Lindsay - do I need social media to build my business
[00:00:00] Lindsay: Social media is a fabulous tool for building your business. However, as with all tools, you have to know how to use it and you have to ask yourself if it's the right tool for the job. The alternative SEO friendly content. So SEO friendly content like blogs and YouTube videos often far out perform social media posts. They continue to drive organic traffic for weeks, months, and years after your original social media post has a long since been forgotten.
[00:00:30] Welcome to the work, less play more podcasts for busy entrepreneurs who are ready to ditch the hustle. Stop burning on busy work and get back to having a life. My name's Lindsay Johnson, AKA The Radical Connector, and I spent the last 10 years teaching first time entrepreneurs, how to get customers and make money.
[00:00:50] Listen in, as I chat with other hustle, recovering business owners, as we share our top tips, for you guessed it working less and playing more. Let's do this.[00:01:00] .
[00:01:02] Lindsay: Do I really need, social media to build a business online? Friends, what would happen in your business if you ditched social media? The question on so many service-based entrepreneurs minds these days is do I need social media to build my business?
[00:01:20] Lindsay: My answer, it depends. Did you think I was going to give you a yes or no answer? Come on friends. You should know me by now. First things first, let's get clear on a very important business rule. Every entrepreneur's business is different and will require different strategies for growth. Where you focus your marketing and sales efforts depends on several variables with the most important being, number one
[00:01:49] Lindsay: what type of business you have. Number two, who your customers are. Number three, where those potential customers consume content related to what [00:02:00] you sell. Number four, how they make buying decisions. And number five, what kind of content you love to create? That being said, social media has been a thorn in many entrepreneurs sides for years now.
[00:02:14] Lindsay: And it's one of the most common questions you all asked me, should I use social media for my business? By the way, the second, most common question on the opposite side of that same social media coin is can I start a business without social media?
[00:02:30] Lindsay: Should I use it? Do I really need it? And can my business grow without it? There is no doubt that busy entrepreneurs are sick and tired of spending hours, creating social media content, posting, engaging, or going live consistently every week. Add to that
[00:02:48] Lindsay: the never ending worry of which social media is best for your small business. Here's the reality, social media is a fabulous tool for building your business. However, as with all [00:03:00] tools, you have to know how to use it and you have to ask yourself if it's the right tool for the job. The alternative SEO friendly content. So SEO friendly content like blogs and YouTube videos often far out perform social media posts. They continue to drive organic traffic for weeks, months, and years after your original social media post has a long since been forgotten. In today's podcast, I'm going to share a super simple breakdown of the difference between social media and SEO friendly content
[00:03:31] Lindsay: so you can finally answer, do I need social media for my business? All right. Are you ready? Let's do this thing. Let's start with social media posts. What are some of the pros and cons of social media? Well, pro number one, they are great at building brand awareness.
[00:03:49] Lindsay: Social media allows you to create bite-sized pieces of content that showcase your brand, your personality, your expertise, and testimonials from happy customers. When the [00:04:00] right audience stumbles upon your account, you have the opportunity to entertain, educate, and engage with them in real time.
[00:04:07] Lindsay: Now did you know that social media can actually help your SEO rankings as well? I've got an article for you in the show notes called Seven Ways Social Media Can Improve Your SEO Results. So when you're done listening,
[00:04:18] Lindsay: make sure you go and read that. All right, number two, social media nurtures your existing audience and followers. Once your ideal customers have come into your world, no matter through which channel that is, you are able to continue to develop the know like trust factor with your regular social media posts lives and stories.
[00:04:38] Lindsay: Number three, it is a fabulous for networking and finding people to connect with. You want to think of social media, not as a medium for replacing connecting with people, but as a tool for finding the right people to connect with offline.
[00:04:53] Lindsay: Number four, it allows you to engage directly with your audience. You can host lives, ask questions, [00:05:00] respond to comments, and hop into the DMS. If you're active on social media and you have an engaged audience, you'll get ample opportunities to engage directly with them. Number five cool collaboration opportunities. Whether it's official brand partnerships, inviting guests to hang out on a live, guesting on other people's lives, hosting an online summit or panel, or really whatever you can think of social media is a great way to connect and collaborate with brands, creators, and leaders with a common goal, interest or audience.
