Social Media for Business
For this episode of Startup Hustle, Matt DeCoursey is joined by Full Scale’s Sales and Marketing Coordinator and Social Media Manager, Brelann Lawler. The duo discussed social media for business and why it is important. They also discussed the top social media platforms you can start with.
Why use Social Media for Business?
According to Matt and Brelann, nowadays, every business wanted to be on social media but the questions were how to do that and how to do that effectively. Seventy percent of North Americans are on social media. Putting a business on the right platform will reap many benefits.
In the episode, they covered these uses of social media for business that can improve or grow businesses:
- Build awareness from wherever the business is located
- Establish your brand as a business
- Use social media to promote or advertise your products or business
- Share details about the services and goods that you offer
- Share insights as a business owner
- Encourage people to get involved with your business. This can significantly impact how you market your business.
- Use social media as an avenue to meet customers
Social media, first of all, is free. There are sites where businesses can pay later for ads and promotions and it doesn’t hurt to try and go for having organic reach and growth. The first thing they need to do is to try.
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Here are some platforms to get started with Social Media for business:
- Facebook – Almost everyone is now on Facebook, which is why many businesses are now in it. However, it’s important to know that a Facebook page is not a website. This is a common mistake that businesses commit. This platform is used in posting engaging content—may it be a photo, video, an infographic, or a poll. Facebook also offers an avenue of creating communities that can be helpful in gathering people of the same interest or field.
- Instagram – Instagram is a very content-focused platform. It is very visual so it is easier to attract people through content that they might be interested in. Like Facebook, there are also paid ads on the platform. Through this, it is easier to reach out to a specific audience or demographic by using the filters for advertisements.
- Twitter – Twitter is yet another widely used platform. However, this can be optional since not all businesses have the same audience.
- LinkedIn – This platform helps separate personal from professional. LinkedIn offers ways to network within a huge pool of entrepreneurs and potential clients. Networking in this platform can be very helpful in creating connections and opening for the possibility of new partners or clients.
- Pinterest – Like Twitter, Pinterest can also be an optional platform to look into when putting businesses online. This is due to the fact that some businesses are very visual and design-oriented in nature.
- YouTube – Among all websites, YouTube ranks #2 globally, just behind Google at #1. With this, businesses are also starting to enter YouTube to promote their brands. However, this platform requires consistency. Matt notes that inactivity lessens engagement and subscribers through time.
To further enhance content quality, there are a lot of content creation tools that can be used. For photo or infographic content needs, Matt recommended Canva.com where there is a free version and a paid version. Canva can be used to create banners and designs with ease.
Whatever post published or shared can make or break a business, so it’s one thing that business owners need to keep your eyes on. Another episode will discuss the Do’s and Don’ts in Social Media marketing. As a summary, it is always about finding the right combination of content and platform that will take your business to the next level – but one must do it well.
