Feeling like you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall with your social media? You’re not alone! In this episode of The Hayley Osborne Show, I’m sharing the exact steps to move from winging it to winning at social media. I want you to learn how to get clear on your goals, connect with your dream clients, and create a strategy that saves time and works.
It’s not a matter of if you do or don’t do social media. You need to be doing social media. It’s a matter of how clever and strategic and all the things you do when you show up on your social media.
Our audience expect it. They expect to google you, which is the suit and tie version of your business and then check out your socials, which is the shorts and t-shirt version of your business…and if you’re not there – OR WORSE: haven’t posted in a while, they’re not going to be happy, and you may even miss opportunities.
Listen in as a break this down more.
While you’re here, I have a new key marketing tool for you over on my website which you can access here: www.hayleyosborne.com titled: 3 essential posts your biz needs to get more people through the door – with templates & swipe copy!
This is a must for you implement into your business to optimise your social media and make the most of the platforms.
SUMMARY
0:00:01 Introduction and overview of the podcast
0:02:30 The importance of consistency and discipline in social media
0:06:00 Problems with winging it on social media
0:09:15 Strategies to stop winging it and become more strategic
0:14:35 Creating a content plan and understanding your audience
0:19:00 Staying engaging and tracking analytics
0:22:30 Final thoughts and encouragement
Hayley Osborne
Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Hayley Osborne show. I’m excited that you are here. I’m just checking that all my tech is doing what it needs to do and is working, which is awesome. So this is episode 137 and I can’t believe it. We are ticking over the episodes like wildfire, which is so awesome. But as this episode comes out, we are nearing the end of the year, and usually this installs some panic, right?
Especially if you’re a business owner and you’re like, oh, I set out at the beginning of the year to do this, this, this and this, and I didn’t do it, and I ended up winging it okay. And so that’s kind of what today’s podcast episode is all about, is winging it, and specifically in social media. So what to do if you have a business but you’re winging it on social media, so it’s kind of really timely, especially as we head up towards the end of the year, because you don’t want to, like, keep winging it, because winging it is going to get you nowhere.
And I think that lots of business owners definitely feel like they’re winging it, especially when it comes to their social media, because firstly, they probably don’t understand how it works, really. And secondly, you don’t know what to post, what picture, what caption, what to post. And so how does social media work? It works with consistency, and it works with discipline. All right? They’re the two, and it works through storytelling.
So you have to get really good at storytelling, not selling, okay? And that is what I see most business owner’s downfall to be is that they revert to selling because they don’t have a strategy on how to be themselves, how to storytell. Storytelling builds that know, like and trust factor, and that’s the consistency and discipline, right? So when people get to know you, okay through your consistency and you having the discipline to show up and be consistent, they start to like you.
And when they like you, because you’re consistent in your approach and you’re disciplined to get it done, they trust you, and when they trust you, they buy from you, okay, but you’ve got to build up that trust, and it’s almost like you don’t want to sell your soul by just always selling, but you want to be able to give people a dose of what it’s like to be in your world, whatever that may look like, what is in your world, aside from what it is that you sell, because 70% of people are attracted to my audio device just connected weirdly, but the Yes, so 70% of people are attracted to your energy.
Okay, so there’s so many people that do what you do, but it’s your job as a business owner to broadcast your energy over everything that you touch when it comes to promoting your business, and that can be anything from your what, what strategic pillars you have to include in and around your personal life and then how that flows on to your business. So, you know, winging it, it’s not the go, guys, it’s just not the go.
And I assure you that most business owners feel this way at one point or another, until they get to a certain point and you’re like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to be more strategic. And so I wanted to give you some steps to be able to get more strategic and stop winging it. So social media works for your business, not against it. And so there’s a few problems that I’ve found with winging it and when we do wing it, and one of them is lack of direction.
