Up next in 10
Discover the best social media marketing secrets and expert tips for small businesses in this exclusive interview with Deborah E, a renowned media expert and the mastermind behind Social Web Cafe. In this video, we uncover hidden strategies and reveal valuable insights on how to optimize your social media presence, grow your community, and boost your brand's visibility.
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Introduction
(01:21) - Can social media marketing help small businesses?
(02:13) - How to get started with social media marketing
(03:52) - Best social media channels for small businesses
(05:25) - Creating a social media marketing strategy
(08:19) - Building a community on social media
(10:21) - Social media marketing costs
(11:50) - What to avoid posting on social media
(13:27) - Closing thoughts
If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur looking to leverage the power of social media marketing, this video is a must-watch! Learn from the best as Deborah E shares her expertise and personal experiences in the industry, guiding you through the process of developing a successful social media strategy.
In this video, we cover a wide range of topics, including:
How to choose the right social media platforms for your business
The importance of being engaged and consistent on social media
Tips for creating a social media marketing strategy and calendar
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0:00
first time I heard of anything social
0:02
media was Facebook and I have to admit
0:03
it was in the financial industry and I
0:06
was like seriously you're on Facebook
0:07
you know get back to your desk I have to
0:09
admit you know they're about 10 years
0:10
younger it's like get back to your desk
0:12
do your financial analysis and you know
0:15
pay attention to your work what are you
0:16
doing on this little little you know
0:18
screen and you should be working but
0:21
then I got assigned to do the social
0:24
media for the company and I thought
0:25
you're not you're not serious a
0:27
financial company in Los Angeles and you
0:29
want to be on social media so
0:31
um and I think you probably read this in
0:33
some of my responses on the the
0:34
discussion um that we recently had
0:36
Mastermind and I'll let you advertise
0:38
that you know more about the Mastermind
0:40
than I do but um the the pr company that
0:44
we'd hired and it was like what ten
0:46
thousand dollars I'm not gonna say the
0:47
name because I'm not going to connect
0:48
the the fee with the company so release
0:50
some anonymity there but
0:52
um like ten thousand dollars a month
0:54
they were next door so I was able to at
0:56
least you know walk over there take a
0:58
break from all the the it's really
1:00
stressful you probably know Wall Street
1:01
the whole thing even if it is Los
1:03
Angeles but still a Wall Street attitude
1:05
but went next door and I learned
1:07
basically
1:09
I shouldn't say everything because
1:10
there's always something to learn about
1:12
social media but I was able to go over
1:14
there for like an hour at a time sit
1:16
down and they're like Deb you've got to
1:18
get this company on LinkedIn I'm like
1:20
what huh what's what's LinkedIn
1:23
[Music]
1:29
I'm Sean hessinger and this is small Biz
1:32
in 15 the show where we bring you small
1:34
business news and tips to make your
1:36
small business better today Deborah e
1:39
media expert extraordinaire at Social
1:41
Web Cafe discusses what you don't know
1:44
about social media marketing so Deborah
1:47
I have a small business I'm not using
1:49
social media at all I can even use
1:51
social media to Market a small business
1:53
I was gonna say if someone came to me
1:55
and said that my easy answer me get on
1:57
Twitter and just start tweeting as far
1:58
as your your question on where do I
2:00
start for me personally I just jumped in
2:03
as soon as they said here's a list of
2:05
you know the places that you need to
2:07
learn I just went home and I started you
2:09
know if I didn't know what it was which
2:10
is pretty easy Twitter twitter.com
2:13
Facebook facebook.com you know added.com
2:15
to a lot of them of course now there's
2:18
countless places as far as you know
2:21
could qualify as social media but I
2:24
started getting the company
2:25
online in social media started you know
2:28
