How Online Marketing Actually Works for Entrepreneurs!

Hello, Believe Nation! Welcome to another edition of the Evan Carmichael Show. I'm your host, Evan Carmichael. I believe in entrepreneurs, and this show is all about helping you turn your business into a success. I'm really excited about today's show. It's the, it's the first one of the new year, and I'm talking about social media success. Now social media is something that scares a lot of entrepreneurs. You know you need it, you hear people doing really well with it, you're trying to figure it out, you're not having success. That's what this show is all about today. All right, let's get started. I love social media. I used to hate social media. I didn't get it, I didn't understand it. I thought, you know, why are people posting pictures of their cats and what they ate, putting it up on Twitter? I didn't understand it. You know, I'm a busy entrepreneur. You're a busy entrepreneur too. You've got a million things to do. Why waste your time here? But I've realized that it can be a significant growth driver for your business. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter isn't just about fun, it's about generating new leads for your company. My favorite place right now is YouTube. I'm getting over a million minutes every— no, not a million minutes, a million hours, I think, every month on YouTube. People watching the videos, people enjoying, people spreading, people sharing. It's the feedback and the comments that everybody shares that keeps me going, it keeps me motivated, but also generates sales, generates interest, generates a following. And so I'm going to share with you some of those secrets today on this show. So first I want you to think about your social media, your website. Does it look like you did it yourself? Does it look like you had a friend help you do it? Right? It's time to step up your game a little bit here, right? We're 2015, you gotta step up, you gotta rise up. You gotta, you gotta make it look like, hey, this person knows what they're talking about. And online marketing, social media marketing, is one of the best, fastest, quickest ways to grow your business. If you look at Inc. magazine, they do an annual list every year looking at what are the most effective ways to grow a company, and at the top is always online marketing. So you gotta get in the game. It's time to stand up. Let's talk about social. Now social is a long-term commitment. Most people, they approach it from the wrong way. They're on there broadcast, they're on there trying to sell constantly. You gotta think about it like a relationship. You gotta think about it like the people who are on your newsletter, like the people who might be listening to this radio show. I don't come on this show and say, "Hey, you guys need to go and buy my product. You gotta go sign up for all this stuff that I'm doing because it's amazing," right? If it was just a sales pitch, you would tune out. And that's what you're doing on social media, most people. You have to build a relationship, just like you do in the offline world. Online is the same as offline. You wouldn't walk up to somebody on the street and say, "Hey, will you marry me?" Right? That's not going to happen. How do you get married? You start a relationship, right? You get to know the person. You interact. You go on some dates. You do the same thing in social. You start by sharing, by adding value, by getting to know who's paying attention to you instead of just going right away trying to ask for the sale. That's a huge mistake that most people do, and you got to mix up. The fun, the educational, the promotional stuff. You can add daily quotes from famous entrepreneurs. That's what I do on my channel. I have motivational pictures. I might have a question to poll my audience. I have contests. I might have a promotion, right? It's not all just all fun and inspirational stuff. There's also calls to action, right? I have daily YouTube videos that go up, right? So you have to have this mix of blending your personal and your business to help generate some leads. Now if you're afraid, you know, you might not be tech savvy, this might be a totally new thing for you, and you're thinking it's overwhelming, I don't know what to do, you have to just start. Just like anything else, when you first start it you're going to suck, you're learning it. When you first learned to ride a bike, when you first learned a new language, you sucked at it. That's okay, but you can't let that fear hold you back from getting started. So I want to hop to the calls, and then after I'm going to share some specific tips on how you can generate some results from social. I have Kelly on the line. Kelly, where are you from and how can I help?

Oh, hi. I am calling from Chicago, Illinois.

Welcome to the program.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me on. And I have a question for you. Can you impart any advice as to owning and managing an import retail store? I have an idea, a business idea which will happen, and it is selling imports from from Mexican artisans with the percentage going back to the respective artist, kind of like a miniature, a very miniature 10,000 Villages. However, my shop will also incorporate Mexican culture with like poetry readings or like coffees of Mexico or chocolates of Mexico or recipes or cooking demonstrations or, you know, maybe a travel log. So it's really going to be not just retail, but also a little bit of cultural exchange for Mexico. So I've owned two businesses previously, but I've never been involved in an import business or in a business of this type. So do you have any advice for me on that?

