Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / What the heck should I post on social media?!
Transcript
- 0:00We all know that we should be posting on our wedding business, social media
- 0:03regularly, but do you ever sit down to make one of those posts and just think
- 0:07I have no idea what to talk about?
- 0:09It may be that you've only just started your wedding business and you
- 0:12just don't have a lot of content yet, perhaps because of the last couple
- 0:15of years you feel like the content you do have is outdated or perhaps
- 0:19you just struggled to come up with.
- 0:21How on earth, can you write on your social media every day?
- 0:24What are you going to be talking about?
- 0:27Well, today's episode is going to help you because I'm going to be
- 0:30sharing seven ideas that you can be posting to your social media accounts.
- 0:33Right now, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or somewhere else,
- 0:37these ideas should spark your imagination and get you posting.
- 0:43I'm Becca Pountney, wedding, business, marketing, expert, speaker, and blogger.
- 0:46And you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
- 0:50I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
- 0:54examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
- 0:57If you are an ambitious wedding business owner, that wants to take your passion
- 1:01and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
- 1:04love, then you're in the right place.
- 1:06Let's get going with today's episode.
- 1:11You might want a pen and paper for today's episode because I've got seven
- 1:15great ideas, which you can action and get started with straight away.
- 1:19So let's dive straight in with number one.
- 1:22The first thing that you can be posting about on your
- 1:24social media accounts is you?
- 1:26Yes.
- 1:27You heard me right.
- 1:28Talk about yourself.
- 1:29People absolutely love seeing pictures of you on your business accounts.
- 1:34They want to see the face or the faces behind the brand.
- 1:37They don't want to see a corporate looking business.
- 1:39They want to know who it is that runs the.
- 1:42Ultimately in the wedding industry, they are booking you.
- 1:45You are going to be there on their big day and they want to get to know you.
- 1:49You may have heard it before, but people need to know like, and trust you before.
- 1:52They're going to part with their hard earned cash and work with you
- 1:55and posting a picture about yourself is a really great way that people
- 1:59can get to know you very, very fast.
- 2:01I suggest, especially on Instagram, that you have a photo of you, at
- 2:04least every nine squares on your grid.
- 2:07So anyone that visits your profile can see instantly who it
- 2:10is that's behind the business.
- 2:12If there's more than one person in your team, then take it in turns and
- 2:15get pictures out there of your face.
- 2:17On my own Instagram.
- 2:19I see that the pictures of me get the best engagement.
- 2:23It's a little bit embarrassing, but I know that it works.
- 2:26I think people like to see a face.
- 2:27They feel like they're getting to know you and people just give it.
- 2:31Now, this might take you out of your comfort zone.
- 2:33You may feel uncomfortable putting your face on the screen,
- 2:36but trust me, people love it.
- 2:39If you want to feel more confident, go get some branding, imagery,
- 2:41have some professional photographs taken that you can use of you at
- 2:45work, of you doing what you love?
- 2:48So post about yourself.
- 2:49That's the first idea.
- 2:51Now, once you've got that picture of yourself on that grid, what are
- 2:53you going to write underneath it?
- 2:55Well, this is again, a great place to show people what you're about and to help
- 2:59people build that know like, and trust factor, introduce yourself, not just in
- 3:02a corporate kind of way, but talk about the things that you love, the things
- 3:06that make you different, the things that you enjoy doing at the weekend.
- 3:09Things that people can resonate.
- 3:11Or relate to.
- 3:12So for me, I'm often heard talking about how much I love musical theater that I
- 3:17love to sing in my free time, or that I'm a massive fan of the spice girls.
- 3:21And people love that.
- 3:22It resonates with them because they can think, oh, me too, or definitely not me.
- 3:26So the first thing I want to encourage you to be posting on your social
- 3:30media accounts is a picture of you.
- 3:32Show them behind the brand and show them who it is that
- 3:35they're going to be working with.
- 3:37Okay, post number two.
- 3:40Now my idea for post number two is simple.
