David Simons is an entrepreneur and media enthusiast who utilizes his offline and online skills to promote brands, increase businesses, support causes and build relationships. He’s a passionate and excited about media, and his success and energy has attracted Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, churches and entrepreneurs, all coming to seek his help and assistance in building their own strength and power through social media. David has a degree in digital media from Sacramento State University, and he has a master’s in entertainment business from Full Sail University. He’s also the CEO of Kingdom Social Media, and they’re a firm designed to teach, equip and train business owners and leaders on how to use social media effectively. So, teaching people to fish and also performing some Done For You services.
ES: Great. So, you know, you’ve created a lot of successful campaigns for both businesses and non-profits, and I’m so excited that you’re able to join us today.
DS: Truly my pleasure. I’m excited to join you as well, it’s really an honor.
ES: Well, my pleasure. Well hey, let’s dig into some of the questions. So, you know our folks are always really curious to learn more and improve their game and drive their businesses in this entrepreneur economy. And so, I guess the first thing to say is you know, how’d you get started and how’d you get involved in social media?
DS: Yes. Social media really started for me in days of Myspace. I don’t know how many people remember the Myspace days, but I was heavily fascinated with Myspace and used it to market messages for myself and others. I was really involved in music back then, I was a freshman in college at that time and I was promoting artists and my musical creations, my beats,
And so, at that time, Myspace was on its up-swing, but then Facebook was just starting, and it was initially just for college students. And I joined in by a friend’s beckoning and I joined in, and I was hooked from day one. And it was around then I started to learn about Facebook, and then they changed and shifted in 2007 where they created the business page sector. And that was for business pages, and then you had your Facebook profiles of course, for your own individual networks. Then from that time, I just helped people for free. I just had a passion to use marketing online, I really love to network and so it allowed me to do two things I enjoyed, being involved in media and networking and meeting people. So, for me that’s what it was and it’s still fun today. So now I manage a social media presence for company called TerraCycle and I also train and manage 23 social media managers globally, as well as running Kingdom Social Media to help business owners with their social media marketing and training and all of that nature. To promote causes and inspire, as you mentioned. so that’s kinda how I got involved and started in social media.
ES: Wow, well first of all I think it suits your nature. You always love to connect people and connect with people and make an impact, and so I could see how this technology has helped magnify and multiply that, and so I can see where that was a natural evolution for you.
DS: Yes, absolutely
ES: The “wow” part was about you know, gosh, you got a lot going on man!
DS: Yes, I do.
ES: It’s very impressive, right? You have a significant corporate gig on your plate, and you help lots of small businesses and big businesses. And you’ve got this army of folks that you’ve trained and have helping you support all these companies, that’s pretty remarkable.
DS: Thank you. It’s enjoyable. You know I don’t really see it as work, you know? It’s funny to say that but I really just, I can’t get enough. I can’t get enough of it, I just enjoy it.
ES: Awesome. Well with your busy schedule, I really appreciate you taking the time for us today. So, tell me more about, I guess Kingdom Social Media is your main focus, and so tell me more about their capabilities and the kinds of projects you’re doing there.
DS: I really established Kingdom Social Media as a need that I saw for business owners to help them manage effectively, their social media presence. And not just manage it but drive a business to their businesses from social media. So, it really started as people asking me for help, again, just on how do I do this, how do I do that? And seeing that people needed this, I created Kingdom Social Media with that in mind, to help people in different tiers.
Some people are in the phase where they need help with managing the profile and doing it for them. They don’t have enough time, they’re the business owner that’s got so much on their plate, they can’t possibly handle another thing. So, with our services, social media consulting, we come in and we do it for them. We run their profiles, we handle their customer services. We of course understand their business first before doing all these things.
And then there’s a type of person that says, I want to learn social media, I want to understand it, I want to be able to do it myself. So, I created a course, and this is a course of many to come. But we started off on Facebook since it’s the first and major social network when somebody thinks about social media. So, we created a course called 1,000 Facebook Fans in 60 Days and it’ more than just about numbers. It’s more about understanding completely how to manage a Facebook presence and build and draw, drive traffic from Facebook to your website and things of that nature. And so, we created that tier for those people that want to learn it themselves.
And there’s the coaching aspect. Some people just need a kick in the pants. They want to do it, they just don’t have the accountability to hold them to it. So, that’s the coaching. So, we do the coaching, consulting and the courses. That’s in a nutshell.
