Welcome to episode 369 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
All right, so today I wanna talk about the three things you need to know for October. Yes, it’s October, straight up, month one of Q4, holy macaroni. I can’t believe it, where did this year go? It’s a crazy month for me, I’m doing a lot, a lot, a lot of traveling, which, I’ll be honest, I’m pretty excited about. I’ve got some vacation time planned, yay. I’ve got a business trip planned. It’s gonna be a good month. So, I wanted to jump in and I wanted to give you guys the stuff for October right at the start of the moth, so you can make the most of your time this month, no matter what’s going on.
Before we jump in, I wanna remind you that Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris, this podcast you’re listening to right now, where we talk about all things online marketing, and digital marketing, and social media marketing, and e-mail marketing … Yes, a lot of that was the same thing. It’s sponsored, it’s brought to you thanks to Hit the Mic Backstage. Hit the Mic Backstage really is the upgrade for this podcast; it’s where you get twice monthly trainings, constant updates on what’s happening with networks, accountability from me and the rest of the community, and two different private forum areas, one right on the website and one in a private Facebook group.
It is the thing to have, the place to be if you are struggling right now, with knowing what to do, or where to do it, or when to do it. It really does cover all things strategy and implementation when it comes to getting your marketing on track, specifically your social media marketing, although we do cover some other pieces as well. It really goes in depth in all things social. Cool, cool, join us today, HittheMicBackstage.com. And we do have a couple spots left in our mastermind level, at the VIP level, which does include some one on one time with me. I will be closing the doors to that pretty quickly, either because it will fill up, or because I will be capping it a little bit lower going into the holiday time. So, if you want in, now is the time; HittheMicBackstage.com.
Let’s jump into this month’s three things you need to know, right?
Number one, Q4 planning.
It’s gonna be really easy, in the next four to six weeks, to start thinking about Q1 of next year. And so, what I really encourage you to do, is take some time today, or this week, and reevaluate your Q4 plans. Maybe you don’t have any, maybe you totally rocked the 12 week year, or 90 day planning, or whatever you call it, and you are working on building your Q4 plan because that’s your next 12 weeks. Fantastic, you’re right on mark.
But maybe you’re one of those people who, at the beginning of the year you set up a plan for the whole 12 months. And, now is the time to check in and make sure that your Q4 plans that you came up with in January of this year, or honestly Q4 of last year, so October, November, December of last year, are still relevant. And not because you screwed up planning; if 12 month planning works for you, do it. Whatever works for you, that’s what I want you to do. But, sometimes, and I know this is especially true for me, and I’ve talked to a couple clients about this and that’s why I wanted to bring it up, maybe you’ve learned some things about your business this year, or your clients this year, or yourself this year, and you want to change something.
Maybe you had planned on launching something that you’re not gonna launch, but you still have revenue goals, so what do you wanna launch in its place? Or promote in its place? Or do you wanna shift out of that completely and move into something else? Whatever that is, I really encourage you to take some time this first week of the month, these first few days of the month, and look at your Q4 plans. And I don’t just mean that from a, “I wanna launch this,” kind of perspective, but I mean from a, “This is the content I’m putting out. Here’s my editorial calendar, here’s my social media schedule, here’s how the team is helping me. Here’s who we need to add to the team, here’s who maybe isn’t a good fit for the team anymore.”
Figuring out where you’re gonna take some time off, if you’re gonna take some time off. I know a lot of people are really interested in the fact that I take December off; it’s just because it’s what works for me, it’s not something you need to do. Maybe for you it’s November, maybe for you it’s January. Whatever it is that works for you, do that. I’m actually not taking as much time off this December. I do have a trip planned, so I’ll be out for about a week, and then I’ll take a little bit of time off over the holidays. But I’ve got a big, big, big, big project that I will be doing, and launching, and sharing with you a ton more, in February of 2018, and I need December of 2017 to finish it, to finish all of the pieces that need to go in place.
So I will actually be working a little bit, ’cause that’s what works for me this year. Figure out what works for you, but take some time this month to look at what your plans are for the next three months, and make sure they are on track, and that you have the social, and the e-mail, and the content, and the team, and whatever else, ready to support whatever it is you wanna do. Cool? All right.
Number two, Don’t live and die by those live numbers
I have been talking to a lot of people about Facebook Live lately, and you’ve all kind of heard my spiel about, you know, “Hey, do it.” The pushback I’m getting is, you know, “Less and less people are starting to show up live, or no one’s showing up live, and so I just feel like it’s not worth my time.” I encourage you, if that’s the case, to look at your replay numbers. To look at the numbers that you’re getting over on YouTube when you upload it there as well. To look at the Google Analytics for your website, and see what kind of people are hitting and watching the YouTube video on your site.
Now, you’ll notice I didn’t just talk about Facebook there, I talked about two other places, YouTube and your website, where people can see that content. That’s because if you’re relying on live viewers alone, and you’re not repurposing that Facebook Live content, that video content, wherever it’s recorded, has value, if you’re not repurposing it you are leaving views on the table, and it doesn’t matter that no one’s showing up live. That’s the end of you being able to get value from that video, if you never do anything else with it.
