Shift sales into high gear in a social way
Engagement is easier to define with a good content strategy
Social media and marketing pose challenges for upstart owners familiar with neither. Sales malinger as entrepreneurs struggle to find their way.
Julia McCoy will have none of that. She helped herself to start three business at age 16 and today is CEO of the Express Writers content writing agency.
An author and podcaster, McCoy not only turbocharged her own career but, as she explained to marketing entrepreneur Madalyn Sklar, her company now does the same for clients and their sales around the world.
A strong social media presence is one with frequent availability with engagements — not strictly broadcasting and retweeting. Have conversations.
“That kind of presence is much easier to define if your online content strategy is defined,” McCoy said. She gave questions every owner should ask:
- Who is my audience? Do market research and surveys.
- Why should someone choose me over a competitor?
“Once your ‘brand base’ and content strategy have been developed, move into a social media strategy,” McCoy said. “A strong social media presence incorporates quality, originality, creativity, visuals and interactivity.
“Give someone a good reason to follow you,” she said.
Chat and grow
The best trick for growing a social media network is joining and being active in Twitter chats and Facebook groups.
“When you do, engage and follow the people you’ve enjoyed talking with,” McCoy said. “Your network will grow.”
She recommended chats such as #TwitterSmarter, #ContentWritingChat and #ContentChat.
“I find it valuable to follow the clients who have found us through our content marketing,” McCoy said. “This attracts like-minded people and similar profiles in the Who to Follow feed. Spend a few minutes doing this every day to grow your ‘potential lead’ network.
“Be present,” she said. “This is one of my biggest tips on how to grow your network on social media. I know it might sound like a ‘chore,’ but it’s really not. Log in to your Twitter daily and interact with and follow the people interacting with you. It will pay off. It has for me.”
Sklar advocates active visual interaction.
“Video. Video. And video,” she said. “It’s the best way to build up trust and likability, which leads to massive growth.”
Be relevant
As much as possible, work your offerings into conversations to beef up sales.
“Your product or service must be relevant to your social media audience if you want them to click through to your site, download your lead magnets and then even buy if they’re interested,” McCoy said.
“Remember, you don’t have to have all your products lined up ‘perfectly’ before working on a strong social media presence,” she said. “For example: I spent six years building Express Writers online and in social media before I created and sold a course that was relevant to my audience.”
People often can be skeptical about online purchases. Social media can be useful to prove product value.
If you’re familiar with your audience’s pain points, talk about what you do and how your solution sets you apart from competitors. Remember, you’re really selling you.
“You can share your services on social — carefully,” McCoy said, giving her two keys she goes by:
- Share three valuable insights for every one offer or promotion.
- When you do an offer, share reviews and what others say about you with a link to where they can learn more.
“Remember, building trust is more important than ‘selling’ on social,” McCoy said. “Selling will happen indirectly as more and more people trust, follow and recommend you to others.”
Mortal miscues
Several common social media marketing mistakes will kill profits. All selling all the time is a surefire way to eliminate sales from the start.
McCoy cited these mistakes that can kill profits quickly:
- Not logging in — ever — to engage back or answer people.
- Not having a designated person or unavailable to answer support tweets or direct messages.
- Overselling or megaphoning and not being human.
From her experience, McCoy favors an assortment of apps and features to sell products and services on social media.
“At Express Writers, we use MeetEdgar to schedule and publish content through our brand channels,” she said. “We also use a real human to write those tweets. It’s either me or our awesome Rachel Moffett behind the copy. Use tools to help — not replace — social media posting.
“The repurposing feature is hot,” McCoy said. “If you schedule a post about one blog, it’ll schedule to infinity, yet not too often. Your next post might reappear one month later. You’ll get new people clicking and reading. It’s a great way to save time and get more mileage from content.”
She added that, because Twitter revoked this feature, MeetEdgar currently doesn’t post more than one time to Twitter accounts.
Be real
A strong social media presence shows there’s a real person behind the product. You’ll have both the human element along with the opportunity to tell your story and what you can do for your audience.
“Organic social media makes up 99.999 percent of Express Writers’ social presence,” McCoy said. “We rarely do an ad, but when we do, it’s usually on a Facebook post or tweet that does well.
“Look for patterns of posts, videos and live streams that do well,” she said. “You can promote them with only a small budget.”
How small? McCoy confessed:
“I’ve promoted maybe one post on social media for Express Writers and spent $150 or less in 12 months. It can be so much better to build those organic connections on social media — first and foremost — instead of advertising.”
About The Author
Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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