6 Ways Local Businesses Can Get More Visibility On Social Media w/Michelle Tayler
Mar 18, 2024Season 2Episode 27
Jerry Potter
You can Watch or Listen to this episode: https://the6ways.com/27
There’s a common belief that local businesses are wasting their time on social media because they can’t limit their reach to just local people without paying for ads. But in this episode my guest Michelle Tayler and I show you exactly why that’s not true and share 6 ways local businesses can get way more visibility online.
Occasionally a helpful announcement for listeners gets added to the show so the timestamps below may be off by 30-60 seconds, but they should be pretty close.
00:00 6 Ways Local Businesses Can Get More Visibility On Social Media 03:27 #1: The place your potential clients/customers are already gathering 07:49 #2: An easy post idea that doubles your local reach every time 11:59 #3: A psychological principle that will get other businesses posting about you 16:04 #4: The words that need to go in all your posts 19:56 #5: Brilliant way to be perceived as more local than you may actually be 23:44 #6: An important mindset shift all business owners need about social media 25:51 Does YouTube make sense for local businesses?
Some REALLY awesome tips were shared in this episode – please think about who you know that would benefit from these, and then make sure to share it with them. Because WE ALL DO BETTER WHEN WE ALL DO BETTER. 😁
Connect with Michelle Tayler:
https://www.marketingpractices.com.au/
If you enjoyed this episode you may also enjoy these:
6 Ways Anyone Can Increase Their Camera Confidence https://the6ways.com/9
6 Ways To Use LinkedIn To Become A Thought Leader https://the6ways.com/7
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When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your business faster:
1. Tired of sifting through out of date social media advice from Google? Subscribe to my YouTube channel for always up-to-date info. Click here to subscribe
2. Want to grow on social media faster? Join thousands of entrepreneurs that get our Daily Social Media Tips for free
3. Hire Jerry Potter to speak or consult privately for your business In person or virtual, Jerry is available for speaking, corporate training and one-day consultancy. Send a message
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DISCLOSURE: We sometimes review or link to products & services we regularly use and think you might find helpful. Wherever possible we use referral links, which means if you click one of the links in this video or description and make a purchase we may receive a small commission or other compensation (at no cost to you).
You can Watch or Listen to this episode: https://the6ways.com/27
There’s a common belief that local businesses are wasting their time on social media because they can’t limit their reach to just local people without paying for ads. But in this episode my guest Michelle Tayler and I show you exactly why that’s not true and share 6 ways local businesses can get way more visibility online.
Occasionally a helpful announcement for listeners gets added to the show so the timestamps below may be off by 30-60 seconds, but they should be pretty close.
00:00 6 Ways Local Businesses Can Get More Visibility On Social Media 03:27 #1: The place your potential clients/customers are already gathering 07:49 #2: An easy post idea that doubles your local reach every time 11:59 #3: A psychological principle that will get other businesses posting about you 16:04 #4: The words that need to go in all your posts 19:56 #5: Brilliant way to be perceived as more local than you may actually be 23:44 #6: An important mindset shift all business owners need about social media 25:51 Does YouTube make sense for local businesses?
Some REALLY awesome tips were shared in this episode – please think about who you know that would benefit from these, and then make sure to share it with them. Because WE ALL DO BETTER WHEN WE ALL DO BETTER. 😁
Connect with Michelle Tayler:
https://www.marketingpractices.com.au/
If you enjoyed this episode you may also enjoy these:
6 Ways Anyone Can Increase Their Camera Confidence https://the6ways.com/9
6 Ways To Use LinkedIn To Become A Thought Leader https://the6ways.com/7
-----
When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your business faster:
1. Tired of sifting through out of date social media advice from Google? Subscribe to my YouTube channel for always up-to-date info. Click here to subscribe
2. Want to grow on social media faster? Join thousands of entrepreneurs that get our Daily Social Media Tips for free
3. Hire Jerry Potter to speak or consult privately for your business In person or virtual, Jerry is available for speaking, corporate training and one-day consultancy. Send a message
-----
DISCLOSURE: We sometimes review or link to products & services we regularly use and think you might find helpful. Wherever possible we use referral links, which means if you click one of the links in this video or description and make a purchase we may receive a small commission or other compensation (at no cost to you).
