How To Enjoy Social Media – Growth Strategy Included! [Podcast Ep. 25]
Want to learn how to enjoy social media — whether that be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or another platform?
Then you’re in the right place, as that’s exactly what we’ll be covering in this episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast!
Specifically, you’ll learn:
- A mindset shift that will help you love social media
- What to focus on when it comes to creating social media content
- How to understand your own personal brand “why”
- How to streamline your social media workflow (because saving time is fun!)
- How to organically increase engagement on social media
- And more!
Basically, if you’re interested in actually enjoying using social media to grow, you won’t want to miss this episode!
How To Enjoy Social Media (Growth Strategy Included!) – Podcast Episode Audio
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Grow On Social Media With These Helpful Past Episodes:
How To Create A Pinterest Strategy That Grows Your Blog Traffic
How To Start, Grow & Monetize A Successful Facebook Group
How To Use LinkedIn To Grow & Monetize Your Blog
How To Use Twitter To Grow & Monetize A Blog
How To Grow Your TikTok Account & Make Money As A Blogger
How To Grow & Monetize A YouTube Channel
How To Create A Social Media Content Plan That Converts
Click here for all profitable blogging podcast episodes.
How To Love Social Media Marketing – Episode Transcript
What immediately comes to mind when you think about social media?
Be honest.
Do you hate it? Do you find it overwhelming? Do you get frustrated by a lack of followers or growth? Do you wish it would just disappear one day?
If you are nodding along to any of the above, then stay tuned, because this episode is for you, as I’m going to be sharing a strategy focused on how to enjoy social media — while also using it to gain followers who truly love your content and increase your blogging income.
Before we dive into the episode though, I want to direct your attention to the show notes where I’ve shared a link to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library.
Inside you’ll snag access to 45+ resources from cheat sheets to workbooks to video tutorials that can help truly turn your blog into a profitable business. I try to make them fun, too, so that you enjoy using them in your free time.
I’m all about implementation and I really want to make sure you don’t just listen to the episode and forget about it, but that you actually use what I share to make your blogging life easier. Inside the library, there are a number of printables and tutorials that will help you take what I share in this episode, and efficiently implement it.
Feel free to even pause this episode to go grab those resources.
You back?
Then let’s dive in.
I want to start off by talking about social media with a mindset shift.
Whether you’re trying to engage your Instagram followers, grow on Twitter, pinpoint a Pinterest for bloggers strategy, or grow a TikTok account from scratch, here is my suggestion:
Instead of agonizing over how many followers you have or don’t have, or thinking about why you’re not interesting enough to get more people to subscribe or like your page, take that energy and instead focus on how you can nurture the followers you already have.
Instead of living in this place of lack and focusing on what you don’t have, what if you focused on the people you did have.
I think sometimes we get so caught up in the numbers — in comparing ourselves to others who seem to have it all or who seem to always be posting the perfect photo and caption — that we forget we have our own voice and our own messages to share.
How do I know you have a message to share?
Because you’re a unique person with your own unique experiences, knowledge, and skills, and your own gifts to share with the world.
Okay, so now that we’ve covered your blogger mindset shift, let’s talk about how to enjoy social media — which can be a great addition to your blog post promotion checklist.
Now, I don’t just mean in a willy-nilly-do-whatever-you-want way, but in a way that is also strategic and that can help you grow your blogging business — and potentially even monetize your blog from day one.
In terms of our social media strategy, let’s start off by talking about why you should be on social media. I think a lot of bloggers hear they should be on it when starting a travel blog, but don’t fully understand what it can do for them.
Social media offers a wildly powerful way to gain visibility for your blog brand, share your messaging, connect with your target audience, and engage them to grow a deeper relationship.
Now, let’s pause there for a moment. I mentioned sharing your message — which entails deeply understanding why you started your blog, why you create valuable content, and ultimately what you want to put out into the world.
If you’re scratching your head and feeling unsure, grab a piece of paper and make some notes on the following questions:
- Why did you start your travel blog?
- What is it about your niche that gets you excited?
- What are your favorite topics to share content about?
- Think about some of the strategies and tips you share on your blog. How has utilizing your own advice made your life better? Really try to think about feelings and emotions here, too. For instance, if you help people travel on a budget, you might be helping people save money, but you might also be helping them create memories with their family they never thought possible with their specific income bracket.
- What issues are you passionate about?
- When scrolling Instagram, Facebook, or any other social platform, what types of content do you typically save?
- Hint: If you don’t tend to do this, consider starting a mood board or collection, saving items for a week or so, and then coming back to it to try to find a theme.
- What are your favorite books? Blogs? Social media accounts? Magazines? Books? Documentaries? Shows? Movies? Brands?
- Why?
Answering these questions can help you dig into what fires you up, gets you talking, and inspires you to share your ideas, opinions, and knowledge.
If you go from looking at social as something you have to do because someone else told you to, to looking into how being on a social platform can help you connect and engage with people, it becomes a lot more fun.
Now there are so many tips and tricks to staying on brand when it comes to social media, but for now, let’s just keep things simple and go back to this idea of your “why.”
Once you understand your “why” it’s time to really think about how you can share it on your platform or platforms of choice using images or video and a caption.
For example, let’s say you help travelers improve their travel photography.
Maybe this means sharing tutorials, before-and-after edit examples, and taking people behind the scenes of how you set up a shoot.
If you have your piece of paper handy, pause this episode and draft out three ideas for social media shares on your platform of choice keeping your “why” in mind.
Because truly the best way to find your voice on social — the voice that flows and feels authentic and not like you’re pushing to get words out — is to start sharing and consistently showing up.
