Mar 1, 2023 | Online Business
How is your 2023 plan going so far?
Are the planner(s), nifty pens, stickers and washi tape you bought on sale a few months ago still in use?
Or did you opt out of mixing the dying art of scrapbooking with planning your year and go with with a digital planner or mix-and-match printables?
I’m sure by now you’ve fixed out that no matter what type of planner you chose, it has not single-handedly created your BEST YEAR EVER.
I’m not here to knock planners. If they work for you, plan up a storm — with or without the washi tape.
The issue I have with planners is they are a tool often marketed as a system. And because they are pitched as a system, consumers mistakenly believe there is one planner or planning system to rule them all.
Then you get to March 1 and find out that you are the same person you ever were, with the same things holding you (and your business) back.
Finding the right system is the first step in realistic business planning. The second step is finding the right tool to implement that system.
This article isn’t about Steps 1 or 2, though. Finding the perfect planner or planning the perfect year is not my area of expertise.
What I really want to talk to you about is Step Zero, the critical decision you must make BEFORE you start planning: Figuring out what is enough.
Realistic Business Planning Starts by Defining ‘Enough’
Enough revenue. Enough hours. Enough launches. Enough time off.
If you don’t start by knowing your enough, you will spend months over-working or under-working while believing the lie that you can make up any shortfalls by the end of the year.
This is why defining enough is the starting line of effective planning. Sadly, I don’t hold the secret to your truth here. We are not carbon copies of one another. Your enough and mine can never be the same.
What I can do, though, is help you to figure out your personal level of enough.
It starts with your big goal for the year, which likely involves wanting more time, money or energy. More money is a standard goal. Depending on your goal with time, you might want to work more or work less. Energy goals typically are achieved by spending time and money in ways that are life-giving vs. life-draining.
This exercise is important because it forces you to decide now what’s required to get you from here to where you want to be on Dec. 31, 2023. And three months into 2023, you’re not late. You can stop and do this right now.
Setting Realistic Revenue Goals
Let’s take a money goal, for instance: Imagine you want to earn $60,000 from your business in 2023.
Conventional methods would tell you to take that goal and divide it by 12 for a monthly earning goal of $5,000.
Conventional methods, though, overlook a big red flag here. What do you mean when you say you want to earn $60,000 next year? Do you want $60,000 in gross revenue or net profit?
Here’s how that difference plays out using a simple 50/30/20 financial split:
- Monthly Revenue – $5,000
- Your paycheck (50%) – $2,500
- Operating expenses (30%) – $1,500
- Taxes (20%) – $1,000
Now you see that your $60,000 in annual revenue actually adds $30,000 to your family’s bank account and supports $18,000 in operating expenses and $12,000 in taxes.
If those numbers look good to you, great! Go with the goal of $60,000 per year and plan your 2023 work life accordingly. But if they don’t, you need to make some changes. You either need to earn more revenue in the year or spend less on your business operations to increase the percentage of revenue that goes to your paycheck.
By determining how much revenue is enough for you, you also determine what you’ll do to earn it and how much time it’ll take.
This is how you plan for the year knowing what is enough for you when it comes to money earned, time spent working and energy level when it’s all said and done.
Need Help with Realistic Business Planning?
It’s hard to read the label from inside the jar, which means that no entrepreneur can fairly evaluate their business because they are too close to it. Setting ambitious goals that are realistic requires support. If you’re ready for that kind of help, here are two options:
- Learn a better way of setting goals — Everyday Effectiveness is an operational strategy company specializing in a specific style of business planning and accountability. CEO Gwen Bortner hosts a specific workshop to help female entrepreneurs align their goals with their values. Her next workshop is Tuesday, March 7, at 9 a.m. PT (Noon ET). As the fractional marketing and operations officer for Everyday Effectiveness, I get to produce the virtual event. Make sure to say hi to me in the chat if you choose to join us. The interactive workshop takes place over Zoom, and will not be recorded because watching people working through prompts on replay is as exciting as watching paint dry. This free training leads into Gwen’s quarterly planning program, which I also support. So come prepared for the pitch.
