August 9, 2024 • 47 mins
In this episode, we're diving deep into social media strategies tailored specifically for small businesses. If you've been struggling to make social media work for your business or you're just getting started, this is the episode for you.
We’ll cover everything from choosing the right social media platforms to creating engaging content, maintaining consistency, and effectively engaging with your audience. Plus, I’ll share some personal success stories and actionable tips that you can implement right away to start seeing real results.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
-How to select the best social media platforms for your business.
-Proven strategies for creating content that resonates with your audience.
-The importance of consistency and how to maintain a content calendar.
-Tips for engaging with your followers and building a loyal community.
-How to leverage analytics and paid advertising to maximize your social media impact.
Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or just starting out, this episode is packed with insights that will help you elevate your social media game. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Business Guide with Jonathan Wagoner for more tips on justifying smarter business moves!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and I am your
host of the Business Guide.
Thank you for joining me onanother episode.
Today's podcast is a topic thatis essential for every small
business, which is effectivesocial media strategies.
I want to make sure you staytuned.
Every business needs to knowhow to optimize and utilize
(00:26):
social media to grow yourbusiness.
If you're finding it hard tomake social media work for your
business, or you're new and youneed to develop a strategy, this
episode is for you.
Jumping into it, guys.
As mentioned in the past, I'mjust a regular Joe Schmoe, small
business owner that has beendoing this for a little over 12
(00:48):
years and I've just really beentired of I'm tired of the noise,
tired of the noise from so manydifferent businesses that want
to grow your business or want tohelp you succeed in business,
and they don't actually offerany support.
Right, it is all smoke andmirrors when it comes down to it
.
Sometimes some things work,sometimes they don't, but I have
(01:12):
had my fair share of trial anderror in so many different
things, and that's really what'sdriven me to create this
podcast for you is there are somany business owners out there
that have the same struggles orthe same problems, and I think
if we can get together and havea platform together and answer
questions, this will help growyour business, but help others
(01:38):
grow their business.
So I am so passionate abouthelping people grow their
businesses and there's nostrings attached.
Right, you go on to Instagram,youtube, all these different
platforms where so many of thesecreators are utilizing their
social media strategies.
At the end of the day, it is togrow their bank account and,
hey, they're in business to makesome money.
(01:59):
But at the end of the day, assmall business owners, we are
the ones left with trying tofigure out how to just, at the
end of the day, grow ourbusiness.
And sometimes we can implementstuff, but when you're talking
to guys that you know havehundreds of millions of dollars,
they are not in the samestruggle as we are as small
business owners.
They can definitely put outsome good content that
(02:20):
encourages small business owners, but they're not in the same
boat.
I'm in the small business ownerboat with you, and so that is
why I have this podcast, so Ican just help people.
Help people get their questionsanswered and you're not alone.
So let's dive into the ins andouts of business together and,
(02:41):
as a reminder, I am not aprofessional podcaster, nor have
I done this before, so this isunscripted, this is unedited.
I want the raw version going toyou so you get just the real um
, you can really relate to therealness of this podcast.
So, first up, guys, choosing theright platforms.
(03:05):
So this day and age, socialmedia is everywhere and now
billion-dollar corporations havedefinitely jumped in and
advertised directly to theirconsumers.
We are consumed with ads afterads after ads.
I think, now that social mediainfluencers have really taken
off and have really kind ofleveled up the game, you can
(03:30):
indirectly advertise to yourclients with social media
influencers, but it all startswith the right platform for your
business.
Now these strategies are goingto go into the actual social
media strategies, but I'mactually going to share what
works for me, what doesn't workfor me and how just being on
social media in general hashelped grow my business and make
(03:51):
my business hundreds ofthousands of dollars, if not
millions of dollars, off of thisparticular strategy, if you
will.
So, depending on what type ofbusiness you have, you're going
to have to find out whatplatform works for you the best.
Now, if you've got maybe acookie restaurant or a little
(04:12):
bakery, something there, you'regoing to want to find exactly
where you can put content outfor your audience because you
want to come up with a targetaudience right.
So if you were a restaurantlooking to go viral or get a
little bit of traction, then youwant to find the platform
that's going to be best for you.
If you're a restaurant thatmaybe has some older, maybe
(04:36):
senior citizen target audience,if you will, maybe you might
want to go to Facebook andadvertise over there during a
certain time, not saying thatthe young generation isn't on
Instagram, but you definitelywant to find out on these
different platforms where yourtarget audience is interacting
(05:00):
with your content.
So when I do content for mybusiness, I definitely throw it
out as a net.
Using Instagram, for example, Ilike to put quick little videos
, helpful videos, together onInstagram.
Now my social media strategy,guys, just so you know, is I'm
not trying to push my product orservice as an ad.
(05:24):
So if you are maybe an ACcompany, you could come out and
you could create a little videothat says we have this $150
special or whatever it is.
You can add client testimonials, you can do things like that.
So there's so many differentstrategies when it comes into
what you're actually going toimplement in social media, but
(05:44):
you have to really at firsttinker with everything.
Are you tinkering with more ofan organic audience?
Are you tinkering with a paidaudience?
And again, I'm going to sharewhat I do on mine that I find
successful, and you know.
Then you obviously need to goin and play around and see
what's going to happen on youknow excuse me, see, this is the
unedited part You're going tohave to go ahead and play around
(06:04):
and see what's going to happenon you know excuse me, see, this
is the unedited part You'regoing to have to go ahead and
play around on yours and seewhat best suits your business.
So so many different optionsFacebook, tiktok, snapchat,
instagram X, all of thesedifferent platforms, youtube.
So what I have found the beststrategy for me is figuring out
(06:29):
what my audience is on thosedifferent platforms.
Now I find on Facebook for mybusiness, I have a little bit
more interaction directly withclients messaging me.
So while I may have a handfulof views or a couple hundred
views, whatever it is on myvideos or content, I have
(06:52):
clients engaging to me there,and those clients are normally
an older population.
I would probably say they're 50plus.
That is more just.
We're having conversations withthe clients.
We're then following up onmaybe the educational content
that we've put out there for theclient.
Versus Instagram, instagram isdefinitely a younger generation.
(07:14):
If you will, we're probablyseeing our target audience on
Instagram Now.
You can customize your targetaudience.
When I say target audience forme right now on just this
content creation is, this isjust me putting this content out
.
This is not me sponsoring thecontent or running ads or
anything of that nature.
(07:35):
So what I'll do on Instagram iswe'll put the same video up and
we'll have just moreengagements.
If there's any type of sillystrategies or maybe something
where I'm trying to just befunny in my industry that
engages pretty high on Instagram, it gets a lot of likes, it
(07:56):
gets a lot of shares.
We will get some messages.
We don't see as many as wewould on Facebook, but we
definitely get some messagesthere.
It on Facebook, but wedefinitely get some messages
there.
Moving over to the platform X,or formerly known as Twitter, we
very seldomly go on thatplatform.
We should be doing a little bit, maybe more, on that platform.
(08:16):
It does have a huge audienceand it is growing.
But what I found that myaudience likes in that platform
is news, and I normally don'thave news to provide.
Although the type of businessthat I am in the emergency
service restoration business is,we will occasionally have
catastrophic events and justweather events, right.
(08:38):
So those events could be a hugerainfall coming in, wildfire
that's ripping through, maybe anearthquake Information where it
is ongoing throughout a coupledays, maybe leading up to the
event, not in an earthquakesituation, leading up to the
event, the actual event and thenthe recovery of the event.
(09:01):
So what we'll do is we'll go onto X and we will go on and we
will start tweeting.
That was the former word, Idon't know what the word is now
that they use, but we will giveplay by play.
Hey, be prepared for this event.
This is what you can do toprepare.
During the event, we willactually just repost different
things that our county will postout.
(09:21):
We'll maybe post out somefriendly things and we're not
selling them anything.
We're going out just as aninformation only and just
providing quick information.
And then, after we do, you knowhow to rebuild or what to watch
out for, and things like that.
After that is all done.
We let that sit up for maybe amonth or two and then we go back
and take that down because wedo want it specific on that
(09:43):
event.
So we use that platform veryseldomly, maybe a couple times a
year, and when we are on thatplatform it is a very active
time for us and for our audienceengaging.
Now that happens to work for me.
I have found best for mybusiness.
(10:03):
It is more of an informationalgame which then turns into leads
for my business.
This is not an ad that I'mputting out and I'm looking to
generate money immediately Forme and the business that I'm in.
I am a very reactive type ofbusiness.
People need me at some point ormaybe will never need me.
Therefore, I put out contentthat they can see when they may
(10:27):
be experiencing issues or justoverall brand awareness.
Snapchat I will say I have notdone too much with Snapchat.
I know that there are differentbusinesses that use Snapchat
filters.
A good example for a goodSnapchat filter that we have
done.
In the past we didn't reallysee too much movement on it.
But go to a local communityevent.
(10:50):
Maybe you have a booth thereand, for example, we have, which
is pretty big in California.
Now we don't sponsor it, thisis just an example but we have
something called the StrawberryFestival, so you could actually
go in and you could create afilter that you could buy and
you could label it with yourlogo.
