Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And welcome back to another episode of The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're going back to basics, back to Social Media 101. Why do we need to go back to basics, Melanie?
Melanie
Because you can't always assume that people who are coming across your business are at exactly the same point you are, know exactly the same things you do. And people learn in different ways. Some people learn by reading, by writing, by doing, of course, and by listening. So there are four learning styles, and if you can incorporate as many of those learning styles, all the better. So for those of you who are the more stronger listeners, this is for you.
Esther
And it's also for you if you're rebranding or if you are just starting out in your business. We come across a lot of people every day who have used social media for a long time as themselves, as their personal profiles, keeping up to date with friends and family, but they've never thought about using it for business. More old school that way, but it is one of these things that eventually you need to jump on to because there are so many benefits from being on social media. Not to mention it's a search engine in its own right. So once you go into people start Googling or Binging or Microsofting and what you do, and it's never going to become a word, is it? Or a verb. Once they start checking online for things that you do, you could pop up even with just a Facebook page or a Twitter account or insert one of the millions of social media platforms here. So what's the first thing that we need to do?
Melanie
Well, believe it or not, I've always said customer, but I think actually it goes back to something even further back than just the customer. And that is, what exactly is the problem you solve? Because I know instinctively, the first problem you feel you're solving is, I'm getting an income or I'm showing my children how to work for myself and all those proof points that you're developing for yourself. But if you can actually verbalise picture and then help other people understand what problem you're solving, then find the customer for that problem, then you're over halfway. What do you think?
Esther
Yeah, definitely. I mean, once you know what it is that you're selling and why you're selling it, then it is so much easier to narrow down the audience that will need that. So we've given loads of examples and other episodes of pain points that have been solved. The one that I always remember is the baby wipe warmer. I mean, who realised that that was a problem in the first place that wet baby wipes made a baby cry more at night and they didn't like the cold and the wet. Who thinks of these things? I wish I had. Then I'd be a millionaire at this point. But there are loads of problems that still haven't been solved, or they have been, but they haven't been marketed correctly because people don't realise that that is the nitty gritty of the pain-point that you are solving.
Melanie
So now we've helped you... The first thing first is understanding exactly the problem you're solving and then you're looking for the customers who are looking for that problem to be solved. Some of that is also taken into account the customer journey. That was a great episode we did with Vicky, wasn't it?
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
So if you've got a way of understanding how your audience is going to come across you in the first place and how you're going to find them. Actually, I did that the wrong way around you're really meant to be where they are. You're not expected them to find you. So if you can think of, Okay, well, this is a problem I solve. I've now got an idea of the types of customers that I'm looking for. So where do these guys hang out and what's going to make me stand out when I put myself in front of them? Remember, we mentioned there's four learning styles. So if that's four learning styles for you, there's also four learning styles for your customer as well. So can you do a video? Can you do an audio? Can you do a written blog? And can you show a demonstration of your product or your service? Like doing a trade stand or a demo somewhere in person. So there's so many different things that you can incorporate, but I would personally just not leave it just to social media. Social media is a fabulous tool. It's an expected tool that we should all have, but it is not the only tool you should have.
Esther
Amen to that. And in case you don't know, Melanie is talking about your email marketing list. She is talking about your website. She is talking about word of mouth, getting out to networking groups and explaining who you are and what you do.
Melanie
Press releases.
Esther
Yeah, all of those.
Melanie
Meeting people. Meeting people is still such an important thing to do. We were talking in another episode quite recently about where we're at. And we're getting old, mate. We're old.
Esther
Again with the age thing.
Melanie
Well, we are because the people coming up behind us have got used to DMing and emailing and conversation. People aren't networking as much as they used to. People are even on the the phone as much as they used to. And the language, the power of language is being lost.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
So I think that's another skill set that we all need to keep on working on, because at the end of the day, people buy from people. So it doesn't matter whether you're young or old.
Esther
Older.
Melanie
Older. People will only believe you if you can believe in whatever you're trying to sell at the time, and that's understanding it intimately, knowing it really, really well and being confident. And if you can do that when you're speaking to people, either in person, through a Zoom or on the phone, I think for any age, it makes a difference because you're connecting with them on a personal level.
Esther
Yeah. Okay, so getting back to getting started on social media marketing. Once you figure out who your audience is and where they are and what pain point you're solving, you need to obviously open the account on the specified channel. And on all of those, they're going to ask you for a bio. I don't know a single one that doesn't ask who you are, what you do, where they can find you, any other links that you can add in. In Facebook, you can tell your story. There is a section for all the information that you can put in about your business, how long it's been running for. Add your logo, your headshot, your banner image, all of these things you have to have before you get started. So even maybe it's the first step too, is once you figure out what it is that you're selling, name your company. Some people name the company and then figure out what they're selling. They're just like, I really like that name. I'll figure out what I want to sell under that name at a later date. That's fine, but get your social media handles sorted. You don't have to be on all the platforms, but we were talking with Bryan Fanzo in person. We haven't had him on the podcast yet, but he told us to just get all your social media handles so that nobody else can have them. Okay, there are so many copycats out there. There are so many people that will pretend to be you, and you just want to make sure that your handles are the same or similar across all platforms. It may not always be possible, especially in this day and age when so many millions and billions of people are on social media. But the closest that you can get them, the better, because then there's the consistency. We have our logo on every single platform that we're on. So that is our consistency. We weren't able to get the same name across all of them because of character issues, because of different things like that. But if you're able to get them, and you do not, again, I reiterate, you do not have to be on them all, but just so nobody else can impersonate you on a different platform. And as your audience grows and ages, as Melanie likes to point out and gets older, you may find that they move away from one platform onto another, which is usually like... We see it across all platforms. Instagram seems to be getting younger and younger and younger. Tiktok again, younger and younger and younger. There are still some old fuggies like us on it. Can I just point out? We are in our 40s. We're not that old. If you were listening to Melanie, you'd think We were 80.
