Normally, I’d tell you a cute little story about how I almost ripped off my husband’s face when he deleted all of my downloads (including a bunch of stuff I had paid for) because he thought it would make my computer run faster and thought he was being a helpful little computer elf.
Then, I would tie that cute story into today’s video and send you on your way to watch it.
I don’t have the patience to tell you the details of that story (including the part where I sobbed for over two hours like the drama queen I can be).
Today’s video is too damn important. (I don’t curse very often at Blacksburg Belle so that should tell you I’m as serious as my dog, Max, when he’s staring down a slice of deli meat.)
Instead let’s get down to business. You need to watch today’s video if:
1. You think you only have time to create content for one social media platform.
2. You’ve never done a live video on Facebook or Instagram (for whatever reason).
3. You think your market isn’t on Facebook.
4. You don’t think social media is very important to your success.
5. You don’t create consistent content on multiple social media platforms.
6. You think you can get by with picking the platform you like the most and creating the type of content you like creating the most.
7. You like me and wanna hang out for 12 minutes while I tell everyone else about themselves (love you too, boo!).
SERIOUSLY…watch the damn video (Sorry for the second curse word–Paris Geller made me do it):
Lemme give you a little wrap up:
Not only is social media not optional, but you have to be on the platforms your market is on and you have to create the content that stands out and works on that platform.
Facebook is NOT optional. Other than email, that’s where everyone is online. That means you have to be there, too. Regular posts don’t work very well on Facebook–you need to do live video, regular videos and ads. Instagram is also HOT right now. You need to create Instagram stories, do Instagram Live, and create videos and visuals for your feed. And, on and on. Watch the video for more details (come on…it’s only 12 minutes).
Social media isn’t going anywhere. It’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Get used to it now. Make it a part of your marketing plan now.
Stop ignoring this pa-lease! You will get left behind.
If you need help getting your social media game on point, check out Sunday Society. We’ve been working on live video the entire month of August. If you register, you’ll get instant access to the replay of the 90-minute workshop along with the workbook. Because social media is so important, we’ll continue to focus on this in Sunday Society. Join us now to stop neglecting such a critical part of a successful marketing strategy.
Thank you April. You kicked my butt and now I’ve done two live videos, and I think I’m ready to commit to a weekly live FB video. I can do this.
Hahahahahahaha…I love to kick butt! You can totally do this!
I love you April! Thanks for the tough love! I did a few IG lives and got some positive feedback! Still getting over my live camera-shyness.
Back at ya! I’m always here for tough love when needed. Keep going and you’ll get a lot more comfortable until you realize you’re not shy in front of your camera at all.
I do want to get more on Pinterest but it intimidates me. I feel like I have a chaos there, and now I need to organize it, and thinking about it brings me to tears. Haha. Oh well, I guess I need to get to work on that, no excuses!
Okay…this sounds like you need a strategy. That way you don’t get on there and just get lost in all the pins. If you haven’t heard of it, you should check out Megan Auman’s course on CreativeLive all about Pinterest. That could help come up with a solid plan to get rid of the chaos!
Your IG tag made me so much braver. And now, somehow I’ve embraced the live video fear and I’m committed to doing it regularly… including daily (!!) for Sept.
I’ve already seen an increase in followers and engagement. Wise words!! Thank you for the truth bomb.
YAY! You can do it! You were awesome on the live video during the tag for Sunday Society. I can’t wait to hear all about your daily live videos in September.
Hi! Can you give me some data as to why you feel so strongly about live video? Why is it better than pre-taping? Why on fb as opposed to having a YouTube channel? Are there metrics that support this? Thanks!
Hey Dina! These are some really good questions. And, until I read them, I realized that I hadn’t addressed them in this video. I’ve talked about it in other places but not here.
So, here we go…
Live video is currently what works best on Facebook right now. I can tell you this from personal experience and from the multiple clients I work with who also have been using Facebook Live. Facebook pushes out live video to a lot more of your followers than it does any other content right now. For instance, I published a post on Facebook about a recent blog post (a photo and text) and Facebook put it into 27 of my followers feeds within the first few hours. On the other hand, I did a live video and Facebook put it into 968 of my followers feeds within the first hour. That’s just one example. This has been replicated every time I do a Facebook Live.
It also happens when my clients utilize Facebook live. One of my clients grew her engagement on Facebook by 900+ (I can’t remember the exact number but it was 900 and something) people in one week by doing three Facebook Live videos. Normally, she hears crickets when she posts on Facebook.
Another client grew her list by 30% just through Facebook and Instagram live within three weeks. All she was doing was live videos that related to the content she was blogging about and encouraging the viewers to sign up to get her content upgrades and she grew her list by 30%.
Facebook wants people to use live video so they reward people for using it by putting it in more of their followers feeds.
Also, when you go live on Instagram it pushes it to the front of all of your followers stories. So instead of being 75th in line, you’re number one or number three.
In this video, I also encouraged you to use video as well as live video, but live video should be a big part of your marketing plan. You should use video in your Instagram feed to stand out because a lot of people are still just using images. You’ll automatically stand out if you use video.
And, I absolutely think you should use YouTube, especially if your market is there. I’m publishing my videos on YouTube. But, this can’t be the only thing you’re doing. You need to back it up with social media like Facebook Live and Instagram.
Hope that explains things better!
Yes, that really clarifies it for me. Thanks!!!