5 Pillar Social Strategy

Hey, this is Sharon Freibatz. Welcome back to the Business School podcast. And in this episode, I'm going to break down a myth for you. The myth is that social media only works for influencers, but for everyone else, it's a tough game to play. In fact, the exact reason for this is because we are trying to do things and model someone at a completely different level. But we have to actually figure out the framework that they use to get there. I'm going to give you the five part framework, the five pillars of having really great social media strategy. I break down step by step and give it to you both strategically and tactically all starting are right now. One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this, where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to. How to go your business. How to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth. That is the question. And this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharon Tribata and welcome to Business School. I don't know if you know who Mr. Beast is, but he's the number one YouTuber in the world. And both of my children and my neighbors and my friends and the many adults that I know all have Mr. Beast channel subscribe. They all wait for Mr. Beast videos. And it's amazing how my seven year old daughter, along with my 47 year old neighbor can all be connected and attracted to the same thing. And after studying big influencers like the Mr. Beast of the world, I've realized that sometimes what they are doing is so simple and elegant is just super hard for us to do. Meaning I look at Mr. Beast and say, oh, I can't do what he does. He's Mr. Beast. And I think a lot of people do the same thing. So when big social media influencers show up and say, oh, you just need to be authentic or you just need to be creative or you just need to know the hook. I think a lot of this is this innate skill that you develop over time. But the only way you develop a neat skill is if you have some form of basic framework to over index on so that you can win now. And it gives you confidence to win later in this episode. I'm going to take you through what I've learned around what is important to build more exposure, more brand on social media. Now this is not a fruitful episode of extremely tactical. And the five strategies that I'm recommending are actually really simple and will cost you no money. It has taken me this long to understand it. And in fact, I use the scientific method and everything that I do. I'm like, hey, I'm going to ask a question. I'm going to do some research. I'm going to make a hypothesis. I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to look at the findings. I'm going to repeat the results. And so what I have is not just what's worked for me, but it is probably hours and hours of testing that you don't have to go through yourself. So this is my gift to you. I'm going to take you through a five pillar of social strategy. As I am taking you through this, I just want you to think about two things. One, is there an idea here that I can use to upgrade and two, can I be really honest with myself? If you can just do those two things where you can think about an upgrade, but also just be truly honest with yourself, I think you will win big time with the strategy. So let's jump right in. Here are the five big pieces to the puzzle piece of the puzzle. Number one is to claim your medium. What I've noticed is that most entrepreneurs, most social media content creators, they think that they have to be on the mediums that they think they're supposed to be on. They're like, oh, if I'm in tech, I need to be on Twitter. If I'm a corporate executive, I need to be on LinkedIn. If I'm a content creator, I need to be on YouTube. If I'm like funny, I need to be on TikTok. Well, sure that those platforms probably led into that in some way. However, you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do. Meaning if you can't choose your primary medium, you will never feel joy in this content creation process. And this is a unnever ending unlimited process. So you might as well do things that you are excited about doing. I'll give you an example. What I mean by this is for me, my primary medium is audio. This is why I like doing the podcast more than anything else because if all I had to do of all I got to do was to create content on audio form only and nothing else, I would be super happy because I think like that it's my favorite medium. It is my primary medium. It's not. I didn't see my primary platform. I said my primary medium. So when I say primary medium for some people, you know, having the creativity of stitching a video together is their mediums that that medium is storytelling for some people is just standing in front of camera and doing a talking hit for some people is just writing longer form like a blog post for some people is writing shorter form like a thread or a tweet for some people is just, you know, being crafty about writing your article. That's cool. For some people is posting pictures. That's fine. What I'm asking is we have to be really, really honest with ourselves on the medium. The number one issue that I see is a medium to personality or skill mismatch. If you told me, Hey, Sharon, you need to make short like your short videos that you make. That's the that's the medium. If you don't do that, you're going to fail. I probably would do it, but it's not my primary medium. It's not my favorite thing to do. And that's why my team really like tries to figure out how not put me in that stressful situation because I don't like doing that. However, if someone told me, Hey, you need to you need to create three podcasts today. I would actually do it with joy. So number one is claim your medium. Are you a more of a written person? Are you more of an audio person? Are you more of a video person? If you're one of those, are you short