getting the brand out there getting the
2:30
logo out there you know wrote up the and
2:33
that's the thing is you got to be
2:34
prepared with your your little bio if
2:36
you're if you're an entrepreneur or you
2:39
know a one-person entity a small
2:41
business your your personal bio your
2:44
company you know the the well it's still
2:46
a bio as far as the company and get that
2:49
bio out there at all these different
2:51
places for me personally I believe in
2:53
having a presence
2:55
everywhere that doesn't mean that you're
2:57
spend if you actually went out there and
3:00
worked social media in all of the places
3:03
you'd never have time to go to the
3:05
bathroom I mean
3:06
I tried that and I have several websites
3:09
and several brands
3:10
no it's not it I don't think it's
3:13
possible at least not to do it well so
3:15
you know pick your favorites but and
3:17
that might be that's a future question
3:18
but
3:19
I think you just have to jump in really
3:21
truly and maybe spend some time figuring
3:25
out which one works for you
3:27
but research and watch what other people
3:30
are doing and don't spend too much time
3:33
watching and waiting just jump in both
3:36
feet and and start doing it I think
3:38
Twitter is one of the easier ones to get
3:40
a feel for interacting with people if
3:43
you don't know what you're doing but
3:44
after that you know try some of the
3:46
others like LinkedIn Facebook some of
3:48
the others there's not going to be a
3:50
straight answer to this but I'll ask it
3:51
anyway because it'll probably provoke
3:53
some conversation on the subject what is
3:55
the best social media channel for small
3:57
business or is there one or does it
3:59
depend on your business or does it
4:02
depend on your style Maybe
4:04
I think it's the last two I think it
4:06
depends on your business your niche
4:09
where's your audience hanging out
4:10
that'll be my question because you
4:12
really want to go to where your audience
4:14
is but also it depends on your style
4:16
like personally
4:18
um I don't do a lot of interaction it's
4:20
not the same type of interaction on
4:22
YouTube but I really love YouTube I took
4:26
a little bit of a break from YouTube to
4:28
I thought that going to get my doctorate
4:30
would be a fun thing to do
4:31
um I think a lot of things are fun
4:32
things to do but
4:35
um as far as interacting I do probably
4:37
more of that on Facebook and Twitter and
4:39
that would be more that that last one
4:41
his first style and I tend to just and I
4:44
see a lot of people going through their
4:46
you know adhering to their style because
4:48
it's it's where's our passion where's
4:50
our where's that interaction very
4:51
natural where do we find our friends and
4:54
you know that sort of thing but I I
4:55
really think
4:56
the best answer is that third one that I
4:59
think it was the third one well the
5:00
second to the last one the what's the
5:03
best one for your business where if
5:05
you're looking to make money so
5:06
especially which one fits your Niche
5:09
which ones fits your business
5:12
now my the pr firm told me LinkedIn but
5:15
that makes sense financial industry
5:16
LinkedIn
5:18
that was the best bit how do I create a
5:21
a social media marketing strategy for my
5:24
business now this is something that you
5:27
know you read about increasingly that
5:29
you're supposed to have a strategy and
5:31
whether we're talking about a strategy a
5:33
calendar a schedule whatever the heck
5:36
so how would you advise a person to
5:39
create a strategy I mean how formal does
5:42
it happen you think that one really
5:43
comes down you know earlier you said
5:44
about style I think that comes down to a
5:46
personal what clicks with each person
5:48
and how they approach things in general
5:50
like for instance my friend Josh over at
5:53
post planner he's got a wonderful app
5:55
and I'm going to put a pitch no he's not
5:57
paying me wait I might be an affiliate
5:59
I'll put that in there but I don't I
6:01
don't even know anyway wonderful program
6:03
but
6:05
um no offense to Josh it doesn't click
6:07
with me like I'm not intuitive with this
6:09
app but I think his app I'm weird so I
6:12
think his app is probably probably works
6:14
for like 90 of people out there so as
6:16
far as putting together a plan his app
6:18