- Plan your community strategy with me — If this is the year you want to make your free and paid online communities a priority, our team can help. We offer online community strategy and consulting services for heart-centered experts, entrepreneurs and enterprises who want to lead thriving online communities that get results.
Jan 3, 2022 | Online Business, Social Media
Running a business requires investment.
You have surely heard the old adage, “You have to spend money to make money.”
But if you have an online business, your level of required investment is likely a lot lower than those who run brick-and-mortar establishments for several reasons:
- If you’re a service-based business, you don’t have to worry about inventory.
- If you’re a solopreneur, you don’t have to worry about payroll or benefits.
- If you’re a product-based business, you have greater control over supply and demand because you don’t have a storefront to maintain.
Online businesses are easier to bootstrap because the minimum overhead startup costs are super low and you, as the owner, can determine your rate of growth based on available cash.
Still, investment is required and every entrepreneur makes costly mistakes at least a handful of times in their lives. That’s why it’s important for all of us to talk with one another and share our experiences. You telling me what works for you can save me hours of time and energy compared to me having to do all the research on my own.
In this article, I’m sharing my best business investments of 2021, which include a mix of services and service providers.
My 5 Best Business Investments of 2021
I hired a lot of help this year, but not much in the way of staffing. A mentor told me years ago that, when you’re feeling overwhelmed as an entrepreneur, the support you need isn’t always an employee or contractor for the business.
“Everyone thinks the answer is a virtual assistant,” I recall him saying. “But usually, especially in the case of women in business, the best support staff they can hire are professionals to help around the house. Most business owners need a housekeeper long before they need an executive assistant.”
Since that conversation, I’ve always been critical when considering my true needs as my business grows.
Do I really need a Pinterest manager or do I need a meal service so I can use the time I would typically spend cooking to manage my own Pinterest account?
Do I really need a paid writing coach or do I need a free writing partner to hold me accountable to my word-count goals?
These are the kinds of questions I’ve grown accustomed to asking myself when thinking of increasing my productivity and reducing my burdens.
And the two questions above are ones I asked myself in 2021.
I hired a Pinterest manager, and in six months, I have yet to see any return on the investment. I’m considering putting that visibility strategy on hold for a while. As for the question of writing coach vs. writing partner, I found I needed both. The coach helps with brainstorming, outlining, and organizing my content. The writing partner keeps me writing when I say I’ll write. So, the words actually make it onto the page.
But when I stop to think about the business investments I made in 2021, there are five that stand out as the best. Here they are…
Best Business Investment: Hire an Accountant (CPA) Who Understand Online Business
When creating a financial structure for their business, most people start with an accountant because they are terrified of making mistakes on their taxes. Nobody likes to pay more than they have to, and a lot of people fear getting audited more than public speaking or root canals.
They are happy to do their own bookkeeping, trusting that a good accountant will find and fix any mistakes they might make before filing their taxes.
I am not most people.
A bookkeeper was my first “big girl” business investment because I was doing way too much mental math and it didn’t paint an accurate picture of how much I was making or keeping. I chose to start with a bookkeeper because I wanted solid records that would show how solvent my business was. I also wanted to pay myself consistently, and learn how to decide how much I could afford to spend on supporting my online business efforts.
Having a bookkeeper made tax time a breeze, but I knew I’d need to add a CPA to the mix eventually. “Eventually” turned out to be June of this year. And I took the plunge at almost exactly the right time because the tax authorities came calling just a few months later, asking questions that I didn’t know how to answer.
Do you know what the best feeling in the world is? Calling your CPA and having them say, “I’ve got you,” and then having the situation taken care of while you focus on more important things (like thanking God you didn’t put off hiring an accountant until 2022).
My accountant might not be the right accountant for you, but I highly recommend seeking out a professional who understands the unique traits of online business because it’s vastly different from other business models.
As a creative entrepreneur, it’s not uncommon for your revenue to come in fits and starts based on when you launch programs or bring on new clients. A book advance or course launch might bring in more than half of your annual revenue in just a single month. Traditional financial professionals who look at cash flow on a weekly or monthly basis might cause you angst, while someone who understands online-based creative endeavors will help you understand how to work with your particular revenue rhythm.
