This is the second in a two part series regarding moms with a side business. In my previous article (read it here for all of their fabulous info) we met Courtney and Kayla, both moms with full time jobs, kids and a side business. What I wanted to do was to see how they balanced life, work and home at various ages and help others who might be wanting to start a sideline business of their own.
Now I want to follow that up with a plan for them that would help increase visibility, increasing their internet sales. Both businesses can be totally internet based so the sky is the limit. The main thing to remember about social media marketing is that you have to be consistent and share relatable information, not push a sale within each post. Social Media Marketing for business is booming.
See the full article here for the following stats:
"-Mothers with children under the age of five are the most active on social media. (Link Humans)
-90% of young adults (ages 18 to 29) use social media. 35% of those over age 65 do. (Pew Research Center)" - Business2Community (@B2Community), Tom Pick.
There are several tools that are free that you can take advantage of to manage your social media marketing campaign. Isn't the goal to be efficient but profitable so that you can be the best momtrepreneur that you can be? By using, HooteSuite or Buffer you can manage your social media accounts in one location and schedule out your post days at a time. I even use their apps on my phone. Most of my social media marketing is all mobile. I have used both and find Buffer to be my app of choice.
What followers do not like to see is all self promotion. It has to be shareable content. See something relevant, then share it thru your social media as a bonus post in addition to your scheduled feed. As moms, I like to use Instagram to showcase not only my work, but who I am and why I am relatable. With up to thirty hashtags at your disposal, you can quickly grow and identify your audience. Hot hashtags of #momlife, #mommyproblems or anything kid related will grab followers. Show cute behind the scenes photos of you working and some with the family. That is who people want to see. Engaging your audience is the key. You have to identify and target your audience. See my previous article on defining your niche here. Both Courtney and Kayla use those types of pics, but be consistent and add in the variable of sharing other content to your users. For Kayla, find a good boot that you like with your leggings that you sell...share it. Makeup pallete that matches a color scheme on a dress...go for it. For Courtney, find a super cute lip gloss that matches the shade of your sweater for the holidays...bam! Post it. Have a favorite place you like to go to pamper yourself- retail therapy, dinner, etc...share those places and not pictures of your product. The holidays are coming up and there are countless ways to add this into your post without overly self promoting. It makes you human. You are sharing other things that you can tie back to your products without too much self promotion . A perfect way to crank out posts without turning off readers. Maybe even intersperse them with anecdotes for your other jobs. That makes for good reading and again, why they should share or follow you or BUY from you. Plus, they see you doing this and being a mom and having a full time job...could you be creating sellers to come in under you? Maybe!
Those likes become shares and shares become sales. With internet sales bigger than ever right now, you have a cash cow at your fingertips. For these two ladies, Instagram and Facebook are the best to use for their businesses. They are both using Facebook, but with a few tweaks could be OWNING Facebook in their areas respectively.
Now that we have established the how, let us specify the what a little more. Graphics, you must have graphics and images. Images with a post get 160% more engagement. (8 Best Practices for Social Media, inbound.li). See their infographic below:
You can see some fabulous tips here for engagement in this infographic to ensure you are making the most of your post! Make a plan on how and what you intend to share, make a folder for content as you run across it and then use it. This is a huge time saver in the long run. Use Canva for making great looking images and graphics. Remember, if you do nothing but self promotion, you will lose followers. According to the folks over on the Hubspot blog,
- Over 20% of respondents said that they would unfollow a brand on both Facebook and Twitter if they believed the content was boring or repetitive.
- Over 15% said they would unfollow a brand on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter if it posted more than six times a day.
So keep it simple, if you follow most of these guidelines, you can have a great additional way to sell your product, make the most of your time and learn how to look like a pro and set yourself apart from your competitors. In a world where there are many selling similar products, you have to make sure YOURS is the one they buy. It starts with that first peek, so make sure it counts. Presentation is everything. Use hashtags on Instagram to develop and widen your audience, use Canva to create some great images, and share likeable content on Facebook so you have a reason for them to look at your posts. I am here to answer any questions and help. Look at me, I wanted to write and grow my Twitter following. I went from 300 followers to 5000 in 5 months. Read and implement...I did. Use the information that people share and you can replicate an active online campaign to add dollars into your wallet!
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