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Hustleburg Episode 14 – Answering Listener Questions About Facebook 4-2-20

In this Q&A episode of the Hustleburg podcast, Brett answers listener questions about Facebook in the second of two parts. This is the second episode of a platform-specific series on the Q&A episodes about the varying social media platforms. Episode 12 is the first part of this Facebook-specific Q&A series.

Should I be Using Facebook Stories, Live, or Watch Party? Why?

There is absolutely a benefit to each of these features for the small business owner.

Facebook Stories – Unlike Instagram, Facebook stories allow you to have all the same features, as well as swipe up capability without the need to pay for ad or be a large account. It’s also a great way to connect with younger users on the platform. The addition of stories to Facebook gives you a way of offering your community a glimpse “behind the scenes” of your life, business, or brand. It gives “insider access” to what you do, deepening the connection to your brand.
Facebook Live – If you have a good reason to stream live video content, this is a wonderful tool to do so. I like that you can create an event and hype around your business or brand that gives your community instant connection and interaction with you. It helps to deepen their connection, acting like a souped-up version of Reddit AMAs with real-time interaction.
Facebook Watch Party – I see the same value in offering the instant connection and interaction to your community that Facebook Live offers, in kind of the same way we used to call one another to watch a TV show or movie together, but separately.

What’s the Best Way to Grow My Facebook Likes? Should I Use Ads?

The key is to add value to the ongoing conversation that is social media. Your page should have plenty of content before you publish and even invite your mom or spouse to like it. Create 10 or so posts before you launch, so that visitors will have something to look at when they visit. This gives them an opportunity to decide if they want to give you the “like.” Tactically, invite those on your friends list to like the page slowly, making sure you utilize the tools Facebook has available to you. I’ve found better results when inviting people both through a notification as well as a well-crafted message in messenger from your personal profile. Both of these invitations methods are only possible on the desktop version. I answered a similar question in greater detail on Episode 4 of Hustleburg, where I discussed getting greater reach organically.

When it comes to ads, I’m not a big fan of paying for “likes,” because they are generally superficial, and I’d prefer that they come for something of value that you’ve offered. Using targeted ads based on demographic and psychographic information to drive them to something you offer that will add value to them is a great way to grow your audience. They’re more engaged than someone who just likes your page in a “drive by”

Page Messaging is Mystifying Me. Is This an Important Metric for Customers?

My answer about the importance of this public-facing metric is going to be different for different businesses. If you’re in a fast-paced environment and customers expect that you’ll respond quickly, this is something to make sure you prioritize with your page. For example, if you’re operating an auto repair shop and a potential customer wants to know if they can bring their car in today to have it repaired this afternoon, you’re going to want to make sure you can reply to that person nearly immediately, like fielding incoming phone calls. Facebook calculates this metric by measuring your response rate to private messages… ALL private messages to your page. They measure two things, the percentage of messages you respond to and the speed with which you reply. For the first, you’ll need to reply to 90% or more to have a “Very Responsive” label on your page. For the latter, you’ll need to respond in a very timely manner. An explanation of calculation for both is included in the episode.

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Top Podcasts for the Budding Entrepreneur

It may seem like self-development in business and entrepreneurship means a lot of reading, but there is a world of podcasts that we consume. Here are our recommendations of the top podcasts for the budding entrepreneur:

Akimbo: A Podcast by Seth Godin

On Tuesday mornings, we’re probably looking most forward to Akimbo: A Podcast by Seth Godin it gives you a marketer’s view of how we can act to change the culture. We’re not just talking about the culture at large, but the culture specifically around what we do, the culture around the people that we serve, and the community that we are. Every week, when Akimbo comes out, it is it definitely goes to the top of the queue. There is just something amazing about how Seth Godin can look at something and talk about it in an engaging way.

EntreLeadership Podcast

The EntreLeadership podcast offers you some of the top minds in business. Formerly hosted by Ken Coleman, and now hosted by Alex Judd, it’s primarily an interview podcast based around the leadership philosophy that Dave Ramsey used to build his entire business network. That philosophy governs all of the things that Ramsey Solutions does, and they do a fantastic job providing some amazing resources for small business leaders. In addition to the podcast, they’ve built a community that serves small businesses, often giving away excellent resources completely for free to podcast listeners. This podcast publishes weekly on Mondays, which makes for a great start to the week.

