Angelina M. Lopez

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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic

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Where to find me on social media

There are exciting things happening on the writing front for me and some very unexciting things happening in the world of social media. I will be making announcements soon on the exciting stuff, and I always strive to share it with my newsletter subscribers first. But in the mean time, here are the best places to find me on social media!

Patreon: https://patreon.com/angelinamlopez
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/angelina-m-lopez
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angelinamlo/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorangelinamlopez
Newsletter: http://www.angelinamlopez.com/email-sign-up

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Social Media Angelina M. Lopez Social Media Angelina M. Lopez

How to Create a Monthly Social Media Calendar

A monthly social media calendar allows you to know what you're going to post EVERY DAY!! It helps you balance promotional posts with fun and personal ones, it insures you're talking about themes and topics important to you and your audience, and it focuses you so that your social media posts are moving you toward your goals.

You've hit that mid-year lull, haven't you? That time when, instead of creating social media posts with an objective, you're posting a lot of cat videos. Instead of planning goal-oriented posts that express your personality, appeal to your fans, and move you closer to your business goals, you're re-sharing the tired memes from your friend's feed.

ShockedCatGIF

It's all right. The annual social media calendar we created in January can get a little dusty midway through the year. Today, we'll clean that calendar off and give it new life in your monthly social media calendar. A monthly social media calendar allows you to know what you're going to post EVERY DAY!! It helps you balance promotional posts with fun and personal ones, it insures you're talking about themes and topics important to you and your audience, and it focuses you so that your social media posts are moving you toward your goals.

And the time investment for this ease and focus? Only about two hours at the end of each month. Here's how to build your own monthly social media calendar:

Step 1: Write down your list of topics from your annual social media calendar.

If you created an annual social media calendar, then you already have a list of business goals, content topics, and personal events that you want to focus on in your blog writing, Facebook posts, Instagram photos, and other social media content this month. If you didn't create an annual social media calendar, then make a quick list now of those items.

Should writing this list give you ideas for specific posts, go ahead and write those down now, too. For example, I have "summer entertaining on deck" as one of my topics. I need new outdoor pillows, and I figured it would be a fun Facebook post to quiz my lifestyle-and-home-focused followers about what color scheme they prefer for the deck.

Step 2: List the dates of any business, personal, family, holiday, or fun events you having coming up.

Use these events to inspire posts. I have a professional organizing client whose college-age son came home for summer break. We used his homecoming to inspire a Facebook post about how to help your almost adult get and stay organized over the summer.

Step 3: Determine the topics and dates of your blog posts for the month.

Your blog post can be the foundation of a week's worth of social media posts. By creating posts that direct traffic to your blog, you are directing eyes to your website, which is property that YOU control. It's great to get Facebook and Twitter love, but traffic that stops there is ultimately benefitting Facebook and Twitter most.

Step 4: For each weekday, decide which social media channel you're going to post to and the overall theme of your social media posts.

I don't post to every social media channel every day, and I don't require it of my small business clients. Who has the time? Determine which social media channels you're going to post to on which days.

Also, you can insure your social media streams are both useful and entertaining by balancing your business-related and personal/fun posts. Choose now which days you will post "business" posts and which day you will post "entertaining" posts. You don't have rigidly hold to this, but it does help you to remember in case all of your posts are listing to one side.

Step 5: Now, begin to fill in your calendar.

Fill in your blogs first. As I mentioned, your blog posts can be the inspiration for many of your social media posts that week. The days before you publish your blog, you can build interest by posting a photo or tip as a "teaser." After the blog is published, you can continue promoting it by listing a new fact, thanking the sources mentioned in the blog, or giving a shout out to sites where readers can get more info.

Step 6: Fill in date-specific events.

Use those book signings, holidays, and special events in your life to create posts that give your audience greater insight into you or connect you with your audience on a larger scale. Post a picture of your Mom on Mother's Day, post a picture of a fan from a book signing, show off your spangly gala dress, and give a thank you to that organization that invited you to speak. Your followers love the peek into your life, and they also love it when you show appreciation!

