Show notes:

You know you need to post regularly on social media… but your mind just goes blank! It’s impossible to think up new ideas and you are running out of content!

If that is you then you need today’s episode as I will be sharing 7 social media post ideas that you can implement today!

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Transcript:

[00:00:00] We all know that we should be posting on our wedding business, social media regularly, but do you ever sit down to make one of those posts and just think I have no idea what to talk about? It may be that you’ve only just started your wedding business and you just don’t have a lot of content yet, perhaps because of the last couple of years you feel like the content you do have is outdated or perhaps you just struggled to come up with.

How on earth, can you write on your social media every day? What are you going to be talking about? Well, today’s episode is going to help you because I’m going to be sharing seven ideas that you can be posting to your social media accounts. Right now, whether it’s Facebook or Instagram or somewhere else, these ideas should spark your imagination and get you posting.

I’m Becca Pountney, wedding, business, marketing, expert, speaker, and blogger. And you’re listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner, [00:01:00] that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you’re in the right place.

Let’s get going with today’s episode. You might want a pen and paper for today’s episode because I’ve got seven great ideas, which you can action and get started with straight away. So let’s dive straight in with number one. The first thing that you can be posting about on your social media accounts is you?

Yes. You heard me right. Talk about yourself. People absolutely love seeing pictures of you on your business accounts. They want to see the face or the faces behind the brand. They don’t want to see a corporate looking business. They want to know who it is that runs the. Ultimately in the wedding industry, they are booking you.

You are going to be there on their big day and they want to get to know you. You may have heard it before, but people need to know like, and trust you before. They’re going to part with their hard earned cash and work with you and posting a picture about yourself is a really great way that people can get to know you [00:02:00] very, very fast.

I suggest, especially on Instagram, that you have a photo of you, at least every nine squares on your grid. So anyone that visits your profile can see instantly who it is that’s behind the business. If there’s more than one person in your team, then take it in turns and get pictures out there of your face.

On my own Instagram. I see that the pictures of me get the best engagement. It’s a little bit embarrassing, but I know that it works. I think people like to see a face. They feel like they’re getting to know you and people just give it. Now, this might take you out of your comfort zone. You may feel uncomfortable putting your face on the screen, but trust me, people love it.

If you want to feel more confident, go get some branding, imagery, have some professional photographs taken that you can use of you at work, of you doing what you love? So post about yourself. That’s the first idea. Now, once you’ve got that picture of yourself on that grid, what are you going to write underneath it?

Well, this is again, a great place to show people what you’re about and to help people build that know [00:03:00] like, and trust factor, introduce yourself, not just in a corporate kind of way, but talk about the things that you love, the things that make you different, the things that you enjoy doing at the weekend.

Things that people can resonate. Or relate to. So for me, I’m often heard talking about how much I love musical theater that I love to sing in my free time, or that I’m a massive fan of the spice girls. And people love that. It resonates with them because they can think, oh, me too, or definitely not me. So the first thing I want to encourage you to be posting on your social media accounts is a picture of you.

Show them behind the brand and show them who it is that they’re going to be working with. Okay, post number two. Now my idea for post number two is simple. It’s a straightforward testimonial, some words that are past couple or even a fellow supplier in the wedding industry has said about. Hopefully, you’ve got some of these somewhere on, maybe on Google reviews, maybe on Facebook reviews or even in cards or on emails that couples have sent to you.[00:04:00]

You can use these and they make great social media posts. You’ve got two ways to do this. The first way is to make some of those words into a graphic, you can use a program like Canva and turn it into a quote. And then you can share that graphic onto your social media accounts with the testimonial on it.

Be aware though, especially on Facebook, they don’t like graphics with lots of words on them. So it may not reach as many people, but you can make these look really pretty. The other option is to just share a picture, a beautiful image of you, your products, something to do with a wedding, even that wedding day itself, and then share the testimonial in the comment below.

Okay. It’s important to know that you don’t always have to exactly reflect what’s in the. In the picture. As long as the pictures reflecting you and your work, the comment can be something different. So you could share a picture of one of your beautiful wedding cakes or flowers or a couple. And underneath it, you can say here’s what X and X person said about their special day, testimonials work well because people, [00:05:00] again need to learn to trust you.

And if they can see other people’s opinions of you, it’s going to help them form their own opinion of you too. So that’s idea, number two, a testimonial. Right. Let’s move on to idea. Number three. My third idea for what you should be posting on your social media, are throwback pictures, just because there’s no weddings happening for you right now.

