Episode 85: Building your Reputation Through Social Media

Many business owners are hesitant to put themselves out there on social media. Some view it as bragging when they talk about their accomplishments, or that no one cares about what they had for dinner. What needs to be at the forefront of everyone's mind when creating content for their business on social media, is that they are informing others about their business, explaining how they are helping people through their business, and sharing their mission.

If you would like to explore the possibilities of your social media plan, check out our MegaProfit Marketing Academy here: https://www.askaprilporter.com/megaprofit-marketing-academy

Share your latest social media post in our Facebook Group Franchisee Infinite Success to get some engagement on your post. Join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ifzcommunity

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Prefer to read what we talked about in the episode? Read below!

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to our next episode of the Infinite Franchisee show where we're talking about building your reputation online. Now, building your reputation is one of the four things that you want to leverage through your follow up plan. The follow up plan involves referrals, rewards, repurchases, and reputation building. And when we talk about it in the context of the follow up plan, we're actually talking about it through our customers helping us build our reputation. And they do so by acknowledging and engaging with what we're doing on social media, and nominating you for awards for asking you to be involved in community events, and networking and those types of things. Today, we're going to focus specifically on building your reputation through social media, and the role that you need to play in building that reputation. 

So when you own a storefront location, as a franchisee in particular, it's very important that you begin to build a reputation for yourself as a leader in business and in your community. The reason it's so important is because often people will have a lot of brand recognition for franchises. But that brand recognition comes in the form of understanding that it is a national brand, which many people assume are referred to as a chain. And when people believe your brand is a chain, they believe that it is a corporate entity, or big business that is running that particular business and benefiting from all of the blood, sweat and tears that it takes to run that business. People have less empathy, the consumers have less empathy, for big business running a location than they do for a small business owner. So in order to help your community see that you are in fact a small business, and that you are supporting the community, it is important that you build your personal reputation as the owner of that business, and as the contributor to the community. Now, when you're doing that online, you're going to need to make posts, not just about the business, but also about yourself. This can be an area that is extremely uncomfortable for people. And if you ask my team, they will tell you that it is a point of friction even for me now you might be looking at a lot of our social media and saying like, Are you kidding me? Like I see your face everywhere. It's on every post, you know, a lot. You're always sharing your big wins and things like that. Yes - That's because we understand that if I don't share those things, you won't know who we are. And you won't understand the story of the person behind the business and how it relates to you as a business owner. 

So even though it looks like I'm everywhere, that doesn't mean that I love it, right? And I'm saying this because I know many of you are hesitant to put yourselves out there in that manner because you don't like it. And there's a lot of reasons for that. Maybe you're just not comfortable in front of the camera. Or perhaps you feel like you're bragging when you tell people of your accomplishments. And you think that bragging is off putting, or perhaps it's even conceited. And there's these negative words that are attached to those actions. Or maybe you feel like nobody cares, nobody cares what you have to share, nobody cares what you had for dinner last night, or you know, where you like to vacation, or any of the other things that we share, right? Or perhaps you are just afraid of stepping on toes, or you just physically don't like technology, there could be a million reasons why you're not comfortable doing it. And I think all of those reasons have run through my head at one time or another. But it is a necessary strategy. And I'm not going to use the word evil, but it's really not evil. Because as we know, the emotional words that we attach to anything in life come from our prior experiences. And so if we believe that it's bragging, and bragging is bad, that's likely coming from somewhere in our past, where we were taught to keep our business to ourselves by our parents, or grandparents. Or maybe we were taught that, when you brag about yourself, it makes other people feel bad. Or maybe people were jealous. And they were mean to you if you were good at things, or maybe you saw other people who had more than you did as a kid. And they were always telling you about it, and it made you feel bad, and you don't want to be like them. So there could be a lot of reasons that we attribute what we see online, certain emotional words to what we see others doing online, but that's on us, that's our choice to attribute those words, to the material that's out there, the material that's out there is really just informative. And different, people are going to see it in different ways. So that's what you need to keep in mind when you're producing it is that you're producing content that informs your audience who you are, why you are an expert in your business and field, because people want to talk to experts. People don't want to go to the doctor who was last in their class. They want to go to the doctor who is first in the class, right? Same thing is true for any business, any industry, any product or service. So you need to tell people and inform them why you are the expert in your product and service. You also need to inform everyone how you're truly making a difference and helping people and where your mission and your heart lies. So these are things that if you don't tell people, guess what? They're going to assume.