Step 7: Fill in the rest of the calendar using unused ideas on your list.

Now that you have the "must-haves" filled in, you can use the rest of your calendar to discuss the "like-to-haves," the topics that are important to you and help define your message. Promoting my wonderful clients, providing tips on social media best practices, and highlighting fun things to do in the D.C.-area are all topics that are important to me and that I'll make sure to include now. Other go-tos to fill in your monthly social media calendar include:

  • Ask people to follow you on other social media channel
  • Promote other people or services in your community
  • Share an article that might appeal to your fans
  • Use an easy app like Recite.com to create and post a quote you enjoy
  • Post a pic of your pet
  • Re-share older blog posts from your website
  • Ask your audience a question

Happy calendar building! And feel free to contact me if you need any help!

What's one topic or theme that you're interested in that could make your social media stream distinctive this month? How could you use that topic or theme creatively in a post?

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How to Find the Story of Your Business

What makes YOU special? This is the most important thing to know when communicating to attract customers because YOUR STORY is what distinguishes your business from others. Knowing your story will allow you to authentically communicate with your clients. How? When you know and embrace your story, you speak the truth in everything you say. 

How to find the story of your business

What makes YOU special? This is the most important thing to know when communicating to attract customers because YOUR STORY is what distinguishes your business from others. Knowing your story will allow you to authentically communicate with your clients. How? When you know and embrace your story, you speak the truth in everything you say. 

Don’t believe me? Try this out:

A. I’m a professional organizer

B. I’m a professional organizer who loves to cook and has tons of gadgets and has spent years coming up with ways to wrangle my gadgets so I specialize in organizing kitchens and I’m REALLY good at getting your kitchen organized and anyone who doesn’t have their kitchen organized by me is really missing out. 

See?

Clarifying your story allows you to understand and embrace:

  1. the value of what you have to offer
  2. the fact that no one else can offer it (because no one else is YOU)
  3. that customers need what you’re providing

Finding their story is the first step I take when small business owners want my help with social media and marketing. When I was a newspaper reporter, I had to practice the skills of uncovering someone’s story quickly and then re-telling that story in a compact, compelling way. How do I discover their story? I ask questions.

My Social Media Plan Questionnaire breaks down the difficult “What is your story?” question into four manageable pieces that explore the business owner, her business, her customers and her goals. Instead of asking for a person’s autobiography, I ask a person — metaphorically — where he grew up and who he played with. In this way, we uncover the good stuff that makes a business interesting and indispensable.

First in my Social Media Plan Questionnaire, we explore a person’s business, the reason they’ve called me in the first place. They need to market their business. I ask a lot of questions but listed below are the most powerful in each category. 

Next, I ask about a business' customers. We have our own goals and dreams, but we don't build our business in a vacuum. The need we fulfill for someone else is a HUGE part of our story. Who are the people you’re selling to? They define your story as much as your parents and siblings define your autobiography.

Then we investigate you. You're the person who woke up one morning and decided it would be a great idea to open a store or start a solopreneur business or write a book (if you'd only decided to sleep in that morning, amiright?). Why? Explore what dreams, gifts and problem-solving efforts you bring to your enterprise, and you'll be one step closer to finding your story.

Finally, we look at your goals. Our goals tell our stories like nothing else. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was one of the first questions we were asked as kids. What do you want your business to be when it grows up?

Now take a step back and look at your answers. In repeated themes, in items you got excited about as you answered a question, and in realizations you only had in the process of the exercise, is your story. Embrace your story, include it in your messaging, and your customers-turned-fans will come flocking.

Want to find your story? Discover it on your own -- or contact me for more help -- by filling out this social media plan questionnaire.

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How to Love Your Twitter Feed

Twitter has been the single-best way for me to learn from my peers, connect with people who have something worthwhile to say and establish that I have something worthwhile to say, too. 

How have I lifted my Twitter feed from the junk? I treat it like gold. Here’s how you can, too.

