3 Social Media Tips with Andréa Jones
Branding with Friends | Episode 1
Featuring Expert Guest: Andréa Jones of OnlineDrea
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Andréa Jones, Social Media Expert
Today I am going to introduce you to one of my friends from the business world. If you have ever wondered how to make sense of social media as a small business owner you are going to love today's episode. My guest today is the amazing Andréa Jones. Andréa is fiercely committed to helping businesses and podcasters build profitable communities online through simple social media solutions.
She has been featured in places like Hubspot, AWeber, and Wordpress. She has also been named one of Social Reports top marketers to follow in 2019. As the host of The Savvy Social Podcast and the creator of SavvySocialSchool.com, Andréa is dedicated to simplifying social media through easy to follow courses, professional guidance, and community support. Outside of teaching and training, she spends most of her time serving her full-service clients and practicing what she preaches by implementing organic social media strategies for businesses and brands that want to grow with an engaged audience online. Andréa, welcome to Branding with Friends!
Andréa: Thank you so much I am so excited to be here.
Annie: I am so glad you are here and today we are talking about your wheelhouse which is social media. I get questions about social media all the time. Often it is a chicken or egg kind of thing with branding, you and I both know that. I know you are going to be sharing your top three tips for everybody today for our business owners. Your top three tips on how they can grow their business using social media smartly. We are going to have Andrea hold that very last tip for the end of the episode like we always do. So be sure to wait until the end and make sure you listen to the end of the episode today to make sure you get every bit of advice we have to share with you. So, as we are gearing up for that very first tip, Andrea can you tell us a little bit about your passion for social media and sort of how you got into this world in the first place.
Andréa: Yeah absolutely! I am just an early adapter to social media. I would say I back in the live journal, Myspace days when we were all still trying to figure it out. So, I just have a natural love for being social online. I think that comes from my introverted side. I am quite the introvert but social media allows me to be social when I feel like it and then when I don't I can just put it away. So, it works out very well for me so I think my natural love for it led to working in this industry. I actually remember I guess this was probably 2012 I was working in a spa as a manager. I was like one day I want to do Jack's social media. At the time you are the youngest person here you do the social media. I want this to be my full-time job and they were like that's not a job. And here we are today. I love the power of social media because we can connect with anybody for a very low cost to no cost. All it costs oftentimes is our time. So, from a business owner perspective, I think that is such a powerful tool to have at our fingertips to be able to do that. So, I love showing people how they can do that without having to spend thousands of dollars on ads just to get clients or business for their company.
#1 Action TIP
Focus on One Social Media Platform.
Annie: That is awesome. It is so funny a lot of people I am talking are starting around 2012, 2013, that is when I got started too. What we are learning is that it takes time to build up to this. It felt like a crazy idea then but I am glad you are doing what you are doing. I think you make social media so accessible for business owners which is why I wanted to have you on Branding with Friends. Thank you for sharing that but let's go ahead and start with that first tip. What is the number one first time tip you would share with small business owners about how they should approach social media?
Andréa: Yes, I think this first tip is really from a place of focus. So when we are looking around at maybe a competitor or all the possibilities sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Should you be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. My suggestion is to just pick one. Choose one platform and have that be your focus for the moment. I think sometimes we look at these other platforms and we look at our competitors and we see them doing all these things but we don't see all of the steps it took to get there. I like to relate this to working out. So, I am not a huge gym person but if I were to go to the gym I would most likely be starting with like a five or ten-pound weight if I were lifting weights. But if I am looking at that CrossFit person over there who does CrossFit at five AM for three hours every day and I go boy look at those muscles. There is a lot of work that goes into that, I am not there yet. So, when I am talking to business owners and really looking for that five to ten-pound weight version of starting with social media and often times it is just picking one platform. That platform does vary depending on what kind of business you have but I also like to start with where you prefer to spend your time. Because if you like showing up on LinkedIn, for instance, you are more likely to use that platform. If I told you to use Instagram and you go I don't want to. I don't get it. I don't like it. Then you are probably not going to use it. So, a good place to start is to pick that one platform that you kind of feel like you already know or you feel comfortable on and figure that one out and then you can add on the rest later.