form? Are you long form when you know that you're your once you know your medium on your medium. Just don't let anybody tell you otherwise because this podcast started with just me. And now this is our primary channel to reach and share our message. And thank you for listening. But this is my primary medium. I try to take all my best ideas and share it here. My question for you is if you have to choose what is your primary medium. Now, if you say, well, sure, I don't like writing. I don't like pictures. I don't like text. I don't like audio. I don't like video. Then you're lying. That's not true. Then I would pick your favorite one along with because we're all pretty disposed of doing one of those things. I'm just curious which one it is for you. I'll give you my second. My second most favorite is writing. And that's why I like writing emails. So now if you're not in my email, let's just go to sharon.com/vip and it'll get you on my email community. But most importantly, content creation becomes a happy place for me if I can just create audio and write text and write email. I thought it's all I had to do. I would be ultra happy and none of this would stress me out. And so playing your medium is the number one path on this one because when you don't, this becomes extremely stressful. Number two, you can be the opposite side of it, which is piggyback on what I call algorithmic discovery. Say it again, piggyback on algorithmic discovery. What that means is every platform has its cycle. When a platform starts it's new, you get early adopters. When you get early adopters, you have more content creators. You have very few content creators and a lot more people on the platform, right? So everybody gets to see everybody stuff. You get 100% reach. And then as the platform starts to grow, the platform starts to innovate and then you get virality because now, even though you are early making one video and you have no followers, you get hundreds of views. And then it starts to get saturated like a Facebook or a TikTok. And so what happens is there is always a few platforms based on their cycle where they're new or enough and they're getting virality. So at the time of this recording in end of 2023, early 2024, you're getting there's two platforms right now that seem to have more viral virality than anything else, which is TikTok and LinkedIn. So if you're not on one of those platforms, you're missing out because you're not allowing for the natural algorithmic discovery to help you to give you the tailwinds. So for me and all I chose was I want to have a podcast, but I did not utilize either LinkedIn or a TikTok at this time. I'm missing out on a lot of algorithmic juice. So the number two is piggyback on an algorithmic discovery platform. At this time, TikTok and LinkedIn are getting the most virality. So you so opposed that you would make a piece of cotton that you would create will be shown to people that are not connected to you that don't follow you get a lot more court organic reach. And that's really, really powerful and it's kind of a no brainer to take advantage of that. So I'm on the one claiming medium number two piggyback on algorithmic discovery, meaning you've got to be at least one platform at that time that provides for virality. Number three, this is going to go against what most people say and that is model, don't innovate model, don't innovate. What I mean is a lot of times people sit in front of a camera and say, well, what content can I create today? What topic should I talk about today? Which would hook is the best hook today instead of doing any of that. I would model the structure, but personalized the content. What I mean by that is just look at the highest performing videos right now. So if you just go to your explore page and you see a video that has 25 million views, just look at the video. And it's probably has a short structure. It probably says something like, you know, three mistakes, don't make three mistakes while skiing. So now you model it. You say don't make these three mistakes while buying a house. Don't make these three mistakes while getting a mortgage. Don't make these three mistakes while renting a car. Don't make these three mistakes while counting carbs, whatever it may be, you're using, you're modeling the four. format of already high performing posts because there's two really important things to the puzzle when you create content. It is there is a way in which you and psychology work on how people consume content. So it's more like we want to consume it in the container in which they're used to consuming it, but then insert and personalize it with our information. I'm not telling you not to be creative and deliver the information. What I am saying is you have a much better shot at having your information actually land, actually succeed, actually help people. If you put it in a container in which they're used to actually receiving it and the way to get the container to work for you is to see what is already working. See what is already out there. See what people are already doing. Look at the structure, model the structure, but insert your and personalize your information. So if I were you, I would go to, I would look at the 10 most popular posts that you like that have a million plus views, a hundred thousand plus views or whatever you think is good in your niche and look at the format around it. What did that person start the video with? What did that person start the article with? What did the person, how did the person create the thumbnail, whatever it may be? Just model the structure of it and then innovate around the content, personalize the content and deliver the information. We think that we have to be creative on everything in the content creation world you don't have to. What you have to be creative about is to find creative hooks find ways in which you can convey this information from a