Do you reflect on how far you’ve come?

Do you reflect on what you’ve achieved in your business and take time to analyse not only what is working but the elements in your business that make you the most happy?

I’m approaching my first six month mark and I have definitely discovered what makes me most happy. If you’ve seen anything of my previous blogs you’ll know I recently held a webinar to encourage business owners to get started with Instagram - perhaps you may have joined me for it?

The response I got for it was amazing, thank you, but what I hadn’t quite been prepared for was the feelings it raised in me, both during and after the webinar. I was over the moon that it went well, of course, but the joy from feeling that I had achieved my goal of helping people get started with their journey on Instagram in their business was immeasurable.

Although I’ve always loved passing on bits of information that I acquired here and there, the idea of actually teaching it had never occurred to me, but I absolutely loved it. Following on from the webinar came my group training program, which I’ve just completed, making me both happy and sad. Happy because I’m seeing my students feel confident to post and share parts of their business they had maybe not thought about before. They’re seeing their audiences grow and tapping into the right people and speaking to their ideal clients.

Tinged with sadness that it’s come to an end, everyone is connecting and extending their networks. I've even seen collaborative project ideas been spoken about.

So inevitably I turn to how I develop this further. I don’t want to be encouraging my students into a more advanced course already, because I feel there is a need for time to process what’s been learnt so far before taking on something new.

It got me thinking about you and if you joined me on my webinar how are you getting on with what you learnt there?

Do you need any support to implement what you learnt? Or perhaps it’s more about having someone to hold you accountable in your Instagram journey? I spoke about accountability in my previous blog and the massive change it’s made for me in my business so I understand the value it can bring.

Would a Facebook group be the right way forward? I’ve been dwelling on this for a few weeks now, (possibly overthinking and overanalysing!) hence missing my blog as I want to get it right. Personally I feel overwhelmed by the number of groups I get invited to at the moment because they’re often from friends who don’t necessarily understand my interests.

My gut is telling me that if you requested to join a webinar about a topic that suggests you’re interested in what I could offer. I remember when my webinar came to an end and I thought everyone would drop off the call immediately and I was elated that you were still asking questions. If you registered for my webinar you will also have seen the survey I sent out. Thank you for your responses. It's so helpful to get clarity on how I can serve you better.

And more recently I’ve been spending a bit of time on Clubhouse - I’m not addicted! - I’m not sure about you but I’m trying to limit my time on there - I can see that it has massive potential for so many of us entrepreneurs to make some fabulous connections, but at this stage in my business, it’s all a little overwhelming. As a social media marketer though, it’s essential for me to have an understanding of what opportunities business owners have to market themselves. Did you realise how much you would be learning as you went when you started your business?

That being said, I have joined forces with a wonderful business consultant, Amanda Daly, to host a weekly room, which could be a great way for us to stay in touch, if you’re in Clubhouse? We’ve called it the Drop-in Business Clinic and we’ll “interview” a business owner who has faced some similar challenges to most of us, in the hope that their story will resonate with you and we’d love for you to join in the conversation and bring your challenges to the room to see if between us we can help with visibility and business ideas. It’s planned for Thursdays at 4pm (GMT) and I know the clocks are changing in various places over the coming couple of weeks, so watch out for the time differential. You can find me on clubhouse @nicolamoss and if you need an invite get in touch - currently the platform is only available to iphone users (or ipad - Sorry android users, it’s coming soon for you but not available presently).

Using Clubhouse has made the whole “live” experience be ever more important, that “showing your vulnerability” but even more important, connecting with your audience.

I think during my course it was the live element that concerned my students the most. For someone who prefers to stay behind the camera, lives can be a real challenge. It’s a challenge we need to embrace, though, and I feel it’s important to stress that you don’t necessarily have to be in front of the camera for every live you do. You could be commenting on what you are showing your audience. As I delivered a workshop for a retail group last week, their key requirements were to show their audience the products they had available, whether it was in a bakery, a gift shop to show what products their audience could buy through click and collect or deliveries,  or even a tour round the barbers or restaurant to show what safety measures they have been putting in place in preparation for re-opening. Lives give us so many opportunities to speak directly with and to our audience across both facebook and instagram. LinkedIn is a little more tricky as you have to apply to do lives - although if you have a business page you get access to that feature straight away.

I recently held a live interview with a client on facebook and the reach far outstripped a standard picture post but not only that, it shows you delivering value. You can give away tips on your specialised subject and they can get to see your character at the same time - it’s a really powerful way of interacting with your potential clients. And of course if you’re sharing the “stage” it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.

If you have shied away from social media lives, I’d love to know why? For the majority, it’s fear of what people will think - often what our friends or family will think. Please remember your friends and family are unlikely to be your clients. You simply don’t know who needs to hear your message right now. Think about it this way - if your product or service could help someone and you don’t tell them about it, you are depriving them of ever knowing or hearing about it. Puts things in a different perspective doesn’t it?

And on that note, I’m going to post this before I deliberate over it again, as I hope this will help someone!  

If you joined my webinar last time and you considered my course but it wasn’t the right time for you, I am running my FREE webinar Get Started with Instagram for Business again on 31 March - it may be a good opportunity for you to revisit some of the tools and tips we covered. And also, if you came and know of anyone who may benefit from joining the webinar this time, I’d be so grateful if you could let them know about it too? The webinar will be recorded (as long as I’ve set it up right!) so anyone who registers will get a copy of the replay but of course, you get more out of it when you’re there in person as you can ask questions, of which I’ll answer as many as I can get through.

Do leave any comments below, as it’s helpful to understand if I’m offering you what you need in terms of moving forward with social media for your business.