If you did the county fair oryou did something of that nature
(11:11):
, where people are going to goon and they're going to utilize
Snapchat and they're going toutilize the different filters,
you could make a nice filtereddesign and, of course, have your
business name there.
Now, again, that isn't going todo anything maybe much for your
business other than brandawareness and it is very
cost-effective, very inexpensiveto do.
You can run it 24 hours at atime, week at a time, anything
(11:34):
you decide that you need there.
So a very cost-effectiveSnapchat has not really worked
for me.
Maybe might work for you, butthese are the things you need to
explore.
So we went over Facebook, wewent over Instagram, we went
over X.
I think it's fair to mentionLinkedIn.
I do know of a gentleman that Iwork with, but LinkedIn has not
(12:00):
worked for me.
But the gentleman I work withhas been very successful on
building relationships onLinkedIn, so he will go in and
send out messages, kind offriend in his inner circle, if
you will people that arelike-minded individuals or
possibly going to need hisservice in the future or may
know of clients that need hisservice.
So he will network throughLinkedIn and he has been very
(12:22):
successful on LinkedIn justgoing into networking.
Now, guys, my last episode onbuilding brand awareness with a
low budget check that out, ifyou haven't.
This is what it is all about.
These strategies are long-termplays.
This is not something thatyou're just going to turn on
overnight and you're going to bea sensation.
(12:42):
You're not going to have avideo that's going to go viral
on your first time.
Maybe you'll get lucky and youwill.
I wouldn't count on it.
This is building a brand and anaudience around your company
over time and then slowly, whenthey need you or when maybe they
have a friend or family memberthat needs you, they will be
(13:02):
able to engage with you becauseyour content has been very
present in their feed.
So this is definitely along-term play.
There are definitely strategieson paid ads and we'll go over
that.
I have that jotted down to where, if you do have a special or
you do have a deal, you candefinitely jump in and get that
(13:22):
business, but anyways.
So I think that I'm going to gointo my next.
This is called my segment two.
I'm going into the next segment.
So content creation andconsistency that is what I want
to spend a couple times talkingto you about.
This really speaks to me as abusiness owner.
(13:43):
We have a thousand differentthings that we have to worry
about at any time.
I think the unspoken or atleast I speak about it often is
how many different hats we wearin business.
This is an example.
I know this is a podcast.
If you're watching the videoversion of the podcast, you can
tell I am in a shirt and tietoday which I'm normally not in.
(14:04):
I am in a shirt and tie todaywhich I'm normally not in.
Today, one of my businessesneeded me to be the legal
representative in a case wherewe were being deposed.
Now, just for the record, wedid not do anything wrong.
We were being deposed becausesomebody is going after somebody
else and we have documentationon that, but nonetheless, I had
to be the legal representative.
(14:24):
Today, us business owners wear athousand different hats.
Sometimes I will walk into mybusiness and I will say I need
to get this, this and this donetoday and it takes a different
direction to, all of a sudden Iam the HR or I am the IT guy, or
all of a sudden we're lookingat vehicle maintenance.
Us business owners wear athousand different hats and now,
(14:51):
in the day and age of socialmedia, we have to wear this
social media content creationhat.
And it is challenging.
For example, when I go out toput videos out for my company,
it is an entire scheduled downday that I have somebody with a
camera follow me along all day.
Now, fortunately, I have thoseresources you may or may not An
iPhone, a microphone these arereally good things that you can
(15:12):
use to get the content out there.
So do not be discouraged bycontent that somebody else is
putting out there.
I think it's funny.
We had Shane on the other day,shane's kind of Shane's
adventures.
Shane had been following myvideos and my videos are very
educational.
They are put together verynicely and, yeah, we just get
(15:32):
them kind of across theinterwebs right.
I've encouraged Shane to jumpon and do social media Now in
his business.
His clients don't necessarilyreach out to him.
Clients like us reach out tohim when we need him, but he
needs to position himself to getmore clients like me.
That will refer him to theirclients.
So I said, hey, you need tostart putting some social media
(15:54):
out.
Well, he came up with a videowhere he put together and it was
a very basic, very, very basicvideo he put out there and it
was him cutting some drywall,putting it in a bag, walking it
around, and he actually had avery good amount of positive you
know positive, you knowPositive reaction to that video
(16:17):
as he was explaining it to me,as a lot of people were
explaining it as ASMR and theyreally liked that video.
Well, that branded his businessand I think that that is
phenomenal.
So, while he didn't have a guywalking around with him to do
this content creation, he wasable to take his iPhone out and
essentially video document hisjob and it worked.
(16:38):
So these are the things asbusiness owners, we have to
consistently try.
I've consistently tried, maybetaking videos of our job sites
as we're doing them and thenputting them onto Instagram and
Facebook and all of thesedifferent platforms TikTok as
well and I have found that Ilike a well put together
informational video.
So I go ahead and set a downday for me.
(17:00):
I try to do it once a month.
Sometimes it's every othermonth and I'll bring change of
clothes and it's funny, thecamera is deceiving.
I had a friend that reached outon one of my videos and said,
man, you're putting a lot ofthese videos together.
How do you put them alltogether?
And I said, hey, this serieswas all done in one day and it
(17:22):
had been released over time andhe didn't know because I was
changing outfits.
So these are the things asbusiness owners need to get
creative with.
We don't have a lot of time todo it, we are stretched thin,
but content creation is huge.
Another thing for us and I wouldrecommend for contractors is we
use a program just every singleday for our job documentation
(17:43):
not sponsored.
If you want a referral link, itwould be super cool because I
do get paid from them.
If you want a referral link,I'll drop it, but nonetheless,
go sign up.
It is a great, great program.
It is called CompanyCam.
Companycam does huge things forour business where we're able
to document the job sites asthey progress or if we're going
(18:05):
out on an estimate, and lets uscategorize the clients and
things like that.
So one for our overall business.
This program helps.
(18:31):
Moving on to the contentcreation side, this also gives
me all of the content I need topost to our stories and maybe
before and after pictures, as myguys are already taking the
photos and I don't need to goout and make a special trip.
And I used to have to do thatwhere either I was going out and
making a special trip and or Iwas telling my guys, hey, can
you take some really, reallygood photos for me and then send
them to me?
This app just, I mean, we useit.
We do a lot of insurancedocumentation and things like
that, so we already need it.
(18:51):
But I'm killing two birds withone stone.
Now I'm training my guys up totake a banger photos at all
times so I can then reuse thosephotos on my social media.
So I would encourage you tofigure out what works best for
you on your content creation.
It is definitely a challenge.
(19:13):
Now, another challenge that Ididn't think was going to be a
big deal and it actually is abig deal but you need to get
almost like a calendar put downfor your content releasing.
At first, you put together apost, you send it out, no big
deal.
The thing is on social media.
(19:35):
You want to be present, youwant your clients to know who
you are and you want toconsistently be in their ear.
But if you post once a month,you're not going to consistently
be where you need to be present.
You want your clients to knowwho you are and you want to
consistently be in their ear,but if you post once a month,
you're not going to consistentlybe where you need to be.
You need to be active on theseplatforms.
There are so many of mycompetition and competitors that
are active on the platform, soI want to be just as active, and
that is really hard.
(19:56):
So, creating a calendar andsaying this is when I want this
to go out and I do it on mycomputer.
I don't jot it down, but saying, hey, this is when I want this
to go out and these are theplatforms I want it to go out
and I set myself a reminder.
Another thing that I like to dois I like to do holiday posts
Merry Christmas, happy Halloween, thanksgiving, happy Fourth of
(20:20):
July.
I love all of those posts formy business as it engages each
holiday with my audience andwell wishes for my company.
But think about openingpresents on Christmas Day, or
think about having the familygathering on Thanksgiving.
You're busy and we're smallbusiness owners.
(20:41):
We want a freaking break.
So what I do at the beginningof the year every single year,
is I go on Canva.
Canva another great platform.
If you're not on Canva already,they've got some really cool
free options.
Go around and explore on Canva,because a lot of my social
media posts that I have to typein or kind of make a pretty, if
(21:01):
you will, I will do it on Canva.
It is a game changer for smallbusinesses, again, not sponsored
by them.
It would be nice, but we have avery limited following at this
point.
Canva super, super dope, superdope.
But anyways, at the beginning ofthe year I will go in and I
will spend literally two hoursand I will create every holiday
(21:24):
post that I want to go out onsocial media and I go in and
then I transfer it from mycomputer and I save it on my
phone.
Now, there's probably otherways of doing it, but that's how
I do it.
Then I create a folder on myphone in my pictures and just
put holiday post, do it.
Then I create a folder on myphone and my pictures and just
put holiday post and then I gointo my calendar and I select a
(21:45):
time on that holiday that I wantto release it.
Now I could use schedulingsoftware and I have in the past
or scheduling dates and thingslike that you can do that.
I prefer to just go in that dayon those holiday post and drop
it day on those holiday postsand drop it.
(22:05):
So really easy.