Annie: Yeah, I think that is such a great tip and I see so many people who think social media have to be experts, thought leaders right from the get-go and do all the things. I call it getting torn up in the tactic tornado. I know we've talked about that before it's where you get so overwhelmed with all these things that you go down to the black hole of internet marketing and you see no return on your time because even though it is just your time in some cases, your time is really valuable. I think your point is well taken, to pick one thing and do it really well. I love that you also pointed out, do something that you like to do.
Annie: To challenge you on that though I literally just had a conversation with a client earlier today and she said I just hate social media. So, what do you tell people if you are saying to pick one platform, do you tell her to pick a platform? Do you tell her to hire somebody? She does have a product-based business so that might influence what you have to say. But she is like I just don't even like it, I don't want to be on it. Do I have to be on it? What would you tell her? How would you adjust the tip if at all?
Andréa: That is a great question because if I had a niche I would say I work with people who hate social media. So, I love that! But I think that it is almost like...so for me I will use an example. I hate bookkeeping. I despise doing my PNL's. It makes my skin crawl to look at these numbers. So, the first thing that I outsource in my business, bookkeeping. So, it is a necessary part of running a business. Especially a product-based business in 2020, it is absolutely necessary. But there are things you can do to make it manageable. So, picking the one platform and then giving yourself a manageable amount of work to do. We all have a million things to do within a day so I typically say if you can set aside an hour a week for social media or maybe 2 hours a week for social media. That is a really good start until you can find someone to outsource it. My one caveat would be if you work one to one with clients if you are a service-based person, you work one to one with individuals and you only need a handful of clients every year to be successful, you may not need social media. Handshaking, networking, it may work for you. If that works for you, great! If you are rolling around in business and you don't really need the exposure for it, great. But a lot of us it is that leg up that helps people decide to choose us or choose to work with us.
Annie: Right and sometimes there is sort of that hybrid between the two. I am with you in that I teach a lot of my clients who are often coaches and consultants that you don't need a million clients. You don't need to be doing all the things. Just do some things really, really well. And social media I think is one of those. But there is also sort of the in-between which is being consistent online, showing up online, but not making it your core focus either especially as a service-based business. As you know I do branding and it's Branding with Friends so I would love for you to just also talk a little bit about how much you feel like branding impacts your business and the work that you do as someone who does social media. You are also a service-based business too so how much is branding playing a role to set you up for success online and offline?
Andréa: Yeah, absolutely and I think it goes into your approach to branding which I love which isn't just colors and fonts and things. It is this whole story behind what you do. Social media gives me a place to put that. There is only so much I can put on my website it really is focused on more of a conversion like you know get on a call with me kind of thing. Social media allows me to share different elements of what I do. It allows me to showcase my expertise. On platforms like LinkedIn, it's great because clients can actually leave little reviews for me and other people can see those. I love using video so for me to show up on an Instagram story feels very natural and it allows people kind of an insight into my world. All of that is part of the brand experience so to speak and so it allows me that just another layer for people to feel like they know me. So by the time a client if they look at my website and they go look at my social media, which is how a lot of people make decisions these days, by the time they do all of that they go okay I get a sense of what this person is about now when I get on a call with her I kind of already know if I want to work with her or not this call is just like that final step in the decision making process. So, it just emphasizes everything that you put on your website, everything that you have in a proposal so to speak just in a way that is more intimate online.
Annie: Yeah and I think you do a great job explaining it as sort of branding is all about ...sometimes people think it is just a logo and fonts and colors and you do it one time. But that is a brand identity right and even that updates over time. As your business grows you grow, you need to be extending the story, telling more of the story, telling more chapters in that story. I never really thought about social media as an extension of storytelling but that's really what it is. You know if you start and you have that marketing copy and you have sort of the pieces that I help clients with, where they have the brand voice guide, they have the brand story guide, they have the toolkit. But a toolkit is only useful if you use it right? The hammer is only useful if you use it to put a nail in the wall and you hang something up on the wall for yourself. If it sits in the drawer and does nothing then what is the point. I think you've done such a great job explaining to us you know for a small business owner to not be afraid of social media because actually, it is such a great opportunity to keep introducing yourself and keep talking about the work you do and what you're passionate about. So that by the time that they talk to you in that consultation you are not a cold commodity but somebody they feel like they really know. It is really more of a confirmation conversation more than anything else.
