So often I hear business owners, especially women, saying that they feel lost marketing their business online. They feel overwhelmed by all of the information out there, especially if they have a Facebook presence for their business (and this is where I will focus).

Perhaps it’s the benefit of having had some time off over Christmas/New Year and that they have had time away from social media and realised that there’s more to life out there. Perhaps they’ve made a resolution to spend less time online, or to model the behaviour for their children. Perhaps they feel like it doesn’t work. Perhaps they feel like it’s always changing. Perhaps it’s none of these. Perhaps it’s something else. Perhaps it’s all of these and then some. Regardless, people are realising that something is wrong with how they manage their social media for their business and it’s not working for them.

In the main, the biggest complaint I hear is not wanting to be online 24/7 and not knowing how to market to their clients without feeling salesy & ‘slimey’. I seriously believe that this is a sad gap in the messaging that’s out there about social media. So much information is out there about the options. There’s also the overt hustle mentality along with how the vast majority of successful business owners portray their laptop lifestyle. It’s hurting small business.

Here’s the thing about social media. We show people what we want them to see. We curate our lives for online. While FOMO might be real, what is driving it generally isn’t. I admit, I curate what people see of my life & that’s because I don’t want to show my family to the world, but I also want to ensure that those who see behind the scenes are in the trenches working with me. But my methods are left of centre and I’m not afraid to show how hard things are, this blog is testament to that.

There’s a sentence in the last paragraph that stands out and it’s for a reason other than what it actually means, a deeper insight.

We show people what we want them to see.

But what I want to point out isn’t the message on curating what we post, it’s about ‘we’ and ‘people’. Instinctively we post on social media, particularly on Facebook knowing that a person will see it and they might even react to it. And that, although intuitive can seem at odds with all the other information out there.

That’s where there’s tension in their minds, especially with women who are more likely to want connection to their clients. Most of the information out there is about the technology and sizes and buttons and video and platforms and websites. It’s all depersonalised and so far away from what they crave instinctively.

Then when I tell them that they actually need to focus on their customers and people it seems too easy. Especially when terms like algorithm and engagement are bandied around. The thing is that these exact terms actually rely on people to make them happen.

Think back to the corner store of your childhood or the local baker/butcher/grocery store. What do you remember most? It’s probably more about the person and how they made you feel than the store itself. In our rush to curate our lives, we’ve removed our personability or even our personality. We crave connection as humans, it’s necessary. It’s why premmie babies thrive when touched. We need connection and business success is just as needy of this.

So lately I’ve spent a lot of time with business page owners who are feeling overwhelmed and disconnected teaching them how to reconnect with their client on Facebook. It saddens me that the marketing industry and marketers have swung the pendulum so far that businesses feel out of touch. The other thing this does is that they are given too many options and feel lost about not only who to connect with but how.

The thing is that if you put the right thing in front of the right person at the right time, you will win. So how do you do it? It’s a matter of knowing where they hang out (Facebook in this instance), when they hang out, how you fix their problem and selling your solution.

Some will call this whole-hearted or heart-centered selling. I call it smart marketing and understanding your target market.

If you understand these things you can then target (schedule) your efforts and forget about feeling utterly overwhelmed.

I’ve created a little book that outlines the keys to how to kick some of this overwhelm & I invite you to download it over here (in exchange for an email address).

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