Sean Garner Consulting | Marketing Agency & Certified StoryBrand Guide

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E11: How to Use Social Media to Fill Your Sales Funnel

Sean Garner
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Are you posting on social media but not seeing the growth you expected? 

Most small business owners are missing out on the benefits of social media because they're just not using it right. 

Learn how to avoid the common mistakes most small business owners make and leverage social media to truly capture and engage your audience!

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P.S.  When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help…

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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.

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EPISODE 11 TRANSCRIPTION

Introduction

[00:00:00] Sean Garner: Social media is a free platform that you can use to connect with potential leads, build a brand, grow your business, and stand out from your competition. But most small business owners are not leveraging it properly. So in this video, what we're going to do is we're going to show you the mistakes that most small business owners are making when it comes to social media. And what you should do instead so you can grow your business and dominate your industry. Welcome to Marketing Domination.

[00:00:29] Sean Garner: So we are continuing through our series of Marketing Domination. What our framework is that we put our clients through. We did the first phase, which is all about helping you to build a sales funnel. Phase two is all about content that we're talking about now is about filling your sales funnel.

[00:00:48] Sean Garner: And then after this, we're going to be getting into how to automate. Optimize your sales funnel and one way that you can. Fill your sales funnel is with organic social media content. And people have a love-hate relationship with social media. I know that I do. I've been very fortunate to grow a business and a brand through social media.

[00:01:10] Sean Garner: I also have tons of frustrations with the platform. And as after myself, our businesses, and working with clients, I wanted to share the mistakes that I see people are making, that you Keep them in this state of frustration. So you just don't keep doing more of the same. So you're able to see results quicker and leverage this platform.

[00:01:30] Sean Garner: Because like I said, in the intro, this is a free tool. If you think about other, advertising platforms and mediums, there are, you have to pay for it. If you want to, be on a billboard, that costs a lot of money. TV costs a lot of money. Radio costs a lot of money. If you think of direct mailers, all of these traditional marketing methods, like they cost a lot of money.

[00:01:48] Sean Garner: And. I catch myself doing this as well. Sometimes complaining about, oh, it's the algorithm or, oh man, I'm not getting the reach I used to and complaining about all these things, but I often have to make my check myself before I wreck myself. This is a free tool. It's free. The only thing that it costs is your time, but it is a free platform that you can use to grow your business.

Why Consistency and Volume Matter for Social Media Success

[00:02:10] Sean Garner: And it is. For real it only takes your time and effort to put into it, but again, it is free. Now in the future, I don't know how evergreen this episode will be because there are more and more platforms are going to membership-based models and stuff for, extra expanded reach and perks and stuff like that, which unfortunately, I disagree with, but at the same time from the, the entrepreneur business side, I understand why they're doing it.

[00:02:33] Sean Garner: And unfortunately I do think more and more platforms will be going to a paid membership model, but until they do, it is still free for us to get engagement and content from our customers. So we're going to leverage the heck out of this thing so we can grow our business. So the main two things of why I see small business owners and just people, in general, get frustrated with social media when it comes to trying to grow their businesses, are two things.

[00:03:02] Sean Garner: Number one is they are not doing enough quantity for enough time. I saw this a lot. You guys know I was in the fitness industry. If you didn't know that, for a very long time, I went to lots of gyms and a lot of stuff in the online training space, but I saw the exact same thing with people's health and fitness as I do small business owners in their social media.

[00:03:24] Sean Garner: Oh, well, I tried that. It just doesn't work. How long did you try that for? I tried, I tried weighing and measuring my food. It just didn't work. I didn't lose any weight. Okay. Well, how long did you try for? I mean, it was at least seven days. Okay. Listen, I don't think that people realize. Put health and fitness aside, but in the social media world, because you will see or hear terms like, Oh, they went viral.

[00:03:48] Sean Garner: They blew up overnight. People think that that is the norm when that is the exception. It's not even something that you should be striving for with your social media strategy for your small business. You should not be trying to go viral. Cause we're trying to create longevity and industry domination.

