EP20 Facebook Marketing with Andrea Vahl

“Andrea is simply outstanding. Her knowledge is deep, work ethic is strong and she is a team player. She has brought an enormous value to Social Media Examiner on so many fronts.” – Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner

Links from the Show

• Book: Facebooking Marketing All-in-One for Dummies
• Website: FBinfluence.com
• Website: FBadvertisingsecrets.com
• Website: LeadPages
• Website: Wufoo
• Twitter: Twitter.com/AndreaVahl

You’re listening to The Business of Life podcast. Practical advice for creating the life you love to live. Here’s your host, Keith Callahan.

KC: Welcome to The Business of Life podcast Episode number 20. Keith Callahan here and my job with this podcast is really two-fold. The first thing we focus on is interviewing life experts, people that I really admire, look up to and I extract out their success tips, the things that they’re doing to achieve this high level of success in all realms of life and then also deconstructing my own personal success and failures. And again, this covers all areas of life, we look into the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, I forgot a couple there but we look into all of them and, you know, what we’re really doing with all of these interviews and all of my teachings, we’re looking to help you build a life of freedom, freedom to do what you want when you want with who you want. And, I’m excited for today’s guest, Andrea Vahl. So, Andrea is my go to person for social media. I just recently hired someone that works on our team, Liz Jostes, but I found Liz through Andrea. I’ve purchased all of Andrea’s courses. I’m in a private group that she has. For anybody that’s purchased her courses and really she is, she’s the go to person. She’s the guru of the gurus for Facebook and social media training. So, a little bit about Andrea, she’s a social media consultant. She co-authored the book, Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. She shares the stage with tons of other amazing, amazing presenters, a lot of other people who have podcast that you’re probably listening to. She was the Community Manager for Social Media Examiner and it goes on and on and on, tons of places that she’s been mentioned. She is the real deal when it comes to Facebook and Social Media Marketing, but really, particularly Facebook, Facebook like pages, ads, etc. The coolest part about this episode is Andrea put together a free giveaway for us. So, we were talking before the episode and trying to come up with what would the best thing for our listeners and she has this, it’s a 27-page PDF and it’s titled, 50 Facebook Posts Guaranteed to Engage Your Audience, and I have this up and open in front of me right now. First of all, it’s beautiful the way that it’s laid out. It’s 27 ages and it goes through everything you could want to know to engage your audience and the piece that I really like about this, the piece that I get the most out of is she doesn’t just give you copy and paste stuff, she explains the ideas behind it. She shows you examples that you can use to inspire your own words, your own content and since using this document and since implementing these principles, what the benefit to me is if I sit  down at the computer, I don’t have to get that like blank stare like “what do I post?” What do I need to post right now?” So, for those of you who are using Facebook for your business which I know the majority of our audience is. This is sort of a must-have download. We made it real easy for you too. If you just send a text message to 33444 and in the body of that text message, type 50POSTS with no spaces. So, that’s 50POSTS. Or, you can just go to KeithCallahan.com/Episode 20. Alright, so real easy, those are the instructions to get that free download and I just highly, highly recommend it, so much awesome stuff in there. Alright, before we bring Andrea on, this episode is brought to you by our sister podcast, All About Beachbody Coaching. So, a big part of how my wife, Amy, and I and how literally hundreds of others that we’ve mentored have created lives of freedom to really be able to do what they want, when they want with who they want has been through our affiliation with Beachbody and specifically as Beachbody coaches. So, if you’re not familiar with Beachbody, just Google it. I don’t want to go through and explain it here but here’s the important part. They have a business opportunity through a network marketing model and all honesty when I first heard about this before getting involved, I had a very negative perception of what network marketing was and, you know, that’s just me being honest. And, you know, this opportunity since has totally, totally changed my life and again it’s totally changed the lives of those that I mentor on so many levels. So anyways, I wanted to give you an open invitation. Check out that podcast. Again, it’s All About Beachbody Coaching and it’s really 11 short, quick like 10 to 15 minute episodes. So, put that in your podcast app. Hit subscribe. Again, it’s All About Beachbody Coaching, that’s the name of the podcast. Alright, let’s ahead and get Andrea on.

