Content Queen Mariah

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243: Social media engagement… what is going on?

Mariah MacInnes

Have you noticed a downward trend in your reach? Engagement on your social media content? 

Let’s talk about it. 

When you remember we are business owners not content creators then you can structure a balance that allows for connection and conversion, that is when we will see more results (and to be fair, engagement might not matter as much). 

But as I said, balance. This episode of The Content Queen Podcast will share more about what is going on and what you can do to reflect your marketing goals and create content that gets that connection and conversion you need. 

⁠⁠✨⁠⁠LEARN content marketing strategy in our free workshop⁠⁠✨⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

  • Why it is important to understand marketing funnels (and how to understand them) 

  • What missing piece you might have on social media 

  • How to reflect and connect with the right goal for you and your business 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇 

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 243, and I'm talking all about engagement on social media and what the hell is going on. Welcome to the content queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah entrepreneur, storyteller, digital nomad, creative content bootcamp, and founder of content queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

It's time to build trust with your audience. Each week I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business, and content creation. I will also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey along with actual steps to help you take your business to the next level.

to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful land marketing and content strategy. Let's do it. All right. Welcome to another episode of the content queen podcast. As the title suggests, we're talking all about  social media and engagement and what is going on. And I want to share a little bit of a story to start this off.

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a guy. I can't remember subscribing to his emails, but anyway, you get a lot of those. And it caught my eye titled three likes to clients. Now, I don't know how true this is,  but I've actually seen this myself. So I really want to talk about. Engagement at the moment, what is happening is, of course, business owners have this sort of parallel between selling your products and services.

And being a content creator because we want to build connection, right? Some of us can go too far one way, and some of us can go too far the other. So you could find business owners probably, you know, being a little bit too much in the lifestyle genre, sharing what they do, and then people don't really know how to buy from them.

And so, But then also we have a lot of business owners that are just selling all the time, just directly selling without using any part of the marketing funnel. And what is also happening is, yeah, people sort of tuning out. So it's about finding this balance, right? Finding this harmony between sharing and connecting, but also  converting.

And it's not always easy  when we remember that we are business owners and not content creators, but we're sort of a blend in the middle called entrepreneurs. I feel like maybe that's the best way to coin it. Then we can structure a balance that allows connection and conversion. So I want to talk about that and go through three things.

that can probably help you understand what's happening in the current landscape and yeah, how you can adapt and how you can change because  there's no secret that we're probably seeing a lot more content. We're seeing a lot more people owning online businesses. So this can also mean that there is,  yeah, there's a lot of noise and we have to find a balance between breaking through that noise.

Right. Now, the first one I want to talk about is understanding how marketing funnels work and how this can happen on social media,  because basically what happens is social media can arguably seen as top of funnel, right? People that don't know you are finding you, we're seeing this through Instagram reels.

We're seeing this through Tik TOK. You know, if you have gone viral on any video, you know, it opens you up to more exposure.  But  what happens is.  In the landscape of social media, there is this element of middle and bottom funnel. Now, we had a podcast guest come on at the end of last year, start of this year kind of episode around Instagram in 2024, and basically what she spoke about was seeing Instagram as its own funnel.

There's different parts of the platform that allow you to. Share and sell. And it's the same with TikTok now and Facebook, LinkedIn, not so much, but basically what it is, is there's different types of content that are for different people in your journey and in your funnel. And actually on some of these platforms, there is different types of the platform you can use.

For example, if we look at Instagram, we have Instagram lives. Instagram stories, Instagram reels, and a normal feed post, which could be a picture or a carousel, depending on what you share. It will depend on how far it goes. If you create a Instagram Reel, that is shared further than your audience. It's not just your followers, whereas  likely, unless it gets picked up by a hashtag or found on the explore page, a static feed, post or a carousel.

And Instagram live or a story is more likely just to go to your current audience. So they're the people that are more engaged with you and know, at least know who you are. So using that information, how can you create content that is from one side for engagement and the other side for more conversion?

So, you know, we see a lot of these programs, how to sell on Instagram reels, this, that, and the other. But you're selling more to a warmer audience generally, right? And a lot of these programs and courses that teach you how to sell on reels are sharing how to sell on reels. So of course they're going to get more colder audiences buying from them without knowing them.

But a lot of our businesses, people need to trust us before they work with us, right? Maybe they need a referral or recommendation. Maybe they need to be following your content for a while, engaging with you, being on your email list.  So knowing and understanding that can help you understand what type of content you need to create in what season of your business.