On today's show we're sharing six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media Uh way number two is an easy tactic that can at least double The reach of your posts and number six may be a mindset shift for some local businesses But it's one every entrepreneur needs to hear. All right, let's get into it On today's show we're sharing six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media Uh way number two is an easy tactic that can at least double The reach of your posts and number six may be a mindset shift for some local businesses But it's one every entrepreneur needs to hear. All right, let's get into it And welcome to episode number 27 of the six ways where every week we bring on a smart innovative guest that is thriving in their area of expertise so they can share some of their best tips with us so that we can all reach our entrepreneurial goals because I truly believe we all do better when we all do better. Now, this is both an audio and a video podcast. So if you want to switch from one to the other, you can find the link in the description or the show notes. And I know your time is valuable. So we've also got timestamps for what we'll talk about. So if you're looking for a certain part, or if you want to revisit. something later, you can jump ahead to that part. My name is Jerry Potter founder of five minutes, social media, and the social media leads lab. My guest today is Michelle Tayler. She demystifies marketing for medical and dental practices throughout Australia. And she has had some huge successes for local businesses in many different cities that could be applied to pretty much any industry. All right, Michelle, welcome to the show.
Yeah, I'm excited for this conversation. And I think, you know, sometimes when I worked at an agency, we'd get local businesses that would say, well, stuff on Facebook reaches all over the world. And Instagram reaches all over the world. And am I wasting time? It feels like there's a, almost a. A built in bias and a hesitation with local businesses to use social media in order to you know Almost to the point when they do sometimes it's out of desperation like well, I guess I better get on facebook Um, have you run into that mindset with any of your clients where they you know They they're they're adamant about how I only want to reach people in this county. Why would I post on social media?
Yeah, absolutely. And I guess it's a similar argument to having a website. I mean, your website can be accessed by everybody as well. So, and so can social media, but in all honesty, social media is one of the most. Powerful ways to reach people within the local community, and you can really establish yourself as an expert at whatever you do, um, very easily when you use social media. So it is a huge advantage to be using it and using it. Well,
I'm excited because some of the stuff we're going to talk about today. Um, one thing is basically how to use Local or sorry how to use people that are not local to you to reach more local people And then also we're going to talk about something Where you can do certain things in your post to make sure that they do reach more local people So that is all coming up as we share these six ways local businesses can get some more visibility on social media michelle brought three and then I brought three and we'll answer our question of the week from kyle who Blatantly says does youtube make sense for local businesses because we certainly think about seeing youtube content from all over the world So we'll get to that as well. Make sure you're listening until we get to that part All right. So here we go six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media michelle You're the guest you're up first number one. What do you got?
my first tip is to research local Facebook groups. So go into Facebook and. Search those local groups. So perhaps write the suburb or county name that you are, um, living in or your business is located within research. Those groups have a look when you're, when you're researching them, you can have a look and. See whether they're, they are active groups, how many posts they're posting each day, how many members they have. And that'll give you a really good indication in terms of whether that group is an area to be putting your time in and then join and engage within that group with conversations.
And so you work primarily with doctors and dentists who are very, very busy. Um, and so do they do this themselves or do they have like people on their team do it or how do you have them approach that?
Yeah, it all depends on, it all depends on the client. It depends on the business. Sometimes it is the, the practice owner, they, they simply enjoy social media. So they're, they're quite social and they want to be a part of that. And sometimes it may be the practice manager that, um, or essentially the business manager of the clinic that, that does all of that. But also I do encourage other team members within the practice to You know, engage on social media as well, because essentially they are brand ambassadors for that business. And the reality is that they usually reside within that local area as well. And usually have a network of, you know, friends and family and contacts, et cetera, on social media too. So when they engage in social media as well, um, it, it just amplifies the message.
Absolutely. But when you join these local Facebook groups, I had a business who, um, we were, we researched them together. We had a look. There was one local group that I, that had a hundred thousand members within that group. So the reality is, if you could convert, you know, two, three, four percent of that 100, 000 people within that group, that's where they're your customers. That's where your audience is. So, you know, that is a really good indication that that is somewhere where you should be spending some time being social, engaging, contributing to conversations within those groups and really just making yourself known. And because. Let's face it, you know, nobody wants to come to social media to be bombarded with your latest offer or ad or things like that. And, you know, I work with dentists and doctors, nobody really comes to social media because they want to see, um, an advertisement for. For their dentist, for example, however, on the flip side, if you're in a local Facebook group, uh, and perhaps it's a, it's a local mothers group, for example, there's a lot of, um, very powerful mothers groups around and they're talking about. Something like, um, you know, when's the first time you should take your infant to the dentist or, um, people are looking for recommendations, those types of things, that's where you can really start to add value within those groups and, um, and start to be a part of that conversation. So it really is about. Being social on those groups and not necessarily, um, using the social media for the media part, you want to use it for the social part and to be, um, essentially a peer or a group member within those groups.
