Is social media the game you can't win?

Whether you love it, hate it or you're still on the fence about social media, this week's episode might get you thinking about social media and the way forward. 

While I absolutely understand all the pluses, I find social media and the constant need to create content a little overwhelming.  And after a conversation with my son, who has the social following to be considered an 'influencer', I'm wondering if social media is simply the game you can't win!

So, in this episode, I'm sharing what is arguably an alternate to social media and maybe the solution your business needs to save you time and money too!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

You're listening to the Secrets of Successful Business podcast, your go-to source for business tips, tricks and proven strategies that will help you create a streamlined and profitable business. We chat to the best minds in business about their journey. It's my business and I'll do it my way, how they started, rather than going harder to get more focus on growing more with what you have. What they learned along the way. How long are you going to give this?

Speaker 2 0:29

What compromises are you going to make Just because you can do it?

Speaker 1 0:32

doesn't mean that you should do it. It's really important to remember that it's a long game and, of course, we'll ask them for their secret source for creating a successful business. If you're not feeling you're not doing it right, you should be struggling at times. That is part of the journey. Join us as we take a sneak peek behind the curtain. Talk solutions for those business pain points, working smarter, not harder, mindset and the challenges of bidding it all in with the demands of today's busy life style. If you're a business owner, side hustler or just starting your business journey, this podcast is for you. Now here's your host, business coach and content creator, justine McLean from Fawcay Creative.

Speaker 2 1:13

Hello and thanks for joining me on the podcast today. In case we haven't met, I'm Justine, a small business owner on a mission to uncover and share the secrets of creating and running a profitable, sustainable and successful business. I've been in business for over 20 years now and I get to use all that I've learned along the way to help other women in business reduce the overwhelm, gain visibility around their numbers, charge what they're worth and make more money. It's about designing a life you love that fits into your definition of success. So if I can help you create the profitable business you deserve, please reach out Now without further ado. Let's dive into today's episode.

Speaker 2 1:57

You don't have to be in business very long to realise that business is a numbers game. You've probably had some of these before Earn more than you spend. Or the Pareto principle, which basically says that 80% of consequences comes from 20% of causes. So 80% of your income, for example, comes from 20% of your clients. Or conversion rate You'll only convert at between 2% and 5% probably 2%, so you need to have a big list for the numbers to work. More profit equals more success, and that equals more freedom. You get the picture. So the idea then is that the bigger your audience, the bigger the potential to sell more of your thing, and the more you sell, the more money you earn. So it's a little wonder that in this digital age, where the best marketing platform we have sits in our hand or in the handbag of our prospective clients Yep, I'm talking about the smartphone here that business owners are absolutely fixated on social media, so increasing our audience numbers, our engagement all across the different platforms and then, hopefully, the sales in the process. But for many business owners, it is the only marketing tool they use, and so all of their marketing efforts and a good chunk of their time and money is spent creating new content just for social media TikTok, instagram, facebook, snapchat, pinterest, linkedin.

Speaker 2 3:38

There are so many different platforms and I often find myself wondering whether social media is the game that you just can't win. Why? Because when I started my business, there was no such thing as social media, and while I completely understand fixation Today, in the twenties, and I also understand how vital it is to appear on these platforms as a way of social proof, for me, relying on social media to boost my business is just a fool's errand. It's like building a business on rented space and, honestly, like I said, it's playing a game that you can't win and that's just the way the moguls who own these platforms like it. I have always relied on word of mouth and on my email list and that's how I've built my business over many years and I will pick that hands down over social media every time. But it always blows my mind when I speak to business owners who honestly believe that the reason they're not making any money is because they don't have a big enough following on socials, or that they need to do more work on those platforms to increase their engagement and then, hopefully, they'll make more sales. But there's just so much time, energy and effort that goes into it.