[00:04:04] Sean Garner: And that's not what the single viral post is a consistent system, but. Enough of that. So you have to realize what it takes to consistently do it. Remember it is free. It's going to take time, work, effort, and energy, and it's going to take more than what you expect. Most, I would say most small business owners' expectation is that they are going to post something on social media, you know, three to five times a week.

[00:04:29] Sean Garner: And that's going to be really good for helping them to grow their business. He had tons of leads and stuff from social media. It's not, honestly the case, especially if you want to see what other people are doing in your industry. If you look. At industry dominators, people that are truly the experts in their fields from small businesses to personal brands, and the amount and volume of content that they're putting out, it is most people are, that are at the top level are putting out more content in one to two days than most businesses are doing in one to two months.

[00:05:01] Sean Garner: So they're just doing things at a bigger volume. Then what most businesses are willing to do is for the other thing that you have to realize, remember, we're not trying to go viral. Not only have they been doing volume, but they've also been doing volume for longer. Most people think that, Oh, I opened up a social media account.

[00:05:22] Sean Garner: I, you know, most small business owners, when we start working with them, they've had a social media account that they opened up whenever their business started. They'll post out, you know, once every couple of weeks and think that that's been good. Then we start working with them and then they might be posting consistently for a month.

[00:05:35] Sean Garner: Right. We’ve been doing this for a month and you know, nothing’s really happened. But, well, no, it’s going to take time. You have to realize the length of time that it takes to truly grow a brand. And then also how long some of these other people that you follow have been doing it. You have to understand with social media—even though there are short-term benefits and short-term effects and low-hanging fruit that you can grab with it—it really should be viewed as a long-term brand-building strategy and a lead generation strategy.

[00:06:02] Sean Garner: There are lots of different ways to leverage these platforms, but for the most part, you need to view this as a longer-term play. Go into it with that mindset so that way you’re going to be, hopefully, less frustrated as you are consistently putting things out there online and not too many people are engaging with it at first as you are trying to grow this brand. Because as you are putting this content out there and it’s not getting engagement, that’s problem number two.

The Real Reason Your Content Isn’t Working

[00:06:37] Sean Garner: So, number one is you’ve not been doing enough quantity for enough time. And you’re frustrated because—point number two, and this is the real loving talk here—your content is just not that good. I’m sorry. I know that you spend a lot of time on it, but it’s not that good. And now, I say that with love, but also as real talk truth.

[00:07:05] Sean Garner: I say this to my clients, and I have to say this to myself all the time. It’s two big things. One: Change the word algorithm to people. Don’t say, "Oh, the algorithm doesn’t like my content." No, people don’t like your content. If your content was really good, trust me, the algorithm is not against you. The algorithm’s job is to keep people sucked in on the platform. So, if your content is keeping people engaged and sucked in on the platform, they want to show it to people. If it’s not, it means it’s not good for the platform. And so, they’re not going to continue to show it to a lot of people.

[00:07:28] Sean Garner: The other thing that you need to realize—also, just on the algorithm caveat—algorithms are always changing.

[00:07:46] Sean Garner: Don’t try to figure out the algorithm. Again, set the expectation of a long-term strategy and realize that if you just consistently add value over time, the algorithm will start working more efficiently for you because you’re going to be creating things that people actually want to watch and engage with.

[00:08:05] Sean Garner: So, your content isn’t that great? What do you need to do to make good content, and what constitutes good content? I think it’s three things, and most people, whenever they’re creating content, focus on these in the opposite order. So, I’ll tell you the wrong way, and then I’m going to show you how the opposite makes a lot more sense if you start looking at the content that you consume.

[00:08:34] Sean Garner: So, the first thing that people think they should be doing when it comes to their content is production—how it’s produced. Oh, I need to get a really nice camera, lighting, microphones, and all of this stuff. It needs to be really good quality video because "I’m a business, I want my business to be seen in a professional light." I get all that stuff—that shouldn’t be a problem. But the number one priority—that should be the last priority.

