First impressions

You may have heard the quotation ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’.  It’s not just a clever phrase, it’s very true.  In a world where information is thrown at us in a constant deluge on social media, it’s doubly true.  That amazing first impression is what gets your followers, likes and even comments.

If you are on more than one social platform generating great content can be overwhelming, so pick the platform where your audience hang out and get really good at that first.  One step at a time!

5 Top tips to getting your social right

1: Take the time to write a great bio

Your bio is how people discover more about who you are and what is important to you.  If you’re posting to attract a specific audience, think carefully about what they really want.  Be you, but don’t get off the point.  It may sound brutal, but unless you’re promoting pet services/products, they don’t care if you love your dog or cat.  Stay focused on why you’re passionate about what you do (to earn your living).

2: Look friendly and approachable

A headshot is essential – and it should be just a headshot.  Your avatar tends to be so small that anything more just looks like a few smudges.  Even if you’re a fitness trainer and want to show off your guns, they won’t be able to see them properly on a tiny portrait beside your post.  What people are looking for is a smile that makes you look like someone they can relate to.  

Ideally get a professional to do your headshots, but even if you choose one someone has snapped, be aware of the background and ensure that there isn’t anyone else in the shot – not even an elbow or an ear!  If you want to clean up the background, use a background remover (e.g. remove.bg) and put your image on a coloured background (try using Canva.com).

3: Add a link that takes them to the right web page

Your bio link doesn’t have to go to your home page – it can go to a page where people can download a freebie (and get on your list) or to a specific promotion or offer.

Even if you can only have one link – or only in your bio (like Instagram), think about what you want people to do when they click that link – and ensure the landing page works hard for you.

4: Create a style

This works particularly well if you’re posting images or videos.  Create a style that you apply to all your posts, to make them recognisable as yours.  This might be a particular colour for the background or a border, or a style of post, experiment with one post and try different approaches, until you find something that you love and is authentically ‘you’.

5: It’s a two-way street

Social media isn’t the same as broadcast media.  Newspapers, TV, radio, podcasts, blogs are all broadcast media.  In other ways, the message is going out to consumers.  Social media opens the door for conversations – which is why you can comment, like and otherwise interact with what other people post.  

While you want other people to engage with your posts, you’ll get better engagement if you have time scheduled to follow and engage with other people.  If people comment on your post, respond or at least like their comments.  If you follow other people take a moment to comment and like their posts (tip: comment first, then like – the algorithms like that better).  Share posts that are relevant to your audience so you become the curator for great content around your area of specialism.

*****

It can become a full-time job to keep up with consistent social media interaction, so schedule time to do it.  If you develop a 15 minute ‘habit’ twice a day, you’ll be surprised what you can achieve.

Task v. People

Take any personality profiling test and you’ll find that, somewhere in the report, it will identify whether you’re a task-focused person or a people person.  Most of us want to be seen as people-focused, but even if you’re a task-focused person, it doesn’t mean that you don’t want to help people.

Confession: I used to think I was more of a people person, but all the profiles I’ve taken say otherwise.  I’m a process and systems geek, I love a good step-by-step process to make life easy.  

That doesn’t mean I don’t use my task-focus to help other people.  It just means I create structures, models and systems to make their lives easier.  I get lots of satisfaction from giving people something that will streamline their activities and save them time.

Process or Personal?

When my co-author, Peter Roper, and I were writing The Reputation Gap we discussed the difference between transactional and relationship driven businesses.  For instance, Amazon is totally transactional.  Everything is automated, even the feedback process.  It’s incredibly effective and mostly super-efficient.  They get 5 star reviews because it’s easy, reliable (mostly) and simple.

Working directly with your clients or customers is different though.  If you’re a consultant your value is embedded in your unique take on solving their problems – and your personal approach.  

If you’re a bigger organisation, it’s the approach of every member of your staff when they interact with customers, whether that’s in person, on the phone or by email.  That’s why customer service training is important, for everyone, whether they’re front-of-house or in the back office.  It’s the only way to ensure your customers get a consistent service and that new team members understand how to present your ethos and learn ‘how we do things here’.

Even if you only have two people working for you – they need to know how you expect them to interact with clients, whether that’s answering the phone, what decisions they’re empowered to make, how they deal with cranky clients and so much more.  

