#286: Crush Social Media Anxiety and Build a Thriving Online Presence

I am thrilled to introduce you to social media coach, Lauren Litt.

Together, we explore the secrets to crushing social media anxiety so you can show up authentically and effectively on social media and build a thriving online presence.

We emphasize the power of personal connection and the importance of tailoring experiences for your audience. We also discuss the need to focus on business goals rather than getting caught up in vanity metrics.

And the best part is you don’t have to show up all the time.

During our conversation, we touch on creating a doable, relaxed content plan, and the significance of email marketing.

We also delve into the benefits of using MiloTreeCart to sell products, highlighting its user-friendly features and seamless integration.

As a special treat for our listeners, I encourage you to take advantage of our limited-time lifetime deal for MiloTreeCart. This is an opportunity you won’t want to miss!

Don’t miss this interview, where we uncover the down-to-earth social media strategies you need to help you succeed in the digital world.

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love This Episode:

Practical social media strategies: Gain actionable tips on using social media platforms effectively to reach your target audience and grow your online presence.
Consistency for success: Discover the power of consistent posting without the pressure to be always active, leading to better engagement and results.
Authenticity and real connections: Learn how being genuine and having meaningful conversations can have a greater impact on your business than just focusing on follower count.
Tailored experiences for success: Understand the importance of tailoring your content and marketing approaches to different audiences, creating valuable experiences that resonate.
Manageable content planning: Receive practical advice on creating a doable content plan, starting small and gradually expanding your social media presence while avoiding overwhelm.

Show Notes:

Full Transcript:

Lauren Litt Interview

Intro (00:00:04) – Welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here’s your host, Jillian Leslie.

Jillian Leslie (00:00:11) – Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast. I am your host, Jillian Leslie. I’m so glad you’re joining me. I am a blogger and a serial entrepreneur. I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2009 when my husband and I created Catch My Party.

We’ve grown it into the largest party ideas site on the web. If you need party ideas, free printables, head over there.

Next, we built our pop-up app that so many of you use to effortlessly grow your followers on social media, including TikTok and Instagram and all of the platforms, plus your email list. And you can check that out at milotree.com.

Plus, we now have launched our payment tool built for people who hate technology called MiloTreeCart. And it is the easiest way for creators to sell digital products.

Anything from a digital download to a paid membership, a workshop, coaching, anything you can deliver digitally, you can sell with MiloTreeCart for you bloggers and content creators.

Content is real and so your job now is to compete with it successfully. I recommend the way you do this is by showing up as a human and selling digital products where people get to know you, get to know your offers. Building that one-on-one relationship with them is so valuable.

I want to share what I’m learning as I get on calls with people who want to start selling their own products and services but have some resistance.

The main piece of feedback I get is they say, “I tried selling a digital product, I spent months creating a course. I wrote a really great ebook. I put together a paid workshop. I got no sales. I spent a lot of time creating it. It didn’t work. Digital products don’t work for somebody like me.”

And what I say is the word is yet because selling digital products is all about trial and error. It’s all about making products, different kinds of products and putting them up there and iterating and learning and testing. And that is how you have success.

And then once you do, I call it finding specks of gold, you dig deeper and you create more. And that is our whole philosophy With MiloTreeCart. It is not an expensive platform. We’re selling it right now to our founding customers for $349 as a lifetime deal. Own it forever.

People love buying it this way because it’s like an asset and now they can move quickly, they can create products, put them up there, use our free sales pages, use our marketing materials. Go, go, go. Because it’s only by having lots of bats do you find gold.

And if you do this, you will find gold with milotreecart. You can be selling your first product in ten minutes. If you want to find out if this is real, get on a 15 minute call with me. Go to milotree.com/meet and I promise I will not waste your time for today’s episode.

I have my friend Lauren Litt on the podcast. She is a social media coach. Her company is called Lil Shameless Plug. What I love about her is that she helps people with social media anxiety get real results.

What I think is great about this episode is that Lauren normalizes social media anxiety. I know I suffer from it, so given that we’re all freaked out, Lauren gives real tips, real ways to think about showing up with a lot of impact so that you don’t have to show up all the time and why it can move the needle for your business.

I think you’re going to like this episode because it’s kind of like a State of the Union on what is working today in social media. So, without further delay, here is my interview with Lauren Litt.

Lauren, welcome to the Blogger Genius Podcast.

Lauren Litt (00:04:06) – Jillian, thank you so much for having me. I am really excited to be on your podcast and really excited to be speaking to your audience because they do such great work and to be able to help them share their blogs and all the things that they’re putting into social media is just great. So happy to be here.

Jillian Leslie (00:04:24) – Oh, great. Will you then share your background? I know a little bit about it and how you got to where you are now and what you do.

Lauren Litt (00:04:33) – I started my company a Lil Shameless Plug because I’m an actor and I simply couldn’t wait any more tables. I was absolutely done serving people there, hamburgers and Cokes and fries and actually been fired.

So, I decided that I needed to find a job where I could use my creativity. And as an actor, I act because I want to tell stories to the world to help create empathy.

And so, I fell into social media because of that, because there is this way that we can lift up our voices and share our different stories to bring us together as a community. So, that’s kind of the reason why I fell into social media and I started a Lil Shameless Plug almost ten years ago now.

And we are a full service social media management and marketing company for online. I also do consulting.

Jillian Leslie (00:05:33) – Name the Ideal client right now that you serve.