I mean I think I have 12 or 14,15 holidays that I do that are
already made at the beginning ofthe year, so that's 12, 15
posts.
Right, make it as a post, shareit as a story.
You've got a little content.
Keeps your followers engaged inyour brand.
This is the stuff that we needto do to get in front of our
competition.
Now, moving on, when you'reputting this content out,
(22:26):
remember this represents yourbrand.
It is so important to show ifyou order.
I mean, let me give you anexample.
I know this guy and he can do aremodel of a kitchen so
beautifully when you're inperson and he's done it.
(22:49):
It is really a sight to see andit is beautiful when he takes a
picture and sends it out to aclient or sends it out and is
showing it to potential clientsor just sharing it on his
Facebook page.
The pictures are absolutelygarbage and do no justice.
(23:10):
Something as simple as justtaking a towel and wiping his
lens and cleaning it would begreat for his photos.
It is so foggy you can't see it.
It's blurry, low light Doesn'topen any windows.
These are the things that, asbusiness owners, you need to
(23:32):
take a step back and, as you'replanning out your content
creation, remember that if youoffer a quality product, you
want your clients to see thatquality product.
So take a couple extra minutesat staging the area that you're
going to take the photo of, orat least make sure your camera
is doing its job.
Make sure the lighting looksgood.
(23:52):
This is important for yourcontent.
Before I get on to my nextsegment, if you will no, I'll
wrap this into my next segment,which is engaging with your
audience.
So from time to time, we wantto make sure well, I'm always
(24:13):
taking messages and likes andthings from my clients, but I
also want to engage with themthat I want them to continue to
follow my page, that they're notjust going to see boring.
Maybe videos that are helpfultips right, those are engaging
but I don't want them to getboring.
I want to know what my audiencewants.
Even in this podcast, I thinkI've ended almost every episode
(24:35):
of what do you want to hear fromme, or right into the show with
your questions, because I wantto engage with you.
I want to make sure you arebeing fulfilled on the content
that I am putting out there,right?
Just like it takes you time toput together a beautiful cake
for your business, if you're abakery, you're putting that
(24:57):
together, you're taking pictures.
You want to make sure that it'snot just going in front of
maybe one person and they'rejust swiping away or unfollowing
you later because that's allyou put out.
So we do some engaging content,we do challenges, we do.
I like to do random gift cardgiveaways, either Starbucks or
Visa gift cards.
It doesn't cost me a lot.
I mean I'll put together $25,$50 or $100.
(25:20):
Now, when we talk about adslater, ads can get expensive.
Now, on social media, you cantarget your audience, you can
target your city and by allmeans, that ad is pretty
inexpensive.
But sometimes I want moreorganic engagement from my local
community and I don't have aproduct that I can give away.
(25:41):
Now, for some reason, I keepbringing up a bakery today.
So if your business is a bakery, you could have a giveaway
where you gave away a cake oryou gave away something that
would engage your audience andyou could do that once a month
or once a quarter.
That is not going to cost you alot of money to do.
In my business I don't havesomething I can just give away
(26:03):
like that.
My services happen to be alittle bit more expensive and
unplanned A client never knowswhen it is going to happen.
So I have found that givinggift cards away and keeping my
audience engaged that way is agood little playful way.
And of course, they have tolike, they have to comment and
they have to follow, they haveto share.
(26:24):
So there's certain rules thatwe do and we do get maybe 50 or
100 different new followers onour business page that engage
with our business over time.
I will tell you this this is along-term play.
I am thinking of an examplethat I did, probably about four
years ago.
I did a gift card giveaway for$100.
(26:47):
And this lady followed me.
She shared, she did everythingshe was supposed to, she really
stood out and you know, thankgoodness she won right.
So we went out.
I personally delivered her thegift card and just said hey,
thanks for being a follower,make sure you stick around for
more.
She is engaged with almostevery piece of content that I
(27:10):
have put out there Now for aboutthree and a half years.
It never turned into any workIn my business.
I don't know when somebody isgoing to need me.
Well, her mother's place had aflooding and who did she refer?
It was us and we made thousandsand thousands of dollars on
(27:31):
that job, so that $100 gift cardwas the best money spent.
But I had to wait and there wasno guarantee that it was going
to work.
But I stayed present in herfeed and I gave her the content
that she that she wanted, right?
I gave her a reward forsubscribing and later we got
(27:51):
that referral.
So really leveraging youraudience, figuring out what's
going to work, what's not goingto work, is really going to be
on you.
What type of content or contest, excuse me, what type of
contest you're going to put outthere?
Ask questions, ask questions.
(28:12):
I'll occasionally go on and say, hey, what's everybody doing
this weekend?
And I'll get a good response.
I'm not looking to sell them abusiness or, excuse me, sell
them anything in my business.
I'm just asking them a questionof what they're going to do
over the weekend, but I'mkeeping them engaged and they're
remembering my business andthen, of course, share user
(28:34):
generated content.
So I think it's funny.
That's not funny, funny, but Imean we have these social media
influencers.
This is an actual thing.
This is.
This has come around in my area.
We have had our fair share ofsocial media influencers.
Um of all sizes use ourbusiness and, shamelessly, I
(28:55):
will say I know you're on socialmedia, would you mind giving us
a shout?
And then we get a little shoutout.
They'll create their ownpictures, their own video and
we'll get a shout out.
And I've probably asked I'veprobably had about 10 throughout
the years, and I want to sayyears, because it's probably
been about four or five that Ireally started picking up that
(29:17):
kind of social media.
If you would and probably fouror five of them have shared
content that goes out to a hugeaudience, and now there's just
more people engaging in myplatform.
Now I'm in California.
It doesn't mean no good ifsomebody subscribes in New York.
Well, it does, because that NewYork person might be engaging
(29:42):
with my content.
Now, while they're not herelocally, they're still engaging
with my content and you'd besurprised I had a.
I've had a couple instances onTikTok where I have kind of been
, because on TikTok my strategyis more of an informational
(30:02):
source and I have had peopleconsumers directly reach out to
me on TikTok questions on theirwater damage or fire damage and
I'm able to refer people to them.
Now it does not do anything forme other than show the industry
(30:24):
that I am somebody that can betrusted.
Therefore, if you have somebodyin your area, you can refer me.
So build alliances in yourindustry.
There are ways to monetize it.
I mean, I'm sure I could haveasked for a referral or a
kickback, something there.
I don't need it, I don't wantit.
(30:44):
But there's definitelystrategies there that you know,
depending on what your businessoffers that you can.
You know you can adapt to anationwide presence.
I can't.
Back to user-generated content.
So have those social mediainfluences.
You ever stumble across one,have them.
Have them give you a shout.
And again back to the bakeryexample.
(31:05):
It could be your mayor, yourcity council members, somebody
that that is just popular inyour community, and asking them
to share your business.
Remember, we're alwayspromoting ourselves.
Don't be ashamed to ask.
It is your business?
You think that you know, whenthese big corporations go out
and do something out of thekindness of their heart is
(31:27):
because they're doing it out ofthe kindness of their heart.
No, it's a branding.
It is a branding opportunityfor them, and they're always
consistently pushing themselvesto ask for different things.
So it doesn't hurt to just ask.
And then, of course, astestimonials come in, maybe a
Yelp review, maybe somebody wentout where your content comes
(31:47):
from, so you can streamline itand keep the flow on your
platform going, or thesedifferent platforms going is
(32:07):
super crucial.
Now, moving on, I want to talk alittle bit about the paid
advertising.
Now, paid advertising didactually work for me at one
point.
It occasionally will work.
I will throw ads on socialmedia.
I don't do a lot of ads onsocial media and I know a lot of
people that do, so I wouldimplore you to learn more about
(32:30):
social media ads if it's goingto work for your business.
It doesn't happen to reallywork for my business again,
unless we are in a catastrophicevent Excuse me For me, in a
catastrophic event.
That is an opportunity where Iknow that a lot of people in my
community could be dealing withthis service now because we just
(32:51):
had it.
So that's when we up our ads onsocial media and things like
that our town halls, ourengagement, that X that's when
we're really going after ourcommunity with our service hard.
I want to position myself frontand center, but back when I did
carpet cleaning, for example, Idid a lot of Instagram, not so
(33:14):
much Instagram Facebook.
I did a lot of Facebook with alittle bit of Instagram, a lot
of Facebook ads, and I had greatengagement and made a ton of
money off of Facebook at thetime.
And I know a lot of peopleutilize it HVAC companies,
plumbing companies so manydifferent people still utilize
Facebook and these different ads.
I would implore you to do thesame For me.
Right now, I decide, maybe oncea quarter I will go ahead and
(33:39):
take one of my better videosthat is maybe an informational
video and I will boost that tomy community and I will let it
run for a month.
I will put a couple hundreddollar budget behind it and
essentially it's just acommercial brand awareness.
Now there could be an argumentthat I could do that all the
time.
That all the time.
I truly don't see a massiveengagement off of that.
I think long-term for me, whereI want to allocate my budget
(34:08):
every single month towards it,so I don't do it.
I used to do Spotify ads.
Spotify ads back in the day forcarpet cleaning worked out,
never worked for water damage ormold.