Doesn’t mean there never has been, I’m sure on your computers, you’ve got archives of your best work, hidden away in the files on your hard drives or on your computer, or even in your phone. They might be pictures of previous weddings that you’ve worked at, previous cakes or flowers or whatever it is that you’ve made, or perhaps even styled shoots that you’ve been in over the last couple of years, we’ll start digging those pictures out.

People still want to see them as long as they’re still relevant to you and your brand. And as long as they’re reflecting the work that you produce right now, there’s no reason not to pull them back out of the archives. Now, again, there’s two options here. You can [00:06:00] say it’s a throwback to this wedding in 2019 where we did this and we love this and talk about what it is that you did for them

or just share the picture. Don’t necessarily tell people it’s the throwback. Just use it as an inspirational image. Talk about what’s in the picture. Tell a story, do anything in the comment underneath or above if you’re on Facebook, but you will have lots of pictures and people love to see them just because they’ve been featured on one blog somewhere else.

Once in the past, most of your audience will never have come across them. So why not get those pictures out of the archive and get them onto your social media profile? Okay on to idea. Number four, I hope that these are sparking some thoughts, some interest in you. We still got some more to go. So let’s carry on with number 4.

Now my idea for number four is something totally different. It’s what I like to call an entertainment type post. I don’t mean you being the entertainment. I mean, your post is entertaining. The people who are interacting with it, you know, this will look [00:07:00] different on Facebook too. It will on Instagram. The kinds of things I’m talking about is maybe.

Funny video about a wedding. Maybe you show one of those funny pictures where it says, you know, whatever month you’re getting in is going to be whatever month you’re getting married in. This is the hairstyle that would suit you the best. And you know, it shows you if you’re getting married in December, there’s some crazy hairstyle or something like that.

That’s an entertainment post because people are seeing it. They’re laughing along with it and they’re finding it entertaining. You know, we forgot on that social media. Isn’t ultimately a marketing tool, although we use it like that. Social media is there to be social. Most people are on those platforms to socialize, to have fun, to be entertained.

So there is a place for us doing that on our accounts. It can also be things like where you say, yeah. Who would be the first person at the dance floor on your wedding, tag them in this, or, I don’t know. There’s so many different ideas out there. Things you can say and do to entertain, take a look at stuff you can share from other people.

Go and look at the big wedding website, see what they’re posting about. See what videos are going viral and share [00:08:00] those on your Facebook. Now on Instagram, this is going to look a bit different. We don’t tend to share other people’s things onto our grid on Instagram, but there’s still ways you can entertain people, you know, ask people a question.

People love to give their opinion on things. People love to tell you what they think is best. So an entertainment post could just be on Instagram, on your grid. You share two different pictures where they can swipe across to see them and they have to vote for their favorite. They have to tag someone in the.

I don’t know what it is, but it’s something to entertain your audience, to make them laugh, to make them engage, to make them smile. Um, it doesn’t need to promote your business in any way, shape or form, but obviously it needs to fit with your brand. So have a little think about what kind of posts you could be using to entertain your audience this week.

Okay. Let’s move on to tip number five. The number five idea for your social media is why not stop only talking about yourself. Now, this might seem counter intuitive, but my number five idea is that actually [00:09:00] you share somebody else’s work. Now this could either be a wedding venue or maybe another wedding professional that you’d like to work alongside.

Now it’s important to note you don’t want to be sharing your competitors. I’m not suggesting if you make wedding cakes, you share another wedding cake maker. On your profile, but the great thing about the wedding industry is there so many other parallel industry people out there. So if you’re a florist, why not share someone else’s cake, if you’re a photographer, why not share someone else’s flowers?

There is so many options with this. Now there’s a couple of rules that you need to think about. Don’t just share somebody else because they’re your friend. You should only be sharing that person’s work. If their work aligns with yours. You know, if they’re a luxury wedding planner and you’re a luxury cake maker, and you’re working at similar kinds of venues, then that would be a great match.

But if you’re working at a luxury hotel and your friend who makes cakes is making them for a low budget hotel, you know, it probably isn’t a good match. So you need to find other [00:10:00] wedding professionals, other venues, which align with your same ethos, your same kind of weddings, and you have very similar ideal couples in mind.

Once you found them, reach out to them, chat to them, get to know them and ask if you can share some of their work on your. Now the benefit of this is not only is it helpful for you and your audience because they’re getting other help and insight into how to plan their wedding from other types of people is giving you extra content, which belongs to someone else.

So you’re not trying to make your own photos last for a long time, because you’ve asked to use one of their photos, but also when you talk about someone else on your social. Guess what they’re going to then share it with their audience. And all of a sudden you can get your brand, your wedding business in front of another wedding businesses audience.

