Announcement:Welcome to Build Your Tribe with your host Chalene Johnson.
Chalene:What's up, what's up? I'm so glad you're back. I'm really happy that you've returned after listening to yesterday's show. If you didn't listen to yesterday's show, you need to listen to it because today's show is the number two biggest mistake most entrepreneurs are making today when it comes to social media. But yesterday's show is critical because it's the number one mistake.
It keeps me up at night knowing that people are doing this and that they continually struggle with this one thing and it's such a simple fix, and even though I've done many shows on it and I think there ... you can basically hear the same message in just about every business podcast, you're going to hear the same message, but I don't know that anyone has given it as much ... Bam! Right between your eyes clarity as I did yesterday. I just put it out there; if you're not doing this you can just expect it's going to take you ten times longer to build your business to the level at which you know it could be.
If you haven't listened to yesterday's episode you must listen to that episode. Because it's everything, it's the answer. When someone comes to me and they say, "How come my business hasn't reached this level?" Or "Why do I continually struggle?" Or "Why is it we can't get a business loan?" Or "Why don't I have the success that someone else has?" Or "How did so-and-so become so successful so quickly?" Or "Why is this person making that much money?"
The answer is found in my last episode. It's the thing you need to start doing right now in your business, and if you're already doing it, you need to do more of it, you need to get better at it, and you need to realize this is that 80% rule. This is what I focus 80% of my efforts on when it comes to my business. It is the key to my online business success, it's the key to passive income. It's the key to being able to serve a lot of people without having to spend tons and tons of hours actually giving up yourself.
At this point if you aren't thoroughly convinced that you need to listen to yesterday's episode, you shouldn't even bother listening to this one. I'm serious. Wow, she's really serious. I am. I 'm really serious. Why does it matter that much to me? Because you're like me or you wouldn't be listening to my podcast! Hello! I have tracked people who are the kind of people who I would be friends with. If you're listening to my show on a regular basis, we have a ton in common. We might not look the same, we might live in different countries. But we have a lot in common, and that means I'd probably like you a lot because we're a lot alike and I want to take care of you.
I wish that someone would have boldly made this statement to me a little earlier. I did have, and I do have, mentors who have done this for me and have said, "Just stop. Stop doing everything and focus on this." I want to pay it forward by sharing that advice to you and in my last episode I get pretty passionate about it.
Let's talk about the number two mistake I see most entrepreneurs making every single day in social media, and it's this: they're using social media like a middle schooler. In other words, they're just evaluating how popular they are each day. We are assessing our progress based on likes, new subscribers, comments, and engagement. It's the equivalent of saying, "AM I good enough, am I popular because people were talking to me at lunch?" Or "So-and-so asked me to sit by them," or "People tell me I'm pretty."
If that's your measure of success, well then my personal belief is that you are operating your social media business like you are a middle schooler. And you're not. The reason I think most of us do this is because there's a lot of conflicting information out there. So I put this episode together to put it out there and give you one rule. One rule that applies no matter where you are in social media, and then I'm going to back it up and tell you why this rule is what you should apply.
Here it is: Most people in social media, what they're doing is they're sending their interested pursuers, meaning a possible fan, a potential new customer, a future lifer; what you're doing is sending them on a goose egg hunt. You're saying to them, "Hey I hope you like this video. If you did, don't forget to check me out on Twitter!" And then you go to Twitter and they follow a bunch of your tweets and eventually they're going to see a tweet that's like, "Hey, I just uploaded a new video to YouTube!" And then you go to YouTube and you're like, "Hey, I sure hope you like this YouTube channel! Don't forget to subscribe! And by the way, if you want to follow me on Facebook..." and you keep going around and around and around in a circle.
I look at the email signatures on most of the emails I get from business owners and it's like a list of every possible place I could find them. I'm like: just tell me one way to get in touch with you. It's your Facebook page and your Twitter handle and your Instagram and your five Instagram handles, and all of these things... but what we want to do is this.
Are you ready? Here it is. This is the thing you need to do every day in social media: Tell people how to continue the relationship with you via email. In other words, 80% of what you're posting in social media should send people to an opt-in or a freemium, or should just deliver content. Very rarely should you be sending people someplace else, which leads to someplace else, which leads to someplace else, which leads to someplace else.