It's exciting. It's exciting to launch this new company. I can tell you have some personal connection to Mexico. Two things, I guess. One, you have to figure out the logistics, and that's the more boring part, right? Whenever you're importing something into a country, you've got to figure out, you know, what are the taxes going to be? How is that going to work out? Are there any issues that we have to deal with? Although Mexico and the US have an easier relationship than if you're trying to bring it in from somewhere else. And the bigger part is more how do you then sell it, right? Because you're going to take a cut of everything that comes in. Who can you— I think about who can I partner with to sell this stuff? Who already has an audience? If you're looking at who's your target audience? Are they travelers or people who are interested in Latin American culture?

Initially, it's just going to be your regular shopper, your retail person who wants to pick up that gift or wants to have a piece of jewelry or your normal regular shopper. Extending that, yeah, it would be somebody who has cultural interests, perhaps in Latin American literature or in Latin American cooking or— and this would be specifically Mexico. I'm just using Latin America as a region. But, yeah, it would be extended out toward a more specific audience, exactly. And I was thinking in Chicago we have an exchange. We have sister cities in Mexico, so I was thinking of working with the cultural center. And so anyway, but, yeah, you're— They're different audiences. One will be foot traffic or just your main, you know, your regular shopper, and the other one will be kind of like your more cultural-oriented person who really wants to learn as opposed to just spend money.

Yeah, and I would honestly focus way more on that market than just trying to target everybody because the people who really care about learning the culture and really appreciate the value of what they're looking at they're going to spend more with you, they're going to tell more friends about you, they're going to refer more clients to you, they're going to keep coming back over and over and over again. So I'd be trying to form partnerships. So if it's the sister city thing, that's great. I'd be looking at who in Chicago is talking about Latin culture, Mexican culture, who can help be an influencer, if it's a YouTuber, if it's a blogger, if it's a reporter. I try to focus a lot of these sales online and not just having a retail location because that costs you a ton of money to open up a retail space.

Right, right.

I would do it as a test, honestly. Stop, like, don't go retail yet. Do it online. Build an audience, build traction, prove to yourself that this works before you dump a whole bunch of money into rent and setup, because it costs you so much to have a retail space. And start making partnerships with people who love the culture, who can explain it, who have an audience. You know, you should be calling into radio shows that are promoting Latin culture and tourism and eco-products, right? If you had something that would sell to entrepreneurs, you could join my— like, this would be a great audience for you, right? Everybody would be interested in what your product would be. So you want to attract the me's of the world but who target your audience and get them familiar with it so that they can help push it for you and you're not doing all the grunt work yourself.

Okay, well, that's excellent advice. Thank you. I've got my work cut out for me, don't I?

No problem, Kelly. Do you have Do you have a website?

No, not yet.

This just happened. This, I mean, this idea just happened. I don't have a website up and running. It is in the process though. I've got a couple partners and one of my partners is creating the website and we just decided on a name. So it's very preliminary, but that's why I'm making the calls now to find out the best way to proceed so I can work most efficiently.

I love it. As you grow, call back in a couple weeks, couple months, let me know how you're doing. Come back with another question, I'd be happy to help out.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