[05:38]

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA VAHL

KC: Alright, so I am excited to introduce today’s guest, Andrea Vahl. Andrea, welcome to the show.

[05:46]

AV: Thanks so much, Keith. It’s great to be here.

[05:48]

KC: It’s so awesome and I’ve been waiting for this interview myself for, you know, a lot of things that I’ve been working on and I know that our listeners have really been waiting for this interview. And, prior to us jumping on right here, I did the formal introduction with all your amazing credentials and all that. But, awesome to have you here and I was going to ask, can we dive right in and can I start firing off questions?

[06:19]

AV: Fire away, I am all about diving in.

[06:24]

KC: Alright, so I was thinking, like the number 1 question and when I pulled the, I did a couple of Facebook posts in some of our private groups and ask what people would want to know and I think the biggest one is if I am a newer, I have a small business and I have maybe it’s network marketing, maybe it is I’m a yoga instructor or a physical trainer or a personal trainer or a group exercise person. But, I have a small business and I really want to start leveraging Facebook but I don’t want to come across as icky, like that’s one of the biggest thing. Like, how do I get started?

[07:11]

AV: Yeah. A lot of people, you know, they don’t want to be, feel like they’re pushing their business. But, they want to make sure they’re reaching people and we all, if you have a Facebook page and if you’ve had it for any length of time, you know that the reach has gone way down on Facebook and it’s frustrating. So, I think, you know, as far as using Facebook to promote your small business, I think you want to always keep in mind what people are coming to you for, what people might want from you and it definitely is sharing tips, sharing quick ideas for them to use. And then, also make sure that you’re also adding in some fun, some inspirational type of things that you might post about or something that’s really about you and uniquely you. So, social media people want to have that humor but they also want to have the deeper connection and then mix in a little bit of your business tips. I think that’s a really great formula for balancing kind of a sales message with more authentic connection.

[08:18]

KC: That’s awesome. So, really a little bit of humor if you’re funny, so I’m not all funny, so. I know that you are, Andrea. So, you have the ability to mix that.

[08:29]

AV: You stop. Everyone thinks they’re not funny. You’re funny. You have a sense of humor. I always ask people like “Do you laugh? Then, yes, you have a sense of humor.”

[08:40]

KC: I think it’s important and I guess the, I want to transition into personal versus fan pages or business pages. But, would you say that if you have a business page up and running, that you should still include that personal stuff.

[09:00]

AV: Yeah. Yeah so, I really am a big believer in using all areas of Facebook and what I mean by that is using your personal profile pages and groups all in conjunction to promoting your business. Some people say, “Well, should I just delete my page?” No one’s over there. There are great reasons to keep your page such as you can advertise with your page and get in your post into the newsfeed and reach your perfect customer and you can do other things with it like run contests. And also, some people don’t want to make that friend connection. They feel like that maybe is a little bit too invasive and they’d rather just connect to your business page in that way. So, you’re giving people options. But, I think you definitely want to kind of share, you know, as much as you’re comfortable it’s like I don’t share a lot about my kids. I mean I don’t share anything really about my kids on my business page. Some people do and some people are more comfortable with that. I do share some things about my kids in a more general way on my personal page and I have connected to people who are more business contacts there. But, I keep it very general. I’m always sharing something that I’m comfortable with going everywhere. You know, don’t share any secrets, any family, I usually tell people not to do crazy rants, go off on political tangents because you’re using all aspects of Facebook to show up in people’s consciousness, be top of mind and be connected to people. So, I think it does help to share some personal things, like I know some people use their page to share a lot about their pets and that gets a lot of traction. You know, that’s something that a lot of people can relate to. So, make some more personal post and you’ll be surprised at the interaction and engagement those can get.

[11:00]

KC: And, I want to bring up the, prior to you jumping on I talked about the free giveaway that you’re doing for us.

[11:09]

AV: Yeah.

