Heroes in Business - Content to Grow Your Following

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

Learn content strategies guaranteed to grow your following without wearing them out only advertising and promoting to them! You will also learn WHY we need to constantly grow on this episode of Social Media on Steroids with Dan Shinder. Apply and Get Results!  

Hi, and welcome to the Social Media on Steroids podcast. I'm Dan Schindler, and I created the Social Media on Steroids brand of education, training, consulting, and services to help others learn from my experience of achieving extraordinary results with content marketing on social. I attracted a following of over 1 million people and reach millions more online each month, 100% organically. In this series, I share the strategies that helped me cross all the milestones it took to get there and that we still use. And please, before we dive in, take down my email address in case you have questions. I answer all questions and I take suggestions for topics to be covered in this

series. You can reach me directly at dan at advancedsocialmarketing.com. And of course, the website is the same URL. Follow the blog there and the Advanced Social Marketing YouTube channel. Okay, let's jump in. And now we leap into episode four, content to grow your following. And I'll get into the why in just a moment. But first, be sure to check out more episodes from the Social Media on Stewards podcast series to see what you've been missing if you've missed any you could do that by searching dan schinder that's s-h-i-n-d-e-r on eliancer.com or your favorite podcast platform this is on about 40 platforms so it's pretty easy to find so imagine this you turn on the radio and you hear one of your favorite songs and then there's 25 minutes of commercials but then there's another song and then 25 minutes of commercials or you turn the tv on and basically they're telling you

welcome to our channel all we want to do is advertise to you and you see maybe five minutes of one of your favorite shows and then 25 minutes. Who would watch that? Who would listen to that radio station or watch that TV station? Nobody. So why do we instinctively blast out nothing? But this is for sale. That's for sale. Download this coupon. Use the code biggest tail of the year every freaking week or every month. What's missing from that? Well, I'll tell you. There's no conversation. There's nothing to learn. There's no relationship being built. And when I say there's nothing to learn, the brand can't learn from the audience if all they're going to do is jam down their throats what they want them

to know about what the offer is or what's for sale. And the audience can't learn anything about the brand other than what's for sale. And trust me, that's the last thing they care about. Successful social media marketing, effective social media marketing is a two-way street. If all you post is promoting what you're offering, you are missing the boat. All you're doing is, like I say, jamming down their throats of your target market what you want them to buy. But consumers don't want this. You're a consumer, do you? So why do we do that? I know why. It's because we instinctively think, well, that's why I got a channel, so I can advertise, so I can get the word out. But that word getting out doesn't matter unless you have an audience that's captivated, an audience that's present. Here's what I mean.

Quick story. When I started Drum Talk TV in January of 2013, I knew that maybe our interviews and maybe the products that we were selling for our sponsors were not going to be what people were interested in the most. Our interviews are our core product as far as media goes and coverage. So what did I do? I infused all our content with a lot of other things that would be educational, entertaining, would edify people and keep them coming back. So that when we did drop a post in front of them that was advertising a product of ours or one of our sponsors, we had an audience present. Otherwise, it's crickets and tumbleweeds. This is very, very important. So if this is the majority of what you're putting out there, just advertising and promotions of what the offer is or what's for sale,

you are not going to build a community around your brand and you will not earn brand love, let alone trust and likability, which is what converts more sales. Sales and business growth guru in Australia, based in Australia, Sabri Subrai, has explained the larger market formula. And here's how it goes. 3% of your target market are ready to buy now. They're more impulse buyers and they're going to buy from that ad or whatever it is. Give them the code, give them a good price, show value, they'll buy. But 97% of your target market are not like that. You're missing out if all you're counting on is Facebook ads or Instagram ads or TikTok ads or LinkedIn ads or whatever your

paid promotion is. 97% will not respond to that. 17% are in the information gathering mode. 20% are problem aware, but they're not looking for a solution yet. That's kind of weird. How long do you put up with a problem? Well, nevermind, we won't go there. And then 60, a whopping 60% are not even problem aware. And I learned from being certified in NLP, what this means is that that top 3% are what we call judgers. They want closure. They just want to get it over with. As a consumer, I'm mostly a perceiver, which is the other 97%. They explore, they compare, they want to trust the brand, they want to fall in love with the story. That's more me. But when it comes to buying a car,