ES: Great. And I love that it all came from a place of service at the beginning. And then you’re providing a variety of tools depending on people’s needs. And I’ll tell you what, I’ve been through the course and what really impressed me about it that there were so many simple, practical steps that I can take, and should be taking, so I’m going to take you up on your services, frankly. But that was the thing that really struck me about it was that, “wow, yeah I can do this”. And the way you describe it really breaks it down on a level where folks can say to themselves, you know what? I can make this happen and you know, but I’ll take step three and four this week, and maybe next week I’ll add in a couple more, and they can build it over time. Why don’t you share some of the keys for business owners, you know that can help them drive their Facebook presence?
DS: So, one of things that people have to understand with Facebook is that it’s not going anywhere. As popular belief comes, oh, it’s gonna phase out. Eventually there will be a day where Facebook will not be as relevant. But I truly believe in my heart of hearts that it’s not going anywhere. So, you might as well, if you’re adverse to being on Facebook, if you’ve had problems with Facebook in the past, I still highly recommend having a Facebook page. Just for the one factor, this one factor alone, if you don’t have a Facebook page for anything, else, for page authority. So, we all know that search engine optimization, it’s a necessary part of online marketing. It’ a vital component. And social media and SEO and websites are all converging, it’s becoming a synergistic relationship that you can’t avoid.
So, for example, if you look at a page, let’s just say John’s Automotive. And John has a website, but he doesn’t have a Facebook page. What happens is he’s not taking advantage of the authority that Facebook has. Google is going to, and other search engines, are going to rank the sites that have higher authority pages linking-back to them. So, having a Facebook page that has your business name and a link-back to your website is critical for your search purposes. So, I highly recommend business owners having that.
Another thing is having it optimized. Because it is, we forget this, but Facebook is still, it’s not just a social network, Facebook is also a website. Facebook is just like, it’s your website. Your website needs to be optimized to take advantage of this search functionality. Like I mentioned the example, John’s Automotive. People are looking for car repairs, they type in, let’s say car repairs in South Jersey or something for example. And if your key words are optimized, and of course having the better strategies in motion, you take advantage of the opportunity for those people searching for your business. So, it’s the same with Facebook. You want to have the key words that people could potentially be searching for on your Facebook page. And then once you have the optimization and the Facebook page set-up, then it goes into content. Having content, having good content and a strategy and having a way to capture information.
Now, this is the pat most people forget. You need to have a tool to capture all the e-mails and all the people coming to your fan base. Because if they’re just on your fan page, that’s where they’re going to stay, they’re not going to be able to connect with your network and have accessibility to you. There will be no way to integrate your marketing. So, those are some crucial, vital steps for business owners establishing a Facebook page, you need to have those things in motion.
ES: Oh, that’s awesome. And I really appreciate the part about having the link-backs from your social media sites to your website to help your SEO on your website. I think that’s crucial. And I imagine when you’re sharing content with links back to your website and that gets around, and more and more people share it through social media, that further improves your ranking. Is that true?
DS: Absolutely correct, 100%.
ES: Now, content’s an area where people tend to struggle, right? And I guess part of it they don’t’ know what to write, right? So, for me as a business owner, I tend to draw on the conversations I’ve had with clients over the past week, because I’m figuring if this guy’s asking that question, or that woman’s asking that question. Or, I have some anecdote related, you know everyone else has the same problems, right? So, if I’m helping someone in one little area, I could write a little bit of something about that. Or, even if I use your Automotive example. Maybe I realized oh gosh, you know I can make this slight adjustment instead of changing that part, you’re sharing that kind of story, brings some realism to you as a person and it also gives you something to say. What are some other ways that people can generate content or find content to post?
DS: That’s a great question. There’s a couple ways you can go about it. One way I’ll mention is something that’s really easy to do. Just take a couple of hours and write out every question somebody can have about your business or your industry. I mean, just go crazy. Like the Automotive example. What are some things to do to make my car safe? What are some common maintenance problems people have? What are some common…? You can just keep going on and on and on. But writing out questions will help you create and get your brain jogging of all of the different types of things that people could have your usefulness for. One thing I think with social media is to think of it as a utility tool. You want to be a utility tool on social media, you want to be a resource. When somebody needs help, they should think of you first for your industry or for your local community, whatever the aspect of domain your business is in. So, having these things in motion and having these things in mind of all the questions somebody would have.