Speaker 2 5:10

I thought I would go directly to a source who has been very successful on social media and has built a bit of a business on social media to chat about. You know what he thought about social media and he was going to come on this podcast, but he's too busy flying around the world, so I guess you could call my son lucky and influencer. And at the time of recording this podcast he had a combined following on a couple of his platforms tick tock and Instagram. He's got snapchat as well, I think, but just on those two platforms of more than two million followers. And the other day we were talking about viral tick tock videos and reels. Because you know, I'm curious and for me, if I can do something that's going to send something viral or get people more interested in my product or get them onto my list more importantly, then I'm open to that. I wanted to know what was it that tips people over the edge so that you can get into that viral territory, and was there a formula that worked every time? And look, he's had a few of those viral videos. I think you know the video for me that went viral was probably one that I was in for him, in with him. Sorry, but usually for me a viral video is about a thousand downloads or a thousand views. For him a viral video is millions of views, multiple millions of views, and he can achieve that in a couple of hours. Mine, you know, it's a thousand over a couple of days.

Speaker 2 6:43

But I, when I asked Lachlan about whether or not he could identify that one thing that helped a video go viral, that really helped the followers come, that help boost the engagement, he made this comment that kind of surprised me and that was that social media was like gambling and it was a game that you couldn't win. And his view was no matter how big or small your account, the algorithm worked exactly the same for each and every one of us. It was like gambling. So Every now and then the social platform would deliver us a jackpot in the way of that post or video that goes viral, whatever that means for you. But trying to work out why, the rhyme or reason behind that is almost impossible, because that video you could then repeat 10 times and the chances of it going viral again were going to be pretty slim. And Lachlan has learned that over many years of working on the platform and, obviously, building his audience. His comment was that there was no way to work out what it was that was making him hit that proverbial jackpot and no way really to work out the algorithm.

Speaker 2 8:03

So naturally, I pressed him on this a little bit because I thought surely there's a way you've had so many of these viral videos. There has to be something here that is sending your engagement and your followers soaring. Is the hashtags used? Is it I don't know, the shirt you wore? Is it the length of the reel? Could it be the caption and again he said no, there's no real way of knowing.

Speaker 2 8:25

I think in that viral moment, what happens is the platform convinces you that social media is the way to go for your business and in doing that, it keeps you coming back for more, making more content, spending more money on ads, spending countless hours scrolling for ideas, more. So the social media platforms get what they want higher engagement. You're continuing to come back for more, but in fact there's no rhyme or reason to what's going to get you that next jackpot. So it is a little like gambling. So I let that sit with me for a while.

Speaker 2 9:04

We had quite a long discussion on the ins and the outs of whether social media was like gambling and whether it was really a game that you just couldn't win. And I guess after speaking to Lachlan someone who makes a living really off the platform I thought, well, he's probably right, it's just another numbers game. That's part of business and something that we need to buy into, maybe that necessary evil. But it had me thinking about whether or not the old fashioned ways and old fashioned only 30, 30 years ago, but word of mouth, referrals, building that list is really a better way to market your business and I guess whether you could do that without socials at all.

Speaker 2 9:50

It's an experiment that I'm not going to buy into because I like my social media for that social proof, so that if people want to follow me easily, if they want to reach out to me easily, it's there. My platform is there Instagram they can send me a message. It's not a drama. Same thing on Facebook. You know where I can have a closed community on Facebook where I can talk to people actually inside this Facebook community, secrets of successful business, and you know we can talk about money and I know the people who are coming into that closed community, who are prepared to share their email with me to be part of it, are genuinely interested in what I have to say. So there's definitely a place for it.