[00:08:51] Sean Garner: So they focus first on the production quality and what the actual asset looks like. Most small businesses also overly brand stuff where they want their logos and their brand colors on everything.

[00:09:12] Sean Garner: Again, I get it, but if you look at the content that people most likely consume on social media, it’s not like that. It looks more raw, organic, and natural. So, that’s the first thing—they’re focusing too much on production quality. The second thing they’re focusing on is what’s actually inside—that’s the content. What is the meat or substance of it? Whether it’s them teaching a topic, answering an FAQ, or showing how to do something—what’s actually inside the content they’re creating? What’s it all about? Why should somebody watch it?

[00:09:52] Sean Garner: Typically, people say it should be entertaining, inspiring, or educational. I very much believe that, especially for the types of businesses that we work with—professional services—we want to be creating that type of content to either inspire, or entertain, but mostly the kind of content I push people toward is to educate. Because we want to stand out as the industry leader. And that’s not done with entertaining TikTok dance videos. That’s done by adding tons of value and showing that you are the industry leader with your expertise.

[00:10:07] Sean Garner: So, the final thing that people think of—and I think this is the biggest missed mark for content creators, small business owners, and people trying to leverage social media—is how it’s delivered.

Focusing on Quality Content Over Production Value

[00:10:31] Sean Garner: So what I mean by that is how—how the video starts, how quickly you are able to get to the point of the information, how the content is actually structured. Because most people, what they’ll do is they’re doing these things in the opposite order. But I think that order should be flipped. So the very first thing we want to do is think about how we’re going to structure and deliver our content.

[00:10:54] Sean Garner: That’s going to be set up—if you look at, again, the most viral videos, the type of content you probably engage with—it gets right to the point, it jumps right into the video. They start delivering value quickly, whether that be something inspiring, entertaining, or educational, it’s coming at you quickly. There’s not these big, huge, long intros. I intentionally, by the way, set my podcast and the videos that I do up that way, where it’s typically just—we get right into it. There’s not going to be like a huge 30-second intro of thanking all of these sponsors and all of this stuff. Like, we just want to get right into it.

[00:11:29] Sean Garner: After we know how we’re packaging it and delivering the content, number two is we’ve got to make sure that the content inside is good. Are we actually providing accurate good information that’s adding value to people that’s positioning us as an expert, inspiring people, or even entertaining? You know, if it is inspirational, is it really motivating people? If it is entertaining?

[00:11:53] Sean Garner: Well, is it actually funny? I think that I’m funny sometimes—my kids say I do—but a lot of times people say that I’m not. So hey, guess what? Maybe it’s just not that funny. And then the other thing is, if you’re educating somebody, is the information good? Is it relevant? Can they take action on it? Is it something that they can use to help them with whatever problem it is that you solve?

[00:12:08] Sean Garner: Then, after you have those things, then you can start looking at and focusing on production quality. Because if you, again, look at some of the most viral videos, they are just shot on an iPhone. And maybe they have one of those wireless mics, like a Rode mic. Maybe, if you look at some of the most common, popular short-form videos on social media, that’s what it is. So you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a nice camera, a light kit, microphones, and all this stuff. You have a cell phone—you can do all of this from there.

[00:12:32] Sean Garner: And if you focus on flipping that order, I guarantee you will start making better content. Like I said, those are the two huge mistakes that I see business owners making: they’re not doing enough quantity for a long enough time, and their content just isn’t that good.

[00:12:51] Sean Garner: So how do we fix it? Well, this is what I want to share with you next—kind of my better, or I would say different, way of doing it—my new approach to doing it, that I share with my clients whenever they want to start leveraging social media for getting more leads, growing their brand, and standing out from their competition.

