Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 95 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.
Thank you for lending me your ears today โ I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!
If youโre a first time listener, super super welcome, I am so pleased to have you here.ย I am your host Jenn Donovan, and itโs my job, via this podcast, social media and everywhere else actually, to make your business life simpler.ย
Iโm a thought leader when it comes to marketing here in Australia and Iโm a marketing strategist for small business.
Why? Because business can be lonely and hard and complicated and itโs hardly ever easy, but it should be simple or at least simpler, so thatโs my commitment you to on the Small Business Made Simple podcast!
This episode is sponsored by Spend With Us โ www.spendwithus.com.au an online marketplace for rural and regional businesses.ย If youโre already thinking about your Christmas shopping, and want to support rural Australian businesses who have suffered through the prolonged drought, last summerโs bushfires and now Covid โ head to www.spendwithus.com.auย Even if youโre looking for gift vouchers, you can buy site wide gift vouchers and support the 500+ small businesses on the platform.ย For corporates or bulk order, the gift cards can even be personalised for free!ย
Or if youโre a rural or regional small business and need to get online to make more sales coming into the Christmas buying season โ consider joining Spend With Us on one of their membership options.ย Starting from $0 to $147 per year.
Today, itโs slightly off topic as well as being on topic of social media and marketing.
Have you watched the social dilemma on Netflix?
The social dilemma is a documentary about how technology has been made for us but to make money for them.ย Interestingly, itโs the techs behind the businesses of Facebook, Instagram, Google etc that are doing to talking and explaining.
Itโs like they are saying, sorry we invented it but now canโt stop it.ย Like putting the cart before the horse and then having no control over the horse!
It talks about why we are addicted to our phones and how thatโs no accident.
Now, I do think that you should watch it.ย If you have children, I think you should watch it a second time with them (give yourself the space to watch it by yourself first), but Iโm not recommending you watch it for you to then freak out!
For most of us, who have been on social media a while, have listened, watched, learnt about social media, they really arenโt telling us anything we didnโt already know or suspect.
But itโs nonetheless interesting.
Itโs interesting because we are the saleable product โ yep you and me.ย Humans, or our time and how habits and our thoughts, are the saleable item.
Thereโs never been a time when this is true before.ย Trafficking in humans is illegal โ clearly โ but here, via technologies we use every day, we are for sale โ not physically, clearly, but our time and attention โ 100%.
So, the irony of all this is that you are probably listening to this on your smart phone, you might have learnt about this podcast on social media etc โ thereโs massive irony for sure.
But believe it or not, the social dilemma is not what I wanted to talk to you about, necessarily today.ย I think you should watch it and watch it from a business ownersโ point of view, but today I really wanted to talk to you about building empires on other peopleโs real estate.
Itโs something I find myself talking about more and more and more.
So, what does that mean โ building an empire on other peopleโs real estate?
Basically, it means building your brand, your business, your โempireโ on land thatโs owned by Mark Zuk or Microsoft (as in LinkedIn) and so forth.
Land or space you seriously have no control over, and never will โ hence watch the social dilemma!
My world isnโt very big.ย My social world is probably bigger than most peoples, with around a million impressions a month, not just mine, but overall, for my brands.
BUT my world is still quite small โ clients, acquaintances, and friends/family.
However, I would hear, see, read, touch base with at least a large handful each month with people who have had their social accounts hacked or lost their social accounts because of other reasons, e.g./ competitors playing hardball, or have someone pretending to be them, and potentially ruining your brand.
Iโve had a personal experience with a โhateโ page being made against one of my brands โ so not not not fun and frankly didnโt end the way I wanted it to.
In fact, now I just ignore it โ it no longer concerns me and rarely think about it โ other than for good reasons like an example on my podcast!
Despite my best efforts, and calling in all my big guns, connections, and friends, there was nothing I could do โ nothing that Facebook hierarchy was prepared to do to help.
Ce La Vie!
So, this podcast ep is around warning you, alerting you and pleading with you to do some of these things, that Iโll get to in a sec, to make yourself and your โempireโ safe on platforms you donโt own or control.
Iโm going to give you 3 tips to save yourself the heartache of losing what youโve worked so hard for, either temporarily or forever.