HBR IdeaCast

The Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast publishes on Tuesdays and offers listeners an opportunity to hear about emerging trends in business. The really cool part about the IdeaCast is that you get to experience the best interviews from each of their magazine’s issues in full when listening, rather than what they’ve pared down for the article they sought to publish in that month’s issue. The full-fledged interview, between one of the two hosts, both senior editors for Harvard Business Review, and the business or thought leader, provides you with a lot of data and findings surrounding what’s happening in business today. It’s terrific to hear from the study researchers and professors about the things that they’ve learned and share.

The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast

John Maxwell has written many books on the subject of leadership, and it’s amazing that none of them made the top books article, but we wanted to keep things solely focused on small business. The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast gives you lessons, insights, and candid conversations about how to be a leader. When your business grows beyond “solopreneur” status, you’re going to need to be able to lead your team. The podcast takes a deeper dive into the lessons he’s written about and Mark Cole, Jason Brooks, and John himself discuss how you can bring those ideas to work in your own life. Regular episodes publish on Wednesday, and the occasional “candid conversations” usually appear in their feed on Fridays.

The GaryVee Audio Experience

This daily podcast is the absolute holy grail of marketing knowledge. You’ll hear me frequently talk about looking for attention, and this is where that idea came from. The GaryVee Audio Experience is a daily dose of drinking from the fire hose of marketing. At first, I didn’t like Gary Vaynerchuk. His larger than life personality and style turned me off, but I listened beyond that first impression. As part of panels, on other podcasts and as part of other programs, the fact that he really understands what we’re all looking for in business, and that is the attention for our brand. We’re looking for the attention necessary to sell what we sell and to do what we do. The audio experience is a variety of different ways for you to consume that, whether it’s a keynote and Q&A that he has given, an interview that he’s done for radio or television and had the audio stripped, or his sage advice in conversations with celebrities and up-and-comers, it is an awesome documenting of the process. In it, you get to see an aspect of what he does in a way that is is very useful and very educational for every businessperson.

Would you rather read? Check out this article detailing our favorite books for budding entrepreneurs.

As we’ve shared on Hustleburg, we love Castbox as a podcast listening app, and the image above is a screenshot of my favorite podcasts in that app.

Are You Too Focused on “Positive” Feedback Online?

All for the ‘Gram!

(The video below is NSFW/K due to language)

If you watched the video above or listened to Arizona Zervas’ “Roxanne,” you heard at the very beginning that he does things only for Instagram, because of who loves “the ‘Gram.”

Arizona is not alone. There are countless social media users who post strictly for the positive affirmation they receive in response to the things they post. There are some fitness gurus that post selfies to show off their best physical assets, knowing that the “after” means more likes on an image than the process that led there. Others will post cute photos of their children and pets to receive the good feelings that come with the likes.

When they post other types of content on their accounts, the internet “love” just doesn’t arrive in the same way. Their followers take notice of the less popular posts and don’t interact, yet jump on the bandwagon when a post appears to be doing well.

“Likes” Are Seductive

As a content creator, the pull of positive “feedback” is strong. It FEELS good to have your community giving you a like. Here’s why you don’t want the like for the rush it gives you:

The real feelings of your audience lie in what they have to say in the comments. It’s easy to tap, while it takes more effort to form a real thought and share it with you.
Social media is about being social, and a like isn’t as social as the conversation your post should generate. You should want to start those conversations about you and your brand, as you’ll truly engage the raving fans in your community.
You are more likely to fall into the trap of posting for the “likes,” rather than sharing your real, authentic self and brand. You become a slave to those likes, posting puppies or showing skin, rather than sharing what you actually want to say.

This is an opportunity for you to stand out from what everyone else does. It’s your chance to zig when they zag. You can use that differing approach to find your tribe, aka the people who really understand and relate to you.