Ultimately if someone's paying attention to your stuff, if they're checking it out, if they've watched an entire video, they're interested. You've got their attention. They want to, I call it dating, they want to date you, they want to get to know you... you can start the courtship. So why do you send them to five other locations? If somebody's watched your video, at the end of it you should say, "For more information about how I help people get organized and super focused, and how to set goals and accomplish them very quickly by using a concept that I've developed called a Push Goal, then I invite you to join me on my 30 day challenge. Go to 30daypush.com. If you watch one of my videos on Facebook. I'm not going to ask you to then finish watching the rest of the video on YouTube, because you're on Facebook.
People are watching and looking at your stuff where they are. They don't want to be sent to another social media platform. You don't. Most of us, our behavior is this: I'm on YouTube right now, I'm staying on YouTube, so don't ask me to go check out your Facebook wall because I'm on YouTube and that's where I'm at. The same is true when you're on Instagram.
How frustrating is it when you're watching an Instagram video, and you're like, "Oh cool, they're going to give me the recipe for this protein carrot cake that I can make in a coffee mug. I'm so excited. I'm probably going to have this for dinner." Then you watch the video and it's a little teaser that says, "For the full video, go over to YouTube." And you're like, "What? I'm not on YouTube, I'm on Instagram and I haven't even gone through my full feed yet. I'm not leaving." The likelihood of someone watching that and going, "Okay I'm going to follow this trail" is just diminished. So why take that risk?
Instead what I would suggest people doing is if you're going to send them someplace, if they're going to leave Instagram, if they're going to leave Facebook, if they're going to wander away from Pinterest, send them to you. Don't send them to yet another social media platform. Send them to you where they can receive something in its entirety, complete and full from you as promised. Give people value. I don't think it's a very kind or respectful or time-saving effort to send people 18 different places to eventually find us.
It would be like ... and I know I always use the dating analogy, but it's really kind of what it is because in business what we're doing is we're trying to find people who we like and we want to be with and we want to serve and we want to help them, and we want to take care of them. We want lifelong customers. I think the dating analogy works really well because when you're dating, you're talking to a lot of people and you're trying to find those people who could make a great mate. You've got something in common with them and you like them and you would want to help them and you would want to be a part of their life moving forward.
Let's take it back to that dating analogy, imagine that you went out to the club ... it's been so long since I went to "da club" I don't even know what bottle service is, but I've heard of it. Let's pretend you're at some nightclub or a local pub or a bar, I don't know where do you people single people meet people. Let's say you're at church, fine, great. Wherever you are, you meet someone and you really like them, and you're like "Hey wow, this is cool. This person is paying a lot of attention to me and we're hitting it off." Would you then say to them, "Hey by the way, next Tuesday you can find me at a coffee house in Irvine!" And let's just say by chance they show up at that coffee house in Irvine, and you're like, "Cool, I'm really glad you enjoy this conversation. Follow me in my car to Walmart." What? It doesn't even make sense. But that's how we're treating people in social media.
So what is the hard, fast rule? It is this: create a freemium. Create an opt-in. Create a gift that you want to give people who are just like you, except maybe they're a couple steps behind you. They haven't yet figured out whatever it is that you've just figured out. They haven't quite ... whatever it is, whatever you've figured out, your area of expertise, whatever. It doesn't have to be that you are the ultimate expert but you have a specific way that you've figured out to do it and you like to explain it, and what makes it most unique is that it's you.
So whatever that is, create something to give to people as a token or as an invitation to continue the relationship. That relationship takes them directly from wherever you are, to your website or to your opt-in page. So it should go social media to opt-in. Does that mean everyone's going to opt-in? Nope. Everything that I post, almost everything, fully 80% of what I post, whether it's a podcast or a Facebook video or a YouTube video or a Twitter, or a Pinterest or an Instagram, 80% of it is attached to a direct opt-in.
Now does that mean everyone's going to opt-in? NO. I'm going to provide tons of value, and after you've seen it a certain number of times, hopefully you're going to go, "You know she keeps referencing this 30 Day Push," or "She keeps referencing this course that she offers on Instagram, these free tips, and I'm kind of curious about that so I'm going to check it out, and I'm going to check out these free tips." And then people will go to the link and that's where the relationships starts.
