Welcome to episode 391 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
Welcome, welcome, as you may or may not know, it is the first episode of March 2018. That means another episode where I talk about the three things you need to know right now. This week, this month were talking about we’re talking about Vero, which is getting a lot of buzz, so we’re going to talk about if it’s worth it for you. We’re going to talk about Facebook and how you can rock contests these days with the engagement bait stuff happening with the algorithm. Number three, I just got back from Traffic and Conversion. Full transparency on this episode, and really how the show operates, I have recorded a different episode of the show. Then I went to Traffic and Conversion in San Diego, and I decided to do a different episode.
I just got back yesterday, as of the day I’m recording this it’s Friday. I just really had to share this with you guys, so we’re going to talk a little bit about the keynote that Ryan Deiss, the CEO and founder of Traffic and Conversion gave during the conference. I’m actually going to wait to it in the show notes. It’s worth watching. It’s a good one, so check it out. That’s what we’re going to talk about right now.
Of course, if you want to know the latest and greatest before it hits the show, Backstage is the place to be. In fact, the first two items on this list are both based on conversations that happened this week inside of our backstage community, also known as the VIP lounge. It’s clearly your next step, is hitthemicbackstage.com. Come join us there to get all of this much sooner than you get it here.
Next, let’s jump in. I’m feeling very radio announcer today. It could be because I’m very tired. It was a very long week, but I had to do this. I had to do it for you guys, so here we go.
Number one on the list, Vero. Is it really a thing?
I will say whatever I say next comes with this asterisk. Go ahead and sign up and reserve your name, because honestly it’s cheap insurance, go to. However, no I don’t think Vero will be a thing. They tried to make it take off a couple of years ago. Realistically, whenever we have Facebook, or Instagram sort of make these algorithm changes and updates, people get angry and look for something else. I get why they do it. I do not in any stretch of the imagination think Facebook and Instagram will be around forever and ever amen. These networks all have their seasons, and the reasons, and their timings.
Facebook has lasted probably better than anything else, and I think it’s doing a good job of evolving. Certainly better than any other network has. But I don’t know if it will be here in five years, or 10 years, or 20 years. I wouldn’t have said it was going to be a thing like it is now 20 years ago. So with all of that said, I do really encourage you to go ahead and reserve your name. But again, I don’t think it’s going to be a thing. Their premise, if you look at it, is that they will not charge the first million members. But once they had a million, so member one million and one, is going to have to pay a small, and I’m using air quotes, but you can’t see me, small annual fee to have access to the network.
I don’t know if, as angry as marketers get to have to pay to play when it comes to marketing their businesses on Facebook, I don’t know if as a user-base, we’re yet ready to pay for the ability to access our social channels. I may be way off. By the time they hit a million members, there may be a strong enough hold that we totally are. But I’m going to guess no. My suggesting is yes, go ahead, reserve your name. But I would not put all of your eggs in that basket. I have course have my account set up. I have not posted anything to it. I have not connected with anyone. I don’t anticipate doing that in the next little while, because honestly I feel like in many cases, for a lot of you listening, this is something that you can procrastinate with, and feel good about it.
I say that knowing that I am absolutely in the same boat with a lot of things in my business. This came up yesterday on my drive back from T and C with a friend of mine. We were talking about things. I was like, “Yeah, I could totally procrastinate for hours, messing around with XYZ bot sequencing, but is that really going to move the needle in my business in the next 30 days? Whenever you’re looking at new networks I really encourage you look at, am I using this as something to procrastinate and still feel busy? Or is this something that I really need to keep at the top of my list, and be paying attention to? I would say for right now, yes, go ahead, reserve your name. Let’s play watch and see. But don’t rebuild your strategy around this network just yet, all right.
All right, number two I want to talk about today is Facebook contests.
This literally came from a conversation we were having Backstage in our VIP lounge. When Facebook announced the myriad of algorithm changes earlier this year, one of them was something they call engagement baiting. Meaning, specifically saying, comment to enter, comment to win, comment below for XYZ, share for XYZ, whatever the thing may be. Or the way I see it the most, it does drive me a little batty, and I’m kind of glad I don’t see it as much anymore, because it does drive me crazy, is the voting via reaction. Use the thumbs up for A and use the tears for B, whatever the things are. Those ones drive me bananas. Did you hear my brain just running through the not swearing filter? That’s what just happened.
That has really impacted giveaways though. “Hey, we’re giving away this thing, comment to win,” is tough now, because as soon as you say comment to win, the little algorithm gets you. You have a couple of options. A, put some money behind it. Really, generally put some ad dollars. That’s your best way of beating the algorithm, is to spend a little money.
