Social Media Audit: End-of-Year Checklist

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:12

Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring the Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamu of TJE Communications, and Don the Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, 1 of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We'll focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design with the idea of implementing all of these together. This week, Tonnisha is here from the Circle of Experts. Tonnisha is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Tonnisha, thanks for joining me again today.

Tonnisha [: 00:00:52

Yes. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:55

You know, as we end the year, it's a really good time to evaluate what's Yes. What's working? What's not? If people talk about, you know, social media just changes so fast.

Tonnisha [: 00:01:08

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:08

And and sometimes you just want that breather of like, okay. We've been thinking about this, but when do we do this? At the end of the year, beginning of the year is a good Time to kind of unless you're in retail Right. You know, to to kind of know that you've got a little bit of downtime because, you know, retail is just gonna be the time you make money, with with social media. So that's another discussion maybe middle of next year that we look at, you know, specific. But, you know, for podcasters, it's another way 2 to you know, the end of the year, you kinda take some breaks. You kinda take a look at what's working, what's not. And you've had some ideas about maybe a social media audit,

Tonnisha [: 00:01:45

as

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:45

we as we end: 2023

Tonnisha [: 00:01:48

Yeah. Yeah. I think cleaning up your social and your email, which we could talk about another time, It's super important just to, you know, keep things fresh and clean and also just to kinda, like you said, take a Take a take a step back and see what's working and see what your game plan is for the new year, so it's a good time to do that.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:11

Right. And I think there's a lot of levels to that to that me you know, that that social media audit checklist, I think, at least, just from when you brought it up. I don't even know what you're gonna talk about, but things come to my mind of going even to the point of how easy are we making it for listeners To contact you through social media, that could be part of that, you know, checklist as well too. It's like, do you have an email available, or do you not check or do you not check your DMs, or you check you know, You're asking people to go to social media to talk to you, but you're not doing it. So Right. And, you know, I'll let you go through some lists, but it's like, it could be as that. It doesn't have to be a heavy lift. It's just those little things of, like, no.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:48

We're not doing that, but, yeah, we're doing that great sort of thing. Yeah.

Tonnisha [: 00:02:51

And I think, you know, back to that, one of the things I had on the list was To update your your bios and your headshots, your links in bio, I Switch from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign for, like, a year or 2, and then I switched back to Mailchimp. And when I switched back, I forgot to update the links in my bio and in my email signature to have the correct link to subscribe to my mailing list. And I was saying subscribe to my mailing list, but people are in

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:27

No. Place.

Tonnisha [: 00:03:29

So I had to, like, move people over. So this is a good time to just take note of your bios. If you have made changes, transitions, whatever, definitely update it. I I often see people with Profile pictures, and then you meet them in person. It's like, that profile picture was from, like, so long ago. So taking daughter or son that you Right. So taking a moment to update, you know, your profile picture and your headshot to make sure that it reflects, You know, the current you or your current logo or your current brand, this is a good time to just take note of that across all social media and get that updated. So that's one thing I highly recommend.

Tonnisha [: 00:04:16

Another thing you could think about doing is either Removing some posts or I like to archive posts sometimes. Now for me, though, I do like to keep Some old posts because I think it is cool to at least for me, I like when people see kinda like the evolution of, You know, different, styles that I've done on social media or different things that I've done, I think that's good. But, you know, if you have some posts, let's Say they were from, like, a contest you were doing on Instagram, you can probably remove that now because the contest is no longer active, or, Maybe it's an event flyer. If the event's over, maybe you can remove that. So this is just a good time to just kinda go through and clean up and make Things nice and shiny. I I look to maybe, like, Beyonce. Every time she's in a new, like, You know, she's dropping something new. She may archive all of her posts, and then everything is just focused on what's happening right now.

Tonnisha [: 00:05:20

It's like the new thing, which a lot of companies do that. A lot of, corporations do that if they're in a campaign. They archive everything, and it's only their whole Instagram is just that campaign. You don't have to go that extreme, of course. But if you know, I know people that do that. So if you're into that, have at it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:41

This is a

Tonnisha [: 00:05:42

good time to

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:42

And you can do that on any social media platform?

Tonnisha [: 00:05:46

So on Instagram, you can do what's called archiving. On Facebook, I think you can hide it.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:53

Hide it. Okay. So it's

Tonnisha [: 00:05:54

pretty much the same thing. And then LinkedIn, and that if you if you're posting on a LinkedIn business profile, I don't think it gives you that option. So just keep that in mind if that is something that you wanna do. And then, also, I always recommend that we are following people that bring us inspiration In motivation, it's pointless to follow people that we don't like, because you don't wanna see their stuff. And then every time, you're like, ugh, I Can't stand this person. You know, we should make sure that we, just take a note of who we're following. And, you know, like, for me, personally, I do follow my marketing peers, but I don't necessarily, always look to their content because I want to Make sure that the things that I'm putting out, I'm not, like, subconsciously, like, copying somebody are doing something someone else is doing, but I do pay attention to the people who give me inspiration and motivation. So keep that in mind.