Yeah, and and groups are So great because you don't have to rely there is an algorithm But it's already gathered people that fit a certain criteria in this case local people And in some cases you can get even more narrow than that. Like you said a local mother's group So it's just an incredible opportunity to reach people organically, which I love so all right Next up number two Of six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media. And that is to run a very specific contest. And when I worked at an agency, we would do this for our local clients all the time, and it would work so well that I would be thinking, why isn't anybody else taking this? Why isn't anybody else stealing this? But as you're putting up content, it, let's take a Facebook business page. The people most likely to see your posts obviously are going to be people who have. Followed or liked the page and they've engaged with some of your previous content But one of the best ways to get more local people to also see that post Is to ask people to tag a friend in a very specific way now i'm gonna get Really specific here because there's an easy way to screw this up. So what we would do Is we would uh, my fair thing to do This would be like with a restaurant client They would give us these gift certificates to give away and so rather than giving away a 30 gift certificate We would have them give us two 15 gift certificates And the contest would be you know, we love being a place where our friends need to catch up over lunch Who do you have, you know, who's your friend that you need to catch up with? Let us know. And you'll both be entered to win a gift certificate or a gift card. And so people would comment just like, you know, first it would be 12 and then 40 and then 200 comments. And then of course the other person who got tagged comes back and goes, Oh my gosh, yes, Erica, we do need to have lunch. Thank you so much for tagging me. Let's make this happen. And then you go through and you pick. One of them and their friend to win, which helps because it stands out more because you have, um, multiple people on, uh, the same, you know, like when you have multiple winners, people are more likely to enter a contest. And so you'd get this incredible reach where not only are your local people seeing it, but then their local friends are also seeing it. And then you give, we give us a gift certificate to each of them and they could either come in together or maybe you get. Two, you know, tables at the restaurant out of that. So a couple of things to know though. One, Facebook does not let you ask people to tag a friend. They consider that engagement bait. And so what you do is you just say, tell us who your friend is. And if you've been on Facebook, you know, when somebody starts typing a name, it usually makes suggestions. And so people would automatically tag their friend, whether they intended to or not. So we weren't violating any rules. And then the second thing is it's, you know, sounds easy for a restaurant, but I truly believe that. There are, you know, many different types of businesses where you could easily include a friend. So maybe it's not what your business does. Maybe you're a plumber or an electrician, but you happen to give away. Lunch at a local restaurant anyway, um, or something like that. Even a dentist could do that. Maybe at a healthy, uh, you know, restaurant or something like that. So, but that's been, uh, it was always hugely successful without violating any of Facebook rules, and it's just a great way to get more people, uh, who already know the people that are following you to come into your world. So.
I love that idea, Gerry, because it is also, it feels very natural. It doesn't feel, um, like you are trying to kind of deliberately get people to kind of, you know, engage with the post. It just feels like a, you know, a natural competition and hey, tell us who your friend is. I think that is a really nice way of doing it. And of course, as, as you know, and, and you teach, once you start getting people commenting and engaging with that post, the algorithms are then just going to keep showing it to more and more people. So it's almost a bit of a, um, a snowball effect once you start to get those people engaging. So that's a great idea.
Yeah, we'd have pages that that that type of post would end up with more comments than the pages had followers, you know It might be a page with 120 followers and there'd be 200 comments On there going back and forth and facebook is really strict about asking You know like tagging other people because it's essentially spam Right if a friend tags you in a post it's essentially they're saying I want you to see this and if it feels spammy Then they hate it. We won't go into the at everyone tag that facebook introduced Um more recently, but yeah, it's just a great way to increase your reach which works really well. So, all right Um, next up is number, uh, three of six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media What do you got michelle?
