748: Is Your Social Media Strategy Working? Do This to Find Out

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1:15So happy shopping. You can always archive the first time you posted it and repost it again to see if it'll take off again. But we have been noticing that you can reuse content or reuse themes, strategies, words, captions in a way so that you're not constantly reinventing the wheel. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing, numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business.

1:52I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Create, write, post, and then repeat. Now for most business owners, social media is a staple of our day-to-day workflow, something that we know we need to do, maybe something we hate actually doing.

2:26But for many of us, it is a part of running a successful business. And while we may have created a rhythm or a system when it comes to creating and sharing our content, we often forget about the final critical step of the process, determining if what we're doing is actually effective. Like when was the last time you did an audit of what's actually working? Now, this past year for me has been a lot about creating systems and structure around what I share, how I share it, and what my online presence looks like. And honestly, it's been a huge transformative process. But what I've noticed for me is that usually once I create a system and it seems to be working, I sometimes forget to go back over it to ensure that it is doing exactly what we want it to do.

3:11At the beginning of this year, my team and I did audits of all of our accounts and really took a step back to look at what's working, what's not working, and how those insights can guide us forward. This gold digger is your sign to do the same thing. Inside of today's episode, I'm sharing what you should be looking at when auditing your content, how to do an effective audit that will help guide your strategy forward, and how to have more clarity and certainty around the content that you're creating. Are you ready to master your social media marketing and start posting intentional content that drives real results?

3:43Grab a pen and paper because you're going to want to take notes on this one. Let's dive on in. Sales super teams aren't built overnight. They require unicorn level talent, hours upon hours of training, huge bottomless budgets, and the perfect mix of impossible luck and 24 seven work. Or they just have a better sales platform like HubSpot Sales Hub. It's an all-in-one platform filled with all the tools and insights to deliver personalized communications people are looking for. Smarter prospecting, check. Faster revenue, yep. Scales with you, it sure does. Plus, with tons of AI-powered features, teams can spend less of the day on boring, time-sucking tasks and focus on growing the relationships that matter most.

4:28Let's face it, your old platform just isn't cutting it. It's cumbersome, it's expensive, it's causing a rift between marketing and sales. I could go on, but let's focus on the keys to winning. Are you ready for your sales team to reach all-star selling status? Sales Hub is a dream come true for sellers. Visit hubspot.com slash sales to stop dreaming and start selling with Sales Hub. That's hubspot.com slash sales. Okay, before I dive in, I want to address an elephant in the room. So this year, more than ever before, I have had so many conversations with business owners and content creators about how they are so sick and tired of creating content.

5:13Like it is the thing that is looming on their to-do list. It is this thing that they feel like they have to do and they're not entirely sure why. It is this thing that is haunting them. And so before we dive on in, I want to address this, that if you feel this way when it comes to content, you're not alone. And if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't even know how to do an audit because I haven't posted in six months because I don't even know what to post. I got you. So we're going to kind of talk about how to reframe the way that we're looking at content in totality so that you're excited to create it again.

5:44This last year was so transformative for me when it came to content creation, because I really started to tie the content that I was creating to real results, which made creating and posting content so much more fun. And so today, as I walk you through this audit, regardless of if you've been showing up every day for the last 60 days, or you haven't posted in six months, I want for you to listen to the lens that I'm looking at content through so that maybe you can shift your perspective on this topic that might be dragging you down a bit. So let's dive on in. Now, first, I want to start with a few higher level thoughts on this.

6:18And I've actually been thinking about doing an entire training on this topic and strategy, because the more that I'm around other people, the more that I realized we figured out a system that is super effective, that doesn't take a lot of time and that drives massive results. And so if this is something you want, like if you would want to learn my exact social media system and how we plan, create and post a content, send me a message on Instagram and just let me know that's something you want to learn more about because I've been thinking about doing that. So higher level, I think a lot of us are just straight up burnt out.

6:49For many of us, we've been showing up online for years. Like when I think about the fact that I've literally been showing up and posting content for over a decade, it's no wonder we're tired, right? And everything is always shifting. And I think for so many of us, we're just sick of like, when is the next shoe going to drop? When is the next algorithm change going to happen? When is the next feature going to be added that we have to learn? And so a lot of us are just straight up tired. The second thing is, is that a lot of people that are at a higher level of social media have over systemized it.