Crafting a Content Strategy That Works for Your Business

[00:13:27] Sean Garner: So, the first thing that you need to do—I would say, overall big picture, and this is kind of the theme with all of this stuff, and for me, this is always my aha moment of keeping myself humble and keeping my eye on the prize—is realize that you are not that special. And what I mean by that is how you do things is how your customers do things.

[00:13:49] Sean Garner: So, put that lens and filter on everything. So think about this: how you consume social media content is how your customers or potential customers are going to be consuming it. The type of content you engage with—start making yourself more aware of how you actually do things. And so that way, as you start doing this for your business and your customers, you can start putting that lens and filter on it. Because as you start doing all of this consistently, and you’re spending more time and focused effort on creating content, and it’s not doing well—well, think about that same thing: is the content you’re just sitting there aimlessly scrolling by.

[00:14:30] Sean Garner: It’s nothing personal against you; it’s just about improving your skills and realizing, again, you’re not that special. So yes, you took time, effort, and energy creating this content—don’t think that everybody’s going to be scrolling like, "Oh my, did you see this video? I’m going to share this with everyone."

[00:14:48] Sean Garner: I know it's so life-changing now. Come on. Let, let, let's be real. Like how often do you do that? So again, how you do things, how your potential customers are going to be doing things. So use that as the overall filter for creating all this stuff. And just honestly, for viewing your business in general, the other thing with that to note is through that lens and filter, think about how often you have to see content from a brand before you start engaging with it.

[00:15:12] Sean Garner: Think about how often you've had to get value from a social media post before you started even following it, liking, commenting, engaging with it, and everything. So again, How you do things, it's how your customers are going to do things because you're not that special. You're just like them. You're somebody else's potential customer.

[00:15:27] Sean Garner: So think about that as you create all this stuff. The other thing to think about is the overall theme. The first thing to think about whenever creating your social media strategy for your small business is to realize how you're going to leverage social media. So we talked about this in one of the previous episodes, whenever it came to building your online storefront.

[00:15:49] Sean Garner: There are a lot of different ways to leverage social media. So the primary purpose of this episode is to talk about creating organic content. There are a lot of other ways to leverage social media. You can do paid ads. You can do cold, direct message outreach through it. And even just with organic content and social media in general, how are you leveraging it?

[00:16:10] Sean Garner: And what's going to be the purpose of your business? Is it going to be to generate leads and sales? Or is it more so just going to be social proof of a digital billboard? So when somebody comes to your website and they see you have a YouTube or an Instagram or Facebook or something like that, and they just click on it, they just want to see that you are an active business and that you're posting content.

[00:16:28] Sean Garner: So that's the first main thing that I talk with businesses is like, okay, how are we going to leverage social media? Is this something that you actually want to get behind? And you want to be known as the industry leader and you want to be creating content and really stand out with your brand. Or are we more so just going to be using this to put content up to show potential customers that you are active online and maybe show a little bit of personality, maybe some behind-the-scenes things, because based upon that answer is kind of going to dictate the flow of the type of content you should be creating, how often you should be creating it, the types of things to create all of that.

[00:17:04] Sean Garner: Cause if you're just going to be using it as social proof that you are a human being and your business is still active. It's a lot less than if you are actually trying to use it to generate leads and sales, which the types of businesses that we work with, that's typically what they're wanting to do is they're wanting to stand out as the industry leader.

[00:17:23] Sean Garner: So it means we're going to have to have a really strong social presence in order to do that. So that's the first thing. The second thing is to realize that once you pick your path, whichever one it is, whichever way, how you do, I love the quote of how you do anything is how you do everything.

[00:17:40] Sean Garner: So if you're going to make the decision to go down one of these paths, whether it be the social billboard, or we're going to use it to generate leads and sales, do it right. Don't just go through the motions with this stuff. If you're going to take the time, effort, and energy to do something. And I do know as a small business owner, time is your greatest resource and the thing that you are scrambling to find the most of.

[00:18:04] Sean Garner: So if you're going to take any of that away to start doing this social media content, make it worth your time. Don't just sit there and waste it and go through the motions just so you can say you did it and tried it. Make it, figure out how to make this work. And it's going to be about creating systems and everything for you, but you're going to do it, do it right.