Tonnisha [: 00:07:04

And I also sometimes will remove followers. So if you have, like, spam Followers, which I know we all probably do, you know, removing those people if you can or, you know, if your Your cousin made their 10th Instagram profile in the last 6 months. Like, maybe remove their other pages as followers just to kinda keep things nice and clean. So on both ends, you know, hitting that unfollow button if you need to, and then also removing followers if There are fake pages, just to keep your engagement level high.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:41

Yeah. I like that idea a lot too about, you know, changing what's in your feed, Basically, it's what you're doing is that it you know, maybe you get that feed much the post much quicker because you've eliminated some stuff too because, again, there's algorithms against That seeing even you you're asking that platform to say you're telling it, yes. I wanna follow this person, and they still don't feed it still doesn't feed you quickly. You know? So Right. So it might help. I I don't know. I don't think about the algorithm per se, but I would think if you clean up the stuff that's coming in your stream, It would come to you maybe quicker, at least, but, Dawn, it's a really good idea.

Tonnisha [: 00:08:15

They'll start, you know, right now on my personal Instagram. I love celebrity gossip. So I'm always seeing everything that Kim Kardashian is doing, and I love her, and I'm engaged with that. But on my business Instagram, I wanna see you know, I follow a couple people that are, like, Super good in Canva. So I like getting ideas from them or I follow some marketers who often throw out like, hey. Here's some Content ideas for next month. Like, I want when I'm there, I wanna see, like I said, that inspiration and motivation and people doing stuff or my clients and making sure I'm engaging with their content. You know, same thing like what we talked about, a while back with Artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Tonnisha [: 00:09:05

I mean, like I said, everything that we do pretty much has that. It's just not called that. We call it an algorithm, but it's the same thing. So you kinda train your algorithm and, to show you the kind of content that it believes you would like to see. So this is, like, the perfect time As you're thinking about what your goals are for the new year to decide what do you wanna see next year, what kind of content do you wanna engage in, And who do you wanna be inspired by or, you know, who are some people that you should follow because maybe you want them on your podcast?

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:45

Right. So you

Tonnisha [: 00:09:46

can start seeing their content.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:47

That's where my mind was going too that so it's not just necessarily a cleanup for what you wanna see, but it's that What do you wanna do next year

Tonnisha [: 00:09:56

Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:09:56

next year,: 2024

Tonnisha [: 00:10:28

Yes. Yes. Because, you know, a lot of people are gonna be taking time off work, and, you know, for me, I know some of my clients kinda, You know, take a break from, you know, what it is that they're doing, and we're more focused on, okay, what's our game plan for next year? So it's a good time to to slow down, clean up, and make sure, you know, everything is good to go because we know the beginning of the year is gonna be hectic. We're gonna have goals and resolutions, and we just wanna make sure that we set ourselves up for success in the new year. And and we're not Trying to clean up and implement our new goals in the new year at the same time.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:06

Right. Yeah. Exactly. One thing at a time. One thing is it it's gonna come to us as a as a flood if we don't kinda set yourself up week by week as the year ends and the year begins Knowing it's never too late, but it's get a game plan together.

Tonnisha [: 00:11:20

Yeah. Right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:11:21

What what other thoughts have you got?

Tonnisha [: 00:11:23

Yeah. So, also, you know, I say this all the time, but being social on social, making sure that if we do want To increase engagement, we're being social. And, you know, like you said, making sure you look at those Old DMs. Do you have DMs that, you know, you haven't checked? Is there a way that you can reinitiate Conversations that maybe you forgot about, this is another thing that I highly recommend, around this time. So being social, you know, responding to people, even comments too, if you hadn't respond to to a comment. You know? Try to trying to reengage conversation that way also.

Brett Johnson [: 00:12:12

Right. What are some parameters? This is it gonna go a little bit deeper than than just a year end Review, but it's but it's also planning, in regards to response time or how how much time you should spend On your chosen platform, I know for and I'm much more intimate with with LinkedIn that it doesn't take a lot of time. I I've heard suggestions, spend 15 minutes a day, you're good, Yeah. Quite frankly. But other platforms, what are you I know there are different levels of of participation that make a difference.

Tonnisha [: 00:12:42

Yeah. And I think that's totally fine. I think 10 to 15 minutes a day is all you need to just go in there. And, I mean, in some cases, I've seen people, they check their DMs and stuff every other day. It's not every single day. You can set up those auto responses. Some people hate them. Some people love them.

Tonnisha [: 00:13:03

So it kinda just Depends on on your vibe if if you're into that or not. But that is an option to let people know, hey. Thank you for your message. I'll respond to you within 48 hours or whatever. So that is something that that you can do. But I think just 10, 15 minutes a day, I think that's enough.