is kind of built in a way that you could
6:20
create your own plans so to speak I
6:24
can't say much beyond that because like
6:25
I said I don't use it because it's not
6:26
intuitive for me personally but you know
6:29
it works really well and it's a new find
6:31
is the um downloadable calendar on small
6:35
Biz trends that was just that link and I
6:39
don't I don't have the link in front of
6:41
me but um what is it it's available via
6:43
Excel I just looked at was that two
6:45
weeks ago but it's really good I really
6:47
like it I was going to try to implement
6:49
it
6:50
um what I use personally and again this
6:52
comes down to style and I'm weird and
6:54
I'm the other 10 percent
6:55
I used an app called FileMaker I don't
6:58
know if anyone's heard of it it used to
7:00
be really popular and people think oh is
7:02
it still around yes it's still around
7:03
still going strong I'm a developer so I
7:06
do programming yes the weird you know
7:08
like CEC plus you know the whole all
7:10
that so I actually developed my own
7:12
program I developed my calendar like
7:14
I'll look at a regular calendar figure
7:16
out when I want things to show up
7:19
and that's where it deviates from like
7:21
what you can download what we're just
7:23
talking about as far as Excel I would
7:25
actually take the um not to copy it but
7:27
I mean that idea as far as figuring out
7:29
the frequency of how often you want to
7:32
post on which channels and then I
7:34
program it into the FileMaker so it will
7:36
pop up and it'll make it ask me
7:39
questions and then it's like oh what do
7:41
you want to do here and then I'll have
7:42
it feed into the different channels and
7:45
then it'll spit out and it'll say Okay
7:46
Deb post this here post this and and
7:48
then I have it print out reports so if
7:50
I'm doing it for a client I actually
7:52
have the report that I can send the
7:54
client okay like I said I'm weird I do
7:56
everything programmatically that's what
7:57
I do do I recommend it to other people
8:00
no because explaining how to do it would
8:03
probably have me pulling my hair out so
8:05
um instead go visit the site and
8:08
download that that Excel spreadsheet is
8:10
really a great way to start
8:13
um there's some other people just to be
8:14
fair I've seen some other
8:17
um downloadable
8:18
similar like spreadsheets things like
8:20
that that's a great place to start if
8:22
you can even start with like free
8:23
templates like that and kind of morph it
8:26
into something that works for you how do
8:28
you build a community on social media
8:31
because I that's what's going to create
8:34
engagement and hopefully bringing
8:36
customers and people were coming again
8:39
and again how do you how do you do that
8:42
what what advice would you give to
8:44
people uh to do that the advice is be
8:46
engaged be relational and be engaged I
8:49
had a lot of fun doing that for Anne
8:50
smarty
8:52
um I had to going way back I had to beg
8:54
her to start a Twitter chat and she's
8:57
like Twitter why you know why would I
8:58
want to do that I'm like no you really
9:00
want to start a Twitter chat and this is
9:01
back when she was um my blog guest
9:04
for a glorified year I was her community
9:06
manager and I loved it because it was a
9:08
matter of getting up every day and
9:10
interacting with the my blog guest
9:12
community and it it was you know choose
9:15
your social media channels because again
9:16
you can't be everywhere all the time I
9:18
was one person but I that was back when
9:21
Google Plus was around that was a great
9:23
platform to interact so we had our
9:26
groups everything Google Plus um we had
9:28
a Facebook group and
9:31
um that one we did a monthly Let's see
9:34
we did a weekly hangout and then we did
9:36
a monthly like kind of a wrap up Hangout
9:38
I did a podcast for her I would check in
9:41
with people so I was always like you
9:42
know checking hey do you want to be on
9:44
the podcast do you want I mean similar
9:45
to what we see now everyone has a
9:47
podcast
9:49
um everyone there's a lot but it was
9:50
newer back then in the 2013 so that was
9:53
really something and it's like oh wow I
9:54
can be on your podcast you know now it's
9:56
like oh you know I have a podcast kind
9:58
of thing but back then it was just it
10:01
was it was newness at that point and you
10:04
