Despite how we may feel about Facebook it still remains one of the leaders in online networking. Love it or hate it, it’s definitely a powerful tool (when used correctly). Today, Katie’s going to share with you 8 ways to leverage Facebook for effective online networking.

[00:00:00] Jeffrey: Welcome back to the light in your launch podcast today, we're talking about eight steps to effective online networking. Stay tuned.

[00:01:00] Jeffrey: Welcome back to the show on Geoffrey summer auto today, we're going to listen in on Katie's, uh, live that she did in our Facebook group. Head over to the launch squad, lab.com forward slash Facebook to join. Now, let's listen in to Katie and she's going to help us understand eight steps to networking online and how to do that most effectively.

Let's check it out.

[00:01:39] Katie: Good morning, everyone. Happy Thursday, Katie Collins here sharing some Thursday. Thoughts with you today. I wanted to talk about how to network online. Um, I hear so much resistance, you know, uh, personal feelings about the company, you know, behind Facebook, just social networking in general and how it can really be a time suck.

And so I wanted to share with you the eight step process that I used, where I felt like. I could use social media in a way that helped me attract more leads and build a following without spending all day or giving up all of my power and vulnerability into the online. So let's get started. Um, okay. So the first step, if you want to really start to network online is to choose groups that really match your.

So, what do I mean by that? I mean, sometimes you're not even sure if it's going to match your vibe and you've got to join the group and spend a couple of weeks in there and just see how it feels like does the leader inspire you? Um, are the participants or, you know, group members actually participating.

And that kind of thing. And then really looking at the content and making sure that you are aligned with what people are saying. Um, sometimes we just absolutely disagree about things and you just want to make sure that you're not always feeling like you have to swim upstream to be in a certain group because that's what gets exhausting.

So if they don't match your vibe, no problem. Leave that group and you can find others. Okay. The second thing is the real importance of connection before pitching. So what do I mean by that? I mean, I always like to think of this and I'm not sure if this came to me or if somebody brought it up to me, I apologize if I heard it from someone else.

I don't remember. But you think about networking in groups the same way? You'd think about attending a party with a bunch of people that you may or may not. Right. And so you're not going to walk into the party and kind of blow a whistle and be like, Hey, everyone pay attention to me. Right. I've got the thing for you.

Let me sell to you. Let me tell you how awesome I am. Let me blow up this room with my amazingness and, you know, kind of just vomit all over you with how awesome I am. I would never do that at a party and you wouldn't either. And yet. That is the impact. If you join a group and do that, some people call it value, oh, I'm adding value.

And they're putting like a photo of themselves. And then this very long post that ultimately is positioning. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with lung posts, that position you, I think they're great. And I think you should be using them, but to me, it's not the way you start off a friendship or a connection inside of a group.

And so instead of. Um, trying to pitch yourself whether it's positioning yourself or literally sharing your offer without even an introduction. I want you to consider, how would you introduce yourself at a party and what questions would you ask? And so you'll notice, and this is what I love about groups is that you can just see what other people are doing.

So I want you to read through some people's intros and ask yourself, how did that intro make me feel? Did it make me feel like they were pitching me? Did it make me feel like they were actually genuinely excited to be a part of the group? Did they make me feel like they were open to, you know, connection in some sort of.

And just notice what you like and notice what you don't like, and then mimic what you like. And so how can you present yourself new to a group and simply say what you do, right. Of course you want to introduce yourself and say your kind of elevator pitch, or what do you do statement or whatever you call.

Um, but also asking questions in the group. Like, you know, here are some topics, I feel like an expert in, and here are some topics, you know, that I'm really interested in learning more. Who's up to connect. Right. That is such a different vibe than, you know, I'm an expert in this and I've helped people achieve X, Y, and Z.

And I'm known as this and, and join me over here or grab my free thing or join my free group. Right? Like, So much more pushy than, Hey, who are you? And how can we connect? And here's my expertise, what's yours. Right? And then I always find looking for collaboration, lands so much better for people than trying to pitch people.

All right. So that is the connect before your you pitch. All right. So number three is to send and accept Facebook friend requests. Um, now I say Facebook, but really I meant this to be all online networking. So whether you're in LinkedIn groups and you're sending connections, um, you know, wherever your groups are, try to connect with the people.

