Facebook

Blockages with using Social Media

January 21, 2020 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Instagram, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

So…..I hear from so many people that they are not really using social media to build their business because they struggle with content writing, how much time they need to commit and not knowing what to do each day. I also here alot of “I am not computer savvy”.

The first thing you need to know is that you are definitely not alone, we all started out this way. We all have blockages and sometimes, we just can’t get past them and we have to admit that we need and may have to outsource the work. However, I hope that this blog will give you some encouragement to try and tackle it yourself.

When we talk about content creation, the frustration is not knowing what to write and how we should write it. We think we are not writers, we can’t write content like the professionals. Well, I am here to tell you that if you just write with how you talk in person, it will make things a little easier. Don’t worry so much about what others are writing, instead focus on how you write, showcasing you and the words that you would use. When sitting in front of the computer, tape a picture of a group of people that you would potentially meet at a networking event and talk to this picture as you are writing (this also works well when trying to do videos, especially if it is out of your comfort zone).

You know, when someone at a networking event asks you to tell them something about yourself or when they ask what it is you do, or maybe why you got into the business. Answer those questions out loud, while looking at the picture, and type what you are saying. As long as you are YOU, you really can’t go wrong. You don’t need to be like everyone else because you are not them.

Put together a list of topics that relate to what you are selling, then under each topic, write questions, tips, ideas, business promotion, humour, quotes, etc., with it all relating to the topic. Then start talking out loud and write what you would say if those people were sitting in the same room as you. Don’t focus so much on “am I writing the right words”, “am I saying it correctly”…..just be you, relax, talk and type. It may take some time to master this because your mind will keep stopping you to question if you are using the right words, you need to ignore those thoughts and keep writing. You could even reach out to mentor and ask them to read over your posts to see what their thoughts are. The key element out of all of this, is you just need to be you and not try to be perfect, just be real.

Now, when we talk about how much time we need to spend on Social Media, this can vary depending on how many platforms you are using. It can get very overwhelming because we think that we need to be on every platform and master them all. BUT the reality is that not every platform has your target market. You need to do some research on each platform, understand who is using it, the type of content that you need to be posting, what are the best features or what you need to make sure you are doing to benefit you and your business. At that point, pick your primary and secondary platforms and master them. Learn what you can about each one (visit YouTube for tutorials on using each platform, you will find a ton of information), make a plan based on the topics we talked about earlier and start working it. It will take you more time in the beginning, but once you master this, you will find that your time commitment will reduce. Also, look for any other platforms that can help to save you time. For example, if you decide that Facebook and Instagram are your platforms, then check out Facebook Creator Studio as it will allow you to schedule your posts for both platforms. Then, you can commit a Sunday evening or a Monday morning, to scheduling your posts for the week, the month, etc, and therefore only having to monitor the platforms for notifications, engagements throughout the days.

BUT I have no idea what to do each day on Social Media to benefit me? This is where you need to create a daily checklist of the different tasks you must do each and every day that will create the presence you are trying to achieve.

Here is a sample of a daily routine that you can think about incorporating. It will take you more time in the beginning to get in the groove but I promise, that you can get this timeframe down to about 30 mins per day. With this daily checklist, you can add it to your calendar or create a separate document, listing each task, print it out and have it on your desk to reference each time. If you wish, you can download my FREE Facebook Daily Checklist HERE.

Post on Facebook Business Page
Share posts from Facebook Business Page into a variety of groups for more exposure (make sure you read the Group Rules before doing this, so you understand what the expectations are) Also, keep your shares under 10 so that you don’t end up in Facebook Jail for spamming.
Engage in 3-5 different Groups on Facebook that are value added groups (Networking Groups, Support Groups, Learning Groups, Community Groups)
Post on your Facebook Personal Timeline
Go through 10 posts in your news feed and engage where appropriate (it is important to engage on other people’s posts)
Post on Instagram, adding the appropriate hashtags (not sure which hashtags to use? Go into Google and type “top 10 hashtags for XXX” and it will give you the most popular ones that you can use)

This daily checklist will help you to keep you consistent and doing what you need to do each day on Social Media, therefore bringing you more exposure and growth.

I hope that I was able to help reduce some of the fears or unknowns that you have felt with Social Media.

If you want to pick my brain even further, feel free to reach out to me at tammy@tammyhudgin.com, I would be more than happy to help.