Listen to Episode 111 of the Startup Hustle Podcast – Social Media for Business
Here’s the transcript from Episode 111 of the Startup Hustle Podcast – Social Media for Business
| Matt DeCoursey: | And we’re back. Another episode of Startup Hustle. Matt DeCoursey here with Brelann Lawler, Full Scale’s social media, and marketing, and sales, and a whole lot of other kinds of coordinators. Hi, Brelann. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Hi, Matt. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Aren’t you also the show’s producer? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yep. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And a lot of other stuff? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Mm-hmm (affirmative). My title keeps going. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I know. I actually ran out of breath, so no. Welcome, Brelann. Today we’re going to talk about social media for business and you think, “Man, you know, where’s his co-host coming from?” Well you know a couple things about social media, you’re a millennial. |
| Brelann Lawler: | I am a millennial, yes. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. So that means that you’re already better at social media than anybody my age, but this is obviously a big subject when it comes to, you know, when it comes to your business. It’s something that everyone says they want to do better and typically suck at. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yep. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So this is actually part one of part two about social media. So we’re going to spend a little time in this episode talking about just social media for business. Some of the things of why it’s important and then give you some basic general guidelines about the different places that you can share. We will give some basic tips about what’s good and what isn’t. And we will also… I will try to weigh in on what types of industries might fit with- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Which platform? yeah. And you said it, every business wants to be on social media and do it better, but how do you do that? And how do you do it effectively? You know just [crosstalk] being on social media isn’t enough nowadays. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And well and the reason why is that 70% of Americans are on social media, which is why you need to be on there, why your business needs to be on there. And you know in the next episode that the follow-up part two about this we’re actually going to talk about your actual brand. And we can hit on that for a second, but you know, we separate things. And it’s kind of funny is sometimes it’s easy to not even do a good job of that. Well, do you want to be the one that announces the startup Hustle Instagram? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Well you just did. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I know, but I didn’t say where it was. |
| Brelann Lawler: | You’re right. You’re right. So just this episode kind of sparked that of we are we blending Full Scale and Startup Hustle. And so we decided to separate the two. So Startup Hustle officially has its own Instagram. The handle is startuphustlepodcast. So [crosstalk] go follow it on Instagram. Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | On IG. On the gram, baby. On the gram. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yep. Go follow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So yeah there’s a lot of you that have been creeping on the gram for Full Scale or maybe us and since we’re talking about social media, I’d love to see you guys follow me. I’m at DeCourseyMatt on the gram. |
| Brelann Lawler: | On the gram. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And what about you? Are you even going to announce it or are you going to keep it a secret? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Keep it a secret. No, we can announce it. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Maybe. I mean, sure if you want. I’ll leave that up to you. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Yeah. You guys can follow me also I am catchmeinspace on IG. So- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So and that brings me to the next part of why… You know, anytime… You always have a why. So why should I listen to you? Go check out- |
| Brelann Lawler: | I don’t know that you should. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well maybe. Well you might. Yeah. Sure. It’s worth it, guys. Notice I said guys. But with that, Brelann has a significant Instagram following and I’ll let you guys go follow that account and build that up, but it’s a lot and you want to listen. So, we can first start when it comes to social media and your business is it’s not just about creating an account and just posting a bunch a pictures. You know, what’s the point? Brelann, what is one key reason to actually create and execute a social media plan for your business? |
| Brelann Lawler: | I think number one would be building awareness. Building an awareness for yourself or your brand or your business. Whatever that is. If 70% of the people are on social media and they don’t know what you are doing why you’re doing it, they’re not going to follow and they’re not going to buy your product. They’re not going to be a part of that movement. So building awareness for yourself is huge. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Okay. And I mean obviously that’s basically what social media does. It lets you share things about you, about your business and with that, it makes it a lot easier to build a tribe. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Get people involved and some of the things that successful social media accounts do is also encourage the involvement of those that maybe come to your business. You’ve got a lot of different… and we’ll get into that in a little bit, but when we talk about the tribe. So what is the tribe? First off, I’ll give a great book recommendation. It’s called Tribe. I think it’s called Tribes by Seth Godin. And the concept of the tribe is obviously not a new thing, but the true concept of tribe building in and around your business or whatever you’re doing means that you’ve created something that is adjacent to your core product or deliverable. And that is people that are interested in it and they learn or create a sense of value amongst each other that they hold as high or even higher than what you’re putting out. |