[00:18:25] Sean Garner: The third thing is how to do it right is there's already people that have figured this out. You don't have to be a trailblazer with small business, social media, content creation, look and model at what's working and what is doing well in your niche. So we're Whenever we're doing this for our clients, we talk about two different types of comps or competitors.

[00:18:47] Sean Garner: We actually leverage this for when it comes to website design, SEO and content strategy is you have two different types of competitors. Do you have the, we actually have three different types, but for this example, we're going to, we're going to talk about the two different types. So you have the national competitors.

[00:19:02] Sean Garner: These are the industry leaders, the dominators, then you have the local. So these are people that are either local geographically or local because they're about the same size as you, maybe they are smaller, what we people would call it, micro-influencers or, micro-content creators and stuff like that, where they don't have like the millions and millions of followers, but they're still seeing traction and success online.

[00:19:23] Sean Garner: So, what you want to do is you want to just start leveraging the platforms—not as the business owner—but think about how a potential customer would engage with it. Because most of your competition or most of your potential leads and customers don’t use social media like you do. So, whatever industry you’re in, you are probably following and know all the big industry leaders and other people that do what you do.

[00:19:48] Sean Garner: Your customers probably don't like even the people that I follow on social media, whether it be people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Alex Hermosi and Donald Miller, and some of these bigger, business thought leader, Dan Martell influencers. When customers come to me through social media, most of them have never even heard of those people.

[00:20:09] Sean Garner: So even though they have a really big online reputation, most people that are potential customers aren't assuming the same type of content you are as the business owner and industry leader. Eats sleep, and breathe what you do. And they're following their friends, people from college, coworkers that they work with, maybe some funny comedians, state of comedians or meme accounts and stuff like that.

[00:20:31] Sean Garner: Like they're not following every single person in your industry. So they don't know who some of those people are. So whenever you are creating this content and looking in modeling, what works like you have to realize your customers aren't doing that. So as we're looking in modeling, what works, we want to look for those big industry leader comp, competitors.

[00:20:50] Sean Garner: What are they doing? What type of content are they creating? That seems to be getting lots of engagement. How long are their videos? Are they doing more videos? Are they doing more images? Do they have a consistent theme with it? How many times a day are they posting? How long is the post copy? How long is the videos?

[00:21:05] Sean Garner: How often do the videos change scenes? Like how many? Cuts are there in a video? what kind of music are they using? Are they using trending audio there? They add their own audio on it before it. What I would do, and this is what we do, is I would create a spreadsheet, like a Google sheet, and I would just start off on a platform, something like Instagram would be the easiest one to do it, do it on the computer, so your desktop app, and just go to Instagram and just start looking at your competitors, go through the search and start searching for keywords of what you do in your industry. And then I would just start taking the top accounts and I would put them in a spreadsheet.

[00:21:40] Sean Garner: Then for each one of those top accounts, I would look on their profiles and I would, you can, if you're on Instagram, for example, you can click and you can look at just the reels tab and I would look at the ones that are getting the most likes, comments, views, and I would keep a track. Of their top 10, at least post over the past six months.

[00:22:00] Sean Garner: And so I would scroll through and I would look through all those. And let's say you found 10 competitors and then you've got their top 10 performing posts. There are a hundred posts right there. That's a ton of content. Then I would go through there and I would start looking for patterns. Okay, well. How, how long was their intro?

[00:22:16] Sean Garner: What are the kinds of things that they're saying to hook people? What types of content are they creating? Is it informational? Is it inspirational or entertaining? What types of things are they doing? How are they mixing that in look and study all of that stuff? Because once you start looking at enough big creators that are in your space, the types of content that you're creating, you're going to start seeing patterns emerge.

[00:22:37] Sean Garner: The same thing applies for local businesses. Whenever you're looking at your local competitors, whether it be a similar size, or the geographical region with local, we're more so just wanting to kind of keep a pulse on things because again, most local small business owners are not leveraging this properly.