So the great tip is to tag in local businesses to your post or post about those local business. So this is kind of a bit of a sneaky way of borrowing your audience. So if you've got, for example, I mean, I'm working with dentists and doctors, you know, we, we don't have huge followings, but perhaps the local cafe down the road does. And it is a, you know, a bit of a local institution where everybody loves to go to get their coffee. Um, what I often do is encourage my clients to then, you know, grab their coffees from, from their local place and, you know, post about it and tag that business in, because you're essentially. You know, kind of borrowing their audience or getting your message a little bit further out to other audiences. And once you start doing that, there's almost this kind of rule of reciprocity in that, um, if you start tagging them in and, you know, they'll tag you in for, for some things and it just kind of all nicely works together. It's almost a little bit of a kind of unwritten rule where it's kind of polite to do those kinds of things. So. Definitely use that tag where you can tag in those local businesses or post about local businesses. And it could simply be, you know, a quick photo of you and your team, for example, having a coffee from that local cafe where you're tagging them in and just making a nice comment. You know, this is the best. Best coffee in town or whatever you want to make that comment about. Um, but you know, give them, give them some praise, give them some credit. And, you know, it starts to just build up, um, interest in your page and it starts to just get that reach a little bit further, um, whilst essentially borrowing local audiences from other businesses.
You know, the thing I love that you brought that up because I don't have this on my list. But earlier today I was invited to be a guest on a panel about what are the big changes that have happened in social media in the last year. What can we take it? What can we do to take advantage of them? And one of them is the opportunity to have Collaborative content. And so Facebook and Instagram, I think YouTube might be testing something like this, but on Facebook and Instagram, you can basically create a post that comes from two different accounts. And so I know with, um, it's for years now with Facebook. Business page videos. You could have it come from two pages, but now you can do this with this other content and reels is the best opportunity for this. So if you teamed up with another local business, like you were saying, and you made a video together, um, somehow that tied into both of them and you basically. Get it released as collaborators So instead of saying here's jerry's video, by the way, he tagged michelle It would say here's jerry and michelle's video and it would go out to my audience and it would go out to michelle's audience And because it's a real which tends to reach non followers Anyway, it can go far beyond that and so setting up that initial collaboration I know sometimes can take work and it's like well, are they going to do it for me? Um, first of all, I encourage everybody to go in with an abundance mindset. I mean, you know, one of my main things is we all do better when we all do better, but, uh, you could find a local business like you, maybe somebody on the same block or the same neighborhood or somebody that, you know, targets the same people for something else and just every month or every other month. Do that with them and once you have that relationship set up, I think it would become a lot easier and a lot faster But yeah, I think that's one of the greatest tools that's come out of the last year that we can use here going forward So, all right next up number four of six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media By the way, this episode is brought to you by daily social media tips. com You can join thousands of entrepreneurs who get my daily social media marketing tips direct to their email inbox for free And of course, you can quickly unsubscribe if they ever stop being helpful It only takes a few seconds to sign up. Just go to daily social media tips Dot com. All right. Number four of six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media. And that is to use local keywords. So one of the things that's happened in the last couple of years is the algorithms have gotten way better at showing content to the people who are going to like it the most. Now, I got to give a shout out to tick tock because they were the first one to create an algorithm like this, where people literally couldn't put their phone down in an almost addictive manner. But Once upon a time, they would see who liked your post, who you who engaged with your post. Maybe a little bit about what your caption or what you wrote in your post was to determine who should see that post. But now they listen to every word said in a video. They listen, they look at closed caption tracks. They look and see what the image says or what might be back in the background. There's all these things that they scan, and so when you work in local phrases, you are like more likely to get. Your content seen by other local people. And this is primarily going to be on, um, uh, content types that reach non followers, specifically Facebook reels, Instagram reels, Tik TOK videos, and YouTube shorts. And so if you are based in Sydney, where, uh, Michelle is just by saying Sydney in some of your content in a way that, um. It's not going to feel natural to you, but it'll feel okay to the person that's seeing it or consuming it. They're not going to be like, why'd they say Sydney, you know, in there all of a sudden. Um, but the city, the neighborhood, just like you described when you were looking for local Facebook groups. Um, the more you can weave that stuff in, the more likely someone local is to see it. Then if more local people start engaging with it. Then it'll show it to more local people because they go. Oh, wow these people that live Um in this part of sydney are really liking this content Let's show it to some more of them and see what happens And so have you done that with your um with your clients where you make sure to work in some of the local keywords and things like that
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's super important to do that. And. It's, it almost becomes this kind of, um, I kind of almost think it's like a bit of a spider's web where you're, you're kind of sending this message in all these different directions and the algorithms, they want to work with you. They want to, you know, get good content out to more people. Um, that's really what their whole purpose is. And. I think there was a, in fact, you might've told me this statistic that, um, or this, this piece of information that the algorithms are recording about 58, 000 attributes of every single person. Now I consider myself to be a fairly, you know, simple character, but you know, they are watching every time you. Slow down, um, past when you're scrolling, or if you're watching just a few seconds of a certain video. So they're recording all this data. They know more about you than what we really know about ourselves. And. What I find is that often when you're using those local terms, what the algorithm will do is it will actually find people that kind of look like you because they've got all of this data and they will show that post to that particular person because at the end of the day. The algorithms are designed to, um, to keep people on the platform for longer. As long as your content is good content, it is going to show it to more people. So when you're using those terms, it's going to find those people who are local to you. They know where we are, um, in terms of the algorithm and they will send that information via the feed to, um, to those people that look like you. So, you know, work with that algorithm. It's one of the most powerful things that we can, uh, that we can use. Definitely.