- 3:42It's a straightforward testimonial, some words that are past couple
- 3:46or even a fellow supplier in the wedding industry has said about.
- 3:51Hopefully, you've got some of these somewhere on, maybe on Google
- 3:54reviews, maybe on Facebook reviews or even in cards or on emails
- 3:58that couples have sent to you.
- 4:00You can use these and they make great social media posts.
- 4:03You've got two ways to do this.
- 4:05The first way is to make some of those words into a graphic,
- 4:09you can use a program like Canva and turn it into a quote.
- 4:12And then you can share that graphic onto your social media accounts
- 4:15with the testimonial on it.
- 4:17Be aware though, especially on Facebook, they don't like graphics
- 4:20with lots of words on them.
- 4:21So it may not reach as many people, but you can make these look really pretty.
- 4:26The other option is to just share a picture, a beautiful image of
- 4:29you, your products, something to do with a wedding, even that wedding
- 4:33day itself, and then share the testimonial in the comment below.
- 4:37Okay.
- 4:37It's important to know that you don't always have to
- 4:39exactly reflect what's in the.
- 4:42In the picture.
- 4:43As long as the pictures reflecting you and your work, the comment
- 4:46can be something different.
- 4:47So you could share a picture of one of your beautiful wedding
- 4:50cakes or flowers or a couple.
- 4:52And underneath it, you can say here's what X and X person said about their special
- 4:57day, testimonials work well because people, again need to learn to trust you.
- 5:01And if they can see other people's opinions of you, it's going to help
- 5:04them form their own opinion of you too.
- 5:07So that's idea, number two, a testimonial.
- 5:13Right.
- 5:13Let's move on to idea.
- 5:14Number three.
- 5:16My third idea for what you should be posting on your social media, are
- 5:19throwback pictures, just because there's no weddings happening for you right now.
- 5:24Doesn't mean there never has been, I'm sure on your computers, you've got
- 5:27archives of your best work, hidden away in the files on your hard drives or on
- 5:33your computer, or even in your phone.
- 5:35They might be pictures of previous weddings that you've worked at,
- 5:38previous cakes or flowers or whatever it is that you've made, or perhaps
- 5:42even styled shoots that you've been in over the last couple of years, we'll
- 5:46start digging those pictures out.
- 5:48People still want to see them as long as they're still
- 5:50relevant to you and your brand.
- 5:52And as long as they're reflecting the work that you produce right
- 5:54now, there's no reason not to pull them back out of the archives.
- 5:58Now, again, there's two options here.
- 5:59You can say it's a throwback to this wedding in 2019 where we did
- 6:04this and we love this and talk about what it is that you did for them
- 6:08or just share the picture.
- 6:09Don't necessarily tell people it's the throwback.
- 6:12Just use it as an inspirational image.
- 6:13Talk about what's in the picture.
- 6:15Tell a story, do anything in the comment underneath or above if
- 6:19you're on Facebook, but you will have lots of pictures and people love to
- 6:22see them just because they've been featured on one blog somewhere else.
- 6:26Once in the past, most of your audience will never have come across them.
- 6:29So why not get those pictures out of the archive and get them
- 6:32onto your social media profile?
- 6:36Okay on to idea.
- 6:38Number four, I hope that these are sparking some
- 6:40thoughts, some interest in you.
- 6:42We still got some more to go.
- 6:43So let's carry on with number 4.
- 6:46Now my idea for number four is something totally different.
- 6:49It's what I like to call an entertainment type post.
- 6:53I don't mean you being the entertainment.
- 6:55I mean, your post is entertaining.
- 6:56The people who are interacting with it, you know, this will
- 6:59look different on Facebook too.
- 7:01It will on Instagram.
- 7:02The kinds of things I'm talking about is maybe.
- 7:04Funny video about a wedding.
- 7:06Maybe you show one of those funny pictures where it says, you know, whatever
- 7:10month you're getting in is going to be whatever month you're getting married in.
- 7:13This is the hairstyle that would suit you the best.