[11:10]

KC: The 50 Posts Guaranteed to Engage and I was looking through that and it’s awesome that way that you put it together. So, it’s a huge benefit to be able to sort of a lot of times when we go into Facebook and I know for myself, the 2 things that made the biggest difference was organizing myself in the sense of like knowing when I was going to post and what type of stuff.

[11:37]

AV: Right.

[11:38]

KC: And then, having just a, like the 50 post idea that you have, having something like that because what it does for me is I don’t, like I don’t like to have posts written out but if I have something that can trigger ideas in my mind and that way I’m not just sitting at Facebook like staring blankly like I’m supposed to post a post right now, right?

[12:02]

AV: Exactly. Exactly, yeah, it helps just to generate ideas and kind of spark some thoughts and it doesn’t have to be like a, you know, swiped copy that is pre-written and it’s not even your own voice, you know. And, you know, sometimes it’s nice to have a few quotes to fall back on or something like that when you do get stuck and say “Oh yeah, I’m just going to grab that.” And, that’s a good option. But yeah, just having an idea generator is helpful and I think you’re right, having that structure around what you’re going to post and when is really helpful and I like to think of it as in you have an editorial calendar around the types of posts you’re going to have, maybe it’s a little bit of humor on Friday afternoon, maybe it’s a hot tip on Tuesday, maybe it’s a “share your Facebook page with us” you know, “connection Thursday” or something like that, that is easy and done. But then, also having an activity calendar, that’s the other that I talk about that’s a little bit different. Having some blocked out times where you’re going to go and do the activities of going out and removing spam or finding new friends or making new connections in groups or posting, you know, within the group. So, batching your activities also helps so you don’t feel so willy-nilly and you’re not going to always like hit those, you know, the specific times but it helps sometimes to just put something in the calendar and dedicate that time to those activities.

[13:37]

KC: Gotcha. So, I just want to make sure that I’m understanding this clearly and that for everybody listening that we can understand it clearly. So, we’re really talking about 2 things. We’re talking about what I call a social media calendar and, for me, like my understanding of that is I have about 7 different things, 7 different topics that I like to talk about. One of them is recognition. One of them is sharing success stories. One of them is talking about the business that I’m in and talking about a benefit to it. So, I have 7 different categories like that and I look to post 2 to 3 times a day and prior to putting together the, what I call again the social media calendar was I would just have that list and I would kind of pick one. My life got so much easier and my traction got so much better when I mapped that out for the month. And, it was just by topic, right? So, we’re talking about that one piece, the other piece that you’re bringing up is like scheduling time. So, you have your time to make your post but also time to do sort of outreach, clean up, different things like that.

[14:58]

AV: Right, right, because some of the ways you can get some added traction and visibility are going out and participating at other pages or, you know, making comments on other people, maybe, you know, watching a newsfeed, going through and hitting ‘like’ a few times and making a few comments and that increases your visibility as well and if you batch that time and the other thing you might need occasionally is like creating images for social media posts. You know, maybe you’re going to post about a few different things and you want to create a custom image around those. Well, if you batch your time, you’re going to be so much more efficient and work so much smarter that way and then you’re not going to feel like you have to pop in and out and lose a bunch of time throughout your day because you’re like “Oh, I should go check on that.” But, if you just have set times and it’s bounded, you’re going to get in get out of there. So, I think definitely scheduling your activities and really knowing when you’re doing that really helps too. So, it’s not just like a procrastination technique or whatever or it’s, you know, when you feel like you “Oh, I’ve got to a minute or 2 here.” And, it’s not bad to do that when you’ve really got some down time maybe at a doctor’s office or waiting for an appointment or something like that. That’s okay but like sometimes it can take up too much of your time and you’re not doing the business activities you really need to be doing that day, right?

[16:33]

KC: Yeah. I honestly think that Facebook has become as addictive and other people have their different addictions, whether it be Pinterest or Instagram but I really think it carries the same qualities and same traits. Like, the negative traits and characteristics as any other addiction.

[16:54]

AV: Right, right. For sure.

[16:55]

KC: Yeah, we’ve actually gone as far in my family that we, I actually don’t have the Facebook app on my phone anymore, so.

