Image courtesy of Gail Johnson
I was at a fast food restaurant today picking up some food when the cashier said to me, “you sound so familiar!” I said “well my name is Tami” and she started to scream”omg”. No lie! She said, “I know your voice from anywhere, oh my please drive around to the first window, I would love to meet you!” I was looking a hot mess and you know it’s always that way when you are running somewhere really quick and you run into someone that may recognize you lol.
So anyway, she said to me that she follows me on instagram and that she loves my style. I was so humbled that she recognized me and that she took the time out to say hello. She looked around and pulled out her iPhone and leaned in and snapped a selfie with me, too funny! I thought that was uber cute!
That brings me to why I am writing this post today. I noticed something recently on social media that you may have not been aware of. If you are a blogger or thinking about becoming a blogger, you may want to read the do’s and don’ts on what to post on your social media networks and why…
Each of your social media networks are going to have totally different audiences. You are going to have to sit down and analyze what your readers and followers respond to the most, what they like and do not like. My Facebook page is mainly a lot of family members, high school friends, old co-workers, business people, church folks and more. I also have a whole lot of lurkers on Facebook too that NEVER respond to anything but just sit and watch everything I’m doing. Trust me I know. So I give them just a lil bit of what I am up to and that’s pretty much it.
My Blog on the other hand is filled with a lot of lurkers period! They come to my site each and every single day to see what I am up to but will NEVER leave a comment to save their life unless its something emotional that I am posting about, a rant or if I have some tea(which I don’t blog about anymore). I know exactly what to post on here too.
Then you have Twitter. My twitter is quiet as a church mouse! I may get a few retweets once in a blue moon but to be honest, I don’t really give this site much of my energy. I have my other networks set up to auto post on twitter when I add something from my other sites and that’s pretty much it. I find twitter to be a waste of time.
My Pinterest, forget about it! Its filled with a bunch of conservative people pinning wedding, interior design and recipes all day…total snoozefest! I just post inspirational things I like, thats it.
Now on the other hand, my Instagram is where I am most active! My followers are responsive, they participate in discussions, hot topics and giveaways and its a lot of fun chatting with them and I love it! I give this social media app my all!
So after you do some research about each of your social media outlets, you will begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work and what you may need to change up. I use different photos for certain sites because I know what gets likes, followers and so on. You will start to learn this too. Say for an example, if I use a photo collage with my outfit of the day, that works best on my Facebook page. Most of my followers there are too lazy to click the links that lead to my actual blog post but they still want to see my outfit. So I know that collages work best for that site.
Single photos of me work best on Instagram, I’ve learned that. God forbid I add anyone else in my photo or post relatives or randoms, people do not know them and I won’t do well with likes if I include them. Its very odd but I understand lol. My family or friends may be dear to me but nobody else cares lol. They follow you to see what “you”are doing, not your Auntie Pam cooking in the kitchen lol. Unless its a funny picture or your child, it just doesn’t work.
I see so many people doing so many things wrong on social media but they always ask me how I get followers. Your page needs to tell a story. It needs to be consistent, updated daily. Followers get to know you because of that. If you are MIA for weeks on end, they will lose interest in you and move on. It’s definitely a science to the madness.
You have to have the right timing of day too, not post too much throughout the day and spread your content out effectively. Posting pictures back to back gets annoying and that is the quickest way to get unfollowed. I unfollow people everyday for clogging up my timeline! Too many selfies of you are annoying as heck too and will get you unfollowed! If its not about makeup, I don’t care to see your face every few seconds, girl bye!
On my Instagram account, I get about 100 new followers a day. I did the math and thats pretty good. As of right now I’m at about 35,400 and counting. You may ask what does those numbers have to do with anything but brands that may want to work with you look at that. That’s how I got so many contracts, collaborations and ad campaigns last year, just because of my postings on Instagram etc.
For one brand posting on my Instagram, it pays me $500 and up depending on what they want. Giveaways pay a lot more, now you get it? LOL! Facebook pays a bit less because I don’t have a lot of followers on there. If brands want me to do something on my Twitter, it pays really well too. Last year I did a few twitter parties they each paid me over $2,000 for a 30 minute tweet session. I’m not saying this is what they will pay you, everything always depends on what you have to offer, your audience, followers interaction etc. Most brands go by how many followers you have and then they calculate a pay out for you. Its all a numbers game. Now you see why so many celebrities post with those teas, waist trainers, teeth whitening etc because its easy money!
Another thing, they want you to have atleast 10,000 followers, thats what a pr rep told me recently. You have to know what to post, have great pictures, something to say and be positive. So if you need to clean up your social media pages and take derogatory/controversial postings off, do it! Im not saying stop being you but if you want to make money, well. Keep your postings clean, fun and positive and think of it as a business. You also do not have to be a blogger either. Its called a “social media influencer” or they may use “tastemaker” and eventually brands will reach out to you because they know what’s going on, on the internet. I get emails from brands daily asking me to do things. Oh yeah almost forgot, whatever you are posting, make sure you use hashtags, thats how pr, mktg brands find you!
I have several ad campaigns coming up and lets just say they are paying me very well. So always think of anything you post on your social media networks as a business. Sometimes you may wonder how are these bloggers quitting their jobs and blogging full time? Well, these campaigns pay really well! Depending on how much money you want to make, if you have hustle, professionalism and willing to do the work! The internet is a mighty thing lol!
So if you post about your new lipstick, tag #beauty, #cosmetics #makeup. There are companies out there that track this, thats how they find you and reach out to you. Its very important to do! Once you get the hang of this, it should be smooth sailing for you! Well, I hope this helped you out a bit, happy posting! xoxo
Great pointers…
Once I learned my following, I saw an increase in likes.
Well hey Tami, you told it like it is huntay. I have no social media networks which is why I thought i couldn’t comment but I sure will show luv from now on. I visit your site at the start of every weekday to see what you have going on. I think you are doing your thing, please keep it up.
Not a lurker, a lover of your site!
Hey boo, thanks for reading and stopping by! xoxo