EPISODE 13 – THE RULE OF THE 3 E’S OF SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING

Why hello and welcome.  Welcome to Episode 13 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

So, it’s episode 13 and that a little important.  You see I started this podcast in the 1st week of January – so that means it’s week 13 of 2019 which also means, hold onto your seats, we are a quarter of the way through 2019.  Yep a quarter of the way through.

Now some of you are probably tempted to switch me off here – how dare I say that, don’t I know you didn’t need to hear that, and yep you’re right you probably don’t need to hear it, but I really think you do!

If you’re still procrastinating over things on our to-do list, your wish list for 2019, then today’s the day you start, today is the day you dust off your 2019 goals – see what you should be doing and just start!

I started my year reading the book “Girl, Wash Your Face” by Rachel Hollis – I highly recommend it to all your ladies listening.

But one sentence in the whole book has stuck in my mind.  She wrote “Your life is supposed to be a journey from one unique place to another; it’s not supposed to be a merry-go-round that brings you back to the same spot over and over again”.

I’d loved that.  So if you feel like if you don’t change now, in week 13, that in week 52 of 2019 you might just be exactly where you started in Week 1 of 2019 – then hop off that merry-go-round and start implementing the dreams, goals and start doing the stuff you said you’d do.

When I speak to audiences, one of their goals is often to get better at social media – get more consistent with social media and yet they find it hard to get started.  One of their biggest questions is almost always – WHAT DO I POST?

It’s a real roadblock for many of you – so today I’m going to tell you about a little rule I tell everyone in all my social media workshops – the 3 E’s Rule of posting on social media and give you examples of the 3 E’s Rule in practice.

But first, of course, our Discovery of the Week.

THIS WEEK’S DISCOVERY!

We all know that video is king right and that we should DEFINITELY be using more video in our business – me included don’t worry about that!

But sometimes it’s the software or the hardware or the tools that brings us unstuck – puts that roadblock up or that wall we find so hard to get past.

Well today’s discovery might go a little way to unblocking that roadblock for you.

https://www.useloom.com/

Loom is a free piece of software which allows you to capture your computer screen and do short videos – in a nutshell.  Very much like how I use Snag It but this one’s FREE!

Use it to do team announcements if you have one, walkthrough a product demo for your clients, as an onboarding for new team members or new clients to your world (hint, this is a brilliant way to make new people in your world feel loved and cherished and welcomed!), give feedback and answer your clients burning questions, the uses are endless.

Not to mention it will save you hours of typing time!

It will build deeper relationships with your team and people in your world, and it can help build your brand and expertise quicker because people are getting to know you!  Getting value, literally straight from your mouth!

As with most offerings these days on the web, Loom has a free version, or a paid version and the paid version is only $10 per month – but FREE is perfectly awesome to start with!

So have a go!  If you’re got to send an email to a client today, try sending a video to them instead and see what the response is – I promise you it’ll be positive!

Your clients and prospects will LOVE that you’ve taken time to address them personally in a short video!

Hey and if you have a little discovery, or something you use in your business that you’d like to share, please do so.  Email me at jenn@jenndonovan.com.au or tag me @smallbusinessmadesimple.  I really love to know what tools you use to help make your life simpler!

THE RULE OF THE 3 E’S FOR POSTING ON SOCIAL

In the next few minutes I am going to give you some excellent examples and ideas of what you can post on social media but if you’d like EVEN more – then grab a copy of my eBook 108 Social Media Content Creation Ideas – yep there’s 108 of them!  Simple go to www.108social.com.au and get it there.

Everyone that I speak to in my workshops I talk about the 3 E’s of social.  The 3 things every post you do on social media should fall under.

Everything you post on social media should be either

1. Entertaining your audience
2. Engaging them with value, or
3. Education them

If your posts aren’t doing one of those 3 then you need to ask yourself what’s the value in the post for your audience?  Remembering it’s not about you – it’s about them!

ENTERTAINING YOUR AUDIENCE

So, let’s go with number 1 – Entertaining your audience – what can you be posting that would be entertaining your audience.

Entertaining is probably the most fun of the 3 E’s Rule.

I always talk about how YOU (the business owner) should be showing up more on social – people want to know the person behind the brand.  They want to engage with the person behind the brand.  So as long as your sense of humour isn’t too warped for your audience – this one can be massive fun!