How To Love Your Twitter Feed

The doom and gloom stories about how Twitter growth is flat-lining has definitely been reflected in the conversations I’ve been having with new small business clients coming to me for social media help. They don’t get Twitter, they say, and more ominously, they don’t see why they should.

“I’m trying to help people filter out the junk,” said a professional organizing client. “I’m not going to hang onto it on Twitter.”

And yet, except for rare exceptions, I insist on a Twitter component to my clients’ social media strategies. Why? Because Twitter has been the single-best way for me to learn from my peers, connect with people who have something worthwhile to say and establish that I have something worthwhile to say, too. 

How have I lifted my Twitter feed from the junk? I treat it like gold. Here’s how you can, too.

Keep your feed sacrosanct

We don’t let just anyone into our front door. So why would we let them onto our Twitter feed? Twitter can be your window onto the virtual world, so be judicious about what you’re going to see. Only follow people and companies that are useful to you, people and companies that have something meaningful to say about your profession, location, clients, hobbies, politics, entertainment, whatever floats your boat. Unfollow them immediately if they are no longer useful (constant sales pitches, abusive tendencies, waaaaay too much snark) and never, ever, ever blindly follow back. Look through the peephole at every Twitter feed and, if they’re not for you, don’t open the door.

Use Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists are a great way to take your feed full of useful information about your profession, location, hobbies, etc., and break them into individual streams of info about each topic. I have lists focusing on social media, D.C-metro area restaurants and Virginia wine (as well as 21 others). So, with a couple of taps, I can instantly discover the latest news in my industry, a place to eat out on Friday night, and where we should go wine tasting on Saturday. Unfortunately, creating lists aren’t as easy as they could be. If you’re new to Twitter, you can download this guide to creating a Twitter list. If you already have an established Twitter feed, the app Listomatic takes some of the finger work out of creating your lists. Making the Twitter lists easier to create and manage would be one way Twitter might be able to get some of its enthusiasm back.

Be true to your voice

I owe my first social media client to my Twitter feed. He said my posts made him laugh; that he liked the way I put things. I use too much hyperbole and too many exclamation points, but it’s who I am. Allow your Twitter posts to reflect who you are. Don’t believe that a too-cool-for-school snark is the only way to be successful. Let your Twitter posts sound like you, let them offer up your goals for your business, your good intentions toward your customers, and your honest motivation to be a contributor to a positive virtual community.

Engage

Liking, re-tweeting, commenting on, and clicking on good content in your Twitter feed is the number one way to insure good content keeps appearing. Let people saying things that you like know it. Those are human beings on the other side of that screen and they are looking for the same validation you are. Don’t be afraid to tell them that you like their message.

Focus on the quality, not quantity, of your Twitter followers

I have a vineyard client in the Russian River Valley wine-growing region of California who only has 622 followers and is only following 595 feeds. But they are connected to every winegrower, winemaker, wine writer and wine organization in their area, and are followed back by many of them as well. Nothing wine related happens in their area that doesn’t pop up on their Twitter feed. This took time, it took patience, and it took repeatedly saying, “Hey, we like what you have to say! Hey we have something to say, too!”

It also took restraint to not blindly chase after followers. Instead, we focused on only distributing posts that are useful to our followers and only taking in posts that say something we need to know. In this way, this client has a Twitter feed that provides a golden, clear view into their industry, instead of a view crowded by a bunch of junk. 

Do you love twitter? Hate it? Why? Please comment below. And Include your Twitter handle (@Twitterhandle)

Need help creating Twitter lists?

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Resolve to Create An Annual Social Media Calendar in 2016

For busy authors -- or anyone building a brand or a business -- one of the most daunting tasks we face every day can be sitting down to post to social media. Wouldn't it be phenomenal to sit down every day knowing exactly what you're going to blog, post, and Tweet? And hitting "enter" with the confidence that what you post will reflect your personality and interests, appeal to your fans and move you toward your business goals?

If you're resolving to do better with your social media in 2016, an annual social media calendar is the key to making your New Year's resolution a reality.