Lauren Litt (00:05:37) – For the full service side of the business, it’s really anyone who has an online business. We do support people who as well have brick and mortar, like an actual store. Those people are really specifically looking to create a community within their niche. But if you are a coach or we have lawyers, anyone who has a jingle and needs to find their audience online, that’s kind of ideal for us.

Jillian Leslie (00:06:11) – Great. We were talking beforehand about AI and how that’s going to change everything. That is a topic of conversation I keep touching on.

Before we get there, I asked this question of you and just like a quick lightning round. But let’s say I as a person, as an online entrepreneur, let’s say I’m a blogger.

Let’s say I’m a craft blogger, parenting blogger, whatever it is, food blogger. And I know I need to up my exposure on social media. I look out at the landscape and there are all these different platforms and it feels really intimidating. Where do you recommend I start?

Choosing the Right Social Media Platform

Lauren Litt (00:06:53) – The first thing I ask people is, who is your audience? Who are you looking to speak with? Because even though everyone is everywhere, we can find an 80-year- old grandma on TikTok if we want to, but you’re going to probably find the majority of your audience on a specific platform.

So, if you are looking to speak to women in their 30s and 40s, you want to be on Instagram. If you’re looking to speak to, more like men and women who are in their 40s and 50s. Facebook is your space TikTok’s a younger audience. So, 20s and 30s.

Jillian Leslie – And then what about YouTube?

Lauren Litt – I was going to say YouTube. We are all over the map on YouTube, but y’all YouTube, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest are what I call my three secret converters because they have higher conversion rates than any of the other social media platforms.

And I’m saying those in quotes because technically YouTube and Pinterest are search engines. They’re not social media platforms, but they are a fantastic way to rebuild your content and create community online.

So yes, YouTube is all over the map, but I’m very excited about the things that are happening there, especially because they’ve just released their podcast feed. And if you have a podcast, please jump on YouTube and get that started right away.

Jillian Leslie (00:08:15) – Because yes, I’ve done that. I’ve done that.

Lauren Litt (00:08:18) – Good job.

Jillian Leslie (00:08:18) – Good job. I always hear that YouTube, it’s like it’s so hard to grow on YouTube. It takes so much effort. You have to be releasing consistently all the time with higher quality videos. And then I just recently read 75% of YouTube. The YouTube audience is male.

Jillian Leslie (00:08:39) – Whoa. Yay! That makes sense.

Lauren Litt – There’s a lot of nonsense on YouTube. Here’s what I will say about that. If you are super excited about growing an audience in 30 days. You have the wrong mindset about marketing your business, because I don’t know anyone who is going to be putting 30 days into something and then is going to be able to walk away.

Your marketing is going to be around as long as you are in business, and I think most of us probably want more than a 30 day business. We’re looking to actually have something that supports our lifestyles and is something that we can pour our creativity and joy into.

And so, social media marketing, any online marketing that you are going to approach is going to be a growth over time. And that is the way you’re actually going to see success.

There are a lot of programs. There are ways you can buy followers, “on any platform,” pretty much. But that’s not actually how you’re going to see long term success for your business. And I don’t. I don’t promote any of those ways that you can do that.

So, yes, YouTube is difficult, but it’s also like they have shorts. Now, if you haven’t played around with shorts, my social media is awful. If anybody wants to see that social media, go ahead and check out my own personal YouTube channel.

Jillian Leslie (00:10:02) – You’re the manicurist with the bad nails.

Lauren Litt (00:10:04) – With the bad nails. The doctors. Kids are always sick. The social media manager has terrible social media, but I keep it bad on purpose because I want you to see with how little I do and how basic the stuff I do, the results I get.

I played around with a short for myself. We’ve been doing them for our clients for however long a year now, but I put up a short recently and I got three subscribers in a week. Now, if you’ve been on YouTube, you know how hard it is to grow your subscriber base.

As you were saying, it’s a growth over time. And especially that first six months can be really difficult on YouTube, specifically three subscribers in a week from a 30 second short that I put out . By the way, it’s not like it was fabulously produced. It was a social media mantra that I shared that I normally share on Instagram.

Jillian Leslie (00:10:53) – What is the mantra?

The Importance of Consistency in Social Media Posting

Lauren Litt (00:10:55) – What’s the mantra? Let’s see. I think at the time. I think it might have been my do less more often that you don’t have to be posting all the time, but you do need to be posting consistently. I think that was the mantra that I had shared.

I’m a little bit woowoo, so I approach these things very much centered around how social media affects our hearts and how it affects our anxiety when we jump on these platforms. So that’s why I put out these social media mantras occasionally. But yeah, it wasn’t anything. And I got three subscribers.

Jillian Leslie (00:11:31) – What you’re saying is look at where your people are and be there. So for example, and I get this question a lot, my audience is on Instagram, but I don’t really like Instagram. Tell me your answer to that and I’ll tell you my answer.

Addressing the Dislike of Instagram

Lauren Litt (00:11:50) – Number one, why don’t you like Instagram is my question. Back to people. I was just in a social media magic session yesterday where I work with small companies, to consult with them.

And neither the owner nor her VA were like, “Yeah, we don’t like Instagram, but we know this is the space we need to be.” And they didn’t like it for very different reasons.

One of them said, I feel overwhelmed and if your answer is I feel overwhelmed. It’s a twofold thing. One, you need to get a little bit more educated about the platform.

