Social Media for the Solopreneur

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach this evening. Happy Tuesday. Can I just ask you all, send some luck to my dad. He's running for water and Wastewater Commissioner of our hometown, Harwich, Massachusetts. He's really passionate about public service, and he's been serving as a selectman for the last, I don't know, gazillion years. He's finally stepping down from that and devoting himself to something that really matters to him. Water conservation. So if you can send. Send lucky vibes to him tonight, the results will be in around 9pm thanks in advance. But anyway, that's not what I want to talk about tonight. For those of you joining us, Hello. I am streaming this to the Facebooks, to LinkedIn, and to YouTube. And sometimes there's a little technical snafu and I don't see all comments. So, as you know, if you've watched this little live before, I love this to be interactive. So if you have any questions or something to add to the conversation, please, please do. But also, if I don't respond to your comments, it's not that I'm mad at you. You did nothing wrong. It's just that the technology is failing us. Anyway, one of the things that I get asked all the time. Hi, Gabriel. But one of the things I get asked all the time is where should I be spending my time on social media if I'm starting my own business and I want to build awareness for it. And what I see very often is a solopreneur. And by solopreneur, I mean someone who's starting their business on their own. So they are wearing all the hats. They are serving clients, they are marketing, they are doing the sales calls, they're fulfilling orders, whatever it is they're doing. Solopreneurs get very overwhelmed very fast because they think they need to be everywhere. And let me just bust that myth right now, okay? You do not need to be everywhere. If you are everywhere, this is what happens to you. So when I say everywhere, I mean if you're a basic bee like most of my solopreneurs, I love you all. You are trying to be on LinkedIn, you're trying to be on Facebook. Maybe you're spending some money on Facebook ads, you're trying to be on Instagram. You probably haven't figured out Snapchat, but you are definitely trying to be on Instagram. Facebook, on Instagram. Did I not cover that? Anyway, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. Oh, and Twitter. There we go. Those four. If you're an overachiever, then welcome to the next level. You're then also probably trying to be on TikTok and Clubhouse. Okay? That is a lot of work. That's a lot of content to curate because all those different places have different styles of presenting content. A couple things that will happen, okay? If you devote yourself to running a business and trying to be everywhere on social media, one, you're gonna burn yourself out, okay? And you're gonna burn yourself out in a way that's not gonna make you any money because you're gonna be spending time, all of your time trying to maintain these social media accounts, be creative, be influential and like, you're not, like, that's not serving clients, that's not making money, that is absolutely promoting yourself. But it's going to be inconsistent because the first few clients you get from all that, a few of those are getting dropped and you're not going to know. I doubt you're going to have the time or the bandwidth to be able to go through and track where all those clients came from and which strategies worked best. Okay? You're going to burn yourself out. Don't do it. Okay? Another thing that happens is because you're not nailing absolutely killing it on one social media platform, first you are going to hear crickets. And this is very common for those of you in the life coaching space. If you're in the coaching space where it's slightly woo woo and you're giving life advice, you're going to hear crickets, okay? So this is actually super normal for coaches. When you go into the bookstore, I just want you to imagine this, like close your eyes and imagine back in the days when we go to the bookstore. When you go to the bookstore and you go to the self help section, don't lie. I know you've been there. I know you've been there because I've been there and I saw you there. But when you go to the self help section, everyone has their hoods on and they have their sunglasses on and they have their head down and they don't want to be seen. They do not want to be seen looking for the book to save their marriage, to get more confident, to learn meditation. They don't want to be seen looking at that junk. They're perfectly fine being seen in the murder mystery section, absolutely. But when you are a coach and you're posting, oh my God, my hair is a mess now. When you're. And I have hair in my mouth, how did that happen? Oh my gosh, that was a little over the top. Sorry. So when you're a coach and you're posting coachy things, personal development things, this is one of the things that happens is no one will comment, or very few people will comment, but lots of people will track it, okay? But you have to remember you are the self help section of social media, okay? So it's actually very normal for you to hear crickets when you post something that's really coachy. And I'll be talking about what you should be posting later on in this live. So stay tuned if that's something that you're really interested in and if you are hearing crickets. But what happens when you hear crickets not just from Facebook and not just from