Do you even need a Facebook Page anymore?

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On Tuesday, in our monthly consistency call a great question was raised from one of the group members. 

“I have a facebook page and a personal page but most people engage with me on my personal profile. Do I even need my business page anymore?”

The answer…yes and no. 

Facebook Pages were created so businesses and brands could interact with their customers. Due to the algorithm changes organic content from Pages has a lower and lower chance of being seen in people’s Facebook feeds. So there’s not a bunch of engagement happening on Facebook Pages anymore.

I like to encourage people to think of their Facebook Page almost like an extension of their website. Make sure people know how to connect with you and where to go to sign up or buy your service but overall you don’t need to put a TON of effort into content for your Facebook Page. A post a month will do it if your Facebook Page isn’t getting you a ton of traffic already.

A few Pros of a Facebook Page:

  • Can be found on Google! So you have more social proof of your business.
  • You can create Events
  • If you sell products you can set up your products in the Shop
  • If you’re a podcaster you can link your podcast episodes

In general, a Facebook Page will help build your SEO score by allowing your content to be found on another “verified” source on the internet. 

So what if you don’t want a Facebook Page or don’t see why the “Pros” of a Page would be worthwhile for you? 

There is a way that you can share content from your personal profile to a larger audience. Even if you don’t “friend” someone on Facebook. The answer is Followers. Pretty much anyone can “Follow” you on Facebook and then get updates from you when you share content to the Public. 

Take a look at this quick tutorial to see how it’s done. 

Now don’t stress! The only way followers can see updates is if you share content to them in your profile settings. 

Sharing content to Followers of your page can be a really great tactic for people who may not want or need an official Facebook Page. 

At the end of the day it’s up to you and how much you enjoy being on Facebook. 

I start every Consistency Call with a reminder that we are here to “Do Less More Often.” The most impact you can make on any social media platform is by showing up consistently. Consistency is what helps you build engagement. Not how many places you can be found or how many times you can post in a day for one week. 

Stay Social Happy!

I forgot how FUN social media can be!

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This past weekend my big brother got married. They had a stunning, outdoor wedding at a winery in Northern California.

I have to be honest I had some reservations about being around so many people after being in the pandemic lockdown for the past 19 months but I ended up having a wonderful time.

AND I was reminded how much FUN social media can be.

When you view social media as a marketing tool all the time you tend to forget that one of the reasons “regular people” use it is because it’s so much dang fun!

We created TikTok videos and I did a bunch of boomerangs with my nieces and nephews. I photo-bombed some selfies and we got a great shot of the bridal party right before my brother walked down the aisle.

We laughed and giggled and had a blast!

So my challenge to you today is to bring some fun back into your marketing efforts. Try making a reel and lip-syncing along or get creative with your “day in the life” posts or even do a fun poll on Twitter to see who remembers your favorite band from grade school.

Whatever you do, remember that you’ll catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. By injecting some fun into the social media process you’re going to brighten someone’s day (and possibly make a friend).

Have FUN and stay Social Happy!

To Archive or NOT to Archive

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Even though Fall is coming there’s a big feeling of renewal in the air. In my mind I keep thinking of that beautiful quote, “The trees are about to show you how beautiful it is to let things go.”

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been chatting with several people who are ready to start posting on social media again. However, they are acutely aware that they have changed since they last posted.

Some people are shifting from one business to another, others are re-purposing accounts, and still others are simply creating stronger boundaries about what they feel comfortable sharing on social media.

When this discussion comes up there are two main reasons why old content has got to go from their IG feed.

✨ ONE. They haven’t been on social for months (or even up to a year) and they feel weird about some of the content that was posted “before”

✨ TWO. They don’t want their old posts/content to “clash” with their new content

If you find yourself in this situation I want you to consider ARCHIVING your posts instead of deleting them.

Here’s a video to walk you through how to Archive and Unarchive content to your feed.

I like to archive content for two main reasons.

  1. By Archiving your content the post retains all of the engagement and written content in case you want to reference it in the future
  2. Whether or not you decide to unarchive content, you can always go back and see how much you’ve grown.

