On Uncle Ron's Porch, the latest podcast series centers around the all-important theme of leveraging social media for organic business growth. Uncle Ron, our ever-charismatic host, breaks down effective social media strategies across key platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The series begins with universally applicable social media principles and culminates in platform-specific tips, enriching listeners with actionable insights every step of the way.
Tip #1: Apply Universal Social Media Concepts
The week kicks off with a discussion on social media strategies that work across all platforms. Uncle Ron emphasizes the power of personal branding. Unlike business pages on social platforms like Facebook, personal accounts are designed for sharing authentic human stories, resulting in better engagement. It is much easier to establish a social media presence from your personal Facebook page than it is from a business page. This was a shift that took place after the global pandemic in 2020. Previous to that time, social media content from business social channels reached a broader audience.
Even as a business owner, it is important to build your own personal brand. Building a personal brand involves being genuine and sharing personal experiences to connect with potential customers in your audience. Platforms reward consistent content and interaction, so daily posts and meaningful engagement with others' content must not be overlooked.
Uncle Ron encourages regularly publishing different types of content to engage people. For example, he loves to tell funny stories from his everyday personal life. In addition, direct messaging not only fosters stronger relationships with people, but it alerts the algorithm that this particular person is more engaged with you. All of this can lead to greater visibility.
Tip# 2: Build a Personal Brand
In the second episode, Uncle Ron dives deeper into building a personal brand on social media. Changes in the deliverability of emails due to specific changes put in place in Feb 2024 have shifted some people back to certain social channels.
Uncle Ron explains that personal brands tend to outperform business pages, especially given the diminished organic reach for businesses on social media. He advocates for a content strategy that leans heavily toward personal content (85%) compared to business-related posts (15%). His own use of humor and personal anecdotes helps him to connect with his audience and grow his social media presence. The goal for spending time crafting a social media post is to build a community and foster relationships that ultimately support business growth.
Building a personal brand is not everyone's cup of tea. A lot of business owners like to take a back seat and stay behind the scenes in their business. Depending on your business goals, when you are first starting your own small business, building a personal brand will go a long way to build your "know, like and trust" factor. This strategy can lead to sustained growth of your business over the long term.
Tip# 3: Employ Facebook Strategies
The third episode zeroes in on Facebook, one of the largest social media platforms. With email marketing becoming less reliable, Uncle Ron highlights specific strategies to exploit Facebook's vast user base. He explores the engaging dynamics of Facebook Groups, emphasizing the value of active participation and leveraging advocates within relevant groups.
Another powerful tool and part of an overall social media marketing strategy is using Facebook's birthday data to initiate personal conversations. Having conversations one-on-one with people over social platforms can boost engagement and capitalize on the algorithm's favor. Building a personal brand on Facebook hinges on creating these meaningful, personalized interactions.
Over time, Facebook's user demographics and engagement rates have changed. However, as a social media channel, it is still important to have an online presence on Facebook depending on what type of business that you own. As far as social media platforms go, it is one of the easier ones to use to build a personal brand because people expect you to post about your personal life on that platform.
Tip # 4: Understand Twitter Insights
Next, Uncle Ron turns his focus to Twitter, or "X", as some may now call it. Despite its smaller active user size compared to Facebook, Twitter holds its own unique advantages. Uncle Ron appreciates its irreverent nature and the niche communities it houses. The platform excels in real time engagement, thanks to its chronological feed. This makes it ideal for live interactions. Uncle Ron especially appreciates this feature during live sporting events. He is able to interact with his audience in real time as plays occur on the field.
Retweeting offers a straightforward way to increase visibility and interaction. You are able to reach more potential customers while circumventing constraints of other social media platforms (like Facebook's 5,000-friend cap). Through these methods, one can effectively engage with a wider audience and build a robust community and reach prospective customers using Twitter.
Tip # 5: Deploy LinkedIn Strategies
In the final episode of the week, Uncle Ron explores LinkedIn, a powerful tool for business-to-business (B2B) social media marketing. It is a great platform to engage other businesses using written and visual content. Just know that sometimes LinkedIn can be exhausting to manage as there are a number of cold pitches and cold messages that can come at you on a regular basis. This is especially true with the advent of AI automation tools that allow for large volumes of impersonal messages to go out on a daily basis.
As a business owner and content marketer, he critiques the counterproductive strategy of sending cold pitches immediately after connection requests. He stresses the importance of building genuine relationships with people and getting to know them a little bit before offering your services.
Uncle Ron advises utilizing LinkedIn's newsletter and article feature as social media marketing tools to boost visibility and engagement. The platform's algorithm, which promotes a "flywheel effect," can amplify the reach of engaging content and be a helpful part of an overall social strategy. Authentic, business-focused content that builds trust and amplifies your social media efforts. In addition, daily interactions foster a productive LinkedIn presence without the need to pay for social media advertising.
Daily Podcast Episodes for Business Growth
Listen to this week's episodes and enjoy a daily dose of business wisdom from Uncle Ron. For past or future episodes, subscribe to Uncle Ron's Porch wherever you get your podcasts.
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Conclusion
Throughout the week, Uncle Ron's Porch delivers a masterclass on social strategies and social media tips tailored for various platforms. From broad principles applicable across all networks to nuanced techniques for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, listeners gain a wealth of knowledge for building a personal brand and promoting business growth.
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For help with your content strategy and deployment, start a conversation with Uncle Ron today. Through Sprocket Expert Optimizations, he offers an array of SEO services to help you to grow your small business.