LinkedIn, but also on Instagram and also on Twitter? The hit to your ego, the hit to your confidence is overwhelming, okay? You're just going to think no one likes you. You're going to think that your message sucks and you're just going to stop doing it. And that's the last thing that I want you to do when you're starting a business. I want you to do the things that are going to slowly build confidence, okay? So get good at one thing first. Don't try to be everywhere at the same time. The other, the other thing that this has cost you is time. Your time is valuable, especially if you're a solopreneur and you're not being paid by a job, okay? Your time is money. I need you to remember that, okay? You are not here to spin your wheels, to shuffle papers around, or to just post mindlessly on all the social medias and. Hi, Martin. Welcome to the talk. This evening we're talking social media. It's a great topic, I think. And here's what happens is, when you spend all of this time posting to these places, hearing crickets, getting overwhelmed, wasting time, and you don't get any results out of it because you're not tracking what works. Because it's impossible to track what works. When you're doing too much, you feel like a failure, and that sucks. Building a business is a momentum game. And momentum is not just sales calls and getting new clients and selling more widgets. No. Momentum also means energetic momentum. Okay? So if you put that in the pits because you're making yourself feel like a failure because you're doing too much on social media and spreading yourself too thin, oh, my God. Like that kind of momentum starts carrying on and failure, momentum never leads somewhere nice. Okay, I don't think I have to sell you on that. So here's what you should be doing. And I know I'm using the should word. We try not to should ourselves in the Katie world. I know, but this is honestly good advice. It comes out of my mouth. I'm giving you this advice. If it serves you wrong, then tell me. Never. I haven't seen this fail anyone yet. First and foremost, you need to pick one social media platform to go onto for the very first year of your business, and you nail that. You get that down pat. You create a formula that you know can generate clients for you. A couple things to think about is where are your clients, your ideal clients that you want to be your clients, where do they hang out? Okay, if there are a bunch of gen zers, they may not be on LinkedIn yet. You know, they may be on Instagram or TikTok, depending on, you know, where they are in their lives. So where are they on social media? So you want to go to where your ideal clients are, because what's the point of posting something to Snapchat per se if if you're targeting baby boomers? They're not on Snapchat, Sorry. If you like Snapchat, that can be fun for friends. So you want to pick one where your ideal clients are already hanging out. The next part is, where do you want to hang out? I'm sorry, Luna. Luna is going crazy downstairs. Where do you want to hang out on social media? Where do you have fun? Where do you, like, want to spend time and build community? Remember, this is going to be part of your workday for the next 365 days, unless it's a leap year, and that's going to be 366. So you need to pick a place that you have fun in. For me, LinkedIn is the most fun place for me. You know, Facebook is second and Instagram. Well, Instagram and Facebook are kind of tied because, you know, Instagram came up with reels now. So now I don't have to look at TikTok. So pick. Pick the one that lights you up, okay? And this leads into the next one because whatever energy you go into it with is the energy you're going to get out. So if you get energy, like, if you're fun and you're excited and you're, like, into it and you want to be there, guess what? That's what you're going to get out of it, okay? Because the universe is just a mirror. Someone's at the door. Anyway, the universe is just a mirror. It reflects back at you. And social Media is just a part of the universe. Okay? If you go into a place and you're energizing that you just feel like you have to be there, it's not good energy. It's kind of muddy, you know, like, imagine trying to, like, yank ideal clients out of the mug out of a muddy bog. Like, that's how it's going to go. Don't do that. Don't set yourself up for failure that way. Pick a place that you actually enjoy spending time at. This leads me to the next point is I want you to remember abundance over scarcity. Okay? There are a lot of shiny objects when it comes to social media. It seems like there's a new social media platform every six months. We now have TikTok and Clubhouse that have gotten big in the last year, year and a half. Right? There's so much pressure happening right now to get onto one of these platforms as it's growing and get big fast, get big overnight, get all the followers, and there's this mentality going around and it's been in my world a little bit. I'm very careful about doing this to my clients. I like presenting social media platforms as an option to them, but I will never pressure them to do this. Don't get sucked into. I have to get in there now or else I'm never going to be able to be big on there. Don't get into that. Okay, sure, if you're an early adopter and you're all about doing stuff new, go for it like that, that should be your bag baby. But there's nothing wrong with hanging back a little bit, watching, watching the first adapter, seeing how they do