And two, you’re probably suffering from a crash of dopamine when you get on there because it is so fast and our brains are literally being pumped when you’re on that platform. We need to talk about grounding habits for you.

We need to talk about protecting yourself and protecting your energy when you’re on the platform, if that’s how you feel. The other person didn’t like it because she said, I feel it just feels inauthentic.

It feels like everybody’s just kind of fake. And I said, well, what if we were able to focus on real conversations? And then we had a conversation about who she actually wants to contact and what that looks like. You don’t need 10,000 followers on Instagram to have a small business.

If you’re running a business that you want it to be 100,000, 150,000 a year, you can do that with 1000 followers with 500 followers. Again, I have 600 followers on my Instagram profile and I have a multi six figure business, so it doesn’t mean anything. It means we can have real conversations and we can have real authenticity.

Jillian Leslie (00:13:25) – My response, You’re much nicer than me because I was just going to say, your audience is on Instagram. You don’t like Instagram, you got to get on Instagram.

This is what I typically say to people. In blogging, for example, they’ll be like, “Yeah, I know you’re saying pick a lane like niche down, but that feels too confining for me.”

And I say, cool, then go write about what you want. But if you want to grow a business, then I would say niche down and really focus on that niche. Otherwise, go be you, but don’t expect to be making money.

If you need to put this out into the world because this is your authentic self, go do that. However, running businesses is hard. Running businesses means you do stuff you don’t want to do.

Lauren Litt (00:14:12) – All the time. Yeah. And the thing is, on the river I’m doing.

Jillian Leslie (00:14:15) – You’re the tough lover.

Lauren Litt (00:14:17) – Here’s the not so secret secret about me is I actually don’t like social media. I have as an actor, I was doxed, many, many years ago. And I had sworn off social media. So, I know how dangerous it can be.

And that’s why I specifically help people who don’t like social media but know they need it for their business because there are ways you can use this platform.

Jillian Leslie (00:14:43) – There are ways you can protect yourself and jump on there. And I don’t think it’s as easy as saying, just do it, because there’s probably a reason back in your brain that it’s like, “No, we got to protect you from that. You can’t be on there.”

So, that’s why I have the answer I have because I specifically help people who are like, “Yeah, this isn’t for me.” I think those are truly the people too, who have the most important messages to share.

When you have a special reason, there’s if you’re looking to help the world in some way, sometimes people get real protective and close about that and they don’t go on social media because they’re like, it’s fake or it’s not authentic or I just don’t like it.

It’s like, no, it’s because you have this special, special message that you need to share. You need to share your voice with the world because y’all, we need it right now. The world is hurting.

Lauren Litt (00:15:33) – And if you have that thing inside of you, if you have the thing inside of you that has been so strong that you’ve actually created a business around it. Because as you said, it’s so hard to be in business. We have to share that message. So, we have to get your voice out there.

Jillian Leslie (00:15:47) – And the thing that I am really beating the drum for, and this is where I sneak into my conversations and as I say, you can’t get the tooth, the toothpaste back in the tube.

Therefore, the way that we were talking about this before, I pressed record of like, hey, it’s pretty powerful and it can really help you as a business owner and you are now also competing with it. What is the best way that I believe you can compete with it is by showing up authentically as a person. So, it’s no longer hiding behind your business, hiding behind your blog. It is, “Hey guys, this is who I am.”

And so it was funny. I was talking to some food bloggers yesterday, and as I’m sharing this, I could tell what I’m saying, especially food bloggers who are really good at keyword research, really good at photography, really good at making delicious food, are more I think, like up in their heads or not performers, naturally.

I’m saying, I don’t know if that’s going to cut it longer term. MAgain I’m not saying traffic is going away to your blog, but I do think that this is going to be very disruptive. However, the one thing a chatbot can’t compete with a human being.

Lauren Litt (00:17:12) – Yes.

Jillian Leslie (00:17:13) – So therefore.

Lauren Litt (00:17:14) – Thousand percent.

The Power of Showing Up Authentically on Social Media

Jillian Leslie (00:17:15) – That is where if you’re uncomfortable, showing up on Instagram, I would argue my audience is probably their audiences are more on Instagram, maybe TikTok. Maybe everywhere, actually Facebook I don’t know.

But yeah, as we are now in this place of you’ve got to future proof your business. And therefore being present as a human is now going to be more important. What do you say to that and how do you recommend I don’t burn out doing this?

Lauren Litt (00:17:50) – Oh, so many things. So first I want to share. I went to college for political science. Clearly use it every day, of course. But there was this study and I don’t even remember why this was part of it.

This is one of the things from college that I remember so clearly. There was a study done where all over the world they went and they showed people pictures of human beings. And some of these people were celebrities, meaning world leaders, Mother Teresa, movie stars, very recognizable faces. And others were just random people thrown into this stack of photos.

Every time the human saw a face it recognized the brain lights up. And so, for speaking to your audience like, I’m a food blogger. I don’t want to show my face. We as humans are literally wired to get excited when we see someone’s face. We know.

And so we have to use your face and your brand to connect with those other people that you actually want to talk to. So, there is no hiding, and if you’re feeling scared about that, please reach out.

Lauren Litt (00:18:57) – I can help you. But one of the things I counsel people around is like nobody cares, like nobody really cares about you. And the fact that I haven’t washed my hair for a week and it’s up in a curly bun, people aren’t really paying attention to that.

You’re listening to how can I help myself get online? And so, when people are watching you, they’re not really worried about you. They’re worried about how are you helping me today?