So you really have to play withwhat's going to work best for
your business.
But you need a killer call toaction.
So you are spending money onsomebody clicking your ad or
viewing your ad.
You need to be able to retainthem.
(34:30):
And remember, if you'rebuilding a social media platform
and you're getting all of thisfree engagement organically by
clients checking into yourbusiness or coming in, you're
sharing all of this freeengagement organically by
clients checking into yourbusiness or coming in.
You're sharing all of thecontent.
You're doing those contests,you're building essentially a
free, organic audience in yourarea.
When you mix paid advertisingon top of that, now that's where
(34:53):
obviously you're spending moneyon getting those impressions
and views and clicks and callsand all that good stuff.
So having that organic presencealso helps that.
What's the word I'm looking for?
It's on the tip of my tongue,but it's cost per acquisition.
(35:13):
So if your cost per acquisitionwas $30 because you're running
ads.
I like to sum it up when I havean organic strategy, if I have
my organic on top of my paid adsand I can reasonably, let's say
, hey, my cost per acquisitionis now $15.
I can reasonably calculate that.
Well then, I've drive that costdown as well.
(35:35):
Well then, I've drive that costdown as well.
So, definitely, using a paidadvertising platform or ads on
your content is a totally goodstrategy.
Just make sure you're makingmoney back on it immediately.
I definitely for me, I wouldargue for myself and my business
that I'm not willing toproactively put out my content
(36:00):
for my business over and, overand over again and spend
hundreds and hundreds andhundreds and thousands and
thousands of dollars on havingmy content go out to an audience
that is deaf ears.
Now, it is a long-term strategy.
I could be building brandawareness.
There is an argument there, butI feel like the branded, the
brand awareness that I'mbuilding right now, is free, and
(36:22):
then I fire up the ads asneeded.
Now for you, you might be ableto specifically and again, we're
going to we're just going to gowith a bakery on this episode.
Right, I've been using a bakery, a small business bakery as an
example.
We'll continue that on thisepisode.
But you might be able to go outand pick a specific demographic
(36:42):
that you might find is going tobe getting married or maybe is
going to have an event, maybe acorporate event, something there
and you can specifically dialin your target audience to match
the customers that you need,audience to match the customers
that you need.
(37:02):
So you've really got to playaround with these different
budgets and different techniques.
There is not a one size fitsall.
I think that what is sofrustrating, what is so
frustrating as being a smallbusiness owner is everybody has
their handout.
You can literally spendmillions of dollars without
people delivering.
They will take a plumbingbusiness and a gardening
(37:24):
business and they will say, hey,you go to a media agency and
they will say or wherever you go, and they'll say, hey, this
works really good for thegardeners, this really works
good for plumbers and thisreally works good for bakeries.
And they're not understandingthat it is three separate
businesses and each one of thoseare unique.
Now, generally, ads will work,social media will work, websites
(37:45):
will work, but every businessis its own niche market.
So you, as a business owner,need to play with your budget
and need to play with what works.
The stuff that works for mybusiness may not work for your
business.
Matter of fact, it's probablynot going to work for your
business.
Every single business isdifferent and I think when you
(38:08):
start realizing that you want tostand out from that crowd and
be unique because you are yourown business and you are unique
you will find your own targetaudience that engages with you
and you will figure out theniche and the content that you
need to put out.
But you have to start and youhave to start immediately.
Stop putting it off.
(38:29):
There are so many people outthere right now that are
capturing your leads becausethey're doing social media.
You just need to do it, andjust do it a little bit better.
Going on to a story that is notnecessarily a social media
(38:56):
strategy.
As far as paid ads or a socialmedia strategy, that is me
putting out content, it's asocial media ad or strategy on
just being a part of a communityand not being afraid of
competition.
Here's what I mean by that.
I always say I say that theolder generation, when they
(39:18):
started a business, let's saythey were very a competitor is a
competitor and I don't wantanything to do with that
competitor.
And now, by all means, Idefinitely have competitors out
there that still believe that.
But a lot of competitors that Iwork with I am a resource,
(39:38):
believe that.
But a lot of competitors that Iwork with I am a resource and I
found that very, very early onin business that I can actually
help out other businesseslocally and it actually makes me
money.
Now I unintentionally took thatto social media.
So, whatever your niche is, ifyou're a plumber, join a plumber
(39:59):
Facebook group, join adiscussion forum.
If you're a gardener, join agardener discussion forum or
Facebook group.
Multiple.
Figure out what your industryhas.
Facebook is a huge resource forthis and there are so many.
I mean, in my field I probablyhave 10 or 15 pages that I
belong to.
Now I go on and I engage those.
(40:21):
I happen to like to answerquestions, I share photos.
Maybe I'll ask a question, butI consistently engage with the
competition.
Slowly, as you're engaging withthe competition, I mean, and
they're no threat to me, I'm inone area, they're across the
nation.
We become friends, we starttalking back and forth and I
(40:43):
have made some very good friendsthrough that Facebook group.
Matter of fact, I'm thinking ofone that I decided to go to.
I actually went to a differentstate for a huge, catastrophic
event that we had had and one ofthe competitors that I had been
(41:04):
engaging with for a couple ofyears at this point, and again,
there's no strategy here otherthan just being a nice guy and
answering questions and slowlyyou build friendships.
So I went to this state, thatparticular guy, once he knew I
(41:25):
was in that state and his statestarted referring me a ton of
work because he knew I was thereand it made me hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
I literally spent no money onthat, answered some questions
that I knew the answer to,became a friend and it
(41:49):
ultimately put money in mypocket.
And that story didn't justhappen once.
It's happened a few times wherepeople know hey, I live in
Mississippi, but I have a familymember that lives in your area
and they're experiencing thisand I need somebody quality oh
(42:11):
cool, here's a couple thousanddollars there, just having a
good rapport with my competitionon social media.
So that could be a great socialmedia strategy for you as well.
Depending on your niche and youknow what you offer, that could
be a great strategy.
It has worked very, very, verynicely for me.
(42:36):
Don't get complacent on yoursocial media.
Don't give up.
It is hard, it is not fun,right?
Us business owners?
We wear a thousand differenthats.
Have somebody in your officehelp you.
I know that I have people in myoffice that have downtime.
I have so many people doingdifferent things that I have
(43:01):
people that are paid to sit infront of a computer and answer
phones and do clerical work.
Social media can be theirclerical work.
You need to teach it to themthe right way.
But there are a lot of peoplethat like going on social media
and putting stuff out.
So you'd be surprised at howmany people would jump up at the
opportunity to help yourbusiness out.
But don't get complacent.
You have to continuously pushit.
(43:21):
Remember long-term game onorganic growth, brand awareness
and just having your socialmedia game on point versus your
ads.
That is something completelydifferent.
But assign it to somebody,don't get burned out.
Different, but assign it tosomebody.
Don't get burned out.
And when you start gettingburned out because I'll speak to
(43:47):
you as the business owner thatknows of I can handle this.
I can post on every platformwhen you really start getting
your content game down andyou're frustrated that you have
to create a post and you'refrustrated that you have to post
it at a certain time and thenyou have to go through and do it
through all the differentsocial medias.
Yeah, you don't want to burnyourself out, so start asking
for help, start saying, hey,office manager, if you see
(44:11):
client testimonials or whateverit is, grab me a couple pictures
and screenshots of that.
Post that to the social media.
This is what I want it to looklike.
Now, going over to the exampleof my before and after pictures
For me, I have estimators thatsee those pictures often, so I
have told them hey, when you seereally good photos that are
taken, go ahead and get thoseover to me for social media
(44:32):
posting.
They don't have access to oursocial media.
This is now creating more of anautomation to me.
They're writing descriptions,they're doing the legwork, so
don't get burned out.
I don't want you to spend thefirst couple months engaging
everybody and getting burnt outon social media and then
(44:53):
completely walking away and youhave a blank social media.
I don't want that to happen.
This is huge for your businesswalking away and you have a
blank social media.
I don't want that to happen.
This is huge for your business.
So some final thoughts.
Social media is a powerful tool.
Understanding your audience iskey and not being burned out as
(45:17):
a business owner is huge.
So leverage what you do and howyou do it right so you can be
successful.
Guys, I don't know what I'mdoing here.
I have experienced business.
(45:38):
I've experienced the ups, thedowns and I've helped a lot of
people out by just giving themanswers to what I already know.
And I don't know a lot.
I'm still learning, just likeyou.
We all are consistentlylearning, and I never want to
stop learning.
But I know what's important isto put this show on to more
(45:59):
listeners.
So I beg you, please drop me acomment in the comment section.
What do you want to hear movingforward on these episodes?
What stands out to you aboutthis episode?
Make sure you follow us.
Please subscribe to us onwhatever platform you're on.
(46:20):
I really appreciate theengagement and it does show me,
hey, this is working and thereare people that are finding this
valuable, because, at the endof the day, that's what I'm
trying to do.
I'm so sick and tired ofeverybody trying to sell us
something when, at the end ofthe day, we just want real
answers on how to grow ourbusiness.
