Importance Of Social Media – Vicki Irvin
MUST HAVE RESOURCES
SUMMARY
Vicki Irvin has made over a million dollars in 12 months with the help of social media.
In this episode, Vicki shares how social media can help you grow a healthy email list and drive traffic to your Squeeze or Opt-in page. She emphasizes that having a huge following on social media platforms doesn’t matter because they are not yours.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
An entrepreneur should spend the majority of his/her time building a list.Drive people away from social media and back to your personal list constantly.
Your followers on social media platforms aren’t yours, so drive them to your website.
You have to post with frequency to make sure you’re capturing as many people as possible.
With Twitter, use a lot of images and post links. Get people excited with what you tweet.
On Facebook, use posts with pictures, and quotes. Do live video streams.
Start out small with social media, and add more tools to your tool belt as you get more comfortable.
For social media newbies, start with one platform and master it before adding more.
Roll out one social media channel slowly until you get comfortable with it.
TRANSCRIPTION: IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA – VICKI IRVIN
Luis Congdon
Would you like to understand the importance of social media to get your message heard and do so organically? If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the importance of social media, on today’s episode, we’re going to make that a lot easier for you.
Today’s guest is Vicki Irvin. She’s made over a million dollars in 12 months from ground zero. It is incredible what she has done because she realized the importance of social media.
She’s been in Millionaire Blueprint Magazine, Essence Magazine, CNN, Few Essay Today, Lifetime Tv, Bloomberg Radio, Essence.com. She has been all over the place and she has used social media in many powerful ways. That’s why we had to have her on the show.
She’s a superwoman lifestyle leader. She’s written several different books about the Superwoman lifestyle, and now, we have her on today’s show to discuss with you how to create that perfect lifestyle by understanding the importance of social media for your business and brand.
All right, Vicki! Welcome to the Thriving Launch. Are you ready to launch?
Vicki Irvin
I am ready to launch! And thank you for having me.
Luis Congdon
Oh! It’s so great to have you here.
Kamala Chambers
You know, the importance of social media is a topic that everybody needs even if you have a huge list. This is an important topic to dive into.
Luis Congdon
You got to keep growing that list.
Kamala Chambers
Yeah, just kind of get bigger and bigger.
Vicki Irvin
Yep.
Luis Congdon
Let’s just jump into it. This is a big topic and I’m just going to throw it out there.
Guys, if you’re listening, she’s going to be at Biz N Brewz.
So today, we’re going to get a condensed version of this awesome content.
What’s the first thing we should know about building a list?
Vicki Irvin
Oh, wow! That it’s something that you need to spend a majority of your time on as an entrepreneur.
Importance Of Social Media And Communication
Vicki Irvin
I think everyone in this day and age is online now, and everyone needs to communicate like sending people email.
Before it just used to be a few people saying “I’m an Online Marketer/Internet Marketer” when reality it’s just another way of reaching your people.
Importance Of Social Media And Being Consistent
Vicki Irvin
Being consistent and understanding, and getting it through your head, this has to be a consistent and very important piece of your business. That’s step number one because people will do everything in the world to try to avoid it.
Luis Congdon
Yeah. It’s like what Anthony Robbins says, “You’re either growing or you’re dying.” That’s the same thing with your business. We’re talking about self-help with Anthony but in life and your business, if your list is growing, then your business growing.
I want to grow my list. What is the first thing I should be doing?
Importance Of Social Media And Having A Squeeze Page
Vicki Irvin
You should first have some type of Squeeze page where you are driving traffic to it and getting people who are ideally in your target market or you’re tribe. Those are the people who are genuinely interested in what you do.
You are driving those people to your Squeeze page, and you are offering them something in exchange for their contact information. We refer to that as a Widget.
Importance Of Social Media And Offering Something In Lined With What You’re Selling
Vicki Irvin
Some people say “What’s your freebie?” “What’s your free give away?” All the same thing. And you want that to be something compelling and lined with what you’re selling and what you’re teaching.
