Engagement season is one of the most exciting times every single year. For those of you listening who may not be in the wedding industry, engagement season is that time of year when all the beautiful couples get engaged. And it starts on Thanksgiving, which is this week. And it really runs through Valentine’s Day.
But I want to ask you, are you ready? How are you showing up? How are you making sure couples know you’re here, you’re open, you’re ready for business, and you’re not going anywhere? Because if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we are a little more cautious with our buying, right?
So there’s lots of things that you should be doing to show up. But guys, social media is where it is at right now. Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever your people are finding you is where you need to be focusing some serious effort. So I’m going to talk about three ways that you need to be showing up on social media to be ready for engagement season:
Be Human on Social Media
This is so so important. And we forget this all the time. I look at social media profiles for other businesses, or honestly even some solopreneurs out there, and they never show their face. There’s no human existence behind the brand. And here’s the thing: people buy from people they know. I talk about this all the time but people buy from people they know. And so they want to get to know you.
You don’t have to necessarily show your entire private life. No one’s asking you to do that.
But you do have to be human. You do need to show you or your team. You need to show behind the scenes, right? So when you’re at a wedding, or you’re at an event or you’re even having an office day, show behind the scenes of what it looks like in a day in the life of your business. If you’re putting together bouquets to go out this weekend for example, as a florist, show what that looks like. And don’t just show your hands, show your face, talk to the camera.
Our couples are having one of the most emotion filled days of their lives. And so they’re making buying decisions with emotion. And they need to know who they’re doing business with. So tip number one is to be human and show the human side. This is what held me up for the longest time with this is it does not mean you have to let all of your couples on your business page into your private life. That is not what I’m saying. I’m saying be human. Show your face. Show what you do.
Be Consistent on Social Media
So tip number two is be consistent. It’s really that simple. You can’t show up on social media for a week straight and then not post again for three months. It just doesn’t work that way, especially Instagram. Pinterest, you may get away with it a little bit more. But on Instagram, your posts are only really going to be active for about 24 hours. And that’s kind of a long term. You need to be consistent and that does not mean that you have to post every day but it does mean that you need to set a posting schedule and you need to be consistent with it.
We think social media is just this social tool. It is a buying tool friends. It is advertising that you should be taking advantage of. And to be perfectly honest, it’s free. You can run ads if you want to. But I’m here to tell you Blush does not run any ads. Neither does my personal brand. We don’t run any social ads. It is all organic traffic. And it is a long game. I know it takes time. It really takes a lot of effort. But it is paying off in dividends over any ad that we’ve ever published before. Because we get to engage with our audience right there in real time.
You want to post three times a week. So let’s just make that your goal, you’re going to post three times a week. And the purpose of your social media. This has been really, really helpful for me to learn. You should only be posting on social media if you do one of these four things:
Evoking Emotion
That could be a groom crying as his bride walks down the aisle. Or it could be a dad laughing and smiling when he sees his little girl for the first time beaming with pride. Don’t just post a picture and just say “timeless.” You want to explain whatever that emotion is in your caption.
Inspiring
Photos can serve as inspiration for other couples. And you Can explain how that couple came to you with an idea and you made it come to reality. Or you could just show a stunning picture. And you could explain, “This would be perfect for a boho wedding on the beach.” And it’s this beautiful boho setup on the beach. You want to inspire them to say “Oh, I want THAT at my wedding.”
Educating
Educate your brides and educate your grooms. Why are you posting that picture? For example, if you’re a photographer with a gorgeous picture of a bride and groom with that golden sunlight. Educate them in that post. Say: “You want to consider having your ceremony an hour and a half before sunset time so when it’s time to take formal photos of you and your new husband, you get this kind of photo with golden sunlight.”
Showing You as an Expert
Lastly, show yourself an expert and that comes in the way of testimonials. Post things like a beautiful picture of a bride and groom. Then underneath the photo in the caption, you can share what their testimonial was.
