Chronically online & not about to change
Introduction
While my screen time might raise a few eyebrows, there’s no denying my passion for social media. Social media is more than just numbers—it’s about genuine engagement and finding the right platform for your brand. Dive into this article as I unveil the platforms where I champion my business and share the strategies that have paved my way to success.
On Instagram, you’ll find the bulk of my day-to-day content. In my line of work, Instagram is where the majority of my clients want me to focus their attention. In the next twelve months, I can see a major priority shift for business owners who run Instagram accounts. Gone are the days of ‘10k followers’ being the big target to work towards. If you can have a few thousand followers, who really engage with your content and in turn are paying clients, then the community will build, organically in the right direction.
Case study: Robinson Goldsmiths, Bangor
I’ve been working with the incredibly talented team at Robinson Goldsmiths for some time now. Three times a month (does anyone say thrice a month?) I visit their extremely busy shop in Bangor and work with Jennifer on a number of exciting projects. We could be in the workshop, amongst hammers, blow torches and polishers, creating an ASMR worthy making video, or we could be front of house, handling extraordinarily beautiful rubies, emeralds and diamonds. It’s varied, full-on on and a lot of fun!
Jennifer fully embraces all my ideas, each time I coach her and in turn, she is well-equipped to create content when I’m not in the shop with her. Watching her confidence with all things social media has been one of my best achievements, hearing that customers are watching her stuff and enjoying it as much as we do making it, that’s the cherry on the cake.
Threads
Threads, still in its early stages, is an Instagram-built platform for sharing text updates and joining public conversations. I had my first call recently, where someone said (and I quote) “I don’t usually see much of your content on Instagram, but when I open Threads, you’re always there!”. This person went on to look around my Instagram afterwards, liked my style & reached out for a call!
My advice for posting on Threads is to be yourself (within the realms of professionalism, but you can definitely go to the edge much more than Instagram I feel). You never know who is looking at your content and might reach out to you!
TikTok
My viral moment happened in July 2022. I worked for a client that wanted me to create TikToks to attract young people into STEM careers. It was a mix of at-home experiments, visits to local colleges and generally getting elbow-deep into engineering & tech firms across Northern Ireland. I had this idea to draw a Sierpinski triangle (think maths meets art and you’re halfway there!). Little did I know that for some reason, this would really resonate with the audience. My top-performing video was played over 2.3 million times.
From this, I learnt a couple of really valuable lessons. If a video works: REPEAT IT! Make a similar video, with the same actions, music, and filming angles/ shots. Just change the outcome each time. For me, the changed outcome was how many dots I had drawn. The rest of the video looked the same (bar a new T-shirt each day). People could then keep up with the progress of this silly little triangle and the views kept going up and up!
Since I began using TikTok in 2019, it has changed massively, It’s harder than ever before to grab those big views. It is still such a creative space and if you can find something that resonates with your audience, go for it in a big way!
Linkedin gave me my first big break as a newly established social media consultant. I got a DM from a former colleague, who had since moved on to a new position as CMO of TGI Fridays. He asked if I’d be keen to talk about TikTok with his team of 10+ marketers. Of course, I said yes and one month into Noodlehorse Media, I was on a flight to London, training TGI Fridays on how they could approach TikTok differently.
My advice was taken onboard and views on their videos went from an average of 450 at the time to 1.9 million on the genuinely funny and engaging TikTok we made that afternoon. As you can imagine, I was buzzing!
Building a strong network on Linkedin is really valuable. It’s where a lot of decision-makers are present. These are the same decision-makers, who understand the value of their companies using TikTok, but who might not necessarily be present on the app.
Other places
While I do have accounts for YouTube, X (Twitter) and Facebook, they don’t currently align with my business needs (and that’s ok). It’s worth noting, I use YouTube to upload unlisted videos of my Social Media Sprints (a 60-minute zoom call aimed at giving you, the business owner, a much-needed jolt of inspiration, advice and top tips to make creating social media posts a lot more slick). I record all sessions and give the sprinter a link to rewatch our session when they need it.
In the past, I’ve had major successes with Facebook – back in the day when Facebook Live was being pushed in a big way, I got featured in an article about what marketers can learn from brands using it well: https://digiday.com/marketing/marketers-learn-facebook-live-top-videos/ That period of my career was incredible, the potential to grow a really engaged audience on Facebook Live was unrivalled. I had high volumes of daily viewers from all over the world and it was one of the most confidence-building things I ever did. It’s also where I decided my passion on social media lay firmly in the community building camp.
Don’t forget about real life!
There is something to be said for carving out some time in the week to network with people in real life. It may be grabbing a takeaway coffee and having a walk with someone. It might be using your business email address when you’re signing up for something with a local company (you never know, they might check you out, realise they need your services and book you!). Make time for some screen-free networking when you can!