Best Business Investment: Hire an SEO Team That Understands Your Online Business
If you know me, you know I’m a super-fan of the Love at First Search team. I participated in their SEOctober challenge back in 2019 and enrolled in their Attract and Activate course in the spring of 2020. I was fortunate enough to score an SEO strategy session with Founder/CEO Meg Casebolt as a bonus that year. I’m still in awe with how much I got from that single session with Meg.
So, this year, when I met with a publisher about writing a book on how to handle conflict online and they gave me targets to aim for in the areas of website traffic, email subscribers, and social media followers, I knew I needed Meg’s team to help me make it happen.
I could have dug back into the material from the Attract and Activate course or joined the Love at First Search membership program, but I didn’t feel like I had the time to dig in and create my own plan.
Instead, I opted to invest in a strategy session with Meg’s team. After a 90-minute meeting, I received a report containing:
- Key page improvements for 5 pages (Home, About, Services, etc)
- Keyword research & SEO suggestions for 5 existing posts
- A new content plan for 12 blog posts
- 30 days implementation support in a private Slack channel
For a little extra, I had the Love at First Search team update my existing pages and posts and create a dashboard for me so I can track, measure, and analyze the results of my efforts in 2022.
It took a couple of weeks to get my SEO plan in hand and another week for my site to get updated by her team, but it feels so good right now to know it’s all done. Now, all I have to worry about in the coming year is writing content that serves my existing community well and offers resources to attract new readers.
If you’re new to growing your audience and authority online, you might not need an intensive session like I had. But I think everyone can benefit from Meg’s SEO Playbook, which provides guidance on how to organize your articles and website content to attract the right readers at the right time.
Best Business Investment: Hire an Enneagram Coach to Help You Better Understand Clients and Peers
Have you ever encountered the type of person who seems to be offended no matter what you say?
It happens to me more often than I like to admit. And working as closely as I do with clients in their businesses and on big goals, it can be problematic. I can’t do my best work if both the client and I feel like we have to walk on eggshells around each other. There’s a huge loss of productivity when you’re constantly having hard conversations about what you said vs. what you meant.
Even my years of experience with mediation and conflict resolution don’t always help.
But what has helped me is working with Lori Young, an Enneagram coach who specializes in interpersonal communication and relationship dynamics.
I initially hired Lori to help me develop closer relationships with my children based on what motivates their very different behaviors. But after only one session, I quickly saw how working with her could improve my business relationships.
Since then, I’ve called upon Lori to help me sort out conflict in teams I’ve worked with, and find the right words to use in contract negotiations with potential clients. I also better understand why I continue some behaviors that I know aren’t in my best interests but can’t seem to stop.
Not only has working with Lori made me better in business, but it’s also made me a better human. By understanding my own reactions to people and circumstances, I have developed a deeper understanding of other people’s reactions to words and actions.
Best Business Investment: Hire a Homeschool Coach to Help You Stay Sane
From February 2020 to November 2021, I was a working homeschool mom.
If you had told me on January 1, 2020, that, in just a few short months, I’d be a full-time entrepreneur educating my kids at home, I would have laughed at you.
And then my eyes were opened to a whole segment of the homeschool population I never knew existed: working homeschool moms.
A business friend introduced me to the Working Homeschool Mom Club on Facebook, a community hosted by Jen Mackinnon of Practical, By Default. Though I love the Facebook group, the size of the group and speed at which people participate was overwhelming for me. I needed something smaller and more intimate where I could get answers to my specific questions and support juggling a lifestyle I never imagined living.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”A friend introduced me to the Working Homeschool Mom Club on Facebook, a community hosted by Jen Mackinnon of Practical, By Default. Total sanity-saver.” tweet=”A friend introduced me to the Working Homeschool Mom Club on Facebook, a community hosted by Jen Mackinnon of Practical, By Default. Total sanity-saver.” style_id=”default”]
Thankfully, Jen has a membership community and mastermind programs for women like me.
