Lauren Davis is an expert on all things social media and business. She helps people with personal brands or businesses to develop their authentic “voice” on social media.
She joined us on Creating Your Encore Career to discuss exactly how she does this.
Most of Lauren’s clients come to her because they know they need to be on social media and they know they need to be marketing themselves. However, they just have no idea where to start.
If that sounds like you, Lauren has some amazing insights to share that you don’t want to miss. She helps those of us who think social media is overwhelming and complicated by making it super fun and simple instead.
Social Media Made Easy
Lauren loves helping people take big, complicated concepts regarding social media, marketing, PR, and design and break them down into really simple concepts. By breaking these concepts down in this way, she makes social media super fun and simple for her clients.
This way, when they open up their app or go to do something to brand or market themselves, they're met with excitement and joy. They begin to like doing social media.
Treat Social Media Like Real Life
Many people think that more followers equal more sales. However, that’s just not true. Instead, quality relationships equal more sales. This is why you should treat social media like real life.
For example, think about your social media like a real-life networking event. If someone came up to you at a networking event, shoved their business card in your face, and yelled their elevator pitch at you, your eyes would just glaze over. You would be able to tell they don’t care about you at all. As soon as they were done, they would just walk away and you’d never talk to them again. This is comparable to cold pitching people on social media without any previous warm-up or interaction.
On the flip side, imagine you get to a networking event, spend time getting to know someone, click automatically with them, have a big interest in each other's businesses or lives, realize you have a bunch of things in common, and get each other's information. By the next day, you're connected by email or on social media and you set up a coffee meeting for next week. After the meeting, you end up doing business together because you’ve formed a bond and trust each other.
That's how we should be thinking about social media. Show up as your truest self (the way that you would show up at a networking event) and get to know somebody until you feel a connection with them.
PLAN: A 30-Second Social Media Audit
Lauren also has a 30-second plan for those of us wanting to quickly improve our social media pages:
P: pics. Look at your pictures and ask yourself, “Am I recognizable to people?” If someone went to the grocery store and saw you pushing a cart, would they be able to say that it was you? If not, change your pictures so people can know who you are from them.
L: links. Check your links on all your pages and make sure they go to a page where you have multiple links people can check out.
A: overall appearance. When somebody comes to your Instagram page for the first time, they get a split-second impression of you. Ask yourself if someone could figure out what you do in that split second. If not, add something in your bio that clearly explains what you do. Additionally, keep pictures of you doing what you do best in your recent posts at all times.
N: check your name. You should include your name and a keyword (i.e. “Lauren Davis - Marketing”) in your name field.