In a day and age where everyone is in and dated with many emails, you have to get through the clutter. Everyone’s on everyone’s list. Every time we open up our laptop, we’re getting flooded with emails from people. It’s harder and harder in this day and age to get people to actually give you that contact information.
Whatever your freebie is going to be, it needs to be something absolutely irresistible.
That freebie is going to make that person say “Okay! I have got to get my hands on that!” And so they enter that name and email.
Importance Of Social Media – First Step To Building Your List
Vicki Irvin
So the first step would be having a great Squeeze page or Opt-in page with a great irresistible offer that people just have to get their hands on.
Kamala Chambers
Yeah. I can’t agree with that more. That is definitely such an important piece.
What Entrepreneurs Who Don’t Realize Importance Of Social Media Miss
Kamala Chambers
I think you nailed something important and a lot of coaches or entrepreneurs starting off miss this point. It should be an offer that’s congruent with the thing that you’re trying to sell at the end of that funnel.
Vicki Irvin
Yes:
Kamala Chambers
You want people on your list that are hot to buy what you have to offer.
Vicki Irvin
That’s right.
Kamala Chambers
Let’s talk a little bit about driving traffic.
We have the opening of our funnel with our Squeeze page or Opt-in page. What are some of your best tips for driving traffic to that page?
Old Methods Of Driving Traffic And The Importance Of Social Media
Vicki Irvin
I was an entrepreneur before social media came along. And so I was spending all the big bucks on Google Adwords and running Ads on the radio because we didn’t have social media. What else are you going to do? Those were the old methods.
With the advent of social media platforms and many people being there, there are many more cost efficient ways to drive traffic to your Squeeze page or your Opt-in page.
Importance Of Social Media And Drive People Off Of It To Your Squeeze Page Constantly
Vicki Irvin
One of the best things that I like to do is take some of those offers and content, and drive people off of social media to your Squeeze page constantly.
Playing around on Facebook and Twitter is fun but there’s also a reason you want to be there. First of all, it’s social media, so you want to be social. I’m a firm believer in adding some fun to it, and getting to know people and giving them a chance to get to know you talking like an everyday person and regular conversation.
Importance Of Social Media And Different Ways Of Providing Free Content
Vicki Irvin
Then, hitting them with “Hey! Come over here to my page. Let me show you what I have for you.” You do that by creating content whether it’s a great blog post that you’ve written or a free teleclass. There are many different things like a free webinar. All of those things can bring people over to Opt-in.
There many different pages you can create to get people to Opt-in but it has to be centered on great content. You have to able to show them the benefits of being there and what they’ll get out of it because at the end of the day we all know what’s in it for me.
Importance Of Social Media – You Can Show What People Can Get From You
Vicki Irvin
Nobody cares about you that much more than what they can get from you and how you can get them a positive result.
My number one thing is just driving people from social media to hang out with me in my space. I think that’s important.
Realize The Importance Of Social Media And Your Followers On It Aren’t Yours
Vicki Irvin
Sometimes, when you ask people, “How many people do you have on your list?” I start talking about all these followers they have and how many Twitter people. I’m like “That’s really cute but that’s not yours. That belongs to Facebook.”
Luis Congdon
That’s cute.
Vicki Irvin
That’s cute!
Importance Of Social Media And How It May Shut Your Account Down Anytime
Vicki Irvin
Just today! I had a client. She freaked out because Facebook shut her down. She doesn’t even know why. And this happens to people all the time. I’m sure you guys have heard about it too.
I mean, there’s a bunch of young interns running social media platforms and people make mistakes all day.
Importance Of Social Media And Driving People Back To Your Personal List Consistently
Vicki Irvin
That’s what’s most important. So you have to have content, the links to drive them back, offer them something and say “Hey. Look what I have,” and doing that consistently.
Luis Congdon
Yeah. It’s true. A lot of people talk about having a lot of followers in different spaces and it’s great. I know people that are monetizing their Instagram or using Facebook to get clans and everything.
