My Social Media Year in Review:
Did you find the time to reflect on your business plans and review how your year went?
Every year, I make sure that I block off several days { or if I’m lucky, I can get a whole weekend! } to work on my plans to keep my business moving forward. I review everything that happened throughout the year – the good, the bad and those ugly challenges.
My review is always full of reminders of the things that I struggled with as well as several brainstorm sessions to figure out how to make sure that I don’t fall back down that path.
I usually spend a lot of time thinking and doing the deep work to take a look at the changes I’ve experienced. Not just the movement with my business but the internal shifts within myself.
Last year I took all my coaching programs to the next level where the programs moved from just how to do this step or where to go to post that message. I was able to do more than just show my clients how to use social media but to help small business owners and bloggers find their focus of the HOW and the WHY they do the work that they love.
And especially with the updated program of the Pinterest Traffic Builder for those entrepreneurs and bloggers who use Pinterest as one of their top marketing tools.
I was so thrilled to work all my new clients this with my consulting programs!
The work we did together inspired to me to develop my first real hold-in-your-hands product, the Create Your Business subscription box and bring that out into the world by working with my Founding Members program.
So in the spirit of clearing out my old year and bringing in the new, I’d like to share with you how I reviewed 2019 to get ready for 2020.
My 2019 Social Media Story
My review always includes a deep dive look at the social media sites I used, what worked and which sites were just a great big frustration.
One of my biggest changes I did in 2019 was to stop spending my time creating content like challenges or more email courses. I’ve created so much of that helpful content strategy challenging stuff that I choose to effectively spend my time updating what I already have and deleting the programs that weren’t working to grow my email list.
With clarity about my goals, I discovered what I needed to work on and where I should focus my time online.
Read on as I share with you my 2019 Social Media Story:
If you’ve spent any time with me, you know that Pinterest has always been my number one site to grow my website traffic. I use this visual site to grow my email list, to find content to share and to do research to learn how to grow my other social sites.
Over the summer I took a break from blogging and without any fresh content to share on Pinterest, I worried that my traffic would start to drop.
And while I was making changes to my blogging schedule, Pinterest continued to change its program which had a huge effect on the way we use this visual site.
It was like I was fighting a double battle – the lack of new content from my site { no new content means no new site traffic! } and the Pinterest changes that always seem to affect the numbers on the site.
I decided to go back to the basics of Pinterest.
Pinterest has become so much more than just posting an engaging image. It’s about what you’re pinning, the content you’re repinning to your boards and how often you’re pinning – basically, how you’re using Pinterest.
I became more consistent with my pinning process. It became more about sharing my content using SEO based keywords to make sure that I was still able to get that traffic to my website.
I also started creating a second and third pin for the top content that was already bringing traffic to my site.
Every week I checked my Pinterest Analytics to discover which pins where already resonating with people on Pinterest. Then I would find loads of opportunities of content that I was able to re-work with a new image and pin description.
So began another series of testing the way I pinned, what I pinned and how often.
All of that testing helped me uncover a new way to create content that would get Pinterest users to my website.
I was so excited with my results that I added this new process to The Pinterest Traffic Builder program to teach other small business owners and bloggers how to use Pinterest to grow their email list and connect with more qualified customers.
I made a big decision about how I’m moving forward with my use of Facebook for my business.
Facebook is no longer user-friendly. With all that data mining stuff and a privacy setting for almost everything, Facebook has lost its charm to me. Unless, I want to do Facebook Live videos or spend money on ads, my business page just isn’t showing up for anyone anymore.
After much back and forth, I decided to make the decision to stop using Facebook for my business.
I could pull out that advice about how if a social site is not working for you, don’t spend your valuable time on there. Just find out the best place you can connect with your audience.
But we both know it’s more than just that. Facebook has turned into a “pay to play” site for small businesses.
And for those of us small business owners using Facebook, this is the reality that we live in.