Speaking of consistency, this is how to really build trust and community, so I recommend creating a schedule for yourself.
I love visuals, and a calendar helps me streamline my blogging workflow and organize my thoughts while keeping me from going to that place where I’m rushing around clueless about what to post.
But how do you organize your calendar?
One way is to start to group your social media content into three-to-five buckets or themes.
Going back to the travel photography example, your buckets might be taking better photos, editing photos, and monetizing your travel photography passion.
If you help families plan the perfect USA vacation, your buckets might be road trips, amusement parks, the outdoors, and family travel tips. That’ll be a great starting point for grouping content on your social media calendar.
Again, we’re talking about how to enjoy social media, so consider what bucket content topics you’ll feel confident and will have fun covering.
If you want to take these social media buckets a step further, you can also consider the lens or filter through which you’ll share them.
These lenses could be things like:
- education
- entertainment
- taking people behind-the-scenes
- sharing about yourself, motivation
- personal lessons
- creating community
- and so on
If your buckets are what you’ll share, the lenses are how you’ll share them.
So going back to the family travel example, if you’re talking about hiking in Sequoia National Park from your outdoors bucket, you might choose to share through an education lens and post a video showing people how you packed for the experience.
Or, you might choose a behind-the-scenes lens and offer a vulnerable share about how the kids were crying, you barely slept, but how you felt amazing ultimately making it through the hike.
Note that I’m sharing these tips with the idea that streamlining your process will make social media more enjoyable. I know it does for me.
Another way to streamline your social strategy and make it more enjoyable is to have a template in your pocket for what you want to say.
One that works well for many bloggers is the Hook – Story – Call-To-Action social media template. If you’re wondering how to write content faster, this can help a lot.
This template involves starting your share with a few words or a sentence that’ll stop people in their tracks — or, their scroll, in this case — and grab their attention. It’s typically a big statement, an all-caps declaration, or an engaging question.
From there, you want to further engage them by sharing a story and end with a call-to-action to grow your relationship.
A few call-to-action ideas include leave a comment, DM me, click the link in my bio, watch a video, or swipe up in my Instagram Stories. Another idea: promote your blog giveaway.
Now with all of the above being said, what is ultimately important — particularly when we talk about enjoying social media — is that you don’t feel like you’re forcing the share. You want this to feel flowy and fun.
When I’m feeling stuck in this area, I find it incredibly helpful to draft my social shares on pen and paper.
I’ve talked about my mindful morning routine before quite a bit, but basically, I light a candle, do a meditation or a visualization — there are so many on YouTube if you’d like guidance — and then just write.
This can lead to some truly heartfelt captions that I can then tweak and pair with media for the different social platforms I’m on. Plus, often writing the caption first and then finding an image, video, or drone footage to pair allows my words to flow easier.
An important note here:
There are so many different ways to reach a goal with social media.
You could ask two different content creators how they grew their Instagram and Instagrammer A could give you one idea, and then Instagrammer B who is equally successful could say that they would never do what Instagrammer A did.
Yes, there are proven strategies, best practices, and powerful workflows with data to back up their effectiveness. But I still wholeheartedly believe that the best way to grow is to take this information you’re given and keep what works for you and leave behind what doesn’t.
Because if you constantly feel like you’re trying to squish a puzzle piece into a space that doesn’t fit, your audience will see that.
But if you push away what doesn’t feel right and show up as if you’ve been given a mic and stage to share your unique gifts with your community in your own words and in your own voice, then that puzzle piece will slide right into place.
So hopefully what I’ve just shared gives you some clarity in terms of what to post; however, social media is not just about posting and turning your phone off.
Social media is also about having an engagement strategy.
Now, whether you joined social media 10 years ago, last year, or today, I recommend daily social media engagement
Yes, this can be time-consuming, but it can really help you grow faster, authentically.
Here is what I recommend:
For every platform you’re trying to grow, find three-to-five accounts that you’d love to be following you. These should be the people you’re trying to reach, the ones who would benefit from your content.
So let’s say your audience is solo female travelers; well, you could search solo female travel hashtags. Or you could go to the accounts of other solo female travelers, see who follows them, and interact with those people.
Once you’ve found three-to-five accounts, interact with them. Like a few of their photos, leave genuine comments. I love engaging with their Instagram Stories since then our conversation goes to DMs where we can continue interacting.
Then, repeat daily.
Continue interacting with those accounts, and then add three-to-five more.
To keep this organized I recommend writing out a physical list of the accounts you interact with, though as you start interacting with each other, your content will start to show up in each other’s feeds.
Also, make sure to engage with any new social media followers or anyone who interacted with your content.
If you want to take this a step further, instead of just saying hi, send them a direct message that includes a question to start a genuine conversation. Or even consider sending rich content like a short video or voice message if it feels appropriate.
Really what social media boils down to is being consistent, being of service — as in, sharing valuable content — and being social.
My final action step for you:
Go to the platform you’re trying to grow right now, and look at your last three posts. Do they sound like you?
Do they sound like you when you are the best version of yourself?
If not, really consider what you can do to change that. If you’re not sure, start by creating a saved board or collection for each platform where you keep content that resonates with you.
As the collection grows, try to find common themes — words, phrases, styles, topics — that you’re attracted to. The point isn’t to copy but to let these posts inspire your own authentic creativity.
Now I hope you enjoyed this episode.
I hope you feel inspired and empowered to go start sharing consistently on social media — and having fun!
Don’t forget to grab access to my free resource library for bloggers. There are a ton of social media resources in there.
And of course, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes sharing these bite-sized strategies for bloggers who want to turn their blogs into profitable full-time businesses.
Happy blogging!
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