We're thrilled to host the virtual book tour for SOCIAL LEADS: YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYBOOK TO GENERATING MORE LEADS IN THE NEXT 90 DAYS by Shay Banks. Scroll down to find out how you can pick up a copy of her book!
- How to get traffic to your social media pages for free
- What to do when you’ve tried everything on social media and you’re not getting results
- Example social media posts (with pictures) to help get your creative juices going
- Plus more!
Guest post from the Author, Shay Banks
The Inspiration Behind Social Leads: Your Social Media Playbook To Generating More Leads
By Shay Banks
“What should I post on social media?”
“My customers aren’t on social media, do I still need it for my business?”
“Social media is so confusing!”
These are the three most common questions and complaints I get about social media marketing. When I tell people what I do, Social Media Strategist, they instantly look at me like I’m a magician or witch. They search my business card for an easy button that will magically transform their social media pages into a lead generation machine.
And that’s why I wrote the book.
I wanted to take a little of the mystery out of social media marketing and provide some basic, simple, easy-peasy steps that any busy entrepreneur could take in order to turn their business into an entity that attracts leads automatically.
Listen, being a business owner myself, I know that keeping your lead pipeline full is the make or break for your business. Companies like Coco-Cola or Amazon can spend millions of dollars to generate leads and still break even or make a profit.
As a small business owner or solopreneur, you don’t have the same luxury.
If you spend $100, you need to see that $100 come back to you speedy quick. Which is why social media marketing, with all its flaws and inconsistencies, is one of the best marketing tools small business owners can leverage. (ahem, please notice I did not say it’s the ONLY tool you should leverage)
Think about it, over 70% of all consumers are on social media between 2-6 hours per day. Re-read that sentence and let it marinate.
Marketing 101 will tell you to “go where the people are.” Well, the peeps are on social media and if your business is NOT there, you won’t be in business for very long.
We live in an age now where your clients and customers want more access to you. They want to bond with you. They want to know you, what you stand for, what you believe, and why you do what you do.
It’s this interaction with you (or lack thereof) that compels them to buy from you or your competitor.
I understand that most business owners are busy “doing” their business and don’t have the time to actually be on social media in a regular basis. But there are ways to mitigate that and I discuss that in great detail in the book.
So whether you’re an entrepreneur, an author, or just getting started with sharing your gifts with the world, I encourage you to add social media to your marketing arsenal. Build a following, nurture that following by showing up consistently, and you will see your business grow right before your eyes. Promise.
What To Expect From This Book
Back in the day, building a business seemed pretty straight forward. You found a building, you got a loan, you opened up shop, and the people came to your store.
Except, that’s not exactly what happened?
People found office space, got the loan, opened up shop, and no one came. The savvy business owners would discover marketing tactics that would generate foot traffic. Tactics like direct mail, radio advertising, catalog advertising, classified ads, etc.
After some trial and error, they saw results.
Nowadays, the storefront is different.
People go online and build websites. No loan needed, just a monthly payment for hosting and an annual fee for your domain registration.
But many people have discovered that though it’s easier to “set up shop” now than a few decades ago, they run into the same problem: getting customers.
The savvy business owners will start looking at different online marketing tactics such as blogging, email marketing, SEO, and social media marketing.
“Build it and they will come” mentality crippled/cripples many businesses.
If you are reading this book, kudos to you for putting forth effort to “figuring it out”. It’s important to get as much knowledge as possible. But as Dale Carnegie infamously said, “knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”
If you are not action oriented, then this book is definitely not for you. I’m sorry to tell you that this book is nothing but words filled with actions you must take if you want your business to have a chance in hell of survival.
Yes, I know, with a title like Social Leads: Your Social Media Playbook to Generating More Leads in The Next 90 Days, there should be some magic. There should be some snap-your-fingers-and-boom-it-works instructions. Sadly there is none of that in this book.
This book is for action-takers.
Implementers.
Persistent and determined individuals who will, by golly, make this business work; it’s this or bust. If that is you, then you’re in luck.
What’s on the pages that follow is action plan that will help you start attracting leads organically using social media.
Why are we focused on social media?
According to the statistics, the average person is on social media between 2 – 6 hours every single day.
Marketing 101 says “Go where the people are.” And the people are on social media. Chances are high, you will be able to sell your products and services on social media.
But…(there’s always a but isn’t there)…
Social media is always changing. The algorithms, the rules, and the available platforms all can change at the drop of a hat. It’s this constant change that makes social media marketing difficult for many to grasp and understand. In my ten plus years of using social media to generate traffic to websites in a variety of industries, I have seen it all.
And yet, despite the changes, I have managed to attract clients and money with less followers and fans than many of my competitors. (I made $500 my first 6 weeks on Instagram with a meager 40 followers. To date, I have made thousands of dollars on Instagram alone and I have under 300 followers.)