[17:03]

AV: Yeah.

[17:04]

KC: Sorry, go ahead.

[17:05]

AV: Because you get really distracted, yeah, you know, and I know a lot of people have totally lead to go off it completely. And, you know, it’s hard as a business owner because it is a great tool. And so, you know,  you have to sometimes put those restrictions on it so it doesn’t take over.

[17:21]

KC: Yeah. So, do you have any sort of, this is like a personal question because this is what’s happened for like the last 2 years. So, my wife and I will take it off our phone and then if I’m going to an event, I‘ll put it back on, right? And then, next thing I know it’s been like 2 months and I totally got sucked into because for me it’s, like it’s a very unhealthy thing. I’ll get to a, like I’ll be standing in line to check out and I’ll pull out my phone or and the worst is when you’re with your kids, right, when you do it.

[17:57]

AV: Right.

[17:59]

KC: Do you have any tips around that? Like, for just reminding yourself because it’s so seductive.

[18:06]

AV: Yeah, it is and I think it kind of becomes, I was watching a funny rant by Louis C.K. about our mobile phones and how we use them as a tool to kind of medicate ourselves and not have to think and be in our own thoughts and I always think about that rant when I feel like I’m using it as a total distraction tool, rather than just being in the moment and just looking around. And, you know, it’s amazing now. You do look around. You see everyone on their phones and it’s not that they weren’t doing something else beforehand. Like, maybe they were reading a book or something like that and you don’t even really know what they’re doing on their phones. But, I think that it is important to pull yourself out and really just give yourself time to have your mind wander free because I think as business owners, that’s incredible creative time for us and when you just have that time to let your mind wander and relax and not look at what other people are doing all the time because you want to be intentional about where you want to go.

[19:09]

KC: I love it. I love it. I knew that we connected for some reason Andrea. Like, a big part of this podcast is really teaching about like not just creating a business but like creating the type of life that you want to live and I think that you have to really proactively set those type of boundaries to be productive because you’re going to be so much more productive for your business and get so much more accomplished if, you know, going back to what you first said, like get in there. Do what you need to do and then get out.

[19:40]

AV: Right, for sure.

[19:42]

KC: Awesome. Okay, so this is a hypothetical situation. I have been promoting, advertising and using my personal page for my business and really I’ve gotten great traction for that and I know a little bit about Facebook Like pages but in all honesty it kind of intimidates me and but I know that I should do it. Like, what do you recommend someone does to make that transition, to crossover the bridge?

[20:18]

AV: Yeah, so there’re a few things with that and I do think that business pages are more challenging these days with the limited reach that they have. But, I that you can get really good traction with Facebook ads and really get targeted leads through Facebook advertisement and the way you get started with that is you have an offer for something free. Maybe it’s a free report. Maybe it’s a webinar you’re going to do for free that’s going to talk about something that is relate to your business. Maybe if you’re focusing on yoga, maybe it’s, you know, some great yoga stretches or something like that, that people can do and it’s just a little free report. So, you have that freebie giveaway and then you use your page to create a Facebook ad that will drive people to that giveaway. You can target people’s various specific interest. You can target people who are interested in yoga within your zip code, if it’s your business’ local.

[21:27]

KC: Yeah, can I ask one question while you’re going through. So, if I don’t have a website, would you be doing that through something like LeadPages?

[21:36]

AV: Yes. So, if you don’t have a website, you have to have some sort of lead capture system and LeadPages is a great option. There are other ways to setup, you know, quick capture forms. One is called Wufoo.com.

[21:54]

KC: Oh, you can send someone right there? Wow.

[21:56]

AV: Yeah, you can setup a form with Wufoo and or even something as easy as a Google form, you know, a Google form that will capture their information. Now, it’s going to be quite automated. You know, you’ll have to do the automation piece on your own. But, you know, for those people who don’t have website, there’re lots of options out there. LeadPages is great because they’ve got all these really nice looking templates that are prebuilt. It’s really great.

[22:26]

KC: Yeah and I know you use LeadPages.

[22:28]

AV: I do.