Andréa: Yes, and I know we will talk about creating content in a minute but one of the things I do want to highlight with the brand story idea is to think about some of the commercials you see on tv. Like a Folgers commercial for instance. It is formulaic. It's got the same jangle. We've heard it a million times. We know it when we see it. We got to the store we see it we have a whole experience when we see it because we've kind of had that experience over time. So, if you could approach your social media from that angle you have the pieces of the puzzle and you put them together in different ways on social media. Maybe you say the same things consistently on social media. People will come to recognize you as that person. They will come to recognize your brand as a line with a certain ideology and that's where the power is really when it comes to social media marketing.
Annie: And that takes as you are sort of eluding to but not saying directly, takes time. It takes consistency, it takes showing up. It is not going to be that one post that gets you a million clients or sells a million coffee cups. You just have to keep going and tell a consistent story. What I am always shocked by whether it's my book, my website, or social media or with you, with your social it is like so many more people read and engage with your stuff than you even realize. Just because they don't put a like or they don't put a comment doesn't mean people aren't seeing it. You're shocked every time. When I get an email from somebody I am like oh you were even paying attention, interesting. Sometimes I think it's just my husband and my dad that look at stuff and then I find out that neither one of them is looking at something and then I go oh my gosh no one is looking at it.
Andréa: That is hilarious yeah, a lot more people are paying attention then we think.
Annie: Right, they are and I think you just eluded to one of my secret weapons in how I use social media but this is also leading into our second tip. So, your first tip, really important of course is to not try to be everything to all people. Pick a platform, choose one and be great at it. What is the second thing that business owners should do in terms of social media?
#2 ACTION TIP
Create Space to Create Content
Andréa: Yeah so, the second thing suggest is to really set yourself up for success when it comes to creating social media content. So oftentimes we feel disappointed with the content we are creating because we literally pick up our phone and we start to type something and we go oh no that's not good. Or we open up the tab and we type in LinkedIn and we go oh I can't think of anything so we feel like we are failing because we can't think of something on the spot, something we haven't done before. We are pushing ourselves so far there. So often times when I am telling people about social media and creating content, I want you to create space. Give yourself room to create that content. If that is sitting down for thirty minutes on a Friday and going okay, I want to figure out what I want to say next week on social media then do that. I usually recommend thirty minutes to an hour in that space. So, sit down once a week give yourself thirty minutes to an hour and start practicing creating content. The first couple of times you do it, it's going to be bad. I'm am just gonna tell you that.
Annie: Yeah, it is bad.
Andréa: It is going to be bad, it is going to feel weird. It is kind of like if I started going to the gym right now lifting those ten-pound weights I would be like this feels like fifty, not ten. So, it is going to feel uncomfortable but you kind of have to let yourself get past that so you can get into the habit of it. If you are working with an amazing branding person like Annie here, you are gonna have everything you need to put those pieces together. So, you are gonna have some scripts that you can use. You are gonna have some main points that you want to highlight. You are gonna have some stories that you can tell. So, you can start using those to put together your scheduling plan. So, sit down and give yourself a block of time, thirty minutes to an hour and create that content for the next week.