No problem, Kelly. Thanks for calling in. And for everybody listening, if you're getting started, don't go out trying to spend a bunch of money, right? Don't go out and just open up a retail shop and hope it's going to work out. Start online, start small, start making some sales, start building some momentum. Get your website going, get your social media going. Prove to yourself that this will work, that you can make money at it, that it's impacting people, that you love doing it before you sink a bunch of money from a loan or your mortgage or your personal savings into it. Okay, it's really important that you get that business decision right. Today we're talking about how to get results from your social media campaign. So let's dive into it. Let's get into the tips. My first tip is you have to listen. Again, I said at first I didn't understand Twitter, people talking about their cats and all these silly things. I thought this is going to be a huge waste of time for me, but after a bit of digging, what got me onto Twitter in the first place was somebody mentioned my website. Somebody mentioned my website, it was good, which is great. Somebody said, "Hey, check out EvanCarmichael.com, it's an awesome resource," and I wasn't a part of the conversation. That made me think, "Well, if people are talking about my business, I need to at least be there. I need to at least be there to thank them and to be a part of it. Even if I'm not posting, you know, tweets every day and videos every day, if people are talking about me, I want to be a part of that. And that's the same thing for you, right? Networking 101 is you need to be where your customers are. If your customers are in this room, you want to be in that room. Just like Kelly from Chicago has that Mexican import business, right? She wants to set that up. She wants to be in the room where all the people who are interested in buying products from Mexico and Latin America are going to be. So wherever that conversation is happening, that's where Kelly needs to be. So what I want you to do is start thinking about the main social media networks you can look at. Look at the 5. Look at Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google. Okay? Look at those 5. And do some searching. See if people are talking about your products and services or your industry in general there. If your customers are there, then you want to be a part of that conversation. You want to get engaged there. If they're not, then you don't have to worry about it, right? Then you're going to be wasting your time, right? If nobody on Twitter is talking about your industry, your product, then you don't need to be there. But do some research to figure that out. Number 2. So that was step number 1. We're listening, okay? Step number 2 is I want you to create some accounts. It's so helpful and handy to have the accounts set up even if you don't use them. Just to have the name so that nobody can squat on that company name for you, right? It costs you nothing to set up, and I want you to go out in each of those accounts and get the name. It's free, and so nobody else can use your brand in case one day you want to go and use it. You've got it. So step 1 is listen. Step 2 is create your account. Okay, I want to hit the calls up again. I've got Maria on the line. Maria, where are you from and how can I help?

Hi, and thank you for taking my call. I'm from Long Island, New York, and I have a question.

I wanted to start a business, and I wasn't quite sure.

Do I start a corporation, or do I, uh, take it the other avenue as an LLC? I've been advised in so many directions, and I'm a bit confused.

Sure, and it's something that everybody goes through when they're first starting their company. The, the biggest issue is going to be about liability, okay? So if something happens with your business then depending on how you set it up, you could be sued. So you have to think, what's the likelihood of me being sued, right? So if you have an online business and you're selling books online, it's probably a really low likelihood of you being sued. Where if you are teaching people martial arts, right, if somebody gets kicked in the head and goes to the hospital, that, that's, that's a high liability case for you. So what are you selling?

I never looked at it that way. That's very— thank you.

What's your company? What are you going to sell?

Oh, I am a licensed esthetician, so I have clients that follow me, and I wanted to— I go to their homes and I do facials and peels and all kinds of things, which of course does affect their appearance. I have them signing consent, but I wanted to start a spa business.

So, you know, I don't know how often spas get sued. It's something that is worth looking up. You're probably kind of in the middle, right? It's not karate, getting kicked in the face, but it's not selling books online. You know, if you use the wrong chemical or they say you did and it burns their face, you know, there's issues there. So that's the advantage of going to a corporation. Basically what happens is in a corporation, if you get sued, they can only touch the money that's in the corporation. So if you get sued and you lose, then they can only take that money. If you get sued and you lose and it's a sole proprietorship, then they can come after your personal house, your car, whatever assets that you have. That's the biggest difference. Now, so that's definitely, that's a good part of going corporation. The downside of that is it costs more money. So there's a setup cost, and then every year you have to get your books put together and have an accountant help you. So it could cost you a couple thousand dollars a year, maybe it may depend on your accountant, maybe $1,000, $1,500 if you're just starting up, but those are every year you have to pay those costs to do your books and your filings. So there's a lot more paperwork involved with the corporation, But if you get sued, then the, the most you're going to lose is what's in the business, right?

So it sounds to me, since I am in the medical field, and although, you know, it could be the greatest esthetician walking this earth, and I'm not saying that I am, but there's always that chance of someone having an issue even though they sign a consent and still possibly going after one of the girls that work for me. So I don't I think probably I'm leaning towards corporation after speaking to you.

