My 2018 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 if I’m lucky, I can get 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 is always full of reminders of the things that I struggled with as well as several brainstorm sessions to figure out how to make sure that I don’t fall back down that path.
I usually spend a lot of time thinking and doing the deep work to really take a look at the changes I’ve experienced. Not just the movement with my business but the internal shifts within myself.
This year I took all my coaching programs to the next level where it moved from just how to do this step or where to go to post that message. I was able to do more than just show them how to use social media but to help small business owners and bloggers find their focus of the HOW and the WHY they do the work that they love.
And especially with the latest version of the Pinterest Interest Sales Funnel for those entrepreneurs/bloggers who use Pinterest as one of their top marketing tools.
I was so thrilled to work all my new clients this year with my coaching programs,
The work we did together inspired to me to develop my first real social media training product that I’m going to bring to market. { Everything is still in the early development stage so watch this space and follow my posts on Instagram for the updates! }
So in the spirit of clearing out my old year and bringing in the new, I’d like to share with you how I reviewed 2018 to get ready for 2019.
My Power Words
For the past several years, I have used a power word as the foundation for my marketing and plans for where I’ll take my business.
I usually choose words that represent how I’d like my year to feel. Words that give me a path to travel or help myself move outside of my 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 knew instantly what happened after a year of Focus. It was time for Clarity.
There was no more questioning about what to do next or what to work on. With everything I created, I made sure that it brought more Clarity into my growth plans.
It didn’t take me long to come up with my next power word. I knew what I needed to do with my business to have the year that would bring me the growth I wanted to see in 2019.
My power word for 2019 will be Possibility.
When I looked it up, this was the definition of Possibility:
1. something that can be done or achieved
2. one’s utmost power, capacity, or ability
So 2019 will be the year of discovering Possibilities – as in the possibilities are endless.
My 2018 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 made a decision to stop spending my time creating content like challenges or more email courses. I’ve created so much of that helpful content strategy challenging stuff that I choose to spend my time this year updating what I have and deleting the programs that weren’t working to grow my email list.
With a new focus on Clarity this year, I was able to convert a basic Pinterest strategy ebook into a 3-part Pinterest guide to take you through the strategic steps to use Pinterest to grow your website traffic.
And this year’s Social Media Productivity Planner?
I admit, this is the best version of the Social Media Productivity Planner that I’ve done. Its chock full of stories where I’m sharing my personal journey, new worksheets to help you reach your income goals and updates to the strategy process to help you connect with more customers online.
Read on as I share with you my 2018 Social Media Story:
If you’ve spent any time on this site or even talking to me, you know that Pinterest has always been my number one site to grow my website traffic. I use this visual site to grow my email list, to find content to share and to do research to learn how to grow my other social sites.
Over the summer I took a break from blogging and without any fresh content to share on Pinterest, I worried that my traffic would start to drop.
And while I was making changes to my blogging schedule, Pinterest continued to change its program which had a huge effect on the way we use this visual site.
It was like I was fighting a double battle – the lack of new content from my site { no new content means no new site traffic! } and the Pinterest changes that always seem to affect the numbers on the site.
I decided to go back to the basics of Pinterest.
Pinterest has become so much more than just posting an engaging image. It’s about what you’re pinning, the content you’re repinning to your boards and how often you’re pinning – basically, how you’re using Pinterest.
I became more consistent with my pinning process. It became more about sharing my content using SEO based keywords to make sure that I was still able to get that traffic to my website.
I also started creating a second and third pin for the top content that was already bringing traffic to my site.
Every week I checked my Pinterest Analytics. I discovered which pins where already resonating with people on Pinterest. Then I would find loads of opportunities of pins that I was able to re-work with a new image and pin description.
So began another series of testing the way I pinned, what I pinned and how often.
All of that testing helped me uncover a new way to create content that would get Pinterest users to my website. I was so excited with my results that I added this new process to The Pinterest Interest Sales Funnel coaching sessions to teach other small business owners and bloggers how to use Pinterest to grow their email list and connect with more qualified customers.
I made a big decision about how I was going to use Facebook this year.
Facebook is no longer user-friendly. With all that data mining stuff and a privacy setting for almost everything, Facebook has lost its charm to me. Unless, I want to do Facebook Live videos or spend money on ads, my business page just isn’t showing up for anyone anymore.
After much back and forth, I decided to make the decision to stop using Facebook for my business.
I could pull out that advice about how if a social site is not working for you, don’t spend your valuable time on there. Just find out the best place you can connect with your audience.
But we both know it’s more than just that. Facebook has turned into a “pay to play” site for small businesses.
And for those of us small business owners using Facebook, this is the reality that we live in.
It’s clear that if I asked a room full of bloggers and business owners, everyone would have an opinion about why I should stay on Facebook. What I could have done to create more videos and a VA I could hire, what they would have done.
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.
The only reason I haven’t deleted myself completely from Facebook is because of Facebook Groups. I manage a couple of groups and there are a few that I log into every week to learn something new or I can jump into a group for an online course that’s running another session.
So where am I with my Facebook Business thing?
I’ve stopped posting.
I’ve stopped thinking about what I want to Facebook Live about. It has now become something on my marketing to-do list that’s just not where I want to spend my valuable time.
The whole process was such a struggle that didn’t give me a big enough return on my time.
I will admit that if you search for my Facebook Business page, you’ll still find the page up on the site. I know that Facebook is always making changes to the site and maybe … just maybe, something will change in the future.
Maybe the algorithm will shift again and we’ll go back to seeing organic reach with our Facebook Business pages. But right now, my page is more like an online business card just waiting for someone to stop by and find out where else they can connect with me.
This was the first year that I really spent the time and effort using the site to promote my business.
My biggest challenge was being consistent. My numbers crept up when I was active and then dropped back down again when I would disappear.
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. Plus, ss I started to shift my attention away from Facebook, I was really missing that engagement of sharing my updates, my weekly quotes and the behind the scenes stuff from my business.
So I finally stopped talking about wanting to use IG and I just did it.
I planned out my posts, wrote my copy { which I saved in Evernote for a quick and easy cut and paste situation! }, found great images and saved them into Dropbox. Once I got everything loaded up, there was no good excuse as to why I wasn’t posting.
And it’s starting to work! I’m posting consistently. I’m spending time in the site, engaging with others and they’re responding back.
I don’t have a huge traffic push from IG like I do with Pinterest but I’ve got a process in place … and that’s a start. I see the potential from using Instagram and what I can do to help me grow my business.
LinkedIn – my new favorite thing!
My relationship with LinkedIn is growing every week. After that breakup with Facebook, I took a deep breath and just jumped right in.
Seriously, LinkedIn is everything that I wish my Facebook Business page could have been. It feels good to be on a site where it’s 100% acceptable to talk about my business without feeling like some pushy salesperson.
I share my online workshops and the classes that I teach locally. I share my coaching programs and why you should work with me. I talk about being a small business owner, the ups, the downs, the lessons I’ve learned in over 20 years of being in business.
I schedule my weekly posts in Hootsuite but I also log into the site to meet new people and to comment on their posts. I even made a small sale from one of my connections last month.
I’m already making plans how to up my presence with adding videos to my LinkedIn messages. It is truly one of the best networking sites for small business owners and I can see myself going in even deeper next year.
Your Social Media Story
As you get ready to start the new year with a fresh outlook for 2019, 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 2019? 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.
Download the Social Media Productivity Planner! Grab the one tool you need to consistently getting yourself out there and creating the business that you’ve always wanted.
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