I spent most of 2021 in Jen’s High-Octane Homeschoolers program and have made lifelong friends in that group while learning how to juggle the demands of homeschooling while running a business. Now that my kids are back in traditional school, I’ve moved into Jen’s Coaching & Caffeine program focused on work-life balance for the entrepreneurial mom or mompreneur (not my favorite word, but it fits).
And if you haven’t picked up on the theme yet, Jen’s life does run on caffeine—as does mine. We’ve enjoyed many sessions chugging coffee like we’re college kids pulling all-nighters. It just makes me love her more.
Best Business Investment: Find a Social Media Management Tool That Works with Your Online Business
Having spent years as a social media strategist, I’m hard to please when it comes to social media management tools.
When I was managing all of the social media accounts for a major research university, I had the chance to test out tools of every size and scope. I spent time with the team at Sprinklr, which starts at over $100,000 a year, before leading the university-wide implementation of Falcon.io. We also tested tools like AgoraPulse, CoSchedule, SproutSocial, Hootsuite, and Later before contracting with Falcon.
However, my own business’s pockets aren’t nearly as deep as a university’s. Where the university scored a great deal using Falcon for under $40,000 a year, $40 a month is the threshold for my own business.
[socialrocket-tweet quote=”I have tested tons of social media tools since starting my business, trying desperately to get the best level of service for the lowest possible price.” tweet=”I have tested tons of social media tools since starting my business, trying desperately to get the best level of service for the lowest possible price. SmarterQueue checks all my boxes.” style_id=”default”]
I have tested tons of social media tools since starting my business, trying desperately to get the best level of service for the lowest possible price. Over time, I’ve developed a list of priorities—my own non-negotiables—when it comes to social media management.
Since I don’t mind the native scheduling features of Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram, being able to schedule social media posts ahead of time isn’t enough to make me love a third-party application.
I need MORE.
If I’m going to pay for a social media management service, I expect it to integrate seamlessly with every platform I want to be active on. I want to be able to see how all of my channels are performing in a single location, while easily responding to comments and interactions on all of my posts.
SmarterQueue is the Best Social Media Management Tool for My Online Business
SmarterQueue does all of this and more. It allows me to schedule feed posts and stories on Instagram, timeline posts on Facebook Pages and in Groups, as well as posts on LinkedIn and Twitter. There’s a Pinterest integration, too, but since Pinterest is its own animal, I prefer Tailwind for that.
As for content creation and curation, I love that SmarterQueue allows me to easily discover content that’s relevant to my audience from all over the internet. Whether it’s news articles, blogs, or specific social media accounts, I can easily add them into my queue. The analytics aren’t incredibly detailed, but they get the job done and allow for apples-to-apples comparisons among various platforms. But what I appreciate most about SmarterQueue is how it allows you to repurpose and recycle content.
You can fill your queue with several posts and create a schedule of when you want those posts to publish according to category and channel. SmarterQueue takes it from there. If you have a lot of content already created, you can let it go undisturbed, checking in every other week or so to refresh your queue with new content or variations of content already scheduled.
It’s easy-peasy!
If you’d like to check out SmarterQueue for yourself, use this referral link for an extended trial. And if you’re a registered non-profit, make sure to apply for a service discount.
What Business Investments Will You Make in Your Online Business?
Now that you know what I’m grateful to have invested in this past year, it’s time to look ahead. Your best business investments for your online business might be different than mine, and we’re better together.
What business investments do you have planned for 2022?
Will you hire help around the house or in your business? Will you adopt new tech tools—or maybe a new computer?
Let us know in the comments so we can all learn from each other.
And make sure to come back next week to find out our community’s picks for best business investments of 2021.
May 2, 2021 | Online Business, Social Media
How do you grow your online following from zero?
It’s not as hard as it seems. The process itself is simple, but it does take time and energy and effort. It also takes time. But if you know what you’re doing and take a strategic approach, it will happen and sometimes faster than you imagine.
