Welcome to Episode 408, it’s the beginning of July. Beginning of Q3, and I’m … Guess what guys? Yeah, I’m excited. I really am. I love the start of a month. The start of a new quarter. The start of a new week. Heck, I even like the start of a new day. I like that fresh start. I like that it’s a whole new opportunity. And so, this month, like every month. We’re going to talk about the three things I want you to be paying attention to. No surprise, we’re going to talk a little bit about IGTV. We’re going to talk about some Facebook stuff that’s going on. And we’re also, going to talk about planning. That’s right, a little Q3 planning, paying attention to what you need to know to get actual action taken. Because that’s where results live guys, in action. Spoiler alert, right?
So, sort of a little side track before we jump in. Thursday, July 5th, I will be live on my Facebook page, as I am every Thursday at 2PM Pacific. But, we’re going to be doing something a little special. And I would really, really, really like you to join me. I will be talking about seven things I’ve learned in seven years of being an entrepreneur, because July 5th, marks seven years since I officially opened the doors on my business, which was initially not what it looks like now. And we’ll talk about that on the show. But, I’m super stoked that we’ve got the live show that day. So, we’re going to talk about seven lessons from seven years. And the best part is, I want to hear from you too. I want to hear your lessons. I want to hear your insights, takeaways, observations, things maybe, you didn’t expect being as hard as they. Or things that … I don’t know, maybe you expected them to be harder than they are. In which case, good on your, right?
So, Thursday, 2PM Pacific. Also, it’s the beginning of the month, which means we’ve got a brand new training inside of Hit the Mic Backstage and we’re all in on social media habits this month. Scheduling and reviewing and all of that good stuff, we’re talking about it. We talk a little bit about, outsourcing and billing the foundations to outsource. I highly recommend checking that out. For my Backstage peeps, if you’re not yet Backstage. Fix that, thestaceyharris.com is where you’ll find all of the podcast content but, hitthemicbackstage.com, is where you will find all of the Backstage content, alrighty? Alrighty.
Let’s dig into today’s episode and the three things you need to know July 2018.
Number one, so IGTV is a thing now.
I actually really love it. And, I think it’s going to be a really powerful way for people to connect. If they do it right. And, when I say ‘if they do it right’, I want to talk a little bit about what that right is. And I’m full on using air quotes as I say “right” but, one thing I want to make sure that you’re really aware of is the power of this medium when you create content intentionally for this medium. A huge mistake I’m seeing way too many people make right now is, they’re jumping in, and they’re repurposing YouTube content by editing it so that there are black bars above and below a horizontal video and going. “Okay, here you go IGTV.” No. No. No, no, no, no. Create content for this space. Now, there may be some IGTV content that can be created from past YouTube videos or Facebook Live content. If you’re going to do that though, make sure you have edited … Created an edit that keeps it vertical. No black bars. Vertical. And even then, I would be really conscientious about using that repurposing that particular content, unless it makes sense on that medium.
So, let me rewind a little bit and talk about firstly, what is IGTV? It’s vertical video on your mobile through Instagram. You can see it in the Instagram app. You can see it through a third … Not a third party but, an IGTV app. So separate standalone app just for IGTV. I’ll be honest, I have consumed, uploaded, and completely fallen into the habit of doing all of it through Instagram. I don’t use the external IGTV only app very often. I use it a little bit solely for the purposes of seeing if there was anything that I couldn’t do in the regular app. But, I haven’t run into anything yet.
I really like it. For those of us with a non-verified page, we are looking at 15 seconds to 10 minutes. For those of us with verified pages, we’re looking at 15 seconds to 60 minutes. I’ve not yet sat through a 60 minute video on IGTV. I’m sure someone will create one that gets me too, but I haven’t yet. I am finding the sweet spot for me for consumption and creation, runs somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five minutes. I love that there are some stats and analytics tools already. So, if you go into your video and you hit the three little dots down by your comments and your hearts, you will get an option to view insights. So you can see how long your viewer retention is. What percentage of your audience you are retaining.
This is important because that’s where I want you to get your information around your best practices for how long your videos should be. I will say because, it’s very new, we are seeing probably, an inflated number of completed views. As in, people watching an entire video. I suspect that number will go down slightly for most people. With that said, I don’t want you to be so anxious to jump in and do anything, that you put out crap. Meaning, something that doesn’t make sense on the medium or something that doesn’t really serve your audience. I’m seeing a lot of people trying to be IGTV experts when they’re mostly just also, testing this platform out. They’re just sort of, regurgitating things that other people have told them about IGTV. We’re all learning about IGTV right now and that’s great. But remember what your audience is looking to you for. They want that value. They likely already follow somebody who can teach them all about how to use IGTV. Model really solid IGTV content instead of, trying to teach it if it’s not what you do. Now, if it’s something … If that’s what you do, then excellent, keep going. That’s great. You’ll see on my IGTV, a lot of IGTV related content right now because, I’m getting a lot of questions about it. But again, it’s what I do.
I want you to make sure that you’re providing the audience, your audience, the value they’re looking to you for. Model really good content versus trying to teach it. Cool? Okay. The other question that I’ve been getting about IGTV is, how often? Again, this is going to be one of those things that you test and you figure out. This is new to all of us. I’m currently testing different frequencies with different clients. I highly recommend starting with something. Maybe that’s once a week. Maybe that’s three times a week. Maybe that’s daily, little mini blogs. Whatever it is that works for you, create that and stick with it for a few weeks. And then, watch those insights. Check those numbers and see what is … What’s working for you. And then, tweak it a little. The most important thing is consistent quality content. Not consistent content for the sake of content, content. Quality content that answers a question, the provides a value.
