Social media. Love it or love to hate it, social media is a free way for entrepreneurs to build business. Like a relationship, navigating social media can be complicated and confusing at times. Since February is the month of love, I’m sharing a few tried and true tips to make your business relationship with social media more lovable.

Full disclosure: I am no social media expert. I made a new friend on Facebook named Joel. Please don’t confuse Joel with Tom, the first friend you made after signing up for MySpace. Joel is a real life Awesome Social Media Guru who has a background in branding and social media strategy. I’m grateful for all the tips he’s shared with me and he suggested that I share them with you. So grab some Kool Aid and get comfortable with your favorite mobile device while I come at you like Kenny Powers with some truths about social media marketing.

1. Your friends on social media are your friends because of you. Not your business (unless you are Joel and you’ve made a bunch of new friends by sharing your business effectively). So when you make posts about your business on your personal social media be sure to include YOURSELF. If you are a realtor that might mean photos of you in front of properties you are selling or funny anecdotes about what happened while showing houses to buyers. If you are selling face products or lip gloss take a picture of yourself using the product. While it’s tempting and might feel safe to only share ready made marketing materials from your company or links about your business you run the risk of spamming your friends and audience. Which brings us to truth number..
2. No one likes SPAM. Try to be original with your content and let your personality and passion shine through. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Don’t worry too much about wether anyone will like what you post or how you look as long as you are front and center in your posts. People want to see your passion and vulnerability. Showcase your sense of humor in posts about your insurance business. Give a behind the scenes look at your restaurant. Be that cool mortgage broker who not only shows up for closing but buys the champagne at a bar afterwards and posts about it. I’m at the beginning of this social media journey and I’m making plenty of mistakes. My apologies to anyone I’ve spammed. It’s easy to get excited about a company offering or rate drop and just hide behind a canned image or statistic. How many skincare posts about paste did you see today? Which ones actually caught your interest? Which brings me to truth number…
3. Social media is a party! Life and businesses have their ups and downs but be positive in your posts. And show up for the party! Be active and SOCIAL before and after you post. Don’t post and run. With new algorithm changes the first 15 minutes after you post are critical for likes to appear at the top of feeds. Take advantage of new features offered by the platform you’re using to boost your post for FREE. On Facebook this means going live, using messenger and and options like Gifs and Stickers. Helpful hint for anyone who isn’t seeing posts from the friends they want to see in their feed…Send them a messenger message and have a conversation and you will see them pop up to the top of your Facebook feed because Facebook thinks you are FRIENDS. Instagram is all about telling stories through pictures and using hashtags. It’s a great way to build a following with people you’ve never met by showcasing your style.

Hope these tips are helpful and let me know how you’re using social media as an entrepreneur to boost your business!

Xoxo,

Sarah

P.s. I still have so much to learn about using social media to promote business. I wish I’d started using it years ago for real estate. I’ve seen many friends and coworkers use social media to launch their businesses to the next level and I’ll be reaching out to ask them to share their secrets for future posts. If you are an entrepreneur who is interested in keeping up with social media changes and networking with other entrepreneurs (no spamming allowed) let me know. Cheers to successful selling!