[00:05:31] Lindsay: Can you see, can you see the potential for all its collaborations? All right, let's talk about some downsides. Downside. Number one, there is a shorter lifespan with social media content compared to SEO content. Posts are often forgotten and engagement drops off dramatically
[00:05:47] Lindsay: after the first 48 hours. Social media requires consistent and constant content creation. Say that three times fast. Number two, pay to play. Pay to play hurts new entrepreneurs with a [00:06:00] small budget. You're going to find that posts created by those with the biggest budgets, biggest audiences and biggest content teams to mass
[00:06:07] Lindsay: create content get prioritized. Number three, growing your audience requires consistent effort. And a lot of time spent on social media. Now this is where a lot of entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed or simply exhausted. Growing your audience and engagement on social media becomes burdensome when paired with all the other work that you have to put into growing your business.
[00:06:28] Lindsay: And then downside number four, let's get into a friend's free labor that profits the apps long before it profits you. You're going to spend a lot of time creating content for free while the apps themselves make a lot of money from your hard work. Yep. The more time you spend on the app posting and engaging the more money, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok make.
[00:06:51] Lindsay: And I don't know about you friends, but I am not working for free. And so I want to talk about SEO content at why that might be a better option for you.[00:07:00] So SEO content. SEO content is searchable on Google.
[00:07:03] Lindsay: It includes content like blogs and YouTube videos even this podcast, that are searchable on Google and have a specific location or page where people land. And because of that, it allows you to optimize it for SEO with keywords. Now, if you are like Lindsay, I have no idea what SEO really is. It's this buzzword people throw around, but what does it even mean?
[00:07:26] Lindsay: Again, I have a great article for you in the show notes where you can go read the 2022 Guide to Search Engine Optimization to understand what it is and how you can start applying it in your own content.
[00:07:36] Lindsay: Pro number two of SEO friendly content, you can have clickable links that drive traffic to your email list and website. Now, because there is a specific page that people land on when consuming your SEO friendly content, unlike social media, you are easily able to include clickable links so folks can sign up for your lead magnet,
[00:07:58] Lindsay: join your email [00:08:00] list, go to pages on your website and more. Now, I have a lot of content around lead magnets. I have a free workshop replay called Lead Magnet Love. I did a whole shtick a whole month on lead magnets and list building and content marketing through Instagram lives.
[00:08:16] Lindsay: So I have a bonuses page where you're going to be able to access all of those replays and all of the worksheets and templates and guides I created.
[00:08:23] Lindsay: I talk a lot about list-building, lead magnets, email marketing, and content marketing, because it is such an effective way to get customers, build your business, make money that takes some time, but doesn't cost a dime, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it. So if you are not sure how... to listen friends, if you're not here for the nerdiness, I don't know what to say...
[00:08:47] Lindsay: Okay, if you're not sure how to use lead magnets to build your email list. I do want you to go to the show notes. I have a How to Grow Your Email List with an Unforgettable Lead Magnet bonus page, where you'll be able to access a bunch of the things I just talked about.[00:09:00] All right, number three, SEO friendly content drives organic traffic to your website.
[00:09:06] Lindsay: And for those that aren't familiar with the term organic traffic, it means free. It means people found you because of your SEO, they were able to find you on Google and come to your site without paying for ads. When folks are looking for a product or service, they are searching on Google, not social media.
[00:09:23] Lindsay: Think about this who types in swim instructors near me or yoga poses for plus sized women on Instagram? They don't.
[00:09:31] Lindsay: Y'all don't. That gets put into Google. If you are creating SEO friendly content that focuses on the questions people are asking in to Google, your blog, YouTube video or website is more likely to come up at the top of those searches.
[00:09:47] Lindsay: Now I'm really excited about this one. If you need help writing an SEO friendly blog, I created a template for you called Anatomy of an SEO Friendly Blog. Go to our show notes and get it. I [00:10:00] use it every day. It is an amalgam of all the things that I have learned over the years from various folks and then trying various strategies.
