Hello everyone and welcome to another collaboration post.
This month’s blog post star guest is Sophie. Sophie and I connected in Australia when I was on my gap year. We clicked straight away for our love of adventures and being a free spirit. Since being back in the UK she has set up a lovely social media platform and business that helps small business to shine!
Sophie offers a wide range of content that can really boost your business, giving regular tips and advice! I cannot wait to delve deeper with it through my Q&A style blog. We hope this gives you a some more insight into managing your own/setting up a new business with great social media platform.
Please feel free to share with all your friends and family! Here we go…
So Sophie, what got you into setting up your social media site as a social media manager?
Hey Becca! Thank you so much for having me as part of your collab series. Ever since I was at university I’ve worked in marketing and social media, after working in a corporate role, when I left the UK to go travelling in 2017 (and got to meet your lovely self!!), I picked up remote social media management work whilst I was travelling. I found this was a great way to fund my travels and still use my marketing skills and put my degree to good use.
I work with some amazing brands in the UK and Australia where I manage their social media profiles across Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and beyond. As a social media manager I do a whole range of things from blog writing, caption writing, photography, graphic design, email marketing and designing, writing and scheduling posts for all social channels, the list goes on!
I launched Social By Sophie as there are so many small businesses popping up now and there is very little marketing support out there for businesses that don’t have a large budget. I want to help that gap in the market and offer my tips and advice to help businesses shine online.
How easy is it for someone who has just launched a business so get a lot of followers/ exposure?
Honestly, it can be hard. It requires a lot of time, patience, consistency and also self belief.
I think one of the most important things to remember when starting a business and building your following on Instagram/TikTok/Facebook is to focus on the quality of your followers rather than quantity! It is SO much better to have 1000 people who are genuinely interested in what you offer, rather than 10,000 who don’t care.
For anyone that’s just launched a business and has created their social media profiles for it I would recommend a few things.
- Be patient and consistent, it won’t happen overnight.
- Don’t let it take over your life!
- Engage with your ideal customer
- Don’t get caught up by the numbers (views, likes, followers)
I’ve helped a lot of accounts grow and I think they key thing is to post quality content that’s in line with your brand and your audiences and to engage with your audience.
What made you decide to help others with their content?
I’ve always had friends and family come to me to ask for help and advice with their marketing and social media, and during the first lockdown I thought just how many businesses must be struggling too! I launched Social By Sophie as a way to do my bit and support small businesses to learn whilst they were temporarily closed.
Some of the tips I share are super simple but so many businesses are so appreciative of these tips as they didn’t know them before! As social media managers we take for granted living and breathing social media and I’m so happy to be able to share my tips!
How can we use our time more wisely on social media to get maximum reach?
I would absolutely recommend setting yourself time limits on your social media apps or allocating a time period where you use them. This will help you use your time efficient and not get lost in the bubble of social media where you log on for 1 minute and the next thing you know you’ve been on for an hour and haven’t really gained much!
If you are looking to use your time more wisely on social media, I’d recommend having a hit list of things to do before having a good scroll (like we are all guilty of!)
- Reply to Direct Messages
- Reply to Story Replys
- Respond to comments
- Respond to tagged photos
Next to increase your engagement, I’d recommend engaging with your target audience, you can do this by leaving comments on posts or replying to stories. A great way to do this is to search the hashtags that you know your ideal customers use and interact with the top posts by leaving a meaningful comment.
Its super important to be aware of how much time you spend on social media as too much time scrolling isn’t a good thing as it can leave you comparing yourself or being demotivating!
I see that you’ve created a content Calendar, can you talk use through that please?
Yes! For all of my social media management clients, I use a content calendar to organise the content across the various social media channels. I find by using a content calendar it keeps me so organised, keeps everything in place and saves me so much time!
I’ve created an easy to use, affordable digital calendar for small businesses to use to get on top of their content creation, save time and get organised. As business owners we have SO much to do and taking the last minute stress of posting to social media out of the equation is a game changer.
My content calendar is a digital calendar template where you can plan your social content in advance, it helps you to say goodbye to panic posting and get organised! For all of Becca’s readers you can get 20% off using the code BESTLIFE20, click here to get yours and say HELLO to getting organised, simply add the calendar to your cart and add the code at the checkout to get your 20% discount
How can we know that we are on the right track with our social media sites – are there any tell tell signs?
Of course, followers and likes are good indication that your content is doing well and your audience is growing but as I mentioned before, don’t get caught up in it! A great way to tell if you are on the right track is if you are getting good engagement from your followers, by this I mean, comments on your posts, replies to your instagram stories, interactions with you story stickers, visits to your websites and your ideal audience following you or enquiring about your product or service and of course, purchasing or booking!
Do you think there is a social media hype of “followers” meaning success and how to we combat this?
You’ve hit the nail on the head there Becca! There is SUCH a hype about follower count, but, I would 100% say to focus on the quality of your followers rather than the quantity of your followers. It actually will negatively impact your accounts if you have lots of ghost followers, by this I mean accounts that follow you that are either fake or don’t interact with your content.
I would recommend to draw up your perfect follower or your perfect customer, visualise what they look like, where they live, what they do, what age they are and aim to gain these over everyone!
Finally, what would be your 3 top tips as a social media manager to small businesses?
Ooooh my 3 top tips, I have so many! Right my top tips are:
- Don’t get caught up by the numbers, whether this is followers, likes, views etc. More followers doesn’t mean more sales.
- Plan your content in advance to spend your time wisely and avoid panic posting, I’d recommend sitting down once a month or once a week to plan your content in a calendar, write your captions and schedule your content to a scheduler such as Facebook Creator Studio.
- ENJOY IT but don’t let it take over your life, ensure you keep an eye on your screen time and don’t ignore your friends and family by scrolling!
Thank you Sophie for your wise words and honest answers. It really is true to not get caught up in the number of followers and to think about the reason why you set up the page in the first place. Time and patience will help with growth… 🙂
Want to know more about Sophie ?
I share regular tips on my Instagram and my website! My inbox is ALWAYS open and I’m always happy to have a chat about social media and marketing for your business. Don’t forget you have access to 20% exclusive discount off the content calendar by using the code BESTLIFE20 at the checkout, you can get your copy here: https://www.socialbysophie.co.uk/2021-time-saving-content-calendar
Check out my Instagram for regular tips here: https://www.instagram.com/socialbysophie_/
Check out my blog for plenty of marketing tips here: https://www.socialbysophie.co.uk/blog
Follow me on TikTok for fun and quick videos full of marketing advice: https://www.tiktok.com/@socialbysophieuk
Best Life With Becca 