’t mind doing this because I want my audience to engage, I want to grow my page and I want to bring new people into my community. Even with one client acquisition per month, I am averaging a return of investment of at least 26 times the initial investment. Check out the Facebook post below, it’s a great example of a strategic promoted post. It resonated with my target audience and after an initial $5 promotion I increased the budget to $15 because it was getting results. People had fun and the post received almost 300 likes, comments and shares and was seen by over 5,000 people. This was a great success and has really boosted my page engagement overall as well! Oh, by the way, this post is embedded directly from Facebook – go ahead and click comment and add your two words! Cool huh? You can interact with my Facebook page while reading my blog!
Facebook success without selling anything?
Why have I been so successful on Facebook when I am not even trying to sell? It’s because I am using social media marketing the way it is most effective: for building community, providing value and staying in front of my target audience. I have passion and purpose for what I do, and I want to pass it on. I don’t need to sell directly to pass on my passion and purpose and attract clients who want to work with me. I just need a solid strategy and a lot of love for what I do. So now it’s time for you to take action! In the comments below tell me what social media channels you love and how you use them to share your passion and excitement about the work you do. Finding it difficult to love your social media channels? Contact me now and we can discuss creating a plan that will have you loving your channels and getting results, too!
