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Kim: Creating a Fully Integrated Social Media Platform

I'm excited to be here, Excited to share social media with you. Um, I have a motto you can do. Social media doesn't have to be something you have to be afraid of or overwhelming. Honestly, that's a big fear for everybody is Oh, my goodness. You know, it's gonna take so much of my time. I love that what you said about, you know, you don't have a choice. Honestly, I do believe that I don't think you have a choice in today's marketplace because that's where the people are. People are on social media. If you want to build your business, you have to be where they are. So I'm a big proponent, a big advocate of social media, and honestly, you may have to tell me to shut up and go home before it's all over, because I'm ah, huge on sharing social media. Ah, when I introduced myself to you, my name, of course, is Kim Garst. I have been online for about 22 years, dating myself a little bit. I have had a social media focused business for probably the better part of 3. years, and, um e I laugh unti...

l people. I was social media, and it before it was social media. I mean, I go back to the business boards, you know, the B two B boards and a well chat rooms. That's how I started with social media over the concept of interacting and connecting with people outside of my normal circle of influence. Ah, I connected with people, the of the Internet. Um, but I have been ah ah, blessed to be named one of the top social media influencers by Forbes. I'm actually on two of their list ones. The tough 20 social media, women influence or list, and then the top 50 which is just a conglomeration of of men and women. Eso that's been exciting. I've got one of the top social media blog's. I am very focused on again. How twos. I'm big on giving you guys. Resource is that you can implement, so you'll see a lot of that on my blog's. A lot of people get a little bit of squeaking that floor right there, I'll move, but that's essentially bottom line. Who I am now one of the things that I'm focused on when I decided to take my business in the social media direction was I had to learn it, right. I had to figure it out. And some of you expressed Twitter is a problem, right? Well, I can totally relate to that, because when I would go over to Twitter, it would I try to read a tweet, it would refresh, and I scrolling up trying to find it, you know, totally annoyed me. But because I've spent so much time and energy and learning it so that I could do a better job for myself, my outside of you can do social media. My other big thing is, you have to be your own best example in your social media platforms. So you don't have to do them all. But what the ones you do do do them well, um, and just learn. Figure out. You know what is works for you. We're gonna talk about what does work, what won't work. Um, learning social media is a little bit like playing chess. I mean, so many people get started on social media, and, um, they just get an account. They start throwing stuff out there. They don't really have a plan. They don't know what they're doing a combination of all of those things. But strategy honestly is the key to real success and social media. And unfortunately, it's the missing ingredient for most business owners. They don't attack it from that standpoint. You know, when you have any other you're using any other marketing channel, you usually have a system in place. Right? If you're gonna do postcards, you have a measuring stick, right? You know, um, certain things you do your branding, you do a lot of different things. But for whatever the reason, people don't approach social in that same way. And that's my message to you today. You have to honestly, to get the return from it that you want. But social media is not a one size fits all. You know, A lot of people will say, Well, do this or do that the miss the the one thing And I heard somebody else. I'm not sure who said this earlier. The one thing that makes the difference in social media for every business owner anybody. You, you you are what makes the difference in your business as it relates to social media. If you don't come to the table and you just try to be somebody else or do what everybody else is doing. You're not going to be successful. You have to bring you to the table. So many people are saying all. I'm a business. I don't I can't. I've got to be professional. Show the personal side to you and your business. It's humanity. Social media is humanity. I I always say social media is life, so people are not newsflash. Most people are not interested in your business because, um of your product or your service, they're interested in you. They're looking to connect with a person. It's got you. Somebody used that cartel example. I use it a lot, too. When you go to a cocktail party or social event of any kind, whether it's a cocktail party or you go to church or whatever and you're meeting somebody for the first time, you don't run up to them and say, Hey, my name Sue and I've got a website on my I mean, I've gotta sell on my websites 20% off rush right over there and buy something right now. Does anybody has anybody ever done that? No, you don't do that. so I think that that is. You know, somebody. People get started on social media. They think it's gonna be the answer to their business. You know, it's increasing their business. And the reality is they just push market, push, push, push. Here's