Speaker 2 10:29

I'm not saying that there isn't, but I think if we think about you know, business being that numbers game and the name of the game being that you want to sell your thing, make money, make a profit so that you can pay yourself and your team and live, then relying on social media too much is probably not the way to go, especially for the longer term. We've all seen where social media shuts down for no reason, where people get their accounts closed, where they're banned for, you know, breaking some community rule. But you have none of that with your email. You have none of that with word of mouth or referral. Sure, people can opt out of your email and that's okay. In that case, they know exactly what it is you're selling, they know exactly who they, who you are, and if they don't want to follow you, then that's fine. If they don't want to buy into the community that you're part of, then that's fine. It means that in doing that, in having that email list, in having that referral program, in working with loyal customers, you're always refining your list. So essentially, what you're going to have is a group of people who coming along for the ride because they're generally interested in what you have to do. So I'm not suggesting for a minute that you go ahead and ditch social media, because there's definitely a place for that in your business. What I am saying is don't rely on it.

Speaker 2 11:55

As I said, my marketing weapon of choice is my email list and in my opinion, every business, no matter how big or how small, should have an email list as the cornerstone of their business marketing. You know, when I think back over my 30 years in business, you know the bulk of my work has either come from my email list or from word of mouth, and that just makes things easy. Because having an email list is easy, it's inexpensive, it's effective and it's the fastest way, in my opinion, to turn those cool or lukewarm clients into raving fans and then, you know, unlock the real earning potential in your business, especially if you choose to nurture your list. So if you haven't already got an email list in your business, my recommendation is to make a start, and the best way to do that is go ahead and gather all of the emails of everyone that you've worked with during your business life. You can put family or friends in there who might enjoy hearing what you have to say, and sure add them to. Or if you're running a referral program, for example, it might be important to put those people into your list so you can share with them when the next referral opportunity is coming up. So once you've got that initial list together, it's then important to continue to add that every time you have a new client, because if we go back to the numbers game that is business and we think that 80% of our income is going to come from 20% of our clients. Well, they are the 20% that we've worked with in the past. So if you've got them all on a list, then it's going to be really easy to reach out to them with your next offer. So once you've got your list, your marketing email marketing list set up, my advice would be to find some great software so that it's super simple to communicate with the people that are on your list.

Speaker 2 13:51

Now there are loads of options on the market. There are some free versions and, honestly, they've all got similar features and benefits. Some of them are much easier to use than others. Personally, I use Flowdesk because it's got great templates. It looks kind of pretty, it's very easy to use and I can schedule the emails in there as well, and I can do that well in advance. There's no sort of caveat on how many I can schedule and also I could grow my list to a million people and Flowdesk will support me without charging me a whole bunch of extra money. So that's my recommendation. If you're interested, I'll pop a little link down in the show notes.

Speaker 2 14:30

But when it comes to getting together that list and, you know, creating a list that you're going to send to. Don't make the mistake of just reaching out to them when you want to sell something, because there is no faster way for someone to unsubscribe from your list, even if they are a longtime loyal customer, than to be hammering them all the time with sales information. So instead use your email list to speak to your ideal clients, to nurture them, to give them information for free. That might be an extension of what it is you do for them. Pepper that with subtle selling, sure, and every now and again you'll be wanting to pop in a sales specific email. You know if you've got a new offer, a new product, a new service or you really need to sort of make a few bucks quickly. Definitely used to sell, but treat your email list as more of a community. So warming up the audience, who will hopefully one day come and buy from you, might take a while.

Speaker 2 15:38

I have had my email list for a very long time and I still have people who will come in and buy from me off that list, who have never bought from me before and they have been on that list for many years. And once you've got that list up and running, it's all about then growing that list, so extending that list from just the people who you've worked with in the past, and family and friends to new people that you're bringing into your ecosystem, and that's how social media can help you in that endeavour. Now, according to OptinMonster, 60% of people 60% of people who come across your business and are given the opportunity to download a freebie or sign up for a newsletter will always sign up for your email list. But only 20% of those same people will choose to follow you on social media. And even if they do follow you on social media, the percentage of when they see your thing coming up is so low that you could probably post the same thing five days in a row and it's likely that your followers will never see that post from you. So think about that for a minute. If you could get 60% of people who come up, who come across your business, who are going to sign up and that 60% of people so 60 out of 100 you have immediate, direct communication with them that is way better than the 20 people who will choose to follow you on social media, who may or may not ever see your thing or hear from you ever, again and again. That's out of our hands. That's all down to the algorithm. So, hopefully, you've got your messaging right on things like your social media and on your website and you've got some search engine optimization SEO set up in the back end of your website so that you are coming up on google searches and that 60% that are your ideal clients are then seeing your thing and signing up.