Video can be awesome here too and if you’re a little embarrassed or unsure of how your audience will take certain humous posts – use them as stories – they only last 24 hours that way!  And maybe start with a boomerang video – I spoke about boomerang video on Episode 7 when talking about Instagram Stories – so if you’re not sure what they are head back there and have a listen.

You can also share funny memes that might relate to a theme – such as #fridayfunny.

Going Live and giving your audience a look at what “behind the scenes” looks like in your world can be very entertaining and interesting for your audience.

Other ideas that can be entertaining for your audience might be

• Gifs – use a clever gif
• Create a “how to” video on a product or a service you provide
• Ask True or False questions
• Share or retweet someone else’s post and put your spin on it
• Post live at events
• Give something away, a random gift
• Tell your audience about what you are watching or reading lately
• Do a throwback – go down memory lane of your business or even your journey to now
• Depending on the season – share your favourite recipe or family tradition

(note that entertaining doesn’t have to be humorous – just interesting enough to hold their attention!)

The 2nd E – Engaging with value

Engaging with value means giving value to your audience.  Giving value up front with no string attached is one of the best ways I know to attract a prospect from online to offline.

With exceptional value up front, for free, your future client cannot help but be attracted – simply wondering if you’re this good for FREE what would it look like if I was actually paying you!

Engaging your audience with value gives them a change to get to know you, to like you and to trust you.  Trust is certainly something that’s hard to manage online unless you are putting some of your best information out there for free.

Of course, you need strategy around that because if you give away ALL your best stuff, there’s nothing to sell, but you do need to give away some of your best knowledge to gain a prospects trust.

There’s lots of ways to engage with value – including giving information that will solve your audience’s biggest problems.

You can do this in many ways including

• eBooks
• PDF guides
• Videos (live or pre-recorded – of course live is better for that algorithm!)
• Sharing blogs and vlogs – either yours or someone else’s that you know your audience will get value from (but not your direct competitors!)
• Be the first with breaking news – for instance if you are in finance or real estate or banking and interest rates go up – be the first to share the news. Just on that only share news that relates to your brand and audience – don’t share current affair news or anything that might cause division within your audience, e.g./ don’t get political if political isn’t your brand.
• Pinterest pins
• Have a weekly round-up of the podcasts or articles your audience “must” read
• Tell them what you’re currently reading/watching/listening to and why it’s important to them
• Share a quote – but don’t just share it tell them why it’s important to them or what it means to you

The Third E is Educating your audience

Of course, lots of things mentioned in the 2 previous Es, entertaining your audience and engaging with value, will be also naturally educating your audience.

But other ways you can be educating your audience might be:

• Holding a live Q&A session or a Ask me Anything session
• Plugging affiliated partners within the business
• Sharing a webinar
• Highlighting an expert blogger
• Posting a creative or unexpected use for your product
• Sharing a work/life balance tip that works for you
• Celebrate accomplishment for an employee or better still a customer

I’ve given lots of ideas here and if you’re out walking or running or driving or in the bath (like I normally am) then don’t stress.  Head to www.108social.com.au and download the 108 social media content creation ideas there.

Otherwise you can head to my show notes www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au and get all the ones I mentioned today from the show notes.

Finding something to post on social media is simple – but it’s not always easy.  I know.  I post on their too!

But with a little resource like mine or a little google research time you can find things to be engaging your audience with, educating them or entertaining them.

If you download the 108 ideas and you think of some I’ve missed, I’d love to know.  I am always building on them – work is never done!

So that’s it for Episode 13.  I hope you’ve not only enjoyed this episode but been inspired by and got clarification from the 3E’s of Social Media.

I’ll be back next Thursday with some more marketing know-how and another discovery.

If you’re liking the podcast – please head over to where you listen and leave a rating and even a review – those things are GOLD for podcasters like me!  I’ll be eternally grateful, and it helps others find this podcast and enjoy the free training, tips and tricks too.  It could be the best gift you give them!

I am very grateful to have you as part of my world, listening in, but I’d also love to catch up between podcasts – and get social on social – all the links are in my show notes.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave me a DM on Instagram!  The DMs seriously make my day!

Catch you next week, happy social posting, ……

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