Now I feel like we need to do an episode six ways to be creeped out by social media algorithms and their what'd you say? You didn't get that stat from me 58 000 data points or something like that. That's crazy All right next up number five six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media. What do you got michelle?
So my fifth one is to share content that shows you engaging and being present in your local community. So whether it's local landmarks, whether you are participating in local community events, Um, there might be local charity events, those types of things, because that gives a really good indication to anybody who is, um, seeing your post that you are located locally. And one of the, one of the issues that a lot of my clients have is that. People don't know where to find their physical location. So often, for example, um, you might be located with your, your physical, um, shop front, or in, in a lot of my clients cases, their, their practices, they might be a little bit obscure. They might not be on the street front. They might not, they might be in more of an office building, for example, where You can't see them very visually from from the street, so there's not a lot of passing traffic and often what we do as a way to kind of get around that is I always suggest to them find the nearest local. Um, landmark that a lot of people within that local community are going to know, get your camera out, put it on quick time and just record how to find your location because people will say, Oh, I go there all the time, but I didn't realize you were there. So that really helps draw people into. Your physical location when you're showing them exactly where you are physically located, particularly if you are in a little bit of an obscure location. And, you know, some, some of the practices that I work with, they might be on the second floor of a building. You might have to catch a lift up to that floor. So we will find a local landmark. Literally do some filming and say, Oh, you know, here's the, here's a big set of traffic lights that everybody in the local community knows. And we basically show how to access that location from there. So that's a really good way of doing that. But just generally. You know, if you're, if you're, um, helping people and inviting people into your world and showing that it is a nice sunny day and you're at a local park or a local beach or things like that, you know, the community then starts to realize that you are there locally and that you are part of that community. So have those conversations. You know, people want to do business with other people that are. Um, within the community that are immersed within that, yeah, the people want to support local often. And so, so make sure that you're just really visible when doing that. And it might be, you know, it was a fantastic day at the park today, the weather was beautiful and sunny and you know, you're, you're taking a nice photo of, um, of the landscape there. So it just helps to make that connection and make sure people know that you are local.