I give them a gift, they give me their email address and now we can chat. It's like getting the digits when you're interested in a girl or a guy. Do girls ask for guys digits? Is that super dumb to say? I don't even know. I'm glad that I don't have to know because I've been married for 20 years.
That's the equivalent. From wherever you are directly to your opt-in. You got it? That's it. It doesn't need to be complicated. Don't send them five different places. Don't do teaser videos. Don't send people on a goose egg hunt. Just tell people if they want more, how to get it from you. Not from another social media platform that's operated by someone else of which you have no control. Build the relationship on your terms. Give the people a gift. That's my call to action to you.
Take a look at what I do in social media, take a look at what I do on every single podcast. Listen. Whenever I start a podcast I either give you a number to text and that's an opt-in, right? And then I will email you whatever it is you've asked for. That's the relationship starting. Listening to this podcast you'll hear that time after time I'm suggesting an email opt-in. You don't have to opt-in. Maybe you'll listen to 50 podcasts before you're like, "Okay now I trust her and I like her, and now I'm thinking about maybe going to one of her events. But either way I'm not going to miss that opportunity, I'm not going to miss that moment when you decide, "Okay, this interesting. That could be helpful, I guess I trust her. At least I would like to know more about this."
I'm not going to miss that opportunity. And I do it on every single form of social media. You learn to seed. It's one of the things that we drill this message home to the students that are in Marketing Impact Academy. As a matter of fact, when you are a student of Marketing Impact Academy, you can ask anyone who is, I don't let them to anything in social media. I strongly discourage it and I don't teach any of those lessons until they have created their freemiums and the follow-up email sequence that comes after you give someone a gift.
So if you opt-in, go ahead and check it out. Go to 30daypush.com, if you want to do my free gift on getting organized. Or if you would like to receive my free video training on how to become and feel instantly more confident today, go to chalenejohnson.com/confidencetips . And if you don't even feel like remembering that, all you have to do is text the word confidence to 949 565 4337.
Now, what happens when you text that word confidence to that phone number is I'll text you right back, and I'll explain how you can enter your email address via text message and you will immediately be sent my tips on how to be more confident today. I'll have your email address and you'll have my tips on how to create more confidence. Now, even if you're not even interested in having more confidence, you might want to do this just to see how it is, I then will follow-up, I'll send you the tips via email and then you'll see. You'll receive a couple of emails from me in the days after you receive your tips. That sequence of emails I've already written to help people figure out if I can give them more value and I continue the relationship while it's fresh.
I don't wait six months or nine months to email you again, that would be like going on a wonderful date with someone and then not calling them for two months. You'll be like, "Who is this? What? Oh, sorry, I'm already engaged." I send you those emails right after you get your list of tips. If for no other reason, you should opt in and see how I do this. That's how I learned how to do these things, by looking at the way other people did it, and I thought, "Well I don't like that, oh I do like that." And then just studying best tips and best practices.
That's what I recommend you do every day in social media. That is my plea, my call to action for you today is to evaluate, come up with a strategy so everything that you're posting everywhere, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you name it. There's a place where you're sending people. There's a continuation of the relationship based on your terms. Instead of sending them to Walmart and then a coffee house, you're going to send them directly to your free gift.
I hope this has been fun for you. I hope you share this episode with anyone you know who's in business. Again, it doesn't matter whether you have a physical location, you're an internet marketer, or you have something to offer, or you're not even sure yet completely if you're ever going to sell something. You still need to build your email list. I was building my email list long before I wrote my first book, and I encourage you to do the same. If you don't have anything to sell, that's okay. You still want to continue the relationship I assume, because you're that kind of person. You want to help people. You want to help people who are just like you.
This episode of Build Your Tribe is sponsored by courageousconfidenceclub.com . To receive your free tips on how to be instantly more confident, you can text the word confidence to 949 565 4337. That's right, that's an opt-in, y'all. And/or if you're outside of the continental US, you can also receive those tips by going to chalenejohnson.com/confidencetips. Got it? My name, forward slash, confidence tips.
And by the way if you have already opted in to every opt in I have ever created and you're like, "I know what you're doing and I get you, I feel you." Then let's just have some fun and tweet me #followmetowalmart, and I'll know you listened to this episode and you get it. You are very important to me, so thank you for listening and I hope I have kept my promise to you to be brief, to be bright, to make it fun, and then be done. I'll talk to you tomorrow.