my my product. Here's my service. And then they're stunned when they get no sales. I thought this worked on. You know, I see so many people who will get involved in social media and they just give it up because it doesn't work. Well, it's because they're not doing it right. So when when I say social media is humanity, there's somebody on the other end of that screen just like you. Just like me. And what do you say to them? Well, what would you say to him if you're in person? You know, if you walk into a If you go to work and you have a physical place of you that you physically walk into when you run into somebody in the hallway, what do you say to them? Morning. How are you? Did you watch so in so last week Night, right? I mean, I say that all the time. That's the way I treat my social media presence, and if you've ever been on my fan page, I do go mornings. I do Good Night's people like, Well, that has nothing to do with business. But look at how many likes and how Minnich engagement I get off of that because I treat people just like there they've got. Life's just like me, you know? Um, so you know, not to say you have to do good nights and good morning. I'm just saying that that's a piece of life when you're talking to people in real life and you've never met them before. What? What's the first thing you're trying to connect with them on something that you both have in common or that you can mutually converse on right? That might be your kid's sports. It might be, um, you know something that you like to eat. It could be a whole host of things, but you don't rush up to somebody and say, Buy my product. And so many people, unfortunately, do that on social media. So remember Social media's humanity, its life and that how many people have heard this well, what's the our ally of social media E. I know you have a social media business, so you probably get it a lot. Um, it's my favorite question. My response is, while they are alive, Social Media's you'll be in business in five years. Um, honestly, I do believe that to be true, but the return on investment is honestly, it's it's relationship based. Um, I'm the revenue is in the relationship online. And if you don't take the time to build out relationships, not only new ones, but it foster the care that you have in your existing clients. If people would just take care of their existing client base, Do you know how many more people would walk through their door? I mean, if you really loved and cared for the existing clients that you have, don't you think they're gonna tell other people about you? So if you would just to take care of the existing clients you have, don't worry so much minutes necessarily about getting new ones, start there and then build out because you're gonna get new clients. More people are gonna be referred to you sharing those stories. The interesting part is, you're not going to be sharing the stories. Guess who's gonna be sharing the stories. If you showcase customer love, they're gonna be telling people about you. So it's big. The relationship is really where the real revenue is on social media. Um, it's huge. Um, this is what a fully integrated social media platform looks like. Don't get scared. Okay? Okay. Don't get scared. Yeah, don't get scared. Obviously. You know, you have a website. You have all those witches you got YouTube linked in Google and your head spinning, right? You're like, how do I do it all? Um, you know, you've got a newsletter you were writing. Blog's. Um I'm just curious. How many have blog's. Okay, Awesome. I'm glad to see that. Um, your content eyes is huge is huge. I can't even say it. Can I say it again? It's huge. It's what people are, how people are attracted to you. So if you don't have a blogger, I would encourage you to start one. Um, it's and ultimately you're going to drive traffic to your other channels through your content. Visual written, lots of things. But don't get overwhelmed by this, because we're gonna just just nugget down one step at a time so that you don't get so overwhelmed. But ultimately, you know, long term, this is a big picture goal for everybody is to come up with a fully integrated. In other words, it's not Just don't just say OK, I'm just going to Pinterest. Ultimately they're all they will work together. I mean, you can leverage them all to drive traffic back. Teoh, your central place, which is your your real estate. The only thing you own in your business is your website. You don't own Pinterest. You don't own Facebook. So if Facebook was to shut down tomorrow and all your business that you are currently getting is on Facebook, what's you've got a problem, right? So you need to learn how to leverage them all towards the central center hub of your business, which is your blawg or your websites? I use those terms interchangeably. Um but we're gonna we're gonna break this down. Okay. When we were talking about goals, um, and strategy, you have to know who you're talking to. So many people miss this piece. Who is your ideal client? Who is your ideal prospect? Who? What do they look like? I mean, I mean, when I am saying who it who are they literally paint a picture in your head? Are they women that need to lose a little pound? A little weight? What do they care about? Yeah, they care about losing a little weight, but they've got families. More than likely, they're interested in clothes. They're interested in shoes, their interest in their kids sports. Um, you know, you