Okay, so posting without a plan means that you have no direction on where you’re going and what your objectives are and how you’re actually going to get there. So. Okay, and so that will lead to super inconsistency, so not consistent and not discipline, and then you know that that reflects in the results that you’re getting, and you become quite frustrated, and I see this a lot, and then with winging it, you are missing massive opportunities.
All right, so your content needs to have a flavor of entertaining content, and we’re seeing that as a trend moving into 2025 consumers want to be entertained more. They don’t want to be educated as much. And so what can you do to be a little bit more entertaining, whatever that looks like for you. Now, if you follow me on social media, or if you’re just new here, know that I’m not the dancer in my reels or my videos or anything like that. I don’t do that. I don’t dance and perform, okay? So for me, I have other strategies, okay?
So you know, without your strategy of what that looks like for you, you’ll miss out on potential opportunities. And you don’t want that, because you need to be consistent, and I say this a lot, is sprinkling your fairy dust around everywhere, and continuing to water it, water it, water it. And so what effort you are putting in and putting yourself out there. It’s kind of your energy that creates this, you know, this positive vibe around you, and Your vibe attracts your tribe. And they come from all different places. And so as an example, you know, you would have seen my course that was recently launched.
So I don’t have, I didn’t have, until now, a course in my repertoire. So I’ve got my membership in superhero marketing, and now I have my magnetic marketing formula, which is my eight-week course. And so I launched that, and I got really, really, really, really visible, a few posts a day, emails every day. I was going live every day, and within that week, it just generated a lot of noise, okay? And you show up, and you show up with purpose and meaning inside of your brand. And so inadvertently, that attracted lots of other opportunities for me in my business.
And I knew that that’s what would happen, and it did. And so not only did I have cut people come into the course to learn from me over eight weeks, and we started this week, which is fabulous, but it also attracted other things, okay, other really amazing opportunities. And so if I didn’t do that, they would miss opportunities. So I want you to remember that winging it is not a good idea. And so in the membership in superhero marketing next month, we are planning our 2025 strategic plan, and what we’re going to do in terms of marketing, and so that will help you to have a strategy so you don’t miss opportunities, so you’re no longer winging it inside the membership.
And then another problem with winging it is that the constant pressure to come up with content, especially on the fly, can be not only overwhelming, but can be super exhausting. And you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to create content and push it out at the same time you want to be more strategic, so you’re actually showing up with purpose. And you know, I’ve seen this said lots of times by lots of credible people, but it’s not a matter of whether you are on social media or not because you should be okay.
Now, as a business, it’s a matter of how well you do it, okay, so remember that if you are coming up with content on the fly, you’re going to be exhausted, and that’s just the nature of the beast. And then if you’re winging it, the problem with that is your time and energy. Okay, you’re going to have no energy left to do anything else on that day, because winging it just is. It’s exhausting. And so your return on that investment of your time is going to be sweet. Fa, yeah. And so I think when you get more strategic in and around. What that looks like for you and not winging it. You are more efficient. You’re more consistent, your content is purpose driven, which is important. And you’re thinking more of your customer, your ideal client, as a result.
And I see that a lot. And then you know, if you have a social media strategy in and around, that everything becomes clearer for you. So ask yourself, I want you to ask yourself, are you winging it on your social media? And you know you’re listening to this now you know the answer. Okay. Okay, so ask yourself, do you have a content plan in place?
Do you know who your target audience is and exactly what they need, and are you tracking what works and what doesn’t work? So those three things are really important, what works and what doesn’t work. Okay, so tracking it is important because then you can look back and go, oh, yes, that’s right, I had a strategy in place to create this video or this type of thing a little bit differently. Did it work? Yes. Okay, so what are some things I can do like that, that are new, that are similar, because my audience loved it. So if you’re not tracking it, you’re likely winging it.
Sorry, guys, but you’re winging it. So how do you stop winging it and get more strategic? Okay, so you can work with me to create a social media strategy so that you are defining your social media goals. Okay, so that’s step one, and you can also work this out sometimes, what I find, though, with most people that come to me for a social media strategy are they’re so close to this now that they cannot see how great it is to be able to disconnect themselves for a minute, have that Periscope for you look down and go, oh, my God, I’m doing this wrong.
