Dr. Barnes explains a series of questions you can use to create a social media blueprint for success. If you're stuck and not sure how to give your social media a makeover, these questions will help. This episode is based on Dr. Barnes' book "5 Social Media Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid."

In the book, Dr. Barnes documents the growth of a technology company as it implemented a social media blueprint for success. Although the company has a social media following of fewer than 50,000 on Facebook and Instagram, it routinely reaches between 10 and 20 million people each month by following the social media blueprint for success.

Transcription:

James Barnes: (00:07)
Welcome to the Bricks-To-Clicks Marketing Podcast. If you're a small business owner and you struggle with marketing your business, this podcast is just for you. I'm your host James Barnes and thank you for listening today. Let's get started.

James Barnes: (00:22)
Well in this season, we've been talking about the five social media mistakes your business should avoid. And we've been talking about how you turn those mistakes into principles you can use, to start giving your social media a makeover. That's really going to get your brand noticed and start to grow you online. And today what I want to talk about, it's called the social media makeover blueprint. In the book, I go through quite a bit of detail and show you the exact social media posts that you can create using the blueprint and all kinds of details and I show you the case study example for [inaudible 00:00:55], the company we documented in the book. But today I want to take a step toward that by just talking about the right questions. You should be asking to give your social media a makeover.

James Barnes: (01:07)
Okay? So we're just going to cover the questions in this episode and then wrap up season one. In the next episode, we're going to be talking about the one thing that you've got to do to give your social media a makeover. I'm going to give you the questions today, but there is one thing that you've got to do, and I'm going to tell you what that is in the final episode coming up to wrap up season one. But today let's talk about the questions. So the first question or set of questions really talks about problems and loss. We've talked about this at length. So I'm going to go through these questions piece by piece. Okay. Problem and loss. What is the customer problem you can solve with your products and services? What is the customer problem that you solve? Can you name at least two values your products and services deliver to your customers?

James Barnes: (01:51)
And these are values that if they don't purchase them, they're going to lose out on, maybe your product or service saves time and saves money, fewer headaches, something. So you want to think about that, what are those and what can you write answers to that question? And then finally, can you use videos or images to show customers experiencing their problems and losses? In other words, can you document the problem? At the end of the day, that's what it is for hog out of the company, in the book that we talk about and show. If you look at their social media, they're going to show you the damage to property and land and crops, and lots of types of damage that are caused on property and land that [inaudible 00:02:34] hogs caused, that's the villain for them if you will.

James Barnes: (02:38)
And so they documented this on social media extremely well, they show it and then they show the solution and they get into what that looks like for their technology there, their camera business. But again back to, can you use videos or images to show customers experiencing their problems and losses, whatever they may be, think about how you can do that and capture that. Next here are some questions about empathy. Can you explain or show empathy toward your customers? Can you use language that explains here's, how you can connect with them? I understand, we understand the problem you have, how frustrating it is, whatever it may be, you need to use empathy. So how can you do that? How can you show that you understand the problem and the losses your customers have experienced?

James Barnes: (03:23)
Maybe you have a personal story. Maybe you can share that with someone, your customers so that someone out there will connect with you and they'll go, you know what, they really do understand the problem I have. I want to do business with them. And a lot of times we buy stuff that really does connect with us that way. Another thing you can just ask yourself about this is, can you write empathetic statements to use on your social media and your other marketing. Once you really get good at writing words of empathy, not only will it be on your social media, it'll probably end up in your one-liner, maybe even your part of your value proposition, it could end up on your website, any of your marketing collateral can be a piece of that. So about empathy, those are the questions you want to be asking about.

James Barnes: (04:06)
And the next is you want to think about your product as a solution. Okay. So which products and services do you offer customers to solve their problems? Depends on what the problem is. Right? You know what that is, but then what do you offer to solve that problem and how do your products and services make your customers feel better after solving the problem? If they have frustration before your product as a solution gives them peace of mind, no stress, no hassle, something like that when they buy it from you. So that's another question you want to think through, as you think about your product or service as a solution, and then finally, how do your products or services save time, money, or headaches for your customers? What is that? Brainstorm, how are we positioning our products and services? And then the next question you want to ask is really what is the customer problem you have, right?

James Barnes: (04:58)
What is the customer's villain? Can you use images or video to give life to the villain in the story you're telling that's all about your customer? Can you do that? Can you show how the losses happen because of the villain? Can you bring the villain to life with images or video? And this can be done in lots of different ways, but just think about that. How can you bring the villain to life to start building this tension, this drama about how you can help the customer have a better life if they avoid and defeat the villain? That's the kind of stuff you want to be thinking about. So that wraps it up for this episode. I want to talk with you about the social media makeover blueprint, instead of questions that you can use to start answering these things and really help your social media be given a makeover.

James Barnes: (05:47)
These are the questions that we use over and over and over again, to help companies start rethinking what it is they do on social media and how they can position themselves. So if you want to check out the free PDF I put together for this episode, you can get the downloads and show notes and much, much more for all the episodes for the podcast, just by going to our Facebook page, just search for Bricks-To-Clicks Marketing.

James Barnes: (06:07)
Thank you for being with me for this episode. We're going to wrap up the season in the episode that's next, where we're going to talk about the one thing that you really have to do to get give your social media a makeover that works. And if you don't do this one thing you're never going to be able to give your social media a makeover. I can tell you all the questions. We can lead you through the mistakes, avoiding them, using principles on content, creation, and everything else. But if you don't do this one thing, none of it's going to matter. I'm going to tell you what that is ...