Annie: I love it. I think that is such a great secret because people think...I used to be that person I would get so intimidated because you are also scrolling through and being like oh this content is so good and you start feeling the imposter syndrome. We need to get away from that. You have eluded to one of my favorite tips which is actually to batch your time. So, to batch time, to make a date with yourself as you are saying to sort of make that time for the space, so you that you are not on the spot and so that you are in the right mindset so you are thinking about your business correctly. As you said you know when you work with a branding person and you know the stories you want to tell it makes that stuff so much easier. So, if you are really lost in what your focus is in the first place, one of the biggest things I do with clients whether it's in a mentoring session, a workshop, or anything I am going to do if I am going to do any writing or design for them. We do a creative brief and we identify four to six key brand story themes. They are pillars that within in bullet or descriptor are infinite stories you could tell. And so many of my clients either hate social media or don't know what to do with it or both. And I just say you know look for lack of a better option or lack of getting lost in all of these great tactics is to number them one through five and go through them one through five and just keep cycling through. Because then at least you are focusing on what matters to your ideal client and what matters to you and you know that this stuff relates to your business and helps you connect to them. It doesn't have to be overly complicated and you can actually schedule it which is so great. So, do you want to mention any tools that you really like for scheduling a content plan? Like once you are creating the content batching it all together whether it's in a list or putting it into a tool, what do you recommend to your clients?
Andréa : Yes, so the free one that I recommend is Later, later.com. Specifically, Instagram focused so for my more visual people that is great. And then Social Report is kind of more of an advanced tool but I love it because it has also got reporting so you can see how things are performing as you start scheduling things out. I will say this when you're creating the content and you are sitting down having that date with yourself, don't be too hard on yourself. If all you can do is one post, go with that. And then maybe the next week you may get one and a little bit. Then the week after that maybe you got two. Build up those muscles for writing a post and definitely do schedule them out because then it is out of your brain and then you don't feel the weight of it throughout the whole week which is where this dislike from social media comes from.
Annie: Right absolutely, absolutely. As you are thinking about that I know we are talking a lot about how branding works with this today. So, we talked about you use branding in your business. You work with a lot of business owners whether they are product-based, service-based, how critical do you think them having branding is to them being successful on social. What do you think they have to have figured out about their brand and about their business before they can actually be really successful using your strategies on social media?
Andréa : Yes, I love the five pillars that you talked about. I think if you give yourself topics like these are what I am going to talk about on social media that's where the success comes from. I actually get clients that go man I'm so tired of talking about these things. I am like good keep talking about them. You will feel tired of talking about it. But you've gotta get to that point where you are just talking about them consistently so it feels very natural. That's where you can shine as far as your storytelling side goes. You can also have visual branding elements to your social media content as well. If you want to add some design elements you will probably kill me for this but usually what I tell people who are starting if they get too lost in the design I say just pick one color and one font and just use that.
Annie: No, I think that is great advice. We're all about practicality here and I would rather people do something than nothing. Have a business card rather than it be perfect. Have social media rather than have it be perfect. I think that is great advice. I was just wondering what can we tell people about visuals. So, continue, tell us more.
Andréa : Yes, no I love that. So, pick one color, pick one font if you get stuck because there is a lot of options. If you want to create kind of like a graphic using something like Canva.com is very easy to get started but keep your color, keep your font. Do not change them. Until you hire a branding expert to help you just pick the one color, one font and stick with that. Often times too with service-based business owners we put a lot of us into what we do so if you feel comfortable using your own photography definitely use that. Just use the stories in the captions to tie it back to your brand. So, for instance if you are posting a selfie of you after you climbed a mountain. The caption should say something about what you do and you can use storytelling and you can maybe talk about achieving something great or you can talk about accomplishing something, or maybe overcoming a challenge.
Annie: Or maybe helping a client reach a goal.
Andréa: Exactly, so you can still use your selfies and you on the mountain and use the caption as a storytelling element to bring it back to what you do.
Annie: Yeah and I think we should also point out I think we are dancing around it we haven't quite said it overtly. I almost am probably going to say it on every episode but people make the mistake to think that all of this has to be about them and it really isn't about you. It's actually, even though it is social media, if it's a business profile that you are using to grow your business it is about your ideal client. So, you are just showing up there to guide them so better to talk sometimes about how you help people, talking about clients and their successes, what kinds of things you can do to help others in that context. Not just how awesome you are. It's not always about look at me, look at me, look at me. It's look at what we can make happen together or what my products can help you do in your life and how that is going to affect things. It is social. It is about you but it is always going to be through that lens of that ideal client right.
