Are you being social on social media?
Every once in a while non boutique owners reach out to me with the exact same message: “Can I meet with you to ask questions about how to grow my following on social media?”
It happened again today and I thought, “hmm, I don’t have millions of followers, what is it I’m doing on Instagram that drives this question from people who are not my typical client?”
Then it occurred to me… they see how I behave on social media, that I have great engagement and want me to teach them what I'm doing. Here's the kicker, it's actually pretty simple - why do I have such great engagement on Instagram? BECAUSE I’M SOCIAL AND I ENGAGE WITH PEOPLE. There are a few nuances about this, such as I don't grow on Instagram nor am I showing up in ways that will attract my ideal client. However, that's not where my ideal client hangs out most, so there's no need to show up in that way on Insta.
So yes, simply put I don’t just put out content and hope people comment. I create and carry a never ending conversation with people through my Instagram story. I get engagement because I ENGAGE!
“My engagement is down” is a common phrase I hear from people and read all over social media, then I look at someone’s page and they are just posting pics with captions like “new arrivals just dropped”. The post before that is a sneak peek of a new arrival. And if I scroll and scroll I’m sure I’ll see the same with little to no content that actually drives communication WITH the customer.
This is a two way street babe - if you want people to talk to you, then you have to talk to them. Instead most people are just sharing randomness into the ether and expecting the person on the other end to do all the heavy lifting by responding to things like “Grab this pink top in our app”. 😐
How about instead, we move from speaking at people to having a conversation with people on your feed and stories. The most simple tip I can give you on how to do this is: if in the middle of the day you have a thought and no one around to share it with THEN SHARE IT ON YOUR FEED OR STORY.
Yes, I know this is a non traditional way of communicating with people and it can be awkward, but I promise you’ll get used to it. Live out loud my loves! The louder you live, the more people will engage!