connect with people on stuff like that before you're gonna connect with them on selling them. Ah, weight loss product or ah, fitness package. Or, you know, So you have to connect and know who those people are, what they care about more specifically, so that you can meet them where they are and goals again. What is your purpose? You know, it's all bulls back down, Teoh. You know, a lot of people say, Well, I just I want more business from social media. Simple. Right. Well, how you gonna get that? You know how What is a specific goal that you want is that you know, um, is it an additional dollar amount on a monthly basis? Is it to two new clients a month? You know, set those goals fourth in your mind. Put them on paper so that, you know and can measure them ultimately, if it's two new clients. Ah, month, for example. Okay, Now, how is it going to take to get me to a new clients? A month? And did I meet that goal? Did what I do for that month. Get me those two new clients. If it did do more of it the next month. Right? But if it didn't, then why didn't it? What can I dio Teoh? Fix that. Ultimately, you've gotta have a goal. If you don't, you're not gonna know where you're going. You don't have any system of measuring it. No way to say it's successful or not. So it's important to have a goal and you want them to be. This is every. Here's this. There is probably seen this. You know, the smart, uh, goal set where it's specific, measurable, achievable, relevant time based, um, on social media. Let's say you want to say on Facebook particularly, let's just give you an example of something that specific, measurable, achievable, relevant time based people will come to me and say they want 100,000 new Facebook fans. Okay, Is that achievable? Is it even relevant? You know, there's a lot of things that don't fall into this this set, right? But what if, as a small business owner, we say, um, you know, I want 50 new fans by September 1. That's a smart goal. It's measurable, it's achievable and it's relevant to your business, and it is time based because you put a timeline on it. Now you can measure it, right? If by September 1st you don't have 50 new fans than what you've done in that interim has not worked for you. So how do you fix that? If you've got 100 new fans in that interim, you know you're doing some good stuff, so it's again. You have to measure the goals so that you know, if you're achieving them and then pinpointing strategies are also very important. It goes back. Teoh. You know what I said about if it was working, What is it? What it specifically did work, you know? Is it because I'm engaging Mawr and my posting more photos is that what's working is you know what? What strategies worked best so that you can do more of them. Okay, Now, a lot of you guys talked about, um you know, being overwhelmed, Do you need to do them all? You know, picking and choosing which ones to dio. So I just wanted to talk about this just recent. This is recent numbers as of January, anyway, of where the platform Zara's faras numbers specifically the top three Facebook. 693 million active users. But they're slowing down now. You can You cannot, um, take away that from even though they're slowing down. Facebook is a gigantic marketplace, and there's a lot of application for pretty much any business. I think on Facebook, Google Plus has 343 million active users and growing. Now these numbers are active. These air, not overall numbers. You know, you hear the numbers that Facebook's got over a 1,000,000,000 users yes, they dio. But how many people are logging in everyday thes air active end users that are, you know, active on the platforms and then Twitter is 288 million active users and growing. I'm gonna talk to you about the growth that that Twitter in particular, is showing more from a big brand perspective. How big brands are leveraging Twitter more than they are the other platforms today? Instagram's huge Pinterest, this year's YouTube linked in there all. They all have a place. But can you do them all? I mean, that's the thing, Um, and we're gonna talk about resource is and time. You know, ultimately those of the two biggies for your business is you have to be able t be able to do it all. And I want to talk about Before we got started this morning, we were talking about in the break room about your voice and bringing you to your social media presence, and I talked about it at the beginning. It's huge. You have to you have to engage with your audience. Um, and you have to be you one of the best stories I have. Honestly, And the ladies in the room will get this. Um, I put a photo of myself, um, if the hair salon getting my hair highlighted, you know that's not pretty, right? I mean, here you are. Your hair isn't in full. You don't look good, but I generated three sales from that photo, and I know I generated three sales because people in box to me and said I'll came. I saw your photo. I can't believe you would do that. How courageous. But I've been meaning to get in touch with you. I need such and such. Um so it's amazing how people connect with you from the personal side of things, so don't leave that out. Um, you know, everybody's like, Well, just get hire somebody. You can't replace your voice. And if you do, if you do hire somebody, you have to make sure that person has your voice down. It's critical. I mean, even being in the business of, you know, served in the service business and doing this for other people. We spend an