7:22And what I mean by this is that they have hired out teams and video editors and other people are creating their content. They've gotten so disconnected from the content that they don't even enjoy it. They don't want to post it. They don't feel attached to it. And I think that their followers can feel that. And so then guess what? The posts are falling flat. It goes through too many parties so that by the time it's actually published, it's so far away from what the creator would actually write or say that people can sense that. Another thing is, is that a lot of us are not getting a strong enough ROI to legitimize the time that is necessary to create, share, and post content.

8:00And so we're like, what's the point of all of this? Like it's not doing anything for me. I can't actually connect the dots on how or why this is important. Therefore, I don't want want to do it. And so I think for a lot of people, this is the biggest one of like, I know I should be doing this, but I actually don't know what it does for me. And we're done looking at likes and comments like those don't pay the bills. And so we want to connect the dots in a stronger way that will give us more conviction when it comes to actually creating and posting content. The last thing that I will say is that we've gotten too far away from the content and what maybe got us a following in the first place or why we started in the first place.

8:40And I think that a lot of creators, when you were first starting out, you just shared the things you loved, the things that brought you joy, the things that you were passionate about. That was what people was connecting with you on. And for so many of us, we've kind of thought this to death or we've adopted different strategies that might be effective, but we got away from like the true connection that social media can offer us, which means that we feel disjointed from the content. our audience feels disjointed from us. And therefore it's just left with this feeling of like, this doesn't really feel like anything.

9:13It feels like shouting into the void. So we really want to change that and bring back like the humanness of social media and the connection and community that can be built on it. So my goal for you is to start enjoying creating content again, to bring the joy back into the entire process. Now, the other important piece is to find a way to link your hard work to these real results so that social media and content creation is not just another thing on your to-do list, but it is something that is a really big part of your overall strategy. It's a part of your flywheel that really makes sense and leads people to the ultimate goal of whatever it is that you are doing for your business.

9:57So here's the biggest shift for me. And this came over the last year. I've talked about this topic ad nauseum on this show, but the biggest shift for me happened when we started using chat funnels. So chat funnels are those automations that you see usually on Instagram, also on Facebook, where someone will say, comment the word pod, and I'll send you my free podcast training. And it starts this automated experience inside of your DMS. Everything shifted for me when I started using this strategy, because I was very easily able to try every piece of content where I was using this strategy to real results.

10:34And I'm talking about email subscribers. I'm talking about webinar registrants. I'm talking about actual sales. And so when you are thinking about this, if you are struggling and you're like, I don't really get what my content does. Like it might get a few likes or comments, but it's not actually getting people to purchase from me or hire me. Then this might be something you want to explore. If you want to see what this looks like and or learn from who is helping me implement this, go on to Instagram at Jenna Kutcher, DM me the word chat, and you can literally see how this automation works and how we set it up.

11:08It's actually really cool. So you can DM me the word chat. Okay. So overall, when we were doing our audits, we were looking at all of our accounts. And so we started with one account and then went to the next and the next and the next. And so here are a few things we were looking at. So first, looking at your profile, a lot of times we forget about this piece. And a lot of times we have a lot of social media platforms, right? We could be on Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, like the options are endless. But oftentimes we're not actually going through and saying, is this the most current photo?

11:43Is it an engaging photo? Is this the right bio? Does it tell people who I am, what I do, how I serve? are my links, the most strategic and accurate links. And really just looking at like, is this up to date? And is this a current reflection? We actually have a task that is assigned to me every single week for me to audit the bio on my Instagram, because I'm often tweaking it and changing it. And that way I'm staying strategic with that piece, because that is a really big piece, especially for new people who are being exposed to you. They want to click over, understand who you are, what you do, and potentially even have a next call to action for how they can get in touch with you.

12:21So what we ended up doing is we did this audit and we started to look through. Now, if you are, let's use Instagram as the main example here in today's episode. If you are someone who has access to analytics inside of Instagram or insights, likely if you are a business or a creator account, you can actually leverage their analytics in a really cool way to sort through the data. Now, if you have been listening to this podcast for a very long time, I was, and I still am skeptical, very opposed to switching to a business account. My whole theory is just on the sense of like, if you are transitioning your account over and you are, if you are a business and you are only posting about business, you need to be a business account.