So it works both ways. It’s reciprocal. So that’s my post idea. Regularly. Find other people that you can work with and ask to share some of their images. Make sure it’s on brand. Make sure they align with you. [00:11:00] Make sure you’ve got their permission. And most of all, make sure you give credits where credits are.

You know, it’s very frustrating. If you see people sharing work and they haven’t credited you properly for it. So go above and beyond. If you’re sharing and talking about someone else to credit them correctly, that’s going to help build your relationship with them in the future. But don’t be afraid of occasionally sharing somebody else’s work or venue that you want to work with or do work with because it’s going to help you build relationships.

If they share it, it’s going to get you in front of some more people. And it’s going to give you more content for your social media as. Okay, moving right on to post idea. Number six. My next idea for you for your post this week is to share a wedding planning tip with your audience. You are the expert at whatever it is that you do, and you have got loads of information in your head, which is going to be helpful for other people.

Now, this will be second nature to you. So this information will feel obvious, but to people who are following. Couples who are planning their [00:12:00] wedding. This might all be new and you can be there to help them. So what I want you to do is start writing down questions that you get asked all of the time. What is it when people are planning their wedding with you, that they are always asking you, it might be if you are in the wedding cake industry that people are often asking you about what size cake they need, how to keep their cake fresh, how long in advance they should be ordering their wedding cake from you.

Whatever is there will be questions for all of you. That lots and lots of people ask you. So write down all these questions, take in that information. Think about what people ask you a lot and then start turning them into content for your social media. Just short tips that you can use to help other people.

Again, sometimes this has a magic benefit. If other wedding industry people see your tips and they think they’re good. They also might share them to their audiences as well. So it’s, again, it’s a win-win, but ultimately you’re helping those couples with their wedding planning. You’re helping answering their questions.

So that saving you, [00:13:00] answering the same questions again and again, because hopefully they’re getting answered on your profile. And also is helping you to become an authority. Remember right at the start I was talking about that know like, and trust they can trust you because you’re showing, you know, what you talk about.

You’re making yourself a leader in your field. You’re showing that you’re the expert. They can trust you. And therefore they can trust a book you for their wedding day. You will have so many tips and even the smallest things that you think are the most obvious will make great social media posts, and we’ll be really, really helpful for your audience.

So start making that list. Get those tips down on a piece of paper and start thinking, what can I write to help someone in my audience? What little piece of advice can I give them today is going to help them with their wedding planning and make life easier. And therefore also positioned me as the expert.

So that was idea. Number six, find a wedding planning tip and share it on your profile. Again, you can share it as a graphic with the words on it that you’ve created, [00:14:00] or preferably you find an image that you can use one from your collection and put the tip in the comment below. Okay, moving right on to our final post idea for today.

And this one’s an important one and I promise you, most of you are probably not doing this enough. The final post that I want to talk to you about today is a post which is making a direct sell. Talking about selling now, we all don’t like selling. We all shy away from it. And in the wedding industry, we are really bad at selling.

Sometimes we hide behind what we do. We want to be nice people, and we’re just a little bit scared of selling. I’m pretty sure there’s a whole podcast episode we can do on this topic. But one of the problems I see on lots of your grids is that you just don’t sell enough. You might be sharing lots of beautiful imagery of your work, but there’s never a clear call to action.

As customers, we need to know what the next step is. We need clear calls to action because otherwise we [00:15:00] freeze and we do nothing. If we don’t understand how to work with you, how to order from you, how to get in contact with. Then we just don’t do it. It’s unlikely. We’re going to go to lots and lots of effort to try and find out how to do it.

We need a clear call to action, to know how we can buy. So sometimes on our social media posts, we need to make clear calls to action. We need to tell people that they can actually buy from us. We need to tell people what the process is. It might be. Direct message me to get more information on this service.

It might be go to my website and book in an appointment, whatever it is, make a very, very clear call to action of what they need to do next. And talk about. If you’ve got special offers on where you’re adding value. If they book within a certain timeframe, talk about it on your social media platforms. Now we don’t want to use our social media platforms to sell, sell, sell all of the time.

We’ve talked about how social media is social. We should be there to educate. We should be there to entertain. We should be there to [00:16:00] inspire, but you know what? Occasionally, we also need to be there to sell. So make sure you are putting our sales posts. They don’t need to be super selling. Discounted offer type posts.

That is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about explaining how people can take the next step now booking for August, 2022, to find out more, send me a message we’re nearly fully booked for 2021. If you want a space, go to our website booking form. That’s the kind of post, I mean, tell people if they want more from you, exactly how they can do it and don’t make it too complicated.