Andréa : Yeah, that's why having those storytelling elements down at least having the topics outlined will help you always keep that in mind. But even though I may be posting a picture of me or even though I am the one delivering the service, really focusing in on the other people.
Annie: Yeah, they are the hero of the story. You are the guide they are the hero. The other thing you touched on that I think is so powerful is something that happens in branding a lot too is that I love what you said that people should get tired. You should be tired of talking about these things and I might call that like I see a lot of friction coming from fatigue over messaging, over branding. You know a lot of people rebrand because oh I'm just so tired of my logo. I am just so tired of my message. Or I've been using my message for a month and it's just not working and I just need to try it another way and that's the quickest way I think to not be known for things and to kill your awareness and to kill your memorability before it even gets started. Because you and I started and we've been doing this for years. It doesn't happen overnight. And you don't even build a social media following overnight. You know I was just talking with Maghon Taylor of All She Wrote Notes. She grew from one follower which was herself on her personal account to now she is at like fifty thousand followers right. But that didn't happen in a month. And so, I see a lot of business owners who give up too quickly. You know your social media is probably working if you are being consistent and you do feel a little fatigue. Your branding is probably working as long as you're staying busy and bringing in clients. So, you don't necessarily want to monkey with it just because you're tired of it. Yeah. Of course, you're tired of it, but you're not the client right.
Andréa : Yes, and I think there is a satisfaction in showing up in that way. A lot of us are creative or we started our business because we are risk takers and sometimes we want to, like you said monkey with it, we want to monkey with it. Just a little bit, just change a color. Leave it alone, leave it alone. I will use a personal example here so I recently changed my hair and it actually affected my brand. So, I've worn wigs for like ten years and then three years ago I decided not to because my hair was actually growing back. I struggle with alopecia, balding and that sort of thing. So, I've worn natural hair for the past three years and the past three years is actually when my business blew up the most. So even though most people in my life have seen me wear wigs for most of my adult life, my brand is well known for my little afro. So, when I changed my hair people go oh you look so different and I'm like I actually look the same if that makes sense. But it does affect that brand to the point where I went to an event and people were like oh I didn't recognize you. So, you kind of have to have that similarity, consistency so that people can instantly recognize you. And especially on something like social media. Your posts are mixed in with hundreds to thousands of other posts. People are looking at it for a fraction of a second so you have to be memorable in that time. And so, in order to do that you have to get a little bored with what you're saying.
Annie: Well right I think you also touched base on something which is a great point, is like you have something, you have a medical condition where you have to do this and you had to switch your look right. So, something happened to you, you had to change your brand in that way. It has affected it but I think one of the things that you've done and if you go on and follow Andréa after this, you will see that she has actually made it a huge positive. I remember thinking oh I don't know that much about alopecia. She started an account. She's been talking about it and I'm sure you've given a lot of hope to people who have this or know somebody who is going through it so turning it into a story is actually a brilliant thing to do. So, if you have to make a change to your brand you don't have to be afraid of that. There are times you do change things. You know your ideal client changes, your offering changes, or even your physical appearance changes. So, you've made that make sense. You gave it some context and some people might have hidden and not said anything but you've turned it into a huge positive that I'm sure you'll end up talking about in different respects right.
Andréa: Yeah, absolutely and I'm just going through it now so I feel like it is harder but I've been through it before when I was much younger so I feel like oh I've been here before. There is a lot to that though of owning up to it and sharing all different elements of your story in different ways. I am still in the process of it like I said. I don't know exactly how it's going to impact or affect my brand or how this story will relate to social media somehow. But I'm starting that process and I' open to kind of the adventure of it all.
Annie: Yeah and you are sort of giving it that professional capacity of it but you're not hiding it either. So, I think it's a great example. I think you've shared so much knowledge with us today. Great tips so far! So, we've talked about many many different things. Before we get to that third final tip that we will do at the end. I want to make sure people can connect with you and learn more. Because as you said to me just before we started recording, you can talk about social media all day long. You have courses, you have resources, you have all the great things for clients I work with and so many other people who need to hear how to make sense of social media and how they can approach it in a really digestible way. So how can our audience connect further with you?