GUEST BLOGGER: 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

October 15, 2019October 20, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Uncategorized

Despite the popularity of Social Media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, Facebook still remains to be the widely used Social Media tool among them all. Due to its wide reach, Facebook is always a good place for brands and businesses to promote themselves.

Recent studies have found that an average user in the US spends around 40 minutes on Facebook each day. So choosing Facebook for your marketing promotions is always a good thing. Whether you are targeting baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Y, you can reach almost all of them via Facebook!

However, it is best to remember that Facebook is also constantly changing and updating its algorithms. To remain relevant, you have to keep up with these tech changes and comply with their quality guidelines. To keep your business relevant on Facebook, you must avoid these mistakes at all costs!

Not using Facebook ads.

Many digital marketers would say that running Facebook ads is a costly campaign – and that is indeed true! However, if you know how to run Facebook ads efficiently, the money you spent will not go to waste. The wide reach and potential benefits of running a Facebook ad gives your business a higher chance of success than those who rely on organic likes and views.

However, if you are working on a very limited budget, you should know how to make the most out of it. First, make use of the Facebook Power Editor Tool so you can dictate where to put up your ads on the platform.

Certain placements will work better depending on your niche. If you are advertising a game or app for example, it would be best to place your ad on the Facebook mobile feed instead of putting it on the desktop sidebar.

Not engaging with your readers/audience.

Facebook is first and foremost, a social tool. People go there to like, comment, and talk to friends and family. And that is what your brand or business should do too! You have to humanize your brand and engage with the readers and audience of your page. Ignoring the social aspect of your marketing efforts will eventually isolate your customers, and the disconnect will result to lesser customer retention and brand awareness.

So what to do? Engage your audience with different types of content and respond to their comments, queries and concerns! Say thanks to positive feedback, and offer an apology for unsatisfied customers. Show that your business cares, and that you are easy to do business/deal with.

Posting the wrong type of content.

Posting content is a major way to initiate engagement among customers, but what kind of content is that? You have to be a bit versatile on this aspect. You have to strike a balance between talking about your brand/business, and talking about your customers and community. You have to prepare a variety of helpful topics so readers won’t get bored.

On Facebook, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of posting lengthy content and bland content. Remember, users are just browsing through their news feed all day – what makes you think that they will stop and read a very long post instead of sharing funny memes and looking at funny vine videos all day?

Unless you have already established a good following, posting lengthy content is best done on a blog. On Facebook, make your content shorter. Stick to 200 or 300 words. Don’t waste your reader’s time, and get to the point right away!

Another common mistake is posting bland content after bland content. Status updates are okay every now and then, but you have to accompany your posts with a relevant photo or video from time to time!

People are more attracted to visuals – especially on a platform like Facebook! If you have a lengthy content to post, you might want to try converting that into an infographic or photograph to make it more appealing to users.

Not going on Facebook Live.

Many entrepreneurs and businesses are hesitant to go on Facebook Live because of discomfort, but this is actually a very effective tool when it comes to marketing! You can start short and simple by going Live to showcase introductory videos about you or the business. As you gain more traction, you can then promote your products and services through a live demonstration or seminar!

Irregular posting and content updates.

This is very common, especially among businesses that established multiple business page. Pages that are not regularly updated with new content and engagements give the user an impression that the page is abandoned. It might also give the impression that certain business is already inoperational! To avoid this, just create one Facebook page for your business so you can easily manage it.

You don’t have to post something everyday, but you do have to come up with new content for at least once or twice a week. And even if you don’t have a new post, you have to attend to customer queries, concerns, comments, and messages! If you want your business to stay relevant, you must keep it updated.

Like any marketing plan, Facebook marketing entails a lot of planning and execution. However, the reward here is that your business can stay on top of its game! You get to meet a lot of your customers and create a small community that can help your business grow in sales and value.

Author Bio:

Sarah Jacobs is an experienced writer who loves creating articles that can benefit others. She has worked as a freelance writer in the past making informative articles and fascinating stories. She has extensive knowledge in a variety of fields such as technology, business, finance, marketing, personal development, and more. Check out her company here: https://digitoolreview.com

Commitment……

September 24, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Uncategorized

Changes, changes, and more changes….that seems to be what is happening in Facebook on a constant basis. I admit, it can be frustrating to try and keep up but also to find work-arounds when the glitches happen because of changes. I am currently battling 4 glitches that are driving me crazy lol

The one thing I can be sure of, that doesn’t change, is how you market your business on Facebook. Even with the changes, you can still successfully build a business however, you have to put the work in. Doing a post per day on your Business Page, is just not cutting it anymore. The algorithms seem to have changed again, meaning we need to double up our previous engagements to reach the numbers we used to achieve.

