Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 246 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thanks for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screen shot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/246

Did you have a listen into last week’s episode? My guest was Emma McMillan and she chatted to us about being better at writing copy.  I loved her challenge, her ability to make writing copy simpler (gotta love that on the Small Business Made Simple Podcast) and just loved our conversation. Head back there if you didn’t get a chance to listen in already- click here to listen to ep 245 – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/245

Today on the podcast I have a plea for you and to all small business owners.  My plea is both out of love and, if I’m honest, a little frustration, but mostly love because I know we can all do better.

If you follow my Instagram at all, you might have seen my story last week that alluded to the same frustration.

But first, a shout out to this week’s sponsor of the podcast is Cloudhouse Consulting.  Imagine working with someone who loves YOUR numbers! Think less stress and 100% support! Think Bronwyn and the team at Cloudhouse Consulting. Bronwyn, from Cloudhouse Consulting was actually a guest on the podcast on episode 158 – so head back there if you haven’t listened to that one.  It was all about 3 reasons why you need to keep an eye on your numbers. Because that’s what the team at Cloudhouse Consulting do – support you to grow your business. They are the team you need on hand to master the basics but they also have the other stuff covered as well! I love Bronwyn’s eBook titled Kitchen Table Empires, because how many of us are literally building empires around our kitchen tables! The eBook is a reference guide on everything to do with business including GST registration, employment basics, cash flow and budgeting. Check out Cloudhouse Consulting and get the ebook here: https://www.cloudhouse.consulting/

So, why I’m frustrated.

I write a lot of blogs and social media posts for small businesses.  It’s not something I necessarily offer as part of my service, but it is something I find myself doing a lot of lately through my e-commerce business, www.spendwithus.com.au and as part of being a member of the local business chamber committee. And I cannot tell you how many times I am attempting to write a blog or a social media post to promote a small business on my platform or from my town and I cannot, simply cannot, get enough information from the internet to do so.  There’s not enough information on their website, and that’s even if they have one, nor is there is enough information on their social media sites, such as Facebook or Instagram.

I can’t find basic information like, who the business owner is, when the business started, where the business is located and do not even get me started when trying to find a photo of the actual business owner or their team – that is almost impossible.

I really, really hope with hand on heart, that I am not talking to you.  I hope that if I needed to write a blog or social media post about your business that I could find the basic information and find a lovely high res photo of you and/or your team to complete the exercise.  But if not, then I am 100% talking to you!

Human to human marketing is something I talk about A LOT in my life as a marketer. Human to human marketing is so vitally important to your business because to get customers who keep coming back time and time again and customers who refer business to you, they have to be able to get know, like (Love) and trust you.  And they one thousand percent cannot do that, if you are never showing up online for them. Not sharing stories with them, not letting them into the world of you and your business.

I guess one “argument” to this is that perhaps you’re just a small business who operates in your town and you don’t see the need to have an online presence because you are perhaps busy enough or think your customers or clients aren’t on social media or the internet (uummm, do you really know someone who’s not on the internet?).

You don’t really think that – I know you no one listening to my podcast really thinks that. If you have a small business owner who is serious enough about business to listen to a business podcast to learn more, to get better at what you do, then that argument would not fly with you – you know you need to have an online presence and a social media presence – we might not like it – but we know we need to.

So, with that argument squashed, how can you up the anti on your online presence? Get more and be more human online?  Great question – so glad you asked or so glad I asked for you! Here’s just 3 simple tasks for you to do.

1. The first thing I guess is to make sure your photos of you are attributed to you online. How? By making sure any photos you upload online are named you. Seems so simple doesn’t it but if you are uploading photos that are saved as, for example, image 974720 – and not Jenn Donovan sitting on a fence surrounded by her chickens – they google doesn’t know who’s in the photo. So whether you are uploading photos to your website, someone else’s website, your socials, your google account, wherever, name them as you.  Give some googlish love to yourself!
2. Talking about google, regardless of whether or not you have a website, have a google my business account or as it’s known now Business Profile Manager. The name may have changed and a few features, but if you don’t have a google business profile, then head back to episode 85 – socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/85 and listen to that episode.  No matter the size of your business, this is super important.
3. Show the heck up! Have a photo shoot, take some photos yourself, do some video – short, long, big, small – voice over a post or two, contact your local newspaper or radio station and get them to do a feature of you, change your bio on social media, make the About section of your website actually about you and your business and tell us stuff about both! I cannot stress this enough – show up.  Slowly but surely embrace showing up.

My challenge to you: Firstly, google yourself.  Go to google and type in your name, see the results and then type in your business name and see the results.  Click images in google and see what images are attributed to you and to your business name – what did you find? Loads? Nothing? Bearly anything? Regardless of the result of these searches, I want you to embrace showing up.

I want anyone who is looking for the face of your business to find you easily.  I want anyone who wants to write a blog, article or even Facebook post to promote your business to be able to find our things like, who you are, how long you’ve been in busy, what you sell, what you are passionate about, what you stand for and of course, how to buy from you, quickly and simply.  Perhaps in one or two clicks.  If they can’t then, as a marketing business strategist, I have to say that you aren’t doing your job well enough as the business owner. Saying you are too busy to market your business, too busy working in the business to work on the business, just can’t keep flying in 2023 … we are beyond that.  Your community is beyond that. You are beyond that.

So, as the episode is titled, this is my plea for you.  Please make getting to know, like and trust you simple.  Please make buying from you simple.  Please make knowing who you are, what you stand for, and what things we have in common with you, simple and easy to find.

Deal? Fab-u-lous!

Want me to hear your thoughts on this? Love that – get in touch or head to the Facebook group – Like Minded Business Owners and share with everyone over there. Email me jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn – would love to hear from you.

So, that’s it for episode 246. If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening.  One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review!  Thanks in advance.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 247!

Thanks again Cloudhouse Consulting for sponsoring today’s episode.  Don’t forget about their eBook that is a reference guide on everything to do with business including GST registration, employment basics, cash flow and budgeting. Check out Cloudhouse Consulting and get the ebook here: https://www.cloudhouse.consulting/

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!