| And the example that Seth Godin gives in his book is the Grateful Dead. And so where… And it’s funny you talk about jam bands who is actually my. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Well you talked about jam bands, but. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well but you know who turned me on to tribe building was Joel Cummings from Umphrey’s McGee and it blew my mind. I was like, “Oh my god. You’re right.” He suggested that book and so Umphrey’s McGee is a band that has done an amazing job at tribe building and it’s by getting people involved. |
| So Umphrey’s does this thing called Hall of Fame and they actually have their fans vote and select a lineup of songs that came from the prior years, choice cuts, from their live shows. So it’s a hugely downloaded thing when they come out with it. And they’ve done it 10 years in a row and they used to actually do a live show that let the actual people at the show- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Pick the set list. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Pick the next songs. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Wow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And in a head to head versus kind of battle. Like, “We’re going to play this or this. Pick one.” And it’s that involvement. So when you get people involved and you get them talking. Now there is a flip side to this. You can’t get butt hurt when they don’t like everything you do because that’ll turn people off. And we’ll cover more of that in the dos and don’ts in the follow-up to this, but- |
| Brelann Lawler: | But it reminds me. You mentioned a book. Tribal Leadership is another one and it just reminds me of if you can get everybody believing that we are great, game over. You’re great, I’m great. We’re all great. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And if they’re talking about you, they’re talking about you. |
| Brelann Lawler: | And the comradery that you meet when you find somebody who’s interested in the same thing that you’re interested in. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Just- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So the ways you can create value. So with the Grateful Dead, these people traveled across the world to see them. And the fans of the Grateful Dead were just as interested in what was going on outside of the venue, as what was going on inside. Sometimes even more. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Because if you met somebody in the caravan on the way there, you guys joined up and you were- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | You want to see your friends the next you stop by and that’s a powerful thing. So that’s a older version and the modern version gets people involved online communities. It can even just be like… I mean there’s a zillion Facebook pages. So a lot of you listening may have even found out about this on the Startup KC Facebook page, which I did a post on yesterday looking for non-tech future guests for this podcast. [inaudible]- |
| Brelann Lawler: | And that engagement was amazing. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And it’s 70 people made comments on it in 24 hours, which is like, “Wow.” And so they were involved. They were… because we got them involved. We said, “Who do you want to see? Who do you want to hear? Tell us what you want and we’ll do the very best we can to deliver it.” And then by the time this episode comes out, it might not, who knows, hopefully keep breaking that record, but we found a huge… We had an amazingly high number of downloads. I mean we have a pretty big… Well we’re up to [crosstalk] 172 countries. Dude, we’re going to get them all. |
| I figured out a plan. We’re going to fly iPods into North Korea with the show [crosstalk] pre-loaded on it. Yeah. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Genius. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And that’s how we’re going to get North Korea off the list. |
| Brelann Lawler: | What are you going to fly them in? You got to hide the… balloons. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | We’re going to tie them onto balloons. Yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Okay. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | In massive numbers. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Huge. Huge. |
| Brelann Lawler: | I like it. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Oh, I guarantee you we could probably get a really good deal on the old Microsoft Zune players. I bet we could probably for free. Yeah so we’ll tie those to helium balloons. We’re dropping them into North Korea, get ready. That’s going to- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Startup Hustle coming your way. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yep. Yep. Going to get that off the list. I think it’s funny. We may have to do an episode on what countries don’t have it listed and see if we can get those. 170- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Be shorter than the one that do I mean. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | According to Watson, there’s only 30 countries left to get off the list. So we got to get that. So you know, another thing with social media that it fits into everybody’s budget. Why? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Because it’s free. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yay. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Yeah. I mean people downplay that and want to jump to advertising and getting on Google and getting on commercials and all these sorts of things, but don’t downplay the fact that social media is free to sign up. It’s free to grow an organic reach. You can always pay to advertise later, but if you’re balling on a budget man. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Baller on a budget. You know, I call that- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Sign up on IG. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well I call that grassroots marketing and it’s super effective if done well. And one of the things, and once again that we’ll get into in the dos and don’ts episode, which is going to be come out right after this one is you got to be regular with it. You got to be planned. And for those of you that have listened to our 10 ways to ruin your brand episode, go back and listen to it again. If you haven’t heard it and you’re thinking about creating a social media campaign, we will invariably overlap on quite a few of those in part two of this, but you can also kind of ruin your shed as quickly as you can build it up. |
| So it’s got to be kind of topical, but- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | And people like to see that unfortunately a little bit more sometimes. You know that stuff will get shared a lot faster than the positive content, so- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I mean it depends on… I mean yeah. Social media is a double edged sword. There are definitely… Oh man. You look at Jimmy John and somehow pictures of him hunting elephants. Yeah, that’s not a good idea. |
| Brelann Lawler: | No. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | That’s not good. Not a good idea. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Make sure all the phones are put away. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Okay so, with social media, I mean people are on it all day, every day. I mean even- |
| Brelann Lawler: | All day, every day. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Literally. I do a significant amount of business and outreach through Facebook. I talk to a lot of people on Messenger. I will admit that Instagram has kind of come and gone for me and I’m really trying to pay more attention to it. I had a decent amount of people that were following and I kind of gave up on it a little bit and kind of revisited it. So you know? But where do you start? |
| So we’ve narrowed this down to a few. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Definitely not all, but yeah. A few. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I mean it’s a half a dozen and so we’re going to start with good old Facebook. Why isn’t Myspace on this list? Is that not a good- |
| Brelann Lawler: | What’s Myspace? Just kidding. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah might be old enough to credibly ask that. |
| Brelann Lawler: | No, I had one. What about Zynga? Did you have a Zynga? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I thought that was game. I thought that was games. |
| Brelann Lawler: | No. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I thought they were like… okay. |
| Brelann Lawler: | You got to write a blog post essentially. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | You might want to be careful what you’re driving people to because there could archival copies of that. |
| Brelann Lawler: | I’ve tried to find it. It is gone. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. We’ll see. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I’m pretty clever at finding things online. |
| Brelann Lawler: | That’s true. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So- |
| Brelann Lawler: | That’s true. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well good old Facebook. Start with the biggest one of all. So Facebook is, you’re going to be able to have videos and curated content like me kind of stuff. Your business needs to have a page. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Has to. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And by the way, your Facebook page is not also your website. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | That screams JB Team every time I see someone doing it. It actually just makes me not want to do business with you. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Have your website on the Facebook, but it is not your website. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah, yeah. So with the Facebook, there’s a few things. All right. So for those of you that have struggled with creating things and creative stuff, go join canva.com. It’s $12 a month. They literally have preset templates that will help you do things like create a banner, an ad. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Super easy. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Very. Well if you’ve ever seen any of the thumbnails that have come out for Startup Hustle and you know the funny thing is I’ve become quite a clever graphic designer using Canva. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Canva genius. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. Well I still think I’m the goat, but that’s up for debate, but so- |
| Brelann Lawler: | But if you’re on Facebook, so Facebook is so inundated with people nowadays, it is important to do videos on Facebook. What’s going to get people to stop scrolling? I think is the important part on Facebook because we’re so used to just getting out our phone and going, going, going, going or getting on your laptop and going. So you want something that’s going to catch peoples’ eyes and get them to stop and watch for 10 seconds, you know? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And remember, it’s got to be a why. Why do I stop? Why do I care? And that first three seconds is it. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yep. Absolutely. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | If it sucks, they’re going on. They’re moving on. You know videos are good and we just literally don’t have enough time to make this into one thing. So we had to separate that, but Facebook… Ask your people. Ask your own community of people to… you can invite them to like your page and that’s important because it will create some credibility for the page itself. You ever go to something and it has two likes? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Two likes. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And you’re like, “I was going to buy this and now I don’t know if I will.” |