storytelling and fact pattern way, but inserted into a container that people are already used to. If I'm already used to that thing, it's easy. If I went to Best Buy and I was wanting to buy a TV, but I'm looking at the TV and I'm looking at Steve, there's a sticker with the price, right? So if I saw this TV and I didn't see a sticker for the price, what am I thinking? I'm like, oh, baby, it's not for sale. Maybe it's broken. Maybe, you know, how do I find it after talking to somebody? So it creates pain around the consumption. The same exact thing is just give people what they're used to. Just like when they're good at Instagram and they're like telling you that they like that video by somebody, the key part about that is that they like it for a reason. Just model the container, the format, the template, the structure of that video, but insert your information, your personalization, your personality, your story, your narrative into it. Please don't innovate on the container and the structure. Model that for what's already been there that is successful and insert your stuff into it. So that is number three. Model. Don't innovate. The power of social media is the social stuff, not the media stuff, meaning it is way easier to over index on collaboration. So that's my tip number four over index on collaboration, meaning the more people you collaborate with on social, the better. And there's multiple ways of collaboration. The first way of collaboration is even before you post you go or up the algorithm first. So before you post your next piece of content or before your team post, and you know that your team is going to post it 11 in the morning. Awesome. Between 10, 30 and 11, be on social, be on this platform and start warming up the audiences, meaning you're looking at other people's posts and you're commenting on them. You're liking it. You're sharing it. You're engaging with it because when you engage with other people's posts and then you post something, the algorithm is like, oh, I'm going to show sure I'm supposed to all those people. That's number one. Number two, if you make a post that you think would be is a good fit or in concert with someone else, do a joint do a do a collab post like Instagram, Facebook, etc. allows you to do that. If I did a post regarding real estate or I did an event, I would collaborate on the post with our company real. Now because of that collaboration, you get twice as many people that would see it with twice as many networks. You're really cross pollinating the networks. But the now the platform is like, wait a minute. The shron guy is doing stuff, but he's also collaborating with other accounts. The other accounts are getting access to other accounts. This is making this web of virality grow faster. The platforms like that because you are created using the platform for collaboration and people that collaborate are very, very sticky. So may that be engaging with other people's posts actively? May they be doing a collab post or even saying, hey, every Friday you go live and you bring somebody else alive with you. So I may call my friend, you know, Jimmy Mackey and say, hey, Jimmy, this Friday, do you want to come live with me? Just kind of talk about the things that you're working on right now, five, 10 minutes casual. So if you did that, now the platform is like, wait, Shron went live, which means he's on the platform, which is awesome. A lot of his followers get notified. So they are now engaged in the platform. Shron invited Jimmy to the call. Now everybody in Jimmy's platform got notified. Hey, we feel really good because this collaboration, there's live, everything's happening on the platform. And they like that because now you're overindexing on collaboration, which is really, really powerful. So that is number four. Talk about four things. So far, number one, claim your medium number two, piggyback on algorithmic discovery, which is see what platforms are hot right now. Number three, model, don't innovate. Number four, overindexed on collaboration, maybe engaging with people, maybe collab posts or, you know, doing joint lives, ways in which you can do or DMing people on the platform, ways in which you can actually show the human interaction on the platform is the best because now the platform realizes that you're getting the most of the platform this way. The best content creators out there are in huge collab mode and they collaborate with each other. They like each other stuff. They share each other stuff. They support each other's work and that allows them to have this upper echelon of content creation on their own that you and I don't have. And if we can fix that, even with our small set of cohorts, we win big time. And here's number five. Most people don't have a North Star for metrics. They just want they do want to just have cadence of putting content out. A social media actually gives us an insane platform for being data driven. Meaning you can put out a post and know whether that post resonated or not. And then you can make more posts like that. But to do that, we have to have some thinking around what is what is the primary reason for us to be on this platform. Do you want likes? Do you want shares? Do you want views? Do you want comments? Do you want saves? What do you really, really want when it comes to reporting your metrics overall? If you could only say, Hey, I'm making all these posts and I'm evaluating it against this one metric. What is that metric? That is super important because if we nail that, then everything becomes in service of that metric. I'll give you a very simple thing for us. Right now our metric is shares. All we care about is making more content that allows for people to say, wait, that's cool. I'm going to share it. If our content is not share worthy means we have not thought about the virality factor of sharing and I'll tell you why we're overindexing on sharing