[22:29]

KC: Because I just downloaded your 50 Posts and saw the LeadPage form.

[22:35]

AV: Yup. I do love LeadPages, so yeah. So, that’s a great way to get started. If you don’t have a website, you can set something easily. And so, it can be a little bit challenging because if you’re not using your Facebook page right away, now I’m saying “Okay, now run a whole ad campaign.“ That could sound  a little bit scary but you can set something up fairly easily to just test it out and see how it does and see what kind of response you get. And, I think that’s a great way to start using your Facebook page a little more. And then, also just getting a little bit regular in posting and thinking about the editorial calendar like you talked about so that you’re being a little bit more regular and that will get connected to people a little more and they’ll get used to seeing your page a little bit more.

[23:27]

KC: Awesome. And then, with posting on a personal page versus a business  page or a like page, is it really just the, are you sharing the same content, you’re just pulling back a little bit on the intimacy?

[23:43]

AV: Yeah, that’s what I usually do is I share but it’s not always the exact same content. So, if people are connected with you in both places, you don’t want them to feel like they’re just always seeing double post. So, I do a couple of different things. I will share more business type tips to my page and also some things like quotes or humor or whatever and then occasionally what I’ll do is share certain posts from my page to my personal profile so that the page then is a little bit more visible because when you share it `from your page to your personal profile, your page name travels with that post and is attached to that post. So, if anyone else shares it or comments on it, you’re kind of getting a little bit more engagement on that post but you’re also trying that post to your page and kind of having a little bit more visibility for that.

[24:45]

KC: Got it. So, now we’re through, we got the Facebook Like Page setup or the, is that the correct wording, a Like Page?

[24:55]

AV: Yeah. You know, they called it Fan Pages before. And so, there’re all kinds of interchangeable terms, page, business page, like page, fan page. So, they’re all used.

[25:07]

KC: So, the way that your business is setup, it’s just, you’re so good at this. So, you’re offering some away for free through a targeted ad, someone fills out a form, you get their e-mail address, then you send them that piece that you’re offering and that’s really just to start building a relationship to deliver, over deliver on something valuable first, right?

[25:35]

AV: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, you know, there’re all kinds of studies out there about the whole idea of over delivering, reciprocity, you know, making sure that you establish trust with people and I think that, you know, as you give them great content and help them do what they need to do, it just is such a great community builder for your brand, for you and when you then offer them something to purchase, it’s just a lot easier. People are like, great, that was great. You’ve helped me so much. I’m ready to buy something from you.

[26:17]

KC: Awesome. And, is there a rule of thumb? So now, we’re obviously going to continue to follow up, right? Is there a rule of thumb that says, so I give them something for free and I’m delivering value and I’m building rapport and relationship there and do I continue to do a few more free things or can I offer something right away?

[26:46]

AV: Yeah, so what I usually do is I setup a few follow-up messages through my e-mail auto-responder, where they get a couple of other extra free things and then I tell them how they can work with me or what products I have. So, you do want to make sure that you don’t just only give free things, you know, out for awhile and then all of a sudden try and sell something because they’ll be like “What? You know, you were the free lady. You were the free person. Now, you’re trying to sell me something.” So, you know, I think you do have to make sure people know how they can work with you and, but I always work in lots of free content throughout my year if it’s things like blog posts or in your case, like great podcasts, you know, that way people can have that connection through, to you and I have people who, on my list they’ve said, “I’ve been on your list for 3 years. I’ve never been able to buy anything from you. I finally got to buy something from you.” Because I, you know, whatever my business has increased and I’m so excited to be able to be in this product with you or whatever it is. So, sometimes it’s a long lead time before someone does buy something from you. So, it’s helpful to always be offering some good value along the way.

[28:12]

KC: So, we have a variety of listeners at all different levels and I love that you gave us a few freebies but what, like if you could, I don’t know if you have too much stuff to list it off here or if you just want to send somebody to your website. Like, what are the different levels of ways that we can work with you?