And, as always, stay Social Happy!

Lauren

Raise Your Voice!

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I am 100% one of those motivational quote people. I have them tacked up all around my house. Some I write on post-it notes, some are cutouts from cards or magazines, but they all keep me focused and moving forward towards my goals. 

One of my favorites is from Emile Zola, a novelist from the late 1800’s. 

Such a beautiful reminder that unless we are sharing our purpose with the world, what is the point of having one? 

Social media is such a gift in this way. We get to lean into our true purpose and share that with a worldwide audience all from the comfort of our own homes. 

But I’m not an artist, I can hear you say, I’m just trying to run my business. 

Your business is your art. 

Your comic book store, your film festival, the olive oil business you have. That is how you are expressing your individuality. How you are making an impact on the world. 

And the beauty of you is there’s only one of you. There’s only one person in the whole entire world that sells comic books the way you do. 

By sharing what you do in your own unique way you make it accessible to an entire audience that shares your point of view. 

ACTION TIP:

Write down one to three things that you are passionate about in your business. Each of these could be a prompt for a post to your social media platform. 

Go ahead, live out loud!

Get your Instagram Game on Point!

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It’s back to school time and I am here for it. 

I used to LOVE back to school shopping. Picking out my classes, picking up the supplies, organizing the course syllabi in my calendar.

I think it’s the promise of starting something new and knowing that I have the potential to do anything. 

And I’m finding that I LOVE teaching as much as I enjoyed being a student (well, at least as much as I enjoyed preparing to be a student.)

And that’s why my Social Happy Power Groups are here to stay. 

I have 2 spots left in my September group, That IG Life. 


My small groups are the perfect way for you to go all in on ONE social media platform; Facebook, Instagram OR Twitter. 

In three months you’ll learn how to…

  • Know your audience and how to find them so you’re connecting with your perfect client.
  • Master 1 Social Media Platform so you don’t waste time wondering what to post.
  • Create your perfect posting calendar so you can show up, shine, and move on with your day!

If you’re ready to learn the ins and outs of posting click below to book a 15 minute call with me. 

SIGN ME UP

We’ll go over why you want to be on social media and the best platform or platforms for you to achieve that goal. 

All social media isn’t a fit for everyone. The key is to narrow in on the platform that works for you AND your audience. 

That IG Life starts on September 8th and I’d love to have you there.

As always, stay Social Happy!

Bring Your Authentic Self

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This week my friend, Katy Chen Mazarra is hosting her 5 Days to Financial Freedom Challenge.

And I’m so excited for her I posted about it EVERYWHERE.

It’s TOTALLY awesome and it was so easy for me to share about it on my social media feeds last week to help her spread the word about this amazing challenge.

I LOVE shouting out my friends.
I LOVE helping people find useful resources.
I LOVE telling people about all the fantastic things going on in this world.

However using that same megaphone for what I’m currently working on…that’s a bit harder.

Which leads me to the question…

How come it’s so easy for us to shout out our friends and lift others up, but when it comes to talking about ourselves we can barely string a sentence together?

To combat this self-imposed writer’s block, I’ve created a foolproof formula to help you know what to share.

I call this the 30/30/30 Rule.

The 30/30/30 rule goes something like this…

Your feed should be 33.33% full of your passion, 33.33% what your biz is about, and 33.33% your “home” or what grounds you. ⁠⁠

In my case that’s…⁠⁠

✨ Acting – I’ve been a professional actress for over 20 years⁠⁠

🥳 Lil Shameless Plug – teaching people who don’t like social media how to get great engagement online

⁠⁠🐶 Grounding – My pups, my garden, my hubby⁠⁠

And, true to form, I’m really good at helping other people achieve this balance, this flow in their content. I’m really bad at doing it myself. ⁠⁠

BUT because I know this formula, whenever I’m looking to post that next thing I can look at what I’ve been posting and see what I’ve been neglecting. And do you know what? It’s most often my passion. My acting career is both the thing that lights me up most in life AND the thing I’m most reticent about sharing with the world. It also happens to be the thing I get the most engagement on whenever I post about it. Interesting, right?

