March 2017 will forever be the month where everything changed in my life and my business – all in one day. I will never forget my husband’s face as the doctor was telling him the suspected diagnosis. Lymphoma, very aggressive, looks like the last stages, “we can make no promises.” All I felt as I heard these words was deafening numbness.
Everything I hoped for, the life I planned, including our long overdue wedding in three weeks, the beautiful picture of our future – all seemed to crumble into pieces right before my eyes. The day after, I committed to doing something totally unexpected. I refused to give cancer any energy. I decided to use the energy to build my online business to become financially free and location independent. This would help my husband live the life of his dreams, so he could stay happier and healthier for many years to come.
I decided to take my Facebook profile and use it to become visible to those people who may need my expertise. Yes, you read it right, not my business page, my personal profile. By 2017, pages have seen such a decline in organic reach that there was no hope to be seen by enough people to bother using them for any sort of impact.
The best asset my business had was me. I was determined to find clients that would respect me as an expert, but also share my passions and love who I was as a person. This would help create a joyful process in running my business, instead of bringing me constant stress and disappointment. To do this required a particular approach to growing my business.
You see, people are not hanging out on Facebook to buy, so anyone with the objection of making quick sales will feel disappointed with the results. Yet, if you really focus on the keyword “Social” in social media – it becomes clear that to succeed, we must shift our attention from short term revenue reports to a long-lasting value-based relationship building.
This realisation was the key reason why my odd decision to use my Facebook profile to build my visibility and create an online business worked so well.
I was able to get insanely active, connect to hundreds and thousands of people, and turn my strategy into an organic client attraction method that brought results! I was able to do this while caring for my sick husband, helping my daughter through the final exams at school and university applications, and finding ways to balance everything without overwhelming myself.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
Here is my 30-Minute Facebook Visibility Strategy:
1. Focus On Creation (10 min)
The reason social media marketing can be so overwhelming is because we get sucked into consuming content rather than creating it.
I spend about 10 minutes writing a long post or doing a live video on my profile. I set some time separately to create a library of photos, usually selfies, that can be used with my posts for extra personal connection. It also saves me time deciding what to add to accompany my posts.
Some days I spend a couple of minutes more on creating a quick story to share something I saw or post something to boost engagement: a short statement, a question, something that just came into my mind. We cannot be serious all the time – this is social media, and it is essential to be real and authentic, just what you would be in what my daughter calls “the Outernet.”
2. Focus On Engagement (10 min)
Creating your content is very important, but to be visible, you must get busy engaging with other people’s content. Spend at least 10 minutes going through your Newsfeed, commenting on other people’s posts, not just liking them. Give value when you can (without uninvited coaching), and tag other people to bring them into the conversations if possible.
You can also go through your friends’ list and visit profiles of people you do not seem to see in the newsfeed. Check out their recent posts and engage with one or two. If you want to ramp it up – send them a personal message, referring to the post, which leads us to the last and most important activity.
“The best marketing strategy ever: CARE.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
3. Focus On Conversations (10 min)
You see, attraction marketing works, but here is what gurus keep to themselves. When you are starting to build your visibility, you must spend a lot of time and effort in conversations with people. Remember though- this is a social media network and your messages must have the agenda to connect. Not convert!
The last and most important element is to grow your audience. This means sending out friend requests to strangers and actually talking to them. I understand this may be shocking for you to read, but this is the truth. Building relationships with people pays off.
Since we know they are not logging into their Facebook accounts to get spammed with salesy messages, let’s employ a different tactic that converts like magic: it is based on the fact that “People do not buy FROM you. They buy INTO you.” Creating real conversations with real people helps you figure out what do they and you have in common.
You understand what keeps them stuck and how you can help them. This means you get to define your ideal client and create offers they see as the perfect fit for their needs. Overtime, they’ll grew to like you. This puts you in a very strong position to convert them into clients. THAT is how you create conversions in your business.
- Show up with your content.
- Acknowledge and engage with other user’s content while becoming even more visible to them.
- Connect and talk to them to make them feel they are not just a number on your friends’ list.
If you implement these small steps every day, your visibility will grow with a huge impact, as you are connecting to people authentically and those who need you will be able to see you and realise – you are the one who they were looking for!
My journey is a testament to this simple strategy. And what is more important, the decision to focus all my energy on making my dreams come true has also paid off with my husband recovering to full health against all the odds.