I was honored this week to guest blog at Writers in the Storm, a popular blog named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer's Digest for the last two years. Since following through on New Year's resolutions seems to be my theme right now (see last week), I figured I would help these writers with their own social media resolutions. The result: A blog about how to develop an Annual Social Media Calendar. While the article is addressing writers, these steps can be used by anyone hoping to put their best social media foot forward in 2016:

For busy authors -- or anyone building a brand or a business -- one of the most daunting tasks we face every day can be sitting down to post to social media.

"What should I say?" we think. "Who's going to care?"

Wouldn't it be phenomenal to sit down every day knowing exactly what you're going to blog, post, and Tweet? And hitting "enter" with the confidence that what you post will reflect your personality and interests, appeal to your fans and move you toward your business goals?

If you're resolving to do better with your social media in 2016, an annual social media calendar is the key to making your New Year's resolution a reality.

Here's how to build one:

Step 1: Make a list of your business goals for 2016.

Business Goal List for Annual Social Media Calendar

While writing is a creative endeavor in the search for truth and beauty, and social media is a wonderful forum for giving virtual hugs to your fans, writing is also a job. Social media is the advertisement. So instead of letting social media pull you away from your job, make it work for you. This list will insure that your business goals for that "creative endeavor" are front and center so that you can integrate them into your social media throughout the year.

Step 2: Make a list of your personal and professional events in 2016.

Personal and Professional Event List for Annual Social Media Calendar

We can forget to post our special events on social media in the midst of a hectic writer's conference or anniversary vacation. And that's the fun stuff -- the stuff our fans love to hear about. Writing these professional and personal dates down now will allow you to remember them later. Sure, you probably won't forget to promote that new book, but seeing it coming up on your social media calendar will remind you to start building a plan for promotion months ahead of time.

Step 3: List holidays/seasonal events that are important to you.

Scroll through the months. What are nationally recognized days that speak to you? Christmas, Hanukkah, spring break, first day of school, National Doughnut Day? Use these days to connect with your fans and to let them know you have the same excitement about Santa, the same relief about the kids going back to school, and the same interest in candied-bacon doughnuts as they do.

Step 4: Write down 4-5 themes that distinguish you.

Themes are the rocket fuel of your social media calendar. Your themes are what distinguish you, your writing and your philosophies from other authors, and they are what will set your social media posts apart from other posts in a fan's stream. Themes -- you're an animal-loving, travel-seeking rock climber who writes sexy small-town contemporaries and loves men in kilts -- give your fans something to hang onto. Staying consistent with your themes gives you a foundation from which you can grow an audience that loves you.

My themes in my annual social media calendar are:

  • Social Media/Writing -- Of course.
  • Being "In Between" -- Issues of being in my 40s: old enough to have a senior in high school and young enough to still like going to live music shows.
  • Ways I Can Help -- How I'm a strategic thinker, storyteller, cheerleader and accountability partner for my clients.
  • Fun in D.C. -- Tips on best restaurants, drinks, events and outdoor activities in the D.C. area.
  • Community -- Applauding and promoting clients, friends, writers, advice givers and others I admire.

I have a vineyard-owner client whose themes are:

  • Evolution of a Vineyard -- Discussing the evolution of this relatively new vineyard.
  • The Growing Season -- Tracking the annual cycle of the Pinot Noir vines from pruning to harvest.
  • Russian River Valley Winegrowers -- Supporting the winemakers and growers of their area.
  • Around the Vineyard -- Celebrating the gophers, family visits, new barn doors and bocce ball games of living on a vineyard.
  • To Dos in the Russian River Valley -- Promoting the people, wines, geography and events of Russian River Valley in Sonoma County.

Think big picture when you're developing your themes. Make sure your themes include a mix of professional and personal interests, and -- because social media is "social" -- make sure at least one of your themes focuses on promoting others.

Here are some questions to help you decide your themes:

  • What are your books about?
  • What do you like to do in your free time?
  • What did you study in school?
  • How would your friends describe you? 
  • Is there a cause or charity that you're passionate about?
  • Do you have any hobbies?
  • What do you day dream about?
  • Are there community or writer organizations that you want to support?