Find Your Tribe & Engage

When you find and engage your tribe, your raving fans, or whatever you want to call the community who actually supports you, their attention is more valuable than those outside it. We seek that attention, remember?

The community you build is filled with the people who support you. Their love for what you do and the value you add to their lives will attract more people like them to you. Seth Godin calls this the smallest viable audience, and they will be an extension of you… An evangelist of your brand. Doesn’t that sound more valuable than a bunch of likes on a post?

Straight to Marriage?

Take a moment to imagine that you just meet someone for the first time. Would you ask a girl (or a guy) to marry you right away? Without so much as a conversation? Or getting to know one another? That sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it?

Of course, it does!

First Meeting

When you first meet with the intent of seeking a relationship, you are focused on listening to have enough information to ask him or her to join you for coffee or drinks. At drinks, you get to know him or her better by listening to what he or she is comfortable sharing and learning about her. That date gives you an idea of whether or not you will move on to dinner, a concert, or a hike for a second date. The whole point of the first date is to figure out if there will be a second. You spend your time together on that second date learning and thinking about how compatible you might be.

Are you compatible? That second date might lead to a third and so on.

When you post content online that goes straight for a sale, without an introduction, getting to know your community, or building a relationship, you are basically doing the same thing as proposing at your first meeting. While the internet is an amazing thing, it can’t build trust or help solve the problems of your customers without creating a relationship. Without context or having done anything to foster a relationship, how can you be ready to ask already?

So much content online cuts out listening, learning, and context, zooming past a first conversation, let alone a first date, straight to marriage. If you attended a party where someone stood alone at a party, shouting, “Come buy a refrigerator from me!” over and over at the partygoers socializing and interacting like normal people, would you think about buying a fridge from him or her?

Here’s how to avoid being “that guy” at the party that is the internet:

Dating

First, you listen. You listen to the customers you want to “date.” They will tell you what they need and the problems they struggle with, giving you a glimpse at how you can guide them to the solution, even if it isn’t a solution you primarily offer.

They will also let you know if and how you can even help. If you can offer something in response that’s valuable due to your expertise, even if their needs and the problems they face aren’t primarily the ones you help solve, you can show your eagerness to help. If the problems they face or their needs they have don’t line up with your expertise yet, you know to wait for a better time, because they just aren’t ready for “the relationship” with you.

Listening is imperative early on, and you can’t do it if you’re too busy talking.

Next, when you can offer something of value, you need to respond in context to what they’ve told you they need. It does neither of you any good to respond to what they’ve said with something that doesn’t address their needs or the problems they face.

Responding to someone who needs something other than what you offer with repeated broadcasts of your generic message to buy from you does neither of you any good. They will simply walk away, and you’ve lost their attention because talking to you is like talking to a recording of what you want from them.

Finally, your conversation is about adding value to their lives. When you add value, you have their attention. You’re building your brand, and you need them committed for the long-term, not just some short-term sales goal. When you build for brand, you will be the culmination of the value you’ve added to their lives. When you chase the short-term, you’re only as good as the last time you hit your sales goal.

Marriage, Not a Hook-Up

By looking beyond the short-term at a single sale (that you weren’t likely to get anyway) and building a reputation of adding value to those you interact with, you’ll build a long-lasting relationship. That relationship will be centered on your reputation as someone helpful, and who adds value.

Doesn’t that sound like someone you’d like to buy from?

There’s No Such Thing As Too Much Content

Believe it or not, there is no such thing as too much content in an age where server space gets cheaper by the nanosecond. You simply CANNOT post too much.

Today, there are no longer only three TV networks, a handful of local radio stations, or hundreds of gatekeepers like talent agents and managers preventing you from being “overexposed.” Instead, there is a constant barrage of apps on our phones, on-demand video and audio streaming for every possible genre and niche, and a new advertising medium every minute vying for your attention.

It’s Not Too Much

When you’re really putting out content, an amount you think is way too much, your most passionate supporter (probably Mom) can’t keep up with everything happening in your business’s social media life. Your marketing efforts should be aimed to seek attention from those most likely to patron your business, by posting as much and as frequently as possible.

Here come the caveats!