And know … Value doesn’t always have to be teaching them something. Sometimes it’s sharing a story. Sometimes it’s connecting. Sometimes it’s furthering a conversation you started somewhere else. But, you’re giving them a touchpoint that’s worth paying attention too on a consistent basis. That’s what I want to see you doing. Even if it takes you a little longer to put together sort of, what your rhythm is going to be and what your exact execution is going to be. Give yourself that space but, the only way you’re going to know what that is if you start testing things and figuring out what kinda, works for you and what doesn’t, alright? If you want to learn more about IGTV, we already have a module of it inside the new … Or, not so new rather. The Rock Star Guide to Instagram, over in Hit the Mic Backstage, that’s going to be the place to go to check that out. So, I highly recommend visiting us over there. And of course, you can ask me questions Backstage, anytime.
Number two, I want to talk about Facebook updates.
Facebook has added another new transparency tool for us on pages. And for us, I mean page likes, not so much for us as page admins. Now, on mobile and desktop you can go to any Facebook page and see something called, ‘Info and Ads’. You can see all active ads, currently being run by that page. You can also, see any name changes the page has requested as well as when the page was launched.
Now, as a marketer I find this to be super fun because, now I can go stalk people’s Facebook ads and see what they’re doing. As somebody who runs ads, I don’t love it because, people can now stalk my ads and see what I’m doing. Now, not all of the ad information is there, you’re just going to see the copy and the image. If you were to click on the ad, or engage with the ad in any way, that is not going to be a paid click or a paid impression. There’s no cost for me as an advertiser. There is no comments or likes so, no social engagement. You just see the copy. You do not see where I am targeting the content to. Again, you just see the copy and the graphic.
Facebook is saying that more information will be coming to this page at some point. I don’t totally know what that additional information will be. But essentially, this is going to be another sort of, way to build trust between pages and Facebook users. It’s increasing the transparency between marketers and those being marketed too. Again, as a marketer, I think it’s super fun to be able to snoop. As a user, I don’t honestly … And this is going to sound super judgy, guys. I don’t think the average Facebook user is going to use it terribly often because, I don’t think the average Facebook user cares very much, to be completely honest with you. I do, however, see it as a tool for business owners to scope out what their competition is doing. If you are using this a lot, be sure to send me a message or a Tweet or smoke signal, whatever. I’m curious to see how other people are using this because I can only think about how to use it as a Facebook ads person, that’s currently where I’m at. But, I’m not overly concerned with anyone sort of, scoping anything out and stealing any sort of knowledge.
If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it and there’s not a whole lot we can do about that. And there have been tools for years to see other people’s Facebook ads. It’s just been a little bit more of a barrier to do it, alright? Also, that’s number two.
Number three of the thing I want to wrap up with is your Q3 social goals.
I want you to really think about what in quarter three you want to happen with your community. If that’s email list growth if that’s social media profile follower growth. If that is engagement, if that’s a group. I want you to think about from a social community, what you want to see more of. And then, I want you to build a plan to get there. This is how we execute a strategy for our clients, all the time. What is our goal? Now, do the math backward to get there. If you want to see Instagram growth because, you’re going to be rolling out IGTV content, fantastic. Look at your hashtag strategy.
Also, tell your email list that you’re going to be creating consistent content over on IGTV, come check it out. Share what you’ve been sharing in your IG stories on Facebook or Twitter or whatever your other social media channels are. Talk about your profile in other places. Letting your audience know. “Hey, there’s something worth watching exclusively over here. You might want to come check it out.” If you are not happy with where you are community size, the only way it’s going to change is if you start making changes in the direction you want to be moving. That means, figuring out what that is and taking those incremental steps. We’ve got literally, hundreds of podcasts of this show to help you do that. There’s an entire training library in Backstage. But all of that sits after deciding what those goals are.
So, figure out what your quarterly social media goals are and then, break those down into your monthly goals and your monthly action steps. And then, break that down into your weekly action steps. And then, actually measure these things. We are really working on some community growth goals here at the Stacy Harris, which means every single day there are several vanity metrics, I would normally call them. Like, follower count and email list size, that I am tracking because, I am looking at okay, what did we do yesterday that nudged this? Or what did we do yesterday that nudged this down? Whatever it was, or hey we hit a plateau, what do we need to tweak? Because, this is where my focus is for Q3. If that’s where your focus is in Q3, that’s cool. But you got to measure it, and you’ve gotta build a plan to change it, alright?
Just sort of a quick one at the end today. But I really wanted to talk about … We talk so often about our goals as far as, money and sales. But, here’s the deal guys is, the money and sales that you make in January, are really impacted by the marketing you’re doing in July of the year before. When we’re talking about … Especially, online marketing, we’re looking at three to six months before we have a payoff, generally. So, the work you’re doing mid-year now, is going to impact the results you get at the beginning of 2019. So, if you want to start 2019 off with a bang, and really go gang busters with a big launch. Start paying attention to what your community looks like now. Start nurturing that audience now for those results then, okay?
Alright. Again, as always, if you have questions head Backstage and ask them. I really, really hope I see you on Thursday for Hit the Mic TV Live. Remember, that’s 2PM Pacific, every single Thursday. I’m so excited to celebrate seven years of this show … Or, I’m sorry, of the business, of the company, with you. It looks a lot different than it used too, and we’ll talk about that on the show. But, I’m really, really grateful that you hang out with me every week and are a part of this community. So, thank you. Alright? I’ll see you Thursday. Bye.
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