right now. We're overindexing on the shares because that is my way of wanting to reach new audiences. So if I had a hundred people share my posts and say the average Instagram account, for example, had 5,000 followers on average, theoretically speaking, I reach 500,000 new people, which is crazy. If you think about it, right? And just making that thinking, there's no other way I would reach a 500,000 new said audiences. I have to then create content that is share worthy, not just like worthy or comment worthy. And that is super, super, super, super, super important. So I know that now if I made a post and I got seven shares versus I made a post and I got 700 shares, I know that I should make more like the 700 share post and not the seven share post. The problem we all see is we all look at all the metrics and we're like, oh, I didn't get a lot of shares of this one. But I got a lot of likes. I got a lot of likes on this one. I got a lot of very views and then we make ourselves feel better about ourselves and that's fine. But the problem is you're not getting what you want. And so the I would want to guarantee you is that whatever you desire is achievable. Now here's what you cannot want. You cannot say something like, well, I didn't get any clients from social media. Therefore social media suck. You can't say that. What is what you can't say is what is proceeding a client? A conversation. Cool. How can you use social media to generate more conversations? Then you say, awesome. So my goal is I need to get conversations with social media. The way I get conversations with social media is I incentivize direct messages or I spend more time DMing people on the platform or I invite DMs on the platform. Awesome. Let me create a content that allows for more DMs. And then so you can you may say, sure, I'm well, what is what is something like that? You can say, yeah, I just created this report that shows you how to go from zero to $20,000 a month in income in other six months. It's totally free. This is how what I coach my clients with your if you want to just DM me and I'll send it to you. Now, the 10 people that DM you asking for that report are perfect prospects for you. Now they started to DM you. You're in conversation with them. You go back and forth, right? So you've used social media to generate conversations because conversations was the goal. The problem is clients is not the goal. The conversation is the goal, right? So understanding this building and network is not the goal. Engagement is the goal. So you want to have something metric wise that you could actually evaluate against and keep getting better and knowing that it's not working. I'd let me do it differently. It's not working. Let me do it differently. It's not working. But you have to have the belief that social media can deliver to you whatever you want. You're just not defining it exactly the way you wanted. Once you define what you want, it gets really fun. All I care about right now is getting shares. Meaning, I just want my stuff to reach new audiences. Nothing else. Because if I can get shares and then secondarily, I can get, you know, folks that want to get on, get in our email community so I can share my stuff with them. That's a huge win for me. And that's literally all I care about. And that's super helpful because now I can evaluate every piece of content with that backdrop. All right. Here's a five. Number one, claim your medium. So what is your favorite personal medium? Number two, piggyback on algorithmic discovery. should be on at least one platform right now at that time that has the hot hand. which is essentially play the hot hand. Use the current container structures that are already working, the templates, the patterns, the structure of videos are a content that's working, and insert your personalization, your narrative, your story, your information into it. Number four, over index and collaboration. Because getting people to work with you, getting people to support you, getting people to crossball, mate with you is the best result. And number five, report on your metrics, because you've got to have one or two metrics that you're evaluating and filtering everything from. Once you see that, you'll be able to make a lot more of an educated guess, and you'll start to not have social media run your life. You could use social media as a vehicle to get exactly what you want. Hey, by the way, if any of this is interesting to you, my goal is I have nothing to sell you. So what I would really appreciate is if you could do me a favor. If you could take a screenshot and just share this and say, hey, that was good, or make more like that, or that was interesting, or I'm going to change my plan. That will help me know that you liked this, because a lot of times I sit in isolation, and I try to think about what content will help you. And then I make that, and then I don't really know how it is helping you. So please do me a favor. All you have to do is take a screenshot or a picture, whatever, tag me on social. That way I know that you like this, so that I can make more like this for you. Remember how are you slices greatness as a choice? And I thank you for being with me. I'll catch you on the next one. (upbeat music) Hey, Sharon, I have a cool gift for you. Since you like this podcast, I actually have an ultra super secret, private podcast that I make, just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It's called 10K wisdom, because I tried to wrap $10,000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes. That's why it's called 10K wisdom. It's raw, it's real, it's got no intro or outro, or anything like that. It's just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I'm making it available to you. Just go to 10kwisdom.com, the number 10kwisdom.com, and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10kwisdom.com, I'll see you there. (upbeat music)