- Start an email list TODAY. No excuses, no arguments, no โI donโt know how or why or what to do with itโ โ just DO IT.
I cannot tell you how so so so important an email list is going to be in your business if you have a fall out with social media, get hacked or loose the ability to control your empire online.
Ask yourself, and I know Iโve mentioned it on many podcast eps before, โif social media disappeared tomorrow, would you still have a business?โ.
If the answer is no, you have a problem.ย A serious problem.
Would you build a house on a piece of land you donโt own?ย Of course, not โ well this isnโt much different.
My most recent experience with an acquaintance who lost control of their social media led to 10,000โs of dollars lost in revenue, each day through 100% no fault of their own (except they didnโt have a contingency plan โ aka email list).
After 3 weeks of heartache they got in touch with me and I worked on getting it back for at least 7 hours.ย I called in favours, I reached out to my network, I sat on online help lines patiently taking to robots to get to a human, I made calls, I did everything I knew to try and help.
After 1 week (or 4 weeks in total and 100s of 1000โs of lost revenue later) heโs all sweet again.
Thereโs no phone number for the help desk of Facebook โ itโs just relentlessly trying to get someone to emphasis enough with you to escalate your problem in order to get it solved.
All this heartache, when, if they had an email list, couldโve been a lot less stressful with a series of emails out to their loyal fans, past customers, future customers, that said, hey guys, weโre offline โ still here though โ lets go back to the old fashioned phone โ call me if you need me โ hereโs my direct number.
As much as I felt for the business owner I was working with, I was also a little frustrated that it had to be so stressful, when being more strategic with your marketing and how you communicate with your customers, couldโve made life a little easier and perhaps more profitable during the โno social down timeโ.
I have so many examples of this, I could talk forever, but please hear the pleading in my voice, start an email list TODAY.
I have a couple of podcast eps around list building, how and why โ episodes 9 and 10 โ www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/9 and www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/10
I am always looking for signs in my life and my business and I think this, in the past week, has been a huge one for me.ย 2021 I think will see me diving more into teaching email marketing โ so watch this space!
My next two tips for being safer arenโt quite as long and thereโs no lecture accompanying them โ or not much!
Tip 2 โ on Facebook โ for your Facebook Business Page โ have two admins โ always.ย If itโs a precious resource to your business, put some security around it by having another admin.ย Not a person whoโs an editor etc โ another admin.
Of course, someone you trust!
It just means if someone tries to hack you โ they need to hack two people to get control โ in theory anyway.
Tip 3 โ on Instagram โ set up your double authentication.ย Go to your bio, settings, security โ two factor authentication.ย Again, itโs safety in numbers when it comes to hackers.ย
Pinkie promise me you will do all 3 of these things (the last two RIGHT NOW) in the next 72 hours.
Not sure how to start an email list โ well listen to the podcast eps โ 9 and 10 or just start to organise email addresses in a spreadsheet.ย Name (first and last โ separate columns), email, mobile number if you can.ย
If youโre emailing your clients regarding work, quotes, bills etc โ you have email addresses โ sort them!
I feel like Iโve been shouty on this podcast โ so I do apologise โ but I am doing it for you โ yep you!
I truly want the best for you and your business โ so think of me as your business fairy godmother โ just looking after your bits!
I do recommend you watch the Social Dilemma โ I am always about information being power โ the more informed we are the more informed our decisions are.
Have a fabulous week.ย Iโll be back next Thursday with another great episode to help you simplify your business in 2020. I have some amazing guests coming up โ canโt wait to share them with you!ย If you ever find sales icky โ tune in next week as my guest shows you they really arenโt!
If youโre enjoying this podcast, which if you have listened to here โ you hopefully are, donโt forget to subscribe, share this episode with another superstar business owner whoโs doing the daily grind and would appreciate someone making their business simpler, and leave a rating or review to show how much you are loving this free weekly content.
See you next week on the podcast for episode 95.ย But in the meantime, letโs hang out on social and get social on social โ youโll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.
But whatever you do,
โฆโฆ..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, thereโs no point in dreaming small!
ย
Wish I had heard this some months ago, had a Facebook page with 700 followers and got hacked lost my own page so now cant access my page ๐
I tried so hard to get my page back but had no luck
So your advice is so good.