13:05That's just like being legit. But if you are someone who is sharing your life and your business is just a part of it. I would say a personal account. My only thought is, is that once Instagram and Facebook knows you're a business, they're going to want to charge you. You're going to have to pay to play. That's just my theory. It's never been proven. However, I am under a creator account because that's exactly what I am. And so now I have access to analytics, but regardless of if you have access to analytics or not, you first want to start looking at your top performing content. Now you probably could already list off a few of the things that you've posted or done that have performed really well.

13:41So even if you are just dipping your toe into analytics, you likely already know, like every time I talk about this thing, it does really well. Or every time I post about this topic, people love it. And so a lot of times in the back of our mind, we have identified the themes, the trends, or the types of content that perform well, but really doing an audit and saving your posts or taking screenshots of the stuff that is really working can help build out a little resource for you on the days where you're stuck or you're like, nothing is landing these days. What should I do? And so obviously it's pretty easy to identify your top performers, but you want to look at a few different things.

14:21So a lot of times when people look at top performers, if they're looking at things like reels, they're looking at views or they're looking at likes and comments. I also want for you to do a little audit. And if you have analytics, you can also see which posts got you the most new followers, which posts led to a real ROI, like which ones actually helped you sell your thing or get a new email subscriber or something of value in your business and which content got the most saves or like forwards, like where people were sending it off shares. And so you want to kind of look at a few different things because a lot of times people just stop at the ones that got the most engagement.

15:00But if we're again, really tying this to real results, we want to look at things like followers, real results in your business, saves and shares. And so I was kind of using the analytics tool on Instagram to sort through this just to see are there trends? Is it the same type of content for all of these? Are there different types of content that maybe get shares and different ones that get saves and just kind of starting to feel out like, can I notice trends in this? Because when you start paying attention to trends, you can almost start to predict the outcome of the content you're creating, which again, gives you more clarity and certainty in the creation process, which is something that I think we all want.

15:39You also want to look at the variables of your top performing content. So again, a lot of times we might just have something that takes off. We often just chalk it up and be like, oh, this was just like a fluke or this was the actual piece of content. But there are so many different variables surrounding what your content is and what can impact it in terms of the results. And so really take a minute to be slightly more analytical here. What was the topic? What was the audio? If you used one safer or real, what was the caption? What was the call to action? And what was the hook? And so again, you want to kind of dissect your top performing posts.

16:20And again, see if you can identify trends. Now there are so many different people out there on the internet that teach like, here is the exact ingredient for going viral. And I will say that there are some really good tips in there, but when you start to dissect your content, you might notice like, Oh, I had a really strong hook. I had a really epic CTA. I was using trending audio. I was talking about this topic. It was this length. It was this type of footage. And again, the more that you can identify what is working well for you, the more that you can create more content just like that. When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales.

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18:05look I've become kind of a systems nerd and anything that gives me more space in my day I'm all in and a reliable connection is a huge part of that because when the internet lags or cuts out everything pauses and suddenly the simplest tasks take forever I learned really early on that dependable internet it's not a luxury it is a must whether you're a content creator like me a restaurant owner or running a busy dry cleaning business you need that steady connection to support your team and your clients. That's why I'm excited to share a solution for my fellow business owners. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all types connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services, all with connectivity solutions built for your budget.

18:47And they have a truly incredible offer. Business owners can get free business internet advantage forever when you add four or more mobile lines. It's simple with no contracts and no added fees. Visit spectrum.com forward slash free for life to learn how you can get business internet free forever. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. So here's my pro tip. A lot of times when people do audits, they might just like take a few notes and be like, okay, this is the top performing. Here's what I want you to do. Create a document or a folder. Like you could literally screenshot things on your phone, but I think having a document where you can link up to the actual posts for easy access is a really great thing.

19:31So we have a working doc of like our top performing content of 2024. And you want to go through and try to save your top five to 10 posts. And again, have easy access that links to that content so that you can quick click on it, remind yourself of what that content was, pull out the actual content and the caption, take a little time again to evaluate when you actually go through and spice and dice this content and look at it, you might start to notice trends. Now also having this on file is totally going to help you when it comes to sitting down and planning out your content, using it as this reference point, and also as an encouragement to try more of what is already working.