Yeah, especially if you're thinking about bringing people on under you as well, you know, and they make a mistake, that's definitely worth the, you know, $1,500 it might cost you a year as an insurance policy, right? Obviously you want to train them and do a good job and you don't want to get sued. That's the worst nightmare for a lot of companies. It'll save you so much, you know, potential money if you do get sued and you lose. I mean, nobody likes to think about that, and often the legals are the last thing entrepreneurs want to focus on, right? We want to think about the marketing and the product and the customers, not the legals and the contracts and the setup and all that, but it's definitely an important thing to do when you're getting started.

Absolutely, and oh, thank you so much. I wasn't even thinking of the liability and the suing and all that. I was just thinking of, oh, I want to make these people feel better, and I've been doing it for some time, and everybody has had wonderful results, and I get to see the results immediately, so they're feeling good. But I did want to take on a couple of girls that were in school with me, and let's face it, if I'm not there all the time, then it's my name and my— like you said, my livelihood that's at Yeah, absolutely.

And if your eventual goals are to have your own space, like if you want to have your own retail shop, you're not going to people's homes, you know, if they come to your shop and they slip on the floor and they, you know, break their arm, they could potentially sue you, right? They'd have to win, of course, but that's a risk, right? So, and any, you know, you wouldn't even be able to get a retail space without being a corporation with insurance. So, um, oh, okay.

Thank you. Oh, that was great. Thank you so much for your advice. It's very—

no problem, Maria. Good luck and good luck with the new business.

Oh, thank you so much. And thank you for helping all of us.

All right. Take care.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

And that's the main difference for all of you guys listening in the liability. And, you know, if you're just getting started part-time and there's low risk, you can do a sole proprietorship. That's okay. You figure I'm not going to get sued, so I don't need to spend that extra time and hassle. But if you're serious about your business and there's any chance of you getting sued, then you definitely want to get incorporated. And, you know, that's just a part of the cost of doing business and protecting your nest egg, your family, your home, your car, everything that you've built up so far for yourself. Today we're talking about how to have success with your social media campaigns. I already gave you my first 2 tips. Number 1 is listen to the networks, to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, and see if people are talking about your industry, your business. Number 2, create accounts. Even if you're never going to use them, just create the accounts so nobody else can squat on your business name. Okay? Number 3, we're starting easy. We're starting with baby steps and moving up, because I don't want you to— this is what a lot of people do, they go hardcore on social, right? They'll spend 2 months, go crazy on social, get no results, then say, "Oh, that didn't work for me. This is stupid. I'm going back to my other ways." And they don't give it a chance. They had the wrong strategy. So I want you to start small, make sure it's working for you before you expand. So number 3 is monitor and respond. So social media doesn't have to be scary. You don't have to dive in deep. All I want you to do is monitor your name. Monitor your company name. Monitor your Twitter handle. Monitor your YouTube handle, right? You'll get alerts if somebody tags you, right? If somebody comes to your— so if you go back to Kelly who was starting her retail store selling Mexican products, right? She could have a Twitter account. If somebody tweeted her and said, hey, I just went to whatever her name was, it was a great experience, or it was a terrible experience, she should at least know, right? Just monitor that so you can respond, so you can support your champions, so you can you can fix any problems. Because if somebody comes on and starts ranting against you on social, you want to be on top of that and try to solve that problem as quickly as possible. So step 3, you're just monitoring. It's super lightweight, okay? You're not doing a lot of activity. You're not going to be posting very often, maybe once, 2, 3, 4, 5 times a week. It's not overwhelming at all. But if somebody's talking about you, it's going to give you the opportunity to connect with them. This is again how I started, right? I started by people were mentioning my name, and I just wanted to be a part of the conversation. Because I wasn't relying on me having an audience, they had an audience, and I'm just saying thank you and giving them props and giving them more encouragement, because then they're going to go and do it again. Right? The more you encourage these people who have an audience, the more likely they're going to keep going out again. So that's 3, monitor and respond. The next one is just thinking about posting lightly. Okay, we're posting lightly. You're thinking about the message that you want to put out there. You're thinking about the good you're trying to create in the world, and you're not going crazy if you're doing one post a week just to start. One tweet a week, one Facebook post a week, just something valuable, something that means something to you. Don't post something because you think your customers are going to like it. Post something because you are proud of it. Every post that you put up on social you want to be proud of and say, "Yes, I believe in that. I stand for that. I love that. This is how the world needs to be." If you're proud of it, then your audience will respond. Where if you're just trying to do it by the numbers and say, "Well, you know, this post XYZ will hopefully get us, you know, Y number of views and likes and comments," it's not going to work out. You have to post from your heart. But lightly, right? Don't go crazy on it. And make sure you're getting results. Make sure people are commenting about you, are talking about your website, or are mentioning you on Twitter. And when you start sharing stuff, make sure again that you're getting results from that. Make sure people are interacting with it and they're liking it. You have to prove it to yourself, right? Imagine that you had a boss who's saying, "You gotta show me that this social media thing works." Prove it to yourself that it's worth your time investment. On all the social platforms, I'm posting multiple times per day. But I did that after building up the proof that I know that this works for my business. Okay? So to recap, number 1, we're listening to the network, see if it's a fit. Number 2, we're creating the accounts. Number 3, we're monitoring and responding. And number 4, we start to post slightly. I'm going to share some more tips later on, but first, when we get to the calls, I have Denise on the line. Denise, where are you from and how can I help?