Melanie
No, she's right. We're not that old. But people see marketing on social media as a young person's thing. They tend to get, Oh, let's get the young one to do it. And that's just not right at all. The young ones are braver, but the older ones probably have a better, purely because of experience, working ethos.
Esther
And we're more seasoned, can we say it like that rather than being - Seasoned.
Melanie
Seasoned. Sound like a steak now.
Esther
Making me hungry. Getting back to the point, being on all social media platforms is not necessary. We have said this in many other episodes, but if this is your first episode with us, you do not have to be everywhere. But do try and get your website address, your social media platforms with the same name, have your logo, get a proper logo designed and not just something thrown together again by the younger generation. There are some things that are worth investing in when you start your business, and I think Melanie will agree with me here that your logo is one of them because it's one thing that you probably will not change in the whole course of your business unless you are a multi-million pound business like British Petroleum, and you want to be seen as being green. So they changed their logo to a green colour. But again, they have millions and millions of dollars to be able to do that at the drop of a hat. If you invest heavily at the start of your business in your logo, then it will last you and it will be able to be used on your website, on your socials, on your email platforms, everywhere without any extra effort on your part. So we've got our platforms opened, we have our bios written. Now do we be succinct in those bios? I'm going to use the marketing term that everyone hates, which is it depends, because some places will only give you limited characters to use. Other places like, like I said, Facebook, let you write an entire story. You could go on for days. So structure it for the platform that you're going to be using.
Melanie
Once you've got your platform sorted out, then it's a case of creating content, which I know for a lot of businesses is actually the real issue. How often are we meant to be posting? How often? How do we speak to our customers? Even we know that we shouldn't always sell all the time because we hate being sold to all the time. So that's why understanding exactly who your customer is and what things are keeping them awake at night outside of your particular business is handy because then you've got an insight as to what else is bothering them. Maybe you could collaborate with another business and you could resolve those problems together for your clients. Or you can make suggestions that are going to be beneficial to them. Ideally, you just need to serve your audience first. Do you get what I mean?
Esther
Oh, yeah, definitely. And don't be afraid to join groups on Facebook, join in with Twitter chats, follow your competitors, see what they're doing, see what's working, see what's getting interaction. Do not copy. That would be the golden rule here. Do not copy what they're doing. See what's working for them. See if something similar will work for you, but don't just grab their posts and put exactly the same thing up on any of the platforms because it's not nice. You go to so much effort and your unique selling point is you. People will buy from you. They don't want to buy from your competitor. They want to buy from you. Why? Get that across, okay? Storytelling. We could tell you to go back and listen to all 184 other episodes of the podcast. But what I think we should do, Melanie, is a short series. Is just on how to get started in social media. What do you think?
Melanie
I think, yeah, we could do the Netflix version where you can download them all in one go rather than making people wait week by week.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
I think it might be a good idea.
Esther
All right, let's do that then. No guarantees when it's coming, but watch this space. Did I just drop us into another thing that we're going to have to do? Anyway, stay tuned for that, guys. I don't think we should go on any further with delving into it now because we wouldn't do you justice. We will deep dive into it and again, bite size pieces in an upcoming series.
Melanie
That's all we have time for for now. I hope it's got you inspired. For those of you that are just starting, this is a really great way to at least get those little blocks out in front of you to start working on and start building some actual backgrounds to your customers, to your brand persona, to your USP. We all have to start from somewhere, okay? If there's anything that we can help you with directly, we're absolutely happy to, you can message us directly. But even if there's something that we can't directly help ourselves between us, we have quite an extensive network, so we can put you in touch with somebody who can help you. We do actually both have quite a global network. If you're listening to us in Germany, Hi Germany, our audience over there is growing every single week, so we're very appreciative of that. But anywhere else that you're listening to us, we may know somebody who can help.
Esther
Yes. So do get in touch. We'd love to hear from you. And we'll be back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys.
Esther
Next time can you stop me before I put my foot in it and organise something else for us to do?
Melanie
Well, I actually liked the idea.
Esther
Okay, then.
Melanie
We've now got to sit down and work out what the heck we're going to be saying.
Esther
Yes, yes.
Melanie
Actually, it was your fault. We ended up doing the bleming event.
Esther
I know. That's why I say. Let's just put a sock in my mouth, okay?