To help you become known and loved by your ideal reader or fan, I have recorded a masterclass for the Writing at the Red House Podcast. In this podcast series, I walk you through the process of growing your audience from start to finish.
In this podcast series, we’re going to cover understanding who your audience is, building a compelling offer that is tailored to your ideal reader, and then I’ll teach you how to create a content strategy and calendar for social media. Finally, we’ll talk about building collaborative relationships with power partners to reach even more followers!
The first step in building your online following is understanding who your audience is.
This episode will walk you through the process of thinking like your reader, so you can align what you offer with what they most desperately desire.
Since recording this episode, I’ve worked with several clients who have struggled in this area. Knowing who we want to help is one thing, but figuring out what they think, feel and do is another. The best place to start is by asking. If you want help in doing that, you can borrow my brain. A free 20-minute session could help you identify the best questions to ask to get to the heart of your reader’s deepest needs.
Once you’ve established your ideal reader and their needs, it’s time to create a compelling offer.
Making an offer compelling is less about the features you provide and more about the way you position your message.
In this episode, you can learn:
- How to know what to offer your people
- How to find your giant BUT
- Discover a great framework to build from
Now that you’ve created your offer, it’s time to put together a content strategy.
In this episode, we’ll go through how to plan out your content in advance so you can steadily grow an audience by inviting followers to develop a relationship with you.
You’ll learn:
- The different between a strategy and a plan
- How to start developing a strategy of your own
- The two mistakes most communicators make with their content
The final step of building your online following from zero is to develop collaborative relationships with peers and mentors who can become power partners.
You might not think you have much to offer if your audience is small, or you’re just starting out, but that’s not true. We all have something to offer if we take the time to think it through.
In this episode, you can learn:
- How to be a good follower
- Why you should want to share
- How to approach collaboration
In just about an hour, you can listen to the masterclass and be well on your way to building your online following — even when you’re starting from zero. This four-part masterclass is free and available online, and on your favorite podcast apps. The editorial calendar and posting prompts mentioned in the series are available for free in my private Facebook group, Tonya Kubo’s Secret to Thriving Online Communities.
Oct 6, 2019 | Online Business
As a social media consultant, I am on several email lists because it helps me better serve my clients. I subscribe to lists with lead magnets I admire and ones I think stink. I subscribe to lists based on what I see on sales pages, hear on podcasts and see on websites. I stay on email lists to see how people handle their lead magnet delivery, welcome sequences and general upkeep of their lists.
I read them. I save them. I refer to them later.
And, yes..you could call me obsessive. Go ahead. I don’t mind.
When you’re on a lot of lists, you see how small the world of online business can be.
I know who is connected to Marie Forleo, Seth Godin and Amy Porterfield based on who emails me special offers when their signature programs open for enrollment.
You know what else I notice?
Email trends. Especially trends in subject lines.
Why Email Subject Lines Matter
If you’re new to trying to grow your audience online, you might not know how important email subject lines. They are a BIG DEAL.
In a flooded email inbox, the subject line’s job is to get that message opened.
Once opened, the message actually has a fighting chance of getting read — you have your chance at connecting. And if you connect well, your links get clicked.
Emails that aren’t opened never get clicks.
And your email open and click rates are valuable to prospective agents and publishers evaluating the strength of your platform.
That’s why, if you get a lot of emails from people in the same industry, you end up seeing a lot of the same subject lines.
Knowing the importance of subject lines, I understand why when one maven uses a subject line, everyone angling for the same market follows suit.
But there’s one email subject line phrase that needs to go:
Spilling the tea, as in:
Spilling the tea on our BIGGEST sale of the year!
Or
Spilling the tea on the latest Instagram news
Or
Join me live tonight as a I spill the tea on my latest program
Every week, I have emails promising to spill the tea on one thing or another. Aside from feeling gimmicky to the point of being annoying, most of these emails use the phrase incorrectly. “Spilling the tea” means revealing a juicy secret. It implies insider info, And in most cases, the information being shared isn’t that much of a secret. It feels fraudulent to pretend it is.
If you’re using it, stop. It’s played out. Instead consider these more accurate variations:
- Lifting the curtain …
- Behind the scenes …
- And inside look into …
- A sneak peek just for you …
What do you think?