Then you want to find a couple of resources, a couple of trusted resources, proven content to curate. This is content you take from other sites. You go to, like for my industry, social media, I look at Social Media Examiner. They’re a trusted resource in social media marketing, so I have a percentage of my content that comes from other people, so that’s curating.
And then you have a section of content that’s promotional. So, if you break it down into these three areas, the things that will help people educate about your industry, your business, the things that are curated from other people, and then the promotional aspect, that’s when you’re selling your product or service. Those three things will help you generate a lot of content.
ES: That’s sweet, thanks, thanks so much. I think that will help a lot of people. What are some of the common misconceptions about social media? Like, when you’re first working with a client or something, what kind of things people come to you with and you’re like no, no, no, that’s not how it is?
DS: Yes, there are plenty of these. Off the top of my mind, there’s three particular ones I get the most. The first one is really that the value of social media or any social network, is on having a lot of fans or having a lot of followers. And that’s not the case, it really isn’t. You could have a million fans and not sell a thing, believe it or not. That sounds crazy, but that’s not where the value is.
ES: Right, right. My bank doesn’t take followers or likes.
DS: Ha-ha, exactly, exactly! You can feed your kids with likes. So, I’m all for engagement. Engagement’s great. I’m all for connecting, interacting with people. But if you’re a business you have to operate as a business does and you have to serve your market and sell your services. So, one of the things that people think is that having fans is a way to generate sales. Yes, it does bring social proof but what you need out of that system is to have a way to take those fans, I know this is gonna sound crazy, off of Facebook, or off of Twitter, or off of those social networks. You don’t want your fan base to be just on the network because Facebook can do whatever they want. Facebook can decide you’re not going to be able to access them in a way that we want you too. And it’s happening. They may say, sorry, you’re not able to gather information on them, or even respond to them. So, if they decide to do that to your audience, there’s really nothing you can control there.
So, you want to bring them into an atmosphere that you can control and the best place to do that, and do it on a mass scale, is e-mail marketing. You want to have some kind of offer or something to draw people in to sign up for your newsletter or sign up and be a part of your list. And that way you can interact with them. You have control, where you control the domain, you can respond to somebody, you can e-mail somebody, whatever you want. That’s the most valuable asset online in my opinion.
ES: So, then if I could summarize a little bit. You know, you’re becoming a trusted resource and place people can go for valuable information on your core subject or whatever your core expertise is. And then you’re leveraging that to build a fan base and as much as possible and as quickly as possible. You want to bring those people over into an e-mail marketing campaign where have more control over the relationship.
DS: Absolutely, spot on. That’s exactly it. And then another misconception that I often hear is that business owners, they feel this pressure like, I should be on every network: I should be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Periscope, which is now becoming more popular, and all these different networks at the same time. The truth is, you don’t need to be on every network. That’s kind of insanity, you don’t want to do things haphazardly so, you want to be on the network that you can manage. If you can manage one network, stay on that one network until you can manage more. And it’s also not about just managing, it’s all where your customers and where your market is. If your market is the type of market that will be on Twitter, you should be on Twitter as opposed to Facebook. Everybody’s market is on Facebook, I truly believe, but if you feel that more of your market is on Twitter and you go and manage one network, you should be there. And if you have a visual business, Instagram is great. So, a lot of people that have retail stores, it’s great for Instagram. Service-based businesses are not succeeding as well on Instagram so that may not make the most sense to you. So, you should be on a network that tailors to your business and you can manage. If you can’t manage it then don’t add it on.
My opinion is, and I always say this: it’s better to be consistently good than inconsistently great.
Because we could have a great post every once in a while, but if you don’t have a consistent presence on something, then you’re gonna lose people. I always say it like this, that, the best television shows, the best music, the best artist, the best visual artist, the best in anything are consistent. And the reason why you come back to your favorite tv show, your favorite artist, your favorite magazine, is because of the consistency. So, the same thing with social media. You got to be consistent and stay on that consistent path, so you can serve your audience better.
ES: Gotcha. Hey, a question for you on B to B businesses. Business to business is where you’re selling services to other businesses, and Facebook. A lot of folks feel that business to business kind of sale or promotion is more appropriate on LinkedIn than on Facebook, where people are more often than not, spending time with friends or family. What are your thoughts on that, in managing around that?