I hate to tell you but the reality is that you have to do so much more to get the visibility you need. You need to be working your personal timeline, you need to be networking in the different groups, you need to think about creating your own group for your clients and potential clients. You need to focus on selling you, selling your knowledge, teaching people, have some fun and sell your product/services.

You need to schedule time on your calendar and do this every single day! This will help you to create a flow, a consistency, that will start to show you a return. We all know that when we work it, we can achieve it.

You have to commit, otherwise, you can’t build successfully, you are competing for space in Facebook and the larger companies have a lot more money than us lol, so time to work it!

Be regular and consistent on your personal timeline
Network in at least 3 different groups
Post at least once per day on your business page
Engage on other people’s posts
Invest some money into Facebook Ads to bring more visibility to your business page
Share your business page posts into a variety of groups for more visibility
Have FUN

Moving forward even with Facebook Changes

May 13, 2019May 13, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing

As Facebook continues to make changes, we need to make sure we are still being consistent with everything we are doing. As changes happen, it can affect our overall exposure BUT if you have been working Facebook, from all aspects, then you should NOT see an impact to your marketing efforts.

Here are some elements you want to make sure you are doing on a daily basis, to help you with being consistent, for getting your business out there, for bringing exposure to you, the Business Owner.

Posting on your personal timeline WITHOUT directly selling your products/services. This is represented by doing strategic posts, like every Monday, doing a post that outlines what you have on your agenda for meetings, clients, customer service elements, business tasks that you need to complete, even throwing in a little bit of personal. This is also represented by doing a Friday post that talks about one element of success you had in the past week. The purpose of these types of statuses is to ultimately showcase what you do, but indirectly selling to your audience.
Interaction in a variety of ‘networking’ style groups. You want to make sure to go in each day, and post a question, share a tip, post a quote, something funny BUT keeping in mind that these posts should not be directly related to what you offer, more generic. You also want to scroll through the Group wall and engage on other people’s post where you can. It is important to use these groups to build relationships, not to sell your product/services because that will happen when you focus more on selling you.
Post on your Business Page
Share your Business Page posts into a variety of groups (5 shares per day would be great). Please note: Check each Group’s about section to know when you can or cannot promote your business.
Share your Business Page posts onto your personal timeline twice a week BUT please make sure that what you share is of value.
Grow your Friends’ List. As you are building relationships within the different groups, start sending friend requests to those who are engaging on your posts.
Respond to any events you have been invited to, this way, when it is time for you to host an event, others will respond to your’s.

By working these elements consistently, you will be building relationships, which in turn will lead to new clients and referrals. Then as you are building and Facebook makes changes, you will not see the impact as much as those who are not working social media on a daily basis.

MORE tips on my Facebook Business Page, be sure to follow me HERE!

Visuals for Social Media

April 3, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media

Here is a little exercise you can do.

For the next week, I want you to write down everytime you stopped on a post in your news feed as to what made you stop to read the post. At the end of the week, review your list and find out what the common factors were. In most cases, it was the visual that stopped you.

So…….why aren’t you using more visuals in your posts?

I love when I see pictures of people I know and for me, I tend to get more traffic/visibility when I use a picture of myself. For this reason, I had an ‘Influencer” photoshoot done to capture my personality as well as certain ones to use when I am talking about a tip, something new that is happening, etc.

Think about the content that you are putting out in Social Media and put together a list of what type of pictures/animation you want to create and either hire a professional or get one of your friends to take the photos for you (our cameras do a pretty great job of taking photos).

Start selling YOU in your posts with your visuals!

What to post on your Facebook Personal Timeline

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

Since Facebook states that we cannot use our Personal Timelines for commercial use, many people are unsure of what they should post to bring visibility to their business.

The goal here is to be talking about all the elements that make up your business, where you are going, what training you are taking, who you are working with, where you are speaking, what deliveries you receive; all elements that ultimately indirectly sell you and your business. This is a great way to showcase everything that you do to enhance your business, enhance what you offer your clients, the knowledge you have, what you are learning to improve on your business.

I have put together some examples to help you think about how you can showcase your business.

Excited to be one of the table speakers at the Rock Your Biz event. My focus will be finding out where business owners are stuck and give them some tips on how to get past it.