How is that possible?
You’ll discover all of that and more in this book. Turn the page and let’s get started.
Introduction
“It doesn’t work!” a woman, we’ll call her Julie, said as she approached my expo booth and scowled at my signage.
Thinking that I must have misheard her, I said, politely “I’m sorry?”
“It doesn’t work. This social media stuff. It doesn’t work. You’re all liars.”
“Well…I’m sorry that it’s been tough,” I said with a strained smile. I mean…what am I supposed to say to that? Yes, you’re right. Many people that do social media ARE liars. Many don’t know how to turn a profit, but they know how to get your some fake followers.
In a way, I truly was sorry for her.
“I don’t want your sorry,” she grabbed a business card off the table and looked at my name. “Shay? Is that I how I pronounce your name” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t want your sorry Shay. I want you to fix it! Here’s my Facebook.” She handed me her phone with her Facebook business page open and ready for my analysis.
I don’t usually do impromptu social media analysis at live events, but it was early. Not too many people were there just yet so I let this interaction happen. Plus, this lady was not backing down. I could tell that she was not going to take no for an answer.
I grabbed her phone and scrolled down a bit. I immediately knew what was missing.
“Yea, I see what—” I began. She interrupted me before I could even finish the sentence. She was definitely trying my patience.
“Nuh huh,” she said, finger pointed up. “I need you to check my Pinterest too.”
She clicked on the Pinterest app, went to her profile and handed me the phone again. I scrolled through her Pinterest page and knew immediately what was missing and why she wasn’t getting results.
Have you ever heard the saying “How you do one thing is how you do everything?” Well it applied here as well. I knew that all of her social media pages were making the same mistake. But to appease her, I looked at all of them. Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.
And then, I looked at her, sternly, and then gave her 3 actions to take right now to turn her social media pages around.
This book is an extension of that conversation with her.
Why The Majority Are Not Making Money
Did you know that 70% of small business owners who create online content make $0, as in zero, nada, zilch, $0 from social media, or from any content that they create online?
This is a good thing because that means 30% of small business owners are making money. So if you can ignore the 70 and follow the 30, you will be okay.
I know those Instagram “influencers” want you to believe that it’s all easy. Just post a selfie and BOOM, watch that cash roll in baby!
It doesn’t quite work that way. Or, shall I say, it worked that way in the early days, but nothing lasts forever.
Nowadays, you better know what the hell you’re doing on social media or you can
1) waste a TON of time getting likes and engagement but getting NO dinero and
2) waste a TON of money on Facebook ads, influencer shout outs, or high-end e-courses that promise you’ll make 6 figures in 6 days. (it never works out like they promise, but you don’t realize that until AFTER the 30-day money back guarantee)
Let’s face it, consumers are smarter now. They are armed with information and they know when someone is trying to sell them. If you plan on using social media to market your business, you better bring your A game!
The Zero Profit Attorney
I did a discovery call with a well-known attorney in Dallas who wanted me to help her generate more leads from her social media pages. She and I met at a local networking event and exchanged cards. At the event she expressed that her social media person was gonna put her in the poor house if she didn’t get this thing turned around.
I was shocked she asked me to help her since, based on all the advertising I’d seen of her online and offline, I assumed she was doing quite well.
Turns out, she was breaking even. If she spent $20,000/month in ads online, she would bring in $20,000 worth of business.
That’s certainly not good because you want to be able to have a profit. I mean, that’s what a business is, right? Products and services sold in order to make a profit.
She was skeptical of working with me because she’d spent upwards of $15,000 already on e-courses and her current social media person. Both were not panning out like she’d hoped. I told her I don’t have an e-course that could fix her problem and honestly, an e-course wouldn’t do her any justice.
She was neck-deep in this social media ocean and it was not something she could navigate out of by herself.
What she needed was a full on 4-hour session with me, one on one.
And that is what we did. A 4-hour session where I showed her step by step how to tweak her Facebook advertising campaign (on her own), what to post, and how to select better targeting. As a result, she slashed her ad costs from $20,000/month to $5,000/month.
Without doing anything else differently, she was able to profit $15,000/month.
Doing the wrong thing on the right platform is costly. This is what the majority do. They follow an influencer or a marketing guru, they follow their “rules” and then they end up not getting the results that were promised.
The reason it doesn’t work is because the influencer or marketing guru has a different target market, spends more money on advertising, has a more established social media reputation, and has access to partners who will happily promote them.
Follow marketing gurus and influencers at your own risk.
Common Characteristics Of Social Media Posts That Make No Money
- Too many stock photos
- Perfectly shot photos of people on the beach with their laptop
- Generic questions asked in an attempt to “boost engagement”
- Lots of branded content
- No videos or photos of the person running the page
- Too many quotes
- Inconsistent posting
- No engagement with followers
- Too many topics covered
- Unclear business message
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