It doesn’t matter whether an individual is task-focused or a people person, a consistent and professional approach is essential to building strong relationships that ensure the company’s reputation is totally 5-star on every level.  And ‘professional’ doesn’t mean polite and distant – if the company ethos is friendly and approachable, then that’s how each member of staff should learn to present themselves.

I think that customer service should be retitled ‘Nurturing Relationships’!

Here are your blog starters for 10

If you’re an expert and you share your expertise to help your clients, writing a blog (or doing a video blog) is an amazing way to show potential clients that you know your stuff.

OK, you may be saying “But you would say that, you’re a writer.”  Yes, writing is easy for me, but put me in front of a camera and I mumble and stutter and a lot of rubbish comes out of my mouth.  I focus on that bit of hair that is sticking up and lose my train of thought.  I find I’m not looking into the camera, but somewhere where I think the camera lens ought to be (i.e. right in the middle of the screen, of course)!  We all have our strengths.  

If you find talking to the camera easy, then maybe a video blog will work better for you.  But if you’d like to write something here’s my cheat sheet to make it easier.

1: Get focused on your subject

Pick a core subject that you know a lot about.  That’s your starting point.  I have a list of these in a spreadsheet and work through them one at a time.  It saves me arriving in front of a blank screen and using lack of focus as an excuse to find something else to do instead of writing blogs!

2: Write a list of key points about your subject – or an aspect of it

Not sure where to start?  What do clients ask you about the subject?  What do you find yourself chatting to business contacts most about?  What are the biggest mistakes that people make in relation to the subject?  There are three possible blog titles – and lots of material to fill them out.

3: Know your key phrases

Hold up!  I’m not suggesting you learn how to do SEO – unless that’s your area of expertise, of course.  I am suggesting that if you know what people want to know about, it will give you plenty of ideas.  There’s a website that makes this really easy – answerthepublic.com (answer, not ask) where you put your core subject in e.g. ‘blogging’ and the website generates tons of questions that people ask about the subject.  You get one free search per day and can download a spreadsheet with the results.  If you really have no idea what to write this will give you tons of places to start.

4: Fill out your bullet ‘skeleton’

Introduce your article explaining why it’s important and then fill out your bullet list with more information under each point.  You can use your bullets as subheaders to guide your reader.

5: Write conversationally

Stick to straightforward language that everyone understands.  The rule of thumb is to write at the level of a 12-year old.  People who have university level English won’t notice and everyone else will get your message.  Write the way you talk, so people feel as though you’re ‘speaking’ directly to them.

6: Don’t get hung up on length

There is no rule that says a blog must be a certain length.  Say what you have to say and then stop.  If it’s 200 words or 800 words doesn’t matter, as long as it has value.

7: Polish it up

If your English grammar, punctuation and spelling isn’t totally accurate, don’t worry too much.  You can always run your copy through a tool like Grammarly to tidy it up, but as long as there are no glaring errors in spelling, you can get away with a lot if you’re writing a chatty article.  

I often write one day and review the next day so that I can cut out the waffle and sharpen it up.  Or get someone to read it and suggest improvements.

8: Craft a captivating headline

The late Ted Nicholas said you should spend 80% of your writing time on your headline.  That is probably a bit extreme, unless you’re writing hot marketing copy, but your headline is important as it’s the point where the reader decides ‘I need to read this’ or ‘That looks boring’.

Brainstorm a list of possibles and leave them to ‘stew’ for a while.  Then revisit them and see what works best.  When you’re getting the headline habit, it’s a good idea to suspend the headline writing until after you’ve written the article.  However, I admit that sometimes the headline is the trigger for the article.  It’s trial and error, see what works best for you.

9: Add visual focus

Most people are more likely to start reading when the headline is accompanied by a picture.  I use royalty-free image libraries such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels and then often play with the image in Canva.

10: Schedule time in your diary

The secret of consistency is to have your blog-writing time blocked out in your diary.  Firstly, it reminds you to do it, secondly, it avoids that ‘I don’t have time’ excuse!

If you really find writing a blog article is a massive pain, then try a video version – but many of these tips will be equally useful in creating a video blog too.