For me, I totally agree. Across my stuff, across my clients, we’re seeing fewer and fewer people show up live and tune in the whole time. What I’m actually getting a lot of right now, is somebody will jump in for 30 seconds, 15 seconds, and then come back later and watch the rest. And I know this because they message me and they’re like, “Oh, thank you, that was great,” or, “Oh, I have a question,” or whatever the thing is. So remember, as fantastically fun as it is to have people show up live … And for some of you the structure of the kind of thing you’re doing live means you need people to show up live, it’s important that people show up live, maybe you’re doing a Q&A, then not having anyone live is really kinda killer.
With that said, for a lot of you, you’re just dispensing content, you’re not being super interactive. Maybe you’re responding to people who do say something, but it really is mostly about you doing something like this, where you’re just providing value and people can consume it. People don’t need to be live to consume this, that’s why it’s a prerecorded podcast. You know, you could listen to this whenever you wanted to listen to it, and you’re listening to it now because that’s what worked into you schedule. If I popped onto Facebook Live right now, that may not be the same case. Understand what I’m saying?
So A, if you really want people to show up live, adjust your times, tweak things like that, see what you can do. But B, don’t put so much stock in people showing up live, because again, there’s value for you and there’s value for them in the replays and the repurposing. So make sure you have those two things on point. One of the things I do, is you’ll notice when I do a Facebook Live every week, if you go to my Facebook page, it’s actually pinned up at the top of my page. And I drive traffic to the replay through my e-mail, so when the e-mail goes out on Tuesday I usually point to the Facebook Live on the Facebook page, because that’s been really helpful in increasing my like and things like that, as well as my engagement on my page, and I do it there.
Now, we’re shifting to putting them on the website as well, I will still link to them in the Facebook page, because again, that’s been really helpful in driving traffic to Facebook for me, increasing those likes organically, and increasing my engagement organically. Which is awesome, because then it gives me a little more help when it comes to talking about retargeting. Especially people who watch a video where I’m promoting Backstage; I can retarget those viewers with an add for Backstage. You kinda see how the inner workings work? So don’t live and die by those live numbers, they are not the be all end all.
The third thing I wanna talk about today is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn gets a bad rap as being the boring network, and I would 100% agree with you, it is not nearly as entertaining as Facebook, if for lack of BuzzFeed quizzes alone. With that said, LinkedIn has some real value. If you’re service based, if you are wanting to speak to corporations, if the person who makes your buying decision, if the … I’m stealing a term from Ryan Deiss over at Digital Marketer right now, but if your ideal sales conversation happens with an HR department, or a business owner, or whatever, if you’re in any kind of B2B space, LinkedIn matters.
It really does, because that’s where they’re spending time when they’re making those buying decisions, that’s the head space they’re in when they’re thinking about those things. Yeah, sure, they might also be on Facebook, the head HR person for XYZ corporation, Acme incorporated let’s say, absolutely is on Facebook probably. Absolutely is on Facebook probably; that was a horrible one. Is absolutely on Facebook. And likely Instagram, or twitter, or something else, Pinterest maybe, who knows? But guess where she’s making decisions related to the HR department of the company, Acme incorporated, that she works for? It’s not when she’s on Facebook, it’s not when she’s on Instagram, it’s when she’s on LinkedIn. That’s when she’s in that head space, and so that’s where we wanna touch with her. That’s where we want to get content in front of her, that’s where we wanna be of value in that vain. All right?
So don’t undervalue LinkedIn. The cool thing about LinkedIn is that it can take a little less effort than something like a Facebook does, to get really solid traction. So don’t undervalue that space if you’re doing any B2B work. Maybe you wanna do some consulting. Maybe you wanna do corporate training. Maybe you’re a software as a service kind of thing, or something like that. Great, B2B, pay attention to LinkedIn too. I’m not saying you ditch everything else. I’m 100% B2B, with that said, I do get traction on Facebook, because my ideal sales conversations are happening with people that are a little bit different than the HR department.
With that said, I do get business on LinkedIn for corporate consulting, corporate training, because the marketing director is usually making those hires, or the VP of marketing, or those kind of titles; that’s who’s making the decision to bring me in for corporate training, or to supplement their marketing strategy with a social media strategy. And so, guess what guys? That’s where I connect with those people, it’s not on Facebook. The clients that come from Facebook are totally different than the clients who come from LinkedIn. All right? Okay. Don’t undervalue it, it could be really valuable. And if you haven’t yet played with their video stuff, it’s actually pretty cool. So, I’m excited to see LinkedIn really making an effort, okay? So let’s make an effort too.
There you go, that’s the three things I want you to be paying attention to this month. If you have any questions, let me know. The best place to ask questions really is inside Hit the Mic Backstage, that’s why it exists as an upgrade for this show. Also, head over to HittheMicBackstage.com and we can connect more there, I will see you backstage. And of course, I will see you next Tuesday. Have a great week.