| Brelann Lawler: | But I don’t think so. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Or even going to similar Facebook groups. Something that’s going on. You say that all the time about startups. Just go and find another tribe that’s already built and tap in. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | But I got some amazing advice once that said, “What’s easier? Climbing the mountain yourself or asking those on top to pull you up?” So there are other communities where you can go and share and ask for engagement and stuff like that. And get your information accurate and make your stuff look catchy. So with something like Canva, like I said, it’s 12 bucks a month. It might even be free on some level. |
| Brelann Lawler: | I think it is free. You just pay for images sometimes. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well I think I pay to store my images. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And I’ve got a lot of them, but it’ll help you make something like a banner or other stuff. It’s really easy to do, man. There’s really no excuse. So I have Facebook pages. Well we have one for the podcast. We have a chat community for the podcast. We have one for Full Scale. Have one for GigaBook. I have one for myself as an author. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Keep going. You can do as many as you want. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I don’t know if I need anymore. So and you know. All right. So then so keep in mind too Facebook is a search engine. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh absolutely. If I’m going out to eat, I usually go to Facebook. Or if I’m looking to do something this weekend, I’m going to go to Facebook events. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | All these things are search engines. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So that can bring some business to you and help you get found. Okay, next. Instagram. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Instagram. Oh yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | IG. |
| Brelann Lawler: | My favorite. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Which is owned by Facebook. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Mm-hmm (affirmative). It was cheaper for Facebook to buy Instagram than compete with Instagram so- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well that’s the way acquisitions go so that doesn’t surprise me. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Now on Instagram, these are your high-resolution photos, quotes, Stories, watch me, Instagram Live’s big. So- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Huge about watch me content. What am I doing? What are you doing day to day? How are you doing it? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So this is why Instagram is good for your business especially if you can take clever or interesting pictures is Instagram’s for the people that don’t want to hear all the fucking comments that people make about all the stuff that they shouldn’t even be talking about online anyway. And they still do it anyway in picture form, but it kind of carves out a lot of the noise. And Instagram makes it real accessible to follow people that might matter to you and then so it’s just a great way to, you know, they say, what? “A picture is a [crosstalk] thousand words.” Or, “What’s a good video?” |
| You can do a lot of different stuff. And- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | But emphasis of high-resolution photos on Instagram. I say that a lot and it’s true. I mean high-res photos are going to get people to stop. There’s a lot of junk on Instagram these days. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And we’ll get more into that on, like I said, with the dos and the don’ts because man, that’s like |
| Brelann Lawler: | This is long. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | All right. So- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Up next. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Okay. So when we’re looking at these and should your business and remember, you’re a brand too. So it depends on how you look at it because I look at Matt DeCoursey, the entrepreneur, as a separate entity from the Startup Hustle co-host or the co-founder of Full Scale or the CEO of GigaBook or the guy that wrote books or whatever. And those all kind of- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Which is the best thing you can do these days is brand yourself also. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah and by the way, it’s actually easier for me to get people to follow me than it is say Full Scale. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So Facebook page for your business, yes. Instagram, a yes in all situations, people. Okay, you don’t need to skip those. Twitter. Now, I will tell you I am not a big Twitter person. I linked some of my other stuff to Twitter so it kind of auto-posts, but Twitter just never got caught on with me. I know some people [crosstalk] by it. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Well and that’s thing too is you also have to consider what do you have bandwidth to keep up with? |
| So you know it- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | That does make it challenging. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | It links into some of my other things and kind of keeps things going. I don’t know. I’ve got 3,000 or 4,000 people that follow me on Twitter. Whoever you are, thank you and I will maybe- |