Now, the guy that said three likes, two clients.  He might've spent a lot of time previously building his audience. So yeah, maybe some of them aren't necessarily liking, but they're watching and they're warmer and they're ready to buy. So if you don't have a lot of audience, how can you spend some time doing that?

Now that's not as easy as putting out an Instagram reel and asking people to follow us. It is about using these platforms, using social media as a social media platform, putting yourself out there, spending time going to networking events. It's whether it's online or in person building up that audience so that you have more people to potentially sell your services to.

So as I said, the first one is understanding marketing funnels. What types of content do you need to create in different seasons of your business to either build audience or convert them? For example, if you're launching a new product or service in the next three months, you want to think about building audience.

Now you want to create more of that top of funnel content that people might laugh at. That they might. Think is a bit controversial. They might be entertained by that relates your business. Obviously that can go, Oh, I like this person. I want to follow them. But, of course, doing more work and going outside of the content channels,  in terms of just creating.

And that leads me into my second one is, remember it is a social media platform. Are you being social? So if you're going, ah, the engagement's really low at the moment, I'm not getting any comments, I feel like no one's really liking my stuff, it's probably not reaching as many people as it used to. Are you being social on these platforms?

Are you commenting? Are you engaging? Are you building your own community on these channels rather than just always putting content out there? Now, this is a interesting one, bit of a hard pill to swallow. And I need to take my own medicine with this because I was having this conversation with one of my clients who did an awesome podcast interview.

And With a public speaking MC expert and he talked about follow up talk to everyone in the room Don't just go show up and then expect to be asked to come back for more Speaking engagements was that concept and what they were talking about but it's same thing goes, right? Like are you connecting with these people?

Are you going out there? And it was An interesting reminder for me, because what happens is when you start your business, you're all about yes, building audience. So you will join all the Facebook groups. You contribute, you'll have more time as well, because you've got probably less clients. You probably don't have any clients, less people buying.

And then as your business grows, of course, like.  Your task plate increases unless you outsource bits, but you know what I'm saying?  And yeah, you do all that. Then after a while you go, okay, cool. I think I've got enough for the minute. I'll just keep my marketing efforts as content creation. And I'll probably just spend a little bit less time on social media because it is a bit of a drainer, which it is.

We've got to find our boundaries and our balances,  but. This is what we do. And I called myself out and I'm like, Mariah,  go out there and engage. Obviously we do it for our clients because it's part of the strategy, but for myself, I was like, no wonder you're not getting the reach or engagement you used to, you're also not commenting and engaging as much as you used to either.

It's an energetic exchange and you have to be out there talking with your community and your audience. And then of course, with that comes. More audience, you know, if you're commenting and engaging on other people's content, people start to see you and go, Oh, who's this? And even with networking groups and Facebook groups and all of that, I go through periods where I probably am not very active on them.

And then I am, and that's okay. It's seasons, right? But think about it. If you're getting less engagement, less reach, all that stuff. Go out there and now start being a little bit more social. And I joined, you know, some networking groups that I've, some I've been part of and some new ones. And I was like, get active in here, contribute, you know, add value to people's lives.

Don't just go, oh,  no one's really following me or doing this or doing that. Go out there and you make it happen for yourself as well. And then the third one is,  Don't just focus on one channel, but have a crack. Now, what I mean by this is you want to build an ecosystem. So you don't want to just be on social media as in Instagram.

And that's it. You want to have an email list and you might want to have a blog or a podcast, or you might do some more video on Tik TOK, or, you know, you want to create an ecosystem,  but you have to remember it is quality, not quantity. So when we say consistent, it doesn't mean every day.  Think about  building your ecosystem whilst also  when you're using those channels,  you're using them.

You're not just showing, as I said before, like, you're not just putting content out there and then that's it. You're actually  having a crack on that channel. You're actually showing up for your audience. And what happened with me recently is content queen strategy has been, you know, pretty firm. And then I was like, I just want to make a change.

Why are we posting as much as we are? Let's strip it back. Let's post every second day. I don't need to post every day and Let's just focus on more video more quality, and that's what I've done Can I share the results not just yet? but I have seen a spike in comments and engagement and reach and What happens is when these moments come where we're not getting as much Engagement or reach as we used to  it gives us a quick snap back into going why?

You Cause we can get comfortable. It happens with everything, our visions, our business, our relationships. When  something happens, which is usually a challenge, not good or bad.  We are reminded we need to take action because we can get into autopilot and just consciously or subconsciously actually just do the thing.