And I will go over as much as Ican.
(46:43):
If I don't know an answer toyour question, I will find
somebody that does, or I will doa ton of research and bring it
to you and say, hey, this iswhat people have done and I'd
love to have people on my showas well.
So thank you for being here,thank you for listening this far
(47:03):
.
As mentioned, I am JonathanWagner, and this was another
episode of the Business Guide.
We'll see you on the next one.
Hey everyone, it's Jonathan Wagner and I am your
host of the Business Guide.
Thank you for joining me onanother episode.
Today's podcast is a topic thatis essential for every small
business, which is effectivesocial media strategies.
I want to make sure you staytuned.
Every business needs to knowhow to optimize and utilize
(00:26):
social media to grow yourbusiness.
If you're finding it hard tomake social media work for your
business, or you're new and youneed to develop a strategy, this
episode is for you.
Jumping into it, guys.
As mentioned in the past, I'mjust a regular Joe Schmoe, small
business owner that has beendoing this for a little over 12
(00:48):
years and I've just really beentired of I'm tired of the noise,
tired of the noise from so manydifferent businesses that want
to grow your business or want tohelp you succeed in business,
and they don't actually offerany support.
Right, it is all smoke andmirrors when it comes down to it
.
Sometimes some things work,sometimes they don't, but I have
(01:12):
had my fair share of trial anderror in so many different
things, and that's really what'sdriven me to create this
podcast for you is there are somany business owners out there
that have the same struggles orthe same problems, and I think
if we can get together and havea platform together and answer
questions, this will help growyour business, but help others
(01:38):
grow their business.
So I am so passionate abouthelping people grow their
businesses and there's nostrings attached.
Right, you go on to Instagram,youtube, all these different
platforms where so many of thesecreators are utilizing their
social media strategies.
At the end of the day, it is togrow their bank account and,
hey, they're in business to makesome money.
(01:59):
But at the end of the day, assmall business owners, we are
the ones left with trying tofigure out how to just, at the
end of the day, grow ourbusiness.
And sometimes we can implementstuff, but when you're talking
to guys that you know havehundreds of millions of dollars,
they are not in the samestruggle as we are as small
business owners.
They can definitely put outsome good content that
(02:20):
encourages small business owners, but they're not in the same
boat.
I'm in the small business ownerboat with you, and so that is
why I have this podcast, so Ican just help people.
Help people get their questionsanswered and you're not alone.
So let's dive into the ins andouts of business together and,
(02:41):
as a reminder, I am not aprofessional podcaster, nor have
I done this before, so this isunscripted, this is unedited.
I want the raw version going toyou so you get just the real um
, you can really relate to therealness of this podcast.
So, first up, guys, choosing theright platforms.
(03:05):
So this day and age, socialmedia is everywhere and now
billion-dollar corporations havedefinitely jumped in and
advertised directly to theirconsumers.
We are consumed with ads afterads after ads.
I think, now that social mediainfluencers have really taken
off and have really kind ofleveled up the game, you can
(03:30):
indirectly advertise to yourclients with social media
influencers, but it all startswith the right platform for your
business.
Now these strategies are goingto go into the actual social
media strategies, but I'mactually going to share what
works for me, what doesn't workfor me and how just being on
social media in general hashelped grow my business and make
(03:51):
my business hundreds ofthousands of dollars, if not
millions of dollars, off of thisparticular strategy, if you
will.
So, depending on what type ofbusiness you have, you're going
to have to find out whatplatform works for you the best.
Now, if you've got maybe acookie restaurant or a little
(04:12):
bakery, something there, you'regoing to want to find exactly
where you can put content outfor your audience because you
want to come up with a targetaudience right.
So if you were a restaurantlooking to go viral or get a
little bit of traction, then youwant to find the platform
that's going to be best for you.
If you're a restaurant thatmaybe has some older, maybe
(04:36):
senior citizen target audience,if you will, maybe you might
want to go to Facebook andadvertise over there during a
certain time, not saying thatthe young generation isn't on
Instagram, but you definitelywant to find out on these
different platforms where yourtarget audience is interacting
(05:00):
with your content.
So when I do content for mybusiness, I definitely throw it
out as a net.
Using Instagram, for example, Ilike to put quick little videos
, helpful videos, together onInstagram.
Now my social media strategy,guys, just so you know, is I'm
not trying to push my product orservice as an ad.
(05:24):
So if you are maybe an ACcompany, you could come out and
you could create a little videothat says we have this $150
special or whatever it is.
You can add client testimonials, you can do things like that.
So there's so many differentstrategies when it comes into
what you're actually going toimplement in social media, but
(05:44):
you have to really at firsttinker with everything.
Are you tinkering with more ofan organic audience?
Are you tinkering with a paidaudience?
And again, I'm going to sharewhat I do on mine that I find
successful, and you know.
Then you obviously need to goin and play around and see
what's going to happen on youknow excuse me, see, this is the
unedited part You're going tohave to go ahead and play around
(06:04):
and see what's going to happenon you know excuse me, see, this
is the unedited part You'regoing to have to go ahead and
play around on yours and seewhat best suits your business.
So so many different optionsFacebook, tiktok, snapchat,
instagram X, all of thesedifferent platforms, youtube.
So what I have found the beststrategy for me is figuring out
(06:29):
what my audience is on thosedifferent platforms.
Now I find on Facebook for mybusiness, I have a little bit
more interaction directly withclients messaging me.
So while I may have a handfulof views or a couple hundred
views, whatever it is on myvideos or content, I have
(06:52):
clients engaging to me there,and those clients are normally
an older population.
I would probably say they're 50plus.
That is more just.
We're having conversations withthe clients.
We're then following up onmaybe the educational content
that we've put out there for theclient.
Versus Instagram, instagram isdefinitely a younger generation.
(07:14):
If you will, we're probablyseeing our target audience on
Instagram Now.
You can customize your targetaudience.
When I say target audience forme right now on just this
content creation is, this isjust me putting this content out
.
This is not me sponsoring thecontent or running ads or
anything of that nature.
(07:35):
So what I'll do on Instagram iswe'll put the same video up and
we'll have just moreengagements.
If there's any type of sillystrategies or maybe something
where I'm trying to just befunny in my industry that
engages pretty high on Instagram, it gets a lot of likes, it
(07:56):
gets a lot of shares.
We will get some messages.
We don't see as many as wewould on Facebook, but we
definitely get some messagesthere.
It on Facebook, but wedefinitely get some messages
there.
Moving over to the platform X,or formerly known as Twitter, we
very seldomly go on thatplatform.
We should be doing a little bit, maybe more, on that platform.
(08:16):
It does have a huge audienceand it is growing.
But what I found that myaudience likes in that platform
is news, and I normally don'thave news to provide.
Although the type of businessthat I am in the emergency
service restoration business is,we will occasionally have
catastrophic events and justweather events, right.
(08:38):
So those events could be a hugerainfall coming in, wildfire
that's ripping through, maybe anearthquake Information where it
is ongoing throughout a coupledays, maybe leading up to the
event, not in an earthquakesituation, leading up to the
event, the actual event and thenthe recovery of the event.
(09:01):
So what we'll do is we'll go onto X and we will go on and we
will start tweeting.
That was the former word, Idon't know what the word is now
that they use, but we will giveplay by play.
Hey, be prepared for this event.
This is what you can do toprepare.
During the event, we willactually just repost different
things that our county will postout.
(09:21):
We'll maybe post out somefriendly things and we're not
selling them anything.
We're going out just as aninformation only and just
providing quick information.
And then, after we do, you knowhow to rebuild or what to watch
out for, and things like that.
After that is all done.
We let that sit up for maybe amonth or two and then we go back
and take that down because wedo want it specific on that
(09:43):
event.
So we use that platform veryseldomly, maybe a couple times a
year, and when we are on thatplatform it is a very active
time for us and for our audienceengaging.
Now that happens to work for me.
I have found best for mybusiness.
(10:03):
It is more of an informationalgame which then turns into leads
for my business.
This is not an ad that I'mputting out and I'm looking to
generate money immediately Forme and the business that I'm in.
I am a very reactive type ofbusiness.
People need me at some point ormaybe will never need me.
Therefore, I put out contentthat they can see when they may
(10:27):
be experiencing issues or justoverall brand awareness.
Snapchat I will say I have notdone too much with Snapchat.
I know that there are differentbusinesses that use Snapchat
filters.
A good example for a goodSnapchat filter that we have
done.
In the past we didn't reallysee too much movement on it.
But go to a local communityevent.
(10:50):
Maybe you have a booth thereand, for example, we have, which
is pretty big in California.
Now we don't sponsor it, thisis just an example but we have
something called the StrawberryFestival, so you could actually
go in and you could create afilter that you could buy and
you could label it with yourlogo.
If you did the county fair oryou did something of that nature
(11:11):
, where people are going to goon and they're going to utilize
Snapchat and they're going toutilize the different filters,
you could make a nice filtereddesign and, of course, have your
business name there.
Now, again, that isn't going todo anything maybe much for your
business other than brandawareness and it is very
cost-effective, very inexpensiveto do.