| Brelann Lawler: | I love you. Thank you. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | So Twitter can be good. And like I said, now you heard me mention do I link it to my other things? So you can link… LinkedIn will post to your Twitter account. And so Twitter’s one of those things that if you’re not going to do stuff regularly, you’re not going to engage, you’re not going to comment or whatever, I think Twitter is optional for a business. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah, yeah. But if you’re going to be in the news a lot or you’re going to be posting blog articles and things like that, that stuff is great on Twitter. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And that’s why I automate those things so they post to Twitter, but I don’t really get too involved. So yeah. I think that’s an optional one. And then- |
| Brelann Lawler: | It never hurts. We’ll say that, but- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah, it doesn’t hurt, but if you’re not really active and engaged, it can be I think a little more challenging. Okay. So the next, LinkedIn. LinkedIn, for your business, your business needs a LinkedIn page, yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Needs a LinkedIn. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Legitimizes businesses really quickly. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And you need one as a professional, too. So LinkedIn exists for those that, I mean, theoretically it’s to try to separate the personal and the professional. So some people are pretty adamant. They’re like, “I don’t talk business on Facebook.” I’m like, “I couldn’t not.” You know? And so much of what I’m doing anyway is wrapped around what I’m doing in my business or the things that are promoting it or the people that it helps me run into. So you know? And that, once again, is Instagram sometimes posting that and sometimes you posting that from Instagram and then to the Full Scale page or whatever, but- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. I do think that that’s even more important for my generation where we separate, you know, social media has been used as a way to show lifestyle and things that like and that’s something that I don’t always want a potential employer to see. So if you can separate the two and be on LinkedIn and have your professional side as well as your real person side sometimes too is huge. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. I agree and then, you know, so Facebook doesn’t give you the option to really… I mean you can say where your work history was or maybe what you do, but LinkedIn lets you take that a step deeper and also lets you connect some, you know, create some credibility because other people can endorse you for things and stuff like that. |
| You know, I have a actually I have a really big following. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. I was going to say, am I going to announce that or are you going to announce it this time? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | How many people I’m connected to on LinkedIn. So- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. I just hit over 30. So thank you. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | 30 people? |
| Brelann Lawler: | 30 people. Thank you very much. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Wow. I have 21,000. And- |
| Brelann Lawler: | I’m new to LinkedIn. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. Well, so you got to start somewhere. I had 30 at one point too. But so there are some limits to these things too. I don’t think Instagram you can follow 75,000 people. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah, but there’s no limit to how many people can follow you on Facebook. Can have 5,000 friends [crosstalk] and then you turn into having people follow you. On LinkedIn, you can be connected to 30,000 people. So on LinkedIn, if you’re connected to someone you can now send them messages and if you’re not, then you can’t. |
| So and that’s where they kind of make some money on you can pay to be able to bypass that and send a message to whoever you want. They call that InMail. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Interesting. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I honestly do not ever pay attention to those. They are not effective with me. |
| Brelann Lawler: | So if you’re thinking about doing InMail, don’t. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | But LinkedIn is… So when you’re connected to me, you’re actually connected to 21,000 people that you have ability. So if- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Because you’re my mutual connection? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. So if I disconnect you, you actually have a huge network because you’re connected to me. So the people I’m connected to now become a, not a fully accessible, but you can actually try to establish a connection. So- |
| Brelann Lawler: | One degree. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And you know, LinkedIn, I mean it’s huge. It’s huge. They have 600 million people that are on it. I mean according to- |
| Brelann Lawler: | It was definitely one that I underestimated. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Aaron Fulk was in here on episode I think it was that 107. |
| Brelann Lawler: | 107 |
| Matt DeCoursey: | In 107 and she’s a LinkedIn expert and it can be really powerful. There’s a lot of components in there and that matter. And you know another thing too is all these things that we’re talking about, they show up in Google. So if you google Matt DeCoursey, my LinkedIn page is one of the top three things on there. |
| And don’t underestimate the propensity for people to google your name. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I mean it opened you know and I- |
| Brelann Lawler: | You googled your own name. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I know because my Google Search results look cool, man. It shows up with books and videos and I have a little sidebar thing. I felt really cool about that and then I showed one my rockstar buddies that and he was like, “Hang on.” I was like, “Dude don’t kill for me. Don’t kill this for me.” You know, I just like. |