And so if you can focus on that, if you can focus on this is why I’m here and this is how I’m helping people and get that message to your food bloggers like, this souffle that I’ve made is the best souffle in the world.

And I need you to know exactly how to. I don’t know how to make a souffle. Whip an egg? I need you to know exactly this thing. And so if you just focus on that message, you’re going to find that your insecurity falls away.

Lauren Litt (00:19:51) – And also just to know nobody likes how they sound and nobody likes how they look. Not a single person unless they’re a narcissist. So, if you don’t like how you look or sound, congratulations. You know, you’re human.

Jillian Leslie (00:20:03) – You’re healthy. Yes. Yes. I really like that. I like that. It’s funny because we’re doing this on Zoom and I will go look at myself and I say this to myself, don’t do that. Go look at Lauren. Do not look at yourself because I can find you.

Lauren Litt (00:20:19) – And I’m like, Oh my God, I love your lipstick. You look so fabulous. Oh my gosh, these glasses. And then looking at me and I’m like, Oh, what did I do today exactly?

Jillian Leslie (00:20:27) – But I’m looking. You going, You’re so cute. And I want my hair up in a bun. So, yes, I love that you’re not a narcissist if you are self critical. This is just part of the human condition.

Lauren Litt (00:20:38) – It is like, congratulations, You’re human.

Jillian Leslie (00:20:40) – We all are. And we all can be really hard on ourselves. And that’s okay.

Lauren Litt (00:20:46) – Yeah.

Importance of Connection and Experiential Marketing

Jillian Leslie (00:20:48) – Okay, so I need to up my game. One thing that we do for my audience, you guys know this. We’ve launched MiloTreeCart. It is the easiest way to sell digital products to your audience.

And what we’re seeing on the back end, if you can sell products where you are showing up live or with people like in a membership, in coaching, in a workshop these are the people who are killing it.

You and I were just talking about this, the pandemic, it made us all go into our own corners. And while you and I were saying, as introverts, it’s not that bad because it’s like, I never really liked that party. I do also think there is a downside to that, which is we need that connection.

Lauren Litt (00:21:40) – We call this experiential marketing, and that’s part of the reason why I come out and do podcasts and do talks and groups and stuff is because if people hear me and can experience what it’s like to work with me, they will work with me.

But if they read my website or if they, you know, read my emails, like that is such a longer game versus literally just meeting with someone and spending 30 minutes. My closing rate is like that, it is a very different thing you have to bring yourself because really we have so many options now.

If you’re not being you. I don’t want to work with you because I can pick someone who’s actually going to show up and be themselves. And I know what I’m getting.

Tailoring Social Media Strategies to Different Audiences

Jillian Leslie (00:22:28) – And also, I would say this all the information you need is out there. Go to YouTube like you want to exactly do something. I want to learn marketing. I don’t have to pay for a course. I don’t have to pay for a coach. I could just go to YouTube.

However, why I would step up in pay is because I connect with Lauren. I connect with her vibe. She’s going to explain it to me. She’s going to get me up that hill faster than if I had to sit through 30 YouTube videos and trying to figure out, do I trust this person or this person? Or maybe this information is older. So it’s dated.

Lauren Litt (00:23:07) – And what’s changed?

Jillian Leslie (00:23:08) – And people buy from people. People want to work with people and that is so powerful. But all the information like Lauren, you’re not sharing stuff. I’ve not heard before. I’m not sharing stuff you haven’t heard before. We’re not curing cancer, finding some major discovery.

Lauren Litt (00:23:34) – Here’s the thing that was like the biggest shocker for me in business. I think I was somewhere between the three and five year mark and I was like, Oh, nobody knows.

Like nobody.

I thought that there was some big social media handbook that special people had and they were like, I have the answer. And that’s why they were able to say, oh you must post every day, or oh, you must do whatever you’ve heard.

And I was like, nobody freaking knows. It is all about testing and tracking and seeing what works and watching what they’re telling us is happening and then interpreting that and trying new things. That’s it. Nobody knows.

I always say, the information I’m giving you is the best of my knowledge as of this moment in time. And it’s going to change tomorrow.

Jillian Leslie (00:24:20) – And it’s going to be different for your business and somebody else’s business.

Lauren Litt (00:24:24) – Yes. And that’s the beauty of when I work with people like, what is going to work for. I always love to use Bob. Bob is a man in his 60s and he has an olive oil and vinegar store. And he just loves to help people eat really healthy with these fabulous ingredients.

Lauren Litt (00:24:41) – And Bob, what works for Bob and his audience, Who are these like, very rich ladies about town. Does not work for my financial coach.

It is a very different program that we use for her social media than we use for his social media, because we’re looking at different audiences. They’re different people.

They have different things they’re selling. So it’s very tailored. You really get to have a tailored experience for yourself on social media.

So if you’re like, “I don’t want to be posting every day,” great. Let’s figure out how we can create a plan for you so you don’t have to post every day because you don’t have to.

Jillian Leslie (00:25:23) – I have gotten so much great feedback on the book I’m giving away on, “How You Can Write an ebook Using ChatGPT.”

People keep contacting me and telling me how helpful this has been, so don’t miss out. Grab yours. Go to milotree.com/aiebook and honestly you can have an ebook from start to finish in less than three hours. So again go to milotree.com/aiebook.

And now back to the show.

I want to get the biggest bang for my buck right now and I want to be able to have a plan that I can stick to.

Lauren Litt – Yes, yes.

