SIMPLE SOCIAL: The World’s Simplest Social Media System By A.J. Madden
Positive Self-Esteem: The Key To Everything You Want
February 17, 2020
Best Bar/Restaurant Test
February 17, 2020
Table of Contents
- Facebook and Instagram Strategy and Tactics
- Instagram-Specific Strategy and Tactics
- Success Leaves Clues: Outstanding Facebook and Instagram Brand Pages
- Best Engagement Times
- Simple and Effective 14-Day Content Strategy
- Maximize Your Efforts (Time Management)
- Additional Resources
- The Seven Secret Steps To Creating The Most Effective Ads
- The Simple Three-Step Formula To Dominate Social Media
1. Facebook and Instagram Strategy and Tactics
Social media is the accelerator to the story of your business and the stories people tell about your business. This is by far the most important concept to remember to be truly successful with your social media. What do you want the story of your business to be?
Think about your social media content as a continuous documentary of the business.
Your social media is often the first impression someone gets of your business. As in life, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Know exactly who you are. Begin by asking yourself this question: If your business was a person, what type of person would he or she be? Who you are should also be similar to the types of customers you want to attract. What makes them happy, sad, excited, etc.? What are they interested in beyond your business?
“People follow you not because they understand what you do. People follow you because they feel understood.” Dan Lok
The Three Most Important Questions To Ask When Creating Your Content:
- Is it simple? Simple is beautiful. Complex is ugly.
- Is it different? Nobody notices normal.
- Is it shareable and/or will someone tell their friends and family about it?
Make your content FOR and ABOUT your fans and the community. Think about WHO it is you are trying to attract and WHAT it is they want to see.
Engagement with your fans is equally as (if not more) important than the content you post. Your social media should be a two-way conversation. Listening and responding is where the real magic happens. Respond quickly, positively, and throughly to comments, questions, messages, and reviews. In addition, reach out and initiate conversations with your fans and followers.
Create and showcase products and/or unique room elements (colors, wallpaper, furniture, signage, etc.) that are worthy of your customers taking pictures and videos and sharing them on their social media. Think simple + different.
You don’t have to try to sell something. You can get tremendous results by simply educating, inspiring, or entertaining your audience. If they like what you are saying, doing, and stand for, they will talk about you to friends and family and/or buy from you in the long run. Aim to educate, entertain and inspire your audience with 75% of your posts, and sell to your audience with the remaining 25% of your posts.
Passion persuades and enthusiasm is contagious. Have FUN making content and don’t think about it as work.
Just do it. Don’t try to be perfect. Schedule a few minutes now and just get started creating and posting content.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Everything you post should evoke positive emotions: joy, laughter, enthusiasm, inspiration, motivation, gratitude, education etc.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Ask yourself whenever you are posting if the content is:
- Educational?
- Entertaining?
- Inspiring?
- Motivational?
- Humorous?
- Fun?
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Take the time to create great pictures that are SIMPLE and tell a STORY about your business, product, employees, and customers.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Rotate between videos, pictures, and live videos. Figure out what resonates most.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Images with bright colors catch attention. So do images with smiling faces.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: When it comes to text, think “less is more”. There are exceptions to this rule.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Test and experiment with new content and track what resonates best with your audience. Double down on the type of content that gets the best response.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Smart alliances are 100% the fastest way to grow your business or brand. Collaborate with brands who you may share an audience with. Give your collaboration partner something of value in return. Look for those who have large followings by first adding value to their page by shouting them out and/or offering them something of value for free.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Do not feel pressured to post something every day. Think “quality over quantity”. Not even the major brands post every day. You can start as small as two posts a week. With that being said, if you have something valuable to post for your fans every day (and you enjoy doing it), go for it.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Look for micro-moments to tell the story of your business/brand. These are constant updates of behind the scenes and/or unique real-time, day-to-day moments.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Pick the platform (or platforms) that best resonates with your audience and dominate.
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Engage all reviews. Thank people for positive reviews. Learn from negative reviews and do what you can to directly address and remedy the problem. Better yet, don’t give people reasons to give you negative reviews. “Marketing is dying. Ratings and testimonials are growing. The first content we have to build is ratings and testimonials.”. -Brad Sugars
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Utilize sponsored ads. If your content is good, they can be one of the most cost-effective, highest return on investment ways to spend your marketing dollars. Period.
