Planning My Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2018

My 2017 Social Media Year in Review

Have you been able to find some time to reflect on your business plans and how your year went?

Every year, I make sure that I block off several days { or sometimes a whole weekend! } to work on my plans for my business in the year to come. I review everything that happened in my business – the good, the bad and those ugly challenges.

My review was full of reminders of the things that I struggled with as well several brainstorm sessions to figure out how to make sure that I don’t fall back down that path.  I started rethinking a lot important things about myself and my business.

This was the first year where I was able to create my programs and products based on my focus – helping small business owners and bloggers become more effective with their time to connect with more customers. And especially for those entrepreneurs/bloggers who use Pinterest as one of their top marketing tools.

I was so thrilled to see all these new coaching programs and free resources in place!

But when I ran the numbers … my excitement turned into a “what the huh?” moment.

I showed up every day and did the hard work. I pushed myself out of my comfort box more than once. I totally put myself out there to connect with my customers. So what, happened?

Why didn’t 2017 turn into the year I had envisioned with all these amazing programs and products in place?

It wasn’t until I saw the full picture of 2017 in my end of the year review that I realized I had fallen into the 80/20 trap.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your skills.

I was spending way too much time working on the 80% of the actions I thought I should be doing and focused less on the 20% that would bring me stronger growth in my business and more successful results. I knew where all the dots were – I just didn’t do a good job of connecting them.

So in the spirit of clearing out my old ways and bringing in the new, I’d like to share with you how I reviewed 2017 to get ready for 2018.

My Power Words

For the past several years, it seems to be the big thing to have power words for yourself. Words that represent how you’d like your year to go. Words that give you direction or help you move outside your comfort box.

I started this tradition back in 2014 and I will admit, it did help me create a consistent theme to everything that I worked on in my business.

My power word for 2014 was Design. In 2014, I began the process of designing the plans and direction for my business.

In 2015, I took my power word to the next level and claimed it would be the year of Build. Once I laid down the foundation in 2014, it was time to start building this thing in 2015.

With my foundation in place and the building process clearly on it’s way, my word for 2016 was Invest. I started to invest in working with coaches and participated in training programs to keep learning how to grow my business.

By the time I hit 2017, it was time to turn all this information I’d learned into something I could implement. My word for 2017 was Focus.

When it came time to come up with my power word for 2018, I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was thinking about the 80/20 rule. What could I do to grow my business and increase my time to work on my 20% result-driven work?

It didn’t take me long to come up with my next power word. I knew what I needed to do in 2018 to have the year that would bring me the growth I wanted to see in 2017.

My power word for 2018 will be Clarity.

When I looked it up, this was the definition of Clarity:
1. freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.
2. the quality of being certain or definite.

No more questioning about what to work on or what to do next. So 2018 will be the year of finding Clarity.

My 2017 Social Media Story

Last year I did a full disclosure of my social media story – what worked and which sites were just a great big frustration. I created quite bit of content to help small business owners and bloggers challenge themselves to create a content strategy and to learn how to put themselves out there to connect to more customers.

In between creating all this content, I still found the time to grow my Pinterest account, create a strong and supportive Pinterest Facebook community and still keep up with all my productive habits to be more efficient with my time online as well as keep my business running.

Read on as I share with you my 2017 Social Media Story:

Pinterest

If you’ve spent any time on this site or even talking to me, you know that Pinterest has always been my number one traffic referral to my site. I use this site to grow my email list, to find content to share and to do research to learn how to grow my other social sites.

I started using Pinterest’s Promoted Pins when they first came out in 2015. I was thrilled to see that this paid social advertising helped my number one traffic source increase my email list. Once I saw how Pinterest could get people to click on something as simple as my email opt-in, I began adding Promoted Pins to every one of my product and program launches.

Pinterest continued to change its program which had a huge effect on the way we use this visual site. I tried another Promoted Pin campaign and this year, my results were less than what I had experienced in the past. It was a disappointing result.

Lots of things had changed this year with Pinterest and that meant my usual way of promoting my product and program launches needed change. Unfortunately I discovered this AFTER I had spent most of my marketing budget for the month to promote my pins.

This was one of those struggles I had this year — but with some more research and testing, I feel pretty confident that I can find a way to make another Promoted Pins campaign go back to be being a successful strategy.

And since these Pinterest paid pins were my way of growing my email list, I had to rethink how I could use Pinterest to find customers and get them to download my content { and get on my email list! }.

So began another series of testing the way I pinned, what I pinned and how often. All of that testing helped me discover a way to create content that would get Pinterest users on to my email list. I was so excited with my results that I created The Pinterest Interest Sales Funnel coaching sessions to teach other small business owners and bloggers how this process works so they can grow their email list and connect with more qualified customers on Pinterest.