Jillian Leslie – Tell me what the minimum is I need to do to start to attract the people that are my people. So it’s not necessarily that I want to grow followers, although that might be part of the process. Ultimately, I want to grow my business, which means money.

Lauren Litt (00:26:35) – Yes. And that’s the key. So a lot of people are giving you advice focused on follower growth or likes or whatever that is. And those are nice things to have, but they are vanity metrics.

So we want to focus on what is the thing in your business that you’re actually trying to achieve on social media. And so, if it is selling something we need to know, I want to sell my cookbook. Therefore, if I’m on Instagram and my goal is to sell my cookbook, I need clicks off of Instagram to my site.

That is my goal, right? What is going to help me get clicks from Instagram to my site? Reels are nice, but they’re more going to grow followers than actually create clicks. We don’t see a lot of conversion off of clicks, although you do need them off of your reels.

Lauren Litt (00:27:26) – That’s interesting. – Reels, I like to say, are like the big image on a bus driving by you know for the new show on effects and you’re like oh that looks really interesting. I don’t then run home and turn on my TV. No. Just in the back of your mind you’re like, Oh yeah, I saw that.

Jillian Leslie (00:27:45) – If it shows up again, you go like, yeah, yeah. Scrolling by. Yeah.

Lauren Litt (00:27:51) – You know, a month later, you’re like, What are we going to watch? Oh, I know there’s that thing on effects. I don’t know why it is my circle, but here we go. So that’s real. And they’re at the top of the funnel bringing people down.

But where do people really get to know, like and trust you on Instagram? In two places, one is in that main feed content. So, using a carousel to describe a point going live, Oh my gosh, you all going live?

If I could get more people to go live, it is so underused and it’s something that really gets people to understand you and get to know you better. Single photos are some of these.

Jillian Leslie (00:28:26) – Because I feel like our photos are dead. Both photos aren’t dead.

Lauren Litt (00:28:30) – Not at all. Literally, just yesterday I did a three month audit with a former client and two of their top performing nine posts were a single photo.

Jillian Leslie (00:28:40) – Single photo? Not even a carousel.

Lauren Litt (00:28:42) – Not even carousel. Not even like anything special. It’s just a photo. One of it was him holding a coffee cup and the other one was the four top members of their team together on, like, a building thing.

Again, we have to see your face. We have to be engaged with you. So then we’re coming down the funnel reels, We’re at the top.

Those carousels, those main photos are in the center video. If you can go live and then your stories, if we can get behind the scenes, your food blockers that we’ve been talking about. Sharing just the mess that you’ve made in your kitchen when you’ve been cooking or the peek at like, I can’t wait to show you what this is going to be.

When you’re creating that beautiful reel that’s going out. But those behind the scenes moments really get people involved with you. And so, that’s the number one place. If you can be really active in your stories, it’s a huge conversion space.

The Power of Live Interactions and Behind-the-Scenes Content

Jillian Leslie (00:29:36) – Interesting. Because it was funny yesterday when I was talking to the food bloggers and we were talking about should you create a course? And I’m on that because I think you spend too much time creating the course and not validating the course up front.

And I was saying that people are very forgiving when you show up live with them because you’re real. And I was joking because I was drinking my water and I’m like, right now, if I spill this water on me, you’re going to go, “Oh, no, she spilled the water on here. I wish I could hand her a napkin through the zoom call.”

Lauren Litt (00:30:13) – Like it.

Jillian Leslie (00:30:14) – Versus if this is in a course and it’s a video in a course and I’m spilling water on myself you’re like, you got problems like.

Lauren Litt (00:30:23) – Or like I didn’t know actually listen to this exactly.

Jillian Leslie (00:30:26) – She looks like a mess. But something about doing it live and being like, “Oh, I’m spilling water.” It elicits something very different. And I kind of feel like what you’re talking about, the difference between a story and a reel is about that. The real is the kind of poster that you’ve spent time optimizing and adding.

Lauren Litt (00:30:49) – You absolutely need it. I don’t want you to say I’m never making reels again, but I think all social media, when you’re creating your social media plan, 50% of the time you spend should be on creating fabulous content.

I’m not sitting here saying put out terrible content and move on with your day like it should be really good content, but the other 50% of the time should be spent on engagement.

It should be spent on actually connecting with the people that are connecting with you because that’s how you truly grow and how you truly get those people to click on that cookbook.

The Importance of Consistency

Jillian Leslie (00:31:22) – Let’s talk about that. First of all, I have to tell you, You’re just saying that about, you got to be. It made me agitated. Like, shoot. Let’s calm it down.

Let’s talk about that. What is it that came up for you? I want you to tell me what does that mean?

Lauren Litt – In a week, great content.

Jillian Leslie (00:31:45) – In a week, how much great content? All of a sudden you said, Great. And I’m like, oh, shoot. We got to raise the bar here. I feel more comfortable, doing the Instagram story or even going live than I do about the super polished stuff.

Lauren Litt (00:32:04) – Like, what.

Jillian Leslie (00:32:05) – If I go, You know what? I’m just going to go live once a week.

Creating a Content Plan

Lauren Litt (00:32:09) – Fantastic. You go live once a week. Oh, my gosh. Fantastic. Now we still need other elements. So, let’s say we’re building this for you. Let’s just get specific here. Going live for you is super easy. If you can go live once a week. Amazing.

