Episode 175. Wielding Social Media's Power for Business Growth with Louise McDonnell

Social media is a wild west that many business owners eagerly charge into, guns blazing, hoping to strike viral gold. Most find themselves wandering aimlessly, bleeding money and time, while seeing little results. So how do you avoid becoming another casualty?

In this episode, social media expert Louise McDonnell shares her step-by-step system for leveraging social media to drive real results and growth for your business. Learn how to lay the groundwork, define your target audience, optimize your platforms, develop an effective content strategy across pillars like awareness, expert positioning, sales, and advocacy, incorporate paid ads, and continually evaluate performance.

Louise McDonnell, a renowned social media trainer and strategist, has been working in digital marketing since the 1990s. She is the founder of SellOnSocial.Media and has published a best-selling book, the Social Media Content Planner Guide.


(00:00 - 06:54) From Service Marketing to Digital Marketing Pioneer

Louise accidentally landed an early ecommerce job in the 1990s, which catalyzed his whole digital marketing career
She discovered she has an innate ability to decode complex technical topics and clearly explain the customer benefit in plain language
Louise leverages this core skill today in running an agency managing digital campaigns and training others on actionable social media tactics through his academy


(06:55 - 13:16) Categorizing Business Owners' Social Media Approaches

Category A involves business owners who are either completely ignoring social media or have tried it sporadically without seeing real results and have given up.
Category B refers to those who are actively posting social media content but are still not generating meaningful levels of sales or leads.
Category C encapsulates business owners who only want to utilize paid social media ads when they have something new to sell, often without an overall integrated strategy.


(13:17- 00:21:36) 6 Steps to Effectively Leverage Social Media

Step 1 involves laying the proper foundations first, including setting smart goals, implementing tracking and analytics, and clearly defining the products and services you offer.
Step 2 is all about deeply understanding your target audience through profiling their pain points, desires, motivations, and the terminology that resonates with them.
Step 3 focuses on optimizing your website pages, landing pages, and social media platforms to align with your brand, offer clarity around your services, and speak directly to your ideal customer.
Step 4 is when you develop an effective social media content strategy across four pillars: awareness, expert positioning, sales, and advocacy.
Step 5 is incorporating paid social media ads to amplify your organic reach and social presence at key moments.
Step 6 is about continually evaluating your social media activity and campaign performance so you can refine and improve in future efforts.


(23:31 - 34:46) Four Different Content Pillars

First, awareness content refers to authentic behind-the-scenes posts aimed at humanizing your brand and connecting on a personal level with your audience.
Second, expert content positions your authority and expertise within your niche and offers solutions to common pain points your ideal customers are experiencing.
Third, sales content converts that social media following and trust into leads and transactions by promoting offers, events, downloads, consultations, etc.
Fourth, advocacy content refers to leveraging external validation like customer testimonials, favorable media coverage, awards, etc. to build credibility.


Key Quotes:

"If what you’re doing on social media isn’t leading to inquiries, leads, or sales, then you need to rethink it and do something totally different; you need to change up your strategy." - Louise McDonnell

"By truly understanding your ideal customer and their pain points, you can create content that is going to impress them and warm them up to doing business with you." - Louise McDonnell

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