And here's why. It's known that business pages get very little traction on Facebook. It's known that LinkedIn doesn't show your posts very often, especially if you're not very consistent. Right. So. By connecting with other people and posting from your personal profile, which I'll talk about momentarily.

Um, there, your content is so much more likely to be seen, but also it gives a people a chance to see you as a human being. Right. So I love to post pictures of my nephew. I think he's so cute. Um, I love to post pictures of my dog or cross-country skiing or snowboarding or. Um, concerts usually leave off for whatever reason, but, um, I like people to get to know me and my personality, um, and just kind of know who they're signing up to hang out with.

So sending in accepting friend requests allows you to kind of build that bank of possibilities. Um, I will say I often. I get friend requests a lot. I have about 2,500 friends. So I think Facebook allows you to have 5,000. So I'm not somebody that is trying to get to the $5,000, 5,000 person, Facebook friend limit.

Um, I'm not saying that, you know, it's a numbers game and send all these. Um, I personally don't like that, but if I've already connected with somebody in a group, that's when I send a Facebook friend request. So I'm not really into the, Hey, I've never met you and I'm not even going to send you a message, but a message, your friend request.

I very infrequently do that. Um, and, and if I do, when they accept it, you know, I may send them a message and let them know like what made me connect with. Um, so again, I'm not telling you to get your friend limit to 5,000, but to be open to being friends with people that you've never met and to connecting with people, because that is ultimately how you help spread the word about what you do.

Um, okay. So I mentioned using your personal profile to post content. So again, if you follow me, you see, I really don't post a ton of business content on my personal profile. I hardly ever go live there and that's something, um, that, you know, it's, it's a growing edge for me. I'm not sure that all my friends want me to go live there.

Uh, the friends that I have that are not business friends. And I do try to just keep that semi-private space. However, as I mentioned, the business pages don't really get a lot of traction. And even in our Facebook group, we're noticing a drop in engagement in a drop in views, which tells us that Facebook as yet, again, changed their algorithm or just continues to have.

Um, and you know, just kind of blocks our content from being seen. So the only way to get around that is to use your personal profile in the meantime. So by no means, do I use it a hundred percent for business? I see people who do. Fine, no judgment. I know a lot of people who actually have two profiles with the same exact name and one is for friends and family, and one is to do business from, so if that's the way you want to do it that's something I've considered starting a whole new profile and just really whittling it down to my close family and friends and giving myself permission to use my bigger profile for business.

So, um, it's up to you, but it, you can only win by posting on your personal profile. At times or all the time, depending on your level of comfort, because that is in fact the most, um, you can get the biggest bang for your buck in these social media platforms by using your personal profile. Um, just the way it works.

Okay. Number five is keep track of promo opportunities inside groups. So I spent, you know, a Saturday morning, one day geeking out.

What are All these groups I'm in, uh, quickly leaving ones that I just absolutely knew. I did not want anything to do with, for whatever reason, maybe just the, you know, my, um, goals changed, you know, like it, I, I, Hey, I have a partner now.

So if I'm in a bunch of singles groups, I'm probably going to get out of those, that kind of thing. And then I looked at what. Our entrepreneurial groups and of those groups, which ones allow for promotion and on which day, and then I created the spreadsheet Monday through Saturday and listed the group names and the link to find the group easily.

And especially if my VA was logging in for me and posting on my behalf, that made it way easy for her. And I would put the link in there, um, the specific day that you're allowed to. Now I didn't promote every single week. Um, I find that that gets exhausting. And I think if you're constantly promoting your free call, you know, your free consultation strategy, session, discovery session, whatever you want to call it, if you're constantly promoting that, you're kind of devaluing it.

People get. I'm tired of it. right, And they just take it for granted. So I don't recommend that, but if I were promoting a new free gift that I had, or of course, an event of some sort, if I was doing a five day challenge or a webinar or masterclass, anything like that, that's when I would use those groups.

Some of them were local groups. And so I would highlight those as, you know, if I'm hosting a local. Then, you know, obviously gonna use those local groups and others were worldwide and it didn't matter because I do business online and anyone from anywhere can do. Um, but by keeping track of the promo opportunities just reminded me, like I always ask my clients what opportunities are available to you right now?