I'm in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and you gave me some spot-on advice about a month ago for my nonprofit, the Brides of Eden, and I have another question.

All right, welcome back.

Thanks. I, I planned a big event for our nonprofit, and I needed to sell some tickets or grab a sponsor in order to pay for it, and I suck at that. So I was trying to attract the professionals that are good at it to do it for me, and I was offering them a percentage of ticket sales or sponsorships because I had no money to pay them up front. One of them said they were offended by that. That's not nonprofit language. Isn't it okay to be entrepreneurial as long as I put money in the bank and spend it on the mission?

For sure.

Okay, because I was feeling icky after they attacked me. Well, that's not how nonprofits work. Well, I guess I don't really get how nonprofits work, but I'm just trying to get it done. Isn't it okay to do what it takes to get it done?

This guy doesn't sound entrepreneurial at all. So are you registered as a nonprofit or not-for-profit?

I am a nonprofit program under a 501(c)(3) that's sponsoring me. So yes, I have a tax-exempt status.

Right, okay, perfect. So you can— perfect. Yeah, with every— it's funny because nonprofits, there's so many who have such a great cause and they're so bad at business. That they struggle and they struggle on donations. What's wrong with selling something and actually making money to fund the programs that you're trying to get out there?

Right, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it as long as I make money and spend it on what I said I was going to spend it on.

Who cares how I get there as long as it's not illegal?

Yeah, and obviously as a nonprofit you're held to, you know, you might have your books audited and people make sure that you're spending X you're spending the money how you said you're going to spend the money. But it's a great idea. So many nonprofits rely just on donations, and often it's not enough. If you had a product that you can get out there and sell, or events that you're trying to sell tickets to, if you can make extra money as a nonprofit and pour that into more programs, why not?

Yeah, I mean, I have to, I have to have money to do the next thing, and I have to pay professionals to help me get there. So The only way I can pay them right now is to motivate them by giving them a percentage of what they bring in. I didn't see anything dirty or unprofessional about it, so I just wanted to check with an expert.

Yeah, no, I— it's just you're, you're dealing with the wrong person for sure.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you for confirming that because I'm certain I'm on the right path, but I'm making it up as I go along, as I have all along as an entrepreneur, but I just have a different Tax status, that's all.

Yeah, and this will be an important part as you grow your business, as people listening grow their businesses too. The people you bring on your team have to be aligned with what you are all about. Not just like, here's what we're trying to accomplish, but from a personality point of view, from a, you know, here's my values, here's what I believe in. They have to be on board. And it's not just the skills, right? Because you can look at somebody who can sell and say, oh, I really need that person to come on board. You know, they have the right skills, they really complement me because I know I'm weak at those things, which is a great understanding for you. But they have to have the right values too, right? Somebody who sees this as— I don't know what he said— was unethical or dirty or not right. What did he say? Yeah, I mean, it's— that's never going to be a fit for you.

Right?

It's never going to be a fit. You'll never work with that kind of person, and you don't want to waste your time trying to convince them that you're right and they're wrong, because it's not going to work. It's better for you to move on to find someone else who hears that and says, "Yeah, that's finally a nonprofit who's entrepreneurial? That's amazing.