Facebook

Facebook has always felt like a roller coaster ride. When I first started using Facebook for my business, it was amazing how easily it worked. All I needed was a content plan about what to post and when it should be scheduled.

And then that day came when we all got hit with the change in the Facebook algorithm and they launched the whole pay-to-play thing with Boost Post and Facebook ads. And my Facebook page took a nosedive along with the rest of the other small business owners and bloggers.

In 2015, I made the decision to shut down my original Facebook business page with over 800 fans and start all over with a new business page.

I learned how to use my Facebook Insights and experimented with Boost Posts and Facebook ads. It was a deep learning curve that reminded me that consistency was more important than worrying about creating the perfect posts.

But honestly, while I still continued to post every week to my Facebook business page, I found that I experienced a greater social impact participating in Facebook Groups.

Facebook Groups work because of one basic thing – people are already on Facebook for personal stuff so it’s easy for them to click over to the group to see what’s going on. They ask questions when they need help, share their success stories and promote their latest programs.

I have found that the Facebook Groups  where I’m most active are the ones that provide some kind of value for me. And I’ve done quite a lot of vetting to determine which groups make the most sense for me to spend my valuable time.

A couple of the groups are just about sharing our content on Pinterest. These groups have helped me share my latest blog post and increase my repins and site traffic.

And then I have a couple more groups that feel more like an online community of other like-minded business owners. In these groups, we share our problems or questions and others jump in with suggestions, links and ideas to help you work through your issues.

I’ve made some great connections in these groups. There’s something that happens when you share from a vulnerable moment with your business in a safe place. It brings people closer together to find new ways to support each other.

Facebook Groups are what building relationships in social media is all about. This is how we can really see the “social” in social media and create stronger connections with our customers.

Instagram

I was in and out of this visual program but mostly I used it for sharing my personal world.

My numbers crept up when I was active and then dropped back down again when I would disappear. I shared more about how Instagram was one of my biggest challenges in the How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan post.

I really wanted to figure out how to get my Instagram account to help me with my business or at least, help with my site traffic. I researched how to use the program, I planned out my posts, created my images and yet, I just couldn’t get anyone to click over to my site.

And I know it works! I’ve seen other business owners and bloggers work this site to launch their programs and products – and be super successful with their posting strategy. I know that it works when you work it.

My biggest challenge was being consistent. Because Instagram wasn’t really working, I didn’t make it a priority and would go weeks without posting anything. I’m sure that my lack of time that I dedicated to Instagram was connected to why I couldn’t get this site to be a big traffic referral.

Twitter and LinkedIn – not so much

My relationship with Twitter seems to be falling apart. I tried to schedule a few tweets every so often { I was using Hootsuite } but I never really gained any traction.  But when I did spend the time to do the posts, it ended up feeling like my tweets were just getting lost in the massive conversation and it felt like a waste of time.

So my tweets were mainly for personal use when I was cheering and supporting my University of Georgia Bulldogs football take the SEC Championship. I’m not sure how I’ll use Twitter in 2018 but I’m not ready to close down my account.

My other issue this year was LinkedIn. I wish I could have done more with this social site. I rarely shared content but honestly, I didn’t even spend the time to grow my connections.

I wasn’t social in one of the best networks to meet new people to help me grow my business with referrals.

Now that I’ve got my plans in place for Facebook, it’s time to focus more on sharing and using LinkedIn. It’s time to jump back into this networking site and see what can happen when I spend more time networking online.

Your Social Media Story

As you get ready to start the new year with a fresh outlook for 2018, take some time to think about how you’re using social media to grow your business.

What does your relationship with your social sites look like?

Are you like me with triumphs on some sites and struggles on others? Is there something holding you back from using a social media program you know you need to be on because you just don’t know how to fit it into your weekly to-do list?

I think the first place to start is to admit to where you are right now.

Share it with friends, post your struggles in the comments section or write your own blog post. Just find a way to get it out of your head so you can stop making excuses.

The first place to start is to create a list of action items you can do to make changes. And these changes can be either to your schedule or find a way to do some mindshift work to get rid of those blocks.

So here we go into a new year my friends. Time to learn from our struggles and celebrate our successes.

This is my social media story. This is my truth. What’s yours?

 

Ready to take your social media marketing to another level in 2018? It’s time to think about downloading a Social Media Productivity Planner!

The Social Media Productivity Planner is the tool for you when you’re ready to take back control of your minutes. You’re ready to take back control of your schedule. You’re ready to take back the power you feel like you’ve lost to that social game that’s hard to beat.

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