Every day I had opportunities staring at me for. And they were free and this is how I organic marketed. And this is how I built a six-figure business. Doing organic marketing only is what I'm sharing with you today. And this one was huge just to get that, um, organization and to be able to hire someone, to help me with it.

Um, and I'm going to talk next about how to make this easy so that you're not constantly coming up with new content or retyping it over and over again. Um, but you have opportunities to promote pretty much every day. And if you're not in groups that allow for promotion, then that should be your goal is to spend an hour.

Just looking at Facebook, you can go to groups specifically and you can search different topics and find the list of groups. Um, I'm always looking for groups that, you know, are over at least 250 people. Um, I'm looking for how many posts were. Posted in the last 30 days just to see how active it is. And, um, and then you know who the leader is and if they allow for promotion even better.

Um, but introducing yourself, like I said, ahead of time can really help you with your promoter. What I see doesn't work and, you know, I've, uh, been a leader of a few groups and I've also just, of course, been a member of, of several what doesn't work is the constant promotion weekly, without any connection or acknowledgement of other members or liking the.

Um, group leaders content, right? Like some sort of way to be a part of the community. If you lack community and you keep promoting, promoting, promoting, promoting people, just roll their eyes. When they see your name, it's just this energetic, total disconnect. So you've got to make sure that you're balancing your promotion with connection as well.

Commenting on other people's posts in a really authentic way, right. Showing up in service and in all the things. Okay. So the sixth step that I used for networking online is to click the wrong place. Here is two. Come on, um, create the promo post and so that you can reuse it. So caveat here, maybe why, partly why Facebook doesn't like me is because of this.

So, uh, use at your own discretion, but I would write my promote posts on a Google doc and I would add my emojis and everything so that my, um, assistant could come in and copy and paste it into the. So, if I was allowed to promote in three groups on a Monday, I would go to each group, I would post a picture and then I would paste the content of my promo post.

Now do that in three different groups that day, depending on the day. Um, now Facebook can tell, of course, if you're pasting. And so sometimes they limit your reach because they like organic, um, content and not pasted content, you know, across the board. I've also been a part of. Different groups that are related.

And I would see the same person posts, bam, bam, bam. Right. And it would be in my newsfeed three times.

And I didn't really like that either. so I often would stagger the time that I would do that so that I could really maximize my efforts here and make sure. Popped into someone else's newsfeed by staggering, my different promo posts that day, maybe by an hour or two hours, media would do one in the morning And one in the afternoon on a different day.

Um, so, so you want to be able to reuse your content, but at the same time. know that like, if it's just as easy for you to retire exactly what you're wanting to post, um, you may get better reach and it's worth, um, Giving it a try and just testing it out and seeing if you're getting a better reach by just retyping it.

Um, I know the emojis can be a pain pain in. the butt if you have to keep retyping. And so, you know, I would go back and forth depending on how much time I had, but, um, You know, crafting posts with like proper spacing emojis, making it really easy to read quickly or scan, uh, does your world of good. And again, when I see people that post these really long stories, uh, with a picture of themselves, I skip over them every single time.

They're just not easy to read. Social media is. Reading, right. If we people want to read articles and blog posts, they are not on Facebook. And so you got to make sure that your posts are quick and easy to read. And a lot of that is with your format. Okay. Um, number seven is always include an image. Now, I don't know if people will agree with me on the always, but I do see most people are using images still to this day, because it just is more of a.

Stopper. Right. So, um, you know, whatever kind of image you can use, that's going to get someone's attention and then a headline that's also going to get their attention. It's going to do a world of good. Um, again, I find that when people don't post images, I don't know, people just D were more drawn to video and image than we are to text.

And so I think images. It's still something that works very well. Um, and I would change them up, especially if you're promoting something. I would not use the scene image. I would create maybe five images to promote one thing. Um, just to see again, which one's getting better, uh, better attention, better comments, and that.

All right. The last one is give before asking. So it's very similar to number two, which was connect before pitch. Right? Give before asking, I had learned from a mentor of mine, um, for every ask you want to provide, to give. And that is true when you're promoting your content and it's true for, you know, creating collaboration.

