“How many social media followers do I need?”
If you’re an aspiring or new business owner, I’ll bet this is one of the #1 questions you started asking yourself when you decided to start your business. For many, the fear of not having any followers is enough to stop their business aspirations in their tracks.
Believe it or not, your success as an entrepreneur is not determined by the number of followers you have. I’ve been a digital marketer for over 10 years, and when I first started my coaching business, despite growing to 40k followers within a year, but couldn’t get any of them to buy a damn thing!!!
It wasn’t until I started tracking three other metrics that weren’t social media followers that I finally started to see my content creation efforts finally start to pay off in my bank account. By learning what they are, you too will be able to create content that converts to sales… instead of followers.
Authentic Comments
How can you tell if a piece of content works?
People literally will tell you… in the comments!
Authentic comments are the ones that point out exactly what you spoke about in your piece of content and how it relates to their life or business, or share how your content resonated with them.
This is not to be confused with a passive comment, such as a series of fire emojis. Dropping an emoji takes next to no effort. Composing a thoughtful message means your content provided enough value for the reader to devote their time to let you know.
When someone comments like this, don’t leave them hanging! They’re already invested in your brand! Respond to their comments, ask questions and get to know them better. This is how you start to nurture relationships and build confidence in your brand and try your products and services.
Direct Messages (DM’s)
How often do your followers DM you?
A great piece of content with a direct message call to action is one of the best strategies out there for service providers like consultants and coaches.
If you don’t get them often, that’s on you. You have to invite your followers to DM you as part of your call to action strategy.
By inviting them to reach out to you, you give them permission to get to know you and find out more about what you have to offer without “selling” them. It’s more casual than a phone call.
It also allows you to prequalify whether or not they’re a good fit for what you have to offer, as well as determine the best next steps to progress the customer relationship.
So next time you post, try making your call to action “Want some help with this? DM me, I can help!” and see where the conversation takes you. More DM’s = more sales opportunities.
Signups, Appointments & Sales
Which would you rather have: More social media followers… or more sales?
When you focus on the number of followers your gaining as opposed to the number of direct conversations you’re having with potential customers, you’re in a way ignoring all the people already in your audience who are already ready to buy from you!
Each piece of content you post should have an invitation to take their relationship with you off the social media platform and instead to whatever the next step is. That could be signing up for an email newsletter, a webinar, booking a discovery call, or even going to a sales page.
So next time you sit down to create your content, remember to think of what you want that follower to do and tell them exactly how to take the next action.
In Summary…
So there you have it! When you track these three business metrics instead of your vanity metrics like follower counts or likes, you’ll have much better visibility to what content actually converts people into paying customers for your new business.
Next time you sit down to plan your content, have a clear call-to-action, be sure to answer every comment, and nurture and engage with every interaction every step of the way. This is how you build a brand and experience people truly remember.
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