I don't want to go through the process. I just want the car. And that's not that often either, by the way. It's about every eight years or whatever. I don't want to go to five dealerships. I don't want to go to five people's homes and test drive a car. We have an idea of what we want, how much we've budgeted. We just find it. We go get it. It's over with. But everything else I want to know about the brand. I want to follow the story and get edified and, you know, maybe do a little comparing and things like that. So you need community building content for the other 97% who are not impulse buyers. This is why you need to build your following. Let's use this example, leveraging the 5% rule. And for some industries, it's 12%.

For some, it's 0.012. Let's just go with 5%. Let's say a million people are aware of you, but only 500,000 of those know what you have to offer. But only 20% of those, 100,000, are of your target market. can only get 5% of them to buy from you or 5% of whomever's aware of you. If you can't change whatever that factor is of 5%, you got to change what it's 5% of. So do you want 5% of a thousand people to buy from you? Do you want 5% of 10,000 people to buy from you? 5% of a hundred thousand? And of course, as that upper number increases, that percentage will shrink a bit. It's on a sliding scale, but I'd rather have 1% of a million people than 5% of 10,000. Okay. So that's why we need to constantly grow our audience and provide them with content that's going to keep them following what we're doing. You can pick five of your favorite legacy brands, whether it's food, clothing, maybe automobiles, sports, travel, pick it, anything, and look at their Facebook pages, look at their Instagram, pay no attention to the likes on the post, but look how many followers they have and look at their posts and see how many shares they're getting and how many comments, because that's what matters the most. Some are doing a great job. Many are not. They are totally

in the dark because all they're doing is advertising. If it takes someone four to seven times to sign up for an email list, let alone buy something, you've got to provide them with value. You've got to provide them with value. So what's this guy saying? Post less sales info to make more sales? Absolutely. Let me say that again. Post less sales info to make more sales.

Definitely. That is the formula. This is how I built a following of over a million people on social without ever boosting a post, without ever paying for advertising. And I've helped entrepreneurs and businesses of all types and sizes in many industries build communities around their brands in love with what they do as well. And that's the thing. You've got to get your followers in love with what you do and make them part of that experience. So the secret is to post more about the common interest between your brand, what your brand provides, what you offer, and your target market, the common interest. And we'll do a couple exercises in a moment. So you want to remember the five to keep your brand alive, right? So you want to be helpful,

you want to be inclusive, Build your following by doing this. And then you are perceived also as more genuine. And you'll have more people in love with who you are and what you do to sell to. So again, remember the five to keep your brand alive from episode one of the Social Media on Stereoids podcast series. Look it up if you missed it. Stay present. Out of sight, out of mind. Stay relevant. You got to connect with your audience, your target market. Be helpful. Give them value. Be inclusive. Don't just be yelling at them. Make them part of the experience. Provide an experience.

provide an experience. All of this is to help position yourself as the experts in your field, as well as bolstering what differentiates you from what everyone else does or what everyone else says they do that's the same or similar. Otherwise, you're just making noise like everyone else. And there's a lot of noise out there. How much noise is out there? Check this out. In 2020, every minute generated 347,000 Instagram stories, 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube. Every minute, of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. 240,000 photos uploaded to Facebook and that's 4,000 per second. A couple of other nuggets, more than 4 billion video views take place on Facebook every day and 75% of online users with an income of more than $75,000 a year are on Facebook. So don't think for a moment your target market's not on Facebook. And listen to episode two to hear the debunking of the myth that,

oh, the younger people are not on Facebook and the older people are not on Instagram. That's all BS. It's all wrong. I have the statistics, real-world statistics to prove that so check that out and by the way all the other statistics I cited are from Omnicore agency.com that's a health care agency that helps that industry grow on social and whatnot but what are all those numbers mean? What it means, are you ready? This is big, write it down. No, really, write it down or type it out. If you're jogging, if you're on the treadmill, if you're on a bike, come back and write this down.