it really well, strategizing, going and trying it out a few times, seeing if it's even a place you want to spend time, and then making a really smart business for yourself. Because this business you're creating is supporting your ideal life, not someone else's. There's nothing wrong with leaning back and saying, hey, I really want to be here, or hey, not my place at all. No interest whatsoever. I'm going to focus on these other places. I don't want you getting sucked into that like grabby, needy. I need to stake my claim before this gets too big and there are too many people here. Okay? I want you to imagine the people that you're interacting with there. They can pick that up. There's something energetic in that arrival, in that being in the space. Okay? So if you're going to go onto a new platform, make sure that your energy is clean. And you're not doing it from a place of scarcity. And make sure you're having fun. Make sure you're having fun. The beautiful thing about social media is that as it evolves, like, LinkedIn has recently gone through this whole overhaul culturally, like, nothing has really changed about the platform except how the people on LinkedIn are showing up. It's far more personal right now, and I can attest to that. You know, there's a lot of, like, Facebook, like, posts there. But the beauty of that is that it makes the people who are connected to you on there feel really connected to you, like they know you. Which takes me to my next point. What should you post while you're posting on social media? I know it can be very tempting to go on there and try to prove how smart you are. Okay, we've all done it. There's nothing wrong with that. But let's set that aside for a bit, okay? Because when you try to prove how smart you are, you set the smart bar pretty high on your posts, which means use expert speak. So say you're a lawyer and you're using, like, all this lawyer jargon. Your ideal client isn't going to understand that. And also, even if they wanted to comment on it to boost your engagement, if you're using terms that they don't know or they have to look up, it either becomes too much work for them to look it up and understand your post, or they just opt out of it because it makes them feel dumb. Either way, they are not going to comment on your stuff because if they comment, there's a big chance they could sound stupid. No one wants that. So when you post, you want to post that you make other people feel smart. The other thing, like I said, is you want people to feel like they know you. You want them to get to know you legitimately. Okay? It's not just a false thing that you're creating. You're actually sharing a bit about yourself. And so you're going to oscillate between posting about your ideal clients and what they struggle with and what they want and how you serve them. Absolutely. That is part of it. That is part of your business. But then you're also going to post about yourself. You're building your personal brand. And when I say personal brand, don't get freaked out that you have to go and get your hair done and you have to get a whole new wardrobe and all the, you know, the kerfuffle around that. That's not what I mean. I mean your personal brand Is like how you take your coffee in the morning. It's, you know, what is your dog's name? It's all the little details about your life that someone, if they were your neighbor, they might know about you. So I have this amazing neighbor across the street. Her name is Ann. She really loves Star Trek. She has a dog named Morgan. She has a hot tub, and she has one of those really cool little swimming pools that you can swim in, but it has a current, so it's not that big, but you just keep swimming. It's almost like a treadmill. Okay, so right there, I just described to you my neighbor. Everyone on your social media platform should be able to describe some stuff about you as if you're their neighbor. Okay? She was also a social worker. She also does a lot of community support stuff. Okay. I'm able to reference what she does and what she did because I know a bit about her. Okay. You want to create that sense of community, like you're everyone's neighbor. Okay. Just a little shout out to Mr. Rogers. You know, he knew this. And you want to oscillate between that and the client stuff. Okay. And inviting people to book a call with you or whatever. Don't over complicate it. Have fun with social media. It's really rich. I can share personally this last year, for me, thanks to Leah Turner, I have completely nailed LinkedIn. Knock on wood. It is one of the highlights of my day. Getting to go there, getting to tune into my community and, you know, getting to share and getting to grow my business there. It's a delight and an honor and so much fun. And thank you to everyone who is on LinkedIn watching this for being a part of that. My next big thing is Facebook ads and or Instagram. I'm playing a little bit with both. I know I'm breaking my own rules, but, you know, I have things dialed in well enough and I have enough external support that I can do it. Which brings me to my final point. If you don't know how to do anything in your business, if you don't know how to do sales, that's okay. You've never learned sales, probably. And also, just so you know, most of my clients who come from a sales background also have to relearn sales for their own service. It's a very different sale from selling a car or a house. Okay. So don't feel bad if it's extra challenging for you when you