Key Facebook Statistics:
- Posts with 40 characters or less receive 86% more engagement.
- “Question” posts get 100% more engagement.
- The “fill-in-the-blank” strategy generates a 900% higher comment rate than other post strategies. Only 1% of brands use this tactic.
- Asking to “like” increases interaction by 216%.
- Posts with photos get 54% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs than posts without a pictures.
- Photos with faces are 38% more likely to get likes and 32% more likely to get comments.
- Fans are 36% likely to share and 39% more likely to comment if your content is in VIDEO form.
- 8. Live videos get better engagement than regular videos and are watched three times longer.
2. Instagram-Specific Strategy and Tactics:
Making sure your bio is good is crucial:
1. Clear professional picture
2. Brief description of what your brand is all about
3. Your brand motto
4. Use emojis
5. Your most important link
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Use relevant and trending hashtags and place them as your first comment.
The best brands post 1.5 times a day.
If your content is great, you can post 2-3 times a day.
Use video (and be sure to use a good thumbnail).
Use good images, strong color, and nice design to visually capture, grab, and interest people. Make your photos share-worthy.
Try adding text to your images and see if your audience responds.
Create a community through hashtags (create a name for your followers/fan nicknames, mottos and catchphrases unique to you, etc.)
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Utilize sponsored posts. They are the most cost-effective way to advertise today.
Key Instagram Statistics
1. Posts with a location get 79% more engagement
2. 59% of 18-29 year olds use Instagram
3. Instagram photos generate 36% more engagement than videos.
4. 65% of top-performing Instagram posts feature products.
5. 80% of your content should focus on educating, enlightening, and engaging your audience, and 20% should be self-promotional (Gary Vaynerchuk)
6. Photos with faces get 38% more likes.
3. Success Leaves Clues: Outstanding Facebook and Instagram Brand Pages
SUPER SOCIAL TIP: Model masters. Success leaves clues. Study the three most popular people/businesses in your niche for creative inspiration.
What To Do (Learning From The Best Pages):
- -Create a list of brands that post consistently great content. Pick the THREE best brands and study their content religiously.
- -Check back on the pages on your list once a week in the beginning, then once a month once you have a deep understanding of what content is working for them (and why).
- -Follow outstanding pages both inside and outside your industry.
What To Look For (Learning From The Best Pages):
- -What kinds of photos do they use?
- -Are they using videos? What kind of videos?
- -Are they using live videos, story posts, etc.? What are these about?
- -What subjects are they talking about?
- -What type of content are they posting that gets the best engagement for them?
SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
- Dwayne Johnson
- BJ Penn
- Dallas Mavericks
- National Geographic
- Dani Johnson (author, TV and radio host)
- Tai Lopez
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- WWE
- Channing Tatum
- Cam Newton
FOOD AND DRINK
- Dead Rabbit (Bar, New York City)
- Mother Of Pearl (Tiki Bar, NYC)
- Cha Cha Matcha (New York City)
- Texas Road House
- Burgatory Bar (Pittsburgh)
- Firehouse Subs
- Dixie Chicken (Bar, College Station, TX)
- Pal’s Sudden Service
- Blaze Pizza
- Marriott Hotels
- Nutella
- Frooti (TheFrutiLife)
- Condado Tacos
RETAIL AND SERVICE
- Zappos
- Trader Joe’s
- Red Dress
- Burt’s Bees
- Buckle
- Mark Bustos
- Threadless
- Dirt Queen NYC
HEALTH FITNESS PERSONALITIES
- The Body Coach (Joe Wicks)
- Alphafoodie (Instagram) Samira Kazan
- Rener Gracie
- Jocko Willink
- Joe Yoon, LMT (massage therapist)
- Jay T. Maryniak (fitness coach)
FITNESS BUSINESSES
- Barry’s Bootcamp
- SoulCycle
- CorePower Yoga
- Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy Torrance, CA
- Art Of Jiu Jitsu
- F45 Fitness (f45_training)
- Burn Boot Camp
- Orange Theory Fitness
- Y7 Studio (Yoga)
- Crossfit
- Planet Fitness
- Tough Mudder
- Gold’s Gym
- Equinox Fitness
4. Best Engagement Times (according to 16 studies on Coschedule.com)
Facebook: 18% higher engagement on Thursday and Friday, 32% higher engagement on Saturday and Sunday . Best times to post: 9am, 1pm (most shares), and 3pm (most clicks). Facebook is used through mobile and on desktop, at work and at home. It really depends on the audience as far as who and how it is used.
