Social media.
What a powerful tool to grow your business as a coach or consultant. Its reach (reach means the total number of people who have seen your content), when done right, is astronomical compared to what you can get with paid ads. It allows you to market yourself for free and take advantage of algorithms that push your content to as many people as possible.
But, just because it’s free does not mean it’s easy.
It can be confusing. 🤯
It can be time consuming. 😫
It can be frustrating. 😡
You will have more questions than answers most of the time.
Such as:
❓When do I post?
❓How often do I post?
❓Where do I post?
❓How can I schedule my posts?
❓What’s an algorithm and why is it important?
❓What kind of content works best?
I’m not a social media guru, but I’ve learned a thing or two about how to grow my own business using it.
Basically, I can break it down into three parts.
👉 Sharing value.
👉 Supporting others.
👉 Consistency.
Then this past year, I’ve made an intentional effort and investment in creating a content funnel that gets my audience off LinkedIn (which is rented space) and onto my own space (emails and blogs - like the one you’re reading right now).
I have a lot to say about it, but I do get a lot of questions, namely centered around what sort of automations/apps could people use to make their social media experience more efficient.
As much as I'd like to be able to test every single app out there in every single field, I'm smart enough to understand that that's just not gonna happen. It's not possible.
When I started thinking about social media posting and how to help my clients with that, I decided that the best thing I could do was to just reach out to someone I know is very successful on social media, in general, and more specifically on LinkedIn, and ask him what tips he had that could help coaches and consultants and any small business owners.
I recently had the chance to ask him many questions.
What you see below is my conversation with him.
Without further ado, I present to you…
Mr. Luke Matthews, The Wizard of ODD.
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Just so my audience is aware, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Luke Matthews. I’m a ghostwriter on LinkedIn and Twitter for CEOs, Speakers, and Fintech companies, who use LinkedIn and/or Twitter.
Many people struggle with posting at the same time, everyday, and being really consistent with that. So, do you think social media content should be scheduled? If so, why? If not, why not?
The answer is YES for 95% of people.
Pick a day, preferably from Mon-Fri… commit to scheduling out your social media posts for the week. Then all you have to do is worry about engaging with the platform of your choice around the time that you have your scheduled post on that day.
For the 5% who are REALLY trying to build a brand on social media and have elite copywriting skills: it is better to post in the heat of the moment. Your copy will be pure, emotional and connect with people in a more powerful way.
Which one are you, personally?
I write all of my LinkedIn content at the moment and it really works for me.
This is difficult however for most people and should only be done if you are really random or have lots of copywriting experience.
For the people who will make a decision to begin scheduling their content, what guidelines do you have for them?
Use a scheduler and post at the same time 3-5x a week.
You want to post at the same time because your audience will start to expect your posts and engage with you at that time every day. Your engagement will go up and you will reach more people. Let them know in your posts or in the comments when you post every day.
Okay, Luke. This is super helpful so far! Let’s dig deeper into specific apps and solutions for certain platforms. Most of my audience and clients are from LinkedIn.
What specific tool would you recommend for LinkedIn?
For LinkedIn, I recommend Publer or Seenly.
I’d say go with Seenly though because they have video posting for personal profiles and are adding some amazing features over the next few months like auto 1st comments on your posts, PDF auto scheduling, and even tagging profiles. I think they’ll be the best tool to use by Fall.
Interesting! Yesterday I played with Seenly. It is very easy to set up, very easy to use and gives you a great calendar view to plan your posts.
I’m curious to learn more about Twitter. What is your take on Twitter scheduling apps? What do you recommend?
For Twitter, I recommend Hype Fury or TweetHunter.
HypeFury is a Twitter scheduling tool that also allows you to schedule content to Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
It can schedule Threads (Multiple Tweets in one post for longer content)
As well as, easily allow you to screenshot and share your Tweets on Instagram or LinkedIn
TweetHunter is a Twitter-specific tool and is one step above HypeFury in regards to features.
For example, you get daily personalized tweet suggestions and re-write viral tweets easily.
I go deeper into the features of both in my newsletter.
Can I post it for your audience?
Of course!
Check out Luke's Newsletter here.
Any other tips for coaches/consultants looking to start/enhance their social media journey?
Take your time to pick ONE platform and really learn it. Follow people in your niche that are doing a great job and getting results with their content. Start commenting on their posts and learning from what they do.
Understand that you will have to put in a LOT of effort when you start out if you want to build a presence on a social media platform in 2022.
There is no shortcut, you must put in a ton of work.
I’d advise right now to pick either TikTok or LinkedIn as they have the best organic reach.
Make a goal of putting in a YEAR of effort before you even consider quitting or wondering where your ROI is. It takes a long time to build inbound traffic and leads.
Don’t get discouraged easily and don’t quit too soon!
Thanks for your time, Luke!
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There you have it, from a master social media marketer, the three to four tools you can use today to start automating your content.
And I wholeheartedly agree with Luke.
Social media takes time.
Lots of time.
Doing it for a couple weeks or months is not enough time. But by using schedulers, you can take off some of the thinking you have to do and they allow you to focus on consistency and supporting other people in your network.
And, when you’ve got your consistency lined up, your messaging lined up, and your audience engaged, you have a very high chance of growing your coaching/consulting business to levels you could only dream about!
Oh, and BTW, since I was playing with these tools while writing this article, I’ve started a Twitter account (follow me @dbd_IritLevi). I’ve been using Hypefury and have really been enjoying the experience. It really simplifies things.
