How Does Social Media Help Businesses Grow?

How Does Social Media Help Businesses Grow?

Sean: How can I expand the reach of my business on social media?

Erika: So first off, make your social media pretty. Kidding aside. Aside from it being aesthetically pleasing because it is important right now on social media and for people to notice you, then it has to look nice.

But then at the same time, what do people get from what you post? So that people will be more interested in what you’re offering. Keep posting that so you’d be able to reach the people that you want to reach on social media.

I think if you’re just starting, just choose one or two social media platforms that you want to focus on, like maybe Facebook and Instagram, because you might get overwhelmed if you’re going to go everywhere else. Sean, what do you have to say about this one?

Sean: I’m going to say the hard and painful truth about it, that you have to cough up money, that’s how you do it. I mean, Facebook and Instagram is a for-profit platform and there is a balance that they’re trying to tiptoe around. Look, a lot of people on social media, you and me included, we don’t want to see a lot of ads. We don’t want to see a lot of companies selling us products and stuff, right?

So how Facebook prevents that from happening is by prioritizing supposedly your personal network, friends and family, and they make sure that everything that you’re going to see that’s not friends and family is paid. That’s it. There’s almost zero organic reach now for Facebook pages and companies. Almost zero because they did it that way that you have to pay for you to expand your reach because people don’t like seeing a lot of ads. They don’t like being sold to. They don’t like seeing irrelevant stuff on their newsfeed.

So as business owners, it’s a pain for us because we want free reach. We want free stuff, free marketing, free advertising, and free placements. Sadly, that’s no longer the case. But in the early days of Facebook, I’ve experienced that when one ad would cost you .0001 centavos. That was way back 2009.

Erika: Really?

Sean: Yeah, oh man, those were the days in which your organic reach could still skyrocket, but now you have to pay up. That’s really it.

Erika: But if you want to have a really fast reach right now, try to explore TikTok. I mean, I’m just starting advertising on TikTok. I should start doing it, but I feel so old. It’s so hard for me to do that. I really have to learn it since it’s one of my goals this year to work on my TikTok platform.

But I’ve been hearing from a lot of business friends, the coaches, the influencers, and business owners, they have a really fast reach on TikTok. As long as you know how to do it, and it’s bite-sized information so you can do a lot of things there.

Sean: Which reminds me, my team created a TikTok account. I tried it out. Shout out to Toni Aquino and Marvin Germo, who have been goading me on to go there. They’ve found huge success in that platform. I haven’t yet. Let’s see. You know, let’s see.

I think that if you’re looking for organic reach, it is one of the platforms that actually can give that for now. I mean, YouTube is also really tough now so I heard TikTok is one of the platforms that you can go to.

How did you learn more about strategies to grow your business?

I read a lot of books and I got mentors. That’s really it.

Erika: Google.

Sean: Google. Google is a good mentor.

Erika: And trial and error.

Sean: Yeah. Trial and error. But trial and error, though, is expensive. That’s the most expensive mentor you can get.

Erika: It’s better to learn from people who failed already, right? So they can share their insights as well.

Sean: I agree that’s one of the best ways to do it. Trial and error is one of the most expensive ways to do it, but one of the most unforgettable ways to do it as well. Because when you sink money, your own money, your own hard earned money, you don’t forget what happened there.

Erika: Yeah.

Sean: So some of the books I recommend would be EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. Good to Great by Jim Collins and Malcolm Gladwell books like The Tipping Point. I have also have a book, 50x Your Business. It’s available on Amazon. If you have an Amazon Kindle account, you can purchase it for like five bucks. It’s like two Starbucks coffee orders and you could check out what I did and my strategies as well. I wrote it all there, so you could check that out.

How can I tell if it’s time to hire my first employees? I want to hear from your story, Erika.

Erika: If you’re so overwhelmed and of course, number one, if you can afford to hire your first employee, but then also at the same time, if you feel like you can do so much more with your time than doing whatever it is that you’re doing, of course, time is more important.

And if you can afford your first employee, especially for doing all those admin daily stuff, that’s very easy to teach to other people, do it. And you don’t even have to hire them full time. You can try it as part time. You can ask them, ” Oh can I just get you every this, this and this?”

I mean, I’m sure, especially nowadays, a lot of people are looking for jobs, and it’s also very easy to get part-time employees or virtual assistants. And I think it’s important to hire people if you want to grow because you won’t be able to do everything.

Sean: So when did you hire your first employee? When did you decide it’s time?

Erika: Before I was shipping out 20 packages a day. Maybe for other people that’s small or they’d be like, “Can’t you pack 20 a day?” I mean, at minimum wage, I can pay someone to do that for me and I’d have more time to do other things that would earn more money.

Sean: That’s how to do it. So I think I’ve hired my first people when the work was too much. SEO is a huge practice. You have to know how to code or understand code really well. You have to be able to write and get into the psychodynamics of what keywords people are using. And at the same time, you have to be able to market well and talk with other marketers and relate with them because you’re going to be forming partnerships with them.

So three things that are very, very different. Usually a programmer doesn’t write so well, can’t market that well and vice versa. A writer is not that very logical when it comes to programming and has a hard time understanding it. So having all three is a rare thing to find in someone. And I was doing everything. So I was writing, I was building links, creating partnerships, I was coding, I was understanding more code all at the same time while selling SEO, while marketing, while improving my website, while managing expectations with the clients, while billing them, and while depositing that payment in the bank. It’s a lot.

And when I realized that I was actually suffering in terms of my health, my time, my temperament, I decided it was time to hire people already. And the things you need to watch out for is people get expensive very quickly because you have to pay for their salary, you have to pay for the taxes, you have to pay for their SSS, Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth, have your contribution there. And they’re going to ask for a raise at some point in time and you have to give them their equipment, their table, work area, chair, laptop, whatever. And it gets expensive quickly if you don’t hire smart. So lots of things to consider.

But once you’re already suffering too much for your business, you should think about hiring, especially if you’re making money anyway. You know, you have money to use to hire people, then use it to hire people. And there’s a saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. So that’s food for thought.