[28:35]

AV: Yeah. So, I think the kind of most comprehensive product on Facebook I have is my FB Influence Program and that really covers all aspects of Facebook Marketing with working with groups with pages. We talk about integrating your personal profile and dive into that lead generation a little bit. So, that product is at FBinfluence.com and that’s super affordable at $97.

[29:05]

KC: What?

[29:06]

AV: I know, isn’t it crazy? Crazy good product. And then, I also have if you want to dive deeper into Facebook advertising, I have FBadvertisingsecrets.com and that’s my ads course and that really goes through all aspects of it, Facebook advertising specifically. We cover power editor. We talk about the ads manager, split testing and everything. So, that’s another product.

[29:35]

KC: That was the one that’s like 297 or something.

[29:37]

AV: Two Ninety Seven, yes.

[29:38]

KC: Yeah, that’s the one that I bought.

[29:40]

AV: Yes.

[29:41]

KC: And, you get into that product. The best part about that is when you go through it and you’re confused. You have that private group that you have setup so I could ask all my questions.

[29:51]

AV: Right, that’s awesome. And, actually, I’m just getting ready to fully update that course, Facebook ads, and Facebook in general changes all the time but people get lifetime updates to that, so really good.

[30:04]

KC: Awesome. Do you have a few more minutes, Andrea? We have a few questions from people, like direct questions.

[30:11]

AV: Sure, yeah, fire away.

[30:13]

KC: That they had posted on Facebook. So, let me just pull up one of these pages. Alright, so this one was just posted a few minutes ago and it already got 6 like with it. So, I think a lot of people want this one asked.

[30:28]

AV: Okay, good.

[30:30]

KC: Should we be running our business on our personal page at the risk of being shut down by Facebook or just do Like page?

[30:39]

AV: Yes. So, that’s a great question because Facebook has this ambiguous rule that you cannot profit from your personal profile and what does that really mean? So, that’s in Facebook’s terms and it’s really, it’s a strangely worded set of terms because it’s not specific. Like, can I even talk about my business at all? Or, you know, it’s really open to interpretation. And so, what…

[31:11]

KC: Facebook’s interpretation, right?

[31:12]

AV: Yes, right. Sometimes they don’t tell you how they’re interpreting it. So yeah, so the way I do it is I really, I will talk about my business and what I’ll say is things like “I’m really excited about this new webinar” and I mostly talk about the things that are free options.

[31:30]

KC: Gotcha.

[31:31]

AV: I let people know about or I will post about, “Hey, I have a new blog post” and then maybe at the end of that blog post it is kind of promoting a product or, you know, having people opt-in there too. So, I do share what’s happening in my business on my personal profile. I try not to be really overtly, “Here, come buy this right now” type of post and I think that if you stay away from that in general, that’s a better idea anyway.

[32:02]

KC: Gotcha, yup.

[32:04]

AV: So, I like to just kind of talk about kind of things that are going on or I just got this testimonial or this is a really cool thing that’s happening in my business and just kind of let people know about that in a more general way and then really do more of any type of posts about products or ‘I have this things for sale’ on my business page. And, I don’t do a lot of that either. I really focus on lead generation for all of this.

[32:32]

KC: Gotcha. Alright, that was from Jessica Essig. And then, Taren Sbardella asked and this one also got, it was just posted and it got 4 likes so people were in agreeance with this question too. How does Facebook go about regulating messages sent? Sometimes, it’ll say sent, it’ll say delivered and then it’ll show the picture when read. Do they hold some messages from being fully sent through? I’ve always been curious about this.

[33:07]

AV: So, if you’re talking about sending messages to people you don’t know on Facebook, is that? I think that’s kind of maybe the gist of that, is that right?

[33:14]

KC: I’m not sure.

[33:16]

AV: Okay, so I think that, I think he’s talking about like the actual messages because, you know, sometimes it’s a little bit about outreach and connecting to new people and maybe sending a message to them. I definitely find that if you don’t know someone and you’re not as connected to them, a lot of those messages go into the other folder. In fact, yeah, and I’m not going to say it’s necessarily a waste of time but a lot of people don’t check that folder and they don’t know and if you are sending too many messages to people that you don’t know, Facebook will shut your page down or actually, you know, kind of put it on a temporary hold.

