Welcome to episode 335 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
It is the first Tuesday of the month which means three things you must know about social media this month is what’s happening today. We are going to break down the three things I want you to know in February 2017, some of these things are updates with networks, some of these things are going to be relevant to you no matter what month it is, because I want you to pay attention to some things as you’re moving into the middle of the first quarter of this lovely new year. Let’s jump right in.
Number one, and this is one of those things that I want you to remind yourself of every month, stay consistent. February is notoriously the time where we have all long-since ditched our New Year’s Resolutions. However, this is also really, really true for those goals and commitments you made in January for your marketing for this year. You said this is the year I’m going to get visible. This is the year I’m going to be consistent. This is the year I’m going to do “whatever” when it comes to your social media. Here it is February and maybe, just maybe, you’re falling off the track a little bit. You have let go of some of that steam and momentum you had coming out of December into January, and you’re just not being consistent.
I’m seeing this already a lot with Facebook lives. I know a lot of you emailed me at the end of last year and the beginning of this year and said, “Oh hey, I’m going to totally stay consistent. I’m going to do weekly, daily, twice weekly,” whatever it was, Facebook lives. “I’m going to go live and provide that content, and I’m going to repurpose it,” and so on and so forth. No more.
Here we are in February and a lot of you have done one or two, maybe even three Facebook lives and now you’re kind of like, “Eh, I just don’t have enough time, I just can’t,” whatever. Here’s the deal guys, just like any other thing … eating healthy, exercising, learning a new skill … you have to stay with it until it’s a habit. You’re not going to see results the first three times you do it. I always think about this when I’m at the gym and I’m doing something new and I’m like, “This sucks and I don’t want to,” but I still don’t want to the third time. By the third time I’ve done it, I’m not suddenly super thin and super buff. That’s not what’s happening. The same is true for your Facebook lives. You are not yet really in a habit to do it, and you’re probably not seeing massive earth-shaking results just yet. You might even be one of the people who have emailed me and said, “You know, I’m just not getting a lot of people to show up live.”
Okay, I want you to push through that because here’s the thing … you’ve done it three times. You’ve given them no reason to expect you to consistently show up forever and ever … okay, maybe not forever and ever, but over and over again. I want you and I challenge you to look at the replay stuff. Look at the comments you’re getting in your replay. My guess is you’re probably getting a lot of engagement of views there because people just haven’t caught on live. That’s okay. You’re just using the live time to create the content and if you get the engagement, awesome. You might not always, and you certainly probably won’t … that was a terrible sentence structure … you very likely won’t in the first three times you do it. Keep going, stay consistent.
The same is true if you’re starting to post on new networks or you’re trying different ad strategies or you’re adjusting something with your opt-in. Stay consistent, get consistent if you haven’t been consistent, and stay with it. Stay in the room, keep doing the work, it will pay off.
One of the things I try and remind myself all the time when it comes to these kind of things is the business I have right now is the result of the marketing I did three to six months ago. I learned this lesson over and over and over again, but it’s absolutely true. The business I have right now is the result of the marketing I did three to six months ago. If you’re three in and you’re not seeing epic, earth-shattering results from whatever change you’ve made, you probably won’t for another month or two. Stay with it, okay? Stay with it, stay consistent.
Number two Facebook lives, in that same vein, have gotten a big update. We can now go live right from your desktop meaning you no longer need to use your mobile device to do it. This is a really, really cool update. I’m really excited to see them rolling this out because I think there are a lot of people who were really freaked out by the idea of doing it on their device because they were worried about the quality with running on wifi, maybe their wifi’s not so hot, or their service isn’t great, or they didn’t know what to do with their phone. They didn’t want to buy a tripod or whatever.
It’s just going to make it that much easier for you to do a high quality Facebook live broadcast and deliver value to your audience. You’ll see this option below your status update box on your page. As of the recording of this they’re still rolling it out, not everyone has it yet. I’m hoping by the time you hear this that has changed, but they are rolling it out relatively slowly as Facebook tends to do, because when you have a bazillion- I’m just going to pretend that’s a real number- users, you got to roll it out a little bit slower. If you don’t have it yet be patient, you will have it soon. Again, this is going to be on your page and your profile.
