Ep 65: How to Create The Perfect Posting Strategy

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Introduction

Dawn McGruer:

Welcome to episode 65 of Dawn of a New Era, the podcast with a difference because we talk about all things marketing, motivation, and mindset. And today, we’re going to focus on how to create the perfect posting strategy. And I say this with a little bit of irony, because so often I hear all of these really convoluted, really high tech techniques that people are using to generate the content. They’re looking for quicker, faster, easier ways of getting content out there. Anything that minimizes their involvement in scheduling and creating content. And do you know what? We have to bring it back to basics. We have to actually look at what we’re trying to achieve with our social media, because if you have ever felt a little bit burnt out, a little bit exhausted and just generally fatigued about social media, then maybe the reason is the way that you are posting, the way that you are involving yourself in those channels.

What is the actual purpose of social media?

Now, for me in the world of digital marketing, I have trained over 30,000 professionals in my time. And that’s a mammoth amount of people. But the same thing comes back every time that I look at where a client is at and what they want to achieve. The same strategy issues occur, the same social media thought process is that we need to be on it all the time. Posting, getting content out, telling people what we’re doing in our businesses. But actually, what we’ve done is we’ve walked further and further away from the actual purpose. Now, if we think about social media and we think about the root core of why they exist, what is the actual purpose of LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever these channels are? What does the platform want us to do?

You need to be aligned to your consumers and your audience

Well, number one, the platform wants us to grow our audience. Each and every day. They want us to be a savvy network who is showing up in their channel, logging in, using all their amazing tools and features and finding brilliant new connections to add to our audiences. People who we see are going to be valuable to. But we also have to show up in a valuable way. So number two, what do they want us to do? Well, they want us to be engaging. And that’s not just from creating content and getting engagement. It also comes from the fact that they want us to show up and treat it like a networking event. Imagine going to an event and standing in the corner and just shouting things into the room. Now, that is not dissimilar to people who just broadcast on output on social media, who show up, pop the content out there and leave. It’s not very social.

So when we actually dig into the dynamics of what we’re doing and we start looking at our behavior, you need to be thinking that your behavior needs to be aligned to actual humans and to your consumers, to your audience, to these people. Now, if you have to grow your audience every day and you have to, obviously, engage with others and get engagement in your content, now we’re getting to the crux of the matter. We now start thinking and focusing on what we need to be doing. So when you show up on social media and you think, “What is going to be my perfect posting strategy? How am I going to post with purpose?” We’ve got to remember something really, really important. Who it is you are posting for. Now, I want to share with you a really simple process, a way that I promise you, if you implement into your social media today, it will change the way that you use social media. It will change the way that people have conversation with you. And it will start to automatically not just attract your ideal client, but actually nurture that relationship.

Ultimately, the aim of the game is that we have social media connections, and we want to turn a percentage of those people into paying customers. Now, if your social media isn’t doing that, then whatever you’re doing isn’t having the desired effect and result to grow your business. Now, we all know that whatever we’re doing in the world of online marketing, it has the potential to be a revenue generator. And what I mean by that is that every action you take, everything do can ultimately take you a step closer to achieving your business goals and objectives. So when we think about social media, we lose sight sometimes I feel. When I see somebody putting their social media strategy together, they start scheduling, they start posting using third party tools. And let’s be honest, if the social network wants you to log in everyday, they want you to build your audience, they want you to be a valuable savvy networker who’s going to engage in other people’s content, but ultimately post things that are going to get engagement, then how is that going to work?

I want things to be dynamic, to flow and be centered around your audiences 

If you are trying to create four weeks of content, sitting down, plowing through your social media, there is nobody in the world that can have their creative energy flowing and create four weeks of content. It just doesn’t work. And you know what? You lose the whole dynamic art of marketing. Now, anybody who knows me, if you’ve come across any of my content online, you’ve read my book, Dynamic Digital Marketing, you will know that the biggest focus I have is that I want to be pragmatic in business. I want things to be dynamic, I want things to flow and I want it all to be centered around our audiences and our connections. And I want to spend time doing things that actually bring results, things that motivate me, things that inspire me. And everyone’s the same. So think about your social media, take a step back and be honest with yourself. Scroll through. If you’re not getting engagement, it has to change. You have to switch things up. You can’t expect to do the same thing over and over again and get different results.