Step 5: Build your template.

This step is easy. Click here, fill in your email, and you'll receive the above template to build your annual social media calendar.

Step 6: Enter your business goals at the top of the template under "General."

Annual Social Media Calendar - Angelina M. Lopez

Installing these goals at the top will insure that they are top of mind as you're developing your social media plan of attack for each month. Make sure your goals are accomplishable within a month (you are only human and you need to sleep), and break large goals, like "Finish a book", into manageable monthly bites, like "Write 20,000 words."

Step 7: Enter your themes on the side of the template.

Annual Social Media Calendar Template -- Angelina M. Lopez

I like to include details about the themes that will jog ideas when I'm filling it in later.

Step 8: Enter your "Events" at the bottom.

Annual Social Media Calendar -- Angelina M. Lopez

Step 9: Fill in the blanks.

Annual Social Media Calendar -- Angelina M. Lopez

Now you will use your themes as a guide for coming up with content ideas for the rest of the year. Wha...?! I know, sounds daunting. But it's easier than you think. And a little blood, sweat and tears now will prevent you from having to bleed, sweat and cry EVERY TIME you sit down to post for the REST OF THE YEAR.

1. Keep your ideas general. This is just your annual calendar. Your ideas can get more specific when you work on your monthly calendar (more on that later). For example, if you love to cook and one of your themes is "Eating Healthy," a February idea could be "Cooking with root vegetables." What will be in the pot? Who knows? But seeing it on your calendar will help focus you when the time comes.

2. Connect the holidays/seasonal events you listed with a theme that focuses on you personally. My "In Between" theme allows me to talk about my personal life. So in it I will talk about my New Year's resolutions in January, Mother's Day in May, the fact that this will be the first Father's Day without my Dad in June, and my son going off to college in August. Connecting my life events to the holidays and seasons gives "me" a platform to talk about "us."

3. Find a category and stick with it. A writer who writes stories about sexy ski bums could fill his social media feed with pictures of awesome ski resorts. He could highlight a different ski area -- Colorado, California, Switzerland, Chile -- every month. A writer who loves to objectify the male body -- I know I do -- can focus on a different body part every month. Like I said, this does not have to be difficult.

4. Don't re-invent the wheel. I have a professional organizing client who uses online tools like Dropbox and Evernote to help people eliminate the paper clutter in their lives. So guess what? In January, she spotlights tips on how to use Evernote. In February, she offers tips on Dropbox. In March, it's another tool, then another and another, until July comes around and we start with Evernote again. Offer information that you already have and don't be afraid to repeat yourself.

Step 10: Putting your annual social media calendar to work.

Your annual social media calendar will:

  • Insure you're hitting all of your business goals by highlighting a goal every month 
  • Provide you with blogging ideas that enrich the message of your website 
  • Guarantee that your day-to-day social media posts communicate a consistent message of who you are as a writer 
  • Remind you of important events to insure you're posting and promoting them 
  • Provide an outline for your monthly social media calendar

Pantsers can take a look at their annual social media calendar whenever they're stuck and instantly have a social media idea to get them back on track. Plotters can use their annual social media calendar to fill out their monthly social media calendars, a day-by-day listing of what they're going to blog and post about so they'll never have to wonder. But THAT is for another blog post (or you can contact me for more info).

May your social media posts be easy and fruitful in 2016! 

Don't forget to sign up for your free annual social media calendar template.


What is one social media challenge you'd like to conquer in 2016? Let me know in the comments section.

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Resolving to Find the Fun in 2016

In 2016, I want to focus on being happy again. I believe happiness takes a certain level of mindfulness, and at my age, I know joy doesn't consist of just vacations and mani/pedis. True joy is found in your day-to-day, in taking care of your family, partnership, health, work, friends and home. So, to succeed in this year's theme -- "Find the Fun" -- these are the New Year's resolutions I've made to be responsible for my happiness and to kick the blahs out the door. 

Me in 2014.

Me in 2014.

2015 kind of sucked for me.