You can run it 24 hours at atime, week at a time, anything
(11:34):
you decide that you need there.
So a very cost-effectiveSnapchat has not really worked
for me.
Maybe might work for you, butthese are the things you need to
explore.
So we went over Facebook, wewent over Instagram, we went
over X.
I think it's fair to mentionLinkedIn.
I do know of a gentleman that Iwork with, but LinkedIn has not
(12:00):
worked for me.
But the gentleman I work withhas been very successful on
building relationships onLinkedIn, so he will go in and
send out messages, kind offriend in his inner circle, if
you will people that arelike-minded individuals or
possibly going to need hisservice in the future or may
know of clients that need hisservice.
So he will network throughLinkedIn and he has been very
(12:22):
successful on LinkedIn justgoing into networking.
Now, guys, my last episode onbuilding brand awareness with a
low budget check that out, ifyou haven't.
This is what it is all about.
These strategies are long-termplays.
This is not something thatyou're just going to turn on
overnight and you're going to bea sensation.
(12:42):
You're not going to have avideo that's going to go viral
on your first time.
Maybe you'll get lucky and youwill.
I wouldn't count on it.
This is building a brand and anaudience around your company
over time and then slowly, whenthey need you or when maybe they
have a friend or family memberthat needs you, they will be
(13:02):
able to engage with you becauseyour content has been very
present in their feed.
So this is definitely along-term play.
There are definitely strategieson paid ads and we'll go over
that.
I have that jotted down to where, if you do have a special or
you do have a deal, you candefinitely jump in and get that
(13:22):
business, but anyways.
So I think that I'm going to gointo my next.
This is called my segment two.
I'm going into the next segment.
So content creation andconsistency that is what I want
to spend a couple times talkingto you about.
This really speaks to me as abusiness owner.
(13:43):
We have a thousand differentthings that we have to worry
about at any time.
I think the unspoken or atleast I speak about it often is
how many different hats we wearin business.
This is an example.
I know this is a podcast.
If you're watching the videoversion of the podcast, you can
tell I am in a shirt and tietoday which I'm normally not in.
(14:04):
I am in a shirt and tie todaywhich I'm normally not in.
Today, one of my businessesneeded me to be the legal
representative in a case wherewe were being deposed.
Now, just for the record, wedid not do anything wrong.
We were being deposed becausesomebody is going after somebody
else and we have documentationon that, but nonetheless, I had
to be the legal representative.
(14:24):
Today, us business owners wear athousand different hats.
Sometimes I will walk into mybusiness and I will say I need
to get this, this and this donetoday and it takes a different
direction to, all of a sudden Iam the HR or I am the IT guy, or
all of a sudden we're lookingat vehicle maintenance.
Us business owners wear athousand different hats and now,
(14:51):
in the day and age of socialmedia, we have to wear this
social media content creationhat.
And it is challenging.
For example, when I go out toput videos out for my company,
it is an entire scheduled downday that I have somebody with a
camera follow me along all day.
Now, fortunately, I have thoseresources you may or may not An
iPhone, a microphone these arereally good things that you can
(15:12):
use to get the content out there.
So do not be discouraged bycontent that somebody else is
putting out there.
I think it's funny.
We had Shane on the other day,shane's kind of Shane's
adventures.
Shane had been following myvideos and my videos are very
educational.
They are put together verynicely and, yeah, we just get
(15:32):
them kind of across theinterwebs right.
I've encouraged Shane to jumpon and do social media Now in
his business.
His clients don't necessarilyreach out to him.
Clients like us reach out tohim when we need him, but he
needs to position himself to getmore clients like me.
That will refer him to theirclients.
So I said, hey, you need tostart putting some social media
(15:54):
out.
Well, he came up with a videowhere he put together and it was
a very basic, very, very basicvideo he put out there and it
was him cutting some drywall,putting it in a bag, walking it
around, and he actually had avery good amount of positive you
know positive, you knowPositive reaction to that video
(16:17):
as he was explaining it to me,as a lot of people were
explaining it as ASMR and theyreally liked that video.
Well, that branded his businessand I think that that is
phenomenal.
So, while he didn't have a guywalking around with him to do
this content creation, he wasable to take his iPhone out and
essentially video document hisjob and it worked.
(16:38):
So these are the things asbusiness owners, we have to
consistently try.
I've consistently tried, maybetaking videos of our job sites
as we're doing them and thenputting them onto Instagram and
Facebook and all of thesedifferent platforms TikTok as
well and I have found that Ilike a well put together
informational video.
So I go ahead and set a downday for me.
(17:00):
I try to do it once a month.
Sometimes it's every othermonth and I'll bring change of
clothes and it's funny, thecamera is deceiving.
I had a friend that reached outon one of my videos and said,
man, you're putting a lot ofthese videos together.
How do you put them alltogether?
And I said, hey, this serieswas all done in one day and it
(17:22):
had been released over time andhe didn't know because I was
changing outfits.
So these are the things asbusiness owners need to get
creative with.
We don't have a lot of time todo it, we are stretched thin,
but content creation is huge.
Another thing for us and I wouldrecommend for contractors is we
use a program just every singleday for our job documentation
(17:43):
not sponsored.
If you want a referral link, itwould be super cool because I
do get paid from them.
If you want a referral link,I'll drop it, but nonetheless,
go sign up.
It is a great, great program.
It is called CompanyCam.
Companycam does huge things forour business where we're able
to document the job sites asthey progress or if we're going
(18:05):
out on an estimate, and lets uscategorize the clients and
things like that.
So one for our overall business.
This program helps.
(18:31):
Moving on to the contentcreation side, this also gives
me all of the content I need topost to our stories and maybe
before and after pictures, as myguys are already taking the
photos and I don't need to goout and make a special trip.
And I used to have to do thatwhere either I was going out and
making a special trip and or Iwas telling my guys, hey, can
you take some really, reallygood photos for me and then send
them to me?
This app just, I mean, we useit.
We do a lot of insurancedocumentation and things like
that, so we already need it.
(18:51):
But I'm killing two birds withone stone.
Now I'm training my guys up totake a banger photos at all
times so I can then reuse thosephotos on my social media.
So I would encourage you tofigure out what works best for
you on your content creation.
It is definitely a challenge.
(19:13):
Now, another challenge that Ididn't think was going to be a
big deal and it actually is abig deal but you need to get
almost like a calendar put downfor your content releasing.
At first, you put together apost, you send it out, no big
deal.
The thing is on social media.
(19:35):
You want to be present, youwant your clients to know who
you are and you want toconsistently be in their ear.
But if you post once a month,you're not going to consistently
be where you need to be present.
You want your clients to knowwho you are and you want to
consistently be in their ear,but if you post once a month,
you're not going to consistentlybe where you need to be.
You need to be active on theseplatforms.
There are so many of mycompetition and competitors that
are active on the platform, soI want to be just as active, and
that is really hard.
(19:56):
So, creating a calendar andsaying this is when I want this
to go out and I do it on mycomputer.
I don't jot it down, but saying, hey, this is when I want this
to go out and these are theplatforms I want it to go out
and I set myself a reminder.
Another thing that I like to dois I like to do holiday posts
Merry Christmas, happy Halloween, thanksgiving, happy Fourth of
(20:20):
July.
I love all of those posts formy business as it engages each
holiday with my audience andwell wishes for my company.
But think about openingpresents on Christmas Day, or
think about having the familygathering on Thanksgiving.
You're busy and we're smallbusiness owners.
(20:41):
We want a freaking break.
So what I do at the beginningof the year every single year,
is I go on Canva.
Canva another great platform.
If you're not on Canva already,they've got some really cool
free options.
Go around and explore on Canva,because a lot of my social
media posts that I have to typein or kind of make a pretty, if
(21:01):
you will, I will do it on Canva.
It is a game changer for smallbusinesses, again, not sponsored
by them.
It would be nice, but we have avery limited following at this
point.
Canva super, super dope, superdope.
But anyways, at the beginning ofthe year I will go in and I
will spend literally two hoursand I will create every holiday
(21:24):
post that I want to go out onsocial media and I go in and
then I transfer it from mycomputer and I save it on my
phone.
Now, there's probably otherways of doing it, but that's how
I do it.
Then I create a folder on myphone in my pictures and just
put holiday post, do it.
Then I create a folder on myphone and my pictures and just
put holiday post and then I gointo my calendar and I select a
(21:45):
time on that holiday that I wantto release it.
Now I could use schedulingsoftware and I have in the past
or scheduling dates and thingslike that you can do that.
I prefer to just go in that dayon those holiday post and drop
it day on those holiday postsand drop it.
(22:05):
So really easy.
I mean I think I have 12 or 14,15 holidays that I do that are
already made at the beginning ofthe year, so that's 12, 15
posts.
Right, make it as a post, shareit as a story.
You've got a little content.
Keeps your followers engaged inyour brand.
This is the stuff that we needto do to get in front of our
competition.
Now, moving on, when you'reputting this content out,
(22:26):
remember this represents yourbrand.
It is so important to show ifyou order.
I mean, let me give you anexample.
