Welcome to episode 352 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. Hello, hello. Let’s talk … New month, new three things you need to know. Today we’re going to talk about the things I want you to be paying attention to in June. The things I want you to have on your radar and the things I want you to be – are you ready for this – taking action on. Yes, I said it, taking action on. Every month, every single first Tuesday of each and every month, we do an episode like this where we talk about the three things you need to know right now.
Up until now, it’s been pretty social media focused. I think we’re going to widen it a little bit. Just the three things you need to know right now and the reason you need to know these things is not necessarily because it’s brand new information, some of it is, but some of it is just the things I want you to be paying attention to right now.
For example, today we have one thing where there’s an update and we have two things I want you to be taking action on, I want you to be doing. Set aside some time to take action on what we’re doing today. If you’re listening to this in the car or while you’re exercising, make a mental note. Better yet, make a note in your phone if you’re like me. I do a lot of voice memos while driving and listening to podcasts or while running listening to a podcast. It’s only awkward at the gym when people are like, “Who’s that crazy girl talking to?” Myself. But I want you to pay attention to the action part of this. I want you to pay attention to the implementing part of this, because that’s where the money is. That’s where the movement is. That’s where the progress is. Don’t skip that step.
Let’s talk about the three things I want you to know in June 2017. Kind of just take a minute to say what you’re all thinking, “How the hell is it June? When did that happen?” The kid is going to be out of school in like a week, two weeks? Maybe a week. No, it’s next week. He gets out next week. I can’t even remember. The kids getting out of school, summer vacations are starting here in the northern part of the world, but it’s June. It’s the halfway mark. It’s six out of 12. Crazy. All right. We’re changing.
Instagram Updates
First up, update. Social media update. Snapchat and Instagram have both made updates, so pay attention to those. Instagram is what I want to talk about, because way more viewers are using Instagram than Snapchat. If you want to know about all social media network changes when they happen, make sure you’re a member of backstage, because that’s where I post all of this stuff as soon as it’s happening. We have a whole section in our private forum called Network News and every single time there’s an update, that’s relevant, I share it there, so check that out. Hitthemicbackstage.com if you have been living under a rock and don’t know what I’m talking about.
Instagram updates. Instagram is adding some very cool new features to stories that are going to allow you to really look at other stories and connect with stories in your relevant space. You’ll be able to actually pay attention and see other stories based on location. This is going to be really killer for people who are doing events or people with brick and mortar businesses, maybe a restaurant or a salon or a practice or a physical store, whatever it is, people will actually be able to share stories, tag your location in the story and share … When I see that story, I can click on it and see other stories from that area. That’s going to be really killer.
On the flip side of that, they’re also doing the same thing with hashtags, so for those of us in the online space, we can do a similar thing using our hashtag. Meaning … For example, I use the hashtag Hit The Mic a lot. It’s my thing, so I could now not only share it, but encourage you guys to share it and we could see stories of people using it. Behind the scenes of events, behind the scenes of webinars, when I’m recording podcasts like this one, whatever it is, I can share it actually using the hashtag in the story and you guys will be able to find it via the hashtag or I would be able to find your Instagram stories of you listening to the podcast, so if you’re listening to this one, try it out and we’ll check it out. Cool?
I’m actually really excited about this because I think it’s going to be a really cool way for stories to connect and bring communities together and that’s really killer, so they’re also going to be location based as far as cities and this is what Snapchat is doing, too. You’ll actually be able to add stories to different events or locations, cities, things like that. You’re seeing a little more leeway in that stories being super hidden and only if you follow me and kind of go down the rabbit hole you’ll find them and you’re finding this is becoming more of a core feature. More of a stand on its own, this is a cool way to use this kind of feature. I’m really excited about that. Check out the Instagram updates. Again, if you want to be the latest and greatest in knowing all of this good stuff, Backstage is the way to go, because this news is actually a few weeks old now.
Facebook Live
Number two thing I want you to know in June, yes June 2017, Facebook live. Yes, I know I’ve talked about this three of the six months of this year, but it’s not any less relevant then than it was now. In fact, it’s maybe more relevant now, because some of you, and I’m not naming names, but you know who you are, really went gung-ho with this in January and you were like, “This is going to be great! I’m going to do this every single week and it’s going to be fantastic,” and I’m not actually seeing you go live anymore.
You’ve fallen off. Some of you several months ago, but some of you more recently and it’s going to be harder and harder for you to stay on top of that as the year progresses, because you get further and further away from those goals you set in January or maybe December, whenever you set your goals. I want to really encourage you to find ways to make this happen. In fact, one of the best ways to use this is use Facebook live as the starting point for your content. We’ve talked about this before. We have backstage members that do this. I have one-on-one clients who do this. They create the bulk of their content via Facebook live.
What then happens is either they do this themselves, better yet, someone on their team. If you need names, I have names, drop me a note. Can take that, get a transcript, upload it to YouTube, pull the audio and upload it to a podcast host. I always recommend Libsyn. To turn this into now a three pieces of content and maybe they all go up on one page and for most of my clients and members, that’s what they do, but they’re presenting you one piece of value in three different ways, so now there’s no reason to not consume the content. It’s there. It’s ready. It’s waiting for you in whatever way you want to consume it.