inordinate amount of time getting the voice down, learning their business so that we can speak the speak. And it doesn't because again, people want to connect with the real with real people today, even if it's a big brand, they were You know who they're talking to. People will ask outright, What's your name? You know, if your Zappos, for example, and Zappos and some of the other brands have finally figured this out there, actually, you know when somebody responds there giving you their name so that they you know who they're speaking? Teoh. So people are tired of being sold to. They want to know who they're talking to. They want to connect with people one on one. Eso finding your voice is it's very, very important. And I want to talk a little bit about how you do that, um, culture, you know, what is it that makes you and your business unique? And we all have something that makes us unique. A lot of us will say, Well, cheese, I don't know what makes me unique. But if you stop and think about it, you know, God didn't make us the same. We're all different. We all have uniqueness to us, and that's the same with our business. In fact, ultimately, the businesses that are unique and stand out and interact with their audience on a personal level, I think you're going to throw those who don't. I think you're going toe die a slow death. Honestly, I think it's so important that you interact and engage with people on a personal level and in a unique voice that is uniquely you and and or uniquely your businesses. Um, the culture pieces big but community to you know what? What can your community expect when you interact with them? It be like, If I got on my fan page today and I said something off color, it would be totally not me. They would know it wasn't me, you know, because I that's not what I would dio. I wouldn't just they know by now that that's not a part of, ah, of what I would dio. So it's again people learn who you are, by the way that you and interact and engage with them. And when something happens that is off off, they pick up on it right away. So, you know, give your community a sense for how you're going to engage in interact with them. No, Let them know what they can expect from you if you I see a lot of brands, a lot of big brands in particular who have not embraced the customer service functionality of social media and it's a huge problem for them, because where do people go to complain today? Twitter, Twitter, and if they're not paying attention, you know that it's interesting to me that they're not paying attention because, um, the conversations are happening. Whether they're they're not, wouldn't it be better if they're there to handle them? So again it goes back? Teoh, be there, be engaged, Let your audience know what you can do, what they can expect from you. If you have a problem and somebody complains, or the flip side of that is somebody's screaming your appraises. You know about it, right? You can deal with it either way. Um, I think it's just incredibly important that your audience knows how they can interact with you and what they can expect. And then the conversation. You know, what do you bring to the table? Um, most people, when they are trying to find or connect with people online, it's usually value based out the gate. You know, they're usually you have a solution to their problem, and that should always be your focus. When you have a product or a service that you know can help your ideal client, right, so you want to be what you want to be the first person they think of when your product or service comes to mind. You know, I need I need to lose weight or I need, you know, whatever. Whatever it is, your products or services, you want to be the first person now, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're ready to buy. Yet. It might need me that they need info. So you know where they going to go to for info, where they're gonna go to your competitors because they've got a nice blawg and they're getting They're giving a lot of info. Possibly so. One of the best things and the that you can do for your business honestly is to answer your questions that you get in your business and we all get him. Who doesn't get a question? Answer those questions and blood post. Because what? How do people search? How do I Where do I think about it? If if you can answer questions in your blood content now, you've provided a valuable resource that people come find through the search engines and or on Google or on. I'm sorry on Google Plus or Facebook or wherever you end up sharing it. So it's always usually value based. Be fun with it, though. I mean, I'm a big proponent of social media is fun. Most people don't come to Facebook to buy a product or service right. They don't their own Facebook. Why, for friends and family and for fun, they're there, too. Check out things. Doesn't mean you can't do business on Facebook. Absolutely not. I think you can. I do business on Facebook every day, but you have to approach it again from the mentality of where most people are out the gate and be fun with it. Um, it should be fun for them. It should be fun for you as well. Social media is fun. It's a great way to interact and connect with your ideal clients. It's a great way to have conversations with people you would never in the ordinary course of life meat. So have fun with your social media Resource is now This is the biggie. This is where the rubber meets the road, as they say, You know, Do you have the