Navigating Social Media

Navigating Social Media, even if you are not a Millennial

    By: Gary Robinson, CEO, Inside Line

The internet and the world have changed so much over the past two decades, making it hard to keep up. Social media can be especially challenging to navigate and it may seem like millennials and Gen Z have a monopoly on this channel, but don’t let generational designations intimidate you!  You can create a social media profile that is interesting and worthwhile, which is particularly important for authors wanting to create awareness for their work. 

Reasons to Tap into Social Media

1. Billions of Users Worldwide: Social media is used by every age group and every demographic out there.
2. Targeted Marketing: You can use each platform to target a different audience, and also target ads to sub groups.
3. Brand Awareness: Every company out there has a facebook page. A decade ago, people went to your website, and then checked out your Social  page, that is quite the opposite now.  YouTube is now the 2nd most used platform for searches. \
4. Direct Interaction with Customers:  Through messaging, customers can react instantly to your presence instead of emailing. 
5. Cost-Effectiveness: You can reach thousands of potential customers without spending a dime on advertising with organic methods.

Today, when purchasing a product, 43-50 of customers use social media for research on a product or service, while 31% use it for discovering brands via ads and posts. 

When and What to Post

Using the 5 Bucket System to consider your posts.  Picking 5 Topics of each of the following categories can give you a great starting point.  Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. 

• What do you do?
• Where do you do it?
• Why should I care? 

Whether you are doing 3, 5, or 10 posts per week, mixing them up is very important.  10 may seem like alot, but when you consider all of the platforms, it is not as much as it seems.  I use the 5-3-2 method when planning my posts for my company and my clients’. 

Out of Every 10 Posts, 

• 5 Industry relevant, informational, or entertaining posts.  These are not sales pitches or CTA (call to action) posts. If you are a landscaper, a post about safeguarding your backflow on your sprinkler system would be an idea.  These posts build trust and goodwill.  They see that you are not just trying to sell something with every post. But instead,  you are giving something of value.
• 3 “What’s new in your business” posts.  New hire, promotion, expanding into a new area, just joined the local chamber.  
• 2 Pitches.  These are the CTA posts, offering a sale, a deal, or subscription, whatever it is that your business model offers. 

How are you showing up?

Be brutally honest.  When making a post, always try to put yourself in the eyes of your audience.  Do NOT rely on the opinions of those close to you.  I call it the “Family and Friends” syndrome. When you ask your family and friends, there are usually 2 results.  They tell you what they feel you want to hear, thinking they are encouraging you, or your tone will be slanted, and you will tend to “sell them” on what you are showing them, and that leads them not giving an honest opinion.  

Consider 4 questions:

1. Why should I follow you?
2. What value are you providing me?
3. Can I see myself in your messaging?
4. Would I really use this product or service?

Prep-Work

Make sure to lock down a strategy before starting.  Think about what platforms, how many posts per platform and why. 

Organize your uploads in files and images in a public cloud folder like Drive, Dropbox, AWS.  Using Drive effectively can actually have a great side effect…helps with your SEO.  

Crafting a social media strategy: Different Platforms, Different Tone.

DO NOT engage platforms with a “one-size-fits-all” approach-it does not.  The post you put on Facebook will go nowhere on Pinterest.  Different platform, different demographic, different results.

Let’s do a quick overview of the platforms that are used every day.  

FACEBOOK

• 2.5 Billion users/mo.
• 1.95 billion can be reached by ads
• 69% of US adults use FB
• 44% female and 56% Male

Facebook is the Back Yard BBQ of social media.  Everyone is invited, everyone has something to say, and everyone has an opinion.  It is a huge audience that you can capture the attention of many.  But like the party or bbq…DO NOT USE IT AS A POLITICAL PLATFORM.  Do not be “That Guy” who finds something to rant about, it will haunt you forever. 

INSTAGRAM

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users

• Instagram ads reach 928.5 million people
• 500 million people open Instagram Stories every month
• 50.9% female and 49.1% male
• 35% are between 25 and 34 years old

Instagram is all about the pictures. It is the Scrapbook of Your Trip.  Applying it to business, it can be the scrapbook of your work, your achievements, and your projects.  Utilize the auto post from Facebook to Instagram as much as possible.