I could be doing this instead to have a much higher return on investment and higher return on the energy that I’m putting in, because it takes a lot of energy to build up a great social media presence and be consistent and disciplined and all the things so define what your goals are. Are you looking to build brand awareness? For example, are you looking for leads? Is that your strategic goal in your social media? Are you looking for people to be driven to your website, or is it just sales, so when you can start to align the content that you want to put out there with these specific goals? So is it just about brand awareness, and it can be a mixture of both.
So I do think you need all of them. You need to be building brand awareness all the time, because there’s lots of people that do what you do. But how are you different? How is your brand different? So when you show up, do people know that it’s you, even if you don’t have a photo of you? Okay, so Alina, it needs to be around lead generation. Your strategic social media goals need to be about web traffic. But how are you doing that? That’s the strategy, okay? And then you know how to stop winging it and start to understand your audience and what they want, understand their needs, and understand who you’re talking to, okay, and what kind of content they engage with.
So if you are not tracking what works, you do not know what content your audience engages with, and you are winging it all right. And then you know, if you haven’t done any work on your marketing avatar, so your buying person is, who your ideal client is. I think you need to start and we cover that if we’ve covered that already in the magnetic marketing formula, and I can help you cover this as well. If you want to get in touch with me, we can look at that for you.
But I think knowing your audience is crystal clear in being able to get more strategic, because then you can figure out exactly what they want, and there’s listing platforms for you to be able to understand who they are. The second part will not be the second part, it’s like the fourth part to be able to stop winging it and get more strategic is to create a content plan.
And I know you’re probably thinking, yawn, but it’ll help you get really clear on your themes and your content pillars, based on your audience’s needs, based on your business goals, and then based on you as a person, and what makes you tick, and what is you know, what vibes with you? Because I see such a disconnect with people that come into my world that are so far removed from their brand, because they’ve evolved as a person, except they haven’t understood or worked out how to reconnect their business as the evolution of their person, and so I’ve had to morph and change so much as a person which is which needs to be reflected in my content.
Right over the last four years, I’ve had three children, and I didn’t before, and I had my business, so it was difficult at the start, but I managed to morph and change, and my business grew with me along the way. And so there’s never been that massive disconnect with the content that I’m putting out there and who I am as a person. And I get this a lot, when people meet me in person, they’re like, oh my God, you’re the same in person as you are online. You’re the same as the words on your website. Like, this is not done. I. On a whim.
This is strategic, because I want to show you the real me, and I’ve evolved, and so has everything else around me. And so it’s important that as you grow and evolve, that your content and your content themes and your content pillars really evolve with you at the same time. And if you don’t know how to marry them all together, that’s where I come in, and that’s where the use of something like a social media strategy can really help you to merge your worlds and be one with them. So that’s really important.
And then, you know, I think, and we all know this, one way to stop winging it and get more strategic is to pre plan. So there’s lots of different automation tools out there that you can use that will save you time. And, you know, repurpose content across platforms. I don’t see a problem with that. I do it, and it will maximize your reach. And so not only that, but the lifespan of your content lasts a lot longer. So what you see, it’s not always duplicated for me, and it looks different sometimes. You know, across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, I’m on all those places, YouTube with my podcast.
So if you are more of a visual person, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel. This podcast is being recorded, and I am wearing a baseball cap, so you can see that my big curly hair, if you are more of a visual person, you prefer YouTube over audio. And so it’s also on Apple, iTunes and Spotify. And then recently, I have really gone all in on my Pinterest strategy. And so you need to schedule all of this stuff in, because this is a lot of content that’s happening every single week, which is really awesome. And so moving on from that, automation tools, I think creating consistent, engaging content, you need to focus on value.
