Intro and 3 Social Media Growth Tips

UX Marketing

[00:00:00] Hey there, and welcome to the micro influencer podcast. This is Blake. I am the host of the show. I have hosted several podcasts in the past, and I am excited to get back into it on my own, and I'm going to be interviewing people like you. I want a podcast that's made for people. By people that are actually going through the same things as the audience.

[00:00:31] So the purpose of this is that you're going to learn how to grow your audience, grow your business, market a product, build out your services. You're going to learn how to do. All these things and so many more in between and outside of that from people that are either currently doing it or have just done it as opposed to people.

[00:00:52] You know, we're not going to have Gary Vaynerchuk on here anytime soon talking about how you can build your social media following because [00:01:00] he's got amazing advice and you should follow people like that. But the reality is that if you follow people that are just a level above you or on the same level, even, you'll learn so much more in that moment than if you try to hold yourself to a standard of somebody that has had a personal videographer for 15 years.

[00:01:18] We're going to learn together from experts, from amateurs, from, you know, anybody that has something to teach based on failure or experiments or successes in influence. So whether it's, you know, building a website and getting traffic there, or growing a social media following so many different subjects, real people are going to be helping out you real people.

[00:01:42] So today. Now that we understand what this is going to be, I want to start things off there. Was this typically going to be an interview podcast, but I will often do solo episodes when I have really tactical advice that's top of [00:02:00] mind, and today I want to start this off with. Three tips to grow your social media.

[00:02:05] And again, this is to grow realistically and sustainably. This is not three tips to explode your Instagram by doing follow on follow or other things that technically work for getting your vanity metrics up, but they don't drive business and they're not sustainable. Meaning if you just shut off the program or stop paying for it, it's not going to work.

[00:02:25] We're going to talk about things that are real, which means they're going to take more work and more time. And if you're okay with that. This is for you, and it's going to work as we work together. So for today, three tips to grow on social media. If you're trying to fast track your Facebook, larger fire, LinkedIn, grow your gram, take on Twitter, whatever you're trying to do, I have three actionable tips today that will help you grow.

[00:02:54]. You can trust me on these things because I feel a lot in my experiments to learn [00:03:00] these things and I'm still learning them. So again, if you look me up on social media anywhere. You're going to see that I'm not a huge influencer, and that is by design that I'm doing this podcast right now because I have every bit as much to learn, and this is a great platform for me to learn on.

[00:03:16] Not just regurgitate information, but I also sometimes learn things that I want to share with other people, just like I do that from others. So here they are. Number one, steal your competitors' gold. Mine. So let's say for example, you're in a boring industry. You're trying to build a following in like insurance or finance or marketing, something that normal people consider boring.

[00:03:42] Now, what I want you to do is take a full week to examine other players in this space. Compile notes on what everyone else is doing, whether you want to do it in a spreadsheet. I love spreadsheets. I think it's a really clean way to gather information. Basically, keep a journal of any patterns that you [00:04:00] notice that seem to be working for other people.

[00:04:02] Right now, I want you to focus on the positive. What's working for these competitors or other people in your niche. You're definitely not going to reuse their content, but I want you to pay attention to the following. Different kinds of things. Post structure hashtags they use. The linking conventions that they use, whether they put links in their posts or in the comments or no links ever, their use of imagery, video, audio, the kind of call to actions that they use, pay attention to all these little details, these matter.

[00:04:35] Each one on their own isn't going to boost your social media. You know, it's not going to explode it, but when you put them all together over time, that will consistently put you in position. To have great posts all the time. So if you put in the work and notice these patterns, these can help you. So step number one is solidifying what you think you could do based on those patterns [00:05:00] and what you learned from others that you could do, that you could implement and make this concrete in your marketing strategy.

[00:05:05] Why don't you to write it down and use these regularly. Be consistent with it. I would recommend starting by analyzing competitors that are just a notch above where you are now. So if you're listening to this and you have zero followers, try researching people that have 2000 followers. If you have 2000 followers, try five.

[00:05:24] If you have 5,000 followers, look at people who have 10 et cetera. Just keep going up a little bit to that next level, whatever you perceive that to be. If you're already a massive influencer, look at somebody that's, that's a notch above you, but don't just make the skip from saying, I have zero followers.

