 The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but the loudest mouth on social media usually gets blocked. Being a major contributor on social media can be a recipe for engagement and sales or a disaster; it depends on how often and what you share.
Being visible is one thing, but it is vital that you are providing quality - not just quantity - when you engage your community. It is equally important that you be on-brand with your image, products, and the culture you are fostering. Any disconnect can confuse your community and send them packing. Sharing a few great posts and encouraging engagement is more favorable than posting anything and everything, leaving your audience blasted or bored. Here are five pro tips for posting quality over quantity. Pro Tip #1. Make content relevant to your brand and audience- Your posts should be on-brand and consistent with what you are selling or the image you are promoting. Don’t mix and match your professional and personal lives if they are radically different from one another. Pro Tip #2. Use the platform to its best design- Whatever platform you use, understand it to its fullest capacity. Learn the tricks of the trade for the platform so you are getting the maximum benefit for your engagement. Pro Tip #3. Create original content that is shareable- It’s great to network and share other people’s posts and content, but it is equally important to have unique content that is branded with your watermark or easily identified as your unique content. This builds know, like, and trust - as well as increasing your authority with your audience. Pro Tip #4. Share content regularly to increase engagement- Each platform has a formula that increases the likelihood you will be seen and heard. Sometimes the opportunities are pay-to-play, but usually you can also see large results organically. Simply increase your exposure by consistently posting relevant content to the preferred specifications of the platform. Pro Tip #5. Strive to be an influencer on the platform- Each social media platform has a premium rating for influencers. Example: having a Blue Check on Facebook. Strive to become an influencer, and you will have more traffic and exposure when you post. Social media is a free platform to educate, celebrate, and participate with your target audience. Set your goals for engagement based on quality over quantity and you will be providing valuable services in less time with bigger results. Thanks for reading. Val
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 Focus on The Platforms Where Your Target Audience Hangs Out Social media is the fastest way to cast a wide net to catch the attention of potential customers and create a community. There are more social media platforms than any one entrepreneur can tackle effectively - even if they had all day to devote to being social.
When you began your business, you likely got great advice to narrow your niche and focus on a target audience. These are the ideal clients and customers who want what you have to offer. Furthermore, you should have been told to market to this ideal audience and focus on their needs, their wants, and solving their problems. If you agreed and followed that advice, then you have a pretty good idea of who you want to engage and where they hang out. This is an important step as it relates to social media. Knowing where your audience hangs out is the key to building a social media presence that maximizes your time and marketing budget. Once you know where your customers naturally hang out, you can simply master those specific platforms and dominate the market. Depending on your business, you may want to master one of these main social media platforms: * Snapchat * YouTube Picking a platform is all about engagement and captivating your target audience. Engagement can take many forms. Consider these options: Pictures - Best for Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest Video - Best for YouTube or Facebook live Audio - Best for YouTube, can be linked through other platforms as well Short stories - Best for Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat Links to blogs - Best for Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter One-to-one connection - Best for Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter Once you have decided on one to three primary platforms, you can test them out to see which ones give you the most engagement. If you aren't getting results, it may be time to switch platforms - or abandon one altogether. It's easy to learn how to maximize the platforms through tutorials or training tools. YouTube is an excellent place to review and train yourself on the most effective ways to use the tools. You can also find blogs and downloadable content to help you master any platform. Being visible on social media isn't as daunting when you know who you are marketing to and where they hang out. Finding a social media platform that meets your needs, gets you noticed, and brings you sales is just a few posts, tweets, and pins away. Thanks for reading Val.  Consistency is a key element in a business’ success. Of course, there are other important factors but consistency is what will create name recognition. Consistency is what will build your tribe so you can develop a trusting relationship. Consistency is what will showcase your expertise to new followers.
Here’s an example: You go out to dinner at your favorite restaurant and you fall in love with your entrée. A few weeks later you take a friend to the same restaurant, order the same meal, but it tastes different and you send it back to the kitchen. Their lack of consistency in how your meal was prepared will now leave doubt in your head about that particular dish and possibly about the whole restaurant in general. Doubt in a customer’s mind generally means you have to rebuild that trust again to show that they should continue doing business with you. It’s not impossible to earn their trust again but you’re basically starting from square one. Just like when your weight loss efforts are halted during the holiday season and you have to lose those same 5 pounds multiple times. Working your business consistently and focusing on superb content and excellent customer service will help to keep your clients happy and trusting in you. Have you ever had this occur: You opt-in to an email list that has great potential. You receive a few weekly emails and then nothing. Crickets. Then a month or two later you receive an email from that person again, making an offer to purchase their product. How does that lack of consistency make you feel? I’m guessing your first reaction would be, “Who the heck is this person?” Lack of consistency will cause you to forget who they are and why you signed up for their list in the first place. Lack of name recognition generally leads to, “I don’t know who you are so why would I give you my money?” Again, this business owner just made themselves a much harder task to win you over again. Consistency with Your Brand Image Have you noticed how many gurus there are, each proclaiming to have the answers to earning 6- or 7-figure incomes? If you tried implementing all of their different strategies, you’d be exhausted from keeping up with it all and your audience would be very confused about your overall message. When it comes to branding, consistency and repetition will help develop name recognition. If you always wear clothes that match your website colors, people will make the connection. If your trademark is a purple stripe in your hair, don’t go changing it to fire engine red; your followers won’t recognize you! Be consistent with your brand image, colors, and message, both online and offline so you’re always recognized. If you’d like to learn more about how to create a consistent brand image, book your complimentary Coffee Meet-Up / Zoom / Consults with me today. This can be done over the phone, zoom or an in-person meeting (My Local Area Only) Book Here  When Do Coaches Need Coaches?
