Leveraging Facebook to Increase Your Visibility
By Rachel Moriarty | June 28, 2018
My guess is that you’ve already noticed that things are changing…FAST! Both online and offline, what worked yesterday doesn’t work as well today. And if you don’t keep up and get visible, you’ll get left behind. In 2018, without visibility, your business could die a slow and painful death.
Today, I’m going to focus on how to leverage Facebook to increase your visibility — in other words, how to use the platforms that are available to you to inform and entertain your followers and fans. Listen, we don’t have to wait for HGTV to call anymore. It is so powerful to have your own platform with NO GATEKEEPER and land right in someone’s phone (which is practically connected to them), first thing in the morning, on their lunch break, or the last thing at night. And best of all, it’s FREE!
Chances are, if you are in the design industry, people think it’s really cool!
How many times has this scenario happened? You meet someone out-and-about or at a party and they inevitably ask you, “What do you do?” You tell them that you are a designer and the first thing that they say is, “OH, that must be fun!” Am I right? Don’t get upset and try to educate them on how boring floor plans and purchase orders are or how difficult it can be to work with clients — that’s the Debbie Downer approach. Instead, use that interest to showcase every part of the design process on Facebook. I’ve heard countless designers say that we need to educate the public about what it’s really like to be a designer and how much experience, training and education it takes to be a professional designer. We all have a social media platform, so let’s leverage it to educate, entertain and engage!
Facebook is the perfect place for what I call a little HUMBLE BRAG. So, give your followers what they want! They want to be entertained. They want the inside scoop on design trends. They want the inside scoop on paint color trends. And, they eat up posts about the intersection of fashion and interiors.
My Strategy and Tips
I have a daily live stream show on Facebook called “Rachel’s Daily Riffs” and have well over 500+ live streams under my belt. If you want to increase your online visibility but are feeling stuck, here are some of my top tips for content ideas.
ENTERTAIN
- A Day In The Life of a Designer
- Behind The Scenes
- Demo Day
EXCLUSIVITY
- Trade-only showrooms
- Industry events
EDUCATION (show that you take your trade seriously and continue your education):
- Lunch and Learn events
- Buying trips to Market to offer your client the best of the best. Showcase your investment of time and money
- Conferences
SHOW YOUR EXPERTISE
- Floor plans on the computer or mood boards
- Reveals
- Before and After Transformations
- Testimonials
INFLUENCE
- Nominations and awards
- Speaking events
- Community events
OFFERS
- Don’t forget to post your offers and consultation packages!
- Tell them, what’s it like to work with you?
- Case Studies and Design Briefs
My final tip is to keep an ongoing Google Doc of post ideas to refer to when you have a block so that you can get it done quickly! I’m constantly adding content ideas to my Google Doc and I also use the notes on my phone…..such a lifesaver!
Now get out there and showcase yourself!
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to contribute to The Chaise Lounge Podcast blog, reach out to editorial manager Grant Stringer via email at grant@imaymedia.com.
