It’s so important to have a social media marketing strategy for your blog.
Social media marketing will not only drive traffic to your blog, it will bring qualified leads who will convert and turn into paying customers.
I had the pleasure of interviewing live in our Facebook Group Blogging for New Bloggers, Sandra Clayton of Conversion Minded who is a Social Media Marketing expert.
Sandra was able to build an audience of over 80,000 people thanks to marketing on social media. She gets five-figure clients and sells her digital products on autopilot by using social media for marketing!
So, I thought of inviting her to share her expertise on social media marketing. In her Smart Social Media she covers everything you need to know to build your social media marketing strategy the right way.
If you missed our live interview, you can watch the replay here!
If you’re in a bit of a rush at the moment, don’t sweat it! You can always pin it for later!
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Lucrezia's interview with expert Sandra Clayton of ConversionMinded.com
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I grew up in a family business. So for me, entrepreneurship was an obvious choice over working for someone else.
Since college, I’ve launched hugely successful businesses and others that were less successful.
When I was ready to launch my current business, I knew I wanted to blog but wasn’t sure about my niche.
Sometimes in life and in your career, it feels like you’re on a conveyor belt just moving along, ya know?.
But are you happy with where that belt is going?
That’s what I was questioning.
So I stepped back for a while. I wanted to find some common denominator in my previous businesses.
Through that process, I realized that the type of business didn’t matter as much as being in business. Creating products, starting up, positioning, marketing, inventing names, strategizing…all of it. I love it!.
There’s something magical about creating something out of nothing and watching it morph into its own thing.
So that’s when I started ConversionMinded.
I share everything I’ve learned about starting and marketing an online business to inspire others to go for it! My goal is to empower 1 million people to be their own boss.
Why social media marketing is so important for your blog?
Every blogger needs visibility and traffic, and when it comes right down to it, there are only a handful of ways to get found.
SEO works, but it’s a long game…especially if you’re competing with established bloggers who have big teams on SEO.
You can write the most comprehensive post and still need 50 backlinks to rank.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan of link building. It can just take time to get the results you need.
When it comes to building relationships with other bloggers, they generally want to see a media kit with your audience stats. So social media is the fastest way to kickstart your visibility and drive traffic.
And with social media, you can build a brand and become known as a go-to resource, which is something that doesn’t necessarily happen when people find you on Google.
Last but not least, you can get customers with social media!
I think so many people miss the end goal of social media. It’s not really about followers and likes – or even traffic for that matter.
Sure, you need all those. But It’s really about sales.
And you can make sales when you have a social media system..
What platforms would you recommend to bloggers to promote their blog and why?
It depends on your niche, so I don’t want to make any blanket statements here!
Still, some platforms are better than others for bloggers. Here’s what I recommend:
Pinterest is super powerful for traffic if you’re in the right niche (business, design, fashion, health + fitness, nutrition, parenting, DIY).
The algorithm supports content creators, so you don’t need to spend time building a huge following to see results. As long as you understand your audience and optimize your pins so people can find them, you should see traffic quickly.
I used to measure Instagram in terms of traffic, but that’s not the way the algorithm works..
Now I think of it more as a microblog. Show up every day, share engaging posts, write great captions, and it’s pretty easy to make sales.
That’s true whether you sell digital or physical products.
And with shoppable posts, people can buy your product right from the app. How great is that?. You don’t have to get people over to your website and into your funnels to make a sale!
- YouTube
I know some people are nervous about creating videos, but do them anyway!
More and more people are watching videos, and YouTube is the second largest search engine, right behind Google. And Google owns Youtube, so there’s that.
YouTube should be your next step once you’ve been blogging for a while and are ready to scale up and reach more people.
To get started, I recommend choosing a few blog posts to turn into videos.
And if you’re really camera-shy, you can use a video generating tool like Lumen5 until you feel more comfortable in front of the camera.
As long as you show up regularly with new content and optimize both your channel and videos, you can drive traffic, build your list, and make sales.
- Facebook ads
Facebook ads are a powerful way to increase your reach and promote your blog posts. But a word of caution: I would wait until you have sales funnels in place so you can cover the cost of your ads.
Facebook ads work best with engagement ads. So instead of boosting your posts, use the Ads Manager. You’ll have much more control over ad targeting, which will translate into lower costs.
Just make sure you add links to products and content upgrades in your blog post. You can even retarget those who visit but don’t buy/subscribe with a new ad and offer.
What are your 3 best tips for a successful social media strategy?
First off, know who you’re trying to reach. It may sound mundane, but you wouldn’t believe how hard it can be to zero in your ideal customers!
You should be crystal clear on your one person before you start posting.
Who is she? What is she struggling with, and why? What will it feel like when she overcomes it? How does your blog solve it for her?
That way, you’ll know where to find her on social media, and the types of posts that will grab her attention.
Next, master one platform at a time. Don’t worry about the latest and greatest strategies or any *hot* new platforms you hear about. Stick with one channel until it’s working for you.
Each social media site has a unique algorithm, and it will take some time to create a strategy for it.
Once you’re getting results and have automation set up to free up your time, move on to the next channel,
Finally, post consistently. When you fall behind or post irregularly, you’re going to see a dip in your traffic, engagement, and sales.
Start by sharing one post a day and build up from there. It helps to use graphic templates with your logo, colors, images, fonts, and styles to save time.
Master one platform at a time. Don’t worry about the latest and greatest strategies or any *hot* new platforms you hear about. Stick with one channel until it’s working for you.
What are the most common mistakes bloggers make in their social media marketing (or lack thereof) and what would you recommend doing instead?
A lot of bloggers and entrepreneurs don’t spend enough time on one specific social media strategy to see if it works.
You can feel like you’re doing everything right and still not getting traffic from Pinterest or making money with Facebook ads.
Some of that has to do with setting the right goals for the right platform, and using the right strategies. Otherwise, it will be hard to know what’s working and what’s not.
The other half of it is testing.
You really need to try different images, captions, ad copy, and so on. All of that testing takes time, which is why you should focus on one channel.
And whatever you do, don’t buy followers and likes!
You’re building a community on social media. Your followers should be excited to see your posts. When you buy fake followers, you not only risk getting your account banned, but those followers look fake. And they won’t help you build your blog and brand.
Post consistently. When you fall behind or post irregularly, you’re going to see a dip in your traffic, engagement, and sales.
Can you tell us more about your ‘Smart Social Media’ e-course?
Smart Social Media is so much more than a social media course!
It’s a comprehensive program that covers everything you need to know to build your business with social media.
I share the exact formula I used to build an audience of over 80,000 people, get five-figure clients, and sell my digital products on autopilot.
You’ll learn how to create a social media strategy, plan an editorial calendar, create posts that attract your ideal customers, and choose the right scheduling and design tools for your business.
There are also 5 bonus modules on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can dig into one channel, master the strategies I teach, then come back and master the next channel. Plus, there are list building and blogging strategies inside.
It’s a comprehensive system to build your business with social media.
And it’s a resource you can refer to for new strategies as your business grows.
Hope this expert interview gives you a clearer plan on how to succeed at social media marketing.
You can get more social media tips from Sandra here.
You can find some great resources to get you started:
FREEBIE: You can enroll in this amazing FREE webinar that walks you through how to get sales leveraging social media.
Here is a comprehensive course on Smart Social Media.
If you need help with Instagram.
If you need help with Linkedin.
If you want to watch the next expert interviews live you can join our Facebook group Blogging for New Bloggers here.
You can check out upcoming expert interviews in our event calendar here.
And if you have any questions for Sandra on how to master social media marketing, feel free to leave it in the comment section below.
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