Have you used “spill the tea” in a subject line? Have you seen it around? What email trends have you observed that drive you crazy? Leave a comment below or email tonya@tonyakubo.com.
May 26, 2019 | Online Business
I’m a vocal proponent of using live video content to connect with your audience. I believe that live video isn’t optional for communicators who want to grow their platforms, get booked and publish books.
I know it can be intimidating to go live. Many savvy communicators worry about what to say and whether anyone will even pay attention. You worry whether you’re saying the right thing on the right channel. It feels like you’re at war with an invisible enemy, and you never quite understand whether you’re winning or losing. But live video isn’t the enemy. It’s your greatest ally.
Live Video Content Connects
When you create live video, you connect with your audience on a level that’s just as deep as if you were right there with them in person. Done well, live video is almost magical in how it develops and strengthens relationships online.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Live videos get 10 times more comments from viewers than other types of posts.
- Every social media channel that offers live video prioritizes it over other types of content.
- Audiences watch live video three times longer than pre-recorded video content.
I went live on Facebook for 12 days in a row and tracked my results. I know this works. But if Facebook isn’t your thing, you still have options. You can broadcast live Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. And though there are slight differences among each channel, a savvy communicator follows these three universal steps:
- Present a distraction-free viewing experience
- Create content that connects
- Suit up and show up – again and again
Want to know more? Visit the Communicator Academy blog, where I unpack how I use live video step-by-step. If I can do it, so can you. All you need are the right resources and support.
Tonya Kubo helps communicators build close, connected relationships online by leveraging the power of social media.Tonya’s goal is to make social media less overwhelming and more sustainable for communicators at every level. She manages online communities, book teams and offers coaching/consulting services. Subscribers receive a FREE download on top-performing live vide topics to improve their audience engagement immediately.
May 19, 2019 | Facebook, Online Business
If you’ve been scared of Facebook Live, you’re not alone. The idea of live video intimidates a lot of speakers and writers.
What if you forget what to say, misspeak or worse — what if you freeze?
Following my personal experiment of going live on Facebook for 12 consecutive days, I was invited to share my experience on the Communicator Academy podcast. During the interview, I face the ultimate Facebook Live skeptic, Michele Cushatt, who shares the vulnerability she feels when using a live video medium.
In the episode, we talk about how live audiences are more forgiving than you think — and the best way to make sure every live broadcast is a success.
Take a listen and let me know what you think.
Feb 6, 2019 | Facebook, Online Business
In December 2018, I pulled a stunt. Not only did I live to tell the tale, but I learned valuable lessons that hold true even today. Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page for 12 consecutive days taught me firsthand the power live video content wields for communicators.
Interested in creating live videos on YOUR Facebook Business Page? Download my FREE guide with the topics GUARANTEED to connect with audiences.
This isn’t the kind of stunt that makes you cringe when people bring it up at cocktail parties. There are people who have gone live for 30, 60, 90 days — and even some who have gone a whole year without missing a single day of broadcasting. As far as social media stunts go, a Facebook Live streak isn’t even in the top 100 of the craziest. Remember the ice bucket challenge? Or the time when Payless tricked fashion influencers to pay designer prices for budget shoes? Those were way crazier than 12 days of Facebook Live.
But creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page for 12 days caught my audience’s attention. Why? Because for most communicators, using Facebook Live just ONCE feels like a crazy stunt. No matter their personality or style, all communicators deeply care about connecting with their audiences. And not being able to edit and perfect their message and delivery during the broadcast can simply be a little crazy-making.
Speaking on Facebook Live not the same as speaking on a stage in front of a crowd, where you can make eye contact with your audience and know if your delivery is hitting the mark or missing it by a mile. The only energy in the room when you’re broadcasting live is the energy you make for yourself. It can be daunting.
The other aspect of live video that makes communicators nervous is that every mistake you make is out in the open for anyone to see, criticize or mock. And the only way you’ll even know about it is if the critic calls it out. You’ll never know what they say about you offline.