come from a sales background. I went through that as well. I had to reformulate my whole Sales process. It's one of the things that I train my clients on because it's so critical. So if you don't know that, get help, contact me, contact another business coach who does that. If you don't know how to do social media, contact Leah Turner, contact me, contact anyone who knows how to do social media. There are plenty out there. Be sure to get references though, because there are a lot of charlatans out there. If you don't know how to do anything else in your business, there is so much help out there that is just waiting for you to knock on their door. And there's no shame in asking for help. Just want to say that there's absolutely no shame. Okay. You were raised by a school system, especially if you're in the U.S. and hi, Leslie, welcome. If you were raised in the US you were raised by a school system that taught you algebra and stuff. And maybe if you took an accounting class, told you how to balance Excel spreadsheets, it is so helpful, so helpful. Because everything always balances in life. No, no, it doesn't. If you don't know how to do something, your education didn't cover it, you shouldn't intrinsically know how to do this stuff. No one does. It's not built into our DNA. Ask for help, hire help, get a mentor, whatever. There's no shame in getting help. And hi, Howard, welcome. And I'm actually just winding this down, down. So if you want to watch this, I'm going to be saving it to all the places. And if you have any questions, if you're, if you're in your business and you're realizing, oh my gosh, there's so much stuff I don't know and I'm overwhelmed. One of the things I do offer is a generate, I can't even say it. A generate income strategy call. And what this is a 30 minute consultation to see where you are in your business, what you've done so far, what challenges you're hitting, what are your points of growth. And then if it makes sense, then I'm more than happy to share what it looks like to work together. But I always make sure that those who book a call walk away with some direction of where they're going next. Because honestly, it's hard to do for yourself. And I want to tell myself here, I'm a business strategist and coach. I have multiple coaches, I have business strategists, because I can do it for other people, I can't do it for myself. Okay, so if you're in that boat where you're thinking, oh my God, I should be able to do this. I do this for everyone else. Welcome to the club. That is so normal. It's one of the reasons coaching is such an incredible job. There's such an incredible resource for people because we don't have objectivity in our own lives. We are so in it. Sometimes we can't see the forest through the trees or for the trees. How do you say that? Saying, I don't know. It's been a long day. The puppy woke me up. There were coyotes and all the things. Anyway. But just so you know, like, it's normal to have a mentor to lead you to the next level. And I'm not just talking about starting a business. If you want to grow in your career, get a mentor. Someone who has done what you want to do and can turn around and show you the footsteps they took to get there. That is my ramp for today. I hope this was useful. If you have any questions about social media or growing your business or you do want to book one of those generate income strategy calls. Got it out there. Then just send me a dm. I'm more than happy to hop on the phone with you, answer some questions and as always, every Friday I have my Being Brave call. That's an open Q and A call. If you're not ready to get on the phone with me one on one, it's just a great place for you to get on. Ask me a few questions. You're if. If you want. Or just listen to other folks who are building their businesses, being their brave ass selves and learn from what they're struggling with. Anyway, I'm going to be popping that link in the comments and I know this is all the time and I forget I'm actually going to remember to do it this time. I'll pop that link in the comments of all this. And Leslie, I just saw that question. How is my book writing going? You know the answer. I'm going live right now. Of course I'm procrastinating, writing the book. What do you think I'm doing? Oh, man, you busted me. Yeah, it's coming. It's coming along. It'll be done. I was talking to my publisher a couple days ago. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm not worried. And I was like, well, I'm a little worried, but I'm not worried because this is how I got through high school and college. Like I waited to the last minute by the skin of my teeth. I got those papers in and I got A's on them so I not worried the book will get done. The book will get done. I don't can I just, I want to just tell myself never make a deadline for something on your birthday. My birthday is May 29th and I decided that was going to be my deadline and it just kind of ruined the fun of my birthday this year and it's a self imposed deadline so I don't know why I'm letting it ruin the fun but it did and so anyway I don't want to talk about it. Leslie long story short and on that note, I am signing off. Thank you all for joining. Leslie, Howard, Martin, Gabriel, so lovely to be with you this evening and for everyone else who hasn't commented or your comments didn't come through, thank you for being with me. I hope you all have a great evening and I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Okay, bye.