Holiday 2019 Business Prep Challenge Week 2 Emails
Oct 29, 2019
Week 2, Day 1:
Happy Monday! I am SO thrilled that you are here and I couldn't be more excited to kick off Week 2 of the Holiday 2019 Business Sales Prep Challenge.
This week, we will be shifting the focus over to all things social media. This is a VERY broad topic and we could go down a million little rabbit holes, but for the purpose of this challenge we are going to keep it simple with some quick, easy tasks. At the end of the week, if it looks like there are themes of specific areas where everyone would like a more in-depth look, I can look into maybe running some workshops in November.
Today's Challenge: Download this brief tip guide for social media posting (don't get stressed, we will work through it together) and take a look at where you think your customers are hanging out online. Are they all-day-everyday Facebook users? Insta-junkies? Lurkers or commenters?
You can find this out by going out to your pages and simply ASKING them: "where do you spend your time on social media?".
At the end of this guide, I included a very basic "content calendar" to give you an idea of where/how often I am posting for my own accounts and followers. Tomorrow, we will talk about the different ways you can batch content (i.e., make a bunch of graphics all at once) and schedule posts so that you will start to build your consistency and presence for your customers.
I would love for you to post in the group where your customers are hanging out online! Feel free to share any tips or tricks you have learned or any patterns you have seen as far as who is showing up where.
Yippee yahoo, I'm looking forward to this week!
Week 2, Day 2:
Hello there! I hope this week is off to a great start for you.
Yesterday, I sent out a little guidebook that I prepared to give us a little bit of an outline for this week.
Yesterday's task was to start to take a look at where your customers are spending their time online/on social media. This information is key to determining where, what, and how often you are going to post.
Your customers are likely spending time in more than one place, but it is important to remember a few things:
1) Your audiences on different platforms may have some overlap, but are likely different people!
2) Your posts are only shown to a very small percentage of your total audience, so frequent posting is essentail for greater audience reach.
3) Your audience WANTS to hear from you! The followed you for a reason: give them something to enjoy!
Today's Task: Look at the responses you collected yesterday about where your audience is spending their time, and think about what kinds of things you would like to post. Tonight, I will be hopping on for a Live in the group for a quick Q&A and to talk about how I select my posts and do my scheduling.
If you are unable to make it to the Live tonight, the video will be posted afterwards for you to review. If you have questions ahead of time, please feel free to post them in the group and I'll be glad to answer them.
See you in the group!
Week 2, Day 3:
Good morning! We are rolling right along with this challenge, and by now you should be getting comfortable with your social media audience and learning more about where they are spending their time. If you missed it last night, here is a link to the Facebook Live recording from our Q&A sesssion.
Watch The Replay Of The Facebook Live Q&A Here
Today, the focus is on Facebook! I could do a whole MONTH on Facebook alone, but, well, there just isn't time for that in this challenge. I wanted to show you how you can bulk schedule your posts to help free up some of your time while building your consistently on your page.
Today's Task: Think about what kinds of things you want to post (you can start with 1-2 a day, but I try to aim for 4-6 posts throughout the day) and schedule some posts! I created a guide to show you step-by-step how to decide what to post, how to determine when your audience is online, and how to schedule through the free scheduling option that is right within your Facebook page.
Download Your Facebook Tip Guide Here
As I mentioned last night, your posting schedule and engagement success is going to be highly dependent on finding out when your audience is online and how often you engage (respond) to their comments.
When you have scheduled a few posts, come on over to the group and let us know how it went and if you have any tips or tricks to share.
See you in the group!
Week 2, Day 4:
Good afternoon, and Happy Thursday!
I hope that you have gained some insight this week about scheduling and posting in a way that will gain the attention of your audience. Which ever social media platform(s) you choose to use, the key is CONSISTENCY. You want to be showing up for them every day with content (info) that is interesting to them, informative, entertaining, and engaging. You want to be asking them questions, answering their comments, and letting them know that you value their interesrt and support.
Your "secret sauce" will be the personality you establish for your brand and the relationships you forge and maintain. It sounds simple, but laying the groundwork is essential.
I have created a brief guide on how to determine what you want to post on Instagram, a review of some themed hashtags, and a sample layout grid that you can use to plan your posts ahead of time. Setting a schedule and a plan ahead of time will take the guesswork of what you want to post, it will allow you to prepare your graphics ahead of time, and it will give you more time to be able to engage with your audience.
Get Your Instagram Tip Guide Here
Today's Task: Download this tip guide and brainstorm some post ideas that your audience would enjoy. Use the blank grid in the worksheet to determine which posts you will post and in what order (if you have a visual pattern, start at the lower right corner as this will be your first post of the series). Set yourself a calendar reminder to post (I do twice a day, but this is a personal preference) and have your graphics for your posts saved to an easily accessible folder on your phone.
Come over to the group to share your Instagram handle (we can all support each other!), share your post plan ideas, and ask any questions you may have!
Post Your Link To The Group Here
Tomorrow we will be touching on Pinterest, and we will talk about how you can use any graphics or posts that you have created for Facebook and Instagram and use those as pin graphics.
See you in the group!
Week 2, Day 5:
Congratulations, we have made it to the end of the week!
I know this was SUCH a brief overview of social media (lets face it, we could spend an eternity refining/perfecting!), but hopefully you've picked up some tips and tricks that are helpful in deciding what to post, where to post it, and when to post so that your audience will see.
Although Pinterest is not technically a social media platform (it's really a visual search engine with a social component!), I am including it in this week because I feel like it is essental for anyone (like you!) who has a product based business.
I have created a little tip guide that will help you get started creating pins to strategically drive traffic to your website.
Grab Your Pinterest Guide Here
Today's Task: Pop over to your Etsy shop and/or website and pin at least 10 of your products to a relevant board (i.e., a "from my studio" board, "gifts for mom", "bridal party must-haves", etc). Then, play around with the Pinterest search bar and search for some things that you think your customers would be looking for that would pair well with your items/shop. Repin a few of those complimentary things to your board, and see the collection start to grow!
I have created a group board on Pinterest where you can pin your products to: this should help to give everyone a nice extra boost for your Pinterest accounts and websites! Join the board, pin your items, and then make sure to check the other pins and repin those (see how that works?! fun!).
Join The Holiday Handmade Gift Guide Group Board Here
Next week we will be diving into eCommerce and Etsy, inclduing some best practices for listings, photography tips, and using your email marketing and social media to bring eyes to your listings.
Feel free to post your Pinterest page links to the group along with any questions or tips you have!
See you in the group!