Just because you’re in the coaching industry, don’t think you would never have a need for a coach of your own. Seems like a funny thing to think about but even the best coaches could use some help streamlining their businesses or having an objective third party to talk to about personal or family matters. Heck, even psychiatrists are required to speak to other psychiatrists on a regular basis! Business coaches can assist anyone with their businesses and often will find things to fix or change simply because they have an objective, outside viewpoint. Everything from billing inefficiencies to brainstorming product ideas, a business coach can be a non-judgmental sounding board who offers clarity and perspective. Your Coach as Your Accountability Partner If you have a plan in place for creating a signature program, utilizing a coach as an accountability partner is a wise investment. We all tend to work more efficiently when we know there’s a deadline looming but it’s also easy to ignore that deadline because we are the ones who set it. Rather than moving your deadline further and further away, use this accountability partner to keep your productivity on track. Accountability is necessary in many instances, though, not just in product creation. Whatever goals you have set for yourself, your coach will hold you solely responsible for meeting those deadlines and goals. Your Coach as Your Guide A good business coach will have the ability to challenge your thinking and your goals in a non-threatening, non-judgmental way. Instead of staying inside our comfort zones, a coach will encourage us to explore what we fear in an effort to fight that fear and try something new. Coaches also have the skill to break down large tasks into smaller tasks that don’t seem so intimidating. They can also guide us with instructions for how to do or implement something in our business. Your Coach as Your Mentor When it comes to hiring a business coach, always hire someone you consider to be at a higher income level or level of success than you. After all, those who have already reached a level of success will have the best experience to share about how you can reach that same level. Your coach is one who will teach you the skills you need to be successful based on real life experiences. Get Your Plan Started Ahead of Time Before you spend good money on a coach, create a business plan with your goals and your action steps spelled out. You want to provide your coach with a starting point and chances are that would be your first assignment anyway with a new coach. If setting up a business plan sounds daunting or you don’t know where to start, my Business Mentorship Coaching Program, is just what you need. We’ll discuss how planning will keep you focused on your next action steps, why taking action is so vitally important if you want to reach serious goals, and how to break down your overwhelming tasks into doable action steps will improve your productivity. Learn more here Schedule your complimentary Exploration Consultation Coffee Meetup either in-person (Local to my area only) or virtually. Click HERE to get started.  Think you don’t have time to create an eCourse? Think again. Many of the courses you’ve seen for sale—or maybe even purchased—were created in a single day. For savvy business owners, creating a new course is just a matter of putting the pieces together. If you’ve been in business for more than a few weeks, you already have everything you need to create an eCourse and have it ready for sale by this time tomorrow.
What Are Your Strengths? Use Them You could spend days or weeks researching new strategies, testing new ideas, and developing a completely new (to you) eCourse. Or you can embrace a tried and true development strategy that’s been proven to work: Write what you know. When you’ve spent months or years immersed in your expertise, it’s easy to talk about. You probably do it every day. You answer emails, write blog posts, chat on the phone with clients. Not only that, but you very likely read, watch videos, and listen to podcasts about your subject matter every single day. All of these things make it easy for you to create a new course, seemingly out of thin air. Repurpose Your Content If you have a blog or an email list, or have created other courses, then you already have a wealth of content to draw from. Sort through past blog posts and emails for gems you can polish and repurpose. Scout your past courses for modules and elements that are a good fit for your new course. Update the information (if needed) and reformat it to match your new design, and use it to add value to your next offering. Don’t worry that some of your content may have been seen before—even if you create an entire eCourse based on nothing but your blog content. People will happily pay for a step-by-step plan, even if they can find the information for free elsewhere. It’s the convenience of having a proven plan without having to organize it themselves that will encourage them to buy. Fill in the Blanks with Re-brandable Content If there are obvious holes in your content (and there may not be) you can easily fill them in with rebrandable content. You can find inexpensive, well-researched and well-written private label content on nearly every subject. Even better, you can often find a variety of formats, including video, software, slide decks and graphics. All of these can be used to create a more well-rounded, valuable course with very little effort on your part. Go for the Low-Hanging Fruit Let’s be clear. An eCourse you create in a single day is not likely to be an all-inclusive, multi-media filled epic offering. Instead, aim for a low-cost introductory course that will sit near the top of your funnel. You can always expand it later (repurposing yet again) into a more comprehensive training, but for now, the goal is to get it finished and get it out there. Valarie Harris Founder/President VARRIS MARKETING |