Building Systems and Getting Help to Stay Consistent

[00:22:55] Sean Garner: So, just because somebody is doing something—and doing something consistently—doesn’t mean that it’s actually working. They just might be stuck in a rut. So that’s why I typically like to look at some of the big national leaders and see what they’re doing. Because typically, if they’re big, they’re doing it consistently, so they’re actually studying this and paying more attention typically. So that way you’re going to have a better idea of what’s working versus, like, you have your local competitor, and you’re thinking, "Oh, they’re crushing it on social media." I hear that all the time. And then whenever you look at their stats and everything, they’re really not crushing it. They just found a way to be consistent with something that’s not working, which is not at all what we’re trying to do.

[00:23:27] Sean Garner: So, first thing we’re trying to do, guys: decide how you’re going to leverage social media for your small business. Second thing is we want to start modeling what’s working. And then the third thing we want to do is we want to build our system. I’m a huge systems and frameworks guy—that’s why we’re literally going through our marketing domination framework of the build, fill, and optimize your sales funnel.

[00:23:43] Sean Garner: So, I love systems, and this is how I would create a content system for a small business owner. The first thing that I would do is, after I know how I’m going to use it and I've started looking at my comps. The first step that I would do is I would start creating the content from a copy standpoint. So I'm going to start writing all of my post captions out. I would do this in a Google sheet. It's kind of like an Excel spreadsheet. And I would have like post one, write all a copy out post to write all a copy out.

[00:24:20] Sean Garner: And then depending on the types of content that you're going to be creating based upon the research that you've done, whether they're Images with like a real video over it or it's like talking head type video. I would find all that stuff out I'd write all the post Post copy. So what's that going to actually be the caption on social media platforms?

[00:24:37] Sean Garner: And then the next thing I would do is I would start kind of bullet-pointing out my scripts for my videos and everything. So I wouldn't just go and start recording it and knocking all this stuff out. I would type all of that stuff out first, because that to me, if you are organized with it, you're going to be able to stay consistent with it.

[00:24:52] Sean Garner: So I want to make sure that all the content is created or the copy and the scripts and bullet points are created first, the next thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to batch create things. So I think another common mistake that small business owners are making is they're not able to be consistent with it.

[00:25:10] Sean Garner: And one of the reasons why is they're not batch-creating things. So it's a Monday morning and they're like, Oh, we don't have any social media posts this week. Let's go film some people real quick. And they'll just try to make some social media stuff on the fly. And there's no system around it. What I personally do and what I recommend to everybody is you have a filming day.

[00:25:27] Sean Garner: So again, as a small business owner. It's not a surprise that you need to grow and market your business. So set a day on the calendar each month that is filming day. It's a lot easier to take two hours, one day a month than to feel pressured every Monday to feel like you got to come up with the social media content for that month or I'm sorry for that week.

[00:25:45] Sean Garner: So what we'll typically do is we'll batch create stuff based upon that spreadsheet that we have. So that way we can do all of our filming and everything and create the assets at one time. After I do that, I'm a big systems framework and organized guy. So I would also then be creating all of this content and storing it on something like a Google drive.

[00:26:04] Sean Garner: So I personally would create several small sub folders for the types of content that I'm creating. And as I'm having these film days, I would also create a bunch of stuff that's called B roll. So that's just imagine if I had a camera setting up right now, it's shooting me from the side, filming a podcast episode that could be B roll to where I would have all of my B roll organized into folders, whether it be like, me talking with clients, , me filming a podcast, me building a website, me working on SEO reports, and I would have all of that stuff shot into a little folder.

[00:26:35] Sean Garner: So then if you look at top-performing content, it typically has B roll in it, which is just extra footage instead of just somebody sitting there talking or just a static image. So that B roll can be used forever like you don't have to always shoot B roll for what you do. So you can take all of that stuff and keep it organized.