I know this guy and he can do aremodel of a kitchen so
beautifully when you're inperson and he's done it.
(22:49):
It is really a sight to see andit is beautiful when he takes a
picture and sends it out to aclient or sends it out and is
showing it to potential clientsor just sharing it on his
Facebook page.
The pictures are absolutelygarbage and do no justice.
(23:10):
Something as simple as justtaking a towel and wiping his
lens and cleaning it would begreat for his photos.
It is so foggy you can't see it.
It's blurry, low light Doesn'topen any windows.
These are the things that, asbusiness owners, you need to
(23:32):
take a step back and, as you'replanning out your content
creation, remember that if youoffer a quality product, you
want your clients to see thatquality product.
So take a couple extra minutesat staging the area that you're
going to take the photo of, orat least make sure your camera
is doing its job.
Make sure the lighting looksgood.
(23:52):
This is important for yourcontent.
Before I get on to my nextsegment, if you will no, I'll
wrap this into my next segment,which is engaging with your
audience.
So from time to time, we wantto make sure well, I'm always
(24:13):
taking messages and likes andthings from my clients, but I
also want to engage with themthat I want them to continue to
follow my page, that they're notjust going to see boring.
Maybe videos that are helpfultips right, those are engaging
but I don't want them to getboring.
I want to know what my audiencewants.
Even in this podcast, I thinkI've ended almost every episode
(24:35):
of what do you want to hear fromme, or right into the show with
your questions, because I wantto engage with you.
I want to make sure you arebeing fulfilled on the content
that I am putting out there,right?
Just like it takes you time toput together a beautiful cake
for your business, if you're abakery, you're putting that
(24:57):
together, you're taking pictures.
You want to make sure that it'snot just going in front of
maybe one person and they'rejust swiping away or unfollowing
you later because that's allyou put out.
So we do some engaging content,we do challenges, we do.
I like to do random gift cardgiveaways, either Starbucks or
Visa gift cards.
It doesn't cost me a lot.
I mean I'll put together $25,$50 or $100.
(25:20):
Now, when we talk about adslater, ads can get expensive.
Now, on social media, you cantarget your audience, you can
target your city and by allmeans, that ad is pretty
inexpensive.
But sometimes I want moreorganic engagement from my local
community and I don't have aproduct that I can give away.
(25:41):
Now, for some reason, I keepbringing up a bakery today.
So if your business is a bakery, you could have a giveaway
where you gave away a cake oryou gave away something that
would engage your audience andyou could do that once a month
or once a quarter.
That is not going to cost you alot of money to do.
In my business I don't havesomething I can just give away
(26:03):
like that.
My services happen to be alittle bit more expensive and
unplanned A client never knowswhen it is going to happen.
So I have found that givinggift cards away and keeping my
audience engaged that way is agood little playful way.
And of course, they have tolike, they have to comment and
they have to follow, they haveto share.
(26:24):
So there's certain rules thatwe do and we do get maybe 50 or
100 different new followers onour business page that engage
with our business over time.
I will tell you this this is along-term play.
I am thinking of an examplethat I did, probably about four
years ago.
I did a gift card giveaway for$100.
(26:47):
And this lady followed me.
She shared, she did everythingshe was supposed to, she really
stood out and you know, thankgoodness she won right.
So we went out.
I personally delivered her thegift card and just said hey,
thanks for being a follower,make sure you stick around for
more.
She is engaged with almostevery piece of content that I
(27:10):
have put out there Now for aboutthree and a half years.
It never turned into any workIn my business.
I don't know when somebody isgoing to need me.
Well, her mother's place had aflooding and who did she refer?
It was us and we made thousandsand thousands of dollars on
(27:31):
that job, so that $100 gift cardwas the best money spent.
But I had to wait and there wasno guarantee that it was going
to work.
But I stayed present in herfeed and I gave her the content
that she that she wanted, right?
I gave her a reward forsubscribing and later we got
(27:51):
that referral.
So really leveraging youraudience, figuring out what's
going to work, what's not goingto work, is really going to be
on you.
What type of content or contest, excuse me, what type of
contest you're going to put outthere?
Ask questions, ask questions.
(28:12):
I'll occasionally go on and say, hey, what's everybody doing
this weekend?
And I'll get a good response.
I'm not looking to sell them abusiness or, excuse me, sell
them anything in my business.
I'm just asking them a questionof what they're going to do
over the weekend, but I'mkeeping them engaged and they're
remembering my business andthen, of course, share user
(28:34):
generated content.
So I think it's funny.
That's not funny, funny, but Imean we have these social media
influencers.
This is an actual thing.
This is.
This has come around in my area.
We have had our fair share ofsocial media influencers.
Um of all sizes use ourbusiness and, shamelessly, I
(28:55):
will say I know you're on socialmedia, would you mind giving us
a shout?
And then we get a little shoutout.
They'll create their ownpictures, their own video and
we'll get a shout out.
And I've probably asked I'veprobably had about 10 throughout
the years, and I want to sayyears, because it's probably
been about four or five that Ireally started picking up that
(29:17):
kind of social media.
If you would and probably fouror five of them have shared
content that goes out to a hugeaudience, and now there's just
more people engaging in myplatform.
Now I'm in California.
It doesn't mean no good ifsomebody subscribes in New York.
Well, it does, because that NewYork person might be engaging
(29:42):
with my content.
Now, while they're not herelocally, they're still engaging
with my content and you'd besurprised I had a.
I've had a couple instances onTikTok where I have kind of been
, because on TikTok my strategyis more of an informational
(30:02):
source and I have had peopleconsumers directly reach out to
me on TikTok questions on theirwater damage or fire damage and
I'm able to refer people to them.
Now it does not do anything forme other than show the industry
(30:24):
that I am somebody that can betrusted.
Therefore, if you have somebodyin your area, you can refer me.
So build alliances in yourindustry.
There are ways to monetize it.
I mean, I'm sure I could haveasked for a referral or a
kickback, something there.
I don't need it, I don't wantit.
(30:44):
But there's definitelystrategies there that you know,
depending on what your businessoffers that you can.
You know you can adapt to anationwide presence.
I can't.
Back to user-generated content.
So have those social mediainfluences.
You ever stumble across one,have them.
Have them give you a shout.
And again back to the bakeryexample.
(31:05):
It could be your mayor, yourcity council members, somebody
that that is just popular inyour community, and asking them
to share your business.
Remember, we're alwayspromoting ourselves.
Don't be ashamed to ask.
It is your business?
You think that you know, whenthese big corporations go out
and do something out of thekindness of their heart is
(31:27):
because they're doing it out ofthe kindness of their heart.
No, it's a branding.
It is a branding opportunityfor them, and they're always
consistently pushing themselvesto ask for different things.
So it doesn't hurt to just ask.
And then, of course, astestimonials come in, maybe a
Yelp review, maybe somebody wentout where your content comes
(31:47):
from, so you can streamline itand keep the flow on your
platform going, or thesedifferent platforms going is
(32:07):
super crucial.
Now, moving on, I want to talk alittle bit about the paid
advertising.
Now, paid advertising didactually work for me at one
point.
It occasionally will work.
I will throw ads on socialmedia.
I don't do a lot of ads onsocial media and I know a lot of
people that do, so I wouldimplore you to learn more about
(32:30):
social media ads if it's goingto work for your business.
It doesn't happen to reallywork for my business again,
unless we are in a catastrophicevent Excuse me For me, in a
catastrophic event.
That is an opportunity where Iknow that a lot of people in my
community could be dealing withthis service now because we just
(32:51):
had it.
So that's when we up our ads onsocial media and things like
that our town halls, ourengagement, that X that's when
we're really going after ourcommunity with our service hard.
I want to position myself frontand center, but back when I did
carpet cleaning, for example, Idid a lot of Instagram, not so
(33:14):
much Instagram Facebook.
I did a lot of Facebook with alittle bit of Instagram, a lot
of Facebook ads, and I had greatengagement and made a ton of
money off of Facebook at thetime.
And I know a lot of peopleutilize it HVAC companies,
plumbing companies so manydifferent people still utilize
Facebook and these different ads.
I would implore you to do thesame For me.
Right now, I decide, maybe oncea quarter I will go ahead and
(33:39):
take one of my better videosthat is maybe an informational
video and I will boost that tomy community and I will let it
run for a month.
I will put a couple hundreddollar budget behind it and
essentially it's just acommercial brand awareness.
Now there could be an argumentthat I could do that all the
time.
That all the time.
I truly don't see a massiveengagement off of that.
I think long-term for me, whereI want to allocate my budget
(34:08):
every single month towards it,so I don't do it.
I used to do Spotify ads.
Spotify ads back in the day forcarpet cleaning worked out,
never worked for water damage ormold.
So you really have to play withwhat's going to work best for
your business.
But you need a killer call toaction.
So you are spending money onsomebody clicking your ad or
viewing your ad.
You need to be able to retainthem.
(34:30):
And remember, if you'rebuilding a social media platform
and you're getting all of thisfree engagement organically by
clients checking into yourbusiness or coming in, you're
sharing all of this freeengagement organically by
clients checking into yourbusiness or coming in.