For speakers and writers who are used to working on talks or articles, practicing and editing until they are polished to perfection, the imperfect nature of live video seems like reputational suicide. Why put yourself in a position to have your viewer count every filler word or stutter? To call you out when you roll your eyes because you lost your train of thought or to point out your unruly hair, ill-fitting blouse or smeared lipstick? What if it goes VIRAL?!
I went live on Facebook for 12 consecutive days to prove a point: None of that matters.
Live video is like dinner theatre. The mistakes that occur are part of the show. They’re charming and disarming. Social media audiences crave authenticity and live video content delivers. Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page taught me live viewers are the most forgiving audience around so long as they see value in what you offer. Bring value to your live broadcast and everything but technology glitches can be forgiven.
Aside from being a fun stunt, there was a method to my madness. The strategy behind creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page for 12 days was to bring instant and consistent value to my audience — communicators just like you who want closer, connected relationships as they grow their platforms. Knowing my ideal client values quality over quantity in the people who follow them or subscribe to their email lists, I set out to share information that would bring viewers closer to their own speaking and writing goals.
My goal with this series of live videos was to lead by example, showing communicators how to leverage Facebook Live to grow their fanbase in a meaningful way. The process was dynamic. As I focused on bringing value to my viewers, I received value in return — and I learned a lot along the way.
Want to go live but unsure of what to say? Check out my FREE guide to Facebook Live.
Here are the five key lessons I learned by creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page for 12 days that have changed how I view Facebook, video content and my audience:
1. Facebook Live Gets You Noticed
Facebook prioritizes live content, which means Facebook will put your live video at the top of the newsfeed for your followers and your friends while you’re broadcasting. Facebook also directs your live viewers to engage with you by commenting and encourages them to share your live broadcast with their friends. These little message blurbs only show up for your viewers while you’re live, and they are effective. There is no price tag on the value of this free advertising. Live video makes Facebook work for you FOR FREE. But there’s a catch: You have to broadcast for 10 minutes before Facebook will start promoting your live video. It takes time for your live video to get noticed in the algorithm and for Facebook’s elves to start telling people about it.
Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page taught me quick 2-minute videos might be the way to go with pre-recorded content, but the opposite is true for live content. In my 12-day experiment, I achieved optimal results with 30-minute videos. My shortest broadcast was 23 minutes and my longest was 56 minutes. My viewer count increased (and sometimes doubled) between 11 and 20 minutes. In every video that went longer, I noticed a decline in viewers starting at the 30-minute mark.
Longer videos, though, were the best at attracting new eyeballs – viewers who weren’t already familiar with me or my page. I don’t have hard data, but I assume this happened because 20 minutes of viewer engagement caught the newsfeed attention of my viewers’ friends.
2. Facebook Live Builds Audience Loyalty
Adweek reports Facebook Live videos are viewed three times longer than pre-recorded video content. The longer someone watches you on video, the more connected they become. Seeing you live on Facebook is the next-best thing to seeing you live in person. Viewers see your expressions, your body language and hear the changes in your tone of voice. These communication cues are connectors. They build that know-like-trust factor we’re told converts passive followers to passionate fans.
After watching my live videos a couple of times, viewers appeared noticeably connected to me. They started asking deeper questions and even tagging me to catch my attention. Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page gave me instant credibility. Even after just a few minutes, viewers considered me a subject matter expert. I also noticed these viewers staying with me longer as my consistency on Facebook Live increased. For example, someone who caught a few minutes of my second Facebook Live stayed with me for the entirety of broadcasts 5 through 8.
3. Facebook Live Increases Engagement
Facebook Live videos get 10 times more comments than pre-recorded video content. That means for every comment you get on an uploaded video, you’ll get 10 on your live broadcast. People comment on live broadcasts because they know you’re paying attention. They are counting on you to see what they post and to respond. It’s a direct link to you, and it give you a direct link to them. Not only do they get to engage with you, but they also get to engage with each other. It’s not the same as the energy you feel when you’re on a stage speaking, but it’s more dynamic that posting a status update and waiting for people to chime in on their own time.
Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page increased my audience loyalty, and viewers started sharing the videos and tagging their friends in the comments. This didn’t start happening until the fifth day, but the frequency increased all the way to the 12th broadcast.
4. Facebook Live Gets You Bookings
Social media is a bit of a moving target. For many communicators, it feels like a lot of investment with no measurable return. Business insiders say Facebook Live has a dollar value. Industry experts say you can attract clients, sell products and draw income from live video, but can YOU? I think every communicator wonders if he or she can expect the same return on investment (ROI) as someone with a product to sell.
For communicators, ROI isn’t always measured in dollars and cents. A positive return might be booking a speaking engagement, an invitation to guest post on a popular blog or a mutually beneficial opportunity to collaborate with another communicator.
In creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page, I picked up three new clients, received four speaking inquiries and attracted the attention of prospective collaborators. The booking conversations that came from the live videos were also different. Instead of me feeling like I was in the hot seat to prove my worth to the client or event planner, they were already convinced I was the right person for them. Our one-on-one conversation just confirmed it.
5. People LOVE Crazy Stunts
Maybe it’s the result of our reality-TV culture, but people love zany and crazy. The thing is that stunts don’t have to be crazy-dangerous or crazy-embarrassing to get noticed. They just need to be a little outside of the comfort zone of the people whose attention you’re trying to capture. Publicly declare a self-imposed challenge that your target audience can’t ignore, and they’ll show up to see what happens.
I was shocked at the number of people who came to cheer me on and ask how they could help. Initially, I had planned for 12 live Tonya monologues, where I talked to the camera for 20 minutes without a break. Instead, all but two of my broadcasts were interviews. That’s how many people showed up to support me. Funny story: many of the communicators who volunteered to join me said they wanted to try Facebook Live but were scared to face an audience alone. Going live with me helped them to feel safe enough to go for it.
The hardest part about creating valuable live video content is figuring out what to say. Download Nine Ways to Establish, Engage and Grow Your Community with Facebook Live. It’s free and it guarantees you never run out of topics.
Spoiler Alert: 12 Days of Facebook Live Isn’t My Craziest Stunt
Just six weeks before I launched my 12 Days of Facebook Live personal challenge, I nuked my online presence. When I unveiled my new brand and redesigned my website to focus on my community-building services for communicators, I deleted all Facebook followers and posts. I put myself in the position of many of my coaching clients, starting from zero. This means that the lessons I learned from creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page applies to you, even if your audience is small right now. By the time I started my 12-day challenge, I had about 170 Facebook followers. On the final day, I had picked up more than 30 followers and crossed over into the low 200s. Not record-breaking results, but the spike in engagement I experienced during my streak has sustained itself. My current rate of follower engagement is still double what it was before I went live for those 12 days, and I haven’t done any live videos since. That will change soon, but it’s worth noting that the positive results from going live 12 days in a row have been maintained for almost 90 days. And as of writing this, I’m up to 300 followers without paying for any promotions.
What You Should Know About Creating Live Videos
Not everyone wants to pull a stunt like me and produce a streak of live videos, but every communicator can benefit from my lessons learned on Facebook Live. Creating live videos on my Facebook Business Page taught me one big lesson: If you’re going to try this and hope to get similar results, you MUST do it on a Facebook Business Page and not on your personal profile. Many communicators go live on their personal profiles because their reach is bigger but those communicators miss out in a BIG WAY.
Facebook Live is a powerful, free tool available to everyone with a Facebook account and a solid internet connection. But as a professional communicator, you need to track and measure your results. Only Facebook Business Pages offer the insights necessary to help you make informed decisions as to whether creating live video is effective.
Whether it scares you or excites you, Facebook Live is an unprecedented opportunity for you to bring value into the lives of your audiences and grow your platform in a meaningful way. Even going live a couple times a month can expose you to viewers you wouldn’t otherwise attract with static page posts. Don’t believe me? Try it. The only way to see whether Facebook Live builds credibility among your audience and garners greater loyalty is to try it a handful of times and experience the results for yourself.