Speaker 2 17:39

But when you've got your email marketing set up and you've got a welcome sequence ready to go, it's really time to get intentional and to start to grow that list, and, in my experience, the best way to do it is with a lead magnet. So a lead magnet can be a free or low cost resource or offer that's essentially just used for gathering contact details and, specifically, people's email addresses. So, you know, these days, though, I'm finding that consumers are much more savvy when it comes to email lists and who they choose to share their contacts with, because you only have to go through a Black Friday or Easter or Christmas or one of the many holidays that we have, and the number of emails you end up getting are completely insane. So people are very savvy about what they want coming into their inbox. So once people take that step and they want to sign up for your list, then make sure you give them value in that lead magnet. Give them some sort of value, a quick transformation or a quick win, because that is what is going to keep them connected to your list and follow it up with a nurture sequence. Talk about who you are, you know. Give them another opportunity to engage with you in something free. It could be your free Facebook group, but look to send out five to seven emails once you have somebody sign up for. Whatever thing it is you're getting them to sign up for and speak to them, really nurture them.

Speaker 2 19:13

Some lead magnet ideas can include checklists, quizzes, ebooks, mini courses, cheat sheets, coupon codes if you've got a product based business, some free shipping templates or free trials, a free Facebook group, a closed Facebook group, for example. There are lots of different ideas for lead magnets out there. The sky is the limit, so use your imagination when it comes to getting people to sign up. One of the best ways I think for 2024 to get people to actually sign up is to give them a free trial to something. It could be a low cost membership that you've got going on, or something that, when the free trial is over, let's say, you give them a seven day trial or a month long trial. When the free trial is over, you email them, tell them the free trial is over, and then you give them the option to stick around. Another interesting one that I've seen is that people are using their email list. Once they have those people in their ecosystem, they're actually monetising their email list, so they're providing additional content in another email that sits behind a paywall, and so, essentially, they're signing up for a freebie, but if they want more information, more contact with that influencer or that business owner, that person, then they have to pay a subscription of five bucks a month. So lots of different ideas.

Speaker 2 20:42

There's no question, though, that growing your email list can be challenging at times. I think it's about just consistency, keeping at it, because there'll be things that go crazy. I had my profitable pricing formula that I was giving out at a very discounted cost through January, and I got 35 signups in a day for that one, just to give you an idea. So there are lots of different ways that you can keep growing that list, but I think the most important thing is to be consistent in terms of continuing to find that growth, to find the people who come into your world. But, most importantly, you've got to nurture the people that you've already got.

Speaker 2 21:24

So make sure that, once you've got them in your world, you're sharing that value, and I think you'll be really shocked at how many people on your list eventually choose to work with you. And remember, if you choose to sell your business at some stage, your email list if that goes with your business sale is going to be an asset that the new owner will find invaluable. So I'm interested in your thoughts. If we're thinking of business as a numbers game and we've decided that social media is really the game you can't win a little bit like gambling, where you're enticed to keep playing because of that occasional jackpot you get with a viral video what do you think about the idea of email marketing and doing things a little different? So I hope this information has helped you today and I'll see you next time. And until then, keep living your definition of success.

Speaker 1 22:23

Thanks for listening to the secrets of successful business podcast. For more information on all things business, head to focicomau and make sure you hit subscribe on the show so you don't miss another new episode. If you're enjoying the show, please give it a quick rating or review, share it on your socials or with friends who might enjoy it. Catch you next time.