TCC Podcast #177: How Copywriters Can Use Social Media with Andrea Jones

Social Media strategist, Andrea Jones is our guest for the 177th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. We were interested in this topic because we are so bad at using social media in our own businesses and for The Copywriter Club. If you've struggled to find a way to maximize social media to help you find clients you'll want to listen to this. We asked Andrea about: •  how she became a social media strategist—she started doing posts for $5 •  what she did to meet her husband (he was annoying her on Youtube) •  what’s going on in social media today and the rise of video •  how to understand your audience so you serve them •  where you should start if you’re overwhelmed by social media •  the importance—or non-importance—of design and “the grid” •  the bare minimum you should be sharing on social media •  how to build your audience and get the attention of your best prospects •  how to turn social media into a lead generation tool for your biz •  the mistakes people make on social media that you don’t want to make •  the “right” approach to your brand voice on social media •  when you should be working with a team and when you shouldn’t •  what it costs to hire a social media consultant •  the #1 thing she’s done to take her business to the next level •  the future of social media… and how you can get ahead of it This episode is available wherever great podcasts are found (like iTunes and Stitcher). Or you can simply click the play button below. There's also a transcript for anyone who scrolls down.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Life Coach School Andrea’s website Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground   Full Transcript: Kira:  This episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Club In Real Life, our live event in San Diego, March 12th through the 14th. Get your tickets now at thecopywriterclub.com/tccirl. Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Kira:  You're invited to join the club for episode 177 as we chat with social media strategist, Andrea Jones about creating impact and social media channels like Instagram and LinkedIn, creating sales funnels that start in social media, why copywriters need to spend more time in this important channel and the things she's done to up level her business. Welcome, Andrea. Rob:   Hey Andrea. Andrea:        Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to chat with you guys today. Kira:  I know we're excited to talk about social media because we've done well in certain areas in media, but there are other areas where we are lacking in The Copywriter Club. Rob:   It's so bad. Kira:  Super bad, because we've talked about it before, Andrea. So why don't we start this off with your story and talk about how you ended up as a social media strategist. Andrea:        Yes. I love this question because, I met my husband on YouTube. Rob:   Social media is a game changer is what you're saying. Andrea:        It literally has changed my life. But I am an early adapter to social media. I actually happen to like it and I started a blog back in 2004. I was making YouTube videos in 2007 way before it was cool and my friends thought I was insane. And so social media for me is just a really fun way for an introvert like myself to show up in a way that's still doesn't drain my energy. I started out on social media as fun, but it wasn't until I actually moved to live with my YouTube husband in 2014 when I started the business. So with that move, I needed something to do. I moved to a completely different country from Atlanta, Georgia to Toronto, Canada. And so that big move helped me launch my business. And I was amazed when I started digging into the freelancing world how many people didn't understand social media since I had a natural love for it and how my clients were just grateful and thankful that they didn't have to think about it anymore. So my start in this world came from a very organic space. Rob:   And tell us more about that. What were the things that you started doing as you were starting this business in social media? Andrea:        Yeah, I started off doing all of the things. I was actually doing a lot of things on Fiverr. You guys know Fiverr. So it was writing Facebook post for $5. Um, and that actually got my start into it. And once I was doing those kind of little piecemeal things, I noticed that there was a big space for people who needed this consistently. So it's one of those things where it's 24/7 clients need it all of the time. And so I really leaned into that and that's where I got my start building out a monthly retainer package and really helping clients that way. So I started off doing kind of random little things but ended up kind of settling in to something that was more of a long term plan. Kira:  So I want to know how you met your husband on YouTube. Let's talk about that first. How did you meet your husband on YouTube? Just tell us the love story there. Andrea:        So I was making these like Vlog style videos about my life and he was doing these comedy, like angry ranting videos. And at the time we were both looking to grow our little YouTube communities. And so we were collaborating with different people much like we're doing today on this podcast episode. And so we did a YouTube video together virtually, and then we just kept talking and I thought he was actually kind of annoying at first. I was like, ‘Why does he keep talking to me?’ But yeah, the rest that they say is history. I went to visit him in Toronto first and then he came to Atlanta to visit me. And we moved fairly quickly from the time that we met to the time that I moved in was about like eight months. Kira:  Wow. That's fast. Rob:   But it works. So let's define social media just a little bit because I have a feeling that it's a little bit broader than what we often think about Facebook, Instagram, maybe Twitter, YouTube. How broad does it go and what does it include? Would you include like email and webinars and all this kind of stuff, or where do you draw the lines? Andrea:        Yeah, so for me, social media is really a public communities online. So you're absolutely right with things like Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Things that are on the line or like YouTube and Pinterest, they're almost a little bit of a search engine more than a social media network, but they're still kind of included in that bundle. Even platforms like TikTok or Snapchat are still considered social media because you're connecting with people. But in a more public fashion, I think once we start getting into email and webinars, it's kind of like further down the funnel and it's still considered digital marketing. But I wouldn't necessarily consider it social media. Kira:  All right. So I'd love to hear more of a state of the union on social media today, just as far as like your perspective on how it's evolved even just over the last year or two because it's changed dramatically and just like where it is today, what's working today for your clients, what we should know about where social media is today, especially if we haven't used it in our business and we're like on there occasionally, socially in our own personal lives. Andrea:        So I think with this kind of digital world that we live in, social media is a great opportunity to reach a lot of people but still make it feel custom. So you're still making it feel like you understand the people in your community intimately and you're able to connect with them in that way. So one of the biggest shifts I've seen in social media today is that it's not like a billboard where you're trying to reach as many people as possible. It's not like a television commercial where it's so neutral. You're trying not to offend anybody, but where social media, you can get really specific in your vertical and specifically talk to individual people. And so I think that's one of the biggest shifts that's happened recently in the past year or so. And a lot of people are using things like video and Instagram stories to kind of dictate that shift and really help people feel really connected to them and their message. Rob:   How do you do that? If the key change to social media is really understanding your audience, what are the things that you can do to understand all of these people who say follow you? So for example, we have an Instagram for The Copywriter Club, we're terrible at posting there, but I know that there are several hundred or a couple of thousand people who have opted in to follow us, but we don't always know who they are or what they're thinking other than they've expressed an interest in following our page. So how do we get to know them? What are their tools or is it just a long game of back and forth conversations? What can we do to increase that engagement? Andrea:        Yeah, absolutely. I like to use the analogy of dating here where like when you first meet someone, sometimes it's that little awkward dance like, ‘Is this going to work?’ So I think social media can feel like that sometimes. But the reason that things like dating works, like how do you find your person, is there's almost like an energetic match with that person. Like even if you don't fully understand whether they prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream, you kind of relate to them on an energetic level. So I think if you're looking at your own Instagram account and you're obviously attracting copywriters start to post things that really connect and resonate with the copywriting world,