Okay, so again, educate, inspire and motivate and, you know, solve problems, but you have to there is a fine line between giving away your loot bag and sharing enough of what you know to entice those that are looking to work with you to cross the line and actually pay you, so you need to mix up your content as well. Okay? And that really helps to resonate with different people, because some people prefer to watch a video, which means, you know, we’re not doing anything, we’re just watching it. We’re not pressing play.
We’re, you know, becoming lazier as consumers. As far as I’m concerned, a mixture of video, static, you know, a combination of stories, graphics, text, all the things, is always going to land with people differently. Okay, and so some people prefer video because they don’t have to do anything. Some people prefer to read over a carousel. Some people prefer just an image and they’ll read the caption. But you know, all of these things really help to build engaging content, because you’re dabbling in every single medium.
You know? I think another thing is to stay engaging, is to make sure that you keep an eye on trends and what’s happening, but don’t rely on them. Okay, so when things are new, does this fit into your world, and can you capitalize on it to boost your own visibility? I think that’s really important. Does it align with your brand and your business and your messaging? If not, don’t use it. And then, you know, the obvious one to not wing it is, and I said this before, is like tracking your analytics and adjusting accordingly.
And keep looking at that, because it will be everything to you and 100% one of the things that my tagline inside my business is done is better than perfect, which also is like consistency over perfection. Okay, so if you’re winging it, you have a strategy, but to activate on that strategy, Done is better than perfect, so don’t confuse the two with what I’m saying. So Done is better than perfect, but you have a strategy to activate on, so you’re going to be aligned with that anyway. And you know, you have a plan on what you’re actually going to do to not wing it on your social media, and you have to be okay with Done is better than perfect, because it’s never going to be perfect, and if you wait for it to be perfect, that day will never come.
It’s the same as being confident. All right, you can’t wait until you’re confident to show up, because that never happens. You will sit on your hands forever. You become more and more confident by showing up. Okay, so like this podcast episode, for example, in this podcast, when I first started my podcast episodes like one to 50, I almost needed a full script, but. I was so nervous and I didn’t want to sound terrible in people’s ears, and now I’ve dot points, and I’m not arming and airing and like not knowing what to say, because I have done this for a really long time now, and it’s actually made me a better public speaker as well.
So you know, I think the key is to keep on showing up, and the consistency will build confidence, and it will build the you know, perfection that you’re probably looking for, which ends up being done is better than perfect, and helps you become more flexible and nimbler, and it will help you to be a better business owner, because you can, you are more reactive. And when you can be more reactive, you know, you move faster, and when you move fast, I think you can achieve a lot. And I move really fast. So you’ve probably heard me say this before, but I move very fast because I have limited time with little people around everywhere, all the time, so I need to be really strategic.
And when I show up, I show up with meaning and with strategies. So, you know, and even if it is because I showed up this morning and I said I was struggling to get my motivation to go for a run, you know, what is it? It’s done is better than perfect. So I did do the run, and I did do like, it’s, it’s, fuck your mood, follow the plan, okay, and I didn’t make that up, but it’s quite trendy at the moment, and it’s true. Fuck your mood, follow the plan. The plan is to go for a run. Doesn’t matter how you feel. The plan is to show up on your social media.
You have a strategy, fuck your mood, follow the plan. And you know, I think final thoughts. I need to wrap this up now, because I got to go. But you know when you have definitive goals, okay, when you know your audience, when you plan your content, when you can use and lean into systems and processes like automation and track your results and use your analytics, I think that winging it is no longer a thing for you, and if you would like to connect with me To learn about how a social media strategy can help you to be able to stop winging it, especially as we go into a new year, I think it’s really important.
I would love to hear from you. You can send me a message on Instagram. You can hit me up on my website. I’m everywhere. Message me on Facebook or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out. I hang out as well, because I am kind of everywhere anyway. I hope that you have enjoyed this episode, and I’ll catch you next week for another episode.
Alright guys, see you later. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this episode if you have hit subscribe, so you don’t miss any new episodes released every Tuesday, and while you’re there, leave me a review. I would absolutely love to read it.
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