My disastrous birthday (and your algorithm frustrations)…
After waking up at 4:30AM to catch a 7AM flight, Brad’s green card was rejected at check-in.
So… we missed our flight.
Brad then traveled an hour back to our apartment to find documentation to solve said green card issue. Problem solved!
We were then put on a new flight — Hallelujah!
Then, our apartment’s security called to inform us our dog sitters / friends couldn’t be let into our apartment because of a policy change so… my dogs had no one to feed them for a week. F*ck. (Pardon my French.)
My shoulder bag broke, which was just annoying and didn’t help.
My birthday gift got delivered to the wrong person. (At this point I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry…)
We finally solved the dog issue thanks to a good friend.
My birthday gift found me — yay! Things are looking up!
Then something happened to our plane and we were delayed indefinitely.
Indefinitely turned into an hour — not so bad.
And we were off!
… and all in the first 7 hours of my 30s!
Then it hit me… I spend way too much of my life like this. Are you on a constant rollercoaster, too? Social media (or #BusinessOwnerLife in general) has a knack for making you feel like you’ve got it all figured out one day and then — ALGORITHM CHANGE — Now you’ve gotta start from the beginning again.
I’ve got a tip for you.
When you’re doing the work of LISTENING to your audience, those algorithm changes won’t hurt so bad.
(Notice I said “so bad,” not that they won’t hurt at all. You know I don’t sugarcoat these things!)
Let me show you what that looks like…
Far too many coaches ask me, “Why isn’t this piece of content working?”
And the issue could be a number of different things…
- You’re posting what you want to post instead of what your audience is asking for.
- You’re not sharing it in a way THEY understand or THEY want to absorb it.
- You’re not catching their eye.
- You’re not speaking to their current pain point…or any pain point.
- Your audience isn’t even online!
And so many more…
The only way to feel clear around the solution to these points is to do the work of listening to your audience…consistently. Here’s how to do that:
1. Don’t create content just to create content. Create content because…
- You made a survey to actually ASK your audience what they need help with.
- You asked people in an Instagram caption if they want more of __________ and you had an overwhelming response of HELL YES!
- You keep getting the same questions again and again and again.
2. Don’t post at midnight because you can’t sleep.
- Open up your insights and look at when people are online and post then. And if you’re not available at that time, use a resource like grum.co to schedule it.
3. Don’t make design decisions based on your mood that day.
- Make decisions based on a dream client profile that will take you 20 minutes to make when you follow phase one of this process here.
4. And lastly, follow your numbers!! Look at your insights (or have someone on your team do it for you), so you’ll know what content is resonating with people and what content is not.
- How many times did people click to read that blog?
- How many times did people click back to look at your profile because of this post?
- How many times did this make an impression?
- How many times did people save this content for later?
- If all of the above figures are high — AWESOME! So what about it made it so high? A short caption or a long caption? A professional photo or an inspiring quote? Take a look at the elements that are WORKING and keep doing that. Then ditch the elements that are not working.
- Are you putting money behind some of your content? Great. So how much money did you need to spend on that boost or ad to generate these results? Okay… so if you want X number of reads on the next blog, how much money do you need to spend?
When you actively pay attention to what the heck is happening within your social media, those roller coaster lows won’t feel so low because you know what is working and what is not. That way — when there’s an algorithm change or a policy change — you’re prepared.
Okay. I’m about to land and I’m prepared to finish this rollercoaster of a 30th birthday on a high!
Lots of love,
Sophia
PS: I’m sending this to you one week after my birthday and can tell you…the trip was so wonderful. I definitely ended things on a high! I posted some pics on Instagram if you want to take a look! I also have a “travel” highlight at the top with more pics. Thank you for the beautiful birthday wishes! Here’s to spending ALL of this year — for you and me — on a high.