The other option is moving it off of Facebook, or getting a grassroots group into it. Starting in, and then emailing your list, and saying, “Hey, enter to win over on Facebook,” and driving some traffic to it from off of Facebook. But the best option I would say is to literally move it off Facebook. Move it to Instagram. Check that out, if that’s a space for you. Do it on your website. But realistically, you’re going to see a drop in your engagement, because it’s simply not being delivered as much. If you want to keep it on Facebook, figure out what your ads budget is for it. Figure out what your audience is for it. Spend a little money, and target it well. That’s going to be your best option for continued results with giveaways.
I often say, when it comes to giveaways, make sure that we are using something that is going to be valuable to the growth of your business. Don’t be giving away things just for the sake of giving things away and getting people excited. Make sure it’s relevant. Maybe that means running it through a legit sort of contest option right on site, where you can collect email addresses and things like that. Again, make sure you’re following the rules. But also, you may need to put a little money behind it. By the way, speaking of following the rules, you do still need to keep it comments and likes. You can’t say tag a friend. You can’t say share. Those are not kosher with Facebook. You want to make sure you’re still including the Facebook is not responsible for this bit of text at the end of the giveaway post. But that’s what I would say, if I were to do a giveaway right now, I would do it on Instagram. That’s just me. Cool?
The last thing I want to talk about is again, I just got back from Traffic and Conversion. I’m fresh off the inspiration train.
I wanted to talk about community and conversation.
You’ve heard me say these words I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of times maybe. It comes down to knowing that you are listening to the people who matter, the people who are buying. That happens. That shows when you’re having conversations. It’s easy now, with all of these automation tools, and bots, and things, to think that we’re separating ourselves from this sales process, from this community building process. When in reality, the opposite is true.
One of the things Ryan said last year when we talked about bots at T and C, and one of the things he talked about a lot this year was that bots are not making sales. Bots are generating more conversations for us on their best day. Realistically, a human still needs to come in and be a relevant part of the conversion, through conversation. More than ever, it’s easy to think that there’s all this distance between us as people. I mean that on a super basic business scale, and also on a large people, human, the world scale. As small as the world can feel, thanks to the Internet, it feels like were more broken apart than ever.
When as marketers, we can add a little more humanity to the process, especially for some of you who are in really sensitive spaces … I mean, a lot of the people who listen to this show are helping people through divorce, or work through money stuff, or health stuff, or traumatic incidents, or building a business because they’ve lost their job for the umpteenth time, and they don’t want to be subject to somebody else. Or start a hustle, because they want to be okay out there college debt, I don’t know, sometime in this lifetime. Or focused on helping nonprofits, and the amazing things that each of those organizations can do. But that has to stem from you being a part of that. You showing up and being a part. Not you automating it so that you never have to touch base with them, person to person again.
I highly, highly recommend you listen to Ryan’s keynote. It’s absolutely critical that we show up as people for the people in our community, because they are people. They’re not just numbers. They’re not just data. They’re not just profile images. They’re people. Treat them as such. Chris Ducker talks a lot about people to people. Ryan Deiss called it H to H, human to human. Whatever you want to refer to it as, you got to start showing up.
Here’s the big win, and I talked about this when I was in Salt Lake for the EWomen event a couple of weeks ago. Relationship marketing is the real thing. But here’s the deal, is our relationship doesn’t have to be me heavily one-on-one talking to every single person. You and I have a relationship through the show. You and I have a relationship through the Facebook Lives. You and I have a relationship through the Backstage trainings. You and I have a relationship through Twitter, or Instagram, or whatever. It may not be that I see, and like, and listen to everything that you create. That doesn’t change the fact that we have a relationship. In the same way that you had a relationship with your schoolteachers, or your co-workers, or anyone else that you had to listen to drone on at length, like you do me.
But that relationship inspires action, because you invest the time in listening, you go and do the thing. The same is true for your audience. Whether you and I have had a one-on-one conversation or not, this listener-podcaster relationship is a relationship. I treat it as such with the effort I put into creating this content. I mean, the last thing I wanted to do today was re-record this episode. I’m sure I drone on quite a bit in it, but I wanted to make sure that I talked to you guys about this stuff, not the stuff I necessarily had planned. As awesome as it was, it wasn’t right for right now. I respected that, and so I re-recorded it. What’s the thing you’re doing that’s honoring the relationship to your blog readers, to your Instagram followers, to your Facebook Live viewers, to your podcast listeners? To whoever they are, wherever they are, what’s the things you’re doing to show up for them? Pay attention to that. Okay?
All right, I will get off my soapbox now. I’m putting it away. I’m all done. That’s today’s episode. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of this community. It doesn’t exist without you. I’m truly, genuinely in love with you. All right? I hope you joined us Backstage. If you haven’t, figure that out man. Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll see you on Facebook Live a lot this week, next week, whatever week, and I’ll talk to you soon. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.
Connect with Me
Connect with me on Facebook
Connect with me on Instagram
Tweet with me and include #HittheMic
Be sure to leave your review on iTunes or Stitcher for a shoutout on a future show