I want on board." Well, I keep remembering what you told me last time, which was such precious advice, that I don't need to apologize for making money as a nonprofit. It's a new era.

It really is because most nonprofits don't think that way.

Yeah.

So you're trying to sell—

We're having more money than we can spend and find a way to spend it all.

Yeah, launch new programs, impact more people. That's what we're trying to do.

Right.

Yeah.

Thank you so much. I am still living off the advice you gave me last time and I feel much better having talked to you again. So I really appreciate your show.

Alright Denise, no problem. What's— do you have a website for your nonprofit?

Yes, it's BridesOfEden.com.

BridesOfEden.com, alright, give a quick promo shout out there for you.

Thank you.

Alright, thanks Denise, and hey, if you have any more questions, problems, concerns, I'm always here, call back in, I'd be happy to help you.

I will do it, thank you.

And for everybody listening in, two important points here really. One, you know, just because you're nonprofit, it doesn't mean you can't be entrepreneurial. It doesn't mean you can't find new ways to generate money besides asking for donations. And two, you really need to pay attention to your team. And Denise did such a great job of listening to her heart and trusting her gut that, you know, this person coming in, just even though they had all the skills— you're gonna get faced with this often. Somebody has all the skills that you need and you desperately need it to work, right? You're really trying to get this program going. You need it to work. I need this person on my team. I can't do it myself. And you really want that person to work out, but if they're not on the same page with you, if they don't have the same values, if they are not bleeding and oozing what your organization is all about, then it's never going to be a fit. And you can invest all the time you want to try to improve them and train them and make them better, but you can't change values. You can give them skills, but you can't change values and what they believe in. So congrats on you, Denise, keep up the great work. Today we're talking about having a social media strategy that works for your business, that generates leads for you, and I've been sharing my formula. Okay, there's 6 steps here. So we've gone through a few of them. Number 1, listen. See what people are talking about you and your industry. Number 2, create accounts just to hold them, just in case you want to use them at some point, nobody steals them. Number 3, monitor your name, monitor your website. If people are talking about you, at least you want to be able to respond. Number 4 is post lightly. So now you're sharing some thought leadership pieces, you're sharing some things that you believe in, but lightly. Once a week, show that there's results, see that you're getting traction before you expand. Okay? This is where a lot of people fall down because they dive right into step 5. And step 5 is you create a content schedule. Step 5 is where you are posting regularly. Maybe you're posting once a day, maybe you're posting multiple times a day. You know, on YouTube I post twice a day. On Twitter I might post with responses to people 20 times a day or more. You know, Facebook, I'm posting 5, 6, 7, 8 times a day just depending on the day and the schedule. So, you know, you want to make sure that you're getting value from those interactions before you ramp up. It's critical, okay? So if you're showing that you have some results, you're getting some traction, people are sharing it, people are engaged by it, you have people saying, I really love what you posted, you're getting traction, you have some kind of call to action to sign you up for your newsletter or visit your website, then you start creating the content schedule. And again, with every post that you make, you want to make sure that it's adding value to people's lives, that it means something to you, that you're proud of it. Every post has to pass that I'm proud of this post test. So here's something you can post. Here's a sample schedule because you may be thinking, well, I don't know what I would post once a day. How do I get enough content to post once a day? Here's something you can do. So Monday, you could share an industry article that you enjoy. So you're doing research, you're understanding your industry, you're reading articles. Share one that you really like. Don't just put up something that you haven't really read and you like the title and it's from a magazine that you know is typically good, make sure you actually have read the article and then add your two cents. Don't just share the article, but tell me why it's important to you. What did you take out of that article? You could do that every Monday, and all you need is one article that comes from what you're normally reading every day anyway. Number 2, on Tuesday, you post a quote that you found inspiring. Some quote that you've read online, in a book, in a video, something that just that lifted your spirits, that got you motivated. As entrepreneurs, it can be hard to stay motivated every day in our business. Whatever inspires you, if it's a quote that you've read or even an interaction with a customer, post that up because it will help keep you motivated, but it will also help motivate and inspire the other people in your audience, people who are watching, people who want to be a part of what you're doing. So post that. That's