So what do I mean by that? Well, if you're in your Facebook group or you're posting online, um, for every promotion, like download my thing or a buy my thing, you want to give content to. So, um, so just powerful content, um, powerful content that people can learn from. Right? So you're giving value before you're trying to get something from them.

Same thing. When you're asking for collaborative partners, it's awesome to be able to say. Like invite them in first, like, Hey, I'd love to interview you and my podcast or interview you and my group. Um, you know, I'm happy to send a up email, inviting people to download the free gift. You know, let me know if there's a chance that we could collaborate and maybe exchange that.

Right. So you're offering two things and just giving them an idea of what you're willing to do for them. Instead of just asking them, Hey, would you be willing to, you know, promote. Right. So it's always like what's in it for them and making sure that you're showing up giving really, really good value. So those are the eight steps that I've used for online networking.

Um, again, just a quick review, you want to choose groups that match your vibe so that if you're really in a space where more like-minded people are, you're going to find, right. You want to connect before you pitch. You want to send an accept friend requests. Um, you want to use your personal profile to post some content.

You want to keep track of the promo opportunities inside a group's making a spreadsheet and really sticking to the opportunity to promote yourself. If you can. Um, You want to create a promo post, like for the week and reuse it. So have those stored somewhere in some sort of system for that you always want to include an image for better reach and just better attention, and then always make sure that you're giving before you ask.

So I'll end today. I know a lot of people are asking, um, you know, I don't know what to post on social, and I know I've fallen into that same trap as well. So I wanted to give you just a couple of ideas. Um, you know, these, um, these ideas you can download someone's free gift, like all over the internet, right?

Like social media content ideas. That problem is solved. You just need to look for it. And then you honestly need to sit down and do the writing. And I know that Jeffrey and Elena, and I do that once a month, we'll sit down and take a look at, you know, what our, um, theme is and what kind of content we want to create.

And the more we do that, um, the better we feel about exactly like knowing exactly what we're doing month after month, you know, where is that leading to you? Just get a bigger bang for your buck, with your. When you're, um, willing to sit down and make an actual social media plan. Um, so for those of you that are still kind of sporadically posting, I get it.

I've done that as well. Um, but when you find yourself saying, oh, I post on social media and it's not getting me anywhere. Then I wouldn't blame it on social media. I might just look at what are you posting? Is it leading anywhere or are you asking to lead somewhere? Do you have a call to action of some sort?

Um, are you being consistent? Are you using the tools that the social media platform provides? Um, we have seen a huge uptick, like when we use, like, for example, more tools in the Facebook group, it gets better. Um, traction. So like asking a question in the group, like it could be, Hey, you know, I'm here today.

Ask me anything about sales. If you use that feature in your group, it's going to get more attention than if you just post text, ask me any question. Right. So, um, so there are lots of ways that you can. Look for holes in your social media attempts and just see, like, am I playing by the social media rules here on each of the platforms?

And if not, what can I tighten up so that I'm utilizing the tools thereby also making the algorithm work better in my favor. So, let me just give you a couple examples here. Um, okay. This was one of my favorites. I'm trying to find a gift that says dot, dot dot can you help by posting gift ideas? So, um, for example, you know, I might do that in my group.

Like, Hey, I'm looking, you know, I'm writing an email all about avoidance and I want to find the perfect gift for that. What's your favorite gift when you're wanting to post one regarding. So, what that does is a couple of things. One, you're just getting people to comment in your group. It makes it an easy answer, right?

If you're always asking, what are your biggest challenges? What's your frustration? What do you want me to teach about? Those are really hard things for people to answer. If you're like, what's your favorite ice cream, show me a gift you love. Um, you know, what's your favorite Halloween candy. People can answer in a split second and they will.

The thing is if you're trying to get engagement up in your group, it doesn't always have to be, you know, challenges and frustrations. It can be fun stuff, too. It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other better and banter a little bit back and forth. Um, and it increases your engagement in the group, which helps with the algorithm.

So, um, so I really love that one. Okay. Let me look for another one. Um, I just thought this one the other day in someone's group, if you had an extra insert dollar amount, what's the first thing you would do with it? I think we even posted something like this recently. Um, so, you know, just like that can give you so much information, you know, Answering it from a business perspective or from a family perspective, are they savers?