time? Do you have, um, the Can you put the effort into it that it's going to take? Um, when somebody says that you can do social media in 15 minutes a day and I'll tell you how to do it. Um, Run. Just run. I'm telling you, if you are serious about building relationships online, um, it's gonna take more than 15 minutes a day. It doesn't mean that it has to take hours of your day. I mean, you can get sucked in, but you should have a system that you you know whether it's of the morning, whether it's the middle of the day, whether it's end of the day or in chunks, you can also break it up into it and chunks. There's a lot of automation. There's a lot of tools out there, but you have Teoh know what resources you have at hand. You know, do you have help? Do you have people on your team that can do certain things that you know will assist you? So you you you honestly have to understand that it's not Ah ah, quick band aid type of thing that you can just throw a little bit of time at it and you're going to get massive results. It doesn't work that way, and more importantly, it's consistency. Don't even get started if you can't be consistent, because if you get started on Twitter, for example, and you start building relationships over there and you disappear for two weeks while people are gonna tune into somebody else. All the value that you brought to the relationships that you were forming is vamoose. It's gone. So consistency is a big, big, big piece of, um ah, long term, good social media strategy is, you know, being in there being available, um, all the time doesn't mean that you can't reschedule stuff. It doesn't mean that you can't go on vacation. It just means that you have to have a consistent presence. And there's ways to get around these things. Ah, contents big. Obviously, we talked about blood content, Huge a piece of your marketing element. The block content is incredibly huge. Photos, videos, Google, plus hangouts or great. Anybody done a Google plus hang out? Yeah, they're awesome. Great way to interact and engage with people personally, um, you know, if you're in a business there, great to do like, product testimonials or, you know, even meeting with your team if their local not local. You know where you can like if you have people in other states, you can meet and collaborate. Great collaboration toll and then Skype interviews are great. Well, great again. Good way to give value back to your audiences. And I mean, I could go on and on about types of content, but these air probably the bigger piece of the bigger ones and ones that most people recognize out the gate and then a schedule. This is really big. Um, if you can pre schedule help, people have set down in front of their computer and said, What am I gonna say? What am I gonna do today? I don't even know, Right? I've done it. I've been there. I'm I totally understand that. But if you schedule it out and have some concept doesn't mean that you have to have every little piece nailed down. But if you have a concept of what you're going to share, then all you have to do is pull that little calendar out. Oh, yeah, That's what I was gonna share today. Um, in you can pre schedule a lot of this stuff even and then throw in your live voice, Aziz. Well, you know, if something's happening, like today, for example, here I am. Um I can you know, I could pre schedule some content prior to, um, you know, coming. I can share photos, Um, things that there said today. Those types of things those air on the spot live things. But having a schedule is a great way to manage all of this. It's huge. Um, and so many people miss this piece, too. So the schedule pre scheduling is going to be your best friend. Honestly, it's it's it's really big. What tools do you use? Because I know there are a lot of out there and I'm really glad you're talking about scheduling because that's huge and savor What? What do you use on Facebook proper? I use their Facebook schedule, er, because I I just think a lot of people don't know exist. Yes, thank you, but just for uniformity. And if you're not familiar with Facebook's scheduler, which a lot like you say, a lot of people aren't you. Can I use a tool that basically allows you to schedule all platforms Facebook to be included? And that is who its weight is anybody familiar with hoots? Wait, there's a lot of similar styles of programs out there. It's basically just a content management. Um uh, Well, not content, social media management tool, and you can pre schedule content literally. In other words, if you want to show that schedule, say a quote, Teoh Twitter, Facebook, um, Google Plus and Link Dan etcetera. You can do it all in one place simultaneously with one click. So this is a great tool for you. If you're not using it, I would highly encourage you to take a look at it. Um, there's like I said, there's others out there that do some similar things, but I've kind of stuck with Hoot suite because they usually are leading the four there, usually in the forefront of the changes that come in social media like they were one of the first ones to get the Google capability to post a Google plus business pages, for example. So I like the fact that they stay on top of things, and I've kind of just you know, once you start using a tool you love it would that works for you kind of tend to stick with it, Um, but that's a great question. The, you know, how do you automate some of these things? And that's a great told automate some of the pre