know there's still aspects where people
10:06
can create that Innovative Edge so you
10:08
know maybe that's a third item find that
10:10
Innovative Edge but then stay engaged
10:14
you know okay fourth item I'm just
10:15
making this so I didn't I didn't prepare
10:18
this ahead of time but consistency so be
10:20
engaged relational Innovative Edge and
10:22
consistency and
10:25
um maybe if a fifth be committed to
10:27
those four things you know you gotta
10:29
really you can't just say you can't do
10:30
what I did and decide you're gonna go
10:32
for a doctorate for three years and say
10:34
oh sayonara I'm gonna you know I'll come
10:36
back in three years and then we'll see
10:38
if we can just refresh all this I'm
10:40
redoing it and I'm kind of coming back
10:42
to what I was doing in 2013. wow that
10:45
was 10 years ago now well anyway I'm
10:47
coming back to it unfortunately I can
10:49
just apply the a similar formula and say
10:52
what works what doesn't work and and I
10:54
don't mind
10:55
redoing that relaunching if you will but
10:58
um I don't recommend doing what I do I
11:00
do it for the fun of it as far as
11:02
Reinventing myself or whatever
11:05
um now stay committed if this is
11:07
something you want to build a community
11:08
stay committed how much does it cost to
11:11
Market on social media we know that the
11:14
platforms themselves at least at some
11:16
level a lot of them are free
11:19
but you have to spend time or you have
11:22
to spend money for somebody to spend
11:24
time maybe I've lived too long in LA but
11:27
I think you should probably budget if
11:30
you can for like 500 as kind of your
11:32
play money if you will
11:34
that it's possible that that's at least
11:37
initially to build your community that
11:39
that's money that you may not that may
11:41
not be an investment that may be an
11:43
expense as far as whether you're paying
11:46
somebody that might be somebody you've
11:47
already hired virtual assistant that you
11:49
say hey now I need you you know half
11:51
your time is going to be spent on social
11:52
media maybe they're already doing it but
11:54
as far as your cost it's got to come
11:57
from somewhere you know for me
11:59
personally if I see something that's a
12:01
repetitive task I'm a programming but
12:03
it's taking time for me to program it so
12:06
nothing comes for free like you said
12:08
already it's it's going to be your time
12:10
your effort or your money it's hard to
12:12
judge as far as the cost of services or
12:15
the cost of va or the cost of things
12:17
online
12:19
um I think 100 is a minimum and 500 is a
12:22
reasonable and that's why I called it
12:23
play money if you want to just be able
12:25
to kind of kick back and money is not a
12:27
concerned and you want to be able to
12:30
hire people or pay for services or you
12:33
know whatever it is
12:34
500 is a reasonable play amount with
12:38
buffer you know what should you avoid
12:41
posting on social media of course
12:43
this is a business there's probably
12:45
things you shouldn't post on your
12:47
personal account either but uh from a
12:50
business standpoint I mean what kinds of
12:53
things because people say be
12:55
entertaining be funny be whatever what
12:57
kind of things do you need to avoid
12:58
posting
13:00
I think you know again it depends on
13:02
what your brand is if you're Howard
13:04
Stern
13:06
um the answer that's different so I
13:09
think the answer to that one is first
13:11
you find on your brand
13:12
and what your brand will handle but
13:14
um avoid kind of the obvious don't bully
13:17
don't
13:18
um pick in any people groups don't you
13:20
know anything like that that would be
13:23
um bring a fence to anyone I think
13:25
that's kind of the easy answer and which
13:27
is similar I think to personal too if
13:29
you don't want someone coming after you
13:30
and saying that you offended me blah
13:32
blah blah don't do that in your brand
13:33
well that's it for another episode of
13:35
small business 15. thanks again to
13:37
Deborah e please like And subscribe if
13:40
you enjoyed the show and please leave a
13:42
comment and let us know what topics
13:44
you'd like to see covered in future
13:45
programs more small business news and
13:48
tips join us at smallbiztrends.com
13:55
thank you
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