| Brelann Lawler: | just get the Wikipedia page, huh? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I was like, I hung my head and I was like, “God, I’m going to go get back in my car. You get in your tour bus, dude. Be that way.” So LinkedIn I think, as a professional, is really good. There are people that literally make a living through LinkedIn. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Through LinkedIn. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Well yeah. They’re I mean recruiting business connections, stuff like that. Every day I do share or do some communication through LinkedIn, without a doubt. Do you know I’ve got a massive following from the Philippines because of the Full Scale office in Cebu? |
| Brelann Lawler: | Wow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I think I have 5,000 or 6,000 connections |
| Brelann Lawler: | From the Philippines? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I get a bigger engagement when I post things from overseas than I do locally sometimes. I don’t know. Darrel thinks they’re going to build a statue of me. Okay so LinkedIn- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Pinterest. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | … as a business is a good idea, but yeah as a professional it’s a great idea. Now we get into something totally optional like Pinterest. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Pinterest, yep. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Okay. This is one of those things. Full Scale does not have a Pinterest page. |
| Brelann Lawler: | No. It wouldn’t serve us well. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | A software community does not… I look at Pinterest as like arts and crafts and stuff like that. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. No, the only thing we could put the blogs on Pinterest and they’d probably get some traction, but not anything significant enough to- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | It is what it is. |
| Brelann Lawler: | … to make it work the time. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. So Pinterest is, you know, for certain businesses, it’s a must. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | For some businesses, they’re like, “I don’t need a LinkedIn.” You might like… Okay. So example, if you’re an artist. If you do crafts, if you do something creative, something that’s very pictorial and stuff like that, Pinterest can be a big… it can a big thing. |
| Brelann Lawler: | You know Shark OFF comes to mind. We just saw them on an innovation exchange and jewelry is all over Pinterest. She probably has a LinkedIn also, but I know my- |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And those are things that go well with marketplaces too like Etsy and stuff like that. So depending on the type of business you’re at, Pinterest is either a hard no or a absolute [crosstalk] yes. And that’s probably up to you to determine. Look, you know whether you should be on Pinterest or not. I don’t think you have to hear a whole lot more from us about that. |
| Okay. This last one. So we saved YouTube for last. YouTube’s tricky. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | YouTube is tricky. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | It is. It is. It’s also like… Okay so Facebook and YouTube are I think the top two other than Google, the top two. I think they’re two and three. So YouTube, if- |
| Brelann Lawler: | I’m on YouTube probably once a day at least. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. I watch it a lot. I follow some channels. I watch some stuff. It’s how I, you know, and it can be very powerful. The cool thing about YouTube is, now that’s owned by Google, it shows up very well in search results too. So when you google Matt DeCoursey, you’ll see other videos that I may have done. |
| So I had a very active YouTube page. It’s still there. I just [crosstalk] quit feeding it. Well I ran out… Like the one talking about why you shouldn’t- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | When you did your cardio? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Oh yeah. Oh yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | The cardio. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | You got to have fun with it. That was when my wife made me do Beach Body and I documented it and it’s pretty hilarious. Yeah, you can go check it out. And then sometimes they’re just things like I just don’t think you should ever pour the milk before the cereal. [crosstalk]. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Would disagree. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Which is crazy. That is literally my most popular. It’s got thousands of views. And I’ve also sat down with some fun and interesting people and documented it. I think my second most popular video is with Jake Cinninger of Umphrey’s McGee, who is one of the greatest guitarists in the world. And that has thousands of views. So why did I stop with my YouTube channel? Well producing videos is time consuming. And- |
| Brelann Lawler: | You got to be committed. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | It also got easier to do things and post them on the other channels without any pre-production. So YouTube can be really, really powerful. So if your business… Well you could have a tour of your business. It could have your products. It could have how-to stuff. If you’re just doing a 45 second update on [crosstalk]. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Keep that to Insta Stories. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. Those are the other forms of social media because those will not really drive people away. But at one point I think some of my subscribers have left, but I mean I have a whopping 800 or 900, which is actually kind of a lot. Now I’ve seen it be really powerful like my buddy Jaysse Lopez at Urban Necessities. Now, I helped Jay build that YouTube channel and why did it make sense? Well at the time he had 350,000 followers on Instagram. I was like, “Dude, why do you not have a YouTube channel?” He was like, “Because I haven’t been able to produce the videos.” |