Think about what you talk about from your audiences’ perspective

So how are we going to change this? How are we going to make it so that you have the perfect posting strategy that is easy, it is simple to implement day in, day out, it’s not going to give you fatigue, but also is going to engage and inspire and convert your customers. Well, I’m going to share with you a really simple strategy. Now, all you have to do is start thinking about what you talk about. Now, you might think, “Well, okay, I know what I talk about. I’m an accountant. I talk about accountancy things.” Well, you’ve got to think about it from the other person’s view. So for instance, I work in the world of digital marketing. I’ve got an academy, I’ve got an agency and I also have my own consultancy under my own brand, which is geared specifically for entrepreneurs. Whereas, my agency and academy are very much for professionals, individuals, people in careers and business owners and corporates. So you might be thinking, “Well, how do I talk about all of that day by day?”

Focus on your three core pillars

Well, I don’t. And this is the key. I don’t talk about what I do. I talk about what I do for my clients and what’s in it for them. And you have to switch your social media up to be really geared towards your audience. Now I have three themes, three core pillars that I talk about day in, day out. And mine are marketing, motivation and mindset. Now I always say to my audience that the reason I talk about them, which is the whole essence of this podcast, is that I truly believe that these are the three core pillars that any entrepreneur, business owner or professional needs to be able to sharpen their business and be successful and to perform in the best way possible. Now, if we’re all looking to progress our own self development, our own careers, our own businesses, those three things, for me, are at the heart of everything I talk about.

So when I think about what I’m going to talk about per day, I don’t think about it from a company level. I don’t think, “Right today, I’m going to talk about my agency. Or today I’m going to talk about my academy. Today I’m going to talk about my own consultancy with my programs and my masterminds.” I don’t think about it from a feature or orientated basis. I think about the three topics I’m going to talk about, marketing, motivation and mindset. Now I switch that up and it means that my newsfeed is always talking about different things. So again, it’s a bit more dynamic in the field. And I switch up how I show up in social media. So when I’m thinking about my topics, I don’t think, “Today, I’m just going to do a live and then I’m going to do a live and then I’m going to do live, or I’m going to do a graphic and a graphic and a graphic.” Your social media feed has to be dynamic in the way that you show up in terms of lots of different types of media.

So if I think about, “Okay, let’s say I’m going to talk about marketing today.” I then split it into four key topics. So I’ve got my three themes at the top, marketing, motivation and mindset. And then I do this in an Excel spreadsheet, really easy for clients, et cetera, and for myself. And then I split it down and I think, okay, for each of those themes, I will talk about a topic and I’ll either talk about my wins in marketing, motivation and mindset, or my focus, what I’m actually looking at working on at the minute in those three core themes, any challenges that I’m experiencing in those areas, and also what I have learned. So any learnings along my way. It could be, “Last week I found an app in the world of mindset.” That’s a learning. And I would talk about those things. Now, what this does is it really gears my mind and focuses so that I know my three core themes. I know what topics I will talk about within those. And then I come up with different things that are really dynamic and relevant at this time.

When you have content that is really centered at the heart of what you’re doing, it feels authentic

So I do not plan content in our team, across all of the marketing. I literally have those themes and my team have those topics. And we just literally will be discussing that on a very weekly basis. And it might be I send a voice note back to one of my teams say, “Oh, do you know what? Something I’m working on at the moment, it’s just hit me.” And when you have content that is really centered at the heart of what you’re doing, it feels really real. It feels really authentic. It just really aligned to what you are doing in your business. So really in essence, it’s showcasing all of the things that you do. So for me, when I talk about saying, “Don’t talk about what your businesses are doing, talk about what you are doing with you and your clients within those businesses.” So it’s a bit more like behind the scenes.

So an example of this would be, if I was going to talk about marketing and I chose one of my topics as wins, I would then think, “Right, okay, what can we share today in a post that is going to showcase a win for me in our businesses or for my client?” So it could be that, “This week we’ve just managed to get one of our Facebook ads running at 59p for a lead gen campaign that we’ve got going.”And I talk through what we’ve done, how we did that. And what I’m doing there is I’m showcasing what we do. So I’m actually gearing my content to appeal to the audience. Because what better content to motivate someone to come on my Facebook ads course would be than to see what we are achieving? So this is the inspiration and the motivation behind it, because when I showcase what we’re doing, someone goes, “Ooh, that’s really interesting. Do you know what? I really struggle with Facebook ads and I’d love to know how to get it to that point.”

