There are three ways I see businesses show up on social media - showing, service or selling. It’s really important to understand each one, why each is important for your business, when to turn it up or tone it down, and most importantly - how to balance all three to ensure your business thrives.
WHAT ARE THEY?
Showing: this is me sharing my life with you. I’m showing you what I’m eating, how I’m working out, or what I’m wearing, how I’m handling a business issue. There’s little to learn or gain from this content, except maybe to share affiliate codes, or show content supporting your existing personality/persona.
Serving: this is me giving you pure information, knowledge, helpful hips, free legal, business and life advice. This is me creating downloadable guides that support your business, hosting QnA sessions and these weekly blog posts and newsletters. Serving your audience should be the motive behind almost all of your content and it helps create a bond with your followers. How else do you expect people to buy from you if they don’t know, like and trust you?
Selling: this is me asking you to buy something from me or invest in a product or service that I’m offering. Sometimes people push affiliate deals (discount codes) real hard and they go from Showing to Selling way too fast.
WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
It’s super important to state that you need to show up in all three ways to connect with your audience. Think about your content as a jar that needs to be filled with three sizes of rocks.
Your SELLS should be the biggest rocks, and you can only fit a few in the jar. You reserve your selling posts to the occasional product launches and promotions. Yes, social media is a great marketing tool to help you sell, but if all you do is sell, people get over it really fast.
Then how do you make money off of social media? Easy, you must SERVE.
Your SERVES should be your pebbles; these should fill most of the jar. The majority of your content exists to serve your clients needs - addresses their pain points, gives them useful info and incites, and generally brings them closer to you as a person. If you do it right, you will serve your community with so much good stuff that people can't help but wonder how much better your paid services are. If you serve your community with 90% of what they need, they will be so inclined to pay for the other 10%. And that’s where you’ll become invaluable.
But trust me when I say this - you cannot just give it all away for free.
And this is why you must SHOW and SHARE your heart away. This is the sand in the jar that fills the cracks that the rocks and pebbles didn’t. This is the fun InstaStories of your daily life where people fall in love with your personality. These are the freestyle posts that flow from your heart. This is the DMs, the ‘go girl’ comments and the major hype-up of your community.
HOW TO BALANCE THE THREE
When in doubt, SERVE. Educate. Give. People tend to follow business owners because they have something to offer, so offer away! Don’t be afraid of the power of sharing a motivational quote that spoke to you; it likely will speak to someone else. Regardless of how active you are on social media, aim to serve 40% - 50% of your time.
When you’re feeling uninspired - just SHOW UP. Literally - just be present online and remind people and how you are and what you do. Maybe even flip that camera around and film a little video of you. It’s ok to be uncomfortable - that’s normal and most of us are. It’s not ok to hide. If you’re not active on social, it’s ok if this accounts for more than 50% of what you do while you’re getting comfortable.
When you’re feeling ready - SELL. Selling in general is one of the hardest things you’ll do, and doing it online into the abyss of social media is even harder. Luckily, you’ve invested so much time into serving and nurturing your community that they’re excited to see what you can offer them!
Xx, D