Let’s start with that then. I would love to see you from that live take one lesson. What is the thing that you’re talking about in the live and go deeper into it with either a carousel or a photo. And then because we still want to get your message out to more people twice a month let’s put out a reel.

Jillian Leslie (00:32:47) – Okay.

Lauren Litt (00:32:48) – That’s your content plan and be in your stories. Be in your stories five days a week, Monday through Friday or if you work Thursday through Wednesday, whatever it is you work. I’m not saying be there every day, but be in your stories and be active there as well.

Jillian Leslie (00:33:03) – Wow. That feels more doable. The five times a week in the stories feels a little overwhelming. Can I do three times?

Lauren Litt – Yes.

Jillian Leslie – Can I negotiate with you?

Lauren Litt (00:33:12) – Here’s the deal. I’m all about like, let’s figure out how much time you have and where your comfort level is.

Because I know even if you started with I’m going to do stories one day a week, your comfort level in three months is going to be so much better and you’re going to be like, I can do two days a week. Okay, actually, you know, I’m going to show up.

Jillian Leslie (00:33:30) – It’s got something to say. “Yeah, I’m here.”

Lauren Litt (00:33:33) – And so this is again, we are looking at a marketing plan over time. I don’t want when you hear this advice like you have to put out a reel every day. You have to put out content that’s coming from people who are social media managers who myself and my team.

And again, I have a team of nine people. We work 40 hour weeks minimum. I will say, my team works 40, I’m working more like 60 hours a week. You all don’t have 40 to 60 hours a week to spend on your social media. No. You are also not an influencer.

Jillian Leslie (00:34:07) – That’s not maybe you’re not an extrovert. I’m not an actor.

Lauren Litt (00:34:11) – That’s not your goal to be the next person who’s selling whatever coffee cup thing. You have an actual business with a goal in mind.

And so, the advice you hear normally is specifically routed through those people who are doing those things. You are an entrepreneur, you are a blogger, you own your business, so you are a baby marketer.

Speaker 3 (00:34:33) – And so we have to start out with a plan that is absolutely doable, that you’re like, I can commit to this for three months and then at the end of three months you go, That felt fine. Maybe I will do one more.

Speaker 2 (00:34:46) – Let’s say I got a client, let’s say I got a sale. Let’s say, you know, I’m starting to figure out that I’m getting better at it or I’m getting less self conscious or who knows. But I do believe you would get better if you did this for three months.

Let’s all remember when we learn to ride a bike. I don’t know about anybody else, but I didn’t jump on the bike and take off one day, there were steps and I felt a little bit more comfortable. I broke my arm while I still had my training wheels on, but I got back on.

There are ups and downs that you’re going to have. You will be better in one year at anything you start today.

Jillian Leslie (00:35:25) – Let’s talk about this. I’ve created this content. Then there’s always that idea of repurpose. Is that true? Because also every platform is different and different kinds of content?

Lauren Litt – Totally.

Jillian Leslie – What do you recommend in terms of repurpose?

Understanding and Adapting to Different Platforms

Lauren Litt (00:35:42) – Again, we’re focusing on if you are feeling overwhelmed and you’re just getting started, I don’t even want you to worry about the other platforms. As a business owner, you should jump on and grab every platform with your business name.

That should be the first thing you do. But what I recommend is I call it your hero platform. Instagram’s my hero platform. It’s the platform that I’m on and that I choose to spend my time on.

Every other platform you have should have a post pinned to the top or a message somewhere that says, “Hi, I’m not on here very much. If you want to learn more about me, go check out Instagram and have your handle.”

Let’s remove that because again, you’re not going to be able to start on Instagram and have Facebook plus your YouTube channel and a TikTok. That is an unrealistic expectation unless you hire a company like Lil Shameless Plug. And we do that for you.

Every single platform there are different games. We’re not going to take the rules of Chutes and Ladders to play Monopoly. That would be insane. And you wouldn’t have any fun. So, we have to really understand the platform that you’re on.

And once you’re seeing the sales, once you’re seeing your goal happen on that platform, then you can be like, “Okay, I think I’m ready to add a second platform.” Or maybe you’re like, “This platform is working so well, I’m just going to lean in more to what I’m doing and up my sales here.”

I am just for solo businesses, for solopreneurs, having everything everywhere you are in business, you’re not a marketing genius as your business. Even myself, I run a company.

That’s why I have one platform.

And it’s not even that is not great. Like, I’m right. I’m focused on my customers and my clients and helping that thing flow. So, marketing is part of your business, but it shouldn’t be your end all, be all of life.

Jillian Leslie (00:37:36) – Let’s talk about using Instagram as a way to reach out, a way to have conversation. Because I feel like we’ve gotten to like, okay, here’s how you’re going to post or what you’re going to do. But then you were saying it’s all about the connection.

Lauren Litt (00:37:55) – Yes. So here’s the thing that’s happening in the social media world. When social media started, and I think everybody still feels a lot about this is like, oh my gosh, you’re just going to post and all of these clients are just going to come at you.

It’s just going to be a river of clients. Great. That’s not the way it works anymore. As I was saying, I talked about those three platforms YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Those are my secret converters.

They have higher conversion rates of moving people off the platform, Instagram and even those platforms, they’re all really community builders. They’re a space where you are going deeper and deeper with that community and it’s about connecting people. It’s really a social platform.

And the benefit to your company is that when people really, really know you and you have that trust and affinity with them, when you’re ready to sell to them, they want to sell. But you shouldn’t rely 1,000% on Instagram to get your sales.