Importance Of Social Media And Its Policies
Luis Congdon
The thing is that, Instagram can change. They can all of a sudden say, “You know what? We don’t want you guys sending links to other websites anymore and anything that’s a “.com,” a URL will immediately not be allowed.”
Now, people are big in Facebook groups. I think a lot of people have Facebook groups.
Understand Importance Of Social Media And The Danger Of Not Building Email Lists
Luis Congdon
I’m teaching a course on how to use Facebook and Facebook groups, and how to grow your business that way but if you also aren’t building that email list, you’re in danger of whatever platform that you’re using.
Changing and having them say, “You know what? We’re going to allow this or that,” you don’t own it. And if you don’t own it, then you can’t control it. And if they change it, then you’re SOL.
Vicki Irvin
Absolutely! I know people who had their Facebook groups shutdown.
Let’s face it. When you’re doing great work and a lot of us have competitors, you have people reporting you if they see you over there with a bigger plan for. There are all sorts of things going on.
Importance Of Social Media And Keeping The Ultimate Goal
Vicki Irvin
You have to control that as much as you can by keeping the ultimate goal being moving people to your own personal list. Because you’re right! We don’t have the final say over there on those platforms.
Luis Congdon
It reminds of our interview with Ray Higdon, who’s also going to be at Biz n Brewz.
Ray talked about having his YouTube channel and about 140 flags or so in an hour. He’d been on Youtube for years. He had tons of subscribers and views, and his channel got shut down because, pretty much honestly, like somebody bought something from Fiverr or something like that and got his channel shutdown. He’d never had any flags and then all of a sudden in 1 day or in 1 hour, he got 140. That’s not real. That’s just not a common thing.
Importance Of Social Media And Owning A Healthy Email List
Luis Congdon
We all know Ray is great but here’s the thing, “He didn’t own Youtube.” He doesn’t have any power but it didn’t matter too much for him. He saw a very small dip in his traffic and business because he owns a healthy email list.
We have all these different platforms or driving people back to our website, have you found certain ways that work well inside Facebook or Instagram or Youtube? You pick whichever platform you want to talk about that works well to drive people back to your website because a lot of people are like “Woah! I don’t know. I don’t want to seem spammy.”
How do we drive people back to our website through social media?
Vicki Irvin
Everyone’s afraid to seem “spammy” but you have to understand that with these platforms people are coming on and off at all different times of the day, different countries, and different time zones.
Just because you post something at 8am Eastern, another person on the West Coast are not going to catch it. They may be asleep when you post.
Limiting Beliefs That Stops You From Seeing The Importance Of Social Media
Vicki Irvin
You have to understand that you have to post with some type of frequency to make sure you’re capturing as many people as possible. So that’s one of the limiting beliefs about Facebook and people’s fears of posting too much.
I’m like, “Get it out there. Get it out there most couple of times because you’re going to hit different people at all different points all over the world.
Importance Of Social Media And Changing The Link In Your Bio In Instagram
Vicki Irvin
One of the things that I like to do with Instagram is if I’m promoting something specific, I would change the link in my Bio. The link in my Bio is typically set to one of my free offers or giveaways to get people to Opt-in to my list.
But if I’m on a Telesummit or promoting something or an affiliate for somebody, I’ll change the link in Instagram to that specific URL and I’ll promote it and tell people, “Hey. Go hit the link in my Bio”, and I’ll do that for the duration of that particular promotion. That works well.
Importance Of Social Media And Using Images On Twitter
Vicki Irvin
On Twitter, same thing, I’m very specific. I use a lot of images on Twitter. I find that when you just have text on Twitter, you can help get a little bump there if you use some type of images.
I’ll do the same thing. Post links. Get people excited with my 140 character limit and get feels excited as I can and drive them back to the site.