What about you?
• What’s your 30/30/30 Content Sharing formula?
• What pieces of the formula feel easiest for you to share?
• What are your non-negotiable private moments?

You are the Editor in Chief of your social media content so you get to build your own formula.

I’d love to hear what your next post will be based on this guideline.

If you’re looking for a little more help I have two spots left in my next small group, That IG Life.

Til next time, stay Social Happy!

Best,

Lauren

P.S. I’ll keep you updated on how things are going for me on the silver screen too. #Promise

Attitude Over Action

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When I was little my dad would repeatedly tell me, “it doesn’t matter how fast you get to the top if your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.”

I have always been a person of action. 

But little Lauren just wanted to get things done, so she could go and do what she really really wanted to. Read a book. 

Last week I was chatting with someone in an intro consultation. We’ll call her Sally. 

Sally has been on Instagram for years. She’s never liked it. 

But recently Sally hired someone to do her social media for her. Her feed looks beautiful but she’s only getting sporadic engagement and something about it just felt icky to her.

As we were chatting I was scrolling way back in her feed and I came across all these badass women posts. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and quotes from our Vice President, Kamala Harris. And it hit me.

“You’re way more of a badass than your current feed is showing. What happened?” I asked her.

What happened was she leaned into what she should be doing. 

  • She should have pretty colors and quotes. 
  • She should share about her business. 
  • She should post every day.

Sally was scrambling as fast as she could up the pretty Instagram feed wall. 

But she had lost her passion and authenticity. 

Your content can be all the things it SHOULD be but if that’s not linked to who you are and who you serve it won’t get you where you want to go. 

I gave Sally some homework and it’s something that I would like for you to think about too. 

Grab a journal and write for 5 minutes…

Why don’t I like showing up on social media? 

Next week we’re going to look into HOW to bring your authentic self to your social media platforms. So I hope you take a few minutes and get clear on why you may be blocked. 

The answer may surprise you. 

Social Media Customer Happiness Expert

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Lil Shameless Plug is hiring!

Social Media Customer Service & Happiness Expert

 (Fully Remote Contract Position, 10 Hours/week)

Lil Shameless Plug is looking for a Social Media Customer Happiness Expert to support our social media management team for 10 hours per week. This role has the potential to grow to 20 hours per week within the next year.

At Lil Shameless Plug we help businesses who know they need social media to grow their business but can’t stand doing it themselves create a thriving community online. 

That’s where you come in. 

The Deets:

Starting Pay: $16 – $20/hour based on experience 

10 hours/week to start, position will grow as our company grows 

This is the perfect opportunity for you if…

  • You LOVE social media. Like, really really love it.
  • You know how to use and understand engagement strategies for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest (and are open to learning new skills and new platforms as the need arises).
  • You are constantly learning. 
  • You would be fulfilled knowing that you are helping small businesses thrive. 
  • You are able to juggle multiple brand identities at once.
  • You have a thorough understanding of the English language.
  • You have your own smartphone and laptop.

Your daily duties would include but are not limited to…

  • Daily Engagement (DM’s, respond to questions and comments)
  • Daily Outreach (help our clients expand their communities to new people)
  • Manually publish posts when they are scheduled to go out

Required skills and qualities:

✔ Strong attention to detail — you double check your work and avoid small mistakes

✔ Expert mastery of the English language and a thorough understanding of when it’s appropriate to use slang

✔ Highly organized — you know how to multi-task and could easily switch between client accounts

✔ Highly responsive with excellent follow-through and follow-up — our clients customers happiness is your number one priority

✔ You are a self starter – We will provide you with the outline of what you need to do but you will be in charge of your day to day implementation

✔ You have used and would consider yourself a pro at Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest

✔ One Mandatory Meeting/Week on Tuesday’s at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. You must be able to attend this meeting on a weekly basis.

BONUS Skills to have…

✔ You speak Spanish and English fluently

✔ You love popular culture and are adept at using memes 

✔ You’ve used Later, Meet Edgar, Tailwind or Commun.it before

How To Apply

To apply, email a personal cover letter in the body of your email and attach a pdf of your resume to getsocial@lilshamelessplug.com Please highlight how your specific experience and skill set meet the qualifications mentioned above.