[33:56]

KC: We call it Facebook Jail.

[33:59]

AV: Yeah, Facebook Jail. You’ll get into Facebook Jail. So, you do have to be careful about that and I usually try, like if I’m looking to connect with someone, I might reach out with a friend request and sometimes when you do a friend request with a message, sometimes it gets delivered a little bit more into the regular inbox but not always. So, it’s challenging. I think that and some people don’t appreciate being contacted through that private message area anyway. So, I think that you have to be a little bit strategic about how you’re using that and making sure that you’re not overusing it so you don’t get put it Facebook Jail. But yeah, they don’t really share how they deliver those because I find some messages from people I don’t know in my regular inbox, you know, and some people I do know, they go into the other.

[34:52]

KC: So, even the Facebook guru doesn’t know how Facebook…

[34:56]

AV: I know Facebook, people ask all the time about the algorithm or whatever. I’m like “I think that is like people  who know that stuff are kind of in a little room, locked room or something.”

[35:07]

KC: Yup. Yup.

[35:09]

AV: Under sequester.

[35:10]

KC: So, this is a second question from Taren Sbardella. She asked, “So, if I’m going to share a picture or video, I’m adding in the video part, should I do it, so if I put it on Instagram and then I want to get it over to Facebook, should I post on each platform separately or should I, yeah?

[35:34]

AV: Good question. So, Instagram and Facebook work really well together. If you are posting it to your personal profile from Instagram that works really well. It’s really well connected because it still shows up in your photos area. And so, you can just post it to Instagram and say share to Facebook if that’s going into your personal profile. Now, sometimes people want to share their Instagram photos to their page and there’re a couple of ways that you can do this because you either have to connect your page specifically with Instagram. You have to go into your Instagram settings and say you don’t want to connect into your personal profile. You want it connected to your page. The problem with that is it’ll always be connected to your page. So, what I do is I setup an ‘if this then that’ recipe, IFTTT.com has certain recipes that you can kind of automatically post, you can setup so that you’re kind of automatically doing certain things. So, I have it setup so I can, if I tag an Instagram photo a certain way, it’ll them post onto my page in my newsfeed, not like…

[36:53]

KC: No way.

[36:54]

AV: Yeah. So now, I can kind of select, okay, I want this picture to go into my page in the newsfeed. And then, just with a little tag. But, otherwise I’ll send it normally to my personal profile with Facebook. So, it’s a great tool, ‘If This Then That’. I also use that tool to help me post my Instagram photos as a Twitter photo on Twitter, like you know how when you send it to Twitter it doesn’t show up as a photo, it shows up as a link?

[32:27]

KC: Yeah.

[32:28]

AV: There’s an ‘If This Then That’ recipe so that it shows up as a photo and you can go look at my Twitter profile right now. Twitter.com/AndreaVahl and you can see the picture I posted just this morning from Instagram that shows up as photo. So, I like it better because photos are more eye-catching in Twitter rather than that link in Instagram. So, there’re a couple of cool things you can do with that ‘If This Then That’ tool.

[37:54]

KC: I remember when we first started talking. Your background is like engineering or accounting or something, right?

[37:59]

AV: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[38:01]

KC: I love because you find like the best tools. You really do. Makes it so much easier.

[38:08]

AV: Yeah, that’s it. Tools can really help you but they can also be a distraction sometimes if you’re trying to evaluate too many tools. So, I like to share the best tools with everybody.

[38:18]

KC: Alright, 2 more quick ones.

[38:19]

AV: Okay.

[38:20]

KC: How does Facebook  and this is something I’ve always been curious about, oh and this is Ashley Hall Santos. How does Facebook measure post engagement especially when there’s not a like, share or comment on the post?

[38:36]

AV: Yeah, so it’s also checking things like, well, post engagement usually does refer to there has to be like, share or comment. It also can refer to kind of what I call the hidden engagement which is clicks on the post because sometimes people are clicking over to the link. Then, they know that there’s an activity there but you can’t necessarily see that activity. So, I like to usually go, dive a little bit deeper into the stats to see, you know, how many link clicks it’s getting and, you know, open that up and see what else is happening in that post to kind of see how engaging it is.

