7 minutes with Stevie Says Social.

It’s impossible not to love Stevie from Stevie Says Social, she’s bubbly, outgoing, stylish and her Instagram feed is various shades of delicious. My favourite thing about her is that she practices what she preaches, growing her Instagram from ground zero in March this year at a rate of knots and documenting the process along the way.

Here’s 7 minutes with Stevie Says Social*

*Yep, I timed it.

Who are you and what do you do?

Stevie Dillon, Stevie Says Social. I help service-based businesses launch and grow using social media marketing (I also document my own (imperfect) business journey as I go!)

What does that actually mean?

I coach, educate, strategise and manage all things social media marketing for service-based businesses. I also provide content creation services.

How do you prepare your social media accounts and followers for an upcoming marketing campaign such as a competition?

The MOST important part of running any type of campaign is promotion. Honestly, this should comprise the bulk of your efforts when it comes to running a competition via social media. Essentially, this is the phase where you are warming up your audience, so they know what’s coming and – with the right strategy (and prize!) – they are excited about it!

Content marketing is my jam, so one strategy I would recommend would be to write a blog post that is related to your competition prize a few weeks out and then promote the bejeeezus out of it in the lead up.

For example, I will shortly be running a competition to win a yearly planner to help plan your content and you can bet your bottom dollar I will have a blog post coming out beforehand about my social media planning strategy where I will reference that exact planner as a way of getting my audience pumped and EXCITED about having the opportunity to win it!

Do you have a checklist of things to set up on your social media accounts as minimum?

I’d recommend that biz owners make a big, long list of every single asset that they have access to. This will be a huge help whenever a campaign is coming up, and will save scrambling about wondering how the heck to promote it.

As far as social media account set up, inventory should include:

Facebook:

• Pinned post | You can ‘pin’ a post so that it appears at the top of your Facebook page when people check it out.
• Cover image | Update with artwork promoting your competition
• Call to action button | Update this to link to your competition page
• Posts | Schedule out regular posts in the lead up to the competition

Instagram:

• Bio | Update your bio.
• Link | Make sure your link points directly to the competition page
• Posts | Schedule out regular posts in the lead up to the competition

Remember though, social media isn’t the ONLY marketing platform you have access to! Leverage things like your email signature tagline, website, newsletter, blog and collaborate with others in aligned but non-competitive businesses.

How often should you post and what types of content should you be posting during a campaign such as a competition?

This question has a few different elements.

Firstly, organic content

Hopefully, you already have a social media content plan which sets out how regularly you are posting on each platform, as well as the type of content that you are posting.

My golden rule when it comes to social is that 80% of your content should add value – and not be a sales pitch. Why? Because people will never buy from you if they don’t already know, like and trust you first. 20% should be about you – promoting your products, service and generally things that are going to get you leads and sales.

Your competition content should sit within the 20%. For the duration of the campaign, most – if not all! – of your promotional content should be directly at plugging your competition.

Secondly, other social media channels

The biggest one here is Facebook groups. If the rules allow and the target market is aligned, promoting your competition in groups is a great way to tell non-followers about your promotion and get them involved!

Thirdly, paid advertising

If you have the budget, paid ads to promote your competition can have excellent ROI if done right. ‘Done right’ means great creative (image and copy) and great targeting (ie you are serving ads to the correct target audience, and ideally that you have custom – warm audiences – set up). I recommend ‘split testing’ to really get the best out of your ad spend, which really is just a fancy way of saying test different copy/images/messaging to see which people respond to best.

Do you have any recommendations for converting visitors to your social media pages into entrants/followers/clickers once they’re there?

Hopefully, you’ve geared your competition towards entrants who are aligned with your target market. The alternative is people who just want to win a prize – any prize – which isn’t ideal for obvious reasons!

So, assuming you’ve nailed your strategy and you’ve attracted the right people and they’ve been introduced to your business, it’s time to start developing a relationship with them.

How do you do that?

PROVIDE VALUE. Create content which informs, educates and/or entertains your target market. Consistently do that over time, and you’ll develop an engaged audience of potential customers and clients. That’s a win!

What to do with the ‘leads’ you collect from a marketing campaign like a competition once it’s closed?

Ah, the possibilities are endless! Ultimately, it depends on what your objective was.

If the competition was run solely on social, you could announce the winner, and then offer those who didn’t win a sweetener – 20% off, etc. This gives all entrants an opportunity to engage with your business.

If you collected email addresses, you could include a condition in the T&Cs to allow you to input their email address into Facebook and then to serve ads (aka valuable content) to them.

If your competition required entrants to visit a landing page, you could install the Facebook pixel on there and create a custom audience in the Facebook ads manager to serve ads (aka valuable content) to.

Any tips for how to keep the momentum and engage your new followers once your campaign/competition closes?

Make sure that your social media strategy is on point in the days and weeks following the end of a competition.You’ll (hopefully) have a heap of new followers, and you want to make sure that you are posting consistently and providing them with value through good quality content.

Dig up your best performing blog posts and schedule them in. Schedule your content ahead of time so you know everything is sorted. Engage with everyone who comments on your posts. Just generally be on your best social media behaviour and make a good, lasting impression on your new audience.

Do that consistently over time, and with any luck those competition entrants? Well, they’ll become adoring fans and paying clients!

What’s your super power?

Using social to create irresistible service-based businesses with pipelines of clients dying to work with them!

What would be your one big tip for people setting up their social media?

Social media is a conversation starter, not a deal closer. For service based businesses, it’s all about getting people to know, like and trust you enough to do business with you!

Finally, how can people get in touch with you if they want to know more or work with you?

You can find me via my website www.steviesayssocial.com/, plus, I give away DAILY social media tips for free on Instagram www.instagram.com/steviesayssocial.