You're sharing all of thecontent.
You're doing those contests,you're building essentially a
free, organic audience in yourarea.
When you mix paid advertisingon top of that, now that's where
(34:53):
obviously you're spending moneyon getting those impressions
and views and clicks and callsand all that good stuff.
So having that organic presencealso helps that.
What's the word I'm looking for?
It's on the tip of my tongue,but it's cost per acquisition.
(35:13):
So if your cost per acquisitionwas $30 because you're running
ads.
I like to sum it up when I havean organic strategy, if I have
my organic on top of my paid adsand I can reasonably, let's say
, hey, my cost per acquisitionis now $15.
I can reasonably calculate that.
Well then, I've drive that costdown as well.
(35:35):
Well then, I've drive that costdown as well.
So, definitely, using a paidadvertising platform or ads on
your content is a totally goodstrategy.
Just make sure you're makingmoney back on it immediately.
I definitely for me, I wouldargue for myself and my business
that I'm not willing toproactively put out my content
(36:00):
for my business over and, overand over again and spend
hundreds and hundreds andhundreds and thousands and
thousands of dollars on havingmy content go out to an audience
that is deaf ears.
Now, it is a long-term strategy.
I could be building brandawareness.
There is an argument there, butI feel like the branded, the
brand awareness that I'mbuilding right now, is free, and
(36:22):
then I fire up the ads asneeded.
Now for you, you might be ableto specifically and again, we're
going to we're just going to gowith a bakery on this episode.
Right, I've been using a bakery, a small business bakery as an
example.
We'll continue that on thisepisode.
But you might be able to go outand pick a specific demographic
(36:42):
that you might find is going tobe getting married or maybe is
going to have an event, maybe acorporate event, something there
and you can specifically dialin your target audience to match
the customers that you need,audience to match the customers
that you need.
(37:02):
So you've really got to playaround with these different
budgets and different techniques.
There is not a one size fitsall.
I think that what is sofrustrating, what is so
frustrating as being a smallbusiness owner is everybody has
their handout.
You can literally spendmillions of dollars without
people delivering.
They will take a plumbingbusiness and a gardening
(37:24):
business and they will say, hey,you go to a media agency and
they will say or wherever you go, and they'll say, hey, this
works really good for thegardeners, this really works
good for plumbers and thisreally works good for bakeries.
And they're not understandingthat it is three separate
businesses and each one of thoseare unique.
Now, generally, ads will work,social media will work, websites
(37:45):
will work, but every businessis its own niche market.
So you, as a business owner,need to play with your budget
and need to play with what works.
The stuff that works for mybusiness may not work for your
business.
Matter of fact, it's probablynot going to work for your
business.
Every single business isdifferent and I think when you
(38:08):
start realizing that you want tostand out from that crowd and
be unique because you are yourown business and you are unique
you will find your own targetaudience that engages with you
and you will figure out theniche and the content that you
need to put out.
But you have to start and youhave to start immediately.
Stop putting it off.
(38:29):
There are so many people outthere right now that are
capturing your leads becausethey're doing social media.
You just need to do it, andjust do it a little bit better.
Going on to a story that is notnecessarily a social media
(38:56):
strategy.
As far as paid ads or a socialmedia strategy, that is me
putting out content, it's asocial media ad or strategy on
just being a part of a communityand not being afraid of
competition.
Here's what I mean by that.
I always say I say that theolder generation, when they
(39:18):
started a business, let's saythey were very a competitor is a
competitor and I don't wantanything to do with that
competitor.
And now, by all means, Idefinitely have competitors out
there that still believe that.
But a lot of competitors that Iwork with I am a resource,
(39:38):
believe that.
But a lot of competitors that Iwork with I am a resource and I
found that very, very early onin business that I can actually
help out other businesseslocally and it actually makes me
money.
Now I unintentionally took thatto social media.
So, whatever your niche is, ifyou're a plumber, join a plumber
(39:59):
Facebook group, join adiscussion forum.
If you're a gardener, join agardener discussion forum or
Facebook group.
Multiple.
Figure out what your industryhas.
Facebook is a huge resource forthis and there are so many.
I mean, in my field I probablyhave 10 or 15 pages that I
belong to.
Now I go on and I engage those.
(40:21):
I happen to like to answerquestions, I share photos.
Maybe I'll ask a question, butI consistently engage with the
competition.
Slowly, as you're engaging withthe competition, I mean, and
they're no threat to me, I'm inone area, they're across the
nation.
We become friends, we starttalking back and forth and I
(40:43):
have made some very good friendsthrough that Facebook group.
Matter of fact, I'm thinking ofone that I decided to go to.
I actually went to a differentstate for a huge, catastrophic
event that we had had and one ofthe competitors that I had been
(41:04):
engaging with for a couple ofyears at this point, and again,
there's no strategy here otherthan just being a nice guy and
answering questions and slowlyyou build friendships.
So I went to this state, thatparticular guy, once he knew I
(41:25):
was in that state and his statestarted referring me a ton of
work because he knew I was thereand it made me hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
I literally spent no money onthat, answered some questions
that I knew the answer to,became a friend and it
(41:49):
ultimately put money in mypocket.
And that story didn't justhappen once.
It's happened a few times wherepeople know hey, I live in
Mississippi, but I have a familymember that lives in your area
and they're experiencing thisand I need somebody quality oh
(42:11):
cool, here's a couple thousanddollars there, just having a
good rapport with my competitionon social media.
So that could be a great socialmedia strategy for you as well.
Depending on your niche and youknow what you offer, that could
be a great strategy.
It has worked very, very, verynicely for me.
(42:36):
Don't get complacent on yoursocial media.
Don't give up.
It is hard, it is not fun,right?
Us business owners?
We wear a thousand differenthats.
Have somebody in your officehelp you.
I know that I have people in myoffice that have downtime.
I have so many people doingdifferent things that I have
(43:01):
people that are paid to sit infront of a computer and answer
phones and do clerical work.
Social media can be theirclerical work.
You need to teach it to themthe right way.
But there are a lot of peoplethat like going on social media
and putting stuff out.
So you'd be surprised at howmany people would jump up at the
opportunity to help yourbusiness out.
But don't get complacent.
You have to continuously pushit.
(43:21):
Remember long-term game onorganic growth, brand awareness
and just having your socialmedia game on point versus your
ads.
That is something completelydifferent.
But assign it to somebody,don't get burned out.
Different, but assign it tosomebody.
Don't get burned out.
And when you start gettingburned out because I'll speak to
(43:47):
you as the business owner thatknows of I can handle this.
I can post on every platformwhen you really start getting
your content game down andyou're frustrated that you have
to create a post and you'refrustrated that you have to post
it at a certain time and thenyou have to go through and do it
through all the differentsocial medias.
Yeah, you don't want to burnyourself out, so start asking
for help, start saying, hey,office manager, if you see
(44:11):
client testimonials or whateverit is, grab me a couple pictures
and screenshots of that.
Post that to the social media.
This is what I want it to looklike.
Now, going over to the exampleof my before and after pictures
For me, I have estimators thatsee those pictures often, so I
have told them hey, when you seereally good photos that are
taken, go ahead and get thoseover to me for social media
(44:32):
posting.
They don't have access to oursocial media.
This is now creating more of anautomation to me.
They're writing descriptions,they're doing the legwork, so
don't get burned out.
I don't want you to spend thefirst couple months engaging
everybody and getting burnt outon social media and then
(44:53):
completely walking away and youhave a blank social media.
I don't want that to happen.
This is huge for your businesswalking away and you have a
blank social media.
I don't want that to happen.
This is huge for your business.
So some final thoughts.
Social media is a powerful tool.
Understanding your audience iskey and not being burned out as
(45:17):
a business owner is huge.
So leverage what you do and howyou do it right so you can be
successful.
Guys, I don't know what I'mdoing here.
I have experienced business.
(45:38):
I've experienced the ups, thedowns and I've helped a lot of
people out by just giving themanswers to what I already know.
And I don't know a lot.
I'm still learning, just likeyou.
We all are consistentlylearning, and I never want to
stop learning.
But I know what's important isto put this show on to more
(45:59):
listeners.
So I beg you, please drop me acomment in the comment section.
What do you want to hear movingforward on these episodes?
What stands out to you aboutthis episode?
Make sure you follow us.
Please subscribe to us onwhatever platform you're on.
(46:20):
I really appreciate theengagement and it does show me,
hey, this is working and thereare people that are finding this
valuable, because, at the endof the day, that's what I'm
trying to do.
I'm so sick and tired ofeverybody trying to sell us
something when, at the end ofthe day, we just want real
answers on how to grow ourbusiness.
And I will go over as much as Ican.
(46:43):
If I don't know an answer toyour question, I will find
somebody that does, or I will doa ton of research and bring it
to you and say, hey, this iswhat people have done and I'd
love to have people on my showas well.
So thank you for being here,thank you for listening this far
(47:03):
.
As mentioned, I am JonathanWagner, and this was another
episode of the Business Guide.
We'll see you on the next one.
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