I dealt with painful "getting old" back and leg issues, my son was immersed in junior/senior year stress (and we all went along for that ride), and my Dad died. There were many blessings, too: a trip to Vegas, a great writing conference, new clients (yay!), and the continued health and contentment of most of my family.

But in 2016, I want to focus on being happy again. I believe happiness takes a certain level of mindfulness, and I want to be mindful of discovering joy, rather than passively suffering through the misery. At my age, I know joy doesn't consist of just vacations and mani/pedis. True joy is found in your day-to-day, in taking care of your family, partnership, health, work, friends and home.

So, to succeed in this year's theme -- "Find the Fun" -- these are the New Year's resolutions I've made to be responsible for my happiness and to kick the blahs out the door. I only succeed when I'm held accountable, which is why I'm posting them here. I'll blog again in February about how I'm doing.

Family resolution

I resolve to create more moments when we can be together as a family. 

It's amazing, when your children are teenagers, how easy it is to live with people that you never connect with. We're home together a lot, but the boys are working as hard as I am on "the future," and when we're not working, we're relaxing on devices -- I'm as bad as they are. I'm trying to keep this resolution simple, i.e.. accomplishable: I'm resolving to eat more meals at the table and to plan one event a month that gets us out of the house together. I've already got this month's event on the calendar: We're going to the Harper Macaw chocolate factory tour in northeast D.C. Could there be a better lure? And yes, there will be a blog.

Marriage resolution

I resolve to find one new adult event to explore every month with my husband.

My man's a blast, he's pretty much up for anything with only mild convincing, and we have a lot of fun together. But with the stress of last year, we went out less and less, and when we did go out, it was generally to the same place. We both enjoy life with a few surprises, so in 2016, I'm committed to finding the Kennedy Center performances, bourbon tastings and hiking trails that will offer them.

Health resolution

I resolve to feel better.

Resolutions about weight and health are rife with controversy, and I thought long and hard about how to phrase this one. But the thing is, I don't feel good at the weight I am. I think it's hard on my frame. The end of last year was a "eat-and-drink-my-pain" fiesta and in the four days that I've been eating better, exercising every day, drinking more water and cutting back on alcohol, I already feel better. The proof is in the pudding, even when I can't have any.

Work resolution

I resolve to post to social media every day, skill build two hours a week, blog every week, and make a certain amount every month.

As a busy social media manager who helps my solopreneur and small business clients learn, plan and post their social media, I forget to do my own learning and planning and posting. The prime directive I give to all my clients is to take control of their marketing and messaging. And yet, I can let my messaging passively dribble out, too. However, with a child soon in college and a directive about how much I have to make in 2016 from my financial planner, my business and income is something I can no longer be passive about. Need help with your social media resolutions? That's what I'm here for.

Friends resolution

I resolve to entertain more and be more entertaining.

Oh, my lovely friends. Does it feel like your digits are gathering dust on my phone? Friends and their information, advice, laughter and love inject a huge dose of fun into my life, and I will use the excuse, "I'm sooooo busy," no longer. I've already got a couple of gatherings at our house planned -- look for your invite -- but I'm also going to remind myself that seeing my friends does not have to be a production. Over coffee, with a glass of wine, or during a joint trip to Target is a great time to enjoy my friends.

Home resolution 

I resolve to do what our financial planner says.

While being in our 40s doesn't make my husband and I feel any closer to adulthood, we are trying to behave like adults. We finally met with a financial planner at the end of last year, and she has given us our marching orders. It's calming to know we're driving down the road of our financial future with our eyes wide open, rather than squinted shut while hoping everything is going to be okay. It's also nice to know someone is there to help us handle the dips, rises and inevitable potholes. 


What are your resolutions for 2016? Do you have any suggestions to help me with mine? Please comment below. I need all the help I can get.

And please check in again in February to see how I'm doing. 

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Social Media Angelina M. Lopez Social Media Angelina M. Lopez

Feeling Overwhelmed by Social Media? This One Simple Statement Will Help...

Overwhelmed. It's the number one reason small business clients call me for social media help. I have a magic statement to calm hyperventilating clients.