- 7:15And you know, it shows you if you're getting married in December, there's some
- 7:17crazy hairstyle or something like that.
- 7:19That's an entertainment post because people are seeing it.
- 7:22They're laughing along with it and they're finding it entertaining.
- 7:25You know, we forgot on that social media.
- 7:27Isn't ultimately a marketing tool, although we use it like that.
- 7:30Social media is there to be social.
- 7:32Most people are on those platforms to socialize, to have fun, to be entertained.
- 7:36So there is a place for us doing that on our accounts.
- 7:39It can also be things like where you say, yeah.
- 7:42Who would be the first person at the dance floor on your wedding,
- 7:45tag them in this, or, I don't know.
- 7:48There's so many different ideas out there.
- 7:50Things you can say and do to entertain, take a look at stuff
- 7:52you can share from other people.
- 7:54Go and look at the big wedding website, see what they're posting about.
- 7:57See what videos are going viral and share those on your Facebook.
- 8:01Now on Instagram, this is going to look a bit different.
- 8:03We don't tend to share other people's things onto our grid on Instagram, but
- 8:06there's still ways you can entertain people, you know, ask people a question.
- 8:10People love to give their opinion on things.
- 8:12People love to tell you what they think is best.
- 8:14So an entertainment post could just be on Instagram, on your grid.
- 8:18You share two different pictures where they can swipe across to see them and
- 8:21they have to vote for their favorite.
- 8:23They have to tag someone in the.
- 8:25I don't know what it is, but it's something to entertain your
- 8:27audience, to make them laugh, to make them engage, to make them smile.
- 8:32Um, it doesn't need to promote your business in any way, shape or form, but
- 8:35obviously it needs to fit with your brand.
- 8:37So have a little think about what kind of posts you could be using to
- 8:41entertain your audience this week.
- 8:45Okay.
- 8:46Let's move on to tip number five.
- 8:48The number five idea for your social media is why not stop
- 8:53only talking about yourself.
- 8:55Now, this might seem counter intuitive, but my number five idea is that
- 8:59actually you share somebody else's work.
- 9:02Now this could either be a wedding venue or maybe another wedding professional
- 9:06that you'd like to work alongside.
- 9:08Now it's important to note you don't want to be sharing your competitors.
- 9:11I'm not suggesting if you make wedding cakes, you share
- 9:13another wedding cake maker.
- 9:15On your profile, but the great thing about the wedding industry is there so many
- 9:19other parallel industry people out there.
- 9:21So if you're a florist, why not share someone else's cake, if
- 9:25you're a photographer, why not share someone else's flowers?
- 9:28There is so many options with this.
- 9:31Now there's a couple of rules that you need to think about.
- 9:33Don't just share somebody else because they're your friend.
- 9:36You should only be sharing that person's work.
- 9:39If their work aligns with yours.
- 9:42You know, if they're a luxury wedding planner and you're a luxury cake maker,
- 9:45and you're working at similar kinds of venues, then that would be a great match.
- 9:49But if you're working at a luxury hotel and your friend who makes cakes is
- 9:53making them for a low budget hotel, you know, it probably isn't a good match.
- 9:58So you need to find other wedding professionals, other venues, which
- 10:02align with your same ethos, your same kind of weddings, and you have
- 10:05very similar ideal couples in mind.
- 10:08Once you found them, reach out to them, chat to them, get to know them and ask if
- 10:12you can share some of their work on your.
- 10:15Now the benefit of this is not only is it helpful for you and your audience because
- 10:21they're getting other help and insight into how to plan their wedding from
- 10:24other types of people is giving you extra content, which belongs to someone else.
- 10:28So you're not trying to make your own photos last for a long time,
- 10:31because you've asked to use one of their photos, but also when you talk
- 10:36about someone else on your social.
- 10:38Guess what they're going to then share it with their audience.
- 10:41And all of a sudden you can get your brand, your wedding business in front
- 10:45of another wedding businesses audience.
- 10:47So it works both ways.
- 10:49It's reciprocal.
- 10:50So that's my post idea.
- 10:52Regularly.