Sometimes we need to step back into our conscious and make changes. And that's why we look at data. That's why we review and have, you know, quarterly, monthly check ins in our businesses, in our marketing, because we do need to be switching things up. We can't expect to do the same thing all the time and expect the same results.

Because we're always evolving, we're always changing and you kind of need to adapt and go along that journey. So whilst I love building ecosystems and repurposing,  also the channels that you choose for your business based off, you know, Data, the channels you like to show up on and the channels that your audience is on,  then actually going, let's make an impact on these channels.

Let's actually do something that's going to  spark interest in our content.  Now with this engagement piece, we say, you know, it's not all about vanity and it's not.  And that guy that said, you know,  three likes, two clients from one post.  You can't argue with that. You can't be annoyed by that. You can't go, Oh, I didn't get enough likes.

If you've got two clients and he is a mentor. So I imagine it was like, yeah, like a decent quality client that he could serve and help. So  with that, we need to find this balance between engagement and. results, right? And a lot of the times we do look at likes and reach and things like that, but we don't always look at the impact that it's having on our overall business.

You know, those words of saying someone like, Oh, well I found you on Instagram or, Oh, I saw this post on LinkedIn. They might not be liking, they might not be commenting, but they're watching. Now we have our, I am, we are content queen campaign that I've ran a couple of times. And it's interesting with this campaign because.

I wouldn't say the reach and engagement is higher than any other campaigns or any BAU content. It's a brand awareness campaign. I don't  generate leads from it. It's purely just to share who we are and what we do.  Now you would think that the metrics for that obviously would be  the reach engagement followers.

And I, Reflect on those campaigns. And it's interesting because they kind of become a conversion campaign  because it isn't the reach engagement and followers. That's the highest metric when I reflect on those it's clients I get after those campaigns  and I've ran them every time I've ran that campaign off the back of that, I'm inundated with retainer clients.

And the purpose of that campaign is to show we are a content marketing agency That is, that should be trusted. That is not bullshitting you. That is, you know, authentic and that's what happens, right? But that wasn't the metric when I started that campaign. But isn't it interesting that  obviously the goal is to increase workload and to impact lives and all of those things.

And this campaign that's meant to be about brand awareness, of course serves in that way. It does create brand awareness, but it also creates all these clients, which I think is very interesting. So, you know, that concept from that post, that email that I got that said three likes to clients from one social media posts.

And he talks about, it's not always about those likes, it's about the impact. I have experienced that. I have seen that. And I'm sure you have too. I've had clients that we've done a, you know, carousel image post promoting an up and coming retreat. Didn't get massive reach, didn't get a lot of likes, but it had something like 30 to 40 website clicks.

I don't care about the likes after that metric. You know what I mean? So it's being understanding that we are. business owners. And yes, we create content. As I said, we kind of meet in the middle entrepreneurial. We want to have impact. So we want to share and build a personal brand. And that is what a content creator does, but then we're also sharing a service and that's a business owner.

So it's understanding your goals and where you need to be to achieve those goals. And what are the marketing stats that you need to think about when you are  reviewing that? So  I've given a few tips to help you. If your engagement is a little bit low. But just remember what's important. Just remember why you're doing your business and how you can achieve your goals and likes on a post might not necessarily get you there.

Of course, audience does, but that might not need to be a massive metric or even the reach might not need to be a massive metric for you,  but have a think about it and just keep measuring, keep looking and keep just making changes. As I said, I had this sort of low moment where I was just like, Oh, I don't know.

Like you have those questioning everything moments, but off the back of those are usually transformation. And I'm off the back of that. And I think when we feel uncomfortable with where our business is headed, where our marketing's going in relation to how, where our business is headed, how we're resonating with people online, When we have those moments where we feel a little bit like,  am I really having that impact?

When we question ourselves, when we take a moment to reflect on our vision, reflect on where we want to be and make changes. And usually after that is where results come. So maybe this will spark you to make some edits in your content marketing strategies, or the plans of how you're showing up on social media to just think about how you can make more impact.

Cause that's the thing. That's what we're here to do at the end of the day, but be a content queen or king and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business. Thank you so much for joining me today and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends.

You can do this by adding it to your Insta stories and tagging me at content queen Mariah or just tell them about it. If you do rate and review, I'd love to hear from you and let me know if there is any topics you want me to talk about in the future. I would love to cover them. But yes, leaving a review or rating on this show helps me get more amazing guests, help me to continue to create content like this.

Follow me on Insta or TikTok and yeah, I will talk to you very soon. Bye! 

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