Feeling Overwhelmed by Social Media?

Overwhelmed. It's the number one reason small business clients call me for social media help, the first descriptor out of their mouths. “I feel overwhelmed by social media.”

Of course they do. For small business owners just trying to do their due diligence and connect responsibly with their customers, dipping a toe into social media can quickly feel like they’ve been thrown into a lake. Naked. They’ve set up their Facebook page. But when should they post? What should they say? Why can’t anyone see them? And then there’s Twitter? What’s a hashtag? Do they have to be snarky? And what about Snapchat? Vine? Do they have to blog?

Add such charming words as “SEO” and “analytics” to the mix, and you can understand why so many small businesses have dust bunnies gathering on the social media pages they began with such enthusiasm.

I have a magic statement to calm hyperventilating clients:

Social media is a billboard.

Social Media is a Billboard

It is. At its essence, social media is a tool you use to catch the attention of new customers and jar the memories of old. Yes, it has infinitely more potential than an oversized poster on Highway 169. But its usefulness to you – at its heart – is the ability to draw customers.

When you compress all of those digital options into a two-dimensional billboard, doesn't that make your decisions seem easier? You can probably figure out your billboard plan with no problem -- where it should go, what it should say, what it should look like, how long it should be up there. Now apply that same thinking to your social media billboard plan:

Where should your social media billboard be located?

Does your company want to attract the photo, food and travel hipsters living in the downtown lofts of Instagram? Or is your company aiming for the families living in the comfy middle-class 'burbs of Facebook? How about those cute ladies living in the shabby-chic Pinterest homes over on the eastside? Plunk your social media billboard down where the audience you want to attract most will drive past it. And don't be distracted by the newly sprung communities that pop up everyday claiming to be the new Facebook. As a small business owner with other responsibilities to focus on -- like running your business -- let others test whether those new social media channels will prosper or languish. You don't have the time or energy to stick a billboard in a ghost town.

What should your social media billboard say?

When you have potential customers whizzing by at 55 mph, you've got to get your point across fast. People scroll through their social media feeds at about the same speed. Let those same messages you would place in huge letters on a billboard -- your tagline, what you're proud of, a new offering -- lead what you say in your social media content. I have a parenting coach client who uses an approach we've named "organized parenting" to bring calm and happiness to families. So postings about parenting, organization, being happy and content, and upcoming speaking events fill her feed. I have another client who is very proud to be growing Pinot Noir grapes in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley, a prime wine grape growing region. Most days, their social media feed sings the praises of this acclaimed wine area.

What should your social media billboard look like?

You can get pretty fancy with a billboard -- LED technology, electronic displays, those spangles that shimmer in the wind-- and the same is true with your social media images. But save collaged photos overlaid with quotes and embedded with links until you're further along in your social media journey. What's the one image on your social media billboard you can guarantee no one else will have? You. You, your business, your employees, your satisfied clients and the results of your hard efforts. Get comfy with your smart phone and post those pics that shout most clearly what a good job you do and how much you enjoy doing it.

How long should your social media billboard be up?

Keeping your billboard up for only a couple of weeks would make it ineffective; think of all those potential customers who are distracted by the radio or trying a new route those days. The same goes for your social media billboard. You have to commit to your social media channels and post, consistently and for a duration of time, for them to have an effect on your business. 

YOU have to show up. 

Because relationship building is where social media FAR exceeds the benefits of a billboard. For the first time in history, you have the opportunity to shake the (virtual) hand of each and every person that depends on you. You can build an authentic relationship with them based on trust and common interests and your good work. But if you get frustrated with your social media and walk away, if you post haphazardly and aren't present for the people who want to hear from you, if you ONLY talk about what you have to sell and don't try to connect with your customers' likes and interests, you might as well have spent that time and effort and money installing your billboard on an abandoned road.


If you're a small business owner, what is the number one thing you find overwhelming about social media? Please let me know in the comments below.

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Angelina M. Lopez,
contemporary romance Author

Writing ferocious love stories


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