And when people assume some people aren't going to assume correctly, some people are going to assume incorrectly and some people are going to just make a random assumption that really doesn't have to do with either. So it's up to you to take the reins of your reputation and to build it based on the content that you put out there. Now, let's flip it around. And also talk about it from the fear of what happens when I'm confident in making my content. And I feel good about the message I have. And I feel like I'm being true to myself, and I'm being very genuine and authentic. But I get people who are responding negatively to it. Maybe we're gonna call them haters, right. Okay, that happens. And again, you have to keep in mind that it happens, not because of what you're putting out there, unless what you're putting out there is truly offensive and hurtful to people in the sense that anyone would recognize it as hurtful as offensive and I know none of you are doing that. But take that off the table. When you get people who have a negative response to the things that you're putting online, It has to do with their experiences. It has to do with their take on life and the emotional words that pop up from the actions that you're taking. That's why it's called triggering, right? Because somebody took an action and it triggers an emotional response in someone else. And so, for one, you cannot be responsible for the response, the negative response that comes about to anything you're putting out there if you're putting it out there with love and gratitude and the best of intentions, all right. 

But number two, keep in mind when people start noticing, and when people start disagreeing with you, that is a sign that you are actually doing a good job. That may sound weird. But in the beginning, when you're starting to build your reputation, nobody knows about you. And if they see you, they don't care what you have to say, because it doesn't impact their world or threaten it because you're a nobody. As you build your reputation, as you become somebody of influence, that's when people who disagree with you will start to notice and start to feel like they need to engage and call you out and say that they disagree with you. And they're right and you're wrong. Because now they are fearful that people will listen to you. So it's actually a compliment, the haters come out of the woodwork, as you begin to build your reputation and gain the notoriety that shows you are the expert in the field, that shows that you bring something to the table. And that shows that you have a mission that is helping the world and that you will accomplish it. Okay, so take that as a compliment, brush it off, and keep doing what you're doing. And if you need help with “I don't know how to do any of this”, “I don't know how to put these types of posts on on social media”, or “I don't know how to what kind of content and how to make it seem to the person or how to convey my message to the person in a way that shows my heart and my authenticity”, then that's okay, that's okay, you've got to start somewhere, and we'd love to help you get started. So we actually just opened the doors to our mega profit Marketing Academy and the portal is open. Our members are learning right now in the academy, and they are able to get into all the trainings, and we are meeting and having our zoom meeting and that's part of the membership later this month, where we are going to tackle their specific marketing struggles, wins and strategies and content. So that is an extremely easy and affordable way to start to learn with someone holding your hand how to get this done. And keep in mind, you don't have to do all of it yourself. Your message is yours. But you get to delegate to other people helping you get it out into the world. Okay, so you don't have to be overwhelmed with the idea of, “oh my gosh, I've got to somehow figure out how to take a million photos”. And then “I have to take a photo of every single thing I'm doing all day long”. And I have to figure out and talk about every move I make in my life or my business. Sometimes that's how it feels to me and it does feel overwhelming. but luckily, I have a great team who tells me “no, do this or do that”. And I can do that. And then they helped me convey our message, which of course, is to change the franchising industry by bringing SWAG to franchisees, franchisors and suppliers. So, and SWAG, of course, is Sanity, Wealth And Gratitude. And so all I have to do really is stay true to that mission. And as long as I'm true to the mission, and I'm talking about it to my team, I'm talking about it to our clients, I'm talking about it to you, then everyone around me is learning and they can help me create that content that allows us to build our reputation in the community. 

So I hope that this was helpful for you. Share one of your latest posts with us and we'd be happy to engage with it. Just go to our Franchisee Infinite Success Facebook group, share the link to your post. We're going to click on it, comment, share it and engage to help you increase the traffic based on the algorithm and get you more visibility