So people start to reach out. So I might put a call to action in that post to say, “Well, do you know what? To find out more, I’ve created a little cheat sheet.” Or something like that, little free guide or masterclass. Someone signs up for that and then instantly they are in my world. They’re in my radar, they’re in my email sequence because they’ll be nurtured through, we’ll send an email instantly, then one maybe a day after, three days, seven days and so on, all the way through a month. And then at that point, we are using those emails to create desire, to really educate this new person in my world about what we’re doing and what we can do. And we’re pushing them to lots of different resources and other free content. And there will also be promotional information in there about Facebook ad courses. “Reach out to our team and come and talk to us if you are looking to do ads and see if it’s the right fix.”

So you can start to how the posting strategy is very simple, but it’s very aligned to achieving our business goals. A classic example could be that the next one we post about is motivation. And maybe there’s a challenge there. So I might do a posting, “We’re reaching X time in the year…” It could be the last quarter or whatever. “… And we tend to sometimes see our energy drop. And how do we then look at pushing that back up?” Now I could then link back to a call to action to one of our groups, marketing, motivation and mindset, to the podcast, to this episode, to all sorts of different things. And every time I do a post, I post with purpose. I think, “Right, what are the three themes? What are the four topics? What is it that I want this person to think, to feel and to do?”

And this is so important because when we start thinking about the human at the end of that post, the person reading it, the person we’re trying to resonate with, build a relationship with, we really start to create some magnificent content, really authentic, really engaging content that’s not inspirational, it’s motivational and people will take action. So think about absolutely the human being. Think about the themes, think about the topics and think about what you are doing in your business, what you want to do. Every post that you create, every action in marketing should take you one step closer to achieving that goal. And if it doesn’t, it’s not the right strategy. So when we think about creating your perfect posting strategy, let me know how you get on with your themes. One of the things that always delights me is when people start using this strategy and they start engaging in other people’s content.

Come and join me on social media. You can find me @DawnMcGruer on every single channel. But come and join my conversations. And I’ll promise you one thing, I will join you back and I will follow you and I will get involved in your conversations. This is the art of social media. I want to know who’s listening to my podcast. I want you to reach out to me on social media today and just say hi. If it’s a comment on one of my posts, if it’s a message on LinkedIn, whatever it is, I just want you to do this one thing for me, reach out to me today, whenever it is you’re listening to this episode, and just say, “Hi, I was listening to episode 65.’ And just say hello. Let’s get one step closer in our networks. Let’s make this a really, really social time in our lives and start thinking differently about how we can use social media to really connect, but also build this powerful community so that we can collaborate.

The more people I know on social media, the more opportunities we’re creating. And the same with you. And what I will say is that when I reach out this way and I really engage purposely with other people, I start to bring and attract opportunities. I start to reach my clients in a far easier way. And it’s just about switching your mind on and really being centered into every time you post, what are you getting them to think? What are you getting them to feel? And what do you want them to do? And once you get that into your day to day, and you stop trying to preplan too much and you go to the world of dynamic, I promise you one thing, you will enjoy it so much more. And guess what? You’ll start reaping the results and your energy will change, your motivation will change because you’ll start seeing things differently.

So I really hope that you enjoyed this episode. And I cannot wait to hear from you today. So just do that one thing, take that step and reach out to me, Dawn McGruer, on any channel and just say hi. Comment on a post. Tell me that you heard this episode. Tell me one thing that you are looking to do. Share with me anything that you feel that has an impact on your marketing, your motivation and mindset. And let’s connect and build this powerful community. So I will speak to you and hear from you, hopefully on social media. But of course, don’t forget to subscribe to Dawn of a New Era. We’re on all of the podcast listeners and streamers, and you can find us at dawnmcgruer.com. So take care and have a super day. And don’t forget, connect with me on social today.

Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast. And for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit and success, then join our community, go to dawnmcgruer.com.