Instagram: Best days to post are Monday and Thursday; Sunday has very low engagement. Best times to post are 2am, 8-9am (best), and 5pm; the worst time is 3-4pm. Posting a video at 9pm gets 34% more interactions. Post more content during off-work hours, aside from the peak times. Overall, Instagram users are on a network meant for mobile, and that means they tend to use the network all the time, anytime.
Another study on Instagram:
Instagram users engage more on weekdays. Tuesday through Friday from 9am to 6pm are by far the safest days to post to maximize engagement. Thursday has the highest engagement, Sunday the weakest. The most recommended times: Wednesday at 5pm, Thursday 5am, 11am, and 3 to 4pm, and Friday at 5am.
5. Simple and Effective 14-Day Content Strategy For Facebook and Instagram
Every post must include a picture or video
This strategy can be followed for 14 days in a row, or 3-4 days a week for the next 4 weeks.
The calendar can be followed in order of days, or you can skip around as long as you do 14 different types of content in your set time period (14 days or 4 week).
After creating and posting 14 days of content, examine which posts got the best interaction and which posts did not.
Keep testing and experimenting with the posts that did not perform as well by adjusting and improving the content.
After testing and experimenting for 90 days, you may want to narrow down the content to just one (and up to five) types of posts that your audience enjoys the most.
Double and triple down on the type of posts that your audience responds to the best.
Here’s the calendar:
- Day 1: Fan profile or customer using your product/service
- Day 2: Behind the scenes look at the business telling the story of your most important/popular/famous product or service, team members at work, etc.
- Day 3: Social Proof: video customer testimonial, written customer testimonial with picture, screenshot of a positive online review, celebrity customer, “before and after” transformation pictures, total number of customers served in the lifetime of the business, total number of products sold in the lifetime of the business, picture of a line of people in front of the business, case study of customer success from using your product
- Day 4: “Shout out” another local related (or unrelated) business
- Day 5: Giveaway/contest by asking for likes, comments, and/or shares
- Day 6: Create a short selfie video on your phone thanking someone (fan, customer, employee, vendor, community member, etc.)
- Day 7: New product or service (include a person in the picture)
- Day 8: Educational (recipes or tutorials of your product or service, or something related to your product or service)
- Day 9: Teaser for something new that is coming soon in your business
- Day 10: Positive quote with a picture
- Day 11: Holiday (Obscure/Quirky)
- Day 12: Surprise fan-exclusive offer
- Day 13: Fan-submitted photo contest
- Day 14: New (or current) team member profile
If there is a certain type of post on the 14-day calendar that you don’t think will resonate with your audience, you can:
1) Replace it with a different type of content of your own creation, or
2) Repeat a day in the content calendar that you like best.
What is most important: that you follow some type of content calendar in the beginning of your social media marketing journey… with discipline and pigheaded determination…for 14 or 28 days. Think about the content calendar like you would think of “training wheels” on a bicycle.
Full List Of Content Ideas:
1. Customers using the product/service
2. Behind the scenes look at the business
3. Team members at work
4. Teamwork
5. Community involvement
6. Related businesses
7. Contests
8. Giveaways
9. Fan profiles
10. Team member or community Charity and Volunteerism
11. Celebrities (local, athletes, entertainers, politicians, etc.)
12. Celebrations
13. New product or service (include a person in the picture)
14. Educational (recipes or tutorials of your product or service, or something related to your product or service)
15. Surprise
16. Fan exclusives
17. Statistics
18. Quotes
19. Weird/Quirky/Out of the Ordinary
20. Positive local and national events and stories of goodwill in the news
21. Holidays (Major and Obscure/Quirky)
22. Pop culture events
23. Fan-submitted photo contest
24. Thought for the day
25. New team member profile
26. Recommendations for new staff
27. Hold Q&A sessions
28. Conduct polls and surveys
29. Limited-time offer
30. Team member, customer, or celebrity takeover of your page
31. Social proof: video customer testimonial, written customer testimonial with picture, screenshot of a positive online review, celebrity customer, “before and after” transformation pictures, total number of customers served in the lifetime of the business, total number of products sold in the lifetime of the business, picture of a line of people in front of the business, case study of customer success from using your product, positive press articles and reviews of your business
32. Hashtag a photo guest or staff contest
33. Pictures showing that your brand is fun, likable, hardworking, patriotic and/or friendly
34. Shout-outs to communities your brand interacts with
35. Exciting company breakthroughs and happenings
36) Inspirational images
37) Cross-promote a business or person in your niche. Network with bigger channels.
38) Customers can “pay” for one of your products by taking a picture with it and posting about it on their social media page or pages
39) Play up secrecy (examples: send your Snapchat followers on a mission to snap you back answering a question you asked, or give your Instagram followers a “secret password” to type as a comment on your live chat on Periscope or Facebook live)
40) Tell your audience about all the time and effort that goes into delivering your product or service.
41) 100 days of ________ (examples: healthy meals, shoes, exercises, positive quotes, etc.)
42. Nostalgia
43. Customer birthdays and celebrations
6. Maximize Your Efforts (Time Management)
Follow a simple “content calendar” so you don’t have to constantly come up with new ideas.
Use the content you create on multiple platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) to maximize your impact. Stretch your content.
Batch your content by scheduling time to create multiple posts at once. Then, on the platforms that allow it, schedule them to be posted throughout the week.
7. Additional Resources
Book recommendation: Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen
Good articles and current insights: Entrepreneur.com social media section
Socialmediaexaminer.com
Content creation apps:
- Canva
- PhotoGrid
- Splice
Educational YouTube channel: Gary Vaynerchuk
8. The Seven Secret Steps To Creating The Most Effective Ads
1. Eye Catching Image (most important element of the ad because it’s the first thing people notice)
- -Bright colors
- -Contrasting colors
- -Smiling, happy faces
- -Fun
- -Funny
- -Interesting statistic
- -Mention the current year (relevant now)
- -Beautiful locations
- -Out of the ordinary pictures
- -Celebrities
- -Tell a story
- -Big promise (examples: Your life is about to change, promise big, quantifiable results)
- -Relevant to your ad target audience
2. Make It As Simple As Possible
- -Simple picture
- -Few words
- -Use numbers (almost always a good idea)
- -Less is more
- -Striking minimal design
- -Loud and clear
- -Benefits over features
3. Enticing Value Proposition
- -FREE sample
- -Social media fan-exclusive discount or free item with a purchase
- -Educate
- -Giveaway contest
4. Risk Reversal
- -Money back guarantees
- -FREE sample
5. Social Proof Numbers and Stories (Testimonials)
- -Total number of customers served in the lifetime of the business
- -Total number of products sold in the lifetime of the business
- -Video customer testimonial
- -Written customer testimonial with picture
- -Screenshot of a positive online review
- -Celebrity customer
- -“Before and after” transformation pictures
- -Picture of a line of people in front of the business
- -Case study of customer success from using your product or service
6. Clear Call To Action
- -Hurry, offer ends soon
- -Time is running out
- -Limited time offer
- -Click now
- -Buy now
7. Test Out Different Types Of Content (to see which get the best engagement and/or sales conversions):
- -Video
- -Slide show
- -Blank colorful background with text
- -Single picture with people, place, and/or thing
- -Single picture with people, place, and or/thing and text
- -Infographic
9. The Simple Three-Step Formula To Dominate Social Media
- 1. Model Masters. Study the THREE best pages in your niche for creative inspiration. Success leaves clues.
- Create World-Class Content. Tell your STORY while entertaining, inspiring, and/or educating your FANS. Ask yourself: Is it simple? Is it different? Is it shareable and/or will someone tell their friends and family about it? Follow a Content Calendar with disciplined execution and pigheaded determination to see what best resonates with your audience. Double down on what resonates best and eliminate what doesn’t. Create ads out of your most engaged content. Use the Seven Secret Steps to create the most effective ads.
- Repeat. That’s all. Don’t overthink this.
The end.