One thing to remember though guys, pay attention to this, if you’re doing a Facebook live to market, to provide content that relates to your business, to leads, to profits, it needs to happen on your page, not your profile. Although it’s exciting that it’s coming out to pages and profiles, I’ll be honest, the likelihood that I’m ever going to go live on my profile is pretty much zero because there’s no value for me there from a business perspective which is, as you probably know, the only reason I use Facebook. Be sure that if you are using your profile it’s for personal stuff, if you’re using your page it’s for business stuff and that you’re going live using the desktop feature if you haven’t, because that’s super cool.
If you have questions about that, you want to know more about it, hit us up inside Hit the Mic Backstage, we are talking all about live content all of the time in there because it’s something that Facebook is changing and evolving really quickly. I also have updated the Facebook guide that sits inside Hit the Mic Backstage, which includes entire training on using it to go live. Check that out.
Number three, the final thing, what we’re going to wrap up this episode on, is ads. I know a lot of you have settled into the new year and you’re launching programs and things like that, and you’re probably seeing a lot of ads for programs right now. We’re just in one of those phases where it feels like a lot of people are launching, a lot of big people are launching, and it can feel really impossible to stand up against that, to get seen amongst that. Take a step back, remember to keep an eye on your game, and really focus your ads on your audience. Make sure that your audience is clear. I don’t mean like, they’re clear on who you are but I mean, you’re clear on who they are so that you can be doing the right targeting because that’s one of the biggest mistakes I’m seeing.
We’re going to talk a lot, a lot, a lot about Facebook ads this month because so many of you are launching. In fact, I’m looking at my schedule and we’re really probably going to talk about Facebook ads in one way or another for the rest of this month. You can also check out the Facebook ads checklist which is right at the bottom of the show notes page for this episode, so if you go to TheStaceyHarris.com/Episode335 you’ll see it. I really, really, really, really, really, really want you guys to make sure you’re doing ads the right way so that’s why we’re going to spend a ton of time talking about it. That’s why I just spent a ton of time updating the training inside of Hit the Mic Backstage all around ads. In fact it’s not just one training, it’s an entire module inside of the guide which consists of I think five trainings total.
Pay attention to this. If you’re going to be running ads make sure you’re clear on your targeting, make sure you’re clear on your budget, make sure you are giving them a clear call to action, make sure you’re putting the ads in the right places as the right times and not trying to broadcast to everybody all of the time in the hopes that it lands somewhere. I really want to see you guys executing ads the right away and again, that’s why we’re going to spend so much time this month talking about ads. That’s why we’ve got that free checklist for you and guide, and that’s why we have the massive overhaul on the trainings inside of the Backstage community. If you really are ready to up-level your ads or you really want to see success with your launch and running some ads for that launch, come in and check that out. Again, HittheMicBackstage.com is where you’ll join us for that.
I’m super excited for this month because of the ads talk, because I know again a lot of you are getting ready to launch and I want you to be super clear on what’s happening. Again, just for today, I want you guys to make sure you’ve got three things totally on point. You’re clear on your budget, you’re clear on your goals, and you’re clear on your target audience. If you can be clear on those three things you will be far and away ahead of a whole lot of people creating ads. Again, make sure you’re clear on those three things. All right? All right.
Thank you for listening, I’ve had a great time with you. It’s time for me to go now though. I want to encourage you to join us inside of Hit the Mic Backstage because we are doing a lot of talk about ads. In fact, we are going live next week to talk about Facebook ads and what you need to know now when it comes to Facebook ads. We just revamped the trainings inside the Facebook guide, all around Facebook but specifically ads for sure. Check that stuff out. Again it’s HittheMicBackstage.com, and I will see you Backstage.
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