Do you carefully craft the perfect post or reel…but the idea of actually publishing it fill you with dread? Or do you find Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube too confusing, or even too scary to get involved with? Well, it’s time for some home truths…you cannot avoid social media if you want to market yourself or your business in 2023. These sites are not going away, and while it’s ok to feel overwhelmed by them, like all other ways of promoting your business, you need to find a way to come to terms with them.
Did you know that we teach a course on “Taking the Fear out of Marketing”?
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In my course on taking the fear out of marketing, there are 8 ways that fear stops you from taking action:
- People can say bad things and give bad reviews.
- I don’t know what I’m doing
- What if a competitor steals my clients?
- We’re doing fine without it, I don’t want to risk change.
- What if I do it wrong and everyone laughs?
- It takes too much time.
- I don’t have anything to say.
- It’s a fad, I can’t waste my time
I’m going to cover the first four today – so let’s start at the top, yes, people can say negative things about your business on your social media pages. Of course they can, but, if they want to say something bad, and you don’t have a page, they’ll post it somewhere else you have no control over the review. By using social media you can see any negative comments and address them rather than leave them to fester elsewhere for potential clients to find them.
As for number two, not understanding social media is not really an excuse anymore I’m afraid. There are so many free courses available to help bring you up to speed. If you are not comfortable with social media, the fear of ‘doing it wrong’ can certainly be a show-stopper. The importance of having a social media plan and guidelines in place before you start posting cannot be over-emphasised. Knowing what you should say and when will take away a lot of the fear and overwhelm. If you want help on creating a social media strategy for 2023, get in touch.
Number three – worrying that your competitors will steal your clients is a strange fear, but one that has come up in training and one-on-ones enough times that I always include it! If you are engaging with your clients on social media, and they are happily talking back to you, why would your competitor approaching them be frightening to you? If a 10% voucher is enough to scare them off, then your social media activity is the least of your worries…Engaging with customers increases their loyalty, so social media is much more likely to help you retain customers than lose them.
Finally, your business may be growing steadily without social media – it may even have been a pillar of the community for decades without the need for any online activity, but is that a reason not to get involved? Ignoring progress and the opportunity for growth is not a way to improve your business. If your competitors are all on social media you cannot sit back and pretend that it is not an important outlet for your business.
If you want more a guided strategy to get you past the fear and onto social success, get in touch today.
Republished with permission from Kuka Studios.