COVID-19 considerations:

This is a fully remote role where you can work from the comfort and safety of your home.

3 Twitter Content Ideas

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For when you don’t want to Tweet about your #MorningCoffee

Twitter is hands down my very favorite social media platform. 

Years ago Twitter is how I found my first success on social media and how I learned to, if not love the platform, I would say respect the platform. And even have fun with it!

If you want to learn all the ins and outs of Twitter I’ll be teaching my course, Social Happy again this fall. But for now, I want to dive into what to Tweet when you don’t want to talk about your Starbucks order. 

I think one of the reasons people feel hesitant to jump onto the Twitter bandwagon is because they feel overwhelmed by the blank tweet. 

We’ve all been there. 

You have the feeling that you need to tweet today, you should tweet today, so you panic and send out a photo of your latte with #MorningJoe. #Headslap

Here are three topics that I’ve found create great engagement and are more audience focused for you than your morning coffee. 

  1. Motivational Quotes
    • Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!
    • Every Twitter account I manage has some form of quote block that we tweet out on the regular. Why? Quotes get retweets! Also, there’s not a niche under the sun that doesn’t have some sort of inspiring/thought-provoking/AHA thought quote out there about it. So, when in doubt, use someone else’s words in your feed. 🤗
  2. Ask Your Audience
    • Another form of content I rely on to fill up our twitter content streams is asking our audience a question. Twitter has made this even easier by adding their Poll button. 
    • Are you in the food industry? Great! Ask your audience whether they’re a bacon or a sausage person for breakfast (or vegan sausage). Have a lashes business? What about asking how long people feel comfortable going between fills? Are you a fitness coach? Try a question engaging your audience about whether they like to work out in the mornings or the evenings. 
    • Engagement is great and these simple polls are fun ways to get a quick buy in from your audience so that you can get to know them better. 
  3. Your Business!
    • It seems crazy but a lot of my students forget to talk about their business and their own offerings ALL THE TIME!
    • I think we tend to ignore our own sales because we fall into the trap of worrying about over-selling or bothering people. If this sounds like you then rest assured you are probably way UNDER selling yourself. 
    • I like to go by the 80/20 rule. 80% of the content that I share on social media is about other things or free tips or advice. Leaving 20% of my content to be about what I offer.
    • Here are a few examples based on my mythical businesses above. Food Industry can tweet about their Friday Lobster Special – Book your table now. A lashes business can tweet about their loyalty program – Get 11 fills and your 12th is free! That fitness coach? Class starts tomorrow morning at 7 AM, click here to join. 

As with all social media coaching that I do I recommend that you start with the end in mind. Who are you on Twitter to connect with? Who are you looking to help? 

I look forward to tweeting it up with you!

And as always, stay Social Happy!

2021: We’re Halfway Through!

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You’ve probably heard it 1000 times in the last two weeks but I’m going to say it again…I can’t BELIEVE we are already half way through 2021. 

When I look back over the past 6 months in some ways I’m amazed how far we’ve come…

  • I live in Oregon now!
  • We’ve welcomed three new companies as clients into Lil Shameless Plug
  • And weirdest and most wonderful of all, we get to have in-person social interactions again!

But I’m also looking over the past year and thinking where did the time go? 

  • How did I not learn Italian so I can impress my mother-in-law? 
  • Why haven’t I re-started an exercise regime to lose that #COVID15?
  • When will I have time to leash train my snuggle-pup Viola? 

If, like me, you love to get quiet and set goals and intentions for your upcoming year then the workshop that The Center for Women’s Voice is putting together tomorrow is right up your alley. On June 26th at 11 am PT / 2 PM ET Malika is hosing a 90 minute Ritual: Release & Renew virtual workshop. 

Malika promises a workshop where the “chat will not be lit” and as our worlds open up and the noise comes back in I’m incredibly comforted by the quiet reflection this workshop promises. 

I hope to “see” some of you there. 
As always, stay Social Happy!