[00:26:56] Sean Garner: So then that way, as you have this content, it's really easy to make things look new and fresh. Just by adding B roll and everything on top of it. So I would stay super organized with how I am adding my content in. Because again, if you're organized, you're going to be more consistent with it, which is what's going to get you better results.

[00:27:12] Sean Garner: And then the other thing that I would start looking at is building a team and getting help with this, because again, as a small business owner, you're busy, you are short on time, and it is difficult to get all of this stuff done. So that's where you can look at starting to build a team and maybe possibly outsource some of this stuff.

[00:27:28] Sean Garner: You can start off maybe local and small with just a staff member that wants to start helping with this stuff. And maybe they can do the editing part of it for you or the posting part of it and start looking at somebody in-house that you have this. Or you can start looking at outsourcing this stuff to an agency to help you.

[00:27:46] Sean Garner: Just like we talked about SEO agency mistakes that business owners make on the last episode. One thing that I will say with all of this is if you are outsourcing this to an agency, look at the kind of stuff that, they've posted in the past, because one big mistake that the small business owners make like we talked about as the content's just not that good when you go to outsource this stuff and people are just posting stock images for you with quotes and stuff on it, that's not getting you results.

[00:28:16] Sean Garner: So you need to have a reality check. Don't say you're doing social media because you hired some stock agency or something like that to where people are just posting these random photos, with quotes on top of them. Again, you're not that special. So think about how you engage with content. You are not engaging with any content like that.

[00:28:33] Sean Garner: And that's probably why if you are doing that, it's getting one to five likes each post that you do, because nobody's actually liking and engaging with it because it's not inspiring education or educational or entertaining. So think about that stuff as you start outsourcing. The things that I think are really good to outsource would be things like editing the content, posting, and maybe coming up with the captions and scripts for you.

[00:28:56] Sean Garner: But at the end of the day, if you look at what's working very well in social media right now, it is video content. So somebody needs to be on video. And if you're trying to be the industry leader, it needs to be you or one of the people on your leadership team or a brand spokesperson that actually works at the company.

[00:29:12] Sean Garner: Don't outsource the video on-screen presence, but you can outsource the editing, the scripting, the research and all of that stuff that it takes. So realize this, it doesn't take as much as you think to get started for doing this. And if you truly want to stand out as the industry leader, you must be able to make this work for your small business.

[00:29:36] Sean Garner: So, keep it simple for yourself. Start with what you have and scale from there. So it's much better if you would just create one great, I put effort into piece of content per week versus. Three to five stock images with quotes that aren't really working for you. So it's not about volume at first.

[00:29:58] Sean Garner: I think that you should start with quality, then go into quantity. When most people do the opposite, like, "Oh, let’s just throw some stuff out there, and then let’s try and start making it better." Don’t do that. Focus on quality content first, then learn how to scale quality up—because quality scaled is always going to beat just scaled.

[00:30:19] Sean Garner: So guys, I hope this helps. Again, there’s tons more with this that we’re going to be going over in more detail. I want you to realize just a few things and big takeaways. If you’re frustrated with social media and how it’s not working for your small business, realize that the content probably just isn’t that good. If you’re honest with yourself, it’s just not that good, and you haven’t been doing it consistently enough in terms of both volume and time.

[00:30:37] Sean Garner: So, in order to make it work for yourself, you need to do a few things. You need to decide how you’re leveraging social media so you can go all in and do it the right way. You need to model what’s working—look at these industry competitors and what they’re doing to stand out so their social content starts working. And then, build a system that supports consistency. Quality consistency is what you’re trying to build.

[00:30:53] Sean Garner: So as you’re doing this, it’s based on the type of content that you’re going to be creating, the systems, and the team members that you currently have in place. But build your system so you can be consistent—because whenever you’re consistent, that’s when you’re going to start truly seeing success with this.

[00:31:22] Sean Garner: So guys, have an awesome day. Go out there, create some content, go be the industry leader, grow your business, and dominate your industry.