[00:10:07] Lindsay: I'm pretty excited about it because if you're like me, I am a sucker for a step-by-step checklist, uh, instruction that gives me a template to follow. So I don't have to strain my brain every time I want to write a blog or create a YouTube video. So go to the show notes when we're done here and grab that template.
[00:10:23] Lindsay: Okay, pro number four, SEO content builds your subject matter authority. By creating blogs or YouTube videos that answer specific questions people are Googling you get to share your experience, your skills and your thought leadership and show your ideal customer that you are damn good at what you do.
[00:10:43] Lindsay: Number five, you can repurpose your SEO content for social media. Never run out of content ideas for social media again. You can turn your SEO content into dozens, if not hundreds of bite-sized social media posts or other assets to use as marketing and [00:11:00] sales tools.
[00:11:00] Lindsay: Pro number six, your SEO content has a longer life cycle than social media. Unlike social media, where that engagement and visibility drops off dramatically after 48 hours, your blogs, YouTube videos and podcasts will continue to show up in search results for weeks,
[00:11:16] Lindsay: months and years after you originally created them continuing to drive organic traffic to your website and build your email list.
[00:11:23] Lindsay: And then pro number seven, every single piece of content you create will continue to work for you for years to come. So remember how we talked about the downside of social media as that your doing a lot of content creating for free while apps are making money. Well, unlike social media, which requires constant content creation in order to stay relevant
[00:11:43] Lindsay: and in your audiences feed, ie. You become a slave to the algorithm and the content creation hamster wheel, and are forced to play by social media apps rules. Instead every single piece of SEO friendly content you create continues to work for you [00:12:00] online, even when you're not working.
[00:12:01] Lindsay: Now, if you don't know what content repurposing is, I have an article for you. Yes. I have tons of support and resources for you. I have an article for you called Why Every Smart Business Should be Repurposing Content in the show notes. Go and check that out. So let's get back to your original question.
[00:12:17] Lindsay: Do I need social media to grow my business? First, you need to decide what your goals are. Number one, do you want to be a social media influencer with a hundred thousand followers? Number two, do you want to be a content creator with a hundred thousand subscribers? Or number three,
[00:12:33] Lindsay: do you want to be a service-based entrepreneur with a hundred thousand dollars? Hint, there is no wrong answer. You just need to know which one you want to become. What are you working towards? Then, depending on your answer, you're going to want to focus on one of the following: One, if you want to be a social media influencer, you'll want to focus on creating, collaborating and engaging on social media.
[00:12:56] Lindsay: Yes, you are going to live there. Number two, if [00:13:00] you want to be a content creator, you'll want to focus on creating SEO friendly content based on key word research and use social media to repurpose your content and help your SEO. And then number three, if you want to be a service-based entrepreneur, you'll want to do both with a higher percentage of your time spent creating SEO friendly content,
[00:13:20] Lindsay: and then when you are on social media, you will want to spend more time engaging and collaborating and less time posting original content. SEO friendly content and social media posts are tools. And you need to make sure you're using the right tool in the right way for your job.
[00:13:37] Lindsay: Once you decide what you want to focus on growing, you can get clear on which strategy will best support your goals, social media, SEO content, or a combination of both. I hope that you found that helpful. I hope you got the answer you were looking for. Friends,
[00:13:52] Lindsay: good luck and happy creating.
[00:13:54] Lindsay: Thank you so much for joining me today. Remember to check out the show notes for all links to the resources that we [00:14:00] shared. Did you know that I have a 12 month coaching program with weekly group coaching on all things marketing, sales and business growth for first time, service-based entrepreneurs called Easier Entrepreneurship Club.
[00:14:13] Lindsay: If you've been working your buns off and not seeing the growth that you know is possible, you need to come join my club. It is the only 12 month program out there that teaches you real, actionable business skills that work with a business coach, me and a ridiculously fun community of entrepreneurs supporting you every step of the way.
[00:14:32] Lindsay: You can find out more at theradicalconnector.com/club Remember the life is not all about work and I want y'all working less and playing more. Friends, I will see you online.