I love I love all of that But I especially love tying into the local landmarks because for a local business people will assume you're not near them Until they realize you are near them and especially for a lot, you know A lot of businesses where they are they're tucked into a building or a business park. Not everybody's got a you know giant sign on the side of the road and so Yeah, that's beautiful because it's like oh I drive by there all the time, right? Like that's that connection that somebody can make and meanwhile, they're thinking The normal place I go to is 20 minutes away. So yeah, brilliant. Love that. All right. Next up, number six of six ways local businesses can get more visibility on social media. And this is a bit of a mindset shift, but it's. It's really effective to create content that appeals to non local people, because it will increase the reach to your local people as well as the social proof. And so I know a lot of times, as we talked about at the top of this episode, a business owner will come in and they'll go, well, I don't want to reach people there. They don't mean anything to me and I don't want them commenting. I remember actually working with one local client and they're like, this person's not, they'll never come in. Let's delete their comment. And I was like, what? There's nothing wrong with that. That comment. I have a friend who runs a tick tock agency, and, uh, he has a client who's a therapist licensed in the state of California. I believe can't. You know can't literally can't work with anyone who's not physically in california Um, and even that he doesn't do anything online. It's all in his local office So why would he want to blow up on tiktok? Well, he has uh, essentially made a series of videos that people find very interesting and intriguing around what he does On tiktok. I think he's got over a hundred thousand followers His videos get thousands and thousands of views and obviously they're not all local people, but that's okay within that Once a month, he'll put up a video and say, by the way, if you like my, like this content and you actually want to work with us, go here to join our wait list. And just that one call to action amid all of the other content is driving people to this wait list to where, you know, it's a six month wait, at least to get an appointment with him. So he's got his client pipeline full for, you know, months, if not years, assuming that this keeps up. And keeps working. And so, you know, I just encourage all local business owners to not worry about other people seeing their content. You can do some of the stuff that we've talked about in this episode to get more people into, you know, more local people to see your content, but don't be mad if you get great comments and likes and views from these other people. Because now this guy who's in California, people are like, Oh my God, he must be the greatest therapist in the world and he's right down the street from me. Next to that traffic light like you were talking about michelle. Yeah, I gotta go see this guy So his waitlist is just always always jam packed. So, all right We're gonna recap all six of these here in a moment But I do want to get to our question of the week from kyle, which is does youtube make sense for local businesses? And, uh, I'll go first since YouTube is my primary platform, but I definitely want to get your thoughts on this too, Michelle. Um, there are lots of local businesses that are very successful on YouTube. And the key is to not to not worry too much about only reaching local people. If you consistently post good content, then you will reach other people, but the local people will still be the ones that can work with you. So I work with people all over the world, thanks to modern technology. But with my five minute social media YouTube channel. I could just as easily only work with local people and run an agency. And I think the only thing that really changes in your approach is instead of talking to the whole world, when you have give a call to action, you specifically say, by the way, if you're in the area, if you're in the state of Arizona, where I live, um, and you're looking for a marketing agency to, you know, take things to the next level, you know, fill out the form and in the description. And that's all there is to it. Um. Um, within that, if you were going to go all in on YouTube as a local business, I think depending on what you do, uh, if you can come up with topics that people are searching for, like a lot of real estate agents will do videos on YouTube about, um, five things to know before moving to San Diego, for example, and they get tons of clients from that. But if you're just looking for more visibility, then you might start with YouTube shorts, especially if those are easier, um, to make. So, um, what would you say to Kyle or add on to that, Michelle? Hmm.
the bigger you're following on any social media platform, the more social proof you have. So when people are kind of going through that journey of considering whether they want to do business with you, that is really going to be. Um, one of the factors that is going to provide some influence to them. So I would, you know, get, get the message out far and wide. It's okay if you are only looking to help people locally. And you know, the interesting thing is, Jerry, that if you are really good at what you do. A lot of the time people will travel to see you. So in that case, for example, you've got the therapist who's in the state of California. It's not a small place that there's a lot of people there. And, and, and geographically, you know, people would need to travel and there would be many other therapists. Um, locally to them, but, you know, often I see it a lot with, with dentists and doctors and specialists, people will travel for good people. So that is the thing that you really want to try and think about is that. Even though, you know, you technically are just targeting people locally, there are people that will travel for good service and if they really like you. So I guess my advice would be to use every single platform that you have available to you. Um, and to become known as that go to person within your industry or whatever you do, whatever your craft is. Um, and once that happens, it will absolutely start flowing and, you know, that's not to say that. Later on down the track that you may not want. You may want to open up, you know, another location in another place. And if that's the case, you know, if you want your business to grow and you want to do that, then you need to build those audiences up within those local communities. Before you do that. I work with a lot of, um, a lot of health practitioners who do want additional sites and they want to grow. So, We are using social media prior to, you know, it might be, it might be 12 months prior to a new clinic opening, but we're already starting to see that within social media to bring that local community along the journey with them until they open and that way you have got people. Waiting on a wait list, ready to come to you and to do business with you prior to you opening, which for any new business owner who is opening up a new site, you know, that is, that is music to their ears to have paying customers on day one of when they're opening. So. You know, use social media in that powerful way. And there's a whole bunch of different ways that we can look at this. So don't be concerned that you might be attracting people from outside of your immediate physical location because people will travel for good service or for the experts that they're looking for. And, um, you may very well want to open up further locations in the future as your business grows.