People do not like jumping through hoops. You need to make that call to action. Very, very clear and as simple as possible. So don’t mix your messages. Don’t say call me, or send me a DM or write to me or send me an email because people will feel confused and they just won’t do any of it. Give them one clear call to action and ask them to follow it.

Send me a DM and I’ll send you more prices. That’s as simple as it [00:17:00] needs to be. I hope that’s got your brain buzzing with lots of ideas. There is no need for you to sit down and not know what to post about this week. I’m very quickly going to recap all seven ideas again for you. One more time. So number one, talk about yourself, post a picture of you or one of your team and tell people a little bit about you, help them to get to know you.

Number two, share a testimonial from a past client or even a fellow supplier that you’ve worked. Number three, dig into those archives. There will be photos on your computer. Share a throwback photo, a picture from a wedding from a few years ago or even last year or from a styled shoot that you’ve previously been involved in.

The next idea for a post was an entertainment post, something that is just fun for your audience. It’s going to make them smile. It’s going to make them laugh is going to make them get interacting or tagging their friens. Next, we talked about how you can share someone who’s aligned with you. Another wedding professional, or even a venue, just don’t forget to ask their permission first.[00:18:00]

Then we talked about tips, sharing your knowledge, sharing your expertise, and sharing those tips. And finally, don’t forget to occasionally make. Now you may be wondering why seven tips. Well, I wanted to make sure you had something that you could post on your social media every day for the next week. Now you may not want to post every day, but I highly recommend you find some kind of structure that works for you.

If you always sit down and just randomly post, when you think of something you’re not going to be consistent and you know what, in all marketing, we need to be consistent. It’s helpful to sit down ahead of time and think how many times would I like to ideally be posting to my different social media accounts every week.

Now this is how we do it in our business, in my blog and for my personal pages, I think about how many times he wants to post. So on the blog, we will post six times a week. Now we have categories of what we’re going to post about every single. [00:19:00] Now I don’t like telling people these categories, um, by that, I mean, I don’t like calling it throwbacks Thursday, winning Wednesday, those kinds of things, you know, hi, it’s winning Wednesday.

Here’s my win for the week. I’m not a massive fan of that. It works for some people, it might work for you, but it’s just not my thing. However, behind the scenes to keep us on track, we do have those things. So for example, take the seven things I’ve told you. It might be that on day one, we always share a testimonial on day two.

We always share another wedding business. On day three, we always share a tip. Then on day four, we always share throwback. Then on day five, we always have an entertainment type post. We don’t tell other people that, but it helps us get organized behind the scenes. And all of a sudden it’s a lot easier to schedule your social media in advance.

So, for example, if you know, you’re going to share a wedding planning, tip every Tuesday for the next, however many weeks, you know, take that piece of paper, write down all those questions that people ask you. If you’ve got [00:20:00] 5, 10, 20 questions, that’s the next 5, 10 20 posts for the next 5, 10 20. Already ready to go planned out and scheduled in your system.

Can you see how much simpler that is than sitting down and looking at a blank piece of paper? So grab your paper, decide how many times a week you want to be posting on your accounts and then give each of those days a category or a couple of categories. If you want to rotate and it’s going to help you plan out.

So choose the ones that are best for you. Make sure at least one of them includes that sales post. We don’t want. Make sure that sometimes you post a picture of you, but then choose what you’re going to use from the other categories. I’ve given you seven. So if you want to be posting seven days a week, then you can, there is no excuse to sit down and not have.

I would love to see the plans that you make. So once you’ve written your plan down and you’ve put your outline, why not share a picture of it with me in my free Facebook group for wedding pros, wedding pros who are ready to grow, come into the Facebook [00:21:00] group, take a picture of your outline, share in the group and I’ll give it my personal feedback because I would absolutely love to see.

I hope that today’s episode has been helpful. I hope that you’ve got lots of ideas now of what you can be posting on your social media accounts. There’s no excuse to have a blank mind. Now you’ve hopefully got loads and loads of ideas to be getting going with. And you know what, if you want me to check them out, give me a tag and I’ll take.

With all these things is just about getting started. So go out there, make your plan start posting. And once you’ve got a few weeks under your belt, you can review it and see what’s working best. And then maybe change the structure. But you know what? You’ve just got to get started. I hope this episode has been helpful for you.

And I look forward to seeing you next time.

One thing I love about the wedding industry is the other amazing people you get to work with. If you want to meet like-minded wedding pros, just like you, then why not join [00:22:00] my free Facebook? Wedding pros who are ready to grow. Come meet some new connections, hang out with me and hopefully learn something too, just search for us on Facebook.