Importance Of Social Media And Doing Live Streaming And Posting With Pictures And Quotes On Facebook
Vicki Irvin
On Facebook, I love to use posts with pictures and quotes. I love to do live video on Facebook. I know everybody doesn’t have the capability right now. It’s something that they’re rolling out but I do a lot of live videos streams.
Yesterday, I was on with Ben Settle and Jodi and vended some Q and A on his appearance and my appearance at Biz N Brewz. We did that right from my Facebook page and people were joining in. Even after that, that goes viral and that spreads around and drives people back because you can put a URL in the chat there that people see. That’s a great way that I love to use as well.
Importance Of Social Media And Being On Many Places As Possible
Vicki Irvin
I’ve done multiple things. I’m a far believer that you can do any one thing and we all have the things that we love more than others. You always hear people say, “Oh I hate Twitter so I stay on Facebook” or “Oh I hate Facebook and I love Twitter”. Either some that I favor over others but I understand that not everyone is going to be on the one that I love and I’m missing out on a huge amount of people if I just go with what I love.
I always encourage my clients and I push myself to make sure I’m as many places as possible, driving people back to my list and trying to be everywhere.
Luis Congdon
Right. The more places that people see you the better. I’m hearing you talk about social media and all about these spots. A part of me is starting to feel tired.
Kamala Chambers
That’s why we have our assistants that work for us.
How The Importance Of Social Media Can Be Overwhelming
Luis Congdon
Well not everybody has that. I’m more thinking about somebody getting started. I’m thinking like, “Oh, man. I’m just getting started. Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, hashtags. Oh gosh! I’m getting tired.”
I want to hear from you. For somebody that’s just getting started, what’s a good tip because all of these sound overwhelming. It sounds that it can be a lot of work. Do you have any tips for that?
Vicki Irvin
Yes. I do. It is a lot. People don’t know where they should go. There’s many more social medias.
Sometimes, when I take a look at social media, there are stuff that I can never heard of. There’s a bunch of people over there and I would say, “What is this?” We just know the most popular ones but there are a lot of them. They can be very overwhelming.
Importance Of Social Media And Starting Out Small
Vicki Irvin
Start out small and add more tools to your tool belt as you go along and get more comfortable.
I would never tell anyone, especially a newbie, to try to attack all of them at once because you’ll burn yourself out. But I will say start with one and master it. Get comfortable with it and then say, “Okay, now I’ve understand how this works. I’m getting a positive result. Maybe, I’ll go to Twitter now and let me dibble around in here. Dibble and dabble here and see if I can add this tool to my tool belt.”
Importance Of Social Media And Understanding The Tone
Vicki Irvin
I tell people to roll it out slowly until they get comfortable and they understand their tone.
Pay attention to your audience and your engagement.
There are posts that I can put on Facebook that can go freaking viral and if I tweet it, nobody likes it or loves it at all. Or if I put it on Instagram, nobody likes it. You just have to get a tone .
Importance Of Social Media And Paying Attention To Your Audience
Vicki Irvin
And so, sometimes I’m even a little bit different because I’ve been on social media for a while. I have a little bit of different twist from Instagram, from Twitter to Facebook because I have a feel now for what the audiences over there like and don’t like. That’s another thing to pay attention too.
Vicki Irvin
For a newbie, don’t feel like you have to attack it all at one time. Roll it out, master one, feel good, get motivated and start adding on them slowly.
Luis Congdon
All right, there you have it Thriving Launchers. I hope you took something away from today’s episode about the importance of social media.
Understand The Importance Of Social Media And Take Action Now
Luis Congdon
Vicki Irvin has given you many different suggestions but just take one. Take action on one because it’s easy to get all this information and we cram this in our heads and don’t take action.
So for me, I know I’m going to focus on one social media channel and for me, that’s Facebook. I’m going to spend some time on there today and throughout the week, nurturing people, giving value, posting at all sort of times a day and focusing on one social media channel.
Whatever it is you took away from today’s episode, make sure you take it away. Use it, and take it with you.
Until the next time, keep thriving, guys!