Are they spenders? Right. It can give you a lot of information. Um, and it can also give you some good ideas. So I saw somebody comment, you know, they would put it into, I think it was Jeffrey, put it, put it into a defy account and it just can pique some curiosity, you know, what is that, what does that mean?

How can I learn more about that? Um, Okay. And then another one that I see that works pretty well is when you speak from the heart. So something like, I don't know who needs to hear this, but, and often it's followed by a story of, um, your own sort of vulnerability, your own hero's journey, if you will. You know, so I see a lot of moms post that, you know, I don't know who needs to hear this, but you're doing a great job as a mom.

You know, even if your kid, blah, blah, blah, And it just kind of brings humor into the situation and also just acknowledgement like, Hey, we don't have to be super mom or we wouldn't want to be perfect. Um, so anything where you're speaking from the heart, I would not use this to pitch. I find that that's when it lacks alignment for me when I'm reading somebody like from the heart thing.

And then at the bottom, it's like, if you're interested in dah, dah, dah, you know, go over here. I would probably wait in pitch later that day. Um, because I spoke from the heart earlier, right. Hopefully the algorithms working in my favor and I can pitch later, but yeah, when they're in the same post, it doesn't feel very good to me.

Again, it's up to you. It's up to how it feels in your body. I'm just telling you how things have felt in my. Um, okay. I think I already said I'm giving you the last one, but let me just do one. Okay. So to counter the share with heart, if you are inviting someone to your training, you could simply share a story of either you or someone.

Um, that overcame, that kind of went from that point a to point B and then invite them to the training if they want the same results as you or the testimonial success story that you shared. So those are just a couple ideas of things to share, but like I said, these resources of what to post on social media.

They're a dime a dozen go sign up for someone's free gift. Often it's like 75 to a hundred, sometimes even thousands of, of possible posts. And it's like, once you get a tool to help you, I find that once I'm not at a blank page, but I have a tool or a template and prompts, it helps me be able to write social media stuff faster.

Um, but you know, I think the biggest lesson we're learning is to do it ahead of time and have more of a plan. Um, and so, you know what, we'll take you an hour, one day or a couple hours. One day, then you're set for the next 30 days is, is really worth the time and a great way to utilize your time. Um, because if you're doing it on a daily basis, it's going to take you 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes on a daily basis.

You're spending way more time doing social. So planning and setting aside, you know, one hour, two hours, um, is the way to do it. So, all right. So that's it for today for how to do some online networking? Um, I think that this is. An opportunity if you're not taking advantage of it, it's an opportunity. Like when you're like, you know, Katie, how do I book more calls?

How do I get more leads? How do I get people to sign up for my live event? How do I get people to, you know, pay attention to me to follow me? Social media is the answer. So regardless of your love, hate relationship with it, I've got one of my own as well. Um, you know, with the company in general and how they, their business practices, I'm not a big fan of, but yet I'm using it anyway because it's, what's working for me.

So, um, let me know what you think in the comments. Let me know. You know of those eight steps, which ones feel, uh, you know, more difficult than others. Um, what have you tried already? What have you found, right. What's working for the algorithm for you. Um, and what do you see others doing that you think is awesome and let's get this conversation started.

So I know this live is going in multiple places, but, uh, wherever you comment, I'll get notified. So let me know. All right, everyone have an amazing day and I'll see you next week.

[00:29:14] Jeffrey: All right, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. Uh, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five-star review and hit that subscribe button. You can also get regular content like this more in our group at the launch squad, lab.com forward slash Facebook. And if you want to check out the show notes for this show, you can go to the launch squad, lab.com forward slash episode 50.

We'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in.

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The Lighten Your Launch Podcast is for Coaches and Course Creators who want a lighter online launch experience. Maybe you’ve done a few launches already, and feel exhausted just thinking about it! Or, it’s been one of your goals, but you don’t know where to start.

Tune in to learn from our team of experts, The Launch Squad, who aren’t afraid to dig into all aspects of launching: sales, strategy, technology, mindset, funnels, and even a bit of woo to get you through the toughest times. Let’s put a stop to perfectionism and procrastination, and finally take your launch from intimidating to money-making!