Blog
Home » Blog » Engaging Your Following by Jonathan Christian at Social Media Mastery: The Liveblog
marketplace

Engaging Your Following by Jonathan Christian at Social Media Mastery: The Liveblog

Jonathan Christian by Helafit on Twitter

Jonathan Christian starts out by complimenting the previous speaker, Katt Stearns, on her terrific presentation.

How many of us when asked how we’re doing we say “Great! I’m so busy!” and how many of us knew we were lying when we said it? You know what I mean. What if your transmission fell out and it would cost you $5500 to fix. Would it be just fine, so what, or would it be FML time? I want to show you what an engagement strategy would look like if it could solve your problems. Help you avoid those Holy Crap moments.

What’s in a name? My wife and I moved house into our dream house. I walked into my living room and looked at Mount Baker out the window and it was Holy Crap, like, I Am Blessed. You want that feeling? Of course.

He introduces his kids one at a time, tells their stories, and shows how they have been incorporated to his twitter handle. @jdgem

In 2008 I couldn’t have gotten any lower. Nobody was spending money on social media consultants. Coming up to a red light, and bang! Someone went through the red light. I had to have my neck replaced, so now it’s titanium. Thousands of dollars of damages to me and the car, chronic pain. Three children, no job, no money. I did have a laptop. So I was looking at FB thinking how on earth can I do anything at all when the heaviest thing I can lift is a mug. How can I network without leaving the bed? So I started friending people, set up a Twitter account, a LinkedIn account as a way to fill up the day and also as a way to drum up some business. And it worked.

That is where engagement was born for me. “Out of every adversity is an equal or greater opportunity”. So I started blogging about “What is Facebook” and just explained it in non-geek terms. Then I did LinkedIn. Fast forward to 2016 we now have 16 people in our company, and we call them our #Tribe.

The 5 E’s of Engaging Content

  1. Educate
  2. engage
  3. entertain
  4. empower
  5. bring an exact strategy together.

“It’s no longer about the stuff you sell but about the stories you tell.” Seth Godin. And you’ve liked my stories, haven’t you?

How does your brand make people feel? Happy, annoyed, inspired? What you really want is when they want it! When they know who you are and they like what you do, they will hire you.

What are they struggling with most? If you can answer that, you’ve got a business model.

Your social media pages should be the heartbeat of your business. The passion has to come through in your posts. Be real! Emotional connections matter. Be authentic. You can have a huge impact, even if you’re bedridden.

A map of your social media presence has the blog at the centre and each other platform is a spoke. The more spokes the more outreach, the more engagement.

Your mission is to become the best engaging teacher in the world at what you teach. Believe you are that expert, believe you can help other people.

14% trust what you say about your business 80% will trust what someone else says about your business. Awareness is fine, but advocacy will take your business to the next level.

Your blog becomes your passion for your business. Become the leading authority on what it is that you do. Blog = Content Marketing. People aren’t calling you up to see what you do, they already know. They’re calling you up because they think you’re an expert now.

You have to come up with a way to fill the blog hole. How to get it done: practice, get feedback, start getting it right, get the stuff scheduled so you’re not feeling hounded. Sometimes you procrastinate; ask someone to hold you accountable. Get comfortable with your blog, comfortable in your own skin. Then SHARE it. Syndicate it, share it everywhere.

You must get people’s email addresses. Business gets done by email. If you’re putting this stuff out and your list isn’t growing, you’re doing it wrong.

At the end of the day, it’s just: Tell your story and have fun.

Make your business page your employer, keep your personal pages separate. You can lose your personal page if you do too much business.

EDUCATE: if someone asks you a question more than once, turn it into a blog post.

ENGAGE: be topical, hang a blog post off something that’s getting lots of buzz.

ENTERTAIN: make sure your social media is fun.

EMPOWER: use motivational quotes (there is a grumble from the audience at this, not everyone is a fan).

The biggest thing that makes a difference is video. Facebook Live for instance. It puts your personality into things more than any other platform, and don’t worry if you’re not gorgeous. It’s not about that. And it doesn’t have to be fancy, just use your iPhone. You can get accessories if you want, but you don’t need them.

Ask questions to build community. Likes are great, but they mean nothing. Comments and shares matter.

Tag others in your posts. Be generous. He gives several specific examples of his clients.