Ready? Here's what it all means. You have got to stand out and not be buried in the noise of everyone else who's just selling people will appreciate you for providing edification entertainment education value don't be afraid to make it fun so let's do common interest content exercises. Common interest content is to build your following so you have more people present when you do advertise something or make an offer. Let's say you're in the food industry. Let's say you have, and I'll do a few examples, let's say you have a restaurant. What else could you post about other than the special on the menu that week or the new item or the new happy hour function because that's selling selling selling well if it was an italian restaurant

i would be posting about the history of the pizza the different types of pizza i would ask questions what's the oddest thing you've ever seen on a pizza as far as a pizza, as far as a pizza topping on a menu. How about peanut butter and abalone? That's my favorite. What do you like? Do you like cracker crust? Thin crust? Traditional? Deep pan Chicago style? Do you like filled crust? It goes on and on and on. Ask these questions. So that's one example. How about if you do coaching or consulting? Well, if you do consulting or provide financial services or tax services, post helpful info from other sources because that bolsters everything you're saying when you post content that other experts put out there that mirrors what you're saying it's like oh she's right

because Forbes is saying that because Inc magazine is saying that because tax monthly is saying that so provide education in those areas that bolster the services you provide without saying hey hey, by the way, we sell this. You don't need to do that. Health and wellness. Same thing. If you sell, let's see, dietary coaching services, let's say, post fun facts about the nutrition of berries, different nuts, gluten-free bread, gluten-free cake, recipes, things like that. Car dealership. Don't just post the biggest sale of the year. Bring the kids. We got the

Jolly Jumper, the face spinning, the hot dog guy, because they have the biggest sale of the year every freaking month, right? If not every week. What else could you post? Post nostalgia, Most nostalgia, old car racing tidbits and clips, demolition derby, local events, how to take care of your interior if it's vinyl, if it's cloth, if it's leather. What if you had a horticultural center or nursery? Composting tips, flowers that are great for borders, flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds, flowers that attract bees. Maybe you don't want those because you're allergic. Ground cover for slopes so you don't get flooding. Irrigation tips, do-it-yourself irrigation tips, not just what's for sale. So don't just post about the special deal on manure because that's really what it all amounts to. All right. I know this is a tough thing for a lot of people to embrace, even for agencies. There's a lot of agencies that are just

going through the motions. They really don't know what they're doing. A lot of them. I'm sorry to say. And I hope that what you learn here, if you don't hire us, that's fine. At least hopefully you're learning what you need to know to vet the right agency that's right for you, that resonates with you. There's often a, what I call, panic mode syndrome in business when it comes to marketing. And this is a bad state of business to be in. You cannot be effective, you cannot be strategic, and you can't get results in panic mode. I don't believe anyone has ever achieved extraordinary results by being in panic mode. I don't believe anyone has ever achieved extraordinary results by being in panic mode. And those are the types of results you want. Extraordinary. Surpass your goals. I know,

I know some of you are saying that they or their team works better under pressure and they do get results. That's different from pure panic mode. Here's a quick example that happened near the holidays of 2020. So we had a client and literally two weeks before the holidays, and this was a new client that was our first month with them, maybe a month and a half, something like that. And two weeks they're like, the holidays are coming and they didn't have anything to send us anything. They had zero plan two weeks before the holidays And I said this is something you should have had planned out in September or October

And they panicked and they just threw a bunch of stuff out there They didn't want to do what we were providing anymore and what we were consulting on doing You know, I was telling them they got to have content that'll keep their audio All they wanted to do was pay for ads pay for for ads. Were they converting? Yes, they were converting, but only 3%, if we go by that equation, and it couldn't have been much more, 3% of their target market. Whereas had they followed our instruction and built more community building content, they would have had more people present when they ran those ads. So going back to the legacy brands example of, well, how did they get so many followers? That's easy.