- 10:53Find other people that you can work with and ask to share some of their images.
- 10:57Make sure it's on brand.
- 10:58Make sure they align with you.
- 10:59Make sure you've got their permission.
- 11:01And most of all, make sure you give credits where credits are.
- 11:05You know, it's very frustrating.
- 11:06If you see people sharing work and they haven't credited you properly for it.
- 11:10So go above and beyond.
- 11:11If you're sharing and talking about someone else to credit them correctly,
- 11:15that's going to help build your relationship with them in the future.
- 11:18But don't be afraid of occasionally sharing somebody else's work or
- 11:21venue that you want to work with or do work with because it's going
- 11:25to help you build relationships.
- 11:27If they share it, it's going to get you in front of some more people.
- 11:30And it's going to give you more content for your social media as.
- 11:34Okay, moving right on to post idea.
- 11:37Number six.
- 11:38My next idea for you for your post this week is to share a wedding
- 11:42planning tip with your audience.
- 11:44You are the expert at whatever it is that you do, and you have got loads
- 11:48of information in your head, which is going to be helpful for other people.
- 11:52Now, this will be second nature to you.
- 11:54So this information will feel obvious, but to people who are following.
- 11:58Couples who are planning their wedding.
- 12:00This might all be new and you can be there to help them.
- 12:04So what I want you to do is start writing down questions that
- 12:07you get asked all of the time.
- 12:09What is it when people are planning their wedding with you, that they are always
- 12:12asking you, it might be if you are in the wedding cake industry that people
- 12:16are often asking you about what size cake they need, how to keep their cake
- 12:19fresh, how long in advance they should be ordering their wedding cake from you.
- 12:23Whatever is there will be questions for all of you.
- 12:26That lots and lots of people ask you.
- 12:28So write down all these questions, take in that information.
- 12:31Think about what people ask you a lot and then start turning them
- 12:35into content for your social media.
- 12:37Just short tips that you can use to help other people.
- 12:41Again, sometimes this has a magic benefit.
- 12:43If other wedding industry people see your tips and they think they're good.
- 12:48They also might share them to their audiences as well.
- 12:51So it's, again, it's a win-win, but ultimately you're helping those
- 12:55couples with their wedding planning.
- 12:56You're helping answering their questions.
- 12:58So that saving you, answering the same questions again and
- 13:01again, because hopefully they're getting answered on your profile.
- 13:05And also is helping you to become an authority.
- 13:07Remember right at the start I was talking about that know like, and
- 13:10trust they can trust you because you're showing, you know, what you talk about.
- 13:14You're making yourself a leader in your field.
- 13:17You're showing that you're the expert.
- 13:18They can trust you.
- 13:19And therefore they can trust a book you for their wedding day.
- 13:23You will have so many tips and even the smallest things that you think
- 13:26are the most obvious will make great social media posts, and we'll be really,
- 13:30really helpful for your audience.
- 13:31So start making that list.
- 13:33Get those tips down on a piece of paper and start thinking, what can I
- 13:38write to help someone in my audience?
- 13:40What little piece of advice can I give them today is going to
- 13:43help them with their wedding planning and make life easier.
- 13:47And therefore also positioned me as the expert.
- 13:50So that was idea.
- 13:51Number six, find a wedding planning tip and share it on your profile.
- 13:56Again, you can share it as a graphic with the words on it that you've created,
- 13:59or preferably you find an image that you can use one from your collection
- 14:04and put the tip in the comment below.
- 14:07Okay, moving right on to our final post idea for today.
- 14:12And this one's an important one and I promise you, most of you are
- 14:16probably not doing this enough.
- 14:18The final post that I want to talk to you about today is a post
- 14:22which is making a direct sell.
- 14:25Talking about selling now, we all don't like selling.
- 14:28We all shy away from it.
- 14:30And in the wedding industry, we are really bad at selling.
- 14:33Sometimes we hide behind what we do.
- 14:35We want to be nice people, and we're just a little bit scared of selling.