TWITTER / X

• Twitter has 152 mill daily users
• 22% of US adults use twitter
• 38% female and 62% male
• 29% of Twitter users are between 25 and 34

Aside from being the “WORSE RE-BRAND IN THE HISTORY OF MARKETING”, Twitter, or X, is the “Bar” in social media.  Quick messaging: where you are, what you are doing, who are you doing it with.  Great for quick promotional messages, just not after too many drinks…and we all know who those posters are. 

YOUTUBE

More than 2 billion monthly users

• YouTube is the world’s 2nd most visited website, after Google
• 33% of the world’s population (overthe age of 13) us YouTube 
• 45% female and 55% male
• 81% of U.S. internet users between the ages of 15 and 25

• 15% of YouTube’s traffic comes from the U.S.

YouTube is the TV studio.  It is a great posting platform for instructional, how-to, DIY, and promotional videos.  Do not be shy or afraid of this platform. It takes most people 20 videos to get comfortable and really have smooth video.  You will alway be more critical of yourself than others are. And, you can not get to the 20th video without starting with number 1.  

PINTEREST

• 35 million Monthly Users, up 26% over the last year
• 28% of Americans use Pinterest
• Growing 35% internationally, 8% US

• 72% Female, 20% are male, and 8% do not specify gender
• 41% are between 25-34

Pinterest is the home kitchen.  Great place to post “How I Did It” images and directions.  Very popular with cooking and recipe sites.  One of the most used platforms for BBQ and Smoking as well as any type of home or small business projects. 

TICKTOK

• 46 million US TikTok downloads in 2019
•  More downloaded than Twitter or the YouTube app
• 63.4% female and 36.6 male
•  60% of users are between 16-44
• 25.8% of users are between 18-24

Reels and shorts have marked a huge upsurge in social media.  In 2023, after the upsurge in the popularity of TickTock, Facebook pushed it’s reels and stories.  The shorts or reels on Facebook accounted for 22% of what was seen on their platform.  Long story short…quick, short, fun videos capture an audience’s attention, and then you can direct them to your page of choice. 

GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

• 49% of businesses receive more than 1000 views on search/mo
• On avg, 56% of actions on GMB listings are website visits
• 16% of businesses receive more than 100 calls each month from GMB 
• Tied to Google Maps and your KP
• The audience is: ANYONE WHO USES GOOGLE

Google is the big stage, the big show.  When someone searches for a business, or a type of business…the listing is what comes up, and if you do not have a “Google My Business” page, you will sink down the list fast.  Having this complete is very important, and so are reviews.  As soon as Google sees an influx of review that are steady, that in itself will help your business grow in ranking. 

How do you organize your social media? 

So many ideas, so many topics, so many platforms?  Short answer: Keep it visual and simple   Create a social media schedule. 

One way is to put your schedule into a calendar in Sheets or Excel. If you that works for you, great. Another way, that seems old school, but allows for a hands on, and very visual and dynamic way of organizing is a white board and sticky note method.  

Above we had three types of 10 posts.  Use three different colors of post it notes for each of the types…and write them down on the applicable post-it and put it on the wall.  If you need to change the date of a post, all  you have to do is move it.  Simple and easy.  It may take a while to get used to it, but it will keep you organized. 

NONE OF THIS MATTERS IF YOU DO NOT CAPTURE THE RESULT

Not every company has the time to set up their own SMM (social media management)  program.  At Inside Line, we do just that.  Setting up affordable and automated SMM programs is a major part of our business.  

When we set up social calendars for clients, we also set up a way to capture the leads.  If you do not have an effective way to capture every call, text, or email, everything above is a waste of time.  

Inside Line utilizes a platform that captures every lead, even a missed call, and engages the caller via text and email and begins a conversation that is tracked within a CRM  that facilitates constant communication and follow up, and even automated scheduling. 

For more information, please reach out to us at info@ilineco.com, or call is at 720-361-1152

By Gary Robinson, CEO, Inside Line

gary@ilineco.com   720-427-3441