Yes, I love that Kyle. I mean, if you take one thing away from this or anybody, you know, especially on YouTube, investing in content on YouTube, that's going to bring you leads is an investment in your future because it will live on longer, but also because as Michelle said, it might just be the investment in your future growth, whether that is to expand your business to be online. I know people that have done that. Or to expand your business to new locations. And, you know, you talked about maybe targeting an area 12 months before a local business might open, which is by all means the best way to do it. But I don't know, maybe a property pops up and you jumped on it and you're opening in 60 days or whatever it might be. Think about opening a new business in an area and somebody looks it up and you've already got this content that builds trust and authority and social proof and all of that. So yeah, really, really love. That last point that you made there. So, all right. Thank you for the question, Kyle. Quick recap of all six ways that local businesses can get more visibility on social media. Uh, number one, research, local Facebook groups, get in there and engage in conversations. Facebook has already gathered your local people in one place. You might as well go talk to them. Number two, run contests where you can't ask. People to tag a friend but you can verbally ask a question or run a contest Where they are likely to tag a friend which will dramatically increase the reach of your posts Um, especially if it's about doing something in a physical location because people will only tag local friends Uh number three tag in local businesses or post about local businesses say something nice about somebody else Because of the psychology of reciprocity they'll often want to return the favor number four Use local keywords, force names of cities, counties, towns, neighborhoods, whatever it might be that you would, you know, where, wherever you are into your content, because that will help the algorithm show it to more people in that area. Uh, number five, share content that shows you engaging and being present in the local community, tying yourself to local landmarks, really giving your potential clients, uh, the strong feeling that you are indeed local. And this is not something where you just. Pop in occasionally and number six, use non local people to boost your reach. Kind of what we talked about with the question of the week here. Don't worry about only targeting local people, the engagement and the social proof from the people that are not local will benefit you in a big way. So, uh, Michelle, I'm going to ask you to pick your favorite. You don't have to pick one of mine. You can pick one of your own. That's perfectly acceptable on this show. So which of those do you think, um, it could make the biggest impact for a local business?
I think definitely getting into those local Facebook groups, being present there because, you know, when people look for recommendations where they're asking for, for advice about, you know, a local business, um, when you're present within those groups, people often tag you into those recommendations. And it's not only the person that's seeking that recommendation, that may potentially be a future. Client of yours or customer of yours is actually all of those other people that are reading through those comments that think, yeah, I need a new dentist, or, you know, I'm looking for someone that can help me with this as well. So use those local Facebook groups to your full advantage. There will likely be rules for those local groups. You just need to read through those rules. Um, when you're joining, just to make sure that you understand what those rules are, um, but be present in them, um, be social in those groups. That is, um, where I've seen so many business owners really thrive on social media by doing that.
Yeah, I mean, and it is one of the fastest opportunities, right? You could find a group and be in there today, which is great. Um, my favorite I'm going to share was number six, and I'm also sharing it because it's so quick and easily to implement. Start working in local names and places into all of your content, especially if you're using one of the short form video, uh, formats, like Reels on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok videos or YouTube shorts. That. Will almost instantly potentially get you in front of more people I have one member in our social media leads lab program who's a real estate agent And she started posting on tiktok doing this and looked at her Analytics a few days later and saw you can see you can see where people are and they're almost all local people who is Which is exactly what she wants and especially if you're you know, you're small and you're following You want as many of them as possible, you know to be local if you're a local business So, all right If you want to take a deeper dive on this episode, you can go to the six ways. com Slash two seven that's for episode 27 the six ways. com slash 27 And by the way, word of mouth is the number one way that new people discover and grow their businesses from this show So if you found this valuable, uh, please take a second tell someone else about it, too Um so that they can benefit and remember we all do better When we all do better next week on the show, six ways entrepreneurs got over their fear of being on camera. If you want to find out more about Michelle and her business marketing practices, we'll link to that in the show notes. And we love hearing about how people binge our episodes after discovering one. So if you enjoyed this episode, check out six ways anyone can increase their camera confidence. That was episode nine. Or six ways to use LinkedIn to become a thought leader. Episode number seven. All right. Links in the show notes, uh, wherever you happen to be watching or listening to this, remember we all do better when we all do better. So keep helping each other out. And Michelle, thank you so much for being on the show.