- 14:39I'm pretty sure there's a whole podcast episode we can do on this topic.
- 14:43But one of the problems I see on lots of your grids is that
- 14:46you just don't sell enough.
- 14:47You might be sharing lots of beautiful imagery of your work, but there's
- 14:51never a clear call to action.
- 14:54As customers, we need to know what the next step is.
- 14:56We need clear calls to action because otherwise we freeze and we do nothing.
- 15:01If we don't understand how to work with you, how to order from
- 15:04you, how to get in contact with.
- 15:06Then we just don't do it.
- 15:08It's unlikely.
- 15:09We're going to go to lots and lots of effort to try and find out how to do it.
- 15:12We need a clear call to action, to know how we can buy.
- 15:16So sometimes on our social media posts, we need to make clear calls to action.
- 15:20We need to tell people that they can actually buy from us.
- 15:23We need to tell people what the process is.
- 15:26It might be.
- 15:27Direct message me to get more information on this service.
- 15:30It might be go to my website and book in an appointment, whatever it
- 15:34is, make a very, very clear call to action of what they need to do next.
- 15:38And talk about.
- 15:40If you've got special offers on where you're adding value.
- 15:43If they book within a certain timeframe, talk about it on
- 15:46your social media platforms.
- 15:48Now we don't want to use our social media platforms to sell,
- 15:51sell, sell all of the time.
- 15:53We've talked about how social media is social.
- 15:56We should be there to educate.
- 15:57We should be there to entertain.
- 15:59We should be there to inspire, but you know what?
- 16:01Occasionally, we also need to be there to sell.
- 16:04So make sure you are putting our sales posts.
- 16:07They don't need to be super selling.
- 16:08Discounted offer type posts.
- 16:10That is not what I'm talking about.
- 16:12I'm talking about explaining how people can take the next step now
- 16:16booking for August, 2022, to find out more, send me a message we're
- 16:22nearly fully booked for 2021.
- 16:24If you want a space, go to our website booking form.
- 16:27That's the kind of post, I mean, tell people if they want more from
- 16:31you, exactly how they can do it and don't make it too complicated.
- 16:34People do not like jumping through hoops.
- 16:37You need to make that call to action.
- 16:39Very, very clear and as simple as possible.
- 16:41So don't mix your messages.
- 16:43Don't say call me, or send me a DM or write to me or send me an email
- 16:48because people will feel confused and they just won't do any of it.
- 16:51Give them one clear call to action and ask them to follow it.
- 16:55Send me a DM and I'll send you more prices.
- 16:58That's as simple as it needs to be.
- 17:01I hope that's got your brain buzzing with lots of ideas.
- 17:04There is no need for you to sit down and not know what to post about this week.
- 17:08I'm very quickly going to recap all seven ideas again for you.
- 17:11One more time.
- 17:12So number one, talk about yourself, post a picture of you or one of your
- 17:16team and tell people a little bit about you, help them to get to know you.
- 17:20Number two, share a testimonial from a past client or even a
- 17:25fellow supplier that you've worked.
- 17:27Number three, dig into those archives.
- 17:29There will be photos on your computer.
- 17:31Share a throwback photo, a picture from a wedding from a few years ago or even
- 17:35last year or from a styled shoot that you've previously been involved in.
- 17:40The next idea for a post was an entertainment post, something that
- 17:43is just fun for your audience.
- 17:45It's going to make them smile.
- 17:46It's going to make them laugh is going to make them get interacting
- 17:49or tagging their friens.
- 17:51Next, we talked about how you can share someone who's aligned with you.
- 17:54Another wedding professional, or even a venue, just don't forget
- 17:57to ask their permission first.
- 18:00Then we talked about tips, sharing your knowledge, sharing your
- 18:03expertise, and sharing those tips.
- 18:05And finally, don't forget to occasionally make.
- 18:10Now you may be wondering why seven tips.
- 18:13Well, I wanted to make sure you had something that you could post on your
- 18:16social media every day for the next week.
- 18:20Now you may not want to post every day, but I highly recommend you find some
- 18:25kind of structure that works for you.