You can watch the video, because it’s embedded via the YouTube video or you can read the transcript, because the whole thing is there in black and white. Assuming that’s the color of your fonts, and number three, you can listen to it. If you are on the run, in the car, at the gym, whatever, listen to the podcast. Whatever way you prefer to consume content, you can consume the content. That is killer. We can also take that transcript, edit it a little bit, and turn it into a guest post for another site and now we’re driving traffic back to the site. Oh my gosh, it’s amazing. That can all happen based on a Facebook live.
Now that can also happen when you bulk record a bunch of videos and run it through the same process. It doesn’t have to be through Facebook live, but heres the deal, when it’s through Facebook live, you also got that oomph on your Facebook page, and yes, oomph is an official social media expert term. On your Facebook page, so you’ve got that love there as far as getting it in front of your audience, providing them value, and you know what, engaging with them. That’s powerful. Do that, Facebook lives, consistently. It does not have to be every day. It does not have to be every week. I would like to see it be twice a month to start with, but if once a month is all you can commit at definitely executing, then do it once a month. It doesn’t have to be an hour and a half long. It can be 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that’s enough. That’s totally cool. All right, that’s my rant on Facebook live.
Be Brand Aware
Number three, remember when you’re doing all of this to be brand aware. A friend of mine, Julie Cottineau, of Brand Twist just wrote a blog post and I’ll actually link it in the show notes, about representing your brand in other spaces. When you’re at speaking events, when you’re a guest at someone’s event. Whatever. Even networking events. Representing your brand so that it’s memorable, so people actually remember it and she presented three Rs, I think it was Research, Represent, and Repeat. That’s what it was. Research, Represent, and Repeat. It’s a great piece. Again, I’ll link to it in the show notes, but if you’re wanting to check it out right now, it’s brandtwist.com. It’s her site and we’ve had her on the podcast.
I’m a part of the faculty for her brand school program. She’s a branding genius. She used to work for Virgin with Richard Branson. She’s got a great book. We’ve done a review on the show and I loved that she talked about doing these two events in May. She was in the NewFronts with Entrepreneur TV for a show called Business and Burgers and then she did a … Tyra Banks is teaching a class at the Stanford Graduate School for Business or Graduate School of Business, I think it’s called, and she was a guest to come in and talk personal branding, Julie was for Tyra Banks, and it was amazing, but those are some massive brands to be standing up against. How do you as your brand stand as important next to these like literally massive, Tyra Banks, brands and so the person in the room remembers you and your name and your value and your, what she calls, core brand message. Guess what? It comes from being really aware of what you’re doing from a branding perspective.
The same is true on social media. You need to be brand aware. Now when you are posting something on Facebook or going live or sharing something on LinkedIn publisher or whatever it is you’re doing, posting on Twitter or Snapchat, Instagram, you are sitting next to, very possibly, some pretty massive brands. I have several people who follow me as well as Oprah. I don’t think it literally gets any bigger as far as a brand than friggen Oprah. How does my content stand up next to her content as memorable?
It’s because I remember the same things I need to remember when I’m in a room. I remember what my branding is, my message is, my communication style is and most importantly, who is looking at it and what do they need from me and I make sure I’m delivering that consistently, because if you’re not delivering it consistently, that’s where you’re going to run into issues being remembered.
Check out your social and look at it through the lens of is this brand consistent? It’s more than all of the images have my logo in the corner or I’m always sending people to the same website or whatever. It looks, feels, sounds, and engages like your website. Like you in person. Like your sales team in person, whatever size your business is, whether you’re a personal brand or not, that brand experience needs to be consistent. Absolutely critical that that piece is there.
Needed to get that out. That was a big one. Very excited about that. Big shout out to Julie again. It’s a killer piece. I’m really excited about it, because it is intimidating to stand up next to brands like that and be like, “Hey, yeah. I actually remember you. That’s great.”
Thank you for listening. This episode is, of course, sponsored by Hit the Mic Backstage, supported by Hit the Mic Backstage, because Hit the Mic Backstage is the next step. If you want to do more, feel better, and make progress with your online marketing, let me help you. The place to get that support is, of course, hitthemicbackstage.com. We’ve got a brand new training that just launched this month. All about prepping for any time off you might be taking this summer.
We also in the last few months completely revamped our Instagram programs and our Facebook programs including all of the ads content and best, most awesomely of all, there’s a private forum for you to ask me questions anytime you want. It is your access to me. This is one of the very, very few ways to get access to me to give you feedback. To answer your questions, essentially on demand. You leave it in the forum and I answer. I’m there every single day, but once a week for two hours, I’m definitely there during office hours. We even do profile reviews. In fact, we just did some and I love doing them. Again, that’s the place to go, hitthemicbackstage.com. Other than that, I will see you next week. See you.
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