Visibility for Creatives
Pedddle founder Nicki is hosting a week of IG lives covering the topic of Visibility for Results, helping small business owners get themselves out there and over the hurdle that so many creatives are experiencing right now when it comes to their visibility and reach.
To kick off the week, Nicki chatted to Elizabeth Stiles over on IG Live. Elizabeth‘s background is as a fashion industry consultant, but her coaching now covers creative selling for independent businesses, and she has so much great content to share.
Read on for some of the top take-aways from the chat, or scroll down to watch the full IG Live.
People feel invisible at the moment. What do you think are the triggers that are making us all feel like this?
As an empath myself, I know it feels like there’s a lot going on at the moment: the dreaded algorithm, or “A-word”, the cost of living crisis and a war. People are also going back to work, and if we started our business in lockdown, we’re maybe still comparing our stats to 2020/2021, when in a way everything was joyous when it came to small businesses. There were so many people online. If you don’t have anything to compare to previous to 2020, then it can definitely be a bit discouraging. I would say that this is more of a reality than what 2020 was.
Is it a mindset thing, a business thing, or both? What are we having to change?
It’s definitely a bit of both. I saw something on Amanda Perry’s page which really resonated with me. It said the goals that you set at the start of the year might not be the same as the goals you have now, because we were still in the mindset of there potentially being another lockdown, giving us more time to put into our business.
Finding balance – We can learn a lot from 2020. It was nice to see that when we do put 100% in to our businesses, the results pay off. But it’s still important to find the balance between getting our head down and making time to enjoy ourselves.
Negativity feeds negativity – It’s great to talk about our common experiences, but remember that we don’t have to join in on conversations that feel discouraging when it comes to sales. It’s best to think about which ones we want to participate in that will help and motivate us to show up, particularly in small business forums and group chats.
Engage with people who engage with you – A good trick is looking at who is watching your Instagram stories and engaging with theirs. These are the people who are showing up and want to hear from you, so it’s good to show their pages some love.
Let’s talk about social media. How should we frame and implement its use within our marketing strategy?
Using content across multiple channels – look at which of your content is successful and use it across more channels. Moving a TikTok video on to an Ideas Pin on Pinterest, converting IGTV content into a podcast, taking a successful Instagram post and moving it to an email allows it to reach a wider audience, and you might find that the content is engaged with more in certain places.
Don’t show up in the same way you did during lockdown – there are dead times during the day now on Instagram, as people won’t be scrolling at all times of the day. Stick to hours before work, lunch time, and in the evening.
Uploading pictures as videos – with Instagram now prioritising videos, uploading a flat image as a video or reel, maybe with some added music, the reach is likely to be better.
What would you summarise as the top take-aways from today?
- Post regularly, or not at all. It might sound harsh, but posting on social media once or twice a week is kind of like a drop in the ocean.
- Understand what kind of content you enjoy, and think about how you can apply it. Think about the pages you follow whose content you love, which pages are you saving posts from because you want to come back to it, and what can you learn from those accounts.
- Focus on your best-sellers. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your stock, so rather than thinking you need to give every piece in your collection equal amounts of attention, if the majority of sales are coming from your best-sellers, really ramp up the content on those. Post emails about your best-sellers, send them to influencers and really hone in on that, as it will make a huge difference.
- Assume that people are interested in what you have to say. Rather than minimal captions, give your audience something to talk about. This is how you can build a loyal audience of people who want to engage with you in comments and DMs. If the door is ajar, open it up a little bit more and let people in!
Do you have a motto or quote that you work by to send all of us feeling motivated or inspired?
I think the best quote I received was through Sophie French, who is a mindset coach that I worked with really early on. She said “Assume the best and show up for the silent watchers”. Just assume people are interested, assume people are spending, assume people do want to be engaging with you, assume people do want to hear from you.
It’s our natural tendency to assume the worst in order to keep us alive, but it’s really not helpful when it comes to showing up online or creating content, talking to people or promoting ourselves. We have to actively override those thoughts by assuming people do want to hear from us.
Watch the full IG Live chat
The Visibility Project
Elizabeth recently launched The Visibility Project, a four-week course to help you understand how to convert your followers into paying customers through content creation and becoming more visible to your audience. The doors are open for enrolment until July 4th.