If you don’t have a newsletter list as well, if one of your goals is not to move people from Instagram onto that newsletter list because that’s where people are really going to buy from you. You’re not looking at the marketing overall plan correctly.

Will you have sales just on Instagram? Absolutely. But I want you to think of it more as the waiting room.

Jillian Leslie (00:39:20) – Interesting because it was funny. I interviewed a YouTuber and she had this unbelievable funnel where it was like she created helpful content on YouTube. So, that would be like how to grow your social media or how to grow your YouTube channel.

And it wasn’t so much about her, although her background looked good to you totally if you’re a female wanting to grow a business, you would totally want to watch her videos. But then she would say, “Hey, if you want to learn more about me, go to Instagram.”

Because on Instagram she was selling herself. Here are behind the scenes so it would be helpful. But it was more personal, personal in a professional way. It’s not like her deep, dark secrets or any of her children.

But she was much more like, “Here’s the behind the scenes and I’m setting up for a new video” or “Hey, guys, what do you want me to be talking about?” But that’s where she would be doing that.

And then from Instagram, she would send people to her newsletter and then her newsletter was where you were a real insider. And that’s where she would say, “Hey, I just discovered this thing called Clickfunnels and you should use Clickfunnels or you should use Airtable.”

O you should buy my course or come join my membership. And I was so impressed with the fact that she understood what each step was for.

Online Marketing and Moving People to Your Newsletter List

Lauren Litt (00:41:00) – That’s a brilliant marketing plan. That’s absolutely how you should be using this whole situation.

The reason why Lil Shameless Plug isn’t just a social media platform anymore is because I was working with my full service clients doing just Instagram or just Facebook, and I would be like, okay, great, they’re ready to buy.

We need to give them a lead magnet, give them or send them to a landing page to sign up for our newsletter. And companies weren’t equipped to be able to have those pieces set up. That’s why I expanded my company because I was like online marketing.

The social media part is that space where people get ready to buy. They’re in the process, but we have to move them onto your newsletter list, we have to move them in to really get that profit churning for you.

The Importance of Email for Sales

Jillian Leslie (00:41:54) – And what I think is interesting is that you as a social media expert are saying you’re going to get most of your sales on email. Absolutely like that.

Again, I think that people don’t always get that message because they think I’m just growing my Instagram and that’s a job in and of itself. And you can see your progress. But as you were saying, those are vanity numbers. That’s not dollar signs.

And weirdly I think Instagram can be such an ego boost that we can or it can also make you feel awful. But again, I got new followers but that’s not going to put food on your table. And I think sometimes people get confused about that.

I’m growing my business because I got ten followers. Or I got this many views and it’s like, no, no. Remember, you got to keep funneling people the money.

Lauren Litt (00:42:48) – I love that you said so. I recently coached someone who was like, “The algorithm hates me. It just hates me. It won’t share my things. I used to get shared and now I’m not shared anymore.” And this was an Instagram person.

And so I met with her and we went through all of her content and I was like, one, things have changed since you had these big numbers in your algorithm, right? When you saw these big peaks on some reels you shared which love this person, but they weren’t even really that big, it was like 5,000 to 10,000 views.

But for her, she was like, “Oh, great. Why?” I said, why don’t we just try and focus on these? She had like 1300 followers. I was like, what if we just focus on these people? She had about 30 people that were actually commenting and responding to things she was doing on a day-to-day basis.

Focusing on Engaged Followers and Building Relationships

And so, we turned her focus from, oh my God, I can’t put out a reel that’s doing things to be like, okay, these 30 people did respond and she was just started engaging with those people and it totally changed because she was putting out a mini workshop and she needed these people to buy that mini workshop.

And so she just focused on those 30 people and her numbers, her views started going up because those people then felt even more engaged and were coming back to the content and watching it again and sharing it with friends. And then she started growing again.

So you can’t be focused on, “Oh, I didn’t hit this 10,000 views.” Let’s focus on those 30 people that actually are engaged with you, because I don’t know about you, but I can only serve a maximum of 30 clients in a year.

I don’t need more than that. I don’t want more than that. So you have to think about what is your actual goal. We keep saying this.

Jillian Leslie (00:44:36) – Totally. Tell me then about engagement. What did you say to her? Like, okay, these are the people who are commenting, so what comment back or yeah.

Lauren Litt (00:44:44) – I actually have a free resource. I call it the Daily Fit. It’s your daily Facebook, Instagram, Twitter engagement. And the reason I created this video is because I believe in as little as five minutes a day.

Once you get this habit ingrained in you like really, you can spend as little as five minutes a day doing this process to build your engagement. And it’s a three step process. The first step is review, jump in and be like,”Where am I in the story of my social media account?”

We keep talking about Instagram, so we’re going to go there like, what was my last post? Because maybe it’s been a week since you’ve been on Instagram. I don’t know when you’ve been on here again, where am I in my stories? What is going on so that you know what other people are seeing. So review.

Then your second step is to respond. And if you are a baby account, if you’re like, oh, I have some likes and maybe two comments, part of that response phase is going to be actually responding to the people who’ve liked your content, like your mom.

Maybe we don’t need to respond to your mom, but those other people that you’re like, I don’t know who you are and you don’t look like a bot and you’ve liked three of my posts.

Reach out and be like, “Hey, thank you so much for liking my souffle post. I feel like I’m posting into a void and it just means a lot.” And they’ll be like, Oh my gosh, yeah, I need to go back and watch that because I wanted to know about whatever. What kind of eggs do you use? It’ll start conversations.