DS: Yes, definitely I think LinkIn is the king of business to business. There’s no better place for business to business relationships because if you think about it, the businesses that are on LinkedIn are on LinkedIn for business. That’s what they came for, that’s their intent. So, if you know that then I think it’s a great place for you to connect. It’s a lot more work as far as getting to the influencers and the people you need to connect with, but it is a great resource.
Facebook is as well, but it’s definitely not as great of a resource for business to business marketing. One of the things that I see with LinkedIn is that, and it’s something that I think we all need to remember in sales, is that no matter what you’re doing, you’re selling to a person. No matter if you’re selling business to business, you’re still selling to Tom, who runs the business, John, Amy, you’re selling to a person. And so that’s why business to business works really well on LinkedIn, because you’re directly dealing with the person that may be the head of the organization, or the chief marketing operator or officer, or whoever you need to contact is the person you’re going to be dealing with. With Facebook, you’re dealing with the brand of the business, which is good, but you don’t know who may be managing the brand page that you may see. But you do know who you’re speaking to on LinkedIn.
ES: So, for B to B kind of product, LinkedIn can be more powerful if you use it well. And yet I guess, you know, you are still able to target so effectively on Facebook, you’re not saying shy away from that. But, you just got to make your boundaries a little clearer and be a little less direct or heavy-handed, perhaps, in your approach to the customer. Does that make sense at all?
DS: Ya, that’s absolutely right. Because with Facebook, you can’t beat Facebook’s advertising. I honestly believe that Facebook has presented one of the best opportunities to reach your market like no other. It’s not a place where you’re going to sell directly. It’s a place to gather leads and build them into, once again, into your e-mail marketing campaign. But it is a place to reach your target market like no other because of the information they have. No other network has as much information on you than Facebook. It’s scary and great at the same time.
As a marketer, it’s awesome. As a consumer, it is a little scary. I’ll give you a quick story. My last name is Simons, and a common thing that happens when people see my name they wonder, is it Simmons or Simons? So sometimes people will call me and say hey, David Simmons. I’m like no, it’s Simons, and so I correct them. So, on Facebook this company created a t-shirt, the person must have the same last name as me, called “It’s Simons, not Simmons.”
ES: Ha-ha, that’s great.
DS: So, you got to get where I’m going here. They took that t-shirt company and marketing to everyone with the last name Simons because they know we all go through that same problem. And you better believe I saw likes and shares with hundreds, and possibly thousands of people with the last name, Simons. And they would never be able to do that on any type of any other platform. Google Ad Words, LinkedIn marketing, Twitter, no way. There’s no way they would have been able to do that. But with Facebook’s power, they were able to market to me based on my last name.
ES: Wow, yes I agree. Scary and good. I love it as a marketer, not so sure I love as much as a private individual. So, you know lots of folks need help right, with their social media marketing? And you’re providing a tremendous service by both through your courses and through your coaching. But what should people look for when they’re seeking help from a company to manage their social media market? What are the kinds of things that you think people should make sure they’re getting or make sure the company’s capable of before they engage?
DS: Great questions. I think there’s a lot of things, but if I had to boil it down to a few, the first thing would be, does the person have a proven track record? Can they do what you need, and do they have the capability? Is it clearly shown, is it demonstrated? Do they have testimonials, do they have a list of clients they’ve served? That’s important because you want to have a somebody that has experience because there’s a lot of fly-by-nights on social media. There’s a lot of people that just said, oh I know how to post on a Facebook page, I’m gonna be a Facebook specialist and sell Facebook marketing services. Well, Facebook for a profile and Facebook for business is totally different. So, they have to have the proven track record.
Another thing is that in this age with the company, you have to have good writers. Because a majority of social media is writing, and I think that that’s something that we forget and it’s very important. So, I have on my team, I have some great writers. And writing is essential for selling, it’s essential for really anything so that’s really important. Another aspect is that if a company that provides social media services, they need to have researching and understanding of your business model, included into their package. If they’re not researching and understanding their business, then they’re not going to be able to help you. They need to know what the business owner knows, as much as possible. So, when we take on a client personally, we take a considerable amount of time and understand their market. Their community if it’s local, like a local business, not a national chain or national service. Understand their target market, understand their customer’s needs. All of things that you have to know in marketing, you need to know in social media marketing, so they need to do that.
Another thing is making sure that they understand customer service. Social media has become a customer service tool for many companies, many companies and corporations. So, they need to be able to handle customer service and how to handle people in an effective manner that’s not negligent. You can’t just leave that stuff alone, so a company has to be able to do that.