| So we literally, I was in Vegas. This was two years ago. I said, “Dude, go get the company car. We’re going to Best Buy right now. We’re buying a fucking camera and a mic and we’re going to do this stuff.” Now because he was able to cross promote, by the time we even published the first video, he already had 10,000 subscribers just from teasing it to the IG followers. And it was funny because there’s these things where you can keep up on the follower count and we would see it just going up. It was the craziest thing in the world. | |
| So it’s not always easy to have a following. Now, in that case, that channel can actually generate revenue because I looked at it the other day. It had 211,000 subscribers. | |
| Brelann Lawler: | Subscribers? Yeah wow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. But it’s hard to get subscribers. Don’t think you’re going to make a YouTube channel and just people are going to subscribe right away. You have to offer value. And how do you offer value? You have to teach them something, you have to make them laugh, or you just have to show them something that they normally wouldn’t see. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. Which I put here. I think of YouuTube as spend time with me. Can I get the viewer to spend enough time with me to feel like they’re a part of my life? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. And it’s also a… The YouTube for me… So I built the whole deck on the back of my house by watching YouTube videos. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Oh wow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And a lot of the people I- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Remind me not to go on the deck. Just kidding. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | You’ve been on it. You’ve been on it. Oh my god, after I built that, and by the way I had to take it apart a couple times and do it again, but right after I finished building it, I had my 40th birthday. And- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Oh. Had a bunch of people, huh? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | … on it. And I was so nervous. I was like, “Please do not kill everybody I know.” So YouTube is in that optional and slash maybe category again. If you’re not going to do it well, just don’t do it. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Don’t do it at all. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Don’t do it at all and if you’re only going to put one video up, also don’t do it. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Don’t do it because that’s going to look bad. Your last video was three years ago and yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. That’s a great point. Kind of, is that aimed at me? |
| Brelann Lawler: | No, no. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I was [crosstalk] doing well, but the thing is is once I quit doing things regularly, people quit watching. They quit subscribing, but you know look, a lot of people have push notifications and if you’re doing things regularly on any of these and some of them we didn’t even talk about, you are constantly making yourself present. |
| We’ve been running into people a lot lately and they’re like, “Dude, we see you everywhere.” Good. That means it’s working. Thank you. Thank you. I’m glad to hear that. So- | |
| Brelann Lawler: | That’s the point. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. Okay. So well as we’re going to kind of close this out and move into part two, I mean really what this is about it’s about finding the right combinations, the things that work for you. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yes. Don’t just be on one. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | You know? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I mean well if you’re going to be on one, do it really well. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Right. That’s true. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | But you know, be committed to doing it. So an example, Full Scale is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And we don’t do a very good job on YouTube. We’re trying to change that. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yet, yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Trying to change that, but we’re not on Pinterest. |
| Brelann Lawler: | No. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | Because I just don’t really feel like that’s our audience. Yeah. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Yeah. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | It’s not. Now my own art, when I start creating it- |
| Brelann Lawler: | Art. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | … later on the road. Yeah, I’m going to become an artist and that’s when I’m going to rock Pinterest. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Do you become an artist or are you already an artist just in the making? |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I’m going to be the artist formerly known. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Wow. wow. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | And that would just be a symbol and then I will disappear into vapor. |
| Brelann Lawler: | A symbol. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I would just get sucked into the matrix in it. So I would get sucked into Facebook. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Nice to mention. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | But you know, so like we said, it’s about… And you know, we’re going to get into some tips and some dos and don’ts, but that’s what we have for you here in part one. So stick around, come back. Are you going to join me again for the second part? |
| Brelann Lawler: | If you’ll have me back, I’d love to. |
| Matt DeCoursey: | I am and I’m looking forward to it. See you. |
| Brelann Lawler: | Bye. |