20:10One thing that I've heard from other creators, and we're starting to test it out in my own business and content strategy is this idea of reposting content that already performed really well. And so I follow a few different content creators that are teaching about Instagram content. And one of the things that they're doing is every 30 days, they're looking at their top posts and they're literally reposting the same exact post to see if it'll take off again. And it's funny because we've actually been testing this a little bit recently and it seems to work. And if you really think about it, about three to 5 % of your audience is actually seeing your posts the first time.

20:48And so you're not like double hitting people. And plus, nobody is paying that close of attention to your content anyways. And so lose all of the ego things that are telling you like, oh my gosh, I could never post the same thing two times and maybe test it out. Especially if you're posting a decent volume of content, nobody's going to notice. You can always archive the first time you posted it and repost it again to see if it'll take off again. But we have been noticing that you can reuse content or reuse themes, strategies, words, captions in a way so that you're not constantly reinventing the wheel.

21:24You can always tweak things if you want or recreate it. But here's a random tip. Try reposting the stuff that's already done really well. Having a curation of these top performing posts can also just help when you are starting to think through different strategies that you want to try. So when we sit down, let's say we're going into a launch, I am like, Hey, I need 10 different reels on this one topic, looking at what has been working, what has worked in the past, different types of content. It really helps for me to understand, okay, this is the type of content I need to shoot. These are the types of audios we need to source.

21:58This is how we can start to plan that out. And so again, just create this resource for yourself. You're going to thank yourself later. You can make it beautiful. You can make it hodgepodge. You can take screenshots, however you want to do this, but I just recommend you don't just quick scroll through your feed and look for the top performers and leave it at that. Try to organize that information and identify trends. Now, the next thing we did is look at the bottom performing content. And I'm not just looking at vanity metrics here. So I'm not just looking at like which posts did the worst quote unquote with likes and comments.

22:31Yes, it is good to look at those just so that you kind of have a lens on it. But I also want to look through the lens of like, well, what was the intent of that post? What was the goal of that post? I've shared this before, but if somebody were to look at my social media feed, they would notice like, whoa, Jenna, when you talk about X, Y, and Z, you have a really strong engagement. Usually those are things that are not leading to real results. The purpose of that content is things that I'm passionate about and things I want to connect with you on, but it's not actually leading to ROI. If people were doing an audit and they were only looking at likes and comments, they would be like, hey, Jenna, just like never talk about your business again, because every time you do that, it falls flat.

23:10But if it is, quote, falling flat and still delivering a result that leads to a true return on my investment, dude, I'm going to post about my business. I'm never going to stop. And so I want to make sure that as we're looking at this, we're not, again, just focusing on vanity metrics. We're actually looking with a critical lens of like, did this content do what the goal of the content was? And this might lead to a bigger question here of like, as you are creating content, are you asking yourself, what is the end goal or the desired result of this piece of content? If you're not doing that, that is a beautiful place to start because that is going to help for you to really start to identify what type of content you need to create, what the goal of the content is, and how to make that goal achievable through the content you're creating.

23:55So when you start to analyze your bottom performers, you might start to see trends that can guide your decision process forward. So here are some questions that I want for you to ask yourself about bottom performing content that you are now identifying. So even if others don't like this, or it's not quote performing well, do I still love it? Because I think a lot of times we start to share things that we're really excited about, that we're passionate about, and then it doesn't quote perform well, and then we stop posting it. But like, if nobody cares, if nobody likes it, do you still love it? I think that's a good question to ask yourself.

24:29The second question is, is there a way to test or experiment with this type, style or topic or try something else? Do you want to continue to create this type of content that is underperforming and try to tweak it and make it perform better? Or do you want to leave it behind? Do you want to scrap this category or this type of post altogether and move forward with a different strategy? And so these are questions you can ask yourself about your bottom I'm performing content. Like for example, I love like fun and cheeky quotes. I love inspirational quotes. I just like love quotes. The amount of screenshots that I have of just like, Ooh, this one hit deep on my phone is really, really big.