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Get Andréa’s Free Social Media Course at onlinedrea.com/free
Andréa: Yes, so the best way to get started with my philosophies so to speak is to start with my free course. You can find it by going to onlinedrea.com/free and it is called The Social Media Success Framework. It is really the bones of how I approach social media so it's really the best place to start. And then if you want to connect with me on social media, I'm everywhere at onlinedrea.
Annie: Awesome of course I follow you on Instagram at Annie.Franceschi and all of things. I love seeing your content. I love your stories. You know we'll know what you are going up to right now if we go and follow you. I encourage you guys to take advantage of this special gift because getting a free course is a wonderful thing. Today people are packing a lot of value into them so again that is onlinedrea.com/free to get social media success framework. Of course, as always wherever you are watching this you are going to have Andrea's handles and ways to connect as well so if you missed it's there for you. You have already...as we said you shared two powerful tips. So, if I remember right because I'm taking notes is we have to choose one platform and do it well. We want to set ourselves up for success by having some sort of content plan, maybe batching that time and figuring out how we are going to schedule our social media so we are less under the gun for that. But if we have one parting word what is your third and final piece of advice for business owners what can they do to maximize their social media?
#3 Action Tip
Make Space for Connections
Andréa: Yes, and I think this last time is the most important one because it is one that is easy to neglect and it's really making space for connections. Making space to actually go out and find the potential clients and customers who don't know you exist and they're literally waiting for what you offer. And they just need to know. They just need that little tap on the shoulder to know you are here. So really create that space. I often recommend just give yourself ten to fifteen minutes a day. It could be maybe what you do immediately what you do after lunch before you head back into work again. Scroll through maybe some hashtags. You can look at certain locations for instance. If you are looking on a platform like LinkedIn you can search by job titles, you can search by the city that you're in and just start searching and seeing how you can connect with other people. This isn't a chance to sell them on something. This is like I said the little tap on the shoulder, introduce them to you. If you wouldn't say it to someone in line at Starbucks maybe skip it. So be polite, be nice but just start connecting with people. And that is really where the power is of social media. Because there is so many people who don't know what you offer and all they need is just to get to know you so give them that chance.
Annie: Oh, I love it. That is the personal part, right? It's so easy online to think we're broadcasting but it really is about one to one connection as is branding in so many ways I always tell people, people invest in people. Even if they are buying a service from you, even if they are buying a product. They are connecting to you and that's why they are buying something in many cases. Especially in the work that you and I do and many of our listeners today. I can't thank you enough for being here. It was so great to have you on and we hope to do it again soon. It was a blast!
We hope you guys enjoyed another episode of Branding With Friends. Huge thanks to my special guest again Andrea Jones of The SavvySocialSchool.com and of course the Savvy Social Podcast available where podcasts are listened to. I hope you will tune in next time when we tackle yet another topic that meets branding and business. Until then, I'm Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative. Find all our episodes, branding resources, and more at our website GreateStstoryCreative.com. Have a good one!
“Branding with Friends” Episode 1
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips on how to use social media to grow your service business:
Focus on one social media platform
Create space to create content
Make space for connections
Dive deeper into branding and growing your greatest business with Annie Franceschi:
• Subscribe to the Greatest Story Creative newsletter to have new episodes of “Branding with Friends” sent right to your inbox the day they premiere!
• Find past episodes at BrandingwithFriends.com
• Connect with Annie for consultations, resources, and more here on greateststorycreative.com
• Follow Annie & Greatest Story Creative online:
--- Facebook - facebook.com/greateststorycreative
--- LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/anniefranceschi
--- Instagram - @annie.franceschi
To learn more about social media or to seek Andréa’s help:
• Enjoy Andréa’s free Social Media course found at onlinedrea.com/free
• Reach Andréa directly at andrea@onlinedrea.com.
