No clue what to say on social media? In this episode of Be the Lime we are going to make it real easy for you to start the conversation online! Just follow this rule…
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My “Notes” when I did this podcast (in other words, expect some typos). This by no means covers everything in the podcast…so download the podcast for all the tips!
So, this week we are talking about what I call, “Social Laryngitis.”
But first….here is what happened….
Last week I had a potential client call me about a product launch.
I will call him “Skippy”
It’s a pretty good concept and he has a pretty good following.
When talking about any product with just about any client, I go through the gambit of “How” he communicates with his potential clients.
For the most part he conducts webinars and writes articles for his website.
When the conversation turned to social media, he was pretty much quiet.
He has a Facebook Fan Page, but has never really posted.
He has a Twitter account, but has never actually written a tweet.
He also has Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest but has never really opened them.
I started at the top with Facebook.
I asked him why he did not post to his Facebook Fan Page.
After getting through the usual objections such as time, using Facebook for personal vs Business, etc, etc – I pretty much got to the bottom of it.
He said, “I just don’t know what to say.”
But you write 4-5 articles a week on your website, how can you NOT know what to say (I secretly already knew the answer)…
“I don’t know…its just…well…on the social media stuff I don’t know what to talk about. The blog is easy…social media is hard.”
So…you pretty much have “Social Laryngitis” I said…
“Exactly” he said.
Sometimes I feel like I should just have a PSA to play….
…you know one of those Public Service Announcements…the kind of cheesy ones that we saw in school.
Black and white…grainy….
Some professor greets the camera in a white lab coat.
“Hi kids. Do you suffer from social laryngitis? Well, you are not alone. Why here comes Skippy…”
I don’t know…maybe that is just funny in my head.
The fact of the matter is Skippy is not alone.
After so many years of working on variety of social media platforms I have reduced it down to a few simple rules.
Matter of fact, I will make this into a quick exercise.
Grab a piece of paper and divide it into three columns.
If you are jogging, or driving…just wait and do this when you get home. But imagine…
At the top of column one you write “Share.”
Column Two, “Original”
Column Three, “Sell.”
The Share column is really stuff that you DID NOT write.
These are things that you find on the Internet.
They can be quotes, really cool stories, and articles, whatever.
We will talk more about this Column in a minute.
The “Original” column is….you guessed it…stuff that you write.
It could be a link to an article on your website, a recipe you share, a funny thought or photo…but this MUST be original content.
The “Sales” column is just that.
This is you selling. It can be a link to your book, a special you are running, a special event, whatever.
Now…to start…
Sell and Original are 10% of what you post.
Share is 80% of what you post.
That means 80% of what you post, when you start, is stuff that you are sharing (passing on if you will).
Now, this needs to make sense to your audience.
If you train cats (and I don’t know why anybody would) – you would only share things about cats. Not dogs, not parrots, not whales…
Your audience is interested in cats.
Your “ORIGINAL” articles will be whatever you write about in your business about cats.
Maybe you wrote and article about a great training session. Maybe you have a really cool scar from trying to bathe a cat.
Remember…the “Original” category is original content from you.
The Sell category is your product. Maybe you wrote the book on training cats. Or maybe you sell kitty sweaters. Maybe you are passing on info as an affiliate to sell someone else’s cat stuff.
This is all stuff that belongs in the “Sell” category.
Now, lets plan some posting.
- Posts 1-5 are going to be Share
- Post 6 is going to be Original
- Post 7-8 are going to be Share
- Post 9 is going to be Original.
- Post 10 is going be Sell.
The goal here is twofold.
In social media you should NOT be selling any more than an 8/1 ratio.
That means you send out 8 things of “Value” before you send out something asking for a sale.
I like 10/1 in social media because most people won’t have seen most of your messages…emails can be closer to 5/1.
By maintaining a 10/1 ratio (selling vs not) you are sure to be giving value to your followers and they will stick with you.
The second goal is to help you get started.
80% of they posts are just finding stuff to pass on.
That should relieve a lot of pressure.
Eventually, as you get the hang of it…you can move some of the 80% share category to the “Original” category. You don’t move ANY percentage to the “Sell” category.
After a couple weeks, you might be looking at
- 40% Share
- 50% Original
- 10% Sell
Matter of fact, if you look at my personal Twitter account, you will see that most of what I post (at at least a 10/1 ratio) has nothing to do with selling.
Seriously, my personal Twitter is @Godfadr – You can see for yourself.
I use it for personal use and largely for whatever “hobby” I am turning into a business.
Lately I have been working on cigar company that I own ( I was actually the first cigar maker to print a twitter account right on the cigar bands).
I have mentioned both Twitter and Facebook in this episode. The ratios apply to both.
In some future episodes we will certainly talk more about this as well as how it might apply to other platforms.
If you are wonder if the whole “sharing” thing actually works…you know…building an audience by sharing info…I give you…
…George Takei
Of every post on Facebook, I suspect that…
…20% are Original, 20% are Interesting “replay”…and 60% George probably shared first.
I really think that George is a perfect example of sharing information can still build an audience.
Certainly there are other people that have built a whole following on that premise…but…that should not be your ultimate goal.
Your goal is to use sharing info as a way to get you started. In the end, you will need some original content at some point.
One other thing I would like to mention about sharing content.
Oftentimes you can find stuff that will actually HELP you sell.
I call this article hijacking. Let me give you and example.
Let’s say you have a website that sells Kombucha.
Now if you don’t know what Kombucha is..
Kombucha tea is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast. Although it’s sometimes referred to as kombucha mushroom tea, kombucha is not a mushroom — it’s a colony of bacteria and yeast. Kombucha tea is made by adding the colony to sugar and tea, and allowing the mix to ferment.
Sounds tasty huh?
Basically it is a health drink.
Now, it is pretty easy to find any big name media reporting on UN-healthy things!
Let’s say that Good Morning America does a segment on the evils of Diet Soda.
They probably even posted a video after the show of the segment.
Now, you “pass on” or share that information with your followers, email list, whomever.
I would actually put the video on my web page and below it say something like…
“Hey, if you are serious about getting healthy and not putting unnatural toxic junk into your body…just out my latest Kombucha recipe.”
So, we leveraged other media to give us an excuse to talk about our stuff.
Matter of fact, our “stuff” is the CURE in this case. (maybe not “cure” but among the solutions to this problem).
In other cases you do what I call bandwagon hijacking (there is more on this in the actual podcast)
Where you take someone that is doing something very similar and leverages that to your product.
Now, it should go without saying that you should not say anything that isn’t true.
I know that, you know that…but there are always a couple people out there that think they can push the rules. – Frankly, you don’t need to.
So, this week I want you to look for things OF VALUE you can share.
Start that process and you will be well on your way to better communication and interaction with your followers – whatever the platform.
Before I close…I want to go over this week’s LEMON…
Make Safe Happen? – Nationwide 2015 Super Bowl Commercial
That is where I stopped on “Notes for Podcast” certainly more info IN the podcast itself. 🙂