It’s clear that if I asked a room full of bloggers and business owners, everyone would have an opinion about why I should stay on Facebook. What I could have done to create more videos and a VA I could hire, what they would have done.
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.
The only reason I haven’t deleted myself completely from Facebook is because of Facebook Groups. I manage a Pinterest Strategy Facebook Group where I log into every week to share content with my Pinterst community.
And I intentionally keep the group small by removing members who are not actively engaged. If I’m going to spend my time on Facebook, I want to be in the space where I can help people and not just a place to drop a link and move on to my next social hit.
So where am I with my Facebook Business thing?
I’ve stopped posting.
I’ve stopped thinking about what I want to do in my next Facebook Live. It has now become something that I removed my my marketing to-do list because it’s not where I want to spend my valuable time.
The whole process was such a struggle that didn’t give me a big enough return on my time.
I will admit that if you search for my Facebook Business page, you’ll still find the page up on the site. I know that Facebook is always making changes to the site and maybe … just maybe, something will change in the future.
Maybe the algorithm will shift again and we’ll go back to seeing organic reach with our Facebook Business pages. But right now, my page is more like an online business card just waiting for someone to stop by and find out where else they can connect with me.
This was the first year that I really spent the time and effort using the site to promote my business.
My biggest challenge was being consistent. My numbers crept up when I was active and then dropped back down again when I would disappear.
I really wanted to figure out how to get my Instagram account to help me with the launch of my new Create Your Business box or at least, help me share how the box works and why small business owners should subscribe and get their own box.
Plus, as I started to shift my attention away from Facebook, I was really missing the engagement of sharing my updates, my weekly quotes and the behind the scenes stuff from my business.
So I finally stopped talking about wanting to use IG and I just did it.
I planned out my posts, wrote my copy { which I saved in Evernote for a quick and easy cut and paste situation }, found great images and saved them into Dropbox. Once I got everything loaded up, there was no good excuse as to why I wasn’t posting.
And it’s starting to work! I’m posting consistently. I’m spending time in the site, engaging with others and they’re responding back.
I don’t have a huge traffic push from Instagram like I do with Pinterest but I’ve got a process in place … and that’s a start. I see the potential from using Instagram and what it can do to help me grow the Create Your Business box.
LinkedIn – my favorite thing for my business!
My relationship with LinkedIn is growing every week. After that breakup with Facebook, I took a deep breath and just jumped right in.
Seriously, LinkedIn is everything that I wish my Facebook Business page could have been. It feels good to be on a site where it’s 100% acceptable to talk about my business without feeling like some pushy salesperson.
I share my online workshops and the classes that I teach locally. I share my coaching programs and why you should work with me. I talk about being a small business owner, the ups, the downs, the lessons I’ve learned in over 20 years of being in business.
I schedule my weekly posts in Hootsuite but I also log into the site to meet new people and to comment on their posts. I even got a couple of new clients from my connections just seeing one of my posts.
I’m already making plans on how to up the content of my posts to be more personal rather than just about making a sale. It is truly one of the best networking sites for small business owners and I can see myself going in even deeper in 2020.
Your Social Media Story
As you settle into a new decade with a fresh outlook for 2020, take some time to think about how you’re using social media to grow your business.
What does your relationship with your social sites look like?
Are you like me with triumphs on some sites and struggles on others? Is there something holding you back from using a social media program you know you need to be on because you just don’t know how to fit it into your weekly to-do list?
I think the first place to start is to admit to where you are right now.
Share it with friends, post your struggles in the comments section or write your own blog post. Just find a way to get it out of your head so you can stop making excuses.
And then create a list of action items you can do to make changes. And these changes can be either to your schedule or find a way to do some mindshift work to get rid of those blocks.
So here we go into a new year my friends. Time to learn from our struggles and celebrate our successes.
This is my social media story. This is my truth. What’s yours?
Ready to take your marketing plans to another level in 2020? It’s time to think about subscribing to the Create Your Business program!
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