[00:05:41] I'm going to look at what Gary Vaynerchuk is doing and copy it because it's not going to work. And the reason why is Gary Vaynerchuck's content now is different than his content was when he had zero followers. That's very, you can go back and look, he's documented a ton of this. It's different. You can't really compare you [00:06:00] to somebody that has 20 million followers.

[00:06:02] It's not going to happen. The contents different. He has so many more resources. You have to be lean right now. You need to be researching people that are succeeding with a lean budget and a similar strategy to you. So don't go too far above where you're already currently at when you're looking for inspiration.

[00:06:19] All right. Number two, zag as hard as possible. Using research you compiled on competitors, figure out what they are not doing. It's every bit as valuable as finding out what's actually working for them.

[00:06:32] If you notice that other people in your niche aren't posting videos. Whip out the camera. If the imagery is pretty basic or it's not attractive in the competitors' feeds, and you notice that, take advantage of that. Focus more on design than they do. Make your photos more attractive. Make them stand out.

[00:06:49] You'll instantly become a better follow if you are unlike anything that the other typical browsers on social media are seeing. So on LinkedIn, for example, you can [00:07:00] zag by being more vulnerable and personal on Facebook and Twitter. You could post funny niche-related videos on Instagram. You could do a podcast entirely in Instagram live.

[00:07:11] You could do all kinds of creative outside the box, things that stand out because nobody's seen them happening. It seems like this is a big undertaking to find something that's never been done, and you don't even necessarily have to keep that as the criteria that it's never been done before. You can copy a little elements of what other people do, but if you just really start analyzing this stuff and what other people aren't doing, you can come up with an idea of how you can differentiate, but if you don't differentiate, you're going to get lost.

[00:07:40] Number three, deposit 90% and withdraw 10% our natural inclination on social media is to do the least amount of work to get the largest amount of likes, and that doesn't work. That's, that should be pretty obvious to everybody. That does not work. If you follow the 90 10 framework, you'll [00:08:00] notice a palpable difference in a month.

[00:08:02] So for example, in three months you'll feel real momentum. In six months, you'll see your numbers starting to grow consistently. In a year, people will know your name, they will know who you are. But what is the framework? So basically there are two simple rules to it. Number one, make sure that 90% of your content is free, valuable, actionable, and helpful.

[00:08:24] It's not promotional, it's not asking for anything at all. It is giving away knowledge that you have. So if you're a marketer, for example. Do what I'm doing right now. Give away everything that you're learning. Give away free advice that normally you could charge for. Don't charge for it. It's way more valuable to give it away.

[00:08:43] Number two, allow 10% of your content to be promotional or ask for something. So obviously social media doesn't really benefit you in the long run if you're not gonna make money off of it. And people know that. They know that they are customers at some point. So whether you're building on an email list or your social [00:09:00] media following, whatever it is.

[00:09:01] Eventually the goal is to have them buy something from you. So you do need to be promotional sometimes, but be tactical about it. And don't let more than 10% of your content be asking for something. When you take out too many withdrawals from people, you're eventually going to be in debt to them. Whereas if you are continually depositing and depositing and saving up that equity.

[00:09:24] Then when you make the withdrawal, it hardly makes a dent. In fact, people are willing to give back to you so much more because they've never even seen you ask for anything. So that, that's a common principle. It's not earth shattering. But if you do make nine times as many deposits or valuable content as you do withdrawals or asking for something, you will grow.

[00:09:43] End of story. There's no question that is a realistic tried and true proven way to grow. So that is it for the three tips today. Again, on a recap, those number one, to grow on social media, steal your competitor's gold mine. Number [00:10:00] two, zag as hard as possible. And number three, deposit 90% withdraw 10%. Now.

[00:10:08] Until next time, please share the podcast with your friends, with your neighbors, with coworkers, with anybody that's, that you know is openly trying to work on a side project or a side hustle or that has that entrepreneurial spirit. This is a great podcast and community to be a part of, to learn real ways to take the next step.

[00:10:27] It's not about going from zero to a million. It's about going from zero to one from one to two. But if you do it that way. By the time it's all said and done. We can be a past that million. It's just about being consistent, realistic, and hardworking throughout, and we can do that together. So please invite other people, encourage them.

[00:10:48] That's all I have for now. Again, my name is Blake Emal. I am the host of the micro-influencer podcast, and I hope that you enjoy this. I hope you'll share it. I hope it'll bring value to you, and if at any point it stops bringing value [00:11:00] to you, please. Tell me and I will shut it down. So thank you. Have a great rest of your day.

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