Be on Video Through Social Media
I know you’re going to curl in the fetal position and say “I’m not doing that.” But video is king friends and it’s not going anywhere. So it is time to get comfortable with video. I have to tell you, it is one of my favorite ways to show up on social media.
You cannot become better at anything without doing it and practicing it. And the same is true of video. If you never do it, you will never become better at it. So I would say get on there and make a fool of yourself. If you go back to my videos from about 10 months ago now when I really started doing video, you would laugh. You would say “This is not even the same Brandee that we see on video now because it was so terrible.”
But that’s because I was learning and I was scared to death. I even threw up after the first time I ever went live. I sweat through my shirt. It was terrible. But now you could literally turn a video camera on me at any time. And I can just start talking about anything.
Video is how people are consuming content now. So there are three ways that I want to encourage you to show up in video on your social media:
Stories and GIFs
You can easily create a GIF for yourself and you can throw it up on your Instagram stories. And don’t worry, don’t feel like you have to dance or be silly (unless you want to!). You can simply show your face to the camera and do what we talked about: evoke emotion, inspire, educate, and be the expert.
IGTV
Maybe want to educate your audience about or you want to talk about. You can go on video for anywhere over a minute to share about a certain topic. As a tip, do an IGTV and save it so it’s there forever for people to go back and watch.
Reels
Reels are 15 or 30 second mini videos that are fun, bite sized, and easy to watch (and also an almost complete copy of Tik Tok). The fun thing about reels is that they are not meant to be super serious. They’re meant to be fun and silly. So you can often get across a message, you can either educate, you can inspire, or you can just be human, and let your audience see the fun human side of you through these 15 or 30 second videos. I love creating reels because they are highly favored by the Instagram algorithm right now – giving my profile literally – I”m not even kidding – 2000-3000 views.
Drive Crazy Organic to Your Profile By Mastering Reels
Now I have something really exciting for you guys that I cannot wait to to get into your hands. I have so many people that ask me, “How do you make reels? I don’t understand it. Do you get ready every single day? Do you do this every single day?” And the answer is no, I absolutely do not. I batch reels. I create them all at one time for two weeks.
It’s very quick and easy. I have a process for it and then we save them into my drafts. Finally, I publish them on the day they’re supposed to go live. So it’s a very, very simple, simple process
So what I’ve done is I have created a super simple, very easy, fun and quick course that you can grab. It’s called A Busy Entrepreneurs Guide to Making Reels. It’s going to be less than an hour. And it’s going to show you exactly step by step not only how to make easy reels that can educate and reach your audience. But it’s also going to show you how to batch them and to do them all at one time so that you can have them and publish them later.
So you guys this course is going to go live on Black Friday, it is going to be available for $27 starting Black Friday morning through Cyber Monday. And then I will put it on evergreen, but the price will go up significantly after Cyber Monday. So if you want to grab it, and you want to be ready to engage with your couples when it comes to engagement season, which is starting right now, I want you to watch my social media. We’re gonna drop a special bonus episode podcast on Friday just to tell you how to grab it.
Again, it’s only $27 bucks but it will only be that price until Cyber Monday! So make sure you grab it by then. I can’t wait to see all of you guys making these incredible reels and showing up on social media during engagement season. If you put in the work on reels, you’ll gain those clients and gain those followers and they can know, like, and trust you as a brand and as a human!
Hey there!
I'm Brandee!
I help creative business owners sustainably scale their business so they can create a thriving career and work-life balance.
entrepreneur
small biz coach
mom
wife
I have experience speaking at both live and virtual events, educating creative and wedding entrepreneurs how to step into their role as CEO. If you're looking for speakers for your next conference, workshop, event, or the next guest for your podcast, I'd love to see how we can collaborate!
Hey there!
I'm
Brandee!
your business bestie + mentor + coach + cheerleader for wedding professionals and creative entrepreneurs
@brandeegaar
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