Brands like, well, popular car brands, clothing brands, fast food brands. You know, when we all got on social media as consumers and we saw that they were there, oh, McDonald's. I'm just using some random examples, okay? Not calling anyone out. McDonald's, I take my kids there. Well, I don't anymore. They're grown. Oh, I take. I'm just using some random examples, okay? Not calling anyone out. McDonald's, I take my kids there. Well, I don't anymore. They're grown. Oh, I take the grandkids there. McDonald's, like, oh, what about Levi's? I'm wearing them now. Like Tabasco. Oh, I love

Tabasco. Pepsi, I drink that. Like, like, like, like, like, like, like. And before you know it, within months, these legacy brands had millions of followers online. Well, that looks impressive, but if you look at most of their channels and their timelines, their content is not getting any engagement. No comments, no shares because people stopped paying attention. They left the like on the page behind, but they stopped following the content. So the social channel isn't doing anything for them. So to review in a random order, what we've covered today in content to grow your following, and now you know why you need to grow the following, the larger market formula. Judgers are more impulse buyers, and that's about 3% of your market. Perceivers are the other 97%, which is made up by 70% who are problem aware and information gathering or wanting to feel warm and fuzzy about the right brand and comparing.

The others, 20%, are problem aware but not doing anything about it yet. Procrastination. And then the other 60% are not even problem aware but not doing anything about it yet. Procrastination. And then the other 60% are not even problem aware. This community building content can help make them problem aware. And why do you need to build a following? So you have more people following you for the right reasons or following you at all. So when you do drop a promotion or advertisement in front of them, So when you do drop a promotion or advertisement in front of them, they will respond to that. Provide value to keep them following your channel so they see your promotions when you run them. That's what marketing does. Marketing is not advertising.

Marketing is not promotion. Marketing is everything that makes them want to respond to the advertising and the promotion. It's paramount that you understand that. A brand is not your logo or your font or your colors or your tagline. That's branding. You want them to fall in love with the brand. The brand is the promise you make to your consumers as fill in the blank with whatever you do. That's what the brand is known for, what the brand is perceived for. So much more to be covered in more episodes. Sign up for the newsletter and get my six steps to daily success PDF at www.advancedsocialmarketing.com and you'll also get notifications on changes on platforms

changes in the industry free webinars that i'll be giving webinars that's such an old term i need to replace it online learning opportunities that's what it is i'll be giving free online opportunities from time to time and guess what i'm going to promote to you as well you can hire us for your services of providing social media content marketing or take one of my courses. I guarantee if you apply what you learn from me, I guarantee 100% it will work. In eight years, nine years, I've never had to give a refund because it works. There's no way it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, it's because someone changed it. They're smarter than me. They modified it. They reinvented way it doesn't work. If it doesn't work, it's because someone changed it.

They're smarter than me. They modified it. They reinvented it. They got lazy. They left steps out. You don't get a refund for that. Sorry, folks. So sign up. Lots of fun here at Social Media on steroids podcast and advanced socialmarketing.com. So if you want to learn more or need your team trained or need a service provider or just have questions, reach out. I'm on LinkedIn as well at LinkedIn dot com slash in slash Dan Schinder. That's S-H-I-N-D-E-R. I answer all emails. Happy to just feel questions or give me suggestions for what you would like covered. Thank you so much for following me on this podcast, wherever you follow it. I'd love to hear from you. Happy marketing. So remember, if you're serious about what you do, get serious about how you market it. You can reach

me directly at dan at advanced social marketing.com and see how I can help you further at the same URL check out the blog there and follow the advanced social marketing YouTube channel as well you can also connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com slash in slash Dan Schindler happy marketing