You might find yourself wondering what social media platforms to focus on when starting your business. Which platform will benefit your business the most, and how often should you show up there? In this episode, I’ll help you map out the beginning of your content strategy, and help you expand from there!

 

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

First Step

In this episode, we are talking about what social media platforms to focus on when starting your business. We’ll also touch on what platforms to expand into as your business grows. Instead of showing up on several platforms solely because other business owners are doing it, let’s walk through the building blocks of a solid strategy together.

By the way, enrollment for my brand new live program is opening soon! Click here to join the waitlist and learn more about it as soon as the information becomes available. The program goes SO much deeper than what I can cover in a single podcast episode.

Short-Form Content

When starting your business, the first thing you want to do is focus on one short-form platform for fast, short-term growth. Normally, people begin with Instagram.

Short-form content will not be evergreen. In other words, it has a short shelf life. People will not see it for long. On average, short-form content lasts one to three days. 

Growing your reach quickly is most attainable on short-form platforms. Likely, it will be easier and faster to find your people. The content is both simple to create and expires quickly, so most users show up daily. Your focus should be on short-form content for roughly six months before expanding.

Build Your List

In conjunction with creating short-form content, I also recommend starting your email list NOW. Do not wait until you have an audience. As your audience grows, continually point them to your freebies or to join your email list. Ultimately, you will see more conversions by pitching your list when your audience is most “warm.”

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Next Step

The next step comes within three to six months of starting your business. At this point, consider how you can diversify how you’re getting found online. You do not want all of your eggs in one basket. For example, if you only ever post on Instagram, and the platform goes down, what will you be left with? 

Build out content on two different platforms. The platforms should cover being searchable and being evergreen. Normally (but not always), this means long-form content. Evergreen means that it can be found for months or years to come, usually in search. Here are some types of content that would work for these purposes. 

Searchable Content

Blogging

One major type of searchable, evergreen content is blogging. When I began my business, within six months of blogging, most of my clients found me in search. It was a powerful place to start. 

Podcast

You might also consider hosting a podcast. Podcasts cannot be found in search, but they are great for nurturing your audience. I recommend that you blog your podcast episode to increase your searchability. 

YouTube

I also want to mention YouTube. YouTube videos are searchable and evergreen. In my business, I see YouTube videos continue to gain views and earn revenue month after month. If you’re interested in using YouTube, I have a free YouTube class all about how to scale your business with YouTube in just four hours per week – no fancy technology required. Click here to watch it now!

Pinterest

You could use Pinterest. While I was a photographer, I blogged many of my images on Pinterest, which gained a lot of traction for my business. Your pins can be found in search for months or years.

TikTok

TikTok is becoming an amazing place for searchable content. If you hope to attract a younger audience, this might be the place for you!

Recap

To recap, within three to six months of starting your business, build out a short-form content platform where you show up daily as well as a platform where your content is searchable and evergreen. 

Expand to Other Platforms

Let’s say from there, you would like to expand your traffic & marketing. Maybe you are not seeing all of the results you want to see. Or, perhaps you want to grow your customer base. 

The next step is to expand from showing up on two platforms to showing up on five to seven platforms. Likely, you will need a team to aid in this process.

Begin with a long-form piece of content where your audience can know you on a deeper level. Most often, this means a podcast or a YouTube channel. Deepening that connection fast tracks the like, know & trust factor in your business. In addition to becoming more searchable, you are creating connections that lead to repeat customers or new, warm leads. 

Repurpose Your Content

Once you establish what your long-form piece of content will be, create a strategy for repurposing that content. 

In my business, I create a weekly YouTube video. I put all of my energy into creating one exceptional video per week. From there, my team edits the video & creates short clips from it for other platforms. They also use that same video to create a blog post. We take that blog post and pin it to Pinterest. Additionally, my team uses the content in the video to create several reels or graphic carousels. Finally, we share that video on my Instagram story as well as send it to my email list.

My main job is to create a YouTube video every week so that my team has enough to go on to create all of the other pieces of content. 

Alternatively, you could begin with a podcast episode. From there, you could reuse that content as a blog post, email it to your list, or use the clips on TikTok. 

Content Creation Tips

Repurposing content is working smarter, not harder. Put your brain power into one great episode, and from there, repurpose it across several platforms. Take snippets from the work you’ve already done, or, have a team help do it for you. Because you’ve poured so much time and thought into it, the content can still come across as genuine and truly from you.

So that you do not feel overwhelmed, practice adding one new platform at a time. For me, this looked like starting with Instagram. Then, I added blogging and posting about my blogs on Instagram. Later, I started sharing my blogs in my Instagram stories. I eventually hired an assistant to help me with Pinterest. Soon after, I sent my blog posts to my email list. Once I started my YouTube channel, I emailed weekly videos to my list, too.

I created an ecosystem of content and repurposed all that I could on my own by adding one new platform at a time.

Hopefully, this episode helps you discover what social media platforms to focus on when starting your business!

Join Visibility!

Once again, consider joining Visibility! The program will run live and will feel like one-on-one coaching, with the perks of being part of a group. You’ll have the opportunity to be live with our group and ask questions in real-time. 

Visibility will give you confidence that you’re showing up on the RIGHT platforms and doing it for the right reasons. Click here to join the waitlist or enroll now!

See you in next week’s episode at 8 AM!