[39:13]

KC: Or, on a video if they stop and watch it for a few seconds, right? That would be a post engagement?

[39:18]

AV: Right, sure, yeah.

[39:20]

KC: Gotcha. Alright, one final question. Is there a max number of, and this is a question just to give you a little background on this. We had, so I work with Beachbody and a ton of people who work with Beachbody had gotten shut out from groups that they ran and they weren’t able to, like they literally the groups were, they were totally banned from them and they were administrators. So, the question is, is there a max number of groups you can be an Administrator in?

[39:55]

AV: You know, that is a, I think that I want to say it’s 50 but I, that is a great question because I know I researched, you can be in unlimited groups but an Admin, there is an upper limit and I don’t know what that is but I will find that out for you because I had to research that for when I was writing the book and I don’t know it off the top of my head but it like 50 is coming to mind. But yeah, there is some upper bound on the Admin and I’ll get that for you. You can put it in the show notes.

[40:34]

KC: Okay, awesome. And then, one final question. This is my question. Is there anything, any insider secrets or anything that is on the horizon for Facebook that if we were aware of now that we could start planning for, like that we could position ourselves to be when things change?

[40:58]

AV: Yeah, I think a couple of the things that are coming up in general with social media all over is video streaming and I think that Facebook is they’ve got their Facebook live coming up that’s being kind of rolled out. I think with all of the new video streaming options like Blab and Periscope and Meerkat, whatever, they’re going to start rolling that out a little faster. So, I think in general, just video streaming is really hot right now with lots of different platforms. And so, I think about, I think if you’re looking to kind of be on that forefront, think about making sure you got good equipment, maybe if you have a plan for doing some live video that will be helpful. Video gets much more reach in Facebook’s newsfeed, in general, so upload your videos directly to Facebook and this is where, you know, especially uploading them to a page helps because you then have a little video tab where you can create playlist. You can have a featured video. You can have calls to action at the end of that video and get people over to your website. So, think about video. That’s my tip.

[42:17]

KC: Awesome. Well, Andrea thank you so much for taking the time out. I know that you’re insanely busy because I’ve seen you traveling around the world and I saw you in Alaska a couple of weeks ago, then over in England and I really do. I appreciate you taking the time out share with us and just grateful to be able to have you on here and again really grateful for all the free content that you’ve put together for us as well.

[42:47]

AV: Yeah, thanks Keith. Great to connect and great to meet your listeners here.

[42:53]

KC: Alright, we’ll talk soon.

[42:55]

AV: Alright, buh-bye.

[42:57]

KC: Man, don’t you just love Andrea? She is chockfull of information the guru to the social media and Facebook guru. So, 2 quick things before you get on with your day. First of all, in order to get that free download, again send a text message to 33444 and just type in the body 50POSTS, 50POSTS no spaces or go to KeithCallahan.com/episode20. And again, it is a 27-page PDF and just chockfull of inspiration and information for you to be able to use in your Facebook posts. Also, we have an awesome new app setup on our website. It’s called Speak Pipe and I would love to hear from you. Here’s the deal. Here’s how it works. If you have questions, comments, suggestions for interview guest or suggestions of how I can improve this show, this is where you want to go. So, just swing over to KeithCallahan.com and underneath the podcast section, so it’s real simple, there’s a podcast section, a little dropdown, there’s an ‘Ask Keith’ button and if you go on there, there’re instructions how to do it. And also, if you’re on a mobile advice, it’s really cool. They have a nice little app for you to download and the cool part it we have instructions on how to leave a message but we’re going to be taking those messages and featuring some of them in the show. So, if you want to get on this how or if you just have any information you want to share with us, go ahead, swing over there. And, as always, I am super grateful that you’re here, that you’re listening. Hopefully you got a lot out of this how and that’s it for today.
Thank you for listening to The Business of Life podcast. Apply what you learned today and you’ll be one step closer to creating the life you love to live.