- 18:27If you always sit down and just randomly post, when you think of
- 18:30something you're not going to be consistent and you know what, in all
- 18:34marketing, we need to be consistent.
- 18:36It's helpful to sit down ahead of time and think how many times would I like
- 18:40to ideally be posting to my different social media accounts every week.
- 18:45Now this is how we do it in our business, in my blog and for my
- 18:49personal pages, I think about how many times he wants to post.
- 18:52So on the blog, we will post six times a week.
- 18:56Now we have categories of what we're going to post about every single.
- 19:00Now I don't like telling people these categories, um, by that, I mean, I don't
- 19:06like calling it throwbacks Thursday, winning Wednesday, those kinds of things,
- 19:10you know, hi, it's winning Wednesday.
- 19:12Here's my win for the week.
- 19:13I'm not a massive fan of that.
- 19:15It works for some people, it might work for you, but it's just not my thing.
- 19:18However, behind the scenes to keep us on track, we do have those things.
- 19:22So for example, take the seven things I've told you.
- 19:25It might be that on day one, we always share a testimonial on day two.
- 19:30We always share another wedding business.
- 19:32On day three, we always share a tip.
- 19:35Then on day four, we always share throwback.
- 19:37Then on day five, we always have an entertainment type post.
- 19:40We don't tell other people that, but it helps us get organized behind the scenes.
- 19:44And all of a sudden it's a lot easier to schedule your social media in advance.
- 19:49So, for example, if you know, you're going to share a wedding planning,
- 19:52tip every Tuesday for the next, however many weeks, you know, take
- 19:56that piece of paper, write down all those questions that people ask you.
- 19:59If you've got 5, 10, 20 questions, that's the next 5, 10
- 20:0320 posts for the next 5, 10 20.
- 20:06Already ready to go planned out and scheduled in your system.
- 20:09Can you see how much simpler that is than sitting down and
- 20:12looking at a blank piece of paper?
- 20:14So grab your paper, decide how many times a week you want to be posting on your
- 20:18accounts and then give each of those days a category or a couple of categories.
- 20:22If you want to rotate and it's going to help you plan out.
- 20:26So choose the ones that are best for you.
- 20:28Make sure at least one of them includes that sales post.
- 20:30We don't want.
- 20:32Make sure that sometimes you post a picture of you, but then
- 20:35choose what you're going to use from the other categories.
- 20:37I've given you seven.
- 20:38So if you want to be posting seven days a week, then you can, there is
- 20:42no excuse to sit down and not have.
- 20:46I would love to see the plans that you make.
- 20:48So once you've written your plan down and you've put your outline, why not
- 20:52share a picture of it with me in my free Facebook group for wedding pros,
- 20:56wedding pros who are ready to grow, come into the Facebook group, take a picture
- 21:00of your outline, share in the group and I'll give it my personal feedback
- 21:05because I would absolutely love to see.
- 21:09I hope that today's episode has been helpful.
- 21:11I hope that you've got lots of ideas now of what you can be posting
- 21:14on your social media accounts.
- 21:16There's no excuse to have a blank mind.
- 21:18Now you've hopefully got loads and loads of ideas to be getting going with.
- 21:22And you know what, if you want me to check them out, give me a tag and I'll take.
- 21:27With all these things is just about getting started.
- 21:30So go out there, make your plan start posting.
- 21:33And once you've got a few weeks under your belt, you can review
- 21:36it and see what's working best.
- 21:37And then maybe change the structure.
- 21:39But you know what?
- 21:40You've just got to get started.
- 21:42I hope this episode has been helpful for you.
- 21:44And I look forward to seeing you next time.
- 21:51One thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing
- 21:54people you get to work with.
- 21:55If you want to meet like-minded wedding pros, just like you, then
- 21:59why not join my free Facebook?
- 22:01Wedding pros who are ready to grow.
- 22:03Come meet some new connections, hang out with me and hopefully learn something
- 22:08too, just search for us on Facebook.