OWAHL 007: Developing a Social Media Strategy for Growth

Some of the most common questions I get are about social media. Which social media you should be using, how this fits into the larger picture in your business, etc. 

Social media is constantly changing and so is my strategy. But in today's episode I am going to briefly share my own personal social media strategy for our full time business over at Young Wife's Guide. 

My Social Media Strategy

Facebook

Facebook has over 1.8 billion monthly active users. If you are looking for an audience to reach, they are on Facebook! Yes, Facebook organic reach has been down but if you are strategic with it, you can still reach your ideal customer or reader through Facebook.

Difference between your Facebook profile and a Facebook page

This is one question I've received several times. Your Facebook profile is your personal Facebook account that you set up. My personal profile is just for my friends and family that I know in person. I don't add anyone else to this account.

This way, I still have privacy online. I can share posts about my kids, local places we are going, etc. It's where I personally keep up with my friends and family. It's personal, it's for me! I rarely, if ever, post my blogging stuff to this profile. (Not that it's wrong to do so, but I don't want to spam my friends and family. That's not the purpose of that Facebook profile.)

But my Facebook page is where I do all my business stuff. This is at: Facebook.com/YoungWifesGuide. This is where I post all my blogging stuff and where my "fans" can follow me. You want to set up a Facebook page.

 Our Facebook strategy:

My strategy on Facebook is to build community and generate new leads. I want my Facebook page to be a bright spot on Facebook for my readers and I want to provide quality content and things I'm sharing.

So I follow the 80/20 rule (for the most part). 80% of the things I post on my Facebook page are other people's content. Blog posts and articles that I find interesting and that I know will be helpful to my readers that someone else wrote. These are NOT links back to my own blog. 20% of what I post are blog links back to my blog or a product I'm selling.

We tend to follow a schedule of posting 6-10 times a day. Typically about every 2-4 hours throughout the day. I know this might sound like a lot, so if that takes way too much time right now, then just start out with posting 2-3 times a day.

The key is, Facebook rewards consistency. So post consistently. Don't post 10 times today and then not again for a week. Post just once a day if that's all you have the capacity for, but try and keep it consistent.

Another helpful tip: We schedule all of our Facebook posts inside of Facebook. We do not use a third party scheduler (like Meet Edgar, Buffer, or Hoostuite). Facebook wants you to stay inside Facebook so they reward you with more views if you schedule directly inside Facebook (and hey, it's FREE)!

Pinterest

Pinterest has 110 million monthly active users and is growing daily. As a woman (and especially as someone who blogs about homemaking related topics), Pinterest is the place to be! Side note: Yes, Pinterest organic traffic has heavily reduced the last two years or so and I no longer believe it to be the best or more reliable source of traffic. 

It is consistently our #1 source of traffic and has been for years. Pinterest is not a platform however where I am trying to build up it's own community. It's more of an extension of how I can serve my community.

I think of my Pinterest account as a place where I can curate and collect all the very best Gospel-centered homemaking tips, tricks, articles, tutorials, recipes and more for my readers. 

Again, I follow the 80/20 rule. I certainly pin a ton of my own blog posts but I also try and pin other people's content about 80% of the time.

Our Pinterest Strategy:

We use the TailWind App to schedule a ton of our pins. We've been using it for about a two years now and LOVE it. It allows you to schedule pins, see analytics of what's working well, find other pins that are popular that you can pin and more.

You can try out a FREE month of TailWind if you sign up through my link. This is what I did. I tried out a full month, really committed to using it and was hooked right away. If you decide you love, it's only $9.99 a month after that. This is extremely affordable compared to many social media schedulers that are $49.99-79.99 a MONTH!

This is the only social media scheduling website or app we pay for, so $9.99 a month isn't too bad of an investment! It saves us hundreds of hours over a course of a year and has really helped our Pinterest engagement.

 Usually we schedule about 60 pins a day to go out. However, there have been a few times over this last year that my social media manager has been out. So during those times, I decrease that down to 20 pins a day since I'm doing it all on my own again!

I also try to do 5-10 minutes of live pinning each day if I can make the time (I've been really really bad about this lately and my Pinterest numbers reflect that). Pinterest is the same as Facebook, they want to know you are actually live and using Pinterest yourself. So try and do some hand pinning when you can (as opposed to pre-scheduling everything).

Instagram

Instagram is the #1 platform I am concentrating on right now for growing a community. It's where I personally spend the most time and where I am the most commenting and interacting with everyone.

Instagram is where I show my personal life, share my story, and really connect with my readers. I do all live posting, I don't schedule anything in Instagram.

I typically post on Instagram 1-3 times a day. I try and post at least once a day because Instagram likes when you are active and will show your posts to more of your followers when you are consistent.

I don't have a very big following on Instagram, but my readers on Instagram are very engaged! You can hop on over and see my Instagram at instagram.com/jamibalmet

Twitter

I honestly don't have much to say on Twitter. It's my least favorite and least used of the social media platforms. I just don't get it and it's not my favorite.

Twitter is a little different as it limits you to just 140 characters. Twitter is HUGE for certain niches and markets, but I've found that largely, my readers are just not on Twitter. But that leads us to the next discussion: 

How to Choose WHERE to Spend Your Time

Okay, are you feeling overwhelmed yet? I know this is a LOT of information. But I want to encourage you that your social media strategy doesn't have to be over complicated.

My social media strategy has grown over the years as my blog has and as I've been able to hire a social media manager to help me manage it all.

When you are trying to decide where to spend your time when it comes to social media, I want you to take some time to think about what YOUR favorite platform is. Where do you naturally want to hang out, what are you already using?

For example, if you are like me and you HATE twitter...then leave it alone for now. Go pick a platform that you already know, what you get, and that you like to use.

When it first came out, Pinterest was my very FAVORITE. I had been waiting for something like Pinterest for years and threw myself into learning it, to playing with it, to experimenting and was able to build up a decent following because of it.

Now, my focus is Instagram. I'm playing with it, developing strategies for it, and spending most of my time there. So pick the one or two platforms that you want to invest in first and don't worry about the rest.

Best Way to Increase Engagement on Social Media

Think of your reader first. Don't think about what you can get out of it, or how many clicks you can get, or how you can sell to your readers. Think about THEM first and what they need. 

What are they on Pinterest searching for? What would be encouraging for them to come across on Facebook? How can you BEST serve your readers, even if that means posting things that are not your own!

And then be authentic. Be yourself. Be you. Be REAL. Reader's don't want to connect with a blog, they want to connect with YOU! So don't be afraid to let your personality shine through that. 

Download Our FREE Social Media Worksheets

I know it's overwhelming to try and keep track of your social media and work on growing it. That's why I created these social media worksheets for you! Keep track of everything from your social media numbers to what you post and schedule and even track your growth from quarter to quarter. 

You can download your social media worksheets for FREE HERE!