So respond is the second phase. And yes, you’re going to respond to likes, you’re going to respond to comments. Every single new follower is someone who is a target in your niche. You should also reach out to them, check out their profile comment on some of their stuff.

I’m not saying follow them right away. In fact, I don’t recommend you follow them right away because I don’t know about you, but if I’m at a party, I don’t immediately give someone my phone number, we need to get to know each other a little bit, see if we like each other.

And then the final step is we’ve reviewed, we’ve responded, and then we’re going to reach out to new circles who aren’t already seeing your content. And what this means is you’re going into any search function on whatever platform and you’re searching for topics that your audience is looking for.

So I, as someone who does social media, if I’m searching social media, all I’m going to see is other social media managers. What I look for are coaches, because that’s my consulting business primarily that I look for entrepreneurs, female entrepreneur solopreneur, and I look for that content.

And if I see something that I resonate with, I comment on it. I’m not doing that weird thing that people do where they like ten posts and follow. You don’t do that. That’s inauthentic, but really like, oh, this is interesting. Leave a comment because what’s that showing?

The algorithm is that I’m here to play. I’m a good guest at this party, I’m putting out stuff. I’ve brought a little dish for the party and I’m also going to be engaged with the other people here so that they’re going to be like, oh, this person, look, they commented over here.

Maybe more of these people will like that and they’re going to start feeding your content into these other areas. So that’s why engagement is so important. Review respond to reach out.

Jillian Leslie (00:48:03) – I think that is great and that feels doable.

Lauren Litt (00:48:07) – It is really.

Jillian Leslie (00:48:08) – Doable.

Lauren Litt (00:48:09) – It is. And it’s like I said, you don’t need to spend all day. And this is also the reason why I created back when I was a baby social media manager and I went from two clients to four clients.

I was spending all day in the feed. I was scrolling. I was immediately responding to everything and I was like, I can’t do this. This isn’t possible. And so, I created this process because I was like, if I can focus and really do the pieces that I know the algorithm needs.

Then I get to walk away and know that I’ve done the good work and I’m not just scrolling and wasting time because that’s literally what you’re doing if you’re just sitting there scrolling. And look, I love to scroll.

I love to watch dog videos and for some I don’t have children, but I love mom videos like moms who are like, this is the thing today. That’s all my feet are dogs and moms and that’s enjoyable but that’s not moving my business forward.

Jillian Leslie (00:49:11) – Yes. Lauren I have learned so much from you and I feel like you’ve broken it down and you’ve given me really good action steps and you’ve made it not overwhelming.

Lauren Litt (00:49:28) – That’s my favorite part.

Jillian Leslie (00:49:29) – I could see your smile. I saw that you were like, “Yes, I achieved my goal.” You made it doable. And I think that I talk a lot about this idea called B- work because I think that we hold ourselves to a crazy standard of perfection.

Perfection is not profitable, and B- work is doable. It’s where you learn and it’s above average. So I’m not saying do crappy work but I am saying do achievable work and I feel like that is what you’re saying as well.

Lauren Litt (00:50:03) – Absolutely. As a recovering perfectionist, I always say I live in the messy middle. I’m just a messy middle here, doing my best every day. If that’s how we can show up and do these things, great, whatever you got to do.

Jillian Leslie (00:50:16) – I love that. Lauren, if people want to reach out to you and work with you, where should they go?

Lauren Litt (00:50:23) – Find me on Instagram. Like I said, it’s my place. I’m there, checking it Monday through Friday. So on Instagram, I’m @Lauren.litt. And you can also grab that daily fit that I just talked about. That daily video series that teaches you your engagement strategy right there on my platform.

Jillian Leslie (00:50:43) – Wonderful. Well, I have to just say, I’m so glad we’re friends. And yes, thank you for coming on the show.

Lauren Litt (00:50:50) – Absolutely.

Connecting as a Real Person to Another Real Person

Jillian Leslie (00:50:51) – Any time. I hope you guys like this episode. Again, you can tell what a fan I am of Lauren’s and especially her strategies, which feel very doable. And it’s funny when I’m on calls with people talking about selling digital products.

Let’s say somebody doesn’t have an audience or a built in group of people that will buy from them. What I say is go door to door, go into Facebook groups, go on Instagram, go start interacting, go make those one-on-one connections because those will become your true fans.

Those will become your customers. And that’s exactly what Lauren talks about. So it’s not about your overall follower count. Those are vanity numbers. It’s really about connecting as a real person to another real person.

Selling Products and Services with Help from Jillian’s Team

Again, if you want to see how easy it is to sell your own products and services with help and guidance from my team and me, go check out MiloTreeCart, go to MiloTree, read all our testimonials. Those are real people having real success.

And for a limited time we are offering MiloTreeCart for a lifetime deal. So, you buy it once, own it forever. And we have a three month installment plan.

If you’re interested, just email me @jillian@miltree.com and I’ll send you the link for that. But we’re only offering the lifetime deal for this introductory period. Then eventually we will go to a monthly plan. But this way you get to own it forever. You are one of our founding members.

You get all future features rolled in and there is no risk because as we offer a 30 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee. I only want you to own it. If you love it, again get on a call with me. Go to milotree.com/meet. I’d love to meet you and I will see you here again next week.

Other related Blogger Genius Podcast episodes you’ll enjoy:

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