Welcome to episode 386, of Hit The Mic with The Stacey Harris.
So, I want to give you a little behind the scenes look at this show before, we jump in. So, I had prerecorded this episode in late December. And in the beginning of January, Facebook announced a massive change and shift in evolution in the way that content is delivered to the newsfeed. Thus proving, every point I make in this episode.
So, here’s what I decided to do. I had a couple of choices.
One, I could run it as it was and just, let it be.
Two, I could create an intro and then, run it as it was.
Or three, I could just redo it.
I chose option three because, I really want to talk about the context of these changes and why this point, which by the way, Facebook is not a marketing plan, is more relevant than ever. But, I want to say before I get into that, and I am going to get into that in just a second. That, that doesn’t mean that Facebook is now, irrelevant. It’s not an either, or. It’s not Facebook or something else. Just like last week, we talked about. It’s not Facebook Messenger or email marketing. It’s about utilizing these tools like Facebook and Instagram and our content and our email marketing, together. To provide a solution for the problems our clients are having. In a way that they can access it, and connect with it, and learn from it, and utilize it. That’s what this is about.
And so, I decided to just scrape the whole episode. I completely deleted it. It no longer exists in the ether of my filing system and, redo it.
Is Facebook a WHOLE Plan?
And so, today we’re going to talk about, with all of that said. We’re going to talk about why your Facebook page is not a digital marketing strategy. And, I would even go further than that and saying, it is not an entire marketing strategy. Because, many of the people who right now, and over the last couple of weeks, have been freaking out, I’m going to sensor myself slightly today. Freaking out. They’re freaking out because, they put all of their eggs in this basket. They put all of their faith and all of their trust and, all of their hopes and dreams in the organic reach of their Facebook page.
And once upon a time, you really could be successful that way. I will even go as far as to say, seven years ago when I started out. You could do a lot with the Facebook page. I could build a business without ever building a website. That’s not the case now. Facebook is not a business plan, it’s not a marketing plan. It’s not the whole thing. It’s a part. And even more than that, it is a tool. It is a tool. And, sometimes tools need to be replaced. Sometimes the way tools are used, evolve. Okay?
So, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. And I also, want to say that this is also coming up a lot for YouTube. YouTube in the last month has, completely changed their partner program. So the way that people make money on You Tube, is no longer the same and, the people who are really going to be hit by that are the people who have been living on the partner program as their only form of revenue. And, here’s the deal. The You Tubers you see making millions of dollars a year, that millions of dollars a year is not coming just from the YouTube partner program. It’s coming from the fact that, they are treating their YouTube channel as a business. They have merchandise. They have brand partnerships. They have advertising rates. They have built brands, influencer brands, that support themselves. And, they have turned what they did on YouTube into a legitimate business.
Now, the people who are going to be hit by that change, are the people who were just monetizing their videos and making some money on that. That’s not building a business. That’s realistically, monetizing a hobby.
And so, when you start to look at what you have, I hope, that you would describe it as a business. If you do not yet, describe it as a business. This is probably not going to be a super entertaining podcast, ever, much less this episode, for you to listen too.
But, I have faith that you treat and behave like, this thing you’re creating. This thing you’ve been working on for maybe, years. Is a business. And that means, utilizing these tools, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, content, interviews, publicity, networking as tools. As pieces to the puzzle that help you ultimately, connect, engage with, support, teach those people who you are helping get from problem to solution.
So, let’s jump in.
Let’s talk about kind of, the pieces you need to have, and the role that these different pieces play in it, okay?
Alright, let’s jump in. So, the first thing we’re going to figure out, is something we talk about, I feel like, a lot. And that’s who ultimately, are you trying to connect with? Who is that ideal client? Ideal listener? Ideal reader? Viewer? Whatever the consumption model might be for you. Who is the person that you are hoping to serve?
That’s gotta be the first step because ultimately, and I’m finding this more and more frequently with my corporate clients, specifically. Is, they’ll look at who their ideal clients are, especially those customers that are in more of a B-to-B space or Business-to-Business. And they’ll think, “Well, we’ve got to build a Facebook page and sell there.” And I’m like. “Where is your LinkedIn strategy? Where is your LinkedIn component?” And they have none. What, ultimately, that’s exactly where they should be to serve the audience they’re serving. And I see it a lot with solopreneurs. If you are doing things like, copywriting, and web design and supporting HR teams, or supporting marketing teams, guess where those decision makers are thinking about, what it is that they need from you? That’s not on Facebook. It’s not on Instagram.
Now, that becomes slightly different when you start talking about the sort of, online business space. Like for me, I actually, get a fair amount of traffic and interest and engagement on Instagram. Even though, I’m providing a B-to-B service model, info model. But guess what, guys? That’s not where I’m getting my corporate clients. That’s not where I’m getting my clients who I do strategy builds for, and come in and do team trainings. That’s coming from referrals, more often than not. Relationships more often than not. And occasionally, LinkedIn.
Is your marketing plan all online?
And so, notice when I’m talking about these clients that I’m charging four to five figures per project. Where I’m talking to those people, Facebook didn’t even come up. In fact, a very small section of that was online marketing at all. The bulk of that, comes from building relationships and talking to people and doing great work with client A so that, they’ll refer me to client B, C, and D.