You can’t post just anything to “create” content. Junk is still junk, and your audience, current and future, will leave if they aren’t finding value. With their departure goes their attention.
You can’t go too far “outside your lane.” Your community expects you to stick to areas you’re the expert in. That’s why you are sharing, and that’s why they are paying attention. When you spend too much time outside your expertise, there goes their attention.
You can’t be anyone else. You aren’t as funny as Ellen DeGeneres or Aziz Ansari, so don’t try to be a stand-up comedian. You don’t act as well as Meryl Streep or Bradley Cooper, so don’t act as if you are. Be you.

Your content needs to stay relevant to your brand, important to the community you serve, and authentically “you.” If it isn’t, the attention you crave for your brand will disappear.

Don’t Chase an Algorithm, Add Value

Don’t worry about the mythology of the algorithm controlling who sees what you post. You won’t figure out the algorithm of each platform you use, and if you do, it’ll change. You may have a good idea of which pieces of content will resonate with your community, but you will frequently be surprised by what does and doesn’t “go viral.”

Social media is the ultimate meritocracy. The platforms need traffic to keep advertisers happy and spending money on those ads. If your content is good, they will keep showing it to keep the attention on their app or their site. If your posts aren’t being seen, it’s because your content stinks.

Yeah, I said it. Your. Content. Stinks.

It stinks to the community-at-large, because they aren’t engaging with it. No matter what happens with the magic of the algorithm, good content continues to win. Good content keeps being shared. Good content keeps attention on that app or site.

Think about it. What happens when you go through your feed? If you aren’t getting content worth your time, you keep scrolling. If you continue not to get value, you’ll eventually go away. Thus, for their own survival, the platforms have to show the good stuff.

Now that you know that there is no such thing as “too much,” when are YOU going to start putting out all the content that will add value to your community?

Market Your Business The Way Jalen Hurts Plays

Sticking to your content and social media marketing strategy, even when you don’t see immediate results, leads you to build an authentic, caring, and long-lasting community.

Over the weekend, college football saw an awesome and unlikely comeback where the University of Oklahoma, led by Jalen Hurts at quarterback, overcame a 25-point deficit to defeat undefeated Baylor University, 34-31.

The outcome for the Oklahoma Sooners, on the road against a conference foe with something to prove, reminded me of how it feels when you embark on the challenge of marketing a new venture online. Their response to stay in the game, keep working their gameplan, and make the adjustments necessary to overcome a situation that would paralyze many other teams looks like what many side hustlers who use internet marketing to build their business face.

At the beginning of your internet marketing journey, you’re starting from scratch. You have no content and no community, the two things you need to be effective in marketing your business or venture. In addition to starting at zero, you see your industry peers, prolific marketers, and the latest internet-famous meme zooming ahead with their established brand and content. It can be discouraging to see them share their successes, their engagement online increase, and the results from their past efforts as you create the “starter” content in the pre-launch days and early in your marketing calendar.

Build Your Community

As you build your community and add to your initial content, you don’t feel glamorous because you don’t even get the satisfaction of seeing small wins or momentum. Like in Saturday’s game, the competition seems to be unstoppable and out of reach, going up by 25. Everything they do is golden, while you dwell in the inertia of the pre-launch activities.

Those early weeks and months feel like an eternity as you don’t see visible progress in the metrics of contacts added to your CRM, follower counts, or engagement online. Content and social media marketing isn’t something to expect an immediate gain from or to be an instant answer for your business. It should be a part of building the community that supports it, and communities take time and care to build to reach the sustainable and engaging direct access to what your customers think about you.

In business, we don’t play a finite game with a singular opponent, but our lives are filled with wins, losses, and the payoff of success. Sticking to your content and social media marketing strategy, even when you don’t see immediate results, leads you to build an authentic, caring, and long-lasting community. That community will be there to support you and to keep you in business long after you’ve hit “Enter.”

Hard Work and Resolve

As those who watched Saturday’s game witnessed, when hard work and resolve to stick to the plan meet, momentum builds. As it does, you see results in the “little things,” and eventually, you prevail.

Even when you feel like you’re down 28-3 as Oklahoma was early in the game, they persisted. As should you.