scheduling pieces. Uhm And then how are you gonna measure the success? Some goals air, easy to measure. You know where you know If I'm gonna get 50 more fans, for example, you could measure that. You can see it. It's quantifiable. Some goals are not as easy to measure like, um, you know, we talked about relationships being big. How are you gonna measure the relationship, sister forming on social media news flash again? This is interesting to me, and it's always amazes me. There are way more lurkers than there are Engage. Er's doesn't mean you're not influencing people. It doesn't mean that you are not in some ways forming relationships with those people because they are coming to you for value. But they never engaged with you until they're ready on on their timeline. Um, I just give you a quick example of this. I had a lady contact me a few months ago, Said she'd been following me on Twitter for ah year and 1/2. She loved my content and she invited me to be a Panelist on a Nev ent, which was at a New York few months ago called the National Association of Professional Women. Um Star Jones was the emcee for this event. Arianna Huffington was the morning keynote, and Martha Stewart was the afternoon keynote. All right, that's pretty big, right? That's a I had good line of. I have never had any direct conversation with this woman prior to her, connecting with me and saying she'd been watching me for a year and 1/2. So don't assume just because your people are not connecting with you, that they're not engaging with you or that they're not absorbing what you're putting out there. So there's way more lurkers than there are, And that's not something you can measure right? That's not something you can put a finger on and say Wow, Until something happens, it may mean that took a year and 1/2. I had no way of even knowing. But that's a great example of how people are just checking you out there, coming to you for as a resource for whatever your area of expertise is, and yet they're not necessarily engaging and or buying from you until they're ready, or, you know, so it's way more lurkers. But the real key to social media success honestly is you know, how much of it can you support? You know, we talked about the time. The resource is, um you know, picking which social media sites work best for you. We're gonna go into that just a little bit more. But again, the return on investment is you know, the investment piece is you control that. How much time and energy do you have to devote to it? My suggestion is in out Teoh. Figure out where you can car sometime and start one place. Start with one social media platform, maybe two. Until you feel like you're getting comfortable there. Your growth is, you know, going well. You're starting to get a lot of engagement. Otherwise, if you just start and a tryto attack, all of this. Although it's one time, it's just way too much. I mean, you spend your whole day one because there's the learning curve. You have to figure out how to do it first. And then Then you have to do it right. So you have to understand and not be. And forgive yourself for sane. Okay? I can't do it all. What can I dio and then focus in the areas that you can work on and just don't get too comfortable there because once you get comfortable, then you know that it's time to move on to the next thing. So choose wisely and stay the course. This is the big thing. So many people give up way before the time that there ever there may be at the very cusp of getting true success on social media. Um, and then they just say, Well, this doesn't work. I've spent six months doing this. It's just not working, but stay the course because ultimately, you know a lot of our clients. I won't even take a client that won't dedicated at least three months. And, um, I prefer six. And if they'll give me 12 I'll do great things in their business for them. So it takes time. You, you know, again, back in the 19 thirties, um, businesses operated a lot different, and we've kind of gone back to that model. So let me explain what I mean by that In the 19 thirties, it was small town America where, you know, if you were a seamstress and you didn't do a good job, everybody in town knew about it or if you, um you know, don't deliver the milk and you delivered some curdled milk. Well, you know, don't buy from that guy again, right? So it's kind of the same thing today is you know, we went toe big box where their businesses didn't have to provide customer service anymore, because who was going to know, right? If they had a bad experience, there was no connection point for people to find out about it. Well, now there is a massive connection point. You're taken small town America, where everybody knew everybody's business to social media, where guess what? Every knows everybody's business. And if there is a complaint, if there is and it's it's not always complaints, it could be the positives to. In fact, you knows Apple Zappos is a great one for a great example of a company that does and provides great customer service online. And people are constantly tooting their horn right, so and and again, Now you have a brand, or you have ah ah, whole mass of people there telling over other people about you and your business. So it's it's a different mentality, and one that I think we don't have a Not We don't have a choice. We don't have a choice as it relates to social media. If you're a business owner, I am a firm believer. You you've got to be on social media.