And so, that’s what you have to figure out. Who is your ideal client? And, what is your best way of getting to them? And then, when you’re thinking about that, what’s also, the fastest way to get to them? Because ultimately, we spend a lot of time, and I teach social media for a living. I create content professionally. But, sometimes the fastest way to make a buck, the fastest way to start getting clients. The fastest way to scare up some cash if you’re trying to hit an income goal. Is not necessarily, to run a Facebook ad. Now, in some instances, it might be. But, in some instances, it might be a whole lot faster to tap your network. To go to past clients and say. “Hey, I had a great time working on that project with you. Do you have any continuing needs? I’d love any referrals you have.” However; you want to phrase that email, obviously.
But that could be, a really powerful way to hop up that income and hit that goal. And so, when we start thinking about, who are our ideal clients. We have to then, think about how are we connecting with them? And that’s gotta be the first step is, we’re laying out our marketing plan and as, we’re looking at how do we get business?
Number two, has to be what are the tools we use?
And so, I would start by, legitimately, looking at what you’re currently using. If Facebook is the only thing appearing on that list, book a call with me right now. Because, we have work to do. But, lay out all of the things that you think are on that list. And then, I want you to start looking at the metrics. I want you to start looking at the numbers. And I want you to tell me where on that list, things actually led to revenue.
So for me, email. My email marketing system. So, I use ActiveCampaign. That leads to revenue because, I get new members in Backstage through email campaigns. Whether that is the regular weekly email content or, automated sales funnels built with opt ins and whatnot. It’s also Facebook ads. It’s also Twitter. It’s also Instagram. Because, I have instances where I can say. “I got business from this source. It’s this podcast. You know, a lot of people who joined Backstage listen to this show. Maybe, that’s you. And if it’s not, well it should be. Get on that.
But, I want you to look at, not just the tools you think you’re using right now. But, what are the results of that activity? That behavior? Is it actually, leading to business? And then really, focus in on where it’s not leading to business and make some decisions. Is it time to let that go? Is that not in fact, serving you? Or, on the flip side of that. Look at what is absolutely getting you business and say. “You know, I get great leads from LinkedIn but, I do not really put a lot of effort into that. What happens if I really show up? What if I increase my effort there by just 50%? Now what happens if I increase my effort by 100%?” Awesome. What does that look like? What does that mean?
And, start building out a plan from there. And, I’m not saying you have to run out today, and start doing all the things. But, what I want you to do after running through this exercise. To recap, the exercise being, and this is sort of, your homework for this episode. I really want you to do this. Step one, write out who your ideal client is. And step two, factor in … Brain dump everything that you’re currently doing to get clients. And then number three, evaluate that. Figure out, are these activities or, which of these activities are genuinely resulting in revenue?
Choose one thing.
And I want you to go through that process because, I want you to then take one step. Chose one thing to do next week, because I’m assuming this process is going to take you a couple of days, next week. To either, let go of some of those things that aren’t generating revenue. Or, do more of those things that are generating revenue.
Maybe that’s systemizing it. Maybe that’s saying. “Okay, so what is the process to get an email out?” Or, “What is the process to get referrals after we’re done with a client?” I want you to do that because, that is where you start to build a real marketing plan. That is where you start to build a real digital marketing plan.
The cool thing about digital marketing guys, is that there’s literally metrics everywhere. There is information and data, everywhere. You cannot turn around. You cannot move a centimeter without running into data. And I’m not talking about general statistics for what works and what doesn’t. I’m talking about specific to your brand. If you open up your Facebook page right now, you can see which content is most popular. You can see when your audience is online. If you open up your Instagram app right now, and you have Instagram for business set up, which you should if you’re using it as a marketing platform. And, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you need to join us in Backstage, cause there’s a brand new Instagram in there.
And, you can look and see, which post was most popular? What story in the last 14 days, got the most views? Go to your Google analytics, and if you don’t have Google analytics, then there’s the one thing you do next week. Alright? I really want you to start looking at the big picture. Instead of being in reactive mode, to the changes being made by our tools. I want you to be proactively looking at your whole marketing structure. And, what you do to get business. Because, that’s where you’re gonna see results. That’s where you’re gonna see really, a separation from the noise, nonsense, overwhelm, anxiety, stress and quite frankly, lack of results. To clear, confident steps that separate you from the pack, and connect you with your clientele.
What almost came out of my mouth was to say. “It’s that simple.” It’s simple to say, it’s not simple to do. But that’s the first step, okay?
That is today’s episode. I’m glad I rerecorded this because I feel like there’s a lot of us in this particular space who are going into a reactionary place. To things like the Facebook news. To things like the YouTube news. And I don’t want that to be the case. I don’t want you to be subject to these tools. I want you to be empowered by these tools, okay?
This show, as always. This episode, as always. This whole dog and pony show. This whole exercise in me yappin’ around. Is brought to by Hit the Mic Backstage. If you don’t not yet know, which you should because I just talked about it. Brand new guide. Full six module guide on Instagram has launched. Is in live, ready for you to take action on inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. Check it out.
We also just redid the Facebook guide, last month. And spoiler alert, there may be another guide coming out in the first half of this year. I’m just saying, there totally is.
Okay? Alright. I will talk to you very, very soon. Thanks for listening. Head over to Hit the Mic Backstage, to join us. Ask questions. We just had our monthly member mastermind for January, but we’ve got another one coming up in February. I’d love to see you there and have you be a part of it. It’s totally virtual. But, it’s a great way to get support from me and the community on kind of, what you’re working through right now.
So, kind of, do this work over the next couple of weeks. And then, bring your results maybe for some hot seat time, at that monthly member mastermind. And, it’s a great way to get my feedback.
Cool. Cool. I’ll see you soon.
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