You also need a company that is not just focused on engagement. Facebook engagement or social engagement is not going to produce the ROI to the company or the business that needs the services. They want to see if they can generate some sales. So, lead generation has to be a focus of a social media company.
And lastly, they have to be good an analyzing data because there’s a lot of information you’ll learn from the content you put out. They need to know what’s working, what’s not working and what needs to be tweaked so you can adjust accordingly.
ES: Right. So, if they can’t handle the math, they shouldn’t be handling your account. Makes a lot of sense. Let’s turn the tables around. What do you look for in a client?
DS: Great question. I think the first thing, and this is not really a very complicated answer but it’s really do I like them as a person, in general? Because I think that business after family, is one of the closest relationships you’re going to have with people. Whether you work or whether you have employees or people you work with, you got to look at it in that sense. You’re going to spend a lot of time with this person, possibly, or in communication with this person. So, if there’s somebody you don’t get along with… I’ve had an opportunity, this has literally happened to me where a lady, she wanted to utilize my services, but I didn’t like the vibe that I felt with her. And I had to recommend her to someone else because I knew, I could see where this would go. And she was going to pay good money, but it really was for me, I want to be able to work with someone I enjoy. So, that’s the first key component.
Then also, I’m a passionate person so I like to be around people who are passionate about their business and their service that they’re offering to the world. And that they’re motivated even beyond just dollars. I mean, they got to be motivated to succeed and sell, it’s a business, you have to make money. But they have to be passionate about their business or industry because that just makes the energy of working together much better.
And then lastly, I think a client has to be willing to invest. If they’re not willing to invest into their business, or they don’t see it as an investment, they look at it as a cost, then we probably shouldn’t work together. Because I don’t want people to look at it as a cost. If you want to grow in anything you’ve going to have to invest in something to see the proof of the return. So, looking at it as investment, realizing this is something I’m paying for to see the proof. And the proof may not come tomorrow, but it will come so that’s important.
ES: Gotcha. Well those are great things to live by I think. You know, if you’re not having fun you’re not doing it right, so you better get along with the folks. And again, and ounce of passion is worth a ton of other kinds of motivation. It makes a lot of sense. And clearly, growth in business take investment and both time and money, so it makes a lot sense. So, to help a project go smoothly, what are some things that a client should think about and be prepared with prior to getting started?
DS: Yes. I think the number one thing, I think many people in the marketing world could probably identify with this, but having the client not delay the process through delayed approvals. That is usually the biggest killer. I’m a man of stories, so I’m gonna give us another story. I have a client and he’s a great client but the approval process, because the client is slow on approvals, he’s been my client for the last three years, and he has not given me approvals on certain things. We basically want that perfect kind of thing to happen where, it’s perfect before I can give it to you. So, there’s some things I’ve needed from him for over three years, and you know I’ve tried everything. So, there’s some things you can’t control, and that’s one of the things you can’t control, when a client doesn’t give you approval. And I will never do something that violates a client as far as they didn’t approve it, I will not post or do anything without approval. So, having approvals go smoothly, not delaying the process, reviewing documents. And I understand business owners are busy. If you can’t do it, I advise delegating someone, to appoint them to do if for you on your behalf, someone that you trust, and that will help the project go smooth. Otherwise it’d be a really lengthy process.
ES: Mm-hmm. And how ’bout things like having a firm handle on who their target market is, or is that something you help people with at the beginning of the relationship?
DS: Yes, now that is very key. Obviously, we can help with that, but it’s better for the client to know their target market, because that takes a lot. If you don’t know your target market, then we’re going to be spinning our wheels trying to figure it out, wasting time, wasting money. And as you’re paying for services, you don’t want that. You want to make sure you have a good, clear target so you can hit the bullseye. So, yes that’s very important.
ES: And no matter how great your product it, everybody is not your target market, right?
DS: Absolutely, absolutely. That is the truth. No, you can’t market to everyone.
ES: That’s always my favorite. People are like what? You know, this is good for everybody. I’m like yeah, but you can’t afford to marketing to everybody. You know, so we’re going to have to narrow it down. What are some easy things a business owner can do themselves? Let’s say Facebook for example.