every Tuesday, and you can find one a week to put up. Number 3, Wednesday. You can ask a frequently asked question that your customers ask. So what are some of the questions that come in from your customers on a day-to-day basis? You know, if I'm thinking about, you know, a company I've invested in here called Toronto Dance Salsa, have salsa classes, people might ask, well, what kind of shoes do I need? Where can I buy them? Do you have a DVD? You know, all the typical questions. Do I need a partner? What's a great beginner song that I can dance to? Right? You're going to have a lot of the same questions that come up over and over and over and over again, but there'll be a lot of people who have those same questions who never actually even ask. So put it up on social, one question per week, and answer it for them. Provide that value because the people who might be too afraid to ask, maybe sitting on the fence, now they're getting valuable help to grow, to, to learn more about whatever industry that you're in. Potentially buy your product. Thursday, share an interesting fact about your business. Tell a personal story, right? Let me connect to your company and you as a person more than just whatever product or service you're selling. The more you can make it a brand that means something to me, the more likely I'm going to want to buy from you and be loyal and tell my friends about you and care and not just compete on price, right? Not just say, oh well, you know, you're 'Oh, my competitor dropped their price by 5 cents, so I'm going to go there.' Share something interesting. Share an interesting fact. Tell me why you started. Tell me how many customers you have. Tell me who your first employee was. Tell me what your first media gig was. Tell me what other 3 business ideas you were thinking about when you first started. Tell me your biggest fear when you were getting going. Tell me the first thing your customer said to you. Tell me your biggest fear when that first customer walked knocked on the door, whatever, tell me something, right? Find one interesting fact. I just listed off, you know, 10 there. That sets you up for, for a fifth of the year. Answer those and then keep coming up with more, right? So you can post one of those once a week on your channels. On Friday, post a picture. Post a picture of you, post a picture of your team, post a picture of your customers. Again, we're making it personal, right? Post something that when I look at, I, I can get some kind of feeling towards who you are, what you're all about, something that shares the values that you're trying to send out there. Going back to our— one of our callers, Kelly, who had the Mexican goods, you know, she could take pictures of her product, she could take pictures of her trips, she could take pictures of the artisans and the villages that she's buying these things from. So I feel like, oh, if I'm buying this, I'm supporting that little tiny community in Mexico. That kind of personal connection means so much more. I'm willing to pay more for that than if I'm just buying jewelry. Why should I buy yours over another person's jewelry, another company's jewelry, right? So having those pictures really help. And even if you're just showing pictures of you and your team working, showcase one of your team members, showcase one of your contractors, make that stand out so that I feel a personal connection to your business. On Saturday, you could ask people a question. Ask them a fun question. You can ask them something totally unrelated to your business, like what's their favorite food or TV show, or what are they doing this weekend. Or ask them something related to their business. You know, ask them about what, what next product they want to see come out. Ask them about how they're using your product or service in an innovative way. Ask them, ask them, you know, what new innovation they'd like to see you to launch, right? Ask them a different question every week. It bonds them to your company more, and it also gives you information about who they are, what they're interested in, and how you can potentially sell more to them. And then on Sunday, you can do something more promotional. Sunday, you're sharing one of your blog posts, you're sharing a press release. If you have a coupon, you can put it out. You're sharing your newsletter, you're sharing a new product that launched, something more promotional. It's okay to have some sales-related stuff in there, but just don't make it constant. So that's a, that's a quick overview, and you don't have to do that every day of the week, and you don't have to do all of those. Pick and choose, sample, but make sure you're posting content and you're getting results from it. And step number 6 is your test. You measure, you test, you rinse, repeat. You find out what works, find out what feels right, find out what you're getting engagement from your customers on, because social is so important, especially 2015. It can be one of the leading drivers for your business. I hope you take the opportunity to invest into it and start driving your business forward this year. Thank you guys for another amazing show. It's been awesome. Christy, Josh, you guys are amazing. I'm hopping on a Twitter chat right now if you guys want to follow me on Twitter. We're talking social results. I will see you in 2 weeks. Thank you guys so much. Take care. Hi, I'm Tor Refsland from www.TimeManagementChef.com. Evan Carmichael's newsletter, epic! Subscribe!