Another GREAT meeting with the ladies from FemCity Bradford!

Attending the WinterFresh Trivia Night to help raise funds for the York Region Food Network. I am thankful for these women, who are small business owners but also great friends, as they helped me survive my lack of trivia knowledge lol

Thanks to my girlfriend Darla for accompanying me to the CDC Lunch n Learn where I was one of the speakers, talking the world of Facebook.

Excited for another Zoom Facebook Training today, I love teaching!!

Look who I ran into at Rogers TV this morning!! We were all guest speakers on the show!

P.S. I would actually tag both of these ladies in the post which ultimately brings all of us more visibility.

Today was all about learning from Guest Speakers, building relationships and selling our businesses.

P.S. I would tag each of them as well

As you can see, I have inserted a variety of different elements that make up some of the things I do but also showcases some fun things, like the Trivia night as I was with other business owners. At no point, did I directly sell anything, I am just showcasing what “Tammy” is up to.

I also do two main posts, one on Mondays and one on Fridays.

Mondays I focus on outlining my week, what is going to keep Tammy busy.

Fridays, I look back over my week and I review all the different success elements and I pick one to talk about. I tell them why I feel that it was successful for me and also include some type of quote to support it.

Moving forward, I encourage you to sit down and make a list of all the activities that you do for building your business and determine what type of pictures you need to take (the more of you the better as people love seeing photos of us).

I hope this helps you to think a little differently about what you are posting on your personal timeline.

How do you use your Facebook Personal Timeline?

February 12, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media

Did you know that Facebook states that you cannot use your personal timeline for commercial use? That if you are going to conduct business, then you must have a Business Page?

Did you know that what you put on your personal timeline, in regards to your business, is not going to help you with SEO (search engine optimization)?

Did you know that you can ‘share’ from your Business Page onto your personal timeline and you are not breaking any rules?

Did you know that you get stats from you Business Page that can help with your marketing efforts? Our personal timelines do not offer this feature.

Moving forward, if you want to build a business on Facebook, it is important to have both a personal account and a Business Page and work these in conjunction with each other.

With your personal timeline, think about the type of posts/statuses you are writing. Are you directly selling your products/services or are you doing it strategically? I want you to think about what you are writing and change up your thinking to ‘indirectly’ sell to your audience.

Write a Monday morning status that is strategically selling your business
Do posts around success. When your team grows, talk about it. When you receive an award, talk about it. When you reach a milestone, talk about it. Pick one element of success from the past week and talk about it.
When you receive a shipment of products or business materials, take a picture and post about how excited you are for this delivery and what it means for your business.
When you are attending networking events/workshops, take pictures and post them. Show people where you were, who you were with (tag the others in the photos as well), what you learned or gained from the event.

Take advantage of the elements that Facebook provides us on our personal timeline, that can drive traffic to your business.

Think about how you are going to grow your friends’ list (max is 5000) and sell them strategically through your posts and ultimately drive them to want to find out what your business is.

How you work your personal timeline is a great lead into your business, so use it wisely, use it strategically and follow the rules so you don’t risk getting shut down.

Frustrated with your results on Facebook?

January 16, 2019 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media

As I talk to more and more business owners, I am hearing all the frustration with Facebook Business Pages. The algorithms are just not your friend.

As a small business owner and entrepreneur, it can be tough to get the visibility you are looking for because you just don’t have the money to invest in Ads, or to hire a Social Media Manager for your business. You work your Business Page but not seeing the results you were hoping for and you are ready to throw in the towel.

Don’t throw in the towel just yet!!

I have a friend, who I have known for quite a few years now, whom has tried to do a variety of direct sales businesses and never really had the success she was looking for. No matter how much training she took, she just never got her business to a level of success, in her eyes. One of the things that was very evident, was that she just didn’t have the passion, the love, for what she was trying to sell. Fast forward to today and this lady is on FIRE!! She decided that she wanted to love her body again and started on a weight loss and fitness journey. We all watched her on her personal timeline share the journey with us and we all encouraged her, as well as being inspired by her. During this journey, she participated in a program that would help her to continue losing weight BUT had a huge element of FUN involved. She then decided to launch her own program “Walk 15 with Antonietta” and WOW, she is ROCKING it!! Why?? She is sharing her journey, she is sharing her love for what she is doing, she is keeping us up to date on each step of the way, she is doing videos, she is doing visuals, she is selling HERSELF!!! She started with one person joining her in the class to a class of 130 people!!!! All people who have been inspired by her, NOT because of what she sells (a fitness style class that is all about FUN) but because she INSPIRES everyone! Do you know that she hasn’t even been doing this for a year?? This all happened within 6 months!! AND the 130 is just ONE class that she does (she has a few classes in different towns). Be sure to check out her Facebook group HERE!!