DS: Okay. Yes the things that a business owner can do, I kind a mentioned but I’ll go into more detail here. Really take some time to write out everything you want your potential customers to know about your business, and then turn those into promotional posts or content or information or articles. So, I highly recommend taking things, and this is from a friend of mine who’s taught me this about social media marketing, you don’t have to give everything away in one post or one tweet. Or, you can break things down into bite-size increments. So, take everything you have, you can go through your whole website and take all the little pieces and put it into the little folders and files, and file it for social media content. You can do this with all of your promotional materials. You can go to articles you’ve read. You can take, so somebody says: The 10 things you should know about social media marketing. You could take each of those 10 things and make 10 pieces of content out of them. So, that’s the first thing I would do is a business owner is take some time, find out all the questions your customers would have and then put it into bite-size pieces of content.
And then from there, you want to get a social media dashboard. That’s going to be your best friend if you’re doing this on your own. There’s no way you could manage social media without one, multiple networks at least, on your own without it. So, I recommend Hootsuite, Hootsuite is a great resource. Buffer is also a great resource, so that’s bufferapp.com. And then a secret tool that I actually don’t tell too many people about, not that I’m trying to hide it. I just, you know you want to keep an advantage, right? That’s postplanner.com, now that’s been a secret weapon for me. It’s a great place to find content. They do all the hard work of finding the content for you. So, if you don’t have the time to find content, you could use Post Planner and they curate the best content around. All the different industries, whatever your industry is, they have content on that. And they tell you: this is proven to be the best based on the rating system of people that have liked it, shared it, so on and so forth. So, that’s what I would do first is get that.
ES: That’s great, wow awesome David thank you. What can a business owner do to drive leads using social media.
DS: Ok, that’s a great question. The thing that I would do first regarding, we’ll start with Facebook, is turn your Facebook cover photo into a lead magnet. Because that’s the first place and usually the last place a fan who likes your page will see. What people don’t realize with Facebook is that when somebody likes your page, they generally don’t come back to your page again. It’s actually about 92% of people do not come back. So, 8% will actually come back and go to your physical page. So, my page is facebook.com/kingdomsocialmedia, so I know that when they like my page the first time, they’re seeing my cover page. So, that’s the place where you want to grab their information. So, I have on my page you can look at it as an example, facebook.com/kingdomsocialmedia, you’ll see an offer for people to grab a social media plan, or it will be some kind of offer that they can grab. So, it directs them to like our page, grab this plan. They do that, they go to the app, we exchange an e-mail, we send them the offer, or the e-book, whatever the tool kit, whatever it is we send it to them. And that way, they’re able to connect with my network immediately, as opposed to liking my page and never coming back to my direct page. So, that’s one thing you can do, and I think it’s a very valuable thing you can do. The same for Twitter. Do the same thing, use your cover photo or Twitter banner as a lead magnet. Google Plus and all of these networks, you can pretty much, do some form of that. So, that’s would I would start with is drive leads through your branding.
And then I would also create messages to direct people to your e-mail newsletter list. And another thing I want to share about Facebook. This is really something that I’ve learned from just experience. Facebook has ads that you can serve to people, but when you’re doing an e-book or an offer of something like that, that kind of resource, you want to actually put it in as an offer. So, you go through your Facebook page and as you go to create a post, publish that as an offer as opposed to a post or ad, you’ll see better results in offer then you will in the ad or something like that. Because even the word ‘offer,” this is an “offer” and it doesn’t show it as ad it resonates with people in a completely different way. It’s more like, oh this is an opportunity to me to get this book! It’s a totally different position. So definitely promote your lead grabbing tools in offers on Facebook.
ES: Wow, well this has been awesome. I don’t even know where to start in summarizing. You know you need to jump and add and correct, if I’m missing anything, right? I’m sure missing tons, so first and foremost you want your social media presence to be seen as a utility and a resource for your target customers. And bite-size content’s ok and there’s tons of places to get content. You can make a list of questions people normally ask about your business. You can copy down examples of situations you’ve helped clients with. You can go through your own website and find pieces of content there and information that’s there and re-purpose it. There are places to get, you know if you can curate or re-purpose existing content from other trusted sites and sources, postplanner.com is your secret weapon there. And last, but not least, you got to give a lot of value, but you can also promote. And ask for, make offers available and especially, periodically and regularly post some sort of opt-in offer and then boost it as an offer rather than an ad. Does that cover the resources and utility part?
DS: You got it, you got it. That was really great!