Brett Johnson [: 00:13:24

Is it because I know, on at least with Emails and texts. There is an expectation level that if you text someone, you're kind of expecting an answer kinda quickly. Me do. Like, an email email maybe 24 hours. I didn't know. Again, I respond when I respond on social media when it comes down to it there, but but there's a certain respect level, I guess, you could say, or expectation level When it comes to social media

Tonnisha [: 00:13:48

And I would think too, you know, where everybody's busy, so, like, sometimes I'll send a DM and then forget I even Until I get a response. Yeah. Right. Right. But again, going back to cleaning up your your bios, If DM is not the proper way to contact you about working with you or whatever it may be, then you should make Sure that you have the right things in your bio. So, you know, sometimes I'll get DMs about like, hey. Can we can we talk? Can we chat about my business? And then I'll send them the link to schedule a consultation because doing that through BM, you know, it can become a super long message when we know we can just hop on Call and talk. So making sure that you, make it known that the way to contact you is in your bio somehow, and even incorporating that into your content strategy when you're posting content to remind people like, hey.

Tonnisha [: 00:14:49

If you wanna talk you wanna get on the podcast, here's how you do it because that could help eliminate a lot of DMs also if people know how to get in contact with you.

Brett Johnson [: 00:14:59

Yeah. And you know what? Maybe even even more important is make sure the link works.

Tonnisha [: 00:15:06

Yes. And make sure it's linking to the right price.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:08

Right. Because, you know, your comment about moving from Mailchimp to another platform back and forth Yeah. But in my mind kinda going, okay. Links break.

Tonnisha [: 00:15:17

Right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:17

So, you know, going and that may not necessarily be only a one time a year check, but it's a good time to check to make sure everything you have linked out works and goes to where you want it to. Yeah.

Tonnisha [: 00:15:27

Yeah. Because you can simply, like, move something to a different tab on your website, and now you've just broken a whole made a whole situation now. Gotta go back

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:39

and check You may have lost business. You've lost a listener. You've lost all sorts of different things that they just think that you're pooh poohing them, and it's like, oh gosh. I didn't know the link broke. And Right. And they wouldn't know either. There's just no way to know, and and that's just something that's again, 5 minute check, and you're you're done Sure thing. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [: 00:15:58

Yeah. Anything anything else to get?

Tonnisha [: 00:16:01

Do that. No. That's it. I think, you know, this is the perfect time to To get this checklist completed, especially before the holidays so that, you know, this is out of the way. It's done. And now we can focus on planning for the new year. So cleaning things up, and then Getting off to a fresh start in in the New Year.

Brett Johnson [: 00:16:24

Right. If they want to contact you to help clean up stuff, go even deeper in it, how do they contact you?

Tonnisha [: 00:16:30

Yes. You can go to my website, tjecommunications.com, and book a free consultation. You can also Find me on social media at TJECOM. It's tjecomm. And as of right now, all the links in my bio are working. But if they're not, let me know. And that's another thing too. I actually had somebody do that.

Tonnisha [: 00:16:54

I was looking for a virtual assistant at the time going on maternity leave, and I ended up working with somebody else. But A girl reached out, and she's like, hey. You know, here's my resume, but also just wanted to let you know that this link, when I Clicked it. It just took me back to the home page. It didn't take me to to your booking site. It was me trying to build my own website when I should have just called Yasmine. So It was it was the wrong thing was going on. So, yeah, I think also too, you know, let's let's help each other.

Tonnisha [: 00:17:25

We're all small business owners, and we're all, You know, try trying to make it, and finding a nice way to let people know, like, hey. Just a heads up. Like, This isn't working. This link isn't working or, you know, not taking me to the right place.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:39

Yeah. I recently purchased a a module for some some legal stuff for for podcasting, and and because I purchased it, I was assuming I was not going to get the drip email campaign that follows. It's like, okay. Shouldn't have to see it. So I started to get the drip campaign afterwards. Damn. And I and I let the guy know. I was like, hey.

Brett Johnson [: 00:17:59

I'm getting that drip campaign. He says, Thank you for letting me know. It was the 1st time we kinda used it. We'll take you off of it and and you get out the kink. So, yeah, I didn't take it as him trying to upsell because it was the same thing that I bought. So there was no upsell to it, you know, or the follow-up high pressure. Hey. You only got 12 hours left, you know, that kind of stuff.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:15

And that was a piece of it, but, you know, it's one of those He wanted to and he was very appreciative of it. He just to know, oh, thank you for letting me know. We'll get you off that list so it doesn't keep going, but how many times do we not? We just get kinda ticked off and, like, maybe they don't know. They they they just don't know. Give them give them the benefit of the doubt. And if they keep out pestering, well, that's a different case.

Tonnisha [: 00:18:35

Right. Right.

Brett Johnson [: 00:18:36

Yeah. And and in the same same mindset of, you know, end of the year, if you if you're looking for a podcast audit, we can do that too as well at Circle two seventy media dotcom, and and working with the the, the Circle of Experts. And what's an audit? Well, you know, we take a look at your podcast, a Comprehensive review, the strategy, the discoverability, your growth, your sound improvement, and so much more. Whether it's, you know, building out a website or looking at social media or just generating ideas, All the stuff that you hear on this podcast, we do as a podcast audit. So if, that's something you're interested in doing, wanna take a look at that as The year ends, the year begins. Go to Circle270media.com and click on the podcast audit button, and thanks for listening.