Why did I tell you this story?

This was not about someone working her Business Page to death (she really doesn’t even work it to be honest), she focused on selling herself and her journey!! By focusing on selling herself, it ultimately led to others selling her business for her!! Imagine that?? You don’t have to do posts around selling, when your network does the selling for you!!

Take a step back, review what you have been doing, and look at what you can be doing. Think about how you are going to use your personal timeline to grow (keep in mind, Facebook rules say that you can not use your personal timeline for commercial use, so you have to get creative), think about how you are going to take advantage of the different groups to sell yourself, think about what you are putting out on your Business Page to sell YOU!!

START focusing on SELLING you, I promise you will see a difference!!!

What happened and where do we go?

December 28, 2018December 28, 2018 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

2018 brought us LOTS of disappointment with Facebook as they continued to get hacked from a variety of stand points and had us dealing with leakage of our personal information (just as a side note, Facebook was NOT the only ones doing this). It also brought us many changes that as business owners, we had to figure out how to adjust. Numbers are just not the same anymore, and we all had to get creative on how to get more visibility without investing in Ads.

With the decline in visibility to our Business Pages, many started incorporating more layers to what they were already doing, like Blogging and Newsletters. We also saw many more groups get created that were managed by Business owners and their potential client base as it allowed us to get more personal and focus on building relationships to turn them into a hot client.

To move forward, we really don’t have a choice anymore….

we HAVE to get consistent
we HAVE to provide more education around our products/services
we HAVE to add more layers to what we are already doing
we HAVE to focus on building relationships through our personal timelines and groups
we HAVE to network
we HAVE to share our Business Page posts into the different groups to get more reach
we HAVE to stop selling all the time and focus on providing value

If you truly want to use Facebook to build a business, then you MUST commit to it. You MUST schedule time on your calendar to do what you need to accomplish and STICK to it. You can’t build if noone is seeing you.

Facebook, is it over for businesses?

August 26, 2018 by Tammy Hudgin, posted in Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Since Facebook announced the algorithm change for Business Pages, back in January, many business owners have either left the platform or have given up.

The reality is that as a small business owner we can still continue to grow on Facebook. There are many elements available through Facebook that allow us to keep building our businesses. You have your personal timeline, groups and YES, your Business Page.

What I have seen and heard, is that it was the larger companies, those who had larger followings, that got more affected by the change than us ‘little’ guys. Reason being is that they had huge amounts of engagement (like/comment/shares) than we had, so the decrease in numbers were much more noticeable.

I will tell you that I personally, did not see a difference in my “number of people reached” on each of my posts, I am still averaging 600 daily reach on my posts. Why?

I have been using Facebook for 10 years for business, with the last 6 focused on my Facebook business. During those 10 years, I spent more time building relationships through the different groups, than anything else. I realized the impact of this for my business, so I knew that I had to dedicate DAILY time to doing this. I knew that my Business Page was not the ONLY thing I needed to focus on. I also learned that my personal timeline could make a HUGE impact.

By working these 3 main elements of Facebook, it ultimately, will affect your following and your engagement on your Business Page. People will want to follow you because you have built a relationship and in turn, they will tell their friends and your following starts to grow. HOWEVER, this is not the only way, this is just a small fraction of what you can do.

Really think about what you are posting on your Business Page. Does it provide value? Is it something that will create engagement? Does it show you as an expert in your field? Does it show who you are/your personality? Is it ANOTHER business promotion?

What we post on our Business Page is the KEY to creating engagement, even against the algorithm. When people make sure that they are seeing your posts, then they are engaging, that will draw in more attention. Facebook loves engagement, so we need to do what we can to create it. P.S. Did you know that when you ‘share’ your Business Page posts onto your personal timeline and into groups, this is considered engagement?

As you are growing and learning which type of posts work best, DON’T get discouraged by your numbers if they are not all great, every day. Just keep moving forward and focus on improving what you are doing.

Here is a great article from Buffer talking more in-depth about the Facebook algorithms and some suggestions on what you can do. READ HERE