ES: Well, I try to pay attention. And then the misconceptions: it’s not about the likes and followers because you can’t take them to the bank or pay your bills, as you said. But it is a good form of social proof to have a lot of followers, but it’s more about building the trust and then taking them off the social network and into your e-mail marketing. That’s really where the magic happens. Does that make sense?
DS: Oh yes, that’s it right there.
ES: You don’t need to be everywhere, you need to be consistently wherever your audience is, right? It’s better off to do the one well than the three poorly. So, then next I imagine is, the other things that I thought were really essential for people to know is that if you’re choosing somebody to help you with your social media or frankly, I think this goes for any kind of marketing service. But you want to make sure they have a proven track record, that they have skilled writers, they understand your business or are willing to do the research to make sure they understand your business. And that they recognize that you know, hey, customer service is a big part of social media now. And that they are focused on your business objectives rather than just getting a ton of likes. I mean anybody can run a contest and get you 1,000 or 10,000 followers if the contest is big enough right? But those people, they’re not there for you, they’re there for whatever the prize is. And last but not least, they better be able to handle the data analytics because that’s how you’re gonna drive ROI over time. Does that make sense?
DS: Got it. That’s exactly, those are the points right there, yep
ES: Well hey, anything else you want to add or share for our team here?
DS: Yes, you know the one thing is, and this is I’d say the foundation of social media: remember that social media should just be a reflection of your personal skills, that it shows your personal skills. So, whether you’re a brand or a person, you’re doing it just on your profile or your personal basis. Remember that how you treat someone online and whether it’s a blog on social media, it needs to reflect who you are as a person. So, for example, if you’re a business, there’s no way that if somebody came into your office and they said: hello, how are you today? And you would just keep quiet. So, it’s the same with social media. If somebody posted on your business or even your personal: hey, how’s it going? And you just leave it blank, that’s not personable.
We forget the most important part. We got to be human, we got to be human, so.
ES: Exactly. And that’s kinda what drove you into this in the first place isn’t it? You know your desire and ability to connect with people on a deep level.
DS: Yes, absolutely
ES: So, where could people go to learn about you and your business after the call?
DS: Yes, they could go to kingdomsocialmedia.com and they can learn about as I mentioned earlier, about the courses. The course, soon to be courses, we’ll have more on there.
ES: Wow, I’m looking forward to that.
DS: Yes! And then the coaching, there’s personal coaching 101 where I walk you through. Actually, there’s a funny story, I don’t think this coaching client will mind me mentioning this. I had a coaching client recently where I helped him because he just had struggles just getting to put all the content together, that first step, put all the ideas and the content that he does have, and putting it out on through a social dashboard. So, I told him, I said, what is something that you really love, I said, what do you enjoy? And he’s like, I’m really a workaholic, I don’t really do much. And I said well, you like to eat right? And he said, yes, I like to eat. And do you like meat? He said, I love meat. I said if you don’t finish this part of, or component of your social media scheduling by next Sunday, you don’t get to eat meat for a week. I told him that. And he’s like, are you serious, that’s difficult? And I said well, whatever it takes. So, the next week I messaged him. He was like, he sent me text showing me everything was scheduled. He just needed a little kick to get him going and he’s been consistent.
ES: You found the button!
DS: Ha-ha, exactly! So that’s some of the things I do is well, coaching and helping the people that need help. And the of course the Done For You, where we take over everything and manage it for you and of course, understand your business, understand your market and get things going for you. So, all that’s available at kingdomsocialmedia. com.
ES: Well that’s so exciting. Yes, at kingdomsocialmedia.com, I’ve been to the site, love the site. And I’m always picking up useful tidbits on the blog. Ha-ha
DS: Thank you, appreciate it, appreciate it.
ES: Oh, the pleasure is certainly mine! Ha-ha So, wow, well David thank you so much. And I appreciate all you’re doing for the entrepreneur community. As you know I feel very strongly we’re now in the entrepreneur economy, and every day it’s going to be more and more important for people to create their own income and their own place in the world. And certainly, everything you’re doing, and Kingdom Social Media is going to help folks achieve those goals faster, and faster than they might otherwise.
DS: Truly appreciate that. Yes, that’s the goal, definitely. Thank you so much Eugene, it’s really been a pleasure. And as you said, I look forward to the next opportunity and as well as, if you want to reach out, if you ever have a question, feel free. I’m on Facebook, I’m on Twitter, feel free.
ES: Awesome, thanks again David, I appreciate it.
